Well, /r/WarhammerCompetitive I'm finally back. I told you I would be, but due to technicalities I never really said anything other than "after LVO" and what's 2 weeks between .... well I would say friends but probably more casual acquaintances. Apologies in advance for my usual post-major report delay, soooooooomeone at LVO brought a little present from Papa Nurgle and infested me with COVID. I literally couldn't point a finger if I tried, and I doubt it was necessarily malicious, but whoever you were, I'm disappointed in you. Or you caught it on a plane in which case not your fault and I completely understand. No grey areas with this guy.
My own personal health aside, LVO was fine. I don't know what you want from me, I'm not a big convention (or details) guy. If there wasn't a 600+ person super-major this whole thing was centered around, I probably wouldn't have gone. My games were fun. I ended with a record I both find acceptable and curse that's the record I ended with (I'll explain at the end). And I made a Facebook friend out of it and everyone knows that's the hallmark of a good event.
So what did I bring to LVO? Well, the same thing I've been driving on pretty much all edition except those 4 CSM games I lost. Except I added juuuuust a twist of lemon to this, see if you can spot it.
Chaos Knights - Houndpack Lance + Iconoclast Fiefdom
3 Karnivores
4 Stalkers (melta + claw)
3 Brigands
4 Executioners
2x10 Cultists
Yeah, Iconoclastic twist at the end there. Why? Well, in short, I hate the PA matchup so so so sossososososos much I added some cultists to circumvent that matchup entirely. Considering I only faced TnH and PA, this was apparently the right call. What I'd give for a simple Disruption matchup.
As per usual with these (and as part of the delay), if you want to follow along in a FULL VIDEO FORMAT (wow), you can. Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzyUCQN8kWU (Jerkins don't forget to add the video link) (Thanks Jerkins)
However for those of you fans of my usual work and a burning desire to read using your eyes, you may continue reading in the normal format below. For references, game Layouts went A->B->C, repeat. So game 1 and 4 on A, 2 and 5 on B, and 3 and 6 on C.
Game 1: Imperial Knights Valorstrike + Dominus on PA. Atropos with Judiciant, Castellan with re-rolls, Crusader, Paladin, 6 inquisitorial agents, 1 chimera, 1 immolator, 1x10 sisters.
I place a Stalker, Brigand, and Karnivore in strat reserve, as coming in within melta range is pretty cool actually into Imperial Knights. Meanwhile, I've got the rest of my stalkers pretty evenly across the front of my zone, ready to scout forward or back depending. 1 Karnivore left and right, with executioners and brigands spinkled fairly evenly throughout. He's got his chimera with agents next to his expansion, next to his Atropos and then Crusader, while the Paladin and Castellan sit on his right (my left).
I get first turn and mostly use it to stage. A Stalker behind the center objective, and a Stalker + Brigand on my right. I crowd my own expansion while ensuring that my opponent pretty much won't be able to kill the 2 dogs I have touching it. Meanwhile 10 cultists physically touch the center so I actually control it. On his 1, he just sends the Sisters + Immo to the center to take it away from me, but he can't do his primary action with the cultists alive. Not wanting to actually expose a big knight to kill cultists, he settles for Cleanse. The Castellan moves to cluster with its Crusader and Atropos friends while the Paladin stages on my right.
On 2 I launch a stalker forward at the Castellan, and will eventually tie up the Castellan and Crusader in melee while the Atropos fails its 7" Heroic Intervention. In shooting I remove the sisters and immolator thanks to brigands being perfect into both profiles. I do get some autocannons lined on the Castellan and begin chipping it down. In melee though the stalker only scratches the Crusader. His retaliation involves the Castellan getting a little lucky and 1-tapping a Brigand, while the Paladin kills a Karnivore and the Crusader gets a Stalker (but not the melee one). And then the Atropos fails a 5" charge into my in-melee Stalker. This forces the Castellan to kill it in melee and 1 fight-on-death later and the Castellan is down to 1.
My 3 goes far better than I'd anticipated. The reserve Brigand and Stalker show up on the Paladin, while my last 2 Karnivores line up charges on it, as well as another Stalker. Through the power of "shooting it a lot", we get it very low, and charge it and the Castellan and Crusader. The Atropos again fails its Heroic. In melee I will pick up all knights not named "Atropos". This proves fairly crippling to the IK player, whose Atropos goes to lock down its expansion, shoots a Karnivore to death, but then gets killed on my 4, ending with IK tabled after 4 and a 100-23 CK victory.
Games 2: Black Templars Stormlance + Vengeful on TnH. Emperors Champion + 5 assault intercessors, Marshal + 10 crusaders, Grimaldus + 10 assault intercessors, Helbrecht + 5 assault intercessors, 5 JPI, 5 scouts, 5 intercessors, 2 Repex, 3 bolter inceptors, 5 incursors, Jump Captain + 5 VanVets
1 Repex contains the Champion while the other holds Helbrecht. Helbrect's + the VanVets + Inceptors are in reserve, as well as 1 executioner and karnivore from me. Once again, I've got a fairly wide and even spread. My opponent has JPI, intercessors, and the EC's Repex on my right, Marshal + Crusaders + Incursors middle, Scouts + Grimaldus on my left.
My opponent goes first, sending scouts to the expansion to screen while Grimaldus gingerly touches it. JPI jump over to my expansion to score Outflank. And Incursors full send into my middle-Stalker to use their melta mine on it, but catch a Karnivore's Heroic for it and die. I leave that Stalker and Karnivore staged centrally, while on my left an executioner fully kills the scouts, denying a Stalker of mine a charge target. And a large number of other wardogs do kill the JPI.
On 2, the EC kills a Stalker on my expansion, the Crusaders get my injured Center-Stalker, the Repex on my right whiffs an executioner. The Inceptors land and whiff my cultists on my expansion. Grimaldus charges but does not kill my left-most Stalker. And Helbrect and his Repex appear on my opponent's back line (Left relative to my perspective). I ingress a Karnivore towards that side (and Grimaldus) and that's probably where I lost the game. With Helbrect + Grimaldus + a Repex, I'm never winning that side of the board, so it would've been better to shift to my right and work my way back over, rather than splitting too much. Whoops.
But in my 2, I get the Crusaders with 2 Brigands and 2 Karnivores. The EC loses his squad but lives thanks to his damage-blank. The Inceptors die as well, but I int a Karnivore into Grimaldus, which does absolutely nothing for me. Also I moved an executioner forward for no reason which was a massive mistake for no reason. My opponent Ingresses VanVets safely behind the center objective.
Said opponent then proceeds to lay down a beatdown. EC gets a Karnivore but dies in the fight-on-death. Grimaldus, Helbrect, and the VanVets each kill a wardog on my left, so that whole flank folds. The Repex on my right also gets all my cultists, so that's a shame, but its executioner target lives on 1. And then dies to desperate escape on my 3 so that's a shame. We do get that Repex, but elsewhere my other dogs whiff. A Karnivore does almost nothing to Helbrect's old Repex, and my last executioner on my left gets maybe a marine or 2.
This is sub-optimal, as now I have a Karnivore upstream against a Repex, which obviously only goes 1 way. Helbrect gets my last left-executioner. And the VanVets get into the middle and shred a Brigand. This leaves me with very little left, and while I will eventually get the Vanvets, I'm incapable of getting much else except a few points here and there thanks to using my up-down stratagem. At the end of it though, I'll have maybe 2 wardogs left and a 17-point deficit in a 63-80 loss.
Game 3: War Horde Orks on TnH. Ghaz, Mozrog, Wazdakka, 2x20 boys + warboss + painboy, 1x20 boys + warboss, 10 gretchin, 2 dakkarig
Far be it from me to complain about seeing some ingenuity in Orks. I'd rather this than whatever that dakka-boat list is, so I'll take it. My opponent starts everything down with Ghaz central, boys spready, Gutsmek on my right and Moz on my left. I do my usual, fairly even split with stalkers ready to step into table quarters for some easy T1 scoring. They do so as I go first, and I'm able to get some sight lines on the few boys not in terrain and pick up 18 total boys in my T1. Nothing substantial, but I'll take T1 damage where I can get it. In response however, my rightmost stalker takes 20 boys, a painboy, and a warboss to the face. And Gutsmek would've joined if he made his charge. The 2 remaining boys + their warboss waddle into the center to force me to deal with them. 1 Dakkarig gets some shots on a Brigand but doesn't get much through while the remaining 20 boys, Ghaz, and Moz all stage.
On 2, I resolve the "here's 20 boys in your face" problem with 2 brigands and 2 executioners. Meanwhile a Stalker tries to get a cheeky melta on Moz but does nothing. The boys in the center do die, but we get nothing on Gutsmek as everyone was needed for the 20 boys. And on his 2 my opponent pressed the "go" button. Moz gets the Stalker near him, Ghaz gets a Brigand, the last 20 boys get a Stalker in the middle, and Gutsmek gets a Karnivore, but pays for it and goes down to 3.
On my 3, things go pretty poorly actually. I only kill the boys down to about 4 + leaders, and lose a Karnivore that charged into them. Gutsmek dies to an executioner, but my other executioners don't get much going on the dakkarigs. Ghaz does take 10 damage from a melta to the face, but Mozrog is alive on my right still. I was able to up-down an executioner though to now stand in all 4 quarters for my primary though so that's nice.
The central boys pick up a Brigand that'd chump charged them to tie them down, Ghaz hunts down a Karnivore that completely beefs it on the fight-on-death but does explode for 3 hilariously. Moz completely whiffs a Stalker, bringing it down to only 6, and then it claws Mozrog to death, so I'll take it.
On my 4, I finally get the last of the boys down in the middle, Ghaz takes a grenade to the face from cultists and dies, while a dakkarig finally falls to a melta and some executioner shots. With just 1 dakkarig and some gretchin left, my opponent can't do much and concedes, leading to a 92-58 CK victory
Game 4: Orks, Da Big Hunt, Brute Bosses, Runt Swarm on PA. Ghaz. 2x Beastboss (1 with +1T), Mozrog, 2x Kill Rig, 2x10 beast boys, 3x Warboss, 3x10 Gretchin, 1x20 Gretchin, 2x Trukk
NEW ACHIEVEMENT! You defeated Codex release Orks at a Super Major Event. Yeah, it wasn't the hyper-meta-oops-all-shooting-death-balls of a list, but as they say "Orkz is Orkz".
REWAAAAAARD? Your next opponent is Orks built almost as your exact counter! Do it again.
Whew boy, not ideal. Yeah it's not the shooting murder ball but for those unaware, Big Hunt is all about killing Monster/Vehicle. Which .... I am. Normal deployment for me and my opponent basically splits his army in half with Ghaz in the middle and 1 of each thing on each flank. Moz on my right.
Orks go first and put out basically just 2x10 gretchin in the middle, 1 on the objective to do Cleanse, 1 on a nearby terrain piece to do the action primary. Everything else more or less just stages. I respond by getting 16 of those 20 gretchin, bringing up a brigand to clear out the ones in the middle and a Stalker to stage near it.
This draws the ire of a Beastboss and Kill Rig which respond in kind, picking up 2 Stalkers. 4 Gretchin go screen my left while a Stand-up warboss does the action on my left as well. His response triggers my own response and I pick up that Beastboss and Kill Rig, but I can't trigger the stand-up on the lone warboss. But here I mess up. I overcommit into these units and put way too many dogs in "get WAGH'd" range.
And WAGH'd I am. Ghaz gets in and kills a Karn. Moz gets a Brigand. A Kill Rig gets a Stalker. Beast Boys get a Stalker, and 2 Warbosses get a Brigand. It does explode and trip the stand-up though. This is, not ideal. I bring on a Brigand from Reserve and put everything into the lone warbosses and Kill Rig, and while I get the Warbosses, the Rig lives on 1. Meaning I still have Ghaz, Moz, a kill rig, and a Beastboss to deal with. And they kill 3 more dogs, which is, again, not ideal. I'm finally able to finish off Moz and the Kill Rig, but it's too late. Ghaz and the last Beastboss will finish off my last wardogs, completing the tabling and ending in a 68-100 loss.
Game 5: Votann Trailblazers + Mercenary Oathband on TnH. Berekh + 5 zerks, 5 zerks, Ironmaster + 6 Thunderkyn, Champion + 5 Hearthguard, Buri, 2x Sagitaur, 2x Land Fort, 1x3 Thunderkyn, 1x3 Volkite Steeljacks, 1x6 Melee Steeljacks, 10 Yaegirs, 1 Kapricus Defender
Both Sagitaurs start with the berserks inside and in reserve, as well as the Hearthguard. Thunderkyn in a Land Fort in the middle, next to Buri. A Land Fort and melee steeljacks at his home, with Yaegirs on his expansion next to the rest of the army. I start a Brigand and Karnivore in reserve and my opponent starts first.
Not much going on here. Buri touches the middle, while the Defender comes out on my left to put some potshots on a Stalker. Everything else is just staging. On my turn, I get a Stalker and Executioner in position to kill Buri (and do so through Shooting and Melee). Meanwhile my left Stalker only gets 1 Thunderkyn in the 3-man, while my executioner whiffs the Defender, before chump-charging it to touch my opponent's expansion.
6 thunderkyn pile out of the Land Fort and light up my left Stalker. The Land Fort does get my left Executioner. The melee Steeljacks and shooting steeljacks chip my central Stalker pretty low, but it lives and kills 3 back in melee. On my 2, I begin screening out the Sagitaurs on my right using Cultists and a sacrificial Stalker. A Karnivore relieves my central Stalker, killing the rest of the melee Steeljacks. A Brigand misses the Defender, while an Executioner gets the Volkite Steeljacks. However, I can't get anything going on the Land Forts, and the Hearthguard ingress near his expansion.
Speaking of, in 3, a Land Fort kills a Karnivore. One kills a Stalker on my right, and the thunderkyn get my central Stalker. The center Land Fort charges but can't finish off a hurt Executioner. Meanwhile the Hearthguard whiff a Karnivore and lose 3 in response. On my 3, I try to up-down an angle onto the Thunderkyn and their overwatch alone blanks a full health Executioner. I do get the center Land Fort and the Defender finally, while the Hearthguard all die. The Sagitaurs finally arrive but fairly far back, 1 on the left, 1 on the right. Berekh's berserks and the thunderkyn end up charging a Karnivore but it somehow lives. Those Thunderkyn did shoot a Brigand to death though. The other berserks can't quite kill 10 cultists which I found hilarious.
On my 4 I try to up-down a Stalker to get to the back right Sagitaur but whiff. I stay in with Berekh to prevent the Thunderkyn overwatch, but a Sagitaur's overwatch kills a low-health Karnivore anyways. Mostly though, I pull back planning to score end-of-game. This gives my opponent very few options on 5, which he uses mostly to max out his primary. I get a lucky Assassinate pull and manage to kill Berekh (barely) and score a delayed Beacon to barely squeak out a 74-69 win.
Game 6: Emperor's Children Peerless + Spectacle on PA. 3x Exultant + 5 infractor, 5 infractor, 2 Rhino, Lucius + 6 Flawless Blades, 6 Flawless Blades, 1 Defiler, 1 Maulerfiend, 1x2 Spawn, 2x5 Tormentors
I've got an Executioner, Brigand, and Karnivore in reserve. He's got Infractors in Rhinos but is otherwise on the board. Lucius on my right, Maulerfiend + 6 Blades + Spawn + 1 rhino central, Defiler + rhino + 5 tormentors left. I get to go first and waddle some cultists into the middle, backed by a Stalker and Brigand safe from the Defiler. A Stalker on my right waddles into nowhere as bait. Essentially my opponent has no shooting over there so they need to figure something out or else. And figure something out they do. Lucius, go! An infractor squad charges a similar Stalker on my left and the Mauler goes for the one in the middle. And it all goes terribly. Lucius gets his Stalker, but with fight-on-death it blocks his consolidate thanks to old wording from 10e. The Stalker in the middle lives and then kills its Maulerfiend. Somehow. And my left Stalker lives through the Infractors, but barely.
That Stalker wanders off to threaten my opponent's expansion. Its former Infractors get Executioner'd. Lucius dies to overwhelming wardog firepower. And my center cultists go get Center Ground. My opponent responds by killing my left Stalker with Tormentors, the Defiler gets an Executioner to 2. Flawless Blades kill another Stalker, and my cultists die. Also more Infractors kill a Karnivore on my left.
Those Infractors die to an Executioner + Brigand + Karnivore on my 3. And another Karnivore tries its hand on another Infractor squad but gets Exultant'd for its trouble. I do get all the Blades though. My opponent responds by finishing the hurt Executioner. Tying up my brig on my right, and charges my last Karni with his Defiler + Tormentors but it somehow lives and chips down the Defi.
On 4 I finally finish the last Exultant as well as the Defiler. The tormentors on my right fall, but not on my left. But those end up battleshocked so can't steal away my home. In the middle my opponent just has a few un-led Infractors, a rhino, and spawn, but those Infractors battleshock, so the middle will remain mine. He's able to kill an injured brigand with what he has left as well as the 1W Karnivore, but it's not enough to bring him back into the game, as it ends 96-74 in favor of CK.
And with that, ladies, gentlemen, both, and neither, is the end of my LVO run. A respectable 4-2. And 1-1 into Orks which if you'd told me before going I'd be 1-1 vs Orks at LVO I'd take that deal. Damn good deal. As for why I mention I curse that record. Well, it seems I go 4-2 EVERY LVO. No. I am not being hyperbolic. I am not joking. So far as I can remember, every LVO I've ever been to, all .... 6? 7? I've been 4-2. Every. Single. One. Get me off this ride. I'd take 3-3 over 4-2 again.
In honesty, I had a great time. Except for the immediate aftermath where I felt terrible for a week. That sucked. But everything else was fun. Except I-15 was shut down out of Vegas so I had to take a detour which delayed my return home. But otherwise it was great.
Once again, thanks for stopping by, reading, commenting, mentioning some mistake I made somehow, and/or adding some other input. For me, there probably won't be another one of these until mid-November when Cali Cup is done. So all 4 of my avid readers have that to look forward to. Until then!