Lincon 2019 - Summary

Lincon this year was a 5 round tournament over 2 days. It was played with 1750 points lists and 38 people attended. The format used was ITC with the addition that you could opt to use Maelstrom cards instead of picking secondary’s.

So let us just get on with it, I had a terrible showing at Lincon this year. The list I brought was the
following...

CSM Supreme Command (Alpha Legion, Soulforged Pack)

1 x Lord Discordant (Nurgle, Baleflamer, Virus injector, Warlord “I am Alpharius”, Mecha-serpents)
2 x Lord Discordant (Nurgle, Baleflamer, Virus injector)

CSM Spearhead (Alpha Legion)

1 x Chaos Sorcerer with Jump Pack (Nurgle, Bolt pistol, Force sword)
3 x Deredeo (Nurgle, Butcher, Havoc, HBolter)

Daemon Battalion (Nurgle)
2 x Poxbringer
29 x Plaguebearers (Banner, Instrument)
4 x Nurglings
3 x Nurglings

1748p, 9CP

I took Miasma of Pestilence and Virulent Blessing on my Poxbringers all games, Warptime and Diabolic Strength on my Chaos Sorcerer.

During playtesting I've done amazingly well with this list, 121-22 in terms of total points in the 3 games I did play with this exact list. But my playtesting was missing a crucial component that will become very apparent once I go over my games in this tournament.

I will write how many points I managed to score of each secondary in brackets for each game/secondary.


Game 1
First game of the tournament was against Astra Militarum. I looked over his list and picked Recon (4), Gang Busters (2), Big Game Hunter (4). The Gang Buster would prove to be a mistake as he protected the Bulgryn in a ruin until late game. My opponent picked Recon (4), Kingslayer (4), Big Game Hunter (4).

Here's his list...

Astra Militarum Battalion (Emperor’s Wrath Artillery Company, Catachan)
2 x Company Commanders
3 x 10 man Infantry squads
Astropath
8 x Bullgryns
Basilisk
Wyvern

Astra Militarum Battalion (Emperor’s Fist Tank Company, Tallam)
3 x Tank Commander (Plasma Cannons *1 being relic, Battle Cannon)
3 x 10 man Infantry squads
3 x Chimera

85 reinforcement points

He won the roll to choose deployment zone and picked the one with a tall forest. Just for clarity my
club and this tournament plays forests as following.

You can see into and out from a forest but not over. The forest is a cylinder going up from the terrain piece the tree is sitting on top and as tall as the tree placed on the highest spot on the terrain piece

Being able to shoot with his Tallam tanks and then move behind that forest would prove to be the winning strategy for my opponent.

Long story short, I took Kill More and Hold More round 1 and 2. But because of the forest I could not get any shoots on the tank commanders and they deleted two of my Disco Lords round 1 and one Disco Lord and a Deredeo round 2.

Round 3 forward I did not have enough killing power and my opponent started getting Kill More. I held more every round until and including round 5.

I lead by a few points at the top of round 6, only having 19 Plaguebearers and a Poxbringer left on the board against his almost untouched heavy support. This is where I made a devastating mistake moving my last Poxbringer 1” to far to hold an objective, making it possible for him to move his Wyvern and get shoots of at him, killing him and grabbing his only Kill for the round and also getting Kill More.

The game ended 27-28, and had I not moved my Poxbringer I would have won by 29-26.

Putting my crucial mistake with my Poxbringer aside, I would say being outranged was a big problem for me in this game. 36” range on then Butcher Cannons can with the right deployment put this list at a horrible disadvantage.


Game 2
Going into the second game after my soul-crushing mistake, I knew that I had to let it go in order to play my best. I was up against a player that absolutely crushed me at a tournament earlier this year and he was running Drukhari again, but without the support from Craftworld’s psychic powers I was feeling rather good. His list did not really have any firepower that outranged mine either so I was looking forward to seeing what my list could do.

I picked Recon (2), Big Game Hunter (4), Marked for Death (4). He picked Kingslayer (4), Big Game Hunter (3), Recon (4).

The list he ran was…

Drukhari Battalion (Kabal of the Flayed Skull)
2 x Archons
4 x 5 Kabalite Warrios
5 x Venoms

Drukhari Spearhead (Prophets of the Flesh)
Haemonculus
3 x 2 Talos

Drukhari Spearhead (Kabal of the Black Heart)
Archon
3 x Ravagers (3xDisintegrator)

I won the roll to choose deployment and picked the one where I could place some of my Deredeos in a forest to give them that sweet 2+ save. I got to go second after he killed a Disco Lord in his first round and nothing more. I moved my remaining Disco Lords up the board, advancing them all and casting Diabolic Strength, Miasma of Pestilence and Virulent Blessings on the frontrunner. He of course Vects when I tried to charge after advancing but I had planned for that and wanted him to spend CP at the start instead of controlling the game at later turns.

I also desided to remove as many Venoms as possible and shot down two round 1 and killed the Kabalite Warriors inside. Turns out Deredeo with Helical Targeting Array that gives them, +1 to hit against FLY is great against Venoms, who could have guessed.

The game really went my way, having his army coming to me (or at least getting in 36” range) and him having so many fragile units I managed to get Hold More every round and Kill More four rounds.

The Disco Lords were great distractions, him having to deal with them for 3 rounds due to Miasma of Pestilence on one of them, and his killing power going down once I started shooting at his Talos and Ravagers made this game easy to control. We both rolled hot on saves, me for my Discos and he for his Talos so it wasn’t until later in the game that they all finally died, and by then I had such a large lead that I had already won the game.

The game ended 34-24 in my favor, it was a great game with my opponent being graceful, and fun the whole game through, and I got my revenge from our game at that earlier tournament.


Game 3
Game 3 was an interesting one, I was up against Tau, which is a very hard match-up for my list due to the difficulty to charge and survive. But I also played against one of the nicest people I ever played against, so while my army was taking a heavy beating we both had a blast during the game, laughing and joking the whole time. The social aspect and the people that play this game should never be taken for granted. Had he not been such a fun and nice person I would have struggled to find any enjoyment in this game.

So to his list…

T’au Battalion (T’au Sept)
Cadre Fireblade
Commander in XV86 (4xFusion blaster)
3 x 5 Strike team (1 markerlight in each)
2 x Riptide (Heavy burst cannon, Advanced targeting system, Target lock)

T’au Battalion (T’au Sept)
Commander in XV86 (4xFusion blaster)
Ethereal
3 x 5 Strike team (1 markerlight in each)
5 man Pathfinder Team
2 x 5 Shield Drone

T’au Super Heavy Auxiliary (T’au Sept)
KV128 Stormsurge (2xburst cannon, Advanced targeting system, Cluster rocket system, 4xDestroyer missile, Pulse drive cannon, Shield generator, 2xSmart missile system, Velocity tracker)

I picked Recon (3), Marked for Death (1), Old School (1) for this game, my opponent picked Big Game Hunter (4), Old School (4), Kingslayer (4).

There is not much to say about this game. I got first turn and I failed all my psychic spells, but killed a drone squad and one unit of Fire Warrios. Got most of my list into cover so they had some survivability if they were not marked up. That did not save my army. Lost a Deredeo to Stormsurge and Riptide fire, a Commander moved up and blasted the Disco Lord of the table.

I tried to kill the Commander in my backline but it was invincible and survived the full shooting from my two remaining Deredeos.

My opponents turn that same Commander went on to kill a Deredeo and the rest of the army killed some Plaguebearers and my last Deredeo. Game was over there but I scrambled to get some more points. Got tabled round 6 but managed a 18-34 loss.


Game 4
With my last loss, I was completely out of getting a good placement in the tournament and as a reward for that, I got one of my best friends and my club mate as my next opponent. We have played countless games against each other and we can usually see who going to win after the first battle round. However, in this game we could see it once we rolled the first die.

I picked Kingslayer (4), Titan Slayers (4), Recon (1). My opponent choose to use the Mealstrom cards (12).

Imperial Knights Super Heavy (Krast)

Castellan (2xSiegebreaker Cannons)

Gallant (Heavy Stubber, Reaper Chainsword, Thuderstrike Gauntlet)

Gallant (Heavy Stubber, Reaper Chainsword, Thuderstrike Gauntlet)

Officio Assassinorum

Callidus

Culexus

2 x Vindicare

The Deployment was Dawn of War, the one that won the roll off at the start has to select which side
they wanted, and the other player had to deploy their whole army. Therefore, my opponent savvy as he is picked the one that did not have anything obstructing placement in the middle of the deployment zone. Leaving me with the side that had a big building at the center of my deployment. I then had to select left or right of that building and deploy everything. He then put his army as far as possible away from me and outranged me the whole game.

Round 1 I moved up and cast spells on my Disco Lord that was furthest up, as a deterrent to charge him. But his army was too far away so I couldn’t get a charge off and my Deredeos couldn’t shoot anything. His first turn he kills 2 Disco Lords and moves up towards me.

I managed to kill a Gallant over round 2 and 3 and managed to get the Castellan to 1 wound in round 4-6 but I got hit hard by the Castellan that except for a complete whiff (dealing only 2 damage to a Deredeo in one turn) consistently removed my Disco Lords and Deredeos.

The game ended 19-30, putting me at total of 1 win and 3 losses going into the last round.


Game 5

My last game was against another friend and club mate. We have played many games against each other and they are always relaxing and fun. We both had terrible results going into this game and we just decided to roll some dice and try to make the most out of it.

I picked The Butcher’s Bill (2), Recon (2), Old School (2). He picked Big Game Hunter (4), Old School (4), Engineers (0).

T’au Battalion (T’au Sept)
Shadowsun
Fireblade
3 x Fire Warriors
12 x Shield Drones
3 x Broadsides (High yield missile pods, Smart missiles, Advanced targeting system)
2 x Riptide (Heavy burst cannon, Advanced targeting system, Velocity tracker)
Dahyak Grekh

T’au Battalion (T’au Sept)
Darkstrider
Commander in XV86 (4xFusion blaster)
3 x Fire Warriors

T’au Vanguard (Sa’cea Sept)
Ethereal
3 x Firesight Marksmen

I took and held the board round 1-3 and even managed to Kill More round 1, and keeping pace with my opponents kills round 2 and 5. But with T’au being a very hard match-up for my list I was the underdog in this match, but the bonus was achieved by standing with characters on 3 different objectives and that really kept me in the game, I managed to get the bonus 5 rounds. That together with killing his engineers and Hold More for 4 rounds made this a much closer game than expected.

One of my Deredeos refused to be hit by markerlights and refused to fail a save one round as well so it soaked all of the shooting and gave me a fighting chance.

My round 2 I got a Disco Lord behind his line and killed the second drone unit with Baleflamer and got a charge of on a Riptide and survived with two wounds, putting some wounds on the Riptide before dying the turn after.

My other Disco Lords managed to kill some Fire Warriors before dying in round 2. But once again they served as great distractions and saved my Deredeos from taking to heavy fire until later in the game.

The game ended in a tie 26-26 because I had managed to hobble my last 6 Plaguebearers up the board round 5 and tri-pointing a character to save them from being shoot of the board, thereby scoring me linebreaker at the end of the game.


Final Words
This was a great tournament in terms of organization and all my opponents were amazing. My result of 1-1-3 and my final placing of 30 was of course very discouraging but I do feel that there is some good in the list, so let us go through the army and the units.

Alpha Legion as Legion trait The -1 to hit was a lifesaver in this tournament, even if it didn’t save the units from dying it made them so much more resilient and it forced the opponent to move their units to get inside the 12” range and dedicate much more firepower to get the kill.

Disco Lords
Fantastic distraction fexes, the opponent has to deal with them or they will wreck their toys. I love the baleflamer because the 18” range it so easy to shoot at something you care about hurting. They are fast and deadly and after the initial move up the board do not really care about the degrading profile that only affects movement and the mounts attacks.

Deredeos
Best unit in the list, the amount of quality shoots they put out is really something. Greater Havoc Launchers are the best, shooting T’au drones, and units holding objectives behind LoS is so valuable, even more so in this list. These guys are going to become a staple in all chaos lists I build in the near future.

The Psykers
Virulent Blessing is such a sleeper spell, it makes something like the Disco Lords terrifying with all those attacks with +1 to wound. Warptime and Miasma of Pestilence needs no introduction and Diabolic Strength can be clutch vs t8.

Plaguebearers
Necessary to hold objectives and protect the Deredeos. They were usually holding 3 objectives and because the opponent had to focus on my bigger threats they almost never got targeted until round 3 or 4. By far my biggest scorers.

Nurglings
Love these guys, sometimes they just refuse to die.

Secondaries
This list cannot reliable pick Recon or Old School, so those were big mistakes. Other than that, I felt somewhat good with my choices.

Final Final Words
The list struggles a lot when it gets outranged, it is deadly at 36”-0” but once your opponent can stay outside that range and deal damage the list quickly falls apart.

It cannot really deal with Castellan due to this and T’au is a horrible match-up with their ability to kill everything you need to win the game in 1-2 rounds. The Disco Lords cannot really charge a T’au castle due to the overwatch so their effectiveness drops to almost zero.

I will try to build a new list with parts of what I ran at this tournament, will try to add some Thousand Sons and keep some Deredeo and Disco Lords and see where it goes.

If you got these far, thanks for reading and feel free to comment.