I was debating about whether or not it was a good idea to give away the ending in the title, until my wife pointed out that people would just scroll down looking to find the results first anyway, so I might as well save them the trouble of finding it and allow them to enjoy the process of describing how it came to be.
I’ve been to a number of Games Days over the years, but always as staff, so it was really fun to just go to have fun and not worry about running an event or a table. There were some great tables and events this year, and I want to give kudos to every person and club who came out. It was especially fun to meet Brother Tyler of Bolter and Chainsword and see their awesome booth.
While I was in LA, I hung out with Lormax and his group and got in some really helpful practice games the night before the tournament. I simply had an awesome time. They are a great bunch of players. Very skilled and a heck of a lot of fun to be around. I only wish I lived closer so I could hang out with them more often.
My Army:
For this tournament I used the rules from Codex: Space Wolves, which is what the Widows were initially designed under. Countercharge and ungodly access to combi-flamers, my favorite weapon in the game, allowed me to field a force that, while small, threw out a lot of firepower and really put in the hurt in
hth combat. Rather than design the army purely for effectiveness, my primary goal was to showcase the models I had converted and painted, including a female dreadnaught, female terminators, females in power armor, and female scouts. My list included:
Venerable Dreadnaught in drop pod
2 Wolf Guard Terminator squads in drop pods
Wolf Scouts
Grey Hunters in drop pod
2 Units of Blood Claws in drop pod
GAME ONE: Black Widows vs. Battlegroup Petrov
My opponent for round one was John, a great player whom I have faced before at a Grand Tournament many years ago when he was fielding his Lost and the Damned. My Hive Fleet had beaten him that day long ago and I’m sure he was itching to even the score.
Fluff-wise the match up was perfect. The Inquisition is fanatical about hunting down Widows infestations wherever they find them, and I decided that, win or lose, The Widows main objective was to capture or kill Inquisitor Johann of Perga.
His list included:
IG command squad
Sentinel Squad
Inquisitor Johann with retinue
Ratling Squad
Unit of Grey Knights in Power Armor
3 Grenadier squads
Hellhound
2 Demolishers
The Mission was seize ground. We placed the objectives and John spend his first turn moving his entire battle line forward, getting his Inquisitor onto the ruined tank at the center of the table.
This presented a profound tactical problem for me, because his Inquisitor’s retinue contained the best counter for Drop Pods, Mystics. If I dropped a pod within
4D6 inches, one of his squads would get a free shot at it, and with a pair of Demolishers nearby, it would be possible for him to wipe out entire squads and end the game very early indeed. Likewise, landing farther away would leave my squads too far away to contest the many objectives near the center of the table.
I decided to be bold, landing my first wave of pods right on top of his right flank. In each case, I made sure the pods blocked
LOS to the all-important Demolishers, but that still didn’t stop his other squads from inflicting heavy casualties as my units arrived. The Grenadiers shook the Dreadnaught, killed a couple of Grey Hunters, and the Grey Knights maimed both the Terminators and the Blood Claws with their Dual Incinerators. My return fire was less then stellar, the Grey knights making nearly all their armor saves and only being reduced down to five, and the Grenadiers losing only one of their number. What’s worse, it turns out the hill I had dropped the Grey Hunters onto didn’t provide a cover save from all the nearby plasma weapons.
The Wolf Scouts fared batter, coming in behind the two demolishers and completely wiping out a Grenadier squad in
hth combat. Unfortunately, it would have been better to have left a few alive, because now they were standing out in the open in the center of the enemy line. Things were looking grim.
Next turn, the Inquisitional counter attack was brutal. The Wolf Scouts were, predictably, annihilated, while the Grey Knights and Hellhound reduced the Blood Claws to just four models before the Knights charged in. The Sentinals arrived Outflanking, ending up on the wrong side of the board, but still able to target the Grey Hunters, who, lacking a decent cover save and really flubbing all their armor saves, were reduced to one lady by the Grenadiers and subsequently ran off the board.
One of the Demolishers had moved around a pod to target the Dreadnaught, but the shot scattered off away, doing no damage. It would be the first of many incompetent shots by that tank.
The rest of my units arrived and now it was time to hit the other flank. John couldn’t believe I was landing pods almost right on top of his Inquistitor’s squad, and I paid for the boldness, the newly arrived terminators loosing two of their numbers, and the newly, arrived blood claws loosing three of theirs.
On the right flank, the terminators took their revenge on the Grenadiers that had killed the Grey Hunters, reducing their numbers to three, which then began to flee off the board, while the Dreadnaught charged the Demolisher, penetrating it several times, but unable to roll anything higher then a one on the damage table. The newly arrived Blood Claws fired their flamers into the Inquisitor’s retinue, killing everyone except the inquisitor with such horrible armor saves being rolled by John that even I felt it. The newly arrived terminators were tasked with killing off the final Grenadier squad on the left flank that was sitting on an objective. Once they were gone it would be impossible for John to get anything but a draw, as he would have no more scoring units. Despite being hit by two flamers, an assault cannon and a couple of storm bolters from the pods, the Grenadiers only lost two members, and squatted defiantly on their objective. On the right flank the Blood Claws remained locked with the Grey Knights. The Grey Knights had been reduced to only a Justicar, but now neither side seemed able to finish off the other. With an objective just six inches away from the Blood Claws and no enemy left on that flank, I was waiting impatiently for that assault to end soon so they could get to the objective, but my hope was in vain.
The ratlings, who had thus far only observed the battle from the woods on the left flank, were elated to have a group of terminators as their targets, and their firepower, along with the unflappable Grenadiers, managed to kill everyone except the Wolf Lord, who licked her lips in anticipation of charging the Grenadiers when her turn came. The Blood Claws who had so perfectly annihilated the Inquisitor’s retinue, now suffered from a complete inability to make any of their saves, being reduced to only two members from firepower that they would have normally laughed off. If I had thought they would have done that bad, I would have had them go to ground. The right-flank Blood Claws continued to be unable to finish off the Justicar, when a horrible scream rose up over the din of battle and the sounds of cannon. The unshaken demolisher had fired at the Dreadnaught, only to have the shot scatter onto the Inquisitor and kill him. The three-millennia long career of Inquisitor Johann of Perga was finally over, ended by the incompetence of his allies. Where’s your Emperor now, eh?
Time was running out so we moved quickly to get a final turn in. The Dreadnaught moved up and charged the demolisher, mostly to say thank you for killing the Inquisitor, while the Terminators charged the other Demolisher. At this point I controlled the center objective with two Blood Claws, so all I had to do was kill his remaining grenadiers with my Wolf Lord and the game would be mine. Or so I thought. In a display of stunning incompetence the Wolf Lord charged the Grenadiers but failed to hit even a single time.
But, there was still hope on the right. If the Blood Claws fighting the Justicar could just finish it off, they could take the objective right next to them. Once again, neither side was able to take the other out, the Justicar unable to hit, and the Blood Claws unable to kill the Justicar due to its unholy ability to make every single combat shield save it was required to make. It is only now as I review my copy of John’s army list that I notice that his Justicar did not, in fact, have a combat shield. Grrrrrr.
On John’s final turn he wisely ran his command squad up onto the destroyed tank where the Blood Claws skulked, contesting the objective. One Demolisher tank shocked the Terminators, while the other teamed up with the Sentinels to take out the Dreadnaught, but were unable to hurt it. In the
HTH phase, the Blood Claws on the right finally killed the Justicar, but only rolled two inches for their consolidation, leaving them two inches too far away to claim the objective there. With my only objective in the center contested by the command squad, the best I could hope for now was a draw, so long as the Wolf Lord took out the Grenadiers on their objective. Again, the mighty warrior failed to live up to her potential, killing only a single grenadier. John grabbed the dice to make his leadership test. If he passed, he won, if he failed, we tied. He passed his leadership test, and the game was a win for him.
Battle Points: Me-7 Him-13
Breeders Captured: One Grey Knight Justicar
GAME TWO: The Black Widows vs. The Space Wolves
My opponent for round two was the aptly named Russ, and we both agreed that Male Space Wolves vs. Female Space Wolves was a great and fun match up. Since we had both lost our first game, we knew we were most likely out of the running, which allowed us to really ease back and have a good time. I have spent time on the top tables, and it can often lead to tension that can drain the fun right out of the game, so I was relieved, in a way, that I could just screw around the rest of the day without having to worry about spoiling my win record. It helped also that Russ is a really fun guy and someone I’d be happy to play again any day of the week.
His list included:
Wolf Lord, Wolf Priest, and Blood Claws inside a Land Raider
Wolf Scouts
3 units of Grey Hunters inside Rhinos
Venerable Dreadnaught
Whirlwind
The mission was Annihilation, which meant we would be dealing with Kill Points, which I absolutely hate. Since both Russ and I had the ability to re-roll the dice for deployment and first turn, both of us having Venerable Dreadnaughts, it took a few rolls and re-rolls before we could determine who won. Lucky for me, I won the roll, and forced Russ to go first, in the hopes that his reserves would arrive before mine.
Russ kept his units in place in his deployment zone for his first turn, and did the same on his second turn except for his wolf scouts that arrived in my deployment zone, looking around in vain for their quarry and shrugging their shoulders. Once again, The Black Widows had arrived fashionably late. Only two minutes into the round we were already at the bottom of turn two, which we both agreed deserved some sort of award. The Judges disagreed.
My reserve rolls were abysmal, with only the Grey Hunters and one Blood Claw Squad arriving. Knowing that they could not take on his whole army alone, I deployed them back on my side, hoping to draw Russ out. Both pods scattered badly, but the Grey Hunters were still close enough to kill the Wolf Scouts, earning me one kill point.
On his turn Russ moved two of his rhinos forward, disembarking close enough to lay some real hurt into my hiding Grey Hunters, while his Land Raider hung back, ready to earn some easy kill points taking out drop pods.
In an impressive display, both of the Land Raider’s Lascannons bounced off the Drop Pods, leaving them undamaged. Godhammer pattern my ass! The Whirlwind hit the Blood Claws and managed to kill one of them, but they passed their pin check. My Grey Hunters took a huge amount of firepower in the face, but managed to make many of their armor saves, whittling them down to four models.
More bad reserve rolls at the beginning of my next turn. Only one Terminator squad, the Dreadnaught, and the Wolf Scouts showed up. I moved up the Blood Claws to take revenge on the enemy Grey Hunters that had disembarked, but as it turns out their help was completely unnecessary. In a truly unbelievable display, the Terminator squad landed behind the enemy Grey Hunters, and their three combi-flamers inflicted 21 wounds on the Grey Hunters, who failed enough saves between that and the Assault Cannons to finish off the squad completely. Even more impressive, due to incredible to-wound rolling and disastrous armor save rolling, my four remaining Grey Hunters, with their flamer and combi-flamer and two boltguns, were able to kill eight out of the ten Grey Hunters in the other squad.
My Venerable Dreadnaught landed in the woods right next to the Whirlwind, firing its weapons into the rear armor but only managing to shake it.
On Russ’s deployment zone, there was a rustling of trees as my Wolf Scouts emerged next to the Land Raider, and cackled maniacally as they gleefully strapped meltabombs onto the vehicle which had remained stationary in its last turn.
The resulting explosion killed two of the Wolf Scouts and two of the Blood Claws, leaving the Wolf Scouts hopelessly doomed as they stared down both his characters, but they had served their purpose. Having no meltaguns or lascannons, the Land Raider had fallen to one of the few weapons I had that could even hurt it.
On Russ’ turn, his Venerable Dreadnaught and remaining Grey Hunters swore in their wrath that they would kill the Terminators that had done so much damage the turn before. Only a single Terminator survived the charge, and immobilized the Dreadnaught with her power fist. The enemy Blood Claws and characters charged my Wolf Scouts, killing them all before they even had a chance to attack. Clearly spooked by the Dreadnaught, the Whirlwind moved back towards its table edge, while the final rhino near the Whirlwind moved away and spun around to try and protect itself, which turned out to make it completely invincible to harm.
On my turn the rest of the army finally decided to show up. The Terminators landed behind the frightened rhino, while the Blood Claws scattered terribly, landing right in front of the enemy Blood Claws and characters that had just finished off my Wolf Scouts.
My Dreadnaught moved around its pod and prepared to kill the rhino. With a Venerable Dreadnaught in front of it and a full terminator squad behind it, certainly the rhino would explode and I’d get to shoot the crap out of all its occupants gleefully, right? Wrong. The Dreadnaught hit with every shot, but nothing destroyed the rhino. The Terminators hit it from behind with two assault cannons, penetrating it several times, and again, nothing but shaken. Enraged, the Dreadnaught charged the rhino, penetrating it twice but was completely unable to roll anything higher then a two on the damage table. Clearly The Emperor loved this rhino. It was invulnerable.
The enemy Blood Claws, however, were dropping like flies. Despite some pretty poor rolling on my part, my newly arrived Blood Claws were able to reduce his down to one model. What really scared me, however, were the two characters still attached to the squad, and I braced for another powerful charge from him next turn.
Meanwhile the remaining Terminator fighting the enemy Dreadnaught proved to be wily, making two more invulnerable saves, but failing to hurt the dread. My remaining Grey Hunters finished off his Grey Hunters, while my Blood Claws charged one of his Rhinos, their numerous power fist attacks bouncing off in a way that threatened to assure that this rhino might be as invulnerable as the other.
On Russ’s turn he disembarked his final squad of Grey Hunters from their indestructible Rhino to shoot at the Terminators, killing two of their numbers, while his Whirlwind scattered horribly and his Wolf Lord and Wolf Priest charged my Blood Claws. My Blood Claws successfully countercharged, earning them lots of extra attacks, but six of their number were pulled down before I even got to attack. The Wolf Priest was felled by a power fist to the face, while the Wolf Lord made every invulnerable save it was required to make. The Dreadnaught and Terminator failed to even hit each other this round, indicating that they had both tired out.
On my turn my Terminators moved to flame the crap out of the puppies that had killed their sisters, whittling them down to three with combi-flamers before charging them and finishing them off. Meanwhile the Dreadnaught ran over to the Whirlwind and destroyed it. On the right flank my remaining Grey Hunters and Blood Claws charged the enemy Dreadnaught in an attempt to save the besieged Terminator, but it was too little too late. The enemy Dreadnaught killed her just before they were able to destroy it with multiple power fist attacks. The Wolf Lord finished off my Blood Claws, howling at the moon on top of a pile of bodies just before he realized that he was the final model on the board and consolidated away from the enemy, which earned Russ a lot of good-natured taunting from me about
SWC, or Space Wolf Cowardice.
On my turn, my Blood Claws and Grey Hunters, still feeling the high from felling the Venerable Dreadnaught, moved forward and managed to kill the Wolf Priest with some flamer and bolter shots. Clearly refusing to wear a helmet comes with its drawbacks. Meanwhile the Dreadnaught and Terminators mopped up the remaining rhinos. As if sensing the end, the once invulnerable transports now fell every time they were shot at, leaving the mighty Space Wolves tabled.
Since none of my transports had died, but his all had, the Kill Points were severely skewed. I had earned thirteen while he had only earned four.
Battle Points: Me-20 Him-3
Breeders Captured: One Wolf Priest and One Wolf Lord.
In between the second and third round, a couple of the judges came up to me and had some questions about my army. They wanted to know exactly what I had painted and what I had not. Apparently they really liked my army, and wanted to lobby it for best painted, and so they were looking to see if there was any way I could still receive it. We talked a little about the new policy this year that players who did not paint every single model are not eligible for anything except best general. I can see their point that they want to avoid people just buying an army off of ebay and winning with it, and they also could see my point that people like me tend to get caught in the crossfire. Anyway, they told me to up the percentage of what I had painted myself for next year, which I plan on doing, and also mentioned that, while I would not be eligible for first place overall, I was eligible for second or third place. Since I had lost my first game, I really didn’t think I had a shot at that, so it seemed like a mute point at the time.
GAME THREE: The Black Widows vs. Claws of Cthulu Tyranids
My opponent for round three, Nick, explained early on that he had seen my army online, and that he was an ardent fluff nazi, but that didn’t stop he and I from having a great game together. We laughed pretty much the whole time, and it was extremely enjoyable. The experience gave me hope, that one day the fluff nazis and the fluff heretics can sit down together at the table of brotherhood and kick the crap out of each other. We actually had a lot more in common then we had differences. For example, we both hate the Necron fluff and the way it ret conned everything in ways that don’t make sense, like how the Eldar supposedly invented Wraithguard to fight the Necrons, when Slaanesh hadn’t been born yet and they didn’t use spirit stones, and how the C’Tan supposedly tainted Khaine, when C’Tan are not psychic in any way, and so cannot affect warp entities.
His list included:
Cthulu style winged Hive Tyrant
2 Close Combat Carnifexes
Brood Lord plus Genestealer retinue
3 Units of 10 Genestealers
3 Lictors
The mission was Capture and Control, which I had practiced the night before with my buddy Eric, so I felt more confident about this one then I had about the others. Since Nick was planning on outflanking all of his Stealers, I gave him the first turn so that my reserves would arrive after his and pummel stealers with high-pressure jellified gasoline, but the dice gods had other plans.
Nick spent his first turn moving his monstrous creatures forward, sniffing about for anything digestible.
When it came time for him to roll his reserves, the only things that showed up were two lictors, one of which popped up next to the Hive Tyrant in the center, while the other arrived near his objective.
On my turn, however, nearly everything arrived, with no genestealers on the board to shoot at, which made me groan. So, I went for the old Drop Pod standby tactic of making a wall on my right flank that would hopefully slow the Genestealers down once they arrived. My Blood Claws roasted the Lictor, deprived of it usually lovely cover save, while The Dreadnaught and both Terminator units leaned into the Hive Tyrant, wounding it many times, but only being able to get past it’s 2+ armor save twice. In Nick’s deployment zone, my Wolf scouts showed up and shot a few pistols at the rear Carnifex, which only succeeded it getting the thing’s attention.
Again Nick’s reserve rolls were terrible, only the third Lictor and the Brood Lord and his retinue arrived, coming on the right side facing my wall of Pods. His lead carnifex charged my Dreadnaught, while his Hive Tyrant and newly arrived Lictor charged my Blood Claws. This is where the countercharge ability of the Space Wolves really shone. Even though he charged me, I still got all the extra attacks from charging, and both the Hive Tyrant and Lictor were wiped out after killing only three Blood Claws. Adding insult to injury, the Dreadnaught’s ability to re-roll the damage table saved it from going plewey, and it put two wounds on the bewildered Carnifex.
On my turn, I was ecstatic to finally have some genestealers to kill. My army favored flamer and bolter weapons, which are extremely poor against monstrous creatures. My terminators moved through the gaps in the Pods and opened up on the Broodlord and his retinue with Assault Cannons and Boltguns, as I was still too far away to use all but one of the combi-flamers. The first Terminator squad cut down six of the genestealers, but the second squad apparently forgot to reload their assault cannons, missing with all eight shots, and only killing one stealer with boltguns. Extended Carapace was really minimizing the amount of kills I was making. In the center the Blood Claws charged the wounded Carnifex fighting the Dreadnaught, killing it and consolidating forward towards Nick’s objective. The Wolf Scouts moved laterally, trying to stay away from the remaining Carnifex and Lictor until reinforcements could arrive.
This put me in a bad position, as I knew that thirty more Genestealers were on their way, and my two Terminator squads were now out in front of their Drop Pod Wall.
What occurred next during Nick’s turn was a series of highly important dice rolls that would either doom his genestealers or me depending on how they went. Twenty Genestealers arrived in outflank-Bad. Both Squads arrived on the right flank-Bad. Both rolled extremely high on their fleet of foot rolls-Very Bad. My Terminators were now in position to get charged by not only the Brood Lord and his remaining retinue, but twenty fresh and hungry stealers as well. Nick rolled his difficult terrain tests for the newly arrived stealer squads and rolled extremely low failing the charges-Very Good.
Biting off way more then it could chew, the Broodlord and his remaining three stealers charged both Terminator Squads, and with countercharge and some really lucky invulnerable rolls on my part, were wiped out to the man.
With a cheer, the two Terminator squads moved forward, positioning themselves for some truly magnificent combi-flamer shots against the genestealers. It was a great day to be a Widow.
After the smoke cleared, only four Genestealers remained.
My Grey Hunters and final Blood Claws squads arrived, and I landed them directly onto the two objectives. Emboldened by reinforcements, the Wolf Scouts moved up and flamed the final Lictor to death, while the Dreadnaught and Blood Claws moved up to take out the final Carnifex.
On Nick’s turn, the final Genestealer Squad arrived and this time there was no way for the Treminators to escape. It was probably over for the Elite warriors, but they had done their job. There was now no way for Nick’s final troop choice to get anywhere near the objectives before the game ended.
So, rather that try for a tactical victory, Nick opted for a moral victory, the remaning Carnifex going after the Venerable Dreadnaught that had so shamelessly slaughtered its brother. This time the Dreadnaught was not so lucky, the Carnifex tearing off its close combat weapon.
The final turn of the game consisted of the game consisted of the Blood Claws charging in to help the Dreadnaught, while the Terminators tried to hold out against the Genestealers. Although she survived every other battle that day, the Dreadnaught took a critical hit to the reactor and was destroyed in a violent explosion. Enraged, the Blood Claws finished off the Carnifex while the Terminators, in a remarkable display of good rolling, finished off the Genestealers.
Battle Points: Me-20 Him-3
When it came time for the awards ceremony, I really didn’t think I had a prayer at winning anything, so rather than go up to the podium, I went over to watch the really cool Warhammer Online Demo that they had playing on a plasma screen TV. Just as the Dark Elf and High Elf were fighting each other, which is wicked cool, I heard my name announced over the speakers, and so I walked over to the dias and was a little confused when they pulled me up there and handed me the trophy for third place overall.
They lead us off and took our pictures. As they were setting up, I remembered that in all the pictures of tournament winners I had seen on the
GW website, they were never really smiling all that big, and I realized that I didn’t want to look like that. I thought about making a big war face or screaming Waaagh, but then it occurred to me that everyone was looking at me and that this picture would be on the
GW website, and I wondered if I really wanted to appear that dorky. Just then the picture snapped and I realized that I had been so occupied with deciding what expression to use for my picture that I had missed the opportunity entirely. Sigh.
Once the results were posted I went over to figure out if they had made a mistake. While I had indeed lost my first game, I had maximum painting and sportsmanship scores, and since my second and third battles had been massacres, it had really shortened the gap between me and the leaders, whose painting and sports had been high but not maximum. I guess it goes to show you that you should never give up, never surrender.
CONCLUSION:
I had a lot of fun at Games Day and I learned a lot of things. For instance, I learned that Forgeworld Drop Pods look exactly like chunks of plastic explosives under airport scanners, and I was stopped and searched thoroughly both on my flight down to Games Day and on my return trip.
My youngest daughter, Natalie, found the trophy to be hard and tasteless, which I suppose puts everything into perspective at the end of the day.
Bretonnians 
