Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So some background. I started playing 40k about 2 years ago. I don't get to play very often because I don't have very many friends that play, and gaming stores are kind of far away. I visited a tournament (Mechanicon 2011) that was down the street from my university last fall, and was simply amazed. After that, I knew I wanted to enter a tournament. I heard about the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre being held near me and signed up. After getting my army up to the points level, I headed off, with little hope of doing well, but a willingness to do my best.

SVDM is a 1850 5 game grand tournament. Every game has Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary objectives, and a tie breaker for the primary (usually kill points, or victory points). Primary objectives were worth 10 points, Secondary 6 points, and Tertiary 4, for a possible 20 points per round.



My list:
HQ Vulkan He'stan 190
elites Assault Terminators (6)- TH/SS 240
Land Raider Crusader- MM 260
elites Dreadnought- Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer 125

troops Tactical Marines (10)- Plasma Cannon, Meltagun, Sgt Power weapon, Rhino 230
troops Tactical Marines (10)- Missile Launcher, Meltagun, Sgt Power weapon, rhino 225
troops Tactical Marines (10)- Lascannon, flamer, Sgt Power weapon, Sgt Combi-flamer, rhino 240

heavy support Predator- Autocannon, Lascannon sponsons 120
heavy support Predator- Autocannon, Lascannon sponsons 120
heavy support Thunderfire cannon

Total- 1850

So without further ado, the trainwreck that was my first tournament:

Game 1:
Opponent: Nolan, Dark Eldar
List:
HQ Haemonculus (3) 150
elites Darkborn (3)- 2 darklances, Venom w/ splinter cannon 151
elites Darkborn (3)- 2 darklances, Venom w/ splinter cannon 151
elites Darkborn (3)- 2 darklances, Venom w/ splinter cannon 151
troops kablite warriors (5)- blaster, venom w/splinter cannon 125
troops kablite warriors (5)- blaster, venom w/splinter cannon 125
troops Wyches (8)- Hekatrix, Agonizer, haywire grenades, hydra gauntlets, Raider w/ flickerfield 206
troops Wyches (8)- Hekatrix, Agonizer, haywire grenades, hydra gauntlets, Raider w/ flickerfield 206
troops Wyches (8)- Hekatrix, Agonizer, haywire grenades, hydra gauntlets, Raider w/ flickerfield 206
heavy support Ravager- flickerfield, night shields 125
heavy support Ravager- flickerfield, night shields 125
heavy support Ravager- flickerfield, night shields 125
Primary objective: Kill Points
Secondary Objective: Assasination HQ (kill all enemy HQ units)
Tertiary: Assasination Troops (kill all enemy troop units)
Deployment: Dawn of War

Nolan was a great opponent, very jovial, reminded me a lot of a friend from home. When I saw he was playing dark eldar, and it was dawn of war, I knew I was in trouble. I won the roll for first, and decided to go first, hoping to light up whatever he had out with a searchlight, then blasting it to bits. He deploys a single raider behind a building which I can't see. Great. Well there goes turn 1 for me. Then Nolan goes, and his entire army turbo boosts onto the field.

I have little experience with dark eldar, having had faced them once before. But I push forward slightly, hoping to start popping transports.

Things don't go well. With his turbo boost saves, and my awful rolling, I don't do much. I take down maybe 2 raiders, and a venom. Next turn, my raider goes forward to try and blast his ravagers. I take aim at them and measure and he says "oh I have night shields on those, you're out of range". "Night shields? What are night shields?"

He then proceeds to tell me how I have taken my ~700 point box into open terrain, just so it can be out of range on everything. Awesome.

Needless to say, my land raider gets wrecked, but the termies inside are fine, and they scamper off. At this point I have unhorsed some wyches near the center ruin, and hope I can put some thunder hammers through their heads. However, I can't get far enough to get into assault with the two groups of wyches, so they assault me on their turn (they also have a hammy with them).

It goes surprisingly well. I lose one to shooting before hand, but in assault, I force the hammy's unit to retreat, and do a number on the other unit. In return, Vulkan takes a wound.

Not bad. Next turn, the Hammy's unit is 7" from the assault, so they can regroup. They roll a 6 for the regroup roll. So they jump back in. I'm able to kill the stuck in group of wyches, but then the 1's start rolling. I lose 3 terminators.

However, I do kill some, win combat, and consolidate towards the ruin.


Its now the top of 6, and I'm hoping to prevent Nolan from getting the Secondary by killing Vulkan. Having killed almost everything, Nolan turns every dark lance on Vulkan and his sole bodyguard. They take withering fire, I would say at least 8 dark lances, and some splinter cannons. But it was for naught. Nolan's last dark lance pierces through the mantle of Kesare, and Vulkan goes down.

So that's what happened in the middle. What happened elsewhere? Death. Every where death. Dark lances ripped through my armor, and I5 downed marines left and right. It was a sad day. I had litterally 3 marines left at the end of the game.
They can be seen bottom level of the ruin in the bottom left.

Game 1 was a disaster. Nolan made off with 16 points, and I had none :( Oh well, get 'em next game?


Game 2:
Opponent: Jeremy, Codex space marines (revilers)
HQ Captain- plasma pistol, power fist 140
HQ Command squad- company standard, power fist, melta gun, power weapon, power weapon, Razorback w/lasPlas, dozer blade, extra armor 290
elites Dreadnought- Multi-melta, heavy flamer, extra armor 130
elites Dreadnought- TL lascannon 135
elites Dreadnought- Plasma Cannon, heavy flamer 125
troops Tactical squad (10)- plasma gun, lascannon, Razorback w/TL lascannon, extra armor, dozer blade 285
troops Tactical squad (10)- plasma gun, lascannon, Sgt power fist, Razorback w/ heavy bolters 255
heavy support Vindicator- extra armor 130
heavy support Vindicator- extra armor 130
heavy support Vindicator- extra armor 130
Primary: Special Seize Ground (5 obj, all in a straight line in the center)
Secondary: Have a troops unit in the enemy deployment zone at the end
Tertiary: Have an HQ unit in the enemy deployment zone at the end
Deployment: Pitched Battle
(I thought the secondary and tertiary were really poorly picked for this mission. If all of the objectives are in the center, how am I supposed to get troops to the enemy's backfield? But I digress)

Jeremy showed up several minutes late to our game, some thing about stopping home. It wasn't a big deal. He was actually using a friends army, and said he hadn't played in 18 months. However, he did add he has been playing since I was born (litterally, we checked).

I was very scared about his triple vindis, so hoping to get side 11 shots, I stacked my 2 preds in a corner. Lucky for me he put the vindis in the opposite corner, but they had cover from the center hill. Instead my 2 predators were looking at 20 space marines. Awesome.

I win first, and all set to go, but Jeremy steals the intiative. Great. He doesn't do much in the first turn, and I start timidely advancing with land raider and rhinos. My Plasma cannon rhino I put in the corner, behind my dread for cover. Turn 1 he puts a lascannon into the dread, blowing it up, and putting difficult terrain in front of my rhino. That rhino ended up there the entire game.

I pushed forward, doing some damage, but not enough. He kills the TFC, but the techmarine makes it, just in time for my raider to get immobilized. Hammers come out to try and punch a vindicator. Instead they are fed a razor back. Oh well. His command squad with Captain run up and attempt to take on my terminators. I demolish them in CC. He took out like 3, but I got everyone except the captain. Captain runs away, but that leaves vulkan and the remaining terminators out in the open. Next turn a vindicator shell rains down, killing vulkan and all but 1 terminator.



Captain regroups, turns around, and charges the lone terminator. He has a PF, so we go at the same time, except he has a higher WS, and 2 more attacks. He rolls, and kills my terminator. However, I strike back. 2 hits. I roll to wound, 2 wounds. 4++ time. He rolls the first, and its saved. He rolls the second and fails. Captain goes down to ID.

So at this point its turn 4. I realize he has been steadily moving up his 2 squads on the right to claim 3 objectives, while I currently hold none, and still have a vindicator to handle. I go into panic mode, a rhino starts climbing hills, while my other one goes full out to try and claim 2 objectives, so I can go for the tie.

Sadly the game ends on 5, and Jeremy gets the win. Had it gone to 6, I would have been able to contest the middle, and possibly wrench him off. So it goes. This would end up being my closest game.


Game 3:
Opponent: Paul, mech Imperial Guard
For some reason, I don't have Paul's list, so from my memory, and limited knowledge of IG:
HQ CCS- 2 meltaguns, 2 plasma guns, a power weapon or two
troops 2 groups of vets, a bunch of plasma guns, some meltaguns, heavy weapon teams with lascannons, and a parking lot of chimeras
fast attackVendetta
fast attackVendetta
heavy support 2 Hydras (I could be wrong, the ones with TL autocannons)
heavy support 2 Hydras
heavy support Manticore
Primary: more scoring units in a table quarter than your opponent. No units can contest
Secondary: more scoring units at a center objective than your oppoent.
Tertiary: Assasination HQ
Deployment: Table Quarters

I sort of know Guard, so I kind of new what to expect. The Vendettas scared the crap out of me, and I knew I had no answer for his Hydras. This was going to be tough.

I deployed in the bottom left corner, in a hill. Rhino with combat squad and land raider were going top left, 2 rhinos and dread were going bottom right. Preds were put near the center to draw fire, and get clear lines.

Things went pretty predictably early on. However, turn 2 (or 3), a manticore missile immobilized my raider in the middle of the top left quarter. My termies were going to have to hoof it through tough fire.

I also had a hell of a time trying to kill vendettas, with lascannons just bouncing off them. Both squads in the bottom right corner got annihilated, with his CCS coming down to finish them off.

back in top left, I had a combat squad hoofing it, just trying to be bodies. Marbo shows up next to them, throws his demo charge, and it scatters back on him. He was in cover though and passed his 3+ save. Next turn I unloaded on him, but couldn't do it.
He charged that squad, and made mince meat of them. I eventually took him down, but it was not what I needed.

My terminators were able to get into the middle where I had killed some chimeras. They were licking their lips, waiting for some action.

Not sure why, but this is the only picture I took of game 3.

They made it in, mawled some guardsmen, but were eventually brought down by plasma and flashlight fire.

This was a tough one. Paul eventually made off with all the points, leaving me with none still. He complained about having strep throat, and said he might not be back the next day. That was the end of day one, and even though I was point less, I had fun, and was eager to play some other losers on the low tables and try and get a win or two.


(I didn't take any pictures on day 2. Sorry)
Game 4:
Opponent: Rob, mixed grey knights
HQ Librarian- quicksilver, sanctuary, the shrouding, warp rift, the summoning 175
troops Terminators (7)- psybolt ammo, 3 halberds, 1 hammer, banner, psycannon 350
troops Terminators (5)- psybolt ammo, 2 halberds, 1 hammer, banner, psycannon 270
troops Terminators (5)- psybolt ammo, 2 halberds, 1 hammer, banner, psycannon 270
troops Strike Squad (8)- psybolt ammo, 4 halberds, 2 hammers, rhino w/ dozerblade 265
troops Strike Squad (8)- psybolt ammo, 4 halberds, 2 hammers, rhino w/ dozerblade 265
Heavy Support Land Raider Crusader 255
Primary: Capture and Control
Secondary: More scoring units at a center objective than your opponent
Tertiary: Have an HQ in your opponents deployment zone at the end
Deployment: pitched battle

Like I said before, Paul pulled out of the tournament because he was sick. Luckily the TO had a ringer on hand to make it so I had an opponent.
Before the game, Rob was saying how he just started his grey knights, and that this is a very uncompetitive build. This will be my most crushing lose.

We face off, with his land raid right across from mine. Turn 1 goes by pretty uneventfully. On Rob's turn 2, he rolls for deep strike (I didn't realize he was deep striking). He plops both of them down right in front of my lines. One group scatters back slightly, the other mishaps, and I get to place them. They go in the opposit corner and get to foot slog.
His raider goes 12", so that its about 4" from my raider, and he disembarks. He fires the assault cannon at my land raider and it imobilizes. He then runs his terminators, and blocks all my doors. Great. Freaking great.

Next turn, I start pouring into grey knight terminators. I take out 2 in the deep strike group, 1 in the land raider group. His next turn, he uses [librarian psychic power] and wrecks the land raider. Thanks to all the doors being blocked, everyone inside is killed. Land Raider, 6 termies, and Vulkan all gone in an instant.

Now I'm staring 8 Grey Knight Terminators (soon to be 13) and a land raider in the face, with my counter assault gone. Perfect.

Thanks to the summoning, Rob reunites his mishapped squad with the others. Luckily I immoblized his one strike squad and the other is hanging back in their rhino. I just keep torrenting fire into the terminators. Luckily, he is without storm shields, so my lascannons and meltaguns just need to go through 5++ or 4++ for cover.
My dread is still mixing it up, but before he can get into assault, a psycannon shot is able to immobilize him. Oh well.

In turn 4, I make a push for his objective, but his strike squads are able to intercept me, and terminators run me down. I'm still torrenting his squad with the librarian, which are pushing for my objective.
I get his librarian alone, and with 1 wound left. Maybe I can get the Tertiary. Sadly the game ends before I'm able to take him down.

While this game was as resounding a lose as my first, it was clearly over much earlier.

With the end of four games, I am in last with zero points. I get to face Ed on the last table. I know him from my local GW, and he is slightly ahead of me with 4 points.


Game 5:
opponent: Ed, mech grey knights
I can't find Ed's list either, but I got it down pretty well:
HQ Librarian (wasn't sure the powers, he didn't use any)
elites Sanguinary Priest
elites Sanguinary Priest
elites Sanguinary Priest
troops assault marines (5)- meltagun, power fist, razorback w/ LasPlas
troops assault marines (5)- meltagun, power fist, razorback w/ LasPlas
troops assault marines (5)- meltagun, power fist, razorback w/ LasPlas
troops assault marines (5)- meltagun, power fist, razorback w/ TL Lascannon
heavy support Vindicator- storm bolter
heavy support Vindicator- storm bolter
heavy support Vindicator- storm bolter
Primary: Seize ground, 5 objectives
Secondary: Kill points
Tertiary: Assasination Troops
Deployment: Some weird turn based thing that isn't worth explaining. Basically pitched battle.

So this was it, table 18, top of the bottom. Most of my stuff stacks up in the bottom right corner, with the 2 preds with the dread in the bottom left, hoping for side shots on vindis.
Ed puts 2 vindis and a razor across from my predators, everything else facing off against my main force on the right. Terrain was pretty clear.

I got first turn and start laying into his armor. I'm able to immobilize the TL Lascannon razor, but not much else happens. On Ed's turn, he isn't able to do much.
My turn two, Land Raid pushes forward and is able to stun the other razor in front of me. My preds weapon destroy (lascannon) the razor in front of them, but not much else happens. In his turn, Ed is able to immobilize my land raider with the vindi on that end.

Turn 3, I'm able to kill one vindicator in front of the predators. I also open up all 3 razorbacks on the right side, and get into assault with the closest squad. With help from bolters and flamers, my terminators wipe them all out, consolidating towards the other two groups.
In his turn, Ed takes down both preds and the dread (he may have done that the turn before, can't remember). Also one of his assault cannon Baals comes in on the left. The Baal, remaining vindicator, and razorback on the left start closing in on my forces.

Turn 4, I'm looking to wipe out all his troops, and hopefully mop up. I wreck the left razorback, spilling out the assault marines and librarian. My terminators double charge the two assault marine squads on the right, killing them all out right.
His two remaining Baals come in, this time on the my right. They pop up right behind my two rhinos sitting on the right edge. They kill a lascannon combat squad in terrain but nothing else.

Turn 5. So lets show you how it looks now. I have my full squad of terminators that would be able to strike at something maybe 6, definitely 7. I have 2 rhinos, with the two baals on their butts. Those rhinos have combat squads in them, both with meltaguns. My land raider is immobilized with all guns functioning, but too far to hit anything.
I have another rhino with a combat squad, which will be in striking distance of the vindi in a turn. Ed has all 3 baals, a vindicator, and his librarian left. I've killed every assault marine.
I see rhinos with meltaguns, I see baals in double tap range, and I get tunnel vision. I fire at them, but end up with almost nothing. Oh well. I give the turn to Ed.
He looks at me and says "you realize its turn 5 right?". Crap. Looking around, I realize my two rhinos are 4" from an objective and my other isn't near any. I'm not holding any objectives! Thats ok, we should go to turn 6, and I can just scoot forward and grab it for the win. We didn't go to turn 6. We tied with zero objectives each. Luckily the tie breaker was victory points and I had those. I was able to get all three objectives and end with 20 points.


And that was it. I ended about third from the bottom of 38. I got a consolation prize of a GW moonscape set. Not bad for placing almost last. This tournament was awesome. I met some great people, had some great games. Food was included, and it was good. This was just an amazing time. Everyone had really nice attitudes, and even losing was fun. I'm pumped to enter more tournaments and hopefully not loose as badly next time

Great first time tournament experience it looks like. Glad you had a lot of fun.

Just a quick point about blocking the doors on a transport. Even if the hatches are blocked by enemy models you can still disembark from your transport (willingly or because of a "Wrecked!" result).

You're allowed to perform an "emergency disembarkation" where you put your models anywhere within 2" of the vehicle's hull. Because of this you have to completely surround a transport in order to wipe out the unit inside.

There weren't pics so it's hard to tell if that was the case, but I'm guessing it wasn't. It would take quite a few Terminators to surround a Land Raider.

I loved your attitude through what was a solid beating.

Think about what happened, and start working out what you would have done different.

When im taking a beating I struggle to stay calm, but I got none of that from your reports. I reckon you would be a good gamer to play with and that is excellent.

Next tourney can I suggest you throw your list on the list forum and get some comments? The ideas and how to employ the various parts in your codex will be good to read.

THanks for sharing your experiences, glad you had fun and best of luck for better outcomes next time!

As a bottom table regular, I salute you and your effort!

A great attitude mate, glad you had a whale of a time!

Wish i could say i would have the same spirit an attitude. Man as long as you had fun thats all that matters (well and your opponent having fun) you gave it your all and didn't give up good job.

Amerikon- that's interesting. I knew about the emergency disembarktion, but didn't realize it was from anywhere on the hull. We even called over the TO and he said "yeah your whole unit is wiped out". Oops. I made a mistake earlier in that game. Shot his land raider with a multi-melta, penned, rolled a 2 and said "oh can't move can't shoot". Forgot about the AP1, which would have gotten rid of the assault cannon and made a big difference.

Loricatus Aurora- I actually did put my list up, months ago. (its here if you care http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/415157.page). Its funny because in between rounds when I would tell other players how poorly I was doing they would go "hmm well your list looks really solid, so I don't know why you were losing".

I think it was a combination of not knowing my opponents (dark eldar, IG), not keeping the objective in mind (Space Marines, blood angels), and bad luck (Grey Knights). Though in the Grey Knights game, I killed almost all of his termies. He had 3 left, and a single wound on the librarian.

One big problem I noticed was my apparent inability to kill transports, especially in the early game. My preds couldn't go through AV11, or I would have meltas in double tap range roll snake eyes. I think I want to add a suicide dread to my list, to try and knock out a tank turn one.

Live and learn I guess.

That sounds okay for your first tournament. I'm a noob IG player to, never been in a tournament but play regular games with my friends. Thinking about going in a tournament soon. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks for the report, and good attitude about your performance (it was your first tourney after all).

Your ability to open vehicles is definately weak, the crusader MM, the tac lascannon and ML are single shot and come with opportunity cost. You are very reliant on those preds to stay still and shoot. The assault cannon will do the job too, but ideally he is ripping into infantry that build.

TBH your antitank should have been sufficient to stagger his assault, which is all you really need. Marines are not great assaulters, although we do have good specialists like the terms, so we need to be smart. You dont need to break open a vehicle, just disrupt a wave assault. One rhino of troops to deal with each turn for three turns is far better than three rhinos rolling in at once.

Thats why the TFC can be so powerful with its earthshaker shells, or whatever they called, they disrupt hordes (a little anywhay).

Knowing your opponent is critical, but your opponent should explain their list fully and provide you a copy of their list too if they good sports.

Finally you could think more about roles. Not all infantry should be geared to cc, your troops first job is objectives, then survive, and lastly inflicting damage. Use your other slots for those jobs, unless like me you take all tacs for jollies to a tournament, in which case they need to be loaded with everything you can bring!

I'm surprised you wer eout of range of the dark eldar, its only -6 on night shields and most imperium heavy weapons are 48inches, so you should still be 42 inchs long.

Hey Dave! Just wandered in here randomly while checking battle reports and realized I had something relevant to contribute. First of all I wanted to commend you, like others have, on your sportsmanship, but I also wanted to say I'm surprised to hear you say "gaming stores are far away." The reason being that your profile says you're from Philadelphia (which I only even noticed because I immediately recognized the name of the tournament you mentioned as being Showcase Comics' big annual event and thought "oh wow, I bet he's close to Philly"), and well, I own a game shop called Redcap's Corner that's actually within Philadelphia city limits, not to mention there's an official Games Workshop store within city limits too. What part of Philly are you from?

My store's in University City, just west of center city, and the GW store's up in the northeast, but both are pretty easily accessible. Don't get me wrong. Showcase is a wonderful store, and I wholeheartedly endorse going there for tournaments, pick-up games, or anything else, but I thought you might like to know that there are a few good Philly options too! If you're interested, we have a four-week 40K league season starting up March 15th, and we're doing a big doubles tournament March 24th (1,500 pts./player, teams of two players each). We already have five teams signed up for the March 24th event, and we're expecting between ten and fifteen total.

Just thought you might like to know!

Great to see you stay positive despite losing most of your games, it must be tough in tournament systems where you can't at least grab a couple of points from a loss. Good work putting up this report too, most people tend to avoid posting losses.

I have to say that you hit some pretty rough matchups for your first time at a tournament. A fully tuned Dark Eldar list is a very tough first game for anyone, let alone a relatively new player. The second list was solid, but Tri Vindicators can be pretty rough (next time deploy one Pred in each corner, so no matter where he goes you can get side shots with at least one of them). The Guard list is again pretty much fully tuned, very surprising for it to be on two losses. The GK list is again solid, a bit mish mash (as you would expect for a WIP ringer army) but still decent. Very surprising you didn't get credited with a win here actually, usually against a ringer you auto win or at least draw at worst. To finish things off the Blood Angel list is again pretty highly tuned.

redcapscorner wrote:Hey Dave! Just wandered in here randomly while checking battle reports and realized I had something relevant to contribute. First of all I wanted to commend you, like others have, on your sportsmanship, but I also wanted to say I'm surprised to hear you say "gaming stores are far away." The reason being that your profile says you're from Philadelphia (which I only even noticed because I immediately recognized the name of the tournament you mentioned as being Showcase Comics' big annual event and thought "oh wow, I bet he's close to Philly"), and well, I own a game shop called Redcap's Corner that's actually within Philadelphia city limits, not to mention there's an official Games Workshop store within city limits too. What part of Philly are you from?

My store's in University City, just west of center city, and the GW store's up in the northeast, but both are pretty easily accessible. Don't get me wrong. Showcase is a wonderful store, and I wholeheartedly endorse going there for tournaments, pick-up games, or anything else, but I thought you might like to know that there are a few good Philly options too! If you're interested, we have a four-week 40K league season starting up March 15th, and we're doing a big doubles tournament March 24th (1,500 pts./player, teams of two players each). We already have five teams signed up for the March 24th event, and we're expecting between ten and fifteen total.

Just thought you might like to know!

My permanent home is in Yardley, right across from Trenton. So I'm in the Philadelphia area, as in the suburbs therein. To Cottman, its at least 30 minutes, more like 45 with traffic. Going to Center City is usually an hour trip. While not that hard, between days off and errands and such, it can be hard going down for a game.

I go to school most of the year though at West Chester University. That's at least 45 minutes from the Western edge of the city. Showcase is about 30 minutes from school, but I only just discovered it. But during school, its hard finding time to get out for a battle, what with classes and all my extra curriculars. The other issue is I don't have any friends that play, so its hard setting a day aside, just so I can go to a store to find it empty. Thanks for the info though, I will keep it in mind the next time I find some free time.