First off, as always, a huge thank you to the organisers and everyone who attended. With 26 sign-ups and only a single drop (plus the ringer), we had a great atmosphere, smooth running throughout the day, and a genuinely enjoyable event from start to finish.
My full list breakdown can be found here:
https://roadtoglory40k.blogspot.com/2026/05/may-tournament-army-list-houndpack-lance.html
But briefly, the list was:
3 Executioners, 5 Stalkers, 5 Huntsmen, 2x3 Nurglings, and 2x1 Beasts of Nurgle.
But briefly, the list was:
3 Executioners, 5 Stalkers, 5 Huntsmen, 2x3 Nurglings, and 2x1 Beasts of Nurgle.
Game 1 - Terraform / Sweeping Engagement
My opponent was running Chaos Space Marines - Creations of Bile:
• Abaddon with 10 Chosen
• Huron with 10 Chosen in Rhino
• Fabius Bile with 10 Chosen in Rhino
• Cypher
• 2x10 Possessed
A very bulky CSM list with an enormous amount of fast melee pressure. My opponent selected the +1 Attack buff.
We both deployed very cautiously. I wanted to stay mostly outside of realistic turn 1 charge ranges and I’m very glad I respected that threat.
Going into my turn, I didn’t really have a choice, I had to full send into him before the pressure became overwhelming.
The game quickly became a brutal back-and-forth brawl, with both armies smashing into each other repeatedly until eventually the War Dogs started to edge ahead.
The turning point came around turn 3. A couple War Dogs fought their way through a Chosen brick and were then able to chain into the remnants of a Possessed squad. My opponent didn’t have enough CP to interrupt, which not only saved another War Dog from dying, but also left his remaining forces without enough output to realistically deal with the six War Dogs now tied into his final Possessed unit.
Win: 91–56
What an absolute slog of a game. We spent nine player turns locked in combat and went right to time. A very tough, grindy matchup, but the War Dogs did me proud here.
Game 2 - Hidden Supplies / Search and Destroy
My opponent was running World Eaters - Berzerker Warband:
• Angron
• Slaughterbound with Glaive and 3 Exalted Eightbound
• Khârn with 10 Berzerkers in Rhino
• Juggerlord with 20 Berzerkers
• 1x3 Exalted Eightbound
• 2x2 Spawn
• 2x Jackals
• 1x Goremongers
Loads of melee pressure yet again, and honestly probably one of the worst possible matchups for this mission. With Hidden Supplies forcing you to expand out and fight over primary, there’s basically no room to play defensively without giving up a significant primary lead.
I won the roll for first turn and pushed out along both flanks, setting up counter-charges wherever possible before waiting to see how my opponent committed.
My opponent played surprisingly defensively early on, using Goremongers to deny a Hold 2 score on his expansion and dangling a Spawn unit forward to try and tempt me into overcommitting. He then sent Exalted Eightbound forward to kill a War Dog. They successfully picked it up, but the War Dog fought on death and killed the entire unit in return, triggering the Eightbound to sticky the objective.
On my next turn, I went after the Spawn, standing directly on the objective to prevent them stickying after death and removing control of the midfield point the Eightbound had secured the turn before.
The shooting phase went as planned:
• Goremongers died
• Spawn died
The Rhino carrying Khârn and Berzerkers survived on fumes through smoke as the War Dog missed a big melta shots leaving it on a couple wounds.
I chose not to charge because additional Exalted Eightbound were sitting in Heroic range waiting to punish any overextension.
My opponent’s turn 2 was brutal.
He wiped four War Dogs and heavily damaged three more. The 20-man Berzerker unit committed into my expansion objective, nearly killing the War Dog holding my expansion while also tagging two more in combat and chip damaged them both. Over in the midfield, Angron flew across the board and effortlessly deleted a War Dog, while Khârn and his Berzerkers charged into two more and killed both. Meanwhile, the Slaughterbound and Exalted Eightbound came in via Rapid Ingress by the Rhino in my turn and picked up another War Dog.
Absolutely savage turn.
However, I had managed to sneak a War Dog onto his board edge, it survived and within reach of his home objective. At the same time, the massive Berzerker brick was isolated on my left flank without much meaningful support nearby.
So I made the decision to sacrifice a couple of War Dogs on the right side to force further commitments while the rest of my army collapsed into the 20-man Berzerker unit, reducing it down to only a few Berzerkers and the Juggerlord. Which struggled to do meaningful damage next turn.
That ended up being the pivotal moment of the game.
With the Berzerker brick effectively removed, my opponent no longer had the tools to clear my left flank, while the rest of his army had been delayed just enough that the game ultimately came down to a series of long charges in my opponents turn5, if I survive then I deny a hold more and win by 4pts if I lose objective control I give up hold more and my opponent wins by 1!!!
• 11” charge with Exalted Eightbound - failed
• 10” charge with Khârn and Berzerkers - failed
• Command re-roll…
I held my breath.
Failed again... phew!
Win: 71–67
What a game.
We both tanked each other’s score somewhat, but it came right down to the wire and I was incredibly happy to pull out the win against such a strong opponent. After the event I checked and found out he’s a top 500 global ITC player as well - super friendly throughout and a great opponent to play against. I was just able to do enough to get the win over the line.
Game 3 - Purge the Foe / Crucible of Battle
My opponent was running Death Guard - Virulent Vectorum:
• Mortarion
• Lord of Contagion with 3 Deathshroud
• Daemon Prince with toughness/FNP enhancement
• 2 Characters with 10 Plague Marines in Rhino
• Tallyman
• 3x10 Poxwalkers
• 3x Foetid Bloat-Drones with 3 damage guns
• 1x Blight-Hauler
Once again lots of melee pressure, but this time backed up by some genuinely dangerous shooting from the Drones and Plague Marines.
I lost the roll and went second. Which is strong for purge the foe.
My opponent immediately stickied his expansion objective, pushed Poxwalkers onto midfield objectives, and staged the rest of the army conservatively behind them.
In response, I moved aggressively enough to get line of sight onto both exposed Poxwalker units and removed them cleanly.
Turn 2, my opponent stepped forward to punish the exposed War Dogs and picked one up at range. But kept a lot of his assets hidden/way back.
I then pushed out to establish screens and attempted to kill some of the Drones that had committed forward, but the damage output just wasn’t there. I killed a single drone and left two Drones on only a couple of wounds each and the Blight-Hauler alive on a single wound. No Kill More for me.
My opponent counterpunched hard:
• Three War Dogs died
• Two more were heavily damaged
• Plague Marines cleared my backfield, killing a War Dog and Beast of Nurgle to stop a Sabotage play in his deployment zone.
Then came the critical mistake.
I committed heavily into Mortarion who had pushed forwards and failed badly, leaving him alive on a single wound!!
That decision completely swung the game.
Mortarion then killed a War Dog in combat in my turn, another through mortals, and supporting firepower cleaned up two more damaged War Dogs afterwards. Suddenly almost all the pressure on my opponent disappeared, giving him control of the midfield again alongside Hold More and eventually Kill More scoring.
On my turn 4 I finally committed enough to finish Mortarion off - but by then it was far too late, and it happened with my final activation of the turn.
My opponent comfortably secured the game on turn 5 while I attempted a final hail mary scoring play to salvage as many points as possible. I narrowly missed out on an additional kill, which would also have scored Bring It Down and Storm secondary points.
Loss: 65–95
This was entirely on me.
Going after Mortarion was a catastrophic mistake. All I actually needed to do was continue contesting the midfield objective for another two turns by feeding a single War Dog onto it each round to deny primary, incredibly easy to achieve given the board state.
Instead, I committed five War Dogs trying to score aggressively and lost all of them for very little gain in points or board control.
Going second, that kind of overcommitment is almost inexcusable!!
That said, after the relatively low scoring Game 2, I knew I likely needed a big result in Round 3 if I wanted a realistic shot at finishing 1st or 2nd overall. I pushed far harder than I normally would trying to maximise points rather than simply secure a smaller win.
In hindsight, I should have recognised the event win was probably already gone and focused purely on securing the game itself rather than chasing a result that was already out of sight.
Definitely a hard learned lesson.
Overall
Great event overall, as always.
It’s a shame not to close out 10th Edition with a Round 3 win, but we learn, improve, and go again in 11th Edition.
Honestly, I cannot wait.
This was my final event of 10th edition 40k and I’m incredibly excited to see where Chaos Knights land moving into the new edition. I’ve already got plans brewing and I’ll be sharing those very soon.
Final result:
7th out of 24
Not a bad day’s work overall.
A little more discipline in-game and prioritising securing wins over chasing bigger placements probably changes the outcome quite a lot, but that’s part of improving as a player.
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