My First Super-Major: Battle For Salvation 2026

 

Greetings esteemed batttle brethren! This past weekend I had the privilege of attending my first-ever super-major: Battle For Salvation, held in the Palisades Center in West Nyack, NY. It's kind of-sort of local to me, as I live in northeastern Connecticut. I have a friend who was also interested in going, so we carpooled and shared a hotel room. I thought I'd share my experience with you, my brethren. I hope you find my recounting both amusing and informative. 

Friday morning I got up at 3:30. Leaving the house at 4:30, I drove to pick up my friend Brian who was attending with me, and we then drove about an additional two and a half hours to get there a little before 9 am. This was not ideal, but it did get us there on time.

As you all know, Codex: Space Marines dropped just the weekend before, just before list cutoff for the event, so I was obliged to write a whole new list. I did not have time for any practice games before the event, as I was painting a couple models to get them ready for it which ate up all my free time over the week. So, I played my list for the first time Game 1. It was pretty similar to my CoH+Darkflight list, so I was hoping the experience would translate some. Anyway, here's my list.

Bike Nonsense
Detachments: Assault Brethren, Darkflight Pursuit, Stormlance
Disposition: Recon
Sammael - Warlord
Ravenwing Command Squad
    Attached: Ravenwing Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Captain on Bike (Thunder Hammer)
Ravenwing Command Squad
    Attached: Ravenwing Knights: 6 awesome plasma biker boys
Chaplain on Bike: Imperium's Sword
    Attached: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Chaplain on Bike
    Attached: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Invader ATV: Onslaught cannon buggy
Invader ATV: Onslaught cannon buggy
Land Speeder
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Scout Squad

My thinking with this list was that the two plasma bike bricks with attached characters were going to be my big sticks. Each has a character assigned that can put them in whatever Doctrine I want them to be in, plus lending some punch in the Fight phase. The two Chaplain-led Outrider squads are in the list to be the early-game threats that can go take out moderately-tough opposing units without me having to commit too important an asset to it. The third Outrider squad was my backfield objective holder because they were 5 points cheaper than an Intercessor Squad - with higher Toughness and more Wounds, though they can't get Hidden. The ATVs and Land Speeder were to be my designated action monkeys, and the Scouts are for early screening, plus actions if they survive the first turn. 

The detachments I chose were the ones I thought best supported what I wanted to do. Darkflight is a pretty obvious detachment to take if you're going to use Ravenwing Fly units - which includes Sammy's unit. I'd thought about taking Devastator Brethren, but wound up picking Assault Bros because I thought the second Assault Doctrine turn and having Lance on tap would be more useful. Finally, if you're going to play with list composition anything like this, Stormlance is your jam. It's worth it just for the +2" of Movement on all the Mounted and Fly units, and it has three really good strats. Reconnaissance seemed like the obvious disposition for this list, as it's really fast and can get where it wants to go with little difficulty.

My 1st round was against Evan Tomchin and his Ret Cad T'au army playing Purge. I took a crushing 40-100 loss, but in my defense I was literally playing this list for the very first time. The most interesting thing about the game was that we were being recorded by Tactical Tortoise 40K. Achievement! First time playing on (or at least for) stream!

I had Chinese food from the food court for lunch, which was a tactical error. I didn't have any digestive issues, but it was so salty I had to pound water to assuage my thirst. 

2nd round I played against Gilbert Paris and his Sub Assault Tyranids (Recon). I lost again, but by a less-ego-crushing 47-66. We didn't make it all the way through the game as I recall. 

3rd round I played the friend I came with, Brian Stewart and his Bully Boyz+Da Big Hunt+Dread Mob Orks. By then I was desperately tired, but we did make it to the end of the game, which went 56-91 in Brian's favor. By the end of the game I was literally wobbling on my feet. I was ready for dinner, and then sleep.

An advantage to attending an event at a mall is there's a variety of eateries within easy reach. We dined at LIttle Buhddha, then went to our hotel, the Mariott Element. My one issue with the hotel room was that the bed mattress seemed to be just slightly convex, which made me feel like I was in slight danger of rolling out of it all night.

Day 2 I was much better rested and starting to figure out my list. 4th round I played with Angelo Alatzas and his Assault Bros+Phobos Shock Force+Terminator Storm Force (Priority) Ultramarines. I managed a 69-61 win, but we only made it to the end of the 4th turn, and he may have turned it around if we'd had the 5th. 

Instead of repeating the Chinese food mistake, I got lunch from Sbarro's, which proved to be a much wiser choice. I got a good energy boost from the carb load which carried me through the rest of the day.

5th round I played Nicole Coster and her Army of Faith+Sacred Champions (T&H) Sororitas. I've played with Nicole before at RTTs in the Northeast, and she's a good opponent to have a nice relaxed game with. I got my highest score of the event, 100-75. 

6th round I played Stephen Kufuor and his Assault Bros+Ironstorm+Terminator Storm Force (Priority) Ultramarines. By this point I was starting to feel pretty confident with my list and the speed of it kept Stephen on the back foot. Win for me, 93-76.

Dinner was at Carlitos Tequileria, which I highly recommend if you ever happen to attend BFS. Then off to the hotel for a night's sleep with that slight sense being in danger of falling out of bed.

7th round I was paired into Stefan Olson and his Blitz Brigade+Bully Boyz+Wreckas (Purge) Orks. I was not confident going into this match, as I've played Stefan more than once and not ever won against him. That streak continued, but I feel like I played my best game of this event this match. I kept reminding myself to score my points, and wound up with a close game, 91-97 in Stefan's favor.

Lunch from Sbarro's again, because if something works one should repeat it. 

8th round I paired with Michael Chrystal and his Assault Bros+Saga of the Beastslayer+Terminator Storm Force (T&H) Space Wolves. I was the most disappointed with myself for my performance in this game, because in trying to position my units to screen a Rapid Ingress from one of his big bricks of Terminators, I positioned all 3 of my Vengeances where he could reach them, plus left enough space in the corner behind my natural expansion for him to slip in a unit of melta Eradicators. That was an error I could not recover from, and I lost 70-96. 

I just want to be sure I mentioned that all of my opponents were lovely to play against. Win or lose, I enjoyed each one of the 8 games I played. 

After the event, Brian and I had a quick dinner at the food court (once more at Sbarro's for me), and we hit the road for home, which I reached by 10pm.

I mostly spent Monday recovering and snuggling with my cats. By Tuesday morning I was ready to do it all over again!

You learn a thing or two when you play 8 games of 40K in 3 days. Here are some of the takeaways I left with:

The big bricks of Ravenwing Black Knights underwhelmed. They've suffered from numerous game changes that have happened around them - cover rules, the removal of Oath, not having the Company of Hunters to exist in, and the proliferation of -1 Damage and -1 to Wound abilities all take their toll on them. Even when paired with Sammy, they don't do enough to justify their points, much less the opportunity cost of wasting Sammy and a Ravewning Command Squad on them.

I was impressed with Outriders. They really got a glow-up in the new codex. They got Rapid Fire 2 on their guns, and they get Sustained Hits 1 when they charge now in lieu of +1 Strength. Plus the squad sergeant can take a thunder hammer now, which gets +1 To Hit when they charge instead of +1 Damage, which is fine with me.

Stormlance! Oh boy Stormlance! Having Mounted units with 14" Movement and Speeder units with 16" movement is huge, and the Wind-Swift Evasion strat is crazy good! The games I did best in were the ones where I remembered to use that strat to good effect.

I figured I'd need action monkeys playing Recon, but I was surprised at how often that wasn't true. Neither the primary against Take and Hold nor Priority required performing actions.

I think the Recon versus Purge game needs a tweak, because IMO it favors Purge pretty strongly. Purge players can get Primary 1st turn and don't have to do actions to put their tokens on objectives, whereas Recon players can't score any Primary 1st turn and the end of the game condition (control 4 objectives) is wildly unrealistic. 

I'd fully intended to switch to a Terminator list after BFS - there is a build I'm excited to try, but I'm also excited to try a revamped version of Bike Nonsense, so here's the list I'll be running for the next couple events at least.

Bike Nonsense 2
Detachments: Assault Bros, Darkflight, Stormlance
Disposition: Recon

Sammy - Warlord
Ravenwing Command Squad: Supercharged Engines
    Attached: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Captain on Bike
Ravenwing Command Squad: Supercharged Engines
    Attached: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Chaplain on Bike: Imperium's Sword
Ravenwing Command Squad
    Attached: Outrider Squad: 3 choppy biker boys
Land Speeder: Thundercowl Turbines
Land Speeder: Thundercowl Turbines
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Land Speeder Vengeance: Nightforged Battery
Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Ravenwing Black Knights: 3 awesome plasma biker boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads

As you can see, I'm moving away from using Ravenwing Knights as a major shooting piece, and instead using them as outriders, basically. They're fast, have 6 OC, and can shoot 9 plasma shots, so they should be able to pick up small units and/or flip objectives from units that aren't Battleline units. 

In place of the big plasma bike bricks, I have 3 mixed Character+RWCS+Outrider squads. There are good synergies between all three elements of these combined squads, and on the charge each one is going to be dealing out a pile of Damage 3 attacks (Damage 4 from the Imperium's Sword Chaplain!).

I've retained the three Land Speeders Vengeance, and added a second Land Speeder. The ATVs got replaced by the Ravenwing Knights. I still just have the 1 Scout Squad, which will most of the time start the game on my backfield objective, and may occasionally be a sacrificial screen if I'm playing a really aggressive melee army. 

This is what I've got. We'll see how it plays into all the Terminator lists that are cropping up. Wish me luck. I hope you enjoyed my recounting of the weekend. May your performance at your first super-major be better than mine! For the Lion!