For those of you who have followed along with Team Ettin’s various articles and our podcast, Tabled Talk, you might have already been aware that we were going to be making a big showing at Clutch City 2022. For me, this year marks the anniversary of when I started playing competitive Warhammer 40,000 and just like last year, I brought my Chaos Knights.
Now, I have had a full year's worth of experience between Clutch City 2021 and Clutch City 2022. During this time I managed to achieve some pretty stellar results and have definitely grown in my abilities as a Chaos Knight player. That meant setting the bar for my return to Clutch reasonably high, especially given the shift in the overall meta in the last year - specifically a 5-1 finish at the bare minimum. Which, as the title of the article suggests, is exactly what happened.
In any case, time to break down my list and get into the matchups.
Dread House Ettin MK-I / Super-Heavy Detachment / Infernal (Custom)
2,000pts / 12CP / Abominable Constitution & Pride-fuelled Fury
Look, I know what most of you are already thinking. No, it is not 13 War Dogs. Somehow I got it in my head that bringing a Lancer with Khornate Target and Eager for the Kill paired with the flexibility of Deamonic Surge would just be a real riot on the table. I will also humbly admit that I severely underestimated the Lancer, as I felt that outside of a few specific matchups, the current meta would reduce it to a smoldering wreck almost instantaneously. Backed up by 9 War Dog “Warglaives” and a pair of dual Lightning Lock-wielding Moirax, I went in with the intent of storming every table with a thunderous roar of mechanical footfalls.
Before I leap into the matches, I want to go ahead and cover Secondaries. Right now, Chaos Knights (and I suppose Imperial Knights too) are extremely limited in their options. The loss of mission-specific Secondaries really did us a disservice and, while I enjoy the thematic nature of the new Chaos Knight Secondary, it just is not reliable enough and I strongly feel it needs a real do-over. This meant I was heavily reliant on my opponent to give me something I could kill to score a reasonable amount of points. More often than not, I was taking Stranglehold, Assassinate and Grind Them Down. There were just few choices otherwise, particularly because of how aggressive I wanted to play forward with everything, which meant something like To The Last was just not viable. Likewise, because my Warlord was my Lancer and I needed him to be moving as quickly as possible, building toward Summoning was not an option. Which means you can assume that I took some combination of Secondaries that were really my best option, but definitely always took Stranglehold.
Round One: Abandoned Sanctuaries / Joshua Reasoner - Thousand Sons
Reasoner and I have actually played a few matches at Ettin’s monthly RTT. I have also squared off against his Thousand Sons while I was initially prepping to take my Sisters of Battle to the US Open in Austin - that was before the Balance Dataslate gave ObSec to my War Dogs. Reasoner is a very skilled player and adaptive at that. His list for Clutch differed in significant ways from our last match and leaned more into the Scarab Occult Terminators.
Thousand Sons took the first turn here. Reasoner pushed forward on the left flank, creating that familiar stack of defense buffs on the Terminators which would mean I was looking at dedicating a significant amount of attention to them if I wanted to get the match moving in my favor. My first turn definitely set the stage for that, as that flank collapsed under the pressure of Thermal Spears getting to utilize Blast and a Lancer striding casually across the table to then charge and eliminate the first of many Character models.
We traded a bit back and forth going from there. The Lancer decided to parade across the back of the board, striking down anything it came in contact with. A Contemptor and a War Dog decided to flirt most of the match, until Reasoner decided he wanted to charge and it inevitably exploded and took said War Dog down with it. At least they went out together in the end. Ultimately the Chaos Knights brought home the victory.
Score: 98-42
Round Two: Tide of Conviction / Dane Mercer - Drukhari
Strange how the fates work. Mercer and I actually squared off at WarZone Houston. Just like this time around, he was/is a phenomenal opponent and an absolute joy to have across the table. At WarZone he took the win and that game really highlighted why I was thinking about shelving the Chaos Knights and taking Sisters of Battle to the US Open. Being pre-Dataslate, the Druhkari just punked me off the Objectives every turn. This time though, that would be a bit more difficult to achieve.
Mercer took first here. Dark Lances are just as terrifying as they were last time I stood across the table from them. Nevertheless, some good saves actually meant that when my turn came around I had something to actually respond with. This game though was absolutely wild. We had everything from War Dog after War Dog exploding to the Lancer surviving on 1 wound only to die to poison and explode - but not before taking out more than his share of Characters and units. In the end though, Chaos Knights won.
Score: 95-40
Round Three: Conversion / Justin Moore - Farsight Enclave Allied World
I will admit that I was worried about T’au. This is a new Codex I am fairly familiar with, particularly because I am in the process of building up my own T’au force. Moore was great. I enjoyed our communication in particular and that after the match he really wanted to dig into what could be improved. Even with me going first, I was not sure how this would go.
Moore’s placing of his Kroot really worked out well. He prevented me from getting my Lancer into position for a devastating charge turn 1. However, he also had made the choice to keep two of his Crisis teams in Manta Strike, which meant that when my second turn came to a conclusion, he had almost no support system and I was all over the board. This prevented those teams from coming into a position where he would get the most out of them. Which also resulted in my winning the match overall.
Score: 83-73
Round Four: The Scouring / Nathaniel Bjorge - Adeptus Custodes
Matching up against Custodes was going to happen, I knew that much. Bjorge was an enjoyable opponent and knew what he was doing in our game. This match was one where I really wish I had managed to go second instead of first. Unfortunately that was not the case here.
Hindsight is always going to make you feel a bit silly. For one, I have had no actual practice into the new Custodes. Everything I know about them is just information and a historical understanding that they are still just as tough as they were before in terms of defense. However, they also have some more tools in their box to simply tell my army “No.” Chaos Knights have few actual things they can rely on to overcome areas where they are otherwise lacking. Trial of Destruction is really our only resource for re-rolls to Hit. However, this is a 2CP Stratagem that can be shut down by the Custodes for 1CP.
The lesson from this match, which I lost (unsurprisingly), is that while I built my list to be aggressive and rush onto all the points, I could have benefitted from staging for a better counter strike. I did enjoy getting to stand the Lancer back up after death to take another swing at Trajann, so that is a win in my book.
Score: 53-91
Round Five: Data Scry-Salvage / Will Davis - Necrons
Necrons! I absolutely love this army and it is probably what I have the most experience against given my partner plays them. Granted, unlike Davis, I have yet to convince her to even pick up the Silent King!
Davis went first here. Our game was definitely one of the more interesting ones for me. In particular, I enjoyed how well he navigated the board and worked to block off lanes. This match also showed that the game against Bjorge taught me a thing or two, as I was arguably better at setting up a few waves of War Dogs to meet each new challenge, instead of just running everything straight at my opponent.
Once Davis finished his first turn, the Lancer took the fight to the Silent King. This was an interesting engagement because, for one, I forgot that the Silent King makes you Fight Last. Two, turning on Khornate Target means I also do not have an Invulnerable save. I was already on 23 wounds from Surging for the extra movement and, as I found out, the Silent King can dish out a whopping 26 wounds in total. This meant it came down entirely to the dice… Which fortunately went more-or-less in my favor and left the Lancer on 7 Wounds. At which point, with his pride quite wounded, the Lancer proceeded to take down the Silent King. The match finished with a win for the Chaos Knights.
Score: 85-48
Round Six: Secure Missing Artefacts / Bret Urbanowksi - Astra Militarum
Bret and I essentially had one option. Go first. Kill. Fortunately, I managed to get the first turn here and honestly my rolling during this final match was easily the best of the entire event. This game also highlighted how very, very good having the ability to move extreme distances compared to most other armies can be. Being able to cut around corners or get into position thanks to Surging for those extra 2” made delivering a devastating alpha strike possible. Well, that and good rolls.
Following my first turn there really was not a whole lot left for Bret to do. Almost every tank he brought was either destroyed or bracketed. His experience told him the war was lost and we walked through how everything would unfold from there. This is something I actually enjoy about competitive play, particularly when standing across from a great opponent who knows the limitations of their army.
Score: 100-61
After all the carnage the Lancer caused, I am now really considering what to do next. My plan was to put Chaos Knights away and play T’au until we got a new book - primarily because I felt there was not really much the army could do in the current meta. Clutch City definitely made a liar out of me in more than one way in that regard. Nevertheless, the struggle comes from a lack of choice in Secondaries. After all, this is a points game.
That being said, I finished 6th in regards to ITC. But, much to my surprise, I ended up placing 3rd for Best Overall! Despite my complete confusion over this, there is a real drive there to really look at continuing to play Chaos Knights, even despite not knowing if we will actually have the “Year of Chaos” that Games Workshop promised us at the beginning of 2022.
Until next time, keep rolling those dice!
-Kevin “War Dog” McC.
