Chandler's Warzone: Atlanta 2018 Recap: Day 1

Hey everyone. Chandler here to give you guys a rundown of my Warzone: Atlanta 2018 experience.  For those who don't know, Warzone: Atlanta is a 120 player ITC Major event held in Atlanta, Georgia every year on Veteran's Day weekend.  It is by far my favorite event of the year and the one I look forward to the most. Not only is the event just awesome, but it's a chance for me to see old friends again and catch up.  I have now attended the past 3 Warzone: Atlanta events and it has become a must attend event for me.


Before diving in I'll rundown my list and why I chose the army and composition. My list was as follows:

++++Battalion Detachment - Chaos Daemons++++
Fluxmaster, Staff of Change - Flickering Flames, Gaze of Fate
Daemon Prince of Khorne, Wings, Daemonic Axe

Horrors: 9 Brimstone, 1 Blue
Horrors: 9 Brimstone, 1 Blue
Horrors: 10 Blue, 20 Pink
25 Bloodletters, Daemonic Icon, Instrument

++++Supreme Command Detachment - Thousand Sons++++
Ahriman on Disc - Death Hex, Doombolt, Weaver of Fates
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, Wings, Hellforged Sword - Tzeentch's Firestorm, Warptime
Daemon Prince of Tzeentch, Wings, Talons - Gaze of Fate, Infernal Gaze

++++Patrol Detachment - Chaos Space Marines Black Legion++++
Abaddon (Warlord)
Chaos Sorcerer on Bike, Mark of Slaanesh, Force Stave - Delightful Agonies, Prescience

40 Cultists, Mark of Slaanesh

3 Obliterators, Mark of Slaanesh

1999 Points, 11 CP

Warzone Atlanta has it's own custom mission set and includes what they refer to as Warzone Kill Points.  Units are worth certain kill points based on certain factors.  Multi-model units with 10 or fewer wounds are worth 1 kill point while multi-model units with 11+ models are worth an additional kill point.  Single model units are worth 1 kill point per 8 wounds.  Characters and Lords of War also give up 1 kill point respectively.  This means that Magnus, for example, gives up 4 Warzone Kill Points when destroyed and depending on the setup, an Imperial Knight could give up as many as 5!  I wanted to maximize efficiency here so I included large squads which would be difficult to kill while also giving up minimal kill points in the process.  No unit in my list gives up more than 2 Warzone Kill Points.

Additionally, each mission uses the Alternating First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Linebreaker tertiaries, which are worth 2 Battle Points to each player when achieved, unless both players achieve them in which case they are worth 1 Battle Point each.  My goal here was also to prevent splitting those points. My list is very difficult to get first blood on and slay the warlord and it has board control and maneuverability to allow me to get linebreaker without giving it up often also.

With those factors in mind, it was mostly focusing on the primary missions and outscoring my opponent in each one. With the number of bodies and damage output I have in the list, it would be able to efficiently score objectives on the primary objectives while also not giving up many kill points.

The common mistake many people made when they saw my list was thinking it didn't have very good shooting.  The Pink Horrors and Cultists combined with the Obliterators are capable of putting out an insane volume of firepower that can cause lots of wounds through the use of stratagems, character and psychic buffs. It also performs well in the assault and psychic phases, which is what I was going for; an army that would be fully capable in every phase of the game.

Game 1 vs Imperial Knights and Guard

It was well known going into the event that there would be a very strong Knights presence, and my army was designed to kill them and do so very well.  So round 1 sees me pitted up against a friend of mine named Eric Swing.  Eric and I have played at Warzone before and he is one of my favorite people to play against. He is from South Carolina and is a Clemson fan (but we won't hold that against him).

His list included a Gallant, Crusader, and a Castellan along with a standard Guard Battalion and a Scions Battalion.  The mission was called Firestorm and we drew Hammer and Anvil deployment.  This mission seems like a standard progressive mission with 6 objectives on the table as the primary.  The interesting part of the mission is that you can choose to "raze" an objective in your opponent's deployment zone if you control it. When you raze an objective you score d3 victory points, which you can use a CP to re-roll if you want, and the objective is removed from the table and can't be scored again.  The secondary in the mission is called marked for death in which you pick 3 units in your opponent's army and you gain battle points for killing them as well as preventing them from killing your own marked for death units.

Eric chose my 3 daemon princes to mark for death while I chose his Gallant, and 2 of his plasma scion squads.  I knew that all of those units would need to get in close to me to be effective which would give me the opportunity to kill them.

This game was a slug fest which included my Skullreaver Khorne Prince knocking down his Gallant to 2 wounds on turn 1, allowing him another turn to operate at full profile which he used to kill 2 of my Daemon Princes and Ahriman in round 2. That was a devastating blow.  Additionally, my Bloodletters failed a key charge in turn 2 when they dropped that likely would have handed me the game definitively.  I did manage to kill his Gallant, Castellan and all the Scions I had marked for death meanwhile he killed all of my princes as well.  The game was about board control though as I left him no gaps to get into my backfield to raze my objectives really.  And because I was spread out I was earning more objective points every turn. I ended up pulling out the W against him in a hard fought match.

Eric would go on to have a fantastic event, not losing another game all weekend!

Win: 20-12

Game 2 vs Tyranids

Game 2 would see me pitted up against Corey Reece and his Tyranids. His list was interesting and at first had me a bit nervous.  He had a Malanthrope, Old One Eye, 9 Carnifexes and 3 Exocrines.  I looked over his list at the table and saw that all the Carnifexes were all kitted out for close combat instead of shooting, which led me to breathe a sigh of relief. These Carnifexes would be great at killing things like Knights, but against my list, not so much.

The mission was called Dig Site which was a combination of progressive and end game objectives. It was an interesting mission, but not one I had played much because I honestly didn't think it would make the final cut for the packet from the primer. But it did and there we were.  This mission uses 6 objectives which you can either choose to score progressively by "digging" them.  If you do, roll a die, and if it is equal to or less than the turn number, the objective is removed after scoring it.  You can choose not to dig them, and if so any objectives left at the end of the game are worth 3 points to the player controlling them. Once there are only 2 objectives remaining you can no longer dig.

The secondary objective here is standard kill points (rather than Warzone Kill Points) which means all those monsters would be worth only 1 kill point.  This favored me however because he lacked the shooting to deal with my hordes and I had the upper hand on the secondary as they only gave up 1 kill point each.

We deployed and got Vanguard Strike.  The terrain was setup in such a way with ruins and large rock formations that I would be able to move block his Carnifexes with horrors and pick them off by psychic powers and combat from the Princes. Meanwhile the Bloodletters would come down and touch the Exocrines and take them out of the game, as he deployed them all bunched together.

That is pretty much how the game went. I kept funneling his Carnifexes through narrow gaps and placing horrors as speed bumps because they could not move around the walls or terrain and don't have fly to hop the horrors in movement. Then I'd counter charge with princes after shooting.  At the end of the game, I still had most of my army minus a demon prince and a horror squad while he had effectively been tabled.  Corey was a super fun guy to play, and took it in good spirits. We had a great time laughing and drinking.

MVP of this match was the Khorne Prince who slaughtered multiple carnifexes and even managed to sneak in and kill Old One Eye.  Skullreaver is an amazing relic if you can keep that prince protected.

Win: 27-7

Game 3 vs Tallarn Guard, Assassins, and Custodes

Game 3 would have me pitted up against Bobby Ezell and his awesome Tallarn Guard army.  Bobby and I are friends and have played each other before in events.  When I first approached the table I saw his army and had confidence I could defeat it, until he mentioned the 2 Culexus assassins he had which then made my heart sink ha.  His list included 3 Russ tank commanders all with triple plasma cannons, 3 hellhounds, 3 squads of Infantry, 9 Rough Riders, a Calladus Assassin and the 2 Culexus as well as 3 Custodes Shield Captains on Dawneagle jetbikes.

The mission was going to be rough for me here.  The primary was High Value Targets. In this mission each player selects 4 units from the opponent's army and when you kill those units you earn their Warzone Kill Point value in victory points. The player who earns the most gets additional victory points as well. The secondary mission was the Relic.  My list is designed to capitalize on this mission because as mentioned above, the most Warzone Kill Points I can give up in this scenario is 8.  He also chose my cultists, which was a mistake on his part (this unit never died through the entire event).  That meant all I needed to get was 3 units of his and I could win.

We then drew the Hammer and Anvil deployment with the forward tip.

This game really boiled down to who went first and he won the roll. Which meant he pulled his Cullexus up to the center of the table and was able to protect him with a Shield Captain long enough to secure the relic. He also wisely spread out and took control of the board.  I was also super tired after an exhausting first 2 games which both went the full distance on time.  I made a lot of mistakes this game that ultimately cost me, but Bobby is also a fantastic player and he was able to capitalize on them.  In the end, he was able to barely squeak by on the primary but he had the relic well protected and buried behind his lines which I would never get to.

In hindsight I made some errors in this game that cost me, but his ability to take the board first turn and his Cullexus Assasins really limited what I could do. None of my powers were going off and I wasn't able to really gain any ground or get any pressure on him.  Ultimately it cost me the game. It was still a fun time and Bobby and I shared a few beers and had a wonderful time.

Loss: 19-7

Day One Recap

So, day one was in the books and I was happy with where I stood. 2-1 was not horrible, but I would need to really crank up the battle points in day two to have a chance to place overall.   All in all day one was a success. I had 3 great games with 3 fantastic opponents. It made voting for favorite opponent really difficult.  But that is the nature of Warzone Atlanta.  The majority of players there are not only great on the table, but also just great people in general.

Thanks for reading and I'll look to have the day 2 recap up soon!