Grubnards at the Da Boyz GT

The 2013 Da Boyz GT is officially over. Before I get into a recap of my weekend I just want to give a shout out to the members of the Da Boyz, Bill (from Beef n' Wing), and people from the Erie(PA) gaming group for volunteering their time and effort for putting on a great event. I've attended the Da Boyz event each year since 2009 and by far this has been the best experience I've had in terms of a smooth running event, the event location, and the players I faced off against on all three days. I'm sure you will be hearing more from the other guys who write for this blog over the course of the week with their experiences and thoughts but let's get started with a brief recap of the event.

Venue

The event was held at the Bristol Harbor Inn overlooking Canandaigua lake in the Finger lakes region of NY. I have friends who live in Canadaigua so the location was easy to find and within a 45 minute drive from my house so packing up my armies and terrain and getting to the event was not an issue.

As for the hall itself, the GT was held in two halls with the top 40 or so tables for 40k and Fantasy in one hall, and the bottom tables in the other hall (also referred to as the "fun" room.) The main hall for the top tables was impressive but sometimes a little tight with so many people carrying boards. The fun room was a little more spacious between the tables and had a rustic atmosphere.

The food and lodging were fantastic. A portion of the ticket price included lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. The portions available were pretty hefty and of good quality so no complaints there. I was able to go in with a group of guys and we rented a cottage. The cottages had a full kitchen, two bathrooms, a master bedroom, another bed room with two twin beds, and there was a futon in the living room area with a fireplace. We had around 9-10 people staying there and at no point did it feel crowded.

Tables

The tables this year were fantastic. I may be biased in saying that since I brought along three tables but ever since the Da Boyz opened it up for players to bring their own terrain the quality of the tables has grown steadily each year. This year Chris Courtney brought over 10 tables and rightfully took the top table prize. Sam Butler took 2nd place with his table and I took 3rd place with mine. (not sure if it was my pyramid ruins or tyranid table that won.) Hyv3mind brought along 5-6 tables as well and by all intents should have won an award as well. I did not get many pictures of the tables but I am sure the other monks will be posting them soon. I know it is not possible for every event to do this but I would strongly encourage TO's to run a similar type of process that allows players to bring terrain to an event and give out awards for the top tables.

The Games

Team Event
On Friday I played in the team event with my fellow club member, Sinistermind. We brought a dual Eldar list and won our first games against a Eldar/Iron Hands army run by two guys from the B.C. Adeptus club. Both guys were great players and set the tone for an enjoyable day of gaming.

 

 

This is one of the table brought to the event by Chris Courtney.

Sinistermind's snipers line up a shot on the spiritseer below.

 The second game was against a Dark Angels bike army and a White Scars biker army and we literally got tabled. The two guys we played were from Quebec and while it was often difficult to understand their French accents they were awesome guys and played their armies well.

The white scars rush through the ruins to grab the objective.

No amount of fire power was going to stop the rush of marine bikers.

The last game was against an Eldar/Chaos Marine army. They seized the first turn and the Eldar player's opening fire from the serpents and Dark Reapers with missiles cut down one of our fire prisms and serpents right off the bat while our return fire failed to to anything in return. Bad dice rolls on our behalf and pretty much cost us the game. The guys from this team also came from Canada and they provided a tough yet enjoyable game.

Our deployment

These three units pretty much took us out of the game from early on.

So our record for the team event was 1 win and 2 loses. The night ended with a lot of drinking and food cooked out on the grill.

Singles event

Game 1
I woke up Saturday morning feeling a bit out of my element due to an abundance of beer and whiskey drunk the night before. I somehow made it to my first game and faced off against a Chaos Daemons army. I have very little recollection of the game and forgot to take pictures as I was still feeling the effects of the night before. I walked away with a solid loss on game.

Game 2
I was feeling much better in game two and played against Mike C's Ultramarine army. Since I was playing Word Bearers vs his Ultramarines we kind of made it play out in a narrative event as a grudge match between the two legions. In the end we both lost the primary mission but drew on the secondary. Mike's army was beautifully painted and he was a great opponent.

Both armies fighting for the relic in the center of the table.

In the end, neither side could hold the relic and we drew on holding objectives.

Game 3
Game three was played on my Tyranid table and my opponent fielded a Chaos Marine/Daemon army like myself but his list was built around Typhus. In the beginning I was able to nerf one of his mauler fiends and a nurgle prince but as soon as his beasts of Nurgle, the other nurgle prince and heldrake reached my back lines it was over. Another solid loss for me.

My deployment zone.

Beasts of Nurgle and Plague Bearers assault my havocs.

Heldrake putting down some vector strikes on my rhino.

Game 4
I rounded out the evening against a space wolves list. In this game my opponent pretty much relied on his two squads of wolves to break me but I was able to kill his HQ before he could get into my lines. Between my shooting and close combat I was able to whittle down the long fangs and the units in the drop pods to capture and hold the relic, thus gaining me a solid win.

The lighting in this area of the room towards the end of the night was pretty low and all of my images came out rather poorly so I apologize for the lack of images.

After the 4th game I was pretty beat and refrained from drinking too much. I went to bed around 12:00pm and woke up feeling pretty good.

Game 5
Game 5 was against an Iron Hands themed army played by Ian, one of the B.C. Adeptus guys I played on Friday in the team event. This was a pretty close game all throughout but since it was a kill points mission in the end all of those pesky FNP saves from his Iron Hands won the day for him. I will give him credit though, he was the only player in all 6 games that was able to down my heldrake. It took almost the whole game but he did it.

My deployment Zone

Ian's deployment zone

Fighting becomes fierce near the center of the board as the two lines meet.

In  the end, Feel No Pain provided to be too much for me to gain enough kill points.

Game 6
Going into game 6 I had a 1w/3l/1d record. I was paired up against beth. Beth is part of the Erie PA gaming group that frequently attends our local events so I knew beth prior to this game but had yet to play her. Beth ran a Slannesh themed Chaos Marines/Daemons list. She had a lot of shooting from her noise marines and the daemonettes were a thorn in my side for most of the game. Going into the last turn I had a chance of denying her the primary objective but my shooting was ineffective and she was able to grab the full points.

Beth makes her opening moves.

The heldrake eyes my sorcerer and havocs

So after 9 grueling games played out over three days I have to say that I was pretty fortunate that all of my opponents over the weekend were truly great sportsmen (and woman.) At no point were there any rule contentions or arguments and any questions that did come up were either quickly agreed upon by each party or we simply d6'ed it without any further discussion. I always hear stories about opponents who argue rules and things can get pretty heated so hats off to all of my opponents for being such great people and providing me with 9 fun games. I can only hope they all felt the same about me.

As for final scores, I am still waiting for the results to see where I placed.

Looking ahead - Da Boyz GT 2014

I am already looking forward to next year's GT. Last year I played my Orc's n Goblins in the Fantasy event and I decided that I would alternate game systems each year. So for 2014 I plan on building a new Dwarf army for the fantasy GT. Depending on when the new book comes out and if the rumors prove to be true about 9th edition then it should make for an exciting event as most players will be on equal footing with learning the new rules. Therefore, many of my blog posts in 2014 will revolve around building my Dwarf army. I also have the Scarab King board to finish and I have a couple of new terrain board ideas swirling around in my head for next year.

I hope you all have enjoyed the recap and that everyone has a great Thanksgiving weekend. Take the time to enjoy the company of your family and friends.