As for the games themselves, I ended up bringing my Warzone: Atlanta list exactly as it was (to note, we were playing on the day Chapter Approved was being released so did not use updated points). Round 1 I was matched up with Jimmy and his Dark Eldar featuring two Crimson Hunters, three Ravagers, and a blob of Talos and Grotesques. We were playing on a pretty impressive table that made for a stunning visual:
The table featured a massive ruin, with some others built in around it. The terrain limited where my Knight would be able to go, but was pretty cool.
We had Search and Destroy deployment on ITC Mission 1, and Jimmy went first, which just had him moving forward a bit and trying to sneak in some shots with his Crimson Hunters. He also moved his Grotesques right up to the wall to get his recon point, so I countered by charging them with the Knight, even with a wall in the way. The Sanguinary Guard charged in as well and were less effective than hoped despite fighting twice, only killing off a handful of the unit. The Sicarans traded blows back and forth with the Crimson Hunters and Ravagers at range. We only ended up playing three turns, which saw Jimmy take a narrow 15-12 win, but he had gotten the advantage by then and would have pulled away further in his following turns.
Round 2 I faced up against Alan Whitt and his Thousand Sons, which featured seemingly a million psykers along with two large mobs of Tzaangors. We rolled up Search and Destroy deployment again, on ITC Mission 2. I chose Reaper, Headhunter, and Butcher's Bill as my secondaries, while Alan took Headhunter, Titan Slayer, and Old School for his.
Alan had first turn and moved up, killing off a Scout Squad and a handful of models from several other units with Smites. In my first turn I pulled back with most of my forces, throwing the Knight forward into a Hellhound and one blob of Tzaangors. In shooting I plinked down one Hellhound and then in combat failed to kill it when I threw the other Hellhound at it with my Knight, despite it exploding. On the other flank, I charged my Rhino into the other blob of Tzaangors to hold them in place.
Alan's turn 2 saw him pull back a bit with his characters, leery of staying too close to the Knight. Despite using the stratagem to gain a save against mortal wounds, he was able to kill it off just through weight of Smites and other psychic powers. The Knight then exploded, killing off the damaged Hellhound and taking several Tzaangors with it. In my turn, the Sanguinary Guard moved up to engage the front Tzaangor blob while the Sicarans shot down the rest of the ones who had been fighting the Knight. Combat saw the Sanguinary Guard and some various Blood Angel Troops kill off the other Tzaangors.
In turn 3 Alan began moving forward again, Smiting down a handful of Marines from various units, but the mountain in the middle kept him from killing off entire squads for the most part. He jumped one Daemon Prince forward onto the middle objective and did manage to kill off most of the Sanguinary Guard, but got punished in return. In my turn my Sicarans moved to put his blob of characters closest, and Shooting and Combat from them and then my various Characters who I had held back until now saw me kill off both Princes, Ahriman, and most of the others. This continued for another turn or two, but with the teeth removed from his list I was able to pull away, despite only having a handful of models left on the table myself, for a 25-15 victory.
To round out the day, I was matched against my buddy Mike, who rode down with me, and his Guard army. Playing ITC Mission 3, we rolled up Spearhead Assault. I took Recon, Reaper, and Headhunter while Mike took Recon, Ground Control, and Headhunter.
Mike got first turn and moved up - charging to take midfield with his infantry and using his two gunships and mortars to gun down some Scouts while plinking shots off my armored units. I moved forward somewhat with the Knight and Rhino on either flank, and then my Sicarans showed off some truly impressive displays of inefficiency, managing to put just a couple wounds on one Vendetta. The Knight charged into some infantry, killing off a unit and looking to be a bit of a roadblock on one side. The Rhino chose to do the same on the left flank, though without the lethality. Finally, the Sanguinary Guard made it to the Vendetta on my right and ripped it out of the sky.
Mike continued his move forward turn 2, picking up some more Troops units but otherwise being fairly ineffective in shooting. His unit of Wulfen leapt forward and attacked the Knight, and while they hurt it, most of them died in return before killing it in their deathblows, only to have it rise from the ashes with a single wound. In my turn the Sicarans managed to shoot down the remaining Wulfen and a unit of Mortars. My very damaged Knight marched toward his blob of Rune Priests, Wolf Lord, and various Guard characters. He declared the charge and promptly died in overwatch, exploding cataclysmically, killing two Rune Priests and taking nearly every other character down to a single wound. In my backfield, my Captain, who had been babysitting the Sicarans, smashed the remaining plane out of the sky.
Mike continued to contest midfield, and jumped his Wolf Lord forward into Mephiston and my Chaplain. Mephiston made some miracle ignoring wounds saves to strike back and kill the Wolf Lord, before dying to his final reactivation. In the remaining couple turns, my Sanguinary Guard continued forward, cleaning up all of the wounded characters, with the Sicarans providing fire support, with my two Intercessor units taking the midfield objectives. The game ended in a 37-17 victory for me, rounding out my day with a 2-1 record.
I happily took home Best Painted, which mostly covered my copy of Chapter Approved. I was also fairly happy with the performance of the army, which went down 20-30 points in Chapter Approved. It's a fun army to play and I'm getting fairly comfortable with it. I have a few tweaks I think could be worthwhile to try out, but no real plans for games in the pressing future. Overall, the list has a couple solid bricks and is very durable. I've found I can have more success with the army if I play a bit more conservatively, which does make me want to add a few more guns in there somehow.
Most of all, I was happy I could use the event to help out my local community by driving some food donations to help those in need. I don't know that I could fully afford to do this on a wider scale going forward, but definitely plan on doing something similar as often as I can.
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