This is my first game using the ITC format and its a game using the previously posted Astra Militarum ITC List, against John’s Eldar, this is my first and only ITC practice game. For those that do not know – ITC is the Independent Tournament Circut. It is a set of missions and extra rules designed and maintained by Frontline Gaming. The rules and missions are available online – it is a pretty big read so I will try and summarise the biggest changes from regular games below.

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Astra Militarum ITC List – 2,000 Points

This is the same as the list I posted the other day, but with a couple of changes after comments on Facebook…

Removed 5x Ratlings

Gave all Hellhounds Track Guards

I had 5 points left so added an Augar Array to the Hammer of Sunderance Tank Commander – this gives him one re-roll to hit once per game

Cadian Battalion Detachment – 5CP

Company Commander Warlord with Bolt Pistol, Grand Strategist Trait – HQ

Yarrick – HQ – by Siege Studios

3x Infantry Squads – Troops

Melta Command Squad – Elites

Platoon Commander with Plasma Pistol, Power Sword and Dagger of Tu’Sakh￼

Catachan Battalion Detachment – 5CP

A Primaris Psykers with Nightshroud and Psychic Maelstrom – HQ

A Primaris Psyker with Psychic Barrier and Psychic Maelstrom – HQ

A Company Commander with Bolt Pistol – HQ

3x Infantry Squads – Troops – by The Unrelenting Brush

5x Ratlings – Elites

3x Hellhounds with Track Guards – Fast Attack

Thanks to Nick on Facebook for the Track Guards tip!

Cadian Supreme Command Detachment – 1CP

This uses the Emperor’s First Detachment from Vigilus Defiant.

A Tank Commander with Hammer of Sunderance, a Lascannon and an Augar Array

2x Tank Commanders with Battle Cannon, Plasma Cannons and Lascannon – HQ

Baneblade with Baneblade Cannon, a Hull Twin Heavy Bolter, an Autocannon and 2x Lascannon/Twin Heavy Bolter Sponsons – Lord of War

Eldar List – 2,000 Points

Battalion Detachment- 5CP

An Autarch

A Farseer

20x Guardians with 2x Star Cannons

Two units of 5x Dire Avengers

2x Wave Serpents

7x Striking Scorpions

Outrider Detachment- 1CP

A Warlock

Three units of 3x Windriders

Spearhead Detachment- 1CP

A Warlock

3x Fire Prisms

A Hemlock Wraithfighter

A Crimson Hunter

ITC Practice – Quick Overview

ITC Practice Mission – Seize Ground

There are six objectives.

If a player holds or contests 5 or more objectives at the end of their player turn, gain 1 point.

That’s the mission.

The battle is always six battle rounds in length.

Primary Objectives

The above are bonus points for this mission. The Primary Objective is always to hold objectives and kill stuff. The following are in effect for all ITC missions.

￼Primary Mission: End of Player Turn Scoring

Each player scores points at the end of their player turn.

Do you hold one or more objectives? 1 point

1 point Was an enemy unit destroyed during your player turn? 1 point

Primary Mission: End of Battle Round Scoring

Each Player also scores points at the end of each Battle Round.

Do you hold more objectives than your opponent? 1 point

1 point Were more of your opponent’s units destroyed this battle round than your own? 1 point

Secondary Objectives

There are 15 Secondary Objectives to chose from too – you pick 3 from the 15. This is done at the start of the battle after you’ve seen your opponent’s list. All are listed in the ITC doc.

Each Secondary can score a maximum of 4 points over the course of the game. Altogether your Secondaries are therefore worth 12 points.

I took; Recon, Marked for Death and Pick Your Poison.

Recon: Have a unit at least partially in each table quarter at the end of your player turn. A unit may only count as being in one table quarter at a time for the purposes of this rule. 1pt per turn. Marked for Death: Choose 4 of your opponent’s units with a Power Level of 7+. Earn 1 pt for each of these units destroyed. Pick Your Poison: Pick up to four keywords from the following list: psyker, fly, biker, vehicle, monster, titanic. You cannot pick a keyword more than once. For each keyword you pick, nominate an enemy unit with that keyword, you cannot nominate a unit for more than 1 keyword. Score 1 point for each nominated unit that is destroyed.

Note that some of these do stack up and some do not. In this case, kills from Marked for Death cannot count twice and therefore go towards Pick Your Poison.

For Marked for Death I decided on;

2x Wave Serpents

2x Fire Prisms

And for Pick Your Poison;

Fly – A Windrider Unit

Biker – A different Windrider Unit

Vehicle – The other Fire Prism

Psyker – Hemlock Fighter

For John’s secondaries, he had none during the game. I kind of sprung the whole ITC format and this ITC practice game on him late on – a few days before we played. We already had the game lined up as normal, but I asked for it to be ITC. He was a great sport and agreed to the practice game. But during the game, he had no secondaries, as its a lot to take in, in such short notice. Therefore I have retrofitted his secondaries into the game. John had;

Titan Slayers: For every 8 wounds lost by enemy units with the Titanic keyword in total throughout the course of the game, earn 1 point regardless of wounds being “healed” or “regenerated” etc. You may choose when to count wounds dealt to any one Titanic model but as soon as you do, that model will no longer yield points for any other non-stacking secondary mission. Big Game Hunter: 1 point for every enemy model with the Monster or Vehicle keyword and 7+ wounds destroyed. Behind Enemy Lines: If at least one of your units is entirely in the enemy Deployment Zone at the start of your turn, earn 1 Point. A unit is entirely within if every model in the unit is at least partially in the enemy Deployment Zone.

I realise this is a little odd and the game would have played out differently if John was working towards these objectives for the whole game. But the main purpose was to play the format. Which we did. More on these Secondaries later on…

Deployment

My Melta Squad, Platoon Commander and the Eldar’s Guardians and Striking Scorpions were in Deep Strike.

The Ratlings I set up 9″ away from the enemy deployment zone, on an objective (just) and in cover.

The ITC rules state…

The player who lost the roll-off in step 1 deploys the first unit. Deployment proceeds normally thereafter.

I was not sure what normally meant. But it goes onto say…

Players roll off for first turn. The player that finished deploying first gets a +1 modifier to the roll to go first.

Which suggests we alternate deployment, unit-by-unit. Which we did. Let me know if this is wrong! This is why I am doing ITC practice!

On the day of the event, the following board setups will be used…

Eldar – Turn 1

I decided not to Seize and so would go second. This was because it would be easier to get onto objectives to Hold More and also easier to pick what to kill to get Kill More.

The Eldar zipped a flyer forward, and two units of Windriders, but not much else. A Fire Prism hopped up and onto a container to easily see the Baneblade that would’ve otherwise got cover. I think.

The Fire Prisms used Linked Fire to all fire at the Baneblade, re-roll hits and re-roll wounds – and did a massive 14 wounds to the Baneblade – it was now down a bracket. A Hellhound was pushed down to 7 wounds and another down to 2 wounds. Shooting wise the Eldar killed no units.

A unit of Catachan on the right flank took some wounds – nothing major.

Below you will see the Eldar movement in red, the green circles are objectives and the blue are a Wave Serpent and Fire Prism that swapped places before the battle began using a Stratagem.

Astra Militarum – Turn 1

I move my right flank up with two units of Catachan and the Hellhounds. The Track Guards are working wonders here because I can move them their full distance still! The Baneblade lumbers forward 7″ and the characters follow it along with a squad of Cadians.

The Baneblade’s shooting was poor. It was hitting on 6s because it was bracketed and the enemy Fire Prism was more than 12″ away – so -1 to his. Thanks, Eldar. The Flyer was closer and within 12″ but its -1 to hit by default so again – hitting on 6s. This made for a poor showing.

I removed a unit of Windriders with a Hellhound and nearly killed another Windrider unit with a different Hellhound – one model remained on one wound. The Tank Commanders blew up a Wave Serpent.

I had killed a unit and killed more than the enemy, this gave me 2 points. I also held an objective and held more than the enemy, that was another 2 points. The Eldar just held one objective, for 1 point. The Secondaries are not tracked per turn on the ITC app – so its harder for me to piece together when they occurred on a turn by turn basis. I will add them on at the end of the report.

Show Primaries Score Eldar: 1 Astra Militarum: 4

Eldar – Turn 2

The Eldar movement is again minimal with the Flyers repositioning. The Striking Scorpions arrive just out of the picture where the green arrow is shown on the below overview image.

The Baneblade is ruined this turn by the Fire Prisms. It’s last 14 wounds are removed ease thanks to Linked Fire, again. It does not explode, thank goodness. The Hellhound that was on 2 wounds is lost too in the centre of the table. And the Catachans that ran forward are thinned out thanks to a Horrify power and the Hemlock’s Leadership debuff. I have 1 left in one squad and 2 left in another after the Morale Phase.

The Windrider was sent in first though to eat the Overwatch, it made it in. The Striking Scorpions fail their charge! The Windrider then died from the Catachan in melee! Go Strength 4!

Astra Militarum – Turn 2

The Baneblade was gone – and this was a good thing. It would mean adapting to the circumstances and not relying on that huge workhorse to get everything done.

I shifted units around, Advanced a Hellhound to the centre and Advanced a lone Catachan Sarg onto an objective. With the Baneblade gone my Psykers and Yarrick were a bit lost so they pushed up with the Cadians in the centre.

With the Baneblade gone it was now down to the Tank Commanders to save the day. Using two of them and Overlapping Fields of Fire I removed a Fire Prism. My Catachans and Hellhounds killed all but one of the Striking Scorpions. Not much else was going on. With the Fire Prism gone from the centre of the enemy’s deployment zone – neither of the remaining two could see my Tank Commanders. This was a good thing.

I also knocked the central Flyer down to its lowest bracket. I had shot at it a bit in turn one with the Baneblade and a Hellhound. This turn a Tank Commander did do some decent hurt to it.

I held one and I held more, I also killed one enemy giving me 3 points. The Eldar held at least one, killed at least one and had killed more than me. I had only killed a Fire Prism while the Eldar has removed the Baneblade and a Hellhound. This gave the Eldar 3 points too.

Show Primaries Score Eldar: 4 Astra Militarum: 7

Eldar – Turn 3

The Eldar were getting a bit more movement now and started to break out of their castle of sorts on the left flank. A Fire Prism flew up to survey the whole battlefield. The central most Flyer was now heavily wounded and could not move very far. The Dire Avengers on the right made their way out as well as the Windriders on the left flank.

In the Shooting Phase, I lost a Tank Commander to the Fire Prisms. A Hellhound was reduced to one wound and survived the slaughter from the D Sycthes above it.

The Guardians arrived and finished off the lone Catachan Sarg as well as the Ratlings.

Astra Militarum – Turn 3

Each side now has significantly reduced firepower and it’s getting hard to remove enemy models. I Advance my Cadians into the centre and shift the Psykers to get some Smites off. Yarrick moves to the Tank Commanders to dish out his re-rolls of 1.

The Tank Commanders do their duty and kill the Fire Prism on top of the building. Despite Hellhounds and Smites I fail to remove the last three wounds on the central Flyer – it is alive on 1 wound.

I ignore the massive blob of Guardians. But remove the last three Windriders on the left flank with the Hellhound on 1 wound.

The Hellhound on 1 wound then charges a Wave Serpent and dies. It fails to explode, I pay a CP to re-roll it and it does explode. This kills the Flyer in the centre, does 3 wounds to the Wave Serpent, 3 wounds to my Cadians and 2 wounds to the Warlock. Job done! One dead Psyker Flyer!

My Meltas arrived right at the back and did 6 wounds to the last Fire Prism.

I once again hold 1 and more than the Eldar for 2 points and I killed something for 1 point. The Eldar hold 1, killed 1 and killed more than me because I lost a Hellhound, Tank Commander, Ratlings, etc.

Show Primaries Score Eldar: 7 Astra Militarum: 10

Eldar & Astra Militarum – Turn 4

This ITC practice game is now drawing to a close. Things are going quicker now as we are running out of time. It is hard work getting used to all these new objectives, I am so glad I did this before the event!

The Eldar shift about a lot as they try to finish off units. I do the same.

The final tally of dead units for turn 4 is another Eldar Flyer, a squad of Cadians, a dead Primaris Psyker, a squad of Dire Avengers (where the blue circle is) and a squad of 4x Meltaguns.

Once again I held more and held one – I also killed one. Meanwhile, the Eldar held one but killed one and killed more. Giving us both 3 points this turn again from Primaries.

In the first turn I gained 4 points for Primaries, while the Eldar got 1. This three-point lead stayed the same throughout the rest of the game.

Show Primaries Score Eldar: 10 Astra Militarum: 13

The Secondaries break down as follows at the end of turn 4…

Eldar Secondaries

3 points for doing 3x 8 wounds on my Baneblade (Titan Slayers)

3 points for killing a Tank Commander and 2 Hellhounds (Big Game Hunter)

2 points for Behind Enemy Lines

Astra Militarum Secondaries

3 points for killing 2x Fire Prisms and a Wave Serpent (Marked for Death)

3 points for killing Windrider (Bike), Windrider (Fly), Hemlock (Psyker)

2 points for Recon

The Secondaries are a little off I know. Because John was not playing to these all the time he may have changed his game to suit these Secondaries. But bundling these into what was already a foreign format, would have been really hard.

Show Score Eldar: 18 Astra Militarum: 21

ITC Practice Summary

And so, the first ITC practice mission is done! Big thanks to John for doing this for me!

The ITC format is like a completely different game. There were only 3 points in it in the end and those three points were all from the first turn. That gap was maintained throughout the whole game. You could never have a mission play out like this from Chapter Approved. The points you can gain are very structured and it seems like if you can play very methodically – maximising the points per turn while setting yourself up for the next turn. E.g leaving one model in a unit alive to more easily get Kill More next turn.

This was a close game. Had we gone onto turn 6 who knows. I think it was open for either one of us to win it.

Neither of us managed to Hold (or Contest) 5 or more of the objectives for that bonus point each turn. That is interesting and I feel like, in a close game like this, something minor like that might be the difference between a win and a loss. But doing that requires such great movement!

I enjoyed it! I am looking forward to the weekend, unsure what it might hold and how tough the lists will be – but I think it will be fun.