So last weekend saw myself, Medge and Tim descend on the Darksphere Megastore in Shepherd's Bush for the 1500 point Fun'n'Fluff tournament. It was a great weekend all around and I wanted to do a quick summary post of my games there and how it all went. But first there's one question that needs answering - did I actually manage to paint all my models in time?
Of course I did!....
OK they were done the evening before the event. I am nothing if not predictable.
I'm really happy with how the whole force turned out though. I wanted to push my Custodes to the best of my abilities and I can clearly see improvement across the models over time. So here's a full shot of the Golden Host ready to take the fight to the enemies of Terra!
My list was as follows:
+ HQ +
Diocletian Amun
Shield-Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike
Interceptor Lance, Hurricane Bolter
Warlord
Achillus Navaran
Shield Captain in Allarus Terminator Armour
Castellan Axe, Ballistus Grenade Launcher, Misericordia
+ Troops +
Custodian Guard Squad
2x Guardian Spear
1x Sentinel Blade, Storm Shield
Custodian Guard Squad
2x Guardian Spear
1x Sentinel Blade, Storm Shield
Custodian Guard Squad
2x Guardian Spear
1x Sentinel Blade, Storm Shield
+ Elites +
4 Allarus Custodians
4x Castellan Axe, Ballistus Grenade Launcher
Ancient Apollyon
Contemptor-Achillus Dreadnought
2x Lastrum Storm Bolter, Achillus Dreadspear
+ Fast Attack +
3 Vertus Praetors
3x Interceptor Lance, Hurricane Bolter
Total: 1,497pts
With the army done I was pumped and ready to get playing some games. I'll give a brief summary of my opponents and the games and then do a wrap up at the end with some thoughts on the tourney itself.
Game 1
My opponent for game one brought the full force of the Ravenwing to bear with a really fluffy full bike/speeder list. This is however an absolute nightmare for Custodes to fight as it's all extremely mobile and full of plasma. Not a great combination for my largely foot based force to take on. However this game was undoubtedly the one where the dice gods decided to smile very favourably upon me. My opponent just could not get damage through onto my units when it mattered and I made every charge off of deepstrike, my Allarus and Achillus Dread managed to cut down all of the Ravenwing commanders in a brutal 2 turn pincer. The game ended up being a table for me but my opponent was lovely and it was a great first game for the day.
Score - 1:0
Game 2
Game 2 saw me facing up against another army I'd never played against before in the form of the Daemons of Chaos, specifically those of the Slaaneshi variety. This match up, at least in my mind, heavily favoured my army. Whilst Slaanesh Daemons are extremely fast and always strike first in combat, they don't hit too hard and fold once they get hit back; the ideal thing for my Custodes to face. To combat the speed of the daemons I used my Custodian Guard as a screen and kept all my heavy hitters behind the Auramite Wall. The Slaanesh army did the only thing it could and charged in, allowing my Guard to fall back the turn after and have the Allarus, Achillus and Praetors sweep in to cut the heart from the enemy. With all the enemy commanders dead the Custodes then swept up the board to clear out the rest of the Daemons and claim victory once again in the name of the Emperor.
Score - 2:0
Now however the problems started. I was 2:0 with 2 tablings, meaning I'd shot up the rankings due to very fortunate circumstances. This meant I was now up against some of the strongest lists at the tournament and was in for a world of pain.
Game 3
For game 3 I was up against the bitter rivals of the Custodes, The Grey Knights. The list itself was very much designed to be optimised under the tournament pack and involved a Land Raider Crusader loaded up with 2x5 Strike Squads and Castellan Crowe being teleported across the table turn one with a load of characters and a Grand Master in Dreadknight arriving from deep strike turn 1 to shore up the lines (which is allowed under the pack for fluff reasons). This meant I had a around 7 smites coming my way turn 1 with nothing I could do about it. The game was very one sided with my opponent simply being a far better player than I as he slowly removed priority units and managed the game well to secure victory. Never the less the game was still good fun and I learned quite a bit about positioning and movement.
Score - 2:1
So I ended the first day 2:1 and very happy. I honestly expected to struggle coming into the tournament as this was my first ever singles event. My goal for the end was to go 3:2 and starting out with 2 wins was a great way to achieve that.
Game 4
The first game of day 2 was against a great Tallarn themed Imperial Guard army with 2 squads of 10 Rough Riders! Again though this match up for me would be a struggle. Lots of bodies screening for the heavy firepower would be a real challenge to deal with, especially given how much of it Guard bring to the table. The first turn ended up being the template for how the game would go with the Guardsmen rushing onto objectives and the heavy guns ripping chunks out of my army, with my Vertus Praetors being the first victims and only 1 bike left with 1 wound after 1 turn (lots of 1's there). The game continued this way with my Custodes struggling to ever really get a hold on the game, with a particular low point of failing 3 of 4 charges (one of which was 3", a double 1 being re-rolled into a 1 was painful). Once again though my opponent was lovely and I still had a great game but the holes in my list were becoming apparent.
Score - 2:2
Game 5
The last game seemed to be a fated one as I ended up matching against another Custodes player with an almost identical list to mine. This meant the game ended up being extremely cagey as I tried to trade objectives whilst the Trajann/Vexilla blob moved towards my lines. I think this is the game I played the best as I managed to control the board well against my opponent to position myself into an unassailable win... until I forgot about secondaries. Moving my units off of the objectives on the last turn cost me the win and was a big learning point for me - never forget about the win conditions. It wasn't all doom and gloom though as my error meant we ended on a draw. A perfect finish for the tournament. After all how could I deal a defeat to another force of Custodes, one lead by the Captain General no less.
Score - 2:1:2
Summary
So I finished with 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw. Not at bad finish at all for my first solo tournament. With just the game scores I ended 36th out of 72 so just sneaking into that top half, then with added painting and fluff scores I jumped up to 30th.
In terms of my list it became very clear that it had some massive holes in it. The fact that I managed to table my first 2 opponents to then be tables by my next 2 tells me when my list has the right conditions it's really strong, but when it's in a slightly unfavourable situation it has no answers. This doesn't surprise me as I can't deal with any vehicles due to a lack of long range firepower and I also have very unreliable horde clearing as every player immediately focused my jetbikes down as soon as possible. I can't say I'm surprised as Codex only Custodes are a very weak army. The addition of all the FW range has really helped and I'm hoping for the next event I attend with them to have more Saggitarum and Telemons painted to give me the added punch I need.
The event itself was a real joy to attend. It was extremely well run and I had no issues with finding out what table I was on. Everyone was always on time and polite and it really helped to foster a relaxed and fun atmosphere. I'm definitely looking to attend again and would recommend anyone looking to dip their feet into the world of tournament 40k to give it a try. It's a great intro and helps to get you into that competitive mindset. I do however have one criticism of the event which is that there were a lot of what I would call competitive lists present. Almost every marine list I saw contained a Repulsor Executioner, Invictor, Deredeo or a combination of them with some Eliminators. Likewise a lot of the other faction lists I saw were more built around taking the strongest possible combination of units within the rubric of list building. It meant the level of competition was a lot higher than I expected and in future I'd like to see the focus put back onto more fluffy "casual" lists if the event wants to keep promoting the fluff side of fun and fluff.
But even saying that I had a great time and am excited to keep playing more events with the Custodes. It's been a great way to finish my time with the Custodes but now I need a break from 40k so I'll be going onto some smaller projects to clear out some backlog.
Until next time,
James
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