I took my boyz to the gladiator. For those of you who weren't there, or don't know, this is the big, "No-holds-barred" tournament, where the only real rule is "no-whining". Anything goes, and that means anything. Apocalypse models, Forgeworld stuff, Trial-rule armies. If you can find rules that
GW has printed, it's probably allowed in the Gladiator tournament.
And, in this mix of Titans, Baneblades, Stompas (more than one made an appearance), Tyranid Heirophants, and other cheesy goodness, I brought... the six point ork boy. Well, him and 200 of his closest friends.
That's:
Warboss on Bike w/ Powerklaw, Cybork Body
Big Mek w/ Kustom Forcefield
30 slugga boyz,
PK nob, 3 rokkits
30 slugga boyz,
PK nob, 3 rokkits
30 shoota boyz,
PK nob, 3 rokkits
30 shoota boyz,
PK nob, 3 rokkits
30 shoota boyz,
PK nob, 3 rokkits
22 shoota boyz,
PK nob, 2 rokkits
3 separate kannons
5 kommandos w/ rokkit
5 kommandos w/ rokkit
5 kommandos
dethkopta
dethkopta
dethkopta w/ buzzsaw
Tournament Format
Adepticon uses a three-objective format. Each mission has three objectives, a primary, a secondary, and a tertiary, worth 15, 10 and 5 battle points each. There are two bonus points for two minor goals as well, for a maximum of 32 points in any round.
Round One
I end up playing against Blackmoor. He's running eldar;
Eldrad
The Avatar
Six harlies incl. Seer & Troupe Master
Six fire dragons incl. exarch
Seven Dire Avengers incl. exarch (bladestorm)
3x 10 guardians w/ brightlance platform
2x 4 Jetbikes incl. shuriken cannon & Destructor Warlock
2x Super-Falcon
Five Fire Dragons w/ Exarch w/ missile launcher
The mission:
Rules:
Escalation, Deep Strike
Primary: Control four objective tokens
Secondary: Score victory points (200 more than opponent)
Tertiary: Render all opponent troops non-scoring
Bonus 1: Kill opponent's highest point unit
Bonus 2: If you have more scoring units at the end of the game
Deployment:
My opponent castles in his triangle:
(The jetbikes are waiting in reserve)
While I am spread out throughout my deployment:
After a turn, I've advanced up the table a little:
I didn't get many in-game photos, as with that many models to move, I had to concentrate more on playing the game.
He whittles some guys out of my squads, kills one entirely, but I kill Eldrad, the harlies, dragons, avengers, one guardian squad, and his jetbikes, claiming the primary and secondary, and one bonus point.
Total so far: 26 points
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Round Two
I end up playing against a Black Templar army, run by CaptKaruthors. It's a horrible matchup for him as he's running a fairly small, elite force, against a horde, and the objective forces him to move to the center early or let me collect beads.
Emperor's Champion
Marshall w/ Terminator command squad, 2x assault cannon
3x las-
plas crusader squads
8 Assault marines w/ powerfist sgt
2x predator annihilator w/
HB sponsons
terminator assault squad, 5 thunderhammers, in drop pod
terminatorsw 2 assault cannons, in drop pod
Mission:
Rules: Infiltrators
Primary: Collect glass tokens - whoever has control of the center at the end of each player turn earns a token.
Secondary: Score 200+ more victory points
Tertiary: Table quarters - hold more
Bonus 1: If opponent has no tokens
Bonus 2: If opponent has no scoring units left
Deployment
I take up most of my table edge, while he's fairly loosely based around the middle, with an assault marine squad hiding behind some area-terrain ruins. I infiltrate kommandos on each side to present a rokkit threat and draw the predator's attention.
He makes a valiant attempt to collect some counters, advancing his terminators, but this just gives my shootas targets, and my sluggas something to charge.
It takes a while to move all these guys...
After three turns, I've killed most of the terminators and have passed the middle of the board, and he surrenders.
32 points to me
Total: 58
Round Three
Big Bugs. My opponent, who I don't think is on here, has spent a ton of points on super-upgraded bugs.
Winged Hive Tyrant w/ lots of upgrades and 2x twin-linked devourers
Hive tyrant w/ Barbed strangler, venom cannon, 3 tyrant guard
3 dakka fexes (2x devourers)
8 gene stealers
4 leaping rippers
2 super carnifexes (Every upgrade in the book, a couple that aren't. Crab Claws & Venom cannon)
3 zoanthropes w/ warp blast, 1 synapse, 2 scream
Mission
Rules: Night Fight first turn
Random Game Length (as if we'll finish six turns, let alone seven)
Weighted table quarters (we distribute glass tokens between quarters, each claiming that many beads for quarters we own)
Primary: Collect most table quarter beads
Secondary: Score more victory points (200+ over opponent)
Tertiary: Kill opponent's highest point
HQ
Bonus 1: All opponent's troops are non-scoring
Bonus 2: If opponent has no table quarters
Deployment
Deploy in quarters, with nothing deployed within 12" of center or 24" of opponent.
He spreads out ready to claim his adjacent quarters, and bunches up towards the middle. I simply fill all the space.
His devourers are scary, if he plays right, as I can't get to him if he backs up, but he's used to advancing, so I get him into combat pretty heavy (three mobs) vs. tyrant & stealers on his left flank. My warboss makes the sacrificial charge to tie up a devourer fex, dropping one and consolidating into another, into which he then throws a big bug and another dakka fex. I lose the boss, but tie him up long enough to get two more mobs of guys into that fight too. His rippers and other big bug eat one whole unit, and he picks off most of my kannons and koptas when he's not in combat. However, at the end of the game, he doesn't have enough scoring units to contest quarters, and I take the primary and secondary, and two bonus points. His expensive
HQ unit hid at the back firing its guns all game, so I couldn't engage it.
Points this round: 27
Total: 85
Round 4
More eldar - Eldrad came back to life! This time my opponent is one of the Cold Steel Merc guys
He's got:
Eldrad and Avatar
6 scorpions w/ powerklaw exarch
6 harlies w/ master, seer
10 wraithguard
5 pathfinders
10 dire avengers in a missile-launcher wave serpent
Wraithlord w/ brightlance&starcannon
Falcon
Fire prism
This is clearly another mismatch for my opponent. He's got 400 points in wraithguard that, at most, will kill 10 orks before they're swarmed in boyz. His ranged fire is lacking in anti-horde stuff too without the prism.
Mission:
We each pick one unit from the enemy army, who starts off the table, and shows up on turn 4, from any table edge. I take out his Fire Prism, he picks my warboss (Mistake... he should have taken my forcefield Mek, but he had been up for 30 something hours and been on a flight, so it's understandable.)
Primary: Victory Points - w/ points for table quarters
Secondary: Most scoring units at end of game
Tertiary: Score 1601+ points more than opponent, without bonus points for quarters
Bonus 1: Kill their short-handed unit
Bonus 2: Get a scoring unit in their deployment zone
Deployment
He castles widely:
While I fill my deployment zone again:
(Note warboss off to the side)
The boyz head off running at the enemy, like so many times before!
I end up killing a lot of his stuff, but cannot drop the grav tanks, or eldrad, and I never get to the pathfinders. But, I win the quarters and points, claiming Primary, Secondary, tying on the tertiary, and get a bonus point.
During this round, the owner of Blue Table Painting was walking by, and included some video of the game in a clip he put on youtube.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=bRPev4gus2g - my appearance starts at the 5 minute-30 second mark.
Points: 29
Total: 109 (Somewhere I lost 5 points on the official scores - I've written to the tournament organizer to see if this can be fixed, because this tournament counts on the national circuit and a bonus to my final placement would net me more circuit points)
I end up in 6th place (pending review of possibly missing points)
Overall comments:
In a tournament where people expect to face titans, bringing a lot of 6 point models leaves them a bit flat-footed. If you need your brightlances and lascannons, you don't have your scatterlasers and heavy bolters. So, I guessed the metagame correctly, and got lucky by not having to fight against a baneblade, or anything else shooting out a 10" template attack.
The key to the army is the Mek. He didn't kill anything in any of the games. He didn't claim any objectives. All he did was wander around the battlefield carrying a forcefield. And for this, he wins my MVP award. That forcefield gives us a 5+ save against everything, and that 5+ save works as a force multiplier. It means that your opponent has to land 270 wounds, instead of 180. That's the equivalent of 90 extra boyz in there taking hits, and that's huge.
Congratz Redbeard for keepin' the faith! I remember in 2006 when we were the only two ork teams in the hall. (You guys had Kult of Speed though)