WarCon at ATC or how I learned to stop worrying and accept that I suck at this army

Hello all, Josh here. This is my first post on our 40k-nerd collective, and I’ll be talking about how (not) to play War Convocation following my experiences at ATC this year.  

So, why WarCon you ask?  When GW released the new FAQs regarding drop pods, my beloved Sisters of Battle were relegated to moving around on foot or in Rhino-like vehicles that sadly, don’t come for free (fuck you Space Marines).  This meant I could no longer bring sets of four rending heavy flamers or cover ignoring melta guns right where they needed to be; and as this is a competitive tourney and my team wanted to do well, I had to look elsewhere amongst my armies.  

I have a *bit* of a 40k problem you could say; I own large armies of pretty much all factions save Chaos/their pet marines, Tyranids (sold em), and Dark Eldar (sold to Anthony).  Experience wise, I know my Grey Knights, Sisters of Battle and Blood Angels the best, but none of these armies are all too terribly good, and the Drop Pod FAQ killed my Sisters/BA alliance.  Eldar was taken, I don’t know my Tau well enough, and our Eldar player was on the fence run them or Space Marines, so both were out.  I really didn’t want to play Necrons, so competitive wise, I jumped on the free things bandwagon and took my War Convocation army with a pair of allied Inquisitors.

The list was something like this:

WarCon 1849 Points/1850 allowed

AdMech
HQ- Tech Priest with all the free shit (Warlord)

Troops

4x Kataphrons w/ Grav & Flamers

4x Kataphrons w/ Grav & Flamers

Skitarii

Troops

10x Rangers w/ 3x Sniper Rifles & free shit

10x Vanguard w/ 3x Plasma & free shit

Elites

Infiltrators x 5 (w Blasters & Taser Goads)

Ruststalkers x 5 (Razors & Chordclaws)

Ironstrider Ballistari w/ Lascannon

Onager Dunecrawler w/ Icarus Array

Imperial Knight

Knight Crusader (Battle Cannon & Avenger Gatling Cannon, Stormspear Rocket Pod, Heavy Stubber)

Inquisitorial Detachment

Inquisitor Coteaz (best 100 points ever)

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor (Level 1 Psyker, Power Armor, 2x Servo Skulls because I can’t buy him melta bombs)

So, I’m all about the free stuff, however I didn’t even know what most of the free relics did. The Phosphoenix?  S5 AP2 and the one hit causes three hits? Sure, why not, I think I used it once in six games.  The Autocadeuces of Arkhan Land on my Warlord? IWND for him and the unit?  Awesomesauce! Never got to use it.  

This silly damn thing has hundreds of points of free upgrades, and I pretty much didn’t use half of them.  You could say I wasn’t really prepared to play this army; and you would be right.  Prior to ATC, I had used the Canticles of the Omnissiah in two games.  I hadn’t even used the Skitarri’s Doctrina Imperatives until my third game into ATC.  

As a bit of background, ATC is the American Team Championships, the yankee equivalent of Europe’s ETC.  You and four of your dudebros bring five armies, not repeating any factions (IE all SM from the big book are the same faction, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Space Wolves are separate).  Your team plays against another team and there is a bit of strategy involved. The captains basically roll off, you put out defenders, they pick attackers, yada yada yada, and after seeing the opposing teams’ lists you either choose to sacrifice one or figure who will be hardest for their five armies to match.  

Knowing full well that I would be on the opposite end of best Admech player, I volunteered as tribute several times, and took that sabot round to the chest.  Although I finished with an abysmal 1-5 record, I had six great games, zero dick opponents, and I think if I had played better a 5-1 would have been very reasonable.  

Game One: Adam’s Eldar.  He ran a whole bunch of bikes, three flyers and a Wraithknight. Pretty standard competitive Eldar list, beautifully painted, and a great dude.  I’ll definitely drink beers with Adam down the road.  Game was the relic, Dawn of War Deployment, and I managed to go first which enabled me to kill off his Wraithknight with my grav and wear down his bikes a bit.  As the game went on, I stuck his seer star with Invisibility in CC with my Inquisitor and some Kataphrons, they eventually won out and snatched the relic on like turn five.  We went to seven, and although I had slay the warlord, first blood and progressives by a bit, he won overall with the relic and line breaker.  I should have been way more aggressive, I could have moved some of my dunestrider dudes (+3” to all my moves? America Fuck Yeah!) to the relic then bubble wrapped it in my deployment zone for a win.  Great, fun game, and I learned a bit.  

Game two was against a Tau list with a Stormsurge, Riptide Wing, some drones, buffmander and a couple sky rays.  I managed to steal the initiative but again, I wasn’t aggressive enough. I managed to kill the Stormsurge but I didn’t stab the shooty with my stabby and lost the game by a decent margin.  Fun player, good attitude, and I enjoyed the game. More learning.

Game three was another Tau list, this one had a Stormsurge, more Riptide wing, a buffmander and a bunch of missile Broadsides and two squads of Kroot.  I was more aggressive and I remembered that Skitarri can scout in their formation (oh yeah…) I stole the initiative again and the grav put some hurt on his Riptides, due to the Hammer/Anvil deployment, I stayed the hell out of the Broadside’s range as best as I could, put bodies on the middle table progressive and managed to wear him down, coming away with my first (and only) win.  If it weren’t for stealing the initiative I think it would have been very close.  The aggression paid off, a lesson that didn’t stick…

Day two; starting early (like 8 am or some such nonsense)

Game One:

Traitor Guard

So I had read about this list in Imperial Armour: The Siege of Vraks; basically its a bunch of plague zombies (4+ FNP, fearless FTW!), 2x3 quad mortars, 2x Basilisks, some allied daemons to sacrifice themselves/summon greater unclean ones and artillery tyrant warlord dude plus a Chaos Knight with dual avenger gatling cannons.  The basic strategy is this:  park artillery in the back, keeping aware of their minimum range; front line is a big bubble of fearless meat shields, the Pink Horrors give up first blood to bring in Great Unclean Ones to wreck face and counter charge, step two shoot things, step three profit.  I knew this would be a challenge for me; he has almost no armor saves (other than the artillery) and as such gives exactly zero fucks about my grav.  His zombies are fearless in big blobs with 4+ FNP, so anything that isn’t S6 or higher isn’t much a concern, and the quad mortars/basilisks/Chaos Knight put down wounds like motherfuckingchampions.  The artillery tyrant has this neat trick: he can drop rounds onto his own dudes in close combat.  So you get close enough to charge his fearless blobs with 4+FNP hoping to work through them? Cool, here comes the steel rain! I managed to kill one GUO but the other charged me and wrecked face, he got off Warpspeed (I think…) for crazy high initiative and instant death on his close combat attacks.  By the end of the game all my dudes were dead save the Knight, and for funsies we were playing dueling Knights; his against mine.  The loyalist won the shootout, but I conceded max points as he would have worn him down had he shot any of his remaining artillery or charged with the GUO.  Fun game, really dug the theme and it was cool to see the traitor guard/artillery tyrant on the table top.  I should have been a lot more aggressive and gotten within his minimum artillery range.  Oh well.

Game Two

Flyers. Flyers everywhere.  So we had played this team last year, and their captain, in proper Canadian fashion, was the nicest guy in the state.  The list was basically a chapter master, some grav cannons, a few troops in drop pods plus a land speeder. Everything else was flying in wings, ignoring cover or getting tank hunter or what have you.  I was sacrificed to the altar of the flying god, and it hurt.  There were at least two Stormravens and at least six Stormtalons in the formations; they came to kick my ass and succeeded.  None of our teams could handle that many flyers, so I took it standing up.  I think I put a few hull points on a couple fliers, and killed a couple marines; and got my nuts kicked squarely in.

Game Three

Iron Hands shenanigans: He had the invincible 2+ FNP chapter master with home boys on bikes, the three Vindicator Formation, 3x Land Speeders, 2x Stormtalons, and the 10th Company scout formation.  Great dude, expertly played his army.  It should have been much closer, but I wasn’t paying attention when he briefed me on the army, and his apocalyptic S10 ignores cover blast wrecked my face.  I should have killed the damn Vindicators first turn.  I scored a few points, and held his biker death star in CC for a couple turns thanks to some lucky saves, but in the end being too defensive bit me in the ass; half my grav Kataphrons just sat in the back on an end game (NOT progressive) objective, neither scoring nor killing.  Another fun, crushing loss.

Last year I went 3-3 with a Sisters of Battle/Blood Angels army.  I took a much more competitive army and went 1-5.  I think it’s safe to say the field at ATC was much more competitive than in 2015; the teams were either hard anti-meta (16 Fire Raptors?! WTF Chicago Kamikaze!) or a somewhat standard Eldar/Tau/SM/Choice4/Choice5.  As I prepare for NOVA in about a month, I have decided to run what I know: Sisters of Battle MSU with a few Inquisitors (and retinue) plus a Culexus Assassin.  It isn’t a top tier army, but I know how to play it and I know it’s tricks.  Also Repressors are fuck awesome models and this is an excuse to buy more and paint the damn things.  

Khorne Daemonkin, Chaos Space Marines, and You!

      Hello fellow heretics! Today i am going to be discussing Khorne Daemonkin and Chaos Space Marines. Together! I have been running a pretty powerful army at some ITC events, most recently ATC. First, let us look at the list:

   KDK:Formation: Fist Of Khorne 19x Berserkers, Berserker Champion w/ Axe of Khorne, Kharybdis Assault Claw

   KDK: Formation: Gorepack 5x Flesh hounds, 5x Flesh hounds, 5x Flesh hounds, 5x Flesh hounds 3x bikers, 3x bikers

 CSM: Combined arms detachment:   Kharn the Betrayer

                                                         Chaos Lord, Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Axe of Blind Fury

                                                         5x assault chaos space marines, Dreadclaw drop pod 

                                                         5x assault chaos space marines, Dreadclaw drop pod

       The idea of the list is simple. The Fist of Khorne and Kharns drop pod drop onto the table turn one, with the Flesh hounds and bikers starting on the table. The Fist is a strong alpha strike, as all the berserkers inside can disembark and assault turn one. As if that isnt enough for the enemy to think about, any vehicles or buildings the Kharybdis scatters on top of takes a strength D hit at AP1! I have rolled a "6" here and elimated Imperial Knights several times.

        Kharn also lands turn one as the Dreadclaws and Kharybdis follow drop pod assault rules. The difference is that his unit doesnt have to disembark! They are flyers and can flat out in the shooting phase, setting up a massive turn two assault with flesh hounds, Kharn, bikes, and berserkers (they should kill anything they assault turn one). The army completely controls the table from turn one forward. I threw the Jugger lord in to ride around with some flesh hounds and clean up after the rest of the army. Cant go wrong with 7+d6 S6 ap2 attacks on the charge.

        When i first put the list together, I had the ATC in mind. It's first real test was at an ITC event in Knoxville, Tn. I ended up winning the event, sweeping all three rounds. I also played some pretty competitive lists in practice games before giving the final decision to our team, Beer for the Beer God, that i was taking it. Individually the list went 5-1 at ATC, with pairings and results as follows:

                   Round 1- Vs Tau Empire Ghostkeel/Riptide/broadside intercepting spam. This game was brutal for me. Not the best match up, so i was already fighting an uphill battle. I lost this game to some hot dice from Kelly Wallace, who couldnt miss with overwatch. Coupled with the fact I couldnt make an armor save, he made quick work of me and i lost 20-0. Needless to say, it wasnt a good start to the tournament for the heretics. But the chaos gods had not left me completely.

                   Round 2- Vs 3 Renegade Knights + Heldrake Flyer Wing. This was a far better match up for me. His knights had 5 Gatlin cannons between them. I got the first turn in this one, and sadly the fist didnt scatter onto a knight. It did land perfectly between two of his knights, however, and i managed to assault two knights and tie them up. Kharn cleaned the knights up (s7 armourbane hitting on 2s with hatred) while the flesh hounds controlled the table. The heldrakes killed a few units, but it was too late as his knights were all dead turn 4. I won this game 18-2.

                   Round 3- Vs Daemonic Incursion of Tzeentch. This guy had tons and tons of psychic dice. Three heralds, fateweaver, tons of horrors, and 30 screamers. He had a good army, but ran into all kinds of match up problems against me. Almost my entire army had some kind of special rule that killed psykers. Worse for him is i rolled first turn, and he failed to seize. He set up in a corner of the table thinking he was safe, but the Fist dropped in turn one and multi assaulted two units of horrors and three units of screamers. He lost the combat by 7 and lost each unit to instability rolls, giving me 5 blood tithe points turn one. I tabled him turn 4, winning the game 20-0. Want to make a note this was one of my favorite games, because he was such a great guy.
                   Round 4- Vs Tau Riptide/Yvahrna/Stormsurge spam. We all have seen this list floating around, and it is a very hard list for any army to deal with. For the life of me, i cannot remember the guys name (he was with forge the narrative, a great group of guys). I ended up seizing the initiative this game and getting turn one. The Fist dropped in and ate intercepting fire from 3 riptides and a stormsurge. He killed 8 or so berserkers, and i had though that was going to win him the game, much like the first game vs Tau i had. I made my assault and the axe of khorne tore down one riptide as i chose not to multi assault the other two in his wing (this is a sound strategy chaos players, once they blew their intercept they wouldnt be able to fire at me on his turn, so i chose to ignore them and assault them next turn). I tied up the other riptides the rest of the game, he didnt get to fire them on his turn once. Kharn chopped down one Yvarhna but ended up getting stomped out by a stormsurge. This was by far the closest game of the tournament, and due to some crafty rolling he managed to steal the relic on turn 7 to narrow the gap. I won this game 11-9. Best game of the tournament.
                  Round 5- Orks with a big mek stompa and a shitload of bikes. This game was another classic bad match up for my opponent. The alpha strike from the pissed off berserkers took his warlord away on the top of turn one, and he never really recovered. Highlight of the game is when he assaulted Kharn (who was by himself due to dakka guns, with only one wound left) with a warboss and nob with power klaws. My only chance here was to eat his Nob in a challenge and heal a wound or two. Kharn issued the challenge and murdered the poor Nob easily, and i immediately rolled on the chaos boon table. To my opponents dismay i rolled a 66, turning Kharn into a demon prince and seperating him from combat, saving his life! Was an epic moment for the chaos gods. I won this game 20-0 as well.
                 Round 6- Final game was against the hated Space Wolves. He was running 10 wulfen, 15 thunderwolf cavalry, a wolf lord and a Lancer. I elected to let hm go first on hammer and anvil, parking myself 35 inches away on deployment so as not to get assaulted turn one by the wulfens special ability. He moved forward on his turn, and on my turn one the fist of khorne once again went to work, scattering directly on top of the lancer, giving it 3 hull points and landing next to some wulfen. They disembarked, and knowing he was going to kill the berserkers i assaulted them anyways because i needed them off the table. The 81 attacks killed all the wulfen, but his abiltiy to fight back on death killed 13 of my berserkers as well. I tied his lancer up with a unit of flesh hounds and Kharn finished it off turn 2, and the ensuing explosion killed off the rest of one of his cavalry units and one of my flesh hound units with my chaos lord in it. I ended up tabling him turn 4, which is gratifying for any Chaos player to table an imperial army. He was such great guy though. Won this game 20-0, bringing my totals for ATC to 5-1 and 89 points scored, which was the highest among Khorne Demonkin players (i think, we all got lumped in with demons so i didnt win best in that category, sadly) and i think one cabal CSM army placed higher than i did as well. It was overall a good tournament for me. ( I havent seen all f the overall results for individuals, so this may be off a little)
      So don't let anyone tell you that Chaos can't compete in today's meta. Check back with me soon I'll be doing a CSM and KDK tactica and codex rundown. Feel free to comment any questions!

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!