Adepticon 2012: Tales of the Lord Hellion - Tom's Battle Reports from the W40k Championships!

While I'm still recuperating from the glory that was Adepticon let me share with you the triumphs and tribulations of a friend of mine who for a second year in a row decided to rub elbows with some of the greatest wargamers at the Warhammer 40,000 Championships! Tom was kind enough to write up a few quick battle reports from his four games and there are some pretty sweet pictures to boot! Since I couldn't really play the tourist role at the Championships (it interfered with the Killzone events we were running) this is my way of covering the event through the point of view of Tom's Dark Eldar, led by the Lord Hellions himself.. 

Adepticon 2012 Battle Report - Sathonyx’s Raiders 

Second time at the Tournament, still ranked W2 L2, but had a great time and four very fun high energy games.

Here’s what I brought:

Baron Sathonyx + Beast Squad
2 Wych Squads with Haemunculi HQ’s
2 Warriors Squads in Venoms
2 Trueborn Squads in Venoms
2 Ravagers
Reaver jetbikes
Talos

Much bigger list than last year, but this hurt me as often as it helped, primarily with the 20 kill points it had to offer. When i had good luck early popping vehicles the game went fairly well! Big thanks out to Dan Grigsby who was my wing-man for rounds 3 and 4, helping out with dice counts, photos and cheer-leading (I won’t tell anyone about the cheer-leading outfit, I swear)



Round 1, Russel’s Grey Knights

2 Terminator squads in Storm Raven Transports
Librarian in Terminator Armor
Grand Master in Terminator Armor
2 Dreadknights
1 Psyflemen Dreadnought 

Ridiculously tough army, nothing has less than a 2+ armor save, plus only 7 kill points to win, that almost made it impossible for me to win the annihilation objective. the Baron’s forces faired very well though, out pacing and out flanking, shooting the daylights out of all the armor and forcing the ones that were necessary to drop the numbers. Grand Master and his remaining 4 terminators were stretched between two objective markers, gone to ground at the end of turn 5. He rolled the 2+ to stop the game, and won by that roll. I had both trueborn squads a ravager, and a warrior squad force ready to pour fire on them for round 6 to clear them off an objective and take the win. such is life!! Baron is down 0-1.


Round 2 - Jason’s Blood Angels

Jason brought a good suprise drop force:

2 teams of assault marines, one in a razorback, one in a raven,
Sanguinary priest in a rhino
2 storm ravens, one with assault terminators, one with the assault marines.
2 jump pack marines with meltas, plasma pistols, and power fists.
one vangard assault marines with heavies and power fists.
2 two man assault bikes with multi meltas.

The gods of luck were on my side again, far more thoroughly in round two. We traded shots early, with a few of my vehicles getting immobilized, but otherwise, remaining effective; by the top of round 3, I had dropped both his storm ravens, immobilized his razorback, effectively pinned him in the backfield. He did bring in 3 squads of the jump pack marines to shoot the crap out of me; fortune favors the night shields, keeping the melta style weaponry to only limited effect.

Once his Vanguards completely destroyed the ravager, my beasts stepped in and introduced him to the Baron’s Hellglaive, and his Razorwing flock's rending talons.

Game was a win in the end, he won the annihilation objective, nailing down 9 of my forces to me dropping 8 of his; but I held the corners and center objective. Great game, Sathonyx goes 1-1


Jim’s Grey Knights

Honestly this had to be the most beautifully painted army I have simply EVER seen. Jim’s artistic talents were unparalleled in my opinion. I almost hated that I won this game... almost. Jim noted he was eyeing a Dark Eldar force as his next army to master; we had fun discussing what was effective … as it was being effective.

 

As opposed to the tough guys from Russell's Barracks in round 1, Jim brought the Inquisition side of the Grey Knight Codex.
2 squads of henchmen, including death cult assassins, flagellants, demon hosts, and inquisitors. one in a chimera, one in a land raider.
A Squad of Grey Knight terminators did haunt a second land raider, running gauntlet for one of this two grey knight strike marines on foot. The latter charged an objective early, but faced Sathonynx ....
Lastly Servitors loaded with all sorts of heavy weapons on foot.

With 5 objectives, the grey knights were forced to space out, and with the night shields, very few of his weapons could reach my vehicles on the rear of the board. The land raiders played a tough role, soaking up fire power from the dark lances and only one of them going down to the squiddy legs of the Talos.



The constant barrage of splinter cannons took its toll on the grey knights, with 12 shots from each warrior squad and 24 from the cannon outfitted trueborn, I slowly wittled down his well armored manpower. The real turning point was the Beasts. When the Baron came howling out of the webway portal, he pounced on the first strike squad, jumping into area terrain to take them out, after the Talos opened up the left flank landraider, the Baron swooped back to mop up the poor troops inside.
Going for the trifecta though, he was knocked out trying to take down the second henchmen squad. Three times is NOT a charm.

Payback was had … After my right flank Wych squad finished off the strike marines through out flanking and some good shooting, they were introduced to dancing with Terminators. ... and lost horribly. such is the life of Wyches! Honestly though, I am almost certain that the wyches were simply in awe of these guys.... take a look at the closeup, I don’t think i’ve seen this kind of stuff from the Citadel website even. Yet again, huge kudos on the paintwork Jim.

End of the game, Annihilation Points tied, the remaining Dark Eldar forces commanding 3 objectives, and dropping their marked squad of henchmen. Sathonyx goes to 2-1, time for a breather before the last round.


Doug’s Blood Angles

I’ll call this last round pain early, pain often. Canadian Invader Doug brought 2 Razobacks, a rhino, and a Land Raider, 20 assault marines (with wings!), assault terminators and 2 Devestator squads, led by a sanquinary priest. Ok really, 3+ armor saves and feel no pain is really hard to deal with …

 

The only game that Sathonyx failed to boost the initiative roll in his favor, the Blood angels sped across the field, getting in close and personal with my paper-board armored vehicles. Night Shields and Flickerfields started failing early, lost a raider and venom right away in round one. Timing was off, reserves were delayed (maybe drinking their toast about beating the inquisition? … they are pirates... ) My limited come back was with the venoms firepower, dropping numbers and thinning ranks; plus a wonderful surprise run with the Reavers, taking down a Devastator squad in their backfield with Cluster Caltrops.

Doug completely wiped the field of every last remaining dark eldar force before the game ended! Way to go Ontario … I think?

Birds vs. Bats

Second year playing the championships, another Wonderful Time. Huge Thanks out to the Adepticon Staff, my wingman Dan, awesome support from my Gaming group at the Deer Grove Games Workshop Store, and the eternal patience of my lovely wife, Amberlin.