The Road To 6-0 (Week 1)
Written By: Andrew Lebedin
Hello all, and welcome to my semi-consistent monthly tournament recap, and what will hopefully be the first of 7 weekly updates on my preparation for the Western Canada Team Championships in Saskatoon on September 6th and 7th.
To kick things off, this weekend saw an amazing turnout with 32 players and a good mix of different factions as is typically the case with our events. All of the players you know and love showed up to compete, with top 5 being Lawrence(5), Rudy(4), Chris(3), Curtis(2), and Logan who to the surprise of absolutely nobody, won the event. (And I say that with all the peace and love in the world Logan)
I entered this weekend with my signature Imperial Knights Noble Lance. My list consisted of two Knight Atrapos, one Knight Lancer with Mysterious Guardian, Canis Rex, one Knight Crusader (with a RFBC instead of a thermal cannon), and one helverin to top things off.
I managed to get one game of practice with this list prior to the event against Matt Van Ginkel and his thousand sons, and while it was a hard fought battle, it resulted in a decisive 79-65 victory for the Knights.
With Knights being a very high performing army for the past few weekends, this event was intended to give me some more insights on how I should be changing my list as I prepare for WCTC.
Round 1 saw me paired into Julian Berens with a Starshatter Arsenal Necrons list. A matchup that I was initially cautious about, saw Julian field two squads of Wraiths with Technomancers, Cryptothralls, and reanimators to hold objectives for primary scoring, and two doomsday arks for dealing with anything that may try to get in the way.
With a strong first turn push going second, my Knights managed to keep the poor necrons on the defensive, completely denying primary scoring, and making short work of much of the list. While I don't believe I made any game changing misplays, it did prove to be a good look for me into how the Atrapos’ do into some of the larger Necron units I may encounter. The game ended with a solid 100-22 score for my Knights..
In my second round of the event, my pairing was Fred Schellenberg with Space Wolves. What was my first game into Wolves since they got their codex proved to be a very tough time. A few misplays on my part saw me flipping between cagey and aggressive, which allowed Fred to pull ahead on points very quickly.
Ultimately, I was unable to make a substantial comeback. My final turn, which was the bottom of round 5, saw the potential to tie the game at 60-60. It boiled down to one battleshock test moving an Atrapos through a wall, which I unfortunately failed. This whiff left the final score at 36-60, marking my first and only loss of the event.
The third and final round of the event saw me play into Micha Elliott with Coterie of the Conceited Emperors Children. An ideal matchup for me saw a very strong first turn go wrong very quickly, losing Canis and both Atrapos between turn 2 and 3. Micha played extremely well, and made sure I had to work for every point I got (and my dice did NOT do me any favours).
By the end of round 4, my Crusader and the Lancer managed to claw back the points I needed for a strong win. An 88-58 victory was a good note to end the day on, and looking back, there were definitely a few things to be learned from the game for the next time I play into Slaanesh’s chosen.
My performance sat me at a respectable 9th place overall. I had hoped for a more decisive event that would give me more clues as to whether or not my current list needed tweaking. Instead, I left with more questions than answers, another great weekend memory, and an excuse to play more Warhammer in the coming days and weeks as I prepare and tweak my list.
excuse to play more Warhammer in the coming days and weeks as I prepare and tweak my list.
Monday evening sees me playing into Wilfred and his Emperor's Children as my next practice game, so the hopes are high, and my knowledge is ever expanding!
I look forward to keeping you all updated on my journey as I prepare for WCTC!
Thanks for reading!
