The 14th Black Crusade Sees 1st Combat in Local Tourney!

Old School here to talk about a tourney held recently at Evolution Games, our local FLGS. About three weeks ago, the local store manager (Re-rolls) put the word out that Evo would hold an 1850 tourney and all the models would have to have the three color minimum. This was incredibly exiting to many of us as all the other tournies we have had at the store have been either small points or doubles and never had a paint requirement. I already had most of my drop nids painted, had a great record (only three losses and a draw in over 30 games) and everyone figured I would bring them.

I figured I would too until about 9 days ago. I woke up that morning with a wild hair across the rear section of my power armor and decided "I bet I could get a lot of my 14th Black Crusade (my Chaos counts as everything project) models painted if I really pushed myself to get them in the tournament" which was supplemented by ideas like "It would be cool to put my ThunderJuggers on the table" and the "Everyone would be suprised and nobody actually plays Space Wolves at the store" idea.

With just 9 days, I had to build a squad of Wolf Scouts and then take the rest of the models I already had built and make a list - here it is, click to make larger:

 I know, not optimal, but I thought it had balance in both anti-infantry and tanks, with a good assault core and enough units to make those small squads still worthwhile. I knew this would be a challenge, especially since I would need to spend so much time getting the list ready, that I wouldn't get to play it until the tourney.

This is Thunderhammer Juggerlord's nervous face ... So nervous in fact, it rubbed off on me and I really forgot to use my camera, with the exception of a few shots.

 So here is my army minus the scouts as the lined up for the first battle in a spearhead mission against Eldar with 3 objectives. They had first turn and took two objectives in their deployment zone; one surrounded by units in wave serpents and another under the watchful eye of the pathfinders.

He had three wraithlords and a unit of harliquins as his main assault force and I had my 4 T-Wolves and the Lord, which I figured would be enough to push through and start pounding weak Eldar off objectives - wrong! The main highlight of this match was the number 1. We each rolled many of them! At one point, my opponent rolled like 7 of them in a single hand.

As my Wolf lord and his minions crashed into the wraithlords and harlies, we figured for maybe two turns of combat and whatever we had left would be enough to ruin the opponent's day. However, we got into a tickle fight for the rest of the game. I would give him only two wounds, he would do the same. Next turn, he wounded nothing and neither did I ... I guess our guys just really liked each other. What sucked about this is that the distance between our long range shooters really meant they weren't doing anything on either side. My scouts rolled a 1 and ended up on my side and the game ended with him still standing on 2 objectives and me on one. I almost tank-shocked a draw, but ended up getting popped by a witchblade, while the troops got killed to a man.

The second game saw me face off with the Custodians of Ultramar - the boys in Blue, the Ultramarines. Who better for the Black Legion Counts as force to take on. This fight was a pitched battle with 2 objectives. I lined up my massive line as I went first. He then deployed most of his force in the corner across from my objective while he put a squad of scouts and a tac squad to defend his objective in the opposite corner.

His objective was really easy to take, but I had to fight off his entire army to defend mine, which was extremely taxing on my forces. His thunderhammer terminators and chaplain walked through my lord, a squad of thunderjuggs, two hunter squads and a squad of long fangs before dying to massed firepower! My wolf scouts this game became legends by exploding his land raider on turn two, losing 4 guys and then exploding his captain's rhino in a Death or Glory! overall, the match was bitter and tough. The only reason we didn't draw was because he immobilized my razorback with a 3 with his multi-melta. Had he of exploded or wrecked it, he would have taken my objective and tied. He was a great opponent and it was cool to see a competitive Ultramarines list on the board.

My last match was against Deathbringer's Daemons in a dawn of war, kill point game. While I started with 18 potential KP, he only started with 7. I know this would be an uphill fight from the beginning and it was. He brought Skarbarand (which was a benefit to my T-jugg cav), a bloodthirster, a unit of 18 pink horrors (which, according to the metric system is a butt ton) a unit of five blood crushers, a Tzeentch prince, 2 units of Bloodletters and some flamers (who died from a mishap).

His high number squads were to his benefit as it proves hard to kill 18 4+ saves. My "alpha strike" didn't yield many dead, but did manage to shut down half the blood crushers. T-wolf cav kept the crushers, a DP and a Bloodthister busy for a few turns, buying my army time to press his smaller units (who just refused to die). I managed to kill the bloodletters and the DP, but once his thirster and skarbarand hit my lines, I folded like a tau gunline.

While I walked away from the tournament without a top spot, I had learned a TON about my army and where the improvements need to be made and the chaff is that needs to be chopped. I had a lot of fun, played two guys I had never played before and walked away with a tie for Best Painted Model for my Thunderhammer Thunderjug rider! Victory for the Dark Gods!

... PS, Hunter Killer Missiles are a complete waste of time and I think I am the last person to figure it out - they literally did nothing EVERY game!

I would also like to add that a Slaanesh Chaos Army and Vogrin's Guard split 1st place! Congrats Guys!