Calypso2ts @ The Millenium Invitational

At the end of every year Millennium Games holds its annual Invitational Tournament, composed of the top 1st and 2nd (not yet qualified) finishers from each month's  tournaments.  I qualified earlier this year in the team tournament I played with Crispy using Tyranids.  I look forward to this event because it is a nice followup to all that hard work painting to prepare for Da Boyz GT - and it is a free tournament with a ton of prize support from the owner of Millennium.  This year Millennium actually doubled its normal support - which is why I travel 100 miles each month to play in events at Millenium Games.

As usual, I decided to take my Daemons, but I wanted to do so with a slight twist.  In light of the Nova proposed composition changes I wanted to build a list that was compliant with those guidelines and that did not use Fateweaver.  That is right, a Daemons list without Fateweaver or  Grimoire of True Names or a Flying Monstrous Creatures.

The list I decided on was based partially on fluff and partially on models I just wanted to use - and mainly on the better painted models I had.

Will not be appearing in these Battles.

HQ

Keeper of Secrets w/ ML 2, 2x Greater Reward

Herald o Khorne on Juggurnaut w/ Lesser Reward, Locus of Fury

Elites

9x Fiends

6x Flamers

Troops

16x Daemonettes

10x Pink Horrors

10x Plaguebearers

Fast Attack

16x Seekers

16x Flesh Hounds

16x Flesh Hounds

Heavy Support

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My goal for this tournament was to - more than anything else - have fun and enjoy some games using a different list.  As such, I did not take any pictures of the event - but I wanted to share a summary of each game.  Also, for the most part people brought with them the lists they used at Da Boyz GT.

Game 1 - Eldar

I was paired against Nogle who is a Beef and Wing player from Buffalo.  He brought with him a strong Eldar army that included Bikeseer, 3x Warwalkers, 3x Vypers (Both with Shuriken Cannons), 2x Wraithknight, 2x Hemlock Fighters and Jetbike Troops.  The Deployment was Hammer and Anvil and mission was Primary Kill Points, Secondary: Objectives (1 in middle, 1 in each deployment zone).

I knew the key to this game was keep the Wraithknights back, pick off a unit or two and then hunker down with my hard to get Kill Points.  I hunkered down in a central ruin with the Khorne Herald and Flesh Hounds, while the other unit kept out of Wraithknight assault range - but near enough to threaten his Jetbikes/Walkers to keep them back.  I snag First Blood with the Warp Storm and the game is decided when I Instant Kill 1 Wraith Knight with the Khorne Herald while piling into his troop units with Seekers.

I had Invisibility this game with the Keeper and the Fiends mainly stayed back to play Jet Bike cleanup as necessary.  Overall I snag all the Victory Points for the matchup, this was a hard game for Nogle with so many wounds in my army and I am not sure he could have done much different.

Game 2 - Tau

This game was against fellow Mandulian Chapel author Crimaathan who brought his Farsight Bomb with him.  He also had a Riptide, Aegis and Missile-sides.  I have not played against the Farsight bomb- but I have a general idea of how to approach Death Stars - kill the supporting units.  The mission here was Primary Big Guns and Secondary Victory Points with Vanguard Strike Deployment.

Unfortunately for Crim, this one was lost in Deployment when he underestimated the speed of my Hounds.  I used his own Aegis to grab 4+ cover and got REALLY hot for saves.  Then setup a multi-assault with almost his entire army - I rolled poorly and we pushed combat which was even better for me when Farsight came in and only had my Keeper of Secrets to shoot at.  The Keeper BARELY went down, and I swept everything but the Farsight Bomb.  Unfortunately, the only reason the Keeper died was he used his Puretide Chip for Monster Hunter - and I then piled into Farsight with my free units and swept the Deathstar.

It was full points again for me.  Andy had a really really bad matchup in this one - his S7 shooting wrecks most enemies but he really needed S8 hits against my Hounds and Fiends.  The 91 wounds of assault units heading his way - there was just not the firepower to knock it down to a manageable size.  The All Star this game was the Khorne Herald that bequeathed Instant Death onto Crisis Suits and Riptides.

Game 3 - IG w/ SM Allies

I faced Koszca this game with another one of his wild creations that used White Scars SM in conjunction with IG blobs.  He grabbed the perfect set of powers with Endurance and Invisibility on his Primaris and Librarian.  I contemplated just rushing his units - but with the Mission being The Scouring, The Relic and Dawn of War Deployment I did not think I could get there with enough wounds to deal a death blow before he Hit and Ran out of combat.  We played a maneuvering game for the first few turns and I was poised to hit him on Turn 3 when I failed to kill a 1 HP Sentinel that I had been using to stay safe from shooting!

It backed everything up by a game turn and we received the 15 minute warning just as I began my shooting for Turn 4.  I was completely out of position to have the game end with all my units, and we ended up pushing it to a really fast Turn 5 (and going over time, thanks to the TO for indulging us).  Overall we tied on Scouring and The Relic while I technically won it with my First Blood 10-9.  There were a few key points in this game that really pushed it to a tie which include:

-Khorne Herald and Hounds fail to strip last Hull Point off Sentinel

-Fiends fail to catch a single Tactical Marine - which forced them to stay back to avoid fire (instead of forcing an I1 Hit and Run check

-We forgot about the Grav Wave Generator my Seekers were holding - which would have meant a failed charge

-We forgot both units count as WS 1 when Invisible - so Seekers should have been hitting on 4's

-I forgot about the Fortified ruin I sat in for my Hounds - which should have pushed their save to 3+/4+

-I forgot that a multi-assault means a disordered charge for the Guard Blob trying to hit my Seekers/Flamers

Overall it was a really tight game and Koszca plays his lists extremely well - not to mention they tend to have very interesting synergies.  Another key moment occurred during a multi-assault attempt, the assault failed and let the Flamers run free. The discussion has prompted me to write an article on multi-assaults for those looking to use the assault rules to their full potential.

Results

This event had both a Sportsmanship and Painting component - so being 2-0-1 (no other undefeated) did not guarantee a top 3 finish.  Luckily, I scored well enough in Sports and Painting for my Battle Points to push me into First Place for the tournament.  I narrowly beat out Koszca by a single point (First Blood in our game) to land in sole possession of first place.

I really enjoyed playing a Daemon list without the Grimoire or Fateweaver.  It was always intense when the Warp Storm hit (and I survived both snake eyes and a few fours through the day),  I had no way to deal with flyers, but the Soul Grinders were a poor solution to that problem anyway.  I like where this list is moving, and I think I will probably lose he Keeper of Secrets next time to bring more bodies.  Not that the Keeper was not good - he performed admirably in all my games - but it is tough to have so many points in a single model.  In her place I think some Gluttons - a modeling project for the new year - would be a good fit and maybe another unit of Flamers.