An overview of the weekend to the best of my memory- have some pics, but no time for pics in some games. If I played you and messed up some details that you want me to change, or you have info of your dakka name/lists, or pictures please send me a
PM and I'll be sure to adjust my post or include your comments! If any of my opponents feel as if they're reflected in a negative light- send me a
PM and I'll change it. Not lookin for drama, just tellin the story to the best of my memory... here we go.
My list:
HQ
Grand Master
Grand Master
*
MC Hammer, Rad Grenades
Grand Master
Grand Master
*
MC Halberd
Troops
Grey Knight Strike Squad
9x Grey Knights, 1x Justicar
*2x Psycannons, 1x
MC Hammer
(5) Grey Knight Strike Squad
4x Grey Knights, 1x Justicar
*1x Psycannon
*Razorback w/
TL Assault Cannon + Psybolt Ammo
Heavy Support
(3) Dreadnought
Dreadnought
*2x
TL Autocannons + Psybolt Ammo
Day 1:
Game 1: Tau player- nice guy with a pretty solid suit list. I outflanked with 4 units, shot his shield drones off then insta-killed his suits with my dakka dreads. He ran an Ethereal, which was actually a really good call- because his suits weren't running off the table quite as much as I'd expect in a Tau game. Tough matchup for him, but good game nonetheless- great sport. Solid win.
Game 2: Space Wolves player. He was an Iron Fist league dude - pretty nice guy- we had a few rules disputes and I could tell he was really upset to lose- but overall a pretty pleasant game. He had a solid
SW list with 3x longfangs, 2 living lighting/jaws runepriests/ around 5-6
TWC. I think he got a run of like 5 or 6 inches with his cavalry and got the turn 1 assault off on my rock squad of 10 with 2
GMs. He completely raped the squad but I got a decent amount of wounds on him. My
GMs ran away, so I was able to shoot him next turn. I unloaded everything I had on him and killed the
TWC turn 1 (I probably would have lost if he had gotten good saves on them, but I got them). Turn 2 he wasn't able to do much I think, I denied his longfangs any real targets for the first 2 turns. Then my turn 2 I rolled on with 3 squads outflanking, 2 dropped out on his side and unloaded on his longfangs. Reinforced Aegis saved my ass a lot from his rune priests- MVP that game. Ended up getting a pretty solid win.
Game 3: Droppods/Vulkan/3 Ironclads: Sean. This is the guy that blocked off the table edge on Rick at the Grim Open before- and we had dawn of war deployment! I didn't want the same thing to happen to me, so I deployed my squad of 10 (he had first turn). He dropped down with the 3 dreads and really messed up my squad (one had 2 hvy flamers, the other two dreads each had a hvy flamer). Thinking my only shot to drop his dreads was with my hammers, I assaulted turn 1 and rolled on with a couple units. I multi-assaulted his bikes and a dread- and got completely raped. My force weapons on hammerhand did close to nothing and
MC hammers were either killed or didn't connect. I played a really solid late game, though, with units outflanking and hitting his weak spots. It came down to the nitty gritty, I knew it would come down to
VP so I tried to take out everything I could in the last turn, but didn't really connect. Ended up losing a close game by 120
VPs. My experience with this guy was actually really pleasant- he was a nice guy/we were both laid back despite the intensity of the game. We both gave eachother "excellent" and ended up having nice conversation throughout the weekend.
Game 4: Epic Tau dude: Rich. At first, I'm like, Tau again! A gift from the gods! But this guy was super-pro. He brought his Tau army to the invitational, and it was a very solid list. Squads of 2 suits with Missile pods, 3x kroot, 2x fire warriors, 2x2 broadsides/1x hammerhead. The guy played a really tight game. His questions/disputes about rules/my codex started to get a bit daunting- I found myself pulling out my codex/rulebook every couple minutes- and he called T.O.s several times throughout the game. Despite this, though, he was a really nice guy and it was a great game- we also ended up having friendly discussion throughout the rest of the weekend. Got the win- but it was pretty close.
Day 2:
I got in the 2nd highest bracket with 3-1 record day 1:
Game 1: Andrew's Daemons. He was a really nice kid- he won the Grim Open and we had talked a few times previous to our game. He got turn 1, so I couldn't warpquake him- he deployed his units dangerously close together, and close to the edge but didn't mishap- so that went really well for him. The coming turns, however, did not. I dakka'd his fateweaver really hard, and backpeddled my entire army away from his drop zone. I put 2 wounds on the fateweaver turn 1 (he seemed to roll pretty unlucky, but I shot it a lot also). Turn 2 I kept moving away from him and outflanked in some weak spots to engage his plague bearers in
CC after I shot up the dangerous stuff. I dropped fateweaver, I believe, with my first dakka dread. I was prepared to unload about half my army on it, but he fell really easily. It was tough for him to recover after that- but he played a really smart game. It went to turn 7, I think, and he just had 2 plague bearers on the board. If it had ended 5 it would have been a bit closer- but my army was a tough matchup for him due to the extreme shooty-ness at 24 inch range. Nice kid- good player- great game.
Game 2: Horde Orcs! This was a rough matchup for me in general- but I made some major tactical mistakes also. He had 30 lootas, snikrot w/ Ghaz, 4 squads of 30 boyz, 2 deffcoptas. Very scary for my purifier/flamerless list. For the sake of time- I said it was OK for him to run with his squads during the movement phase so he wouldn't have to move all of them twice- this got a bit confusing sometimes- but due to time restrictions any other way would have taken forever. He was very respectful in terms of time constraints, putting his mobs on fantasyesque boards for movement, even though it gave him a slight tactical disadvantage. He had to move 1 squad of lootas on into the open, the rest just piled on and all ran. I shot him as much as I could, focusing on lootas and dropping most of them early. He came on with Ghaz, though, and I forgot about the 6 inch WAGHHH for everyone (thought it was just Ghaz's unit). He assaulted just about everything I had on the board (I had to move off the edges in anticipation of Ghaz). In retrospect I should have tied his squads up with dreadnoughts, I ended up doing this late game but it was too little too late. He beat me pretty handily on killpoints.
Game 3: Rematch against droppod Sean. It was disappointing to play the same player, even though we both had positive attitudes- we each had lost and our morale was low. We played a really friendly game- I got 1st turn and dropped an epic warpquake wall and made him deploy his dreads far away. I dakka'd the hell out of his bikes and was able to kill his dreads before they footslogged up to do any real damage- getting above average rolls on some of my kill shots. I also got a pretty lucky
MC Hammer kill on one of them which really screwed him over. Good friendly game- solid win.
Game 4: Venom/Wytch
DE: Taylor. We both went into this game with a casual attitude, Taylor was a nice guy- we played the best we could with our fatigue level. I got double 1's for my Grand Strategy... so I could only outflank with 2 units. We both deployed in a lot of cover and played a cautious game- he got unlucky with his beasts- the squad was weakened from my shooting, but it took him awhile to drop a 5-man. Turn 2: both my outflankers came on the wrong side (my spearhead deployment side!). I lost 4
GKs in my blob to venoms/the AP2 ravager weapon and took a check. I got boxcars and barely ran off the table with one model by a half an inch (~600 points gone a table quarter game!!!). After this I was screwed. I tried to work some magic - pulling his wytches into open terrain and gunning a lot of them down- while tearing open his transports with
AC fire. I was close to making a miracle comeback by the end of the game. I placed a squad of
GK just outside of an inch from his 5 man warrior squad on an objective, then rolled snake eyes... Didn't get the assault, lost that quarter by about 20 points/ lost the objective to his warriors. Brutal... Taylor played a great game, was a great guy. I had a lot of fun- I usually don't like to blame the dice for stuff, but it seemed like the dice really shat on my face that game. O well- it was a game for fun anyhow. Close loss.
Ended up 2-2 on day 2.
Overall I had a great time- I didn't have any unbearable opponents and was happy with getting placed in the 2nd bracket. It was tough to get that 120
VP loss day 1 that took me out of contention for the top bracket- I would've been paired with Dash if I had won that game so it would've probably still been tough to get that 4-0. I was exhausted at the end, but looking back it was a great experience.
My list, what worked, what didn't. 2
GMs was AMAZINGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They're expensive, but outflanking with 2-6 units won me so many games, and allowed me to pull out tactics that really caught people off guard (sniping rear armor/ sneaking onto unguarded objectives). It allowed me to not fear getting turn 2 against a super shooty list. I felt my gameplay was mostly solid, except for my mistake assault on the droppod guy game 1, exposing a couple squads to venom fire in the last game, and my overall tactics against horde orcs. The halberd on the
GM sucked so hard. The dude did nothing except take wounds and do Grand Strategy. I may either remove him and run 1
GM, or re-arm him.
TL ACs on razorbacks is awesome with the
GMs b/c I could get the alpha strike on units every time. I would hide my razorbacks a lot in deployment and outflank/come on the edges basically whenever I wanted (2
GMs casting psychic communion). I got a good spread of armies- not just all
MEQs. In retrospect, it was the unconventional lists that got me. This means I have to diversify my threat portfolio. Maybe taking Coteaz instead of 2
GMs for some flamer henchmen or switching out some strike squads for purifiers would have been good. I learned a lot, though. I'm a bit sick of
40k now, but I'm looking forward to coming tournaments and really feel like I got to know my army a lot at
NOVA (Unfortunately- going into the tournament- I only had about 10 games in with my newly created
GK army).
Thanks to all my opponents for 2 days of great gaming!
