Hello battle brothers! Yesterday I went to a Rogue Trader's Tournament at TJ's Cafe & Games in Milford MA, and I thought you might like to read about my experience with it.
Before I get into it, I'd just like to plug the establishment a little. TJ's Cafe & Games is a wonderful shop for all one's nerdy needs, be it 40K, MtG, TTRPGs, board games, or what have you. They also have a selection of plushies and children's books for younger kids, and they have a wall dedicated to disc golf if you like to take light hikes while flinging frisbees - no shade, I kind of like it. As the name implies, they serve food on-site, so you can grab a bite to eat without leaving the establishment. And the establishment is quite large, with a separate room for tabletop wargaming that is respectable, with at least 15 tables. If you're anywhere near Milford MA, it's worth checking out. I'm lucky to live within an hour of the place, so I hit events there when my schedule aligns for it. The 40K playing community there is a relaxed, easygoing collection of players who can also give a competitive game. I've enjoyed myself at every event I've been to.
The list I brought was an evolution of the list I wrote about in my 1 List, 27 Bikes article. You can see my list on BCP here, but to save you the trouble, the quick and dirty version is below:
Plasmatastic
Gladius Strike Force
Azrael
Apothecary
Ravenwing Command Squad: Fire Discipline
Ravenwing Command Squad
Assault Intercessor Squad: 5 choppy boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Outrider Squad: 3 chonky bikers
Outrider Squad: 3 chonky bikers
Ravenwing Knight Squad: 6 awesome bikers
Ravenwing Knight Squad: 6 awesome bikers
Ravenwing Darkshroud
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
The big changes from the previous list are the removal of the Gladiator Valiants and the Tactical Squad, allowing the addition of the Hellblasters, the Apothecary, and the Infiltrators. The Hellblasters got added to give me a 3rd squad that can spam plasma shots, and being infantry can move about the board more freely than mounted units. The Infiltrators became my backfield unit on the strength of their virtue being extolled on The Art of War Down Under podcast, and from my own personal experience of having opponents use 3" deep strike strats to drop units in my backfield. The Apothecary got added so all 3 of my plasma spamming units could grow back models. The third Scout Squad is in the list because I didn't have the points for 2 squads of Infiltrators. Here's hoping my list is 35 points cheaper after the upcoming balance pass! And then the Assault Intercessors replaced a squad of Outriders because I needed to shave 5 points off the list, but having another Infantry unit gave me more movement options.
This wasn't a big event. We wound up only having 10 players. However, I was able to play 3 different armies, I enjoyed all my games, and I think I learned a thing or two, so it was a day well spent.
My first game was against Chris R (I played 2 Chrises) and his Leagues of Votann list. His list on BCP is here. For your convenience, the short version is below:
Gt list
Einhyr Champion
Grimnyr
Kahl
Hearthkyn Warriors: 10 space dwarf boys
Hearthkyn Warriors: 10 space dwarf boys
Sagitaur
Sagitaur
Sagitaur
Sagitaur
Cthonian Berserks: 5 shirtless space dwarf boys
Einhyr Hearthguard: 10 chonky awesome space dwarf boys
Einhyr Hearthguard: 5 chonky awesome space dwarf boys
Hekaton Land Fortress
Hernkyn Pioneers: 3 flying space dwarf bikers
Hernkyn Pioneers: 3 flying space dwarf bikers
Hernkyn Pioneers: 3 flying space dwarf bikers
We played Mission M: Purge the Foe primary (Hold 1/Hold More, Kill 1/Kill More for 4 each), with the Crucible of Battle deployment (triangular deployment zones backed by the short table edges). Both of us played Tactical secondaries.
The game went a little slow, so we were only able to get in 3 turns. Chris had the misfortune of going first and wasn't able to kill anything first turn because I deployed carefully, whereas because he was obliged to put units on objectives I was able to get Kill More 1rst turn, which gave me a leg up. Chris also didn't get very good draws on Secondaries, whereas the only bum draw I had was getting Assassinate 1rst turn. A highlight of the game for me was using my Hellblasters' shoot on death ability to kill Chris's Berserks on Chris's turn as he was killing the Hellblasters with his Hearthguard's shooting. One Berserk did manage to charge my reduced Hellblaster squad alongside the Hearthguard, but I finished him off with the Hellblasters' pistols as they were being cut down, so they didn't get to swing at all. The game ended as a 57-37 win for me. I Got 28 on Primary and 19 on Secondary. Chris got 16 on Primary and 11 on Secondary.
Game 2 was against Paul's Ork War Horde. Paul and I have been showing up at the same events for quite a while now without ever managing to get paired together, so it was good to get in a game with him. Here's
Paul's list on BCP. Short version below:
Paul's list
Ghazghkull Thraka
Beastboss
Beastboss
Warboss in Mega Armor
Warboss in Mega Armor
Boss Snikrot
Beastsnagga Boyz: 10 optimistic orkz
Beastsnagga Boyz: 10 optimistic orkz
Gretchin: 10 little gitz + 1 overworked ork
Gretchin: 10 little gitz + 1 overworked ork
Meganobz: 3 chonky orkz
Meganobz: 5 chonky orkz
Meganobz: 5 chonky orkz
Stormboyz: 5 really optimistic flying orks
Stormboyz: 5 really optimistic flying orks
Deffkoptaz: 3 wacky whirlygig orkz
Battlewagon
Trukk
Trukk
Trukk
Trukk
We played Mission A: nice simple Take And Hold with Search and Destroy deployment (table quarters). We both played Tactical secondaries and I had the misfortune of going first.
Unfortunately I somehow managed to delete the data from the game on the Tabletop Battles app, so this will be a little light on the details. Suffice to say Paul made better decisions than I did. I enacted my standard go-first plan, which was to put Outriders on midfield objectives, but Paul didn't really bite. He led with his Trukk mounted Beastsnaggaz, keeping his mounted Meganobz behind them. I was obliged to pop the Trukks with my plasma squads and then assault the dismounts, which put me in a good position to get counterstriked. I also got overly optimistic with my engagements of Paul's forces during his Waaagh! turn. For all of that, I had a slight lead at the end of round 3, but by the end of round 4 Paul pulled ahead, and that was where we had to end it. I wound up with a 63-70 loss.
My third game was against Chris T and his Grey Knights. Chris happens to be a fellow DA player, so we chatted a bit about my army before we played. It's always good to swap notes with a battle brother. Here's
Chris' list on BCP. Short version below:
Eternal Witchfire
Grand Master Voldus
Brother-Captain
Brotherhood Librarian
Brotherhood Librarian
Brotherhood Librarian
Brotherhood Terminator Squad: 10 chonky silver boys
Strike Squad: 5 silver boys
Strike Squad: 5 silver boys
Grey Knight Razorback
Interceptor Squad: 5 speedy silver boys
Paladin Squad: 10 awesome chonky silver boys
Purgation Squad: 5 burny silver boys
The primary mission was Sites of Power (extra VP for having characters on objectives) with Hammer and Anvil deployment. Chris was obliged to go first. I finally managed to get in a full 5 turn game.
If you've never played against Grey Knights, their army rule is called Teleport Assault for a reason. They can remove up to 3 units a turn from the table and redeploy them via Deep Strike in the Movement phase of their next turn. On top of that, they have the Sigil of Exigence enhancement that allows the bearer's unit to go back in Deep Strike reserve when they are targeted by a ranged attack, and the Mists of Deimos stratagem allows the player to put a unit on the table in Deep Strike reserve if an opposing unit moves within 9" of it with a Normal, Advance, or Fall Back move (but not a charge). So, if you want to kill something, you have to be really mindful about how you move your units around the table and orders of operation. I was helped enormously by a 9" measuring widget that was give out at the April Executive RTT at TJ's.
Actually getting those units off the table is no trivial matter either. When Chris dropped his squad of Paladins with Voldus attached into No Man's Land, I made them my Oath target and put into them the shooting of a Storm Speeder, both my RWK bricks (supercharged), and my Hellblasters, followed up with charges by both RWK bricks and my Assault Intercessors. After all that, Voldus was still alive, albeit with only 1 wound left. It took me 1200 points of my army to destroy 545 points of Chris'. I didn't even try to engage his Terminators that turn. I deliberately moved within 9" of them to try and provoke Chris into picking them up, and when he didn't bite I just hemmed them in with units I could afford to lose.
An interesting feature of Chris's list are the 3 Brotherhood Librarians. He uses them to score secondaries and as high-mobility nuisance damage dealers. Their Vortex of Doom ability allows them to dish out mortal wounds and still do actions, and he can use his army rule to move them around the table pretty much at will, using a 3" Deep Strike strat (Prognosticated Arrival) as needed to get them where he needs them.
In no small part due to the Brotherhood Librarians, Chris rocked it on secondary, maxing it for 40 points, but with his army schtick being picking up units at the end of his opponent's turn, he didn't often have characters on the midfield objectives to get the extra points in his Command Phase. Plus, I was able to vaporize almost every unit he put in the midfield, so he only scored 15 Primary points. I didn't do as well as Chris at secondary, but I still got a respectable 30 points, whereas I did much better on Primary, helped enormously by the fact that my RWK bricks have characters in them, scoring 42 Primary points. Thus the game ended with an 82-65 win for me.
I learned a few things from playing my list at this event. The first was that having Infantry in the list helped me move around the board, allowing me to use avenues of movement that are not available to Mounted or Vehicle units. That seems obvious, but my previous list was a transport-heavy Firestorm, and previous iterations of this list had almost no Infantry, so it was something I didn't really have an opportunity to learn before.
The second thing I learned is that Hellblasters are more mobile than I expected them to be. Their guns have the Assault keyword, so I was able to freely advance and shoot with them. At one point I even used Adaptive Strategy to put them in Assault doctrine so they could charge afterwards. I was able to get angles with the Hellblasters as readily as I was with the RWK bricks.
Third, the Hellblasters complimented the RWK bricks pretty nicely. They were able to approach firing positions through terrain instead of having to go around it, so it gave me more angles to attack from. Also, I could use the RWKs to screen for the Hellblasters, using both units to shoot at the same target with the RWKs in front.
Having an Apothecary in the Hellblasters had a utility beyond the obvious I had not previously considered: positioning tricks. I don't know why that didn't occur to me before, because I've done it with Ravenwing Knights and with Deathwing units when we could attach Apothecaries to them. I guess I have to learn by doing instead of extrapolating from previous experience with different units.
I was very happy to have an Infiltrators unit in my backfield screening out entry from reserves. Again, this seems obvious, but I'd been using Heavy Intercessors as a backfield unit in my Firestorm list because indirect fire was much more common earlier in the edition. It doesn't appear nearly as frequently as it used to, so I feel a little more secure with the 2-wound models on my backfield, and as a result I didn't have to worry about sending things back to relieve pressure on my home objective.
Any day I can play three games of 40K in is a good day, and all three of my opponents were relaxed and fun to play with. I ended the day 2-1, placing 4th out of 10, which is not much, but still a positive record, and I won a modest random door prize. All in all, a good day. Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have similar experiences when you play!
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