Hello all. Kronk here, fresh off getting his butt handed to him at the New Orleans US Open, as presented by Games Workshop, (R), (C), (Patent Pending).
I had an absolute blast at the event, playing 8 games against 8 Not-THAT-Guys, and learned a lot.
Some background, I have not played
40k in a competitive event against strangers since AdeptiCon 2014. From 2015-2019, I played in Horus Heresy Events at AdeptiCon, but that's about it. I did play in DragonFall, but the details of when that was is hazy. For 9th edition, I had played 3 games against some buddies, gak-faced drunk for one of them.
Going into this tournament, I picked units that I liked and were painted well. I did not plan around secondaries, or Primaries really. To use the golf term, it was "Grip it and rip it!". So, let's talk turkey.
There was so much discussion in the other
GW Open thread that it got locked. Let me tell you what I saw. Mostly table top standard and some beautifully painted armies. I saw HEAVY conversions. I saw Kromlech, Puppets War, and Micro Minis (name?) bits used in some conversions. I did not see whole-sale, counts as swaps such as Pig Iron minis or Victoria Art minis for Astra Militarum as an example.
Some examples of heavily converted:
Knight before Tzeentchmas: This army won best painted in the Age of Sigmar event. My pictures suck ass as the lighting was horrible in the event hall.
and Nurgle Tau. Probably 60/20/20 Tau/Nurgle/Sculpted
The tables were all laid out more or less like this:
The terrain pieces in the 2, 5, 7, and 10 o'clock positions being Scalable, breachable, light cover, defensible, and obscuring. Mounted on acrylic.
The pieces at 3 and 9 o'clock being the same. Also on acrylic bases.
The pieces in the four corners being Scalable, dense cover, breachable, defensible, and difficult ground. Being mounted on acrylic bases and had little impact on any of my games.
The top 8 teams in Bracket 1 were:
Richard S. from the Art of War playing Cult Mechanicus
Brad C. from Art of War playing Drukhari
Mark P. from Art of War playing Orks
Hunter G from Professional Courtesy playing Death Guard
James K from Goonhammer playing Drukhari
Jack H. from Art of War playing Imperial Knights
Hunter N from Professional Courtesy playing Space Wolves
Jony V from Team Texas playing Thousand Sons.
They gave us some kick ass cards for the missions and for keeping track of secondaries. I will definitely be using these in home games and local events. These were great player aids.
Game 1: I played Vincent D's Necrons, losing 73-54. Scorched Earth Mission.
Fun player. Knew his stuff. I failed to box him out of my backfield and he came in with 20 necrons and some character to nab himself table quarters and eventually challenge my objective. Something I worked on in subsequent games.
Game 2: Eric S's Necrons. Losing 95-47. That was the most points I gave up this weekend, and 2nd worst differential. I hate playing across the long board. Retrieval Mission.
Dude was from the Florida panhandle. Listens to all the podcasts, reads all the blogs, knew his army and the objectives this way and that. Also, not a jerk. I'd play him again in a heartbeat. Played his army TIGHT. Squad goals here, Eric. Good on you.
Game 3: Played Edward W's Astra Militarum. Won 77-69. Closest winning game of the weekend. Extremely interactive. Lots of dead dudes on both table sides. Surround and Destroy mission.
Great guy. Offered me some Scotch, but I was dead tired and had to say no. Reminded me of my army rules.
Day 2
Game 4: Played Ben R's Dark Angels. Lost 86-62. Sweep and Clear mission. We just got hit by Hurricane Ida in New Orleans, and this kid just started college and evacuated back home. Didn't have time to finish.
GW allowed local folks affected by the storm to play with unpainted stuff, but they couldn't get 10 points for battle ready army. So, I still fething lost by 24.
Dark Angels apparently get the Transhuman Physiology on a lot of their units all the time for free some how. Like, space marines +1. I was salty playing this army with my not +1 space marines. Boo. Nice enough kid, though.
Game 5: Allen W's Grey KNights. Lost 77 - 70. Closest game, though. Vital Intelligence mission.
He was able to move around and get table quarters and Retrieve Octarius Data at will with his jumpiness. I gave him a run for his money, but my 5+ against Mortal Wounds was just not enough.
Game 6: Eric E's Necron Tau, pictured above. My opponent didn't show, so I got paired up with another solo player from a bracket higher. Lost 84-24. I scored all of 14 points, not counting painting points. Battle Lines mission. Again, I HATE going the long way across the table.
Eric was easily the most easy going player I met this weekend. I played next to him in other rounds, and he is supportive of the other player, cheering on your successes, even though he knows, you know he knows, and he knows you know he knows that this games was over turn 1. Like the other Eric from round 2, he knew his army, the missions, the objectives extremely well and played a tight game. I don't even feel bad getting my lunch money stolen.
Day 3
Game 7: Jacob H's Blood Angels. Won 91-78. Priority Target mission. I liked this mission. Took the mission secondary (Priority Target) and got max on it. My highest score of the weekend. This was the game I remembered my 10 man terminator squad could combat squad and deep strike in 2 table quarters. Yeah, my weekend sucked that bad.
No picture. Sorry.
Game 8: Gabriel C's Deathwatch. Won 61-48. Sweep and Clear mission. Game was closer than the score lets on. He was annihilating me, but I focused on the objectives more. My storm shield terminators were in it to win it. Man did they soak of fire in this one.
Due to some miscommunication, someone started picking up tables early, before this round started. We had to hang about while they re-situated and re-paired us as everything got flommoxed due to the
SNAFU. Some people's pairings got borked. Luckily, Gabe and I found each other and snagged an empty table. They gave those of us affected free drink tickets. Then I remembered I had a drink ticket from day one and snagged 2 beers. New player, but knew his strategems and units well.
