Hey there Everyone!
The second Platinum Devil has been completed, and a most fun weekend it was, despite several minor hiccups. The overall winner was the one and only....
*Drumroll*
ArbitorIan!
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/user/profile/8049.page
Second place was taken by.....Myself? (wonders how that one happened)
Third place went to our much beloved moderator....
Killkrazy!
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/user/profile/299.page
So, to summarise the weekend.....
The night before was relatively frosty, inspiring some concerns about people travelling in, but thankfully, there was no snow. The player lineup totalled thirteen, twelve of which were Dakkaites. There was me, Reds8n, Killkrazy, notprop, Panic!, ArbitorIan, SilverMK2, Tek, Lovepug13, Snarky, Titan_princeps, ChrisWWII, and Teks friend Ben. Now due to having to return to London early the following day,a nd forgetting the book with all the exact scores recorded in, I'm unable to give a blow by blow account of the rankings. However, considering players began dropping out at various points throughout the weekend, giving us many odd scores, perhaps its for the best. I shall, however, give short summaries of my own battles, in the hope it makes for decent reading.
My own lovely army:(the full 1250 points)
First game, I was paired up against ChrisWWII. The game was 500 points, and victory points based. My own 500 point list consisted of a Leman Russ Demolisher, and two veteran squads in Chimeras. Chris's army was an Infantry platoon comprised of 4 squads with an autocannon each, and two commissars, and a command squad with the usual medic, vox loadout.
Chris's army:(the full 1250 points)
Unfortunately, due to the fact my troops were protected by armour, and he had nothing capable of scratching my Demolisher, I quite simply took his force to pieces without suffering a single casualty to myself. A bad matchup for him, made worse by the fact my pie playes kept being right on target.
My second game was against SilverMK2, and his Chaos Space Marines. Mission was 1000 points Assassination, in which
HQ choices count for 3
KP, and Elites and Hvy Support for 2. I deployed my own force, and forted up, leaving the offensive side of things to him. Considering he'd brought a unit of raptors, two Daemon Princes, two squads of Marines, a Predator, and a Havoc squad with maximum number of Autocannons, that was a role he was more than prepared to fill. In traditional Guard style, I hit him with well placed volley after volley. My first turn only crippled a rhino. My second salvo killed half the Raptor squad, blew the Predator, and wounded one of his Daemon Princes. Third salvo dropped the wounded Daemon Prince, and wiped out the Raptor squad, and half of one of the basic
CSM squads. Inr eturn his Havoc squad continuously stunned a chimera, but other than that, was out of range for most of the game. When he reached combat in turn 3, he managed to kill a command squad, and blow two chimeras and their respective troops choices. Whilst his men were tearing through mine, I dropped all his remaining marines (4 died in vehicle explosions! Exceptionally bad luck!), and dropped another two wounds on the second daemon prince.
The game added, and the
KP added up to a win for me. Not until later on in the day was I to realise I'd forgotten to put my Leman Russ Executioner on the board, leaving me 230 points under the 1000 point limit, but it was a excellent game nonetheless, and good fun.
At this point we all trooped out to the cafeteria for lunch. However, halfway through, Canterbury got hit by a snowstorm!
We slogged back to the gaming room, and Round 3 began.
Round 3 saw me up against Killkrazy, and his Tyranid Swarm in a 1000 point basic objectives game.
He fielded a Tervigon, Two squads of Termagants, two Venomthropes, a
HQ Warrior, a squad of 3 regular warriors, a squad of Hive Guard, and a squad of three Zoanthropes. I had the good fortune to deploy straight onto two of the three objectives, whilst Killkrazy could only grab one, meaning he had to assault one of mine.
In the first turn of shooting, I eliminated the Zoanthrope squad, along with most of Killkrazys hope of taking out my two russes. Volley after volley hit the Tyranid lines, until all bar the Hive Guard, and two squads of Termagants were dead by the end of the game. In exchange I'd sacrificed a single Chimera. The win was mine, two objectives to one.
At this stage, its easy to see why Mech Guard dominate the tournie scene at the moment. Despite not even running an optimised list, my force was capable of pointing such a huge amount of firepower, at such a low points cost, it was difficult to combat effectively. At this stage, I seriously began to worry that I might win my own tournament, knowing how dodgy that would look to report. Thankfully, ArbitorIan spared me that indignity!
SilverMK2 was forced to drop out at this point, worried about his drive home. As we were one player up anyway, Reds8n opted to step in and make up the numbers so that everything worked.
Game 4 saw me paired up against Ian, the only other player with 3 successive wins so far. Despite having scored next to each other at both the previous Platinum Devil in May, and Silver Sorceror in August, we'd never actually played each other!
The game was 1250 points of Attrition, in which only troops choices are worth kill points, and continuously respawn throughout the game. Ian was playing his Daemons, leaving me to deploy to the table first:
A very tight game ensued. I knew Ian was one of the best players there, and he gave me no less of a challenge then I'd been expecting. An absolute brawl erupted, as I attempted to gun down his daemons, before they could tear me apart altogether. After four turns, we'd both knocked out virtually everything BUT each others troops choices, Greater Daemons, Leman Russes, Fiends of Slaanesh, my Vendetta and command squad.....The game ended on one 1 Killpoint each, a positive Tie, leaving our match off unresolved, as we continued to tie for first place......
At the end of the day, ChrisWWII, and Snarky were forced to leave, Chris to ctach a flight, and Snarky to get home. The snow unfortunately delayed both, in the end. I had the pleasure of pushing notprops car up the hill, when it got stuck in the snow(gicving me a healthy daily balance of wargaming and exercise
), and the remaining chaps met in town for dinner and cocktails. Unfortunatley, Tek and his friend Ben became trapped at their hotel in the snow, and were unable to join us for dinner, or gaming the following day.
The next day, our headcount much reduced, I took stock. Remaining was me, Panic!, ArbitorIan, Titan_Princeps, Killkrazy, Reds8n, and notprop.
First game saw me in a 500 point matchoff against Titan_princeps, and his Imperial Guard.
My two chimeras and demolisher paired off against a standard leman russ, two basic squads, and a melta command squad in a chimera.
Titan used the superior range of his battlecannon to blow the demolisher turret off my own leman russ, and destroy a chimera before I could close to range. In exchange, my own volley only succeeded in blowing the turret off his chimera, and stunning his leman russ once. With my mobility gone, he picked me apart at range, my only other victory points coming from eliminating a regular infantry squad with a Heavy Flamer. The result was my first defeat, handed to me by Titan_princeps.
At this point, notprop unfortunately had to retire home, after worrying about the snow and state of the motorways. This left us with an odd number, and some slightly disjointed pairings, but everything worked out regardless.
Game 5 was me against reds8n, and his Chaos horde. He had two obliterators, a squad of chosen with meltas in a rhino, a winged daemon prince, two regular squads of marines in Rhinos, and a Defiler. The game was 1250 points, Portal, a bizare objectives game in which units can teleport from one objective to another.
Unfortunately due to a bad rules misinterpretation, I didn't move a single unit on my first turn, or do anything at all, leaving me slightly out of position to counter Reds8n's threat. As a player of excellent skill anyway, on par with Ian I would say, I had little enough room for error as was. I deployed onto an objective, as did he. Our units attempted to outshoot each other, me managing to eliminate both rhinos, his daemon prince, both obliterators, and most of his squad of chosen. In exchange though, I was left with virtually nothing. I managed to get a veteran squad onto another objective, putting me at two objectives to his one. As it was Turn 5, and there was a risk the game would end there and then with a win for me, Reds8n took a chance and threw a marine squad through the teleporters, and lo and behold! They landed right on one of my objectives, contesting it. The game continued, and his forces scaled the hill to my other uncontested objective, meaning that when the game finished the next turn my men had been wiped out, and another defeat was handed to me. Excellent game nonetheless though, and left me aching to reclaim my previous days victorys in the last game of the day!
My final game was against Lovepug13, and his
CSM. 1250 points match, and for an interesting objectives based missio called Bombardmennt, in which for each objective you hold, your opponent is allowed to lob pie plates at you! His army had a squad of bezerkers in a rhino, two dreads, three squads of Plague Marines, a Daemon Prince, and a Vindicator.
My Guard performed in much the same way they had in my earlier match against
CSM, in which they simply outgunned the combat units before they could reach me, and crippled most of his long range shooting before it could seriously harm me. His vindicator had its gun blown off in turn one, and by the end of the game, I held two objectives to his none, making it impossible for him to win with the two depleted plague marine squads left to him.
An excellent weekend of gaming all around! Ian won the lovely first prize of Forgeowrlds Inquisitor Lord Hector Wrex and retinue, and Killkrazy walked away with two new mycetic spores!
I'd like to thank reds8n for helping me with the organisation, and aiding me where necessary. I'd like to thank Killkrazy and Titan_princeps for their lifts respectively! Everyone I played for excellent games. And last of all, everyone for coming! The next Platinum Devil is planned for May next year, and I look forward to seeing you all here!
ArbitorIans summary can be found here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/334707.page#2246007
Looks like fun, maybe I can be persuaded to raise a 
