After a fun-filled quiz, in which we did poorly, the Hobby Butterflies returned for a second day of battles in the Age of Darkness.
Game 4 saw us come up against an opponent who, it turns out, was a crowd favourite! The Boys of Iron Talon, Raven Guard and Iron Warriors, brought a gorgeous list. A deep strike/outflank Raven Guard force with Fire Raptor and an armoured Iron Warriors force with Medusa and Minotaur!
The diagonal corners deployment that everyone hates came up, and we squeezed into our edge. We quickly immobilised and weapon destroyed the Medusa, reducing it to a glorified tarantula. We moved up the board and tried to head towards the objective.
The Iron Warriors were the main played turn 1 with some movement up the table and some early fire from the Minotaur. The Raven Guard Dreadclaw arrived and started to cause its usual havoc in our back field.
Some lovely destroyed markers!
Meanwhile the Kakophoni took great joy in killing most of their own!
The last few turns saw a pair of fliers arrive and wreak havoc in our lines. An outflanking Javelin hit hard and the Fire Raptor was a machine!
We had a brief moment of tactical genius when two empty Rhinos rushed up the board causing much confusion for Iron Talon (Der H: I did tell them before they assaulted! Especially considering they were being very sporting in considering how gamey it would be if they charged it at the table edge....true gentlemen! )
In the end we couldn’t hold the objective, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable game! Iron Talon went on to win 3 awards (Brother Handro: at least!) including one made specifically for them winning every favourite game possible!
Game 5 was an interesting matchup given our 1 win and 3 losses; a dual Primarch list with Pertuabo, Siege Terminators and cataphractii representing the Iron Warriors and Magnus with two squads of Sekhmet.
Null deployment meant a useless first turn for us. Perty landed and blew our Predators off the table, and the Terminators hit the volkites hard. Our return fire didn’t really hit home. Our Kakophoni and Vets rushed the objective in the supposed opponents’ deployment zone.
Then Magnus happened...a long psychic phase later and all but one Rhino was destroyed and most squads took 2-3 casualties.
The rest of the game was an excercise in our remnants trying to wound an army with buffs galore, invulnerable saves, multi wounds and long psychic phases. Nothing stuck. We managed to get Magnus to one wound, and despite not being a close combat list my Delegatus got a charge. Thanks to Emperors Children shenanigans, and a charnabal sabre, I got to strike first with two hits and no wounds being punished by a stern punch to the neck from the primarch of the Thousand Sons.
We weren’t tabled, but lost on VPs with two slay the warlords, attrition and fewer units on the objective.
We ended the weekend on 1 win to 4 losses, and a last game that was simultaneously awesome (going up against two Primarchs) and tedious (not being able to take part in a phase of the game and being completely out matched).
The weekend showed us that our tactics and list planning were evidently consistent with a pair of gamers who, despite being in the hobby for years, have only been really playing since December!
Some quick impulse buys, an award ceremony and a 2 hour drive home saw our first Throne of Skulls complete!
Now we just need to play for the next phase of the Melos campaign in July!
(Brother Handro: To the painting table!)
Der H & Brother Handro
