Servitor Appreciation Grand Tournament

 So today I participated in the Servitor Appreciation Grand Tournament that was organized by Renegade. It was just the first day, but it was still pretty fun. Unfortunately, only 17 or so people showed up, with quite a few people having dropped or something. That's...sad. Oh, well. I'm not sure what happened. Maybe it was the Labor Day weekend, or perhaps people went to the Minnesota State Fair. Also, semester has just begin (certainly has for me), so maybe people were busy. Whatever the case, only 17 people participated today. Oh, well.

The first mission was...Overrun. I played against a Grey Knights player with three Dreadnknights (I think?), 2 Strike squads, an Interceptor squad and 2 Terminator squads. There should be an Apocethary in Terminator Armor and Kaldor Draigo and another Apocethary somewhere in there, but I can't remember. In any case, it looked to be a tough matchup for me. Ouch.

I brought my Imperial Knight list with a vehicle-heavy Adeptus Mechanicus detachment, and I took the Data-hoard Forge World with Servo-assisted Auguries, which allows me to re-roll hit rolls for cognis weapons when they are under half their max range. So my list looked something like this:

Imperial Knights Super-heavy Detachment (Questor Mechanicus, Glorified History, Blessed Arms)

Dominus Knight Castellan, Cold Eradication and Cawl's Wrath

2 Armigers Warglaive with meltagun

Adeptus Mechanicus Patrol Detachment (Data-hoard Forge World, Magna-bonded Alloys, Servo-assisted Auguries)

Skitarii Marshal

Tech-priest Enginseer

5 Skitarii Rangers with omnispex, arc pistol, arc maul and arc rifle

Skorpius Dunerider

2 Onager Dunecrawlers with heavy phosphor blasters and cognis heavy stubbers

2 Archeopter Stratoraptors with chaff launcher

3 Ironstrider Ballistarii (I had to squadron two of them in one unit)

So yeah, that's pretty much my list. It's built around maximizing my points for Engage on All Fronts, and that worked. Anyway, I played against Grey Knights, and after an ineffectual first turn of shooting, I slowly began to chip away at his Strike Squads, Interceptors and eventually Terminators. I had to focus my anti-tank weaponry (the cognis lascannons, melta weapons and the Knight Castellan's stuff) into the Dreadknights, and I eventually killed all of them, though at the cost of losing 1 Armiger Warglaive and a single Archeopter. The Data-hoard Forge World really helped me save my vehicles, and the re-rolls were a big help. The amount of firepower my vehicles put out is no joke, and eventually I succeeded in tabling my opponent, but everything else tabled my poor opponent. I even managed to kill Draigo with my Rangers and Skorpius Dunerider, while the Ironstrider Ballistarii and Knight Castellan wiped out the Terminators. The surviving Warglaive helped a lot too, as did my surviving Archaeopter Stratoraptor. Phew.

So I managed to win that game 92 to 36.

The second mission was Scorched Earth, and this time I was up against a Death Guard player. He had a Daemon Prince of Nurgle, a Malignant Plaguecaster, a Tallyman, 10 Blightlord Terminators, 2x3 Deathshroud Terminators, 3x20 Poxwalkers, 2 Foetid Blight Drones and 2 Plagueburst Crawlers.

This game was quite the slog. With the high Toughness and Disgusting Resilience of the Death Guard, I found it difficult to shoot him. I lost both of my Stratoraptors eventually, but I eventually killed all of his vehicles, including one very stubborn Plagueburst Crawler who refused to die in the very last turn with my Ironstrider Ballistarii. I lost one Ironstrider Ballistarii to that Plagueburst Crawler. Between my Knight Castellan and Oanger Dunecrawlers, I succeeded in killing the Blightlord Terminators, and the Knight Castellan also killed three Deathshroud Terminators. Both Armigers Warglaives died, one to a Daemon Prince and the other to the Blightlord Terminators, I believe. But I wiped out 2 whole squads of Poxwalkers, even though they kept reviving about 7 here and there (I think he revived a total of 15 over 3 uses of the Stratagem). Eventually, I managed to hold more Objectives in the very last turn to squeak out a draw. I thought I lost. I honestly believed I lost...I never thought I stood a chance against Death Guard. As it turned out, I managed to play the mission, grab Objectives and achieved Secondaries, which allowed me to tie with my Death Guard opponent 85-85.

The third mission was Priority Target, and my next opponent was White Scars. I went first this time, and a devastating turn of shooting saw me kill 5 Hellblasters, 2 or 3 Intercessors, 6 Bladeguard Veterans and...I think that's about it. The Terminators came in and tried to kill my Armiger Warglaive, but left him with about 1 or 2 wounds. Then I wiped them out with my Knight Castellan. The Ironstrider Ballistarii fired on the Assault Terminators, and despite having a 4++ invulnerable save, they proceeded to fail 5 of them and...simply died to D3+3 damage, failing most of their Feel No Pain saves despite having an Apocethary nearby. That was...not good. My opponent also failed to kill the Stratoraptors despite shooting them with the surviving squad of Hellblasters and charging them with Vanguard Veterans with jetpacks, and...yeah, that summed up a horrible game for him. Sorry, buddy.

In the end, I basically tabled him, leaving him with just one Infiltrator Sergeant. Whoops. Thankfully, he played to the Objectives, getting Priority Target, Oath of Moment and Bring it Down, eventually bringing down both my Armigers Warglaives and Stratoraptors, but it was too little, too late. My Onager Dunecrawlers, Ironstrider Ballistarii and Knight Castellan were running rampant, almost as if they were at a shooting gallery, shooting off the other Hellblasters, Intercessors, Vanguard Veterans, Chaplain on Bike, Kossaro Khan (or however you spell his name) and the Apocethary one at a time. Ouch.

Eventually, I won the game 96-73. It was a closer game than we thought, but because my opponent played to the Objectives and killed 4 of my vehicles, he managed to rack up a lot of Secondaries. Plus he had a lot of bodies for me to chew through, so it took me a while to almost table him. Still totally worth it, though.

The first day ended with 2 wins and 1 tie for me, and we'll be playing our last game tomorrow. I think I'll probably lose my last game, but I'll do my best and see how it goes! Let's hope for the best and believe in the Omnissiah!