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Unfortunately, I'm writing this all from memory, which after Adepticon probably isn't the most accurate way to do it.

I played with my local gamer friends Art, Pete, and Shawn this year. For the most part, they're the dreaded "Basement Gamers" - we play 2-3 times a month, and they don't attend many tournaments outside of Adepticon (come to think of it, I didn't last year either). We decided to play Grey Knights, because Pete has been playing them for as long as I've known him, dating back to 2005 I think, and I was putting together a Draigowing as a motorcycle-friendly army. We made four distinct lists, although some elements (like psyfledreads) are so good as to be ubiquitous.

Our lists, as I recall them:


Art:
HQ: Xenos Inquisitor w/ Psy power (Hammerhand), rad and psykotrope grenades
Elite: 6 Death cult assassins and 5 crusaders
Troop: 5 Purifiers, hammer, 2 psycannons, 2 halberds, rhino (searchlight)
Troop: 6 purifiers, hammer, 2 psycannons, 3 halberds, rhnio (searchlight)
Fast: Stormraven (multimelta, lascannons) w/ searchlight
Heavy: psyfledread

Shawn:
HQ: Castellan Crowe (Makes all our purifiers in all lists troops)
Elite: Vindicare assassin
Troop: 6 purifers, hammer, 2 psycannons, 3 halberds, rhino
Troop: 10 purifiers, hammer, 4 psycannons, 5 halberds, psybolt ammo, rhino
Heavy: Psyfledread

Pete:
HQ: Draigo (Makes all paladins in all lists troops)
Troop: 2 paladins (hammer & sword)
Troop: 6 purifers, hammer, 2 psycannons, 3 halberds, rhino
Heavy: Dreadknight w/ teleporter, heavy incinerator and sword
Heavy: Psyfledread

Me:
HQ: Librarian (shrouding, sanctuary, might of titan)
Troops: 10 paladins, including 4 psycannons, 2 hammers, 2 swords, 4 halberds, banner, psybolt ammo, warding stave
Heavy: Psyfledread.



I found this nice pic of our display over on Spikey Bits.



That's Pete sporting our super-stylish team shirt.

A couple other pictures from my cell phone:





You can make out our team dice there too - we had a pair to hand out to each opponent we played against.



Game One

Versus a Team Sweeping Advance sponsored by Battleready. For this matchup Shawn and I faced off against a coalition of space wolves and blood angels (The Twilight combo as it is referred to).

Space Wolves (from memory):
HQ: Logan Grimnar
Elite: Some wolf guard - or maybe they were troops due to Logan
Troops: 5 guys in a lascannon razorback
Troops: 5 more guys in a lascannon razorback
Heavy: 5 rocket longfangs (w/ squad leader)
Heavy: 3 rocket, 2 lascannon longfangs, w/ squad leader.

Blood Angels (also from memory)
HQ: Mephiston
Troops: 5 guys in a razorback of some sort
Troops: 5 assault guys in a rhino, I think...
Fast: Baal Predator
Fast: Baal Predator
Heavy: Vindicator

There was a lot of terrain for this first game, most notably, a giant GW Fortress of Redemption right smack in the center of the table. About eight inches to the left of this was a bastion, leaving a single gap through which we'd be able to get to grips with each other. further to the right, there was some other terrain, but it didn't play much of a part other than giving the vindicare somewhere to hide and shoot from. We declared that the bastions and fortress were impassable to foot troops and vehicles rather than deal with the building rules, but this pretty much forced much of the game into a stalemate.

The mission goals were a secret. At the beginning of the game we place five objectives, one in each of a Pitched Battle deployment zone, and then three in the no-man's land area. We got an envelope containing our goals. Achieving our goal was worth 15 points, while preventing our opponent from achieving theirs was worth 10. We also could give command tokens to units. On turn 4, if you had both your tokens still on the table, you could look at your opponent's goal. On turn 5, if you had one on the table, you could take a look. There was also a couple of bonus battle points available if you did this. Being a not-good player, I decided against reading the mission packet and missed this entirely, so we didn't use our tokens, preferring for the 'kill everything you can and your opponent cannot win' approach.

We deployed pretty centrally, figuring that with all the firepower on their side of the table, including the vindicator that could mince my entire army in one shot, we'd use the fortress as a staging ground to get in position. They deployed so that all the longfangs, the baals and the vindicator would all have shots at the gap between the bastion and the fortress. Logan Grimnar, notably, joined the lascannon longfangs, and did little all game except give them relentless.

Then we read our secret mission. Ours was to control more of the objectives in deployment zones than they did. Their objective was guarded well, between all their longfangs, but not by scoring units. So, as long as we could keep their scoring units off of it, and hold our own, we'd be able to accomplish the goal.

The first few turns were mostly about positioning. Our psyfledreads and vindicare started popping transports while the paladins got behind the fortress so as to void potshots and to be available for the late game. We had a little luck as their vindicator immobilized itself on terrain fairly far back, so it was not going to be a factor moving up to force anything. Mephiston took position on their side of the fortress, setting up a bit of a standoff, where whoever moved into the gap first would be sure to get the worse of it.

By the time turn four rolled around, we'd killed off three scoring units that had tried flanking on the right side of the fortress, and had destroyed all their transports (I kept mumbling something about "that's a kill point" as we took out minimally consequential items to get them thinking that our goal was somehow KP based. I think only one of the baals had guns left. They'd taken out one purifier's rhino, and a couple of paladins. Then they used their counters to read our goal. I think they must have misread it at first, as they took no steps to secure their own objective at this time. They still had two 5-man scoring units on the table, each in range to get to their objective if they decided to do so.

On their turns four however, they made no attempt to do this. They kept taking random shots with their longfangs, but weren't moving to the goal. Not wanting to risk it, on turn five, we moved the larger purifier unit into position to unload on one of the two remaining scoring units, wiping them off the table. At this time, they re-read our goal, and realized they needed to get their last scoring unit onto their objective. This involves a shuffle, as they now need to get the long fangs out of the way and the last scoring unit into position. Turn five does not see them accomplish this, but the game does not end.

Turn six sees us try to kill that last unit, but four men survive. They take get into position on their own objective. But the game still does not end. On turn seven, we maneuver so that we've got the firepower from the paladins, four purifier psycannons, and what remains of our dreadnoughts, all to focus on four men. If that fails, we've still got the smaller purifier unit that can shoot and possibly even be in charge range. But shooting does the trick, and they spend their turn seven hoping to put enough wounds on the paladins that they'll need a fallback test to leave our objective. It doesn't happen, and we win our primary. With no scoring units left, they did not accomplish their goal, which turns out to have been holding more of the three central objectives, so we get secondary as well, and al the bonus points except for using our command token to reveal their goals.

Our teammates get full points in round one, facing a coalition of grey knights and something else.


Round Two

So, with nearly full points from round one, we expect tough competition in round two. What we get is... well, the strangest game of 40k I've ever played, either in a tournament or not.

For this round Pete and I are teamed together, allowing Draigo to join my Paladin deathstar. Draigo adds a lot to the survivability of the unit, as he can be used to catch most of the one-off shots that they have to take. With a 3++ and eternal warrior, he doesn't care about the occasional lascannon or darklance, whereas without him, the paladin block risks losing a model on a failed cover (or invul) in the same situation.

Our opponents are a couple of kids - 16/17ish - young for Adepticon. They're running very similar lists. Each one has a unit of five paladins, a unit of one paladin, a dreadknight, and an HQ - one has a grandmaster, the other a librarian (Their draigo is on the other table).

As they're putting their models out, I see a discrepancy between what they're fielding, and what their lists say they're fielding. In one squad of paladins, the two psycannons in their list are actually modeled as one psycannon and one psilencer. In the other unit, three models have converted missile launchers and stormshields. I mention this, and they get upset. I hear, "come on, we're just kids, we're trying". My teammate and I decide okay, we'll play it out, although I'm generally more inclined that if an event rule calls for WYSIWYG, you should have WYSIWYG models.

So, we deploy for a spearhead game and get the first turn. They deploy across from us, very straightforward, putting both ICs with one of the paladin units. They don't steal, and so we start shooting. Our psiflemen shoot at the solo paladins, and they roll some ones, pulling the models. Then our deathstar shoots the non-IC paladin unit. We get a bunch of wounds, only two rends though. And our opponents decide to use their invul saves instead of their armour and pull the models.

On their turn, they shunt their dreadknights straight at us, and run their remaining paladins instead of shooting at all. We shoot their dreadknights, and again, they choose to take invul saves instead of armour. We mention this to them, pointing out our AP, and I even asked "How did you guys win your last game?" They said "oh, we played normally last game."

So, we finished our game in roughly 15 minutes. The judges asked how we finished so fast, and I explained it all to them, starting with the illegal models and the strange saves. I think three or four judges got in on a discussion about it, but they came to the conclusion that our opponents hadn't done anything illegal (in the game) and there was nothing stopping them from conceding a game, even in this way. They did state that they were going to talk to the kids we played about both appropriate behaviour and appropriate models for a tournament like this.

Anyhow, we scored an easy 30 points, while Art and Shawn's game came down to the wire with their opponents and I think they split a draw or possibly a minor loss.


Game Three

Game three, we play against team Capital Imperialis, who end up finishing in second place for the event. Art and I get a matchup against two space wolf teams, while Pete and Shawn face two Grey Knights.

From memory, they'd got something like:

HQ: Runepriest (living lightning, murderous hurricane) OR Wolf Lord
Elites: Wolf Guards w/ Lascannon Razorback
Troops: 5 Grey Hunters, flamer w/ lascannon razorback
Troops: 5 Grey Hunters, melta w/ lascannon razorback
Troops: 9 Grey Hunters w/ Rhino (standard, wulfen guy, melta, etc)
Heavy: 6Long Fangs w/ missiles

It's a Dawn of War game with three objectives. One player places all three objectives, the other decides which is primary (15 battle points) and which two are secondary (10 battle points). We placed, making a triangle with one on one side of the table and the other two on the other side. They made the easy choice of making the lone objective the primary. They won the roll-off for first turn, taking the side with the primary and using two empty rhinos to push back our deployment. We decided to walk on, because with that many vehicles (and scoring units), deepstriking and not arriving until late in the game would have been disastrous.

They move on and take a strong position covering most of the field, leaving only a small rocky area on our left for us to get cover from their firepower. We use the searchlights on the stormraven to get some shots on their left, figuring that it can't hide, so it needs to get in position to do something useful. We pop a lascannon razorback. Their second turn shooting only stuns the stormraven, which is able to shake it off. The assassins get out behind a bunker looking structure to create a no-go zone that they'll avoid. Meanwhile, we pop more razorbacks and advance, using rhinos for cover. The stormraven also unloads all its missiles into a longfang unit, killing a few rockets. It knows it won't survive another turn...

It doesn't. and another rhino bites it here, but in a good place to afford us cover. We push forwards, shooting as we go, they try to hold their position, and edge up on our right. By turn five, cumulative shooting has killed all their vehicles, and all our transports I've got six paladins left, and my librarian periled himself twice and died. They've got the remnants of a unit (four men) and a full unit (ten men) blocking the paladin's route to the primary objective. Doing quick math, I know I cannot kill 14 models in one round (as my non-power-weapon banner bearer is one of the paladins), and just one surviving keeps me off the objective. I've got to shoot and hope to whittle the ten-man squad down some before I charge. Fortunately, the models in range to charge include the melta, the wolfguard and the banner guy, so unless wound allocation is weird, at least one should survive, allowing me to charge that unit, and then multi-assault the other. This turns out to be true - the wolfguard (with powerfist) dies, but the meltagunner lives, and it now looks like a winnable combat, which would allow me to consolidate to the objective....

Until my opponent fails his Ld test, and the squad I need to charge runs away. Now, I've nothing to charge, and, wouldn't you know it, the random game length ends on five. So, we lose the primary, but still take the secondary objective and the handful of battlepoints that come with it.

In the other game, my teammates don't fare much better. Pete had maneuvered draigo and his two paladins into position to get the charge on a unit of their knights. Psykout grenades give him the first swings, and they don't land get a single hit, only needing 3's. This turned out to be crucial as they get dragged down and gave their opponents the impetus to finish the game.

Game Four

So, for game four, we get matched up with another local Chicago team, I think they were Charlie Don't Surf.

For game four, it's traditionally the team's choice as to partners, and we put Draigo and the Deathstar together again. We're playing Jordan, who won the Chicago AWC season, and Les, who also made the finals for that tournament series.

Their armies are identical, and are very straightforward.

HQ: Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf, Fenrisian Wolf, Eternal Warrior, Thunderhammer, stormshield
HQ: Wold Lord on Thunderwolf, Fenrisian Wolf, Re-roll Ld, Wolf Claw, stormshield
Troops: small unit of guys w/ flamer in rhino
Fast Attack: Thunderwolf Cav, 5, wound allocated, w/ stormshields (or at least mostly)

Pretty simple really - they'll come to us, we'll fight, and whoever wins will take the game.

Oh, but the Adepticon judges threw a wrinkle into it. The Command Tokens for this game could be given to a non-IC model. That model then effectively had a 12" bubble that would make psychic tests be taken on 3d6, with perils on anything over 12. Nice - if there's one thing I really detest, it's when TOs design missions that go out of their way to screw over specific armies.

Naturally, we don't use our tokens, while our opponents give theirs each to members of the thundercav.

We win the roll-off for first turn, and with spearhead, deploy a little off the line. They, predictably, put all the wolf lords on one of the thunderwolf units up front. It's going to be a question of how many turns we can shoot them before they get to us.

Turn one, we shoot them. A few wounds are spread on the cav, the fenrisian wolves are gone, and the lords are unharmed. They move up, but roll a '1' for their fleet roll. Not wanting to send just the first two wolf lords into the deathstar alone, they hold back, not charging. Turn 2, we move back 6" and shoot them again. Now wounds are being allocated to lords, most of the cav have at least one wound on them.

So, they move up, lords in front again. They're definitely within 12". But the guy with the anti-psyker token is towards the back of the unit. My librarian casts Sanctuary, and the wolves fail their charge. So, we move up, shoot the army into them, killing the anti-psyker guy, and then charge with the deathstar and the dreadknight. Wolfclaws bounce off us, we spell up and kill them all. They fold, and we get beers.

Our teammates had two fight against the same lists we did, without the benefit of a deathstar of their own. They put forth a brave delaying action, and salvaged a few battle points out of a minor loss, but could not kill enough thunderwolves.

Results
When the dust cleared, we had taken 17th place. Out of eight armies I faced, there were 5 Space Wolves, 2 Grey Knights and 1 Blood Angels, of the sixteen the team faced, there were 7 Space Wolves, 7 Grey Knights, 1 Blood Angel, and one other imperial MEQ force that I'm not sure on. Still, we weren't part of the solution either...

Other than the weird second game, all our games were enjoyable and we did better than we thought we would going into it.

Well, congrats on the strong showing, and good lord, that had to get repetitive, Grey Knights, Space Wolves, Grey Knights, Space Wolves XP

Thanks for sharing, reports were really well written and definitely showed the flow of the game. Technically your second opponents could not opt to take invuln saves, but they also could just sit there and let you shoot them to death if they wanted to throw it anyway.

It is a shame to run into that at a major event, I hope there is no consolation prize that the got for tanking...

One question, the GK army is motorcycle friendly but...that display board definitely is not!

The display is just for Adepticon, I'll be making a very portable one for the motorcycle portion of the army