Tacticon Tournament Report

This weekend was Tacticon, one of the semi-annual 'big' events in the area.  There are usually anywhere from 40-60 players in the 40k, and somewhere in the 30 to 40 range in the Fantasy the next day.  Since I hadn't painted my Fantasy in time, I decided to make it a day trip down to the con for 40k.  I took a bunch of pictures too, feel free to click on them to make them bigger.

This is my army picture from BoLSCON, so it's slimmed down for the 1850 tournament.

Here's the list I brought (1850 points of Space Wolves):

Wolf Lord w/ Saga of the Bear, Thunder Hammer, Wolftooth Necklace, Wolftail Talisman, Runic Armor, Thunderwolf Mount, Storm Shield
Wolf Lord w/ Saga of the Warrior Born, Wolf Claw, Wolftail Talisman, Runic Armor, Thunderwolf Mount, Storm Shield
Rune Priest w/ Murderous Hurricane, Jaws of the World Wolf (he went with the small Grey Hunters squad)

8 Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino
8 Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino
6 Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino

3 Wolf Guard w/ 3x Combi Melta, 3x Power Fist (These went into the Grey Hunter squads every game)

4 Thunderwolf Cavalry w/ Storm Shield x2, Thunder Hammer (one SS was on the TH model)

5 Longfangs w/ 4 Missile Launchers
5 Longfangs w/ 4 Missile Launchers
4 Longfangs w/ 3 Missile Launchers

Think that's it.  Please keep in mind that the picture you saw above is my 2000 point list at BoLSCON, not the list I brought to Tacticon.  You'll note that I took out 4 Longfangs, and 4 Grey Hunters.  That's about it, for 150 points, lol.

When I got there, I quickly discovered there was going to be a large field, but not as big as Genghis was earlier this year.  Somewhere in the 40's, I guessed (I later found out there were 44 players total).  My goal was to win (as should be everyone's goal, lol), but I knew it would be tough, with a lot of great players in the tournament.  To win an event this size with only 3 games means you have to nearly max out every game you play, and get good soft scores.

Game 1:  Space Wolves vs. Chad Bise's Tau

His list:

Shas'el w/ 2 Shield Drones, lots of upgrades including the Airbursting Frag Projector and Missile Pod
2 Bodyguards w/ Plasma Rifles and Missile Pods

3 Crisis Suits w/ Plasma Rifles, Missile Pods, 2 Shield Drones
3 Stealth Suits w/ 2 Gun Drones
3 Stealth Suits w/ 2 Gun Drones

8 Fire Warriors w/ Devilfish
8 Fire Warriors w/ Devilfish
6 Fire Warriors

Hammerhead w/ Ion Cannon
Hammerhead w/ Rail Gun

Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster
Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster
Piranha w/ Burst Cannon

I was a little worried about this game, since my Wolves have never really faced Tau before.  I was very relieved though, to see a relative lack of Railguns, and not nearly as much S7 as you can see in a lot of Tau armies.  Also, without a Kroot screen, it was going to be far easier to get to his tanks and such with my charging.  Still, I needed to be careful.  Lots and lots of pinning weapons to be found, as I was to discover shortly.

The mission:

Kill Points for 34 battle points
Kill your opponent's selected squad for 10 battle points (he selected his Commander's squad, I selected my Saga of the Bear Lord)
Various other +2 battle point modifiers, for an extra 10 points total
Spearhead, woo!

He won the roll to go first.  Dangit!  We deployed like so:

He put his suits and his 6 firewarriors in reserve, but this picture is before the stealth suits have been deployed.  I left one unit of Grey Hunters in reserve in their rhino.

You can see that I wanted to get to him as fast as possible.  My gameplan was real simple:  Get up in his grill and pressure him.  I was hoping he'd keep the Piranhas close to me, letting my Thunderwolves leapfrog from them into the rest of his army.

The time came to seize the initiative and:

Hooray for me!  I hadn't stolen the initiative for like 3 months or something stupid.  Huge huge roll.

Turn 1:  Wolves

I advanced, and shot at his Piranhas.  I didn't really do as much damage as I wanted to, only killing one and immobilizing another.  My left Grey Hunters moved out in their rhinos and up, rapid-firing at the Stealth Suits nearby.  They killed the two drones, as well as the leader.  Suits passed their leadership.  Thunderwolves rolled a 5 for fleet, but failed to charge anything.

Turn 1:  Tau

He moved his stuff around, and shot mostly at my Thunderwolves.  He caused a few wounds, but nothing too serious.  The stealth suits on the left shot at my rhino squad, maybe killing one?  I don't really remember.  Here's a picture of the board after Turn 1:

The white thing on the ground next to the Piranhas is a piranha-shaped crater.  Good idea by him :)

Kill Point Count:
Wolves: 1
Tau: 0

Turn 2:  Space Wolves

The reserve unit of Grey Hunters came on, and I decided to come out behind the Stealth suits in the back and rapid-fire them.  They ended up killing the two drones and zero of the actual suits, who pass leadership.  The Grey Hunters on the left moved up and double-tapped his other Stealth suits into oblivion.  The Longfangs all manage to barely kill a single Piranha, failing pretty hard. 

The middle Grey Hunters (with the Rune Priest) decide to try something tricky.  They move up in the rhino, and disembark next to his devilfish on the left.  The meltas shoot its side and it explodes, and the Rune Priest does Jaws of the World Wolf, reaching out and touching his I3 Commander.  He rolled a 2 though, and the commander lived.  Alas!

In combat, I dual-charge his immobilized Piranha and Firewarriors on the hill.  They both go down easily, and I consolidate onto the hill.

Those poor Thunderwolves don't know it now, but that's the hill of death they're standing on.

Turn 2:  Tau

Neither of his reserves come in.  So, he moves almost nothing, and starts shooting at me.  His last gun drone shoots at the wolves, and...

The wolves roll an 11 for leadership, pinning them!  Awesome!

Not much other damage is done to me, and we move on to turn 3. 

See... not in much of a position to do much next turn.

Kill Point Count:
Wolves: 6
Tau: 0

Wolves Turn 3:
 
Well, my big 800 point unit was pinned, but I needed to do something right?  I pretty much failed this turn.  Not sure what I was thinking.  I put my bottom grey hunters into their rhino, and tried to tank-shock his stealth suits 8".  They passed leadership and gladly moved slightly out of the way.  The grey hunters on the left moved into their rhino, and went 12" toward the fight.  They didn't do anything the rest of the game so I won't mention them again.
 
Rune Priests' squad got back into their rhino, and only moved 6", but I for some reason didn't realize that they were outside of 24" and couldn't use Jaws on his Commander like I wanted to.  Whoops.
 
The Long Fangs also failed, one squad failing to see his Stealth suits because of their cool night fight wargear I forgot about.  The next squad tried to shoot at his devilfish, maybe I shook it?  I don't really remember.  The last squad finally did something though, and krakked his gun drones on the top of the board for a kill point.  Yay :)
 

Yep, pretty blatant failing by myself.  Get ready for a turn of pain!

 
Turn 3:  Tau
 
He shot everything into the Thunderwolves, and they all died except for the two lords who each had a wound on them.  Also, his reserves came in, and the Crisis Suits landed in my backfield, shooting and killing my poor rhino.  Happily, the Lords passed their leadership, so at least they could do something next turn.
 

Hopefully I can get the job done next turn!

 
Kill Point Count:
Wolves: 7
Tau: 2
 
Turn 4:  Wolves
 
I moved everyone up, and the Grey Hunters with the Rune Priest moved up to try for a good rapid-fire/Jaws shot on the Fire Warriors on the top of the screen, screening my Wolf Lords from charging his Commander's unit.  The Lords split, one deciding to fight the commander's unit, and the other to kill his Ion Cannon tank.  I'm not sure why I decided to send my hammer into the commander's unit instead of my Claw, since they would have both been much better at the other's roles, but that's what I did.
 
Shooting didn't do much for me, killing his Fire Warriors in the back, and the Rune Priest dying to perils.  That caused a leadership check on the squad, and they failed, and ran, lol. 
 

In combat, my Bear Lord crushed his suit unit, and the Warrior Lord stunned his Ion Cannon Tank.  My Grey Hunters on the right charged his Fire Warriors and killed them all.  Good productive turn for the Wolves :) 

 

Turn 4:  Tau
 
He decided to try to kill my Bear Lord, since he'd get his extra 10 bonus points if he did.  The Lord had good armor though, and though he was brought down to a single wound, he didn't die.  He was able to kill my Grey Hunters on the right enough that they failed their leadership check and fled, never to regroup again.
 
In combat, my Warrior Born Lord whiffed on his ion cannon tank.
 
Kill Point Count:
Wolves:  10
Tau:  4
 
Turn 5:  Wolves
 
I moved my Saga of the Bear lord up and charged his Ion Cannon Tank, killing it.  My other Wolf Lord moved up and charged his Stealth Suits in the middle, killing them.
 
Turn 5:  Tau
 
He finished off my fleeing Grey Hunters, and tried to kill my Bear Lord, but can't.  He gets a drone into the center of the table for a +2 bonus, and we call it.

Look at the little drones in the middle.  Dangit!

 
Results:  52-12 win for the Wolves!  The max score is 54, so I'm happily still in the running for first :)
 
Chad was a lot of fun to play against.  We had a few rules discussions, which were handled amicably, and I had fun.  His army was also really well painted.  I was lucky that I ended up winning, after that catastrophic fail on my leadership with my big unit.  It makes me wonder if I should be taking a Majesty Wolf Lord instead of Warrior Born....
 
Game 2:  Wolves vs. Calvin's Battlewagon Orks!
 
His List (from memory, since he didn't have an extra copy for me):
 
Ghaz
KFF Big Mekk
 
20 Slugga Boyz w/ PK Nob
19 Shoota Boyz w/ PK Nob
18 Slugga Boyz w/ PK Nob (Ghaz goes with these, inside a Wagon)
20? Gretchin
 
3 Rokkit Buggies
3 Rokkit Buggies
1 Deff Dread
 
Battle Wagon w/ upgrades
Battle Wagon w/ upgrades
Battle Wagon w/ upgrades
 
10 Lootas
10 Lootas
 
Well, this is the type of list I hate to play against.  Lots of AV14 is tough to pop, and extremely risky when I drive up and try to pop it with melta, since he gets a cover save.  He has good shooting as well, with 6 Rokkits and 20 Lootas, it's going to be tough to keep my Rhinos alive.
 
The Mission:
 
Capture and Control for 34 points
+10 Battle Points to kill their highest point model
Other random +2 modifiers for a possible of another +10
Pitched Battle.
 
He won the roll to go first, and took it, placing his objective up on the top right corner of the table.  I placed mine directly opposite of it on the same side.  You'll see a picture of deployments soon.  He kept his grots alone in reserve.
 
I decided I didn't want to seize the Initiative, because a diaboloical scheme was forming in my mind, but I needed him closer for it to work...
 
Ork Turn 1:
 
He drove up, and shot a few shots at me, killing a couple Long Fangs from various squads, as well as the Grey Hunter Rhino on the left.  They passed their pinning check, and it was my turn!
 
 

The Board after his turn 1.  Note that since he deployed first, he spread his stuff out.  I went refused flank on him, and denied him the ability to put his full weight into me on Waaagh turn.  Also note that both objectives are on the far right side, on hills.  Ghaz's wagon is the one closest to me.

 
Wolves Turn 1:
 
I shuffled some guys around, and generally moved my wolves forward.  On the right, my Grey Hunters zoomed toward his objective, popping smoke.  The Thunderwolves moved over to the right, except for my Bear Lord, who moved up to challenge him.
 
Here's the thing:  I knew that Ghaz would wipe my wolf squad out pretty easy if he got into me with a bunch of boyz.  I needed to kill his Wagon if I could, and stop him if at all possible.  Since Ghaz can't insta-death my Lord, I figured I'd charge his fast Wagon, try to pop it or immobilize it, and if that failed, he couldn't move forward, because I'd get a death or glory (which I would take, since I'd be auto-penning him).  It would buy me a turn at least.  That to me was worth my Bear Lord.
 
Shooting did some damage, killing 5 Lootas on his objective hill, and causing them to flee off the table.  I also penned 5 times against his buggies, but they got cover saves, and made them all.  Dangit! 
 
In combat, my lone lord ran up and hit Ghaz's wagon twice, auto-penned it, and wrecked it!  Whew!
 
 

Sorry for the weird angle.  It didn't seem as awkward as this when I was taking them for some reason.  My forcibly- disembarked Grey Hunters are behind the rightmost ruins, within charge range of Ghaz's squad but no other squad.

Orks Turn 2:
 
He decided to split Ghaz's squad up, having Ghaz go take on my Bear Lord, and the squad of Boyz to try to take out my Grey Hunters behind the ruin.  The other battle wagons moved directly forward, one of them only 7" so he could shoot at my Longfangs in the ruins with the Shoota Boyz in the middle wagon.
 
His shooting doesn't do a whole lot, killing a couple Long Fangs, and maybe putting a wound on my Thunderwolf Cavalry.  I don't really remember, it wasn't as much as it could have done though, I got somewhat lucky in that.
 
Time for combat.  He charged my Grey Hunters with the Boyz, and the Hunters popped their Wolf Banner, and killed the Orks completely off, for about 2 or 3 casualties.  Not a bad result :)  Ghaz also roared in on my Bear Lord, who caused 4 wounds to Ghaz.  He was forced to call the Waaagh! and saved all 4 wounds.  Ghaz put one wound on my Lord, but he stayed where he was.
 

Notice that the Boyz have evaporated, and the Lord is fighting a Ghaz that nobody can really see in this picture. Also, notice the extremely sad Deff Dread trying to get into combat, but going extremely slow.

 
Wolf Turn 2:
 
Well, this was the turn to try to pop his wagons.  I moved my depleted-by-combat Grey Hunters up next to his Mekk's Wagon, and got ready to shoot.  The Long Fangs had side shots of his Wagons, and prepped for it.  The Grey Hunters on the right continued to zoom toward the objective- they would be there next turn.  I saved the Thunderwolf Cavalry for later, hoping that if I could get rid of the wagons this turn, I'd be able to assault their juicy innards!
 
In shooting, it went well.  I was able to pop both wagons, though neither exploded.  My Grey Hunters decided to charge into his Shoota Boyz mob, and died a sad and inglorious death to their nob, after having killed like 4 of them.  They consolidated toward my lines, getting ready to shoot at... something.
 
In the Lord vs. Ghaz combat, they both caused a single wound to eachother, staying in combat.
 
 

 
Ork Turn 3:
 
He moved up with the shoota boyz, and shot at.... my Long Fangs on the hill?  He later explained that if he shot at my Wolves, he wouldn't have much of a chance of hurting them, which made a certain kind of sense.  His shooting killed a couple guys, nothing too crazy. 
 
The Slugga Boyz I had forcibly disembarked on the left trudged forward and killed my lone Longfang in the ruins, who had failed a leadership test beforehand.  The Longfang valiantly killed an ork before succumbing to the Green Tide.  Lord Vs. Ghaz ended spectacularly, with my Lord causing 4 wounds to Ghaz and killing him, and losing his last wound in return.  Epic fight, loved it :)
 
 

Heh, those shoota boyz are bracing themselves for the Thunderwolves' charge

Also note he moved his squad of 2 warbuggies (one had been wrecked earlier) onto his objective hill to block my Grey Hunters there.

 
Wolves Turn 3:
 
My Grey Hunters on the right got out, and shot at (and killed) one warbuggy, preparing to assualt it.  My Thunderwolves went in and... wiped out the shoota boyz w/ Mekk, though you can't see it in this picture.  The Long Fangs... didn't have a good target, so they killed the Deff Dread. 
 
The Grey Hunters got the charge on the remaining Buggy, and destroyed it, holding both objectives for a minute.  Little did they know that 20 Gretchin are about to come out from behind the hill and try to rock their world...
 

Yep... sorry for the weird angle again, I'm still new to this picture-taking thing.  At this point, he's down to 3 Warbuggies, 20 Slugga Boyz, 10 Lootas, and 20 Gretchin.

 
Ork Turn 4:
 
He did what he could:  had the getchin shoot my Grey Hunters, who lost like 3 guys!  Jeeze... didn't really see that coming.  His Slugga Boyz on the left charged my next Long Fang squad, who also ate it quickly.  He consolidated toward my objective.
 
Wolves Turn 4:
 
I moved up and assaulted everything, not bothering to shoot.  I killed all 20 Gretchin, and all 20 Shoota Boyz. 
 

Orks neva lose- if they die fightin', it don't count.  Heh, I really do love orks :)

 
Ork Turn 5:
 
He moved his Rokkit Buggies up and shot at my Grey Hunters on his objective, but didn't do much.
Wolves Turn 5:
 
I just moved my Rune Priest Grey Hunters back onto their objective, and we decided to call it.  No need to table him, since I have almost full points.
 
Results:  52-22 point win for the Wolves!
At this point, I'm 104/108 possible battle points.  For sure still in the running for first :)
 
Thoughts:  Calvin was a pretty cool guy.  He had simply murdered his previous opponent, but he told me himself he was a little surprised he had done that well, since he hadn't played in a while.  He took his loss well though, and we both left the game smiling.  Now, who would I match up against in the next round?  That was the question...
 
Game 3:  Wolves vs. Justin's Salamanders
 
His list:
 
Vulkan
 
10x Tactical Marines w/ Multimelta, Power Fist, Flamer, Rhino
10x Tactical Marines w/ Multimelta, Power Fist, Flamer, Rhino
 
5x Assault Terminators w/ Land Raider Crusader w/ Multi-Melta
Dreadnought w/ TLLC, Missile Launcher
Dreadnought w/ TLLC, Missile Launcher
 
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF
Land Speeder w/ MM, HF
 
Vindicator
Vindicator
 
Immediately when I saw his list, I had flashbacks from my games against Ben Mohile's Salamanders at BoLSCON.  For those of you who haven't read my reports, we played two games in a row, with a win for me in the first, and for the 'championship' game, a win for him, which sent me down to 6th overall.  You can read all about that battle report here.
 
When I saw that he didn't have a Librarian w/ Nullzone however, I was a little happier.  Nullzone + TH/SS Termies are extremely hurtful to my army.  Still, those Vindicators could potentially mess me up pretty good, if I got some unlucky dice rolls.  I'd need to neutralize them as soon as possible.
 
The Mission:
 
34 Points for Multiple Objectives (6 total)
+10 Bonus Points for killing a single HQ of your opponents
+10 Various other bonuses in the form of +2 each.
Dawn of War Deployment
 
We rolled to see who would go first, and I won it!  I promptly gave it to Justin, since I wanted the final say in contesting/controlling the objectives.
 
He opted not to deploy anything, and I did the same.  I was toying with the idea of putting a Grey Hunter squad up 24" with the Rune Priest, just to blitz his lines, but decided against it, since his MM speeders would be on and be able to pop it pretty quick before I could even pop smoke.  Better to have support in a game like this.
 
Salamanders Turn 1:
 
He rolled onto the board.  He kept the Termies w/ Vulkan in the Raider in reserve, and a Vindicator, as well as both tactical squads.  Everything else came onto the board, in a scattered sort of deployment.  You'll see a picture of both of our 'rollings on' here pretty quick, don't you worry.
 
Wolves Turn 1:
 
I wanted my Long Fangs in cover, and was able to run them into great board positions.  The TWC I decided to walk on to the left, to avoid his single Vindicator on the right.  I would have to deal with it sooner or later, but for now I would be fine.  I also decided that if I could leapfrog them from a speeder to his Dread on the left, I'd be in good position to mess with his lines. 
 
The thing is, with my threat radius with the wolves being what it is, just getting the wolves into the center was exactly the goal I had in mind.  From there, I could strike at whoever threatened the objectives, almost board-wide.
 
  Anyways, I left a Grey Hunter squad in reserve, which turned out not to matter.  The two rhinos popped smoke, which is about the only reason I actually like Dawn of War.  Here's a picture of the board after we had both moved onto the field:
 

Notice the spread out way he was forced to deploy in order to deal with an army where he didn't know where they were coming in.

 
Salamanders Turn 2:
 
His Vindicator came on and popped smoke.  Also, one rhino with the Tac squad in it also moved on but I think he forgot to pop smoke.  He moved his two speeders on my left up to within 12" melta range of my rhinos, and shuffled his dreads a little.  He left his speeder on the far right hidden, and the Vindicator actually popped smoke. 
 
Shooting commenced, and when the smoke cleared, my rhinos remained unscathed, having rolled about 4 or 5 cover saves with smoke.  Excellent :)
 
Wolves Turn 2:
 
I decided this turn I needed to kill those speeders, and hopefully shut up the dreads.  However, I needed my TWC in the middle of the field, so I specifically spared his leftmost speeder so they could charge it.  My Grey Hunter squad came in, and popped smoke.  Woo...
 
Shooting worked alright, I killed his middle speeder, and shook his right dread.  It would have been nice to do more, but I kinda failed, and that's just how it goes.
 
In assault, the TWC more than killed his speeder, though it didn't explode, lol.
 

If you notice the way I positioned my lead Grey Hunter rhino so as to bait his Vindicator to move closer and either shoot at it (wasting a shot at the TWC, and giving me a smoke save) or shoot at the edge of the bunched up TWC (only hitting a couple) and be melta'ed next turn.

Salamanders Turn 3:
 
His Land Raider came on the board, so that his only reserve left was his remaining Tactical Squad.  The Raider came on the same side of the TWC, and moved up 12", next to his red dreadnought.  His Vindicator decided to take the bait and shoot at my TWC, and moved up 6" in order to see them.  His remaining speeder turbo-boosted up towards me.
 
In shooting, his lone melta from the Land Raider failed to hurt the TWC, as did the TLLC/ML on the dread.  No assault, and it was my turn.
 
Wolves Turn 3:
 
Gotta do something about the Vindicators this turn.  I surged my Grey Hunter Rhinos forward, toward his Vindicaors.  The lead rhino turned around and disembarked the Grey Hunters to within 6" of his Vindicator.  This put them in a precarious position of course, since the other Vindicator was sitting right there, in open view of the Hunters.  I figured I had enough Missiles that I could at least shut it up for a turn, though.  All it takes is one glancing hit...
 
In shooting, the Grey Hunters actually did something with themsleves, and slagged the Vindicator.  Then the Missile Launchers all got together to not only kill the other Vindicator, they also killed the Turbo-boosting speeder.  Awesome round of shooting for sure :)
 
In combat, I charged his Dread, as well as his Raider.  I only put a single wolf into the dread, hoping it would tie me into combat so that he wouldn't be able to shoot me next turn with all his stuff.  I was able to hit the Raider once or twice, and in the end I only shook it.  Still, it could only fire one weapon next turn.  My single rending thunderwolf ended up killing the Dread though.  Happily, he didn't have a lot of shooting left. 
 
 

I think the dice on the Vindicator is signifying that it's dead.  /shrug

 
Salamanders Turn 4:
 
He did what he had to- got Vulkan and the Termies out, and charged in.  His last Tac squad came in, and got ready to flamer some of that Grey Hunter squad that had just melta'd his Vindicator.
 
In shooting, he ended up killing enough of the Grey Hunters that they failed their leadership (predictably by now, lol).  Then came the combat that would make or break the game.
 
He charged in, and ended up causing me a total of 4 wounds, after a huge number of Invulnerable saves I had to take on that squad.  I killed 4 termies, so we drew.  But now the momentum was on my side- only one termie left alive, and I still had my 2 hammers, one of which had 5 attacks next round, and always hits on 3+.
 
Wolves Turn 4:
 
Well, the guys on his hill needed to die.  He still had a couple of tactical squads running around, though hopefully my Thunderwolves would be able to take out the other squad.  My grey hunters regrouped, and doubled back, ready to rapidfire his squad.  The other two squads zoomed forward and disembarked as well, surrounding the little hobbit hole his Tac marines were making a stand on.  It actually looked kinda epic :)
 
Shooting went alright, killing about 6 of his marines.  My missile launchers also did something good, which was to kill his leftmost Tactical squad's rhino.  Now they were out in the open, ready to be consumed by my TWC, heh.
 
In combat, my TWC murdered Vulkan and his last Termie, after taking another wound or two.  It actually ended up that I only had 3 models left from that squad- the hammer and the two lords.  Still, it was worth it, getting rid of his most powerful unit.
 

Heh, he doesn't have a whole lot left.  Still, he has enough to make himself a nuisance.

 
Salamanders Turn 5:
 
He decided to do the smart thing, and get his forcibily disembarked guys in the middle into the Land Raider.  His dread shuffled forward, ready to attack my rightmost Grey Hunters.
 
Shooting didn't do much, and it was on to Assault Phase.  The dread assaulted, and neither of us did anything, really.  Ah well.
 
Wolves Turn 5:
 
I did what I could- used my Grey Hunters to kill off his Tac Squad (and somehow got my Rune Priest killed in the process), blew up his last rhino, and charged the Raider, stunning it.  I was extremely surprised to find out he hadn't bought extra armor for it, so I'd get to punch it next turn too, but with auto-hits!  In combat, we drew again, I think.
 
I also started running my missile squads up the board, in an effort to get all my guys into his deployment zone, to get one of the +2 battle point modifiers.
 
 

Poor Grey Hunters, unable to do anything to the stupid Dread.

 
Salamanders Turn 6:
 
We only had combat, in which I destroyed the Raider, and they drew against the Dread, losing one of their own, but tearing the Las Cannon off it, like it actually did any good in combat, haha.
 
Wolves Turn 6:
 
I had one Grey Hunter squad near an objective he couldn't hope to contest, even if the Dread won combat and consolidated 6" toward it, so I charged my other Grey Hunter Squad into combat with the Dread, and finally destroyed it!  The TWC also ended up charging the Tac squad from the ruins of the Raider, and though the brave Sergeant ended up killing the last guy in the actual squad, he was in turn taken out by my Bear Lord. 
 
It took to the last dice roll, but I tabled him.
 
 

Game over, whew!

 
Results:  52-22 Point win for the Space Wolves!
 
Thoughts:  Justin was a great opponent, who had cut his other two opponents down easily in the first two rounds.  I think he at first expected to do the same to my marines, though I also think he hadn't had as much experience against Wolves as against standard marines- which are really worlds apart.  In the end, it was a good, fun game.
 
Overall Tournament Results:
 
I ended up winning the whole thing, happily enough.  I was nervous because there were a few guys who had better painted stuff than I did who had done well in their games, but in the end I won handily over the 2nd place guy (who incidentally got best painted), winning by 10 total points.  My buddy Vince, who runs a double-raider list with Khan ended up with Best General, and Dave Boucher from the Wrecking Crew ended up with Best Sportsmanship, which I wasn't surprised at all about.
 

A Trophy!  Woo!

Lil bit of Money!

 
 It was a well-run tournament overall.  For Tacticon, I think it's likely the best I've gone to thus far (this being my 3rd) and even compared the Genghis(es) it was great.  I think my one small piece of malcontent would be from the lack of prize support.  It cost me $30 to enter the event, and I got $30 + a trophy back. I wish the Con wasn't so intent on making themselves money, or whatever they're doing.  Then again, I've never played this tournament for the prize support.  It's for sure enough for me just to have won :)
 
As for feedback, I wish they'd move it to either a 2-day tournament, or have at least 4 games.  3 games isn't enough to find a 'true winner' since at that point there are still quite a few 'undefeated' players in the field.  Dunno if that's even possible, but that's what I'd like to see happen, especially for Genghis, where there are usually like 60 people playing.
 
And, that's it!  Let me know what you think!  Thanks for reading it :)