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| Kabal of the Awesome Sauce |
Alright, before we get started, here are some relevant links:
My Dark Eldar at the Bugeater GT (full report w/ pictures)
Mirror Match Tournament Report from my Friday Event (lots of pictures)
The Wolfstar at last years BoLSCON (full report w/ pictures)
So, let's start with a (very brief) history of how I've done at past BoLSCONs:
2009: 7th overall w/ PDF Blood Angels
2010: 6th overall w/ the Wolfstar, and Best Sportsmanship (link above)
2011: not gonna tell you yet :-p
Here's the 2000-point list I took:
Dark Eldar (Kabal of the Awesome Sauce):
Baron Sathonyx
Haemonculus
7x Incubi // Raider w/ Flickerfield, Grisly Trophies, Aether Sail
19x Hellions w/ Helliarch
5x Warriors w/ Blaster // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Grisly Trophies
5x Warriors w/ Blaster // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons
5x Warriors w/ Blaster // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons
3x Wracks // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Grisly Trophies
6x Reaver Jetbikes w/ 2x Heat Lances
6x Reaver Jetbikes w/ 2x Heat Lances
3x Beastmasters, 4x Razorwing Flocks, 5x Khymerae
Ravager w/ Flickerfield
Ravager w/ Flickerfield
Ravager w/ Flickerfield
It's been a fun list thus far, though this would be my first experience with the Beast Squad. I was nervous because of the time limit and my relative inexperience with the list- I'd played a total of 11 games with it, and hadn't played a single game since the Bugeater GT two weeks ago.
So, groggy from the earlier evening's festivities, I crawled out of bed on Saturday, and found out I'd be playing this:
Game 1: Dark Eldar vs. Doug McNeill's Imperial Guard
His list:
Company Command Squad w/ 4x Melta Guns // Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer
Company Command Squad w/ 4x Melta Guns // Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer
Psyker Battle Squad w/ 8x Psykers // Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Meltaguns // Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Meltaguns // Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Meltaguns // Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Meltaguns // Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Meltaguns // Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer
Veteran Squad w/ 3x Meltaguns // Chimera w/ Heavy Flamer
Vendetta
Vendetta
Vendetta
Leman Russ Executioner w/ 2x Plasma Cannon Sponsons, Heavy Flamer
The Mission:
Primary: Seize Ground (5 Objectives)
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Table Quarters, held by Scoring Units
Deployment: Dawn of War
I won the roll, and opted for first turn.
Pregame Thoughts:
Wow... this list is kind of the nightmare list for Dark Eldar to face. Take that executioner out and add in Hydras would be the only thing to make this list more scary for Dark Eldar. As such, it wasn't a pleasant surprise to discover that I'd be playing against it.
I should note now though, that Doug was a really nice guy throughout- he had a tough-as-nails list, but he was consistently a great opponent- never once did we have a rules debate or disagreement. So, if I bash on his list a little, it's only because it's so difficult to play against, nothing against him :)
The plan for me was to use the Hellions as I've always plotted: get a huge multi-assault off against his tank line. It would be Dawn of War, and as such, I'd have the ability to start them in the middle of the board. I needed to shut down the Vendettas, and just jam him in his own deployment zone, so that if things went poorly, I'd still be potentially capable of winning the mission in the middle of the board.
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| Here's my deployment. See, the Haemonculus is hanging out at the end there, waiting to swap out with the Baron. |
Combat Drugs: "1"- 3d6 Fleet, pick the highest (useless)
Dark Eldar Turn 1:
I came onto the board. You'll be able to see for yourself in a minute.
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| The Incubi blitzed forward, hoping to draw fire from my more important stuff, while the Ravagers hung back, so he wouldn't be able to see them through night-fight. The Reavers went up 36ish", to draw more fire and hit Chimeras if at all possible. Remember, if he gets out of his vehicles, I can eat them super quick. |
He came onto the board, spread out as he kind of had to be if he wanted not to be jammed onto the board. The Vendettas couldn't move on 6" of course, so he moved them more. One of them moved up 12", disembarked a Command Squad, and got ready to kill my Raider.
In shooting, he failed to see my guys quite a bit, though I did have solid saves across the board. His CCS managed to bring down the Raider though, and he plinked away at a couple of Reavers. The Hellions took some fire, though I was confident that they wouldn't be reduced by 25%. I was wrong however, when his Executioner caused 7 wounds on them, and they failed 5 3+ cover saves (for a total of 5 dead Hellions in the round). He targeted them with his Psyker Battle Squad, which would make them run away and:
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| ...he failed his Ld9 check! I guess the luck balances itself out sometimes, eh? |
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| So, at this point, I'm in reasonable situation- gotta shut those Vendettas up though! |
Dark Eldar: 0
Imperial Guard: 1 (Raider)
Dark Eldar Turn 2:
The Reavers moved up, ready to Melta. The Ravagers moved over a little bit, to get clear shots on the Vendettas. And most importantly: the Hellions jumped up and got ready to multi-charge his line.
In shooting, the Reavers on the right popped a CCS Chimera on side armor. The Ravagers wrecked one Vendetta, and shook another, though failed on the last one. Reavers on the left stunned a Chimera on the far left.
In combat, the Hellions got their massive charge in, and exploded the Psyker Chimera, wrecked another Chimera, and stunned/weapon destroyed/immobilized two others (don't remember which results on which). The Reavers on the right charged and ate the CCS on right. And the Incubi charged in and somehow failed to kill all of his own CCS who had killed their Raider.
Very productive turn :)
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| Note that one of those Vendettas is actually a wreck- he understandably didn't want to take the Vendettas off their base. |
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| Here's the action with the Hellions- you can see the forced-out Psykers in the middle there, and the other two have dice showing what had happened to the tanks. |
Dark Eldar: 5 (Vendetta, Chimera, Chimera, Chimera, CCS)
Imperial Guard: 1 (Raider)
Imperial Guard Turn 2:
Dealt a blow, Doug reacted calmly- his army was still extremely functional, despite losing 5 Kill Points in a turn. He turbo-boosted his shaken Vendetta, and moved some Chimeras around, to deal with the threat of the Hellions.
In shooting, his lone Vendetta failed to hurt a Ravager (Flickerfield FTW), though he killed almost all of the Hellions. He also failed to kill all the Reavers on the left, though only the two Heat Lances remained. I passed all leaderships, woot!
In combat, the Incubi finally finished butchering the CCS.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Vendetta, Chimera, Chimera, Chimera, CCS, CCS)
Imperial Guard: 1 (Raider)
Sorry, no picture this turn.
Dark Eldar Turn 3:
The Reavers on the left moved up to shoot at his far-left Chimera. The Reavers on the right moved to shoot the side of his Executioner. Venoms moved up to get side armor-shots on the closest Chimera, while the Baron's depleted squad backed up and readied to multi-charge more Chimeras and his Psykers.
Shooting again went well, with me downing the far left Chimera, the Vendetta that didn't move, the Executioner, and weapon destroying another chimera from side-armor shots.
In combat, the Baron and his unit wiped out the Psykers, killed another Chimera (whose squad failed morale and ran off the board), and shook another one. The Beasts managed to get a charge off on a chimera, but failed to hurt it.
Another very solid turn. :)
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 12 (Vendetta, Chimera, Chimera, Chimera, CCS, CCS, Vendetta, Chimera, Executioner, Chimera, Veterans, Psykers)
Imperial Guard: 1 (Raider)
Sorry, due to time constraints, I wasn't taking as many pictures as I should have. Some coming up though!
Guard Turn 3:
Well, Doug had lost a lot of stuff, but he still had 5 melta-vet squads, a vendetta, and a smattering of Chimeras left. He was by no means dead, and was very capable of making my life hell.
As such, he got some of his Veterans out, ready to rapid-fire my dudes. His remaining Vendetta got ready to shoot down a Ravager.
In shooting, he started off with a 1-shot-1-kill on a Ravager. Then he killed off the Reavers on the left. Then he killed my remaining Hellions (except for the Baron).
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 12 (Vendetta, Chimera, Chimera, Chimera, CCS, CCS, Vendetta, Chimera, Executioner, Chimera, Veterans, Psykers)
Imperial Guard: 4 (Raider, Ravager, Hellions, Reavers)
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| Well, lots of stuff took hits this turn. Hopefully I can knock him out next turn though. |
Without a squad, the Baron (somewhat stupidly) joined up with the beasts, limiting their options. The Incubi and Reavers went in to kill some veterans on the right.
The Ravagers finished off the final Vendetta. The Baron and Beasts wanted to charge some faraway guardsmen who had disembarked, but since the Baron was with them, they had to settle for a boring 6" charge against some Guardsmen + 2 chimeras.
In combat, I finished off all the chimeras on the right, and the veterans. On the left, the Baron + beasts killed the Veterans and their two target Chimeras.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 18 (Vendetta, Chimera, Chimera, Chimera, CCS, CCS, Vendetta, Chimera, Executioner, Chimera, Veterans, Psykers, Vendetta, Chimera, Chimera, Chimera, Veterans, Veterans)
Imperial Guard: 4 (Raider, Ravager, Hellions, Reavers)
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| Remember that all these Vendettas are actually dead, just wrecked and thus not removed from play- same with some of the Chimeras. |
At this point, Doug only had a single Chimera + 3 Veteran squads. He tried to run them at objectives, but were left in the open, where the Venoms (who had done nothing thus far) were able to gun them down without saves. We decided to call it after my own Turn 5, since he only had a single immobilized Chimera left.
Results: Win for the Dark Eldar, 30/30 total points!
Post-game thoughts:
Wow, I couldn't believe how well I had done against my first real test against a meltavet/vendetta/psyker spam army! The Hellions did their thing, and though they eventually died, they did what needed to be done- namely, kill a ton of tanks, and cause as much mayhem as possible. This is one of the main reasons I take Hellions- to wreck enemy Tanklines, and this was no exception!
Doug was a great guy, as I stated earlier. He took his loss well, and later owned two more Dark Eldar players in the same day (doubt they had Hellions :-p).
Gotta say I was first unlucky (5 dead Hellions from 7 3+ cover saves), but then got lucky in the form of his Psykers failing their power! Overall, fun game!
Man of the Match:
Wow, this is a tough one. I'll actually give it to two units then: Hellions and Reaver Jetbikes. The Reavers were absolutely amazing this game- the ones on the right killed 4 kill points all by themselves (2 vehicles + 2 squads), and the ones on the left killed a Chimera and stunned another one. On the other hand, Hellions did some major damage as well, killing a huge wall of tanks by themselves. Huge impact by those two units.
Game 2: Dark Eldar vs. Jeremy Yates' Seer Council Light Eldar!
His List:
Farseer w/ Doom, Fortune, Jetbike, Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Witchblade
Farseer w/ Doom, Fortune, Jetbike, Spirit Stones, Witchblade
7x Warlocks w/ 7x Jetbikes, lots of different powers, 2x Singing Spears, 5x Witchblades
7x Warlocks w/ 7x Jetbikes, lots of different powers, 2x Singing Spears, 5x Witchblades
5x Harlequins w/ Rending, Shadowseer
5x Harlequins w/ Rending, Shadowseer
5x Rangers
5x Rangers
3x Guardian Jetbikes
3x Guardian Jetbikes
Fire Prism
Fire Prism
Fire Prism
The Mission:
Primary: Capture and Control
Secondary: Seize Ground (3 Objectives)
Tertiary: Kill opponent's least expensive unit (his was some Jetbikes, mine was Wracks)
Deployment: Spearhead
He won the roll, and took first turn.
Pregame Thoughts:
Well, it had been a long, long while since I had played against a solid Seer Council list. This list is somewhat of a nightmare to most of my armies in an all-objective mission, since it's so fast. However, the DEldar are just as fast as this list, and as such, I figured we were even speed-wise.
The key was to get into combat with the Seer Council- they aren't super good at combat itself, and though they'll be Fortuned all of the time, I would hopefully be able to slowly whittle them down from hit & running/shooting/charging, rinse, repeat, etc.
Seriously though, I was really wishing I had some sort of psychic defense to shut down Fortune.
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| Here's our deployment- you'll notice that our Capture and Control objectives were right next to a seize ground objective. You'll also notice I tried to keep all the objectives out of his range to outflank onto. Oh yeah, he outflanked the Rangers, and regular-reserved the jetbikes, as per usual for Eldar :-p |
Light Eldar Turn 1:
He moved his councils up, shot ineffectually, and jumped them back 6" again. The Harlequins sat in-between the councils, ready to counter-charge when they could.
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| You can't see the Harlequins, but they're inside the building, right next to the councils. |
Well, the Hellions decided to just go for it. They moved up and fleeted, so as to be in range of some of the Harlequins as well. The Beasts did the same, so they could multi-assault the Harlequins/council on the right.
Shooting didn't do a whole lot- he rolled consistently well for his squads, probably better than he should have, though you can't really count on poisoned shots getting through a re-rollable 3+ save. I did manage to immobilize one Fire Prism, and wreck another. Woot.
The combats were ready to go- the Beasts failed to get into the Harlequins (ut-oh) and only got a few of their number into the Seer Council. The Hellions all got in though, and it was go time!
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| You can see that I rolled terribly for my fleet/charge, and none of the Razorwings even made it close to the combat. |
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| Hellions (I7 on the charge) are depending on some reasonable results vs. the I6 Harlequins |
The Hellions however managed to kill all 5 Harlequins (making them fearless), and killing the seer dude who gave them rerolls to leadership. They ended up winning by 5, and the Council needed a 5 for leadership, otherwise, I was very likely to run them down with the higher Initiative. Essentially, the game would be over on turn 1. He rolled...
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| ...a five. We stuck in combat. Dangit! |
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| The Prism on the top is the wrecked one, the one in the middle is the immobilized one. Notice the Incubi there behind the building as backup :-p |
His remaining Harlequin squad decided to charge into the Hellions. The 'free' Seer Council jumped downward, ready to ensure the Beasts ran all the way off the board, as well as pick on some Reavers who were threatening his Prisms.
In shooting, he didn't do much other than kill the Incubi Raider, but they passed their pinning check.
Combat however, the Harlequins ran in and tore my Hellions up, though they all died as well. The Hellions lost by a fair amount, and lost a few more from Fearless. They did hit and run though. The Reavers managed to kill a dude, before dying easily to the Council at the bottom.
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| You can see in the top right that his 'least expensive unit' has come in, hugging the board edge. |
I decided I needed to kill his (hurt) Seer Council, and quickly. So, the Hellions moved back over, and everything got ready to shoot their AP2 at the top council. The Incubi got out, and got ready to charge the bottom council, to see if he was any better at failing his rerollable 4++ than his 3+ :-p
Shooting did what I needed it to do- I killed a bunch of the Seers up top with shooting.
In combat, the Hellions killed another Seer, and stuck in combat. The Incubi killed a single Seer, and stuck into combat.
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| Our turns are going to go way fast now, since the majority of his army is in combat! |
I had failed to assault-move my Reavers on the top back into cover, and his Prisms combined-fire with a huge template to kill every single one of them. Whoops!
In combat, the Hellions drew again, and Hit/Ran out toward his objectives, where some Rangers had come in and were holding them. Incubi/council on the bottom both mega-whiffed, and the battle continued.
Sorry, no picture for this turn.
Dark Eldar Turn 3:
The Hellions jumped up and fleeted, ready to kill the Rangers on the objectives at the top right. Everything else zoned in on the 2-man Seer Council.
Shooting wiped the Farseer/lone Council-member off the board. Whew! Also, the venom on the bottom right got line of sight on his 'least-expensive unit', and killed two. The remaining guy failed his leadership, never to regroup. I also managed to kill one of the other jetbike squad's members.
In combat, the Hellions/Baron owned the Rangers, and consolidated in cover.
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| You can see that the Hellions are at this point heavily depleted. They might have trouble holding on to the objectives. |
His final squad of rangers came in, and outflanked on my side, though too far to reach the objectives this turn at least (he forgot to move them, and were a nonfactor the rest of the game).
He used the Prisms to template the Hellions, and killed another couple, leaving me with only the Baron and the Squad Leader.
In combat, the Incubi finally broke, having failed to do much damage at all to the amazing-rolling Seer Council :-p
Dark Eldar Turn 4:
Well, one Venom turboed over near his objectives, so that if he managed to kill the Hellions next turn, I'd still be able to hold them on Turn 5. Everything else of mine turned into a castle, and shot what they could of his army.
Unfortunately, it wasn't much. I finished off the Jetbikes first, but failed to inflict a single wound on the Seer Council.
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| You can see that one of my Venoms is sitting on the objective there, so that he has to try and contest it or lose. Otherwise, nothing of his can move 24" and hope to contest either of my objectives in Turn 5. |
He couldn't really contest my objectives, and the Hellions survived his turn. Because of this, I was able to control both Capture and Control objectives.
We rolled to see if the game would end on Turn 5, and it did.
Results: Win for the Dark Eldar, 30/30 possible points!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, he recovered nicely from a near-disaster on Turn 1, with his awesome "5" roll for leadership! It was a very tough game, and those Seer Councils are stinking tough to get rid of! The Beasts super-failed- if they could have wiped out the Harlequins before they died they might have been useful, but as it was, they killed a single dude, and ran away.
Jeremy was a really cool opponent, and I think we both really enjoyed this game. He won some sort of award at the end from Goatboy- some sort of 'douche-bag list with good sportsmanship' award, or somesuch. He deserved it, and the list is certainly rough, especially without psychic defense!
At this point in the tournament, there were still like 9 dudes with perfect scores, including me. I was in for a rough one...
Man of the Match:
Hm... well, the Hellions were awesome once again. They were instrumental in killing all of the 'top' seer-council, and in the end butchered through a ton of units to control the enemy's objective. Awesome squad :)
Game 3: Dark Eldar vs. David Light's Mech Blood Angels!
His list:
Librarian w/ Shield of Sanguinius, Sanguine Sword
Sanguinary Priest w/ Power Weapon
Sanguinary Priest w/ Power Weapon
Sanguinary Priest w/ Jump Pack, Power Weapon
10x Assault Marines w/ 2x Meltaguns, Power Fist
5x Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Power Fist // Razorback w/ TLLC
5x Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Power Fist // Razorback w/ TLLC
5x Assault Marines w/ Flamer, Power Weapon // Razorback w/ TLAC
5x Assault Marines w/ Flamer, Power Weapon // Razorback w/ TLAC
3x Attack Bikes
Baal Predator w/ HB Sponsons
Baal Predator w/ HB Sponsons
Predator w/ Auto-cannon, Las Sponsons
Predator w/ Auto-cannon, Las Sponsons
The Mission:Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: Seize Ground (3 Objectives)
Tertiary: Whoever had the highest number of terrain pieces
Deployment: Pitched Battle
He won the roll, and took first turn.
Pregame Thoughts:
Well, I wasn't overly concerned about this list. I figured that if I could jump in with the Hellions, kill most of his tanks, and keep his other stuff shaken until then, I'd have a good chance to win the game.
So, this is how this battle report will 'work':
There's a few things that are working against us from this game: 1) my camera ran out of batteries, and as such, I only have a couple pictures 2) It wasn't much of a game- he saved (very nearly) all of his saves, I failed almost every morale check (despite rerolls)/armor/invuln/cover save possible, and... he crushed me.
So instead, I'll give you a brief rundown of what happened, with the few pictures that survived. I want you to know I'm not just avoiding this one cuz I lost- I've done plenty of batreps where I lost horribly. It just wasn't much of a game.
So, he moved his stuff up, and left his bikes out of his FNP bubble. He killed like 4 of my skimmers, and some Reavers lost 2 guys and ran off the table. In return, I jumped the Hellions up to kill off this Attack Bikes. They had rolled a "3" on combat drugs, and so had S6 on the charge. They managed to cause (after 59 S6 attacks and 5 S7 attacks) a single wound, and stuck in combat, because their hit/run options were horrible.
Afterward, he charged in with all of his power weapons, broke the Hellions, killed all the Beasts easily, and killed another 3 vehicles + the remaining Reavers.
(all that had happened at the end of Turn 2)
I kept playing, because I thought I could squeak a draw his luck evened out, but... it didn't happen. Incubi killed his big assault squad, but then failed all of their saves/FNP and died.
Pretty horrible :-p
Here's the two pictures that survived from the fiasco:
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| This is right before the Hellions got wiped out. |
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| This is somewhere in the middle, where I've lost almost everything, lol. |
Results: Loss for the Dark Eldar, 0/30 possible points!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, fail. I'd like another crack at his list- I think I could have beat it. He was a nice guy though- I decided to root for him the rest of the way, though it wasn't to be (he won his Game 4 vs. Battlewagon Orks, then kind of free-fell on Day 2)
Man of the match:
lol... I had some warriors who got charged by his remaining attack bike. They managed to kill it somehow. Of course, this was when it didn't matter, but those little I5 dudes were champs!
Game 4: Dark Eldar vs. Tobin's Mech Blood Angels!
His list:
Sanguinor
Librarian w/ Unleash Rage, Sanguine Shield
Sanguinary Priest
Dreadnought w/ 2x TLAC
Dreadnought w/ 2x TLAC
8x Assault Marines w/ Meltagun, Power Fist // Land Raider w/ Multi-melta, Extra Armor
10x Assault Marines w/ 2x Meltaguns, Power Fist // Rhino
5x Assault Marines w/ Meltagun // Razorback w/ Heavy Flamer
5x Assault Marines w/ Meltagun // Razorback w/ Heavy Flamer
Baal Predator w/ Flamestorm Cannon
Baal Predator w/ Flamestorm Cannon
Baal Predator w/ Assault Cannon/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons
The Mission:
Primary: Capture and Control
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Kill opponent's highest-point HQ
Deployment: Dawn of War
He won the roll, and opted for first turn.
Pregame Thoughts:
Well, this list is extremely similar to the one I just played- lots and lots of strong long-range firepower, but with a twist: two tanks that can/will annihilate my poor Hellions. Not the best situation for me- I actually think I prefer to play against the list that had just owned me in the last game.
Still though, I needed to try to win this game, and get back 'in' the tournament. The plan was this: kill his tanks, and shoot the guys inside. It was fairly obvious that the Priest would ride around with his Raider, so the rest of the troops should be fair game. The Reavers needed to go neutralize the Dreadnoughts and Raider as quickly as possible.
Combat Drugs: "2"- +1 Weaponskill (which I forgot to use)
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| Here's my deployment- same as in Game 1- Hellions using their pain shenanigans to get two tokens. |
He moved onto the board, and popped a lot of smoke. I always forget how fast Blood Angels vehicles are- it's pretty nuts!
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| Yep- that's a lot of red pain coming my way. |
I moved onto the board, and made sure I gave myself lots of cover saves. The Hellions mostly stayed where they were, unafraid of Flamers this turn.
Shooting did absolutely nothing.
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| Notice the Reavers jetting up there with the Incubi Raider. I consider this a mistake- the Incubi Raider should be trying to support the Hellions to negate his FNP, instead of just hanging out on their own. |
He moved his dudes on the left up, but didn't use his flamers- he wasn't really in range. His other stuff opened up, and he killed the Incubi Raider, and a few of the Reavers from one squad. The squad ran away, sadly, though they would regroup later.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 0
Blood Angels: 1 (Raider)
Sorry, no picture this turn.
Dark Eldar Turn 2:
Time to keep running away. The Hellions jumped 12" away from his flamer-tanks, while all my guns got ready to kill transports. The remaining Reavers were slightly out of position (he had moved his guys backward) to kill the Dreadnoughts, and thus decided it would be a good idea to try and pop a Razorback instead.
In shooting, I managed to pop both of his Razorbacks (the Reavers got one of them :-p), and Stunned the Rhino. After a ton of venom fire later, one squad had 2 guys left, and the other had 2 as well.
I decided that the Beasts were perfect for this job- just kill 2 marines, can't be that hard, can it? Turned out, they killed a single marine (after getting their full number of attacks), and were dealt 2 wounds. As such, they failed leadership and ran away, crying.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 2 (Razorback, Razorback)
Blood Angels: 2 (Raider, Beasts)
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| Those beasts are actually running away. Lol. That one dude left in the crater scared them off, apparently. |
He really didn't do a whole lot of moving- he ran away with both of his depleted squads, to preserve kill points. One Baal Predator moved so as to make sure the Beasts ran off the table.
He opened fire, and it was pretty spectacular- he killed all three Ravagers, with 3 models of his own. Quite impressive :(
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 2 (Razorback, Razorback)
Blood Angels: 5 (Raider, Beasts, Ravager, Ravager, Ravager)
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| This picture was taken after I had removed all the Beasts. Keep in mind that the Sanguinor has just been hiding behind all his tanks, and is currently behind the ruins on my side of the table. |
Well, losing every single Ravager I had hurt me a lot. I needed to make some adjustments. It was time for the Hellions to do something with themselves.
So, one squad of Reavers turboed over a squad of two assault marines, causing a ton of wounds with their Bladevanes, but he saved them all. The other squad of Reavers jumped up and targeted the Land Raider. Hellions jumped into the madness that surrounded the Ruins.
Shooting went as well as could be expected for me- I popped the Land Raider, wrecked a Baal Predator, and stunned the other (blasterfire FTW).
The Incubi (stupidly) charged the Baal Predator, shaking it. The Hellions charged the lone guy who had driven off the beasts, as well as the stunned rhino. They killed both, gaining a pain token, and waiting for the inevitable counter-charge from the Land Raider.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Razorback, Razorback, Land Raider, Baal Predator, Assault Squad, Rhino)
Blood Angels: 5 (Raider, Beasts, Ravager, Ravager, Ravager)
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| Heh, the Hellions are essentially unhurt as of this picture. |
Well, he had very little he could do but charge me.
So he did. One dread charged my Incubi (wise move on his part). The two assault squads charged the Hellions. When the smoke cleared, very few of his Angels had died, and most of my Hellions had died, but they hit & ran away! The two-man squad who had been running away charged the Reavers who had tried to Bladevane them, but the combat was a push.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Razorback, Razorback, Land Raider, Baal Predator, Assault Squad, Rhino)
Blood Angels: 5 (Raider, Beasts, Ravager, Ravager, Ravager)
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| See- there are like 3 dudes left, including the Baron. The guys on the bottom there are all casualties from different initiatives. |
The Hellions decided to try and save the Incubi- my one true chance to kill all those marines.
My shooting mostly just bounced off of armor- not the best round of shooting, but then again- he had FNP, and was therefore golden.
In combat, the Baron jumped in, failed to hurt the Dread, the Dread failed to hurt the Baron, and the Hellions Hit & Ran out, afraid of the Sanguinor.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Razorback, Razorback, Land Raider, Baal Predator, Assault Squad, Rhino)
Blood Angels: 5 (Raider, Beasts, Ravager, Ravager, Ravager)
Sorry, no picture
Blood Angels Turn 5:
This would be our last turn, due to time constraints. As such, he moved his squads up and planted them on objectives- there was no way I could shift that much FNP combined with his various vehicles sitting on objectives.
In combat, he finally killed off my Reavers, tying the game in Kill Points.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Razorback, Razorback, Land Raider, Baal Predator, Assault Squad, Rhino)
Blood Angels: 6 (Raider, Beasts, Ravager, Ravager, Ravager, Reavers)
 |
| Oh yeah, his shooty Baal tried to Ram my Venom, but nothing really happened. Sorry for the Blur. |
Dark Eldar Turn 5:
Well, I knew I wouldn't be able to win the primary or Tertiary (kill Sanguinor, lol). As such, I decided to focus fire and knock out his top squad.
So I did, moving models to contest the objectives, then shooting everything I had at the top squad, since they had the most kill points.
When the smoke cleared, only the Librarian was left standing from that squad, with me having killed all the marines + the priest. The Baron went "whew!" since he hadn't wanted to assault the Dreadnought for the win :-p
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 8 (Razorback, Razorback, Land Raider, Baal Predator, Assault Squad, Rhino, Assault Squad, Sanguinary Priest)
Blood Angels: 6 (Raider, Beasts, Ravager, Ravager, Ravager, Reavers)
...The game ended.
 |
| If the game had kept going indefinitely... I have no idea who would have won. It was a close-run thing for both of us, I think. |
Postgame thoughts:
Well, I used the Incubi extremely poorly, is what it came down to. If they had been allowed to get into either of those assault squads and munch on them for a turn or two, the game would have gone much better for me. As it was, I jetted them forward for no apparent reason, and I suffered the consequences.
Both myself and Tobin were extremely tired for this game- he admitted that he made some mistakes as well, though I think he played a fairly solid game, to be honest. That turn he killed all my Ravagers really hurt me, and I was glad to recover from it at all.
Beasts were an overall disappointment for the day, having done nothing near what they should have been capable of on paper. Maybe the next day would vindicate them?
Man of the Match:
Hm... lets give this one to my Venom/Warrior combo, who ended up causing much more damage than anything else of mine. They combined for a total of 3 Kill Points, which isn't a ton, but more than any other single squad did (Hellions get the honorable mention with 2).
End of Day 1
So, we went to Papacito's which is an awesome Tex/Mex place. 100% amazing Fajitas and Margaritas. Very relaxing!
When we got our slightly inebriated selves back to the Hotel, we saw that I had just barely missed the 'final cut' in the GT, since I had 77 total points, where the top group of fellas had 78 or more.
It was somewhat disheartening- I had gotten 3 wins, with a single fluky loss. The next day I would be relegated to the RTT, starting completely over in Battle Points, against the other 100+ guys with a 77 or less. What had started so promising (the demolishing of my nemesis Imperial Guard and lots of points) had ended with the Blood Angels and all their predators ganging up to kick me out of the GT. :-p
Still, I decided I'd rally, and try to at least win a prize in the RTT. It would take some doing- over 100 players in a single 3-game RTT requires 3 perfect games of the winner, and most likely, some good soft scores as well.
Start of Day 2:
After a solid night's sleep (dear Tequila: thanks for that, at least), I was ready to make the best of the unfortunate situation.
Game 5: Dark Eldar vs. John Christensen's Strike-heavy Grey Knights!
His list:
Librarian w/ 3x Servo-skulls, Force Sword, Might of Titan, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, The Shrouding
Librarian w/ 2x Servo-skulls, Force Sword, Might of Titan, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, The Shrouding
10x Grey Knight Strikers w/ Psybolt Ammo, 2x Psycannons, MC Demonhammer
10x Grey Knight Strikers w/ Psybolt Ammo, 2x Psycannons, MC Demonhammer
10x Grey Knight Strikers w/ Psybolt Ammo, 2x Psycannons, MC Demonhammer
10x Grey Knight Strikers w/ Psybolt Ammo, 2x Psycannons, MC Demonhammer
10x Grey Knight Strikers w/ Psybolt Ammo, 2x Psycannons, MC Demonhammer
Nemesis Dreadknight w/ Nemesis Greatsword (the one that lets him reroll hits/wounds)
Nemesis Dreadknight w/ Nemesis Greatsword (the one that lets him reroll hits/wounds)
The Mission:
Primary: Seize Ground (3 Objectives)
Secondary: Capture and Control
Tertiary: Have more total units in opponent's deployment zone than they have in yours
Deployment: Spearhead
I won the roll to go first, and gave it to him.
Pregame Thoughts:
Hm, this would be the first game I'd played against Grey Knights with my Dark Eldar. I was fairly confident that I'd be able to simply outrange him, which is why I gave him first turn. My firepower should wither a squad and a half off the board each turn, without really even having to rely on combat. At least, that's how it worked in theory.
Here's the thing about this tournament: I knew that if I didn't MAX every single game, I couldn't possibly win it. There were simply too many players out there, that someone was bound to get 3 perfect games. So I went into this game with the intention of getting max points every single game. Even a tie would realistically count as a loss as far as winning the tournament went.
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| Here's our deployment- see how I kept everything outside of his range on Turn 1? |
He moved, then ran three squads up, keeping his other two squads back on his objective.
 |
| Running, woot! |
I moved everything up a little, and took position to shoot up his uppermost squad. One squad of Reavers turboed up in the midst of his guys. My reasoning was that he'd have to deal with them instead of shooting my vehicles, which was poor reasoning, because his back guys had nothing to shoot at either. Fail on my part.
Anyways, a turn of withering firepower later, and I had killed a Dreadknight, and the entire Strike Squad.
 |
| Overview! |
 |
| See the fail that my Reavers are? /sigh |
He moved some of his guys up more.
His shooting hit a lot of my Hellions, who got cover, but failed a lot lot lot of saves. They remained, but severely depleted. He also killed all my Reavers with his back two squads. It's what I deserved, I suppose.
 |
| See how depleted the Hellions are? Yikes! |
The plan was to melt another of his squads, like last turn.
My last squad of reavers (seriously, for no reason at all) decided to turbo over into the last deathtrap area they had been. I honestly have no good reason I can tell you I did this for. It was just 100% fail on my part, lol. The Hellions jumped up to shoot then presumably finish off the weakened squad everyone had been shooting.
Shooting this turn failed. Which isn't to say that I didn't roll average- I did. He just saved (literally, I counted) 24 3+ saves in a row, followed by 5 5+ invulnerable saves on his Dreadknight. Yikes. Not a good turn at all for me.
I assaulted in with the Hellions, and was barely saved by the fact that he failed a couple saves, and mostly whiffed against me.
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| All the action is happening behind the building, lol. |
He moved forward with his third squad and got ready to shoot the Beasts.
His shooting was good, and killed all the remaining Reavers. He also killed all the Beasts (after he rolled his Psycannons, he 'decided' he wasn't going to shoot the storm bolters, despite declaring it beforehand. I let him do it, since I didn't want a huge fight, and the Beasts had already failed to charge twice, lol.
In combat, he killed my remaining Hellions, and the Baron failed leadership and ran away 17".
Dark Eldar Turn 3:
The Baron (who was now just a lone independent character) rallied. I got the Incubi out to charge his bottom 'forward' squad, and got ready to kill the top (somewhat depleted) strike squad.
One turn of shooting and combat later, I had killed both squads, including a Librarian. His Dreadknight managed to make most of his saves though, and would eat through the Incubi next turn, since they only got a 1" consolidate.
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| Lol, this game is causing waaaaay too many casualties for me. |
Again, he just curb-stomped everything of mine that was in his quarter- this time it was the Incubi and the Raider.
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| Lol... can I pull this fiasco into a win somehow? |
One Ravager turboed 24" toward his objective, and one Venom got ready to contest it on Turn 5.
Otherwise, everyone just moved up, and shot the Dreadknight to death (finally!). The Wracks got out of their Venom to claim the objective in the middle.
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| See how the Baron is just sitting there, waiting for something to charge/shoot at him? He doesn't expect to live- rather, he wants to draw a full squad's firepower on him. |
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| Lol, see? That's what he's got left, hanging out on his objective. If I had 10 turns, I could win this game easily. As it is, I need to contest his objective THIS TURN. |
He shot and killed the Turbo-boosting Ravager, and also killed the Baron. Lol.
 |
| Well, time to do something. All that's left of the Baron is two pain tokens, haha. |
The game might end this turn, so one of my Venoms (at the bottom) turbo-boosted to contest his objective. Other Venoms turboed up to be close to the objective as well.
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| Contested! If the game ends this turn, I win! |
Grey Knights Turn 6:
He shifted some guys, but only killed one Venom in the distance.
Dark Eldar Turn 6:
This would be our last turn, due to time constraints. As such, I simply moved a venom up to contest his objective, deciding that shooting wasn't worth the time spent.
 |
| Contested!! |
Post-game thoughts:
Wow, this game sure turned harder than it needed to be! He was a good player, and for the most part reasonable (a few minor rules issues, but not really a big deal). I'd be happy to play him again :)
I couldn't get him to fail a save on Turn 2, which put me in a terrible position for the rest of the game. I was glad to have the chance to get full points this game- he simply butchered anything that came near him. Granted, I made a TON of stupid mistakes this game- I realized it after the game, and vowed to play better the rest of the tournament.
As it was, I was still 'in the hunt' for the elusive RTT win :-p
Man of the Match:
Well... I guess in the end, the Venoms did the best. It wasn't their fault he rolled so many saves in a row :-p In the end, it was the Venoms who saved my bacon as well, contesting his own objective.
Game 6: Dark Eldar vs. John Miller's Terminator Spam Grey Knights!!
His List:
Brother-Captain w/ Psycannon, Rad Grenades, Psychotroke Grenades
Librarian w/ Nemesis Warding Stave, Quicksilver, Might of Titan, The Shrouding, Warp Rift
10x Grey Knight Terminators w/ 2x Psycannons, 2x Nemesis Demonhammers, Psybolt Ammo
10x Grey Knight Terminators w/ 2x Psycannons, 2x Nemesis Demonhammers, Psybolt Ammo
5x Grey Knight Terminators w/ Psycannon, Nemesis Demonhammer, Psybolt Ammo
Stormraven Gunship w/ TLMM, 2x Hurricane Bolter Sponsons
Dreadnought w/ 2x TLAC, Psybolt Ammo
The Mission:
Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: Capture and Control
Tertiary: Whoever has the highest number of surviving troops units gets this objective
Deployment: Dawn of War
I won the roll to go first, and gave it to him.
Pregame Thoughts:
Heh, it was as if the guys from my last game had withdrawn and said "it's too hot out here, send in the Terminators!" This list was another one I was nervous about- lots and lots of Terminators can make for an extremely difficult game if he passes more than his share of saves.
The thing is, he's got the potential to have as few as 7 kill points- I need to table him if I think I can win at Kill Points. Even if he combat squads his stuff, he's only got 9. Very risky business.
My priority was to kill a single squad at a time, and to kill the vehicles as quickly as possible. Basically, to kill all his stuff, lol. We'll see how this approach works out!
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| Here's our deployments- remember, I gave him first turn, so I got to 'react' to his deployment with the Hellions. He broke his two big squads into combat squads, and deployed one of them (both combat squads) in the middle, with the Brother-captain. He reserved his two vehicles, and decided to deepstrike the other three terminator squads. |
He just shifted his guys around a little. Not much at all.
Dark Eldar Turn 1:
I got onto the board, and positioned everyone to shoot the Brother-captain's squad, with the splinter weapons first. That way, if he lost enough guys, my Ravagers could insta-death his Brother-Captain.
As it was, I managed to kill all 5 Terminators, but he saved the single 4+ cover he needed to save on his Brother-Captain.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 1 (Terminators)
Grey Knights: 0 ( )
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| Don't worry- I rolled night fight. Most stuff passed though- rerolls come in handy sometimes. |
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| Damn you Brother-Captain! Damn you and those crystals you hide behind!! |
Two of his Terminator squads came in (including the Librarian), as did the two vehicles. The Storm Raven came on 12", and shot everything at the Hellions (including the Mindstrikes), killing a few, but not a whole lot of them. Other shooting did nearly nothing to my lines as well, though one squad of Reavers was left with a single member, who passed his morale check.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 1 (Terminators)
Grey Knights: 0 ( )
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| Well, that was fortunate of me. Now to press my advantage... |
I needed to kill lots of Terminators this turn- lots of them were outside of cover, and as such would be excellent targets.
The Hellions jumped up to threaten the Librarian's squad. Everything else just shifted, upwardly.
Shooting took out both the Storm Raven and the Auto-cannon Dreadnought (extremely good rolling on my part). I also managed to kill 3 terminators from the middle (in the open) squad, and 3 from the Librarian's squad. The 'in the open' squad failed their leadership and ran.
The Hellions charged in and killed two more Terminators, but forgot to allocate wounds against the Librarian. They won combat, but the Libby stayed put- the Hellions decided to stay in combat for one more round, since they were fearless anyways.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 4 (Terminators, Storm Raven, Dreadnought, Terminators)
Grey Knights: 0 ( )
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| The running Terminators will easily rally- perhaps I should have hit-and-run to keep them running? I was already doing well though... didn't want to be too much of a jerk :( |
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| Yay for beleaguered Librarians! |
His last squad came in from reserves, but mishapped. I got to place them, and put them in a top left corner, so they could shoot my beasts for fun :-p
The Brother-captain and co. decided to gloriously charge in at the Hellions to save the Librarian, while the remaining two Terminators who were running away rallied and decided to defend their objective at all costs (behind a hill for safety).
In combat, the Brother-captain's grenades made the Hellions Ld. 2, which was useless since they were already fearless. The Hellions killed the Librarian, and the Terminators killed a bunch of Hellions, who stuck around (fearless) and Hit/Ran away, exposing the Terminators.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 5 (Terminators, Storm Raven, Dreadnought, Terminators, Librarian)
Grey Knights: 0 ( )
 |
| The Blur strikes again! |
I got the Incubi out, thinking that at least John would get a kill point from them. The Hellions went to play with the 'running away' terminators.
In shooting, I killed a few Terminators on the left (the mishapped ones), and killed a few on the right (Brother-Captains squad).
The Baron charged in and killed one of the terminators in the back, but the Incubi wiped out the Terminators to a man, despite their Halberds.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 7 (Terminators, Storm Raven, Dreadnought, Terminators, Librarian, Terminators, Brother-Captain)
Grey Knights: 0 ( )
 |
| Here's an overview... |
 |
| One Terminator holding the objective |
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| Three Terminators sitting in the corner, all alone |
Results: Win for the Dark Eldar, 30/30 possible points!
Post-game thoughts:
Wow, I felt kind of bad- I didn't really think this game was going to be as one-sided as it turned out to be. He rolled about average through turn 2, but turn 3 the dice abandoned him, and he failed quite a few of his saves.
John was a great sport though, and I'd gladly play him again- his GK's looked really good- I especially liked his green power weapons :)
And... it was time for the final match. I was still 'in it to win it', with a perfect 60 points so far. The next mission I'd have to kill my opponent's most expensive unit for the Tertiary, and Kill Points for Secondary. My thoughts going into it (I literally said this to a friend) was "well, as long as I don't have to play Eldar, I should be okay".
LOL
Game 7: Dark Eldar vs. Greg Sparks' Light Eldar (Footdar)
His List:
Eldrad the Awesome
Maugan Ra
5x Harlequins w/ Rending, Shadowseer
10x Wraithguard w/ Conceal Warlock
10x Dire Avengers w/ Exarch, Defend
8x Dire Avengers
3x Guardian Jetbikes w/ 1x Shuriken Cannon
10x Warp Spiders w/ Exarch w/ Powerblades, Death Spinner x2, Withdraw
3x War Walkers w/ 6x Scatter Lasers
Wraithlord w/ Bright Lance, Wraithsword
Wraithlord w/ Bright Lance, Wraithsword
The Mission:
Primary: Seize Ground (5 Objectives)
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Kill your opponent's highest point unit
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Don't remember who won the roll- he ended up with first turn though.
Pregame Thoughts:
Well, this game would be an extremely tough one to max. If it was W/L format, I think I'd run circles around this list, but as it was Battle Points, and I knew I needed to max every game in order to win, I'd have to not only 1) kill more of his stuff than he killed of mine, but 2) kill that WraithguardStar that I would otherwise ignore.
Since I needed to max this game however, I decided to play it a little differently than I normally would. Killing the WraithStar would be a priority, especially if I could manage to seize the initiative. Only after that would I actually pay attention to other things that could potentially hurt me.
The way I saw it was this: The wraithlords wouldn't do a lot of damage to my army with a single BS4 Bright Lance shot, and though those Warwalkers put out a huge volume of shots, they would hurt a single vehicle a turn. Therefore, I could afford to leave them alone for a turn or two while I tried to kill the Wraithstar (so he didn't hide it from me and therefore give me a 'loss').
I tried to seize the initiative- I'd been saving my initiative mojo all tournament for this. Therefore, I rolled and :
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| (The picture thing is a 6) |
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| He used Eldrad's 'redployment' special rule thing that I had forgotten about, to get his wraiths closer to my stuff. Glad he didn't just stick it behind a hill, lol. |
 |
| See, I kind of refuse-flanked him. |
Well, no Fortune on Eldrad's unit for a turn, I needed to make the most of it. Therefore, I moved everything up, and prepared to open fire on the WraithStar.
...and that's all I did. Shoot at the Wraithstar. When the smoke cleared...
 |
| ...I'd killed 7 Wraithguard, and put a wound on both Eldrad and Maugan. |
 |
| The Reavers decided to just hang tight. Oh yeah, he left his 'nub' Dire Avengers squad in reserve, as well as his 3x Jetbikes (as per usual for Eldar :-p) |
He cast Fortune on Eldrad's unit and on the Warp Spiders (which I forgot, as you'll soon see). He mostly stayed statics, however (didn't move much). The Warp Spiders drew a bead on the Hellions, who had been left out of cover intentionally (they wouldn't be of much use this game- at the least they could draw some fire).
The Warp Spiders shot, and caused a bunch of S6 wounds on the Hellions, who would have their 5+ armor saves, and nothing more. I rolled, expecting to lose a ton of them and:
 |
| lol... sometimes you just roll well. It wouldn't make a huge difference though, as you'll soon see. |
The Warp Spiders did use their 'jump/shoot/jump/ ability into cover, and lost a few of their number for it from Dangerous Tests.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 0 ( )
Light Eldar: 0 ( )
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| Well, time to press home my advantage, I guess? |
Forgetting that the Warp Spiders had Fortune on them (remember, Fortune lets you reroll failed saves), I jumped the Hellions in to get a quick kill point. The Incubi boosted forward to support them, and the Reavers moved 12", to shoot their S6 stuff at the WraithStar. Everything else kind of held back (the beasts labored forward though, heh).
Shooting helped me to finally kill off the remaining Wraiths/Warlock, and put another wound on Maugan (who has no Invuln save, something else I forgot- I just don't play against Eldar enough). So, now I could focus on actually trying to win the game, lol. I also used the Venoms to put two wounds on a Wraithlord, who, after taking his first two wounds, went on to save 10 straight armor saves :-p
In combat, the Hellions charged in, killed a few Spiders, lost a few of their own, and then the Spiders Hit/Ran out, leaving the Hellions on the hill, chillin out.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 1 (Wraithguard)
Light Eldar: 0 ( )
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| See, his Warp Spiders jumped on up into the middle there. |
His two IC's joined up with the Harlequins, and cast Doom on the Hellions. One Wraithlord moved toward a squad of Reavers I had forgotten to 'assault move' into cover/away from his lines. Making all sorts of mistakes this game :( The depleted Warp Spiders decided to get some action from the Beasts.
His other shooting killed one of my Ravagers.
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| The Hellions received no incoming fire, but were doomed probably about to get smushed. |
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 2 (Wraithguard, Warp Spiders)
Light Eldar: 3 (Ravager, Hellions, Baron)
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| Well, it was time to cause some actual damage back this turn. Notice that his Jetbikes came in this turn, on the top leftish. |
Reavers regrouped :)
The beasts, who somehow survived a combat and won it, moved hungrily toward the Guardian Jetbikes. The Incubi decided they'd had enough of the Dire Avengers nearby, and got out to charge them (it was actually also a calculated move to force Maugan not to charge them- he didn't have grenades, and as such, the Incubi would kill him before he got to swing, along with the Harlequins, who would have to roll to get into combat, and therefore strike last). The venoms pointed themselves at the Wraithlords.
In shooting, I downed both Wraithlords, and killed a Warwalker, destroying the weapons off of another one.
And then the Incubi/Beasts charged, killing their quarries, with very few casualties.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Wraithguard, Warp Spiders, Wraithlord, Wraithlord, Jetbikes, Dire Avengers)
Light Eldar: 3 (Ravager, Hellions, Baron)
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| Heh, the beasts are actually doing something this game. The venom at the bottom is immobilized, lol. |
Well, he was fast running out of useful units. His Dire Avengers came in from reserves, and decided to open fire on the Beasts.
Shooting didn't do a whole lot this turn- killing a couple Reavers, putting a few wounds on some Beasts. Nothing else though.
Eldrad and co. just sat there, staring at the Incubi- wisely. I should mention that Greg was an outstanding player. He made the 'correct' decision most of the time this game.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Wraithguard, Warp Spiders, Wraithlord, Wraithlord, Jetbikes, Dire Avengers)
Light Eldar: 3 (Ravager, Hellions, Baron)
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| Well, the game was basically in my hands at this point. I just needed to keep him from getting a ton of Kill Points off of me at the end. |
The Beasts moved forward to ... claim their third kill? Seriously? Everything else just moved around- the Venoms for some reason decided to try shooting Eldrad's squad.
Shooting was mediocre- I killed a single Harlequin, and another Warwalker, knocking the guns off the third one, but not finishing it off.
The Beasts charged into the Dire Avengers, and killed a few, drawing combat and sticking in.
Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Wraithguard, Warp Spiders, Wraithlord, Wraithlord, Jetbikes, Dire Avengers)
Light Eldar: 3 (Ravager, Hellions, Baron)
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| He has left: Eldrad w/ 2 wounds left, Maugan w/ 1 wound left, 2 Harlequins, some soon-to-die Dire Avengers, and a single walker, devoid of weapons. |
He tried to get back in the game, killing a Venom, and trying to use Eldrich Storm on a group of my vehicles (which did nothing). In the end, the Beasts won their combat, and I stayed comfortably in the lead, holding more objectives, and more Kill Points.
Results: Win for the Dark Eldar, 30/30 possible points!
Postgame thoughts:
Well, I had done it. I'd gotten the perfect score against a ridiculously hard army to try that on. He had a total of 11 Kill Points, to my 19, and one of the most difficult units to kill in the game. For sure an uphill battle for me, but I somehow pulled it out :)
I think seizing the initiative made this battle look way different than it normally would have- I shot stuff that maybe I would have shot at Wraithlords instead, exposed Hellions when they wouldn't have been immediately exposed, etc. Simply put, the game looked far different than it did- not sure what would have happened :-p
I think this game underscores why Battle Points don't really work, especially in an RTT w/ 100+ people in it- I needed a full 90/90 points to win the whole thing, but most armies would have been incapable of killing the Wraith unit, making the game impossible to max, and therefore giving them a 'loss', even if they won the game handily. Ah well.
I should add, before we get to the 'overall results', that Greg was a great opponent, possibly my favorite for the tournament. He took the entire game in stride, and played really well (as I'm beginning to see that most Footdar players do). Very nice guy, I'd gladly play him again.
For that matter, there wasn't a single opponent I wouldn't play again- they were all pretty cool guys, and though I got along with some of them better than others, I think overall, they were all good. I should also note that every single one of them worked hard to make sure we played to the end of the game, as did I. Whereas I'll talk about the time limits a little more in a bit, I really really appreciated that none of them dragged their feet in order to get a slightly better score- they all made a solid effort to finish the game, which was to their credit, most definitely.
Man of the Match:
Hm... I guess it has to go to the Beasts, though I'm reluctant to give it to them because of their mediocre performance in the rest of the tournament. They managed to kill the pesky Spiders, and two other kill points, and not be killed in return, which was impressive to say the least, especially given their efforts in the earlier stages of the tournament.
Man of the Tournament:
Gonna give this one to the Reavers- they consistently did well in every game that I allowed them to do well. I grossly misused them in Game 5, and they mostly just died in Game 3, but otherwise, they did work. Very impressed, I think they're going to get another squad, replacing some beasts... :-p
Results for the Tournament itself:
I ended up winning Best Overall, tying one guy (who turned out to be Blackmoor) because my painting score was 2 points higher. I had known that someone else would max their score- getting full points was imperative.
I won the following prize support:
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| lol... you can see my socks. Excellent job with the picture-taking, eh? |
Tournament Thoughts/Feedback:
Badges
I liked the tournament Badges. Oh yeah, here's a picture of them- forgot to include it up til now!
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| They came in both Green and Red varieties |
Timing and Schedule
The tournament was kept on-time almost the entire tournament, which was very impressive. After the fiasco of last year (being off by hours as opposed to minutes), many people couldn't even stay for the awards, due to time constraints. This year was much, much better, and makes a big difference to people who go to a lot of these cons (like me and the guys who went with me). The schedule itself didn't allow for a ton of sleep, but to be honest- what Con does? Adepticon is even more ridiculous, and I'm not at all concerned with this tournament.
Prize Support
Prize support seemed a little... smaller... this year than previous years. Perhaps that's because (as John said) GW didn't give much in way of prize support this year. I was happy enough with my prize for the RTT, though to be honest, I would almost rather have a trophy/plaque like all the GT winners got- it's a big win, to be able to beat 100+ people in a 3-game tournament, after all. I don't think you could consider any of my opponents to be 'seals', and in the end, I'll likely end up selling those two boxes, with nothing to show for my win, other than the cool little 2nd place thing I got for doing well at the Mirror Match.
In the end, I don't really care about lighter prize support- I don't go to these things for prizes (i.e. boxed sets, store credit, etc.). I like the 'prestige' of winning, and the overall experience.
Swag Bag
I don't really need a swag bag at a Con- lots of places don't bother doing it. When I'm told I'll get a swag bag though (by a few different people involved in running the tournament), I tend to be disappointed when I don't get one. I know that was a general feeling around the con- for most people, a Swag Bag is the only 'prize' they'll win. I'm not really complaining about it- but if any of the TO's read this, I guess just keep that in mind :)
One other thing that would have been nice that didn't happen this year was getting objective markers- there were a lot of games that I had to supply my opponents with my own objective markers, because the con didn't supply them. Even if the con only supplied objectives, it would have gone a long way toward getting some sort of swag :)
TO Availability
It was always easy to find a TO when you needed one, though in the actual GT I don't think I needed even one the whole time. I also liked that there was always a TO at the top table, and easy to access for the other top tables, where the 'real' action is going on. This was something I felt was extremely well done.
Information about the Con itself
I can't say I was impressed with how little information was available about stuff. I never once heard that there would be a Players Choice vote- the guy who won that award didn't even know about it until they announced he had won it. None of my friends had heard of it either. I'd have liked the chance to 'reward' one of my opponents with my vote- they were all great guys, and worthy of recognition. But nobody even heard a whisper of it.
Also, my friends I had come with and I weren't aware that there were individual painting contests going on either- my friend heard about it barely in time to enter his own mini, but he only heard about it by luck, nothing else.
In the Mirror Match, I've already said that we didn't know what the format was going to look like, since it was entirely different from how it was online. It didn't end up mattering, but I'd have liked to know what to expect.
Maybe it sounds like the Con was ruined by this, but it wasn't- this is just constructive feedback for next year.
Overall decisions/running of it:
Overall, I thought it was very good- there was very little that I experienced personally that turned me off of the tournament- nothing that doesn't happen in every other tournament.
There's a small controversy going on right now about how Table 1 got more playing time than any of the other tables at the end of Day 1, simply because it was Table 1. I honestly don't have a problem with them getting a time extension, but at the same time, I'd think that if they were going to let one table have unlimited time to finish up, that they'd give every other table the same thing. My own Game 4 might have swung drastically either way had we kept playing it to the end- it might have changed either of our tournament experiences hugely.
Time Limit/Points Limit
I personally think that the Points limit (2000 points) is perfect for this edition of 40k. Most big tournaments play at 2000 points, and having a smaller points value for this one makes me practice for a points value I rarely use.
The time limit was a little bit... tight. 2 hours to play 2000 points isn't a lot of time. I rarely had a game where we had the option to roll for turn 6 (though I did manage 5 turns every game that it was relevant). I'd like to get another 15-30 minutes per game. I know it's been talked about a lot, and the TO's have already said it's going to be longer. Just wanted to voice my approval of that :)
Format/Battle Points:
Well, I really don't want to go on a huge rant. Battle points this tournament ended up crowing a winner who, while I won't say he's a bad player (I never played him/watched him play), he himself said that he got great matchups, and was never really close to the top until the end. Like I predicted, the guy who won stayed under the radar until the very end. I'm pretty sure nobody even thought he might win the thing.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against him at all- he deserved the win with the format set up the way it did. He seems like a nice guy. I just don't trust Battle Points very much any more.
Terrain:
I thought terrain was great for a GT- lots of good LOS-blocking terrain. Seriously, you won't find much better in most other GT's out there. They said that next year will be even better, and I believe them- it's improved every year thus far.
Is there good eating nearby?
Well, yes. Pappadeaux and Pappacito's are both extremely good. The sandwich deal in the Hotel itself is alright- $6 for a sandwich, soda, and some chips. The meal is a light one, and though mediocre, it's the sort of thing I like to eat at a tournament. Overall, the eating is great there.
Will I go again?
Well, as of right now, yes. I don't really approve of the format, but in the end, I had a good time, and it was overall very pleasant. If I had to rank it with other years, I'd say the best year was 2009 (first year), followed by 2011 (this year), and the 'worst' was 2010 (2nd year). So, keep up the improvements, you guys are doing something right :)
Wow, another novel. Hope you guys got through it and enjoyed it. As usual, ask what questions you feel like- I'm happy to answer :)
TL;DR Version: I went 6-1 and won the RTT, with great opponents and much fun had overall.
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