This week I decided to go with Torquemada Coteaz. I have played a decent number of friendly games with him and have had favourable results, most of them resulting in the opposing warlord’s death. That strategy was the one I was going with in this tournament; I would try to keep constant pressure on their warlord and kill them when possible. The planet lineup was of course important, but I was going to consider it my secondary win-condition.
| Torquemada Coteaz (no allies) by Tim Pickers | ||
| Units (31) | Events (11) | Attachments (4) |
| 4 x Coteaz’s Henchmen | 2 x The Emperor Protects | 1 x The Glovodan Eagle |
| 3 x Cadian Mortar Squad | 3 x Preemptive Barrage | 3 x Promotion |
| 3 x Elysian Assault Team | 3 x Suppressive Fire | |
| 3 x Iron Guard Recruits | 3 x To Arms! | |
| 3 x Ratling Deadeye | Support (4) | |
| 3 x Sanctioned Psyker | 1 x Formosan Black Ship | |
| 3 x Stalwart Ogryn | 3 x Catachan Outpost | |
| 3 x Steel Legion Chimera | ||
| 3 x Tallarn Raiders | ||
| 3 x Void Pirate | ||
Round One vs Aun’shi (no allies)
During the first two turns I managed to establish something of a stranglehold in the command phase, winning four to one each turn. On the third turn I had a Ratling Deadeye squaring off against Aun’shi himself. I had two Catachan Outposts in play and two copies of To Arms! in hand, so I gave the Ratling +8 attack and shot Aun’shi for nine damage, bloodying him.
Turn four’s first planet would be the game-winning one for me. Aun’shi and several Tau units were there and Coteaz himself delivered the killing blow to Aun’shi, hitting him for eight damage (Glovodan Eagle, sacrifice effect, two activations of Catachan Outpost).
Result: Win
Round Two vs Aun’shi (no allies)
This game was actually on video, but I will add some commentary below.
During the first turn I was happy to do well in the command phase, winning 3-1. My initial plan at that battle was just to take out his Experimental Devilfish, take a hit or two from Aun’shi, but win the planet. However, an opportunity presented itself when my opponent used Tense Negotiations, so I went for it and managed to bloody Aun’shi; not something my opponent really wanted on the first turn!
On the second turn the command phase was 3-2 to me; so fairly even. I committed to the first planet as I already had a decent presence there and also did not want my opponent to trigger Tarrus, as I would almost certainly have more units than him. I won the battle there (even though I forgot to ready Cadian Mortar Squad after sacrificing Elysian Assault Team!) which now gave me two red planets.
During the deploy phase of turn three I was very worried about the possibility of my opponent playing Doom, as I had a lot of units at HQ; Cadian Mortar Squad, Steel Legion Chimera, Tallarn Raiders, Sanctioned Psyker and three Guardsman tokens! After the game I found out that he had no allies, so I need not have been concerned, but I did not know that at the time.
With a massive army at my back and a few units at the first planet, I decided to try to sledgehammer my way to victory in true Imperial Guard style; by throwing loads of bodies at it. Combined with a copy of Suppressive Fire in hand to shut down the Vior’la Marksman with Gun Drones, this tactic worked.
Result: Win
Round Three vs Commander Shadowsun w/Space Marines
This game highlighted a major weakness in my deck; it really struggles against elites! Most of the time this is not going to be a problem, but in the first turn my opponent slapped down a Crisis Battle Guard. After that I sat there thinking to myself, “I literally have no way of dealing with that unit.”. My plan from that point on was to try and avoid it and set up a mass of units to try and swarm it.
A couple of turns later my opponent dropped another Crisis Battle Guard, followed by a Firedrake Terminators next turn and finally a Broadside at the crucial sixth planet. I did have a mass of units there, but with two Ambush Platforms and a Broadside, two Gun Drones were going to be ambushed into play, for a nasty Area Effect (6). I did have Suppressive Fire in hand, but my opponent had got his Communications Relay into play, so it was effectively useless. Elites for the win!
Result: Loss
Final Standings
| Rank | Faction | Warlord | Ally | Points |
| 1st | Tau | Shadowsun | Space Marines | 15 |
| 2nd | Chaos | Ku’gath | Dark Eldar | 10 |
| 3rd | Astra Militarum | Coteaz | n/a | 10 |
| 4th | Dark Eldar | Kith | Eldar | 10 |
| 5th | Tau | Aun’shi | n/a | 5 |
| 6th | Eldar | Baharroth | Dark Eldar | 5 |
| 7th | Dark Eldar | Urien | Eldar | 5 |
| 8th | Tau | Aun’shi | n/a | 0 |
Tau was a popular faction this week (and I played against all three of them!), but the Aun’shi players only managed one win between them. Space Marines only appeared once as an ally and Orks had no representation at all.
Summary
This was a fun tournament! I really enjoyed using Coteaz, but have already made a few changes to the deck. Deciding that I needed a heavy-hitter, I have swapped out my three copies of Steel Legion Chimera (a useful unit, but didn’t really seem to gel in this deck) for three copies of Leman Russ Battle Tank. With this deck it has always bugged me that whenever I have the opportunity to trigger Y’varn I always decline, because it is very likely that my opponent has something better than I do. Also, a Leman Russ under the effects of Preliminary Barrage is a scary opponent!
Another card that I have swapped out is the Stalwart Ogryn. He is mostly in the deck as a paranoid reaction to the threat of Archon’s Terror. He has now been removed for Rogue Trader (if I am totally honest, I thought Rogue Trader was already in the deck, but I made this deck weeks ago and did not bother checking it before the tournament!).
The final card I have swapped out is Elysian Assault Team. Although it is a fantastic card, the number of soldiers and warriors I have in my deck is now not very high. To replace it I have included Eager Recruit as it fills a similar position.
This was the penultimate tournament in our Summer League, so next week is sure to be interesting. Have not yet decided which deck to play, but in keeping with my current trend it will probably be another warlord that I haven’t yet used in one of our tournaments.
I’m going to finish with a couple of links. The first is for the videos from this week’s tournament, and the second is to our league standings going into the last week.
Cheers,
Whingewood