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Hey folks!

This weekend I drove 8 hours down to Florida to play in the semi-final round of 'Ard Boyz. While there were closer venues, I'm moving to Jacksonville FL for my job, and thought I would check it out!

The semi-finals were held at SunCoast Comics in Jacksonville; I showed up Friday night to practice and ended up helping set up Friday night and Saturday morning instead and getting to meet some cool folks. I'm not used to weather in FL, and while the store had air conditioning to fend off the 102 degree weather, with the air constantly on, it probably didn't get below 90 degrees inside with all the people and the doors constantly opening and closing as people moved around. By the time I left, I had salt-stains on my shirt from sweat drying and resoaking my shirt!

I finally got the official GW Deffrollas and replaced my PVC pipe deffrollas with them. I kept them in the upright position all three games; there are debates about the deffrolla's positioning, counting as hull, shooting from it, being impassable terrain....so I just keep it raised. No requirements about where it is, only that it is represented and paid for in points and it solves all potential rules arguments.

You can find my other battle reports for 'Ard Boyz semi-finals here:

Mission One
Mission Two

The scenarios for 'Ard Boyz can be found here: 'Ard Boyz Missions.

My army for 'Ard Boyz:

The Pink Waaaugh!

HQ1: Ghazghkull Thraka
HQ2: Big Mek + KFF + Powerklaw

Troop1: 9x Diversified Nobs with Cybork Bodies; Dedicated Battlewagon+Deffrolla+Boarding Plank+Big Shoota+Grabbin' Klaw+Grot Riggers
-Painboy
-Bosspole
-Waaaugh! Banner + Ammo Runt
-Powerklaw
-Powerklaw + Kombi-Rokkit
-Powerklaw + Kombi-Rokkit + Ammo Runt
-Big Choppa
Big Choppa + Kombi Rokkit + Ammo Runt

Troop2: 11x Boyz + Nob/Powerklaw in trukk + Boarding Plank + Reinforced Ram
Troop3: 19 Boyz + Nob/Powerklaw
Troop4: 19 Boyz + Nob/Powerklaw
Troop5: 19 Gretchin + Runtherder

Elite1: 15x Burnas
Elite2: 5x Lootas
Elite3: 5x Lootas

Fast Attack1: 2x Deffkoptas, both with twin-linked rokkits and buzzsaws
Fast Attack2: 1x Deffkopta + twin-linked rokkit + buzzsaw
Fast Attack3: 3x Warbuggies with twin-linked rokkits

Heavy1: Battlewagon with Deffrolla, Boarding Plank, Big Shoota, Grabbin' Klaw, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers
Heavy2: Battlewagon with Deffrolla, Boarding Plank, Big Shoota, Grabbin' Klaw, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers
Heavy3: Battlewagon with Deffrolla, Boarding Plank, Big Shoota, Grabbin' Klaw, Armor Plates, Grot Riggers
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Curtis Hotaling's Imperial Guard

I'll post this the best that I can - Curtis only brought one copy of his list, and it was hand-written. >< I'm not worried about point values or anything because even if it *wasn't* right, nothing would have changed.

HQ: CCS + OotF + 4 Meltas in Chimera
HQ: Inquisitor Lord + Psychic Hood, Retinue of 3 warriors with plasma & 2 mystics

Elite1: Inquisitor +Emperor's Talos (I presume this is tarot?) + retinue of 3 warriors with plasma & 2x mystics
Elite2: Psyker Battle squad +4 extra psykers in Chimera
Elite3: Psyker Battle squad + 4 extra psykers in Chimera

Troop1:
-PCS + 4 Flamers
-Infantry squad + Flamer
-Infantry squad + Flamer
-Infantry squad + Flamer
-Infantry squad + Flamer

Troop2: Vet squad with 3 meltas in Chimera
Troop3: Vet squad with 3 meltas in Chimera
Troop4: Vet squad with 3 plasma in Chimera

Fast Attack1: Vendetta with Heavy Bolters
Fast Attack2: Vendetta with Heavy Bolters
Fast Attack3: Vendetta with Heavy Bolters

Heavy1: Leman Russ with 3 heavy Bolters
Heavy2: Leman Russ with 3 Heavy Bolters
Heavy3: 2x Hydra Flak Cannons

We roll for the emperor's tarot and we don't tie, so he gets +1 to his roll off. We roll off and we both roll a 3, but he gets +1 and wins....he elects to make me deploy and go first.

Pre-Game Tactical Assessment:
I have a healthy respect for mech IG. I don't fear them, but there's enough stuff in any good mech IG list that I have a very healthy respect for them. In fact, most of my practice games for any event are against the best Mech IG players that I can find, since its pretty much the most powerful codex out. The only army I *fear* is Dark Eldar (and even then, only certain brands of DE), but at the top of my list of armies that I respect is mechanized IG.

When I play against Mech IG....if I can go first, I'm generally ok. We start 24" away, I get to cross 12" of that before getting shot at, and then I cross my fingers and hug my KFF. If I don't go first....I'm still typically ok. I might lose a battlewagon, but I've got those flanking wagons of boyz to handle that - tackling my KFF or Ghazghkull's wagon means shooting at AV14 or me getting 3+ cover. DoW....if I can go first, I'm STILL getting 12" of movement in, and the whole cycle is typically the same, just delayed a turn. Going second definitely sucks though in a normal game.

With this particular deployment, where you have two board edges to come out of DoW from....things get sticky. Going first means that my opponent can pick anywhere on those two board edges to come in from. And since he's playing Mech IG....well, he's going to come out as far away from me as possible. If I come out from the middle of the table, he's going to come out top left or top right or bottom left/right depending on the roll (or likely all three) to get flanking / possible rear armor shots on my wagons as I move to address one of those threats. If I come out on the short edge by his deployment zone, he's going to deploy on his own short edge and make me cross 72" to him. I originally looking forward to this scenario because if I won and got to go second, I could potentially come out closer to my opponent than usually possible. In hindsight....I don't think it would work that way anyhow.

And worse...this is a killpoint game, so there's no reason for the IG to ever come close to me. No objectives to grab, just outer board edges to hug and hide from me.

In short: I'm in trouble. This is probably the worst possible deployment against the worst matchup in the worst win conditions that I could possibly encounter.
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Here's a picture of Curtis. He may have worn that Captain shirt just for me and if he did, he's my hero! I do love the Captain. I was completely absorbed in the game though and didn't even notice it.


I choose to deploy nothing, Curtis deploys nothing and the game starts. I D6 and end up with the left board edge along with my back board edge. I move my battlewagons on 12" on the short edge with the trukk behind them:


One of my deffkoptas turbos ahead.


You can't see the other board edge, but I turbo-boosted my two deffkopta unit up to the 24" mark along the table edge and moved my buggies flat out up the edge as well trying to block off access to him getting to move on there.

My Lootas move on the back board edge and both thankfully get very nice run rolls and I spread them out in cover.


IG Turn One:
He brings a vendetta with something in it over my warbuggies and they disembark with flamers pointed at my Lootas.


His other vendetta moves flat out onto the table:


Slightly blurry, but he brings out both hydra flak cannons, the other vendetta, his leman russ tanks, and a couple chimeras in the far corner away from me.


Those lightning paint jobs are awesome! The straws don't quite fit in to an otherwise fantastic paint job though.


He also brings his CCS onto his long table edge directly behind my battlewagons. I left him room on the board edge there...drats. One of the chimeras in his corner is a PBS; the rest of his chimeras stay in reserve. I realize belatedly that as I move up the field, my unified AV14 is pointless because he can come on from behind me and shoot my rear armor all day long.

The squad in the chimera next to the deffkoptas opens up on my deffkoptas and a melta shot kills one; the other takes a wound; he had a turret heavy flamer shoot me that ignores cover so the turbo-boosting didn't help so much.


The guys in the back flame my Lootas, who die.


His battlecannons reach out across the field to my other Lootas and kill 2/5 of my other Lootas. The chimera behind my battlewagons whiffs and does nothing, but his hydra flak cannons ignore cover and kill my lone deffkopta. Other than that, his multi-lasers on chimeras take down 2/3 of my rokkit buggies and his PBS drops a leadership reducing attack on my lone deffkopta which turns and flees. My Lootas stay.

Ork Turn Two:

My deffkopta fails leadership and falls back some more.

I can't ignore the threat behind my battlewagons, but if I turn around with the whole formation I'm giving rear armor....so I split my battlewagons. Two stay put and two turn around and ram into the chimera trying to keep cover behind the other two battlewagons while the boyz get out of the trukk to assault survivors of his CCS. The chimera explodes and my orks will pile in and assault his company commander and friends.


My 3 remaining Lootas open up the Vendetta in range that moved flat out (the other one is definitely out of range) and I get 2 shots each for a total of 6 shots - I get a lucky one and wreck it. My remaining buggy and fleeing deffkopta fail to hurt the Vendetta next to them.


My assault in the back corner - consolidating back to the trukk to get in next turn.


IG Turn Two:
Curtis rolls for reserves and EVERYTHING (6-7 units) comes out from reserves. He starts piling them up in his corner. He realized that it was pointless to feed me two killpoints in the back corner.


His infantry blob comes on in the corner I used to be blocking off.


He shifts around a bit.


His battlecannons go for a narrow alley through my battlewagons to hit my disembarked boyz and kill several. His hydras do bad things to my last depleted Loota unit taking them down to just one model which fails leadership and leaves the game. He moved both vendettas flat out this turn to get into flanking positions instead of firing at me, so I actually survive this turn!

Ork Turn Three: I move my battlewagons back into formation - I don't move forward because it would leave something behind and break my KFF unity. I have no shooting to do. My gretchin come out from reserve and huddle in the chimera crater in the corner behind the battlewagons.


The pictures actually end here because the rest was absolutely murderous and happened so quickly.

IG Turn Three: The Vendettas are in good position, and I couldn't get that last battlewagon back into line with 12". The KFF wagon gets exploded. Ghazghkull's wagon gets exploded. The boyz wagon on the end gets immobilized. I'm left with a single wagon and a trukk. Battlecannons focus on the nobs (in a damnably tight footprint) and my KFF and several nobs vaporize. Everything else is out of range and his turn ends.

Current score: I've lost two battlewagons, two units of deffkoptas, a unit of warbuggies, two units of Lootas and an HQ (7 killpoints) in exchange for killing a vendetta, a chimera, and a CCS (3 killpoints). I have no more anti-tank, no ranged weaponry, and am going to have to foot-slog 40-48" down the long table edge without cover to even get to any of his stuff.

In fact, we're about to start turn four in a fixed 6 game mission. If I move 6" every turn, and get a 6" run every turn with every unit and none of my units die....I can only cover 36" of ground. That means he could back up a few inches, and not shoot at me the rest of the game and I STILL couldn't get to him. Since he's relatively unscathed, the not shooting at me part obviously isn't going to happen, and there's scant cover to even make the attempt.

Short of him charging his tanks at me in a suicidal wave, there is no possibility of me killing a single model of his on the table. I shake his hand with a rueful smile and congratulate him on winning a 2,500 point army.
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Post-Game Assessment:
I'm not sure that there is anything I could have done to make this happen differently. This was a terrible mission for me to be going first in, doubly so with the deployment rules. If we replayed this game infinite number of times with the IG going first and me trying different movement and deployment strategies....I'm pretty sure I'd lose every game. The combination of things were just too much. I probably should have deployed in the middle of the table and just let him have side shots on my wagons - I didn't anticipate him coming in behind me; cost me two turns of mobility.

With that said; I don't mind losing. I've said this countless times, but I value losing so much more than winning, that's my opportunity to learn and grow. Besides, I haven't written a batrep where I lost a game in a long time and I was probably getting boring.

Now with that said...a note on conceding: I've taken flak elsewhere on the internet and even here on Dakka with "OMG! Dash ragequit semifinals!" and other less inflammatory stuff, but the theme is the same - a lot of disapproval for conceding a game. Here's my take on conceding: If the game is clearly over with a clear winner and a clear loser and absolutely NOTHING is going to influence that....then why not stop? I can recognize when I'm beaten, and I got so thoroughly beaten here that I didn't feel bad in the slightest about conceding before turn6. There was nothing that my army could have done after turn3 to do anything except get tabled. No guns, physical impossibility of reaching the enemy....I was quite comfortable calling the game.
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Venue: I posted on their website, but this was a fantastic event. Guys, picture this: The store owner, TO and staff order pizza for everyone for lunch. You go up front and pay $5 to get 3 slices. They circle the tables asking if people need anything to drink. The venue was simply amazing. On top of that....I had three great games. My opponents and I were laid back, we had fun, and Curtis definitely earned his reward. I don't know if any of you guys read Dakka (Suncoast or otherwise) but the entire experience was great. There were a couple of awkward moments here and there personally when people who say bad things about me on the internet met me for the first time face to face....but I was polite and friendly. And as always, meeting other internet people (the vast majority who don't fit into that first category) is always fun - putting a face to an avatar or a screen-name is lots of fun. I look forward to moving to Jacksonville and gaming with some of those guys. Old issues were put to rest and some animosity was explained; like most things, it centered around one guy screaming loudly (in this case, about him losing to my cheating self who ganged up on him with other people in a FFA boss fight).

I'm starting to shift into "wanting to run events" mode in 40k instead of just attending and playing mode, and seeing such a well-run event with such friendly folks really emphasized that.
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Drama: Interestingly...I never really have drama in games. Its always on the internet. I signed up to Dakka two years ago to engage with other ork players and trying growing the ork player base as a competitive group and got massively shot down by many people as a local fish who didn't know what I was talking about, and my advice was trash...and that when I got into a bigger pond, I'd see how it was.

So....this year I've been out in the big pond, mostly kicking ass and taking names. To offset all the forum trolls screaming that my advice is terrible, I've kept track of my gaming records in my signature. I can give a new ork player here on Dakka advice, and when a screaming turd chimes in that I'm stupid, I can point to my signature and note that it seems to work. And I've been greeted by a lot of accusations of making up records, and faking it, or having a huge ego for posting it, or compensating for being a loser for needing to brag about how good I am.....*sigh* The whole point in the first place was to help people filter through bad advice to my GOOD advice, and offering battle reports and a record to prove that my advice is worth taking.

And Battle Reports. *shudder* The kicking and screaming from hateful little anonymous (or sometimes not anonymous) internet trolls has completely taken the joy out of doing this. The internet is full of retards, I'm not sure why I'd think Dakka wouldn't have its share of them. The ratio of rubbish/useful has been getting really bad, and even has its own dedicated threads in the DCM forums about what to do about it - its getting out of control.

The fact remains; I get along with people in person, we have fun games, I make a new friend. Unfortunately, they are oftentimes surprised to find that I'm a nice guy and fun to play with....because of what they've heard about me. Usually tied into some drama. My first batrep for semi-finals got invaded by some internet trolls who wanted to scream at everyone what a dirty jerk I was for things not even related. The moral of the story is that there's a complicated equation that balances effort and reward....and its skewed the wrong way. If there's only 1 jerkoff for 10 nice people....that one person screams louder than the other 10, and the drama they create is what is memorable about the occasion. I applaud those who write battle reports, make the effort to try helping to improve the community, but my willingness to do so has bottomed out.

What Dakka needs is more intense moderation and filtering of garbage; perhaps redoubling of staffing or something to help ease workload because its obscene.

So....for all intents and purposes, I'm retiring from public life for a while. I'll be playing 40k, but not writing about it, making batreps, posting on Dakka much, or having an internet presence anywhere really - there's simply not much gained for doing so and the cost is more than I'm willing to pay. If I were all-powerful, I would cleanse genepool of some filth, but I'm not, and also not willing to tolerate the filth. Bad guys win?

There's one battle report left in me for a game I'm not sure I'll even be playing.....if Stelek and I get paired up at the Nova Open either in the tournament or at the Friday Night Celebrity Death Match, it will get a battle report. Other than that, goodnight, good luck, and its time for me to chill and step out of the limelight.

A good treat has been taken away from us today, I will miss Dash's battle reports...

Back to painting, life moves on.

Well with that Dash, enjoy the break from all of the trolls!

Good game, and a good show at the semi finals.

I'm very suprised you put the Battlewagon on the board edge. Why not deploy them in the middle of the table from your long edge? This way they can drive to one of the edges instead of having to go the length of the table.

Bad match up though, so it might not have done much.

I took BW orks to the preliminaries and did fine. Seeing the third mission from semi's I knew a shooty army would get at least two full turns of fire before I could hope to assault, even with Ghazkull. I went with guard instead, vendettas, melta vets and artillery. I played against orks in round one. The TO moved the last mission on the PDF to first. I won the roll, had him go first, and alpha struck him hard enough to cripple him.

I'm just glad I had guard and orks to choose from.

Yeah, I think he mentioned that and I think the fear of side shots lead to a tactical error that may have literally cost him the game.

It sucks but it happens. It's rare that even the best players make the best decisions all the time.

As far as conceeding, I see no problem with it. If it is so clear that the game is going to end a particular way, why extend the pain. The only thing that would have made me continue the game would be the tactical bonus points, because it is only fair to the other players that your opponent gets the points he earns. But even so, if he had that in the bag as well, I see no reason why congratulating him and relaxing the rest of the day is a big deal.

asugradinwa wrote:I'm very suprised you put the Battlewagon on the board edge. Why not deploy them in the middle of the table from your long edge? This way they can drive to one of the edges instead of having to go the length of the table.

That was my thought, as well. With that deployment, his best case scenario against a static gunline was to reach them on turn 5. Crossing the short way should have put him in contact on 2 or 3.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As far as conceding goes, it usually depends on the emotional state of the person conceding.

If someone throws a hissy fit, picks up his ball and goes home... that's obviously lame.

A calm decision to end things when there is no further "game" to be played, on the other hand, is fine by me.

The only exception is when ditching early can affect how bonus points, etc., are awarded. In that case, I prefer that a game be played out.

I'd like to hear some brainstorming about how DashofPepper could have won that mission barring mistakes by the Imperial Guard player. From the looks of things the Imperial Guard player didn't make any elementary mistakes, and somehow DashofPepper made the mistake of forgetting his exposed rear

Strategically speaking I think that this game showed some weaknesses in DashofPepper's army list. Without Snikrot and his Kommandoz, Da Vulcha Boyz, or even being able to trust to the lucky of a Weirdboy rolling 'Ere We Go, Dash set himself up to lose when his opponent didn't need to meet him halfway.

Incidentally, is it just me or was the terrain really spare in all three battle reports that DashofPepper has posted?

When I heard that he deployed on a short table edge I was surprised.

I thought the move was to claim the center of the table and then react to whereever he comes on. You need to eat some side shots and hope the KFF saves you). Even if he manages to kill your Battle wagons, you are still not too far away from him no matter where he comes on from.

Otherwise you have a ton of board to cross with an army that can blow the crap out of you at long range.

It was a tough match-up. You fought well, you tried, and I'm sorry it came down to what it did. Nevertheless, as you've said, you learn and move on. It is sad that you're kinda stepping out of the limelight for a while. You know that we'll be here when you get back, Dash. Those of us that actually enjoy reading these battlereports and are generally good people anyway.

Tough luck there buddy, but you did well. I didn't make finals either.

Sounds like you had a good time though, which is what counts....at least that is what I tell myself when I don't win! Haha.

Nice battle report, Dash!

Like people already said, incredibly evil combination of opponent army and mission...I don't know, maybe it would've been possible to out-run those guys in your backfield and, ignoring them, charge the main gunline ASAP?

Seeing the pictures it made me think of a Spearhead game rather than a standard 40k game. I think the risk of side shots adn praying for those 4+'s probably would have been the way to go but it is easy to naysay afterward.

It is a shame you are going to stop writing reps, I have really enjoyed reading them. In general remember it is a relatively small community of people who are doing the bashing and a much larger group who read the reports.

Nurglitch wrote:I'd like to hear some brainstorming about how DashofPepper could have won that mission barring mistakes by the Imperial Guard player. From the looks of things the Imperial Guard player didn't make any elementary mistakes, and somehow DashofPepper made the mistake of forgetting his exposed rear

Strategically speaking I think that this game showed some weaknesses in DashofPepper's army list. Without Snikrot and his Kommandoz, Da Vulcha Boyz, or even being able to trust to the lucky of a Weirdboy rolling 'Ere We Go, Dash set himself up to lose when his opponent didn't need to meet him halfway.

Incidentally, is it just me or was the terrain really spare in all three battle reports that DashofPepper has posted?

The Ork build I was considering had less loota action and more kommandos. If the KFF could protect wagons for two turns of enemy fire he might pull it out, but odds were stacked against orks no matter what. I set up my guard army with one unit that couldn't move and fire, a squadron of two colossus artillery. Otherwise everything could roll on and cut loose.

ragequit> lol, I love how the internet has no time for fully developed 4 word phrases and instead creates these truncated words.

Dash, great write ups, man, I really enjoy them. is that 4 battlewagons?

I assume that is your nobz ride, dang....4 of them, I do need to change my list, I can barely afford 2, lol.

From reading the three reports, the thing I'm MOST disappointed in, is the complete lack of large sight blocking terrain. 5th Edition pretty much screams the requirement to have sight blocking terrain in games to actually not make it into a crapshoot.

Interesting Batrep Dash, I played on that table in round one vs. a Mech IG list and it felt like I was playing on a fantasy table. There was simply no where to hide on that board. If there was some terrain that actually blocked LOS on that table things could have turned out differently...at least a game would have been made of it. The thing that saved me on that table in round 1 was my smoke launchers of gay and two key mistakes my opponent made. I've always enjoyed your Batreps as they are thorough and have good content in them. Having good content is everything on sites like this. Bad content drives people away. I think your reports are actually good, valuable content. It's a shame that you won't be doing anymore, though given the circumstances, I completely understand why. In the last 1-2 years the e-peen of 40k, etc. has gotten completely out of control....like somehow people forgot that winning 40k is meaningless in the grand scheme of things...it's not like any of us have sponsors, or get paid to do this professionally. Until that happens, the accolades of winning 40k, or being the "best player" is pretty meaningless to the masses. Perspective and all that.

Seems like a truly experienced player got flown your way with exactly the tools he needed to win...man I hate it when that happens haha! Oh well, win some, lose some, and as always gotta love the trolls right?

Till next time dash,
luck be with ya...

Do you think splitting up a bit would have helped at all having come in on the short edge? Meaning, 3 BW's on the side with the 4th + trukk boyz coming in from reserve.. that way, had he lined up opposite you on the short edge, he'd be risking immediate trukk boyz + bw assaults from your long edge.

Player-A wrote:Do you think splitting up a bit would have helped at all having come in on the short edge? Meaning, 3 BW's on the side with the 4th + trukk boyz coming in from reserve.. that way, had he lined up opposite you on the short edge, he'd be risking immediate trukk boyz + bw assaults from your long edge.

The real problem here is that he's got a 48" range on me to stay away no matter where I come onto the table, and without Nightfight for a turn, I can't even get the benefit of moving under cover. Definitely a mission favorable to long range armies, especially Mech IG.

Oh so many posts while I was writing!
@Nurglitch: Hmm, I think his ony real option would probably have been to set up center table, with his back blocked by the truck, and simply ran straight into a single flank. With that in mind, he should have not worried about the side shots(relying somewhat on the kff for those first few turns) and more worrying about being in any sort of reasonable position to do...anything! I might have even dumped out one unit of boys to cover the back side, or deployed the gretchin immidiately for this purpose.

Other than that, I think this is the one instance where rushing his koptas with no clear target was NOT a good choice, that instead he should have waited until the wagons and friends were the most threatening and then rushed forward.

Anyway, thats my 2 cents...

Thanks for your write ups. I always find them very entertaining. Very good content.

I hope you continue to travel around to tournaments, document your experiences and receive less criticism for it.

- Blackbone

Personally, I would have made him pull the flak-cannons off his "Hydras".

Straws are NOT WYSIWYG, and they weren't even on the right chassis. Let me say that in another way too: A Leman Russ with straws and a bottle top is NOT a Hydra. He should not have been allowed to field that crap, and you would have been within your rights to make him take them off the table. This is the semi-finals, and there are plenty of ways to get auto-cannons.

Either field the models correctly or don't field them at all. If he would have spent the time to make them at least look like he spent more than 30 seconds stealing stuff from the venue you were in, it wouldn't have been so bad. But that was just shameful. I would be embarrassed to have my name and picture associated with that.

Tactically, I agree, setting up in the middle, while allowing side shots is dangerous, would have given you an extra turn. This is what my opponent did to me, and it made my life much more difficult. And the table you played on was stupid too. Looks like it would be a nice venue, but your descriptions make it sound horrible.

Heh. I got my nightmare scenario army-mission combo in the first game at semis, so I know how badly it feels! Though knowing you no longer have a chance at winning makes the next two games a lot more easy to enjoy. As to your "leaving the limelight" I would just say that to a neutral observer it's pretty clear why your posting style could be rubbing people the wrong way. Perhaps you aren't quite the victim that you're making yourself out to be. That said, the people that flame you incessantly should also take a moment and consider a more constructive way to spend their free time. Good report though! Better luck next year.

barontuman wrote: Looks like it would be a nice venue, but your descriptions make it sound horrible.

Huh? I had nothing but good things to say except for the weather.

I hope you picked up some tactical insight from the loss. Thanks for the read.

barontuman wrote:Personally, I would have made him pull the flak-cannons off his "Hydras".

Straws are NOT WYSIWYG, and they weren't even on the right chassis. Let me say that in another way too: A Leman Russ with straws and a bottle top is NOT a Hydra. He should not have been allowed to field that crap, and you would have been within your rights to make him take them off the table. This is the semi-finals, and there are plenty of ways to get auto-cannons.

Either field the models correctly or don't field them at all. If he would have spent the time to make them at least look like he spent more than 30 seconds stealing stuff from the venue you were in, it wouldn't have been so bad. But that was just shameful. I would be embarrassed to have my name and picture associated with that..

Yeah, that was pretty obnoxious.

It does look like a really, really tough matchup! If this is what it takes to make your ork list lose, I wouldn't want to face them...

Sorry to see you go Dash, like Monster Rain said, you do sometimes come of as being a bit "elitist" for lack of a better word, but you are one of the people that contribute the most to Dakka nowadays which is allot more than can be said about your "fan club". Your BRs are always entertaining and informative and despite playing this game on and off for over 10 years now (damn, I'm old), you've managed to teach me a thing or two with them.

Now for some comments on your last game:

Nothing to say about the game itself, you made a huge deployment error and your opponent punished you for it, he deserves every credit for that win... Now for the bad parts!

I really hope that that is not the usual standard of terrain for 40k in the states, over here that table wouldn't even be considered for Fantasy with that little terrain on it!

And last, how on earth did the tournament organizers allowed LRs with straws on it to be considered Hydras? I wouldn't play against a model like that in a friendly game, much less in a supposed semi-final match with a prize like that on the line! I thought 'Ard Boyz was supposed to be WYSIWYG? What else is allowed? Coke cans as drop pods maybe?!

tough matchup to be sure...and a tough scenario on top of that.

Dash:
So long, and thanks for all the fish...