Black Legion go around despoiling at the Birmingham Teams Tournament.

Its funny what makes you change your mind and its not often a 87-57 win over an excellent player (Denis, I'll come back to him later) convinces you that your army is need of changing. For context it was a Necrons v World Eaters games - I was playing World Eaters with the aim of using them in our team event. The big moment in the game happened tail of turn 3/start of 4. Both sides had been trading well, WE scoring secondary by the bucket-load whilst both sides denied each other primary. However as the game went on the Silent King couldn't be ignored any longer having made his was over my left flank and perched himself there. With the right flank still embattled and out of reserves I had to find a way to remove him to stay in the contest so I Yolo a Eightbound squad into the King and Dennis kindly failed all bar one 4+ save to exactly kill the King (including a CP re-roll.) I went on to win the game, and decided WE weren't for me at this moment - yay for the luck, but it rather confirmed a suspicion I'd had over the past few weeks of learning WE that they felt more like a skill test for your opponent to play around, rather than a army with a lot of agency and the wrong match up was ruinous - Denis had built up a situation I needed luck to solve and one I couldn't solve with the tools in the book. With that I disappointed one of my team mates who'd managed to secure me the mythical Eightbound needed for WE and decided I was going the army I had most fun with - CSM.

Chaos Space Marines move up to take on the Dark Master.

In addition to CSM being my favourite army there were some other reasons at play for picking them. The WE issues mentioned above could be solved - primarily through either Daemon or Chaos Knight allies to add some speed/firepower (unrelated side note I really like the idea of playing mono Khorne and casting Warp Ritual in every game with Belakor, just amuses me as an option) but as Daemons and Chaos Knights were taken due to the team building rules my other options and denying them the pick wasn't worthwhile. To add more foreshadowing - I'll come back to this again. With WE out me and Byron had a debate about who would pick Daemons - Byron did give me the offer to take them and my Disciples list was unquestionably the strongest army I had access to (with the Chaos keyword at least, which is clearly the most important thing) however partly for team balance I ended up relinquishing them, partly as well I just got a bit bored of them. It is one of my bigger worries about 10th that the two most 10th books at the moment (Daemons/WE) have been the ones I felt least interested in playing and burnt out on quickest.

So with my journey on how I came to CSM settled I ended up using the same list as I had in my last blog post - I do a full run down on why each unit is equipped with and its role in my previous blog post but as a quick summary - 8 Legionaries squad to deny primary and score points, tooled up Daemon Prince and Master of Possession to provide support. Abaddon and Bikers to murder things/provide a brawling option and 3 Venomcrawlers for some speed and reach:

This was a teams event, so despite this blog post being pretty solidly focused on my games I'll try and summarise very quickly the other players/lists as we assembled a team with plenty of tournament experience.

Fire and Dice Team:

Denis Naberezhnykh - Returning from his mention in the opening paragraph, winner of Coventry 2 day GT and winner of the surname most likely to be a Necron Dynasty (to steal a joke from Tactical Tortoise and Fireside Podcast.) Denis is a long, long time Necron player running a Nihilakh army led by Silent King with plenty of Destroyers, Scarabs, Wraiths and a Doom Scythe in a nicely balanced all round Necron list. 

Byron Sidhu - Got a shout out at the end of the event for it being his birthday the day prior and playing  competitive 40k tournaments earlier than being allowed to drink. Another tournament veteran running a Karios/Bloodthirster/Belakor Daemon list.

Matt Reid - Less tournament experience than above but excellent local player. Running IH list, you can imagine exactly what it looks like.

Me - I'm here. Not a surprise in my own blog. For some reason got elected as team captain, probably because we initially had 3 Chaos teams on the roster.

Sid Sidhu - Well if we wanted to bring Byron on the team we had to bring his dad along. I guess given Sid is top ranked Chaos Knight player and spent most of last ITC season as top Imperial Knights player was a decent reason to have him on the side as well. To close the foreshadowing -like me Sid had made a last second switch - going from Chaos Knights to there Imperial Brethren with a super fluffy 1 big Knight, 10 Armiger list. 

We also had a second Fire and Dice team at the event of Angus, Dan, Doug, Matt and Ravi and had a great meal with us all together on the Saturday. 

As to pairings/team strategy - we mostly went with a what is each player most comfortable using that a overall plan. I had a vague strategy that if something lack enough of the right guns we could potentially put Daemons/Knights into them with my CSM and Denis Necrons ganging up on any first pick that lacked obsec but it was all very loose. We chatted alot prior to the event of how much we all just going to have fun and weren't that worried about winning - which of course is competitive 40k player chat for wanting to win every game and shouting at the captain when pairings didn't work out how everyone wanted. We felt pretty confident that we had a nice variety of options we could put out as our defender choice (Daemons/Necrons for passive scoring, IH for general murder) with potentially CSM filling a similar role in a different manner - I viewed myself more a 'despoiler' than typically defender, rather than trying to score passively my job was to tank the opponents score in bad match ups and keep things close that way. This view was rather reinforced when looking at match ups online and finding out that in the Arks of Omen meta CSM favoured match up were limited to Crimson and Imperial Fists...neither of which seemed likely to crop up!

Pregame pairing process for teams for those who don't know works as follows:

• Both Team Captains secretly choose a “Defender” list from their team. 

• Both teams reveal their Defenders simultaneously. 

• Both teams secretly pick two “Attacker” lists and reveal them simultaneously. 

• Team Captains pick one of the opposing Attacker lists to face off against their Defender 

• Repeat this process until both teams are left with 2 unselected Attacker lists who will then play one another on the final remaining table.

Round 1 - v Mind Goblins Nick

Whilst the teams match up is a very interesting part of the process, my recollection of all the options throughout is a bit muddled looking back - will do my best but the mad scramble to arrange things and the back and forth chats before jumping into a game inevitably means I'll get some bits wrong as I don't have photos to fall back on!

As a fun pre-game fact - I'd been chatting to Dom Maidlow (captain of the other Mind Goblins team and winner of a Bile mirror match at Unconquerable we played) who had asked if I wanted to join Mind Goblins which I'd had to turn down. Mind Goblins Nick were captained by an recent opponent of mind - Nicolas who I'd played at Southampton in a excellent GSC v Daemons game. Mind Goblins Nick had World Eaters, Sisters, Asuryani, GSC and Iron Hands. WE was there first pick with Daemons ours - we felt Daemons only had one bad match so they could choose to avoid. We put forward CSM and Iron Hands into WE who chose CSM (we quickly worked out putting CSM + not CSM into anything was a good way to arrange CSM match ups - who chooses IH over CSM?) Our Knights were left in an awkward spot with Sisters GSC and Iron Hands the remaining match ups. Necrons we put into Sisters, their IH got matched into Knights and GSC ended up into IH - decent set of match ups we felt.

Game - Secure Missing Artefacts v Dan Hills World Eaters

My Secondaries - The Long War, Engage on all Front, Retrieve Battlefield Data

World Eater Secondaries - Blood for the Blood God, Pile the Skulls, No Prisoners.

So a match up I wanted to play for a couple of reasons and a couple of reasons to be nervous. WE are considerably more killy than me, unquestionably better secondaries and more fight phase utility with fight on death and better heroic. On the other side - its a army I'm familiar and happy to play, I have excellent shooting advantage and Abaddon is a real thorn in WE side. Given Long War encourage a fluid trading game I was happy that it could keep up reasonable with Pile the Skulls (15 vps for Blood Tithe discards, haven't ever seen it not maxed.) I wouldn't say no Prisoners is a trap v my list (I give up 12, 13 if I bring back 3 wounds worth of models) but given I tend to keep Bikers and a CSM Legionnaire squad back it often only given up 7/8 easily and hopefully can force an overextend into my Bikers. More importantly - haven't dumped World Eaters personally the night of the deadline, it felt very apt to be playing them first up. I did win an important pre-game roll to move the objective and could move the South right objective into no mans land closer to me - with it in the open it gave me better chance to contest on what other could be a super easy primary scoring and really force me to over commit into WE. Plan as such was simple - shoot the regular Eightbound who could fight on deal at every opportunity, hope the Lascannons could pop the transports, murder anything that stepped on the middle objectives (WE would outscore me on secondaries given half a chance, I had to ensure they couldn't score primary early) and let Abaddon cause havoc in the middle.

World Eaters deployment - Eightbound in the centre around Invocatus ready to charge forward with both Rhino's having 2 Bezerker squads in each.

Reasonably aggressive deployment from CSM - Bikers hide way back to be safe, Abaddon up front to try and scare WE with plenty of stuff on the line - they could be charged if WE went first but it wasn't especially valuable I wanted to threaten scoring throughout.

Bikers screened by Legionnaires to really ensure nothing can touch them.

Won the roll off to move objectives so moving the 2 objective closer/in open to ensure WE can't hide behind it. Lost first turn roll as WE start to pre-game move up.

Slightly blurry pic as WE start charging in with both 4 man squads multi charging - one into both Venomcrawlers and one into both Legionnaire squads.

Combat goes comically wrong for WE, I had hopeda Venomcrawler would live it alive but both ended up surviving and killed 3 Eightbound. The other Eightbound kill 3 of each Legionaire squad (another runs) and they take out 2 Eightbound on the swing back.

CSM turn one - moving upfield to take out Rhino. The lascannon at the back of shot near the bikers deals 5 damage to the Rhino, possibly the only impactful shot from a Lascannon in the entire event.

Bit scared of a low roll as the Nurgle Prince goes upfield to take out the Exalted Eithbound, but he manages to kill them all, tag the spawn and contest the objective.

At the top CSM pop the Rhino and start softening up the contents - they disembark away from the objective so I can't kill them and it means I don't charge onto it to control my priority objective.

Lone surviving Legionaire charges Rhino to take the objective and deny WE primary.

WE move up on their turn 2 as they prepare the fight to CSM again.

Overview of the battlefield

In addition to the Prince tagging the Spawn, the Rhino also falls back meaning WE can't score Blood for the Blood God, essentially denying them 4 points.

Bezerkers disembark and charge upfield looking for targets ending up taking out a Venomcrawler and Legionnaire squad.

Almost a big moment - Nurgle Prince survives Invocatus attacks on 2 wounds and tries to take out his Khornate Brother Prince - firstly he fails to activate his Daemon Weapon, then he horribly wiffs on his attacks and ends up doing no damage before getting cut down.

CSM turn 2 - top flank is held by WE, but CSM have lots of heavy hitters around.

Considerable pressure on the bottom side of the table means the Bikers have to get up close and personal - they take out both Bezerker squads but can't touch the Exalated Eightbound - the MoP also fails to get the 4+ Invul on them.

Legionaires arrive from reserve on the right to score some points whilst the squad in left of shot takes out the Rhino and takes the objective.

Abaddon commits to the middle taking out a Eightbound squad. Primary is again limited for WE and attrition is wracking up against them.

WE Prince doesn't fancy fighting Abbadon for some reason and moves against the Legionnaires instead.

WE are behind in both attrition and points but Eightbound have a chance to take out the Bikers

WE resources stretched but Invocatus takes out Legionnaire squad without difficulty.

Spawn has to stay in combat to allow secondary points v Abaddon. You can guess who wins.

Bikes overwatch takes out 2 Eightbound - whilst he kills several Bikes it confirms no way back for WE.

Its the WE Prince's turn to be disappointing as a Legionnaire survives to give CSM the objective

CSM turn - Abaddon is uncontested in the middle and goes off to hunt the Invocatus.

Bikers eye up Invocatus before moving to the middle objective - they want to go after WE home next turn to crush the score (normally less interested in that, but want maximum score difference in teams.)

Venomcrawler moves up to also apply pressure on WE objective.

Technically a closer fight for Abaddon than against the Spawn, but he smashes Invocatus aside.

Legionaires take out the WE Prince, leaving CSM ascendat - only the Jackals behind the wall survive turn 3 to get some last gap points before WE are tabled.

Wanted to get some of the rest of teams shots...I wasn't good at that with this one of 4 shots. Necrons clash in a very close game v Sisters.

Look heres pic 2. Don't have any insightful commentary on this.

Daemons v Craftworlds clash - as Craftworlds struggle to deal with the Greater Daemons.

Iron Hands batter Imperial Knights next to me. Luckily, like the rest of my teams when faced with a bad match up Sid didn't mention it more than 8 or 9 times before the next round started.

Final score - Teams scoring done on a 20-0 scoring system, win was a 18-2 to me (94-53.) 

Post-game thoughts - Excellent way to start the tournament both as a team and individually Individually things went to game plan pretty much, albeit with some early luck. Going second and seeing both Eightbound squads fail to kill there targets was certainly lucky. That noticeable, and important bit of luck aside (really helped ensure I wasn't pinned back early) the multi- phase nature of CSM compared to WE really shone through - units like the Bikers could take out key threats and really take the sting out of the WE assaults allowing me to control tempo and attrition unit WE just ran out of units as they couldn't take out my key threats. 

Team score - Sid's Knights got smashed 1-19 by Iron Hands, Denis Necrons won a very tight game 11-9 v Sisters, Matt's IH got a bit lucky and turned around an awful start to take a 12-8 win v GSC and Bryon won convincingly 17-3 v Craftworlds to ensure we won 59-41. 

As a team we probably got 'out paired' which as the person in charge of the pairings I blame completely on my underlings. Think Iron Hands into GSC wasn't the right route and whilst I didn't see the match it sounded like GSC had a real horror turn after looking like they were going to run away with it, which combined with our Knights loss could have left us in a very difficult spot, thankfully Denis narrow win over Sisters which on the table next to me looked like it could go either way right till the end gave us a little breathing room but it was a relief to see Byron take another comfortable scoreline.

Round 2 v Sock my Croc

I typically don't take photos of the other players (outside of the accidental arm) but I did wish I had of the Sock my Croc team, the most colourfully dressed team of the event without question (in a sort of beach party theme.) As for the pairings - we were up against Custodes, Asuryani, Chaos Demons, Chaos Knights and Tau. We put forward Knights - we them to avoid Tau and given the slight commentary about the pairings in the last game felt it was best to avoid them getting another gunline and they ended up pairing into Chaos Knights. Custodes went out as Socks defender and we put CSM and IH - and unsurprisingly Custodes picked CSM - we wanted to avoid Necrons v Custodes and try and get Daemons into Tau rather than thinking either CSM/IH were great into Custodes. Necrons ended up going into Tau, Daemons ended up in a mirror and IH got Craftworlds - a match up we really wanted given all the 'fun' all the IH Desolaters could do in the match.

Secure Missing Artefacts v Alex Baylis

My Secondaries - The Long War, Engage on all Fronts, Despoil Dominions. 

Custodes Secondaries - Grind them Down, Raise Banners High, Engage on All Fronts. 

One great advantage to playing Custodes - don't have to mess around with the list as it all fits one page.

Pre-game thoughts - 3 scary Praetor bricks the first problem, Shadowkeepers over the more popular Emperors Chosen the second - I don't do great deal of mortal and the -1 strength strat is an issue, and whilst the -1 attack from Shadowkeeper trait is limited to Engagement range and can be played with some nice fighting through models, its still a pain for a combat heavy list, with things like the 3 attacks from a heavy chainaxe really not enjoying getting -1. On the plus side Data scry really forces Custodes into an awkward spot having to be much more aggressive, and whilst their Salvo Launchers shooting is great into the Venomcrawlers, the rest isn't going to clear multiple Legionaries at range which hopefully forces them closer for Abaddon/Prince/Bikers to counter attack. 

CSM deployment - Bikers hidden at the back to avoid Custodes shooting whilst everything else clings to the walls.

Custodes deployment - similarly hugging walls although pointy lances mean I can probably get some shots off.

Custodes get first turn and push up aggressively on my left using Ka'Tahs to plant some banners after advancing but dealing no damage.

Chaos move up in response and prepare to introduce Custodes to a bucket load of evil buffed Biker shots.

Chaos deal a big early blow killing 2 Allarus and an entire Praetor squad - the Jetbike gets a measure of revenge, HI into a Legionnaire squad and killing 4 and the last one flees to let Custodes control of the objective.

Chaos heavy hitters outside of the Prince as still safe as a single Legionnaire squad advances up on the right to deny Custodes primary/score EoF

Custodes turn 2 as Trajann orders the Bikers forward

Shield-Captain moves up as Bikers Salvo launcher shots mostly fizzle into Daemon saves

Custodes put a banner down on the right as the Legionaire squad get encircled (odd position to allow a couple to shoot Venomcrawlers)

Salvo Launchers take out the Venomcrawler on the bottom left which thankfully doesn't explode. 

Two horrible combats for Custodes - I pop -1 damage against the Shield Captain who deals 2 or 3 wounds to the Crawler which then heals at the start of the turn as I hold the objective. The Daemon Prince just about tanks the charge as Custodes struggle for momentum on the left.

Slightly better on the right for Custodes as they murder the Legionaire squad - just out of shot there's another squad hiding behind the wall and I think Custodes needed to be bolder and charge both.

Chaos position going into turn 2 - up on secondaries, equal on primary and massively up on attrition.

Not much on the right flank from CSM perspective, I eye up killing the lone Allarus to stop primary and move Legionnaire squad upfield for EoF

Realise I have to play around HI so send the Venomcrawler into the Bikes.

My Bikes unleash hell upon the Prateors who using the Shadowkeepers strat keep the damage to just about survive the combined barrage of shots and combat attacks, Crawler is happy to keep the Shield-Captain in combat. 

Get a bit lucky taking out a bike from the Venomcrawler in combat, the injury on the closest taking me out of combat and pile in just over an inch away so they can't swing back.

Custodes turn 3 - the remaining Bikers start to push upfield as they need to find a way to cap my scoring.

Custodian Guards take the fight to Legionaires but low roll - I pile in closer to objective and kill one in return (Custodes remain in control however.)

The extra movement from Pile in does mean in my turn I can fall back to take the objective outside of HI range.

Its fast becoming a massacre for Custodes - the Shield-Captain fell back and took a cheeky Lance shot to no effect and the Venomcrawler charges back in keeping the Captain locked up. My bikers charge downfield and start to take out their third Praetor squad.

Grim on Custodes side as 2 Legionaire squads pop in on the right to score max EoF and take out the Jokaro Weaponsmith.

Abaddon slingshot onto the Custodes home objective just out of shot (charging a Biker than fell back), Trajaan elects not to fight the Warmaster and murders the Legionnaire squad. 

Its a horrible position for Custodes, but Custodians at least put in some work in their last stand taking out a squad.

The last Praetor falls as the Bikers prepare to put the final nail in.

MoP takes a break from buffing Bikers and goes to smite the Shield-Captain before the Venomcrawler win its duel at long last. 

Bikers and Daemon Prince move in to sweep the last dregs of resitance.

Abaddon tries to encourage Trajann to come fight him...

....but Trajann decides to hide in the corner (denying me some potential Long War Points over the objective.)

Bikers take out the Custodian Guards as outside of Trajann hiding at the back Custodes are tabled. 

Final Score - 19-1 win to CSM (92 - 43)

Team score - 89-11. 

Post-game thoughts - So as a team we smashed the round, with every player winning there match up heavily - a 14 -6 win was our worst result. As for personally, things went exceptionally well. CSM bikers just piled on saves on the Imperial Jetbike cousins. With so much in the open, Chaos shooting was able to pick up pretty much anything threatening to hold an objective and throw away Legionaries to deny primary elsewhere. Quite possibly different on a different less open map this is different result (don't fancy trying to bust Shadowkeeper Custodes hiding behind walls on objectives) but certainly take the result. 

Round 3 v WarmasterAlpha

Up against a very scary team (Tau, Daemons, Iron Hands, Grey Knights, Custodes) - most of the pre-pairings discussion was about which poor person we would end up pairing into Nassim's Tau - we wanted to get Daemons into the match up, but having put Denis's Necrons up as defender everyone that wasn't Denis collectively agreed he should play them and just try to avoid getting smashed. With that out the way there Disciples picked me which felt like the least bad match up for me. We managed to get three match ups we wanted - Custodes v Knights, Grey Knights into Iron Hands and there Iron Hands into our Daemons. 

Game 3 - Conversion v Jack Tite's Disciples of Belakor

Secondaries - Engage on all Front, The Long War, Despoil Dominions

Demon Secondaries - Reality Rebels, No Prisoners, Despoilers of Reality.

Pre-game thoughts - Played a very similar Disciples list on this mission in my last blog post - the bottom right objective in the mission was going to be the tricky bit to deal with given it felt much more exposed given the angles available for Daemons and Flamers/Knights could pick up whatever went over there. On the bright side, if I can get the Bikes to T6 then its very hard for anything in the Disciples list to deal with and Abaddon and the Prince both have the capability to keep Belakor honest. The Beasts are scary to deal with, playing against them for a change none of my skirmishing units are great at taking them out. Vague plan - keep trading CSM units on objectives, hope a daemon unit low rolls into them for a easy primary swing and hope my big scary HQ's can take out the scarier daemon units whilst Bikes chip away.

Daemons deployment - lots of units hugging walls, Beasts, Bloodletters and 2 Fiends in deepstrike with Korvax knights behind walls able to move through them in daemons turn.

CSM sadly win first turn as Venomcrawler moves upfield - a few CSM Legionaire units move up to 6 away from objectives to threaten Despoiling them and chaining back to cover.

2 Venomcrawlers on the right flank move up and both charge in to Nurglings to take them out.

Bikers get 30 from Belakor before increasing range - CSM combined shooting into Belakor does about 4 wounds.

Nurglings taken out for some early Long War Points at cost of exposed Crawlers.

Daemons turn as Flesh hounds move up to take objective back.

Flamers move up to support the Hounds as the Knights phase through walls.

Fiends take out the closest Legionaire squad and pile in to pin Bikers from going up top.

Bikers move up and start pouring shots in Flamers killing a couple but can't clear a squad

Daemons had killed one Venomcrawler and did 8 wounds to the other (healed back to 2.) It killed 3 Flesh hounds back and one more ran. Had the other died (killed in shooting) it could have charged the Flamers and possibly piled into the other, big early moment.

Belakor waits for Abaddon unwilling to commit to middle turn one...

But commits turn 2 - bikes are screened from the Prince's charge but Warp Locus can add angles to get them from reserve.

Knight phases through walls again to take the objective and takes out Legionaires for fun as well as the Crawler.

Beasts deep strike in close - I have the chance to Auspex scan them but elect not to.

Was hopefully Bikers could tank a charge from virtually anything from Daemons at T6 and -1 to wound, but the Beasts high roll there mortal dealing 10 and kill 4 Bikers. Legionaire squad lost 4 to Belakor and the last one runs thanks to the LD debuffs.

Interesting decision time - I have the potential to throw alot into Belakor with my Prince a real potential high damage options into him - I elect to ignore the Prince and focus elsewere as Abaddon and Bikers clear the objective.

Early lead on primary/secondaries for CSM, but I'm running out of screens fast.

Daemon Prince takes out Chaos Knight a as second Legionaire squad tries and fails to charge flamers from reserve.

Belakor moves into take out the rival Prince. I pop transhuman to try and tank the blows but with full re-rolls thanks to Belakors hatred of other Princes the Nurgle Prince is killed despite half damage trait.

Big charge from reserve as the Bloodletters teleport in and make their charge into my Legionaire on my objective I interrupt but only kill 3 before they murder me back.

Changecaster teleport arround, chipping away at unit and killing my lone obsec model threatening to take the objective from Belakor/despoil it.

Flamers converge on my legionaire squad and burn them to a crisp.

Middle is beyond Daemons but everywere else is a struggle for CSM.

Overview of battlefield after Daemons movement but before deep strike.

Another big charge out of reserve, this time Flesh hounds getting in to take the top left objective as Fiends look on. Most die to the Crawler but the Tormentbringer contests the objective.

Moment Bloodletters take my objective - huge swing given mission secondary. My interupt failed as my squad was pretty spread out (denying space to DS) and could only get 3 in to fight but felt the gamble was worth it.

A couple of Legionaires that survive the Flamers barrage try and fail to damage the Daemons sufficently.

Big moments and a mistake - I put full re-rolls from Abaddon on Legionaires to retake my objective rather than Bikes. Venomcrawler as I have to push in all directions to stop Daemons scoring.

Daemons had to leave the middle last turn, I have to leave the right (my Legionaire can reach objective and try and despoil by pretending to be Alpha Legion but Belakor can HI and kill him before it completes.)

Venomcrawler is badly damage but in combination with some help from Abaddons gun clears the objective.

I had some lost Bikers from smite and removed my meltagun annoyingly -  the last 3 Bikers without rerolls go into the Knight who puts on -1 damage just saving it stopping a big swing in points.

No photos of Daemons 4/start of CSM 5 - The bikes are taken out by a combination of mortals from the teleporting Changecaster and Knights shooting in combat. Abaddon goes in to finish off the knight and tried to kill a flamer. Belakor flies in in the last turn to contest objective to make easier for Daemons to score hold more.

After demons 4, outside of Abaddon all I have left is a MoP and Legionaire squad cowering behind him. I want to get into the Flamers to stop Despoil Dominions (bieng one of the few units that could score it left for Daemons) but outside of Abaddon none of my units can get into position.

Daemons line up some super long charges as they Despoil the 3 middle objectives.

Fiends try a 12 inch charge as do some teleporting Nurglings into my MoP - thankfully both just fall short. Its a desperate scramble for point in the last turn.

Final score - 9-11 loss for CSM (82-89)

 

Post-game thoughts - Aaagh so close, neck in neck throughout but daemons scoring 30 points in last turn was a swing too much as there secondaries just swung it at the end. What's annoying (and causing a howl of anguish next morning when I remembered) is Despoil Dominions results in any further action on the objective only working on a 4+ and I didn't remember this at the table - meaning 2 Despoilers of Reality actions at 4 points each could have potentially been stopped (its hard to despoil a objective that's already despoiled)- 75% chance at making the game a losing draw, 25% at a winning draw. That aside a really good game, chatting to Jack after the game I think it was his 28th or 29th win in a row with this list at tournaments which is absolute madness. Looking back things step out - arguably too passive with Abaddon (worried he could be one shot in a turn until in particular the Knights were taken out) and not putting Abaddon's re-rolls on the Bikes in turn 4 - I was more worried about taking back my home objective than Jack's home - if the Legionaries retake mine without the re-rolls and the Bikers take out the Knight its probably a 9 point swing my way (deny 4/gain 4 primary subtract 1 on the mission secondary.) Really close, really good game with plenty of 'what if' moments to agonise on looking back.

Team Score - 38-62 loss - Big win our Iron Hands cancelling out a equally big win for Nassim's Tau with Byron's Demons drawing v IH and my point loss giving Warmasters a 2 point lead heading into the last game...which turned out to be a 20-0 smashing for Custodes as they destroyed our Knights.

Round 4 v Bad Moon Brawlers

Up against Daemons, GSC, Space Wolves, Drukhari and Custodes this time. Broadly speaking we were pretty happy with the options going into this, everyone on our side felt they had one awkward match up, but nothing terrible. We put forward Daemons as our defender so they could avoid Drukari and ended up putting them into Space Wolves, Custodes were Bad Moon Brawlers pick and we put forward CSM/Knights - and to our great they chose Knights. Going back into the redraw Necrons got put forward and ended up going into Daemons, Iron Hands got put into a crazy looking Drukari list running the Coteries of the Haemculi (few of us were worried about it given its obsec/MSU approach, we really wanted the big Iron Hands gun into it) and I got picked by GSC.

Game 4 v Tide of Conviction v Lewis Chapman

Sadly GSC player give no thoughts to how awkward it is to copy/paste images of their very long lists into online blogs, be more like Custodes.

My Secondaries: The Long War, Warp Ritual, Despoil Dominions

GSC Secondaries: Ambush, Behind Enemy Lines, Retrieve Battlefield Data. 

Pre-game thoughts: GSC always a interesting match up - secondaries slightly in there favour (although its a great mission for a super easy 9 on Despoil and the lack of caster meant I was happy to take Warp Ritual) and they are so hard to stop denying primary means I was going to have to be the aggressor in the match up and Bikers were the key unit - there relative lack of AP wasn't a great issue into the Cult and they had the sheer weight of attacks to take out fragile bodies by the bucketful. Even more crucial, they combination of speed and resilience wasn't something the cult could deal with easily and I was happy to use them in a more aggressive role than I had in previous games. Winning the role off was a mixed blessing - it kept the Jackals/Genestealers from Alpha striking but on a tough primary mission with a real boost for player going second at end of game scoring was going to be tough in a even contest - all aggression at every opportunity was the plan as such with the aim to deny GSC primary at every chance.

Chaos deployment - its so hard to play around GSC turn one charge with the blips that I don't bother banking on either losing a throwaway Legionnaire unit or relying on the bikes natural toughness to tank the unit.

CSM win first turn and move upfield aggressively - pausing only to Despoil objective 6.

Why screen characters when you can charge them upfield to for Warp Ritual and cross fingers GSC will have other targets? Bikes move up to clip terrain and get some early shots into Jackals/destroy the Sentinel. 

GSC start deploying at end of movement phase, hiding behind walls as best as possible.

More GSC deployment - there not a lot of bodies (big terrain piece near there home left object in the open) so its going to be hard for GSC to score.

GSC start to move up in response in their turn 1 - 4 Bikers touching terrain including flamer is potentially a scary overwatch with full-rolls and each 6 being 2 hits.

Faced with several Venomcrawlers and Legionnaire squads GSC don't put anything on objective 1.

Jackals move up to block CSM bikes and introduce them to demo charges.

Both Jackal squads open up into the Bikers and killed 3 - 1 came back in my turn. A Neophyte squad deepstrikes backfield early to add shots to the mix.

Start of Chaos 2 after some movement. Abaddon and the Prince prepare to combine forces to take out one of the Jackal squads as my bikes try for the other to put maximum pressure on. Genestealers had turbo charged across to take out a Legionnaire squad on objective 5 so another moves up to Despoil it. 

CSM keep up pressure as much as possible - there is some some chaining around in the backfield to stop the larger blobs coming in.

Venomcrawler on the left pushes up to take a few pot shots into the Acolyte squad guarding a bunch of GSC characters. 

Had to dedicate less than I'd like to the Genestealers in order to keep pushing up, and 3 end up surviving the turn, they are locked in with the Venomcrawler (basing the closest 2, arms made placement hard) to stop them piling into my Legionnaires controlling the point.

With GSC being passive on the left flank 2 Legionnaire squads move up to threaten to Despoiler the objective next turn.

CSM unleash utter devastation on the Jackals and take them all out - one biker makes sure to tag the Neophyte squad to stop them shooting next turn.

Combat goes nowhere here but its still a good turn for CSM, GSC have plenty of reserves to come in but can't score early primary.

Overview of battlefield going into GSC 2 - tried to screen out my home objective from chargers but aware there is space elsewhere for GSC shenanigans. Again - aggression was main focus over defence.

GSC reinforcements start to appear as Acolytes pop up in all 3 objectives in shot to deny CSM primary.

Acolytes pop up 3 away to deny me points and I have possibly the only time I'll genuinely consider Auspex scanning with the Master of Possessions frag grenades (I don't) 

Clamavus on the left moves up to sacrifice itself and move block the Venomcrawler from taking out any of the more important GSC characters behind the wall (Nexus/Primus.)

GSC put a crossfire token on the Prince and use a strat to stop it HI in order to retake the objective.

Really horrible bit of luck for GSC - Kelermorph drop in with its 3 damage shots into the Venomcrawler and rolls triple 1 to hit, stopping the Neophytes getting buffed before hiding away. They take out a few Legionnaires but the Crawler ends up fine.

Things better for cult here as a max shots demo charge takes out entire Legionnaire squad

Think I'd driven the point home by now but just to reiterate - it was possible to stop Acolytes popping  and scoring secondary points by keeping units back but I'd rather play whack a mole v the smaller units and take the fight upfield. T

The downside of the approach however is GSC completely null my primary this turn when Metamorphs make a deep strike charge to take me off this objective with battles going across all around the map

Board state upfield going into CSM turn 3 - Bikers are untouched as GSC have to deal with threats elsewhere

Legionnaires start to purge the Cult from the backfield, taking out 3 here in shooting and chaining back to objective to secure it/screen MoP from shooting.

Abaddon heads back to deal with backfield, Prince clears out the 5 Acolytes easily enough and biker with some minor Venomcrawler assistance take out two Neophyte squads with there shooting/combat attacks.

Next wave of Legionnaires move up to take objectives as I can despoil GSC objective 1.

Its an utterly brutal turn for GSC - purged from every objective with only a few characters left on the board.

Venomcrawler v fighting on death Metamorphs was one of the few potential snags, but after softening them up in shooting they couldn't match the Daemon engine in combat.

GSC pop up with their reinforcements for some BEL/RBD points.

This Legionnaire squad was in strategic reserves, came in turn 3 and couldn't contribute upfield and made half an effort to screen downfield. They didn't achieve anything of note. but there they are.

No were left to hide for GSC as they make their last stand.

Primus, Nexus and Kelemorph go out guns blazing taking out a Legionnaire squad. 

Neophtyes pop up in the middle - its a complete death sentence for them surrounded by scary CSM threats but its allows them to get some Ambush points.

Sanctus and Iconward pose no threat to CSM and are trapped.

Last pic of GSC before they get tabled in CSM turn 4. 

Final score - 20 -0 win for CSM ( 92-33)

Team Score - 91-9

Post-game thoughts : Brutality all around from Fire and Dice as we picked up a clean sweep of wins - the Daemons v Necrons game was close at 12 -8, with Custodes picking up the only other point for Bad Moon Brawlers. As for my game - GSC just had no answer to the Bikers as they went on a rampage picking up a horrendous body count. Game was technically pretty close on scoreboard till end of 3 (4 points scored between us on primary, even secondaries) but GSC just ran out of bodies - when you can't score Long War points because there isn't enough left to fight its a good sign. GSC did well to keep the primary down at the start, some really nice tricks from Lewis to stop CSM running away with score earlier than they did but it wasn't enough. Bad Moons Brawlers had beaten Fire and Dice 2 before this so was nice to even out the score. 

Round 5 v Mind Goblins

As a fun pre-game fact - I'd been chatting to Dom Maidlow who had asked if I wanted to join ....wait I've done this bit before. So up against Dark Angles, Tau, Daemons, Grey Knights and Orks. We put forward Knights so they could avoid Tau and ended up picking Orks - Mind Goblins put forward Dark Angels and they chose CSM over Daemons (shame, really didn't want this and we did want Daemons in the match up.) Iron Hands went into Tau in battle of the big guns as Daemons faced each other in the mirror and we managed to get Necrons into Grey Knights who we wanted to avoid hitting Daemons for hopefully self evident reasons.

Game 5 - Tear Down Their Icons v Louis Ballington

My Secondaries  - The Long War, Despoil Dominions, Engage on All Fronts

Dark Angels Secondaries - Behind Enemy Lines, No Prisoners, Raise Banners High.

Pre-game thoughts - Very awkward secondary choices on this. Watchers in the Dark getting re-rolls on denies V Chaos (I really hate faction specific rules, especially as so many are Chaos) made Warp Ritual a dicey prospect and I really wanted to avoid a all out brawl over the centre...but its a tough match for engage. Despoil v Banners either way bit of a side grade although I think I got distracted talking about Chaos Secondaries before the game to Louis and picked Despoil as it was the Chaos one rather than one I should have chosen (not impactful but not great play) and Long War required a fight over the middle which I wanted to avoid...but equally not a great alternative. So game plan was very difficult here, I didn't really settle on what I was trying to do until after I lost the roll off for first turn (not too upset at this.) Aim was to keep secondary difference to as low as possible - I couldn't do much about Banners/BEL but I really wanted to keep No Prisoners down for as long as possible, try and get DA to commit and hit them in turn 3 onwards when exploding 6's in combat finally came into effect. Attrition was going to be a real pain though - Talonmasters dealing uninteractable damage in Devastator doctrine were going to pick up Legionnaire squads for fun and whilst Inner Circle no longer made the Terminators as bad, Stalwart (baby transhuman) and the free storm Shields made them horrible to shift - even the Bikers going to AP2 weren't going to damage them if they were in cover. I was hopeful that my small squads to help me plant bombs easier - but combat squading did rather take out that advantage. Keep things close for as long as a possible and try to steal things at the death then was the plan!

CSM deployment - a Venomcrawler is in open in order to get EoF if I go first.

Dark Angels deployment as a wall of 1+ saves protects Talonmasters.

Reserve shot of DA deployment. 

Terminator steps out to start firing off its missiles downfield - it ends up taking out the Venomcrawler in the open by itself.

DA start their trend of double moving Speeders to get BEL points. 

Wall of white terminator armour clings to cover - my Biker squad has finally found a target I know it can't dislodge (potentially swapping to Iron Warrior to ignore cover and boosting to AP2 could chip away at 3+ saves but I need to save it for Red Corsair advance and charge at some point.)

CSM lines going into turn 1. I elect to play a mostly cagey game for now.

Venomcrawler moves up to line up some shots into the terminator squad with a model sticking out  (and hopefully get EoF next turn) as a Legionnaire squad plants a bomb after having been softened up by a Talonmaster.

Bikers don't have a great target - probably a too defensive deployment from them looking back as they take out the Speeder - I almost elect not to shoot them to try and 'hide' the shock of their damage but don't want to risk a Legionnaire squad low rolling in combat. Abaddon and Prince hide behind wall to threaten DA if they move to take objective in middle.

DA turn 2 begins with another suicidal Land Speeder double move and Bladeguard advancing up on my objective.

DA don't commit to middle and are happy picking away with Missile shots into Crawlers and Talonmasters freely getting angles into Legionnaire squads as they wrack up attrition.

CSM turn 2 - the Crawler on bottom survives. This is were my weaker secondary have to change how I play primary as I need to start committing to get Long War Points especially with EoF going to be a struggle.

First crack at getting Long War points as Venomcrawler charges into Terminators, it dies horribly but does at least explode on Dark Angels.  

Its hard to stand a squad on objective 3 with Talonmasters around, Bikers take it upon themselves to hold it in the open and they completely blow away the Bladeguard up top with their guns. Abaddon moves up to force DA to commit.

A few Venomcrawler shots have softened things up, but the main damage so far in DA lines is the explosion from the Venomcrawler.

Terminators bring the fight to Legionnaires who had planted a bomb, valuing it more highly than a random melta shot and 9 inch charge. 

Next wave of DA move up to protect the objective. Its hard to find a spot for my slow army to stage from with Talonmaster able to find angles on just about anything it wants.

Terminators move up but elect not to engage the Warmaster for as long as possible.

CSM turn 3 and legionnaires arrive middle/top of map to plant a bomb and sort of threaten DA home objective.

Bikers keep trying to wrack up attrition into the massed storm Shields.

Another double moving Land Speeder in my lines and Legionaires commit to take it out.

The Nurgle Prince commits and finally threatens to prove his worth dealing 8 damage 3 saves which can't be reduced/ignore. DA pass 5 and Abaddon can't take deal enough of note despite full re-rolls losing a lot of efficiency into -1 damage and 6+FNP (failing to roll a single mortal didn't help either.)

The Terminators kill my Daemon Prince back through half damage and its own Transhuman but my Legionnaires pile onto DA home objective after finishing off the injured terminators to at least allow some Long War Points and deny DA primary.

I try and pile Legionaires at bottom close to the wall as possible - but Talonmaster can see them anyway. With the middle terminators still in fighting shape its a real struggle on secondaries.

DA keep the Warmaster occupied and pivot forces North/South to push back the Legionnaire incursions.

Terminators repulse Legionnaires to end my push on the south objective as Talonmaster wracks up another Legionnaires squad to its guns in the middle..

Bikers are out of shot and CSM are stretched - I'm behind on secondaries and need to find a way to crack through with primary deadlocked.

Bikers go full Red Corsair to try and take out Infiltrators behind wall - I forget about Helix Gauntlet and order attacks poorly but the DA strat to make only the first 'rank' fight makes it somewhat redundant as they hold the objective.

Abaddon finally cracks the 10 man terminator brick and tags the apothecary as he can't get the objective.

DA continue to ignore the Warmaster as murder anything else.

A little bit of luck here - the Legionnaire squad in the middle takes a barrage but just survives - I'd had to move them up to give me a chance of Despoiling the middle objective.

Bikers take a thunder hammer induced pounding - far away from MoP possessions buffs they lose 6 but do manage to take out the Infiltrators - the obsec banner does make it somewhat redundant at this stage though.

CSM turn 5 - some quick maths shows I can't win its about how close I can make it now.

Bikers use BL strat to fall back and charge - just to tie up apothecary from HI into my Despoiling squad.

Abaddon gets mad and charges another terminator brick, clearing the objective for some last second vital Long War points as a Watcher looks on at the Warmaster.

Final score - 10-10 draw ( 73-78 to Dark Angels)

Post-game Thoughts - Another really tight game, managed to edge the primary thanks to going second and a extra bomb planted but the secondaries - I kept No Prisoners to 10 and banners to 7 but double moving Land Speeders jumping from behind cover ensured Dark Angels maxed it whilst my secondaries were capped at 7/9/7. I don't think any of secondary choice was a clear mistake as much as they were the best of an awkward bunch - neither Warpcraft seemed great and getting 2 casts off for Ritual would have ended up the same as Engage. I did regret not sending Abaddon up a turn earlier, which meant forcing more fights over the middle which might have resulted in some extra Long War points - up until start of turn 5 I only had 3 on it and the earlier fight could have allowed more trading over the middle. 

Team Score - 40-60 Loss. 2 Wins and a draw on either side Knights smashed there way through Orks and Necrons took a 11-9 win over an awesome converted Chaos converted Grey Knights list (really wish I'd played it, had a fun chat with the owner about Chaos between turns) but Matts Iron Hands got crushed 20-0 by Kyle's Tau to ensure Mind Goblins took the win with Byron losing the Daemon mirror v Dom 16-4.

So we ended up 14th out of 64 teams and we picked up top of the 3 win bracket (tied exactly on battle points with Try Hard with a Vengeance) to get a medal and certificate so we did get to go back with some loot - finished 63/320 on a personal level top of the surprisingly highly contested 3 wins and a draw category (21 players) - a single place behind Denis, 4 above Byron as we crowded together (Sid finished 132rd, Matt was best in our team with 53rd.) 

Looking back was a bit disappointed not to get either another draw v Daemons - would have been really nice to end up going "teams undefeated" with Black Legion especially as I don't think I ever got to chose which opponent I ended up playing (I blame the captain.) The two game that weren't won were real nail bitters, so at least I felt like did my role within the team (winning big when on top, keeping things tight when not) and hopefully shows CSM still have a place in the competitive teams scene - vital information for the couple of weeks left in 9th I'm sure.

As for the list it self - I loved it always enjoy CSM. CSM I think are the best internally designed and a real treasure trove of fun for list builders with all the options available, its been nice to have degrees of success with very different Bile/Emperors Children and Black Legion lists in tournaments in 9th (and some local success with Accursed Cultists spam Word Bearers, which was really nasty but lacked the models to ever try in a tournament.) External balance....yeah not so much, its hard to play CSM when Marines essentially do what you do but better and cheaper - never mind all the more toxic armies that don't let you interact with them and/or crazy damage output. 

But turning back to the list - whilst CSM was arguably the weakest list point for point, there's a real case that the Biker unit was the best on the team. Lots of damage when Abaddon was around, fast and near impossible to shift without free thunder hammers or mortals - unquestionably best unit in the list even if they needed multiple models and/or strat support to be effective and join the pantheon of great Chaos units which aren't great by themself, but chucking enough buffs on them makes them a nasty deathstar. Abaddon also almost proved himself in a combat several times - I think I was too passive with him in the games I didn't win but its also hard to be aggressive when he's so key to my ranged damage with the Bikes buffs. He never really had a big decisive moment were he turned a game in combat though - in part because all my opponents played around him well.

Legionnaire squads did lots of dirty work, they didn't kill that much which was a shame - the heavy weapons would have been disappointing if I'd paid for them, yay free stuff? Its a shame that looking back there's a very real argument to drop 2 and replace them with Cultists for cheaper sacrificial units - the extra damage/resilience rather useless when they just get picked up so easily regardless. Ideally think replacing them with some allied Daemon units would help - but if going down that route then the argument arises of why not just replace all the units with Daemons. I think if I was changing the list for another event I'd want another unit with either reach or secondary potential to help in games like Dark Angels one but I'm not sure what that would be if keeping it to pure CSM - only unit that jumped to mind would be Venomcrawlers but already maxed out on them. Speaking of which they were great, scrapping at the side lines really putting in work, holding points and chipping away at units, loved them best unit by themself when discounting buffs.

In the always disappointing category is the Daemon Prince. Despite an awesome relic and trait he still lets you down at every opportunity. Master of Possession was super key in keeping the Bikes alive - I do wonder if you could get away with dropping both though and taking a Tzeentch sorcerer to buff bikes with the invul and using the Action + Cast in matches when you need it and freeing you up 180 points and 2cp for something else. Feels like it leaves you bit vulnerable with a clear point of weakness but something I'd consider messing around if there was more time in 9th remaining I'd have liked to get a single solo spawn in the list to hold backfield and giving me more free reign with the legionnaire squad  that stayed back to go up field. 

So my last tournament in 9th for me. To reminisce a bit and to be cheeky in counting the Dark Angels as a draw in teams I ended up playing 86 games, winning 72, drawing 2 and losing 12 which I'd certainly have taken at the start - all bar one tournament with some form of Chaos, most of which were CSM (old and new book.) Ended up winning 2 GT's (both at Kent, one teams one solo), coming top in a few RTT's and going unbeaten a few time in Majors - going unbeaten in the 2021 LGT (finishing 12th) and getting featured on Goonhammer was a real highlight and a real 'coming of age' moment as a tournament player, as was making day 3 next year at the same event going 7-1. On a more personal note its been really fun playing all the wonderful people I've had the pleasure of playing with/against and showcasing on this blog (or the old one here.) Its a bit of a labour of love writing this and its been really nice hearing some peoples comments about this. Fingers crossed for 10th!