A NOTE: FOR BIGGER VIEWS OF THE PICTURES, YOU CAN CLICK ON THEM
Wednesday Night/Thursday Day
Myself and 2 other guys from Fort Collins left at about 7:30 PM for Austin. We drove through the night, and eventually arrived like 16 or 17 hours later. Long boring dark trip, we decided to drink a little bit before the festivities the next day.
The first beer was pretty good
See, we'd brought a bunch of our local Fort Collins Beer with us
This is a local Austin 512 beer. I think I drank 2 of them. Only one picture though.
...and then I drank an Amstel Light cuz they're pretty much amazing.
With all the beer in my system, I was ready for day 1 of the tournament: Warmachine
This was sort of a filler tournament for me. It was a 'well, since I'm going for 4 days, I may as well go for 5' sort of thing. I play Hordes a little bit, and I have a fully painted army, so I figured I'd try my luck in a tournament for the game that I figured I had literally no chance in. I think the right word for what I do in Hordes is 'dabble'. Good warmup for the rest of the weekend. :)
I'm sorry to say I have zero pictures of this event. Not sure why, but it's true.
My 35 Point Circle of Orboros List:
Kromac the Ravenous
(+4 Beast Points)
Feral Warpwolf
Pureblood Warpwolf
Gorax
5 Gatormen
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones
Lord of the Feast
Game 1: Circle vs. Skorne
I think this dude's name was Ben. He had a movement shenanegans list with Malik Kharn or however you spell it. I think he took Makeda or Epic Makeda. Whichever one had 'leash'. We had 3 objectives, and had to control them at the end of our phase for a point, first to 3 wins. Caster kill as normal, as well.
I knew he was going to be way faster than I figured he should be, and planned accordingly. I ended up getting some pretty good charges on his stuff, because I forced him to contest the objectives or lose. In the end, he didn't have much stuff left, and I was able to kill him off the objectives by turn 3, winning the game. Remember, a win is a win in Warmachine, there are no real 'margin of winning' scores.
Game 2: Circle vs. Khador
I played a guy called Gooch for this game. He was a pretty cool guy, but his army was amazing. Cavalry heavy, with Epic Vlad as his caster. 2 Dragoons, another cavalry solo, a bunch of Eldrazi Assassins, I really had no idea what I was getting myself into.
So, we played, and I figured I still had a chance even after he was able to slaughter my Pureblood terribly. Then I moved my Feral Warpwolf forward to kill his one heavy jack, and he tells me his cavalry guy has countercharge, and one-shots my perfectly healthy 9-point beast with one hit of his 5-point dragoon. One fucking hit, and he dies, lol. Good rolling by him, but it still screwed me over for the game. There was no way for me to win, so I conceded. His 5-point solo had 22 armor with Vlad's feat? Great list but wow... it was a game that reminded me of why I never played Mark 1 before.
Game 3: Circle vs. Cygnar
The next guy I played against kinda complained a lot. He wasn't a bad sport really, but the fact that he didn't know I could allocate damage onto my beasts from my caster with Fury kinda screwed his assassination attempt up something fierce.
There was a big circle in the middle of the board that we had to control at the end of our turn for 2 turns in a row. I ran my guys up, forcing him to come into the circle (within my charge range) with a very shooty Gareth Cygnar army. He got some charges off (some jack of his got a 15" charge off or something ridiculous? maybe it was just 13") but did minimal damage. I was able to kill his stuff to the point that I'd win by caster kill turn 3 anyways, but instead I won by scenario.
So, 2-1. Not bad, since my goal going in was to win 2 games. :)
Game 4: Circle vs. Skorne
This guy played infantry-heavy skorne. It was a pretty reasonable list, and very hard to play against for the scenario we had. He also had an extremely liberal idea of what 2" was, and though he was nice, he bent the rules quite a bit every turn. His caster was a sneaky bastard, who could warp around his army. Not sure what his name was.
The mission just had us in a huge box in the middle of the table, where our caster couldn't step out of. He had huge walls of infantry he hid behind, so I just decided to butcher them for a while. I killed most of his beasts, and lots of his infantry, and if I had had more time, I'm sure I'd have won. But time ran out, and we were at an impasse. I hadn't known, but the secondary win was how many points we had killed of the other guy. I'd killed tons of his stuff, and he'd mostly killed zero of mine, so the victory went to me.
3-1 so far... one more won game and I'm in contention for 2nd place!
Game 5: Circle vs. Circle
I hate mirror matches usually, but this was an interesting matchup. He brought the Warpwolf Stalker, whom I've wanted for forever, but PP has been sold out of it for a long time. He also had Kromac, and it was going to be an interesting game.
We each had objectives we had to claim in the opposing player's half, and I was nervous because he had the two goats in his army that can slam long distances. I ended up killing a lot of his stuff on turn 3 though, and in the end was able to claim his objective for 2 turns in a row, with his only models left alive being Kromac and the Stalker, and most of my models still living. Win by scenario for the True Kromac!
4-1 was my final record, and when they announced prizes, I ended up as 2nd place! I hadn't expected to do nearly that well, and 2nd place is my best so far at a Steamroller event. They decided to send me a $60 voucher (which I'm still waiting for) over email, and gave me a Warmachine Rulebook as well, which was awesome because I've never owned one (was waiting for the Hordes rulebook instead).
My loot for the Steamroller Tournament ($60 internet voucher pending)
That night I drank a few more bottles....
...and 2 glasses of some good Live Oak local beer
With the beer in me, I fell right asleep. Thank God, it's hard to sleep before a major event!
Well, this was it. I'd been waiting for this day for a long time. It was finally upon me, and I was determined not to disappoint. Last year I'd gotten 7th overall in a 70- person tournament, having lost my final game on Table 2 to the eventual 2nd overall player. This year was 160+ people, and though they originally said it would be 2 different tournaments, I soon found that to be incorrect- one huge tournament for all the marbles.
Here's the list I brought:
Wolf Lord w/ Saga of the Bear, Thunderwolf Mount, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Wolftooth Necklace, Runic Armor
Wolf Lord w/ Saga of the Warrior Born, Thunderwolf Mount, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, Runic Armor
Rune Priest w/ Living Hurricane and Jaws of the World Wolf (not sure why I said LL before)
3 Wolf Guard w/ 3x Combi-melta, 3x Power Fists (go with Grey Hunters)
9 Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino
9 Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino
4 Thunderwolf Cavalry w/ 1x Thunder Hammer, 2x Storm Shield (1 Storm Shield was on Thunder Hammer Model)
6 Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
6 Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
6 Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
My army, on it's morbid display board.
Game 1: Wolves vs. Eldar
His list (from memory, as are all the lists I tell you- they didn't print out enough lists for all of our opponents this time):
Farseer w/ Doom, Fortune
Autarch w/ Warp Generator (went w/ Spiders)
Seer Council x10 (or so) w/ smattering of singing spears, witchblades, etc
Wave Serpent
7 Guardian Jetbikes
7 Guardian Jetbikes
6 Dire Avengers w/ Wave Serpent
Falcon w/ normal loadout
Falcon w/ normal loadout
8 Warp Spiders w/ Exarch w/ Powerblades, Hit and Run
3 War Walkers w/ Scatter Lasers
So, a denial list, I figured. Crazy seer council makes me nervous, but he didn't bring Eldrad. Unfortunately for me, he had a good mission for himself: objectives (turned out, there was objectives in every mission!)
There was 4 objectives, one in the middle, and 3 in the center of other table quarters, including your own (since it was Spearhead) and one player got to place another in one of the non-deployment zone quarters.
Secondary was controling table quarters, and Tertiary was controlling terrain features (any unit can claim).
We deployed like so:
I declined siezing the initiative, and he went first, moving his guys around, taking potshots and random things, but doing no real damage. Of note, he only moved one of his falcons 6", and within charging range of my Cav. He kept his walkers in reserve.
Turn 1: Wolves:
I shot at him, and utterly failed to do anything. Zero glances of penetratings on any of his stuff, it was a very rough turn for me. I was able to get a good fleet roll with my Cav. though, and charged his Falcon, scoring lots of S10 auto-pen hits and... rolling nothing better than a 2 for results. Maybe I killed a weapon off it. Blah. I did keep a unit of grey hunters in reserve, however, for late objective-grabbing.
Turn 2: Eldar
He decided (wisely) to shoot my cav. unit to hell. I had unwisely not moved my rune priest rhino up to support the cavalry, and he doomed my squad. A flurry of shooting later, he killed all my cavalry except for my two wolf lords, who had each taken a wound. Yikes!
In combat, he charged me with his seer council and the spiders. The council was unable to get anyone into my hammer lord, though the spiders got models into both. The council made short work of my warrior-borne lord, but not before he was able to kill 6 spiders. The spiders whiffed against my hammer lord, and he killed the rest of the spiders, and the autarch, winning combat by a huge amount. The council, who was fortuned, I entirely ignored in combat, deciding instead to win combat and make them flee.
And flee they did, with the farseer. My lord followed up behind them.
Turn 2: Wolves
I knew I had broken his back, for the moment. I also knew that my lord would die a horrible death if he was allowed to shoot at me with all his units next turn. So, I started shooting.
My grey hunters came in this turn, and deployed right behind his wave serpent, ready to melta it to death. The other grey hunters rhino utilized the extra 6" of movement on roads, to get up next to his dire avengers (disembarking next to them as well), and the rune priest's rhino zoomed up 12" and also disembarked next to his jetbikes, ready to double tap.
Shooting commenced, and I was able to wreck the wave serpent (without the melta-resistant coating, since it was back armor). I double-tapped and killed all of his dire avengers, all of his jetbikes on the left, and missile fire took out 4 of his other jetbikes. I was also able to shake both falcons.
For combat, I charged my lord into the remaining 3 guardian jetbikes, and killed them all, consolidating to within 6" of his seer council.
Turn 3: Eldar
He had very little to do. His walkers didn't come in, his falcons couldn't shoot, and his seer council fled 11". He moved his top falcon 6". Come to think, maybe that one wasn't shaken. It shot at my lord, not killing him.
Turn 3: Wolves
I had to kill the falcons this turn. I moved everything closer to the bottom falcon that I could, though I left the top falcon alone entirely: I needed my lord to be able to charge it this turn so that he'd be able to walk the seer council off the board.
Everything shot at the bottom falcon, and I immobilized it, weapon destroyed it, and eventually my grey hunters got the charge off and killed it finally. My wolf lord hit the other falcon hard, and in my first roll, I got boxcars for my pen result, exploding it!
After that, he threw in the towel. He still had war walkers, but they wouldn't be able to stop me from controlling the objectives, and I would be able to missile laucher them off the board in a turn or 2 anyways.
Results: 47-3 win for the Wolveses!
Justin was a great opponent, and after we played, I learned he had only played his army 2 times before this! He was awesome to play against, and a very fair opponent, making sure that we played in the spirit of the game, rather than getting all rules-lawyery like he could have easily done a couple times.
As a sidenote, I think Justin ended up with 2nd General on day 2 of the consolation round. :)
Full points were all well and good, but it also put me at the 'top' of the tournament, having to play against someone else who had gotten max points.
Game 2: Wolves vs. Nids! Oh noes!
My 2nd game was against Chris and his Nids. Here's what his list had:
Swarmlord w/ 2 Guard
Tyrant w/ Wings
2 Zoanthropes
3 Hive Guard
8 Ymargl Genestealers
8? Genestealers w/ Broodlord
10 Gaunts
Tervigon
6 Warriors w/ Rending Claws
Trigon
It was a pretty scary list for me, with lots of high initiative things that beat me in combat, with some reasonable fire support. My longfangs needed to be in cover, I figured. Otherwise, they'd be killed off the board pretty quick, without getting their strikes back.
The mission was to place five objectives (taking turns) and then each picking an objective on the other person's side of the board, which was worth 2.
Secondary was to kill all opponent's elite choices. Tertiary was to eliminate opponent's most expensive HQ.
Turn 1: Nids
He won the roll to go first, and advanced everything. His Tervigon pooped out like 15 gaunts, but rolled doubles, so it was finished. Shooting killed 3 missile launchers in the middle, and it was my turn. Don't worry, you'll see rough deployments in a moment.
Turn 1: Wolves
On the left, a grey hunters rhino zoomed up and shot at some zoanthropes, ending the poor blighters. My Long Fangs shot at the Flyrant on the left, putting a single wound on it. The others whiffed pretty bad, killing a total of one warrior. Also, I used Jaws to take down a single Hive Guard.
Turn 2: Nids
His stuff moved up again, with his Flyrant getting close to my longfangs on the left, his trigon getting way too close to my grey hunters, and his Ymargl Genestealers coming in and getting ready to wreck face on my poor longfangs. His Tervigon cast FNP on the Genestealers as well, as an extra precaution, apparently.
His shooting didn't do much, though his Trigon got the 5 or 6 he needed for fleet to be able to charge my Grey Hunters. In assault, he charged in and somehow didn't kill all of my longfangs. I put up a good fight, actually. The Trigon killed like 5 or 6 grey hunters (taking a single wound in return), and the Flyrant... failed his charge with a 1,1,2 roll in terrain. Wow, lucky longfangs!
Turn 2: Wolves
I decided this was the turn I needed to kill his warriors, or he'd be able to get too many units into my deathstar, and wreck it with volume of quality attacks. So, I moved up the Cavalry, splitting my Warrior Born Lord, to go help with the Genestealer problem. I also zoomed a squad of grey hunters in to the left to help shoot at the flyrant. The rune priest's rhino moved up a little bit, ready to Jaws the Tervigon.
Shooting was good for me, killing off the Flyrant, Jaws-ing the Tervigon and a random warrior, and ... I guess that's it. Still, I was happy with it, since those units needed to go away.
In combat, my units charged in, and I was able to absorb the warriors attacks with the wolfstar, and insta-death every last one of them with my hammers. The way I had positioned my star, I made sure they were in cover, so that if the swarmlord attacked them, they'd be able to strike first. The Ymargls put a wound on my Lord, but he killed 3 of them, and I think I even won combat. We stayed locked in though. The Trigon did what it was sadly supposed to do, and ripped the rest of my squad to pieces before they could do anything back.
Sorry, this is the last picture of the fight. Not sure why I didn't take more. This is towards the beginning of his turn 3 (you can see his genestealers coming in)
Turn 3: Nids His genestealers came in, and chose the side that my lord was fighting the Ymargls was on. His Swarmlord came forward, closer to my Runepriest's rhino. His Trigon decided to finish the job the Flyrant hadn't been able to do, and got close to my longfangs on the left.
Not much shooting, again. His Tyrant charged in and killed my Runepriest rhino, and and his Ymargls all died horribly. The genestealers attacked my Wolfstar, and killed a little bit of it, but got wiped out except for his broodlord (I think?) who stayed locked in. The Trigon ate my poor longfangs, but took a wound doing it. Down to 4. Heh, awesome?
Turn 3: Wolves
My Warrior Born Lord moved up toward his gaunts holding the objective in the middle, next to the hiveguard. The Grey Hunters on the left, quivering in fear of the Trigon, got back into the rhino, and made a tactical retreat toward the Swarmlord, thinking they could reinforce it the combat that would ensue eventually over there. The Rune Priest was struck with a bout of cowardice, and abandoned his Grey Hunters, in favor of joining the surviving longfangs on the right.
Shooting didn't do a whole lot, plunking off a few wounds from the Trigon (down to 2!) and not much else. Jaws on the Swarmlord failed. Not a single shot got through on the Swarmlord's unit. Ut. Oh.
In combat, my Wolfstar cleaned up the remaining Genestealers, and got prepped for a battle with the Swarmlord. The Hive Guard next to the gaunts watched in awe as the Warrior Born Lord got into them and ripped them to shreds.
Turn 4: Nids
His Swarmlord moved slightly toward my forcibly disembarked Grey Hunters. His Trigon moved toward my rhino bearing the other Grey Hunters. The Hive Guard decided to take potshots at my Warrior Born Lord, and failed to hurt it.
The Swarmlord and co. slaughtered my poor Grey Hunters, who caused zero wounds, and but were somehow able to stay in assault. The Trigon killed my Rhino, sadly, and the Hive Guard charged in to try to tie my WBL (Warrior Born Lord) up in combat. It didn't work, and the WBL killed the two rather easily with around 13 attacks, choosing to re-roll wounds.
Turn 4: Wolves
My Wolfstar rolled horribly in terrain to get closer to the combat with the Swarmlord. They wouldn't get in this turn, certainly. My WBL moved toward the 15 gaunts cowering in the corner, holding an objective. The remaining Long Fangs and grey hunters were able to annihilate the Trigon, finally. Whew!
In combat, the Swarmlord chewed up my poor grey hunters, and got ready to eat the others. I was a Sad Panda :( My WBL did move in and kill all 15 gaunts in combat. At this point, he has only his Swarmlord unit left alive.
Turn 5: Nids
He moved in and charged my last Grey Hunter squad. I did nothing, again, but held.
Turn 5: Wolves
I charged my Wolfstar into his Swarmlord. While in transit, my Bear Lord tripped on the wrecked rhino, and took a wound, despite his 3++ invuln. This proved to be the death of him, since the Swarmlord put everything into him, and barely killed him. Had he not stubbed his toe, I'm confident that I'd have won the combat. As it was, I was still able to kill the Hive Guard, and put 3 wounds on the Swarmlord.
Turn 6: Nids
He killed my last Grey Hunter. I wiffed.
Turn 6: Wolves
He killed my cavalry, who can't hurt him.
Game ends with his model having 2 wounds remaining, and me having 6 total models left on the board. Very close game!
We each got the secondary, which was kill all elites. He got the Tertiary, since he killed my most expensive HQ, and we drew on Primary. A draw, 27-18 in his favor.
It was a great game, and Chris was a really great opponent, probably my favorite of the weekend. Fun times for sure. It's games like this that make me want to go back to BoLSCON. He ended up at 7th overall for the tournament, which is pretty damn good for a 160-person tournament!
Game 3: Wolves vs. Nids again! Oh noes!
His list:
Alpha w/ stuff on it
15 or so Gaunts
16 Genestealers w/ Broodlord
Tervigon
4 Warriors w/ Assault 3 gun
4 Warriors w/ Assault 3 gun
2 Zoanthropes
3 Hiveguard
Deathleaper
2 Carnifexen w/ S6 TL guns (lots and lots of shots! ... but for 400 points)
Mawloc
I won the roll for first turn, and decided I wanted 2nd. The deployment was spearhead, and the mission was objectives, again. This time, we deployed an objective in the center each 'untaken' table quarter, and the second player gets to put one in the center of his own table quarter, for a total of 3.
Secondary was kill points, and how many you scored. 0-2 kill points got you zero, 3-6 got you 4 points, and so on up to 13 points. Tertiary was keeping all of your elites alive.
Nids Turn 1:
He advanced, and burrowed his Mawloc. He also chose my Runepriest to be at -2 leadership from Deathleaper. No real shooting (he was out of range) and it was my turn. Also, his Tervigon pooped out like 9 white gaunts (you can see them on the top of the board).
Ignore the Rhinos on the left- they're in reserve.
Wolves Turn 1:
I held 2 of my Grey Hunter Rhinos in reserve. I needed to have reserves if anything crazy happened, and mostly wanted to be able to drive onto the two closer objectives toward the end. Essentially, my gameplan was to send the Wolfstar up and kill as much as possible, with the Longfangs pounding away at the vulnerable army in the meantime. The troops could mop up as they saw fit.
So, I shuffled around a little, getting my Wolfstar up closer to the center to get charges off. In shooting, I had great line of sight on his Tervigon, and lit him up. Also, I shot both Zoanthropes down.
Nids Turn 2:
His Mawloc came in (his genestealers are still in reserve) and killed a thunderwolf (causing all 6 wounds? Madness!) His other guys advanced, and the carnifexen shot at my Wolfstar, and killed a guy as well. I was fine with it- my lords and hammer are the real threats to his army. No other shooting, and I take my leadership on the wolves- who fail it and all 800 points of it run off the board! DANGIT!
On the bottom right is where my dead pile was. The TWC are really and truely dead, just pointing it out. :(
Wolves Turn 2:
Well, my plans have obviously changed. I need to deal with the monsterous creatures quickly, as well as the warriors. One of my Grey Hunter packs came in, and I sent it up the center to help shooting the Mawloc. My already-on-the-board Grey Hunters got out of their rhino (leaving the Rune Priest inside), and prepared to shoot/charge the Mawloc. In shooting, I was able to kill 1 Carnifex (putting 2 wounds on the other), insta-kill 3 warriors on the top, and put 4 wounds on the Mawloc.
In combat with the Mawloc, he killed 2 of mine, and I killed a single wound off of him, despite popping the wolf banner. Ut oh! He hits and runs with the Mawloc.
Nids Turn 3:
His Genestealers still don't come in. He advances his stuff, and shoots, not doing much. The Mawloc burrows again, after having failed his 5 Regen rolls. His fex kills 4 Longfangs with shooting.
His Mawloc is burrowed currently. Gah!
Wolves Turn 3: I shoot down his Fex, put a few wounds on the Prime (who has joined the bottom left Warriors) and kill one of the Hive Guard w/ Missile Launchers. My other Grey Hunter squad comes in, and shoots 5 wounds off of the prime's squad in cover.
In assault, my Rune Priest assaults and kills his lone warrior behind the center hill. My Grey Hunters who had assaulted the Mawloc attacked the gaunts by the hill, killing only a few. The other Grey Hunters move forward in their rhino after re-embarking.
His dead pile is mounting up on the top right as well. I'm impressed with both of us.
Nids Turn 4:
Deathleaper comes in, as well as the Genestealers. The Genestealers decide to eat my rightmost longfang squad, and Deathleaper tries to shoot down my Rune Priest. The Mawloc came in, and scattered. He takes potshots at my runepriest with his hive guard, failing to insta-death him, and he also shoots at the Rune Priest with Deathleaper, but fails to hurt him again.
In combat, the Genestealers did indeed eat my poor longfangs, and the prime squad... died horribly to my Grey Hunters. The Prime remained, but his days were numbered. My Grey Hunters vs. Gaunts went well, and I killed them all.
Wolves Turn 4:
I drove my top Grey Hunters into a forest, and disembarked, ready to double-tap his Stealers. The Rune Priest cast Murderous Hurricane on the Stealers (after having moved into the open, next to the Stealers, since there was a bonus objective that involved all your own HQs being dead). I also moved my middle rhino up and around the hill, ready to pick up my Grey Hunters (gaunt slayers) who were about to tackle Death Leaper.
In shooting, I killed a measly 3 Stealers. Assault killed Death Leaper, and my guys consolidated accordingly. Also, I shot and finally killed the stupid Mawloc.
Realize that there is an objective behind the bastion. His gaunts and stealers are running towards it!
Nids Turn 5:
His stealers, Hive Guard and gaunts are all he has left at this point. He runs the stealers over to attack my 12" moving rhino behind the hill, and lots of them die in their assaults due to murderous hurricane. They also kill my Rune Priest.
He fails to hurt the rhino significantly, and it's my turn.
Wolves Turn 5:
I get in the rhino, and zoom off with it, toward the gaunts in the back. Shooting everything I have into the stealers, they're basically all dead by now. Maybe a few stragglers. Also, my Longfangs finish off his Hive guard.
Nids Turn 6:
He moves around, not doing much.
Wolves Turn 6:
I'm able to move in and kill all the gaunts, tabling him. Nearly full points for the Wolves!
45-3 was the final tally. Good solid score to get me back into the tournament!
The guy I played was named Adam, so it was Adam vs. Adam. He was a really great guy, and though he rolled terribly for his saves, he remained stoic, and fought until his last breath! He started off doing a battle report for BoLS, but he kinda decided against it as the game went more and more against him. Cool guy though for real :)
Game 4: Wolves vs. John Brock's Imperial Guard 'Leafblower' Doh!
His list:
Company Command Squad w/ 4 Plasma, Chimera
Company Command Squad w/ 4 Plasma, Chimera
Veteran Squad w/ 3 Melta, Chimera
Veteran Squad w/ 3 Melta, Chimera
Platoon Command Squad w/ 4 Flamers, Chimera
Infantry Squad w/ Flamer
Infantry Squad w/ Flamer
Psyker Battle Squad w/ Chimera
Vendetta
Vendetta
Valkyrie w/ Multiple Rocket Pids
Manticore
Leman Russ Demolisher w/ Plasma Sponsons
Leman Russ Executioner w/ Plasma Sponsons
Well, I knew I'd have to play against it sometime this weekend. Still, I didn't figure it would be a great experience. The mission was really hard against a Guard player: terrain pieces held by scoring units.
Secondary was kill ALL opponent's troops choices as well as their dedicated transports. Not gonna happen. Tertiary was control more table quarters than your opponent. Also going to be very tough against a mobile guard army.
He won the roll for turn 1, and took it. Sad panda :(
Turn 1: Imperial Guard
John kept the Valk (with Infantry Squad), Platoon Command Squad, and both Veteran Melta squads in reserve.
He moved everything up slightly (blitzing me with a single CCS chimera), and took a lot of shots at my longfangs, killing about half of them, and pinning one squad, forcing another squad to run off the hill they were on (but not off the table) with the psykers. He also took a potshot at my runepriest's rhino with his rightmost vendetta and exploded it, though I had cover. Dangit, I had really really wanted that thing to blitz the Psykers, and shut them down from making my Cav. run. Ah well. My thunderwolves were behind a hill where he had no line of sight to them this turn, thank God. Still, it was an extremely painful turn 1.
Turn 1: Wolves
I kept one squad of Grey Hunters in reserve.
Well, I moved my Wolfstar up, planning on assaulting his Company Command squad chimera. I needed to get them into the center of the board, as soon as possible. My grey hunters on the left blitzed toward his Manticore behind the hill, ready to melta it next turn, and popped smoke. The Grey Hunters on the right who had no rhino left began a slow trudge toward the top right corner.
Longfangs shook one Vendetta, and exploded his empty one. Not bad for only like 7 Longfangs left!
In assault, I was able to assault his CCS Chimera with my Wolfstar, immobilize it with the I4 guys, and wreck it with the hammers. Most importantly: I was in the middle of the board on turn 1.
Also, I was able to get cover saves for the Wolfstar through the area terrain.
Turn 2: Guard
He shot everything at my Wolfstar. I had cover, and his shooting wasn't enough. His Demolisher hit my guys, and failed to kill them, thankfully. The saving grace for me was that I was able to pile on saves on my Eternal Warrior Lord because he shot his plasma sponsons at me as well, so I was able to get creative with wound allocation. He was astounded at how much firepower the squad could soak up, and I agreed with him- it's a whole lot. His shaken vendetta was next to them to help walk them off the board if the Psykers could get their spell off and I failed my 5+ Runic Armor save.
Also, he killed his own CCS with scattering plasma shots. Awesome :)
Turn 2: Wolves
My Grey Hunters came in from reserve, and disembarked next to his turbo-boosted Vendetta, to try and melta it. The leftmost Grey Hunter rhino zoomed up, and disembarked, within 6" of the manticore. It's gotta die this turn. The Wolfstar exploded, with the Warrior Born Lord (WBL) going off to hunt the Psykers, the squad itself going off to hunt the Executioner, and the Saga of the Bear Lord going off to kill the Demolisher.
Shooting was alright for me, killing the Manticore, the Psyker Battle Squad Chimera, but allowing him to make all of his cover saves vs. melta and missiles on his Vendetta.
Notice the demolisher next to the Manticore on the top left- it's only there because he removed it.
Guard Turn 3:
He had all his squads come on the board, and surrounded the poor Grey Hunters who had killed his Manticore. The Valk moved 24", as did the Vendetta. They did this every turn.
His shooting obliterated my poor Grey Hunters in the corner. But I was happy, because all his squads were tied up in the corner. I needed to do what I could to keep the majority of them there.
Wolves Turn 3:
My Wolfstar squad moved up to kill the Psykers. My two wolflords moved forward, and charged various chimeras and vehicles.
The rest of the game was me charging vehicles, him shooting my wolfstar and wolf lords, and me shooting his vehicles. Here are two pictures of the final turns.
I actually think this might be the final turn picture. Notice my Grey Hunters at the top right, who finally got there despite the lack of a rhino :)
So, the game ended, with me holding one more terrain piece than him, as well as one more table quarter. Victory for the Wolves!
I ended up with a 34, since I failed at the Secondary, which was to kill all your opponent's troops as well as their dedicated transports.
As a sidenote, John ended up at 10th overall in the tournament. I keep getting tough players every round :-P
I finished the day with 144 points, enough to put me (as I later found out) on table 3 the next day.
I got this bad boy at Papadeaux's as well as some other local beer. Not any other pictures tho, apparently.
Sunday, Tournament day 3: Warhammer 40k Chamionships, Second Day
Well, I was still in the running for it all. Table 3 on Game 5 is pretty reasonable, since it means you're in the top 6 at the very least. I would get 3 games to advance my overall score, and if I could max every game, I'd get to play at the top table. I just hoped I wouldn't play against either Guard or mirror matched Wolves. I got somewhat of a compromise.
Game 5: Wolves vs. Wolves
Here's his list:
Njal the Stormdude
4 Wolf Guard w/ Termie Armor, random upgrades, +Arjac, Drop Pod
Other Random Wolf Guard, for squads
5 Grey Hunters, Melta?, Razorback
5 Blood Claws in Razorback w/ Las Cannon
5 Blood Claws, Melta? Razorback
10 or so Footslogging Grey Hunters
5 Skyclaws
6 Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
Predator w/ 3 Las Cannons
Vindicator :(
The mission was 3 objectives, one in the center of the board, and the other deployed by each player in their respective deployment zones. The center objective was worth 2 points.
Turn 1: His Wolves
He got first turn, and walked on, kind of spread out his forces. His drop pod full of 5 Termies + Njal came down right on target near my board edge, threatening my area where I could walk on. You'll see a picture soon enough where he deployed his things- they were pretty spread out.
Turn 1: My Wolves
I walked everything except for a Grey Hunter squad, who I kept in reserve for last-minute objective grabs. The Wolfstar walked up and got into charge range of his Termiestar. One Grey Hunter squad even disembarked, ready to double-tap into Arjac and Co.
In shooting, I didn't do much. I might or might not have killed a Termie, but it wasn't much, since Njal had made my BS -1 this phase.
In combat, I was able to kill every Termie, except for Njal, who made (I think?) three 4++ insta-death saves. I was happy enough with it though, since it kept my guys out of harms way vs. the Vindicator nearby.
I was entirely surprised that my Wolfstar unit killed his Termiestar so quick- the WBL kinda just ate through them.
Turn 2: His Wolves
He moved his wolves up, but nobody was within charge range yet.
He shot at my stuff, and killed my leftmost Rhino. Not much else though.
In combat, I punked Njal, finally, with my WBL, before my hammers could get to it.
Turn 2: My Wolves
I split my WBL off from the rest of the pack, ready to try and kill more troops on his own. More specifically: his Las Razor in the middle full of Bloodclaws. The other parts of the Wolfstar moved up to threaten his Razorback on the left, as well as the Vindicator.
Shooting happened, and I was able to pop his middle razor, ensuring that the WBL would get the charge off. I was also able to kill a couple of his Longfangs.
In assault, I weapon destroyed/immobilized his Vindicator, and killed the Razor full of guys. The WBL ended up whiffing somewhat badly against the Bloodclaws, only killing 2 guys (from 7 attacks, with one of the rolls being re-rollable). They ran, however, and he consolidated just inside of 6" from them. Not a bad phase for me :)
Turn 3: His Wolves
His Bloodclaws kept falling back, rolling like 10" or something. They'd be fine to regroup next turn. His guys moved up, and his Skyclaws were just outside of 6" from my Longfangs on the right. On the left, his squad of Grey Hunters got ready to charge my Wolfstar. Shooting didn't do a whole bunch, and it was on to assault.
In combat, my Wolfstar killed all of his Grey Hunters and the Vindicator, and consolidated toward his Predator and Longfangs.
Turn 3: My Wolves
I had really hoped my Grey Hunters would come in from reserve this turn, to help light up the Skyclaws threatening me, but it wasn't to happen. Instead, I had to position my Rune Priest to cast Murderous Hurricane on them. My Wolfstar moved close to his Predator and Longfangs, ready to assault. My WBL got ready to charge his 10-man Grey Hunter pack.
In shooting, I was unable to do a whole lot, though I did get Murderous Hurricane off on the Skyclaws.
In the assault phase, my WBL killed a bunch of Grey Hunters, who stuck around. My Wolfstar killed his Predator and Longfangs to a man, consolidating toward his running Bloodclaws (who would rally next turn).
Turn 4: His Wolves
He disembarked his troops from the razor close to my objective, and got ready to assault my forcibly disembarked Grey Hunters.
His Bloodclaws rallied, and charged my Wolfstar, going out in a blaze of glory. My WBL killed the remaining Grey Hunters, and consolidated toward the combats near my objective. At the bottom combat, he killed a lot of my Grey Hunters, who killed one or two of his combined 10 models who had charged. In fact, he killed them to a man.
Turn 4: My Wolves
The WBL got into charge position to get into the combat. My Grey Hunters finally came in from reserve, and double-tapped his Skyclaws, killing a couple. My Rune Priest's Grey Hunter squad got out, and surrounded his survivors.
In shooting, I killed his remaining Razorback, and his Drop Pod.
In assault, I killed his remaining models off the board. Victory for the real Wolves (who, it turns out, have red armor, apparently)!
I got the full 47 points for this game, and my opponent got 2 points.
Well, I needed a win like this to get me to one of the higher tables and it did- in fact, it got me onto Table 1, where a single player had been dominating every game there for 3 or 4 games in a row...
Game 6: Wolves vs. Salamanders!!
Here's his list:
Vulkan
Librarian w/ Null Zone and Avenger
10 Tactical Marines w/ Multi-melta, combi-melta, melta, fist, Rhino
10 Tactical Marines w/ Missile Launcher, flamer, combi-flamer, Razor (combat-squadded)
10 Tactical Marines w/ Missile Launcher, flamer, combi-flamer, Razor (combat-squadded)
Dreadnought w/ Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer
Dreadnought w/ Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer
5 TH/SS Terminators
3 Attack Bikes
Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher
Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Raider Redeemer
So, lots of melta, lots of flamer, reasonable assault, and AV14. And on top of it all, he's just been murdering his opponents every game. Yikes!
The mission was a single objective in the center of the board. If you controlled the objective at the end of the opponent's turn, you got a point. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.
Secondary was to have mobile units in every board quarter, fewer points for only 3 quarters. Tertiary was based on kill points- you got a point per kill point you got, to a max of 9.
He won the roll to go first, and took it. I was sad, because there was a single good quarter for me, and the way this mission was set up, it would actually benefit me to go first. But he got it, and that was that. Here is the setup:
Turn 1: Salamanders
He generally advanced, shooting at my rhinos, not really doing a whole lot to them. He also advanced his combat squad up to contol distance of the objective- if I didn't contest next turn, he'd get a point.
Turn 1: Wolves
I also advanced. Spearhead deployment meant that my Longfangs had almost zero LOS, so I moved two of the squads, and shot with the other at the Speeders, killing 1 of them. As you can see, one of my rhinos zoomed forward to contest the objective.
Turn 2: Salamanders
He shifted his army, and wrecked 2 of my rhinos. Not a lot of movement by him, except by the Dreadnoughts, who were able to charge the Grey Hunters who were contesting/holding the objective. In the ensuing combat, he killed a few, and my fist hurt him back with a Weapon Destroyed result. I held, happily.
Turn 2: Wolves
I shift around a bit, getting ready to charge the Dreadnoughts with the Wolfstar. My WBL breaks off, in anticipation of his Termies being primed for action. In a fit of stupidity, I move my Rune Priest rhino away from his Librarian, because I don't want it in the way of the Wolfstar charge. I should have moved it more to the left, supporting my disembarked Grey Hunters.
I'm able to get a view on his Attack Bikes with my leftmost longfangs, and kill one. They fail their leadership, but are unable to flee off the board. Sad :(
In combat, I'm unable to kill both Dreadnoughts, though he can't kill my guys either. My WBL charges his Tactical Squad off the objective out of boredom, waiting for the immanent attack from the Termies.
Turn 3: Salamanders
He moves his guys forward, disembarking his Librarian and squad next to my Longfangs for some Avenger/flamer action. He also moves his Raider up in order to charge my Grey Hunters who have been forcibly disembarked. Poor blighters!
His shooting fries my Longfangs pretty good, and he shakes my Rune Priest rhino, so it can't move.
In assault, his Termies are able to get into combat with my Grey Hunters, who kill a single Termie before being chewed up and spit out. My Wolfstar continues to struggle against the useless Dreads, but are still somehow unable to kill them both. They do finish one off, however, and the other one is down to zero arms, and immobilized.
Turn 3: Wolves
Well, I need to counter-assault the termies, and quick. My Rune Priest squad disembarked and scrambled over to where the Termies are, easily within 6". My WBL gets ready to charge as well.
Not much in the way of shooting this turn, and I charged in with the WBL, who threw out 6 attacks, re-rolling hits, and caused 6 wounds, to which all 4 remaining Termies go down. Bad dice for him, most likely, but I will say that my Grey Hunters could have finished the job easily enough before the Termies got to swing anyway. Vulkan put a couple wounds on my WBL, and passed his morale check. My Wolfstar finally got over their fear of Dreadnoughts, and were able to kill the last one. Just in time for his shooting phase, heh.
Turn 4: Salamanders
He re-embarked into the razor with his flamer squad, but left the Librarian in the forest alone, presumably to hold that quarter. He disembarked his melta squad to within holding distance of the objective, and then started shooting at my Wolfstar, after casing Null Zone.
I quickly realized that taking cover saves for being in area terrain was mathematically better than having to re-roll my 3++ invulnerable, so I started to so. He didn't have enough to do any huge damage to me, but he did down a few of them. Price you pay for being a high-profile target, I guess!
In assault, my Grey Hunters were able to inflict 2 wounds on Vulkan, and he was able to kill my WBL, but both sides stayed locked in. On the bottom left, his combat squad had crept up slowly and assaulted my Rune Priest rhino, but failed to hit the vehicle.
Turn 4: Wolves
It was time for me to make some sort of move. His Raider was still alive, but hadn't moved last turn. His 10-man Tactical Squad was sitting on the objective, however, and I couldn't leave it un-contested. That's what a stray rhino is there for though, right? Wrong, as I quickly found out, immobilizing the rhino too far away from the objective.
With nothing else to contest it, I decided to charge the Wolfstar at the tacticals, hoping that my Grey Hunters would win combat, and be able to control the objective next turn.
In shooting, I was able to down his Librarian. Hoo-ray for insta-death!
Combat saw me chew right through his Tacticals, and get back on the hill. Also, Vulkan was kind enough to finally keel over and die for me, so that I was able to get onto the objective with my Grey Hunters. On the bottom left, my Rune Priest had joined a unit of Longfangs, and assaulted the Tacticals, winning the combat, but sticking in the combat.
Turn 5: Salamanders
His redeemer cannons came into play then, and killed almost all of my Grey Hunters. Not a whole lot you can do against that, and he was able to wipe out my entire Grey Hunter squad with shooting that turn. So, I needed to table him if I wanted to get full points for the mission. He prepped his Bikes to turbo-boost into the bottom right corner if needed.
My Rune Priest was able to kill off his tactical squad in combat, after sustaining heavy casualties.
Turn 5: Wolves
I prepped my Saga of the Bear Lord to charge the Razor in the back hiding scoring troops. My remaining Wolfstar prepped to charge the Raider that hadn't moved.
In shooting, I gunned down the razorback on the far right. He would need the attack bikes after all.
Assault saw me charge the Land Raider, and immobilize/shake/weapon destroy it. I was also able to destroy his Razor on the far left, though the guys got out just fine.
Turn 6: Salamanders
He moved his combat squads up, the flamer squad on the left toward my Wolfstar, and the one on the right onto the objective. His Attack Bikes turbo-boosted into the bottom right to get the secondary.
Shooting didn't accomplish much, and he assaulted the Wolfstar with his combat squad. He lost, and I was unable to run them down, so they fled.
Turn 6: Wolves
I moved only the models I needed to- there was one unit too many of his for me to be able to table him- the Raider was still alive, as was his Speeder. So, I went for the objectives, while trying to deny him points. I killed his attack bikes with missile fire, and killed his combat squad on the objective with my Wolfstar, ensuring that I'd have a mobile unit in each quarter, while he had none.
Results: 27-14, in my favor.
Ben was a great opponent. He was on top of the rules as well as anyone I'd met, and knew my army as well as I did lots of times. We had a very close match, and I was glad I could play him- I was also happy that I had beat him, though they did tell us we might end up playing a rematch because he had so many battle points. I wasn't about to sweat it though- I was mostly just grateful I didn't have to play against guard, if it came down to a rematch.
Game 7: Wolves vs. Salamanders! Grudge match anyone?
Well, I got paired with Ben again, only this time on table 2. I'm sorry to say I didn't take any pictures of the last game, since I decided I needed to focus for it. This was the big one, where if I won by enough, I would win the entire tournament. I was actually poised to win the whole thing!
The mission was a denial one. Capture and contol for the main objective, and victory points for the secondary. Tertiary was to get more kill points than your opponent.
I have to say I was fairly confident going in- I'd already beat him last game, and now I knew what his army was capable of. Right? Right.
Turn 1: Salamanders
He won the roll off for sides, and took first turn. That made it 7/7 games that I went last in this tournament. Heh, just an interesting side note.
We both put our objectives straight across from eachother. It was like we were only going to use half of the board, if that. I figured that favored me, since I'm better up close, in theory.
He didn't deploy anything really, since it was Dawn of War, and I also didn't deploy anything.
He moved onto the board, and got ready to jump at my objective. Vulkan rode in one of the Razors this time.
Turn 1: Wolves
I moved on, and popped smoke on all 3 vehicles. The Wolfstar was slightly offset from the middle objectives, directly across from his Raider. No shooting, it was his turn.
Turn 2: Salamanders
He moved forward slightly, and shot at my rhinos a lot. Smoke blocked most of his shooting, and what did get through didn't matter. His very last shot was able to destroy my rightmost Grey Hunter rhino, however. I didn't see that as a problem, though. Not yet.
Turn 2: Wolves
This was my turn of fail. I moved everything forward up as fast as possible. I think I got overconfident that he couldn't pop my tanks, or something. Plus, I had a plan: I could pop his Raider this turn. So, my Rune Priest rhino surged ahead 12", turned around, and disembarked everyone except for the Priest. They were within 6", and I had 2 melta shots.
So I rolled, and got a single hit. And for pen... I rolled a 5. Not enough to even glance it. Ut oh, this could be bad....
My other shooting failed me big time this turn as well. Big time... it just sucked. Really really bad. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach- he could really hurt me next turn, if he saw his potential.
Turn 3: Salamanders
He saw it. His guys got ready to toast my Grey Hunters on the left, with the assumption that he could pop my rhino. His Redeemer cannons got ready to fry my disembarked Rune Priest Grey Hunters, and termies disembarked to kill the other already foot-slogging Grey Hunters.
Everything went together nicely for him, and at the end of the phase, I had 5 Grey Hunters fleeing from the termies, and zero others left alive. Very good turn for him, he took full advantange of my misstep.
Turn 3: Wolves
Well, my Wolfstar can still save me, right? I broke off my WBL, in preparation for charging his Librarian squad who had just fried my Grey Hunters on the left. The rest of the Wolfstar prepared to defend my Grey Hunters, who would flee off the board next turn if the Termies stayed within 6". My runepriest's rhino had been destroyed out from under him in the previous turn, so he moved over to join a Longfang squad. They prepared to charge the 10-man tactical squad currently on my objective.
My shooting again did terribly- it did so poorly the rest of the game, I won't mention it again.
In assault, the Wolfstar charged both the Raider and the Termies. I managed 3 hits against the Raider with my Saga of the Bear Lord, and 1 pen. If I could get a 4+ to immobilize the raider or destroy it, the game could seriously still be winnable. But, I rolled a 1, and failed to do anything of note to it. My fate was sealed. My other guys managed to kill off a couple Termies, at least.
My WBL charged his Librarian squad, and since I didn't want him to break the unit, I just focused all my attacks on the Librarian himself- killing him many times over. No wounds back, and the Tactical held. The Rune Priest w/ Longfangs charged into the Tacticals and failed to do much, but held their ground. I made sure the Longfangs charged his Fist model, so that he couldn't insta-death the Priest.
Salamanders Turn 4:
He got a Dreadnought he had been holding back, and prepped it to charge my WBL. He also moved two Razors over to the right to block my Wolfstar if it ended up winning. A vet move, since I couldn't get through them. It would keep them out of the game for one vital turn.
In assault, I lost the longfang/tactical fight, but held again. Lol, what a silly combat, honestly. The termies did what they needed to, and died. The dread failed to kill my WBL, and the WBL in turn killed all 5 tacticals in the combat.
Wolves Turn 4:
My Wolfstar, as previously stated, were stuck. He had left his raider behind them, as if to tempt me into charging it. I didn't take the bait, though, and instead charged the Razors. I whiffed against one, but I was able to destroy the other. No wall would stop me next turn.
My WBL managed to hold off the Dread one more round of combat, but the same can't be said for my Rune Priest/Longfangs, and they finally bit the dust.
Salamanders Turn 5:
He shot a bunch this turn, most of it ineffectually at my Wolfstar. No combats he wanted to join, so I gladly took next turn.
Wolves Turn 5:
At this point, I was still hoping I could get a draw on Primary, and still claim Secondary and Tertiary for a win, that might help me place in the tournament, if not in first. It was within my grasp! Or at least, I had to tell myself this to get through the game.
My Wolfstar fragmented again, this time the Saga of the Bear Lord assaulting his Dread fighting my WBL. The other part of the Wolfstar attempted a double-charge onto his objective, and failed to roll the 4 they needed on 2 dice to get there, fatally exposing them out in the open.
In combat, my Saga of the Bear Lord crushed the Dread, and my models escaped.
Salamanders Turn 6:
He had to hold my characters where they were for a turn, or he wouldn't get the points he needed to win the whole tournament. So, he charged my WBL with Vulkan, and the Saga of the Bear Lord with his other Dread.
His shooting killed my last 2 Cav. units, pretty much making sure I couldn't contest his objective with them. My 2 lords could still win the day for me though. Or at least tie the day. It wasn't even that tall of an order.
I had 2 turns in which to kill my opponents, and consolidate just slightly to within contesting range. It was very very doable.
My first round of combat looked promising- the WBL put two wounds of Vulkan, for zero in return. Vulkan stayed in combat though. The Bear combat looked like the easiest one, but I whiffed entirely, and failed.
Wolves Turn 6:
I whiffed hard this turn. Vulkan lived, as did the Dreadnought. Useless.
In the end, I got 7 points, he got all 47, and went on to win the tournament. He was a great player though, and though I was sad to lose to him in the end, I was happy that he was the one to win it vs. someone I hadn't played or known.
I'm convinced that if I had been able to wreck his Land Raider either time I had a chance, I'd have won it all, but who really knows? In the end, I failed hard, and can pay the concequences.
Overall Results:
So, how did I end up doing in the standings, you ask? Well, I ended up with 6th overall, which is 1 better than I got last year (though last year, there were only 70 people, vs. 160 people this year). And, I was pleasantly surprised to discover while they were announcing awards, that I had won best Sportsmanship!
Sportsmanship at the con is sort of tough to get a perfect score- there are three categories: Bad, Good, or Great, with most games (especially high-level, high-intensity ones) being simply a 'Good'. I ended up getting the best score, or at least drawing with someone, and Battle Points were apparently the tiebreaker :)
Overall Tournament Thoughts:
I was happy with how I did, really. Disappointed with my play in the last round, no doubt, but the guy was a nice guy, and had traveled there from Austin. Plus, I get the distinction of being the only person in the tournament to have beat him :)
As for the tournament, there were some issues I had with it. I wasn't nearly as seamlessly run as last year. Last year they had a 7-minute difference between the schedule and what ended up happening. This year, they were off by over an hour each day.
There were no grab bags. There ended up being some grab bags, but by the time I found out about them, they were already out. I had to content myself with two black library books that I'll likely never read.
There weren't even name tags. I collect my Con nametags, and this was somewhat sad for me.
Last year, they gave us like 9 copies of our army list, so that we could give each opponent a copy. Awesome thought, I loved it last year, since I also collect opponent's army lists from Tournaments. But, they gave us a total of 2 this year, making me hope fervently that I wouldn't lose one.
That being said, the tournament was great. I liked the missions well enough, and 7 games in a tournament is really just superior to any other tournament. Much much better than 3 games for 100 people like at Adepticon.
I could just wish it was a little better run, thats all. I'm not sure I'll go next year, but I will say that I had a blast this year, and encourage others to go to the only 7-game GT I've heard of in the states.
Let me know what you think, I hope this wasn't so long you lost interest. Lord knows I nearly did- it took over 5 hours to write, lol.
In combat, my Wolfstar killed all of his Grey Hunters and the Vindicator, and consolidated toward his Predator and Longfangs.
I think this picture was taken right before our combat phase...
Also, this is the last picture for the game. Why? Not really sure, heh. Forgetful I guess.
I had really hoped my Grey Hunters would come in from reserve this turn, to help light up the Skyclaws threatening me, but it wasn't to happen. Instead, I had to position my Rune Priest to cast Murderous Hurricane on them. My Wolfstar moved close to his Predator and Longfangs, ready to assault. My WBL got ready to charge his 10-man Grey Hunter pack.
In shooting, I was unable to do a whole lot, though I did get Murderous Hurricane off on the Skyclaws.
In the assault phase, my WBL killed a bunch of Grey Hunters, who stuck around. My Wolfstar killed his Predator and Longfangs to a man, consolidating toward his running Bloodclaws (who would rally next turn).
Turn 4: His Wolves
He disembarked his troops from the razor close to my objective, and got ready to assault my forcibly disembarked Grey Hunters.
His Bloodclaws rallied, and charged my Wolfstar, going out in a blaze of glory. My WBL killed the remaining Grey Hunters, and consolidated toward the combats near my objective. At the bottom combat, he killed a lot of my Grey Hunters, who killed one or two of his combined 10 models who had charged. In fact, he killed them to a man.
Turn 4: My Wolves
The WBL got into charge position to get into the combat. My Grey Hunters finally came in from reserve, and double-tapped his Skyclaws, killing a couple. My Rune Priest's Grey Hunter squad got out, and surrounded his survivors.
In shooting, I killed his remaining Razorback, and his Drop Pod.
In assault, I killed his remaining models off the board. Victory for the real Wolves (who, it turns out, have red armor, apparently)!
I got the full 47 points for this game, and my opponent got 2 points.
Well, I needed a win like this to get me to one of the higher tables and it did- in fact, it got me onto Table 1, where a single player had been dominating every game there for 3 or 4 games in a row...
Game 6: Wolves vs. Salamanders!!
Here's his list:
Vulkan
Librarian w/ Null Zone and Avenger
10 Tactical Marines w/ Multi-melta, combi-melta, melta, fist, Rhino
10 Tactical Marines w/ Missile Launcher, flamer, combi-flamer, Razor (combat-squadded)
10 Tactical Marines w/ Missile Launcher, flamer, combi-flamer, Razor (combat-squadded)
Dreadnought w/ Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer
Dreadnought w/ Multi-melta, Heavy Flamer
5 TH/SS Terminators
3 Attack Bikes
Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher
Speeder w/ Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Raider Redeemer
So, lots of melta, lots of flamer, reasonable assault, and AV14. And on top of it all, he's just been murdering his opponents every game. Yikes!
The mission was a single objective in the center of the board. If you controlled the objective at the end of the opponent's turn, you got a point. Whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.
Secondary was to have mobile units in every board quarter, fewer points for only 3 quarters. Tertiary was based on kill points- you got a point per kill point you got, to a max of 9.
He won the roll to go first, and took it. I was sad, because there was a single good quarter for me, and the way this mission was set up, it would actually benefit me to go first. But he got it, and that was that. Here is the setup:
He doesn't like me, apparently.
Turn 1: Salamanders
He generally advanced, shooting at my rhinos, not really doing a whole lot to them. He also advanced his combat squad up to contol distance of the objective- if I didn't contest next turn, he'd get a point.
Also note that he drove one of his Razors to the right quarter, getting setup to claim the Secondary.
Turn 1: Wolves
I also advanced. Spearhead deployment meant that my Longfangs had almost zero LOS, so I moved two of the squads, and shot with the other at the Speeders, killing 1 of them. As you can see, one of my rhinos zoomed forward to contest the objective.
Turn 2: Salamanders
He shifted his army, and wrecked 2 of my rhinos. Not a lot of movement by him, except by the Dreadnoughts, who were able to charge the Grey Hunters who were contesting/holding the objective. In the ensuing combat, he killed a few, and my fist hurt him back with a Weapon Destroyed result. I held, happily.
Turn 2: Wolves
I shift around a bit, getting ready to charge the Dreadnoughts with the Wolfstar. My WBL breaks off, in anticipation of his Termies being primed for action. In a fit of stupidity, I move my Rune Priest rhino away from his Librarian, because I don't want it in the way of the Wolfstar charge. I should have moved it more to the left, supporting my disembarked Grey Hunters.
I'm able to get a view on his Attack Bikes with my leftmost longfangs, and kill one. They fail their leadership, but are unable to flee off the board. Sad :(
In combat, I'm unable to kill both Dreadnoughts, though he can't kill my guys either. My WBL charges his Tactical Squad off the objective out of boredom, waiting for the immanent attack from the Termies.
Turn 3: Salamanders
He moves his guys forward, disembarking his Librarian and squad next to my Longfangs for some Avenger/flamer action. He also moves his Raider up in order to charge my Grey Hunters who have been forcibly disembarked. Poor blighters!
His shooting fries my Longfangs pretty good, and he shakes my Rune Priest rhino, so it can't move.
In assault, his Termies are able to get into combat with my Grey Hunters, who kill a single Termie before being chewed up and spit out. My Wolfstar continues to struggle against the useless Dreads, but are still somehow unable to kill them both. They do finish one off, however, and the other one is down to zero arms, and immobilized.
This must be right before his shooting phase, as is evidenced by the fact that my longfangs aren't yet BBQed, lol.
Turn 3: Wolves
Well, I need to counter-assault the termies, and quick. My Rune Priest squad disembarked and scrambled over to where the Termies are, easily within 6". My WBL gets ready to charge as well.
Not much in the way of shooting this turn, and I charged in with the WBL, who threw out 6 attacks, re-rolling hits, and caused 6 wounds, to which all 4 remaining Termies go down. Bad dice for him, most likely, but I will say that my Grey Hunters could have finished the job easily enough before the Termies got to swing anyway. Vulkan put a couple wounds on my WBL, and passed his morale check. My Wolfstar finally got over their fear of Dreadnoughts, and were able to kill the last one. Just in time for his shooting phase, heh.
Turn 4: Salamanders
He re-embarked into the razor with his flamer squad, but left the Librarian in the forest alone, presumably to hold that quarter. He disembarked his melta squad to within holding distance of the objective, and then started shooting at my Wolfstar, after casing Null Zone.
I quickly realized that taking cover saves for being in area terrain was mathematically better than having to re-roll my 3++ invulnerable, so I started to so. He didn't have enough to do any huge damage to me, but he did down a few of them. Price you pay for being a high-profile target, I guess!
In assault, my Grey Hunters were able to inflict 2 wounds on Vulkan, and he was able to kill my WBL, but both sides stayed locked in. On the bottom left, his combat squad had crept up slowly and assaulted my Rune Priest rhino, but failed to hit the vehicle.
Turn 4: Wolves
It was time for me to make some sort of move. His Raider was still alive, but hadn't moved last turn. His 10-man Tactical Squad was sitting on the objective, however, and I couldn't leave it un-contested. That's what a stray rhino is there for though, right? Wrong, as I quickly found out, immobilizing the rhino too far away from the objective.
With nothing else to contest it, I decided to charge the Wolfstar at the tacticals, hoping that my Grey Hunters would win combat, and be able to control the objective next turn.
In shooting, I was able to down his Librarian. Hoo-ray for insta-death!
Combat saw me chew right through his Tacticals, and get back on the hill. Also, Vulkan was kind enough to finally keel over and die for me, so that I was able to get onto the objective with my Grey Hunters. On the bottom left, my Rune Priest had joined a unit of Longfangs, and assaulted the Tacticals, winning the combat, but sticking in the combat.
Turn 5: Salamanders
His redeemer cannons came into play then, and killed almost all of my Grey Hunters. Not a whole lot you can do against that, and he was able to wipe out my entire Grey Hunter squad with shooting that turn. So, I needed to table him if I wanted to get full points for the mission. He prepped his Bikes to turbo-boost into the bottom right corner if needed.
My Rune Priest was able to kill off his tactical squad in combat, after sustaining heavy casualties.
Not a whole lot left for either side, really.
Turn 5: Wolves
I prepped my Saga of the Bear Lord to charge the Razor in the back hiding scoring troops. My remaining Wolfstar prepped to charge the Raider that hadn't moved.
In shooting, I gunned down the razorback on the far right. He would need the attack bikes after all.
Assault saw me charge the Land Raider, and immobilize/shake/weapon destroy it. I was also able to destroy his Razor on the far left, though the guys got out just fine.
Turn 6: Salamanders
He moved his combat squads up, the flamer squad on the left toward my Wolfstar, and the one on the right onto the objective. His Attack Bikes turbo-boosted into the bottom right to get the secondary.
Shooting didn't accomplish much, and he assaulted the Wolfstar with his combat squad. He lost, and I was unable to run them down, so they fled.
Turn 6: Wolves
I moved only the models I needed to- there was one unit too many of his for me to be able to table him- the Raider was still alive, as was his Speeder. So, I went for the objectives, while trying to deny him points. I killed his attack bikes with missile fire, and killed his combat squad on the objective with my Wolfstar, ensuring that I'd have a mobile unit in each quarter, while he had none.
Results: 27-14, in my favor.
Ben was a great opponent. He was on top of the rules as well as anyone I'd met, and knew my army as well as I did lots of times. We had a very close match, and I was glad I could play him- I was also happy that I had beat him, though they did tell us we might end up playing a rematch because he had so many battle points. I wasn't about to sweat it though- I was mostly just grateful I didn't have to play against guard, if it came down to a rematch.
Game 7: Wolves vs. Salamanders! Grudge match anyone?
Well, I got paired with Ben again, only this time on table 2. I'm sorry to say I didn't take any pictures of the last game, since I decided I needed to focus for it. This was the big one, where if I won by enough, I would win the entire tournament. I was actually poised to win the whole thing!
The mission was a denial one. Capture and contol for the main objective, and victory points for the secondary. Tertiary was to get more kill points than your opponent.
I have to say I was fairly confident going in- I'd already beat him last game, and now I knew what his army was capable of. Right? Right.
Turn 1: Salamanders
He won the roll off for sides, and took first turn. That made it 7/7 games that I went last in this tournament. Heh, just an interesting side note.
We both put our objectives straight across from eachother. It was like we were only going to use half of the board, if that. I figured that favored me, since I'm better up close, in theory.
He didn't deploy anything really, since it was Dawn of War, and I also didn't deploy anything.
He moved onto the board, and got ready to jump at my objective. Vulkan rode in one of the Razors this time.
Turn 1: Wolves
I moved on, and popped smoke on all 3 vehicles. The Wolfstar was slightly offset from the middle objectives, directly across from his Raider. No shooting, it was his turn.
Turn 2: Salamanders
He moved forward slightly, and shot at my rhinos a lot. Smoke blocked most of his shooting, and what did get through didn't matter. His very last shot was able to destroy my rightmost Grey Hunter rhino, however. I didn't see that as a problem, though. Not yet.
Turn 2: Wolves
This was my turn of fail. I moved everything forward up as fast as possible. I think I got overconfident that he couldn't pop my tanks, or something. Plus, I had a plan: I could pop his Raider this turn. So, my Rune Priest rhino surged ahead 12", turned around, and disembarked everyone except for the Priest. They were within 6", and I had 2 melta shots.
So I rolled, and got a single hit. And for pen... I rolled a 5. Not enough to even glance it. Ut oh, this could be bad....
My other shooting failed me big time this turn as well. Big time... it just sucked. Really really bad. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach- he could really hurt me next turn, if he saw his potential.
Turn 3: Salamanders
He saw it. His guys got ready to toast my Grey Hunters on the left, with the assumption that he could pop my rhino. His Redeemer cannons got ready to fry my disembarked Rune Priest Grey Hunters, and termies disembarked to kill the other already foot-slogging Grey Hunters.
Everything went together nicely for him, and at the end of the phase, I had 5 Grey Hunters fleeing from the termies, and zero others left alive. Very good turn for him, he took full advantange of my misstep.
Turn 3: Wolves
Well, my Wolfstar can still save me, right? I broke off my WBL, in preparation for charging his Librarian squad who had just fried my Grey Hunters on the left. The rest of the Wolfstar prepared to defend my Grey Hunters, who would flee off the board next turn if the Termies stayed within 6". My runepriest's rhino had been destroyed out from under him in the previous turn, so he moved over to join a Longfang squad. They prepared to charge the 10-man tactical squad currently on my objective.
My shooting again did terribly- it did so poorly the rest of the game, I won't mention it again.
In assault, the Wolfstar charged both the Raider and the Termies. I managed 3 hits against the Raider with my Saga of the Bear Lord, and 1 pen. If I could get a 4+ to immobilize the raider or destroy it, the game could seriously still be winnable. But, I rolled a 1, and failed to do anything of note to it. My fate was sealed. My other guys managed to kill off a couple Termies, at least.
My WBL charged his Librarian squad, and since I didn't want him to break the unit, I just focused all my attacks on the Librarian himself- killing him many times over. No wounds back, and the Tactical held. The Rune Priest w/ Longfangs charged into the Tacticals and failed to do much, but held their ground. I made sure the Longfangs charged his Fist model, so that he couldn't insta-death the Priest.
Salamanders Turn 4:
He got a Dreadnought he had been holding back, and prepped it to charge my WBL. He also moved two Razors over to the right to block my Wolfstar if it ended up winning. A vet move, since I couldn't get through them. It would keep them out of the game for one vital turn.
In assault, I lost the longfang/tactical fight, but held again. Lol, what a silly combat, honestly. The termies did what they needed to, and died. The dread failed to kill my WBL, and the WBL in turn killed all 5 tacticals in the combat.
Wolves Turn 4:
My Wolfstar, as previously stated, were stuck. He had left his raider behind them, as if to tempt me into charging it. I didn't take the bait, though, and instead charged the Razors. I whiffed against one, but I was able to destroy the other. No wall would stop me next turn.
My WBL managed to hold off the Dread one more round of combat, but the same can't be said for my Rune Priest/Longfangs, and they finally bit the dust.
Salamanders Turn 5:
He shot a bunch this turn, most of it ineffectually at my Wolfstar. No combats he wanted to join, so I gladly took next turn.
Wolves Turn 5:
At this point, I was still hoping I could get a draw on Primary, and still claim Secondary and Tertiary for a win, that might help me place in the tournament, if not in first. It was within my grasp! Or at least, I had to tell myself this to get through the game.
My Wolfstar fragmented again, this time the Saga of the Bear Lord assaulting his Dread fighting my WBL. The other part of the Wolfstar attempted a double-charge onto his objective, and failed to roll the 4 they needed on 2 dice to get there, fatally exposing them out in the open.
In combat, my Saga of the Bear Lord crushed the Dread, and my models escaped.
Salamanders Turn 6:
He had to hold my characters where they were for a turn, or he wouldn't get the points he needed to win the whole tournament. So, he charged my WBL with Vulkan, and the Saga of the Bear Lord with his other Dread.
His shooting killed my last 2 Cav. units, pretty much making sure I couldn't contest his objective with them. My 2 lords could still win the day for me though. Or at least tie the day. It wasn't even that tall of an order.
I had 2 turns in which to kill my opponents, and consolidate just slightly to within contesting range. It was very very doable.
My first round of combat looked promising- the WBL put two wounds of Vulkan, for zero in return. Vulkan stayed in combat though. The Bear combat looked like the easiest one, but I whiffed entirely, and failed.
Wolves Turn 6:
I whiffed hard this turn. Vulkan lived, as did the Dreadnought. Useless.
In the end, I got 7 points, he got all 47, and went on to win the tournament. He was a great player though, and though I was sad to lose to him in the end, I was happy that he was the one to win it vs. someone I hadn't played or known.
I'm convinced that if I had been able to wreck his Land Raider either time I had a chance, I'd have won it all, but who really knows? In the end, I failed hard, and can pay the concequences.
Overall Results:
So, how did I end up doing in the standings, you ask? Well, I ended up with 6th overall, which is 1 better than I got last year (though last year, there were only 70 people, vs. 160 people this year). And, I was pleasantly surprised to discover while they were announcing awards, that I had won best Sportsmanship!
Sportsmanship at the con is sort of tough to get a perfect score- there are three categories: Bad, Good, or Great, with most games (especially high-level, high-intensity ones) being simply a 'Good'. I ended up getting the best score, or at least drawing with someone, and Battle Points were apparently the tiebreaker :)
My Plaque!
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| My Loot! |
I was happy with how I did, really. Disappointed with my play in the last round, no doubt, but the guy was a nice guy, and had traveled there from Austin. Plus, I get the distinction of being the only person in the tournament to have beat him :)
As for the tournament, there were some issues I had with it. I wasn't nearly as seamlessly run as last year. Last year they had a 7-minute difference between the schedule and what ended up happening. This year, they were off by over an hour each day.
There were no grab bags. There ended up being some grab bags, but by the time I found out about them, they were already out. I had to content myself with two black library books that I'll likely never read.
There weren't even name tags. I collect my Con nametags, and this was somewhat sad for me.
Last year, they gave us like 9 copies of our army list, so that we could give each opponent a copy. Awesome thought, I loved it last year, since I also collect opponent's army lists from Tournaments. But, they gave us a total of 2 this year, making me hope fervently that I wouldn't lose one.
That being said, the tournament was great. I liked the missions well enough, and 7 games in a tournament is really just superior to any other tournament. Much much better than 3 games for 100 people like at Adepticon.
I could just wish it was a little better run, thats all. I'm not sure I'll go next year, but I will say that I had a blast this year, and encourage others to go to the only 7-game GT I've heard of in the states.
Let me know what you think, I hope this wasn't so long you lost interest. Lord knows I nearly did- it took over 5 hours to write, lol.
9 comments:
Hey man, Ben Mohlie here, great games in round 6 and 7, I hope we get to play again sometime!
Hey, I noticed something. In your game against Chris, you used Jaws a couple times to take out stuff. Jaws isn't one of the powers listed on your Rune Priest in your army list (Living Lightning and Murderous Hurricane are). I'm assuming this is an honest mistake, though I don't know if it's in the army list or in your play.
Kris: yeah, it's an honest mistake. I've always intended to take Jaws, not sure why I put Living Lightning there since I'm not actually a big fan of it.
Thanks for the heads up, I'll change it :)
Adam,
Glad you had a good time. We skipped nametags this year because last year we remade an average of over one per player, and it seemed like a total waste if people were just going to lose them - the tournament doesn't need you to have badges and people were tossing them, why make them? Next year we've got a plan for really sweet badges that people will keep up with (we think), so you'll get a good one then.
The swag bags were 100% my fault; I made a bad decision to delay putting them together until the promised bags arrived from GW (which did not happen, ever). Next year I won't make the same mistake.
Glad you had a good time, and we'll see you at Adepticon and next year for more WAR.
Ben: Hey man, glad you found your way out here to read it, I really enjoyed our games- I say we play again sometime and call it best of 3 :)
No prob, I figured as much. Also, was really hoping to get a game in against your Circle in the Warmachine with my Menoth, but no such luck. Next time!
Very well done Adam !
G
Hey brother John Brock here. I told you I would check this site out and you did a great writeup. I look foward playing you next year and putting an end to those cursed Thunderwolf Calvary!! Great job!!
Jwolf: Heh, awesome, I look forward to getting a sweet nametag. Hopefully it'll make up for the one my collection is missing from this year :)
Kris: Menoth scare me, the only time I played against them was a somewhat miserable game that took like 4 or 5 hours. I only remember that whatever those heavy infantry guys are called, they take forever to die!
John: Dude, I'm glad you came to my blog! And I'll for sure give you a chance to smush my Thunderwolves if I'm still playing them next year- I'm hoping Dark Eldar will be out by then and stand at least a small chance against guard :P
BBF: Uh... thanks man. Not that I expected that from you, but I appreciate it nonetheless :)
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