TheChirurgeon’s Road Through 2024, Part 8: The Oxford GT (Part Two)

Welcome back, Dear Reader, to my ongoing chronicle of competitive and hobby progress in Warhammer 40,000 for 2024. Last time around I talked about my trip to England and my first day of games at the Oxford GT. Today I’m going to talk about day two and the rest of the trip, and talk about the lessons learned from the outing and what’s next for the army.

Day two is my last day at the Coach and Horses and I opt for the “Veggie breakfast” today, which drops the bacon (basically ham) and sausage for some holloumi cheese on the side. The cheese is rubbery but otherwise pretty good (it’s supposed to be rubbery). It’s an easier meal to eat than yesterday’s, and I finish everything but the beans.

Today’s travel plan is this: Check out, head to the event, play two rounds, win at least one of them, and then get down to Windsor and Legoland to meet up with my family for our trip to Legoland. That’s shaping up to be a two-hour-plus trip by train on the British rail service, but Wings volunteers to drive me down there (only about an hour), provided he doesn’t make the final four and have to play in the shadow rounds. So now I’m rooting against my good friend to drop a game today as we go into round 4. Not ideal, but if I gotta choose between rooting for Wings or being with my family for dinner, I know what I’m choosing.

Round 4 vs. Franco McDonnell’s Chaos Daemons

Franco's List - Click to Expand

I haven’t played against Daemons in tenth edition since my first game on stream against Goatboy back at the Kansas City Open last year. They’re better now than they were then, and Franco’s list is generally a real nightmare for me to go up against. I’m not kitted for taking out four titan-sized threats, and the infantry I am kitted out for has some advantages – firing mortars into horrors is almost always a losing proposition, as they can split and then regain models after passing the resulting Battle-shock test. The Nurglings and Plaguebearers aren’t too bad but Daemons’ ability to drop in within 6″ or 3″ is a real problem for me as my army is much too elite to properly screen them out across an entire table. On top of that, Be’lakor is going to stop me from shooting mortars into a lot of targets early on, and while taking Skullsquirm Blight to give Franco’s Daemons -1 WS/BS is a no-brainer here, the prevalence of re-rolls on threats like Shalaxi basically make that worthless.

The Mission: Scorched Earth – Hidden Supplies – Crucible of Battle

To make matters worse, the mission here heavily favors Daemons – having four No Man’s Land objectives means the Daemons only need to control two out of the four to get the Shadow of Chaos benefit, a major improvement over having to hold two out of three. It’s an uphill battle and it’s made worse by the fact that I’m going second, meaning Franco can get the drop on me with his reserves earlier. He puts both units of Horrors into reserves along with the Plaguebearers, Shalaxi, and two units of Nurglings. I deploy my Nurglings, one unit in the backfield to screen and the other up front to action on objectives.

On turn one Franco presses forward and I think forgets that Be’lakor’s aura is only 18″ of protection as I’m able to easily get some mortars in range of his Flesh Hounds to wipe them out. He presses forward with his Great Unclean One, however, and that’s a much bigger problem. Franco draws Assassination and Tempting Target round one and keeps Assassination, while on my turn I score Extend Battle Lines and chuck Behind Enemy Lines. I press my marines up, hoping to get the drop on his Great Unclean One. I roll pretty piss-poor on my double grenades (2 mortal wounds for each), but Franco fails his FNPs for both, and after some additional shooting I’m able to get him down to 13 wounds. That’s not enough.

On Franco’s turn, he draws No Prisoners, then drops Shalaxi next to Be’lakor. I overwatch his remaining Flesh Hounds off the table to get them away from objectives, then he charges Shalaxi into my Plague Marines, where the -1 WS does little to save them and they get wiped out. That’s a 10-point secondary turn for him and it’s a tough spot to be in but things don’t get real bad until my turn.

On my turn I draw Assassination and Bring it Down. That should be a recipe for instant success – The Great Unclean One only has 11 wounds left at this point and I should be able to kill it if I focus everything at it. I wheel around my PBCs and drop Typhus and his unit of Deathshroud just over 9″ away. Then I unload everything I have into it, hitting it with Entropy Cannons (two wounds scored), mortars, Typhus Mortal Wounds (I score 5), the Deathshroud shooting, and a 9″ charge I make on the re-roll from Typhus and his lads… and then Franco just dices the shit out of me and I end up doing a total of 5 wounds, dropping the GUO to 6. He takes 0 damage in melee and I get blanked on Secondary. Chasing a bad draw with a worse decision, I opt to keep Bring it Down and Assassination, sure I’ll score them on the following turn.

It doesn’t happen. I fail every single save I need to make with Typhus and company, and meanwhile Franco doesn’t miss a single wound with Shalaxi despite being on -2 to hit stacking Typhus’ ability with -1 WS and the Deathshrouds’ -1 to wound. I lose the entire unit, and the GUO heals back up 3 wounds when he passes his Battle-shock test. On top of that Franco scores Area Denial and Extend Battle Lines – both are free right now, and my biggest issue is that he can keep dropping units of horrors in the middle of the table and I have no way to easily clear them as they’re basically immune to mortars. On my turn I charge the Lord of Change with Mortarion and lose the game when he passes all but one of his saves, leaving him alive another turn and blanking me for a second consecutive turn on secondary objectives. I discard both Bring it Down and Assassination, just to get something else.

I’ve held on okay on Primary so far but that grip is slipping fast. I should have burned the top left objective last turn but I needed it for scoring a little too much. Magnus finally handles the Lord of Change and stickies Franco’s home objective but I don’t luck into Capture Enemy Outpost. Meanwhile Franco draws Bring it Down and Cleanse – scorable for 9 on his turn, and I’m only able to manage 8 when I draw Deploy Teleport Homer and Cleanse on my turn, forced to use Mortarion for the Homer. To give you an idea of how this game was going, Liam walked by at one point when I grenaded Shalaxi for 6 mortal wounds and Franco saved every single one of them with her 5+ feel no pain.

Franco pulls 10 on Primary and 3 for Engage on the final turn of the game to end with 77 points and I, desperate to draw anything useful, end up with Storm Hostile and Investigate Signals, which only get me 5 VP. There was nothing that can save me at this point anyways – I basically needed Capture Enemy Outpost and an 8-point No Prisoners to have a shot, and that wasn’t going to happen. I end up losing 77-68.

Result: 68-77, Loss

That was a frustrating game, and definitely a winnable one. It was frustrating in large part because I felt like I should have been able to pick up the Great Unclean One, but I also probably shouldn’t have focused on it to begin with. That said, drawing those cards was a fucking curse I couldn’t overcome – the Unclean One was the only target I was potentially able to take down that turn, being away from Be’lakor and possibly in Line of Sight. If I hadn’t taken him out, I’d have still blanked on secondaries and needed to discard them, but there was no way I was going to discard those two in this matchup. The other alternative would have been pulling Mortarion down to give some re-rolls on the PBCs and dropping the other deathshrouds with the Lord of Virulence in range and going way harder on killing him, but then I’m dropping a lot of 4″ Movement units on the far side of the board when I needed them to help destroy horrors at midtable and retake that objective. It’s picking the best of a bunch of bad options and ultimately I think I just had a bad combination of harsh luck and a mission and army list stacked against me.

For his part, Franco played a solid game and never stopped punishing me for not holding both midtable objectives, but there wasn’t much I could do to stop that, and the PBC mortars were worthless for helping there – they really need to make that battle-shock test optional.

Wings wins his fourth game to start 4-0 and I start sweating a little. I really do not want to take the train if I don’t have to. Nas won his game and will be facing Franco next round, but as he has a Guard army, I expect that game will pretty much be free for him. Liam is 3-1 at this point, having won his last two games heading into the final round. We grab some food at the food truck behind the building this time. It’s a bit cloudier and colder today, giving a bit more of that shitty, gray weather England is known for. I grab some chicken fingers (really they’re just nuggets) and fries, and it’s a massive improvement over that shitty convenience store pizza I had day one. We chat for a bit and I check the pairings – I’m up against a pretty good player round 5, and he’s playing Hypercrypt Legion.

Round 5 vs. Denis’ Necrons

Denis' List - Click to Expand

I can still 4-1 but I’ll admit I’m a bit nervous here – Wings tells me Denis is a very good player and I know Hypercrypt are basically the top of the meta right now. There are a lot of things in the list which I can technically deal with better than some – Mortarion letting me ignore modifiers to damage helps take down the C’Tan – but most of these threats are still very difficult for me. Like yeah, I can avoid halving damage, but C’Tan are still on a 4+ invulnerable save, a 5+ Feel No Pain, and T11. That said, they really don’t have a lot of attacks or re-rolls so Skullsquirm Blight is the right move here – giving them -1 WS/BS is a nasty modifier which they can’t easily work around.

The Mission: Take and Hold – Hidden Supplies – Search and Destroy

Another Hidden Supplies mission. Makes for high-scoring games with Take and Hold, and getting one or two of those “hold more” turns will be crucial. My plan here is to try and tag the Arks early and then pick and choose when I engage with the C’Tan, trying to pick them off one at a time. That’s easier said than done, since they can teleport across the table at will. The good news here is that we’re on Search and Destroy as a deployment map – it’s the easiest DZ map to screen on, though that’s still going to be impossible with the Necrons having a 3″ deep strike stratagem (printing those was a fucking mistake). Denis opts for Fixed Secondaries – Behind Enemy Lines and Deploy Teleport Homer. I’ve seen this movie before, and I’m ready for it this time. Keeping him off 7 per turn is near impossible with these bullshit secondaries, but I can keep him off 8. The goal here is to try and hold him to “only” 35 on secondary while outscoring him on Primary as he dumps units into my Deployment Zone 1-2 at a time in exchange for VP.

I need all hands on deck so I deploy my Infiltrators with the army. My plan is to sticky three markers on round 2 and then fight over a fourth so I can pull 15 primary. Denis makes an early mistake: He deploys his Tomb Blades early and on the line of his Deployment Zone. This allows me to deploy my Nurglings to stop him from making a meaningful Scout move onto an objective turn one (a scout move must end more than 9″ away from any enemy units).

I’m Going First.

That’s huge, and I don’t know if I’d have won this game going second. I draw Secure No Man’s Land and Extend Battle Lines turn one. I work on the same plan up top as I did yesterday – Advance the Plague Marines out of the Rhino to the objective in the upper left to snag that objective while pulling the Rhino back to screen, then do the same in the lower right. In a replay of my round two game, I roll a 1 on the advance up top, and again make the mistake of not re-rolling that advance to get the PMs to safety. I pull 10 on secondaries – a great start.

On Denis’ turn he plays it safe – he’s worried about taking fire from the PBCs and losing a C’Tan, so he uses his Tomb Blades to put a teleport homer on the middle of the table and shoots my PMs and Nurglings. Seven of the PMs survive and the Nightbringer only kills two bases of Nurglings in shooting, leaving them alive and out of line of sight of other threats. I think this is his first big mistake, as he’s now going to be behind on primary and secondary.

On my turn two I sticky the two corner objectives, then draw Capture Enemy Outpost and Investigate Signals. I spend 1 CP to discard Outpost and snag No Prisoners instead. Not a great turn for those, to be honest. I use my home unit of Nurglings to score two on Signals, and wipe out the Tomb Blades to score two VP for No Prisoners. I move the Plaguemarines on the upper left onto their objective and into hiding, while I wheel the last base of Nurglings around and use it to tag the Doomsday Ark, dooming it to one turn of inactivity. Where I get really lucky is with my deep strikers – I bring in the Lord of Virulence and his Deathshroud, use their shooting to kill three Wraiths, then charge the wraiths, getting the 9 on my CP re-roll, and using the pile-in to tag the other Doomsday Ark. Scoring four on Secondary isn’t great, but I’ve pulled 15 on Primary to what will be only five for Denis on round two, and that’s a great deal.

On Denis’ turn it’s time to start dealing with some Deep Strikers. Denis drops in his Lokhusts and Deathmarks and whips is Transcendent C’Tan to the right side of the table, and uses them to kill my Deathshroud. This is also where I’ve made a horrible mistake: I’ve foolishly left my characters exposed out of the bottom ruin, thinking I’d protect them from shooting from the north, and instead I’ve basically trapped myself out in the open as the unit takes shots after the Deathshrouds fail their saves and die.

Denis drops a single Lokhust into my deployment zone and oh look – that’s seven VP. This secondary situation is fucking bullshit. On my turn I pull some more bad secondary luck – I draw Storm Hostile Objective, but right now the only objective Denis owns is the one in his deployment zone, so this is a dead objective for me. I also draw Deploy Teleport Homer, which I can get in the middle of the table for three VP with a Rhino, so I can score three this round. The upside is I pull another 15 on Primary and I need every bit of that to stay ahead in this game as I get strangled on secondaries.

I pull Mortarion toward midtable and use a PBC to kill the Lokhust while withdrawing the surviving Plaguemarines – I have one character and one PM, and the living character is the Tallyman, who will go on to get me 0 extra CP for the rest of the game.

I pull 15 on primary again on round four and finally get a break on secondaries with Area Denial and Bring it Down, which combine for nine VP on my end when I’m able to kill one of the Doomsday Arks using PBC fire finally and take down the Void Dragon. That’s the highlight of my day – Mortarion charges the Void Dragon and nails him for 12 damage and kills him when Denis only makes three saves. I still had some Plague Marines in combat there as insurance so I likely had the kill regardless, but this was pretty lucky. I keep the Nightbringer out of the game by charging him with Tyhpus and his Deathshroud – putting the Nightbringer on -2 to hit and -1 to wound makes him near useless in melee and Denis makes a second mistake here of using the Nightbringer’s sweeps instead of his big attacks.

Denis pulls 10 VP on primary round 4 charging across the table to hold me to 5 by using Wraiths to get both midtable objectives but by this point it’s too late – I’ll max primary with another five VP on my turn and I start doing the math. I’m up 86-57 at this point and there’s nothing Denis can do to win the game – even if he maxes out his final turn, he’ll only score another 23 points, taking him to 80. I draw Cleanse and Behind Enemy Lines in round 5, score 5 when I cleanse two objectives, and then call it a day.

Result: 91-80, Win

This was a tough game! Denis played it pretty well but ultimately needed to be more aggressive early to stop me from going up in primary scoring. I had some pretty bad secondary draws this game that should have sunk me – Even doing my best screening, Denis still pulled 35/40 on secondary without much trouble. But ultimately winning the primary battle 50-35 and getting that early 30-10 lead made things way easier and difficult for Denis to catch up. Hypercrypt Necrons are no joke and I’m glad they have fewer points to work with because the ability to keep bombing your DZ for a free seven VP per turn sucks ass. Honestly though the problem is more on the secondaries side – they need to fix that as it’s just a shitty play pattern.

Final Result: 4-1, 37th place

Hey, my first 4-1! I’m very proud of this result, even if battle points placing (honestly what the fuck) means I only finish 37th, given that it was an event with 230+ players, I played some very tough competition, and I had five very solid games against opponents who constantly kept me on my toes. And they were good to play – solid people with very little friction in the process.

James also finishes 4-1 after losing his final round while Liam drops his last round to finish 3-2. Nas absolutely bodies Franco in round five and makes the top cut, eventually falling to Vik Vijay in the finals.

Lessons Learned and Next Steps

So what did I learn this weekend? What were the takeaways?

• I think I need to split at least one squad of Plague Marines into 2×5. Doing this will give me a ton more flexibility, help me with screening, and allow me to split the unit as needed. I can put one character with each unit and either move them together or split them, and I can tune up their wargear to match the character they’re with.
• It’s time to test some alternate builds. My struggles against heavier targets are legit, and it might be time to try some alternate builds. Specifically, I’m thinking of pulling the Lord of Virulence and his unit and trying some replacements. While Typhus and his unit have generally been very dependable, the Lord of Virulence less so, and I don’t generally feel like I need to double up on the Deathshroud shooting. And while the LoV giving them re-rolls to wound is a big boost, it’s not quite as good as what Typhus offers in terms of durability and damage.
• Maybe a Helbrute? The points drop to the Helbrute is interesting. If I cut the LoV + a unit of Deathshroud, that frees up 200 points, and that’s enough for a Helbrute with 70 points left over for some other toys – I could take drop the Tallyman for a second Putrifier (+5), then add a unit of Poxwalkers back in (+50), or replace the Tallyman with a Chaos Lord.
• Double Bloat Drones? Double Blight-Haulers? On the other hand, I could take a pair of Bloat-drones instead at 180 points, or a pair of Blight-Haulers at 200. Those would give me a lot of extra speed I’m currently lacking, and the latter would give me a lot more anti-vehicle punch. I think double Blight-Haulers is my next step, along with splitting the Plague Marines into two units of five. On that note…
• I have to get smarter about using the Plague Marines. They’re dying too quickly, and often for not enough payoff. I need to be more conservative with how I use them and stop risking them needlessly. I’ve been dropping them out of the Rhinos too soon and exposing them too early, and I need to get better about protecting them.

The Rest of the Trip (and Legoland)

Wings gives me a ride down to Windsor (James, you’re an absolute legend) and I meet up with my family at Legoland, where we spend the night at the park hotel. The food is expensive and mediocre, but the rooms are nice, with lots of free Legos for the kids to play with and bunk beds for them to sleep in. The next day we hit up the park. It’s a rainy Monday in April and a little cold, but it’s not unbearable and most of the rides are indoors. So the good news is there’s basically no wait for any of the rides, and we can go on them as much as the kids want. We end up doing every ride at the park a couple of times, grab some lunch, and head back to my sister’s place for the last day of our trip before we fly back out of Heathrow.

Next Week: Wrapping Up Some Crusade Ends

That does it for this week but check back next Thursday for another stop on my Road Through 2024. Next time around I’ll talk about some of the Crusade games I played right before heading to England and talk a bit about my plans for the GW US Open in Arlington in early May. It’s not far off at this point but the good news is that yesterday’s Points Update changes nothing for the Death Guard (well, almost nothing – I am now noodling over how to make a Helbrute work) and opens things up for some other armies. But those are questions I’ll work through next time.

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