Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Yes, the stained glass is printed out and stuck on via the magic of 3M formula 77.

OMG Brian! Fan-flippin' tastic! The BEST is the hazard-stripe painting Servitor!!! WOW!

What did you print the windows on/with? Acetate and inkjet? Epic work, and a glorious sight. Now go make some skitarii!

Inkjet printer at 600dpi on bright white paper. I added a spray of 'gloss matte' this morning.

Unlikely to add to this army, changes are coming.

You getting that sour GW taste in your mouth too?

Gotten, and this time it isn't the players, it is the company. So it is time to put my money where my mouth is. Post Adepticon, I will be posting a screed of my thought processes.

"Deeds, not words." -- Megaforce Poster

They just haven't been releasing anything I'm even remotely interested lately. The Crusade of fire book was my last purchase from them, and it's completely useless to me.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, I still buy BL books I guess, Baneblade is a good read so far.

I have clearly lost my audience.

I'm still here lurking away if that counts

Love the Admech stuff, the painter guy was a good idea

Must admit I've not been impressed with the new stuff from GW for a while, the FW new releases are still nice just expensive.

Looks good, glad to see it before Chicago! I thought there was a Dragon in the list before, did that get dropped?

 Briancj wrote:
I have clearly lost my audience.

no, you just haven't shown any updates on the Ordinatus for like a year dude

Like I said, lost my audience.

The Dragon got dropped because I could not get my hands on a suitable model, and did not have the time to build/bash one. My list suffers for it.

Too bad, dragons are a stone cold bi***.

Good Luck A Adepticon Bri. See ya when you return.

Don't forget to visit the Badger Airbrush booth! The last Great American Company!

I'm flat broke, there will be no Badgers in my near future.

I know a guy..when you're ready..just say the word.

Great stuff Bri

Loving the gribble-bots, and nice subtle bases too!

Not bothered whose stuff you're working with to be honest, all for seeing some non-GW stuff here

Adepticon has come and went, now Brian owes us his vent

Brian is still tired, annoyed, and generally recovering from over a month of working for other people. Any rant/vent will be delayed until after he gets more sleep. More. Sleep.

Brian must need sleep, he is typing in third person

Immmm Hoooo Teeeep, IIIIIMMMMM HOOOOO TEEEEEP. Arise and Speak... Heh. sorry couldn't help it...

Shhh he's in bear hibernation mode

As some know, I suffer from Depression. And, starting at the beginning of the year, I lost my job, my girlfriend (unrelated), and my general life focus. Unfortunately, a side effect of depression is that you do not want to communicate with people. You just fall down the rabbit hole, and there's no wild LSD-fuelled adventure and giant hats. No, there is just...more depression. Which leads to a lovely death spiral.

I am only just now pulling out of this whole mess, and I barely finished everything needed for Adepticon. So, in rough calendar order, here is my trip to Adepticon 2013.

---

I spent a feverish week painting and finishing the army. I had managed to assemble, convert, and basecoat (red) everything I needed. An internet search found the stained glass panels I needed, which fit nearly perfectly when printed out in 4x6 photo mode on my color inkjet. Win!

I managed to get everything done (but not done incredibly well) a few days before leaving. I was able to pack everything 24 hours prior to my departure. I finished work, re-booked my hotel to save me $70 (something which I will regret, and benefit from, later), and put all my travel documents, tickets. etc in one place.

Have I mentioned that Boston was bombed, and they were starting to lock down the city?

I arrive early at South Station, expecting there to be all sorts of extra bonus screening, etc. My luggage has some electronics AND four sections of PVC pipe. I was ready to explain everything. However, aside from some extra police and bomb sniffing dogs, there was not a lot of security. My bags were wiped for explosives, and I was allowed on the train. We left on time.

Thanks to massive amounts of track work, we arrived in Chicago two hours late. The gentlemen at the Hertz counter were very polite, very helpful. But to get the toll pass I wanted, I was forced to upgrade to a more expensive car. A car I disliked driving, as it was like driving a 1970's era Chevrolet Land Yacht.

As a note, I am semi-employed, and had a tight budget this year. Remember the hotel swap? Well, this cost me the $70 I had saved. And. AND! I discovered that the toll transpoder was an EZ-Pass! Had I done my research, I would have found out that I could have BROUGHT MINE WITH ME. *sigh*

I arrive at my hotel a little after noon, and I am informed that no rooms are ready for check in. I'm already late for the first event I paid for, but I'm able to convince the front desk that I just want the key, and won't actually be entering the room until much later. I get a key, and head off to the Westin.

---------------------

Side rant, #1:

The Team Tournament being expanded to two days has really ruined Adepticon for me. Before, on a day was tied up in gaming. This left plenty of time for classes, events, socializing, demos, shopping. By moving to two days, they make the tournament more relaxed, and if that's all you're going to AC for, you're fine...and probably very happy! Not so much for us more casual players, who want to experience all of Adepticon.

This also means I have to wake up at oh-dark-thirty both Saturday AND Sunday morning. Which means, being old, I have to go to bed early, so I can be a useful member of the team (ha, ha). So that puts the kibosh on socializing both Friday AND Saturday nights! No poker, no Dakka meetups, etc. etc. etc.

This sucks.

---------------------

So, I bail on the event as I'm already way late, and get lunch with some of my team mates. Then I check in, and get my swag bag. Frankly speaking, I paid for VIG this year, and I just don't feel like it was worth it. Yes, I got a guaranteed full swag bag, but the other main benefits (first in line on Thursday, first into the Dealer's room, etc) really only kicks in if you're going to be there all four days.

So then I take a look at the Dealer's Room. Which is now crammed into a tiny room, down the back hall. I notice that the demos have been split between the main room and the back hall. I notice that there is less of an indie presence. Infinity and Malifaux have a single, small table in the back hall. PP have a couple of their 2x2 demo tables out in front of the main hall, there's no FoW demos visible, and so on. I find some of the people I wanted to check out and support (Catalyst, Wreck-Age) in the main hall, and they have some banners up, but that's about it. Really, I just get the feeling that Adepticon is losing its status as supporting all tabletop gaming, and becoming more of a tournament-centric event. Which is fine if that is what they want, but it is not what *I* want.

After mucking about for a few hours, I head up to Victoria Lamb's class on sculpting. PROTIP: If you walk into a class, they usually don't check that you're supposed to be there. Just, you know, in future. This was a great class, very enjoyable. Once again, I learned a lot. And this is why I hate the Team Tournament being two days. I don't get to take classes.

We get the news that we can set up early for Judging, so I rush out of class, and grab my Adeptus Mechanicus Suitcase. I dole out the shirts, pins, etc to team members, and we set up!

Only to be informed that, no, we would NOT be judged tonight.

This should have been a big giant red flag. But, we re-pack and head out. After a bit more socializing, I return to my hotel room to get a full night's sleep, since we all now have to be back in at 7am.

---------------------

I arrive around the same time as the rest of the teams. We re-set up the display, and prepare to be JUDGED. The text-your-table function is...sporadic. New technology, should have been tested more.

This is where things go...awry. Because of last night's feth-up, the paint and theme judges have to run around like idiots, trying to cram everything in. Not ONLY are we blown off (the painting judges walk away from us in the middle of our explanation, and they don't even look up close at our models, ask to pick anything up, etc. They run down a checklist, and WALK AWAY without even saying thank you, or anything. Just...kthxbye.)...not only are we blown off, but one of the judges was hammered! Seven in the morning, and they're drunk off their ass!

So we're judged poorly, and our display is not selected for the Armies on Display portion of the show.

I will be putting up a battle report for AC, but let me give you the tl;dr here:

First game, great.

Second game, my dice luck disappears, and will not return the rest of the weekend. Our opponents are also unfun, being rules lawyers with poorly painted armies and no theme.

For the rest of the weekend, I will be unable to roll higher than a '3', with my average being '2'. My opponents will make 70-80% of their saves, including almost all 4++ and 5++ saves. This is crushing. I mean, I normally roll very average. I design my armies around this notion. But to spend all weekend long unable to actually AFFECT the game? I'm sorry, but YOU go through 15 hours of gaming failing all your saves, being unable to wound, roll high on the vehicle pen chart AND when you do managed to slip something by, have it negated most of the time by a 4++ or 5++ save. Seriously.

---------------------

Side Rant #2:

PROTIP: Do not tell someone who is having a horrific streak of dice luck "It happens". No. Buy them a drink. Buy them a beer. Take an effort to be a god-damn human being, and use your empathy skills. Get them out of their funk, tell them a joke, buy them some waffle fries. Hand-waving off someone's mental frame of mind with empty phrases DOES NOT HELP. It makes you a JERK. This is not aimed at anyone in specific, it is just how I was handled during the weekend, with a few exceptions.

---------------------

Game three sees us slide down the path, and another game where my tactics are sound, and everything is undone by dice luck. I try to talk to the Judges about the paint and theme scoring situation.

After hearing that others were treated shabbily during paint judging, I went to go speak to the Judges about it. I was informed that I had to speak to someone named "Chris", and that he was dealing with a messy issue. I waited. About 15 minutes later, I was told that Chris was dealing with said messy situation, but I had not been forgotten about. I waited. Chris blew through the Judging area, and headed over to the Armies on Parade area...and didn't come back, instead, started to look at all the displays and talk with everyone there.

I had been forgotten about.

I look to the first Judge I spoke to, and pointed out that I had been blown off. I explain that I was in a bad mood, hungry, and had low blood sugar....and was now blown off again. I left, to avoid making a scene.

We went to dinner, it was a good dinner. We socialized, I felt better...and then I had to go back to my hotel room, because we had to be back into the tournament hall at 8:00 in the morning.

---------------------

Side Rant #3:

Warhammer 40K is about dice luck. More than any other game I have played. "Tactics" consists entirely of army design and set-up. Once the game is on, it is about luck. Other games, luck can be mitigated by good gameplay, and solid tactics. But not Warhammer 40K. And this is why I'm done with it. I want a tabletop game that is less reliant on luck, and favors TACTICS and GAMEPLAY.

Additionally, while the base rules are good and solid, probably the best set of 40K rules in the history of the game, the fact that GW refuses to rebalance points costs, older Codexii, and so forth means the game is BROKEN and unbalanced. Want proof? Look at all those NECRON LISTS. A codex whose dedicated transport is a super-flyer with a vicious gun and whose embarked squad can't be harmed in any way, shape, or form? and since all codexii do not have Anti-Air capacity, most people stand no chance of shooting them down? AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Suckers.

Necrons are the most egregious of the lot, but there's plenty of other examples.

Why am I playing a game where you HAVE to play one of the most recent codexii to stand a chance of a FAIR game?

This death-cycle is why I'm quitting 40K. Yes, Codex Creep has ALWAYS been a problem. But it has gotten totally out of hand. Add in the ludicrous prices, the Failcast disaster, the withdrawal of all GW support, the immoral assault on web-based business, their stick-their-head-in-the-sand 19th century approach to dealing with the internet, and how they are now treating the local retailers?

Done.

And so should you be.

---------------------

Sunday.

I slept like crap. I woke up with a massive leg cramp. My hotel charged me double for my weekend stay. I am now broke. I seriously consider giving my army to my team mates, and walking out.

This is where I thank Solar_Lion, aka Pat Turner, for helping me out. I owe him a repayment AND something very nice. I'm pondering what that nice is, and an idea just came to me. Yes. Brilliant.

I take a deep breath, have a nice McD's breakfast, and gird my loins for the day.

Game Four shows that I'm still fethed. I actually have to walk away from the table, twice, to calm the feth down. I have never experienced this level of dice karma before, and on top of everything else...I just can't handle it. My zen is shot, my reserves are shot, my tolerance is shot. I apologize profusely to our opponents, who were really nice guys.

Game five comes around, and I'm just cringing. Thank God they were a group of nice people, cheery, chatty, full of good humor and warmth. My dice luck edges up to being only "sub-par", but I'm able to break the strain, and help them learn about 40K. I have thanked my partner Andrew (Ramos) profusely, and I will thank him again for letting me stop the game, and show our opponents what was about to happen to them. This was one of the best games of 40K I have had, because it was about four people playing a game, joking around, fully painted armies, etc. etc. etc.

To Megan and John, I thank you for putting a good cap on a horrible weekend.

We pack up, clear the displays, and I head off with Gits (Art) and Solar (Pat) for Greek and Hummus in Skokie. I then return my car (without incident) and get on the train.

The train would be two hours late getting me home.

Here ends my Terrible, Horrible, No-Good Very Bad Weekend. I want my $500 back.

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------//

So what am I going to do?

I'm going to write a very polite letter to the Adepticon Staff, explaining my displeasure with the Paint/theme Judging, as well as how moving the TT to two days affects the people who want the full Adepticon Experience. I have some suggestions.

I am going to consider not going in 2014.

I am going to speak about how the Team Tournament was once where four people got together to put four armies up with incredible paint jobs, a solid theme, background, whatever. And how it is now nothing special, with people fielding WAAC armies without theme, poor displays, and low-on-the-totem-pole paint jobs. I mean, seriously. Barely three colors? Come *ON* people.

I am going to put my money where my mouth is. I'm going to purge 40K down to my Imperial Guard, maybe my Minotaurs. Maybe. I am going to build the Boston Skirmish Gamers Group. I am going to explore other tabletop wargames. I will educate people on their options, and ask them to consider playing other games. I will demo it for them, and show how they could be gaming for half the price (or more!) of 40K.

I may continue to work with GW models, but they will be pure modelling projects, and I will buy used. I enjoy restoring discarded models, and bringing them back to life. I enjoy building characterful tanks and vehicles.

I will promote other game systems such as Brushfire, Wreck Age, Leviathans, Battletech, Infinity, and so forth.

I am going to think about how incredibly under served the majority of the gaming community is, and how all the public events are brutal tournaments, with no support for the 80-90% of the rest of the world.

I am going to clean my apartment.

Righteous Rage indeed! If you'll be at GenCon again this year, I'll buy you a beer and toast your mental and hobby health!
Besides, you sound miserable, this is supposed to be FUN remember?
Join those of us who model for the sake of modeling, we are legion, and you are always welcome!

That sounds like a real drag of a weekend. It's really unfortunate to happen to someone especially when they produce such beautiful characterful armies as yours. Adepticon is meant to be the highlight of the wargaming/hobby year.
I really enjoy reading your blog even though I haven't posted before. I look forward to your future hobby endeavours!

Best of luck!

I'm sorry you had such a bad time. I was amazed being able to see these things in person and it was honestly one of the highlights of my trip! I hadn't been on dakka for a few weeks and didn't see you were going, and then I just walked up and saw your display board.

I didn't know you were having such a bad time or I would have offered you a beer.

This was my first adepticon and was amazed on how smoothly everything was run from what I saw (although I only took classes and hung out with people).
I've been thinking of making a team for next year but with all the BS you experienced I don't know.

I do apologize for my role in making it a shoddy weekend. I was tired and in quite a bit of pain (I wouldn't have gone had the rest of the team not been relying on me to be there). I actually didn't have any folks across from me that I didn't get along with, even the double cron air. I would have liked more time though, my only thing played that wasn't TT was my Brushfire demo and then full game. If you do make it next year, I'd love to get a game of BF in with you!

This is the report of the five battles I took part in, during the Adepticon Team Tournament. I will write a mixed In-Character/Tac report.

I can summarize my experience, thusly: My tactics were solid, my team mates were great, my dice luck fell into "Statistical Aberration" territory. I simply could not roll higher than a '2' on any important roll, and my opponents gained the benefit of making 70% of their saves, or more, including 4++ and 5++ saves.

Needless to say, this was incredibly discouraging, and when added on top of everything else that went wrong (major and minor), plus the TT being moved to two days, it made AC2013 a fairly miserable experience.

I also have to continue to train myself to be more Zen, and remember to take pictures, even when losing.

Some notes on the missions:

All missions used Slay the Warlord, First Blood, and Linebreaker. We would consistently get First Blood, rarely get Slay the Warlord, and never get Linebreaker.
All missions used "Twist of Fate", which would allows a re-roll for Mysterious Terrain, Size the Initiative, and mission-specific abilities. We never used them.
All missions used some form of Mysterious Terrain, or Objectives. We rarely remembered to roll these. Additionally, the "Mysterious Terrain" was always "Firest"...and we never saw a lick of forest after the first table.
All missions used Night Fighting. It was dark once. I used the flashlight on my Rhino...once.

Terrain placement was BRUTALLY CRITICAL. We had a slight advantage due to the Fortress, but the sheer size sometimes made placing all six large terrain pieces difficult. Also, any mission with a variable number of objectives very much favors whomever gets to place the greater number of markers.

Warlord Traits were pretty much utterly useless, except in the last battle.

My Army:
HQ: Chaos Sorceror on Nurgle Palanquin, Force Axe, L1 Psyker, Sigil of Corruption.
TR1: 5 Chaos Marines, Force Axe, Plasma Gun, Rhino w/searchlight, smoke
TR2: 10 Cultists w/flamer
TR3: 10 Cultists w/flamer
EL1: Giant Chaos Spawn
HS1: Forgefiend
FORT: Fortress of Redemption w/Krakstorm upgrade

++++++++++++++ M41.00003/4 Complacency breeds heresy

I expected them to come, but not in such strength.

All of the Forge Points are under assault. While the support of the so-called Emperor has arrived, my enemies are arrayed in overwhelming numbers. There is even evidence of a small Tyranid infestation in the northern regions. Thankfull, the upgrade of the Forgepoint missile systems have been completed across the board. This process took 12.0583% longer than expected, with a projected loss of 213 additional servitors. Notify all Techmarines and aspirants to gather any humanoid genetic material for processing.

Five Forgepoints are currently under threat:

Forgepoint Meridian, located in the temperate zone, near the ruins of Danicus Meridian.
Forgepoint Servitus, located in the arctic zone, along a Promethium pipeline.
Forgepoint Titanicus, located in the orbital bombardment rad zone, in the ruins of Nova Secundus, destroyed from orbit aeons ago.
Forgepoint Mechanicus, also located in an orbital bombardment rad zone, along a Promethium pipeline.
Forgepoint Auroran, located in the antarctic zone, along a Promethium pipeline.

Little to no aerial support is available. Years of fighting in the Maelstrom have depleted our erstwhile "allies". Only a handful of units have been issued the new "Flakk" missiles, from the STC recently decalculated. My own anti-air defenses are limited to a handful of Imperial Sentinel Robots and the Forgepoint defenses.

This may be unpleasant.

++++++++++++++

Round One - 9:15am - Versus a bunch of great, somewhat drunk, guys from Wisconsin.

This was a GREAT game, very close. We were both at the TT to have a good time, and play Warhammer 40K. The Ork player was a last minute sub, and new to Orks (but not to 40K), and we helped him marshal his forces. The mission was Objectives and Victory Points. The deployment was Hammer and Anvil. "Twist of Fate" allowed you to give a unit Skyfire but NOT Interceptor. Our opponents had no flyers, we declined to Twist. Due to the nature of the deployment, my partner of this round, our Team Captain Whalemusic sat on the other side of the board. It pretty much broke down into WM fighting the Dark Eldar, and myself handling the Orks. We rolled four objectives. Two in the ruins, one in the center, and one in front of the Fortress.

The battle plan was to sit back and shoot the heck out of our opponents as they came across the table. Our opponents were an Ork Mob with a looted wagon, and a Dark Eldar force of a ravager, some venoms, some bikes, and an Incubus-based HQ light deathstar.

+++ // In death, there is forgiveness

The only warning Forgepoint Meridian received was the crashing of a meteor. The enemy had picked an excellent assault time, perhaps guided by the foul sorceries of their Dark Eldar allies. Or was it the raiders from Commoragh who were using the Orks? Either way, it did not matter. Out of the rocky canyons to the west, a massive green tide erupted forth, perhaps from a landed Rok. On their flank, a host of Dark Eldar backed up by a very cranky-sounding battletank. It was just a matter of time before they started fighting amoungst themselves, but for now their focus was upon the Forgepoint and its defenders...

+++

My partner held the ruins to the north (top) of the board, while I dropped the Fortress in the corner. I chose NOT to put any objectives in the corner, instead using it to store dice and paper. I had learned in the practice battle that 3+/4++ is still incredibly fragile, made only worse with my general dice luck. I would try to protect it with the CSM squad during the tournament, or behind the two robots.



Turn one saw the Orks and Eldar do a general forward push. A trio of blasts from the ravager downed my forgefiend early. I was sad. One of WM's razorback immobilized, but his troops held the ruins for cover saves, and to pour firepower down.



Turn two continues the general push. Firepower streams down into the enemy. Clustered up, the Krakstorm never fails to find targets, although I whiff on trying to drop the ravager. The Dark Eldar player is very aggressive, but moves up in small groups, allowing WM to focus heavy firepower on individual units.



BURN!!!



Turn three sees my HQ and giant Chaos Spawn get 'stuck in', and a solid Ork Waaagh declared. Sadly, we only get a lackluster response from the crowd. Boo-hiss. This is where I realize how bad things are going to be, as I cannot roll more than 2-3 attacks for my spawn. Still, I have effectively stopped the Ork advance, after burning down an entire Ork Mob. My Rhino has parked tiself to block the center passage, and will proceed to fire two twin-linked comb-bolters for the rest of the game. Dakka. Dakka. Dakka. Whalemusic pushes his mobile AssCan'Back forward to shoot up bikes, Venoms. Dark Eldar start having to walk. The looted wagon eats fortress firepower and explodes, messily.



Waaaagh? WAAAAAAAAAAGH!



Turn four? Sure!

The Dark Eldar, annoyed at having to walk, proceed to eviscerate the Razorback, Librarian, and anything else that bothers them, and head for the Terminators. We manage to drop the ravager, more venoms, and force the bikes and the center mob of Orks off of the table. The Orks, meanwhile, bash the crap out of my magos and his robot friend.



Turn five, the Eldar deal death to the Terminators, and the Orks push past my defenders. I am left with my Fortress, which they rightfully ignore.

The game ends on six, if I recall correctly.

Hero of the Game: The Dark Eldar Incubi/HQ Squad, who just march march march their way through WM's army.

Primary [Objectives]: WIN. We held two, they held one.
Primary [Victory Points]: DRAW. This was amusing, as both sides managed the exact same numbers. We killed 5 Ork units and 6 DE units. They killed 5 of my units and six of WM's.
Secondary: We got bupkiss. They got Slay the Warlord, First Blood, and Linebreaker.
Result: Victory

This put us into the pack of winners, which suited our first round opponents just fine, because they wanted to lose. I do not blame them, in hindsight.

Lunchtime. The Hotel has a great buffet laid out, all sorts of burgers, mac and cheese, salads, sammiches. And, to be honest, the prices are not that bad, for not having to leave the premises.

++++++++++++++

In the wintry depths, above the Arctic circle, a group of Dark Angles move against the Forgepoint. Communication is refused, not unexpected given their secretive nature. Given the sheer number of vehicles, my cognitators determine that they are in need of fuel, and are attacking to take control of a segment of the worldwide pipeline. given our position and firepower, we will remove their need for fuel by removing their vehicles. Sesnors show some form of archaeotech fields emanating from two of the Razorbacks, we must collect them for study. Clearly, once again, the Dark Angels are hiding Dark Age technology from us, the rightful maintainers and techno-archivists. I dispatch a Techmarine and his squad to salvage what they can from the battlefield, aggressively if necessary.

Round Two - 1:15pm - Versus some rules lawyers.

Ugh. Seriously, these guys were just there to win, and this was an unpleasant game. They were even being pushy when they were clearly winning. We should have marked them down on Sportsmanship, but I had gotten upset at their shenanigans, and tried to "be fair". Their army was also barely painted, and difficult to determine who owned what. Black-washed dark green with silver highlights and black-washed dark silver with green highlights. Wheeee!

Opponents: Double Dark Angel parking lot, using the (now FAQ'd) measure-the-powerfield-from-the-vehicle-hull 4++ save. This is where my dice luck went into the hole. They made every 4++ save. All of 'em.

My partner was Andrew (Ramos Asura) and his Marines Errant. Andrew, being smarter than the rest of us, actually brought a flyer.

Deployment was Vanguard, the mission was Allied Table Quarters and Victory Points. Our opponents Twist a pair of units to score without their matching allied force, and then combat patrol everything. We do NOT Twist, thinking we can pop their mobility, and eliminate combat squads with focused firepower. Ha-ha, joke's on us.

Turn one, we castle in a corner, with a pair of vehicles in a table quarter. I make a mistake, and do not screen my HQ well enough, should have led with the Forgefiend. We open up with everything. We have a superior firing position, we can see everything. We manage to drop their Predators, but we can't pop open a Razorback to save our lives. Even if we get through the 4++ save, we can't roll higher than a 2-3 on the pen chart.



Turns two through five is a repeat of Turn one. We just can't kill anything, and they whittle us down, while pushing into table quarters. There is even a moment where they change how they stop, mid-game, marking which vehicles have occupants, and suddenly there's a razorback loaded with a squad in our table quarter, to contest. I am convinced that this razorback had bailed out, but by this time I just don't care. We fail a last-round push to get Linebreaker. The last round in Night fighting, and my Rhino illuminates a Razorback. Moral victory!



The bitter end, Andrew's Razorback makes a mad dash to try and get Linebreaker. He'll be about an inch short.



Hero of the Game: Andrew's Nephlim fighter, which manages to stay alive, and on the board, for the entire game. Just one big, fast-moving circle. Wheeeeeeee!
Bonus moment: I got to roll on the Chaos Boon table! I got poisoned weapon. Less than useful. :(

Primary [Allied Table Quarters]: LOSS. We held one, they contested one and held two.
Primary [Victory Points]: LOSS. Again, couldn't actually kill anything. Not a major loss, but they edged us by two.
Secondary: We got First Blood, they got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.
Result: Major Loss.

++++++++++++++

Forgepoint Titanicus, located in the orbital bombardment rad zone, in the ruins of Nova Secundus, destroyed from orbit aeons ago...

A combined force of Chaos and corrupted Orks have used high mobility to enter the ruins of the city, risking death by exposure in an attempt to take a key which will allow them access to the underground facilities. More marines have joined the defenses amoungst the craters and bombed out city ruins. If we can take the key quickly and fall back, we should be able to withstand any assault behind the Forgepoint's sturdy walls...


Round Three - 5:00pm - A reasonably nice team, Orks and Chaos.

It was Saturday, April 20th. We were working the third round of Adepticon's team Tournament. The deployment was Dawn of War, and the missions were The Relic and Victory Points. Twist of Fate was to gain Adamantium Will. No one took it. My partner's Cliff (Yellowbeard). My name's Brian, and I'm a Magos.

There's a Chaos juggernaut and spawn, mobs of Orks, Trukks, 5-man CSM in Rhinos, and a 450 point Ork Nobs on Bikes Death Star. We go first, so I grab the relic, in the hopes that I can use the terrain to just trash vehicles, creating blocks and difficult terrain, enabling me to fall back. I throw the HQ and robots against the Ork Deathstar, feeling fairly confident that I can hold them off. But, thanks to another round of cover and FNP saves (plus not being able to roll higher than a 2), my dice luck enables me to kill one of them. One.

Here's the initial setup. I will note that our opponents fires one round of Chaos Havoks, and then forgot about them. PROTIP: Do not put your people in cover that camouflages them FROM YOURSELF.



After two turns, you can see the scrum. The tactical plan has worked. We have the relic, and a clear path back to the fortress. We've dropped the two ORk Trukks, and have put a has of difficult terrain in the way. this is where everything falls apart. They get through the ruins and difficult terrain, and multi-charge. They take out most of Cliff's army, and he has to jump his assault squad in to help. I whiff against the Orks, and take out a couple more, in exchange for the loss of my Forgefiend, HQ, and Spawn.



SCRUM.



We DO manage to intercept-and-kill a Hellturkey. Moral Victory!

And here's the end. Clfff got some of the Orks to fall back, but my fortress failed to pop the remaining Chaos Rhinos, and it is just cleanup time. We were tabled, save for the fortress. I am now convinced that my dice luck is also affecting my partners. This suspicion would be bourne out by the fact that whomever formed the other half of our team rolled JUST FINE.



Hero of the Game: The little Chaos Squad that could, who rushed forward and managed to hold the Relic for three whole turns, before being gunned down by meltas.

Primary [The Relic]: DRAW. On the plus side, no one scored this.
Primary [Victory Points]: LOSS. Tabled.
Secondary: We got First Blood, they got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.
Result: Major Loss.

We went to dinner. It was a good dinner at Omega. I went back to my hotel room, hoping that a good night's sleep would break whatever was going on. I didn't get a good night's sleep.

++++++++++++++

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

So, having slept like crap, woken up with a major leg cramp, and been double-billed by my hotel, thing's were looking up!

+++ // Only the Bolter knows true redemption.

Forgepoint Mechanicus. Located in a desolate, rad-laden zone mortalis. Only a few rocky hills mark the savage wilderness. A section of the worldwide promethium pipeline network emerges here for maintenance purposes. Another group of Dark Angels, this time almost entirely bikes, arrives. Clearly, their armies are running out of fuel, and they are desperate. This group is led by a marine command on a gravitic jetbike, another lost piece of technology the craven, tainted marines refuse to turn over to us. We will take it from them. I program the robots with a single purpose.

Destroy.


Round Four (the round that cares) - 8:30am - Two Dark Angels Players, nice guys.

The deployment is Vanguard, the mission is Marked for Death and Objectives. Twist of Fate is outflank, none of us take it. We place terrain and objectives to build a killing zone, with one on the flank to draw some of their forces out;. One group is all bikes, a Shroud, and Sammy, the other is Belial, Termies, a squad of bikes, a Hyperios Whirlwind, and a Neph. We mark the terminator player, as the Hyperios and Neph are soft targets, along with the bike squad and the inevitable Attack Bike being split off.

I'm paired up with Cliff again. We castle and prepare to counter-assault.

We start out okay. We drop the shroud, and bait the majority of the army to the left. But I can't drop the pie plate down to save my life, and the Cultists manning the Icarus Lascannon apparently need two rounds to load and fire. Who knew? Lazy bastiches. Terminators drop in. I /ALMOST/ take out Belial with a precision lascannon interceptor shot. But I roll a 1 to wound. Sigh. Cliff proceeds to have to use his entire army to wipe out the Terminators and Belial, but it works. +2 VP! Unfortunately, the firepower of my forgefiend, lascannon, HQ and Spawn will utterly fail to do anything against the other terminators, and will be tied up for the rest of the game, instead of being able to incinerate bikes.



My Chaos marines in the Rhino peel off, and go chasing after the lone attack bike. This bike will survive several rounds of plasma and lascannon fire. their Neph arrives, but does not do much. We run out of time, and determine that we would, again, be tabled save for the Fort. The bright part is that we had pretty much eliminated THEIR army as well.



Hero of the Game: The invulnerable attack bike, who drew off three rounds of critical fire and movement.

Primary [Marked for Death]: LOSS, but not by much.
Primary [Objectives]: LOSS. We held one, they held three and could have taken the fourth.
Secondary: We got First Blood, they got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.
Result: Major Loss.

As you can guess, I am solidly pissed off. I actually had to walk away from the table, twice, just to calm the hell down. Between the Curse of the Number Two, and none of my scatter dice rolls coming up a 'hit', I'm seriously tired of Warhammer 40K.

++++++++++++++

South Pole, Auroral Forgepoint Monitoring Station.

An unholy alliance. A group of Chaos led by someone that looks suspiciously like Lugft Huron has unleashed a brood of Tyranids, in an attempt to breach the defenses around the promethium pipeline and processing facility. If they take this location, they will have enough fuel to sustain assaults across the planet. We have the support of the Marines Errant, and we will draw them in and break them against our walls.

My partner for this last game is Andrew (Ramos) and our opponents are some folcking folks from Nashville, Megan and John. Megan usually plays Orks, but was drafted to take 'nids. This is, oddly a semi-repeat of the first game. This game turns out to be wonderful, and I thank Andrew for letting me stop playing for a bit, and go into teacher mode. We would lose this game, but it felt right to help the folks across the table play a better game of 40K. My dice luck would be average this game.

The deployment is Dawn of War, the Mission is Uber Objectives, with each one being worth 5 points. No twist of fate, but Elites (and their dedicated transports (!) are scoring. They place three, we place two. Our only choice is to bait them off of their objectives, and hold ours. They have too many units to allow us to break through their lines. The nids have a Trigon Prime, a spawning Trigon, stealers, gargoyles. The chaos has Lugft, some autocannon havoks, cultists, and marines, and a unit of deepstriking Termies.

This is the only mission where our Warlord trait mattered. My Warlord is scoring.

I castle an objective for the first time ever. We put two scoring units hiding behind hills on another objective. We start the firepower dance. As expected, they start screaming across the table. My rhino and forces are placed to prevent any outflanking or deep striking on the castled objective.



The first turn is a shuffle, we eliminate the Havoks for First Blood, and put more shots downrange trying to kill the Trygon. A combo of underpowered lascannons and the paired cover/FNP saved enables it to live most of the game. Megan will fail to roll doubles for spawning nids the entire game. Pink dice. PINK DICE. Pink dice are what you should use to spawn gaunts.



This is where we pause, so I can make it a better game for them. They turn around, and start moving cultists and spawns back toward their objectives. I will bomb them the rest of the game to no effect. My forgefiend really does nothing the rest of the game, because of placement, and their entire army doing a refused flank. Oh well. I do manage to get off a Burning Brand/Nurgle's Rot combo, taking out handfuls of nids. Not enough, but it felt good.



Hold the line, mighty robot!



I would show you a picture of the beautiful Trygon Prime, but we killed it so fast, it went away. We also destroyed a unit of Zoeanthropes whose pod was destroyed by my Cultists who remembered to load BOTH barrels this time. The fact that everyone gets out of the pod THEN the pod is shot really bothers me. I leave the left-hand objective to try and stop the hordes. I figure I should be able to kill enough with the HQ or Spawn to then consolidate back to the objective.

I would be MISTAKEN. Ha-ha, silly human. Think of your dice luck all weekend long!



One gaunt holds us back. Good gaunt. Gooooooood gaunt.



Hero of the Game: Gaunts. GAUNTS! GAAAAUUUNNNTTTTSSSSSSS!

Primary [Uber Objectives]: LOSS. They hold FOUR, we held ONE.
Secondary: We got First Blood, they got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.
Result: Major Loss.

In spite of it being a major loss, I felt REALLY GOOD about this game. It is what Warhammer 40K should be. At least the disaster ended on a high note. Megan and John were excellent opponents, funny, witty, and charming.

++++++++++++++

Welp, there you have it. W-L-D: 1-4-0. Yay-Meh-Suck: 2-2-1 And we were totally snubbed by theme and paint judges.

C'est la vie.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 whalemusic360 wrote:
I do apologize for my role in making it a shoddy weekend. I was tired and in quite a bit of pain (I wouldn't have gone had the rest of the team not been relying on me to be there). I actually didn't have any folks across from me that I didn't get along with, even the double cron air. I would have liked more time though, my only thing played that wasn't TT was my Brushfire demo and then full game. If you do make it next year, I'd love to get a game of BF in with you!

Whale, I assure you, you had NO ROLE in my weekend being crap. You are ACES, compadre.

ACES.



--B.

Buddy, I am filled with rage for you. On the depression side of things, as my old prof said, It's the curse of those of us who are very smart. Also, I would buy you beer, even your rubbish American stuff
Play saga. It's freaking awesome. Pm me your email, I'll send you a bunch of stuff.