Rampage 2012 Tournament

Went to Bristol Rampage 2012 this weekend for a GT tournament of 6 1750 games over the 2 days. Each game had a primary, secondary and tertiary mission, selected from Kill Points, Objectives and Table Quarters.


Kill Points was well Kill Points really.

Objectives was always 5 objectives placed with 1 in the exact centre of the board and 1 in the centre of the 4 quarters of the table. Usual format with scoring units capable of holding and everything else contesting.

Table quarters was decided by who had the most victory points in each quarter. Scoring units (troops) only had to have 1 man alive to count as the full unit value, whereas all the others were scored as normally with half strength units and vehicle damage altering their value. One other stipulation was that the unit had to be completely in a quarter, if it straddled quarters it did not count at all.

My list can be found here: http://www.thedarkcity.net/t2905-the-return-of-the-hellion-deathstar

Obviously the Baron/hellion unit would be excellent for contesting objectives and holding table quarters. My 3 man wrack squad could hold objectives so my list looked ok for those missions. KP’s is KP’s, not a lot of fun for DE.

As 5 out of 6 games were decided on the primary mission, I’ll only mention the others if required.


Game 1
Table Quarters and Pitched Battle. I get + 1 ws on drugs and lose the roll off.

Fighting Space Marines:
Librarian (gate of infinity and null zone), 6 Terminators (mixed), Tech Marine with Thunderfire cannon, 2 Tactical Squads with rhinos, Scouts with sniper rifles, 4 Scout bikers, 2 Rifleman dreads and 2 Autocannon/Las Predators

He combat squaded the tacs and spread out across the table pretty evenly. I thought about full reserve but decided against it and lined up on my left hand half of the table with the Baron and Heami attached to the Hellions. I had them strung out across the table. This was nearly my undoing.
The scouts infiltrated as far forward as possible then turbo’d right into my lines before the game had started.
So T1 he gates the libby and termies over off the bikers homer in front of me. The bikers then assault the centre end of the hellion conga and drag them towards them. I only get a few in and lose combat by 2. I pass my leadership and some more hellions pile in. Unfortunately I can’t hit and run because of the Heami.

T2 and the terminators charge in and there is now a brawl in my deployment zone between the hellion blob some bikers and terminators. Luckily I beat down the bikers and librarian whilst causing a wound or 2 each phase on the terminators to stay in combat and finally break free end of T3.

Meanwhile the thunderfire has been a pain and in the end I have to use a ravager to shut it up. We both kill off a few things here and there but it’s obvious that we are only going to get 4 turns in so the remaining hellions grab 1 quarter and I set about getting units into position to claim. He hasn’t brought enough forward so I can steal the quarter I initially set up in with the wracks, the hellions take the other half of my deployment zone. Now I concede 1 quarter to him and go after the 4th in which he has a dread.
My razorwing fails to show up (rolls of 1 and 1 on T3 and 4), so I send a unit of wyches after the dread. 3 hits with grenades and 2 pens and a glance. I roll 2 wrecked results to take the game 3 – 1 in quarters.


Game 2
Kill Points and Spearhead. I get run fast on drugs and lose the roll off again.


Fighting: Blood Angels (Mephiston Delivery System)
Mephiston, Librarian, Priest, 5 man assault squad, with twin las R/backs x 5, 2 vindicators

He sets up and I decide that I’d like some of my skimmers to last past T1 and go full reserve.
My T2 and I get bits and pieces on. I immobilise the R/back with the Librarian and destroy a vindicator. The wyches take a weapon off another.
T3 he shoots down my raiders and then the 3 lance ravager. He gets out a couple of assault squads and piles into the wyches who hold with drawn combats. My T3 and the rest of the army comes on. The baron and hellions charge into the combat in the middle of the table. Not all of them get in but I reckon about half of them get there and there are a couple of wych squads also here. I rackon I’m going to plough through 2 assault squads and be in the heart of his lines. Before this I take a few wounds off Mephiston with the disintgrator ravager.
Hellions bounce, not a wound, they don’t have FC but still I was expecting about 8 wounds. Both wych squads (7 strong with hek and agoniser) do 1 or 2 wounds. Assault marines hit back kill about 5. the Baron and hellions break as do 1 squad of wyches. These 2 units are escorted off the table by a R/back and vindicator.
T4. It kinda goes downhill here as Mephiston joins in the combat and beats up the wyches enough for the assault squad to finish them. Before they die though the Hek gives Mephiston another wound. The beasts charge in and promptly fluff against the assault squad but kill Mephiston, unfortunately it’s not enough as they lose and also flee. Even worse they are caught by an assault squad.
And that’s it basically. He suppressed the razorwing all game before killing it near the end. I lost heavily.


Game 3
Objectives and Dawn of War. I get run fast on drugs and I win the roll. I go first

Fighting: Eldar
Yriel, Eldrad, 5 Harliequins, 10 Wraithguard, 5 Dire Avengers x 2, 7 Warp Spiders, 2 Falcons (spirit stones, hollowfields etc) and a Night Spinner

I set up the Baron with the wracks and the hellions on their own. I reckon with night fight and first turn I’ll have plenty of time to get the PT swap with the heami completed. That’s what happens and T2 the hellions have FnP and FC. The warcks and the heami are out of sight on 1 objective and the whole army is on.

I know I’ve got to get the falcons down to prevent last turn contesting, good luck with that, and the wraithguard are going to be a pain with high T, good saves and no doubt fortune.

T2. The Razorwing takes out a few spiders and 1 wraithguard, I pile all my lance shots (5) into the falcons and take off a pulse laser and stun another. I then disintegrator the wraithguad and another goes down. So not to bad.
I lose my lance ravager and take a few casualties here and there. But my beasts are caught in the spinner web.

Over the next few turns I keep the Baron out of sight, he is going to contest 2 objectives late game, I will have 1 with my wracks and I am going to pile everything else into getting rid of the spiders and the falcon avenger units.

The wraithguard are trying to get into range with their guns but also conga between 2 objectives, in the end bait them to the middle with the beasts but don’t charge and then put the hellions in for a while to hold them there. This allows me to take out the spiders, get both falcons down (1 immobilised) and rip apart the avengers, and get my wyches up and contest 1 objective in his deployment area.

In the last turn T7, I hit and run with the Baron out of combat with the wraithguard as he cant conga between 2 objectives. The baron heads for safety and an objective. I hold 1 objective in my table half with the wracks. The other is contested with a unit of wyches and an immobilised falcon. The wraithguard hold the middle and the nightspinner contests 1 of his with my 2nd wych unit. The baron hold the 2nd objective in his deployment zone.

I win 2 - 1 on objectives.

End of day 1 and I'm 2W and 1L.

Day 2

Game 4
Table Quarters, Objectives and Dawn of War I get Extra PT. I win roll and go 2nd

Fighting: Blood Angels
Librarian, 2 Priests, Dread with twin Las, 5 Terminators, 10 Jump Pack assault marines x 2, 5 Jump Pack assault marines, Predator, Autocannon, Las sponsons, Land Raider Reedemer.

I elected to go 2nd as I feared the decent of angels landing on me.
Can’t really remember a great deal of the sequence of events but on T2 I got my bikes into melta range of the land raider, I rolled 12 and 13 but forgot they had the lance rule so never did anything, needless to say the bike were wiped next turn.

The terminators got out, smacked the beast about and pitched up in my deployment zone. I kept the Baron/Hellions away from all the action along with my unit of wracks. The hellions were going to do the table quarter grab late game.

As it came to T5 there was a lot of point value calculating going on as it was the total points in each quarter that would decide it. Obviously the Baron/hellion blob at 450 points was a big factor, as was his landraider.

T6 The centre objective is going to be unclaimed
My left hand quarter was his, objective unclaimed, no troops
My right hand quarter was mine, objective mine with the wracks
His right hand quarter was his, objective his with 5 man squad

His left hand quarter was where the action was. He had a 10 man assault squad, a predator and a land raider in there. I had the hellion blob and a full wych squad with raider and a heami in there. He had a dread at mid table , which could make all the difference. He decided to charge the hellions with the assault squad and the dread. The combat was drawn with a couple of casualties each, so I am still in there. The Baron hits and runs.
In my phase the baron splits and goes to the wracks quarter, there is also a heami here, which means it’s irrelevant if the dread moves in I out point him.
The hellions shoot the assault squad as do the wyches and the hellions charge in. we hold in combat and I still have the wyches free


T7 and its still all down to the one quarter. The combat continues but even with the dread charging in I still hold in. So in my last phase I hit and run again and just shoot everything I can at the assault squad and finally wipe it out. I now definitely hold the quarter to tie on primary and have my wyches sitting on the objective to win secondary by 2 – 1.


Game 5
Objectives and Spearhead. I get +1 strength on drugs. I lose the roll and go 2nd

Fighting: Deathwing
Beliel, Jump Pack Chaplain, Terminator Command squad, 5 Man terminator squad x 4, 10 man Tactical squad, Landspeeder Typhoon. All Terminator squads have cyclones. Terminators are predominately Hammer/shields

He sets up in his quarter and puts the tactical squad in reserve. I deploy the Baron and hellions right back in mine. I throw a heami in there for PT swap. Everything else is in reserve.

T1: He shuffles forward and lets fly with a couple of missiles. Nothing falls
I start stringing out the hellions, keeping in cover and leaving the heami to fend for himself.

T2: My opponent confesses he doesn’t know what to do with the hellions and asks why I deployed as I did. I explain that everything is in reserve as my transports will fall over if he looks at them. I have put the baron/hellions as far away as possible as he has stealth and FnP so that if he wants to hurt them he is going to have to walk forward and fire cyclones at them. They have a 3+ cover save and I’m happy that enough will live to claim 2 if not 3 objectives at the end of the game. He looks pretty stunned.
Anyway he fires a few more missiles to no effect and his tactical squad does not come on. His speeder fires off some missiles, I lose 2 hellions I think and remove the ones nearest my board edge.
Now I get a few things on but the most important is the reavers that I fire straight up between the hellions and the speeder. I get the dissie ravager and razorwing on and put them in the corner at the other end of the board from the hellions. I shoot and start taking off some terminators. The Baron strings out the hellions even more.

T3 His tactical squad arrives and walks on in his deployment corner away from the hellions, they are not wanting to get involved. He moves his command squad and another unit of terminators towards my 2 vehicles away from the centre of the board.
Again shooting is ineffectual and he charges the terminator squads towards my vehicles. Gotcha.
I get on both wych squads, my beasts and the lance ravager. They all line up on the command squad with the liquifiers from the heamis joining in. Do not a lost of casualties but my beasts and 1 unit of wyches pile into 1 squad.

From here on this becomes a wr of attrition as the 2 wych squads and khymeras absorb thunder hammer blows and gradually wear down both squads.
Meanwhile the reavers kepp the landspeeder out of range because he fears the heat lances, they are controlling the middle of the board. The wracks grab the objective away from all the action with the hellion conga also on it and stretching right across the board to the opposite objective.
It ends T5 with me controlling 2, he has the one in his deployment zone and 2 are contested contested.

3 – 1 to me

So I am now 4 W and 1 L and on table 3.

Game 6
Kill Points and Pitched. I get +1 ws from drugs. I win the roll and elect to go 1st

Fighting: Space Wolves
Priest with Living Lightning and Jaws, 6 Wolfguard, 5 GH with R/back Las/twin Plas x 3, 7 GH in rhino, 5 GH, 5 Scouts with melta, 5 Long Fangs with 4 ML’s x 3

So I set up with the hellions and beasts on my left flank, PT swap in position. I have my 2 wych raiders as close as possible to them and line up the ravagers and razorwing to do as much damage as possible to some fangs. The reavers are hard on my right flank.
He spreads out across the board.

T1 I charge everything forward as far as possible. The ravagers and razorwing fire at some fangs, but I take a twin plasma off a R/back with a mono. As the mono’s scatter I end up only taking down 1 fang and 4 wolf guard. The reavers turbo straight up my right flank. My run moves are poor. The return fire is devastating as despite 4+ saves from cover and going fast I lose the dissie ravager, 1 raider and the razorwing is suppressed. The other raider is stunned. Amazingly the reavers survive 3 units shooting at them with only 1 loss.

T2 The hellions and beasts continue to plow forwards, the reavers blade vane a fang unit and the lance ravager takes a plasma gun off a R/back. The Baron needs a 3 or 4 on his run and he’ll get into another fang unit and the beasts are close to getting in as well. Both get 1’s. I lose the last of my transports and ravagers and the reavers go down under an absolute hail of fire.

T 3 The hellions make it into contact with some long fangs and the beasts get to another couple of R/backs loaded with troops. The beasts do nothing. The hellions kill some fangs but they hold. Yippe.

T4 The beats pay the price and go down under an absolute torrent of fire. I failed something like 9 out of 11 4+ cover saves. The wyches now out their transports and walking get smashed by frags despite getting cover and FnP.
His scouts arrive in my backfield and wipe out the wracks. The Baron kills the long fangs but it’s game over. All I have is him and the hellions, 2 heamis and the remains of 2 walking wych squads. All I have killed is a unit of fangs, some wolf guard and taken a couple of guns of some R/backs.

I lose massively.



So I finish 4W and 2L, still pretty happy. I place 13th out of 39.

I'll post up my thoughts on what went well, what sucked and the next changes later on tonight hopefully. I will say I am pleased with the way most of this army works together and it's an absolute blast to use.

Some thoughts on how the list worked and what to change.

Baron/Hellions: When 50% of your opponents admit that they don’t know what to do about your unit and want to stay away from them, I consider that a win. In each of the quarter or objective games these guys held either a quarter or objective. In 3 of those games the enemy was apprehensive about approaching the unit leaving them free to pretty much set up as they wanted.
Damage output was variable. In the first game they overcame the 1st turn assault and eventually beat down the scout bikers, Librarian and a unit of terminators, not too shabby.
Game 2: They bounced horribly.
Game 3: They did what they had to do and that involved holding objectives and staying alive.
Game 4: They wiped a 10 man assault squad out of the quarter when required, taking the quarter and securing the game. The baron split off here to help secure another quarter.
Game 5: Stayed out of range of everything, stayed alive and in the end could have held 2 objectives and contested a 3rd if required.
Game 6: They were the only unit to do anything but the rest of the army fell apart around them.

Wracks: Simply awesome for 30 points. In each quarter or objective game they secured the nearest objective or quarter to where they were deployed. Opponents tended to ignore them because their damage output is so low and they are so far away. Kill points is another matter. Although in both those games the whole army was almost wiped out.

Wyches: Main issue with these units is actually getting them to where they need to be. Once there they work well. Killed a dread in game 1 to secure the win, tied up various units in others, especially terminators in Game 5. Held or contested objectives and quarters throughout the event.
The shock prows were used only once as the raiders were often destroyed by T 2 or 3. The grisley trophies were never used.
Heami is essential to give the wyches FnP. The liquifiers are either awesome or poo, but when you get that AP 1or 2 roll then happy days and one of the best 10 point investments you can make.

Reaver Jetbikes: Great fun and the Heat Lances worked well, killing a couple of tanks throughout the event, even if I did forget they had the lance rule. In game 4 that would have helped with penetrating the Land Raider. I genuinely believe they are our best AV 14 solution.
Game 5 they prevented the Landspeeder from harassing the hellions simply because of their heat lances.
Also great for zooming about and forcing the enemy to direct fire at them whilst still having a 3+ cover save.

Beastmaster: Kind of mixed on this unit. They certainly attract a lot of firepower and apart from the last game they weathered that well throughout the event. They contributed to several good combats and can definitely bog down enemy units. I think they may be one of the answers to Hammernators. I intend to increase the size of the unit by adding in another beastmaster and taking the dogs up to 8. This will give the unit even more survivability and bog down units even more.

3 Lance Ravager: Well it is what it is and what it is, is not very good as the premier tank hunter for your army. Against an AV 12 vehicle you have an 11% chance of wrecking or destroying, not that great when your vehicle will fall over to almost anything that is pointing at it. Still we need something and that’s the best we’ve got.

3 Dissintegrator Ravager: Again a bit of a disappointment. There were times when it epic failed, 1 wound on an assault squad, hmm. What I intended for this was to kill terminators but so many of them now carry a stormshield that the AP 2 is almost irrelevant, your only likely to kill about 1 per turn. What I did notice that people were not afraid to put a wound from this onto characters, due to it only being S8 and not ID’ing them. DL’s stop this ofcourse.
Also cover saves abound so even poxy marines can weather it’s fire. Perhaps 6th ed will sort that out.
Not sure whether to keep it in or swap for another limp lance ravager..

Razorwing: Biggest flop of the army. If you get to play horde armies this is simply awesome, however with the predominance of SM’s of all shades (grey, red and blue) its missiles are a bit of a waste.
Given that it has a small window of opportunity and that it will fall over if shot at I will be dropping this.

Upcoming Changes
Well the Razorwing is out as are the shock prows and trophies on the raiders. A total of 180 points to play with.
The intention is to try out a Talos with haywire blasters and chain flails and up the beastmasters unit. The talos can be a backfield defender and advance to try and suppress vehicles with it’s blasters. It’s toughness prevents instant death so it should be able to draw and weather some fire from the enemy. Chain flails and MC status will help when enemy units advance on my deployment zone.
The beast unit is increasing to be able to soak up even more firepower and bog down or plow through enemy units as the situation arises.

The problem with the Talos as a backfield defender is that it doesn't have an invul save, so it's relatively easy to take down with any heavy weapons (as it's still only T7 and gets wounded by any true heavy weapons on a 3+ or 2+, even if it doesn't get IDd), so it really wants to be in CC as soon as possible (this comes from experience in trying to use it like this)... Try out another unit of reavers, a 5 man scourge unit with heatlances (one of my favorite units lately), or maybe even a VRB, maybe you'll find it more to your liking, I know I do.

Have you considered Voidravens with implosion missiles? They are expensive and i just cant seem to fit them in a baron list, but in a base archon list, one or two is affordable.

nice job btw

Good job with a slightly different list. I need to say, though, I wouldn't take that list personally. Here's why: I It does not have enough anti-tank to deal with full mech armies. I notice that the 4 armies you beat were all hybrid builds, and the 2 you lost to were full mech. Had you come across mech IG, you would have been toast. But good job doing as well as you did with an unconventional list.

This list was built to counter limp lance and dark light fail, after I completely lost faith in them.

The Wolves list was far from full mech and I was in a good position until I failed a remarkable amount of 4+ and FnP saves, along with some crappy (double 1's) fleet rolls. My opponent was worried at this stage, I had him forced back and penned in.
BA, I've looked at the game over and over again in my mind and can see I played it like a div. I lost because of that not because it was mech.

The list actually has a remarkable amount of AT in it, not your usual sources like, but it is there. Haywires and massed S5 charge assaults, I'll take anyday over lances, until lance weapons get the required boost to work as the pinnicle of AT weaponary they supposedly are.

This list has done significantly better against Mech (6 Hydra, 3 vendetta, 7 chimeras) IG than any limp lance list I've ever taken. The key against any mech list is to flank attack straight into them, limit incoming fire and smash into them T2.