Hey all! Things have been hectic this month, even with nurgle's rot still somehow infesting the country. However, that doesn't mean I haven't gotten anything done, quite the contrary in fact. So, let's get into it.
Modelling and Painting
This month, while I have gotten a fair amount of my army to a battle-ready standard (thank the tournament for that and read on for more info), a lot of it is not to the standard I would want to show it off. As such, some models and units will be missing from this month's vox until I they're at a standard I would want to take pictures of from 3 inches away.
Suppressor Squad (Modelling + Painting)
These guys, along with several other units in the box such as the recently-buffed Eliminators, will provide a steady and impactful backfield presence, especially in smaller games, eating through marines and light vehicles.
During the assembly of the Suppressors, I was determined not to make the same mistake I did with my Inceptors. I was going to use a more modest quantity of glue, and I was done with GW flying stands, opting to instead use cork and rocks, giving a more dynamic look while also being way more structurally sound.
Primaris Vanguard Veterans (Painting)
If you remember, last month I made a tutorial detailing a step-by-step creation of my Primaris Vanguard Veterans (click here if you missed it). Well, I finally got around to actually painting them, using the loadout I planned on running for the tournament, though they are fully magnetised so I can swap their wargear out at any time.
These guys were pretty fun to paint, although the rather lose magnetisation was a blessing and a curse, allowing me to do weapons independently to the infantry models, while being too floppy and difficulty to paint while actually attached.
Dreadnought Alfons: Macro Plasma and Onslaught Gatling Cannon (Painting)
Alfons has been magnetised since I built him around a year ago. However, I've only recently gotten around to painting some of his other wargear options, encouraged into such activities by the need to get my list battle-ready for the tournament (are you seeing a pattern here?). As I've taken to in the past, I used tesseract glow over the top of a standard green blend for my plasma coils. Not the most lore friendly, but I love how it looks next to the red of the weaponry.
Misc Images
Personally this is my favourite part of the Vox. Just dropping a few random images of stuff I don't feel is important or ready enough for it's own mention. Perhaps next month, guys...
(Whipped up a Castellan w/ Bolt Pistol and MC Power Sword from miscellaneous bits. He honestly looks cool as hell imo)
(Fully magnetised my Primaris Impulsor from the Space Marine 'Combat Patrol' box)
(Another guy I assembled from random bits. Not sure whether to use this guy as a Captain w/ Power Fist and Plasma Pistol or knock him down to a 32mm base as an Assault Intercessor Sergeant)
(Fixed this chap's stubby little arm and gave him an awesome bolt pistol to boot. Also knocked him down to the legal 32mm base size. A very happy champion indeed)
(All my new official GW models this month. Pictured: Space Marines 'Combat Patrol' box and unit of Bladeguard Veterans)
(I have an addiction to assembling HQs from whatever I can find in my bits box. Through the use of Green Stuff, my Bits Box, and liberal use of paper clips, I was able to slap together a rather nifty-looking Primaris Techmarine)
(Last but not least, some more steady progress on Sgt Jovan as my "between-guy". If anyone has any idea how to actually run this guy, stats-wise, I would be grateful)
GTGC 1000pt 40K Tournie
It finally happened! I got to play 40k in a competitive environment using my own models for the first time and it was a ton of fun. Unsurprisingly, I got a bit krumped, but it was great fun and I took a lot from it, mostly that the other folks down at the GTGC are considerably better at 40k than I took from our casual 2v2s and intoxicated Eternal War games (Whoda' Thunk?)
Note: Due to the fast-paced nature of competitive play, there were very few opportunities for me to snap pictures. As such, some pictures have been Blood Raven'd from the GTGC Facebook Page and some pics are just missing. Sorry.
The List
My list certainly wasn't the most meta it could've been. I would have loved to include more Vanguard Veterans as well as possibly Grimaldus and his retinue of Cenobyte Servitors, but I had to work with what I own.
The list in question is a Vanguard Detachment, starting me with 3CP for the trouble, a decision I regret in hindsight.
HQs
- MoS Primaris Chaplain on Bike (Litany of Divine Protection, Fires of Devotion, Rites of War, The Crusader's Helm)
Troops
- 2x Assault Intercessor Squad (4x Assault Intercessor, Sergeant with Power Fist + Plasma Pistol)
Elites
- Bladeguard Veteran Squad (4x Bladeguard Veteran, Sergeant with Neo-Volkite Pistol)
- Vanguard Veteran Squad (2x LC/SS, 2x TH/SS, Sergeant with Relic Blade and Storm Shield)
- Redemptor Dreadnought (2x Storm Bolters, Icarus Rocket Pod, Macro Plasma Incinerator, Onslaught Gatling Cannon)
Fast Attack
- Suppressor Squad (x2 Suppressor, Suppressor Sergeant)
The intention was to be on the opponent by turn one, bringing it home for a Beta Strike on turn 2 with the rest of the Melee Units. The Vanguards would be my Turn 1 missile, pretty much guaranteeing death on anything I send them at and tying up multiple units that may cause issue for the rest of the army. The Bladeguard Veterans would be my steady forward line, moving up and soaking shots with storm shields and the Chaplain's 'Litany of Divine Protection' granting them a 5+ FNP.
The Assault Intercessors existed to provide crucial obsec to objectives on the far edges of the table, as well as bullying weaker units like squads of guardsmen and the like. The Suppressors and Redemptor were my answer to heavy infantry and light vehicles.
All in all, a balanced list with few obvious flaws, or so I thought...
Game 1
(Battle Round 2, or something idk)
My first match was against Kieran and his Sisters of Battle. This was an interesting first game in that it confirmed the suspicions I had brought with me to the tournament. My list did not have the board presence to play that offensively and reckless. My use of a Vanguard detachment also bit me in the ass, in that I had almost no CP to whether the storm of bullets that came across the table at me, with very little to hide behind. In the end, I didn't have the infantry to keep many of the zealous bitches off my objectives.
The mission was Crossfire, a simple enough mission based around 4 major objectives with corner deployments. I banked too much on the sisters' T3 and my own -1ap Pistols and Turn 1 Charges and it blew up in my face. I played far too aggressively and lost a decent chunk of my army early on, giving the sisters and their abundance of infantry ample chance to run around scoring the primaries. I was able to score decent points on Assassination due to the 5 or so Character models I was up against, two of which were Ephrael Stern & Kyganil who made short work of my Primaris Chaplain on Bike, ignoring his invuln completely with their... uhhh. Okay so I can't actually find any ability or weapon they have that does such a thing. Will have to get back to you on that.
While I did have more in the way of anti-armour, with my Redemptor Dreadnought and Suppressors shredding through an Immolator and Penitent Engine, I lacked the anti-infantry to really do work against so many troops, losing my valuable points from Grind Them Down.
In the end, the score was 40-79 to the Sisters. A rough start but I learnt lessons to take forward into my second and third games. Kieran was a wonderful opponent and an even better laugh. Top-notch plays and an exciting first game.
Game 2
(Pic from a different, unrelated friendly against Shamus' Admech on the same day)
With nearly my entire army dead, it wasn't difficult for them to run around grabbing as many objectives as they wanted. Again, I just didn't have the board presence to compete with such a large number of troops, though my Chaplain's 'Rites of War' aura did help somewhat against smaller units.
In the end, I lost 40-82 against Admech. I, once again, lacked the firepower to deliver any serious anti-infantry damage at range while closing the gap with my melee. JD was a great sportsman and was very patient with my dumb ass forgetting basic rules as always. He was also on-point with his swift delivery, and seemingly-endless supply, of vodka "sharpeners". Salut!
Game 3
You'll be glad to know I didn't go 0-3. I was able to accomplish a decisive victory against Jamie and his Iron Warriors. Quite possibly the only list with less board presence than me, he more than made up for it with firepower. I found myself against a unit of Obliterators, two Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts running 2x Volkite Culverins, a blob of cultists and a brilliantly-painted Heldrake that, unfortunately, did almost bugger all the entire game.
Turn 1 saw me losing almost all of my Bladeguard Veterans to the Obliterators and that was when I knew I was in for a tough fight. In the end, table presence and melee were king. Though I had only a marginal amount of additional table presence over Jamie, his dreadnoughts were unable to hold up in melee against my unit of Vanguard Veterans and my Redemptor Dreadnought. I bullied him into the corner and was able to earn enough points to pull myself out of the bottom of the pile.
Jamie, while a little tipsy, was a great laugh and a fantastic sport. He also learned from his list, bringing fists with his Dreadnoughts in a friendly game we had on the following Tuesday. I feel like we both became better players as a result of our game. Bravo Jamie!
Conclusion
I went into the tournie hoping to be somewhere in the top half of the other generals that entered. I achieved this, coming an unimpressive but respectable 9th (of 18) with 165 total points. JD, whom I played my second match of the tournament against, went on to win all his games, coming 1st with 261 total points. Impressive.
Rites of War was definitely the right call to accompany a Vanguard Detachment lacking in troop presence and model count. This combined with the Black Templar relic, 'The Crusader's Helm' boosting it to a 9" Aura, made my Chaplain very useful in denying points (Until he got shot off the table due to limited 'Look Out, Sir' capacity). I would really love a rewording for the trait so that models that already possess Obsec can benefit by counting as double or something. I know some space marine chapters already possess this capability. It would be nice for the rest of us.
Admech are incredible right now. Anyone with two eyes in their head has probably seen their performance at tournaments, with them being one of the few competitors giving Drukhari something to worry about. The sheer amount of buffs they can stack on such large units is phenominal. They are incredibly shooty and their ability to teleport units around the table at will, similar to Necrons, is not to be underestimated.
Bringing more troops would have been a definite benefit, even just dropping the suppressors or dreadnought in favour of some more intercessors or a unit of infiltrators would have done wonders for my table-presence and made taking objectives off me a harder endeavour.
All in all, I enjoyed the tournament thoroughly. A big thanks to Dale and everyone who helped set it up over at GTGC, as well as my wonderful opponents and everyone who attended. I'm looking forward to the next one.
Placements
1. John D - 261 points
2. Harry W - 223 points
3. Kieran D - 214 points
4. Seamus B - 212 points
5. Karl V - 206 points
6. Neil H -181 points
7. Ash T - 180 points
8. Martin P - 176 points
9. Ryan B (Me) - 165 points
10. Dean T -160 points
11. Ian W - 158 points
12. Joe P - 148 points
13. Shamus O - 144 points
14. Jay G - 136 points
15. Jamie B - 98 points
16. Ben M - 78 points
17. John H - 68 points
18. Charls H - 42 points
Closing Statement
An eventful month indeed. Apologies for an absence of posts on here. I'm starting Uni back up again in October and have been getting things in order for that, among other things that have been consuming my time and motivation.
If you ever feel as though you are need of a little more FistfulOfBeans content, feel free to drop by the Instagram account, @fistfulofbeans. I've been using it to post little bits and bobs I want to share that might not be worthy of their own dedicated spotlight on a post.
But that's it for this month's Monthy Vox. Hope you enjoyed. Cya!
-Ryan
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