Today I had a chance to test out my list at a local RTT held by the Basement WarGamers group in Phoenixville, PA. This being my first tournament in a couple of years, I wasn’t surprised to end it with 0 wins and 3 losses. The players were mostly competitive, and the games were all great even if they didn’t end the way I hoped they would.
Game 1: DoB vs. Renegade Knights
My first game was a tough matchup for my list. My opponent had 3 knights, and 4 war dogs. The war dogs provided a lot of shooting, and the knights brought in a nice balance of shooting and close combat. This was a terrible matchup for my list since its weaknesses are killing large vehicles, and handling high-volume shots. I don’t know if I have a chance against this skewed list. A Greater Daemon list would have better luck against this, but I don’t feel that it is as flexible.
Lessons learned: Remembering that titanic units can walk over units in the movement phase is huge. Also, I need to find a way to combat fight first such as the Slaanesh renegade knight which was a huge problem. I was able to take down one knight. If I took out two, or one sooner, I may have been able to at least make the game competitive.
Game 2: DoB vs. Necrons
I was hoping to go 1-1-1 (1 win, 1 close game/tie, and 1 blowout). Game 1 was my blowout, and this game was my close game. I think this game frustrated me the most because I lost the game because I picked poor secondaries AND didn’t even attempt one of them. We also only played two turns, even though I didn’t feel that we were slow playing. I must have lost track of time. It was a low scoring game since the primary was hold two/hold three, and they were all in the middle. None of us were scoring primary, and we were each chipping away at our secondaries. The game ended at 20-18. I picked psychic interrogation, and never casted it (even though I had a chance in turn two). Casting it once would have given me the win at 21-20. I could have picked stranglehold as well, which is my typical go to secondary. I second-guessed myself and it blew up in my face. My list is built to handle infantry, and this list brought it. I was working my way through clearing it, but ran out of time. I also had two C’Tans to deal with, and they could have still prevented me from winning. I guess we will never know!
Lessons learned: Know the math. I need to get a better understanding of what each of my units can do to other units to prevent myself from over/underestimating their effectiveness.
Game 3: DoB vs. Sisters
This is the matchup I want to avoid. An army with tons of strength 4 shooting, mortal wounds, and 5+ deny across the army. My opponent played aggressively, and I tried to counter but focused on two flanks instead of on one. This meant that if the dice didn’t favor me, I could potentially lose the game early. To no one’s surprise, that is exactly what happened. My opponent had two rhinos with flamers and meltas on their second priority objective headed towards my right flank, and the rest of his army moving towards my second priority objective. If I could secure my priority objective and prevent him from holding his I would have control of the game… until I failed two very makable charges (one on each flank). This blunder sealed my fate. It was a fun game. My opponent was great, we laughed about it and I still killed a lot of his models as I started playing aggressively with Be’lakor and he couldn’t quite handle it (at least to an extent). He ran away with both the primary and secondary, and I recorded my third loss.
Lessons learned: Redundancy is key, as well as minimizing risk. The challenge is to find the right balance. I have built into this list a power to reroll one die, and 3d6 8” charges. This was my turn 1: Changecaster failed to cast Gaze of Fate (WC5), Wreath of Shades was denied (5+ Sisters ability) which led to my havocs being removed from the table, fiends failed a 6” charge with reroll (key to tying in a unit in combat, protecting plague drones and themselves, leading to both units being removed as well), and failing an 8” charge on 3d6 which had the potential to trap a unit of flamer sisters in a rhino (leading to losing both the bloodletter unit and the furies who were key to completing ROD.
Summary:
The event was great! I feel that I played all three games well despite my short comings. It was a chance to really get a measure of how well I am understanding the missions, and what I need to develop in my list. There were moments when I saw how great this list can be, and moments when I was reminded how fragile it is to run. I will review the books and see where it can be tweaked.