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I got home from another great year at Adepticon on Monday and had a blast. Adepticon is the Con of Cons, really the highlight of the tournament season. It has everything a gamer would want: tons of beautiful armies, great players, beers, laughs and general good times for all.

There were 1500 people in attendance this year and 256 40K gamers in the Championships! I didn't get in to the tournament last year because I signed up too late and made sure to early register this year so I wouldn't miss out.

I brought my trustee Bjorn Wolves as they rarely let me down and went expecting to play some tough games against a wide variety of highly skilled opponents.

Adepticon missions work as such: You have multiple victory conditions, each condition is an objective(s). The player with the most at game's end, wins. In the case of a tie, victory points with a 10% margin (185 points) are used as tie breakers. If there is not a large enough margin, it is a straight tie. I loved the missions, personally. They really worked well.

I woke up with a savage hangover from partying with tournament buddies I only see a few times a year. I slammed a 5 hour energy and managed to make it through the day! At Adpeticon, you have to be able to play either half sauced or hungover with very little sleep. Plenty of time for that when you're dead!

My list:

HQ
Bjorn
Rune Priest: JotWW, Storm Caller

Elite
Dread: L.Cannon, H.Flamer

Troops:
Grey Hunters x 5, Flamer
Grey Hunters x 5, Flamer
Grey Hunters x 5, Flamer, Razorback, A.Cannon
Grey Hunters x 5, Melta, Razorback, A.Cannon

Fast
Typhoon
Typhoon
Typhoon

Heavy
Long Fangs x 6, M.Launcher x 5, Lazorback
Long Fangs x 6, M.Launcher x 5, Lazorback
Long Fangs x 6, M.Launcher x 5, Razorback

Mission 1:
Spearhead.
Victory conditions: table quarters, kill points, have an HQ model within 6" of the table center
Opponent: Paul
Army: Blood Angels (list from memory)

HQ
Meph
Dante

Elite
Sanguinary Guard x 5, I. pistols
Priest x 3: Jump Packs, I. Pistols
Furioso Dread: Blood Talons, M.Gun

Troops
Assault Squad x 10: Melta Gun x 2, I.Pistol, Fist
Assault Squad x 10: Melta Gun x 2, I.Pistol, Fist

Fast
Baal: Flamestorm

Heavy
Storm Raven: Hurricane Bolters
Devastator Squad x 5: M.Launcher x 4

It was funny, my first opponent was a friend of mine from San Diego, my old stomping grounds! We fly half way across the country to end up playing each other first round!

To this point I had never lost to Blood Angels. I know how to handle them with my Bjorn wolves, especially low model count lists like this one. Kill the fast movers first, try and shut down or slow Meph and position Bjorn to take him on in close combat. If I can do this, I will almost always win. And this is exactly what happened. I got first turn and Paul reserved a lot of his stuff. He seized on me, but it didn't mean much as he had very little firepower. I focus fired on his units and destroyed them as they came in piece meal. He played a little too conservatively with Meph and held him back a turn too long. When he did get in range, my Priest shut down his powers 9 out of 10 times, making him easy pickings for Bjorn who killed him in combat. A combination of playing a little too passively and some bad dice for my opponent meant a win for me with two objectives. It was a good game though and I wished Paul good luck in the rest of the event.

Game 2
Pitched Battle
Destroy half or more of your opponent's kill points, 3 objectives, get the most units into your opponent's deployment zone
Opponent: Enron
Army: Blood Angels (Lamenters, list from memory)

HQ
Meph
Libby: Blood Lance, Rage

Elite
Priest x 3: I.Pistol

Troops
Assault Marines x 8: Melta, Fist, I.Pistol, Rhino
Assault Marines x 8: Melta, Fist, I.Pistol, Rhino
Assault Marines x 8: Melta, Fist, I.Pistol, Rhino
Assault Marines x 8: Melta, Fist, I.Pistol, Rhino
Assault Marines x 8: Melta, Fist, I.Pistol, Rhino

Heavy
Devastator Squad x 5: M.Launcher x 4
Devastator Squad x 5: M.Launcher x 4

So another Blood Angels Player, this time with a gorgeously painted and converted Lamenters force. This list was a tougher nut to crack for me than the last as it had so many more bodies. I got first turn and knew I needed to deal a strong blow to him early or he would be in my face in two turns with all of those assault marines. I opened up on him and poured fire in as he bum rushed me. It was a crazy game with good and bad luck on both sides. I was popping transports and carpet bombing units to bits with frags but I wasn't slowing him down enough. We were trading Kill Points but I was up so he focused on sitting his large squads on objectives. I managed to get Bjorn into Meph again, and again, my priest stopped Meph from using his strength 10 power when it counted, allowing Bjorn to smack him around. As the game wound down to a close, I had him on Kill Points but he had me on objectives. I turbo boosted a speeder into his deployment zone to take the third victory condition and in his last turn, he mistakenly moved a unit off of an objective to destroy the speeder. He took out the speeder, but gave up the objective victory condition, giving me the win. It was a crazy close, super fun game. Definitely my favorite of the weekend and had my opponent not made that little model positioning mistake on the last turn, we would have tied. Great game!

Game 3
Pitched Battle
Kill Points, 5 objectives, nominate a unit to destroy as a victory condition
Opponent: James
Army: Dark Eldar

HQ
Baron

Elite
Trueborn x 5: D.Lance x 2, Venom, S.Cannon x 2
Trueborn x 5: D.Lance x 2, Venom, S.Cannon x 2
Trueborn x 5: D.Lance x 2, Venom, S.Cannon x 2, Grisly Trophies

Troops
Warriors x 5: Blaster, Venom, s.cannon x 2
Warriors x 5: Blaster, Venom, s.cannon x 2
Warriors x 5: Blaster, Raider, Disintegrator, Flickerfield
Warriors x 5: Blaster, Raider, Disintegrator, Flickerfield

Fast
Beastmasters: BM x 3, Khy x 5, Razor x 4
Beastmasters: BM x 3, Khy x 5, Razor x 4
Reavers x 9: H.Lance x 3

Heavy
Ravager: Flicker, 3 x D.Lance
Ravager: Flicker, 3 x D.Lance
Ravager: Flicker, 3 x D.Lance

A nasty DE list that can really tear MEQs apart. We rolled to go first and my opponent rolled a 6, which with the Baron becomes a 7! This is exactly what happened last time I played the Baron against Blackmoor at the Sprue Posse GT. So I was going second against an army that could cripple me first turn, this wasn't going to be easy. I took a gamble and decided to nominate one of my opponent's Beastmaster units as the unit I needed to destroy in order to achieve one of the victory conditions. I didn't actually think I would destroy them (other targets were much higher on the priority list) I was hoping my opponent would keep them out of play to deny me the objective, keeping the heat off of me as those units will tear up my army.

My opponent deployed across his entire deployment zone which gave me an opening to exploit. I deployed in a forced flank in a corner of my deployment zone, which meant about half his army couldn't see mine. This allowed me to weather the first turn's shooting and fight a portion of his army with all of mine while he redeployed. It was a crazy game, with both of us mauling the other player's MSU lists. James was a very good player and by turn 4 it was a dead heat on victory conditions. Then my opponent managed to destroy Bjorn with a lucky heat lance shot. This could have been curtains for me as Bjorn gives up an additional D3 kill points if I don't have a unit touching him at game's end. Luckily, I had reserved all of my troops and so last turn my boys came on the board and one of them moved to touch Bjorn which meant he didn't give up the additional KPs and I was now claiming him as an objective! The other two units came on and destroyed one of his troops units on an objective. That meant that I ended up winning the game as we were tied on all of the other victory conditions! Even in death, Bjorn still serves!

So I won an extremely close game. My gamble to nominate his assault unit as one of my victory conditions payed off as he hid it the entire game. Kudos to James for being such a tough player, that was a real nail biter of a game.

Game 4
Dawn of War
Kill Points, Defend your 3 objectives, take his 3 objectives
Opponent: Jon
Orks

HQ
Ghaz
KFF Big Mek

Elites
Meganobz x 3, Trukk, Armor plates, red paint, ram
Tankbustas x 15
Lootas x 11

Troops
7 Nobz, Diversified, Trukk, Armor Plates, Red Paint, Ram
Boyz x 20, B.Shoota x 2, Nob with Klaw
Ard Boyz x 12: Nob with Klaw, Trukk, Armor Plates, Red Paint, Ram
Grots x 10, Slaver
Deff Dread: B.Shoota x 2, Grot Riggers, Armor Plates

Heavy
Battlewagon: B.SHoota x 2, Ram, Red Paint, Armor Plates

An unconventional Ork army, but if he was playing me round 4, he had gone 3-0 at Adepticon against some tough players, so I wasn't going to underestimate him. However, I got first turn and this was a terrible match-up for him. Had he gone first, it would have been different. But in DoW, I use Razorbacks as push back units and I get to run into position before his units get on the board. Typically against Orks, this means I shoot them dead before they get close. The ugly game started out with my opponent moving his Trukk with Nobs and Ghaz onto the board through difficult terrain and failing his dangerous terrain check with snake eyes, immobilizing the transport on the board edge. It just went downhill from there. He made a game of it, trying to get back into the fight, but by the bottom of two, it was over. He was a good player, but this was just not his game. We called it on 3.

So that was the end of day 1, and I ended up going 4-0. Not bad for only having a few hours sleep and a hangover!

When the dust settled, I ended up finishing 5th place overall out of 256. Had I made a display board, I would have been 4th! It was a great tournament with fun, tough opponents. I made the finals which were to be held on Sunday and would be a battle royale for the title of tournament champion! The top 16 players from Saturday made the cut, and I will report on that day in my next post.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I was too focused on what I was doing to take any.

Reecius wrote:I woke up with a savage hangover from partying with tournament buddies I only see a few times a year. I slammed a 5 hour energy and managed to make it through the day! At Adpeticon, you have to be able to play either half sauced or hungover with very little sleep. Plenty of time for that when you're dead!

That'd explain how the 16 year old won!

Seriously though, well played Reece, some tough battles (and unconventional lists which I love) but good tactics on your part at least (particularly with nominating the beast unit). It's nice to see that (other than the Orks) luck didn't seem to play too big a part either.
Some good games, I'd have liked pictures of course, but it's completely understandable considering the adepticon environment and your state and need to play competitively. Really look forward to the next games - and i know one of them involves a BA player getting his own back IIRC - and how much fun it was really came across in the reports!

Also, just another note, but how do you find the Lascannon/Flamer Dreads perform? Obviously they provide some firepower and counter-assault, but they're not a conventional choice and I'd like your opinion on them? Cheers man.

Love it as usual Reecius.

Did you run Bjorn with an assault cannon? I thought it was better to run him with a plasma cannon as the assault cannon has shorter range, and he's meant to stay in the back lines as counter assault.

Skelly wrote:Love it as usual Reecius.

Did you run Bjorn with an assault cannon? I thought it was better to run him with a plasma cannon as the assault cannon has shorter range, and he's meant to stay in the back lines as counter assault.

I believe Reece always uses Bjorn with a plasma cannon since he uses the sweet FW chaplain dread with FW plasma cannon.

Nice report - congrats on going undefeated.

Nice report! Awesome job.

Thanks guys!

@Rebeard and Mannahnin
Good seeing you guys again! I always enjoy hanging out with Dakkanauts in real life. You guys kicked butt too, congratz on your awards!

@Just Dave
The las cannon/H.flamer dreads are awesome in my list. at 2000 I run 2, for Ard Boyz I run 3. They provide ap2, long range, accurate strength 9, a flamer for hordes and counter assault. They are such useful, multi-purpose units for me that I wouldn't play without them. Plus they look cool!

And yeah, the Blood Angels did get their revenge on me in the finals. I will cover that after work today.

@Skelly
Thanks, yeah, Adpeticon is a blast. Such a good tournament! I do run Bjorn with the Plasma Cannon, only way to run him, IMO. His BS6 means he rarely misses.

Those are great reports and even better performances on the table Reecius, congratulations!

Congrats in placing 5th out of 256 players. Your list continues to dominate most armies, including the newer ones. Stellar performance! Bjorn should be your mvp.

Great job Reece! I know your wolves can be really nasty, and it sounds like you played it really well too!

Congrats on your tournament successes. One of these days, I'm going to have to take on your Bjorn wolves with one of my more balanced lists (and not my gimmicky Ravenguard one).

Congrats on your pwnage. Looking forward to your day 2 reports.

Congrats on doing so well man!

Spes puppies

How do you like the Razor back with A. cannon? I have been thinking about using(at least 3) them in my BA army with assault squads.

Awesome battle report, detailed as always even without pics.

Thanks, guys! Sorry for the delays, work is taking up all my time at the moment. I will update with the finals asap.

@sabote

They are awesome. If not for the 24" range, I would only take the assault cannons. ON a BA fast razorback? All assault cannons all day.

I have a few minutes so I will quickly write up the first game of the finals.

Game 1 Final 16
Opponent: Paul Murphy
Army: Blood Angels
Mission: Pitched Battle, Objectives, Kill Points, destroy a designated enemy unit.

List (From memory)
HQ
Meph
Sanguinor

Elite
Assault Termies x 5: 1 t.hammer, 4x l.claws
Priest x 3
Chaplain

Troops
Assault Squad x 10: 2 x melta, fist, I.pistol
Assault Squad x 10: 2 x melta, fist, I.pistol, Rhino
Assault Squad x 10: 2 x melta, fist, I.pistol, Rhino

Heavy
Storm Raven

Paul Murphy is a very good player, always hovering in the top 10 of the Rankings and was number 1 for a while. He also finished just above me in the overall rankings of the Championships in 4th place. I knew I was in for a tough game.

My third BA opponent of the event, I felt confident though as I had played a very similar army round 1 and I play BA often in practice. I nominated Meph as my unit to destroy as I knew I had to kill him to win the game, and he nominated my rune priest as it was the easiest to destroy model.

I won First turn and took it. Paul deployed everything apart form the storm raven with the termies, chappy and a priest inside, and then proceeded to steal the initiative from me...just like my first round game against a similar BA list! This was pretty crappy as it prevented me from destroying his Rhinos in his deployment zone and from putting wounds on his uber characters before he could start covering ground.

Despite losing the initiative, things looked great at the bottom of two. I had destroyed everything of his on the table apart from Meph and the remnants of one assault squad. I charged Meph with Bjorn and had my Rune Priest in range to try and stop his psychic powers. My tried and true anti-BA strategy was playing out exactly as planned and I felt I was going to win the game at this point.

Then my Rune Priest forgot how to turn the power on his runic staff on. I failed to stop ANY of his important powers and in fact, only stopped one power all game (Meph uses 3 a turn and I stop them on a 4+). So, Meph got his strength 10, preferred enemy off on Bjorn every turn and in turn 3, chopped the poor old man in half despite his invul save and venerable status. This was curtains for me, without Bjorn I had nothing to stop Meph, and in fact, in many games against Mr. Space Twilight, Bjorn has never failed to either kill him or contain him for the entire game. This was his first defeat to Meph.

After that, things went downhill. Meph went on a Rampage through my lines and the Storm Raven came on delivering termies into me as well. I shot the Storm Raven down, but it was curtains from here. I went into tie mode and ran units away, taking objectives and trying to not die. In the end, Paul took it 2-1, destroying my Rune Priest and getting more kill points with me holding more objectives.

Had my stupid Rune Priest stopped even 1 strength 10 attack from Meph, it would have been a different game, but I seriously stopped 1 in 10 powers all game, it sucked. Kudos to Paul though, he played a smart game and did exactly what he had to to face my shooty army of death.

And thus ended my run at the Adepticon championship. Despite dropping out round 1, I had a great time and really enjoyed the event and the structure. Adepticon is absolutely worth the time and money.

I will write up the other bat reps when I have time, thanks for reading!

Good run and I especially like Bjorn but run him cheap with just a plasma cannon.

Paul is a great player and has won big events in the past.

thanks for the compliments, guys.

Reece.. you have me way over pointed!

Just 2 priests and no inferno pistols. One of the assault squads is just a 9 man to let the priest ride in there.

If you'd like I can post my half of the battle and the strategy. I don't want to seems like i am hijacking or anything.

Here is a picture of the Lamenters army you faced in Game #2



Here is a picture of the Dark Eldar army you faced in game #3

Thanks for the pics, Alan! That DE army was amazing.

@Thehod

Thanks, yeah, Paul was a very good player, he did exactly what he needed to.

@Blood Angel

Not hijacking the thread at all, I'd love to hear your side of the story, it would be interesting to see what was going through your head. Feel free to comment. And sorry for the mistakes on your list, I was writing it from memory and I wrote this up really fast. Feel free to post the correct list.

Cool.

Basically I set on on the board and didn't hold things completely in reserve due to a lot of cover being between me and the Reecius gun line.

I wasn't expecting to Sieze the init.

It has been my experience that people will get a little careless when moving their long range vehicles trying to angle up on shots that don't give me a cover save. I was hoping you would move a speeder into Mephiston's threat range.

This would allow me to jump up there and maybe take one down providing me with a little extra cover even if you took out both of my rhinos. I felt like I had a decent shot at keeping one rhino mobile since 'most' of your long fangs didn't have line of sight.

When I siezed I didn't need to worry about that any more.

I was able to 'do what I do' and just move everything forward and smoke.

Your army has a lot of fire power. By the end of round 2 you had killed two of my assault squads and the Sanguinor due to some seriously abysmal rolling on my part.

This was the begining of the decline of my rolling for the rest of the tournament

I wasn't too worried though. I knew I had the Storm Raven with a serious payload still waiting to come on the board and with the way you were set up with the long fangs there was almost no way for you to be out of my charge range the round after they come in - even if you blew the raven up. (which you did )

The assault squad that you hadn't killed so far was mostly full 10 man squad over near an objective that you only had a 5 man squad and a razorback protecting. I felt confident I was going to hold that one down so I chose to leave them over there and just spend a couple of round plinking at your small squad. This pays off in the end.

You charging meph with Bjorn was expected. 'Math' says you are only going to stop one power a turn. This is why I always lead out with Preferred Enemy, hoping you'd blow your mojo on the one that didn't matter as much. When you failed to stop both powers I thought I had a chance to pop him on around 1. I had to settle for only taking off his power fist. Once that happened I knew mephy could basically last forever against him basically locking them both down.

Round 3 comes and the storm raven tears on from reserve going 24 inches. I think I machine spirit fire something but don't kill anything.

Mephiston guts Bjorn with an impressive 6, 6, 6, roll. I consilidate on top of bjorns body since he is now an objective and hope that he sends someone over to try and claim him.

I think this is the turn that I also shot the small squad near an objective on the other side of the table off the board basically securing that one for me.

He kills the storm raven on this turn too, as expected. I seriously only ever expect to fire this thing once. It is there just to deliver the terminators, chaplain and the priest. If it lasts longer than a turn I consider it a gift.

On turn 4 the terminators multi charge a razorback and a long fang pack destorying them.

Mephiston charges his rune priest and the squad he is attached to and murders them and then consilidates back to bjorn.

The assault squad on the objective hangs tight.

He has his speeders left at this point and he is moving them around trying to gain position. His shooting at the bottom of 4 doesn't do too much. There just aren't enough soft targets in range to kill.

Turn 5 brings the end to basically everything but the speeders. I have the terminators circled around bjorn and mephiston is free roaming looking for prey.

That about sums it up.

I had two Grey Hunter squads left that ran onto objectives in a vain attempt to squeak out a tie. If only Bjorn had handled Meph the way he normally does it would have left the other dread free to throw into the terminators to hold them up.

Oh well, that is the way the cookie crumbles.

Ohh. I had actually forgotten about the other dread you sent in to the Meph grinder.

I do agree that getting all the powers off each round is what helped keep things rolling in my direction.

Have you run the numbers to see who is 'supposed' to win with bjorn vs. mephiston?

The ven status probably gives Bjorn the advantage but I think all Mephiston has to do to eventually win the war of attrition is get one weapon destoryed result. Without a power weapon big b will probably never kill mephiston.

Ouch!

It sucks when you have everything going for you until the last minute where your dice let's you down.

Normally character lists don't do well in tournaments, but Paul Murphy's BA was an exception.

Thanks for sharing.

To be fair to Reece, his Bjorn was curbstomping Mephiston's throughout the Championship, he probably felt he had enough to make it all happen.

Does Meph hit Bjorn on 3's? Maybe a better insurance policy against him would be if Reece had initially had both dreads gang up on Meph to take him out, or had a unit with a powerfist or Mark of the Wulfen charge in to help. Even if Meph cleans the majority of them out, Bjorn doesn't care about negative combat res, and could use the extra help plinking off Meph's last couple of wounds.

Situations like this are why I don't like the new MSU style trend. One beatstick character or unit can really make a mess of your lines in a situation like this.

Well done Reecius! So you didn't steal the coffee tray out of the hotel room again for your custom army display board?

Oh yes he did! At least for the Championships. I stole it for the Team Tournament

hey, this is the DE player, thanks to you and allan for the good games. Hope to see you guys at next years adepticon