I participated in the 2022 Seattle Open Tournament. Jack was there competing in the AoS tournament, and along with some friends that also play 40k who I met. They did well, so congrats to them! For my part, I wasn't quite ready for the full tournament experience. To be honest, I rather prefer friendly games. And since I could only attend on the Sunday anyway, I opted for open play. It was great! A few people really got a kick out of my retro army. Perhaps next time I'll enter into the narrative campaign which sounded like something I would be interested in.
For the match, my opponent was Conor. He was friendly and a good sport, and was there with his uncle. I was really grateful to have matched up with them. It was a learning experience for all of us and a great game. We wanted the matched play/ tournament practice but maybe slightly slower so that we could get things right.
Battle Report:
Ruleset: 2022 War Zone Nachmund Grand Tournament - Strike Force (w/ Q2 Balance Datasheet)
Mission: Recover The Relics
Points: Under ~1700
My Forces:
+++ Ultramarines 1.7k (Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition) +++
++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Ultramarines) ++
**Chapter Selector**: Ultramarines
Battle Size: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points)
Detachment Command Cost
Gametype: Matched
+ HQ +
- Lt Cmdr Psigoras - Captain: Adept of the Codex, Plasma pistol, Power sword, Seal of Oath, Storm of Fire, Stratagem: Exemplar of the Chapter, Warlord
- Praelior Tarquinius Iulian Regulus - Chaplain in Terminator Armour: 4. Mantra of Strength, 6. Canticle of Hate (Aura), Benediction of Fury, Chapter Command: Master of Sanctity, Litany of Hate, Storm bolter, Stratagem: Hero of the Chapter, Wise Orator
+ Troops +
- Cornelius - 10 man Tactical Squad - Plasma pistol, Power fist, Flamer, Heavy Bolter
- Kaiel - 5 man Tactical Squad - Plasma pistol, Chainsword, Heavy Bolter
- Vitus - 5 man Tactical Squad - Bolt pistol, Chainsword, Lascannon
+ Elites +
- Chief Apothecary Singa: Acquittal, Chapter Command: Chief Apothecary
- Relic 'Eddy' Contemptor Dreadnought - Dreadnought combat weapon, Storm bolter, Twin volkite culverin
- Nox - Terminator Assault Squad - 5x w/ THSS, 5x /w x2LC
- Tourbillion - Terminator Squad - 4x Chainfist, Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer, 5x Power fist, Power Sword
My Opponent (my best guess):
+++ Tyranids (Warhammer 40,000 9th Edition) +++
++ Auxiliary Support Detachment -2CP (Tyranids) ++
Hive Fleet: ?
+ HQ +
- Winged Hive Tyrant: (abilities/weapons?)
++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Tyranids) ++
Hive Fleet: ?
+ HQ +
- The Swarmlord: Warlord (abilities/weapons?)
- Tyranid Prime: (?)
+ Troops +
- Hormagaunts: Adrenal Glands x12
- Hormagaunts: Adrenal Glands x12
- Tyranid Warriors: Adrenal Glands x3 w/ weapons
+ Elites +
- Tyrant Guard: Adrenal Glands x3 w/ weapons(?)
+ Fast Attack +
+ Heavy Support +
- Exocrine: with abilities(?)
- Tyrannofex: with abilities(?)
Pre-game and Deployment
First off, Conor didn't quite have a full 2k army, so to roughly match his point values I needed to trim off a few units. I ended up about 35/40 points under, and I probably should have tried to get a little closer, but as we will see it still ended up being close enough for a very tight game. I didn't have his exact list with loadouts (and I don't have a Tyranids book) so I've approximated it above.
I put together a checklist before the game, as well as my own mission plan for every GT mission. We ended up just picking the first mission - Recover the Relics, and got started. The checklist was hugely useful as I could look at it every turn and check off the things I needed to do or remember. It needs more refinement though as some things I would miss and other things I didn't need reminders about. Also having a plan and knowing exactly which secondaries to take was also very good for speeding things up.
My secondaries were: Oaths of Moment, Investigate Signal, and Behind Enemy Lines.
Tyranids took: Purge the Enemy, Behind Enemy Lines, and Grind Them Down.
After placing the objective markers we decided the pre-set terrain was fine. In the future it would be good to go over the terrain traits and use them (it would have probably benefitted me a bit more) so as such we basically didn't use any cover. I think it was fine to make this simplification though because we already had enough to track.
Conor was the Defender and decided to just go with the side he was already on since the table was pretty symmetrical. I broke my units into combat squads, and then we began deployment. I deployed rather aggressively to try to reach the closest objectives. I mistakenly thought that Tyranids were less shooty and so didn't try at all to position into cover. To be fair, I have very little experience playing actual games or knowing anything about non-Space Marine armies. I did have reminders to perform an Ultramarines Rapid Redeploy, but just didn't think it was needed.
We rolled for turn order and Conor lucked out.
Battle Round 1
Tyranids:
First thing was to use the 'Terror from the Deep' ability from the Mawloc to place a 6" zone in the center of the battlefield that would give my models a strong chance of suffering mortal wounds. This ended up being a huge area denial that also set up a big mistake in resolving the play and altered the game a bit (though perhaps it offset things). Looking back on it, I suppose I could have responded with an orbital bombardment in response, but didn't think of it at the time.
Conor's units for the most part had Adrenal Glands which allows them to be quite fast. As you would expect he moved them up to control the closest objectives. As he ended his movement phase, he had moved everything out and didn't leave a unit to claim his deployment objective, a critical mistake.
For his shooting phase, he scored an impressive long range blast on Squad Vitus - killing two marines outright. Vitus had been set up on top of the ruin on the deployment objective so that the Lascannon would have strong line of sight into the middle of the field. Remember how I did not take into account setting up behind any terrain, nor did we think about terrain cover bonuses? Yeah that would have helped, hopefully I apply that lesson for next time.
The Tyranids scored another huge amount of damage on Tourbillion's squad, destroying 3 terminators! Also, few more wounds on Squad Cornilius. Then came a powerful 14 Strength shot from the yellow Exorine monster at the Dreadnought, but a cluch save gave me a false sense of security (did I move into cover after that? Of course not...)
The morale step hit the Ultramarines hard, and I really miss the old ATSKNF rules. Squad Vitus was completely broken and eliminated! Because of this I wouldn't be able to get the point for not retreating from Oaths of Moment.
Note about points: I can see why the official judging rules are that scoring mistakes found after the match are typically ignored by the judges. You end up finding a lot of play and scoring mistakes when you review the game afterward, and it quickly becomes apparent that if you try to apply 20/20 hindsight to scoring, you run into problems because the choices you actually made soon diverge from what you would do if the correct rules/scores had been known. So, I'll note that we completely ignored the 'Break Them Body and Soul' mission points. I'll also note that (just for fun) I did review what the actual score would have been and it ended up being almost exactly the same score we had the day of, except it was just one point closer - most things offset. Also there was at least one critical mistake very early that would have likely completely changed the course of the game.
Ultramarines:
Unlike the Tyranids, who moved off of the deployment objective by mistake, my unit was literally blown off the objective, and I just couldn't afford to send anyone back for it knowing that I'd have to beam down one of the Terminator squads to cover it. (I mean I guess I could have, but they would have been so slow getting there). So we moved up to the close objectives and still didn't get into cover.
The Terror of the Deep marker denied moving into the middle for both Oaths of Moment and Investigate Signal, which was big.
Shooting was so miserable, we only scored one wound on a Tyrant Guard.
After several games, I've noticed that Space Marines (or at least the squads I have) do pathetic damage. Really, really underwhelming, and it kinda sucks. I guess my rolls weren't great, but it does seem everything else is so overpowered. I have a strong suspicion that the old 'first born' models are being deliberately underpowered so that GW can sell the newer models. It would be one thing if the Tyranids didn't take much damage, but also didn't deal damage at range, but I just lost a full squad of Space Marines and 3 Terminators, and then only dealt 1 wound? Really bad trade. Nevertheless, I was having fun with the 'story' aspect which has always been that the Imperial propaganda vastly exaggerates the might of the Adeptus Astartes and that in actuality they get slaughtered everywhere, but just use sheer numbers to hold on.
Looking back though, I had gone with heavy bolters just to be cheap trying to fit in things for 2000k points, but I probably could have switched in heavy plasma and a second lascannon and easily still been at 1700.
Conor scored +3 points for Grind them Down, and I scored nothing.
Battle Round 2
Tyranids:
So for the first scoring command phase, the Tyranids had control of 2 objectives for +8 points.
The Tyranids continued to move up, swarming into the middle and along the northern side of the field. They didn't seem to advance much in the southern areas.
Here was where the huge 'game altering' mistake occurred which neither of us knew about. Conor forgot to bring his Mawloc in from reserves/deep strike. During the game this seemed fortunate for me because the thing was massive and a big threat that was effectively taken off the board. But, the rules for Terror from the Deep require the model to be placed. Instead, we erroneously left the terror marker on the board for the rest of the game, which was very effective in diverting me from trying to score 2 secondary objectives. (Also, later we allowed the Mawloc to drop in finally on the 4th or 5th battle round, however, at that point the unit would have been destroyed for not entering play by the end of the 3rd battle round per match play rules. I note this mainly for learning purposes, as such how we played it might have worked out in my favor anyway, or perhaps it all would have been offset).
The Tyranids were in range for some space magic - Psyker stuff is my favorite and with no Librarians I was completely defenseless. Luckily for me, the Emperor Protects! And right away Conor's Witch Fire at Tourbillion backfires with some Perils of the Warp! Haha!
Another impressive shoot phase takes out two more models from Squad Cornelius on the northern side, and then monstrous shot blows up Relic 'Eddy' who literally explodes dealing a bunch of mortal wounds to pretty much every squad. Epic!
The bugs were now within range to charge, but thankfully they all missed (really some good luck for me there).
Ultramarines:
For my command phase I also only had 2 objectives and thus scored +8 points.
Way too late I realize the peril and try to huddle into the ruin walls out of line of sight. Also, bravely (or stupidly) I send the remnants of Squad Cornelius past the approaching Swarmlord to position to charge the swarm of approaching hormagaunts and keep them off the objective (since they have ObSec). And then finally, mercifully, teleportation blooms and lightning flair around both deployment zone objectives... Terminators deep strike! (heavy metal riffs). I'm able to get Tourbillion 2 and Nox 1 along with Regulus beamed down onto the objectives setting up next turn for more objectives controlled.
Regulus, being a wizened orator, is able to recite a Canticle of Hate giving him and Nox 1 (within range of his inspiring aura) an extra +2" for charge rolls this turn.
Another miserable shoot phase - only one wound on a Tyranid Warrior from the Heavy Bolter.
Time to charge and I was hoping to be able to charge Regulus into the big purple thing and tarpit it away from the objective and prevent it from shooting anything, but mostly for rule of cool. But the dice gods said no. At this point I had the option to charge Squad Cornelius into those hormagaunts, but I forgot. My opponent surprised and even asked about it, but I was confused and missed my chance.
Good news was we didn't fall back so I scored +1 for Oaths of Moment and +4 for Behind Enemy Lines. Conor scored another +3 for Grind them Down
Battle Round 3
Tyranids:
At the start of Battle Round 3 the Tyranids only controlled two of the six objectives, thus gained +8 points. With the arrival of the terminators, Conor turned around some of the large heavy support monsters in the back to try to defend. Meanwhile, the Swarmlord ignored Cornelius, leaving them for the hormagaunts, and went straight for Squad Kaiel and the objective. Sure enough, the bugs followed in behind and overran Cornelius' position.
The heavy support beasts shot into the newly arrived Assault Terminators - Nox 1, but couldn't get through their storm shields. Also the big purple bug (Tyrannofex I think) was able to fire the Rupture Cannon at Regulus since he missed the charge. But, the might of the Imperium could not be denied, and the strength 14 shot glanced off of the Chaplain's pauldron (thank the Emperor)!
The hormagaunts then charged into Cornelius but he survived, and even killed one with a power fist punch! (This ended up being great because I kept them off the objective and by not charging into them on my turn I denied a round of fighting).
Squad Kaiel didn't fare so well. The Swarmlord swung into them and ate them all. All in one bite, maybe just a few bones left. Commander Psigoras attempted to intervene but was too late. Brother-Sergeant Kaiel, you will be avenged.
On the other objective, the Tyrant Guards crashed into the Assault Terminators backed up by Chief Apothecary Signa. The Apothecary's efforts were not in vain and the squad was not eliminated, but did sustain some casualties.
Ultramarines:
At this point the Ultramarines controlled 4 objectives. We were confused and only scored +8 points for me. (It should have been +12, but this was offset anyway). Regulus inspired himself with a Mantra of Strength.
I tucked Nox 1 into the corner of the ruins in the Tyranid's deploy zone to try to keep them alive back there for the Behind Enemy Lines points. (Again having rules for cover might have helped, although maybe no different from Armor of Contempt). I ran Regulus at the Tyrannofex and was a bit indecisive with the rest of the units, not really knowing where to go but just hold on to the objectives.
Since most units were in combat or out of range/obscured, there wasn't much to shoot.
Finally, the Chaplain was able to charge the beast and get 3 wounds in without taking any damage in return, a bit of luck!
Psigoras meanwhile could do nothing against the Swarmlord except get taken down to one wound.
As the turn ended our scoring had +1 point for Ultramarines with Oaths of Moment (no retreat!) and +4 for Behind Enemy Lines. We scored +3 for Grind them Down for Conor, but note that the Mawloc in Deep Strike would have been eliminated at this point because he forgot to put him on the table (and the Terror of the Deep marker continued to persist erroneously) so that would have negated those points.
Battle Round 4
Tyranids:
The game started to get faster by this point. Tyranids score +8 for the 2 objectives.
The Psychic phase was again not too bad for the Ultramarines - the Parasite failed to manifest, and Psychic Scream only caused 1 wound for Squad Nox 2.
(Here we realized we forgot the morale phase for Squad Cornelius and decide to take him off the table just to simplify things a bit)
The flying Hive Tyrant shot into the southern objective and took out another marine, and then Brother Veridian, still standing near Commander Psigoras at the northern objective, was cut down by some strong fire power. Finally, the Exocrine was able to get a good angle on Squad Nox 1 and eliminated 3 of them.
The hormagaunts to the north (now no longer engaged fighting) charge into Tourbillion and swarm him. 17 hits and not a scratch, thanks to tactical dreadnought armor! During my round of fighting back I hit absolutely nothing between melees across the board - Regulus, Psigoras, and Squad Nox all do nothing. Finally the Swarmlord finishes off Psigoras (which will score +6 points for Cranial Feast at the end of battle). No, Commander!!!
Ultramarines:
I have finally lost control of the northern objective, but still have 3 nodes and +8 points. Regulus remains inspired by his personal mantra.
My notes say I shot something and missed. Sounds about right.
Moving to the fight phase, with no charges the Tyranids fight first. Tourbillion finally falls to the swarm, but Regulus continues to tar pit the Tyrannofex without problems (although he missed again himself).
As the turn ends, I score +1 for Oaths (No retreat, no surrender!) and +4 for Behind Enemy Lines. Conor scores +3 for Grind them Down.
Battle Round 5
Tyranids:
Last turn and we had that Conor scored +12 points for objectives (but this wasn't correct).
He moves the swarming hormagaunts from the north towards my deploy zone and Squad Tourbillion 2 tucked into the ruins holding the objective. At the end of his movement phase he finally deploys Mawloc from deep strike (which was an error, but didn't really affect anything at this point).
The Exocrine fires into Nox 1 in the backfield and finally eliminate them. The remaining Heavy Bolter Squad with Apothecary Singa get shot up.
The fight phase remains mostly a draw, which is a win for me!
Ultramarines:
For fun I toast some bugs with the Heavy flamer and we tally up the scores
I score +8 points for objectives. I also score +1 for Oaths and only +2 for Behind Enemy Lines (only Regulus remained).
We had 55 points for the Ultramarines and 53 points for the Tyranids, a very minor victory for the Emperor!
(When I went back and added everything up retroactively, the errors basically offset but the margin was even closer - 54 for me and 53 for Conor)
Takeaways
From my experience in prior games I did pretty well. I knew that the key to victory for me was to go for objectives and try to stay alive, and also to be very organized. I executed this, but still have lots of error to clean up. One is to get out of line of sight better (Armor of Contempt and power armor is good, but not that good). Another is to learn the terrain rules and use them. I feel I did alright with using melee to tar pit the Tyrannofex, but I think I need to still work on it. I also learned that the Terror from the Deep shouldn't have denied the middle for so long, I should have looked more carefully at that rule, and I could have used Orbital Bombardment to counter it a bit. I can also refine my checklists a bit more. Finally I can still be more aggressive with using Command Points (I ended with 6), but I did use re-rolls more from previous games, so that's good.
For Conor I would say it was a really good learning experience for him too, and the biggest thing would be to focus more on objectives and create a system to remember deep strike.
Just the fact that I was able to survive felt like a huge win for me, and so despite not being able to kill anything it was a lot of fun trying to hang on in the narrative storyline. I think Conor enjoyed picking me apart too, and I think once he cleans up objective play a bit he will terrorize the Imperium for a long time :) It was a good game!
++++Transmission: Adeptus Astartes Ultra++++
Relics Recovered
Date: 3348022.M42
Location: Bastion World Vigilus
System: Vigilus
Sub Sector: Nachmund
Segmentum: Obscurus
ATT: Primus Leo Exevio Faustus
The evil attracted by the ever-growing immaterium anomaly cannot deny our wrath! The relics have been secured.
Chief Apothecary Signa has verified the authenticity of the recovered relics and is confident the devices will accelerate Calgar’s recovery.
The Mortwald vegetation areas were swarmed by Tyranids. Analysis is still pending. Our positions were overrun within minutes of arrival. I personally lead the deployment of Tactical Dreadnaught Armor with elements from Sergeant Tourbillion and Sergeant Nox to exfiltrate the recovery mission lead by Lieutenant Commander Psigoras.
The Lieutenant Commander sustained serious wounds. Signa assures he will recover. Brother Sergeants Vitus, Kaiel, and Cornelius withstood grievous injuries in the face of the horrors of the universe and will receive Teminator Honors.
In the Name of The Emperor,
Tarquinius Iulian Regulus
REF: G7Q/09367-33351-2420T1S9413Y
THOUGHT: We are the Emperor’s fist which strikes the xeno, the boot that crushes the mutant, and the fire that purges the heretic. Litanies of Battle
++++Transmission End++++
