Delusions of Grandeur: Feast of Blades: I was there!

Wow, thought (hoped?) I was dead, right folks? I'm sure you're thinking something along the lines of: "Can't he just be a decent human being and either delete this blog or post regularly?"

If that's the case and you actually thought something like that, then shame on you. Seriously, that's really rude.

:-p

For those of you who care though, I recently started grad school, on top of full-time work. So, full-time grad, full-time work, and a wifey. No time for warhammer awesomeness lately, especially writing a blog about it. Sadly :(

So, let's go ahead and get the
Cool.

As previously stated, I was able to claw my way out of the morass of books and work to play in my area's one national-level GT. I live about an hour from Denver, and it would be mostly inexcusable not to go.

This is especially true due to the fact that I once won the Feast, many (two) years ago, and Chandler (the TO) graciously extended an invitational to me!

Now, as previously stated, I haven't been playing 6th edition like, at all. As in, I didn't even know Chaos was out. I'd literally played six games of 6th edition at the start of the tournament.

So, stuck with a finite number of models to choose from, I went with the following list:

Grey Knights w/ IG Allies:

Inquisitor w/ Terminator Armor, Psycannon, Psychic Power
Inquisitor w/ Terminator Armor, Psycannon, Psychic Power

10x Grey Knight Strike Marines w/ 2x Psycannons, MC Demonhammer

10x Grey Knight Strike Marines w/ 2x Psycannons, MC Demonhammer

10x Grey Knight Strike Marines w/ 2x Psycannons, MC Demonhammer

IG Detachment:

Straken Command Squad w/ 2 Bodyguard, Officer of the Fleet, 4x Meltaguns

Junior Officer Squad w/ 4x Flamers

10x Imperial Guardsmen w/ Flamer, Autocannon

Special Weapons Squad w/ 3x Flamers

Vendetta

Aegis Defense Line w/ Quad Gun

List Design Thoughts:

I was trying to spread out my points, so that the mistakes that I would obviously make wouldn't entirely screw me if/when my opponents took advantage of them. I knew that I didn't understand the combat rules well enough to really dominate in combat (if that's even really possible anymore), and that while shooting was also quite different, I understood it much better than combat. Volume of fire is nice in this list, and I wanted to be sure that I was able to deal with a couple flyers, since they were also something I had very little experience with.

My Previous Feast Results:

2010: Best Overall

2011: Tournament Ace

Goals for this tournament:

Man, I'll be honest, this is a waste of a section. My goal is always to win a tournament. Have fun, don't be a dick, but always try to win. Even if you're grossly inexperienced compared to the competition.

Friday

I thought I wasn't going to make it, due to a last-minute firing of one of my co-workers, who was covering my usual weekend shift. I had to scramble to find a replacement. Luckily, I did, and even convinced my wifey to drive me down so I could come back with my friend CJ!

There wasn't much going on when I got there at about 10 pm, so I mostly just hung out with my buddies and drank some beers, ready for the inevitable event of my stool going the direction opposite intended.

Saturday

A quick note about the tournament format:

Day 1 involved four games with Battle Points, in order to get the players placed in appropriate brackets. Day 2 then involved a win-loss format to get one undefeated champion from each bracket: essentially 13 mini-tournaments!

So, the goal for Day 1 was to get into the Top bracket, from which I would presumably claw my way to the top.

Game 1: Me vs. Chumbalaya's Necrorks!

I saw who I was matched up with for Game 1, and decided my fate was sealed. I would lose game 1 to an 'internets guy' and then play for consolation prizes.

His list was (very roughly):

Nemesor Z

2x Warrior Squads in Night Scythes

Deathmarks in Night Scythe (with flamer Cryptek)

2x Annihilation Barges

3x Spiders

Lots of Scarabs

KFF Mekk

30x Shoota Boyz

...I'm sure I'm missing something.

I won't give you a full battle report, since I don't have pictures, but what basically happened is this (don't you think bullets are an appropriate format?)

I got the -1 to your reserves Warlord Trait (so -2 for him because of my Officer of the Fleet) while he got something useless
I let him go first
His flyers came in piecemeal, and I killed one each turn
His Deathmark flyer came in over 24", disembarked, was shot down by my Quad Gun, and he was then unable to use the Cryptek's flamer because flamers can't snap fire. Big mistake on his part (I got extremely lucky, because I forgot about those shenanigans entirely)
My Psycannons rended his other stuff to death
Torrent of Fire killed all 60 orks

End Result:

Win for the GK/IG combo of infantry spam!

Think I ended up with like 60/100 points? 60-4 I think was the final tally, though maybe I'm a little off. Very one-sided results wise.

(you'll soon see that it was nearly impossible to ever get 100 points in a given mission)

Can't be overstated how vital his mistake with the Deathmarks was. I'm not 100% sure how great a position he was in to get them out at 24" and flamer me, but probably a "good enough" position to screw me. As it was, when that plan folded, I was able to kill most of the rest of his army.

Great opponent though, he took his loss well, and didn't really bemoan his fortunes. I was happy to get the chance to finally play him!

Game 2: Me vs. Jeremy's Necrons!

This would make two games on the exact same table against a Jeremy playing Necrons!

His list was roughly:

Necron Overlord w/ Rez Orb

15x Warriors in Nightscythe

14x Warriors in Nightscythe (Overlord went here)

Something else in a Nightscythe (some immortals, perhaps?)

5x Warriors in Ghost Ark

Annihilation Barge x3

6x Wraiths

The game:

I killed his flyers as they came in, before they disembarked guys
A few bursts of Awesome from my GKs killed most of the Wraiths
Killed most of his Annihilation Barges by Turn 2
His guys in the flyers had to come in from his own table edge
He mostly just tried to get a few points for holding his own table quarters, which ultimately worked (I played it poorly, in the end)

Results:

Win for the GK/IG Infantry Spam!!

Think it ended up like 76-24 or something?

Jeremy was another great opponent, and I was glad to get to play him! By this point, I'd realized the true power of my Psycannons vs. Necrons. Seriously, nightfight or no, they're pretty ridiculous. I killed his vehicles with impunity all through the game. He took it well, and was drinking by the time it ended, haha!

Game 3: Me vs. Buck's Necrons!

hahaha, well, three Necron lists in a row!

His list (very roughly):

Nemesor Z

Overlord w/ Destroyer body (went with the Wraiths)

Immortals w/ Nightscythe

Warriors w/ Ghost Ark

Spyders

Scarab Swarm

6x Wraiths

2x Annihilation Barges

The game:

Well, he was obviously a good player, and his list had a lot of threats I was concerned about, namely that Wraith squad with the Destroyer lord!
I started out shooting his Annihilation Barges, which didn't work out well. I also shot up most of his Wraiths pretty quick
One thing I forgot about was the Destroyer Lord getting up after I killed him. He got up a few times, and killed a lot of my stuff due to my lack of preparedness!
Straken saved my Bacon, killing the Destroyer Lord, and an immortal squad
I failed multiple charges, and failed to kill his stuff a ton of times
My opponent pointed it out: 4 perils of the warp rolls for me. lol
Game got close: I was able to Overwatch one Spyder away in a vital turn, and win the combat in a couple more turns

Results:

Win for the GK/IG awesomeness!

Think I got like 46 points, maybe a little less. Don't remember what he got, but it wasn't much - the mission was kind of weird that way. For a close game, I felt like he should have gotten more than he did. For instance, my 2nd game wasn't very close, and he got way more points than Buck did this game.

I couldn't believe how many things I failed at this game and still manage to pull a win out of my Bottom. Buck was a great opponent, and I was happy to have gotten the opportunity to play him!

I think the highlight of this game was that in consecutive turns we both immobilized each other's flyers, and in subsequent turns moved squads to where they would be forced to fly, killing the vehicle simply by standing there!

It was a very close game, though lopsided in score, and kind of frustrating that others were able to get 100 points this mission and more than double my score against a solid opponent at close to the top table.

At this point in the tournament:

I was going to be on Table 6 going into Game 4, which was just outside of the top 8. I'd played Necrons, Necrons, and Necrons, and hoped I would get a different test for my list.

Game 4: Me vs. Kenny Boucher's Daemons

Man, just my luck. Kenny has been a rival of mine in-state for a lot of years. He's one of the Wrecking Crew leaders, owns his own Professional Painting company, and has won many an event with his fearsome Demons.

His list (roughly):

Fateweaver

Skulltaker

9x Screamers

5x Flamers

8x Bloodcrushers (or thereabouts)

5x Plaguebearers

He won first turn, so I couldn't use Warpquake to keep his Flamers at bay. He also got his intended wave, which was everything good but a squad of Flamers.

My Thoughts:

Well, I guessed I'd have to castle up so his Flamers couldn't gun my Strikers down immediately. I'd need a turn to pop Fateweaver, let him charge and wipe out most of my guardsmen, and then try to shoot down/charge the rest of his demons.

I figured the game would be mostly decided by Turn 3.

I was right.

My guard deployed in separate squads in a wide arc, with the Strikers all behind them to prevent the daemons from charging them Turn 2. I spent Turn 1 first trying to get insignificant hits on Fateweaver to make him stop flying (a lasgun was the eventual thing to bring him down) then shot every shot possible at him. He saved his first 30 saves, but finally fell to my remaining 17 that I caused to him. Whew!

His turn he wiped out my infantry squads.

My turn I wiped out all but like 3 screamers and a single bloodcrusher (Straken killed Skulltaker in a challenge, haha)

After that it was mostly cleanup.

Results:

Win for the IG/GK combo of apparent winsauce!

The final score was 90-10 or something like that.

Which meant:

I'd be in the Top Bracket on Day 2!!

Awesome.

It was, as usual, a pleasure to play Kenny. I was happy (and lucky) to be able to beat such a skilled opponent. He went on to win 'Tournament Ace' on Day 2 of his bracket, which didn't seem to surprise anyone too much.

Day 2:

Heh, there were 4 demon players in the Top 8. I really (really) wanted to play against three of them and win the tournament, since my bubblewrap ploy seemed to work so well against Kenny's Demons.

Alas.

Game 5: Me vs. Russel's Tau + Eldar

His list:

Farseer

Dark Reapers w/ ridiculous Exarch

Guardian Jetbikes

Broadsides

50x Fire warriors

2x Devilfish

2 Squads of Pathfinders

2x Hammerheads

Bastion w/ Las Cannon

The game:

Man, I don't really want to get into it. He played it well, and I think his play deserved the win. But...
...the game didn't really even feel like a game. More like one enormous argument of perspective.
Like, one time he moved a Devilfish flat-out after disembarking. I said he couldn't, we got a judge, the judge ruled in my favor. So, he moved it 'back', which was in an entirely different spot than where it had been originally, blocking off my ability to charge it/contest an objective in my turn. My word/memory vs. his. Not sure if he was trying to screw me out of the objective or genuinely thought he was right.
This sort of thing happened multiple times.
So, he played it well. But he was also kind of a dick about it.
Opponent quote of the game: "We all cheat a little bit."

Results:

Loss for my sad GK/IG's.

And just like that, I was out of the running for tournament champ.

Game 6: Me vs. Rob O'Byrne's Nids

He had:

Flyrant

Tervigon

Gants

20x Gargoyles

Doom of Mal

Trygon

He came at me. It was a crazy game. He saved so many saves on his Trygons early on.
I failed to realize the hills weren't actually terrain, and when he charged in, I didn't get to strike first. Trygons get 7 attacks on the charge, with rerolls and stuff. Madness!
I did manage to down a Flyrant before he got to charge me. Saved my Bottom.
He multi-assaulted me with various big creatures, and things were looking extremely grim. Until...
(you guessed it)
...Straken charged in and butchered his Flyrant! Yay Straken!
The game went to turn 4 or 5, I don't remember.
He had two Tervigons and 10ish gaunts left, I had three strike squads with a couple guys left in each, and most of my Platoon.

Man. Crazy game.

Results:

Win for the GK/IG list!

Rob is another local guy, and I've always seen him around the top tables in tournaments, but never gotten to actually play him! He was a lot of fun, and it was nice to have a low-pressure game where neither of us really cared about the W or L, since we couldn't win anything at that point anyways.

Game 7: Me vs. Matt's Tau + GK's

His list:

Look at the list in Game 5, substitute the Eldar for a bunch of GK strikers and Coteaz, a few other cosmetic differences, like a Dreadknight and no markerlights.

The Game:

This game was fun, my opponent's list was tough, but most importantly, he wasn't a douche.
The game was all over the place, with my guard squads running off the table left and right, me failing multiple charges (less than 50% success rate for the entire tournament), and us only getting in 4 turns.
In the end, to win, I needed one of these to happen in order to win:

a 3 'run' roll for my Strike Squad to contest an objective
a 4+ randomization roll for my infantry platoon to be in the 'correct' quarter
a 4+ run roll for a different strike squad to get into a table quarter I wanted
a 7+ leadership roll for his battered fire warriors to run off an objective they held

Results:

Loss for my disappointed GKs, and execution for every single IG model in the army! (except for you, Straken, you get to be my next Inquisitor)

It was a fun game though. My opponent was fair, and we mostly just BSed about stuff. He advised me to go with the Psybolt Ammo on my Strikers, and I think I'll try it next time.

Overall Results:

Well, not sure how I ended up finishing overall. I think I got either 5th overall or 6th, because of my two losses in Day 2. I got an auto-invite to next year's invitational though, which should be awesome.

It must be noted that I didn't get to play a single Demon player on Day 2. Seriously, I think I had a great shot at taking them down. Maybe I'm just living up to this blog's name though, haha.

Thoughts on my list:

Well, against good opponents, the Quad Gun just dies. Like, immediately. It's not really worth it.

The IG Blob was good for like two missions. Otherwise, just wasted time shooting at stuff to no effect.

The Flamers did alright, against some stuff. Not much good though.

Straken killed: Necron Overlord, Skulltaker, and a Flyrant. Seriously, what a badass.

Strike squads were all just so good every game. The volume of fire I was putting out was pretty enormous. I think though Strikes were good last edition, they're pretty amazing in 6th. And I didn't even have Psybolt Ammo on them!

Against flyers, I had overkill. There wasn't a flyer list that I didn't just routinely down every flyer as soon as they came in. I ended up killing: 8 Night Scythes and 3 Flying MCs.

What I'll take next time:

I decided to dump the IG. Not much in the way of real power. Sure the scoring is nice, but I can find that elsewhere. I'll also dump the Aegis with Quadgun. All of this in favor of 13 more models, lol.

Here's the new proposed list:

GK Inquisitor in Terminator Armor, Psycannon, Psychic Power (Hammerhand/Prescience)

10x Grey Knight Strikers w/ 2x Psycannons, MC Hammer, Psybolt Ammo

Nemesis Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator

More of what's awesome, and adding a really fun (and tough to deal with) element in the Dreadknights. I can deepstrike them in wherever needed and flame pesky Fire Warriors off objectives, or provide a solid punch in Close Combat when/where needed, as they're actually better than Straken in most instances.

Also, 10 Kill Points.

Flyers scare me slightly, but I think I can find ways to deal with them. 12 Psycannons (6 w/ Prescience in a turn) and 80 S5 shots should be a good start :-p

The tournament as a whole:

It was well-run and on time. I loved most of my opponents, and I'd be really happy to go again. Seriously, Chandler puts a ton of time and effort into making this one of the premier events out there, and it will be a must-attend for me every year, at least until I can reclaim the banner :-p

I hated the Hotel, but... there's not much reason to gripe about that, since Chandler has already made reservations for a different location next time.

The missions seemed alright, but I hated how many points were possible for a massacre vs. a minor win. It's always been a complaint of mine that in Battle Points tournaments two good players might have a close game and when one wins, he only gets a few points while a guy a few spots back can catapult ahead to win vs. inferior opponents. The potential for this happening in this tournament was pretty big. Though, I suppose that's mostly true of other battle-points systems.

Parting Shot:

haha, let me know what you think, I had a little time to do a write-up, no guarantees on when the next will be! Still, I'd love to hear from you!

Delusions of Grandeur

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Monday, November 5, 2012

Feast of Blades: I was there!

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