Alright first event of 2nd edition for me, I may have forgotten to take pictures, but the power of imagination and my amazing descriptive skills should hopefully suffice.

The List

Given how new the edition is and the limited time I had to play games I wanted to run a simple list that I could easily remember any special rules. The list was as follows:

• Konrad Kurze
• Chaplain with big axe
• 20 Tacticals w Glaive Sergeant and Apoc
• 10 Tacticals w no upgrades
• 10 Tactical support members w rotors
• 5 Recon marines w snipers
• 9 Raptors w various melee weapons
• 10 Terror marines squad w volkites
• 10 Cata Terminators w 5 claws 5 chainfists in a Spartan
• Levi Dread w Storm cannon

The list was bang on 3k using the Terror Assault ROW. The “plan” for the list was to try and utilise the pinning provided by the recons and support team combined with many LD debuffs but the list didn’t need to pin for performance. Beyond that it was simple legion good stuff and just hope the dice are in my favour.

The Games

I had a great set of 5 games all of which were fantastic fun. Each scenario was custom with 4 rounds dawn of war deployment, Secondaries were slay the warlord (bonus for Primarch), First blood (bonus if HQ or Elite) and price of failure finally all objectives were scored at the end of player turn.

Game 1: Iron Hands (Pride of the Legion)

So funny story, my regular opponent primarily plays Iron Hands, so I was looking forward to facing something different, so I did find it ironic. The list (roughly) was:

• Ole Iron Hands himself Ferrus Manus
• A Librarian (Telekenisis) and 2 Heralds all in Cataphractii armour
• Two 20 man Tactical bricks with a Techmarine and Apoc
• A 20 man Breacher team w apoc and Techmarine
• Four 5 strong Vet squads w snipers.

This mission had 3 objectives all of which were in no-mans land, this worked surprisingly well with the deployment map which had 3 large bunkers in the mid field as a result myself and my opponent placed the objectives along the midline each inside of a chokepoint in between the bastions.

I went first and managed to secure the central point with the 20 Tacticals and the Leviathan, using its bulk to block the passage from the Tacticals opposite. The left flank was a Spartan w the Terminators facing down Ferrus the Breachers and some Vet snipers, the right flank had my Terror squad and Raptors facing down another Tactical brick and Vets, finally my Recons and Rotors held backfield support. Having turn 1 I quickly grabbed the lefthand and middle objectives for 2 points but failed to get first blood with a single vet surviving on 1 wound and fleeing out of LoS. My opponent then claimed the objectives on the right and lefthand side with both my Raptors and Terror squad fleeing due to bad morale. I then started a fight on the lefthand side with Primarch and bodyguard facing off. I’d hoped to kill a few and then hit and run out of there but a failed hit and run roll meant that the Forgebreaker cracked the skulls of many including big K himself.

I did continue to hold the middle till the end but with both flanks lost it ended up a 5-10 loss for the Night Lords but still a cracking game.

Game 2: Raven Guard (ROW: Decaptitation Strike)

Battle of the edgelords with night vision the rough list was:

• Corax
• Kaedes Nex
• Librarian (Telepathy) and Chaplain
• Two 15 strong squads of Dark Furies
• Two 8 strong Mor Deythan (one melta one sniper)
• 2 Tactical squads (I’ve forgotten how big I think 10)
• 10 Lascannons
• 5 Deliverers (now I’ve gotten that song stuck in my head)
• Contemptor Dread

This mission had a single objective in the middle of the board worth 3VP’s a turn which happened to be in some woods the rest of the map was reasonably filled with ruins. My deployment consisted of my recons on the objective the Raptors holding the left flank alongside the Spartan with the terminator star, all the Tacticals were collected in the middle to follow up on the objective with the dread next door and rotors in a ruin behind the fallen brother. Finally, my Terror squad had infiltrated into the mid board of the right with some LOS on Nex, who had infiltrated near my deployment. The Raven guard deployed with the sniper squad in their right hand corner then some Furies and Tacticals. With the melta Deythn in a ruin next to the Tacticals was the second fury squad with Corax and some further sandwiched with the other Tacticals. Then the deliverers held their right flank covering the lascannons.

I went first and sent the raptors to dig out the melta squad from the ruins whilst the Tacticals moved up to ensure that they could get onto the objective next turn. The Terror squad tried to kill Nex but Fade to black prevented most of the damage, the Recon marines made up for this failure by picking out the Librarian, but disaster struck as the raptors needed a 3 on the dice failed the charge into the Mor Deythan losing a few to overwatch.

In response Corax swept into the middle of the board with the chaplain ensuring that they had more reliable damage, the raven lord, and his bodyguard multicharged the recons, the Leviathan and Tacticals. One squad of Tacticals fled from the charge but with assistance from the lascannon team all the charge targets were wiped. Meanwhile on the flanks the raptors were killed by the dark furies and the delivers with support of Nex killed the Terror squad. The rest of the game consisted of Konrad killing choice targets before Corax created a noose of black power armour that his brother graciously put his neck into.

The game ended with the Night Lords tabled and a score of 5-13 in favour of the 19th a fun game that honestly was closer than the score implies. This game was an absolute blast and the narrative of the game at night was gloriously fitting.

Game 3: Ultramarines (Fury of the Ancients)

Ah yes Fury one of the dreaded lists but it was painted to an amazing quality complete with display base so I was excited coming into it, the rough list composition was:

• Warlord Contemptor
• Two talons of 3 Contemptors
• Talon of three Leviathans
• Talon of 2 Deredeo’s

For this mission there were 6 objectives that once scored were removed from the table. Ultimately this meant that the objectives had no bearing on the game itself, as all the objectives had been removed turn 1 with both sides having 3 My deployment had the rotors hiding behind LOS blocking terrain on the right because they were useless with the snipers inside of the building that they were hiding behind. Next to that was the party bus with Primarch, the Levi, then the large Tactical brick, the Raptors behind a bastion and then some Tacticals and the Terror squad who I planned to try and score linebreaker. The Ultramarine deployment was Contemptors across the line, with the Deredeo’s holding the centre the Leviathans on their left with the HQ behind.

I had first turn and my main plan for that turn was to try and get first blood, this did not happen instead inflicting 4 wounds on a single Dread. Naturally the Ultramarines responded by proving their own superiority by removing the Levi from the table. At this point I had a decision to make. The correct play would be to run away with Konrad far away from danger to preserve Warlord and then focus on the Ultramarine’s leader. However, this would be boring so naturally I ran him straight into the wall of dreads. This did not end well and whilst we did drag down a couple of dreads by the end of the game Konrads unconscious body was dragged back into his jail cell, with a final score of 3-6.

This game was good fun a nice and simple one to end the day, but I can’t lie ending day 1 with 3 losses didn’t feel particularly great but I enjoyed every game and was looking forward to making tactical mistakes on day 2.

Game 4 Blood angels (ROW: Day of Revelations)

Space vampire’s vs wanabee space vampire’s let’s go, rough list goes as follows but I genuinely think I’m missing something:

• Sanguinius
• Raldoron
• 10 Dawnbreakers w Apoc
• 10 Crimson Paladins
• Two squads of 10 Assault marines
• Jump Dreadnought
• 2 Sicarans

The mission had two objectives one in each deployment zone (placed by our opponent) the one in your deployment was worth 1 the opponents was worth 4. Deployment was confined to one half of the battlefield with 2 Sicarans covering the BA objective and Raldoran behind a building whilst my deployment was mostly surrounding a ruin in my deployment with the large Tactical squad on the objective. My opponent had first turn and first round was rather quick myself losing one Tactical (due to Night fight) and I did a few hull points to a Sicaran, whilst pushing up the Levi. It was at this point that the Angel arrived.

The deep strike was quite effective with many Night Lords getting pinned by the sudden arrival of gleaming red and gold power armour amongst the 8th legions lines while a squad of Assault marines secured their home position. However, during the Blood Angel’s shooting phase I managed to get first blood as the Leviathan killed a Sicaran via a lucky reaction. But despite this set back the Blood Angels had an excellent turn killing all the Tacticals and a good amount of the support units. In response the Night Lords hit hard wiping out one Assault squad whilst making the others flee the battlefield, but most importantly Konrad decided to give his brother a visit. Neither Primarch offered a challenge they clearly have had enough of discussing philosophy. The Dawnbringers did not fair well in that exchange unused to being on the receiving end of the charge getting wiped out and leaving Sanguinius heavily wounded but not slain. Unfortunately for me I couldn’t stay in combat as the crimson paladins were poised to counterattack and so Konrad swore he would have his revenge next time He-ma… Sanguinius and both went their separate ways not wanting to commit.

The game ended with a 2-1 victory for the Night Lords a super close one and a great time was had by both (I hope).

Game 5 Blood angels (ROW: Day of Revelations)

Déjà vu. Honestly it was rather funny playing against the same legion using the same rite twice in a row and Sanguinius was back again clearly, he had come back for revenge. Rough list was as follows:

• Sanguinius
• Cataphractii Warmonger, Librarian (Telephathy)
• Two 15 strong Assault squads w Apothecaries
• 10 Cataphractii Terminators
• 10 Tartaros Terminators
• Talon of three Contemptors

Well, this list was rather different from the previous one. The mission was a single objective in the middle of the board worth several points equal to the battle round. However, there was a twist, after scoring the objective scattered 2d6, personally I love these kinds of missions as they have just enough chaos to keep things interesting.

Deployment was quite simple with the ruins set up densely in the middle and the objective there I knew my plan was to get to the middle and hold the line. I had the large Tactical brick on my right flank alongside a Terror squad in case the objective leapt there. Then the middle had my Spartan and Levi to clear the way for my Tactical squad behind. The Raptors and rotor cannons were poised to go through/over the ruins and the Recons infiltrated onto the objective. Meanwhile the Cata Terminators and dreadnoughts deployed slightly to the right of the centre line.

The game began with my turn, and I simply did a few wounds to a Dread and Terminators with the objective not scattering as we rolled a direct hit. The sons of Sanguinius then moved up the Terminators went to handle the Terror squad and large Tacticals, whilst the Dreads went to say hello to the middle of the board. This led to the Recon marines using the better part of valour to flee.

The next turn I needed to remove the Dreadnoughts in the middle as one was contesting the objective and the other was a clear threat. As a result, the Spartan disembarked the Terminators to ensure one Dread died, whilst the Leviathan went to handle the other. This then led to another double 1 charge when I needed a 3 as the Leviathan decided he didn’t want to play (clearly he had done enough last game) but everyone’s favourite knife enthusiast dealt with the other ensuring that the objective was mine, scattering the objective into the Blood Angel deployment zone.

At this point the Angel arrived, deployed onto the objective. Now I would love to say that the rest of the battle was an epic clash of the forces with the Primarchs clashing in the middle, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the Terminators constantly failed pinning checks one Assault squad got tied up by the Leviathan and the Primarch fight ended in a similar way to the previous game with Konrad killing the bodyguard and then proceeded to run away from fierce retribution.

The game ended with a close score of 8 to 6 as the Blood Angels managed to sneak the objective on turn 4 after killing the dread to close the gap. This ended a great event with another fantastic game.

Thoughts on what I brought

Well first of all I enjoyed playing it, so I consider that a great success. The rite is good Night fighting helped keep things alive for longer and helped with some crucial morale test failures. Konrad is a great pick, but you need to keep him away from his brothers. Tacticals are good but you really shouldn’t run a squad with no upgrades, meanwhile the support squads are amazing with both rotor cannons and Recon marines contributing hugely to kills and pinning galore. Terror squads are still good but die quickly, Leviathans are now amazing. Bring them. And finally, as good as the new raptors are you still need to make your charge rolls to do anything with them.

Looking towards November

Well, I want to run something different but not overwhelming my current thought is to go pure Terminators (well with one exception) but given my inability to focus on ideas who knows what I will end up taking.

One last thing

So, I guess I should mention I may have won a thing…

So yeah, whilst the Traitors may have lost overall, I had managed to get the most votes for favourite game and as a result I won most sporting player. This was a pretty big surprise to me (as I’m sure my fellow damned can confirm). So, I’d like to quickly thank all my opponents for the wonderful games, and I look forward to the next time we can play.