My First 40k Tournament – Battle Reports

List Theory

This was a team event, teams had two players each of whom would bring a 650 point list. Given that this was my first event I didn’t want anything that I didn’t know how to handle, I also didn’t want too many parts to it. So I looked back on my previous games and kind of boiled out some elements that I thought would be fun.

Mortarion can be a powerful model on the table, and he’ll certainly demand my opponent’s attention. I pair him a a Foetid Bloat Drone to give me some mobility, that I suspect will die quite quickly. Then I wanted something that could hold objectives, so Typhus and a mob of Poxwalkers felt good. I love Zombies too, so this would be nice for me to see on the table.

Finally I added some Nurglings for objective shenanigans, I can deep strike them all over the place and try and score some missions.

I was paired with a Drukhari player who had a fast mobile army, that was good, it helps to fill out the gaps in my somewhat slow and plodding force.

I also gave my list a name, it’s Typhus and Mortarion, and no one likes Typhus, so it’s Dick and Morty….

Game 1 – Chaos Knights and Daemons

Lined up and ready for the kick off…

I loved the glowing eyes!

Mortarion takes on a Knight.

The enemy took the first turn and came hurtling across the table towards us, but then unit after unit failed their charges. The rubbish rolling continued as we took our turn, the first turn was a bit of a damp squib.

But from then onwards we began to take control of the game. The Drukhari are fast and can pile out of their vehicle to do a load of damage, Mortarion rips a Knight apart. On top of this we’re scoring nicely too, the enemy just can’t keep up. Victory to the Dark Eldar and the Death Guard!

Chaos Knights & Daemons: 38 Points

Death Guard & Drukhari: 98 Points

Game 2 – Chaos Knights and Tyranids

Heading for the middle!

Still in the middle….

…and I’m still in the middle.

In this game we were up against two armies that had put some thought into their lists and had a plan to battle shock all over the place. The Chaos Knights and Tyranids has so many ways to both trigger battle shock and to give us penalties to our tests. This pretty much shut our armies down, we couldn’t take objectives even with my decent body count, and we couldn’t use stratagems. The Drukhari seemed particularly hurt but the inability to use stratagems, I think they needed them to get their damage output up.

So, all things told, it was carnage. The enemy armies were on the one hand horrible to play against yet also incredibly impressive for how they worked with each other. Battleshock hadn’t really been a thing on my radar before this game, but having seen this army in play I’m suddenly thinking about how I can either use it myself or make myself more immune to it. We actually scored better than I thought we did, but it was a well earned and decisive victory for our opponents.

Chaos Knights & Tyranids: 95 Points

Death Guard & Drukhari: 61 Points

Game 3 – Tyranids & Astra Militarum

One one side of the cover…

…on the other.

“I am the law”, this was awesome 🙂

Would you like to know the damage output of Drukhari? It’s high. Very high.

The superheavy Baneblade put in an appearance, this one troubled me. I had visions of Mortarion getting nuked off of the table in a blaze of gunfire before he could get anywhere.

However…

I advanced my forces up to the line of sight blocking cover in the centre, and then I knew that I had to charge Mortarion over the top and into a Tyranid unit. There was no point hiding him and the Baneblade was not going to get any closer. So over he goes, he rips a Tyranid unit apart, braces for the incoming fire, and shrugs most of it off. That was not what I expected. I haven’t played against a Baneblade in 10th Edition yet, so either it’s been nerfed or Mortarion has been buffed. The departure of the much feared Vengeance for Cadia, which gave re-rolls to all hits and wound rolls for the bargain price of 1CP, has certainly dampened down the outrageous damage output.

And then, as if to say “this is how you deal with super heavies” the Drukhair leapt out of their flyer and ripped it apart in one round of melee combat. I was please and surprised, blimey. After that it was a mopping up operation. Both lists worked as they should, the Death Guard ground out the Tyranids in the centre while the Drukhari bounced around the table clearing up everything else.

Victory to the Death Guard and their Drukhari allies (of convenience)!

Astra Military & Tyranids: 15 Points

Death Guard & Drukhari: 100 Points

The Conclusion

We won 2 games out of 3, which I think was jolly impressive for my first tournament. Most importantly we had fun. We didn’t win the tournament, but we did win the “Most Sporting” award for the event which was a real surprise, that felt great. I’ve often worried about making sure that my opponents have a good time and not wrecking their day by playing a rubbish game, well I didn’t.

Post Event Thoughts

• This event was a lot of fun. I had been anxious that it would feel too pressured or that I simply wouldn’t be good enough for people to have a good game against. I think that turned out to be a false assumption.
• I’ve never played more than one game in a day, to play three was rather taxing. Some of that must of been down to it being a new experience, but multiple games are a substantial mental load (as far as gaming goes).
• Would I do an event again? Yes I would, so that’s another win.

The List

Army Roster (Chaos – Death Guard) [635pts]

Configuration

• Battle Size: 1. Incursion (1000 Point limit)
• Detachment Choice: Plague Company

Epic Hero [405pts]

• Mortarion [325pts]: Rotwind, Silence, The Lantern, Warlord
• Typhus [80pts]: Master-crafted manreaper

Infantry [100pts]

• Poxwalkers [100pts]
  • 20x Poxwalker: 20x Improvised weapons

Vehicle [90pts]

• Foetid Bloat-drone [90pts]: Fleshmower, Plague probe

Allied Units [40pts]

• Nurglings [40pts]
  • 3x Nurgling Swarm: 3x Diseased claws and teeth