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.

Hi Folks!

Sorry this won’t include full battle reports. Unless maybe this week sprouts a couple of extra spare days in which I don’t have work or wife needing my time.

The army I brought this year is (sort of) the same one I’ve been bringing to tournaments for a while. My Fallen Angels, who occasionally swing from codex to codex. Nowadays they’re fairly well settled on being Chaos, as most of my nicer-looking units are chaos stuff. The list was:

HQ
Daemon Prince (110) with Wings (20), Mark of Slaanesh (5), Lash of Submission (20) = 155

Sorcerer (100) with Flight (20), Mark of Slaanesh (5,), Lash of Submission (20), Personal Icon (5) = 150

Elite
3 Terminators (90), 1 w/Chainfist (15) & Heavy Flamer (5), 2 w/Power weapon & Combi-Plasma (10) = 120

5 Chosen CSMS (90), w/3 Flamers (15), 2 Meltaguns (20) = 125
In Rhino (with Smoke and Searchlight) = 35

5 Chosen CSMS (90), w/3 Flamers (15), 2 Meltaguns (20) = 125
In Rhino (with Smoke and Searchlight) = 35

Troops
10 Chaos Space Marines (150), with Icon of Chaos Glory (10), 2 Flamers (10), including Aspiring Champion (15) with Power Fist (25) = 210
In Rhino (with Smoke and Searchlight) = 35

5 Chaos Space Marines (75), with Icon of Chaos Glory (10), Meltagun (10) = 95
In Rhino (with Smoke and Searchlight) = 35

5 Chaos Space Marines (75), with Icon of Chaos Glory (10), Plasmagun (15) = 100

8 Lesser Daemons = 104

Heavy Support
2 Obliterators = 150
2 Obliterators = 150
Vindicator = 125

Total: 1749


I flew down late Friday afternoon, as I had to work that day and there was a bit of a limited flight selection since I only booked a few weeks ago. I fly Southwest direct from Manchester to BWI, which is very convenient. It also allows me to take the $1.60 light rail from the airport right to the Baltimore Convention Center, getting a nice scenic ride and avoiding a $50 cab fare. The only inconvenient part of it is walking around the entire big horseshoe/U shape of the BWI concourse, since Southwest and the rail are at opposite ends.

I got to the hall and said hi to lots of folks I knew who were playing in the team tourneys or Ardboyz, including Centurian99, Blackmoor, TheEverliving, Notmatthew, and the incomparable Dave Taylor, whose new Ultramarines I drooled over for a bit. I also stopped in on the square-based side to greet several Warmongers, CCGers, and assorted fun Warhammer people. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get together a pickup game, but got to watch a fair number of games and socialize a bit. Aside from a 20+ minute excursion to find a Diet Pepsi for Notmatthew, involving far too much walking and a stop at The Wharf Rat for change (and a beer), it was a nice relaxing prelude to the proper gaming action.

Everliving and Notmatthew tied for third in the Ardboyz, giving our team (Cold Steel Mercenaries) a nice start to the weekend. We grabbed burgers and beers at the bar/lounge attached to the complex. Pretty tasty, but a bit heavy.

Saturday morning we got up, grabbed a bite of breakfast in the Hilton’s Diamond suite, and headed into the hall.



Round 1: I played Chris Showers (25th Overall, posts as Gorgon here on Dakka), from the Philadelphia area, with a full-conversion/counts-as Genestealer Cult army using Ork rules. It had Snikrot, but was otherwise non-maximized. Really gorgeous, and won Best Appearance. Chris was a very pleasant, low-key guy, and a decent player, but made one or two tactical errors I was able to capitalize on. By putting my Terminators in his backfield and killing a few of the Lootas, and by staying well away from most of the table edges (to make sure he’d have to Waagh to possibly hit my main force), I tempted him into wasting Snikrot’s efforts killing said terminators. Then my Chosen roasted them. Three flamers in a squad + Lash = many, many dead Orks. Got the 17pt Massacre by taking 2 objectives and leaving him none, with two bonus points. 19 pts.



Round 2: My opponent looked very familiar, as he had just been down to my previous table talking to his friend Gorgon. Phil Demara, (82nd Overall, posts as Cruentus on Dakka). Phil is another nice and relaxed opponent, and fielded non-webway Dark Eldar with three-four Raider Squads, two Warrior squads on foot, two Ravagers, a Talos, two squads of Wyches in Raiders, a Dracon, Grotesques, and three Haemonculi. A dozen darklances and four disintegrators. All the skimmers had Nightshields, making life more difficult for my meltaguns and plasmaguns. Thankfully it was KPs, so he had 20 possible to my 16 possible.



I won the roll to go first and ceded it to him, worried that he’d just put his whole army in Reserve and outrange me. Thankfully he deployed the army, then I put everything into Reserve except a single 5 man Rhino squad with Icon, to allow the lesser daemons to not automatically die if they appeared on turn 2. He popped the Rhino, and my squad (and soon my Daemons) retreated into a wood ASAP. Thankfully having something on the table for him to focus on caused him to move aggressively towards it, and thus when my stuff came on the table it actually had targets in range. Despite some bad damage rolls against skimmers early, and my Oblits not doing much, I clawed back from his early lead. In the second half of the game I started getting weapons to bear, and on turn 4, I think, he brought in three squads in Raiders and jumped out(!) to try and eliminate a unit of Oblits and my ten man squad. His shooting didn’t do it, his assault couldn’t take the survivors of the ten man squad (I had rapidfired the big Wych squad and Dracon to death earlier), and when I responded I gained several KPs. Some lucky rolls and bold moves right at the end allowed me to earn the massacre, 14KPs to 7. All three bonus points and I had a happy 20.



Round 3: Sidney Lark (48th Overall), an older gamer, retired police officer. Had a former Blood Angels army whose old-school BA Rhinos paired well with my old-school DA Rhinos. But both of us were heretics. His was nastier in HTH, taking cult marines but lacking oblits. Dual lash DPs and Greater Daemon for HQ, three squads of 5 PMs in Rhinos, a squad of 8 Berserkers in a Landraider, and two Vindicators to round things out. We had quite an open table, and so I elected to go first and start killing Rhinos/putting squads in the open even though it was an objective mission. Bad call. Early to mid game things looked good for me- I started killing units and was sitting on multiple objectives. But despite a very mild and casual demeanor, Phil started playing some extremely tight 40k in the last few turns. His remaining Lash did some outstanding work, his surviving Prince and his GD went overtime contesting objectives, and his one surviving PM squad managed to fight off a squad of Chosen and grab an objective. On turn 5 I had it won, but was worrying that I might not get the massacre. On turn 6 it looked like he had sneaked the draw and I needed a couple of decent die rolls to get the win back (and maybe the Massacre). On turn 7 I made a mistake (expecting my Sorcerer w/2 wounds left could finish off or at least tie up a DP with 1 wound left, and thus not shooting said DP with two oblits in Rapidfire range), he played perfect, he got exactly the rolls he needed, and took the minor win over me. I honestly underestimated Phil, and when he got the dice he needed and I made that mistake, I let victory slip through my fingers. Thankfully I still had all the secondary objectives, so at least it was a 10pt Loss.

Saturday night we went out and grabbed a bit and a couple of beers at the Wharf Rat. Very nice beer, and the portions (on nachos and fish & chips) are huge, but tended towards the slightly undercooked and floppy side. All of us were pretty tired and forewent last year’s strip club shenanigans in favor of a good night’s sleep.

Sunday morning saw another nice brekker courtesy of the Hilton, and I rolled into the hall to meet my fourth opponent.



Round 4: Bobby Smithney (15th Overall), a very nice young guy (college age) from Boston, though I’d never met him before. He had footslogging Kan orks. 2 Mekboys with KFF, 105 Boys in 4 squads, 2 Dreads taken as Troops, 9 Kans, and a squad of 3 buggies. This was Capture and Control. He had never played against the current Chaos codex, and so didn’t realize what Lash would do to him. He made the mistake of spreading out across the table, and trying to hold his own objective only with a 30 boy shoota mob, mekboy, and a nearby Dread and squad of Kans. When a squad of my Chosen appeared over there on turn 3, my prince finally broke cover to lash them into perfect flamer position. 27 dead orks later, his objective was no longer safe. Meanwhile my sorcerer, another squad of chosen, my vindicator, and my terminators kept the other flank secure. My Oblits spent most of the game blasting away at Kans and Dreads, occasionally helped by the sorcerer pushing the squad with Mekboy out of range to cover them. The other chosen were not quite as successful, only killing 19 Orks with 42 flamer hits, but I still eventually finished that squad too. My Lesser Daemons came in on turn 2 when no good assaults were even theoretically possible, but did a lovely job holding my objective. A movement mistake (not moving one of my Rhinos out of the way FIRST, which cost me about 2”) and a 1” Run roll conspired to prevent my 10 man squad from seizing Bobby’s objective, leaving me with only a Minor win with only +1. Killing all his non-IC, non-scoring units was tough, given how durable vehicles can be now. He still had two Kans and both Dreads (though one Immobilized) left for non-scoring units, and a single Slugga mob with Mek out of position to contest either objective. 14pts





Round 5: Jeremy Constance, (8th Overall, Theblklotus on Dakka). Quite interesting Chaos list he described as “monster mash”. Dual lashing DPs, Greater Daemon, Landraider, two Defilers, three Dreads with 2 CCW & heavy flamer, three 5 man Icon of Glory CSM squads in Rhinos, and a pack of 5 lesser daemons. Jeremy and I had a little early rule friction, but he was quite a good guy, and we got over it. He played this KP mission exactly as he had to- extremely conservative. Took first turn and started everything off the table except one hiding prince. Put two of his Rhinos into NORMAL reserve so they’d stay off the table longer and not get shot at. Hid all his fragile stuff most of the game, just giving me the landraider, defilers, and his daemon princes to shoot at, and keeping his units in tight mutually-supporting formations (from my right- Landraider holding squad with dreadnought hidden behind, and defilers close by; to my left- Rhino squads, lessers, greater daemon, and two dreads). This way he ensured that my Chosen had no good targets- if they hopped out, they might be able to meltagun one thing to death, but would be pounced on and give up 2 KPs (for themselves and their Rhino). Jeremy’s very tight play, combined with me having fairly poor dice, made this a pretty painful loss. I scored my first KP on turn 3, finally getting one of the princes after two turns of shooting at it. The other prince took another turn. Those were my only KPs until turn 6 or so, when I finally popped a Defiler and got a lucky kill on the Landraider. Their squad popped out, I lashed it forward… but NOT quite far forward enough to assault and finish off. My other squad of oblits failed to eliminate the other defiler (Immobilized and two or three Weapon Destroyeds), and I lost, 4 KPs to 6. I came closer than I expected to completing the amazing sequence of die rolls I needed to Draw it in the final turn, but could not quite get lucky enough. Another Minor loss, with 2pt bonus for no enemy scoring units anywhere near my DZ, for 9pts.



I ended the tournament in 31st place (out of 143, it looks like?), with 72/100 Battle, 50/50 Sports (yay!), 23 Appearance (boo), for 145pts Overall. The Appearance score is a bit of a bummer. I went down the checklist before the event and was pretty certain I should have around a 28, maybe even a little better. 5 more points would have bumped me into the top 20. Oh well. It was still a great time, with one of the best/most pleasant groups of opponents I’ve ever had at a GT. Both of my losses were games in which I could have played a little better, it wasn’t just the dice, so between that and the painting I have opportunities for improvement.

I had a 6pm flight, so figured I wouldn’t be able to watch the awards, but was fortunate that the tournament staff ran through the new product presentation very quickly (no GW pseudo-celebrities), and so they actually had the tournament results done by 4:30 and I was able to watch them. Gorgon won best appearance. Moz (whom I had played at Adepticon with his Dark Eldar) with the Kroot/Nob Jetbikes army won Best General. Neil Cauley with bike-heavy Orks won Overall. I got a Wave Serpent + 5 Dire Avengers boxed set as a door prize. Not too shabby. So my whole team walked away with something.

Overall I’ve very happy with the Community Events team’s organizational skills, and with the quality of the 5th ed rules. I had an even better time this year than last, and am psyched and energized for even more 40k.

Nice wrap up. Good to see it was a pleasant experience with pleasant people

Ragnar, thanks for the write-up. If we'd done that Vindicator assault correctly, maybe my big foot mob could have sprung free and done some damage. Although they likely would have been bunched 'n' crunched with the lashes like my other units.

You did a pretty good job staying out of Snikrot range. IIRC, it was either engage the Vindicator, the Terminators, or strand them out in the open. And seeing as it was my highest point unit, I didn't want to throw it away. What I really needed there were Stormboyz to go get you, and not Kommandos.

The dual lashes were absolutely brutal on my army. Stupidly good, really. I don't have any defense against it, other than fielding a mounted army or having a lot of fast or shooty units to really reach out and touch the lashers (which I didn't). I don't like the lash power and what it does to the game. But hey, I took Snikrot, right? And you were the better player with much more experience with your army. So my problems there went deeper than the lash power.

I started playing better as the tourney went on, but the shortcomings in my army became pretty evident. Next year I'll have a more focused and refined list. Now that I have the base army done, the changes will be easier to make. This year my painting schedule was so tight that I had to have things planned out well in advance, which didn't leave time for army adjustments. Not that I had much time to playtest it anyway.

And if I get everything done to the army that I'd like to, it should actually be more characterful with more visual appeal.

Thanks again for a good game!

Hey Gorgon- I agree that Lash is pretty nasty. Against really maximized Ork armies, I have found that it’s almost impossible to go without. Against your army, I might have been able to win with only one, but it’d be an uphill slog. Usually I find that at least one of the lashing models gets shot or assaulted and killed fairly early. The 24” range and the LOS requirement, especially in 5th with the reduced availability of terrain you can truly hide behind, makes sure they can generally be targeted by something. This was why I targeted your Lootas to start with. That squad (while intact) could easily kill either of my lashers with a single round of fire.

Re: The vindicator assault, I’m not sure what you mean by “sprung free.” Do you just mean moved away in the following turn? I think you had maybe around 17 shoota boys left in that mob at the time, which (not counting the klaw, which I think missed[but i could be misremembering]) is 51 attacks, 25.5 hits, and 4.25 glances. Which, on average, would have at least prevented the Vindi from shooting the following turn. That could indeed have saved some boys, unless the oblit plasmacannons did the job.

You were a very good opponent with a gorgeous army, so thanks again for the game. I look forward to giving you a rematch when you have more practice and have tuned the list a little more too.

Nice report

Hey, Yeah! Cold Steel Mercs. I remember you guys, you are fierce. Good to see you did well at the tournament.

Thanks for the nice report.

It's also good to see a "counts-as" army pull out an award.

Mannahnin wrote:Hey Gorgon- I agree that Lash is pretty nasty. Against really maximized Ork armies, I have found that it’s almost impossible to go without. Against your army, I might have been able to win with only one, but it’d be an uphill slog. Usually I find that at least one of the lashing models gets shot or assaulted and killed fairly early. The 24” range and the LOS requirement, especially in 5th with the reduced availability of terrain you can truly hide behind, makes sure they can generally be targeted by something. This was why I targeted your Lootas to start with. That squad (while intact) could easily kill either of my lashers with a single round of fire.

Yep, I obviously didn't have redundancy with the Lootas. People field two squads for a good reason. The lash just exposed the weakness of the army. It wasn't a full-blown footslogging steamroller, but didn't have any speed either. I spent most of the tournament trying to overcome the fact that most of my opponents could dictate the game to me. Lash just made it 10 times worse.

I don't foresee going steamroller, given my mostly depleted miniature stockpile and the prices that metal Hybrids command ($5-10 apiece). So I'll likely go for a hammer-anvil approach. The footslogging elements will be stronger, and I'll have strong fast elements on the table too. It likely won't be a "power build" a la 45 lootas or 20 nob bikers, but I'm confident it should be much better, especially with a year of practice.

Re: The vindicator assault, I’m not sure what you mean by “sprung free.” Do you just mean moved away in the following turn? I think you had maybe around 17 shoota boys left in that mob at the time, which (not counting the klaw, which I think missed[but i could be misremembering]) is 51 attacks, 25.5 hits, and 4.25 glances. Which, on average, would have at least prevented the Vindi from shooting the following turn. That could indeed have saved some boys, unless the oblit plasmacannons did the job.

Yeah, I just meant they would have been able to move on something else instead of playing chase the tank. Even an immobilized result might have worked. However, you're right, the plasma cannons and lashes would likely have gotten 'em. I was never able to get into you or really present multiple threats. So you were able to smack things down one by one.

Never say never. With where they were, a decent Difficult terrain and Run move could have held or contested the center objective while being in 4+ cover from the Oblits. You had second move, so I couldn't have just moved the Sorc up to contest. I’d actually have to lash them out and plasmacannon them, maybe assaulting the last few guys with the sorcerer if the plasmacannons didn’t scatter too much. Best case for that squad would most likely have turned it into a Minor instead of a 17pointer, but never say die!

Great battle report, thanks for taking the time to post it!

Somnicide wrote:Great battle report, thanks for taking the time to post it!

THIS!!!
also are there any pictures of your army? I bet they deserved a higher score

Thanks, guys. I actually forgot to take any full-army shots of my force this time around. Doh. There are some more pics of my models in the links below, though most of my army has received some additional touchups, and all my squads have hand-painted roman numerals on the shoulder pads now.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/208715.page

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Danger_Planet_May_17_Tourney_Report

Nice report, Ragnar. Loved seeing the pictures, particularly of the armis.
And well done: a strong performance against some of the ruffest and tuffest in the land!

Thanks, Fred! I also added a few more shots to my photo-dump thread (linked above).

Game 5:
You rolled some seriously bad dice... I was feeling pretty bad for ya. You HQ's were actually trying to off themselves quite fast with dangerous terrain and failed psychic tests! ick.

After some thought, you were right. I really should have focused on the oblits from turn one and shut them down. I will definitely keep that in mind against any opponents with oblits. I always enjoy a game when I can come away rethinking how to approach certain things in the game. I have always found myself uncertain as to how/when to deal with oblits.

I am just so glad we were both able to put aside the early game tension and have a really good game. Each turn I found myself horrified by your lashes and thinking I was gonna start losing my vehicles any time. You scared me on turn 7 when you nearly pulled off the "ULTRA Mega COMBO"

See ya at adepticon!

Hey Mannahnin, good reports, and congratulations for the placement.
It gave some insight to other GT players at this board.