2019 Da Boyz Review by Tim the Enchanter

2019 Da Boyz Review by Tim the Enchanter

Greetings! Tim the Enchanter here with a review of the Da Boyz GT in Rochester, New York, just South of Lake Ontario. The 40k GT was a tremendous event and saw over 100 players from the United States and Canada battle it out. I’m definitely going back next year, so let’s talk about the tournament itself and accommodations before going into my games.

Hotel and Event Space

The tournament took place at the RIT Inn and Conference Center. It’s always luxurious to show up to a multi-day event and never have to leave the premises. Thanks to a friend, I had a pushcart for the first time and couldn’t have been happier pushing my cart from hotel room to ballroom. The food at the hotel was solid, but I think next year they should keep the bar open later as at least in my group there were some drinkers ready to spend money but unable. The ballrooms with the tables were nice and had enough space to room around. Also, so many gamers signed up that there were too overflow rooms. I had two games in the overflow rooms which were extremely comfortable with only 6-8 tables in them.

Terrain and Terrain Rules

The terrain at the event was the best I’ve ever seen though I’m relatively new to the competitive scene. The tables were stocked and varied. I played on a typical ruin table, a table with train tracks and an actual train pulling 3 leman ruses, as well as a forest table. I saw tables with churches as large as ¼ of the table and a Xenos world that had an enormous piece in the middle. The team really went above and beyond on terrain. We do need to talk about the terrain rules for a bit. The event was not using ITC rules. It used true line of sight, which bit me hard in game 6, and many of the “box” terrain counted as transports. Each table had an index card that spelled out the terrain and the transport capacity of each “box”, along with the toughness, wounds, and save as the “boxes” could be destroyed. What that meant was on certain tables I could deploy all of my plaguebearers into a 30-man box and they couldn’t be shot until the “box” was destroyed or they came out. I think the ruling was an interesting twist, but I’m not sure I like it better than first floor blocks line of sight. Then again, I dislike “magic boxes”, so this ruleset was an improvement.

Scoring

Quickly, it was ITC primaries up to 30, plus maelstrom secondaries up to 15, 5 points of tertiaries for a total of 50 points. The player pack is on their website if you want to read through in detail. I practiced with maelstrom and it took me longer than usual to sort out the cards and what to do,but was a nice change of pace. I still likely prefer ITC secondaries but mixing things up is never bad.

The List

I’ve been running mixed Chaos all year and wasn’t going to change as my only other army is Orks and outside of 18 smasha guns, they are having a tough go of it. I wanted to bring something with a lot of command points as well as high toughness targets with good saves plus lots of mortal wounds. I figured I would see a lot of space marines and wanted to be wounded on 4s or 5s as much as possible as well as be able to ignore the plethora of cover save bonuses they get. The relics listed I took every time, and I kept the powers I took most of the time though I did mix those up depending on the matchup.

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos – Thousand Sons) [36 PL, 676pts] ++ + HQ + Ahriman on Disc of Tzeentch [9 PL, 166pts]: Glamour of Tzeentch, Warptime, Weaver of Fates Daemon Prince of Tzeentch [9 PL, 180pts]: Infernal Gaze, Malefic talon, Prescience, Wings Daemon Prince of Tzeentch [9 PL, 180pts]: Gaze of Fate, Helm of the Third Eye, Malefic talon, Temporal Manipulation, Wings + Troops + Chaos Cultists [3 PL, 50pts] . 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun . Cultist Champion: Autogun Chaos Cultists [3 PL, 50pts] . 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun . Cultist Champion: Autogun Chaos Cultists [3 PL, 50pts] . 9x Chaos Cultist w/ Autogun . Cultist Champion: Autogun ++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (Chaos – Daemons) [58 PL, 879pts] ++ Chaos Allegiance: Chaos Undivided + HQ + Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage [17 PL, 260pts]: Armour of Scorn Lord of Change [17 PL, 280pts]: Bolt of Change, Boon of Change, Incorporeal Form, Rod of Sorcery, The Impossible Robe, Treason of Tzeentch, Warlord Poxbringer [4 PL, 70pts] + Troops + Horrors [4 PL, 30pts]: 10x Pair of Brimstone Horrors Horrors [4 PL, 32pts]: Blue Horror, 9x Pair of Brimstone Horrors Plaguebearers [12 PL, 207pts]: Daemonic Icon, Instrument of Chaos, 25x Plaguebearer, Plagueridden ++ Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Chaos – Thousand Sons) [23 PL, 445pts] ++ + Lord of War + Magnus the Red [23 PL, 445pts]: Bolt of Change, Doombolt, Infernal Gaze Start with 13 CP – 2 for Relics = 11 pregame ++ Total: [117 PL, 2,000pts] ++

For those unaware, the impossible robe gives you a 3++ and incorporeal form gives you -1 damage to a minimum of one. So, the Lord of Change was very hard to kill, especially against things like disintegrator cannons. From there, Magnus can get a -1 to hit and a 3++ also. And if I’m lucky on my Boon of Change roll, he could be Toughness 8. So, two big baddies with 3 up invulnerable saves. Then I could deep strike the blood thirster for two command points leaving you the choice of shooting the big guys or the plague bearers who were often -2 to hit and could warp surge to 4++. Lastly, is Ahriman and the princes hiding behind the plague bearers, dishing out mortal wounds and buffing Magnus. That’s the list, on to the games!

Game 1

Game 1 I played an honorable gentleman running Morty and Magnus at his first GT. I played Morty and Magnus for part of this year, so know the tricks. Plus, I had more bodies to stymie his big guys. The game plan was thus to hide behind all of my chaff and wait for the smashing. To his credit, my opponent initially played cagey and did not come straight at me, but it quickly became clear that he couldn’t sit back. I destroyed his small plague bearer unit in my turn 1 after he went first and then jumped on the relic which was the bonus point that game. He eventually was able to charge his Morty and Magnus together, but I had screened with cultists and the Lord of Change who was expendable. I think the LoC was death hexed, but regardless, he died. That left Morty and Magnus open for a counter charge where the Bloodthirster smashed a death hexed Morty. My opponent followed up my killing my Magnus with his which was followed by the Bloodthirster doing work again and killing a not death hexed Magnus. At that point it was turn 4 or 5 and he had Ahriman and a unit of nurglings left. I did not try to maximize by score here in order to stay near the middle of the pack and ended up winning 38-20.

Record 1-0

Game 2

Game 2 ended up being against another player from my club which is a bit unfortunate to meet so early on. That said, I appreciated the game because we played without a clock and it was friendly throughout. He was running a mechanized eldar list that had flyers, wave serpents, and night spinners. I’ve played versions of this list before and it’s not a great matchup against my list. All of my heavy hitters can fly, so between assault and mortal wounds, the minuses to hit that these lists rely on mean nothing to me. I went first and a super Magnus smite that did 11 mortal wounds to a night spinner really set the tone. While he was able to down the bloodthirster in his turn 1, I now had a buffed-up Magnus running around the board smiting and smashing things. We ended up swapping deployment zones as he moved wave serpents across the board to prevent getting “boots on the ground” called. I mainly ignored the flyers unless one got too close. It was still a tight game most of the way, but I ran away with the points in the end to 31-18.

Record 2-0

Game 3

Going into game 3 I was feeling good. I’d never won my first two games at a GT before and I was playing another eldar air force. This one had nightwings instead of razorwings which is a subtle twist, but one that mattered against me as he was wounding my big fellas on 3s and doing D6 damage instead of wounding on 5s and doing 2. My opponent was a really nice guy and we bought each other beers during the game. I need to mention the clock though. We played with one and he was very quick to clock it over to me. Including clocking it over to me for one or two saves. While I suppose that is fair, it makes for a much more tense game and we ended with more than enough time to play 6 rounds despite having a 5-minute rules debate with the TO.

Anyways, I went first and I think I made two mistakes off the bat. I didn’t deepstrike the bloodthirster, though I didn’t know I would go first when I had to make that decision. And second, I kept Magnus in the plaguebearer and character bubble. In retrospect with the bloodthirster on the board, he was the obvious target over a buffed Magnus, so I should have slingshotted Magnus over into my opponent’s deployment zone. I may have even failed to get a kill as I believe I left a ravager on one wound. On his turn 1, he downed the Bloodthirster which was the correct move. Then we continued a back and forth game taking lumps out of each other until his turn 3. The key to defeating any list with big units as eldar is Jinx and Doom, but mainly the first one. Crimson Hunter Exarchs have Doom built in against flyers, so Jinx is all you really need. I had failed to get Glamor of Tzeentch off in my turn but did get Weaver of Fates. In comes the Jinx cast, and even though Magnus is there to deny, and I’m certain I used a command point reroll, it went off and Magnus was back to a 4++. From there, it was a shooting gallery that took every last bit of my opponent’s shooting to kill him. If Magnus had survived, and he certainly would if I still had the 3++, I would have heroically intervened into a ravager and then proceed to heal Magnus and kill more in my turn. I can’t guarantee that is enough to win, but it certainly would have ended up much closer. Final score 38-26 him.

Record 2-1

Game 4

First thing to know about game 4 is that we played 4 games on Saturday, so at this point it was around 7 PM and I’d been playing 40k since 8:30 AM. Surprisingly, I had a lot of energy still. I think because we only had a few beers Friday night. I was up against a Chaos horde list. It had a tzaangor bomb, bloodletter bomb, plaguebearers, flamers of Tzeentch as well as assorted buffing characters and casters. My opponent was friendly enough, offering me some bourbon, but clearly peeved that he lost his previous game. We had a good smash up, but with a triple battalion, he had more than enough troops to get hold more every round and it was a struggle for me to score maelstrom points as he pretty much had the board swamped with bodies. I was trapped in my deployment zone for the first 4 turns as wave after wave of daemons hit. I eventually broke out and killed them all, but by that point I only had Magnus and the Lord of Change left and not enough time to recover. If there were 7 or 8 turns, I could have won, but that’s not how the game works. Final score 38-25 him.

Record 2-2

Game 5

Game 5 was Sunday morning, so I got some much-needed rest the night before. I was up against an Imperial Fists list, but due to the list submission cutoff, the fist supplement was not in play at this tournament. My opponent was extremely nice and friendly. I deployed as far back as I possibly could while he went uber aggressive and deployed most everything on top of a terrain “box” in the middle of the board as it was search and destroy deployment. On top of that box were 6 devastator centurions, 5 aggressors, plus various characters. I knew right away that the kill was going to end quickly, so no need for a clock. He also had a drop pod with grav devastators in deep strike. He went first and didn’t move very much as he intended to kill Magnus. Before he go to shooting, he tried to cast a power with a psyker on top of the “box”, but rolled a double 1 perils. I asked him politely if he intended to keep that, he said yes, and then I hit him with the daemon stratagem that forces you to take 2D3 damage from perils. His psyker promptly exploded and inflicted a few wounds on the remaining Fists on his way into the warp.

At the end of the movement phase, he brought the drop pod down next to the “box” that the plaguebearers were in. That ended up being a game swinging decision. He was able to kill Magnus with the devastators in the pod and centurions, but in my turn, I popped the plaguebearers out of the box and tagged the drop pod with a single model. At that point, there was almost nothing left for him to shoot. Magnus was dead, the bloodthirster was in deep strike, the Lord of Change was hiding in the back, and all the rest of the characters were behind the plaguebearers. He charged his entire army into the plaguebearers in his turn 2, but between the -2 to hit after casting Miasma of Pestilence and warp surging in the fight phase to a 4++, I believe he killed 4 or 5 of them. What’s worse is that I rolled a 1 for morale and brought 3 of them back. Now that all of his stuff was in combat, I had no overwatch to fear and was able to get both princes and Ahriman into combat along with the Lord of Change. The bloodthirster charged two thunderfire cannons out of deep strike and made a 10-inch charge on one. On the other, my opponent decided to overcharge his plasma pistol, rolled a one, and the tech-marine died along with the cannon. From there, it was just a matter of rolling a few more combat phases and we called it in turn 4 with minimal marines left on the board. Final score 36-14.

Record 3-2

Game 6

Game 6 was yet another pleasant game. I didn’t have a single bad game despite the clock issues in game 3. In fact, I only ended up using a clock in games 1 and 3 as we forgot to turn it on in game 4. 4 of my games played 6 rounds and the other 2 were called in the 4th or 5th as it was clear I was going to win. In this game, I made a grievous mistake that was compounded by the maelstrom mission. In this one, you started with 6 cards and couldn’t discard any that you didn’t achieve. You could pay 1 CP to discard up to 3 though and one you were at zero, you got the draw 5, then 4, etc.

I was playing a third eldar army, though one much different than the other two. It was pure dark-kin and had planes, ravagers, talos, and venoms. He won the roll off and took first turn. In addition to the aforementioned mistake that will come up shortly, the true line of sight rules really hurt me here. I deployed all of my troops behind ruins, but because of various windows and doors that I hadn’t noticed, he could actually shoot at pretty much everything turn 1. So he proceeded to leave my bigs alone and pickup chaff. In this one, I deep struck the plaguebearers and the bloodthirster as he had more than enough disintegrators to kill the plagues. We then played a back and forth game that was tons of fun. I really enjoyed my opponent and we both let each other have take backs or go back if we forgot something. The bloodthirster made it into combat with a plane and proceeded to roll 3 ones to hit with a reroll out of 5 attacks and then 3 ones to wound! Not a single wound from the thirster. The command point I used for that reroll was my last one, which if I have stopped for a second, I would have realized that one of my maelstrom cards was secured objective 1 which was so far from the bulk of my army that I may never get it. Had a saved the cp, I could have spent it on discarding the card and drawing 5 new ones! As it happened, I now have to find a way to get on objective one or lose. Thankfully, I had a unit of brimstone horrors hidden not too far from the objective. We measured it out and I needed a 3 on an advance to steal it from a venom. Over two turns, I failed that 3-inch advance twice and never made it over to one, so never got to redraw cards. What a rookie mistake! Had I rolled a 3 or kept a command point, I would have scored that objective and been in prime position to win. As it was, I lost by two points 34-32.

Final Record 3-3

Being a blunder away from 4-2 (or a 5+ roll on Helm of the Third Eye!) felt solid. I had 6 awesome games and really enjoyed the experience. It would have been nice to play a lessor seen army like nids or necrons, but there was enough diversity between the armies I played that it wasn’t ever the same game twice.

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