This past weekend was the third GT I attended in the month of February - Crucible 4. This was the third time I've attended in a row. I don't think there was as many people attending this year as last for 40k but there was plenty of good players. Here is my overall review of the GT:
• Excellent missions with multiple objectives and no wacky rule — thumbs up
• The rules for creating your army list were very restrictive with only one CAD and one formation allowed. Also character Lords of War from codices weren't allowed. These are pet peeves of mine since this gives an unfair advantage to sixth edition codices such as Tau and eldar since they don't have any - thumbs down
• Tables were sparse on terrain with little line of sight blocking - I overheard one Tau player stating this is how he thinks terrain should be since it really helps him target enemy units — thumbs down
• Overall the GT ran according to schedule with sufficient time in-between rounds — thumbs up
• I didn't like the hotel they chose this year for multiple reasons but the gaming room was spacious and it was easy to get around — thumbs down
• For the most part no major rules arguments with any of my opponents, everyone overall was pleasant — thumbs up
• I didn't pay close attention to how much prize support was handed out, they did have a raffle awarding door prizes in-between each round which was a nice touch. The trophies and medals given out to the top players were nice — thumbs up
Being a tournament organizer myself I know much time and effort goes into running a GT so overall I give the event a thumbs up but feel there is some for improvement.
So now onto a synopsis of my games. There were five rounds with three on Saturday and two on Sunday with 2.5 hours per round. The GT was 1850 points. I brought my BikeStar with White Scars as my CAD and Space Wolves as my ally. If multiple detachments had been allowed I would have used the Champions of Fenris detachment with a Wolf Lord, Rune Priest and two Iron Priests all mounted on bikes.
White Scars primary detachment
Chapter Master - bike - artificer armor - auspex - shield eternal - power fist
Librarian (Level 2-Telepathy) - bike - armor indomitus - force axe - meltabombs
Command Squad - bikes - company standard - 4x stormshield - 4x grav gun - 4x meltabombs - thunderhammer
Apothecary
4x Biker - 2x grav gun
Attack Bike - multi-melta
Sergeant - combi-grav - meltabombs
4x Biker - 2x grav gun
Attack Bike - multi-melta
Sergeant - combi-grav - meltabombs
4x Biker - 2x grav gun
Attack Bike - multi-melta
Sergeant - combi-grav - meltabombs
Space Wolf allied detachment
Rune Priest (Level 2-Divination) - bike - runic armor - force axe - meltabombs
Iron Priest - bike
9x Grey Hunter - 2x meltagun - 7x chainsword
Wolf Guard - stormshield - power fist - meltabombs
Drop Pod
Overall I didn't roll the best psychic powers and had to rely heavily upon the Primaris powers for Divination and Telepathy. I didn't roll well for warlord traits either (Strategic) except for the last game versus Tau. Three out of the five armies I played against had lots of Ignore Cover with high strength ranged weapons that ignore armor saves - this is obviously the bane of any biker heavy armor which meant I was often forced to mostly rely upon BikeStar (Chapter Master, Librarian, Rune Priest and Iron Priest all attached to the command squad) to do the heavy lifting. I think only one or two of my games had night fight which didn't help either.
The first game was versus Tau. The primary objective was Crusade. The secondary objective was Purge the Alien and the tertiary objective was table quarters (treat them like objectives). Bonus points were First Blood, Slay the Warlord, Line Breaker and Last Blood (in effect each game) and every game had a fixed six turns.
I have played against this army before at another GT in Florida and didn't do too well. This game was very close with my opponent winning the primary and we drew on the secondary and tertiary plus an equal number of points on the bonuses. I could have tried to win the primary towards the end but BikeStar had been whittled down quite a bit - I wasn't confident they could survive the shooting from a buffed up Tau command squad and two commanders plus another Crisis team. I decided to take the safe bet and score around half the total points rather than risk it all. BikeStar destroyed most of the enemy units and the Grey Hunters were champs taking down one of the two Riptides... You can't go wrong with Space Wolves in drop pods ! My opponent did roll poorly on average for his Riptides' nova charges which helped me a lot.
The second game was versus the new Necrons against my room mate. He had plenty of Wraiths, Scarabs and Spyders but practically no shooting to speak of besides a squad of Warriors. The mission was very similar to the first round except that the tertiary you picked an enemy unit you had to destroy (Marked for Death). I felt confident going into this game since my army is faster with turbo boost and the lack of enemy shooting. Deployment was Vanguard Strike which I felt was to my advantage. I chose a squad of Wraiths not in the Canoptek Harvest formation for my Marked for Death enemy unit and as I was hoping my oponent kept them back at a safe reach from my army which took them out of contributing to the game. The game went fast with no shooting from the Necrons and I focus fired on his Scarabs plus would Hit and Run out of combat with them. It all came down to the last turn and I went second. None of my squads had been destroyed while I had taken out several of his over the course of the game. I turbo boosted a biker squad (objective secured) to steal the primary from his Wraiths for a big win. Sorry but no pictures this game - it was intense ! Objective secured units are very important - I'd never build an army without at least three units.
The third game was versus Space Wolves with allied Astra Militarum. I had a look at the army list prior to the game and knew it was going to be a tough match - two Sicaran tanks (bike killers), a Fire Raptor and AM Miliarum melta-plasma heavy squads with Iron Priests attached in Space Wolf drop pods. There was a command squad of course so they could ignore cover. I really played this game wrong. I should have reserved most of my army and go second so I could see where my opponent's drop pods landed. He also had Arjac leading a squad of Wolf Guard terminators that deep struck. Arjac was on fire with his stormshield saves and tanked a bunch of wounds over several rounds of close combat plus he shrugged off all the grav guns from my command squad as well... Uggggh. I also made a big mistake early in the game shooting one unit of guardsmen I thought they were the closest to my bikes but it turned out one guardsmen from another squad was in front of them - I should have asked before I shot them - oh well. My Chapter Master suffered two wounds from lasgun Overwatch too... It couldn't have gone much worse with the dice and my tactical blunders. My opponent won the award for best Space Marine player handily and also placed very high in the final standings. I'd love to get in a rematch knowing what I know now.
I will finish the last two game summaries later this week.
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