Feast of Blades update:

Tomorrow I am going into the 2nd day of Feast of Blades and sofar the event is pretty fun, smoothly run and a blast! Read on for a little update on how I've been doing and what I think of the meta and my army.



My progress:
Sofar I drew my first game and won my last three so I ended the first day with tidy 4-0-1 record. I made it into the second bracket while I just barely got edged out of the top bracket because I didn't get quite enough battle points from my opponents, I guess my Wraithknight giving up First Blood didn't help, lol.

The Meta and my opponents:
So yeah, if you take a look around the gaming room the first thing you notice is just how many Riptides and Tau/Eldar armies there are. Out of my first 4 games, 3 involved Tau with some Eldar in there! I am so sick of these armies if I see another Riptide I am going to flip out...Well not really but it is sad to see the meta out here.

My first opponent had Eldar with Tau Allies; my second opponent had a nasty 2 D-lords, 3 Wraith units; 2 Barges and 4 Flyer list; my third opponent was Farsight Enclave and my fourth opponent was pure Tau with 3 Riptides.

One of the hardest things for me is to deal with so much cover ignoring shooting that I have to play smarter and differently. I think that everyone should prepare for a meta that will ignore your cover saves and now with Grav guns, who knows what we can expect. I'm curious to see the lists of the top players but seriously, Tau and Eldar are running amuck up here in Denver Colorado!

Thoughts on my army list sofar:
Looking at my games and how they played out, there are many things about my list I love and a few things I wish I had changed or worked out differently.

For starters...

-Farseer and Spiritseer buffs are amazing for any unit they buff. Prescience/Guide is very nice to throw around and if you roll Fortune or other beneficial powers, bonus.

-Wraithguard have been pretty nice I have to admit. I like having both D-Scythes and Wraithcannons in the army as in each game one or the other unit was able to do something good and useful and they are scoring to boot.

-Wave Serpents are amazing as usual, though my opponents seemed to like to roll hot against mine but I still had a place for their firepower. I also really regret not having a Serpent to start my Reapers in.

-Reapers have either been neutered by Alpha strikes because of no Serpent to hide in early on or totally dominated the game. I think you guys will see in the battle reports just how powerful these guys can be. Ignoring cover and with that much firepower, it's just so strong. 5 Reapers seems to be the optimal amount if you can protect them well enough. Once again, I really wish I had a Serpent to hide these guys in early on (and an invul/FNP on the tanking Tau Commander).

-Wraithknight has been a surprising MVP for me and I'm more and more sold on him every time I use him. Sure he costs a ton of points but he has been a key figure in any game I won (or almost won lol). The S10 shooting is useful and I've managed to even Instant Kill a Riptide with a lucky 6! S10 in combat and being so mobile has really allowed this guy to get where he needed to go. Love this guy.

-Tau Commander is so strong, I'd even call him a win condition. Between buffing Reapers/Riptide shooting, he can really help erase units off the board or key targets on demand. If I won my games, the Commander played a large roll in that win.

-Riptide has been becoming more and more solid in my mind. When you buff him with re-rolls to hit and if you can somehow get him to ignore cover, he becomes a beast. Otherwise, he is just a decent addition to your army if for no other reason than a S8 Ap2 Large Blast interceptor shot =).

-Kroot...I hate these guys. Seriously, my Kroot are destined to die horribly every game!

So yeah, these are my preliminary thoughts and such. Stay tuned for battle reports and more musings!