Call To Arms 2017

Call To Arms was a 5 round, 1500 point, 40k tournament hosted at St. Pats over the weekend.  I think it was the first to host the 8th ed. rules in our area (Wellington).  Everyone was using the initial release Indexes and no Codexes were allowed.  We played a mixture of Eternal War and Maelstrom.   The scoring system seemed complicated but is actually not too taxing if you take the trouble to read the player's pack.  I did glance over it once or twice and I was far too busy painting my army to be fair.  I didn't finish my force in time, but I'm not particularly gutted because I painted (most of) an entire army in just over a month.

My list consisted of the Dark Imperium starter set marines (minus Primaris Ancient and a Lieutenant), a Predator Annihilator, a Whirlwind and a Stormraven with Multi Melta, Assault Cannon and Hurricane Bolters.  I had 21 points spare but no painted/assembled models to fill it with.

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++Game 1 | vs. Aeldari-Ynnari | Eternal War - Retrieval Mission ++
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Lady of Pain

My first game of the day was against Brendan Dee. He was the commander of a beautiful Dark Eldar army.  Well, actually it was Aeldariynnari army.  And I thought the Dark Elves were called Drukhari now?  I really need to catch up on the lore because I had no idea there was a third, joint faction. Or is it a fourth if you count Harlequins?  I had to ask someone about it (not Brendan because that would have been embarrassing) and yes, apparently the Triumvirate of Ynnead was a fairly big release from GW at some point in recent history.  Jeez, I need to get my shit together.

Brendan's flyers looked like a danger so I decided to target the Voidraven Bomber in my first turn.  I managed to inflict 1 damage which did not prevent it from dropping a void mine on my command squad.  My opponent then brought his lances to bear and the Ravagers were rolling hot.  Goodbye Predator.

You got a purty mouth, boy

A lonely Solitaire belt-flipped across the table into my battle line. It stood there, tea-bagging the Whirlwind for the next 3 battle rounds.  Hiding my Whirlwind way across the table, out of LOS seemed like a good idea initially, but it was unable to fall back and shoot. Without any supporting troops, it was reduced to playing dodgems with it's tormentor.

I love the smell of napalm in the morning

The Stormraven fought on bravely against two enemy flyers and managed to take down the bomber before being shot down. I had very few models left on the table at this point.   I think it was only turn 3 so alarm bells were ringing.  Or was it a death knell?  Yvraine 'gazed' at my army pityingly and the Windriders mopped up.

So I was tabled in my first match.  I didn't feel too bad (little did I know what was in store for me).  Brendan is an astute general but very laid back and friendly (typical Kiwi). He finished 2nd overall and I didn't have high expectations going in.

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++Game 2 | vs. Aeldari-Craftworlds | Maelstrom of War - Contact Lost ++
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My second game was against the smiling assassin, Glen Burfield (take a look at his WIP Imperial Knight and weep gently into your paint station).   I complained loudly when I discovered who I was playing.  Surely, they could have found me a less canny opponent given my first round drubbing?  But it turned out that Glen had been tabled in his first game too.

"This is how it ends!  With Skeletor triumphant at last!"

We joked at the beginning of the match that our warlords were Skeletor and He-Man but there's nothing remotely funny about Maugan Ra at all when you think about it.  He's just nasty with 3 units of Dark Reapers.  I went first and managed to kill one Wave Serpent by focusing the firepower of my entire army on it.  They've got to be one of the most resilient vehicles in the game with that Serpent Shield.

His freehanding skills are...  acceptable

Of course, all the really dangerous stuff was inside them.  D-Scythe wielding Wraithguard and crack shot Dark Reapers made short work of my flyer.  His Farseer psyker powers were also annoying.  I was Doomed (literally) from turn 1 and Fortune favours the Craftworlds, not the brave.

All of which resulted in my second tabling of the day. It was still a fun match though.  I honestly don't know how Glen manages to create an enjoyable atmosphere whilst smashing your face in.  He must work in real estate.

The cutest zombies you ever did see.

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++Game 3 | vs. Adeptus Mechanicus | Eternal War - No Mercy ++
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My third opponent was an Adept of Mars, Simon Smith.  I seized the initiative on a command point re-roll.  They should have written that into the core ruleset because burning a command point to re-roll for seize happened in every one of my games.  In this case, it was worth it.

Rolling thunder

Simon baited me with his Destroyers and Onager Dunecrawlers and I took up the offer. I managed to blow the Dunecrawlers to splinters in 2 turns.  I was distracted from the implacable advance of his Kataphron Breachers (awesome conversions below).  They put the hurt on my vehicles in a big way with their Arc-haic weaponry and it was all downhill from there.

I'd love to know what these were made from.

I loved his Sicarian Infiltrator conversions (below) too.  Right up to the point where they jumped on my head.

Surprise! You're dead!

My captain decided to get medieval and engage in fisticuffs but I was held up just long enough for the Mechanicus ranged firepower to do its job.  The light show commenced.  I'd have run away if I could, but the Space Marine rules make it really difficult so my noble Astartes were fused into the lining of their power armour.

These are not my dice.  The horror...

Simon is a kindly soul despite his mechanical heart and wanted to call it as we ran out of time.  He knew that he would immediately table me in his last turn and wanted to spare me the misery of a 'hat trick' crushing defeat.  However, I was in a fey mood at this juncture and insisted that we finish the game.  I got what I deserved, masochist that I am.


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++Game 4 | vs. Aeldari-Ynnari | Maelstrom of War - Spoils of War ++
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 Day 2 dawned with the promise of something better. My fourth opponent was Ross Brewster and more Aeldariyinarrynnari goodness.  This mission was interesting because you can score your opponent's objectives.  I got off to a decent start and bagged a couple of VPs in my first turn.

Fun with fusion guns

Fuegan and his Fire Dragons were pretty brutal and Ross kept them in cover (mostly) making them very resilient with their armour saves.  It wasn't enough against the combined firepower of a Stormraven gunship and I wiped out most of a squad, plus transport in 1 turn.

Re-roll 1's for everyone!

My insipid Inceptors finally managed to do something (apart from dying) and grabbed line breaker.  For 225 points these things are rubbish.  I know they got better in the new Codex but I was playing them badly and spent so much time gluing the stupid bloody stands back on that I don't think I'll take them again.  I'm going to drill holes in the models and slot the stands in if I do.

Make sure you take superglue to the tournament if you use these boys.  Flight stands should be banned under the Geneva Convention.

The tide started to turn in the 3rd round when my foe made a push with his right flank.  He had board control now and when I drew my last two tactical objectives, they were deep in enemy territory.  This effectively gifted the points to my opponent and I ended up losing 6-9. Ross was gaining the upper hand anyway so the score probably reflected the game.  I was so relieved not to be tabled for the 4th time in a row that I actually felt cheerful.

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++Game 5 | vs. Salamanders | Eternal War - The Scouring ++
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Regan used some Horus Heresy Mk IV for his tacticals.  I think they look pretty good with Primaris marines so I might steal the idea.

 My final game was against Regan O'Halloran. This was a mirror match (sort of). He was playing Primaris Marines and had two Predator Annihilators.  He (wisely) took additional tactical marines to pad his army out with flaming Salamander goodness.

Civil War

He had no flyers however and  I got first turn which probably won me the game. I alpha struck one of his Predators and hid from the other one.  This severely hampered his anti-armour and he didn't bother trying to kill my Stormraven.  Given free rein, it just flew around the board wrecking stuff.

Excuse me, could you tell me the way to the train station?

Regan played to his strengths, having more bodies than me; concentrating on killing my infantry and claiming objectives.  He capped the 'superior' objective, managing to hold onto it for most of the game but consistently forgot to charge my Whirlwind. If we had been scoring each turn instead of at the end he might have come out on top. But the Stormraven is a beast and it inevitably whittled him down. I killed the last Salamander HQ sitting alone the 4 point objective with my own captain (who was rolling saves like you wouldn't believe).  An 11-4 victory and the first game of 8th edition that I have ever won!

The Salamanders finally discovered that Red Scorpions are a successor chapter of the Word Bearers.  We had to keep our secret safe.

So I had a pretty good time considering.  I'm not convinced that Primaris Marines are my army of choice but its very early days and we might be seeing a lot of filthy Repulsor tanks going forward.  The chapter tactics in the codex will help a lot too (when I finally get round to buying it).  It was interesting that the bottom 4 were all using Primaris marines (or maybe I'm just trying to salve my butt-hurt).  Bryn Jones placed 5th with his Crimson Fists but the only new model he took was a Primaris Lieutenant.  The rest was old school marines and lots of Razorbacks.  Filthy Elves made up 3 out of the top 4.  I despair sometimes.

Tyranid board by Aiden Corlett.  I seethed with jealousy.

A few more pictures because I got a bit snap happy.

Sean Sullivan won best General with another beautifully painted army.

Many thanks to Craig Stewart for hosting a successful tournament.  It must have been more stressful than usual given the brand new ruleset. I'm always grateful to TO's who put in all that effort for no particular gain apart from the joy of seeing a hall full of toy soldiers.  Craig mailed us his thoughts (I've quoted a snippet) on the tournament and the scoring below.

Pete Dunn won best painted.  Proving that his hobby skills are as disgustingly resilient as ever.

"That was the bloodiest Wh40K tournament I think I ever been involved in for my 10+ years on the tournament scene. As I mention in my speech there where 23 15-nil results out of the 60 game. Round 3 had 7 of them. Even veteran players were not exempt from some of the 15 nil results.

8th edition is so fatal for shooting with high AP reducing so many saves.

I left the points at 1500 not knowing how long the games would take. Granted we are all still learning and familiarising. On average out to the 12 games each round there was 2 that didn't complete in the 2 hours and 30 minutes. I thought there would be a lot of people with spare time after an hour but most results came back at the 1hour 45 to 2 hr 20 time frame."

- Craig

Imperial Guard brought all the guns. (Dave Hodgetts)

Name	Surname	Army	Pos	Total	BP	Paint	Sports	VP	War-lord Kills
Sean	Sullivan	Dark Eldar- Drukhai	1	92	68	9	15	69	5
Brendan	Dee	Ynnari	2	78	57	6	15	68	4
Dave	Hodgetts	Astra Militarum	3	78	54	9	15	55	2
Glen	Burfield	Craftworld Eldar	4	77	53	9	15	53	3
Bryn	Jones	Space marines	5	71	47	9	15	34	3
Peter	Dunn	Nurgle Daemons	6	66	42	9	15	35	0
Bruce	Manning	Chaos Space Marines EC	7	65	45	7	13	40	2
Cody	Drake	Dark Eldar- Drukhai	8	64	42	7	15	44	2
Ryan	Pike	Tau	9	63	40	8	15	36	2
Felix	Nesbitt	Tyrinads	10	62	39	8	15	44	2
Chris	Parkin	Blood Angels	11	61	39	7	15	48	3
Aiden	Corlett	Tyranids	12	60	36	9	15	31	2
Thomas	Watson	Dark Angels	13	59	39	5	15	36	1
Ross	Brewster	Ynnari	14	57	36	6	15	41	1
Regan	Ridge	Astra Militarum	15	56	34	7	15	22	2
Michael	Price	Tau	16	55	35	5	15	37	2
Simon	Smith	Adeptus Mechanicus	17	54	32	7	15	36	3
Alick	Harris	Tyrinads	18	51	30	6	15	36	1
Michael	Charles	Death Watch, Assassins	19	48	29	6	13	27	1
Luke	Henning	Necrons	20	47	26	6	15	24	1
Daniel	Salter	Space Marines Salamanders	21	41	22	4	15	22	0
Regan	O'Halloran	Space Marines - Salamanders	22	41	21	5	15	19	0
Kent	Jackson	Space Marines	23	41	20	6	15	29	1
Luke	Forrest	Space Marines	24	40	17	8	15	19	1