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Sunday 20 March 2016

Warhammer 40,000 Conquest- 4th Planet Games Store Championship – 20th March 2016

Was a very nice quiet drive to Wrexham for this event, was a very excited for the tournament as this is what I had been building towards with my Ragnar Blackmane deck, this was the final stop on my journey and I could see the potential light at the end of the tunnel, a first round bye at a regional event. There was a small turnout of 5 players, which was still pretty cool considering the TO was only expecting 2 originally and everyone seemed pretty friendly too which always helps.  

My first round game was against a chap named Matthew, who was piloting Commander Shadowsun, this was my first encounter against Shadowsun while I had been running Blackmane and Matt seemed like a sound fella. Sadly it was reminiscent of my first round game on the 19th March 2016, the chap had little experience and I managed to pick up the victory pretty quickly. A nice way to start though!

1st Round – Win – 1-0

For my 2nd round I managed to get a bye, worried me a little tbh as I figured strength of schedule would end up being the determining factor for the winner (true story) and I figured this would hurt my chances of picking up 1st place.

2nd Round – Bye – 2-0

In my final game of the day I got paired up with Mark, who was running Cato Siccarius, I was quite confident here as I have played Cato multiple times and managed to come out ahead. It was a good game, had a few shock moments when Mark’s first move was dropping a dreadnought at planet 1. Freaked me out a little I will be honest and I worked hard to avoid it. I won this match after a warlord KO putting at 15 points on the score sheet.

3rd Round – Win - 3-0

3 rounds of swiss later we did not need to go to a cut and after the TO painstakingly worked our strength of schedule it turned out that I had just scrapped the first place. Was a good event, everyone seemed friendly and I would happily go to another event there too.  Moving forward I am really looking forward to playing at a regional event, will be a great experience I think and a first round bye certainly helps my scores going into the event.

Thanks for reading this, if you are interested in picking up an LCG I would certainly recommend Conquest and must admit that this is one of the best card games I have ever played; trust me I have played a lot. So please support this amazing game if have any interest in Warahmmer 40K or card games in general.

I’m Big Boss.... I’m out..... Peace
 

 

Saturday 19 March 2016

Warhammer 40,000 Conquest – 19th March 2016 – Watchtower Games Tournament Report

So, I took Ragnar Blackmane, for this, the first Warhammer 40,000 Conquest tournament at Watchtower Games and my initial thoughts when I saw a 10 man turnout were pretty nerve wracking in all honesty. I was however excited at the prospect of playing some new people and even people I hadn’t played in a while so I got myself all psyched for a good day. I will make a quick point of saying that I do not remember most of the moves or rounds of these games but if any jumps to mind I will try to note them.
My first game was against a new player, James, who rocked up with Commander Starblaze. From initial plays I could tell that James had a very limited selection of cards available and even by his own admission had only played about 5 games prior to our encounter. I managed to win this game after killing his warlord; I can’t remember which turn it was and despite never facing a Tau deck with Blackmane I did feel like this wasn’t a true test for the deck.
1st Round – Win – 1-0
The second game saw me taking on my eventual finals opponent Josh, who was piloting Zarathur and a pretty solid build at that. However I tend not to leave much to chance with this warlord because of his ability to really put a damper on my day and I recall putting this one to bed pretty early with the warlord KO to keep this momentum going.
2nd Round – Win – 2-0
After a spot of lunch we came back for our 3rd round which saw me take on the player I really wanted to have a game against, Dave, who was piloting Nazdreg and I wanted to play against Dave as I hadn’t managed to test Blackmane against him prior to the tournament. This game saw me pick up the win after winning battles at 3 straight planets; the last planet was a real test as nothing screams challenge like a 10HP unit with Brutal! Good game and had plenty of laughs.
3rd Round – Win – 3-0
After 3 rounds of swiss we went to a top 4 cut, my semi-final opponent was not overly happy getting me as his opponent since he had played against my Ragnar deck 3 times prior and had never managed a win. Robert was piloting Cato Siccarius, so this match was Space Marine vs. Space Marine and resulted in a victory by planet icons. It was a tougher game than I expected but was pretty chuffed to have ousted him from the tournament prior to the finals.... Sorry Bro!
Semi Final – Win – 4-0
The finals, wow, not going to lie I was pretty chuffed at this stage and was amped for Josh who got into the finals after managing to overthrow Old One Eye in an epic battle in his semi final game. This game was a lot more involved than our first encounter during this event and had a little more back forth to it. However I managed to win the planets I needed to grab the big W and take 1st place.
Finals – Win – 5-0
I won a playmat that I gave away to one of the other players and the usual promo bits. This tournament was more to see what interest there was in the local area and to test Ragnar out before going to a store championship with him. My Ragnar deck is now 15- 1 following this event and I am also hoping that this luck will carry on for the store championship. I hope to keep a record of that event also and maybe try a mini write up like this for that event also.
Thanks for reading this, if you are interested in picking up an LCG I would certainly recommend Conquest and must admit that this is one of the best card games I have ever played; trust me I have played a lot. So please support this amazing game if have any interest in Warahmmer 40K or card games in general.
I’m Big Boss.... I’m out..... Peace

Sunday 6 March 2016

Warhammer 40,000 Conquest: The Road to the 19th March 2016

I have chosen to write an article, I know mad right? I haven’t done one in a while and I figured it was simply because I hadn’t been inspired to actually write anything, you may have even noticed a lack of WWE content coming from my cohorts over at SOS also and don’t worry we are looking to resolve this as soon as possible.

I wanted to move back a little with what I write about and this time I will be discussing one of my favourite past times, Warhammer 40,000 Conquest, by Fantasy Flight Games. I first heard about this game shortly after it was actually announced and was straight away on the bandwagon before they even stated a release date. I knew I wanted to play as the sinister Dark Eldar faction, one of my favourite factions in the actual table top game and one of my favourite factions regarding the 40K lore also.

I originally only planned to take the helm of the Chaos and Dark Eldar factions, both I played in the table top game and both have a great lore attached to them. Dark Eldar was my primary focus however I eventually ended up procuring pretty much all the factions for one reason or another and I took a bit of a like to Ragnar Blackmane, the 2nd Space Marines faction warlord released. I’m not overly familiar with the Space Wolves in the table top game but I found myself thinking about what a cool warlord Blackmane could be. At this time I also found myself watching a lot of videos posted up by the Hive Tyrant on YouTube and wound up watching a video interview with the runner up at the 2015 world championships, who played as Ragnar Blackmane.

I noted his deck list down as it really appealed to me and almost was exactly what I had imagined what I would play in Ragnar with a few certain exceptions. I paid close attention to the interview and made a lot of mental notes on how Seth (2nd at worlds) felt about how to play the deck, I can’t even lie; I agreed with pretty much everything he said also. I personally feel like Space Marines are one of the few factions that do not require allies to be used as they have so much scope with what they can do in a game and their cards really lend themselves to Blackmane’s ability. I should probably note here what he actually does though:

Ragnar Blackmane:
Faction: Space Marines
Hand Size: 7
Resources: 7
Ability: Reaction: After your warlord commits to a planet with an enemy warlord, deal 2 damage to a target enemy unit at that planet.

Now when you think that there are 2 ways to win a game of conquest, kill your opponent’s warlord or claim 3 planets with the same icon. This ability is spectacular, not only does it target your opponents warlord should you wish, it can also target another army unit at the same planet and that means you can thin your opponents herd before the combat even begins.

Luckily Ragnar’s signature squad also aids in his plan to lynch your opponent’s warlord, as if you chose to you can move any number of the ‘Blackmane’s Sentinels’ from other planets to the planet where your warlord commits to. Not a bad move to make when you want to make that final attack or even scare your opponents warlord away from a planet you want to fulfil your win condition.

If you also look at Ragnar’s signature event card ‘Blackmane's Hunt’ which allows you to recommit your warlord to an adjacent planet after you have committed your warlord. This card can be fantastic in so many ways, from allowing you to successfully hit your opponent’s warlord with your ability if you haven’t committed to the same planet as your opponent. Also allowing you to hit your opponent’s warlord with your ability and then jump to the adjacent planet to conduct a battle there should you have no interest in battling your opponent’s warlord directly that turn.

Looking to the other Space Marine specific cards to see what aids in Blackmane’s Hunt (Yes there is a pun there) we get an automatic include in the form of ‘Drop Pod Assault’ with the wonderful text: “Target a planet where a battle is taking place. Search the top 6 cards of your deck for a [Space Marine] unit with printed cost 3 or lower. Put that unit into play at the targeted planet, and place the remaing cards on the bottom of your deck in any order.” OMG right? So you can drop a potentially nasty unit to a planet where your opponent’s warlord is attempting to battle it out and potentially deal that killing blow to the enemy warlord. If you just look at the options for a cost 3 unit with Space Marines you are looking at some pretty tough hard hitting units straight off the bat:

1.       Blood Angels Veterans (Core Set)
3 ATK and 3HP
While this unit is ready, it gains, “Interrupt: When this unit is assigned damage, prevent 1 of that damage.”

2.       Honoured Librarian (Core Set)
4 ATK and 2HP
Enemy units cannot attack this unit while you control a unit not named “Honored Librarian” at this planet.

3.       White Scars Bikers (Gift of the Ethereals)
2ATK and 3HP
This unit gets +2 ATK while it is at a planet with a warlord.

4.       Veteran Brother Maxos (Core Set)
2ATK and 3HP
Combat Action: Pay the printed cost of a [SPACE MARINE] unit in your hand to put it into play at this planet.

Straight away you have the options of some great hard hitting units that if any were to be dropped at a planet with an enemy warlord could spell certain doom for that warlord. My personal favourite is the ‘White Scars Bikers’, simply because they get that extra attack power when at a planet with a warlord and that’s never a bad thing when you are trying to get into combat with them. However there is something to be said about the ‘Veteran Brother Maxos’ suddenly being dropped in front of an enemy horde, he can then use his ability to drop in more Space Marine units’ from your hand dependant on resources available to you.

Veteran Brother Maxos’ also provides you the ability to drop in smaller Space Marine units, possibly drawn through command struggle victories and this could also allow you to throw in some cheap hitters to aid you in your determined victory condition. When using the ‘Drop Pod Assault’ I would always try to drop in a 3 cost unit to maximise the value you are getting from the event itself and would leave dropping in any units such as ‘Tactical Squad Cardinis’ or ‘10th Company Scout’ to Maxos as this means you can use your resources to buy larger units to begin with.

Other Space Marine faction cards are fantastic such as ‘Crushing Blow’ which allows you to deal 1 point of unpreventable damage when a Space Marine unit successfully deals damage to an enemy unit and this card teamed with your warlord’s ability can lead to some massive damage being thrown at your opponent in short succession, as you can trigger the effect of ‘Crushing Blow’ off your warlords printed ability.

Another card that I find an staple with this warlord when you are attempting to hunt down your opponent’s warlord is the ‘Eager Recruit’, this unit has the AMBUSH keyword allowing you to drop this unit into play during the combat phase and may also turn the tide in a battle where your opponents warlord is present. This unit teamed with the previously mentioned cards can be a sure fire way to beat your opponents warlord by sheer amount of sneak attacks.

One of the other shining stars of this strategy is the ‘Primal Howl’ event card and this cracking card allows you to draw 3 cards when your warlord commits to the same planet as the opposing warlord. Also for an additional boost it also has 2 shield icons it is exceptionally good in this deck when you hoping to be in a position to use this effect as often as possible.

Okay so following this quick brief I will reveal for those who care, the deck list that came 2nd in the world championship in 2015:

Total Cards: 50

Army Unit (29)
3x 10th Company Scout (Core Set)
4x Blackmane Sentinel (The Howl of Blackmane)
3x Blood Angels Veterans (Core Set)
3x Eager Recruit (Core Set)
3x Honored Librarian (Core Set)
3x Rogue Trader (Core Set)
2x Tactical Squad Cardinis (Core Set)
2x Veteran Brother Maxos (Core Set)
3x Void Pirate (Core Set)
3x White Scars Bikers (Gift of the Ethereals)

Attachment (4)
1x Frostfang (The Howl of Blackmane)
3x Promotion (Core Set)

Event (16)
2x Blackmane’s Hunt (The Howl of Blackmane)
3x Crushing Blow (Gift of the Ethereals)
3x Drop Pod Assault (Core Set)
2x Exterminatus (Core Set)
3x Indomitable (Core Set)
3x Primal Howl (Descendants of Isha)

Support (1)

1x Ragnar’s Warcamp (The Howl of Blackmane)

I actually cannot describe how much I like this deck, I must admit to net decking this to use (much to a friend’s annoyance) and so far I have seen a great deal of success with it. One thing that does strike me about this deck is that it does not include any allied faction cards and this is not a bad thing. I actually share a lot of opinions with Seth when he is discussing this deck with the Hive Tyrant on his YouTube channel.  I am not a big fan of supports so this works perfectly for me, I do feel that adding allies to this deck would weaken one of my major combat tricks, ‘Drop Pod Assault’ and I would say that based on my preferred play style this is a great deck for me.

However, nothing is perfect and as of late I have been looking at ways to alter this deck to keep it as focused but to give it my own personal twist. One card I have considered putting in is ‘Know No Fear’, a deploy action that allows you to move up to 3 Space Marine units from your HQ to separate planets. I LOVE this card, I think when used with your ‘Blackmane’s Sentinels’ it can be a great way of getting those units to your warlords next target planet in a ready state or even  to set the stage for a warlord bloodying that turn. The main question is, what do I take out to replace it?

At first glance I am going to suggest ‘Promotion’, primarily because while I have had a few games with this deck already I have yet to really use this card in any way that could be considered critical to my victory. Putting the extra two command icons onto an army unit is useful in itself but I found that if I think they will be sniped by my opponent’s warlord of if I feel like they will lose the command I do tend to send Ragnar to reinforce, often triggering his ability and / or stealing command.

Another option I was thinking of pulling from this deck is ‘Exterminatus’, this card has also seen little to no play since using this deck and becomes a candidate for removal simply for that fact. However on the flip side of that, when I have been able to put this card into use it has done me a massive service and even possibly helped me pick up the win in the game I played the card.

I am hoping to take this deck to a local store championship late March 2016, so I may test out these different variations to involve ‘Know No Fear’ in the deck as I really believe it could be a positive inclusion in the deck.

I also wanted to look into the units contained within the deck also, now with the release of the Decree of War pack we have seen the release of the ‘Lone Wolf’ a new unit that has the following: ‘Action: Exhaust this unit to move it to a target planet with an enemy warlord and without any units you control.’ With 3 attack value and 3 hit points, this unit has all the potential in the world to fight it out with an enemy warlord for a favourable conclusion. The main question is what do I take out for this card?

I really do not want to be taking out the ‘White Scars Bikers’ as they are a smashing unit when going up against a warlord or even on a planet with your warlord. My first thought was to take out the ‘Blood Angels Veterans’ for the simple reason they have the same stats as the ‘Lone Wolf’ and the later unit providing the bonus of being able to move to another planet to fight your opponents warlord. The negative effect of this swap would be that the veterans are able to negate a point of damage dealt to them when they are ready which can be a life saver in a battle of attrition with other Space Marines or even Ork opponents.

The other readily available option to switch out is the ‘Honoured Librarian’, with 4 attack value this unit is a monster and also the fact it cannot be attacked while you control another unit not named ‘Honoured Librarian’ keeps it safe while you are able to stop your other units being killed, so in a tag team with the for mentioned ‘Blood Angels Veterans’ it can be one hard guy to kill off. However with every strength there is a weakness and this unit is burdened with only 2 hit points, meaning that any opponent playing a lot of Area Effect can cause this unit a lot of trouble and easily remove it before any serious attack can come from it. The ‘Lone Wolf’ however has 3 hit points, giving it a little more survivability in big skirmishes and even when going head to head with a warlord unit.

In review I have even considered switching out the 2 copies of ‘Tactical Squad Cardinis’, with there only being 2 copies in the deck and in my local meta Area Effect sees little play on the whole. However upon thinking back to the few games that I have had with this deck, I must admit that in my first game using this build I played both of them onto my victory condition planet and they actually helped significantly in winning the game. I also started to think that if I took this deck to an event not local to me that I may encounter more low cost builds such as Dark Eldar or Tyranids and I concluded that removing this card would probably cause a detriment further down the line.

Even after reviewing options available from other factions that could be included in this deck, I have yet to really be happy with any of the options available and the closest I have come to including an allied faction would be the Astra Militarium unit ‘Elysian Assault Team’, and simply because I would be able to drop it for free at a planet where I would lose a solider or warrior unit, shockingly quite common in this deck. However as addressed previously in order to include this I would have to decrease the number of Space Marines in the deck, therefore decreasing the odds of getting a unit out when using my ‘Drop Pod Assault’ and this card missing would be devastating during a combat turn when it would be critical for me to hit something.

After careful consideration I decided to make some changes but simply decrease the amount of certain cards and remove one particular unit from the deck. To test the progress of these changes, I am currently noting a game diary with my version of the deck and I hope to see if the changes I have made will actually make a difference to the deck in a positive way. Should this turn out to not be the case I will simply readjust the deck and try again, if everything fails to provide decent results I will simply revert back to the original deck list.

Here is the deck list now that I have made some changes highlighted:

Army Unit (29)
3x 10th Company Scout  (Core Set)
4x Blackmane Sentinel  (The Howl of Blackmane)
3x Lone Wolf (Decree of Ruin)
3x Eager Recruit  (Core Set)
3x Honored Librarian  (Core Set)
3x Rogue Trader  (Core Set)
2x Tactical Squad Cardinis  (Core Set)
2x Veteran Brother Maxos  (Core Set)
3x Void Pirate  (Core Set)
3x White Scars Bikers  (Gift of the Ethereals)

Attachment (3)
1x Frostfang  (The Howl of Blackmane)
2x Promotion  (Core Set)

Event (17)
2x Blackmane’s Hunt  (The Howl of Blackmane)
3x Crushing Blow  (Gift of the Ethereals)
3x Drop Pod Assault  (Core Set)
1x Exterminatus  (Core Set)
3x Indomitable  (Core Set)
3x Primal Howl  (Descendants of Isha)
2x Know No Fear (Gift of the Ethereals)

Support (1)
1x Ragnar’s Warcamp  (The Howl of Blackmane)

Nothing too drastic changed, I wanted to keep all the cards in there really, but you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. I really wanted to keep ‘Exterminatus’ in the deck as I love it when your opponent builds up on a planet and you just clear it in one card, so I dropped it to 1 copy as it is very useful still. I also just straight swapped my ‘Blood Angels Veterans’ for the ‘Lone Wolf’.

I took the deck and had a 5 games with it, making changes as I went based on how I felt the deck played with the changes I had made originally and I came to a couple of conclusions as a result of these games. I decided I needed ‘Exterminatus’ more than I needed ‘Know No Fear’, so I decided to only include 1 copy as a backup measure. For the ‘Lone Wolf’ I simply decided against it after replacing the ‘Blood Angels Veterans’ for 4 games, I never managed to use their ability once and I decided to revert back to the veterans, who were far more useful in my 5th tester game against Eldar.
As a result of these games the deck has changed again and I am hoping that this will  be the final cut of this deck and it lists as follows:
Army Unit (29)
3x 10th Company Scout  (Core Set)
4x Blackmane Sentinel  (The Howl of Blackmane)
3x Blood Angels Veterans (Core Set)
3x Eager Recruit  (Core Set)
3x Honored Librarian  (Core Set)
3x Rogue Trader  (Core Set)
2x Tactical Squad Cardinis  (Core Set)
2x Veteran Brother Maxos  (Core Set)
3x Void Pirate  (Core Set)
3x White Scars Bikers  (Gift of the Ethereals)

Attachment (3)
1x Frostfang  (The Howl of Blackmane)
2x Promotion  (Core Set)

Event (17)
2x Blackmane’s Hunt  (The Howl of Blackmane)
3x Crushing Blow  (Gift of the Ethereals)
3x Drop Pod Assault  (Core Set)
2x Exterminatus  (Core Set)
3x Indomitable  (Core Set)
3x Primal Howl  (Descendants of Isha)
1x Know No Fear (Gift of the Ethereals)

Support (1)
1x Ragnar’s Warcamp  (The Howl of Blackmane)

Sadly after a lot of thinking and over planning there is only 1 change to this deck but I feel it will prove to be a good change and will help to get me some solid wins. I will also be keeping a log of how well this version of the deck plays in comparison to the original version of the deck and leading up to our first local tournament I want to make sure I am taking the most optimum version of this build, as I also intend to take this deck to a store championship a bit further away and I have my eyes on the prize (first round by at a regional), so I want to be as competitive as possible really.

For anyone still left at this stage of the article I would like to say thank you for sticking with it, this has been a real unproductive use of my work time so many thanks for indulging me and sticking around. I want to quickly shout out to my team mates over at SOS (@siteofshite) you can also follow me too (@bigboss010) and also recommend checking out The Hive Tyrant (@The_Hive_Tyrant) on YouTube for some Conquest videos and podcasts.

Hopefully I may even try this with other decks that I come up with that I want to expand upon or maybe just write up a tournament report… oooh that could be fun! Well that’s it and thanks for reading.

 I’m Big Boss and I’m out…. Peace!! J