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well i played in my first tournament. I will be posting all the games as I complete the reports, picture taking was sporadic so some games may not have the full spread of pics while others have been completed using vassal.
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3

Please let me know what you might have done differently and how I can improve tactically.

Hey whatsup, this is Steve from your game 2. Was a great game and I can't believe I won! I thought I was losing until turn 7 and thought I had lost even then.

A few things, yes I did roll ever living on the destroyer lord and failed.

You probably should have brought the outflanking bikes on the non crowded side, if you had there would be no chance my warriors survive there to contest in the late game stages. And it would have kept them alive for the kill points. Also your three squads of termies and other squad of bikes would have been enough to wipe the crowded side anyways.

That last terminator died to the combined 5 man squad of warriors and stormtek on my objective to overwatch so you had that one right. Honestly with the exception of the outflanking bikes coming in on the crowded side I think you played an incredibly solid game.

And yah I felt bad about blocking with the flyers on that last turn because it was sort of cheesy despite this being a tournament and all of it being fair play. But I had been blown out in the game before, so I needed a confidence boost to have any sort of chance to win on the day.

Anyways like I said it was an awesome game and I really didn't have a whole lot to deal with the terminators.

Hey man good to hear from you id love to know how you did your last game.

Thats really a great point regarding the bikes. I think it comes down to thinking ahead which is something i need to improve on. I was going to be forcing your barges toward the opposite side anyways and coming on from the opposite side would have been a great chance to get rear armor. Ps sorry about the assault from reserves, on the whole i dont think it would have changed anything, but it was still a bonehead play.

I think two moves that helped win you the game were the move with the wraiths to keep them out of assault, and the move with the flyer to block movement of the command squad.

That was the best game i played the whole tournament and it was really impressive the way you came back. Thinking back on it i realized that your rolling was really unlucky, and its a sign of a good tactician to win inspite of that (of course going to turn seven helped to!) it makes me realize how important flyer defense can be since there were a lot of flyers that game and i couldnt do anything about them.

I did very well in my last game, I was playing an almost mirror match of my army. Except he had scarabs and spyders I had zandrekh and more shooting. I employed a good plan(IMO of course) and my dice would not fail me, they were red hot to the point where I rolled 4-6's in 1 round shooting at a flyer with a haywire stormtek. Blowing it out of the sky while evading from 1staff was insane. I went 2-1 on the day, like 2 points out of 3rd I think. If I hadn't done so bad game 1 things would have been very different.

I was so thankful we went to 7 I couldn't have won if it didn't. So i did have some luck on my side. The move with the wraiths jumping them on top of the building was one of my favorite maneuveres I've pulled in any game lately. They were still at risk if you rolled really high on moving into the ruin then charging up 2 levels, but I felt confident you wouldn't go that way.

Thanks for the bat reps, sad I didn't get to play you, though (glares) though I shall never forgive you and your ancestors for knocking over my nightscythe!!!

On the list, I'm thinking just consolidate the bikers into one large unit of black knights as those guys are just disgustingly good.

Perhaps instead of tacs you might want to check out sniper scouts if they are just going to objective camp.

On the first bat-rep I think just remembering DA's rule advantages against chaos marines would have helped immensely.

Hope you'll come out again soon and wern't put off by any players.

Hey buddha,
Thanks for stopping by! Your list looked vicious. I am not certain how i would have approached it. Honestly one of the reasons i stopped by your club and joined the tournament was to meet some new folks and play against some fun lists. I was glad to meet so many awesome folks and on the whole it was a great experience.

Maybe when cash becomes availible (hooray for tax returns!) i may consider adding to the army in the scout department but i fear the results versus hell drake would have been similar. Do y'all have tourneys often?

The main thing things i took away from the tournament in the tactics department is i need to try to get some more games to practice and really learn my rules and tactics better. Exposure to opposing armies matters immensely. Ive played quite a bit versus necron wraithwing lists and as a result i have a better sense of how to attack them and i thhink this showed in game 2. The other lists were difficult to combat because i have only played chaos once and salmanders i havent played ever with the new codex. i think vassal may be able to help in this regard. The second is i am thinking of swapping the small biker squad for a nephillim as it fulfills a similar role. the bikers only worked versus the annhilation barges and then they only killed one. I feel the nephillim may have acheived just as much, and have been harder to kill.

PS game 3 is now posted.

Sorry to hear about the tournament, but at least it was a very interesting experience, I'm sure. Yeah, you definitely need to make sure you are well-rested before you go into a tournament. Last-minute painting cram sessions and drinking too much beer is definitely a no-no (not that you were doing either). Rather, sleep early and get some much needed rest. A tournament is somewhat of an endurance test. I remember one of my first GT's - the Golden Throne - in which I played 8 games in 2 days. That was such a draining (though fun) experience. Anyways, don't get discouraged. Rather, look at this as a learning experience. I'm sure you'll do much better after you get more practice in with your army.

 jy2 wrote:
Sorry to hear about the tournament, but at least it was a very interesting experience, I'm sure. Yeah, you definitely need to make sure you are well-rested before you go into a tournament. Last-minute painting cram sessions and drinking too much beer is definitely a no-no (not that you were doing either). Rather, sleep early and get some much needed rest. A tournament is somewhat of an endurance test. I remember one of my first GT's - the Golden Throne - in which I played 8 games in 2 days. That was such a draining (though fun) experience. Anyways, don't get discouraged. Rather, look at this as a learning experience. I'm sure you'll do much better after you get more practice in with your army.

your kind words are much appreciated sir. Indeed there was a bit of last minute painting that happened during the previous night, but then we all have our standards. As for the Drinking: water and coffee yes, beer no. I have taken tons of tests in my life some of which have been of the all day variety and this felt a bit like that. I can only guess at what 8 games in two days must be like. As for discouragment, i have none. As they say 'youth and strength will often lose out to age (or experience) and trickery.' well i have now gotten a bit wiser and there is no shame in losing to those with more experience or talent. Perhaps i may even win one these crazy things in the future.
i was reading your exploits on dakka regarding your last tournament and although we have different batrep styles i sincerely appreciate your contributions. Thanks for stopping by.

No prob. BTW, it was 8 games in 2 days.

 jy2 wrote:
No prob. BTW, it was 8 games in 2 days.

Weird, thought i wrote that. Edited. Cheers jy2.

@jy2: ..but late night painting sessions and drinking beer are two of my favorite things about tournaments!

@hippesthippo

Maybe in my college days....but I am old now and need my beauty sleep.

 jy2 wrote:
Sorry to hear about the tournament, but at least it was a very interesting experience, I'm sure. Yeah, you definitely need to make sure you are well-rested before you go into a tournament. Last-minute painting cram sessions and drinking too much beer is definitely a no-no (not that you were doing either). Rather, sleep early and get some much needed rest. A tournament is somewhat of an endurance test. I remember one of my first GT's - the Golden Throne - in which I played 8 games in 2 days. That was such a draining (though fun) experience. Anyways, don't get discouraged. Rather, look at this as a learning experience. I'm sure you'll do much better after you get more practice in with your army.

The indy open this year. I rolled into day one with no sleep and only had 5 hours of sleep for day 2. If you roll in sleep deprived you have to take it all with a grain of salt and just enjoy the experience. I knew I was exhausted so I was kind of in a slap happy kind of state the whole time. The sleep can effect people differently though. I suppose I do have training that emphasized lack of sleep and a general crappy environment.

Either way the reports look great man. Sorry to hear that you had issues in game three. Usually after one or two losses the games get funner as you can relax because the chances of winning the event are nigh and people are more focused on just enjoying the game. Dark angels are a tough army to play. Even though they got a new codex recently some would consider them only a middle tier army. Have you tried running allies with them? As for practice. If you have issues making it to the store for games you can always do vassal. I use vassal a lot because my schedule is less then favorable to the hobby and its something I can do on my own schedule. Helps me stay current on rules and tactics as well as try out new units before I purchase them.