I fielded Thousand Sons for some reason...well, because I love Thousand Sons, nothing more. You probably know my list by now...it's a Tzeentch list featuring the Thousand Sons, the Blue Corsairs and a psyker Knight.
Thousand Sons Battalion
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (Warlord, Devastating Sorcerery and Arcane Focus)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (High Magister)
10 Scarab Occult Terminators (2 hellfyre missile racks, 2 soul reaper cannons)
5 Rubric Marines (warpflamers)
5 Rubric Marines (inferno boltguns)
10 Cultists (heavy stubber)
Blue Corsairs Battalion
Chaos Lord with plasma pistol and power fist
Dark Apostle
Dark Disciples
5 Chaos Space Marines (plasma pistol, power fist, boltguns and lascannon)
2x5 Chaos Space Marines (bolt pistols, chainswords, meltagun and power axe)
2 Forgefiends (Hades autocannon)
Super-heavy Auxiliary
Knight Despoiler (thermal cannon, Avenger gatling cannon, twin Icarus autocannon, Tzeentchian Pyrothrone and Warp-Tainted Hull)
As you can see, it's quite the...insane list.
Game 1
My first match was against Harlequins. I can't quite remember what he had, but it included Ynarri, the Yncarne or something.
The Soaring Spite - Serpent's Brood Battalions (I think he had 2 of them)
2 Troupe Masters
Shadowseer
Yncarne
2 x 10 Troupes
4 x 5 Troupes
Solitaire
Jestmaster
2x6 (or was it 9? I can't remember) Skyweavers (haywire cannons)
2 Starweavers
I'm pretty sure he had a Vanguard or 2 Battalions something, but I can't remember. Or was it Outrider? Whatever the case, I'm sure my opponent had 2 detachments...because this doesn't sound right. Well, whatever. I can't remember.
We rolled and got Seize Ground. With my Knight and 2 Forgefiends, my opponent obviously chose Big Game Hunter for his Secondaries, followed by Behind Enemy Lines, and Engineers. He got Attacker and I was Defender, and so he went first, with me being completely unable to seize because of the new ITC rules. As for me, I chose Born for Greatness (because he had no vehicles for me to kill and I wasn't confident of killing his Skyweavers), Behind Enemy Lines and Old School. Hah!
I can't remember what happened in each turn, but I know for sure that my opponent blitzed into my deployment zone with all his Troupes, his Troupe Master, Shadowseer, Skyweavers and Starweavers, and proceeded to take out my 2 Forgefiends, the Dark Apostle, 2 squads of Chaos Space Marines and 10 Cultists - all in the first turn. Captured 4 Objectives to claim the bonus points, and...yeah. He was way ahead by the first turn, getting almost 10 or so points, I think? I can't remember. My first turn was lackluster, and even though I killed a single Starweaver with my Knight to get First Strike, and captured yet another objective with my remaining squad of Chaos Space Marines, I wasn't able to do anything. I did pull a Warpflame Gargoyles with my Forgefiends before they died and blew up the first Troupe Master (who got hit by my Chaos Lord's power fist), but the Chaos Lord subsequently died to the Troupes in the second turn (more on that later). Right, and I think I destroyed maybe just 1 Skyweaver, but he still had so many of them. Did he have 6 in a squad? Or perhaps 8. Or 9. I just know he maxed out the unit. Maybe I had 3 points in the first turn, but I was very far behind. Ouch. Well, I got Slay the Warlord when I used Warpflame Gargoyles, heh.
Shortly after that, the Skyweavers zoomed across and did like 14 mortal wounds to my Knight with their haywire stuff. I was losing, and losing very badly. My last squad of Chaos Space Marines fell. The Solitaire charged my Rubric Marines with warpflamers and ended up eating quite a few wounds, and then the Troupe charged my Chaos Lord and killed him, as I mentioned earlier. Ouch. I paid 2 Command Points for Counter-offensive and had my Rubric Marines kill the Solitaire before he could hit them, so that was a huge relief. Hah! Small comfort, because I was still very far behind. By the time turn 2 ended, he was like 13 or 15 points...
Then my Scarab Occult Terminators (and Rubric Marines waiting in the walkway) Deep Struck in. And everything Changed.
Using psychic spells such as Astral Blast, I essentially wiped out an entire Troupe, destroyed a few Skyweavers with mortal wounds with the area of effect psychic spells), shot off a bunch of Troupes, had my Rubric Marines with warpflamers kill even more Troupes, and then my Scarab Occult Terminators proceeded to shoot one squadron of Skyweavers...only for them to make all their invulnerable saves despite me using Veterans of the Long War. Damn, that was just not good for me. However, I thinned out their forces, and my Knight did succeed in somehow killing all but 2 Skyweavers in that squad that made all their invulnerable saves, and despite charging and stomping on the last Starweaver, it was left with one wound. Damn.
The Knight then died in the third turn, allowing my opponent to max out on Big Game Hunter. However, despite him throwing everything he had into the Scarab Occult Terminators, I only lost like 3 of them, but in retaliation I wiped out a 10-men troupe in combat. I also somehow destroyed the remaining Starweaver with my Aspiring Sorcerer in close combat after it killed all the warpflamer Rubric Marines with its shuriken cannon, and I destroyed the remaining Starweavers with a combination of psychic spells and assault. Meanwhile, I killed the last Troupe Master with the inferno combi-bolter from my Warlord, which allowed me to finally max out on Born for Greatness (he had been in the opponent's deployment zone for a whole battle round, killed Troupes, and did a Heroic Intervention). The Shadowseer killed herself with Perils when casting a psychic spell, and I think the Ycarne didn't manage to get any psychic spells off either, or I would have gotten the Deny for Born for Greatness. In any event, after wiping out the Troupes, Starweavers and everything, I proceeded to throw everything at the Ycarne and the Jestmaster with a combination of psychic spells and shooting...I didn't even need to charge and assault the Ycarne. She just died to psychic spells and shooting alone.
And just like that, my opponent was tabled by turn 5. I came from behind to pull ahead to 25 points over his 23. The last 3 turns in particular allowed me to kill more and hold more, especially given how fragile the Harlequins were. They are basically glass cannons, and once my Terminators came in, I lost like 3 of them, but they otherwise shrugged off everything the Harlequins threw at them. Using both Glamor of Tzeentch and All is Dust (and my opponent denied Weaver of Fates), I managed to keep them mostly alive and able to destroy much of my opponent's forces, to the point that I tabled him. Still, I also lost the majority of my forces, and the Blue Corsairs completely wiped out, my Knight destroyed, and...my Cultists slain. As I decimated his forces with sorcerey and the sheer firepower and resilience of my Terminators, I was able to pull ahead with capturing more Objectives and killing more, plus I fulfilled my Secondaries and wiped out his Engineers, denying him his own Secondaries. That was at least 3 points I denied him, yay. Since this was ITC, we would have played out the sixth turn, and I would have another 3 points from Linebreaker (Old School), capturing objectives and having more, which would bring me eventually to 28 over 23. Still a very tight and close game, given how he pulled ahead to an overwhelming lead in the first two turns alone. I remembered he had like 20 points to my 13 in turn 3 or so, but by turn 5 I managed to pull ahead as his forces dwindled and he was unable to hold more objectives and I simply killed more with my devastating sorcery.
Game 2
My second match was against White Scars. I can't remember what my opponent had, but it was pure White Scars and looked like this:
White Scars Battalion 1
Kosarro Khan (or however you spell his name)
Primaris Lieutenant
Librarian in phobos armor
5 Intercessors, Sergeant with thunder hammer
2x5 Incursors
2 Invictor Tactical Warsuits with incendium cannons
Impulsor
White Scars Battalion
Captain on bike with thunder hammer and storm shield
Librarian with jetpack
3x5 Scouts with sniper rifles (NO camo cloaks)
5 Assault Terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields
2 Stormhawk Interceptors
The second match was Crucible of Champions. As always I lost the roll-off and ended up being the Defender. That was fine, I like being the Defender, and it allowed me to react to my opponent accordingly. My opponent chose Big Game Hunter, Recon and Headhunter for his secondaries, while I went with Big Game Hunter, Behind Enemy Lines and Old School...again.
The first turn went as you would expect...though, even with Devastator Doctrine, he was unable to see any of my Rubric Marines. He did wipe out 2 squads of Chaos Space Marines (again...these poor bastards are doomed to die in the first turn, no matter what), killed 6 Cultists with an Invictor Warsuit (shooting frag grenades and assaulting them), and charged my poor Forgefiend. Needless to say, his Captain on bike and 2nd Invictor Warsuit killed my Dark Disciples and Chaos Lord, despite eating some wounds on overwatch. I did managed to have my Forgefiends survive the attack from the Captain on bike, and I proceededd to pay 2 Command Points for counter-offensive, and had my Chaos Lord take several wounds off the Invictor Warsuit before he was destroyed. Combined with the overwatch, the poor Invictor Warsuit had 4 wounds left, if I remembered correcty, but even when degraded, he did enough to crush the poor Chaos Lord. Oh well...the Cultists obviously failed their morale, and just the Sergeant was left.
My Knight took out a few Scouts with his Smite, and then my Rubric Marines went over, and with a combination of baby Smite, warpflamers with Veterans of the Long War, and charging (though they lost a couple to overwatch), brought the first Invictor Warsuit to just 1 wound left. The Cultist Champion had fallen back and ran off toward an objective (but didn't reach it). And that was even after one of my Forgefiends fell back and used the Blasphemous Engines Stratagem to shoot at it without penalty. Damn it, I couldn't kill it! Similarly, I wasn't able to kill the second Invictor warsuit or the Captain on bike, but they proceeded to crush the Dark Apostle, who failed all his saves. Funnily enough, despite his Strength 10 thunder hammer, the Captain on bike failed to slay my first Forgefiend because I made all of his invulnerable saves. What in the warp? I had my last squad of Chaos Space Marines advance and charge the Incursors, but failed to kill all of them, leaving just one guy left. Similarly, there were 2 Scouts left, despite the Smite and my Knight shooting his heavy stubber at him. Fortunately, I did destroy a Stormhawk Interceptor with my thermal cannon, rolling a 6 for the D6 shots and then blowing it out of the sky. Heh! First Strike for me...for now. However, that left me...pretty vulnerable and exposed.
The second turn was pretty brutal...in a lot of ways. My opponent had his Invictor Warsuit fall back (both of them), as well as the Captain. They killed all of my Rubric Marines (the Aspiring Sorcerer falling in the fight phase by the Captain on bike), but...when both Invictor Warsuits charged my Forgefiends, my overwatch killed the both of them. I mean, they had 4 and 1 wound left respectively, so...the 2 damage Strength 8 AP -1 being a big deal. The other Stormhawk Interceptor flew over and killed my last squad of Chaos Space Marines. Oh, and the Librarian and Terminators Deep Struck behind my Knight. In a hilarious turn of events, my Knight denied my opponent's psychic spells not once but twice. Yeah, two psychic powers denied with my Knight, of all things. Tzeentch was trolling my poor opponent. Anyway, the Terminators charged and got in, and proceeded to take 12 wounds off the poor guy, even though I killed 1 of them in overwatch. Then I stomped on him, using the Stratagem to help him regain health if he killed any of them, except that my opponent proceeded to make all of his storm shield saves. Curse my luck. In any event, my opponent was pulling far ahead of me. His Impulsor wiped out the last Cultist Champion, and yeah, that was it. Oh, and overwatch reduced the Captain on bike to 2 wounds.
This time, I had my Terminators Deep Strike in my enemy's backline, along with the Rubric Marines. I can't remember, but I think I did a lot of damage to the Stormhawk Interceptor, leaving it with 3 wounds, but failed to kill it. My poor Knight killed only one Scout with the heavy flamer, but didn't do much with his shooting. I did manage to stomp the last Incursor to death and claim the Objective. My Terminators proceeded to erase the Incursors and did like 6 wounds to the Impulsor, while my Rubric Marines killed like 2 Scouts (I think?). The Forgefiend and Captain on bike continued to engage each other, but again I made my saves like a boss, and he survived. The captain on bike also refused to die, making all of his storm shield saves.
My opponent then had his Primaris Lieutenant and Phobos Librarian proceed upward to finish off the wounded Forgefiend once and for all, and he actually succeeded...damn. As for the Librarian in jetpack, he cast 2 spells...only for me to deny them both again with my psyker Knight. Warp Tainted Hull plus Tzeentchian Pyrothrone are the best psychic trolling combination ever! The Intercessors and Kosarro Khan jumped out of the Impulsor, moved toward my Sorcerers in Terminator Armor and proceeded to kill my Warlord...who failed all of his invulnerable saves against the thunder hammer, though my second Sorcerer in Terminator Armor made all his saves and survived, only taking a single wound. He attacked back and left Kosarro Khan with 4 wounds, but that was a big chunk of my sorcerery gone. The Terminators finished off my poor Knight, and I used a Stratagem to have him blow up on a 4+, dealing D6 mortal wounds. I killed the final Scout, and then rolled a 6 to kill 3 Terminators straight, leaving them with just 1 wound. The Captain on bike charged...and this time he died to my Forgefiend using Hellforged Stratagem to re-roll all hit rolls in combat (the damned guy made all his saves in overwatch). FINALLY! Hah! The Phobos Librarian, though eating two wounds, proceeded to kill the Forgefiend. Ouch. The Stormhawk flew about and killed like 1 or 2 Rubric Marines.
I managed to kill the Phobos Librarian with my 2nd Forgefiend for some reason, while my Rubric Marines did a smite on the Stormhawk Interceptor and left it with 2 wounds, while proceeding toward the remaining 3 Scouts. Meanwhile my Scarab Occult Terminators proceeded to shoot and kill the Intercessors, while I rolled a 10 (plus 1 because of High Magister) for Smite with my Sorcerer in Terminator Armor and rolled to do 4 mortal wounds to Kosarro Khan, effectively killing him once and for all. This was just hilarious. I failed to do any wounds to the Impulsor with the Hellfyre missiles or the inferno combi-bolter, but whatever. Anyway, in the fourth turn, the Stormhawk Interceptor found no way of flying...and flew off the board...to die. Because my Terminators were blocking its minimum movement characteristic and it couldn't land 1" next to them or on them. Whoops! The Scouts failed to do anything to my Terminators, and my Impulsor did...maybe 1 wound to my Sorceerer in Terminator Armor? The Librarian in jetpack failed his charge, but the Primaris Lieutenant made it and...locked my Forgefiend in combat.
The Forgefiend then killed him in combat during my turn, hilariously enough. I used Hellforged or whatever Stratagem it was to re-roll all hit rolls in combat. My Rubric Marines then charged up and slew a couple of Scouts in combat, while my Scarab Occult Terminators erased the last squad of Scouts from existence. Despite Smiting and shooting, my Sorcerer in Terminator Armor still failed to destroy the Impulsor, doing like 2 wounds and leaving it with 3? Obviously he failed his charge, so too bad. Oh, and he got his wounds back, because I cast Temporal Manipulation on him. Yay!
The last surviving White Scar Terminator continued to get the objective, while the Librarian with jetpack finally killed my Forgefiend (giving my opponent maxed out points on Big Game Hunter). I then killed his Impulsor with Smite, and a combination of warpflame pistol and attacks from my Rubric Marines wiped out the Scouts, effectively leaving my opponent with just 2 models on the table. Needless to say, we couldn't do anything for the 6th turn, except my Sorcerer in Terminator Armor advancing to grab the objective where the Impulsor was destroyed on, while my 10 Scarab Occult Terminators remained on their Objective. Both of us had 2 units left on the table, and I had 11 to his 2. Oh well. What a joke.
In the end, I won 24-22 against my opponent. It was an extremely close game that swung back and forth, but as always, my Terminators pulled through and won me the game. They seriously are tough! I can't believe they were so tough! With Glamor of Tzeentch and Weaver of Fates cast upon them, they basically can survivec anything my opponent throws at them, and more besides. People tend to underestimate Terminators for some reason, but there's a reason why they are so expensive. And psychic Terminators are even better!
Somehow I managed to win both games, but...I know my luck won't last forever. Still very fun, and we all enjoyed the matches! They were extremely close - I only won by a couple of points (perspire profusely). Any decision or error could have completely swung the match in the other way. I kind of like what the Forgefiends bring to my list. They may not be as accurate or have as many shots as my Armiger Moirax, and can't do mortal wounds, but they appear to synergize better with my list, especially since they have better melee weapons (daemonic jaws plus Hateful Assault), and Stratagems (Blasphemous Machines and Hellforged). Also they benefit from the Chaos Lord's aura of re-roll ones, and the Dark Apostle +1 to their hit rolls (Warp-sighted Plea). So I think I like them better with my list.
Anyway, that was how my ITC matches went today. I noticed that Lord Adiatun Varunn is forced to stay at home in Italy because of the quarantine from the coronavirus, so I decided to stay up late to write this battle report so that he has something to read. ;) I would have posted this on the Thousand Sons Facebook page or Discord, but...ugh...no thanks. I left both of the groups there because so many Thousand Sons players there whine too much, and I was sick of the constant negativity. "Scarab Occult Terminators suck." "Rubric Marines still are unviable." "Only thing this supplement helps us with is Thousand Sons Supreme Command in Chaos soup." "Thousand Sons are not competitive." Yikes. I bet if I post my battle report there, the members will mock me for using a thematic Tzeentchian list (they will laugh at my psyker Knight, that's for sure). They will wonder why I'm wasting points on meltaguns for the CSM squads, or whatever. They will claim that my list is actually pretty bad, and I only won because I was playing in a non-competitive setting (ITC doesn't mean competitive), and look for all kinds of fault with how I play, the units I chose, or the list I used. Like, seriously, man...get a grip. It's just a game. We're here to enjoy ourselves and have fun, and the constant negativity and incessant moaning just destroys my exuberant mood after I triumphed over my opponents in a close game. Hell, I'm sure there will be members on there who would say I was lucky (and I won't deny it - my opponent's perils killing his Shadowseer was just hilarious, and me denying 3-4 psychic powers in a row with my Knight was on the level of Tzeentchian trolling). But seriously, guys...pouring rain upon other people's parade, mocking them for their lists, complaining all the time about how "weak" or unviable or uncompetitive Thousand Sons is...that's just not the right attitude toward a game or a hobby. I'm not here to win tournaments, even if I do participate in them from time to time. I'm just here to enjoy myself because I love Warhammer 40,000, I love the game, and I love the Thousand Sons and Knights. So lighten up, be more positive, and quit whining! Stop pouring cold water on other people!
Sorry for the rant, but...yeah. I feel like this has to be said, because when I voice this out on the Facebook page or Discord, I get shut down pretty hard. Ouch. I probably deserve it for being the single dissenting voice, or for trying to be positive amidst a sea of negativity, but seriously. When the Ritual of the Damned came out, people were complaining and whining, especially when the FAQ came around and decreed that we couldn't take multiple Cult relics. I've lost count the number of times that people on Facebook or Discord frequently tell others "don't take Rubric Marines, they are bad." or "don't take Scarab Occult Terminators, they are trash." Well, frak them. If I want to take 10 Scarab Occult Terminators, I bloody damn will. Most people just theoryhammered and condemned Thousand Sons as uncompetitive and unviable (unless you take a Cult of Magic Supreme Command) without actually playing games. Guess what, I went and played 6-7 games with my Thousand Sons, and I had fun. Instead of obsessing over theory, mathhammer and statistics, or trying to create this uber netlist to challenge...I dunno, the Las Vegas Open or whatever tournament, you might want to try actually playing instead? Participate in a real game on the tabletop instead of just calculating statistics and running all sorts of simulations in your mind. Have fun for once, instead of being obsessed with victory or the unbeaten list.
Like this couple of matches! You don't need to steamroll your opponent! Hell, I don't care if I lost! I still had fun, I had a couple of close games, and I managed to turn things around! That's the best kind of games, where you turn the tables on your opponent, and squeeze victory out of a dire situation! Watching all the attacks bounce off my Terminators! Throwing smites and mortal wounds around! Experimenting with devastating sorcerery!
I hope the whiners there learn to let go of mathhammer, theoryhammer and their obsession with victory and the invincible netlists, and for once have fun with their games, and enjoy their matches with their opponents.
I have no words to thank you! It was a really nice gesture! I wish you all the best!
ReplyDeleteAre you Lord Adiatun Varunn? Thanks!
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