Bug Hunt RTT

So I participated in a Bug Hunt RTT yesterday in Phoenix Games, Fridley, and it was...well, I don't know if I'd call it fun. Let's just say all my games were incredibly one-sided. In any event, I'll just give a quick rundown on my list.

As you guys probably know, I bought the Warzone Charadon: The Book of Fire, and I found myself intrigued by the Skitarii Veteran Cohort. I didn't think I would use it, but I kind of wanted to experiment with it because it seemed fun. Upgrading my normal Skitarii infantry to having 5++ invulnerable saves and an extra attack each? Hmm, seems kind of fun. Might as well try it out. Also, it would be a usual change of pace from playing Knights. I love Knights and all, but I thought it would be fun to try new things, to switch form fielding gigantic robots to fielding hordes of infantry. My plan was to drown my opponent in bodies and pray that they wouldn't be able to kill them all. I saw that there would be Tyranids (full of Monsters), Adeptus Custodes and Knights, so I was praying that I would be able to have enough bodies and units on the table so that they wouldn't get wiped out in an instant or something.

The plan didn't work out as planned, unfortunately.

My list was a Skitarii Veteran Cohort that looked like this:

Skitarii Veteran Cohort Battalion Detachment (Slaved Systems Forge World: Ryza):

Skitarii Marshal, Exemplar's Eternity, Calculate Without Diversion

Tech-priest Manipulus with Transonic cannon

Tech-priest Enginseer

3x10 Skitarii Rangers, Alpha with arc maul and arc pistol, arc rifle, omnispex, transuranic arquebus

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

2x5 Skitarii Vanguard, Alpha with taser goad and phosphor blast pistol, plasma caliver, omnispex

2x10 Secutarii Hoplites

2x5 Sicarian Ruststalkers with transonic blades

2x3 Serberys Sulphurhounds with phosphor blast carbine

2 Skorpius Disintegrators with Ferrumite cannons

2 Archaeopter Stratoraptors with chaff launchers

So yeah, I figured that since I have the models, I might as well try it out. It looks fun! Or so I thought. By the way, this is after the Adeptus Mechanicus FAQ, which didn't affect me because I don't really care about the weird stuff like Enriched Rounds or whatever, and I don't run 20-men blobs of Skitarii or Lucius or Ironstrider Ballistariii anyway. I stuck to Ryza because I'm sort of fluffy that way, and I was planning to have my dudes run up the table, swamp my opponents in bodies, hopefully make use of the 5++ invulnerable save to survive in both combat and shooting, and then hit back as hard as I can.

That was the plan, like I said, but...it never worked out the way that I envisioned.

Mission 1

First game was Retrieval, I think? I was up against an Adeptus Custodes player, which I had thought I might play against. He had like 3-4 Jetbikes, a Shield-captain on Dawneagle jet-bike, Allarus Terminators, a Shield-captain, 3 units of 3 Custodian Guards, 2 special Contemptor Dreadnoughts (one with a spear, one with a sword and shield), and a Telemon Dreadnought. I figured I wasn't going to kill all that, and instead picked To The Last, Retrieve Ocatrius Data and Engage on All Fronts to maximize my secondaries. After all, like I said, my goal was to survive and hope my opponent wouldn't kill all of my infantry. I had like, what, 84 dudes on the table, not including the vehicles. In terms of No Prisoners, that would give my opponent 9 points because I have a total of 97 wounds. I sent my Secutarii forward to screen and hopefully distract my opponent away from my more precious Objective Secured troops, and...yeah. That's about it.

As it turned out...my Ryza Skitarii Veterans still had enough firepower to shoot everything off the board, killing the Custodians and essentially wiping out all but the Telemon Dreadnought and 3 Custodian Guards by turn 4, I believe. In return,  lost 1 squad of Vanguard, 1 squad of Rangers, the Tech-priest Manipulus accompanying them, 1 squad of 10 Secutarii Hoplites, 3 Serberys Sulphurhounds, and...perhaps a couple of Ruststalkers in one squad (probably 3). I could still technically kill the 3 Custodian Guards. By the way, I believe I went second, but I can't remember. I think I allowed him to move his jetbikes up the table or someething so that I could shoot them off the table. In any event...yeah. He conceded by turn 4 or something, so I didn't get to kill his Custodian Guard, and I might have a chance to kill his Telemon Dreadnought because I still had both Skorpius Disintegrators and Stratoraptors on the table.

Eventually I won the game 96 to 43.

Mission 2

That was a mistake, as it turned out. Having such a score meant I had to face a Drukhari player. Some of you might have heard of the name James Kelling - you know, he's on Goonhammer, and even Frontline Gaming has an article on him. Got 5th place at the Dallas tournament, and I'm sure he's ranked up high in ITC or something.

The mission this time was Overrun. Needless to say, I got crushed. By what, turn 3 or something, he all but tabled me. I only had a single stratoraptor flying around, so I pretty much conceded because there was really nothing I could do. I had literally 0 points for primary, and I managed to get some for Engage on all Fronts on the first turn, and by virtue of conceding, I got 5 points for my surviving stratoraptor before it could get shot off, but oh, well. That was brutal. His Wyches and Kronos (did I spell that right?) swept up the table, advancing and charging, and pretty much slaughtering everything. My only moment of glory was when my Ruststalkers killed Drazhar in combat, ha ha. Ryza for the win. I think I destroyed a single Raider? That's pretty much about it. Ouch.

So much for drowning my opponent in bodies and hoping he wouldn't kill all of them. Even the Secutarii, who supposedly had a 4++ invulnerable save in combat, were brutalized by the Wyches and Sucubii. Yeah, well...I don't know what to say.

I lost the game 95-18. Yeah...that was...not good. Ouch.

Mission 3

After such a humbling defeat, I went into the next game fearing that I would get crushed again. Turned out to be another one-sided match, but this time...

Well, anyway, I was up against a Chaos player who fielded a combination of Thousand Sons and Daemons. I was expecting to charge all my Secutarii and Skitarii forward to ravage him in combat because...you know, Ryza. What I don't understand was...him pretty much sticking all his Daemons and Forgefiends right at the front. I even asked him if he was sure about that, if he didn't want to hide them behind terrain, but he was like, nah. To be fair, this was his, what, sixth game or so? But I was hinting to him that he should hide them behind terrain, but...well, this being a RTT, once he declined, I was like, uh oh. He even had his Rubricae pop up in the middle of the table to claim the objective because he used the Stratagem from Ritual of the Damned, Risen Rubricae. Again, I asked him if he was sure about that, but...yeah. I guess he was gambling on going first or something.

The mission was Sweep and Clear, so it was quite the odd deployment. As I said, my opponent pretty much put all his Forgefiends and Daemons right at the front, right in plain sight. We rolled off, I got first, and...well, I pretty much shot almost everything off the board before my army could run up and hit him in melee. In the first turn alone, he lost a Forgefiend, lost like almost 2 whole squads of Pink Horrors (10 dudes in 1 squad, which I annihilated, 20 dudes in another), a whole 10-men Rubric Marine squad, and half of the 10-men Rubric squad right in the middle. The Forgefiend detonated in the midst of his poor dudes, dealing a bunch of mortal wounds to them. My Secutarii Hoplites charged in and wiped out the Rubric squad in the middle...and that was that.

So much for charging forward and hitting them in melee Ryza style.

His Daemon Prince then flew up the board and wiped out both my first Serberys Sulphurhound squad and Skitarii Vanguard...only for him to be shot off the board too! I think I lost my other Seryberys Sulphurhound to his last Rubric Marines, and he managed to smite the hell out of my Secutarii, along with shooting them off the board with the Forgefiends and Characters (Exalted Flamers or something). Then I pretty much spent the next 2-3 turns shooting off his remaining characters, as well as destroying his remaining Forgefiends one turn at a time. And for some reason, he didn't bother to claim objectives, he continued running forward to try and kill my dudes with magic. Ahriman came forward to Gate my Skitarii and deal a bunch of mortal wounds, then killed my Tech-priest Manipulus in combat (the poor guy can't catch a break, he died in all 3 games). Then my Skitarii shot Ahriman off the board before tabling the guy by turn 4 or so.

Ouch. That was brutal. I know Thousand Sons are up for a codex update next week (or in 2 weeks since it's only preorder next week), but come on...okay, part of the reason was that my opponent chose to rush forward instead of playing for objectives and hiding his troops behind terrain like I did for my Skitarii, and this was like his 6th game, so it could have been mitigated. But man, that was one-sided, and I felt sorry for him. I feel...really bad. And this was after I got my own ass kicked by James in the previous game.

The final score was 96-24 to me, but...yeah. Because of my 18-point humbling at the hands of James's Drukhari, I finished 5th despite getting 2 wins and 1 loss, and winning big on both matches. Not that it matters to me...that last game still made me feel bad.

Thoughts

Honestly, this is the first time I was trying out my Skitarii Veteran Cohort, and it plays very, very differently from my Knights. First of all, there's a lot of infantry and a lot more units for me, so I spent a lot of time going through the different stuff. The chess clock is useful, so yeah, but I managed to finish in time. Well...because the games rarely went to the full five turns. Either I shoot my poor opponent off the board, or I get tabled myself. So yeah. But I have to be faster, I guess?

Secondly, the Secutarii Hoplites suck. Sorry, but that's an honest assessment. They may have a 4++ invulnerable save in combat, but they are Toughness 3, they die to shooting anyway, and they still die in melee against melee-dedicated units with lots of attacks like Drukhari. They don't get Forge World dogmas, so no +1 to wound rolls in melee on the charge (or when they get charged) like the Ruststalkers do. They only have 1 wound each, which is okay because I laughed when my opponents waste D2 shots on them, but...yeah, they suck. They move a paltry 6", they don't get forge world dogmas, and they are still too fragile. I love the models, they look cool, but right now, they simply suck and aren't worth taking. I'm sorry. That's just how it is. The arc lances too, they suck. I wanted to use them against vehicles like the Dreadnoughts, but the 12" range means they never get within range of the Dreadnoughts before they get shot off the table, and they still get destroyed in melee despite the 4++ invulnerable save. I...don't know what to say, but...yeah. It is what it is.

Thirdly, I shouldn't underestimate the shooting power of my army. It's Ryza, yes. My army is supposed to charge up the board and hit people in melee. In fact, one of the reasons why I chose the Skitarii Veteran Cohort was because I wanted to make use of the +1 Attacks to my standard Skitarii infantry (along with the 5++ invulnerable saves). Hell, even the +1 Leadership turned out to be useful, for I actually passed morale just barely with their Leadership 8 characteristic thanks to them being Veterans. But the shooting was insane. Against Thousand Sons, I shot them off the board in about a turn, and though the Characters with their 3++ invulnerable saves made them a lot harder to kill (and despite being melee specialists, my Secutarii Hoplites died against the Rubric Marines and Exalted Flamers or something), I still tabled my opponent by turn 4 or so. The Custodes too, I thought I wouldn't be able to kill anything, but it turned out that I pretty much tabled my opponent by turn 4, with his Telemon Dreadnought the only thing who would probaby survive. I don't know what happened against James's Drukhari, but I think his dudes were all stuck inside transports or something, and he went first, so I couldn't shoot them off the board before they hit me hard in melee and wiped me out. Not that it mattered, I just am an incompetent player when compared to someone like him, so I saw that coming. Need to improve, but...yeah. Binharic Offense, in particular, is a bloody monster of a Stratagem. Two Core Skitarii Veteran Cohort units getting +1 to wound...that was how I killed the Toughness 8 Daemon Prince after he buffed himself through the roof with Diabolic Strength and some Boon of Tzeentch (sorry, I forgot the name). I think I used that against the Custodes Dreadnoughts too and tore them apart with galvanic rifles and arc rifles. Incredible.

Fourthly, I need something sturdier. Unfortunately, this being the Skitarii Veteran Cohort, I don't have many resilient options. I can't bring Knights - which is just as well, because imagine if I bring Knights. They just die in melee. Secutarii, as I said above, suck right now. Their arc weapons aren't updated, and even with a 4++ invulnerable, their Toughness 3 means they will take a lot of wounds. No matter how good their invulnerable saves are, they are not going to survive the weight of attacks. I'm considering adding Sydonian Dragoons because they might be sturdier and won't die as easily. I'm kind of sad that I can't add Kastelan robots - such is the price to pay for playing Skitarii Veteran Cohort, but I'll have to live with it. I'll see if I can add Sydonian Dragoons. And no, before you tell me to get Ironstrider Ballistarii, I'm not getting those. I'm Ryza, I want to get into melee.

Fifthly, the transuranic arquebuses...are too unreliable. No, seriously. One shot means they are bad. I had entire turns where I just rolled 1s or 2s and just fail to hit anything with them, even with bloody rerolls. Or I do hit something, and then I roll a damned 2. They just aren't...very reliable. Not for my liking anyway. I'm thinking of swapping them out for plasma calivers. Since I'm Ryza anyway, and we are known for our plasma technology. Scratch that, I'm Draconian, but we use Ryza rules and we are known for stealing plasma technology from Ryza (so we're pretty much a second Ryza or counterfeit Ryza).

We'll see. I'll tinker with the list further and see what I can do. Maybe I'll participate in Ironhammer Season 4 and see how far I can go with the Skitarii Veteran Cohort in 6 games.