It's been a busy couple of weeks here as we faced a monumental snowstorm in the southeastern U.S. We ended up having over 7" of snow here at our house. and because our area isn't really prepared to deal with such, we have essentially been stuck inside for a few days (when we haven't gone out to play in the snow at least.) Prior to the great snowstorm of 2025, I did manage to attend an RTT this past weekend at our local FLGS, Geekz Haven in Dothan, AL which was a lot of fun.
 |
| My Blood Angels Liberator Assault Group List |
I should preface this by taking a moment to talk about our Circle City Championship RTT Series. My club mates had this brilliant idea late in 2023 and our first 2 seasons of the series took place last year. There are 2 seasons each year with monthly RTTs that culminate into a playoff RTT at the end based on your results in the RTTs over the course of the season. Last year, I ran several of these as TO, alternating these duties with a couple of my club mates, and played in several. I didn't play as much in Season 2 because of other obligations, so I only managed to play in 2 events in Season 2 last year, however in Season 1 I played in enough to qualify for the playoffs where I lost sadly in the championship game against my friend, Dusty and his World Eaters army. Overall between all the RTTs last year not counting the playoffs I finished 14-1 and won 2 of them, while placing in the top 3 in all the others I played in. It was a great concept and we have continued on into 2025. Our first event was this past weekend.
There were some awesome looking armies on display at the event as well:
 |
| Dusty Thornton's Dark Angels Stormlance |
 |
| Kyler DeLaney's Tyranids Crusher Stampede |
 |
| Jonathan Thomas's World Eaters |
I decided to once again break out the Blood Angels, and while I really wanted to play the new Grotmas Christmas detachment Angelic Inheritors, I really needed a third squad of Sanguinary Guard to make it work. I have since gotten another squad of them and they are currently on the painting table. I also didn't really have the reps I wanted for Angelic Inheritors, so we just stuck to the trusty Liberator Assault Group detachment which I have been playing for months now and am very familiar and comfortable with.
Here was the list:
Read moreFor mobile viewers: Click here
Game 1: Blood Angels vs Death Guard Flyblown Host - Mission I: Burden of Trust
Game 1 was against one of our new members, Matthew, and his Death Guard Flyblown Host list. Now, Matthew is very new to 40K and I mean brand spanking new to the game. Prior to this event he had only played in 4 games total. I ended up putting him on a clock, which some may say is a bit of a jerk move, but I disagree. We really want our new players to jump right in with their armies into our tournaments which we generally deem friendly and overall our culture is very friendly and welcoming as a club. We want people to play and improve and get better. The issue when it comes to newbies and tournaments is inevitably, the clock. They are having to spend extra time looking up rules and datasheets and just in general will play a bit slower than the average 40K player. This creates situations where other players may get the short end of the stick when it comes to time being unable to complete games because their opponent, a new player, took so much time off the clock having to look things up, or spending lots of time doing things in the game that don't matter much to the outcome. While I am absolutely open to helping and encouraging new players in our community, our RTT placings are based on wins and losses and battle points. It is not fair to experienced players to be shafted on battle points, and thus a potential placing, because their opponent could not get past the second battle round.
I explained to Matthew prior to the game that we would be using a clock, but not to think about it too much. I would monitor it for him, but also explained to him the consequences of running out of time. Sure enough, the game progresses and Matthew runs out of time, while I have 20 minutes left on the clock. I tell him he can borrow 5 minutes of my time to complete his turn and he accepts. From there, however the game gets really lopsided of course as he can't do anything but score positional primaries for his units being in place. I end up winning the match 78-48.
Matthew was upset a bit about running out of time in the match and I could tell by his demeanor that he was visibly frustrated. I tried to encourage him, however by complimenting his play (he was actually very good for being a newbie) and giving him tips on how he can speed his play up. I really enjoyed the game and he was a very pleasant opponent and I hope to see him back at events in the future.
Game 2: Blood Angels vs. Chaos Daemons Daemonic Incursion - Mission C: Linchpin
This matchup I would face off against Bobby and his Daemonic Incursion Daemons list. Bobby has been a member of the club for a couple of years now and is great fun and a good sport. His list featured Belakor, 2 Bloodthirsters, Skarbrand and a Lord of Change, along with a smattering of Flesh Hounds and Fiends.
Whew, no Shalaxi! I have a little bit of breathing room in this game. I deployed my Scouts up in the midboard and tried to zone out my table half from the dreaded 6" deep strike shenanigans, except for one small corner way in the back of my DZ away from my home objective. I was hoping he would take this bait, and he did. He picked up Belakor and a Bloodthirster and brought in Skarbrand all 3 right back in that back corner. This played well for me because all 3 of them were well away from objectives and in positions I could handle them with counter charging Sanguinary Guard and Vindicators. He managed to get a 10" charge off on a Vindicator with Skarbrand however after using a CP reroll which had me sweating a bit. Skarbrand easily killed it, however this left him exposed to my second Vindicator and the rest of my army. The following turn I pop the Vindicator into Skarbrand wounding him 5 times and Bobby fails all four of his invulnerable saves. I managed to do 21 damage to him which dropped him. This freed some other shooting up to go into the Bloodthirster escort he brought, along with my Sanguinary Guard to charge him as well. They managed to pick the Bloodthirster up in combat leaving him only Belakor, a Lord of Change and one other Bloodthirster remaining. It was basically at this point Bobby conceded the match. Win for Blood Angels 94-44
Game 3: Blood Angels vs Ad Mech Rad-Zone Corps - Mission E: Take and Hold
Game 3 would have me matching up into my club mate, Will and his Ad Mech. This was interesting because I had not yet played against Ad Mech in all of 10th. Will has traditionally been a Space Marines player and I have faced off against his Ultramarines several times and we both always have great games. This was his second event with the Ad Mech and I was anxious to play him. Between the rounds Will mentioned in passing how he did not like having to play on the clock because his army has a lot of moving pieces and he still has to look up information on the app from time to time. In hindsight I should have put him on a clock especially given it was a top table match, but alas I did not. Sure enough, the game is going great but we look up and there's 10 minutes left and we've only made it to Turn 3.
At this time we both just decided to score out the last two rounds not scoring any kill secondaries but only positional ones and the primary where it stood with the models that were there. We both agreed to this and it worked out fine, but he managed to pull the win off 76-75. I feel very confident that had I used a clock, he most certainly would have timed out and it would have been a big win for me and likely another RTT top placing.
Overall it was a great event. All three of my opponents were super awesome and we all had great games. It has certainly come to my attention that from now on I just need to use a clock every time. Not so much to screw my opponent over (because that is not what they are intended to do) but to ensure a fair distribution of time between both players. There may in fact be times where I could speed my own play up as well and I think playing consistently on the clock will help with that.
On to Warzone Atlanta!
Warzone Atlanta is my favorite singles event. I have gone many times having won Best Overall once and Best Sportsmanship twice! I just love the event and love the people there. The event is in February so I have a limited amount of time to finish up my army. I am planning to take an Angelic Inheritors list, quite possibly the same one Jack Harpster used at LVO this year for his top 3 placing. I still have some testing to do and I need to finish painting one more Jump Pack Captain and 3 more Sanguinary Guard, but I'm really looking forward to the event.
All in all it was a great week with some fun 40K games and some time to play in the snow, which is a rarity down here. Looking forward to an update on some hobby progress soon on my Inheritors list. Til then, see you next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment