{"id":2203,"date":"2014-06-22T13:13:33","date_gmt":"2014-06-22T17:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/?p=2203"},"modified":"2015-10-26T13:17:18","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T17:17:18","slug":"40k-redcaps-2000pt-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/06\/40k-redcaps-2000pt-tournament\/","title":{"rendered":"Redcap&#8217;s 2000pt Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/redcapscorner.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-42\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/kingbreakers-icon.png\" alt=\"kingbreakers-icon\" width=\"81\" height=\"81\" \/>Redcap&#8217;s<\/a> June tournament was\u00a0the first for 7th edition.\u00a0Unfortunately it was very\u00a0lightly attended, probably mostly due to the start of summer. In particular the two adjacent colleges, Drexel and UPenn,\u00a0just went\u00a0on summer break. Pat and John volunteered to team up to make an even four contestants and enable\u00a0a round robin tournament. We bumped the points up from the planned 1850 to 2000 to make list rebuilding\u00a0easier for them.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise this was a straight 7th edition tournament. Benn and Jake made up some new\u00a0bonus battle point conditions and elaborated new details on the more exotic terrain pieces (Radiation! Tesla Towers!) but\u00a0the missions followed\u00a0Redcap&#8217;s existing format based on the 5e\/6e\/7e core missions. Notably, this already includes a simple alternate scoring scheme. For objective control missions you can optionally score one\u00a0victory point\u00a0each cumulatively at the start of your turn rather than three VPs each at game end.\u00a0In\u00a0annihilation you can opt to score a victory point for every 200pts killed rather than one per unit. No limitation was placed on detachments,\u00a0unbound armies, allies, or anything else. Unfortunately\u00a0no one showed up with anything super\u00a0crazy,\u00a0despite our hopes.<\/p>\n<p>More photos are available in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tjkopena\/sets\/72157644887724327\/\">Flickr gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2221\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8166.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2221\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2221\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8166-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Stay on target!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8166-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8166-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2221\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stay on target!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Army<\/h2>\n<p>The least traditional army composition actually wound up being mine, which featured a\u00a0big stack of five source books: <em>Space Marines<\/em>, <em>Astra Militarum<\/em>, <em>Inquisition<\/em>, <em>Stronghold Assault<\/em>, <em>Imperial Knights<\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Combined Arms Detachment: Space Marines (Salamanders)\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">Captain Angholan\u2014<\/em>Vulkan<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">Ghost Squad Harmon<\/em>\u2014Sternguard x5 w\/ 3x Combi-Meltas, Poweraxe, Drop Pod<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">Squad Scolirus<\/em>\u2014Tacticals x10 w\/ Vet Sgt, Powerfist+Boltgun, Flamer, Multi-Melta, Drop Pod<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em style=\"font-weight: inherit;\">Squad Titus<\/em>\u2014Tacticals x10 w\/ Vet Sgt, Chainsword+Bolt Pistol, Meltagun, Missile Launcher,\u00a0Drop Pod<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Scouts x5 w\/ 5x Camo Cloaks, 5x Sniper Rifles<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em>Squad Harbinger<\/em>\u2014Devastators x5 w\/ Chainsword+Bolt Pistol+Signum, 2x Plasmacannons, 2x Heavy Bolters<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em>Akil<\/em>\u2014Predator w\/ Autocannon<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em>Justus<\/em>\u2014Predator w\/ Autocannon<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Imperial Bunker w\/\u00a02x Void Shields<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Combined Arms Detachment: Astra Militarum\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\"><em>Commander Higgenbotham\u2014<\/em>Company Command Squad w\/ Plasmapistol, Flamer<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Veterans w\/ Flamer<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Veterans w\/ Flamer<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Armoured Sentinel w\/ Plasmacannon<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Inquisitorial Detachment\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Inquisitor Coteaz<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Imperial Knight Detachment\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit;\">Knight Errant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Predators were last second additions to bump to 2000 pts. Given more time to prep I would probably have kitted up another Drop Pod\u00a0of Tacticals for more deep striking\u00a0objective grabbing and camping.<\/p>\n<p>One reason for that particular Guard structure is to have two Combined Arms detachments and together\u00a0with Coteaz have three\u00a0options for my warlord:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Vulkan if\u00a0a bonus point condition warranted it;<\/li>\n<li>Coteaz if I faced daemons;<\/li>\n<li>The Company Commander otherwise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I wound up using the Company Commander each time to get access to the BRB traits but\u00a0they\u00a0did not matter.<\/p>\n<p>In each\u00a0battle I took all of Coteaz&#8217;s powers from Divination as I really only cared about Prescience. Despite this list being a bit\u00a0all over the place, I&#8217;m a big fan of keeping things simple, particularly new elements.\u00a0I\u00a0wasn&#8217;t planning on spending brain cycles\u00a0debating between multiple powers. In\u00a0addition, with two mastery levels I generally wouldn&#8217;t have enough warp charge\u00a0to cast multiple powers.<\/p>\n<p>This was the first time in quite some while\u00a0that my army wasn&#8217;t pretty much entirely painted. That was a bummer, but I decided it was worth it in the spirit\u00a0of trying new stuff for 7th edition. Unfortunately much of that army I had essentially\u00a0no experience with. Coteaz I&#8217;ve used <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/06\/40k-rise-of-the-maynarkh-1850-pts\/\">once before<\/a>. Guardsmen I used in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/01\/40k-page-apocalypse-2014\/\">January Apocalypse battle<\/a> but they just\u00a0sat around in\u00a0a bunker. The Knight I just assembled this week; I actually had to buy the codex while signing up for the tournament yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>All that said, despite its many parts and source books, for a 2000pt battle that doesn&#8217;t seem like an obnoxious list to me and is actually pretty balanced and fluffy. Unfortunately it seems like it would be banned under the restrictions some of the major tournaments are gravitating\u00a0toward. More on that\u00a0in a future post.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2223\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8194.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2223\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2223\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8194-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Let's do this thing!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8194-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8194-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2223\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Let&#8217;s do this thing!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Round 1<\/h2>\n<p>First up: Carl and his Tau, featuring a Commander, some Broadsides and Marker Drones, a Skyray, 2 Riptides and 18 Crisis Suits. The mission was Crusade (4 objectives), long axis deployment. We both picked alternate scoring. I deployed first and went first.<\/p>\n<h3>Fight!<\/h3>\n<p>On the drop I wasn&#8217;t able to land\u00a0my Sternguard out of line of sight and they got hammered by Riptides on the intercept, yielding First Blood, a 2 VP swing as\u00a0it also denied me First Blood on the Skyray. Tacticals though came down to contest Carl&#8217;s home objective. With all his Crisis Suits reserved and the army preferring not to\u00a0move\u00a0out aggressively, that left Carl scoring little\u00a0in the early going. In contrast the Kingbreakers spread\u00a0out\u00a0all over the board and ran up an early lead.<\/p>\n<p>As usual with the alpha strike though and particularly against Tau shooting, the momentum slowly turned and the\u00a0thinly spread Kingbreakers got rolled back across all quadrants. Exacerbating the issue, the Knight was taken down right\u00a0in the locus of the army, generating\u00a0a catastrophic titanic explosion that crippled a number of units. Eventually the bunker&#8217;s void shields were broken through and the battlements\u00a0started taking casualties, notably yielding Slay the Warlord when Commander Higgenbotham and his veterans\u00a0got fragged by a\u00a0cover-ignoring blast.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2224\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8085.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2224\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2224\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8085-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Look at me, I'm so awesome!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8085-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8085-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2224\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Look at me, I&#8217;m so awesome!<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Outcome<\/h3>\n<p>Kingbreakers hold out for the win, 9 objective points versus the Tau&#8217;s 3 objective points, Slay, and\u00a0Blood. Tragically\u00a0the endgame death of my warlord\u00a0deprived me of a crushing victory by putting Carl just above half my points.<\/p>\n<h3>Analysis<\/h3>\n<p>I think Carl&#8217;s big issue here was that he incorrectly decided very\u00a0early on that he would have to table me to reclaim victory from my initial\u00a0points lead, and he focused entirely on that. Among other things, that&#8217;s a risky strategy if you&#8217;re not totally sure\u00a0of the clock; between my infantry movement and his extensive shooting + movement&#8212;the many assault jumps in his army take\u00a0quite a bit of time, effectively adding an entire second movement phase to his turn&#8212;this game only went 4 turns. Particularly with those assault jumps giving so much mobility, if\u00a0he hadn&#8217;t lost sight of the objectives he would have been easily able to start cranking out objectives points very\u00a0soon after\u00a0his Crisis Suits arrived from reserve.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2225\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8101.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2225\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2225\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8101-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Random meetings in a dark alley in the 41st millenium.\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8101-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8101-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2225\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Random meetings in a dark alley in the 41st millenium.<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Round 2<\/h2>\n<p>Next up: John and Pat with their Clan Raukaan and Imperial Fists team-up,\u00a0both\u00a0using their respective codex supplements. Core elements included\u00a03 lascannon Devastator Centurions, 3 grav-amp\/hurricane bolter Devastator Centurions, two Librarians with various relics, a Stormtalon flyer, a Thunderfire Cannon, a\u00a0collection of Drop Pod Tacticals and Sternguard, and of course\u00a0meltaguns and lascannons\u00a0everywhere. The mission was\u00a0Purge the Alien (annihilation), very much a rarity at Redcap&#8217;s. Deployment was 12&#8243; long edges. I\u00a0chose alternate scoring, they went for normal. I deployed first and went first.<\/p>\n<h3>Fight!<\/h3>\n<p>Ghosts on the drop managed to wound the Raukaan Librarian despite his Centurion bodyguards soaking up wounds.\u00a0This paved the way for the Librarian to die from\u00a0Perils of the Warp and yield First Blood and Slay the Warlord. Tactical 1 had little impact on the drop and took heavy casualties but\u00a0Angholan eliminated the Thunderfire Cannon before expiring to overwatch fire. Most of the Imperial Fists spent the game engaging the Knight Errant en route to their encampment, eventually taking it down\u00a0as it thrashed through\u00a0ruins. The Stormtalon buzzed about strafing the bunker&#8217;s void shields to hopefully expose it for random lascannon potshots.\u00a0Everybody else spent the\u00a0match in a drop pod furball mirror match, with Raukaan and\u00a0Kingbreakers going blow for blow throughout the trench works and ruins across the board.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2226\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8139.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2226\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2226\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8139-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Barbarians at the gates!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8139-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8139-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2226\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Barbarians at the gates!<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Outcome<\/h3>\n<p>Kingbreakers prevail again by a slim margin, 5 kill points plus First Blood, Slay, and Linebreaker versus 6 kill points plus\u00a0Linebreaker. This was a really great game, with tons of different activity going on all over the board. Not only was it\u00a0extremely close but it was super hard to quickly gauge the score throughout.\u00a0Nobody had any real idea who was up or down until the final tally, though I think they thought they were much farther behind than they were.<\/p>\n<h3>Thoughts<\/h3>\n<p>One notable local meta thing is that Redcap&#8217;s reworked their cathedral\/dockyard ruins set up quite a bit. It&#8217;s now visibly\u00a0more open, though there&#8217;s still a ton of ruins for cover and straight out line of sight blocking. I liked the board a lot before even though its very limited firing lanes hampered me, but the new version\u00a0is much smoother for 40k play, particularly at the larger end of\u00a0the points spectrum, and more fair to more armies.<\/p>\n<p>No doubt\u00a0important in this game\u00a0was the Sternguard more or less successfully going after the Raukaan Librarian. Him taking a Perils wound was huge, but it was a big deal that the Sternguard got at least one wound on him beforehand. The guy&#8217;s tough to kill: Can&#8217;t be\u00a0insta-gibbed by double strength, has a 3+\/3++ save, Feel No Pain, and typically hangs around with some 2+ save Centurion bodyguards. Even without the Libby going down\u00a0though, taking out\u00a0two grav-amp Centurions in that first turn was a big mental boost. John did come in with Invisibility known to his Librarian, but with two of them\u00a0down I was much less worried about him being able to shield that unit even before he expired prematurely.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2227\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8143.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2227\" class=\"wp-image-2227 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8143-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Skeletor says: Protect me, you fools!  With your lives if necessary! And maybe even if not!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8143-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8143-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2227\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Skeletor says: Protect me, you fools! With your lives if necessary! And maybe even if not!<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Alternate Scoring<\/h3>\n<p>This was the first I&#8217;ve seen Redcap&#8217;s alternate annihilation scoring, and it might actually have been its first appearance.\u00a0It was pretty obvious for\u00a0Pat and John that they should take normal\u00a0scoring as my list featured a whopping 21 possible kill points, even before\u00a0any combat squadding. Much of\u00a0that was also fairly\u00a0squishy.<\/p>\n<p>On my end, choosing alternate scoring was a mistake that very nearly\u00a0cost me the\u00a0round. Glancing at John &amp; Pat&#8217;s\u00a0army they didn&#8217;t seem to have a ton of units, certainly an underestimate. None of it seemed super squishy either&#8212;not many Rhinos or such, and a bunch of hard targets\u00a0like Centurions and a flyer. My logic was that alternate scoring would defeat a core\u00a0strength of Marines: Having a bunch of single dudes or pairs hanging around doing nothing but not yielding up a kill point for wiping their entire unit. This is precisely a big part of how\u00a0I snuck in\u00a0the win: By the end I had four near-dead but persistent\u00a0Space Marine infantry\u00a0units&#8212;3 Tacticals, 2 Tacticals, 1 Sternguard, 1 Scout. Thinking about it more clearly though, 200 pts per Victory Point in alternate versus a straight-up unit per point in normal scoring is too high a tradeoff. For example, you&#8217;d have to kill\u00a0an entire 10 man Tactical (140 pts + upgrades)\u00a0as well as\u00a0their transport (35 pts) for that point, versus two under normal scoring, three if they combat squad.<\/p>\n<p>So, under the current Redcap&#8217;s\u00a0rules, my new heuristic is I\u00a0should all but\u00a0always choose alternate objective scoring and almost always choose normal annihilation.\u00a0Alternate annihilation only possibly makes sense if\u00a0facing an extremely dense Terminator army or such, and even then only if they have large blobs (not the standard 5 man squads) or very expensive kit-outs. I think that logic holds for most armies, so both sets of alternate scoring conditions probably warrant some tweaking, one for being universally better and the other universally worse.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2228\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8180.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2228\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2228\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8180-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"All these void shields and no one brought a fly swatter?!  Damnit!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8180-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8180-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2228\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">All these void shields and no one brought a fly swatter?! Damnit!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Round 3<\/h2>\n<p>Final match: Colin and his Blood Angels\/Dark Angels\u00a0deep striking bonanza. He brought close to\u00a0what he <a href=\"http:\/\/pagegaming.com\/forums\/viewtopic.php?f=5&amp;t=1484\">announced<\/a> he would: Belial, 15 Terminators, a Reclusiarch, 2 Furioso Dreadnoughts, a Death Company Dreadnought, Assault Marines, Death Company Tacticals, and Scouts. The mission was Crusade (4 objectives) and table corners deployment. We both went for alternate scoring. I deployed first and went first.<\/p>\n<p>This was probably the most thought I&#8217;ve seen put into objective placement under the new 7th edition rules. I placed mine as hard as possible into diagonally opposed corners, hoping to curtail adjacent deep striking\u00a0surface area. Colin placed both of his near the center, in opposite directions\u00a0along\u00a0the long axis.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2231\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8187.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2231\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2231\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8187-1024x688.jpg\" alt=\"Deployment.\" width=\"530\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8187-1024x688.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8187-300x201.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2231\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deployment.<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Fight!<\/h3>\n<p>The Inquisition detects a group of Blood Angels Scouts skulking about outside a\u00a0continental capital and decides to bring them in for questioning about suspected mutations within their\u00a0geneseed. Captain Angholan takes this charge a bit too zealously\u00a0and\u00a0accidentally flames the initiates to a crisp for First Blood.\u00a0Hearing their dieing calls for help,\u00a0equally suspicion-clouded Dark Angels in the sector drop in alongside more Blood Angels to avenge their barbecuing. Kingbreakers call in\u00a0reinforcements, and before long nobody can back down from the fighting throughout the shanty town\u00a0surrounding\u00a0the city.<\/p>\n<p>Far from the Kingbreakers\u00a0outpost, Belial precision deep strikes in tight quarters and wipes out Squad Titus.\u00a0The Kingbreakers&#8217; Knight ally is mobbed by Furiosos and assault cannon Terminators, with Angholan nearby\u00a0but\u00a0unable\u00a0to break through copious slum detritus in time\u00a0to assist before it is detonated. Ghosts\u00a0make a desperate landing into a massive vat of highly\u00a0corrosive\u00a0industrial waste,\u00a0taking heavy casualties as the\u00a0veterans struggle to not sink\u00a0under the weight of their power armor. Their\u00a0sacrifices are awarded however by perfect positioning and the outright kill of a fearsome\u00a0Death Company\u00a0Dreadnought\u00a0before\u00a0joining the\u00a0ongoing\u00a0firefight echoing down the main avenues.<\/p>\n<p>Up and down the alleyways, Devastators and Predators trade fire with Terminators, screaming balls of plasma charges\u00a0and pounding autocannon\u00a0thumps rebutted\u00a0by the continual chittering of assault cannon hits across the scrap\u00a0metal structures. Heads tucked low,\u00a0the Forest Guard\u00a0charge forward in all directions to\u00a0reclaim ground\u00a0for their fallen battle brothers but are repulsed by the raging Blood Angels Reclusiarch and caught short working their way through ruined Drop Pods.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2232\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8218.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2232\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2232\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8218-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Stick 'em up! --- I can't! This is as much flexibility as I have!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8218-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8218-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2232\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stick &#8217;em up! &#8212; I can&#8217;t! This is as much flexibility as I have!<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Outcome<\/h3>\n<p>Dark-Blood Angels win convincingly, 8 objective points and Linebreaker to 1 objective point and First Blood.<\/p>\n<p>Through turn 3 we were tied, neither of us scoring much on objectives as nearly all were contested.\u00a0After that though Colin had swept my\u00a0Troops off\u00a0and gotten more of his on, quickly racking up the points with three objectives scored on each of turns 3 and 4. Nearly all\u00a0his army\u00a0consists of troops, including the Dreadnoughts and Drop Pods, and in several cases trumped my Predators\u00a0and other units to claim objectives out from under them.<\/p>\n<p>Both of us screwed up and forgot to take a moment to punch a building when we had nothing else to do, and thus gave up a cheap bonus battle point. Always stay on top of\u00a0your bonus points!<\/p>\n<h3>Thoughts<\/h3>\n<p>Everybody else chose to go second against Colin so the Deathwing and Pods would come down and they&#8217;d have a chance to shoot at him on their first turn. I went first so I could claim First Blood against the Scouts and setup my guys on objectives to hopefully claim points on\u00a0turn 2. I think that was a reasonable decision, though I have to think more about whether it was best. Among the downsides were\u00a0letting\u00a0Colin basically optimally target all my dudes rather than forcing him to go after some objectives blind. It put a lot of pressure on me to instantly build up effective defenses around those objectives to score at least once or twice before probably getting wiped. Compounding the basic challenge there is basically everything in his army having\u00a0Objective Secured. It&#8217;d be a lot easier to do when looking at opposing Sternguard or regular Terminators coming down. All in all, not a ridiculously poor strategy, but a tough road.<\/p>\n<p>In practice though I poorly\u00a0bubble wrapped the far objective with disembarked Tacticals.\u00a0In my head I was trying to get a couple shots on the opposing\u00a0Scouts just in case,\u00a0and to bubble wrap the Drop Pod\u00a0a bit. The first of course was completely unnecessary, and the second\u00a0a lesser priority. That line of thought\u00a0wound up skewing my\u00a0deployment around the objective and Belial&#8217;s squad was able to contest it, preventing me from scoring it\u00a0on turn 2. In reality with how my Pod came down I should have been able to deploy those guys to force\u00a0Belial far enough away from the objective to score that critical point at least once.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2233\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8205.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2233\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2233\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8205-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Mid-game.\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8205-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8205-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2233\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mid-game.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Somewhat similarly, despite me placing my\u00a0objectives\u00a0in the corners, I opted to not\u00a0build my\u00a0castle there. That\u00a0left my control over that objective much much more tenuous, and in fact Colin got a\u00a0lucky break when\u00a0my combat squad holding it broke from shooting casualties and ran out of place, costing me another point. Otherwise though my whole castle group would have had extremely limited firing options.<\/p>\n<p>Instead I placed the fortification where the Devastators would have\u00a0somewhat reasonable firing lanes on\u00a0both the central objectives, and they did wind up doing a lot. The fort was also then positioned\u00a0for the Guardsmen to run at either\u00a0my corner objective or the closer\u00a0of the central markers.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately\u00a0I wound up not actually executing\u00a0that well and used\u00a0my\u00a0Guardsmen poorly. Timing is everything and I misgauged a bit. I also didn&#8217;t utilize my orders well, just through inexperience.\u00a0Moving toward\u00a0the corner objective, if my Guardsmen had\u00a0charged Colin&#8217;s\u00a0Assault Marines a turn earlier instead of rapid firing I might\u00a0have\u00a0been able to stall\u00a0the Blood Angels\u00a0just\u00a0long enough for my Predator to score it once. Similarly, I started moving my other squad\u00a0of Guardsmen toward the central objective late, partly out of neglect and partly fear they&#8217;d get shot up too early. I then compounded that by not using my orders to have them shoot + run, or even better to run faster, and potentially get onto that objective to score once.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2235\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_81991.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2235\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2235\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_81991-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"Stop kicking me! Stop kicking me!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_81991-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_81991-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2235\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stop kicking me! Stop kicking me!<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Outcome<\/h2>\n<p>Despite the crushing loss at the end, I still wound up apparently winning the tournament, though I confess I don&#8217;t fully understand the rankings. Carl actually wound up with\u00a0more battle points than me, with John and then Colin in 3rd and 4th. I&#8217;m assuming that whatever scoring was used in Torrent of Fire to run the round-robin&#8212;not the way most 40k tournaments are usually done&#8212;bracketed me ahead for beating Carl and John, Carl beating both John and Colin, and John beating Colin. Carl also won the painting raffle so I think he came out ahead on loot regardless.<\/p>\n<p>Either way and despite the\u00a0low attendance, I was pleased to continue my streak of not finishing worse than 2nd this year. The loss to Colin was a blow as I\u00a0had tried to kit out my army specifically to fight his, but I think with just a bit better play I might be able to swing at least a close game.<\/p>\n<h2>Army Thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>Scouts continue to be particularly useful in 7th to infiltrate onto objectives way out in no-man&#8217;s land. That&#8217;s going to be increasingly important\u00a0through the combination of the new\u00a0objective placement rules with\u00a0increasing focus on\u00a0cumulative and other scoring mechanisms not simply applied at game-end.<\/p>\n<p>Even with my inexperience and some misplay, the\u00a0Guard contingent did a good job. The bubble wrapping was useful and they actually did some damage\u00a0in shooting. That core of Company Command + a\u00a0Veteran Squad or two is basically the cheapest setup for\u00a0an Allied or Combined Arms detachment, respectively. Taking an Infantry Platoon would incur another ~40 points, trading off the Vet Squad surcharge for a required Platoon Command Squad. This scheme\u00a0also basically matched the models I had on hand, though I still had to\u00a0build four plain Guardsmen\u00a0the morning of the tournament as my\u00a0others all had obvious special weapons and such. I would definitely consider bringing more\u00a0Guardsmen just to sacrifice for bubble wrapping both the bunker and the Knight.<\/p>\n<p>Two\u00a0Combined Arms detachments would also enable both a bunker and a Void Shield Generator. That&#8217;s definitely something I&#8217;m thinking about, caveat that I think castling up is going to be less and less viable\u00a0with the newly developing objective placement rules and scoring\u00a0mechanisms.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2229\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8138.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2229\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2229\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8138-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"No castles, only attack!  Attack!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8138-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8138-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2229\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">No castles, only attack! Attack!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Knight was somewhat\u00a0disappointing, though not a blowout. It didn&#8217;t actually manage to kill hardly anything, but\u00a0everybody saw it as a huge threat and devoted significant focus toward bringing it down, in and itself a useful thing. I was torn beforehand but currently think the Errant with its melta blast is indeed the better option, compared to the 2x large blast of the Paladin variant. It&#8217;s a tough call, but the second blast is probably overkill and the melta bonuses more useful.<\/p>\n<p>With Drop Pods and such increasingly back in vogue the Knight can really stand solid bubble wrapping to stand off\u00a0melta weapons.\u00a0It also needs to be kept away from terrain to have maximal impact.\u00a0Somewhat oddly it moves a very fast 12&#8243; over open ground but apparently&#8212;the intent is unclear&#8212;moves in terrain like a typical model\u00a0with Move Through Cover, at most 6&#8243;. Note that this is a big debuff\u00a0for super-heavy walkers versus other super-heavy vehicles, which move 12&#8243; regardless of terrain and can&#8217;t immobilize. Given the fire that will\u00a0concentrate on the Knight,\u00a0I think you really want it running forward as fast as possible to\u00a0smash some enemies\u00a0in assault\u00a0before it goes down. Just as importantly, that will help ensure the catastrophic super-heavy explosion happens in their lines and not yours.<\/p>\n<h2>Seventh<\/h2>\n<p>Although a small tournament, this was a great\u00a0day with a bunch of good players and tight games. It was unfortunate there wasn&#8217;t a wider variety of armies to see more of what&#8217;s possible under\u00a0raw 7th edition rules. We also did uncover a whole bunch of things that are either ambiguous or deceptively substantial changes in the rules. But I remain really optimistic about the core of this edition, and am currently as excited about 40k\u00a0as I was at the start of 5th, which is quite a bit.<\/p>\n<p>Again, more photos are in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/tjkopena\/sets\/72157644887724327\/\">Flickr gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2222\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8221.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2222\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2222\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8221-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"You gonna die, boy! --- Aw, leave me alone, you guys don't even score!  Seriously, you're like the only thing in the game that doesn't anymore!  Just let me have this, it's all I do!  Aauuguguh!\" width=\"530\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8221-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/IMG_8221-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 530px) 100vw, 530px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2222\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You gonna die, boy! &#8212; Aw, leave me alone, you guys don&#8217;t even score! Seriously, you&#8217;re like the only thing in the game that doesn&#8217;t anymore! Just let me have this, it&#8217;s all I do! Aauuguguh!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Redcap&#8217;s June tournament was\u00a0the first for 7th edition.\u00a0Unfortunately it was very\u00a0lightly attended, probably mostly due to the start of summer. In particular the two adjacent colleges, Drexel and UPenn,\u00a0just went\u00a0on summer break. Pat and John volunteered to team up to make an even four contestants and enable\u00a0a round robin tournament. We bumped the points up &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/2014\/06\/40k-redcaps-2000pt-tournament\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[409],"tags":[48,85,257,239,38,238,237,17,45,24,47,325],"class_list":["post-2203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-battle-reports","tag-blood-angels","tag-dark-angels","tag-featured","tag-imperial-fists","tag-imperial-guard","tag-imperial-knights","tag-inquisition","tag-kingbreakers","tag-redcaps","tag-space-marines","tag-tau","tag-tournament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2203"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3596,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions\/3596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocketshipgames.com\/blogs\/tjkopena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}