After Action Report – Open Fire!

Here were are again, another After Action Report, this time for the Field of Fire Tournament: “Open Fire!” held at Event Horizon Games September 16th. We had another solid turnout, marking 18 players. You can check out the results on beastcoastpairing or in our Best Armies at Open Fire! article. Now let’s take a look at how the event went down!

Setup/Army Construction

The event featured 2000 point, battleforged armies, with a maximum of 3 detachments. All Indexes, both GW and FW, as well as the Space Marines, Grey Knight, and Chaos Space Marine Codexes were available. With those considerations, we had a wide range of army builds, no two exactly alike. We had Necrons(2), Space Marines(2), Chaos Daemons(3), Tau, Chaos Space Marines(2), Adeptus Mechanicus, Harlequins, Eldar, Adeptus Custodes, Imperial Guard, Genestealer Cult, and Sisters of Battle(2). The pairings were handled by BestCoastPairings, a first run for a FoF tournament, and a good one at that.

Round 1

Mission: Primary Kill Points differential; Secondary 5 Progressive Objectives; Secondary 5 End of Game Objectives. Table deployment was random out of the BRB. The pairings saw players from the same club not playing one another, however it did yield some interesting matchups. Daemons vs Daemons in particular saw an apocalyptic showdown, Necrons fought Eldar, and a Genestealer cult rose up against an Imperial Guard position.

Our goal with mission design worked towards different lines of play. The Primary mission was worth 10 points, each of the Secondary’s worth 5 each. The scores showed a 4 players scoring in the 20s, but no one maxing out points (possible 25 points), 8 players scored single digits, and the rest in between. Daemons, Eldar, Harlequins, and Space Marines(Crimson Fists) all did well, with Custodes, Daemons, Mechanicus, and Necrons taking heavy losses. Couple the variety of objectives with the various matchups created a field of play that no one could have completely predicted. Armies with mobility or overwhelming firepower did well, and in some cases, devastating early turns made the stranger matchups go one way over the other.

Round 2

Mission: Primary Progressive Objectives, Secondary Relic, and Secondary 5 End of Game Objectives. This mission was a much more even spread, with half the armies scoring in the 10-19 range. Two of the Daemon players were the only ones to break 20, with Necrons, Sisters, Custodes, and Daemons having a rough go this time around. No surprise that Daemons did well, both lists featuring “Big Bird” and a plethora of Warp-tainted creatures, all with invulnerable saves and spitting out Smites left and right. The armies that struggled tended to have lower model counts or failed to capitalize on the progressive elements in this particular mission.

Yet again, with the mission design, we hoped to generate more interesting game outcomes than simply a smash and grab style of play. While strong armies that could inflict overwhelming damages to their opponents did just as well as highly maneuverable armies who evaded incoming fire. It wasn’t overly surprising that two of the Daemon lists did very well as their typical builds are highly resilient while dishing out mortal wounds for days. Those that did not do so well suffered from crippling damage in early turns or were pressed by hard matchups.

Round 3

Mission: Primary 5 End of Game Objectives, Secondary Kill Points Differential, Secondary Progressive Relic. We chose to place this set of Objectives last as in testing it showed to be one of the more difficult missions to score high, meaning it would be a good final push for armies that had overcome the first two rounds. Once again, Daemons made it to the top, Genestealer Cult, Chaos Space Marines(Night Lords), and in a surprising twist Custodes all coming out on top. Space Marines(Crimson Fists), Necrons, Sisters, and Eldar all took losses, but none of the games were landslides despite some of the final scores.

Once again, the Daemons lists did well, as did the Genestealers (something along the lines of 3 squads of Purestrain Genestealers all rolling 6’s on their Cult Ambush rolls), and the others were able to press the Kill Points or keep enough of their own through tactics and guile. The lists that didn’t fare so well were mostly those that lost to the lists who maxed their rounds, but overall this mission saw clear victors across the field.

Conclusion

Including Forgeworld gave a distinct advantage to several armies, Daemons chief among them with “Big Bird”. One of the Sisters list featured Repressors and one of the Necron lists utilized a Gauss Pylon (which allowed him to 1-shot a Stormsurge one game and a Knight in another). Overall the missions seemed successful, allowing various playstyles to do well. Even so, strong armies such as Daemons seemed to be shuffling to the top regardless of list restrictions or mission designs but even so, armies like Sisters and Chaos Space Marines did well for themselves.

We’re always looking to expand our mission set, and make improvements based on player feedback and our own testing. List building guidelines also are always under review as GW/FW release updates to 8th edition and Codexes are released. Generally we are looking at major events as well as local events to keep on top of the meta as it evolves and always produce the best events we can. Speaking of which, check out our next event coming up on October 21st, and keep an eye out for more After Action Reports as we’re looking to attend a couple of events both local and further afield in the coming weeks.

And with that, this has been Dernicus, signing off!