The BAO Chaos Marine Debriefing

I only really go to 2-3 40k tournaments a year, and one of them is always the Bay Area Open.  Probably the largest 40k tournament in the bay area, and is overall a fantastic event every time.  This year, like before, I brought my Chaos Space Marines, trying my best to dispel the myth that they're a terrible army.

The List

Warpsmith: Burning Brand of Skalathrax: 140

10 Chaos Space Marines: 2 Plasma guns: 170 Chaos Rhino: Havoc launcher: 47 9 Chaos Space Marines: Meltagun, champion with melta bombs: 142 Chaos Rhino: Havoc launcher: 47 10 Chaos Cultists: 9 autoguns: 59

Heldrake: Baleflamer: 170

Maulerfiend: Magma cutters: 125 Maulerfiend: Magma cutters: 125 Maulerfiend: Magma cutters: 125

Greater Brass Scorpion of Khorne: 700

The general idea was to counter what I thought would be a Tau, Eldar and Pod Marine heavy meta by jamming as many armoured monsters into combat as possible.  Not terribly subtle, but really would be unpredictable.

Game 1

My first game was really to be my test if my plan would work.  It was against a Tau/Farsight army with 3 riptides, buffmander, broadsides, the whole nine-yards.  He had won the roll off to go first and deployed, I counter deployed, just straight across to get into combat by the quickest means possible.  I luckily seized the initiative, barreling forward.  The firepower of the Brass Scorpion caught him off guard, eliminating the broadsides and buffmander in a single volley.  Overall the game was quite bloody, ending 10-1 after calling it mid turn 4.  Remaining on the board of the tau was a unit of 8 kroot giving him Linebreaker, and the only casualties on the Chaos side was a Rhino and Maulerfiend.  My opponent was a great guy though and despite the thrashing, he was quite jovial.

Game 2

After facing Tau, who'd have guessed that I'd go against Eldar.  He had a devious plan of infiltrating 10 Wraithguard with Karandras to put an early end to my Brass Scorpion.  I was sweating bullets and he knew it, though to pull this off, he needed to successfully cast the spell to give the Wraithguard the Battle Focus rule... which I managed to deny.  After that, the Brass Scorpion charged in, my Maulerfiends took aim at his Warwalkers, and it was a blood bath.  I managed to roll 6's on the stomp table to kill his Wraithknight who had joined the fight, then did the same to his Wraithseer who later charged.  By the end, the Brass Scorpion ate 10 Wraithgaurd, Karandras. a Spiritseer, a Wraithknight and a Wraithseer.  I've run into this opponent before at other events and while he's a very strong player with a very competitive list, he was a totally decent guy who I hope to play against again.

Game 3

Going 2-0 at the beginning meant I was in for a rough game 3.  This was against a White Scars army (though painted Ultramarines) with a Knight Errant in support (which he rolled a 6 for on the knightly rank table).  The mission was The Relic with Hammer and Anvil Deployment, I knew that this was going to be a very difficult fight.  He did a good job hounding my Warpsmith who was desperately holding onto the relic, while my scorpion and Maulerfiends attempted to kill his army piecemeal as they arrived on the board.  I quickly ran out of objective secured units, and my opponent managed to contest The Relic by driving between the legs of my Scorpion, just barely staying 1" away from it's hull somehow.  In the future, I'll probably have to put this guy on a base, I really didn't think that move was legit, but by this point I'd have had enough of dealing with this guy, the game ended 6-0.  I wont talk any more about the player than I already have.

Game 4

Day 2, and I managed to go against another very unique army, this time in the guise of 3x6 Wraiths with 3 Destroyer Lords... good god.  I had not anticipated fighting anything like this, so I was definitely on my heels.  My opponent was quite fun though and really we had a great time in the blood bath that ensued.  This was the first person to fell my Brass Scorpion, which scattered directly into all 3 units of his Necron Warriors who did the last HP, obliterating every last one of them.  My opponent beat me pretty bad, my Brass Scorpion tried all he could, but being tied up for a full extra round with a single wraith really caused me a lot of issues, as well as a very critical turn of firepower.

Game 5

Black Legion vs Black Legion, a true Civil War!  This was also extremely enjoyable, and against Chaos, which I don't generally get to go against.  Bob's army was quite beautiful, definitely showing me up, he also has a game store in Spokane that I've gotta check out!  Early in the game, I thought I had it, maybe I was a bit overly confident... I wrecked his spawn unit before he was able to get invisibility off, then I got the Brass Scorpion into Be'lakor and this was my fatal mistake.  I knew that he could shear off a few HP, but I also knew that killing him early would really cripple my opponents army.  First round I get 5 stomps, no 6's... second round I get 5 stomps, no 6's... crap!  By the third round I got 5 more stomps and finally a 6, but the damage had been done, I was down to a single HP, which was easily shot off by one of his remaining Obliterators.  From there it was just mop up duty for him, eventually tabling me on turn 5.  I really felt that had I stomped Be'lakor a turn earlier, the game would have been nightmarish for him, with nothing left to harm the scorpion, it would have free reign... If "ifs" and "buts" were candy and nuts we'd all have a merry christmas.

Game 6

Finally, the weekend is coming to an end and I've got the misfortune of playing a smug english jerk, Pete. The problem with this game was that we both knew each others tricks!  After a couple beers and jello shots (thanks to a mysterious figure from the next table down) we really were just having a good time, trying to outsmart one another... As he learned though, smart doesn't always win against strong.  While the 12 S10 shots from the Barbed Heirodule was wrecking all my smaller armour, the Scorpion on the other flank was just utterly annihilating hordes of gaunts in his way  To both his and my surprise, it only takes about 2 rounds of combat for a Brass Scorpion to mulch 30 termagants... who'd have guessed!  By the end of it, the Brass Scorpion had eaten probably well over 50 gaunts, the Barbed Heirodule and a Tervigon, and finished resting comfortably in Pete's deployment zone, guarding the objective like a dog with a bone.

Conclusion

The TL:DR version is that Chaos was quite fun, against the "meta" armies I did quite well, which was what I was going for, but against the other counter-meta armies, having so many points bound up in the Brass Scorpion really caused some problems.  I went 3-3, which is a moral victory with Chaos Marines.  I'm not sure if I'll keep using the Scorpion, it was fun, but relying on 6's can really be troublesome.

Sorry about the lack of pictures, usually I take a ton, but I just totally forgot this year!