This was played with the first balance patch of the 3rd edition at 2025Q1. Knowing the mentioned teams’ rules might make the narrative clearer.

The bestest tournamentest

I recently attended the Dice Dojo Winter Open 2025 with my beloved Warpcoven because I didn’t have time to practice with my other season 1 teams lulz. The Dojo Open tournaments have always been great experiences for me, with an amenable atmosphere of friendly but competitive and competent opponents. I thought it might be interesting for people thinking about Warpcoven in a competitive scenario for me to revisit my choices.

In general, the Dice Dojo meta leans hard into violence, with players positioning aggressively in TP1. There were some visitors from other scenes so that added a bit more mystery as I wasn’t familiar with their playstyles.

I wanted to use this tournament as an opportunity to experiment with compositions I haven’t played yet, but was hesitant to do so because I haven’t played much if at all in recent months. This was my main chance to prepare for Adepticon 2025 so I had a competing motivation to get informative practice against the most successful attendees - a conflict with my need for experimentation that I didn’t know how to handle.

I also had personal growth to confront: even after the 2025Q1 nerfs, I still play aggressively since TP1. I’m convinced it can still work, but only if you know the enemy team perfectly. I need the skill of conservative play for every other case. Hopefully whatever lessons I pick stick around until Adepticon - I’m fine with losing then but I want to avoid making silly mistakes if possible.

Thus. For brevity’s sake, I’ll highlight only a few plays per game. Here goes!

Round 1

I got matched against Elucidian Starstriders on Volkus Layout 5, with “Secure” as Crit Op. My opponent commanded a lot of respect because they have experience against me and have been using Elucidian Starstriders since the last edition, as well as other shooty teams. Elucidian have a couple of close range threats and a lot of good shooting - so I thought I shouldn’t give them a big activation advantage lest they run and gun me down, using free mission actions to score along the way. A properly timed Elucidian turn can easily take 3 marines down.

This layout poses many problems for shooty teams. At a first glance, it offers a feast of shooting lanes. But it is also highly toxic. Access to the high vantage from a deployment zone means that a player that wins the first initiative roll is essentially forced to take it. Many players consider the high vantage a trap, but in all my experiences in this layout, a solid shooting menace there spreads a lot of zone deterrence. An Elucidian voidsperson there could have all their space weapons with Accurate 2 - or similarly the rotor gun.

Against my better instincts, I decided to play conservatively. It is very hard for me not to lean hard on ultraviolence since the first activation - I definitely need to exercise that mindset.

Pregame

Alas, my opponent won the first initiative roll-off, and took the side with the high vantage. That is, I was on the top side of the picture.

I went for:

• Warpfire sorcerer with warpflame pistol, Astral Bombardment
• Destiny Sorcerer with fly, Khopesh
• Tempyrion Sorcerer with Master of the Immaterium (Leader)
• Rubric Gunner with Soul Reaper Cannon
• Tzaangor Champion
• Tzaangor warrior with blades
• Tzaangor warrior with Shield
• Tzaangor icon bearer

This is my go-to composition against 10-operative teams, so that I could use Tzaangors for the crit op or board presence if needed, and emplace the gunner as zone deterrence. I chose smoke grenades, krak grenades, ladders, Sorcerous Scroll. I placed a ladder in the stronghold by my deployment zone’s right side so that the rubric gunner could climb easily. The other ladder went on the opponent’s side’s Stronghold to make the assault easier. I chose “Contain” as Tac Op because I estimated it wouldn’t be efficient for them to deny it.

My opponent put two light barricades, one in their stronghold, another outside it close to the center objective.

Unfortunately, my side doesn’t allow much option for deployment. I left the Rubric Gunner, the Tzaangor with Flag, the Destiny Sorcerer, and the Tzaangor with Blades behind the stronghold on the right. The Tempyrion sorcerer went on the left behind the window on the large ruins to have more visibility for casting.

On Scouting, I assessed they had low chances of going for Ploy. They could use it for “Quick march”, but probably my best chance of winning the minigame was to choose Reposition. The opponent chose Equip, so I gave them initiative in case it would give me the tie breaker on Turning Point 2. I used the reposition to move the Warpfire to the left behind the small ruins. I find that to be an effective counter to the high vantage, since it has wide visibility with seek light, so it could go for an Alight+Mindburn+Warpstorm activation if needed, or potentially move in a better position to assault the Stronghold.

Highlights

Turning Point 1 was pretty quiet. On the right, the Assassin and a voidsman moved into the heavy rubble. In the center, a voidsman moved to the barricade. The rotor gun climbed to the first vantage, tucked away on the “gap” for good cover, while the dog ran all the way ahead, almost making it to my ladder. I had left a Tzaangor Warrior with blades against that wall, then left Temporal Flux on it. No violence so far, so I had managed some restraint.

On TP2, I got initiative. I played “Fate itself is my weapon” and “Mutant Heard”. My first activation was my Tzaangor Warrior with blades, that had “Temporal Flux”, charging into the voidsman close to the center objective. It got an easy kill, and then returned to safety via Temporal Flux.

The Elucidian Assassin moved to the outside corner of my Stronghold’s side and planted a beacon. I decided to charge it with my Destiny Sorcerer, otherwise “Contain” would be fully denied. Unfortunately I rolled bad with the Khopesh, the Assassin rolled well, and I had forgotten about “Fate itself is my weapon” (I often do - only recently I started using it). I could have gotten an extra hit on the first fight, or caused them an extra fail. The Destiny Sorcerer was one hit away from death. I fought again, killed the Assassin, and the Assassin killed me on their way out. This put me on the back foot. Had I used the Fate dice, the Sorcerer would be alive, and I could use “Capricious plan” to dash back into conceal. Alas.

My Tempyrion Sorcerer cast Temporal Flux on the Warpfire Sorcerer, and changed sides to support the Rubric. This was very inefficient action economy, but I felt I needed more presence to defend “Contain” on that side.

My Warpfire Sorcerer got a big play - it charged into a Stronghold’s side tagging a voidsman and killing it. The Sorcerer ended within 2’’ of Elucidia, so it could flame her. The opponent rolled poorly on defense and she got killed - but revived by the medic. Then I used “Capricious Plan” to dash back into the range of the flux token, so teleported back into safety. Then I moved my Tzaangor champion to hug the Stronghold’s wall and be ready to charge Elucidia and the Medic on the next turn. Unfortunately “Mutant Herd” went to waste, I didn’t do as much Tzaangor aggression as I had planned.

On TP3, I missed a big threat - the Elucidian rotor gunner, instead of using their weapon, merely scrambled out of the stronghold and dashed to be within 2’’ of my Warpfire sorcerer, and shot the big space laser “point blank”. Luckily for me, Tzeentch was watching, and they rolled 1, 1, 1, 2, 2. After that, the game proceeded by the numbers - we both had experienced significant losses, but I had a slight trading advantage while also having better action economy since I was scoring positionally on “Contain” whereas my opponent had to invest in plant beacons.

Debriefing:

I blundered big time by losing a Sorcerer out of forgetting the fate dice. My opponent made only one mistake by charging a Sorcerer with a dog and not fighting, to make me waste an action fighting - they could have gotten much more value moving it deep into my line to deny contain. So definitely not the most solid win in my 3rd edition history. The opponent’s unlucky space laser could have changed the game, making a tie very likely. In this hypothetical scenario, I still had a trading advantage that I could have invested in aggression to get a further Kill Op difference while denying some beacon planting, but there would have been a higher exposure to bad rolls.

I also think that 3/0/6 would have worked better. My Gunner was an effective zoning tool, and got a couple of good shots - however I might just as well had two more Tzaangor warriors, or maybe one of them with the horn for extra charge range. Had my opponent advanced more, the Tzaangors would have gotten more charges - so they are effective deterrence too. Additionally, I could have used the 2 extra Tzaangors to kill the Assassin - one Tzaangor would have surely died, but that’s much better than losing a sorcerer to a bad roll. Unfortunately I haven’t played this composition competitively and I was so rusty I didn’t think I could even be competent with it.

Another regret is that I didn’t ultimately get much value from the ladders. I would have been better served by a heavy barricade around the center, so the Tempyrion Sorcerer could better support the Rubric while having better range with his special abilities.

The positive note is that playing with a flexible composition, I could quickly “get in the zone”.

Round 2

I was matched against Angels of Death, on Volkus Layout 2: Crit Op “Upload”. I couldn’t really foresee what my opponent would aim for - I didn’t know much about them other than they had been playing for a while and attended other tournaments. They had been my first opponent at a tournament ever, but almost a year ago, so that I couldn’t know what to expect. I thought the map favored them running a skew toward Assault Intercessors, but couldn’t rule out them going shooty either. Their chapter tactics were duellist and stealthy - which could work for either case.

For a femtosecond, I considered running a 3/3/0 selection despite knowing I couldn’t get much value from shooting due to restricted firing lanes, to get a full ranged experience with a tighter action economy. Separately, 3/2/2 makes the most sense against non-Nemesis Claw Astartes, to get a slight activation and positional advantage. Two rubric gunners, at least one of them with a flamer, would make the center Stronghold an easy proposition to control for Take Ground.

Pregame

My opponent won the roll-off and chose the side with the big stronghold - I was on the bottom of the picture. I didn’t know if they planned on putting the Eliminator on the high vantage, or if they merely wanted to deny me that side.

Ultimately, I was too craven to go 3/3/0 - but I wasn’t boring enough to go 3/2/2 with “Take Ground” either. I haven’t played “Plant beacons” much this edition, and I realized that 3/1/4 would allow me to play at a manageable disadvantage. It could very well cost me the game, given how strong “Duellist” is - but also I needed to practice a defensive game, a way to “score as I die” with more agency in my Tac Op. So I used the same 3/1/4 composition from the last game, going for “Plant beacons”. The map was narrow, so that I would have to extend to maximize the Tac Op. I knew that the Tzaangors wouldn’t be effective against “duellist” so I had to commit to smart scoring. I took kraks, smoke grenades, Arcane robes, and Sorcerous Scroll.

My opponent picked an Intercessor Gunner and an Eliminator, then Assault Intercessors in the flavor of Sergeant, Grenadier, and two warriors. They had lots of AoD equipment like the tilting shields, purity seals, etc.

On Scouting, I didn’t expect them to pick “Ploy” at all. So I went for Reposition, matched by Reposition on their choice, so that the tie breaker was in my favor. I decided to give initiative to them so I had an initiative tiebreaker on TP2. I moved my Warpfire Sorcerer into the small ruins on the left and we went into the game proper.

Highlights

My opponent moved their Intercessor Gunner into light cover on an engage order, in a way they could get a slight window of non-reciprocate obscuring from the Stronghold. I was puzzled but they really wanted a counteraction to my 8 activations.

This, however, allowed me to vent some pent up self control. I activated my Rubric Gunner, moved it into the small ruin, and shot at the gunner through mutual obscuring, getting 4 damage in. It finished the activation dropping a smoke grenade on itself. Getting this chip damage in TP1 might seem superfluous, but I knew I needed to get started on the damage race early because I expected my Tzaangors to be chopped to pieces quickly.

On TP2, the smoke grenade would last one activation. The opponent got the initiative and went into my side’s objective with an Assault Intercessor Warrior. My smoke grenade went out, and I took 2 shots with the Rubric Gunner at the opponent’s Intercessor Grenadier through obscuring, getting 8 more damage in. The Rubric took some retaliatory fire, but on my next activation I healed it and threw a smoke grenade on it.

I made a bad choice: hug an Assault Intercessor with the Tzaangor With Shield and not immediately capitalizing on charging (with e.g. another Tzaangor). I was waiting out a bit because their Eliminator could kill them if the Intercessor fell. But then their counteraction came and they fought the Tzaangor, and it rolled poorly and died. I charged the Assault Intercessor Gunner with my Tzaangor Champion and got bad rolls. The Champion fell, landing a single hit. At the end of TP2, the Angels had uploaded at all objectives. I had gotten some damage onto two Assault Intercessors and the Intrecessor Gunner, but had lost three Tzaangors and some health on the Warpfire Sorcerer. The opponent revealed “Secure Center”.

I wasn´t optimally positioned to deny that Tac Op, and had lost valuable action economy, so I ended the turn much further behind than I originally planned, to give as little chance for charging as possible.

On TP3, my smoke grenade would also last one activation. My opponent won initiative, and charged with a wounded Assault Intercessor Sergeant to kill my Tzaangor Icon Bearer. I activated my Rubric gunner and brought said Intercessor down. Instead of taking a Second shot, I moved it back into my large ruins to deny the opponent a charge target. I was effectively positioned so that the opponent had no good charges, so they would have inefficient damage outputs, and they had little options if they wanted to score on their Crit Op. So I attacked only through a tempo advantage, either to finish wounded Intercessors before they activated, or waiting until they activated to go shoot them point-blank.

On TP4, I focused on getting 3 points on the Crit Op, finishing Plant Beacons, and killing one more intercessor. The opponent had two marines left.

Debriefing

The match went much worse than I expected. My opponent piloted Angels of Death competently and I couldn’t spot them making a mistake I could exploit. I thought I would be able to do more Beacon Planting with the Tzaangors, chuck a krak or two, but they died too quickly and the Champion disappointed. However I found a way to position even if the layout was confined so that I could control the tempo - the opponent would have to spend a turn merely looking for a staging point for their charges which I could punish with tricky Sorcerer activations.

I did learn a few things about playing on my backfoot.

Also, with a few smarter choices, 3/1/4 and Plant beacons could have given me a solid advantage and much better scoring. My biggest fault as a player is not understanding scoring on a defensive game plan - I took chances at aggression of uncertain value that was stacked against me, and the dice rolls made the outcomes even worse. I should have stayed on a defensive mindset throughout the entire game.

Lastly, discussing with my opponent after the end result, we were of the impression that if they had left the Eliminator home and brought one more Assault Intercessor, the threat saturation would have been too much for me. On one hand, I wouldn’t have had to avoid the Eliminator’s firing lanes, and could have used my movement tricks to a better advantage. But the Tzaangors would have crumbled even faster and it was unclear to me whether I could make up for the damage differential. Would have been dicey.

Round 3

After two close matches against very techie opponents, I was feeling back in the zone, close to my peak efficiency. Which I sure needed because I got matched against Ratlings, in Gallowdark Layout 1, extraction. The opponent pilot is a shooty team expert, that also had experience against me, whereas I have never played against Ratlings, and I didn’t get the chance to grok their rules in advance. So I had to work out from general principles and fundamentals.

I knew they had excellent crit op mission play with their movement shenanigans and the ‘Larcenous” ploy. But that was as far as my knowledge ranged. I couldn’t figure out what operatives they would bring, or if they would skip an Ogryn to get a free ploy, or what Tac Op they might go for.

If I went heavy on Tzaangors, I had a chance to contest the Crit Op if I got TP2 initiative, or make it a very expensive proposition if I lost it. It was the ideal scenario for 3/0/6, and merely committing to ultra violence by stunning/hugging/sidestepping the Ogryns and charging into their short king buddies. But among those 6 Tzaangors, I really wanted 3 Tzaangors with shields, and only had 1 finished, so it wouldn’t be my optimal choice. Spamming Tzaangors with Blades felt a bit boring, reducing the game to a damage race.

I was feeling confident that I could try a more ambitious experiment. In this edition, I haven’t had much chance to use counteractions, since I avoided giving significant activation advantage to midrange teams, and seldomly faced hordes. But with less operatives, I could try some finicky counteraction movements to adapt to the Ratlings “Scarper” rule.

Moving into the actual game narrative, I recommend you mind the two pairs of side doors by the big central room (red arrows).

Pregame
I decided to go 3/2/2 with “Take Ground”:

• Warpfire sorcerer with warpflame pistol, Mutant Appendage
• Destiny Sorcerer with Incorporeal sight, Khopesh
• Tempyrion Sorcerer with Master of the Immaterium (Leader)
• Rubric Gunner with Soul Reaper Cannon
• Rubric Gunner with Warpflame Cannon
• Tzaangor Champion
• Tzaangor warrior with Shield

I took kraks, smoke grenades, Heavy Barricade, and Sorcerous Scroll. I deployed the Warpfire Sorcerer on the left, in front of the center line door. The Tzaangor with shield and the Tzaangor Champion went to the far right, close to my home objective room’s door. My 2 gunners were close to the door on the central room with the Tempyrion Sorcerer and Destiny Sorcerers. The heavy barricade went into the central room.

The opponent brought two bullgryns with slabshields and mauls, and an Ogryn with ripper gun. I don’t even remember the names of their operatives, and I think it’s funnier if I call them things like the Spiderrat. I think the stash master and bomber were there, as well as the big shot.

I knew I didn’t have much chance on the crit op, but I was feeling confident that if my opponent aggressively invested in it, I could seize the mystical and elusive tempo of the game through aggressive positioning and budgeting for offense if I didn’t get initiative. That would leave me prepared for, once the final objective became the Extraction marker, go hunt it to reduce the Crit Op gap.

I didn’t foresee my opponent going for Ploy, so choosing Reposition would allow me to pass the initiative on TP1 to them and get a tie breaker in TP2. So I did, and moved the Warpfire Sorcerer closer to the centerline door on the left. The opponent used a lot of deterrence in their room, such as tripwires, mines, making it very hard for me to attack through the flanks. I assumed that meant they would invest heavily in the center room, which cascaded into me thinking how to be able to use my rubrics effectively.

The end result, however, was that there was no deterrence for me to move through the arrow on the map. I was on the bottom side.

The opponent put barricades on the center objective and their home objective, as well as a razor wire.

Highlights

TP1 didn’t exhibit any violence. I opened all the doors on my side except the rightmost one on the centerline. I had the Rubric Warpflamer and Tzaangor Champion behind the heavy barricade. The opponent positioned so that they were ready to perform the mission action on their home objective and center objective, while threatening mine. They had invested heavily on their home objective, with two Ogryns, their leader, and another ratling, and I didn’t invest in disabling the tripwire on TP1 (such as stepping on it with a Sorcerer and “Capricious Plan”-ning away). My last activations where the SoulReaper Cannon Gunner and Tempyrion Sorcerer moving to the left side door to the center room (B2 on the map, the red arrow) and the Destiny Sorcerer on the other (the one on A3). I didn´t want to make it obvious early in the turn I would attack the flanks from the center room.

On TP2, I lost the initiative. I used “Fate itself is my weapon” and “Brotherhood of Sorcerers” to get balanced on my spells. The opponent opened by stealing my home objective with larcenous and the Spiderrat/Raider. Even if I went for the center objective to score 2, they would easily get the third objective and run with it. So I decided to go for the long game, I forwent my chance at the center, and instead activated my Tempyrion Sorcerer for a big play. The door to the center room was open, so that my Sorcerer entered, opened the next door, and got a clear fluxblast shot at two Bullgryns and a ratling. I got good rolls, supplemented by ceaseless from “Brotherhood of Sorcerers”. I got a lot of damage into both Bullgryns and killed the ratling, followed by “Capricious Plan” behind the open door into safety. They played the center objective mission, then I got a double kill with my Warpflame Sorcerer, then they completed the Crit Op.

After that I played aggressively but judiciously, using Temporal Flux to bring a few pieces back into safety, but mostly aiming for double kills with threat saturation, using “Fate itself is my weapon” defensively, and “All is dust”. I got excellent defense rolls so that the trading was overwhelmingly favorable to my advantage. I brought the Ogryns down so that “Take Ground” would be easy. The Gunners did good work. By TP3, I got the extraction marker in my hands, and by TP4 I tabled the ratlings.

Debriefing

The key to winning this game was setting up positions that wouldn’t give their Ogryns easy charges and preparing to seize the Tempo when the opponent went for Crit Op play. With counteractions, on TP1, I moved out of Ogryn/Bulgryn charge range. On TP2, with counteractions, I could get some extra movement and attacks off, to quickly reduce the activation gap. I aimed for threat saturation as much as possible, so that even if one flank fell to bad rolls and I ran out of defensive resources, the other flank could press an advantage. A few lucky defense rolls allowed me to keep my threats up, supplemented by 1s on “Fate itself is my Weapon” on two TPs, so that I lost only one of my Sorcerers despite my aggressive advance.

Discussing the game with my opponent, we considered that if they had brought the mutt and kept it in the center, they could really have thrown a wrench into my charges and destroyed my action economy, therefore degrading my grip on the Tempo. They could have also spread their traps around so that all doors would be equally hard for me, instead of focusing on the shortest paths. And lastly, a heavy barricade would have allowed them a safer staging opportunity for Ogryns, that countered my own staging in the heavy barricade. Thinking back, that would have weakened their stranglehold on the Crit Op, but allowed them more efficient Ogryn threats so as to further contest the tempo and have options. Going all-in on the crit op is probably suboptimal given that Warpcoven can rely on Security-based scoring to invest the action economy into aggression.

Round 4

With 3 wins, I was now contending for the podium. Much more success than I originally expected.

I got matched on Gallowdark Layout 1 (again), sabotage, against Blooded. I have faced this opponent before at a tournament in Urbana-Champaign, and I knew them to be technical and dangerous. Blooded is among the teams best suited to propose a threat saturation game to overrun Warpcoven, so I would need surgical positioning lest their close-range threats hit all at the same time. I wanted to be aggressive - but misplacing one operative could be disastrous.

Now Imagine misplacing two.

Pregame

I won the roll-off and picked the “top” side to get better door access. I chose:

• Warpfire sorcerer with warpflame pistol, Mutant Appendage
• Destiny Sorcerer with Incorporeal sight, Khopesh
• Tempyrion Sorcerer with Master of the Immaterium (Leader)
• Rubric Gunner with Soul Reaper Cannon
• Tzaangor Icon Bearer
• Tzaangor Champion
• Tzaangor warrior with Shield
• Tzaangor warrior with Blades

I chose smoke grenades, kraks, heavy barricade, and Sorcerous Scroll again. The heavy barricade went again into the center room. The Warpfire Sorcerer and the Tzaangor Warrior with Blades went to the right side; the Tempyrion Sorcerer and Rubric Gunner were in front of the door on the central room, and the Destiny Sorcerer went to the left (my home objective room) with the Tzaangor Icon Bearer and Tzaangor Warrior with Shield. I thought “Take Ground” would be accessible.

The opponent brought the Ogryn, flenser, butcher, thug, trench sweeper, grenadier, sniper, comms, plasma and melta gunner, leader with power sword, and two troopers for mission action. They brought 2 light barricades and razor wire, kraks, and I don´t remember what else.

This time I didn’t care much about winning the scouting mini game. I went for Reposition so that the Warpfire Sorcerer could start close to the door and threaten the enemy’s home objective room, but I ended up winning because the opponent went for Equip. I gave initiative to them, again, for the tie breaker on TP2, and reducing activation advantage.

Highlights

On TP1, the opponent invested significantly on my home objective room, sending the Ogryn, Leader, and a Trooper to open the door. I had no barricades so anything I sent there would be in the open. I didn’t want to leave the objective open for an enemy trooper to sabotage freely, so I moved the Tzaangor Warrior with Shield just in cover of where the door would open, and the Tzaangor Icon Bearer behind within 3’’ to reduce damage and on the objective. If they got the initiative, it was very likely they could kill at least one of the Tzaangors in one activation, but there was no way they could also swoop the objective. My Destiny Sorcerer stayed by the door on my deployment, ready to support. My Tempyrion Sorcerer and Rubric Gunner moved to the right side door to the central room and opened it. The opponent didn’t enter their home objective room, respecting the threat posed my Warpfire Sorcerer’s seek light spells. My Tzaangor Champion was behinf the Heavy Barricade on the center room.

TP2 was very complex and it started poorly for me. My opponent got the initiative. I played “Brotherhood of Sorcerers” and “Fate itself is my weapon”, getting a 5 and a 6. They opened with a big play: their leader had a comms buff, so it charged my Tzaangor with shield and killed it; then threw a krak at my Tzaangor Icon Bearer and killed it too, standing on my home objective. It did not bode well for the Crit Op play, or for “Take Ground” on that side, but I stayed cool. I had intentionally left no barricades or defending terrain, so whatever was sent in, would stand in the open. I thought it unlikely they would send their Ogryn in until I gave a target. I decided to do a few safe activations to get more time to consider my options and look for a chance to seize the Tempo.

I activated my Tzaangor on the right, entered their home objective room, sabotaged, and returned to safety with Temporal Flux (my opponent had avoided entering yet due to the threat from my Warpfire Sorcerer). Eventually my opponent opened their side door to the center, preparing for a big Diabolyk Bomb action, lest I go with my Tempyrion Sorcerer before them and charge them instead. However my Tzaangor Champion was in charge range too, so it charged and killed both the grenadier and the operative that opened the door with its double fight. That put me back in the game. A lot of violence followed around that door, as both them and me deferred further activations around my home objective room. Then I moved my Tempyrion Sorcerer in range of the Destiny Sorcerer, so that it could borrow Fluxblast next, and ended casting Temporal Flux on the Rubric Gunner. Next, I repositioned the Rubric Gunner and shot through the center door into the Ogryn. I got a nasty roll with 4 normals and a crit hit, damaging the Ogryn considerably, then returned to safety with Temporal Flux. Later I activated my Destiny Sorcerer, borrowed Fluxblast to clear my home objective, then moved onto it and went on guard. I had one 5 from “Fate itself is My weapon”, so that the Ogryn would die in pretty much every scenario to a guard fight or shot.

At the beginning of TP3, I had the upper hand. My opponent had a few key threats like their sharpshooter, plasma and meltagun, and the Ogryn could still get a few lucky rolls and do damage on the way out. But I still had my three Sorcerers, Gunner and a Tzaangor, posing multiple threats even if the opponent went first and killed one of mine. Fortunately, I got initiative, so that my Destiny Sorcerer charged the Ogryn and killed it, then cast Doombolt on another operative, ending in control of the Tac Op’s door. My opponent played defensively waiting for me to give an opening, but I gave none, timing my activations to maximize offense such as by charging their sharpshooter before it could get a good shot, or having my Tzaangor Warrior consume their guard actions.

Entering TP4, I had solid control of the Killzone.

Debriefing

This game was a rollercoaster. I would have to write a long article just to cover what I remember from TP2 and TP3. However the first big factor was the TP2 Blooded leader’s activation killing my two Tzaangors - then my Tzaangor Champion killing the brimstone grenadier and its buddy - making a firelane for my Rubric Gunner to take on the Ogryn.

Another big factor was the lack of a heavy barricade on the opponent’s home objective. My Warpfire Sorcerer could freely open the door and kill anything there with impunity via seek light - which meant operatives passed their activation at the door, waiting until my Warpfire Sorcerer was done.

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have sent Tzaangors to give their lives for my home objective room. Had I kept them in my deployment zone, I could have sent them in which at least gave me two activations to further look for tempo. I only got value from the actual play accidentally - the opponent used a big activation early, reducing my uncertainty, and leaving the Blooded leader ripe for the taking. I certainly didn’t have a big brain plan on losing the two Tzaangors at once, and I wasn’t counting on having initiative for them to open hostilities either. The factor that saved me was that I had positioned aggressively so that I could threaten the other rooms with some initial safety. That is, I have done a good job of threat saturation myself on the rest of the map.

Epilogue

As in any Kill Team tournament, there was a degree of luck involved in the outcomes. I’m not happy that my first game came down to an opponent’s bad roll because my brain wasn’t fully ready to pilot Warpcoven. However, in my other games, I did a better job of hedging against luck, planning for the “triangle of death” (see my list of tricks) to get many rerolls, and timing activations so that if an operative had to be exposed, it was at a place with little retaliation. Whenever my dice rolls went against me, I was ready to correct. Whenever my opponent got a hot activation, I could roll with the punches. And I didn’t step on a metaphorical rake, the Tzeentchian bane of any Warpcoven pilot that starts quadruple guessing paths to victory.

This tournament, I tried using multiple Temporal Flux actions per turn (i.e. by setting them up at the end of the previous turn, then timing it so that the tempyrion sorcerer could refresh it after use, and/or borrowing it with another sorcerer). In the past, I kept that reserved for Sorcerer activations, but I realized it is often better to use it first on a Tzaangor. A Tzaangor can go for mission play or an easy charge, or krak throw, and then return to safety. When at activation disadvantage, this buys me some time, as it advances my plan a little but also helps me keep my sorcerer activations for moments with more complex board state. I’m still playing aggressively with my Sorcerers, with the difference that now I don’t need them to go first all the time - they can save their violence for the middle of the TP.

I experimented some - using compositions I’m familiar with for situations I’m not used to. But I definitely need to be bolder. I’ve been persuaded by other Warpcoven players that I should use 3/0/6 competitively, and I know entire metas swear by 3/3/0. An opportunity for 1/0/10 didn’t arise, although I could have tried it at the Elucidian matchup. Similarly, 2/0/8 would have been a great experiment against Ratlings or Elucidian. I need to build up some hubris before that though.

I did feel constrained by my equipment choices. I needed smoke grenades - even if sometimes I didn’t use both. Kraks thrown with ceaseless are a must-take. But so did I need Sorcerous Scroll to correct mistakes in Sorcerer and strategy choices - you can imagine where I’m going. I missed the Arcane robes at home every time I skipped them. I didn’t put all the player-placed terrain I needed.

Why not go Equip then? In the end, I didn’t benefit from the TP2 tiebreaker in a single game! So it doesn’t matter that most people auto-take Equip.

Thing is - I deploy in a way that if I need to reposition, it gives me positional value that helps me almost as much as an extra activation.

I stand by my hot take about Warpcoven’s sole strength is its access to Recon and Security along variable APL compositions. I can confidently maximize Tac Op while incidentally denying opponent scoring either in their Tac Op or Crit Op. I didn’t get the strongest scores out there: 17/17/18/17 might not look like a stomp, but when you factor all the scoring denial potential, victory can be consistently achieved by minimizing exposure to luck.

Finally, even though my brain was squeezed, I had fun. I needed all of my skill to win, with a healthy supplement of luck. I was challenged by all my opponents - plenty of moments when I felt cornered.

Good games, good times, good people.

A big thanks to Rob Poirier, the tournament organizer, for running tight events and leading our community by example.