It was a clear day on March 3rd, 2018 when a veritable horde of 40k players arrived to do battle. The first Field of Fire Crazy-Doubles event of the 2018 Field of Fire Season, held at Event Horizon Games, was a record turnout! Here is the BestCoastPairings of the event to see each of the 18 teams and their journey through the day. Now, let’s dig into how the event panned out as a whole.
Army Construction
Each team brought together a 1000pt, Battleforged Army construction. The players were restricted to a maximum of 2 detachments each, otherwise, the field was open. Combinations included double Ynnari, Genestealer Cult/Tyranids, Daemons/Chaos Space Marines, to Necrons/Tau, and even Necrons/Thousand Sons. Armies acted independent of one another, including command points, relics, and even deployment restrictions (for deep strikers and the like). This led to some interesting instances not limited to unique characters appearing beside their doppelgangers. Armies also triggering off of each other through abilities and stratagems in strange ways not normally seen.. With army construction out of the way, now we examine how each round played out as a group.
Round 1: Pillage and Raid
For primary objective(s) in each round we used the ITC Championship mission style. Check it out here if you’re unfamiliar. Basically, each player turn a team could score Victory Points by holding Objectives as well as Killing enemy units. Each team could also score points at the end of each Battle Round in much the same manner. However, for this event we at Field of Fire Gaming wanted to come up with some interesting secondary objectives. We wanted to play off the Team aspect of the event. In Round 1: Pillage and Raid, each team could elect to “raze” an objective held in the opponents deployment zone. This earned D3 Victory Points and removed the marker for the rest of the game. Furthermore, at the beginning of the battle, each team selected 3 units in the opposing team’s army and scored Victory Points for their destruction throughout the game.
For this round, the strongest teams were combinations of hard hitting units, but also multiple objective holding units. The best performers were double Guard, Necrons/Thousand Sons, Daemons/CSM, double Space Marines, and Eldar/Nids; 3 of which maxed their possible scores. Either by quality of fire, weight of numbers, board control, or a combination thereof, these teams prevailed. Tau/Chaos Super Heavies, Space Marines/Guard, and Tau/Necrons all struggled, in part due to movement limitations in their lists, as well as some unlucky rolls throughout their battles.
Take a look at the Video walkthrough: (Part 1; Part 2)
Round 2: Breach and Contain
In Round 2: Breach and Contain teams decided between holding the centerfield or securing the perimeter of the battle. Each round the Center Objective was held by the same unit, it awarded an escalating amount of Victory points. First round 1 point, then 2, then 3, and so on. For Containment, a team scored 1 point for every turn of theirs that they had more units wholly within 7″ of any board edge than their opponents. The dichotomy of these objectives made board control dynamic, yet let teams with different playstyles score points. We did note that the escalating aspect of the Breach objective did create quite a gap in scores from game to game. We’ve discussed some future adjustments should we use this (or similar) objectives to keep the scores a bit more in parity.
The best performing armies in Round 2: Breach and Contain, included Marines/Guard, Genestealer Cult/Nids, Tau/Necrons, and Daemons/CSM. These lists (and a few more) were able to seize the center while still contest control of the outer edge. As before, firepower and mobility played a role as well given the limited number of objectives to claim. Tau/Chaos Superheavies, and Harlequins/Custodes struggled the most, likely due to their limited abilities to hold wide ranging objectives while continuing the offensive.
Take a look at the Video walkthrough: (Part 1; Part 2)
Round 3: For Glory and… Death
To finish off, Round 3: For Glory and… Death featured a focus on Characters. The “Glory” went to characters earning bonus Victory Points for holding objectives. Death came with the bonus of Victory Points for each enemy Character slain throughout the battle. With the least objectives of the 3 rounds, the battles were fierce to hold objectives. The fighting was especially bloody with characters looking for those extra points. Double Marines, Daemons/CSM, Harlequins/Custodes, and Deathguard/Guard excelled this round. Either through quick reaction units to secure the limited objectives, or similarly to strike at enemy characters, these armies found their footing and maxed the round. Some of the biggest upsets came from this round, with armies clashing over the few objectives and characters dueling in old school challenge fashion.
A few armies had some troubles in this round, in large part due to matchups. Dark Angels/Guard, double Space Wolves, and Blood Angels/Guard having the greatest issues, likely due to those factions favoring their characters, while struggling to protect the directed fire upon them (going first playing a huge role). Even still, every table resounded with chatter as players stuck and parried at one another.
Take a look at the Video walkthrough: (Part 1(lost to the warp); Part 2)
Field of Fire Crazy-Doubles: Conclusion
When looking at the event in conclusion, the final standings gave some surprises. Chaos rose to the top, scoring maximum points in every round with the help of Tzangors, Cultists, Arhiman, Bloodletters, and Fireraptor Gunship. From holding objectives to hunting down characters the combination was as hard to break as expected. A surprise came in the double Space Marine team (Iron Hands/Black Templar) did very well, despite the lack of performance in the Marine Codex at large. Multiple hard hitting units (4 Vindicators!!) and some solid infantry choices led them to victory: through execution and determination. The remainder of the upper teams included a herd of Carnifex(4) with Genestealer Cult support, double Guard with Manticores and Leman Russ, Eldar/Nids with Dark Reapers and Biovores, and double Ynnari with TWO Yvvraine. Aside from the escalating nature of round 2’s Breach objective, scoring showed the struggles in each match.
Congrats to Greg and James for Best Overall, Mike and Mike for Best Generals, Phil (of Dark Bunny Creatives) for Best Painted, Chris for Next best painted, and everyone else who bled on this day of days.
The Future
For the largest event to date, our Field of Fire Doubles was a massive success. We have received feedback, both during and since the event and welcome any more that you all might have. For this event in particular, gathered a fair amount of questions and with such a large pool of players all working on the same missions we’ve begun to see some of the more interesting rules calls this edition. As always, we’re keeping an eye on how the game is evolving, both on a local and a national scale. Speaking of local events, don’t forget to check out our next event, scheduled for April 14th. Also, keep an eye out as Field of Fire will be reporting from Adepitcon this year!
Once again, thank you to all the teams who made this event such a success. We’re looking forward to seeing you all at the next one! Dernicus, signing off!