April Tournament breakdown

Played 3 1250 point games today with an altered version of Molitor's army. No Hades Heldrake, minus a Lascannon Predator tank, and only 89 Cultists. The first game was against a horde Tyranid army. I was a bit too aggressive with the Maulerfiend and Bikers and the troop monstrous creature my opponent had too many wounds to take care of. That plus my Heldrakes didn't come in until Turn 4.  After 2 spawnings of more troops in a single turn and my line collapsing, I was done for in Turn 7. When the game ended I had a single small unit of Cultists and Heldrake left. While I had killed his flying Hive Tyrant Warlord and a couple of units, he was spawning more than I could burn. In the end, the bugs devoured the chaos.

Game 2 was against Necrons. My opponent deployed second and wisely positioned himself in a manner which completely blocked line of sight from my lone Predator tank. However, after deployment it was obvious I had a much larger force. He had 2 Night Scythes which came in on Turn 2 and increased the count, but my Chaos Lord and Maulerfiend brought his Warlord down in Turn 1. My Heldrake came in on Turn 2 and that thing didn't disappoint between Vector Striking and its Baleflamer. The biggest hurdle was my opponent's ability to resurrect his models, but when my Cultists are in Rapid Fire range and firing 41 shots I'll be delivering wounds. My Warlord was blinked out of existence in a challenge and I lost all but 2 Bikers. In the end though, the sacrifices served papa Nurgle as the Cultists held onto many more objectives than my opponent's dwindling numbers of Necrons.

Game 3 was against Space Wolves with an Aegis Defence Line. We were deploying in the corners with objectives on the board and a relic in the center of the table. My opponent had 2 tanks behind the defence line with a Quad-gun, I knew what my Predator's first target was going to be. A couple of Lascannon hits later and the biggest threat to my Heldrake was eliminated in the first turn. My Heldrake thankfully came in on Turn 2 again and destroyed a loyalist Rhino, netting me First Blood.  I was again too aggressive with the Maulerfiend and it died from the tanks. After losing 2 Bikers I was nervous about assaulting but they were in range and I decided to press my luck. A roll of 1 for the Black Mace meant I was in serious trouble as my opponent had a model with a Power Axe that devastated my Warlord. One of my Cultist units was wiped out and my opponent had Outflanked with a Rhino carrying his Warlord. My Predator wrecked the Rhino and the elite unit of Space Wolves cleared the Cultists holding a nearby objective. The Predator fired again and a beam of supercharged light burst from the Wolf's Warlord. The game was called and our points were totaled, with both the Chaos Marines and Space Wolves equaling in the tally. The tie breaker was down to kill points, which because of the 2 Rhinos & tanks downed, led to a Chaos victory by a single point.

Today had a very fun run of games, in which I encountered a version of Tyranids that has me scratching my head on how to defeat, and had close games with turn after turn of enjoyable engagements. I'm seeing where the weaknesses in my list are, but on the whole I think it played very well. As always though, the dice rolls determine the outcomes. Until I next see you on the battlefield, happy wargaming!