Tournament Ontological Persistence 2014 Report

Another year, another tournament.  Like always the TOP crew put on a great event.  If you need a refresher on my army list follow this link: Army List

Things with legs. 

  The first scenario was Supply Drop, and as luck would have it you can find it on their website.  Basically, turn one was night fight and five objectives came on through reserves.  They all had random effects that benefited the troops nearby.  My opponent for this game was Nick, and he was borrowing his friends Guard army and wearing a spiffy imperial agent outfit. 

Nick's army:

2 company command squads

Inquisitor Coteaz

Infantry platoon: command, two twenty man squads

manticore

2 vet squads in chimera

2 Leman Russes

sentinal with searchlight

A tough line of guardsmen to crack

 The game started off badly for me when Nick's prescienced manticore took out my leman russ and my platoon command's chimera on the first turn due to some clever searchlight moves.  From there I never really recovered.  The large hill in the centre of the table combined with less than ideal deployment meant my heavy weapon squads didn't really get a chance to get much work done.

When in doubt, punch a tank!

Game Highlights:
Still scoring 9 out of a possible 18 battle points due to grabbing secondary objectives like having the only model at the centre of the table at the end.
Having my priest finish off a leman russ with his smash attacks.

Game two saw me matched up with Nolan and his Necrons.  The Mario themed scenario and table were a great new addition to the tournament.  There were several coins scattered around the table that could be picked up like the relic, and you could send characters through any of the three sets of pipes on the table to pick up more coins.  There was also a goomba that would pop out of a random pipe each game turn and hurt the nearest unit.
Nolan's list:
Combat Overlord that was in one of the ghost arcs
2 haywire staff cryptechs that rode in the nightscythes
2 units of necron warriors in ghost arcs
2 units smaller units of necron warriors in nightscythes
2 annihilation barges
2 units of six wraiths with tentacles

Super Mario table

 This was going to be a tough battle, since my massed strength seven and eight shooting was not going to be great at penetrating armour thirteen.  On the positive side, my abundance of characters gave me a good advantage in having lots of people to send through the pipes to collect coins.
Unfortunately for me, Nolan proved to be an ace at passing his jink saves and that darn goomba scared one of my missile launcher squads off the board first turn.  I sent a sergeant through in each of my first two turns which served to distract one of his annihilation barges for a good chunk of the game.  I like to think I put up a solid fight, but by the end of the game I had only destroyed a single vehicle and his overlord was standing on a huge pile of coins.  I managed to get my secondary objective though so I walked away with seven points.
Game Highlights:
Crazy goomba action!
Awesome themed table
Destroying five wraiths with my blob squad between a surprisingly good overwatch and the overwhelming manliness of the Catachan Jungle Fighters.

Game three had me matched up with Steven's Tau and Blood Angels allied army on the minefield table.  The scenario rules for this one can once again be found on their website, but this one was pretty straightforward with killpoints being the main objective and some small bonuses for clearing the minefields.
Steven's Army:
Chaplain
Sanguinary Priest
2 squads of ten jump pack guys
Fireblade (Warlord)
3 squads of fire warriors
1 small squad of pathfinders
a squad of two missiled up broadsides
2 riptides with the ion cannons
hammerhead with railcannon

Mine-d over matter

 Not too much to say about this battle really.  My artillery was scary accurate for most of the game, and I was able to take down his close combat elements before they became a problem.  My huge amount of scoring units also made it easy for me to get ahead in the minefield clearing game.
To make a long story short I ended up tabling him.  Steven was a great sport about the whole thing though, so it was nice for me to get a solid win at the end of day one.
Game Highlights
Blowing up the fireblade with my manticore turn one
having my basilisk survive three rounds of shooting from his hammerhead due to some lucky rolls

Day two started off with a battle against Andrew's Sisters of Battle.  That's right folks, Sisters of Battle.  I personally had never faced this army before so I was interested in seeing what they could pull off.  Also interesting was the scenario: Thomas the Murder Train!!!  Luckily for us, this one is also available on their website so I don't have to get too in-depth.  Essentially, a train moved down the track in the centre of the table every player turn, and you got ran over by it if you got in the way.  Objectives could be looted from the train, and the portal in the picture below could be captured at the end of the game for three points.
Andrew's list:
Saint Celestine
Cannoness (warlord)
Big SoB unit with flamers and a priest
Big SoB unit with melta guns and a priest
smaller SoB unit with a heavy bolter manning the quad gun, plus a priest
2 exorcists
Seraphim
Aegis defence line plus quad gun
Inquisitor with prescience and some plasma cannon servitors
Razorback with assault cannons and psybolt ammo

Tough SoBs

 This was a crazy game.  His massed bolter fire meant that I had to be extremely careful in moving my infantry up to the middle to capture objectives.  On the other hand, the huge train cars moving across the middle of the board gave me great cover so my barrage weapons were really useful.  This one came down to the random game length roll.  If the game had ended on turn five I would have got the win with a surprise objective grab, but it went on to turn six so I was content with a tie.  Andrew was a great opponent who was really helpful in explaining how all of his units worked, and he got my best sportsmanship vote at the end of the day.
Game Highlights:
-One of my ten man infantry squads survive a charge from Saint Celestine and cut her down with the remaining four models before consolidating to threaten the big objective on turn five
-My mortars actually killed several sisters of battle.  Shooting against toughness three enemies is so much better.

The final game of the tournament brought me back to the cityfight table once again.  This is the third year in a row for me to battle on this one, and this time it was against Kolin's knight and friends.  There were four objectives placed on the table, and each building you held also counted as an objective.
Kolin's army:
2 librarians, both taking telepathy
1 inquisitor with servo skulls and prescience
3 thunderfire cannons to fortify the buildings in his deployment zone
several squads of scouts with camo cloaks, two of which deepstruck in land speeder storms
2 stormtalon gunships
aegis defence line with quad gun
Kight titan with melta cannon.

Knight hunters

This was my first game against a knight titan, so I made it my personal goal at the start to take that thing out as soon as possible.  I knew going into this one that the game was going to be tough, since his thunderfire cannons were un-targetable from my artillery hiding in the ruins.  Also, Kolin stole the initiative so he was able to blast my infantry before I got a chance to spread them out.  The scenario allowed you to try and outflank your reserves, but the three servo skulls on the table pretty much made that impossible.

To make a long story short, I lost this one pretty hard.  I couldn't think of a way to take out his thunderfire cannons so they neatly wiped out my infantry.  I feel like this board was perfectly suited to my opponent's army, but I can't really complain about that too much as I've also had tables go in my favour with these scenarios.

Game Highlights:

Taking out the Knight Titan turn 3

At the end of day two I was sitting at a 1-1-3 record, or 45 out of a possible 90 battlepoints.  This was in large part because I got my secondary objective in four of my five games.  Using the new Imperial Guard book felt pretty much the same for me as the old one.  The only notable exception was the awesomeness of the Battle Hymns on my priest winning some key combats like the fight against the Wraiths in game 2.  

As always I highly recommend giving this tournament a shot if you get a chance.  The unique scenarios are a blast and present a different sort of challenge then your run of the mill game of 40K.  The organizers are great about moving around the room and explaining things if you have questions about the scenario.  Also, they brought in some fine folks from a nearby butcher shop to serve us burgers on day two.  I'm looking forward to see what these guys have planned for next year!

Up next: Time to finish off painting my Catachans.