This previous weekend, the ground shook and trembled with the thunder of war. The Louisville Slugga went down in Louisville, KY at Heroes Comics and Gaming. 38 contestants stepped forward into the ring, and even though more than one player never lost, there was only one Best General. But the Worthiest Adversary is not just about winning or being the best at one event, this is about the war path. And this article shows how losing one, or even two battles, does not mean that the war has been lost. The Worthiest Adversary was fortunate to interview Daniel Sansone who took 4th place at the Slugga amongst a field of veteran players from the Mid America Gaming Series.
++ Brigade Detachment +12CP (T’au Empire) [106 PL, 1996pts] ++
+ HQ +
Cadre Fireblade [2 PL, 42pts]: Markerlight, Warlord
Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit [8 PL, 174pts]: 4x Fusion blaster
Ethereal [2 PL, 45pts]: Honour blade
Longstrike [10 PL, 207pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, Seeker missile
+ Troops +
Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]. Fire Warrior Shas’ui: Pulse rifle. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle
Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]. Fire Warrior Shas’ui: Pulse rifle. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle
Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]. Fire Warrior Shas’ui: Pulse rifle. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle
Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]. Fire Warrior Shas’ui: Pulse rifle. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle
Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]. Fire Warrior Shas’ui: Pulse rifle. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle
Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]. Fire Warrior Shas’ui: Pulse rifle. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle
+ Elites +
Firesight Marksman [1 PL, 25pts]: Markerlight, Pulse pistol
Firesight Marksman [1 PL, 25pts]: Markerlight, Pulse pistol
XV104 Riptide Battlesuit [14 PL, 272pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock, Velocity tracker
XV104 Riptide Battlesuit [14 PL, 272pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock, Velocity tracker
XV25 Stealth Battlesuits [6 PL, 84pts]. Stealth Shas’ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon. Stealth Shas’ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon. Stealth Shas’vre: Burst cannon
+ Fast Attack +
Pathfinder Team [3 PL, 40pts]. 4x Pathfinder: 4x Markerlight. Pathfinder Shas’ui: Markerlight
Tactical Drones [2 PL, 40pts]: 4x MV4 Shield Drone
Tactical Drones [4 PL, 50pts]: 5x MV4 Shield Drone
+ Heavy Support +
TX7 Hammerhead Gunship [9 PL, 170pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, Seeker missile
TX7 Hammerhead Gunship [9 PL, 170pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, Seeker missile
TX7 Hammerhead Gunship [9 PL, 170pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, Seeker missile
++ Total: [106 PL, 1996pts] ++
WA: Quick introduction (name, stomping grounds, started playing 40k, other hobbies or points of interest)
DS: Hi my name is Daniel Sansone, member of Team Happy. Started playing in 5th Edition, I’m in the Indy area, currently ranked 16th in the ITC overall.
WA: What was your list for the Louisville Slugga?
DS: My list for the Louisville Slugga was Tau. Now I’m a Chaos player but didn’t have everything painted and when I reached into my bag of tricks, I pulled out a fully painted Tau army, so I blew the dust off and put this together.
WA: What did you think of the Slugga overall?
DS: Overall the Slugga was a blast, got to hangout with some new people and play some great games.
WA: Break down your list, how does it work and function in general?
DS: Breaking down a Tau list is super easy: Shoot marker lights first, then shoot, shoot, and more shooting. Haha.
WA: What were you preparing for going into the event? Expectations regarding missions and opposing lists?
DS: Going into the Slugga, I had about three games [playing] the missions. Having read the missions, I knew my list wasn’t going to be the best going in. These missions favor going second and Tau always want to go first and once we go into the recap of the games, it really shows.
It’s hard to predict what will be the meta when you pull players from multiple different states. What the Indy guys play isn’t what the Chicago guys play or the Ohio, Louisville, etc.
WA: Once you got there, what was new or different that you saw but had not anticipated?
DS: Once I got there, it was what I thought, a wild, wild west of everything. No one was playing the same thing which is a testament to 8th edition.
WA: First match up? Against who and what army? Who won and by what margin? Who went first? How did the game play out in general? Anything specific stand out?
DS: Played David [Ivings] and his Eldar/harlequins – double hemlocks, bunch of clowns in cars and a big unit of dark reapers.
I have always had trouble with Eldar ever since I started playing and this game was no different. I hadn’t looked into what the harlequins’ book has and David was more than willing to take me to school on the new, hot codex, haha. We both knew who went first was going to have a big advantage or out right win the game because this was not a progressive objective mission. Everything was end of game. David went first and went to town. we played til turn 4 but the writing was on the wall.
Lost 3 to 32.
“I feel a big take away from this is make sure you realize what the format of tournament is and how to play around that and don’t get focused on so much winning/losing.”
WA: Second match up?
DS: Against Ted [Crawford] and Ad Mech. He plays an off meta list with deep striking, plasma units and a big unit of deep striking robots which gave his army protection if he went first.
Once again, going first was a big advantage because we both can just out right blast each other off the table. I won the roll, but Ted rolled that magical number 6 to steal turn 1 from me! I had castled up in the back corner and was ready to be shot up. Lucky for me, his shooting fell flat and I made some clutch saves. During my turn, I killed all the big, shooty robots that were on the board and ran both my rip tides on the relic objectives and brought up drones to protect them. Turn 2, he brought in the deep striking units but with me not taking a ton of damage on turn 1, I was able to push out the board. He wasn’t able to bring down the riptides and they camped the relics and I just shot til he had nothing left.
Win 32 to 1.
WA: Third match up?
DS: Against Red [Powell] and his Necrons, a very scary, hard-hitting, shooting army with 3 big units of destroyers and 3 big units of warriors.
This mission was progressive objectives and I got to go first. I was going to give Red first turn but he had redeploy tricks and enough bodies to push me off objectives so I just took it first turn. Turn 1, I shot and killed a unit of destroyers and a unit of warriors. At this point I thought I was in a decent spot. Red’s turn 1 was what I thought, he marched forward and sat on the objectives and shot. Now my big mistake which I believe cost me this game (spoiler). On my turn 2, I shot a lot to drop another unit of destroyers when I should have shot everything to kill the other 2 units of warriors. This was big because on Red’s turn 2, he spread out the warriors and grabbed multiple objectives and because of how players score objectives, going second controls the flow of the game.
At this point, we went back and forth shooting and trying to out position each other. We went the full 7 turns and at the end we both had about 3 models left.This game really showed how going second was the money move and Tau always wanting to go first was bad news. Looking back if I would have given up first turn he would have moved everything up and blasted me off the table. Destroyers are no joke, kiddos.
This was by far the hardest game at the event for me, even though both armies are shooting focused, there was actually a lot of back and forth on positioning and trying to get the upper hand. A very tactical game where if either of us had made a wrong move or didn’t pick the correct targets we both could have out right lost the game.
Loss 13 to 24.
WA: How did you feel at the end of day one, given your positioning? Anything specific you had planned out for your next opponent that morning?
DS: Now I know what you guys are thinking, X-2, tournament is over, GG, BUT what most players don’t realize is in a battle point tournament, winning and losing doesn’t [necessarily] matter! It all comes down to how many points you can get. I placed higher than players with better records because even though they were winning games, they were low scoring wins. I feel a big take away from this is make sure you realize what the format of tournament is and how to play around that and don’t get focused on so much winning/losing.
WA: Fourth match up?
DS: David [Sherrer] and his 3x knights and chaos.
This game I picked up the mission and threw it away cause it was not an issue. My army is built to bully elite armies and with me rolling that magical 6 to steal the first turn from him, it was the nail in the coffin. This was literally a 15 min game but we both knew it and had a couple laughs, shook hands and that was it.
Win 33 to 0.
WA: Fifth match up?
DS: Simon [Leen] and his Sisters of Battle. Eight repressors full of melta girls and Celestine and jump pack sisters (sorry, forgot their name).
Now going into this game, I was a bit scared because his army pushes down your throat right away. Between scout moving vehicles and acts of faith, he I knew he would be on me. I did something that I normally don’t do, I used my rip tides as bait by kind of leaving them off on their own. He went first and went right for the riptides, destroying one and damaging another. During my turn, I opened up and shot for the fence. The big moment was when I killed Celestine and he rolled that sweet, sweet one and burned his re-roll earlier in the shooting phase. We both moved around but after his knock out punch didn’t work, I moved up and shot. Simon was another great opponent. We actually played each other at the team event at Adepticon.
Win 33 to 12.
What were some of the best tactics and combos that you saw at the event?
WA: What did you think of the mission sets?
DS: Overall the missions were decent and required players to play for the big points and not just sit back and shoot or play overly defensive (like my army wanted to do).
WA: What are you planning on changing in your list?
DS: Changes to the list? Not sure because I’m not 100% on what I will be playing at ATC just yet so we will see, and just like a every good magician, I never give up my secrets!
WA: What’s next on your schedule? Any parting thoughts for the audience?
DS: Whats next for me is the Circle City GT, ATC, Gencon, and Nova.
Daniel Sansone is on the warpath to the Circle City GT, fourth round of the MAGS, then three Majors along the way. Currently Daniel is the number one overall ranked competitor in the MAGS! Where will he stand come GENCON 2018, the MAGS 40k Championship? Khorne cares not from where the blood flows and the path leading to the skull throne is littered with the skulls of champions and the defeated. The Worthiest Adversary continues to extoll on the victories of various champions across just as many battlefields, so stay tuned, for War is Eternal!
The Worthiest Adversary 