May Tournament Recap

This month's local event was a 1999pt tournament with an allowance for one forgeworld unit as long as it wasn't superheavy, gargantuan, or a d-weapon.  Scoring was battle + painting.  One of the cool perks this month was the DaBoyz team from Adepticon brought in their Tau terrain to play on.  More pics of their project can be found here.



Here are more terrain pics from the event before I get to the games.

Here's the list I took:
Librarian + hammer (155)
Inquisitor + psyker ml1, psyocculum, servo skulls x3 (89)
Henchmen x 7 - 3 plasma cannon servitors, 4 warrior acolytes (76)
Chimera + searchlight (56)
Terminators x5 + banner, halberd, hammer, psycannon, warding stave (270)
Strike Squad x10 + psybolt ammo, hammer, halberds x2 (240)
Strike Squad x5 + psycannon (110)
Rhino + searchlight (41)
Stormraven Gunship + hurricane sponsons, assault cannons, hvy bolters, psybolt ammo (255)
Dreadnaught + autocannons x2, psybolt ammo (135)

Maugan Ra (195)
Rangers x5 (95)
War Walkers x3 + scatter lasers x6 (180)

Aegis Defense Line + Quad Gun (100)  

I chose this list with painting scores in mind and the desire to play something different.

My first game was against Brian.  His list was approx:
Overlord + res orb
Cryptek (storm) x2
Draigo
Paladins x5 + 2 psycannons, hammers, halberds
Warriors x9 + night scythe
Warriors x10 + night scythe
Stormraven
Monolith
Monolith
Monolith

Our first mission was The Relic with Hammer/Anvil deployment.  Not much to say here tactically.  I had no melta and only 3 psycannons and 2 hammers to try and crack the monoliths.  Not to mention I was out-flyered.  I won the roll and opted to take second turn.

(Sorry about the formatting fail, something happened in the copy/paste that I cannot remedy)

I deployed everything out of particle whip range.  My libby had the power to reroll saves so I put him up front to tank wounds.  First turn was uneventful as we slogged towards each other.  One of my guns stripped a hull point from a monolith.

All 3 of his flyers arrived turn 2 and he tesla'd my rhino down for first blood.  The embarked strike squad took heavy casualties from particle whips.  My flyer arrived and downed one scythe.  The rest of my shooting was ineffective against the av14 wall and infantry hiding behind out of sight.

Here's a mid-game shot.  My 2 remaining strike knights pick up the relic (with hammer).  Terminators jump into terrain to deter the paladins assaulting.  My libby got mindstrike'd out.  I'm losing tons of models to particle whips.  My war walkers outflanked and killed a couple paladins and then went down to haywire and gauss.

I was able to stall the monolith wall with one immobilization.  The center monolith tried to tank shock me in a fashion that would push the relic towards his paladins, but I chose DoG with the hammer (holding the relic) to drop it and stop the monolith.  He finished off my last strike knights and started pulling necrons through the gateways to pick up the relic.  Nothing I could do to win this one as he had first blood.

Game #2 was against Evan.  His list was approx:

Coteaz

Purifiers x10 + incinerators x2, hammers x2, halberds

Strike Squad x10 + psycannons x2, psybolts

Strike Squad x10 + psycannons x2, psybolts

Henchmen x6 + melta x3

Henchmen x8 + servitors w/ plasma cannons x3

Henchmen x10 - crusaders x3, assassins x4, flagellents (in land raider)

Nemesis Dreadknight + teleporter, sword

Land Raider

Dreadnought + autocannons, psybolts

ADL + Icarus

The second mission was The Emperor's Will with Vanguard Strike deployment and night fight first turn.  I opted to go second again.

We deployed opposite ADL's and I pre-measured to be out of his plasma cannon range.

Despite my counter deployment and night fight, he bingo'd my chimera for first blood with his land raider, and my unit was pinned.  That first round of shooting would dictate the game.  Again, I didn't have enough to stop av14 and his saves were hot.  

At one point, I charged my terminators into his NDK and landed 2 hammer wounds (ID with the banner) and he made both saves and then plowed through my backfield.  I was able to make a heroic push with outflanking walkers taking out his henchmen and warlord, then the stormraven coming in and dropping strikes.

However, I forgot his purifiers had hammers (they weren't WYSIWYG) and he assaulted my hovering raven and immob'd it.  My survivors were able to run onto his objective as the game finished on a natural roll.  The final score was 6-5 as we both had objectives, linebreaker, and warlords, but he claimed first blood for the win.

Game #3 was against Buffalo Bill.  His list was approx:

Calgar

Sternguard x10 + hvy flamers x2, drop pod, homing beacon

Relic Contemptor + heresy assault cannon, drop pod

Tac Squad x10 + missile launcher

Tac Squad x10 + lascannon, melta, combi-melta

Assault Squad x10

Vanguard Vets x10

Thunderfire Cannon

ADL + Quad Gun

The third mission was BGNT with Dawn of War deployment.  I didn't have high hopes at this point with 2 losses and facing 50 marines and a scoring TFC.  Night fight again and I'm going second.

I figured the infiltrated rangers would be safe with night fight, stealth, and area terrain, but forgot sternguard have a shot that ignores cover, plus 2 hvy flamers.

I tried to take wounds on Maugan to save the squad, but he failed 2 of the first 4 and I ended up losing him and all rangers to the sternguard alone.

I countered valiantly with most of my army erasing 7 sternguard, but it was too little too late.

He was able to drop the contemptor out of  warp quake range and use the big BLoS hill to protect it from everything that could pop av13.  His jumpers hid for most of the game to make late moves for linebreaker and contesting.  When my stormraven arrived, he got lucky claiming 2 hull points with the quad gun and plinked the last hull point with a melta gun.  I lost 9 marines in the crash.

To add insult to injury, my henchmen and warlord ran off the table when their ride exploded.  Then a lone surviving sternguard sniped one out of a 4 man strike squad, and they also ran off the table.  This shot was at the end where his jumpers moved in to contest my scoring dread.  We each held 2 objectives, but Bill had first blood, linebreaker, and my warlord which I couldn't match.

Needless to say this was a disappointing tournament mostly due to my own performance.  In 3 years of competitive 40k, this was the first time I've ever gone 0-3 in an event.  Several factors lead to this, mostly due to lack of practice since I get about 4 games a month 3 of which are at tournaments and I switch up my armies every time.  I'm still finding 25 scoring bodies to be too little also, and my dice sealed it all.  In my first game, my terminator psycannon missed 8 consecutive shots.  In game #2, I lost my dread to a peril'd fortitude roll.  In game #3, I lost 2 units running off the table.  Not much to do in those situations.  This event mirrors most of my 6th ed experiences where my overall record with the new edition is largely a losing one.  I have to sit down and do some reflecting and soul searching to figure out how to make my collections more competitive, or if I just want to focus on painting and hobby.  I did enjoy the day for the good terrain and catching up with people I haven't seen much.

Here are a couple more shots from other games at this event.

Curtis's Nids vs Courtney's Eldar.  These guys finished 2nd and 3rd overall.

Steve's Aurora Chapter vs Bill's Marines.

First place went to Paul's GK + IG.  6th ed is finally shifting the meta around here.  There was one player with 4 flyers (2 drakes + 2 vendettas), one with 3 flyers (my first opponent), and several with 1-2 flyers.  More armies had allies than not.  Tons of bodies and scoring units to be seen.  None of the missions focused on actually killing things aside from first blood.  I'm actually starting to miss kill points and comp...

My next real game will be at Parkhammer '13 and next tournament will be in July (1500 + painting + comp/sports).  Until then, I'll be focusing on painting, converting, and possibly some CSM + Daemon tactics.

Here's my obligatory baby pic tho he's not so much a baby anymore at 16 months.  That stack of driftwood I'm collecting is for a 40k project hah!