Quick note- I do have a lot of pictures from the event, and will be posting them/adding them later.
After a couple of months of agonizing over my list and testing different chaos variations (see link below), I finally decided I did not have the models to build a list which could contend with the big boys- particularly mech Eldar and Nidzilla. That sad realization having been reached, I decided to embrace the spirit of the event by dipping into the cheese, and I fielded my Dark/Fallen angels using the vanilla marine rules with traits. I took Honor Your Wargear to get my tankhunting devs back, and We Stand Alone. I also fielded a Fear Librarian for the first time, mostly for Eldrad/Lash defense, and because I recently painted one up, and it’s my nicest-looking HQ model. I decided to make one nod to fluff by fielding my Fallen Angels without using any post-Heresy tech. So no Assault Cannons, and no Speeders (the lack of the latter would definitely hurt).
http://www.dakkadakka.com/CommunityForums/tabid/56/forumid/14/postid/193512/view/topic/Default.aspx
So the list I brought was:
Epistolary w/Fear, jump pack, BP, frag
Dread w/Twin-Las, ML, ExA
8 Devs w/4 ML, Tank Hunter
10 Tacs w/Las, Flamer, Vet w/Fist, in Rhino w/Smoke, ExA, Searchlight
10 Tacs w/ML, Melta, Vet w/Fist, in Rhino w/Smoke, ExA
6 Tacs, Las/Plas
6 Tacs, Las/Plas
8 Assault Marines w/2 plas pistols, Vet w/Fist
Three-Las Pred
Vindicator w/Smoke, Searchlight
I arrived early Friday, getting to the hall around 1pm as the Ardboyz and Fantasy Team Tournament were starting. Thanks to the perspicacity of my Cold Steel Mercs teammate Alex Fennell, I knew to take the light rail directly from BWI to the convention center; $1.60 one way instead of a $30-$40 cab ride is a heck of a deal, and highly recommended to anyone else attending events in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. I told as many people as possible about it during the weekend, and some of our friends took the train back to the airport as well.
I played a couple of warm up games, first against Destroyer-heavy Necrons, and then against a full Kroot Mercs army.
The game with the Necrons went as well as I could have hoped. My opponent was Jake, a teenager from NJ, IIRC, and a good sport. We played scenario one, and he decided to Deep Strike his monolith (to keep me from Lascannoning it before it could get to me), and I DSed my Librarian. He castled up in a corner and tried to sweep my flank, which left him vulnerable to my Librarian dropping in and Fearing stuff off the board. He lost two squads of Destroyers to this, and lost one of his two Destroyer body/Res Orb lords when it assaulted the Libby and I got a 6 to wound, then passed the Force Weapon test. I shot and assaulted him a bit, and did blow up the monolith when it dropped in the middle of my lines. I phased him out on turn 4. Nice start to the weekend, though my dice were pretty hot, and his were pretty poor, which I knew was not a trend I could hope to maintain.
The second game, against Kroot mercs (I'm blanking on the player's name; he was a good opponent and a good player), was a very bloody affair. I’ve seen what they can do before, so I knew the general principle- deploy vehicles forward to push his infiltrate back, and keep the infantry behind to try and avoid a first-turn assault. Unfortunately I had forgotten the exact details of his cool wargear, and didn’t space the infantry far enough back. Between the Kroothawk Totem to help him get 1st turn, Blood of the Stalker to reduce his infiltrate distances by a d6”, and Surefoot Charm to let him roll twice for his Fleet and use the better, I was assaulted in three places on the top of turn one. My counter assaults and shooting worked pretty well, but it was still too big a mistake to fully recover from. Out of 119 models he started with, and 54 I started with, he had around ten left at the end and I was wiped out. He had the win on the scenario. It was a fun game, and I was happy to get in the practice round. I felt good about how the game would go if we played in the tournament itself.
Friday night I did some socializing and drinking, including catching a beer with Dave Taylor and chatting a bit about the new scenarios, and the current tournament format. Edgar’s was quite nice for this, though I must admit I wound up spending more time at the Wharf Rat for the food and the variety of beers. I also grabbed dinner Friday at DSX, the sports bar on the corner next to the Wharf Rat, which was perfectly nice and had reasonably-priced food and friendly folks. Had some good football discussion with the head of security for the Days Inn (where I was staying), who had just gotten off work.
