[Theoryhammer] Molten Crown III : Tourneycrons 2.1

Molten Crown III is on the horizon and, despite briefly flirting with "oops sixty Warriors" Obeisance Phalanx and other silliness, I have opted to keep rolling with my Monolith-based plans for the foreseeable future. Time to have a little riffle through the mission pack and see what's ahead of me. 

Spoiler: it involves these endearing little tykes.

As before, the orange lines indicate danger zones where the enemy can shoot from their deployment zone into my deployment zone, or onto an objective (and in one case where they can go from objective to objective and avoid retaliation). The purple lines indicate areas from which I can shoot onto an objective with impunity. I've changed the keys for the units slightly. Big bold bronze icons are places where I can deploy or deep strike big threats; little spidery bronze icons indicate where scouts or infiltrators can set up to make themselves useful early doors and not die immediately.

Imagine the headings uttered in a Kauravan Necron Lord wheeze, and let's begin. 

Terraform... this area... in a Sweeping Engagement

In the nicest possible way: what the hell am I supposed to do with this, UKTC? That's four (count them) orange sightlines of death from one deployment zone to the other; a shooting gallery over the central objective; and a naturally formed bunker in each deployment zone overlooking another.

From this chaos of "don't stand there unless you want to die," though, I can yet bring order. The right hand side is fairly safe, with three good spots to stage for a push on two objectives and an ideal lurk zone for Infiltrators. There's a spot on the left where I can drop Infiltrators or Scouts and feint, and up there on the top left is a potentially hilarious Hyperphase location that could turn that feint into a very genuine attempt on the point if any opponent is careless enough to leave it open for me. It's going to be difficult, and I'm going to wish I owned more Flayed Ones, but there's some play here.

Secondary plan? Well, nothing Action based, because I'll need to do activities on divots to keep up with primary points. Engage on All Fronts seems like money given how wide I want to deploy anyway, and a kill-based secondary (dealer's choice of Assassination, Bring It Down or Cull the Horde depending on opposition) seems smart since there's going to be some shots fired and blows traded over that central point.

Enter the Crucible of Battle... Purge the Foe, that it might be the Linchpin of our presence...

Rounds two and three will be played on the same map: it's nice to know one's feedback was received. I'd have liked a change in deployment zones for a bit of variety - matching layout and setup is a bit samey - but not having to rearrange the terrain in round three when we're pressed for time and knackered is a great call.

Purge the Foe is a new mission for me, with a lot of ways to score four points at a time - kill anything, kill more, hold anything, hold more. Those of us sweating for perfect scores will want to do all the things but I see eight fairly safe points and secondaries to make up the rest. Linchpin, meanwhile, is an old friend. Pure objective control, with the safety of the home objective a top priority. 

There are no Actions involved in either of these, which tempts me to pick one as a secondary objective and give the small units something to do. Establish Locus and Engage on All Fronts seems like a tidy eight points per round in a vacuum. Storm Hostile Objective is also an option given the variety of routes from point to point in no-mans-land, and I know Hypercrypt Legion can take advantage of that as long as I keep my Monolith mobile. There are two good spots for Infiltration or an early Deep Strike, and a nice long sight line from the bottom right if a careless opponent lets me make use of it.

Send forth... all legions...

So, these are the challenges the battlespace presents: with what tools shall we overcome them? 

More or less the same ones as we brought last time, as it turns out. I think Hypercrypt Legion has the tools I need for these Matched Play games, including the mobility trickery from the Monolith which helped pick up that one win last time. Time for a teardown: let's see what we can do with this.

Chronomancer & Royal Warden leading 20x Warrior w/ gauss flayer: These need some work. The Chronomancer's shoot-and-scoot was occasionally cute but I don't feel like it was ever really useful, and the extra range on the flayers wasn't necessary unless I was trying something on with that. Swapping these to gauss reapers and dropping the cryptek.

Overlord with Translocation Shroud (Warlord, Osteoclave Fulcrum) leading 10x Lychguard w/ hyperphase sword and dispersion shield The Shroud's good (pulling Lychguard into the correct positions with a guaranteed 6" advance), the My Will Be Done is excellent (allowing for some fun pull-back-phase-out-come-back-charge-in shenanigans), the Fulcrum isn't (I don't think I used it at all, it's the Monolith that moves these lads around). Easy 20 points back in the bag.

Plasmancer (Arisen Tyrant) leading 5x Immortals w/ Tesla carbine: Solid gold. Consistently rolling more dice to wound than they did to hit. Slightly sound and fury into tougher targets (the lack of AP's a problem) but they always pick up a model or two. Might take a full squad of these, to be honest.

Skorpekh Lord (Hyperspatial Transfer Node) leading 6x Skorpekh Destroyers (2 Plasmacytes): The Node does work here, ensuring both my melee threats are where they need to be when I need them there. Conventional wisdom says six of these are overkill, and they do spend a couple of turns staging... but in the absence of the ubiquitous Wraiths they're the toughest infantry bodies in the army, and the full fat unit allows them to go two rounds with the likes of Space Wolves. Indecision leads me to wonder if I couldn't spend 270 points more effectively somewhere else...

5x Deathmarks: Chod. The thing is, their bag of tricks is more useful in detachments where I don't get to (effectively) Deep Strike whatever I feel like, and they're not an effective enough deterrent for the Terminator bricks and similar that end up behind me. A straight swap for Flayed Ones would let me take advantage of those nice hiding spots on the new maps.

3x Ophydian Destroyers (Plasmacyte): Chod. Again, probably better in another detachment that doesn't have "uppy-downy" built in to any unit that needs it. Their bases are big enough that even three of them are easy to screen out, and unless there are single wound infantry for them to mulch they don't really kill anything. There's a list where they work, but it's not this one.

3x Tomb Blade: Shieldvanes, Shadowloom, Twin tesla carbine: my comfort blanket. Cheap, flexible, reliable scoring piece, ideal action fodder since I only really use their shooting to make them move faster. I'm going to leave the comfort blanket of the Shieldvanes at home this time, really lean into their speed, and see if I can't pick up more Engage On All Fronts points or make a credible lunge for Behind Enemy Lines.

Canoptek Doomstalker: ... it's cool, but it's not consistently good. I keep finding it comes up short on the number of shots or flubbing its hit rolls or something. That said, it puts a dent in transport vehicles and it's good for picking up heavy infantry (in theory), and it's also the longest ranged gun I have available which makes me reluctant to chuck it altogether. This will go if I can think of something better to look after my home objective.

Monolith w/ 4x death rays: Never leave home without it. The longer the Monolith survives, the more points I score; the poorer my deployment of the Monolith, the shorter the games tend to be. Keeping it safe from alpha strikes and relocating it to smart places are the keys to victory and I'm going to be thinking very hard about those.

2x Triarch Stalkers w/ heat rays: Solid. Hard enough to kill that they stick around, enough OC that they earn points, dangerous enough into a range of targets, and they Scout. These are staying.

... and we... shall test them... upon the battlefield...

There's one final factor in play. Grudge matches are available for the first round, and if the Chaos Knight player I had lunch with last time is present, I'm calling that man out. We both really wanted to bang our lists together, and I want to load a little bit harder into those vehicles that need killing dead (Wave Serpent, Hekaton, etc.) anyway. Hear me out: 

1x C'tan Shard of the Void Dragon (300 pts)
1x Geomancer (75 pts)
1x Hexmark Destroyer (75 pts)
1x Overlord with Translocation Shroud (85 pts): Warlord
1x Plasmancer (80 pts): Arisen Tyrant (+25 pts)
1x Royal Warden (50 pts)

10x Immortals (150 pts): Tesla carbine
20x Necron Warriors (200 pts): Gauss reaper

5x Flayed Ones (60 pts)
5x Flayed Ones (60 pts)
10x Lychguard (170 pts): Hyperphase sword and dispersion shield
3x Tomb Blades (75 pts): Shadowloom, Twin tesla carbine
1x Monolith (400 pts): 4x Death ray
1x Triarch Stalker (110 pts): Heat ray
1x Triarch Stalker (110 pts): Heat ray

The Void Dragon replaces the Skorpekhs as a Big Threat, and gives me an answer to the vehicles that I struggled to take out last time. Two units of Flayed Ones take up essential space in no-mans-land and perform activities until something kills them, by which time the Stalkers should be in position to at least manage the primary game. The Geomancer is there to defend my home objective and keep enemy Deep Strikes to a minimum, maybe to head out and tag a no-mans-land objective that I want to lock down. Finally, the Immortals are embiggened, for twice as much of a good thing. Everything else is solid, proven technology.