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Yesterday was Ard Boyz semis and I played at Legends Comics and Games in Cupertino (awesome store) and had a great time. All 3 games were against cool, fun guys, were challenging and enjoyable. Plus, almost all the armies present were fully painted! Not what we're used to for Ard Boyz, that's for sure.

45 players as well, which is a large turnout for Ard Boyz.

I saw a lot of familiar faces, some that I had not seen in years. That is one of my favorite parts of tournament play, seeing people that you only get to see a few times a year.

I busted out the trusty Bjorn Wolves. This is my tried and true tournament army that has been my workhorse throughout most of 5th ed. I love the army and it continues to perform well, and be fun to play. I made one, slight change to the list from last year, switching out an offensive power on one rune priest for more defensive buffs (another storm caller). Keeping my guns firing longer was more beneficial than the additional JotWW.

So, without further ado, here is the list:

Bjorn Wolves 2500 Points
Unit Description Size Cost
HQ
Bjorn 1 270
Rune Priest JotWW, Storm Caller, M.Bombs 1 105
Rune Storm Caller, Murderous Hurricane 1 100

Troops
Grey Hunters Flamer, Razorback, A.Cannon 6 150
Grey Hunters Flamer, Razorback, A.Cannon 6 150
Grey Hunters Flamer, Razorback, A.Cannon 6 150
Grey Hunters Melta 6 95
Grey Hunters Melta 5 80
Grey Hunters Melta 5 80

Elites
Dreadnought M.Melta, H.Flamer 1 115
Dreadnought L.Cannon, H.Flamer 1 145
Dreadnought L.Cannon, H.Flamer 1 145

Fast Attack
Land Speeder Typhoon 1 90
Land Speeder Typhoon 1 90
Land Speeder Typhoon 1 90

Heavy Support
Long Fangs M.Launcher x 5, Razorback, L.Cannon 7 215
Long Fangs M.Launcher x 5, Razorback, L.Cannon 7 215
Long Fangs M.Launcher x 5, Razorback, L.Cannon 7 215

Totals 64 2500

An alpha strike shooting army based around Bjorn's increased odds of going first. 75% of the time, it works every time! Ron Burgundy, ftw!

Game 1: Victory Points, get a messenger model into the enemy deployment zone. Pitched Battle Deployment. 4th ed mission, which favors MSU armies. This is why KP's are good. MSU already have a big mathematical advantage, and VP's makes them even better. My army would love this game against any opponent.

I was running late because I was told the store needed terrain, so I packed my truck full of BAO http://bloodofkittens.com/bayareaopen/ terrain. I live in San Francisco, which if no one has been there, is a crazy busy city and so getting the truck loaded up from my apartment was a pain. Anyway, it took longer than I thought it would and I got to the tournament late. So, I had to play the ringer which meant I played someone who hadn't actually qualified to be there. However, his list was a really good counter to mine, so I wasn't assuming it would be an easy game. Termies laugh at missiles.

When I got there they said they didn't need terrain after all, but I should have used mine all the same. The terrain they had was mismatched, ugly and sparse. They did their best though, it just made it a shooty armies tournament.

Opponent: Ian
List from Memory
HQ
Mordrak and 2 ghost buddies
Grand Master: Psycannon, various kit

Elites
Vindicaire

Trrops
Termies x 5: psycannon, hammer, halbred x 2
Termies x 5: psycannon, hammer, halbred x 2
Termies x 5: psycannon, hammer, halbred x 2
Termies x 5: psycannon, hammer, halbred x 2

Fast
Interceptors x 5: Psycannon, Halbred, Hammmer
Storm Raven: Various Kit
Storm Raven: Various Kit

Heavy
Dreadknight: teleporter, gatling blaster, heavy psycannon

So, this was actually a really bad match-up for me. Termie armies are my bane, and he had lots of them in potentially very mobile delivery systems.

Luckily, I got first turn. This meant the proposition of deploying on the board was pretty intimidating facing my army's firepower and the fact that there was only 1 LOS blocking piece of terrain on the board.

My opponent opted to reserve everything but the messenger unit. I deployed centrally as I assumed he would use his dual grand strategy to outflank most of his army (which he did).

The game would have been brutally hard for me if his reserve rolls had been good. If he would have gotten all 3 termie units in turn 2, I would have been in deep gak. They will wreck me in assault, and I wouldn't be able to kill them all the turn they came in, ensuring some of them making it into combat and chopping me up. However, his reserve rolls were crappy and units came in in ones and two, meaning I could focus fire them to death one at a time.

So, the game ended up being a route. Turn 4 tabling with max points to me. Despite the lop sided victory, we had a really fun game. Ian and I were laughing and joking most of the time, making "pew pew!" noises with our dude men. Fun game.

That put me tied for first with 24/24 points. Lucky draw, and luck in the game. I was feeling good about my odds!

Game 2: Have the most scoring units within 6" of the table center. Pitched Battle Deployment. Another 4th ed mission. I have 6 mobile, fairly resilient scoring units, so I felt good about this one unless I had to play a tough assault army. I don't want to go at those types of armies, I want to go away from them. Match-up would be hugely important in this game.

Opponent: Fuegan
HQ
Ghaz
Warboss: cybork, klaw, pole

Elites
Kommandos: sniktty snikrot, burnas (warboss attaches here)
Lootas x 15
Lootas x 15

Troops
Boys x 30: Nob, Klaw, Pole
Boys x 30: Nob, Klaw, Pole
Boys x 30: Nob, Klaw, Pole
Boys x 30: Nob, Klaw, Pole
Boys x 30: Nob, Klaw, Pole
Boys x 30: Nob, Klaw, Pole

Heavy
Kannon x 3
Kannon x 3
Kannon x 3

Holy crap. Worst match up possible for this mission. Horde Orks are a great army, and this is their ideal mission. 180, fearless, scoring boys lead by Ghaz march onto the objective and say, come and get us off of it. I thought I was screwed baring a miracle. I know how to fight horde orks with my army, but my standard strategy is to line up on the back board edge and shoot like the dickens. Having to go at the horde, plus having Snikrot and a Warboss coming in to rape me from the rear meant bad news bears. Plus, Fuegan is a very good player, which meant an even worse match-up. And, as the extra money shot to the face, there was a HUGE hill smack dab in the middle of the board, meaning the horde would largely be out of LOS. Sweet.

I formulated my battle plan in my mind, knowing it would be a long shot. I have found that when you are facing these terrible match-ups, you just have to stay calm, think clearly and stick to a plan. Mine would need a lot of luck to succeed, but it's a game of dice where things can and do get crazy.

So, Bjorn got me first turn (thank you Old Man!) and I deployed my scoring units and Dreads centrally behind the hill, with Fangs and Speeders on the flanks.

Fuegan deployed his horde behind the hill with staggered cover saves, and his Kannons and Lootas on either flank.

I knew I had to take out the Kannons and Lootas ASAP as they are such good shooting units (Kannons are flipping awesome for those of you who have not tried them, i run 9 in my Ork list, too). Fuegan rolled poorly for his cover saves on his Kannons and I blew up half of them first turn. I also killed half the Lootas, forcing one of the squads to break and run.

I had 1 rune priest jump out and Murderous hurricane a boy mob (this would turn out to be an epic duel!) to slow them down and start whittling away their numbers.

The rest of my units moved forward and positioned for turn two assaults.

The horde advanced, running up the hill, preparing to come pouring over it and smash me. His shooting was largely ineffective as I had diminished it so dramatically with my shooting phase. This was critical as I needed my scoring units to stay mobile if I were to have any hope of winning the game.

Turn Two, opportunity knocked. Fuegan made a positioning error, leaving Ghaz, and 4 PK nobs in a line. Jawstastic! I suicided my JotWW Rune Priest on a go-for-the-glory, potentially game winning shot. He got Jaws off, hit, and Jaws'd 2 PK nobs out of the mobs! Ghaz lived though. Had he died, that would have been epic.

So, two mobs were now without klaw, meaning that a dread could tarpit them for the rest of the game. However, Ghaz had lived, and I had to contain Ghaz or the big boss could walk through my fragile army by himself. I charged Bjorn and another Dread into Ghaz. The nob in the mob he was attached to was dead, so a lot of their punch was gone. I charged the other two dreads into a mob that was not on the objective, confident that they would hold that mob for the rest of the game.

Bjorn and his Buddy put 5 wounds on Ghaz, forcing Fuegan to call his WAAGH! to make Ghaz go invul, which is exactly what I wanted to happen. That way, with some luck, if Snikrot and crew didn't come in his turn 2, they would lose their ability to come 18" off my back board edge and wreck me. It gave me a little window where I could hover outside their charge range. I would then be able to kill them the turn they came in before they did anything.

Fuegan was starting to see that this wouldn't be an easy win for him and new he had to free Ghaz up or be stuck there for the rest of the game. He charged two more mobs into the Dreads and the brave JotWW run priest to try and blow them off the hill. The Priest died fighting, and both Bjorn and the Dread took damage, but hung in there.

On the flank, my Murderous Hurricane Priest continued to pummel an Ork mob, and by the time they made it into combat with him, there were only 10 left! And, against all odds, the Priest won combat against them when he only took one wound in combat and the PK nob that hit him 3 times, rolled 3 1's to wound! That Rune Priest was a bad ass!

Most importantly though, the Kommandos didn't come in, meaning I was safe from them. Whew! Had they come in that turn, I probably would have lost the game badly. Luck was with me so far, if it would hold out, I would have a chance!

The next few turns were me whittling down Orks by carpet bombing them with frags, and Feugan trying desperately to kill the dreads holding his units up. If the dreads would just hang in there long enough for me to set up a multi assault with ALL of my Grey Hunters at once, I might just be able to blow the orks off the Objective and take it!

First one, then another dread died to klaws. Bjorn lost both arms and was immobilized, but the Old Man kept head-butting and kicking Orks to death, refusing to die and keeping them, and Ghaz, tied in combat!

The last remaining Lootas managed to pop one of my transports, exposing the Grey Hunters inside, and the orks pounced, wiping them out. This meant I only had 5 scoring units left, exactly enough to get a massacre if all of them survived and I managed to knock ALL of the Orks off of the mid field (about 70 or so).

Turn 4 rolled around and Fuegan had manged to get one mob free from the Bjorn tar pit, and his Kommandos STILL had not come n the board. I had circled the hill with all of my Razorbacks and knew I had to strike now. I carpet bombed the free mob to death with 17 frag missiles and various assault cannons, wiping them out. The Rune Priest bad ass managed to knock the mob he had been fighting down to 2 models before finally dying! One Priest had killed 28 Orks!

All of my Grey Hunters jumped out (about 25 of them left) and they charged the Orks tar pitted on Bjorn on the objective. I killed 18, taking only 3 casualties in return, since the klaws and Ghaz all had to swing on Bjorn.

I won combat by 15! Fuegan rolled his fearless saves, and rolled just few enough saves that ALL of the remaining Orks died! Then, Ghaz failed his Leadership 2 check, and ran off the objective. I consolidated onto the objective with exactly 5 units of Grey hunters left (one only had a single model) to just barely earn the massacre in a crazy, whiz-bang, final move.

I couldn't believe I had pulled it off! 22/24 points and now clearly in first place. I had a good plan, and luck went my way big time, to allow me to pull a massacre out of my rear end when by all rights, I should have gotten scrapped.

Wow, that was a great game.

Game 3: At the beginning of turn 3, roll to see what the objective is. Kill points, table quarters of terrain pieces. Spearhead deployment. This missions had a 66% chance of being great for me and a 33% chance of potentially being crappy. My army has 24 kill points, and if I rolled this mission against a low KP army, it could be a really tough match-up. My army likes spearhead though, as it gives me lots of options with deployment to adapt to different styles of armies.

Opponent: Evan (an old buddy from LA that I had not seen in years).
List: Footdar! Haha, awesome! Footdar at the top table, how cool! I love my Footdar and unlike a lot of people, wouldn't underestimate how good they could be in skilled hands. Evan had beaten 2 very, very nasty Grey Knight armies to get to table 1, one of whom had been Jy2 and his Purifier Spam list. This could potentially be a very rough match.
list from memory
HQ
Eldrad
Farseer: fortune, guide, spear

Troops
Wraithguard x 10: warlock, enhance, s.seer
Wraithguard x 10: warlock, enhance, s.seer
Wraithguard x 10: warlock, conceal, s.seer
Dires x 10: Exarch, bladestorm, Wave Serpent, EML, Stones
Dires x 10: Exarch, bladestorm, Wave Serpent, Lance, Stones

Heavy
Wraithlord: Lance, Sword
Wraithlord: Lance, Sword
Wraithlord: Lance, Sword

A full blown, Iyanden ghost army. Awesome! So, this could be a very bad match-up if we rolled kill points and Evan went first. His troops are ultra durable, will kill anything they shoot, and will kick my dreads asses in combat thanks to witchblades. However, I could out-range him, and play keep away, backing up and shooting.

We ended up on a table that heavily favored my army. It had only 1 LOS blocking piece of terrain mid board. With spearhead deployment, this was bad for my opponent as I could divide my forces, and move out to both flanks to see around the hill, moving and shooting outside of his range. If I could take out his fast movers and long range shooting early, it would be a route.

We rolled for first turn, and the Old Man worked his magic again. First turn! This made up for the last GT I played in where 5 out of 5 opponents rolled a 6 to go first against me and I went second every game!

At this point, I knew it was my game to lose baring bad luck. My shooting was below average, but I have so many shots, it didn't matter. I dropped both Skimmers and a Wraithlord before anything could get fortuned up or go flat out and that was pretty much game baring a crazy mission. My opponent now only had 2 ranged units and they shot 36" to my 48". My Rune priests ran up to the hill to start Rune Staffing his powers and boy did they do their job well! They stopped a good 3/4's of them, my rune staff rolls were hot.

The game then proceeded along a predictable course with me backing away, killing his units and him trying to play to objectives. Turn 3 we rolled up terrain pieces and I knew I had it. Had it been kill points, he could have fought me to a minor or draw as he had managed to kill Bjorn with a Wraithlord in combat.

By Game's end, I had dropped three of his 5 scoring units, held 4 objectives to his none and got all bonus points. Had he gone first and there been adequate terrain, that could have been a very tough game. But with the mission, going first, and lack of terrain meant it was my game from the word go. Luck was with me this tournament! In a game of dice, that is just as important as anything else.

I won! 70/72 total points.

So, I finally not only made it to Ard Boyz finals (Every other year some crazy bad luck prevented me from making it) but I won the big prize of a 2,500 point army of my choice. Cool!

I had a really fun 3 games against good guys, and good players.

So on to the finals!

I think I am going to get Daemons or Dark Eldar for the army. Not decided yet, but we'll see.

Thanks for reading.

Congratulations on the victory, I thought you were going to lose the Ork game when I saw the army list.

I would go with Sisters myself, and then sell off all the metal models that comes with it!

Yeah, I thought my goose was cooked, too! But good luck and a good plan saw me through.

I thought sisters for a hot second, but jes goodwin is making the new models and I would rather wait for what will be pure sculpting awesomeness. I don't like to sell armies as I regret it every time. I'd rather get a new, fun army to play.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And thanks for the congratz!

Congrats Reecius. My only regret at the Ard Boyz is that I didn't get to play you on table #1. Well, that...and the fact that I didn't get to blow any DE vehicles out of the sky.

A well played event! Sounds like you took maximum advantage of every situation which is really what it takes to win tournaments. Congratulations!

Great reps reec; well done and congrats!

Really well played Reece; nice succinct bat-reps and I'm really pleased to hear you did so well.
Your tactics seemed good all games and you appeared to have luck go your way when you needed it to, but you know, Fortune Favours the Bold!
Well played man, congratulations. I'd probably go for the Daemon army...

Thanks, guys! I appreciate the kind words.

@Jim
Yeah, that would have been an epic showdown for my Wolves to get a chance at revenge at your Purifier Grey Knights! Oh well. That Eldar army was great for killing Grey Knights, that was a bad match up for you. Having to go towards 30 Wraithguard is no joke.

Daemons or Deldar, Daemons or Deldar. Tough choice.

Reecius wrote:Thanks, guys! I appreciate the kind words.

@Jim
Yeah, that would have been an epic showdown for my Wolves to get a chance at revenge at your Purifier Grey Knights! Oh well. That Eldar army was great for killing Grey Knights, that was a bad match up for you. Having to go towards 30 Wraithguard is no joke.

Daemons or Deldar, Daemons or Deldar. Tough choice.

Daemons are the sex... but so are DE.... herm...

And that's why Reecius is half amazing...the other half allows him to be humble even though he wipes the floors with his opponents.

Gotta say I'm glad to see someone getting some good use out of the old man!

I would go for the DE, those kits are too nice and I bet demons get some over haulin and you may regret the choices, whereas with the Dark Kin you know your set for another 12 years ; )
Congrats man!
I had the opposite of your luck, I played Wolfguard terminators and rolled more 1's then I have ever before, but Logan was a God which gave me moral victories.... He took Eldrad in single combat and held a Death company dread for three rounds of hand to hand alone again! The old men of the wolves are truly blessed ; )

Congrats mate, and well played as all 3 armies where quite non-standard and dangerous to face.

The list you present here is quite well balanced, alone a bit flabergasted at having no wolfguards.
I hope for you the final is not killpoints as that could really hurt.

People keep telling me Green Tide lists are viable for tourney play, but i'll never believe it. Green tide lists are not competitive. They are not. If someone could actually link me to a bat rep that has a list like the Orks in this one winning any games, I would love to see it. These armies suffer heavily from any poor luck/taking a feth ton of fearless saves. Makes me extremely sad. Good battle reports. I enjoy reading them, though as you could tell I was very upset about the outcome for the orks.

that game was a bit heart-breaking for me to be honest, nothing was going right....although I'm glad you finally get to go to the Finals! You earned it Reece, should go with Daemons!! Good luck in October

Reecius, congratulations for winning 1st!

1st and 3rd match was lopsided, but 2nd game was gold. Excellent tactic using Rune Priests of JotWW to pick off PK Nobz and Murderous Hurricane to force dangerous terrain tests. Rune Priests FTW!

Good luck in the finals.

Congratulations and thanks for the batreps! It's always great to see Bjorn do well and for this kind of army to represent. Well played as usual!

Thanks, guys!

Yeah, the Old Man squirts some oil on his hip joints and still comes out to kick ass despite being over 10,000 years old! He can say he knew the emperor when he was still alive.

@Fuegan
Yeah, that was a bad break for you. Your dice gak on you and no matter how good you are, you can't beat dice.

@gpfunk
Maybe you have just had bad luck with them?

That is actually the first time I have beat Fuegan17's horde orks, and the first time I have beat them with my Bjorn Wolves.

Last year at Ard Boyz I tied a horde ork list with this exact list and it was a super tough game. I have a friend in SD who is one of the best players I have ever met and he routinely smashed top players and lists with his horde Orks. The only reason you guys don't know who he is, is because he doesn't go to big tournaments because he doesn't like playing tha tmany games of 40K in two days.

His list is very similar to Fuegan's, except instead of Ghaz, the Kommandos and the second Warboss, he runs a bike Warboss, KFF mek and storm boyz.

The list is brutally good. He says he only ever has problem with Mechdar and Razorspam BA.

I love Horde Orks, they are an awesome army, IMO. YMMV.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/150/394774.page

That is a link to Jy2's reports from the same event.

Cool! Congratulations. Nice write up too.

Have to check that store out next month

here comes a thread closing post but i feel i have to say it. <text redacted; no, you DON'T have to say it. There are plenty of posts over in YMDC to argue about this, and we don't need you to derail this thread --Janthkin>

Reecius are you taking the same list to the finals? I think you should tailor it more against mech IG and GK. More LC razorbacks and maybe bring TWCs w SS?

migsula wrote:
Have to check that store out next month

Yes! Stop by!

Reecius, Congratulations on the win, and a nice report too. The footdar had no chance with your rune staff rolls succeeding (and did they ever)
I'd go with Dark Eldar because of the pretty models, but as it has been said, a sisters army would be pretty cool.

Well done Reece! I don't know how you pulled off the win in game 2 but well done and congrats!

Oh and go with Dark Eldar, sexiest models ever.

Thanks, fellas!

@Mig
Yeah, check out the store when you are settled in. Great group of guys there.

@bagtagger
Hey, didn't see what you wrote, but if you would like to PM about a rules issue, feel free.

@SonsofVulkan
Same list. I know it forwards and backwards. I contemplated TWC, but Bjorn and the funky fresh Dread crew have kept me in good stead so far.

@Prime12357
Thanks! Yeah, I chose Dark Eldar after all. The army is more expensive to buy than Daemons so I figured I would save myself some dough. Plus the models are awesome.

And yeah, that Footdar list didn't have much of a chance with the lack of terrain. Had there been more and he had gone first, he would have been fine. As it was, it was a shooting gallery.

@Ozzy
Thank, brotha! I don't know how I won game 2 either, Fuegan17 and I were thinking at best it would be a draw or minor victory either way, but the dice just fell my way when I needed it.

You better come to the BAO 2012, buddy!

Stupid question: did you guys have time issues in your game with horde orks?

In pittsburgh we got three hours a round, and I only got three turns with my Battlewagon Orks against an IG player.

I think I'm a pretty quick player, and I love the idea of an ork horde, but it seems that time would just always be a factor.

We went to turn 5, and honestly, I was playing slower than he was in the first 2 turns because I was so concerned with positioning.

Fuegan17 played super fast.

Horde armies are fine so long as the person playing them knows what they are doing. It's only when they are inexperienced that I find them to struggle with time.