Phoenix Incursion 2.0

 Once again, I participated in a Rogue Trader Tournament, but this time it was an Incursion type. Meaning 1,000 points games instead of the usual 2,000, so I had to change up my list. I had been playing all Knights for the last few Incursion RTTs I attended, but this time I decided to take an Adeptus Mechanicus detachment along with an Imperial Knight for fun. I wasn't very satisfied with how the Knights couldn't score any objectives, so I decided to switch things up a bit and make my Skitarii the main force, while having my Knight support them. It turned out to be a good idea, because my Skitarii could capture Objectives better, though...well, I'm not sure if I chose them correctly, but hey, if it works, it works!

So what did I bring for my 1,000 Incursion list? Well...

Adeptus Mechanicus Patrol Detachment (Slaved Systems Forge World: Ryza):

Skitarii Marshal, Archived Engagements and Exemplar's Eternity

5 Skitarii Vanguard, omnispex, plasma caliver, phosphor blast pistol, power sword

5 Skitarii Vanguard, omnispex, plasma caliver, phosphor blast pistol, taser goad

5 Sicarian Ruststalkers

5 Sicarian Ruststalkers

3 Serberys Sulphurhounds

3 Serberys Sulphurhounds

Knight of the Cog Super-heavy Auxiliary Detachment

Questoris Knight Crusader, thermal cannon, Ironstorm missile pod, meltagun, Ion Bulwark

Yeah, that looks like quite the...odd list, doesn't it? Everyone else is running Lucius or whatever, while I'm the only one who uses Slaved Systems Forge World: Ryza. I'm not even using Ryza itself, I'm using a bloody Slaved Systems Forge World (because of my own homebrewed Forge World, Draconis IV). I ran MSU instead of horde Skitarii, and...well, yeah, let's just say I play very differently from all the other Adeptus Mechanicus players who rely on Lucius and Ironstrider Ballistarii. Speaking of which, I do not have a single Ironstrider Ballistarius in my list. Not even one.

Amusing, isn't it? Yeah, I don't chase the meta. Sorry. I'm sure most experts and professional players are scratching their heads and wondering what the hell I'm trying to do. To be honest, I have no idea myself. My strategy is to play my Skitarii the exact same way I play my Knights. Charge them up the table, hit the enemy hard in melee, and...pray to the Omnissiah and hope for the best. And that I do enough damage before my poor Skitarii get wiped off the table. Funnily enough, my Knight Crusader will do the exact opposite of what my Knights usually do...hang back, stay out of the range of my opponent's units, and keep himself safe. Oh, well...did it work? We'll find out.

Match 1

The first mission was Raid, and I played against someone with a Salamanders Successor Chapter. I'm trying to remember what he had, but I know for sure that he had the Born Heroes and Whirlwind of Rage Chapter Tactics, which gave him a +1 to his hit rolls in melee when he charges, and hit rolls of 6s in melee produce another hit.

Space Marine Patrol Detachment (Salamanders Successor Chapter: Born Heroes, Whirlwind of Rage):

Primaris Captain with Storm Shield (Warlord Trait that gives a single chosen unit within 6" Objective Secured and a relic that gives him and his surrounding dudes 6+++ Feel No Pain)

5 Infiltrators with Helix Adept

5 Incursors

5 Bladeguard Veterans

5 Bladeguard Veterans

6 Eradicators

I got really lucky and got to go first. My Knight Crusader, while staying out of range of the Eradicators, wiped out the Infiltrators in the first turn alone, while my Serberys Sulphurhounds raced forward to grab the two objectives in no man's land. I had my Skitarii Vanguard and one Sicarian Ruststalker squad raise the banners, while my second squad of Sicarian Ruststalkers stalked off the table with the Circuitous Assassins. The Incursors then raised the banners. My opponent tried to move up his Eradicators, but they remained out of range of my Knight Crusader, and ended up wiping out one of my Serberys Sulphurhounds. The Bladeguard Veterans then killed my other Serberys Sulphurhound...ouch. I managed to slowly kill off the Eradicators with my Knight Crusader...or I would have, but my opponent popped the Stratagem and had his Bladeguard Veterans tank the shots...so I killed maybe two or three, I can't remember. My Ruststalkers appeared on his side of the table, giving me Engage on All Fronts, while planting a banner because I stayed out of Auspex range and didn't want them shooting at me.

My opponent finally got within range and fired on my Knight with his Eradicators, only to whiff his wound rolls despite having a +1 to his wound rolls thanks to Salamander Combat Doctrine, and I saved maybe one or two. Maybe I took 3 wounds or so. Ouch. I continued firing on the Eradicators and killed a few, while also taking out a few Bladeguard Veterans in the uninjured squad, but the survivors succeeded in killing my Sicarian Ruststalkers. Damn. He had his other Bladeguard Veterans move toward me, killing one of my Skitarii Vanguard squads, while his Incursors tried to fire upon my dudes, only to miss their shots. Either that or I made all my saves. In any case, my Ruststalkers moved in and wiped them out, claiming the objective for me. I killed more of his Eradicators, but not nearly enough, while I killed maybe 1 Bladeguard Veteran with my Skitarii Vanguard. Then his Bladeguard Veterans moved back to deal with the Ruststalkers and wiped them out to reclaim the objective, while 2 Bladeguard Veterans moved toward my second Skitarii Vanguard squad, and charged them...only for me to make amazing saves and keep them alive despite all odds (I think I made 2 6s!). His Eradicators fired on my Knight again...only to whiff their shots and roll a 1 for the only failed save I made. That was a total of 3 (since they were heavy melta rifles) and he rolled a 1 again despite using a Command Re-roll. Ouch. My Knight went down to 18 wounds.

In the 4th turn, my Knight Crusader killed another Eradicator, then moved to stomp the Bladeguard Veterans, killing them. The Primaris Captain rushed forward, giving himself Objective Secured, while the 2 surviving Eradicators ran off...somewhere. In the final turn, I only killed 1 Eradicator with my Knight Crusader, and his Primaris Captain charged forward, attacking my Skitarii Marshal, only for him to tank the hits like a boss, losing just 2 wounds. He swung back and did nothing, unfortunately, but hey, it's all right. He did his job, ha ha.

The final score was 65 points to 59 points, with me getting 5 points from To the Last. It was a close game, with my opponent grabbing 15 points for primary objectives in the last turn. Maybe I should have tried to kill the Primaris Captain? I don't know. But hey, at least I tried!

Match 2

The second mission was Ascension, and this time I was up against an Adeptus Mechanicus player. Mirror match, except that she was using Lucius, and she had no Knight. I did. What did she have for her list? Let me try to remember. But before that, I've to say that she has an awesome army. Just look at it. She basically did a lot of amazing conversions, using the Necromunda models for her Skitarii Rangers, Armigers Helverin for the Ironstrider Ballistarii and Myrmidon Destructors for the Kataphron Breachers. Plus the paint...look at that glow!

Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's her list:

Adeptus Mechanicus Battalion Detachment (Lucius):

Skitarii Marshal, Programmed Retreat, Exemplar's Eternity

Tech-priest Manipulus, Luminescent Blessing, the Solar Flare

20 Skitarii Rangers, 2 arc rifles, omnispex, data-tether

20 Skitarii Vanguard, 2 plasma calivers, omnispex, data-tether

3 Kataphron Breachers, heavy arc rifles, hydraulic claws

5 Sicarian Infiltrators

3 Serberys Raiders

3 Ironstrider Ballistarii, twin cognis autocannons

So the direct opposite of my list. This is the typical Skitarii horde list that makes use of Lucius, and unlike my MSU, she brought hordes of 20 Skitarii infantry that will be buffed by the Tech-priest Manipulus, and the Ironstrider Ballistarii that everyone is talking about. Not to mention, her Sicarian Infiltrators versus my Sicarian Ruststalkers, and her Serberys Raiders versus my Serberys Sulphurhounds. As you can see, it's the archetypical Lucius list versus a...very amusing and oddball Ryza list with a random Knight of the Cog. I'm sure you can probably guess who won.

I was lucky enough to start first, and I began by wiping out the Kataphron Breachers with my Knight Crusader. I also killed the Serberys Raiders with my Serberys Sulphurhounds. I also killed like maybe 7 Skitarii Vanguard with the Crusader and Serberys Sulphurhounds, but...yeah. I charged my Serberys Sulphurhounds into the Vanguard, only for them to get wiped out by overwatch. On the other hand, my second squad of Serberys Sulphurhounds made it to the Skitarii Rangers and...killed just 1. Oh, well. Right, and I had my Skitarii Vanguard and one Sicarian Ruststalker squad place banners on three objectives, while the other simply moved up to support the Serberys Sulphurhounds.

My opponent then teleported her Skitarii Rangers to my backline using the Solar Flare, which...kind of left my Serberys Sulphurhounds staring at the dust in astonishment. The Ironstrider Ballistarii then moved up to the center objective, shot off an entire squad of Sicarian Ruststalkers who were on the center of the objective, snatching away my banner (ouch), while...I somehow made the saves for my second squad of Sicarian Ruststalkers, maybe losing just one? The Skitarii Vanguard then moved up and erased my Skitarii Vanguard with their shooting, as did the Skitarii Rangers, who killed my second Skitarii Vanguard squad as well. But I had the banners there, and the Skitarii Marshal on one of the objectives, so I still held those.

My Knight Crusader then moved up and, along with support fire (heh) from my surviving Serberys Sulphurhounds, destroyed one Ironstrider Ballistarii, who blew up and did a mortal wound to one of its comrades. He also killed more of the Skitarii Vanguard, and...my opponent was so unlucky that she somehow failed so many of her saves despite this being Lucius, and...yeah, she had a single Skitarii Vanguard left after all that shooting. Oh, and she failed morale, and rolled a couple of ones and a 2, which meant 3 ran away. That was out of 4 rolls. Bad luck. Damn. My Ruststalkers, Sulphurhounds and Knight charged in and wiped out the other two Ironstrider Ballistarii, but they didn't blow up this time. Phew!

The Sicarian Infiltrators then popped in and fired their flechette blasters at my Sicarian Ruststalkers, and she whiffed all of her shots, with them killing just one or two, leaving two Sicarian Ruststalkers alive. Damn. The Rangers had more success, though, killing the Skitarii Marshal, and her Tech-priest Manipulus ran to capture the objective and remove my banner. Oh, well.

I did manage to kill the Skitarii Vanguard Alpha with my Serberys Sulphurhounds. Then my Knight Crusader promptly erased the Sicarian Infiltrators from the table, while doing a couple of wounds to the Tech-priest Manipulus with his meltagun and heavy flamer. Whoops. Despite the Serberys Sulphurhounds and Sicarian Ruststalkers charging the Skitarii Marshal, they failed to kill him. Damn. Well, I guess all the rolls even out in the end. My opponent was having awful rolls, failing all her saves and not exactly doing great on her firing, so...yeah.

The Rangers then moved up and fired on my Knight Crusader, taking a few wounds off him, but not nearly enough. Heh. My Knight Crusader moved up, killed like 7 or so Skitarii Rangers, and then stomped the Tech-priest Manipulus to death while tarpitting the poor Skitarii Rangers in combat. Meanwhile, my Sicarian Ruststalkers advanced to the other end of the table to help me score Behind Enemy Lines, while my Serberys Sulphurhounds killed the Skitarii Marshal with sulphur and fire. With nothing but the Skitarii Rangers left, my opponent decided to leave them in combat, and they didn't do much to my Knight. I...simply stomped them to death and tabled her. Ouch. To add insult to injury, I had 10 points from To The Last because not only my Knight survived, but so did one of my Sicarian Ruststalker squads.

Needless to say, this was an overwhelming victory for my Draconian (pseudo-Ryza) Skitarii and Knight of the Cog over a Lucius Mechanicus cohort. That was totally unexpected, but I have to emphasize that I got extremely, extremely lucky. My opponent was very unlucky. I went first and got rid of her Kataphron Breachers, which were probably the only thing that could pose a threat to my Knight, plus she failed an awful number of saves...oh, and that morale debacle where 3 out of 4 dudes ran away. Sigh. Yeah, that was bad luck. Not to mention, her Sicarian Infiltrators whiffing their shots against my Sicarian Ruststalkers, and their making 5+ saves against the Ironstrider Ballistarii earlier. Damn. In any event, I won the game 76 to her 21. That was...weird. I got very, very lucky. I doubt that will ever happen again.

Match 3

And so...the final match. This time, the mission was Center Ground, which was a very odd...map. My opponent was Salamanders this time, so yay, I guess? If my opponent was Chaos Daemons, I would be screwed, but Salamanders are also pretty strong...and this is basically almost the same as the first match, except that he ignores AP -1 and can re-roll a single wound roll every time he fights or shoots.

Adeptus Astartes Patrol Detachment (Salamanders)

Bray'arth Ashmantle (the Forge World Dreadnought Character)

5 Tactical Marines with combi-melta and flamer

5 Tactical Marines with combi-melta and flamer

6 Aggressors with flamestorm gauntlets

Apocethary with the relic that allows rerolls of D6 for flame weapons

Land Speeder with multimelta and heavy flamer

Land Speeder with multimelta and heavy flamer

3 Eradicators

Again, I was lucky enough to get first turn. My Serberys Sulphurhounds rushed forward to grab 2 objectives, while my Skitarii Vanguard placed banners, one squad occupying the same objective as one Serberys Sulphurhound squad. One Ruststalkers squad simply walked off the table using Circuitous Assassins, while my Knight Crusader seized the chance to kill the Eradicators, throwing everything at them. The Serberys Sulphurhounds also helped, flaming the poor Eradicators as well. YES!

The Serberys Sulphurhounds made their charge and tied up one tactical squad, while the other simply died to overwatch from the Aggressors. Whoops. Anyway, my opponent zoomed the Land Speeders forward and charged the Skitarii Vanguard with them, as well as one Aggressor, but they failed to kill the Objective Secured Skitarii Vanguard and I controlled that objective, along with the banner. The Land Speeders also didn't do much damage to my Knight, maybe doing a total of 6 with their melta weapons? The Serberys Sulphurhounds and tactical squad continued to slug it out, and despite the Alpha wounding them on 2+s with his arc maul (them being reduced to Strength and Toughness 3 because of Rad Saturation), I couldn't kill most of them, and I lost one of them. Yikes.

I had my Sicarian Ruststalkers pop up in the backline, giving me Behind Enemy Lines, but they failed their charge. Damn. My Skitarii Vanguard fell back, having survived the charge from the Aggressors and the Land Speeders. The Knight Crusader killed one Land Speeder and killed 3 Aggressors, only for the Apocethary to revive one of them later. The Serberys Sulphurhounds and tactical squad continued to slug it out, with me killing maybe one of them, and losing another dude in return. Ugh...so much for Ryza being close combat specialists.

The surviving Land Speeder zoomed toward my Knight Crusader, but failed to wound him with his mutimelta, or if he did, I made my save. Well...and the Land Speeder promptly failed his charge against my Skitarii Vanguard, rolling 2 1s. What the f...that was just awful luck for my opponent. The Aggressors, now back up to 4, continued toward my Knight Crusader, and tried to hit him with their flamers, but though they did maybe a couple of wounds, it wasn't enough. He still had 15 or so wounds, if I remember correctly. Then the tactical squad and Serberys Sulphurhounds continued to slug it out, with the alpha killing the sergeant and leaving just the flamer guy. That was rough. Oh, my Sicarian Ruststalkers died to the tactical squad's fire, with only the Princepts surviving...and I rolled a 1 for morale. Phew. Then Bray'arth stomped upward, charged my Skitarii Vanguard...and I made 2 6++s saves to keep them in the game and the objective. Holy Omnissiah. That was clutch. I had 2 Skitarii Vanguard left and they continued to hang on despite all odds.

I had my second squad of Sicarian Ruststalkers pop up next to Bray'arth and charge him, but they fluffed all their wound rolls...and I did like maybe 3 wounds in total. Yikes. The Knight Crusader fired on Aggressors and killed another 2 or so, while the Skitarii Vanguard, along wth my Knight Crusader destroyed the second Land Speeder. The Serberys Sulphurhound continued duking it out with the flamer tactical marine, only for my alpha to finally kill the damned squad. Phew. That was annoying. Meanwhile, Bray'arth killed all of Skitarii Vanguard and Sicarian Ruststalkers, while eating maybe 1 or 2 wounds. The sole surviving princeps charged the other tactical squad and killed maybe 1 or 2, but he got slain in combat. Whoops.

The Aggressors tried to charge my Skitarii Vanguard...only to fail. They then died to my Knight Crusader, Serberys Sulphurhound and Skitarii Vanguard's fire. I wasn't able to do anything to the tactical squad despite bombarding them from afar with the Ironstorm missile pod. Oh, well. Bray'arth then moved toward my Knight Crusader and wounded him, bringing him down to 11 wounds with his flamers, while his Apocethary braved overwatch and charged my Serberys Sulphurhound alpha. Yikes. I killed Bray'arth with a combination of supercharged plasma from my Skitarii Vanguard and my Knight Crusader, while the Ironstorm missile pod still did not do anything. The Apocethary survived another round of fire from my Serberys Sulphurhound Alpha, despite him doing his best to kill him. Oh, well. Then, during his turn, he killed my Serberys Sulphurhound Alpha in combat, the Apocethary thus seizing an objective and giving him 15 points, along with his tactical squad at the back, giving him 2 objectives to my 1. Yikes.

Fortunately, I still somehow managed to squeak out a win 70-61. It should have been 71 because I forgot to count the banner for the end of the game, but who cares, it's just 1 point.

Wait, what? Did I win all 3 games in this Phoenix Incursion 2.0 RTT?

...yeah, I did. A lot of good luck on my part, my clutch saving throws ensuring that I somehow had Skitarii holding objectives despite all the odds stacked against them (surviving a charge from Bray'arth and Bladeguard Veterans). Plus my opponents had horrible rolls, failing to wound my Knights with their melta weapons or just...not making their saving throws despite being Lucius. Wow. Just wow. I don't know, but I really lucked out this time.

Consequently, as you can see in Best Coast Pairings, I somehow got first place (yes, my real name is Tobias Fong). I have no idea how that happened, it's just...improbable, but I guess I'll take it. The Omnissiah provides, I guess? Given that I lost all 3 games last week, I guess I managed to get some luck this time and win all 3 games. This is the first time I've won a Warhammer 40,000 tournament. I'm not sure what to say, I'm still in...disbelief. I am very certain that if I had faced the Chaos Daemons player with his scary Slaneeshi daemons who can advance and charge (was it a 14" move, plus advance and charge?), I would have lost. 100% sure. But I guess I lucked out. Oh, well. This was a very, very interesting Incursion experience that went beyond my expectations. I'll admit, I'm extremely glad to have some store credit as a result of somehow winning today's tournament. The Emperor must have smiled upon me today or something...but hey, I'll take it! I'll save the store credit for the Kill Team box, so that I can get Death Korps of Krieg! Yay!