Bugeater 2011 GT Report (with pictures!)

Well folks, brace yourselves- you're in for a long one.  This report contains 6 full-length battle reports (including pictures!) of my Dark Eldar floundering their way through the massive field of 44 players in Omaha, NE.  It'll also contain other thoughts on the tournament itself, including format, venue, swag bag, etc.

Myself and my friend CJ made the 9-hour drive down from Colorado (well, CJ lives in Wyoming, and we met up in Cheyenne, but... anyways...) through Nebraska.  We were looking to have some fun at a small, low-key tournament (also, cheap) before we went to the much larger/slightly more prestigious BoLSCON a couple weekends from now.  Before this GT, I'd gotten a grand total of 5 games in with the Dark Eldar, and hoped to get some good, competitive experience with them before the next, slightly bigger event.

A closer look at the exciting Nebraska landscape

Yep... 500 miles of this.

We got there, and checked out the Game Shoppe (probably the best-stocked gaming store I've ever seen in my life- they seriously had 4 Dark Angels Battleforces, and like 8 Aegis Defense batteries, among other things).  The 'pre-tournament' party they had advertised for there was clearly over, and a large MTG crowd had slunk their way in.  We grabbed a few battlefoam trays and went to our motel, eager to get some sleep for the morning!

Day 1 of the Bugeater:  The Battle for Hoth

Day 1 came quickly, and when we got to the high school it was being hosted in, we were met by a ton of High Schoolers, who gave us our grab bags, checked our names off the list, and told us our table numbers.  As it so happened, I was placed on Table 1 with another Adam.  My friend set his army up, as did I.  Here's a picture of CJ's army (he's the guy I drove in with):

This army has won several painting awards, as well as a few players choice awards.  Lots and lots of conversions- it's a Blood Pact army from the Gaunt's Ghosts series.  We both expected his army to be a big-time contender for best painted.  In fact, he brought it (despite the fact he knew it wasn't a competitive list) with the aim of winning best painted.

Here's my completed 1850 army, on a Battlefoam X-board.  List to follow :)

Alright, here's my list at 1850:

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, Grisly Trophies
5x Warriors w/ Blaster // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Grisly Trophies
3x Wracks // Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Grisly Trophies

6x Reaver Jetbikes w/ 2x Heat Lances
6x Reaver Jetbikes w/ 2x Heat Lances

Ravager w/ Flickerfield
Ravager w/ Flickerfield
Ravager w/ Flickerfield


A word about the missions:

Before we get to the scenarios, I thought I'd explain the 'Nova-style' format.  Essentially, every game has the following scoring criteria:  1) multiple objectives 2) table quarters as determined by Victory Points 3) Kill points (have to win by 3)

Each mission had a primary, secondary, and tertiary that each player needed to attempt to win with.  If you were able to win by primary, you still scored battle points for secondary/tertiary if you had achieved them, but it ensured you advanced to the next round with a win.  If you were tied in the primary, then it went down to secondary of whether or not you won.  If you were tied in both, then tertiary was used.  If tertiary was also a draw, then it went by straight battle points.

So, there was never a draw.  Every game had a clear winner and a clear loser.  This system was used thin the mass of players into a single undefeated player by the end of the tournament.  If you lost a game or two however, it was still possible to win the 'Sweepstakes Champion', which is the traditional 'best overall', which included battle points, painting, and sportsmanship.

I was excited for this format, and in hindsight, there isn't a whole lot I would change, to be honest.  Stay tuned for what I would change :)

Game 1:  Dark Eldar vs. (other Adam's) Old-School Marines

Look at all the cool old models!  The speeders you can't see very well are super old and awesome :)

His list:

Captain w/ Lightning Claw, Combi-Melta

Dreadnought w/ Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod

9x Tactical Marines w/ Combi-melta, Power Fist // Rhino (Captain goes here)
10x Tactical Marines w/ Combi-flamer, Melta Gun, Missile Launcher // Rhino
10x Tactical Marines w/ Combi-Flamer, Power Weapon, Melta Gun, Missile Launcher // Rhino
10x Tactical Marines w/ Combi-Melta, Flamer, Missile Launcher // Rhino
10x Tactical Marines w/ Combi-Melta, Flamer, Missile Launcher // Rhino

Speeder w/ Heavy Flamer, MM
Speeder w/ Heavy Flamer, MM
Speeder w/ Heavy Flamer, MM

Vindicator w/ Siege Shield
Vindicator w/ Siege Shield

The mission:

Primary: Table Quarters (as determined by Victory Points)
Secondary: Multiple Objectives (5, one in the center of each quarter, 1 in the middle)
Tertiary:  Kill Points (need to win by 3 or more)

Dawn of War

We rolled to see who went first, and I won, choosing to give first turn to my opponent.

Pregame thoughts:

Wow, that's a lot of power armor!  However, he had very little consistent long-range firepower, and I wanted him to get to go first, so that his Dreadnought would come in and get shot by my stuff.  This would be a good test to see how well my army did against 50 marines and 11 tanks.

I deployed my hellions with a Haemonculus, for some reason thinking that I wouldn't really need furious charge against this army.  Not sure what my thought process was on that.

Combat Drugs:  1 (3d6 pick the highest fleet- useless to my army in a very literal sense)

Marines Turn 1:

He rolled onto the board, and popped some serious smoke, while turbo-ing his speeders.  The Dreadnought landed, and flamed a few Hellions, who mostly didn't die because of FNP.

The battle for Hoth begins!  The Captain is in the middle one.

Dark Eldar Turn 1:

I came onto the board with a mixed attack, trying to stay out of range of the Vindicators.  I wanted the Reavers close enough to the dread to see and kill it, and the Ravagers were there as backups.  The goal for this turn was to kill or shut up most of his speeders.  It turned out that my Hellions didn't really belong there at mid-field, and I should have just jumped them on.  They just sat where they were.

Shooting was pretty decent- I was able to kill his Dreadnought with one pack of Reavers, his Drop Pod with another pack of them, and down one speeder, while stunning the other.

The speeder over there on the left is completely untouched, but the ones on the right have been touched :-p

As you can see, we were playing in the gym of a High School.  Wonder how long that thing's been up there :-p

Marines Turn 2:

I had expected my opponent to sit still and shoot missiles out of his hatch, but instead, he moved up, full speed ahead!  One squad of marines got out of their ride, and decided to rapid-fire my Hellions, presumably to bait them into the open.


His shooting did very little to me- his lone speeder on the left whiffed, and the rapid-firing didn't do much to a squad with a 3+ cover save and FNP.

Heh, next turn I need to kill some tanks!

Dark Eldar Turn 2:

I shifted my models, readying the Hellions for a charge into the marines.  The Venoms stayed in a pack and the guys inside of them prepared to shoot their blasters at his lone speeder on the left.  Reavers moved forward to attempt to pop his rhinos.  Since the Hellions were moving over to the right, I shifted my Incubi over to the left to provide a threat to his marine squads there.

In shooting, I was able to pop his Captain's rhino in the middle, and immobilize both the rhinos on the right of the table.  The venoms opened up on his Captain's squad, and when the smoke cleared, only the captain and three dazed-looking marines were left standing.  On the left side, my 3 blasters and a Dark Lance either failed to hit (2 of them) or rolled a 1 for pen (2 of them), and the speeder was left standing.  The speeder on the right was not so fortunate however, and I was able to shoot it down next to his other one.  Hellions fleeted up toward his other disembarked squad.

Combat ensued between the Hellions and the marines.  I rolled abysmally but still won combat by 1, having killed only a couple marines.  I opted not to hit and run :-p

Well, not sure how I feel about rolling 60+ attacks with hellions and only killing 2 marines.

That speeder was pure win this turn :)

Marines Turn 3:

Well, the marines on the right with an immobilized Rhino got out, ready to rapid-fire my Reavers, who I had left stupidly out of cover.  On the left flank, his other two squads piled out of their Rhinos, ready to rapid-fire my Venoms to death.  The speeder mostly stayed where he was, unafraid.  His captain + 3 dudes got a "2" to move through cover, and mostly stayed where they were.

Shooting was painful this turn- his tac squads burned down two of my Venoms, one squad of warriors pinned themselves, despite rerolls from Grisly Trophies.  His tac marines on the right also killed the Reaver squad down to a single, brave man who passed his leadership.

In combat, the Hellions again rolled poorly, and drew combat.  They decided to hit and run, and so they did, easy as that :)

The Hellions didn't get a very good Hit and Run roll, so it looks like they're nearly still in combat.

Dark Eldar Turn 3:

The Incubi raider moved forward and vomited up it's contents, ready to multi-assault the marines who had disembarked on the left.  The Hellions moved in for Round 2, and everything else just shifted around, ready to shoot his dudes up.  The full reaver squad turboed over his captain/squad, and were able to kill the rest of the squad, the exception being the Captain, who had 2 wounds remaining.

In shooting, I targeted his Vindicators, and immobilized/weapon destroyed both of them.  I also killed a few rhinos (one on the left, and an immobilized one on the right).  Hellions shot and killed a couple marines before combat, but not enough to let him use Combat Tactics and run away.  The speeder on the left remained alive, but was stunned this round.

Combat saw the Baron charge his lone rhino on the left who hadn't moved, and multi-assault the rest of the marines on that side.  The Baron killed the Rhino, and the other Hellions killed a lot of marines, who took more casualties from No Retreat.  The Incubi multi-assaulted into his two tactical squads on the left, killing about 5 marines.  Both squads broke, but the Incubi could only catch one of them.

Things are looking grim for the marines- most of them are in combat w/ Dark Eldar at this point, and the captain is all alone...

Marines Turn 4:

He did the only thing he could- charge the wounded captain into the Hellions.  Everything else he had was either dead or immobilized.

Combat was a bit anti-climatic.  The Captain epically charged into the Baron, who got to strike first, and caused 2 wounds.  He rolled:

Nice for the Baron, not so awesome for the poor, unlucky captain.

The other combats resolved, with the Hellions winning again, but barely, and hitting/running, and the Incubi whiffing fantastically, only killing a single marine, whose squad stayed put.

At this point, the Hellions had Furious Charge, and decided to go for the immobilized vehicles.

Rest of the Game:

I asked if he wanted to keep playing, and he said for me to take my turn, and then we'd call it.

So I did, killing both Vindicators, all the marines left, and leaving only one very dazed-looking speeder over on the left, who I never did manage to kill.

Results:

Table Quarters:  4-0 Dark Eldar advantage
Objectives:  4-0 Dark Eldar advantage
Kill Points:  13-2 (or so) Dark Eldar advantage

Win for the Dark Eldar!  I ended up with 25/25 total points.

After-game thoughts:

Adam was a really nice guy- I think I enjoyed this game the most out of all of them, to be honest.  This isn't a slight against any of my other opponents- they were all really awesome players, and I would happily play any of them again.  Still, this guy was just a little better than the rest.  Plus we had the same name.  :)

I think he made a mistake by jumping the speeders up so far to start with, and putting the Dread where I could see it in Night Fight Turn 1.  I feel like he should have stayed in his boxes until he had to get out, and soften me up.  Still, he was being aggressive, which I have trouble faulting anyone for :-p

I feel like I made a few mistakes this game, chief of those being that I deployed the Hellions turn 1, and didn't do my fun shenanigans to get Furious Charge early in the game.  Not sure what I was thinking there, to be honest.  Still, I played as well as I needed, and got the win.

Man of the Match:

Hm, probably the Baron.  He killed a Rhino, Vindicator, and the Captain all by his lonesome, and probably a few marines too.  Most of my units performed as they should, so the credit should go to the army itself, realistically.


It was time to eat, so we went to the eating area, where the High School Debate Team had 'meal deals' ready for us- $6 for 2 pieces of (good) pizza, as well as some cheese sticks, soda, and cookies.  Very cool, I liked being able to eat at location quite a bit.  It's always stressful to go to a strange place and try to find lunch in the city, but be back in time for round 2.  I hope it's like this again next year :)

We ate here.  lol

The Bugeater was seeding the matches, so with my full points in Round 1, I would be paired with the lowest point win from last round.  And yes, I would remain on Table 1: Land of the Tauntauns and Wampas (Hoth for those of you who don't know what those creatures are, lol).

Game 2:  Dark Eldar vs. David's Space Wolves

His list (Ragnar's Claw!):

Ragnar Blackmane
Rune Priest w/ Jaws of the World Wolf, Living Lightning, 'can cast both' upgrade (went with Drop Pod)

2x Wolf Guard w/ 2x Frost Blades (went with Grey Hunter squads)
5x Wolf Guard w/ Terminator Armor, various awesome power weapons (went w/ Ragnar in the Raider)

8x Grey Hunters w/ Mark of the Wulfen, Meltagun // Drop Pod
5x Grey Hunters w/ Mark of the Wulfen, Meltagun // Razorback w/ TLLC
10x Grey Hunters w/ Mark of the Wulfen, Power Fist, 2x Plasma Gun

Land Speeder w/ Multi-Melta (no flamer)

Land Raider (Godhammer-pattern) w/ Multi-Melta, Extra Armor
Vindicator

The mission:

Primary:  Multiple Objectives (4, placed by the players)
Secondary: Kill Points (need to win by 3 or more)
Tertiary:  Table Quarters (as determined by Victory Points)

Spearhead Deployment

We rolled off to see who would go first, and I won the roll, taking first turn.

Pregame thoughts:

Well, it's not the 'standard' Longfang shooty list that we normally see in tournaments, but his Terminators w/ Ragnar to lead them are pretty manly- I wouldn't want them to even think about touching my Hellions.  I was happy to see that one of his squads was just footslogging, which gave my Venoms a target to go to work on immediately.

The goal was to bait his Terminators out of his Raider, then Lance them to death.  The Incubi would try to kill the guys in his Pod, and then I'd go from there.  Assuming I kept first turn :-p

He rolled to seize, and failed.

Combat Drugs:  '5'- +1 Attack

Dark Eldar Turn 1:

I shifted my vehicles around to get a good view of his foot-slogging Grey Hunters who were on a hill to the right.  The Ravagers decided to do their best to kill his Raider Turn 1, though he had placed it in a way that it would be difficult to shoot him without cover.  One squad of Reavers turboed up to the top left, and the other squad turboed over to the bottom right corner.  The bait (such as it was) was set.

Shooting took a toll on his exposed Grey Hunters, killing 8 of the 10, who failed leadership, but didn't run too far. I was also able to to kill his Vindicator's gun, and shake his Raider.  Not a shabby turn of shooting, all told.

Hm, the Raider was shaken by me, but not ... stirred?

Wolves Turn 1:

His pod came in on the top left corner, ready to target the Hellions with Jaws AND Murderous Hurricane.  Have to admit, I hadn't read his list in-depth enough to notice that he could do that.  Whoops!  His Terminators decided to get an easy kill, and rocketed over to the exposed Reavers on the left and disembarked.

Poor sacrificial lambs, lol.

His shooting started off on a bad note- the Rune Priest attempted Murderous Hurricane on the Hellions, and rolled a 12, for perils.  Then he cast Jaws, and rolled a 2, for another perils.  The Baron and 3 others passed their initiative tests, and the Priest died to a terrible headache.

Poor blighter.  Can't say I've ever seen two perils in a row like that.  Hm...

He continued shooting me, and killed a Venom, whose crew passed pinning.  He also killed a Ravager.

In combat, my poor jetbikes were eaten alive, as was their wont. I almost felt... evil... sacrificing them like that.

Well, the Incubi on the left are excited for the Drop Pod nearby.

Dark Eldar Turn 2:

I needed to kill those Terminators while they were out of cover and out of the Land Raider!  As such, I shifted my various Lances and the Hellions up, outside of 12", but within 18".  The Incubi bum-rushed the drop-pod squad.

Shooting was good- I killed all of the Terminators and put a wound or two on Ragnar.  I also killed the remaining two wolves on the hill, and wrecked the Lazerback.  The speeder was stunned.

The Incubi rolled slightly above average and killed all 9 of the Grey Hunters in their pod, consolidating out of Ragnar's assault range.

The overview:  a healthy Land Raider, and the squad from the Razorback is still technically full.  Otherwise, I've killed a lot of stuff, especially this turn.

Here's the Incubi where the Grey Hunters used to be.

Wolves Turn 2: 

He didn't have a whole lot he could do.  His weaponless Vindicator tried to tank-shock a Ravager, but failed to hurt it.  His Grey Hunters on the right decided to rapid-fire my Reavers.  Ragnar got back into his ride, afraid of being shot up next turn, and nowhere to go with his awesomeness.

His shooting killed a couple Hellions, and the Grey Hunters annihilated the Reavers on the right.

Gotta try to kill that Raider next turn...

Dark Eldar Turn 3:

 My Hellions jumped over to kill the un-moved speeder, while the Ravagers shifted over to shoot the Raider.  Venoms lined up shots at the Grey Hunters taking refuge near the wreck of their downed Razorback.

Shooting shook the Raider, but I couldn't get anything to go.  I did manage to kill 4 of the Grey Hunters, however.

The Hellions charged the speeder and exploded it.

Not as much awesomeness went on this round, but it was enough.

Wolves Turn 3:

He did the one thing he could- got Ragnar out to charge the Hellions, hoping to live through their attacks and break them against all odds.  The Vindicator shuffled around, having failed to ram me this time, he didn't do a whole lot with it this turn.

His shooting brought down a couple more Hellions.

Ragnar charged in, and promptly died, killing a couple more Hellions with his I6 attacks before we went down.

Hellions are all spread out now from their consolidate move.

Dark Eldar Turn 4:

I moved the Hellions over to his sole remaining Grey Hunters, and shifted everything to shoot again.

In shooting, I killed the Vindicator, and the Land Raider.

Poor soon-to-be slaves...

We called it here, as he had only his Drop Pod remaining.

Results:

Objectives:  4-0 Dark Eldar advantage
Kill Points:  10-4 (or so) Dark Eldar advantage
Table Quarters:  4-0 Dark Eldar advantage


Win for the Dark Eldar!  I ended up with 25/25 total points.

After-game thoughts:

David was a really nice guy, and I enjoyed playing his non-traditional wolves quite a bit!  I don't think he was prepared for the volume of fire I was able to put out.  It also didn't help matters that he got out of his ride so early- had the Ragnar squad charged the Hellions, the game would have been quite a bit different- at the very least, the Incubi would have been forced to try killing Ragnar's squad, leaving the Podded Grey Hunters alone.


My friend CJ played him in the next round, and said he was complaining about the crazy stuff Dark Eldar could do, while still maintaining that I was a nice guy.  Heh, I guess I agree to an extent- to someone who doesn't know the Dark Eldar book very well, there are a lot of crazy things that are possible, and most people haven't seen the Baron + Hellions do their thing.  I enjoyed the game though, and he took the loss very well.

I had again gotten full points, and I would remain on Hoth for another round...

Game 3:  Dark Eldar vs. Jorge's Space Wolves

His list:

Wolf Lord in Terminator Armor w/ Wolftooth Necklace, Storm Shield, Frost Axe

8x Wolf Scouts w/ Mark of the Wulfen
4x Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor, w/ various armaments // Land Raider (God-hammer Pattern) w/ Multi-melta, Extra Armor

10x Grey Hunters w/ 2x Melta Guns, Mark of the Wulfen // Rhino
10x Grey Hunters w/ 2x Melta Guns, Mark of the Wulfen // Rhino
10x Grey Hunters w/ 2x Plasma Guns
5x Grey Hunters

6x Long Fangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers Extra Wolf Guard w/ Cyclone Missile Launcher
Vindicator
Predator w/ Heavy Bolters/Autocannon


The mission:

Primary:  Multiple Objectives (3, each even dispersed along the center of the table)
Secondary: Kill Points (need to win by 3 or more)
Tertiary:  Table Quarters (as determined by Victory Points)

Pitched Battle

We rolled to see who went first, and I won, choosing to go first

Pregame Thoughts:

Well, this list is definitely moving towards the spammy longfang awesomeness we see at the top tables today, but he still had a Raider w/ the Termie-star aboard.  I wanted first turn so that I could shut the longfangs up, but he had way too much stuff for me to be able to kill turn 1.  Good management of target priority would see me through this game, thought I.  My army was faster and more reactive than his (than most armies, to be honest), and I thought that at the very least I could control table quarters.  I was happy to have first turn against this list though.  heh.

Staying away from the Terminators with the Hellions was the first order of business, while killing off his 'soft' longfangs with the various splinter shots I had.  Afterward, disabling the transports would also be good, but making sure I was mobile enough to grab objectives at the end was key, and trumped pretty much everything else.

This is our deployment.  I spread my guys out, since the objectives were also spread out.  He chose to castle all of his stuff on the top right corner, nearly ceding me both table quarters and objectives straight away.  His longfangs are on his hill there.

He then rolled to seize the initiative.  I held my breath and:

Well, this game just got a whole lot harder.

Wolves Turn 1:

He moved his Land Raider forward 6", ready to split fire at me.  His two Grey Hunter squads in Rhinos surged forward, the front one popping smoke, the other one hiding in cover.  Everything else more or less stayed static.

His shooting didn't hurt me a whole lot, actually.  I had lots of cover saves, and made about average rolls.  In the end, I think he shook a couple of my vehicles, and killed a couple Reavers on the left, but the majority of my flotilla remained functional.  whew!

I'm not in position to bring everything to bear on his castle this turn, but most of my stuff is ready to go!

Dark Eldar Turn 1:

I shifted my stuff, mostly forward, keeping the Hellions out of harm's way.  The Ravager and Reavers on my right both turbo-boosted forward, trying to get back in the fight :-p

Shooting was disappointing for me- I weapon destroyed the Land Raider (took a Las, since they're twin-linked and longer ranged) and killed a total of two longfangs, after a turn of incredible fail for my dice, and great rolling on his part.  I did manage to kill the Wolf Guard w/ cyclone launchers though.  The reavers on the left rolled snakeeyes to hit with their Melta Lances.  He rolled for morale on the longfangs, failed it, and ran a little ways.  He would need to move them next turn to be able to fire them.  So, a little ray of sunshine :)

I forgot to use my assault move for the Reavers, so they were in the big open, ready to get shot up by trigger-happy Grey Hunters.

You can see his Long Fangs nearly exited the table.  Alas, for they didn't.

Wolves Turn 2:

His scouts came in from behind and got ready to ruin my previously stunned Ravager's day.

He moved his Longfangs back on the hill, and continued to sit in his corner with the other two Grey Hunter squads.  The Raider moved forward another 6", ready to barrage me with all it's mighty firepower :-p  Grey Hunters in the lead Rhino got out, and got ready to rapid-fire the in-the-open Reavers.

The shooting this turn wasn't too intense.  I don't remember this turn too well, but from the picture, none of my vehicles were actually wrecked, so I must have fared pretty well, despite failing every single 5+ flickerfield save this game.  The Grey Hunters crushed the poor Reavers with their AP5 shooting. 

The scouts assaulted and wrecked my Ravager however.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do about them, to be honest.

Notice the scouts in the back there, by the ruined Ravager.

Dark Eldar Turn 3:

Well, I wanted to keep him in the two left table quarters, since even if I took a drubbing kill-point-wise, I could still win the game.  So, I acted as such.

This turn was also somewhat of a weird one for me- I decided to see what my FNP-less Wracks could do in close combat, so I decided to charge them in against the Scouts, after I had softened them up a bit.  The Incubi got out of their ride, ready to assault the Grey Hunters who had gotten out.  Reavers on the right moved forward to get a good shot on the Vindicator.

Shooting didn't go very well- he made a lot of saves on his Scouts, and I only managed to kill 5 of them, so the Wracks/Haemonculus would have a tough job to do, especially with the Wulfen model still living.  A few of the Longfangs also died, but he again made more than his share of saves.  Everything I shot at the Raider mega-whiffed.  The Reavers did manage to kill the weapon off the Vindicator, and immobilize it.

The Incubi charged in, and killed quite a few of the Grey Hunters, losing a single man in return.  The Hunters ran, and the Incubi failed to catch them, randomly, but stayed within 6" to keep them running.  The Wracks vs. Scouts combat went strangely- the wracks killed 2 scouts, and the scouts killed 2 wracks, leaving a single wrack and a single Haemonculus in combat with the wulfen model.

Pretty meh turn all around, if you ask me.

Wolves Turn 3:

This was his turn of action.  He moved his Raider a full 12" and disembarked the Termi-star next to my Raider in the corner, ready to charge it to death.  His other stuff stayed static,  ready to shoot me to death.  And shoot me to death they would.

This turn, he killed all of my remaining Ravagers, as well as killing enough of my Reavers that they ran away 16", lol.  He also shook a few of my Venoms.

In combat, the Terminators failed to kill my lightning-quick Raider, but they stunned it, so it wouldn't be able to move next turn.  The Wulfen scout killed my last remaining Wrack, but the Haemonculus finished him off.  Not the most efficient combat ever, but at least I didn't have to worry about the scouts anymore. 

Heh, this game is a mess- I can't seem to kill any of his stuff.  At least I'm keeping him contained to the two quarters.

Dark Eldar Turn 4:

Well, it was time for the Hellions to act out.  They jumped over, ready to assault his Rhino, as well as finish off his running squad.  They spread out big time though, so as to include the immobilized Vindicator in their multi-assault.  The Venoms shifted away from his Terminators, who would surely be moving toward them next turn.

Shooting wasn't very convincing- I don't think anything of note really happened to him.

In assault, I managed to kill most of his grey hunters (but not all of them), immobilize/stun/weapon destroy/shake his full rhino, and finish off the Vindicator.  His full rhino was now completely surrounded, since I assaulted the Incubi into it as well.  The terminators finished off the poor raider in the corner. 

Yep, at this point, there's no way I'm winning on Kill Points.

Wolves Turn 5:

 This would be our last turn, due to time constraints.  He started by tank-shocking the Incubi and making them fail their leadership, fleeing. This left room for his Grey Hunters to get out of their ride and get ready to shoot at my Venoms.  The Termi-star moved forward, but would likely be outside of charge range.

His shooting took down 2 venoms, and immobilized a third.  Luckily, one of them remained untouched, and thus would be able to turbo onto objectives next turn.

The Hellions finished off the Grey Hunters they had been fighting, and consolidated toward the center of the table.

Big mess here- my forces are in big-time disarray.

Dark Eldar Turn 5:

I kept it brief, knowing there was no real reason to kill his stuff since I wouldn't be able to catch up on Kill Points.

So, I moved the Hellions onto the center objective while contesting the one on the left and staying in the upper left table quarter.  The depleted Reavers turboed into the top right quarter, and my lone mobile venom turboed into the bottom right quarter.

The game ended.

Results:

Objectives:  1-0 Dark Eldar advantage
Kill Points: 9-3 (or thereabouts?) Space Wolf Advantage

Table Quarters:  3-1 Dark Eldar advantage



Win for the Dark Eldar!  I ended up with 18/25 total points

After-game thoughts:

Wow, I just couldn't kill his stuff!  I had plenty of opportunity, but he made most of his saves, and even the combats I knew I should win (like the Incubi vs. Grey Hunters), he was able to escape and take a lot more to kill than I was able to.


That being said, some games are just like that- I was able to keep the game competitive simply by keeping him contained to a single objective/side of the board.  I was happy with the way I played this mission, though it was a bit depressing to fail every single flickerfield save.  This goes to show that while it's a nice upgrade, you can't at all depend on it.

Overall, I felt like he should have reserved his other two Grey Hunter squads, and tried to walk onto the other two objectives later.  This would have forced my Hellions to camp out there in wait, instead of reinforcing the 'main' battle, though I suppose I could make the argument that the Hellions would have won that fight pretty handily.

Jorge was a really great opponent- we finished on great terms, and I think we'd both like a rematch :)

Man of the Match:  

Hm, not a lot of guys to give this one to, so I think I'll instead break with the tradition of giving it to my own guys, and give it to Jorge's Land Raider, who even with one las cannon down, killed a ton of my vehicles, while resisting every single Lance shot I directed his way without even popping smoke once.

So ended Day 1 of the Bugeater GT.

Thoughts on my play for Day 1:

Well, I thought I did good- I was able to win all three of my games, two of which were against Wolves, who have a hard time even contemplating constructing a bad list.

I thought I played well, but I had a lot of sloppy things, such as forgetting assault moves for my Reavers, or not giving my guys both Pain Tokens at the start of the game.  These things will happen when you play a list you've only run a few times, and never in a competitive context.

Going into day 2, I thought (erroneously) that I would retain the top seed, and that I may again be forced to vie for supremacy on Hoth :)  As it was, there was one 'Nid guy who had gotten the full 75 points for day 1, and the 'Top Table' was moved to Table 2, to avoid me playing on Hoth anymore :-p

There were a total of 6 undefeated players going into Day 2:  Dark Eldar (me), Space Wolves (longfang spam), Double-lash Chaos, 'Nids, Mech Imperial Guard, and Hulksmash's Dark Angels (36 Terminators w/ 14 missile shots).

I was also pretty nervous for the missions on Day 2- the first two primary objectives were Kill Points, and we saw how my army does in Kill Points.  I had no idea at all who I would be playing though.

We could see this shop from our hotel.

Heh, Nebraksa FTW

Here are the 'gaming-relevant' things from our swag bags:  a cube of dice, 5 clay objectives, a Bugeater laser pointer, and what I'm assuming is a Warmachine multi-role template (the flamer is clearly not Games Workshop)

You can see at the top, they engraved our names in the template :)

Day 2:  Battle of the Heavyweights

I woke up day 2, ready to take care of business.  The night before had been a fail, eating at an overpriced, annoying Casino on the river.  Terrible service there, don't go!  (Harrahs)

Game 4:  Dark Eldar vs. Cory Gage's Space Wolves

His List:

Logan Grimnar
Rune Priest w/ Wolf Tail Talisman, Murdrious Hurricane, Living Lightning

10x Wolf Guard w/ Terminator Armor, 2x Cyclone Missile Launchers, various armaments

10x Grey Hunters w/ 2x Melta Gun, Mark of the Wulfen // Rhino
10x Grey Hunters w/ 2x Melta Gun, Mark of the Wulfen // Rhino
10x Grey Hunters w/ 2x Melta Gun, Mark of the Wulfen // Rhino

6x Long Fangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
6x Long Fangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
6x Long Fangs w/ 4x Missile Launchers, Heavy Bolter

The mission:

Primary:  Kill Points (need to win by 3 or more)
Secondary: Table Quarters (as determined by Victory Points)
Tertiary: Multiple Objectives (5, one in the center of each quarter, and one in the center of the board)

Pitched Battle Deployment

We rolled off to see who would go first, and I won the roll, taking first turn.

First, look at the table I had to play on: 

Heh, zero area terrain in either deployment zone.  I essentially split my forces into two prongs, since deploying them in the middle not knowing where he would deploy would have been madness.

Here's a closer look at his deployment- termiestar in the front, longfangs in the back, Hunters sitting there in support.

Pregame Thoughts:

Well, I needed to kill his longfangs.  That was the main thing, I figured.  Logan would be giving the Rune Priest and 4 of the missile launchers Tank Hunter, giving Cory a ton of quality shooting from the Star.  However, that squad wasn't too likely to die easily, so the Longfangs would be targeted first.

From his incredibly defensive deployment, I knew that I could win the mission if we could get a draw on Kill Points.  the objectives on my quarter would be too easy to hold, as would those two quarters, and I could flood one of his own quarters with my guys.  So, the goal was to draw on Kill Points, and win by secondary/tertiary objectives.

Also, I hoped he would fail in his attempt to seize the initiative.

He rolled it, and I again held my breath.  He got:

Well, you can't see it too well, and sorry for that.  But it was a 6- for the second game in a row, shooty Space Wolves have stolen the initiative from me.

Combat Drugs:  "2"- +1 weapon skill for Hellions and Reavers


Wolves Turn 1:

His turns didn't take very long.  Mostly he just shot at my tanks, and a few templates at my bunched-up Hellions.  He immobilized one of my leftmost Ravagers, who would be useless the rest of the game.  Otherwise, everything I had was mostly unhurt- I had a lot of cover saves, and he didn't focus fire on the vehicles as much as I had expected.  One of his Fang squads was out of range too :)


Sorry, no picture this turn, it didn't really warrant one, to be honest.

Dark Eldar Turn 1:

I moved everything up a ton.  The Incubi turbo + 2d6'd their way close to his lines, and everything got ready to shoot.

The venoms on the right were only in range of his Terminators, and so shot and killed 1.  The Venoms on the left shot and killed almost all of a single Longfang squad, and the Reavers on the left moved forward 12", killing a couple more Longfangs from another squad.

The depleted Longfang squad failed their 9 Ld. and ran off the table.  Woot!

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar:  1 (Longfang squad)
Wolves: 0

Sorry it's so blurry- the dark-eldary looking blurs are mine :-p

Wolves Turn 2:

He shifted his two rightmost rhinos 6", so as to shoot my Incubi Raider with melta.  Everything else stayed static.

His shooting wasn't super effectual, though he didn't really roll poorly.  He concentrated firepower on the Incubi Raider, and eventually brought it down.  He also exploded one of my Ravagers, leaving me with 1 functional Ravager left.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar:  1 (Longfang squad)
Wolves: 2 (Raider, Ravager)

The raider there in the back middle is actually dead- I just hadn't removed it yet, apparently.

Dark Eldar Turn 2:

Well, I needed to keep doing what I could to his Longfangs, and take away what mobility I could, generally keeping up in Kill Points.

As such, I moved the Hellions forward aggressively, to assault his lead Rhino.  The Incubi moved into some cover.  Everything else got ready to shoot more.

The venoms whittled down his untouched Longfang squad as well as his slightly depleted one, bringing them both down quite a bit.  The Reaver squad on the left finished one of the Longfang squads off, gaining a Pain Token.

The Hellions fleeted, then charged and wrecked the lead Rhino, though the Hunters inside passed their pinning check.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar:  3 (Longfangs, Longfangs, Rhino)
Wolves: 2 (Raider, Ravager)

An overview- the Reavers this game really mined that central piece of terrain for all it was worth with Jump/Shoot/Jump

You'll notice I made sure to keep the hellions an easy 12" away from the Terminators.

Wolves Turn 3:

Well, Cory took my bait- I wanted both squads of Grey Hunters out of their rides on the right, and out he took them:

They look a little beleaguered don't they?  Especially with the Grimnar +1 attack bubble.

Cory's Termiestar shifted a little, and the rhino on the left moved forward some as well.

Shooting went better for Cory this turn, wiping out the Incubi, as well as killing a venom to the left.  The Hunters shot pistols at the Hellions, killing 5 of them (remember, they do have FNP), and I took my morale check, hoping to fail.  And...

fail I did!  

The Hellions ran away 16" and right next to a vehicle with Grisly Trophies:)

Sidenote:

Cory seemed to think that his Grey Hunters would have owned the Hellions (which they may very well have), but keep in mind that I was fine with losing them- the Hellions would have killed a lot of Grey Hunters on the way out, and the main thing was to draw both squads of Grey Hunters out of their rides.  This made my mission much easier, but I don't think it would have lost me the game by itself.  He was a good sport about it though, especially in spite of what he perceived to be a game-winner for him.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar:  3 (Longfangs, Longfangs, Rhino)
Wolves: 4 (Raider, Ravager, Venom, Incubi)

You can see the Hellions ran away far far away.  Woot.

Dark Eldar Turn 3:

Hellions rallied!

Well, the guys I had left who could shoot got ready to shoot at his exposed Grey Hunters.  Hellions shifted their 3", lol.

First I targeted the two exposed Rhinos, and wrecked the left one, exploded the right one, killing one Grey Hunter in the explosion.  Then, I set everything I had to fire on a single Grey Hunter squad, killing them to a man.  I also killed a single dude of his Longfang squad.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar:  6 (Longfangs, Longfangs, Rhino, Rhino, Rhino, Grey Hunters)
Wolves: 4 (Raider, Ravager, Venom, Incubi)

He's going to need to be a lot more aggressive with his guys at this point- killing 4 unanswered Kill Points.

Wolves Turn 4:

Sensing he needed more Kill Points, Cory did what he could to shoot more- he detached the Rune Priest from the Terminators in the open.  The rest of his line moved a little bit forward, though the two remaining Grey Hunter squads hunkered down where they were.

His shooting killed my other Venom on the left as well as the Ravager on my left as well.




Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar:  6 (Longfangs, Longfangs, Rhino, Rhino, Rhino, Grey Hunters)
Wolves: 6 (Raider, Ravager, Venom, Incubi, Ravager, Venom)

The Ravager on the left is actually dead, I think.  At least, I can't find it in my picture for next turn, heh.

Dark Eldar Turn 4:

I shifted guys around, to make sure I'd be able to hold the maximum number of objectives, just in case.  The Hellions went over to the right to get a good looksy at the Grey Hunters over there.

In shooting, I tried to kill his 'all alone' Rune Priest, but failed horrifically.  The Grey Hunters on the right ended up taking a ton of casualties, but passed their 8 Ld.  I also plinked away at his Longfangs- one more turn and they'd be dead too, hopefully.

Sorry, this is also blurry.  It's also the final picture, since we were running out of time.

Rest of the Game:

Cory shot at the Reavers on the right and killed them, along with another Venom, while I finally killed his Rune Priest and Longfangs, and almost his Grey Hunters.  We rolled to see if the game ended, and...

the game ended.


Final Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar:  8 (Longfangs, Longfangs, Rhino, Rhino, Rhino, Grey Hunters, Rune Priest, Longfangs)
Wolves: 8 (Raider, Ravager, Venom, Incubi, Ravager, Venom, Reavers, Venom)



Results:

Kill Points: 8-8, no advantage

Table Quarters:  3-1 Dark Eldar advantage
Objectives:  4-0 Dark Eldar advantage 


Win for the Dark Eldar!  I ended up with 11/25 total points.


After-game thoughts:  I was happy to have done so well against this missile-heavy list.  This list had all the things Wolves are good at doing:  lots of S8/S9 shots, with good combat, and great troops.  Cory was a good player, and once we were all deployed, he made good decisions.

I think that Cory wasn't really aggressive enough- he had enough guns to wither my flotilla nicely, but after a few rounds of me cutting deeply into his fire base with splinter weapons, he wasn't able to keep up- depending on a single objective to win the game put him in a risky situation.

Had the Hellions been assaulted instead of failing their leadership, I'm still of the opinion that I would have won- he'd have had 2 extra kill points on me, but one squad would have been hurt, and I would have torrented it off the board as I did the next turn- the Hellions only added a couple extra shots into them, shots that had the same effect as if they had been in close combat earlier.  The rest of the game the Hellions were mostly irrelevant, and didn't get another kill point.  As such, I think I still would have won.  And who knows- if the Hellions had been charged, they might have stuck around, and been able to hit-and-run out.  Who knows? /shrug

At the end of the tournament, I had a 29/30 sportsmanship.  I think Cory was the one who dinged me, but I didn't get the impression that he thought I was a tool or anything- I hope not anyways.  If he had had more issues, I'm sure he would given me worse than a 4/5, heh.  I enjoyed playing him, and he made a lot of good decisions, playing well.  I would certainly play him again :)

Man of the Match:  Reaver Jetbikes.  These guys killed a ton of stuff, and really harassed the slower Wolf army.  I was very happy with how they ended up doing!

Going into Round 5:

There were only 3 undefeated players left:  Me, Hulksmash, and the Double-lash Chaos player.  It was determined that the guy with the best record would play someone else from the field.  As it turned out, Hulksmash had barely passed me up on Battle Points, and got to play a guy who was 2-2, while I was squared off with

Game 5:  Dark Eldar vs. Tony Staub's Chaos Space Marines!

His list (from memory- sorry, lost the last two game's lists):

Demon Prince w/ Mark of Slannesh, Lash of Submission, Wings
Demon Prince w/ Mark of Slannesh, Lash of Submission, Wings

9x Berzerkers w/ Skull Champion, Power Fist // Rhino
9x Berzerkers w/ Skull Champion, Power Fist // Rhino
8x Plague Marines w/ Champion, Power Fist, 2x Melta Guns // Rhino
8x Plague Marines w/ Champion, Power Fist, 2x Melta Guns // Rhino

2x Obliterators
2x Obliterators
2x Obliterators

So... a pretty standard double-lash list.

The mission:

Primary:  Kill Points (need to win by 3 or more)
Secondary: Multiple Objectives (4, players placed them)
Tertiary: Table Quarters (as determined by Victory Points)

Dawn of War Deployment

Here's his army!

We rolled for first turn, and I won, opting to go first.

I decided not to deploy anything, and he deployed as such:

2 empty (Plague Marine) rhinos, and a Demon Prince

Pregame thoughts:

Well, the plan is to do the same thing as the last game- keep even with Kill Points, and try to control objectives and table quarters.  It looked like by his deployment, that he was planning on being aggressive, and I needed to be wary of that.

My goal was to kill his Demon Princes ASAP, and his Oblits.  If both could be killed quickly, the cult troops shouldn't be much problem.  I needed to guard my Hellions against Lash as well.

He rolled to seize the initiative, but failed.

Combat Drugs:  "6".... extra pain token- therefore, the Haemonculus went with the Incubi

Dark Eldar Turn 1:

Well, everything moved on, mostly turbo-boosting, but trying to stay outside of 'easy markerlight' range.

Shooting yielded zero sightings despite rerolls, and it was his turn.

Heh, I have a lot of models, don't I?

Chaos Turn 1:

Tony walked onto the board with his stuff, the Plagues got into their rhinos, and the Demon Prince moved forward to lash my Reavers.

The spotlights failed to see anything, but the Demon Prince spotted the Reavers, dragging them in, and assaulting them.  They actually rolled all 12 hits (on a 4+) and 4 wounds (on a 6+), but Tony saved all 4, and killed 3 in return.  The Reavers somehow mustered up the resolve to stick around though, putting a big, big kink in my plans.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 0
Chaos Marines: 0

Those brave little fellas messed up my game plan something fierce :-p

Dark Eldar Turn 2:

The goal this turn was to insta-death as many Oblits as possible, and also kill his 'in-the-open' Lash Prince.  The Hellions got it into their heads to save the Reavers from the other Lash Prince, and moved thusly.

Shooting was bad for me- Tony made the first 9 saves on his Demon Prince from Splinter fire, and I was forced to shoot some Dark Lances into it to finally put it down.  As such, his Oblits only got like 3 lance wounds put onto them, of which he saved all 3 on his 5+ invuln.  Yikes.  I was even rolling well- he just saved a lot this turn.  Ah well, that's how it goes sometimes.  The Reavers outside of combat got a good bead on the Plague Marine rhino in the back, and exploded the vehicle.  The Raider w/ Incubi moved over to the right to counter the Berzkers there.

In assault, the Hellions charged the Demon Prince, put 2 wounds on it, the Prince put 1 wound on the Reavers, and the Hellions hit-and-ran away, leaving the Prince in combat with the remaining Reavers.

I thought it was all very smooth, and I'm very proud of this maneuver.  However, as you'll see, this is where I made my biggest mistake of the game.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 2 (Rhino, Demon Prince)
Chaos Marines: 0

It's a little blurry, but I'll tell you what the Hellions did- they got an 8" hit and run, but a couple of my models I failed to move the full 8", out of laziness or inexperience or what, I'm not sure.  But the fact remained that the beginning of the Hellion squad was easily within charge range of the Berzerkers and the Plague Marines, when they didn't have to be.  Very foolish mistake on my part.

Chaos Turn 2:

He disembarked the Berzerkers on the left, and got the Plague Marines out of their crater, ready to charge the Hellions.  The Berzerker rhino on the right tried to ram the Incubi raider, but I rolled my dodge save.

In shooting, the oblits managed to immobilize two of my Ravagers, and immobilize/weapon destroy the Incubi Raider.

The Berzerkers and Plagues charged in, and I was able to kill 2 berzerkers (he rolled well for saves again :-p).  In return, the Hellions lost a lot of guys, failed morale, and ... the Plague Marines caught them of all things.  Not a great start, lol.  The Reavers were also destroyed by the Prince.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 2 (Rhino, Demon Prince)
Chaos Marines:3 (Reavers, Hellions, Baron)

He also got very good consolidation rolls, heh.  Plague marines in my grill bigtime right now.

Dark Eldar Turn 3:

The game was getting crazy.  I hadn't expected at all to lose the Hellions, and props to Tony for taking advantage of my mistake the way he did.  I needed some sort of equalizer, or this game would be over pretty darn quick.

The remaining Reavers moved over to the right, to pop the Berzerker rhino.  The Incubi... forgot to get out.  I really meant to get them out- no sense in letting the Berzerkers telefrag the Incubi by surrounding my immobilized vehicle and wrecking it, no matter if I was able to destroy the Berzerker rhino or not this turn.  The venoms all backed up 6", ready to pour some fire into his Plagues with their Blasters.

Shooting commenced, and I killed the Berzerker Rhino with the Reavers.  Realizing my folly of not taking my Incubi out, I compounded that folly and shot all my Venoms into that squad instead of the berzerkers directly across from me.  I had the misguided notion that the Berzerkers would surround and destroy the Raider, not remembering that the Reavers would get their combat move and therefore be able to protect the Incubi.  You'll see in a picture what I mean.  I killed all but 4 Berzerkers in that Rhino.

Other shooting allowed me to insta-death two full squads of Obliterators, and the Demon Prince.

The bikes moved their combat move in, to protect the Incubi.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Rhino, Rhino, Oblits, Oblits, Demon Prince, Demon Prince)

Chaos Marines:3 (Reavers, Hellions, Baron)

The overview- hopefully the Plagues don't get a good move through terrain roll.  lol

See... the Reavers moved to block the Berzerkers access to that side of the Raider.  They could have easily made a 'non-chargable bubble' around one side of the Raider that the Berzerkers couldn't have gotten to.  Therefore, I should have shot the other Berzerker squad next turn, and left the Incubi to deal with the Berzerkers here.  /shrug

Chaos Turn 3:

He really didn't have a ton of stuff left.  His Berzerkers moved out of their ruin to assault the Raider nearby.  The Plagues moved forward to shoot their meltas at a Venom.  Berzerkers on the left wisely got back into their ride.  The remaining Plague rhino rushed forward, toward my line of immobile skimmers.

The Plagues shot at a Venom, wrecking it.  The Oblits failed to do much.

In combat, the Berzerkers multi-assaulted the Raider and the Reavers.  Reavers failed to do anything, and the Berzerkers wrecked the Raider, and killed a couple Reavers, who ran away fast- they were still at 50% though, and so could regroup next turn.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 6 (Rhino, Rhino, Oblits, Oblits, Demon Prince, Demon Prince)

Chaos Marines: 5 (Reavers, Hellions, Baron, Raider, Venom)

Sorry to say, no picture this turn- this game was pretty intense, lol.

Dark Eldar Turn 4:

Reavers rallied :)

I needed to kill some Plague Marines this turn, and some Berzerkers.  But I was running out of stuff.


As such, I moved my Reavers their 3", in range of his Plague Rhino.  The rest of my stuff shifted around, trying to draw a bead on the Plague Marines.  Incubi got ready to assault the remaining Berzerkers.

Shooting was... well, it was abysmal.  His Plague Marines weren't in cover, but it seemed like almost every single AP2 shot I had at them rolled a '1' to wound.  Bleh.  As such, I only killed 6 of the 8 Plagues, when it likely should have been like 10 of 8.  Ah well, dice fail, and I can't blame them for all the other mistakes I made this game.  The Reavers again pulled through for me, wrecking his other Plague Rhino.  That gives these guys 3/3 Rhinos.

In assault, the Incubi easily took care of matters with the Berzerkers.

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 8 (Rhino, Rhino, Oblits, Oblits, Demon Prince, Demon Prince, Berzerkers, Rhino)

Chaos Marines: 5 (Reavers, Hellions, Baron, Raider, Venom)

The Plagues are getting ready to WTFPwn the poor immobilized Ravagers there.

Chaos Turn 4:

Tony stayed aggressive, using his few remaining units to great effect.  The Plague squads both moved up, ready to shoot/charge my defenseless Ravagers.

His Oblits wrecked my lone mobile Ravager.  yikes!

The Plagues wrecked one of the downed Ravagers, but failed to hurt the other one (Flickerfield vs. Fist FTW)

Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 8 (Rhino, Rhino, Oblits, Oblits, Demon Prince, Demon Prince, Berzerkers, Rhino)

Chaos Marines: 7 (Reavers, Hellions, Baron, Raider, Venom, Ravager, Ravager)

Yikes... it's a super close game at this point.

Dark Eldar Turn 5:

This would be our last turn, since it had been a thoughtful game the entire time.  I needed to contest objectives, and control them, etc.  So, I sent the Wracks' Venom up to the top right objective, and grabbed the one in the bottom left with some warriors, who disembarked to shoot the remaining Plague marines in the depleted squad.  The other Venom with warriors, turboed over to contest the objective his berzerkers were currently holding.

My Reavers decided they wanted to try popping the final Rhino, though it would serve no real purpose- the kill points would be nice though, since I was up by 1, and likely to be up by 2.

Shooting was minimal, and the Reavers failed me by rolling a '1' for their single Pen.  The Blasters finally took their toll on the depleted Plague squad though, and wiped them out.  The Reavers shooting this turn instead of trying to hold a quarter was a stupid, stupid mistake.  Instead, they assault-moved to contest the Plague Marine's objective- like that was a good idea or something.

The ball was in his court, now.



Kill Point Count:
Dark Eldar: 9 (Rhino, Rhino, Oblits, Oblits, Demon Prince, Demon Prince, Berzerkers, Rhino, Plague Marines)

Chaos Marines: 7 (Reavers, Hellions, Baron, Raider, Venom, Ravager, Ravager)  

The overview of the situation.

I hold this objective, in the lower right corner.  He likely won't be able to get to it.

I'm contesting his objective with the Venom right now.

The Wracks hold this one, in the upper right.

The Reavers are (stupidly) trying to contest this objective.

Chaos Turn 5:

A huge crowd of people had gathered around this table, since this game had gone over time a little bit.  The tension was palpable.  Tony would need to wreck my turbo-boosted Venom to have any hope of winning, and he didn't have a lot to do it with.

His berzerkers got out, and the Obliterators got a good roll to come up next to it.

The Zerkers charged, as did the Oblits. He decided to roll his fists first, since it was faster, and if the other berzerkers rolled immobilized, the vehicle was wrecked anyways- he would roll them if he needed to.

First, the Oblits rolled their 6 fist attacks- 1 hit, but a '1' made it fail to hurt the Venom.

Then the Berzerker champ rolled his 4 attacks, 2 hit, 2 penned, I saved one and he rolled his single pen.  A 1 or 2 would keep it alive, anything else would wreck the Venom.

He rolled... a 4.  Wreck.  The guys piled out, outside of contest range.

I still had hopes that I would win by Table Quarters though.

The Plagues, by the way, easily killed the Reavers.  Stupid of me, seriously.  Not sure what I was thinking there.

We added Kill Points, and were drawn

We added objectives, and were drawn.

We each held 1 Table quarter easily, and the upper right one held all the marbles.

In the end, he won by about 20 victory points in the top right corner.  So, he took the game by the Tertiary Objective, 2-1.

Results:

Kill Points: 9-9, no advantage

Objectives:  2-2, no advantage
Table Quarters:  2-1 Chaos advantage

(very narrow) Loss for the Dark Eldar!  I ended up with 0/25 total points.


After-game thoughts:


Wow, what a close game that was!  Very thrilling, to the very last rolls!  Tony was a great opponent, and I'd for sure play him again!  I should add that he has been playing this particular army for 4 years and going- he wasn't going to make a lot of mistakes with them.  Very good player, and I don't want to take anything away from his win- he rolled well to begin, but who doesn't face the dice as an adversary sometimes?  I can't blame the game on the dice at all.

Rather, I can look at my own (many many) mistakes:

1) should have moved Hellions further away in Turn 2
2) should have gotten the Incubi out of their Raider in Turn 3
3) should have turboed the Reavers into the top left table quarter, forcing Tony into allocating guys to get into that quarter, or at the very least moved them into the upper right quarter to add their full-strength points

Three big mistakes, and a bunch of little ones cost me this game.

I was disappointed at this game of course, but I had been expecting to lose far before this, since this was such a new army (this was Game 10 for me with Dark Eldar).  I learn the most from my losses however, and if you're going to lose, Tony is a good guy to lose to.  :)

He would be playing Hulksmash in the 'finals', and I would be hopping down to the 4-1 bracket, where I hoped to have a nice, laid back game for my final one.

Man of the Match:  Well, pretty much hands down to the unit of Reavers, who killed 3 rhinos by themselves.  They had the chance to do even greater things, but I failed to general them well enough for them to live to their potential.

Game 6:  Dark Eldar vs. Patrick's Space Wolves (of the razor/fang wolfstar variety)

His list (from memory- remember, I lost the last two lists I played against):

Wolf Lord w/ Saga of the Bear, Thunderwolf Mount, Wolf Claw, other upgrades

5x Wolf Guard w/ Combi-meltas, some with Power Fists
5x Wolf Scouts w/ Melta Gun
5x Wolf Scouts w/ Melta Gun

5x Grey Hunters w/ Melta Gun // Rhino
5x Grey Hunters w/ Melta Gun // Rhino
5x Grey Hunters w/ Melta Gun // Rhino
5x Grey Hunters w/ Flamer // Las/Plas Razorback

4x Longfangs w/ 3x Missile Launchers // Las/Plas Razorback
4x Longfangs w/ 3x Missile Launchers // Las/Plas Razorback
4x Longfangs w/ 3x Missile Launchers // Las/Plas Razorback


The mission:

Primary: Multiple Objectives (5, one in the center of each quarter, and one in the center of the board) 
Secondary: Table Quarters (as determined by Victory Points)
Tertiary: Kill Points (need to win by 3 or more)

Pitched Battle Deployment

We rolled for first turn and I won (for the 6th time in a row, Baron's +1 FTW!), taking first turn once again.

Here is our deployment.  You can see the Longfangs on the back edge there.  The Razorbacks don't have anyone in them except for the one over on the left (that you can't see), holding the Hunters with the Flamer.  Wolf Guard went on the Longfangs and scouts.  Interestingly, he left the Wolfstar in reserve.

Pregame thoughts:

Well, the wolf lists had kind of just escalated this tournament-  this list is pretty similar to the Wolfstar that I bring myself, though mine is generally beefier, sacrificing a lot of the shooting the Patrick was able to bring to bear on me.  He said he had actually playtested against my specific list before this tournament (he'd read this blog), but it had been Dawn of War in the playtest, and therefore things were pretty different :-p

At this point in the tournament, I knew that in order to still win the 'Sweepstakes champion', I'd need to get all three objectives off of my opponent.  I also knew that that this point of the tournament, I was pretty tired.  A full weekend of standing on a hard gym floor will wipe you out pretty quick, it turns out- I generally have good tournament endurance, but this was pretty brutal.  Patrick was pretty tired too, and had a friend go get him an energy drink- a good idea, I wish I had thought of it myself.  Time enough for those later on the 9-hour drive home though I guess, haha.

So, I sort of just entered this battle without much of a game plan.  Kill his tanks, and bait his Wolfstar into something insignificant, was what I wanted to do.  Also kill his longfangs.  Lol screw it, just kill everything!

He rolled to seize the initiative, but... somehow failed.

Combat Drugs:  "1".... again.  That makes it 3 times this tournament :-p

Dark Eldar Turn 1:

I moved forward and got ready to shoot my withering firepower into his stuff.  The Reavers jetted forward, ready to shoot at some stuff next turn and more importantly:  bait the wolfstar.

Shooting commenced, and I killed off a smattering of Longfangs.  I also wrecked Rhino on the right (they passed pinning), weapon destroyed/immobilized the razorback on the far right, and stunned the other Rhino on the right.  Reasonable results for my limited amount of firepower there.

One Longfang squad failed their leadership test and ran off the table.

One of the Longfang squads lost a Wolfguard, which forced them to move next turn to stay in coherency.

Wolves Turn 1:

The disembarked dudes on the right climbed into the vacant Razorback on the far right.  He drove up with both his Razor and his Rhino on the left and disembarked the guys inside, with the intent of flamering/rapid-firing the Reavers there.  My mistake for leaving them so exposed...

Lol overkill

Lots of his vehicles popped smoke, and then he shot me up, killing a Venom.

At this point it's pretty obvious I didn't have a plan to start with- I have zero troops on the left side of the board- if I had, he wouldn't have been able to pick off the reavers there so easily.

Dark Eldar Turn 2:

Well, it was time to try baiting his Wolfstar.  His Razorback on the far right had popped smoke, but the remaining Reaver squad moved up, to try and pop it anyways, though I think I would normally avoid it in this situation.  Everything of mine shifted 12" to the left, trying to avoid the Wolf Scouts, which would be coming in this turn.

In shooting, I continued my barrage of the Long Fangs, killing all but 2 models from the squads.  I also shook or weapon destroyed both the Razorbacks on the right, though the Reavers double-whiffed against his smoked Razorback.  *oh well*

Not a ton of obvious damage this turn, but it would do- the Longfangs were for the most part taken care of at least.

Heh, the Incubi raider is screening the Hellions, apparently.

Wolves Turn 2:

He rolled for reserves, and got his Wolfstar, as well as one squad of scouts, who came in where they wanted (which was on my right side).  The Wolfstar took the bait and came over to munch on the Reavers.  His other Grey Hunter rhino on the right moved up 6" to try melta-ing my Raider.

His shooting was a little more potent this turn, with the Scouts downing one of my Ravagers, and the single Longfang who could fire wrecking another Venom.  What was that I had said earlier about the Longfangs being taken care of?  Slowly but surely whittling me down...

The Wolfstar easily ate the poor Reavers, who did nothing in return.

See... wolfstar on the top right? and the scouts on the bottom right, for that matter.  Luckily, I've got lots of space to move around in.

Dark Eldar Turn 3:

It was time to do something on the left side.  The Hellions jumped over and prepared to assault the Rhino there.  The Incubi jumped over there as well, though decided not to get out this turn.  Everything shifted over again, trying to keep out of the 24" charge range of the Wolfstar.

Shooting was good, killing the Grey Hunter rhino on the right (the guys inside failed their pinning check!), immobilizing/weapon destroying another razorback on the right, and finishing off the Longfangs.  The Hellions fleeted closer to his Rhino on the left.

The Hellions charged in, and exploded the Rhino.  Woot.

Heh, now to hope his wolves don't get a good fleet roll.  Cuz hoping people don't get good rolls has really helped me this tournament, haha. /sarcasm

Wolves Turn 3:

His last scouts came in, and he decided to try to help killing off the Hellions, who were exposed and out of cover.  I was really hoping that Patrick would try getting his flamer squad on the left out of their Razorback to try killing off the Hellions- they had FNP, and would have been hurt but okay, and that way all of his Grey Hunters would be out of their rides.  He wisely didn't take the trap though, instead moving 12" behind a piece of terrain on the far left.

Otherwise, he shot, though it didn't do a whole lot.  The wolves got a "5" for their fleet.  Doh!  The Hellions ended up losing I think... 3 guys from rapid-firing of bolters.

Remember, those guys in the crater in front of the 'parking lot' were pinned last turn.

Dark Eldar Turn 4:

Wow, the game was starting to wind down!  The Hellions jumped backward, ready to kill off the scouts, while the Incubi hungrily approached the disembarked Grey Hunters on the left.  My vehicles all shifted 12" to the left again, and the disembarked Warriors tried to get over there as well.

The shooting that went on this turn didn't do a whole lot that I remember- I finished off the previously pinned Grey Hunters, and killed the 'box' of a Razorback on the left, who had previously been weapon destroyed/immobilized.

The Hellions handled the Scouts, though failed to kill the sergeant, who somehow got away, and would continue to run the rest of the game.  The Incubi likewise killed off the Grey Hunters in their crater.

Lol, he's starting his turn.  Ironically, the razorback he's moving had kind of just blended in, and I for some reason had thought it was already dead, though it was still at full capacity.  Silly me.

Wolves Turn 4:

The Razorback on the left moved 12" forward and popped smoke, presumably deciding to claim the top left objective.  The wolfstar lumbered forward...

The wolfstar got another good fleet roll.  A 5 or 6 would get them into combat with the nearest warriors.  Not a whole lot of shooting this turn.

Wolfstar got the roll they wanted/needed through a crater, and wiped out my scrawny warrior squad.

The wolfstar was in my grill, immediately.

Dark Eldar Turn 5:

This would be our last turn, due to both of us taking  a long time to set up, move, etc.  We were both pretty sluggish this game, as previously mentioned.

So, I rushed one venom to hold the bottom right objective, rushed the Raider w/ Aether Sails to contest the objective on the top right, and put another venom onto the top left objective.  The Hellions stayed on the bottom left one (and for some reason didn't charge his Razorback right in front of them?) and a disembarked warrior squad held the middle objective.

Shooting saw me kill one more Razorback on the right.  woot.

I'm really not sure why I didn't charge that Razorback on the left- it doesn't make sense to me, but ... that's just how it goes I suppose.

The ball was now in his court, so to speak.

Wolves Turn 5:

He responded by taking his Wolf Lord out of the unit, and charging the Ravager near the middle objective, contesting it.  The Wolfstar assaulted my fast-moving Raider and destroyed it, claiming the top right objective.  The Scouts on the right moved up and contested the bottom right objective.  The Grey Hunters in the Razorback on the left contested objective on the top left.

The game ended.

Results:

Objectives:  1-1, no advantage
Table Quarters:  2-2, no advantage
Kill Points: 11-7, Advantage Dark Eldar


Final Kill Point Count (for those of you interested):
Dark Eldar:  11 (Rhino, Rhino, Rhino, Razorback, Razorback, Scouts, Grey Hunters, Grey Hunters, Long Fangs, Long Fangs, Long Fangs)
Wolves:  7 (Venom, Venom, Ravager, Raider, Warriors, Reavers, Reavers) 

(very narrow) Win for the Dark Eldar!  I ended up with 4/25 total points.


After-game thoughts:

Well, that game turned a lot closer than I thought it would.  I wasn't thinking clear enough toward the end to see that he would easily contest all those objectives- I would have been better off trying to hold 3 quarters and simply forfeiting one of them, instead of spreading out into all 4.  The objective on the right was dumb of me to try to hold- the scouts were clearly within contest range.

Otherwise, I felt like the baiting of the Wolfstar was good- Patrick later told me that he thought I would have just killed the Wolfstar really quick otherwise, which I'm inclined to agree with- the Hellions would have ate that squad alive, with a little support from my Venoms.  Once the Star was gone, the Hellions would have had free reign to own his army- nothing he had could have come close to stopping their rampage.

So, what at first looked like a mistake on his part is revealed to be a good move- it kept me from doing a whole lot on the right side of the board, for sure.

This game was fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing against Patrick!  We were both tired, but it was a fun kind of comraderie (sp?) that we shared, struggling to get through it, despite our mistakes.

The win was of no real value though- only getting 4 points for the game was as meaningless as getting a loss.  It put me no closer to winning the Sweepstakes champion award, since I was sure at this point someone had well over 100 points vs. my low-80's score.  I'll talk about this in a bit when I'm reviewing the event as a whole.

Tournament Results:

The time had come for the results, and I was pretty sure I hadn't won anything, despite my 5-1 showing.  My friend CJ received the 'best converted miniature' prize for his ridiculously awesome Hydra conversion.

And then...  they called my name...

...For best painted army.

.....

.....

...really?

I hadn't expected this at all, and I was of course ecstatic!  I'd never won any sort of painting award (except once in Warmachine, but it's not hard to win painting awards in that system, since nobody paints their armies).  Very cool, I was rather pleased.  :)

So, CJ "The fluffmaster" had to explain to me that a Gobbo is actually the biggest, highest ranking Goblin out there, so it would stand to reason that best painted was called the Golden Gobbo.  The best single miniature award was the Golden Grot, and the best conversion was the Golden Gnoblar.  The gift certificate was for $50.

The Chaos guy (Tony) ended up playing Hulksmash in the finals, and owned him, getting full points.  Turns out Lash still has something to say at GT's.  He was a great player- I won't begrudge him his win at all.  It's a great proof that someone who knows their army well can do well, regardless of what the army is.

I ended up at 7th overall for the sweepstakes, and 5th overall record-wise, once all the final scoring was tallied.  Not terrible, for having lost a game, and having a game that didn't count for much at all, points-wise.  I should also add that in a previous post, I had predicted that I'd go 3-3 for the tournament.  Guess I was wrong- in a good way!

I should also note that I predicted that I'd run into double-lash all 6 games- I was wrong, but it turned out my prediction that it would be a tough army for me to do well against was well-founded, haha.

So, the tournament ended, and we drove back across the tempests of Nebraska.  Seriously cool lightning storms all night, with the unfortunate side effect that we also got dumped on and almost hydroplaned off the road a few times :-p


On to the review of the tournament itself:

The Venue:  Pretty good

I really liked the High School, and I especially liked the space afforded for each individual table- there was clearly space to walk around and between each table.

The lunchtime was excellent, allowing us to eat at the place itself instead of seeking nourishment (such as it would be) at a fast food joint nearby.  I very much enjoyed this aspect.

I also thought it was funny to see the High School Debate Team's amused looks at the nerds and their toy soldiers. :-p

The Tournament Format:  Mostly Good

Well, I liked the format itself- Nova is a great one, with the win/loss track and the opportunity to get the Best Overall award if you lost a game.  So, I liked that aspect a lot.

There were a few small points I wanted to give feedback on, however.

I didn't like that my 5-1 record counted for nothing at all for Sweepstakes champ.  I'm not saying that it should be the only thing that mattered, but it would have been nice to know that my epic battle against a Wolfstar was worth something.  What if it had gone to victory points, and I had won?  The win would then have meant absolutely nothing, and in reality, if it was the middle of the tournament, it would actually be beneficial for me to have lost that game, so as to be in a weaker bracket.  I think therefore that the record should count for something. 

I also thought the paint points we received should have been a little... well, more advantageous to those of us who put more time into our armies.  I received a '60' for my painting score, alongside a ton (just counted- 11 out of 44) of other people.  Sure, I got best painted, but it counted for nothing in the 'overall' scoring.  If it's going to be an 'overall' award, shouldn't the top guy get a few more points?  I think even if I hadn't won the award, I would think this- giving a uniform '60' to anyone who had a niceish army, in a tournament where most people will get 28-30 in sportsmanship (out of 30), basically turns the 'overall' award into a 'best general, aside from the guy who went undefeated' award.

Please don't get me wrong here- it was a really fun tournament, and I don't have a BIG problem with the way it was scored- just giving my perspective on how it could be changed to the better. :)

The Missions:  Some good, some bad

I like the Nova mission format, where there's objectives, kill points, and table quarters.  What I didn't like was the uneven dispersement of these goals.  There was only a single 'table quarters' primary objective, with three 'multiple objectives' as primary.  The thing I think I disliked the most though:  that games 4 and 5 were kill points.  It's the one I struggle the most on, and as such, I had the knowledge that if I managed to claw my way through three people, the next 2 people I would have to face would be undefeated, good players, in a scenario I wasn't good at.  I think it would have been fine for either one of them to be kill points, since I don't want favoritism or whatever lol- but two in a row seems a little silly.  An even, random (but not right next to each other) spread would have been better.

The running of it:  Reasonable

 I thought it went remarkably smoothly for the first GT ever run in the area.  There were a few delays on Day 1, but they ironed them out smoothly.  In Round 5, none of the undefeated players had been paired with each other, which was a hiccup, but they figured out the problem and we were only delayed about 15-20 minutes total.  I didn't think it was really very fair for the top undefeated player to play someone who was 2-2 for Game 5, while the other two undefeated players had to go at it.

As a side note, I do love the seeding style of this tournament- way better than 'top plays top'.

The officiating:  Awesome

There was a judge constantly walking around, ready to handle disputes and answer questions, which is more than I can say of almost any other GT I've been to- how hard can it be to have someone readily at hand and not just hanging out in a big group by the computer who don't want to be bothered by the pesky players?  That's happened all too often to me, and it's pretty frustrating, when time is ticking down.  So, this tournament  wins 6 internets for that.  Keep it up, please!

The loot:  Also Awesome

I thought it was very cool- at the announcement of every round, they handed out a ton of free loot, from magnetized GF9 bases, to signed Black Library books, to expensive sourcebooks for RPGs, they gave out a ton of loot, to people whose names were drawn at random.  I personally won a book myself- heh, I already forgot it's name.  And I call myself an English major :-p

Overall: um... Awesome Minus?

I liked this event a lot.  It cost me under $200 to drive there, get cheap lodging, and pay the tournament fee- much cheaper than almost any other GT I've been to that wasn't in Colorado (where I'm from).  I loved how affordable it was.  The system itself could use a little bit of tweaking, but it was thoroughly enjoyable, and I'll be happy to go there next year as well!

Is this a tournament I'd recommend going to? ...very yes.

Wow, I should really channel the energy I put into writing these things up into writing a book instead- it would almost be done by now if I did.

Hope you enjoyed it!  Feel free to ask questions :)