The Tantalus and The Visarch

I had a 2k point game today with the Tantalus' new rules. The visarch is in the title because he turned out to be the MVP and I know people were debating his use.

so 2k points against Blood Angels, Maelstrom of war "Deadlock", long edge deployment, I had turn 2 and forgot to try to seize (I rolled a 6 when I remembered). We were forced to use a 4x4 table due to shop size.

Going to admit I don't remember what all objectives were had.

my list was

Visarch
Yvraine
2 sslyth

5 incubi
5 incubi
5 mandrakes (forgot to bring them in ever)

5 wyches, agoniser, hydra gauntlets, blast pistol(+1 atk)
5 kabalites, agoniser, PGL, blast pistol
5 wyches, PS, hydra gauntlets, blast pistol (+1 strength)
5 kabalites, agoniser, PGL, blast pistol

2 raiders w/dissie

Tantalus

voidraven bomber

2 ravager w/3 DL


His list was

Chaplain w/jump pack
Sanguinary Priest w/jump pack

Death company x10 (mostly with chainswords, some power swords)
Death company x10 (mostly with chainswords, some power swords)

2 Death company dreads w/heavy flamer, blood talons, melta gun)

2 storm ravens with multi-melta, assault cannon, hurricane bolters, stormstrike missiles
(these held his death company and dreads and characters)

vindicator

5 scout snipers w/snipers, missile launcher, camo cloaks
5 scout snipers w/snipers, camo cloaks
5 scout snipers w/snipers, camo cloaks

So with his guaranteed first turn I deployed as much as I could hiding. Tantalus to my right flank, 2 ravagers central and 2 raiders to my left. The small table meant I couldnt get away from his vindicator in the middle or spread out away from his inevitable death company drop.

Turn 1 he flies both ravens to my tantalus and moves up the vindicator. the 48!! hurricane bolters, 24 autocannons, 4 multi-meltas, 4 stormstrike missiles and 3(d3) shots from his vindicator killed the Tantalus turn 1. It took out 2 models inside so I killed an incubi in both squads.

my turn 1 I move both raiders up onto the skyshield with 1 scout squad to grab an objective (they were spread around his backfield), my ravagers jump up and target his vindicator, my incubi hunker into cover with the sslyth and characters waiting for his Death company. I shoot down 4 out of 5 scouts from both non missile squads and hit them with PGL. He does not fail either morale test. I put his vindicator down to 4 wounds but still operational. Not a good turn, my dice were really bad for the first 2 or 3 turns.

His turn 2, he disembarks all 20 death company, 2 dreads and 2 characters staring down my 8 incubi and accompanying command unit. shooting leaves one incubi squad on 1 guy and the other on 2. I completely forgot klaivex have 2 wounds now. He charges 1 dread into the 1 remaining guy and the other dread into a nearby ravager. His 20 death company charge my other incubi squad failing to get many guys in because they didnt have packs. Both chaplain and priest fail their charges, I pile in my characters with heroic intervention. This combat gets really hazy over the next couple turns but in the end all my incubi are dead, 1 sslyth has a wound left the other is full and my visarch has 3 wounds left. I cut through all of his death company between the visarch and soulbursting and yvraine blast casting into combat. It's glorious.

My turn 2 I jump both raiders towards the center and 1 ravager up high. psychic phase goes into the combat, shooting phase I kill off the vindicator if Im not mistaken, maybe 1 dread too. Close combat continues.

I apologize for how hectic things get from here but the melee continues, he keeps popping raiders and ravagers with storm ravens. My flyer eventually drops his bomb finishing the other dread and his shooting gets lucky and kills 1 wounded stormraven. All of my dmg was blasters and blast pistols and random dissie and lance shots just plinking away. Of note my 1 wyche squad kills his chaplain and the other dies to stormraven overwatch (hovering). 1 squad of kabalites goes for linebreaker and his scouts (killing them all) the other hunkers down in a building (murdered by storm raven).

The game comes down to him shooting his stormraven into my voidraven finally killing it, then next turn hovering to shoot Yvraine for warlord and objective 1 but failing to kill her with all his shots. He then charges, fails to kill her and calls it. I win something like 11-9 because I was constantly grabbing objectives while he got bloodthristy and lost out on 3 potential points he could've easily scored if he wasn't chasing the kills.

Final tally, I have Yvraine with 3 wounds, Visarch with full (thank you Champion of Ynnead) and 2 kabalites sitting in his backfield. He has a stormraven with 5 wounds left in combat with Yvraine (psychics and combat wouldve most likely killed it) and 2 scout sergeants left. A Brutal and bloody game that showed me the Visarch can put out serious hurt when accompanying Sslyth to trigger his Champion rule and his soulburst.

The Tantalus can not survive the INSANE amount of shots a Stormraven puts out.