Warhammer 40K Tabletop Thread XXXVI: If it Ain't Broke, Nerf It

[Cheesegear]

Friend is practicing for a tournament. Told me to bring the hardest list I could. So I brought a post-Assassins version of my Waiting for Guilliman list.

Spoiler: Imperium (Ultramarines)

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Ultramarines, Spearhead
Pri-Marneus Calgar - 200 Points
Chief Librarian Tigurius - 115 Points

(W) Primaris Ancient; Standards of the Emperor Ascendant, Storm of Fire - 69 Points
Sternguard (x10); Special Issue Boltguns, SIB & Chainsword - 160 Points

Devastators (x5); Heavy Bolter, Lascannons (x2), Missile Launcher, Armorium Cherub - 150 Points
Devastators (x5); Heavy Bolter, Lascannons (x2), Missile Launcher, Armorium Cherub - 150 Points
Thunderfire Cannon; Flamer, Plasma Cutter - 92 Points

Operative Requisition Sanctioned (-1 CP)

Blood Angels, Battalion
Captain with Jump Pack; Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, The Angel's Wing - 124 Points
Lemartes - 100 Points

Scouts (x5); Combat Blades, Boltgun & Chainsword - 55 Points
Scouts (x5); Combat Blades, Boltgun & Chainsword - 55 Points
Scouts (x5); Combat Blades, Boltgun & Chainsword - 55 Points

Death Company with Jump Packs (x13); Boltguns & Chainswords (x7), Thunder Hammers (x6) - 356 Points

Armoury of Baal (-1 CP)
Death Visions of Sanguinius (-1 CP)

Cadian, Battalion
Company Commander; Kurov's Aquila - 30 Points
Primaris Psyker; Force Stave - 46 Points

Infantry Squad; Mortar - 45 Points
Infantry Squad - 40 Points
Infantry Squad - 40 Points

Heavy Weapons Squad; Mortars (x3) - 33 Points

Imperial Commander's Armoury (-1 CP)

Reinforcements - 85 Points

Total: 2000 Points | 10 CPs

• It's not my favourite list. I hate that the AM Battalion is there. But there is literally nothing I can do about that. Even if they were to go to five points per model, I'd still have to take them. I mean, +1 Point per model only represents 30 Points. So the Mortars would go next.
• I'm also tempted to find the points to make the AM Battalion Valhallan, so I can pick up 21 Conscripts for 84 Points, and have points for Send in the Next Wave! if I need even more scoring bodies on the table, especially as a single Assassin isn't going to be useful every game. It's just more options.
• It's less CPs than I'm used to having. But Blood Angels only ever need to use CPs once. Since the Devastators and Sternguard are actual threats, I expect them to die in the first two turns, if not sooner. So they're not actually CP sinks, especially against a good player who is motivated to target them down.
• Dropping Calgar as my Warlord still allows me to pick up Kurov's Aquila. So, ideally I get CPs back at some point.
• I also want to switch out the Thunderfire for a Wyvern. But with Calgar chucking out re-rolls to hit, it's pretty effective regardless. Even then, three Heavy slots is required for the Spearhead.
• I'm desperately feeling the pain of not having a Lieutenant. But, I also have to remember that I'm not actually playing Ultramarines. Losing rr1 to wound is made up for by the fact that the Death Company hit like a truck and it's all pieces to a puzzle, not a roulette table where you push everything you own onto one number and piss everything away.
• It's a little low on scoring presence - especially without Invulnerables and/or Ignore Wounds. But that's what you get when you play Space Marines.

Opponent's list. This may be familiar to some. I play him all the time.

Spoiler: Chaos (Black Legion)

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Black Legion, Battalion
Abaddon
Sorcerer with Jump Pack; Force Sword, Delightful Agonies, <Slaanesh>

Cultists (x40); Autoguns, <Slaanesh>
Cultists (x40); Autoguns, <Slaanesh>
Cultists (x40); Autoguns, <Slaanesh>

Questor Traitorus, Super-Heavies
Renegade Armigers (x2); 'Warglaives'
Renegade Armigers (x2); 'Helverins'
Renegade Armigers (x2); 'Helverins'

"But I read on BoLS that most people consider Troops a tax." ...Yeah. Most bads... If I could run more Guardsmen without sacrificing my own list's integrity, I would.

I figured that between Tide of Traitors, Veterans of the Long War, and Cacophony he probably wasn't going to do that noise until Turn 2, since he wasn't loading up with Alpha Legion like a <Heretic Astartes> Detachment would. Abaddon is clearly the driving the force of the list. But since my opponent deployed first, during my deployment choosing a Vindicare would've been pointless. However, if I did choose a Vindicare, Abaddon wouldn't be able to move. But that doesn't matter because I know how conga lines work. Culexus would be lame. There's one Psyker in his list, and two in mine. The Culexus would be more detrimental to me.
So the choice was between an Eversor, or a Callidus...I chose Eversor.

Turn 1 was a disaster when I forgot Armorium Cherubs were things that exist. So I didn't get First Strike and everything was bad. Obviously I didn't kill any Cultist unit because that's the point in having 40 per unit, with Abaddon.

Luckily, his Turn 1 was equally as bad. But slightly better than mine. He ended up throwing all of his Helverins into one unit of Devastators, which was pretty good as I could make saves for days.

Turn 2, my Death Company, Lemartes and Eversor came in. The Thunderfire Cannon and Sternguard just dropped the Cultist screen, while my Death Company charged both Warglaives and killed both of them, and then consolidated into a unit of Cultists.

Tide of Traitors happened and my Death Company were standing around looking like idiots, as Cultists showed up in my DZ ready to make me a sad. My Death Company evaporated in one turn, which was pretty lame. But, they got me 2 VPs in a single phase, so at least they went out doing something.

Turn 3 is when I lost the game. By not shooting his Cultists in my DZ, he picked up 2 VPs. I had forgotten that since they had left the board they
a) Weren't in range of Abaddon, and
b) Didn't have Delightful Agonies up.
They would've been an easy kill with the Thunderfire and Sternguard. But, for some reason, I just didn't, and I tried to kill the harder Cultists who were in range of Abaddon. But the screen came down enough that Lemartes was in range to Charge the Sorcerer and beat its face in. So, while I did have an okay turn, I did so by handing my opponent 2 free VPs.

Turn 4 was bad, as I drew Scour the Skies and Witch Hunter for two-thirds of my cards that turn...Despite having done both last turn. Since Chapter Approved '18 is a thing, our meta doesn't do free discards anymore. Ouch. It's always painful drawing two cards you can't complete because you can only discard one, and I'd run out of CPs on Turn 3... ****.

His Turn 4, he had Helverins left which weren't doing anything now that their only targets were 1-wound Infantry models.

Since it's Sunday, the store was closing. So we called the game at the bottom of Turn 4 due to time (Can't slow-play in casual games).

Spoiler: Score

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This game was...Bad. I think both lists cancelled each other out fairly well, and as such it was a pretty low-scoring game.

8-8.

...Noting that I pretty much literally gave my opponent 2 VPs on Turn 3 due to a massive player mistake because while I was reading my cards, I wasn't reading his, and he had a DefObX on board which I could've easily prevented him from getting if I had just paid attention.