Played in a 2000pts ITC Tournament in Hamilton yesterday, I brought my recently finished Talons of the Emperor army.
What I was bringing
Battalion
Primaris Psyker
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor
x3 squads of 5 Custodian Guard
x2 squads of 5 Prosectors
Custodian Contemptor Dread
x2 Custodian Landraiders
Null Maiden Rhino
Basic plan.
Vs shooty armies, rush 'em with the raiders, against assault armies, play cagey and shoot for a few turns.
Game 1 Vs Tyranids. Big Guns Never Tire
Neurothope
Broodlord
Swarmlord
unit of 6 Zoanthropes
Deathleaper
x2 units of 20 genestealers
x2 drop pod spores (whatever they're called)
unit of Pyrovores
x2 dakka carnefexes.
I lost this game in the deployment phase. Sisters of Silence should have shut down his smites, but instead I foolishly decided to try and snipe out his Broodlord with them.
Turn 1, I lost a custodian Guard squad to smites, and both sisters squads to charging Genestealers, and from then onwards, I never left my deployment zone. Made a game of it, but still lost 12pts to 1.
I had a unit of Custodian Guard, my Primaris Psyker and one land raider left, he had the pyrovores, 6 genestealers, deathleaper, neurothrope and a few zoanthropes left.
This game was a huge learning curve on deployment and target priority. The New Tyranids book is pretty mean (my opponent went on to tie for first place).
I needed to use the sister better to block the smites, and spread them out to accomplish that. Otherwise, I feel the army did pretty well. I got stuck in my deployment zone, and couldn't fight out quickly enough.
Game 2 Blood Angels. Secure and Control.
My opponent this game had a beautiful Lementers army.
Lemartes
Sanguinary Preist
Librarian
Culuxes Assassin
10 man Assault Squad
5 man Assault Squad
5 Assault Terminators
x2 lascannon Predators
x2 Landspeeder Typhoons
Land Raider Redeemer
He put Lemartes, Terminators, Preist and 10 man assault squad in reserve, and the 5 man assault squad in the landraider.
Game went well for me.
I started rushing the two landraiders for his objective, and held back with the rest of my force. Blew up one of his predators turn 1.
His units all came in behind my lines turn 1, and took out the Null Maiden Rhino.
Game then devolved into two battles. My landraiders (with their cargo), going for his objective, and the rest of my force fighting back his deepstrikers. The Assault terminators made a mess of me, with their damage 3 thunderhammers blowing through custodes and my dreadnought. I had to make cagey use of my psykers and sisters to take out his characters and terminators.
Game ended, with me in control of both objectives, with Warlord and First Blood. 8vp-1
Game 3 vs Death Guard. Scouring
His list
Tallyman
Nurgle Herald
Noxious Blightbringer
Plauge Priest
Death Guard Sorcerer
Mortarion
x20 Plauge Bearers
x2 x20 Poxwalkers
Epidermis
Plaugeburst Crawler
x3 Fleshmower Blight Drones.
x3 Deathshroud
Well, one hell of a list.
In this game, I used my learnings from my first. Sisters went up to dirupt his psyker powers, and I otherwise played cagey and tried to let him come to me.
My left flank I had to deal with the blightdrones, and plauge bearers. On my right, I had the Pox Walkers and Mortarion.
Spent the first few turns blasting Mortaion with lascannons, but a mix oif good luck for my opponent, and bad luck for me, saw the Deathshroud survive through three turns of shooting, before I could event think of starting to lay attacks into Morty.
The Custodian Guard and sisters played a defensive holding action. I had the Superior Objecive deep in my deployment zone, so as long as I held that, and one other objective, I could tie the game. I also won First Blood, by taking out a blight drone, which was hugely benifical.
I was able to hold him back off my objective, and hold back Mortarion long enough to hold on the 5th turn my superior Objective, and another objective with the Primaris Psyker.
Ended as a tie, with both of us getting 6vps from objectives and one secondary each.
The sisters of Silence were worth their weight in gold. Due to the Custodian Guard being a bulwark agaisnt the hordes of zombies and daemons, the sisters were safe to exist near the middle of the table. their collective -2 to get off powers severly hurt my opponents ability to get off powers, which stop a lot of his buffs, debuffs and smites from going off. I don't think he got of smite once the whole game.
Mortarion is a beast at close range, and has to be killed with shooting. He projects so much mortal wounds, that elite units cannot stand to fight him close up. Lascannons were the best way to take him down, but those Deathshroud really worked well for him. Nice cagey fight.
7vp-7vp Draw
At the end of the Event, I placed 8th out of 16 players.
Top three were
1st tied Alpha Legion and Tyranids. Although, the 'alpha legion' was a bunch of cultists, Magnus and Mortarion.
2nd place was Imperial Guard, with two Baneblade varients.
Overall, a lot of fun, and a bunch of great people. Well worth the drive out!
I'm pretty happy with my little force, definitely needs more practice to get the best out of it.
Thanks for reading!
