Avenging Prospero

On Sunday (30th April) the Thousand Sons arrived at Common Grounds Gaming for A Bonnie Heresy, a day of 30k gaming. It was not a tournament, rather just three games of 30k with prizes for best painted army, model and unit. There was the obligatory Loyalist/Traitor split, and I'd wangled a spot on the loyalist side, but that was swiftly remedied a game in! The main reason I was excited about this is that it was meant to be a fun event and we were actively discouraged from taking the Heresy-era horror shows that plague the internet.
After careful deliberation I went for:
Ahriman; a Primus Medicae in Cataphractii armour with power sword and mastery level 1; a single apothecary with artificer armour; 10 Tartarus terminators with a reaper cannon, plasma blaster, chainfist, 4 power fists, 5 power axes and asphyxus shells; 5 Cataphractii Sekhmet with a chainfist force axes and 3 combi-plasmas; 15 tactical marines with vexilia and a Sgt with power fist, combi-melta and melta bombs; 10 tactical marines with a vexilia and a Sgt with power maul and melta bombs; Storm Eagle with 2 twin lascannons, twin multimelta and extra armour; and 2 individual vindicators with extra armour. Crucially I took no Rite of War...
I felt this was a solid list that could hold its own against most foes. Importantly I felt it wasn't too OTT on psykers or other 'filth' and encapsulated the spirit of the Sons with heavy hitting infantry and psykers with decent heavy firepower.

Game one was Blood Feud against a stunning Word Bearers force with the special character chaplain, a consul with power fist, 7 Gal Vorbak, a contemptor with assault cannon, 5 terminators in a dread claw with 4 combi-meltas, 2 10 strong tactical squads, a Scorpius, a Spartan and an allied detachment of a Force Commander and 2 squads of 20 cultists with Feel No Pain and Rending. My inexperience shone through as I didn't prioritise targets properly and thus failed to score points, only wiping out the terminators. I lost all my terminators to the Gal Vorbak and a squad of cultists. I totally forgot cultists had rending as I launched the charge and as my guys were initiative 1 they all died without attacking. I stupidly started the Eagle on the table as a skimmer, whereas on reflection I should've used it as a flier to take out the Scorpius and help with the Spartan. Instead it got beaten down by the Contemptor which shot it, forcing it to Jinx which meant that it was ineffective on the return fire and thus died without killing anything. My luck was no worse than anyone else's so I can't blame that, I was outplayed and caught out. My psychic powers did very very little, as I had little in the way of attacking power and Ahriman was so far out on one wing that he could only help his own unit. It was a 9-3 loss.

Game 2 was against Custodes, and to be truthful it was miserable. My opponent was a really nice guy, it was the ridiculous (clearly poorly play-tested) rules that spoilt it. We played Onslaught, and as neither of us had played more than 5 games we didn't understand how Tactical Objectives worked, otherwise it might have been worse than the 11-6 defeat I suffered. He had Valdor (sigh), 7 of the Hecturian Guard (double sigh), 4 units of 3 Custodes (2 spear units, 2 swords), and their Battle Tank with the exo-shock super gun. I outflanked Ahriman and his squad, and used the Eagle as a flier. He naturally landed Valdor and his unit (deep strike for free, on a character that's 125 points too cheap) exactly where needed and proceeded to take a charge from 16 terminators without losing anyone, I think he suffered one wound. At this point I nearly had lost as he was about to table me in turn two but the Sekhmet are Stubborn and so held, allowing the Tartarus guys to flee behind a huge building out of LOS of his army. As a result my reserves arrived and ignored his army, running to the objective, and the storm eagle killed his tank. I landed it, blocking off his army and he naturally killed it as everyone had melta bombs but it held them up and had blocked them off so that I held an objective at the end. The game was pointless to be honest. I swept my stuff off the table without getting to roll dice, I caused 7 wounds all game (2 whole casualties) and when I did get saves I generally had to reroll them. His weapons caused instant death on Str 5 or 6 thus negating my apothecaries even being there and any bonuses I had were lost due to another piece of free/dirt-cheap wargear. I guess I should be glad he took Valdor and not a Shield-Captain and a unit of sisters though... Ho ho fucking ho.

Game three was Dominion against Imperial Fists. He had Sigismund and Pollox, 5 Templar Brethren, a Contemptor with heavy bolters and culverins, 14 breachers, 10 breachers, 5 guys with lascannons and a landraider Alpha Achilles. I outflanked both tactical squads as we were playing down the table and used the Eagle as a flier. He came at me piecemeal and I pounded him with terminators and vindicators, laying waste to the landraider, dread, brethren and Sigismund. The Breachers were outflanked and taken down by the tactical squads, and the Eagle neutered the heavy support squad. Yet again I sacrificed the Eagle to draw attention off the objectives which secured me a 12-11 win (almost all his came from Sigismund rolling 12 for a charge and dropping Ahriman). My powers were yet again of little impact on the game, the four Perils of the Warp thankfully didn't cause too many issues (thank god for FNP!).

So, what did I learn?
Firstly. Make tactical squads and scoring units big. Only certain units can score, so make sure they are up to the job. If you've got 20 guys then you won't need to use Fury of the Legion which can be game-losing if used wrongly. I didn't have the bodies vs. Custodes to hold my objective. If I'd had 20 guys with FNP then it might've been different.
Secondly. Read ALL your rules. Sounds stupid, especially with 8th edition so close, but know what the main rules for stuff is. Skimmers are WS1, not hit on 6s in CC. Fliers can only turn once per turn. Fearless troops don't suffer extra wounds if they lose combat. All stuff I didn't know. Remembering that I had Arcane Litanies on Ahriman would've helped. Admittedly remembering that each PotW causes a pinning test on each of my units would've been good too. I never realised Ahriman isn't a Praetor stats-wise which meant he got flattened by Sigismund. A Praetor would've died too but he would've done more as he'd have been hit on 4s not 3s and had extra attacks.
Thirdly. The pack says friendly tournament, curb the darker part of your list-building etc. I stuck to it, but a few others did not. Russ plus a Leviathan at 2k... (others say it was originally Russ plus 2 Leviathans until words were had). Custodes Deathstar with an Oblivion Knight a Sons of Horus force. Sisters in the World Eaters (I think). Gal Vorbak in the Emperor's Children. I think there were 5 Spartans present, out of 18 armies. I admit my army wasn't the friendliest but I had no Rite of War and didn't load up on quad mortars or other stuff like that. I hasten to add that the majority of forces were what I felt balanced and adhered to the guidelines, and the painting was to a high standard, mine was by far one of the weakest in this regard. I should have expected this, and it did not really affect me as I got lucky with my foes, but there were a few less than impressed faces around the room. This is something that needs to be factored in when preparing for any GW-based event, but especially in heresy I think with the Primarchs and other Lords of War.

So, what would I do differently next time?
I would lead with a Praetor, and go for more combat punch on my leader. I'd drop the Sekhmet for more regular terminators, as I wasn't that impressed with the Sekhmet. They were about 290 points for the five of them and to be honest didn't really do anything of note except not run away. Does this justify such a points sink? Could I just go for regular Cataphractii instead? Maybe in the Guard of the Crimson King they'd be more effective, and originally that was the force, with 2 units of 5 Sekhmet and then the rest of the army that I took, sans the regular terminators. I wonder if that would have served me better as I noticed the impact the Rites of War had. I'd bulk out the squads and add a second apothecary. Would I take the Storm Eagle? I'm not sure. People were fearful of it, four hull points on a flier is huge. It's very well armed, and if needed I can use it to carry troops. I noticed a lot of anti-air: 2 Xiphons,Primaris Lightning, at least one Drederio, which is enough to put me off sticking a squad inside. If I felt I'd be facing Custodes I'd take a support squad or two with 10 plasma guns in a rhino and try to isolate and kill an entire squad per turn. I wouldn't do what I did with the psychic powers as despite going for 'support powers' they had very little impact on the army at all, in fact the noticeable mark they left was wounds suffered from PotW! And Ahriman's lower stats... Remembering my rulebook and psychic cards would help too.
If I were running such an event I'd say no named characters. That removed the issues of Valdor, a Primarch, even Ahriman or Sigismund. They simply aren't balanced with each other. I think I'd restrict allies too. Word Bearers with cultists, yes. Traitors with Custodes, no. Charles who ran it did a fantastic job and I'd like to thank him as I really enjoyed myself. I did better than I expected, and gave a decent account of myself I feel. Congratulations to Raymond for winning best army with his stunning Dark Mechanicum force, as well as Ed for his Spartan and Richard with his  Jetbikes. I look forward to the next 30k event and hope to have more of a selection to pick from do that I can do Prospero proud. So, all in all, a good weekend that lessons were learnt from, and changes will be made to my list and how I plan my forces.