Age of SigmarBattle ReportsGeneral wargamingTournaments/Competitive

After Actions Report: Slambo GT 2019

Howdy Yall! The JTJ here.

Just got back from San Antonio and the Slambo GT. It was great fun, even though I got a little melancholy at times. So lets go over what happened from my perspective.

Winners and Awards:

Starting it off with the most important information, if this is what you came for scroll not further.

Awards:

Overall: Zachary Kennedy
1st Best General: Brandon Sullivan
2nd Best General: Tim Frisbee
3rd Best General: James Southerland
1st Best Sportsmanship: Trey Guerrero
2nd Best Sportsmanship: Joshua Mullins
3rd Best Sportsmanship: Chris Cole
1st Best Painted: Bill Bloop (Kit Reisch)
2nd Best Painted: Matt Taylor
3rd Best Painted: Nina Murney
1st Players Choice: Nina Murney
2nd Players Choice: Kit Reisch
3rd Players Choice: James Southerland

 

Thoughts on the top lists:

Zachary Kennedy representing Harambes Heroes our of Katy Texas, Won the event.

His list:

Slambo GT winning list

It is hard as nails to get through and hits like a tone of bricks.  I have played Zachary in the past and he is a great players, I am happy that he won the tournament after coming so close to winning Warzone. When you put a list like this in his hands most opponents are going to have a tough time winning.

Brandon Sullivan took second overall with his Gloomspite Gitz list:

Slambo GT 2nd place

I have never had the chance to play Brandon but by looking at his sports scores he is a well respected player. He is not ranked in the top 50 of the Texas Masters, so I am not sure what his full story is. It will be interesting to find out more about him as this and next season go along. GSG are hard to play for lots of armies, they have bodies, shenanigans, and lots of tricks.

 

Next is our friend Tim Frisbee. Most of us here in Houston have played or know Tim. Will his trash talking ever end? I hope not! Because when I build an army that can actually beat him I will be the one talking trash!  Tim is 20th place right now in the Masters ranking, he should be moving up a good bit. I would count him a lock to make it. As stated above GSG are in a very good spot in the game right now. They are a hard out in any battle.

Check out this finely crafted list:

Rounding out the top lists is James Southerland and FEC. James is a local Slamboian and has a big personality to go along with his big mustache. His army was very nicely painted and along with coming in 3rd overall he came in 3rd in painting, not a bad days work. He is ranked 45 in the Masters ranking, I expect him to jump up a bunch of spots by the end of the month. FEC is a strong force to deal with in the hands of an experienced player.

slambo GT winning list FEC

Special shout out to James West who came in 6th overall. He was at the top table against Zach in round 5. He continues to impress everyone with his outstanding play and it is probably safe to say he is the best Everchosen player in the world right now.

Total Scoring Breakdown:

Here is the total scoring breakdown for the top 50.

slambo GT score breakdown

Tournament organization:

Now that we have covered all the important stuff for those net listers out there lets look at the tournament itself.

Room/Tables

The space we played in was awesome. The hotel was on point. The space was large, like you could walk all the way around the tables without have to squeeze around. The AC was blowing and that kept the nerd sweat to a minimum. They even had iced water coolers set up at the back of the room.

The tables were ok. They had to use the two tables setup with a mat on top. there was a bit of a bump in the middle of some of the tables. But this is the norm for many of the GTs, you are just working with what the event space can provide. I don’t think it was a major issue for anyone. The terrain was all over the map, literally and figuratively. It ranged from outstanding, to out of this world, “looking at you pumpkin town”. The terrain came from various stores and individuals, it is what you have to do to fill up 30 tables with terrain. Some were a bit crowded, especially for mission 3, “talk about that later”. And this is not 40k so it is not the most important aspect of the game, it just makes everything look nice.

Look at all that space:

AOS GT Khorne

Organizer

The event was organized by Dan Norris and the Slambo crew. The proceeded from the event were all donated to Clarity Child Guidance Center. They had a great vision for what they wanted to do with the hall, packet, prizes, and points system. From my view things went of nicely and everything was running smoothly. I want to also point out that Dan would post parings as soon as they had all the score in. That was extremely helpful. It let you move to the tables early, go over list with your opponent and talk it out without wasting time on all that once the match started. Please other TOs keep this in mind. Also on that note the length of the matches was good at 2 hours and 40 minutes. that extra 10 minutes seemed to help.

They allowed Beer in the hall and even provided a keg that you could buy a BIG cup with a coupon. This kept the mood Saturday light and fun. I only had 1 beer on Saturday, but it helped me keep my calm in the face of adversity. So hats off to the beer.

The prizes for all the winners were framed awards and small trophies. All the product support was raffled off, with the proceeds going to Clarity Child Guidance Center. I purchased some tickets for me. TJ sent some money with me to get him some also, “mostly to just donate to charity”. However we came away with nothing, which is fine. I was really hoping to get some of that Skaven stuff though!. My buddy Ryan got 2 of his tickets drawn, he ended up with some dice and a 4×4 playmat. I am cool with the winners not getting plastic. The point of the Event was to have fun and raise money. I think most people were on board with that idea.

Shout out to Tyler Rabb for taking the photos.

Packet

Lets talk about the packet. I will be up front and honest. I was worried that the packet as written would cause a bunch of nerd rage. I think that some of the rules may have hurt some armies a lot more than others. I understand the intent of some of the terrain rules and command traits was to help balance the field, but may have gone a bit overboard limiting the shooting for mission 3, “more on that later”.  In the end they benefited me more that not. After it was all said and done, the special mission rules did not seems to bother many people. I did like the Slambo Command ability. I think that was a very good inclusion in the rules and it should be in every mission next year.

The paint scoring was easy to understand, it was not as in depth as Warzone but had enough variance to separate the field out. The sportsmanship scores was also easy to do 1,2,3. The other category was players choice. In this field you picked the army you would most want to bring home. You could base it on painting or on it being very good on the table. I picked Ninas based on cool factor, I could have gone with Kit, but I have a painted Nagash so I don’t need 2, “and yes I know his is better, but I am happy with mine!”.

The Battle Agendas were nice and I am glad they added a mechanic like that in. Always a fan of ways to get extra points even in defeat.

Friday Night:

I seemed like most of Houston arrived at the same time, I think we all got backed up by the same wreck. Me and Ryan left my house in Pearland right before 1pm. Traffic was not bad until right before we got to San Antonio. When we were checking in about 3 other groups from Houston were getting to the hotel also.

After we got into our room and settled in, we went to check out the event hall and see who was around. Not many people had made it in yet and the few who were there helped set up tables. As I hung out a trickle of people made it in. It was getting close to an early supper so I was asking if anyone wanted to go get some food. I was really hoping that a group of us could go out and have a beer and bite. However it seemed that most of the people there were not going to eat or were waiting on others. So I decided to head out early with the intent of getting back and checking out some Friday night games. Me and Ryan headed across the street to eat at Pappadeaux Seafood, I had a solid meal and a beer and me and Ryan just chilled and talked. About the time we got up to leave most of the Houston crew showed up to get a table.

We headed back over to the Hotel. I was hoping that there would be a good bit of people out there playing, however there was only 1 game going on with Matt Taylor playing against some Orks. Most of the Dallas crew was in chilling. I went ahead and checked in with Dan and just sat around hanging out while I had my rum and rootbeer. About the time the rest of the Houston crew got back the maintenance crew informed everyone that they would be locking the doors at 10Pm. With that, everyone pretty much just went their own way. I made it an early night, I figured Saturday would be a long day.

Day 1:

Hopes:

As I stated in my last post before I left to the event I really just wanted to go 3-2 and get some good painting points. I thought there was an off chance that I could go 4-1, but the field was tough and there was lots of counters to my army.

Game 1:

The mission:

This mission is very straight forward. I need to take the middle points and protect the one in my deployment. Also with the -1 to moral from terrain, this is a perfect mission to take Terrify as one of your Battle Agendas.

The Opponent:

I was matched up against Ben Conner. He was running Hagg Nar Daughters:

Hagg Nar GT list

hagg nar GT list

The list is a nicely balance daughters army. The Khinerai can deep strike and take points while the main force just murders anything in its path. A 5++ re -rolling is nothing to scoff at. Morithi is just such an anvil also.

AOS GT Khorne

My Deployment Tactics:

He was going to out drop me, so I knew he was going to have the choice to go first or second. He could not reach my lines first turn. I set up with the plan to rush the objectives with my dogs if I went first to get the points. But I was also mindful that if he took first turn to protect areas from the deep strike. I put my Skullcrushers on the left flank so I had a good chance to hit him with some impact hits and not muddle up the middle where my BTs would be doing work.

AOS GT Khorne

What Happened:

He took first turn and moved to the objectives, but stayed a bit back. I was wary to commit my BTs  because I could not assure 1 much less 2 charges. I did feel confident that 5 Hounds and My Fury general could make short work of the 10 daughters that he had moved up on the right to take the point. After positioning a screen for my BTs and mostly moving up with my entire army. I started rolling charges. I was able to make a long charge with my SkullCrushers. I only did a few impact hits and It was mostly just to tie him up for a turn. His unit was a bit strung out and I knew he would not get that many models into combat If I just minimized my frontage. On the right My Fury made and Hounds made the charge into his unit of 10 Daughters. I activated my Fury first and managed to only kill like 5 Daughters. Then the Hounds went, I got his unit down to 3 models. On the left it went about as expected. I lost 1 Skullcrushers and he lost a few models. I figured that the rest of the unit on the right would run from battle shock and not only would I be in great position on that side of the board, but I would have also completed my Battle Agenda Terrify. However even with loosing so many models only 2 ran, leaving 1 to tie up my Fury.

The next turn I won the priority! Now I was in position to do work. However there was a problem. My Wraith and Rage Thirsters would have to still make a very long charge roll. And my Fury was tied up in combat with 1 Witch. I had a plan, I would run the all 3 to get them into position center board, then I would use my Furys command ability to let the Rage and Wraith pile in 6. That would assure me that I made it into combat. I am not saying this was a bad idea, I figured that 5 dogs could kill 1 Witch… So once combat started I was able to pile in with my rage I just needed him to hit like 2 6s on his to wound and it may be game over. All his heroes were within 8, however I only hit 1. I will take what I can get. At the end of combat, he still had about 10 daughters alive out of his unit. The 5++ is real. Now I just had to hope I could hold out.

Measuring out were Morathi would land:

AOS GT Khorne

I managed to live through his turn of but my Skullcrushers ran away to battle shock. Now he was in position to roll me. Oh yeah did I mention that my dogs did not kill the last Daughter on the right. Yeah 4×4 attacks could not do it.

He was mostly engaged with my Wraith and Rage up front and my Fury was not in a bad postilion but not close enough to help out. He moved his unit of shield Witches up making sure to stay out of 6 inches. So I could not use the command ability. My BTs in front were taken down around this time, and my back line was being carved up. The dogs on the right were about to die also, did I mention that the single Witch was still alive after another around off attacks from he dogs.

My gambit and failed the end was here. I had lost.

Hindsight:

I am not sure that I played it poorly. I had to make a move at some point. Were it all went wrong for me is not killing that 1 unit on the left. My plan if I had freed up my Fury turn 1 was to push into his back field with my Fury. While my other 2 BT pushed up the middle. At that point he did not have a bunch of models sitting on his back objectivet. The plan was to move up take the back point early to put him behind the 8 ball. However that 1 F-ing model would not die, I would not have been able to charge with my fury so it sort of changed my tactics. In retrospect It would have probably be better for him to have gone 1st in the second round. He would have probably came a bit closer so my charge options would have changed. However he may have just turtle up for another turn and waited on me.

It was a game that I felt was close until it was not close. I think that I had an opportunity, but there is no shame in loosing to DOK in my opinion they are a strong army even in the current environment.

The MVP of Game 1, the lone Daughter who survived 3 turns of Flesh Hounds and 1 turn of a Bloodthirters combat:

AOS GT Khorne

Game 2:

I had lost game 1, but that is ok, I figured I would have an ok pairing for game 2 and could get back on tack.

The Mission:

This mission is a little crazy, but I played it a week or so ago and had a good feeling on what I needed to do . I just hoped that my opponent was not a bad match-up like a hoard I could not chew through.

This games, we forgot to use the special mission rules. We never rolled for the -1 armor or used the built in command ability

The Opponent:

Guess what, DOK in the house! Age : (

For this Game I would be playing Jonathan Schlieszus from Dallas and his Daughters. He did not have a list uploaded, but it was very similar to the list I had just played, however he ran did not run Hagg Nar he ran Khailebron with the Bloodwrack Sisterhood. He also had a way of pilling in 6. Not sure what did that.

Sooo many buffs: And yes that is the same table as last game, same table same enemy.

AOS GT Khorne

My Deployment Tactics:

Once again my opponent would dictate who would go first. I needed to screen all my BTs, he had the ability to deep strike units from anywhere to anywhere. I also needed to be ready to rush up and take the point if I was going to go first. I  needed to leave a lane for the Pinata to travel back to me if I decided to go second in round 2.

His deployment was almost identical to Ben in the last game.

AOS GT Khorne

What Happened:

He let me go first. I moved up my crushers so they could take the point and I used them and my Dogs to screen my BTs. I moved My BTs up to get into a good position to make a turn 2 charge.

I ended up with a V shaped center. I felt ok with what I had done. However I left a bit too much space in the center of the V. He moved up  a bit with his army and transformed Morathi.

This is Jonathan measuring out how far Morathi would have to charge to make it into combat with my BTs:

AOS GT Khorne

And of course he made the charge with Morathi now she was in combat for my Bts, I knew this was going to be where they would die. He made the charge with a block of Witches on Left and the Cauldron of Blood. His other block of Witches pilled in 6 against my Skullcrushers. Dogs died fast, but the Skullcrushers lived. I did my 3 wounds to Morathi, and she wore down my Rage.

I won the roll of turn 2 and I was in a horrible spot. If I let him have turn 2 he would move the point back and the game would be over, I would never reach it. If I let him go first I could move it, but then everything would just die on my side.  I took the second turn, because I felt it was my only chance.

And needless to say may army crumbled, I tried to do some cheeky pilling in and retreating and such, but the writing was on the wall. On turn 3 he won the roll off for priority and we called it a game.

Because our game finished so fast I was able to talk to Jonathan a bit and get to know him. Very nice guy and we were both active duty Army at the same time so we conversed about that for a while. Hope to see him at another GT in the future, but hopefully next time I can play it a bit better.

Hindsight:

I should not have moved so far up and left so much space. I was worried about getting the charges off with my thirsters, but the space I left lost me the game. The rest of the match was just me treading water. I was just worried about how the Pinata would move so I was more planning on that, than worrying about Morathi. I was out played and my list was a bit out classed. If we played the game again I would probably do a bit better, but it would most likely be the same final outcome. I lost the game during the movement phase of my first turn.

Game 3:

I was a bit down in the dumps at this point. I had played a game that was close and a game that was no way close. I started thinking that I am just not as good of a player as I thought I was….doubt had crept in.  2 losses in a row just had me feeling a little lost. I would have to win out to achieve my goal of 3-2.

The Mission:

The mission is nice on a couple fronts for me: I am not a shooting army so the line of sight blocking is super important to my survival. Also deploying on the ends helps me block off deep strike lanes. All in all a nice mission to play for my forces.

The Opponent:

I was matched up against Siamack Bazargani. He is a Houston local and I think I have seen him around, but never had a chance to meet or play him. I want to say that Siamack is a super nice person and I would like to play him again.

Stormcast tournament list

 

Sooo, I got matched up against a Stormcast shooting list in the mission that hurts shooting armies!!! My luck was on an uptick.

My Deployment Tactics:

I knew I was going to get the choice on first turn so I deployed my BTs in position to move up in the center and hide as much as I could from the shooting Ballistas that I knew would drop in. My back line was on maximum spread deployment  to block all is deep-striking. This table was a cityscape with lots of line of sight blocking terrain and a large square in the middle that I could fit my BTs in to hide. I planned on taking the first turn to get my buffs up, get my BTs hid and move up to be ready to take the points turn 2.

AOS GT Khorne

What Happened:

I took the first turn and moved up as planned. We had to stay 7 inched away from the center points so the first turn for both of us was just moving around a bit.

I won the roll and decided to commit with my Skullcrushers. They managed a nice charge and put plenty of mortal wounds on his southern unit of Sequitors. I was able to take both points and ended my turn.

Siamack did not drop any of his units in this turn and only shuffled his norther unit around a bit. All in all he played very passively. I think the threat of the BTs made him keep is distance. In my opinion this was a mistake. He should have been aggressive. I spoke to him after the game about it. I think he needed to move up and tempt my BTs to get them out of cover.

2 Bloodthirsters acting like John Cena in the middle, “you can’t see me”:

AOS GT Khorne

Turn 3 I  won the roll again and moved my Rage up to help take out the southern unit. My real plan was to try and get a long charge and grab his southern objective then burn it. It was risky and almost worked out, I was over confident with my attacks and split them between the 2 units of Stormcast, I should have focus on the unit of liberators. On his turn he did not drop in his units of Ballitsta gain.

Late in the game he made a move to take the north center objective and brought in is artillary. He killed my Rage and my SkullCrushers were about done. I counterd by pulling back my last crusher to the safety of cover. I shot his general of the board with my Wraith and Fury BTs. Then they charged his north Sequitors. I was able to start taking them down a bit, but even at the end of the battle he had a few still alive. I think he overestimated the hitting power of my BTs and that was one reason he kept them back for so long. If he had moved them up and dropped in his shooting early, by turn 4 I would probably not have any units remaining.

Bloodthirsters doing work and everyone else hiding:

AOS GT Khorne

The shooting range is open for business:

AOS GT Khorne

Hindsight:

It was a fun game, but if Siamack was a bit more aggressive and pushed harder I think he would have won. I know he was worried about his Ballista getting killed by my BTs but they don’t earn their points sitting in the sky. Also many players overestimate the power of Bloodthirsters. Yes the Rage can be devastating, but it comes down to dice with him. The other 2 are more consistent but less impactful.  20 Sequirtors should never be overly scared of 1-2 Bts.

All in all I got a good draw in this match because of the Mission rules and its negatives to shooting. If this was more of a standard mission I think I would have been toast. Sometimes luck is more important than skill.

End of day 1

I felt a little better about my position knowing I would not go 0-5 now. But also I knew that I got very lucky last round. I was going to have to face a Skaven army the next day and my list just does not stack up very good against a Skaven army.

That night I was able to go out for some beers and eat at a nice Mexican Restaurant with Ryan.  I was trying to see were everyone was going that night. But a good chunk of the people were headed to the Masters Council Dinner. A bunch of the others were a bit “lit up” by that point also. By the time we got back from supper and I made my way down to the Hall, no one was there chilling so I talked to Tyler for a bit and headed to bed.

Day 2:

I had to win out to complete my goal. I was feeling ok about it, but Skaven are a hard out for me.

I made my way to the restaurant in the hotel to get a bite to eat and see who was all around. It was nice to listen to all the people getting intel on their game 4 opponents, talking tactics and just being a little hung over.

Game 4:

Playing in the Pumpkin town!

The Mission:

Interesting mission, I need to hold all my points and just manage to take out 1 of the enemy points.

The Opponent:

I was matched up against Jeremy Jones from Dallas and his Skaven. Jeremy was a fun person to play and he was very sympathetic when I failed all the rolls that I did.

This is not the most overpowered Skaven list I have ever played. Jeremy called it old school Skaven. I agree. It is straight forward and does what it does. Even with all that being the case I still felt he had the upper hand from a list perspective. “2 Warp Lightning Cannons would dictate what I do all game”

My Deployment Tactics:

I would get to choose the turn order. I spread my lines out with the Hounds on the flanks. I would use them to rush any unguarded points or as speed bumps if he pushed aggressively. I stuck my Rage and Fury on my right flank, with the hopes of pushing his weaker side. The Wrath stayed center right and far back as a QRF unit. The Skullcrusher were center to hold the middle if he decided to push.

AOS GT Khorne

What Happened:

I took first turn and re-positioned my army to stay 27 inches away from his cannons. My hounds and 2 BTs pushed the right hard. I had decided I would play for the double turn or just try and get lucky, rush his right and burn the point turn 2. Then withdraw back to my side and make him come to me. It almost worked!! But he hit my BTs with Warp lighting vortex and then won the roll for priority. Oh well mice and men, haha.

He focused fired my Rage off the board and put a few wounds on my Fury. But he did not charge and just re-positioned his lines. On my turn 2 I ran away! My plan had failed. I moved back to my side of the board to regroup and come up with a new plan.

This is me running away and staying outside range of the Cannons:

Turn 3. I was about out of options he went first and cast WLV on my Fury and Skullcrushers. I took the hits and stayed alive. On my turn I dispelled the spell. I knew it was now of never, PUSH FORWARD! It would be a long charge for my BTs, so I decided to use the 6 inch pile in tactics. I ran my Wrath and just moved up my Fury, the Skullcrusher moved up also. I needed to get in and kill his cannons. I had a plan, take out the unit of rats in his center front then hope 1 BT could live through his turn and I could get my Skullcrusher on his point. I made the charge with my Fury. My Wrath was able to pile in and between the 2 I was able to kill about 20 rats, not what I had hoped for. However the rats attack back did little damage to me. I was going to be in a great spot to double turn! And to my amazement I got the double turn!

Balls to the Wall!

AOS GT Khorne

I only needed to kill about 14 rats and I would be able to pile in with my Fury and take out his cannons. The Skullcrushers made their charge in. However they did almost no damage on their impact hits. Now it was a scrum in the middle. I don’t remember exactly the sequence of the next combat, but I will say that I could not kill 1 rat, I could not kill a cannon with 2 wounds remaining and I could not kill a Engineer with 4 wounds. The bottom line was I whiffed at almost every opportunity and he made his saves like a boss. I felt that my second gambit had failed. The best thing that I had going for me was that he only did a little damage to my wrath and I had 1 Skullcrusher alive keeping him from shooting it off the board. By this point he had moved his Bell to his center point and his left unit of rats had moved over to battle my Wrath. Speaking of that combat my Wraith only killed 1 rat with all his attacks. Yeeeaah. However because he moved his unit off the point the Hounds on my right had a chance.

Time was almost up at the start of his final combat phase. He had moved his Storm Vermin last turn and was in position to take my center point. I had moved my Reavers way back, but should have moved them up to stop his charge short of the objective.  He needed about a 7 inch charge. If he made it at best I would be getting a minor loss. However he failed the charge and did not have anyone in position to let him re-roll it. I had escaped death!  Because of that and my Wraith having lived through his shooting I had 2 paths to victory. If he killed my Wraith in CC I would have enough Blood Tithe to move my Hounds in my hero phase, that would have given them enough movement to take his point. Or if my BT lived I would run him over to the his point and take it that way. Either way I would be able to take his point and win. He killed my Wraith because he had taken that as his Battle Agenda. I moved my dogs up and burned his point winning me the game.

Hindsight:

This was such a close game. It had swings in every turn. I felt I had like 3 different chances to win and then 3 different chances to lose. This game was all about some key dice rolls. Jeremy played it nicely all the way to the end. I think he should have kept is left unit in place and just let the bell take on my Wraith. However If he did that I may have been able to break through to his center point with my Fury. So I am not sure what the correct answer would have been for him in the long run.

Warp Lightning Cannons are sooo powerful “when they hit” and the could easily 1 or 2 shot my BTs. They dictated what I could and could not do. The only down side to them is their volatile nature. Out of all the Skaven shooting they seem to have the biggest risk vs reward swing.

Jeremy was a great opponent to play and I wish him luck in the future, But Please get some Gnawholes! just the threat of a them will help you out so much in tournaments.

Game 5:

Final game and I was sitting at 2-2, I had made it through 2 shooting armies. I was feeling better about my position and honestly if the last game was a loss it would have been fine. I was just in a place of acceptance with my list.

The Mission:

A very straight forward mission, last person standing on the points win.

The Opponent:

Sons of Slambo member Trey Guerrero would be my last opponent of the tournament. He was a very chill guy. We had a very laid back game, “well expect that one part were I started vehemently pleading my my Rage Thirster to put just 2 wound on his Black Coach”.

After talking with him for a bit he seemed more about the hobby and just having fun. Not to say that he was not playing to win, just that he was there to have a good time fist and foremost.

 

Nice base! and it matched the board

AOS GT Khorne

My Deployment Tactics:

He kept a large portion of his forces in the underworld and had spread out the rest of his army over his 2 points. I castled up hard. I know what those BladeGheist can do if they get the charge. I would have the choice on first turn.

You can’t see my army because they are inside a turtle shell:

AOS GT Khorne

What happened:

I took first turn and just moved up closer to center field. I putt up my Bronze flesh and that was it. He shuffled his army around charged in with his center unit of Hexwraith. They only did about 1 wound to my Skullcrushers.

Turn 2 he dropped in his units from reserve on my Left flank. They killed a unit of Reavers. I moved in to try and take out his Black Coach and Olynder with my Rage and Skullcrushers. I thought I would be able to make short work of them,”think again smart guy”. I was able to kill his unit of Chainrasps and do a few wounds to the Coach. Olynder did not take any wounds. That corner became a slog for my Rage and I never did manage to kill the coach with him. Olynder was teleported out of the combat by the Dreadblade.

Oh Rage, how you always give me hope right before you let me down.

AOS GT Khorne

 

Want to see a  magic trick? I can turn your Reavers into Blood Tithe.

AOS GT Khorne

When he was in combat with my Ravers on the Left he moved within 6 inched of my Wraith with a unit of Dreadblades. I used my command ability to pile is 6 with the intent of taking out the unit. Well that plan failed, I only killed 2 models and his return swing took off half of my wounds. Then to add insult to injury the used the Spirit Tourment to bring those 2 models back. I had also pilled into the Dreadblades with my Hounds to help slow him down next turn.

He won the roll off for turn 3 and I was about to get F the F up. I did have a few Blood Tithe and I used them to RUUUNN my Wraith out of the combat. The only good spot to run my Wraith to was center board, but this did put him in range of Kurdoss. By some miracle I lived through that combat with about 1 wound. I managed to put a few on him in return. On the right the Black Coach killed the Rage, yeah that was about right. My turn I killed Kurdoss with Bloodboil, charged his Coach with My Skullcrushers and Hounds. He only had 2 wounds remaining, I figured impact hits from 6 Skullcrusher would finish him off. 1-1-1-1-1-3, What the F, 5 ones on my impact hit rolls! Trey and me had to laugh at that. I did kill it with my attacks, but come on, that Coach lived much longer than it was supposed to. On the left I was able to take out his most of his Dreadblades.  At this point, Trey called it. I think he still had more than a chance. But he said he wanted to go get some beers and I needed to hit the bathroom.

This is what it took to finally kill the BC!

AOS GT Khorne

When we got back and settled in I asked him again if he was sure he I had the win. He assured me I had it and it was a good game. I told him we had a bit of time, lets keep playing.

If we would have stopped playing when at the end of turn 4, he would have won. We did not have much time remaining, so we did not start a turn 5. However in my turn 4 combat all I needed to do was take to wounds off his Torment and kill 2 Dreadblades with my Fury. Do you think my Fury could do that? Nope only killed 1 Deadblade and no wounds to the Torment. Underwhelming to the end. So at the end of 4 he would have still held the point. I will say that I had a unit of Reavers I did not move over because he had already given me the game, they would have defended the point. But in the back of my mind it was a tie at best for me.

End of turn 4

AOS GT Khorne

Hindsight:

I gave Trey max sportsmanship, not only because he gave me the game early, he was just fun to play against. It was a chill game and was a relaxing wrap to the week.

Tactically I do not think I made any wrong moves, my dice just did not do the work I needed them to do.

list performance:

Well I went 3-2 and it could have easily been 0-5. All the games I won were closer than they needed to be. Either because of me making bone headed moves or the dice saying F U JTJ. I am not taking anything away from my opponents, they all played good games. At the end of the day, I totally see the appeal of taking Reapers of Vengeance over Blood Lords. When I run this list again I will Use Reapers instead and see how that works. I say that, but I did not have to deal with any of the top tables activation wars during the tournament, so there is also that to consider.

As a whole I was a little let down by the performance. It has several hard counters and even against an army that is equal to you their is very little room for error. This list is in a strange place for me, a bit to good for causal play and not good enough for tournaments. Possibly with some tweaks it would be better.

If I wanted to run the list competitively again I would look to:

  1. Run Reapers of V
  2. Change out Bloodreavers for Marauders
  3. Swap the Wraith for another Rage

That may help it a bit, but it would still be around the same power level.

Bloodthirsters

Missed rolls and missed opportunities. I just felt let down and underwhelmed the entire time with them. I am not sure if it was my rolling or just them. One of the best things they had going for them is that they looked scary. Like Nagash people are fearful of the name more than the unit deserves. I think they are great to have in a Khorne army, but making them the centerpiece is the wrong choice.

SkullCrushers

The hands down MVP of my list was the Skullcrushers. They did what they needed to do every game except for rolling all those 1s against the Black Coach. I think I would take a unit of 6 in every list. If you are building a Khorne army go drop the $100 to get some.

SlaughterPriest

I did not keep a tally, but they probably failed as many prayers as the made, even with the re-rolls from the altar! I will say that they did ok all in all. I would put at least 2 in every Khorne list, 3 if you have points. They are a good force multiplier and giving Skullcrushers 2+ is so sick.

FleshHounds

Besides the first game when they could not kill 1 Witch for a couple of turns, they did a solid job. They are generally fast and reliable. Are they an auto include, no. But are a great utility unit in a human or deamon list.

Bloodreavers

The most consistent unit in my list, haha. They did exactly what I thought they would do, take up space and die. If you are running them with that in mind then they will do the job. If you are needing something more look at other units.

Hex Skulls

Did not come into play that often as a magic negation, but did some charge lane blocking. I would keep it in even though it did not do much during my games. Its just do darn good not to have around.

Final Thoughts:

I ended up in 14th place overall. I accomplished my goal of going 3-2, and doing well in painting and sportsmanship. Placing that high gave me around 72 points. That should go a long way towards getting me to the Texas Masters.

As opposed to Warzone I was not even half as mentally wore down. I think the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed at Slambo. The event space helped out also. Probably the biggest reason was that Nagash requires a lot of thinking, he has one of the longest hero phases in the game. I just think that my Khorne list was mostly straight forward and honestly that was what I was looking for after playing Nagash for a while.

The Double Tree Hotel was nice. The only issue I had was that our room was close to the the freeway and the road noise was a bit much. Other than that 1 issue it was a great stay, I hope the event is there next year I would like to stay there again.

It was great seeing the Texas AOS community out in force. Most of the best players in TX where in attendance. I made some new friends and got to catch up with some old ones. overall a great time.

 

looking Ahead:

I am going to take it easy for a bit. I don’t plan on going to any tournaments for a few months and just focus on playing some friendly games here locally.

I would not mind getting into doing some videos or podcast later in the year, but at this point I do not want to be the driving force. So if anyone out there is planning on doing any digital AOS content hit me up I may be interested in contributing.

I am somewhat confident I will make the Masters, if I don’t that is fine I will try again next year. However I need to prepare like I am going right now. SOOO you know what that means, new GT new Army!! I have 2 plans, and honestly I should go with my first idea. The first idea is to just update and add to a bunch of the 8th edition models I have. The second idea is way more ambitious. I will be hard pressed to complete it in time for the Masters, and if I start on it now and don’t complete it in time, then I will be left bring my Khorne or Nagash. So I am going to dive in on the second option and see where I am at when November gets here. If I have not made the progress I need then I will switch back to the first idea and go that direction.

Lets play a game and see if you can guess what my next army is going to be: using the following 3 hints:

Hint #1:

Round and round
With love we’ll find a way just give it time
Round and round
What comes around goes around
I’ll tell you why

 

Hint #2

I’m gonna take you down – down, down, down
So don’t you fool around
I’m gonna pull it, pull it, pull the trigger

 

Hint #3

I can see inside you, the sickness is rising
Don’t try to deny what you feel
(Will you give in to me?)
It seems that all that was good has died
And is decaying in me
(Will you give in to me?)

 

Thanks for reading

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *