Over the weekend I attended SN Battle Reports No Retreat Horus Heresy II event in Gibraltar. As with the first version of the event I attended in March it was very well run and I had a brilliant time!
The event is a competitive tournament and the competitive nature had dramatically increased from the first event! I think book 7 has had a lot to do with this, as the Custodes and Thousands Sons can be built with some very strong lists.
I flew out to Gibraltar on the Thursday before the event, to give some time to explore the island and have a few friendly games. One of the friendly games I played is upcoming in an SN Battle Report.
The main event was made of 5 games played at 3k. Day one of the event featured 3 games and was set out to be loyalist vs traitor. I used my Sons of Horus First Company.
Game 1:
I was matched up against a White Scars army under the command of Mikael from Sweden. White Scars are a bad match up for army. They are fast and I'm not! First turn saw my dreadclaw with the reavers and chaplain inside scatter badly, mishap and then get placed by Mikael. It was surrounded wreaked and everything inside lost! Horus arrived and did a little bit of damage to one of the command squads but they drove away and left me stranded, the mission objective was to get to the others deployment but with Horus out of the battle it made it difficult to recover.
The game ended with me losing! I was expecting this result going in as I knew I would find it difficult to catch the bikes! Mikael played very well though and despite the loss it was a good game!
Game 2:
This was against Tom as his Astra Militrium. This was a very close game, being decided on the tertiary objectives. He had 3 super heavies in the list and we were playing Blood Feud. I selected super heavies and went chasing them down! I killed 2 of them and the deciding factor was the Sword Hammer that I got down to 1 HP but it managed to survive and drive out of my reach. Several dice rolls went against me and ultimately cost me the game.
Tom played well and again it was a really good game! I now sat on 2 losses, I was hoping for a win with the last game on day 1!
Game 3:
I took on James and his Imperial Fists and this game went all my way! Turn 2 Horus and a unit of Justaerin turned up and took out around 1000 points of James army! This is about as well as I have every managed to do with deep striking Horus. It essentially crippled James army and made the game one sided. I felt bad!! I killed a super heavy, leviathan and a contemptor. Plus my outflanking contemptor destroyed the laser destroyer array on a vindicator in the same turn. I was then able to sit on the objectives and slowly take out the rest of the army.
Despite the one sided nature it was a good game and James fought onto the end! End of day 1 I was 1 win and 2 loses.
Game 4:
The start of day 2 saw me taking on Sean and his Emperors Children. You scored points for controlling sections of the board. It was a very close game! I went in trying to kill his troops and prevent him from being able to score. This very nearly worked but unfortunately a failured charge from my Reavers and chaplain quickly saw my plan full apart. My Justaerin nearly recovered but I had another bad run on the dice with my combi-plasma leaving 2 tactical marines alive to claim no mans land! Sean also had an cheeky sergeant that went to ground to avoid a plasma round of the face and he made the 6 on the dice to save! Which took another turn of my shooting to bring him down!
Again another good game that I could have won if it wasn't for a few bad dice rolls! I was now 1 win from 4.
Game 5:
The last game of the event was against Andy and his Imperial Fists. He was running 3 Leviathans and I was determined to get Horus to take them all on! I got my wish! The game was about defending and winning your opponents objective in there deployment zone. Andy defended his with the leviathans! Horus deep struck behind them and shot everything. Unlike game 3 where they killed 1000 points they didn't even manage a single hull point!! The leviathans turned and shot everything leaving Horus and 1 Justaerin alive. They charged in and dealt 2 wounds to Horus and killed the last Justaerin. I went for all 3 in with Horus and World Breaker, placing 2 attacks on each! A risky but fun move! He managed to blow up 2 of them and put a hull point on the third! Needless to say he dealt with the third in the next round and then ran off and took out a deredeo!
Unfortunately I lost the primary objective as Andy had managed to kill something first turn, where as I hadn't! So another very closely fought game and another loss! Ending me on 1 win and 4 losses.
Overall a really good event, I have come to the conclusion that I'm not a very good tournament gamer!! I tend make decisions based on what I think will be more fun even though I know that I shouldn't do it! My list also needs more scoring and the Reavers were basically useless for the whole weekend! A transport or 2 to help get around the board would most likely be a good addition. Though I really like look of the army walking across the board!!
Thank you to all my opponents, the rest of the participants and the SN Team, who once again did a great job! Any one thinking of apply for next years?
Darien
