Ok sorry for the delay, I've been a zombie since the tournament.
Patriot Games 2010 Report
This previous weekend I had the pleasure of getting away for the weekend. My destination was Fayetteville, Arkansas and the 2010 Patriot Games Indy
GT (a 2 day, 5 game tournament with players from Kansas to Georgia (and a few from Texas)).
I drove up with two other Dakkaites (Dartorn and Bishop99). We made great time and got to the tourney at 8am on the dot.
My List (Salamanders)
HQs: Vulkan and bare bones Librarian
Elites: Thunder-termies and
LR
Troops: 3 Tactical Squads in Rhinos and a sniper-scout squad
Fast Attack: 2x
MM/
HF Landspeeders
Heavy Support: 2x Dakka Predators
So we checked in and got our packets. Dennis (the
TO) has made it a point to make players feel really welcome to his events. Like at Sooie we received a nice spiral-bound packet with our list and plenty of info regarding the tournament and players, a name tag with our army and location, and a nice shirt (thanks T-Shirt Explosion). As I’m walking around I run into littleboyblues of intraweb fame. He had his beautiful marine army in one hand and a Killian’s Irish Red in the other. I should have suspected something at 8am, but hey it’s expected from this crowd.
Game 1:
Opponent: Chris Sherry (sorry if I spelled his name wrong) and his Orks
His army: Ghazghull and a Big Mek (w/
KFF), 2 units of boyz, 1 unit of shoota boyz (all 3 in Battlewagons), 1 unit of Nobs (in a BW), a unit of Grots, and 2 units of Lootas.
Scenario: Pitched Battle and Annihilation
The Game: He deploys all 4 of the Battlewagons within inches of each other on one flank. The other Flank has the Grots shielding the Lootas. I pop the Nobz BW early and they have to hoof it. The Preds spend the game picking off the Nobz. One Speeder gets popped early, the other one ends up killing around 8 Lootas and a handful of Grots. Vulkan and the Termies immobilize one BW, finish off the Nobs, but get charged by Ghazghul and his unit of Boyz (and eventually get killed off). Top of the 4th Chris declares that Ghazghul will use his Waagh. This ends up saving him the game. He passes all of his saves from Vulkan and kills Vulkan in return. Two squads that most likely would have failed their Morale tests stayed in place because of being Fearless from Ghazgul. I had been keeping track of
KPs, but not breaking those two units decided the game. We called the game at the end of 4 because of time.
Result: Draw, but I feel one more turn would have seen me gain at least two more
KPs and the win, but oh well)
This was a great game. Chris was a nice guy to play against and I think he had some solid moves. He made some questionable decisions (like going after my unit of scouts and not being more aggressive with the Big Guy), but I would gladly play him again if given the opportunity.
Lunch Break: We got some burgers at the hotel’s Restaurant. The second I walk in one of the Arkansas boys offers me a beer. I gladly accept and the drinking commences…
Game 2:
Opponent: Alex Luntz and an intimidating looking Nid army
His army: Hive Tyrant (w/Guard), 2x Tervigons, 2x Trygons, 2-3 units of hormagaunts, 2 units of Hive Guard, and a unit of Genestealers.
Scenario: Table Quarters with an Objective in middle of our own deployment zone
The Game: Really too much to go over in detail, but at one point in the game he had maxed out on Hormagaunts (64 or so). I had kept the
LR (with Termies and
HQs) in Reserve. I got them in time to come in and clean out some Gaunts. In one round of combat I killed both Trygons with the Termies. The next round saw the first Tervigon meet his end with a hammer to the face, and the round after I killed his hive tyrant. We called the game at the end of 4 (because of time), but Alex had contested my objective and still had his own. I tried to contest his with my Landspeeders, but he shot them out of the air before I had a chance to. I wish I would have outflanked my scouts and reserved a Tactical Squad to take his objective, but with all of the Gaunts and units in his deployment zone I most likely wouldn’t have succeeded.
Result: Loss, but If we had gone on to Turn 5 I’m not sure what would have happened. I still had a tactical squad that could have thinned out the unit he had on my objective and Vulkan and his last Termie buddy would have waded into combat. My
LR was still functioning as well. I should have create a Rhino wall and whittled down the gaunts from range. Combat Squading would have been a good idea as well.
Another great game and Alex was a great guy. He kept his cool the whole game and was very cordial. At this point in the tournament we found out that the Air Conditioning was broken and would not be repaired. I like to think that our sweat wasn’t just from the lack of
AC, it was an intense and bloody game.
Game 3:
Opponent: Ben Floyd and his Space Wolves
His Army: A Rune Priest and another guy, 4 Grey Hunter Squads (3 Rhinos and 1 Drop Pod), 1 Bloodclaw Squad (in
LR Redeemer), and 2 Dreads in Drop Pods.
Scenario: Dawn of War, at the end your first turn place 2 objectives (normal restrictions) in your own deployment zone. To win you must have scoring units on your opponent’s objectives. It doesn’t matter if you control your own objectives (though contesting them is still important).
The Game:
This game was a bloody affair. I lost two tactical squads attempting to protect one of my objectives. My 3rd tactical squad was destroyed by the Bloodclaws and character. Termies had an epic track across the board. After disembarking from the
LR they took 3 rounds of shooting before getting into
hth (one termie was left). The last turn saw the last Termie getting killed in
hth, but Vulkan going on to wound his Rune Priest (whose Psychic Power was a major thorn in my side). He had a drop pod land near my other objective. Top of five he started within 3” of my objective, but he was worried about my lone tank on that side of the board (an immobilized Dakka Pred within 7” of the objective). He pulls the squad away from the objective to kill the Pred (which he fails to do). At the end of turn 5 I roll for Random Game Length and I manage to roll a One which ends the game.
Result: Draw. If Ben had kept the unit on the objective he would have won 1-0, but since none of us controlled the other’s objectives it forced the draw. He had units within at least 8” of each objective and I had no scoring units left (other than my Scouts who might have been able to reach an objective on Turn 7) so we knew that another turn would have resulted in him winning, but hey you got to play the objectives.
Ben was a fun guy to play against. I didn’t mind the draw, but I could tell that he was kicking himself for pulling the unit off the objective. Ben is moving back to Little Rock soon so I may get to play him sometime in the next year.
End of games on Day 1. The lack of
AC was hitting several of the guys pretty hard. I mean it’s hard enough to get through 3 games under normal circumstances, but that addition of heat, room-wide BO, and free beer made the evening rather uneventful.
After freshening up for a few minutes we went to a local place for Pizza and Beer. A pitcher and pie later, we basically called it a night. After an afternoon/evening of drinking I was having a great time. Keith had to keep me from correcting a Bar Fly on who sang the Shaft theme song (he said Barry White was singing it). For some reason he didn’t want to get into a bar fight.
Day 2:
Game 4:
Opponent: Keith Taylor (aka Bishop99) and his BAs
His Army: The Sanguinar and Dante(w/ Honor Guard), 1 Full Tactical Squad, 2 full Assault Squads, 1 Unit of Sanguinary Guard, and 1 Vindicator
Scenario: Pitched Battle and King of the Hill, an objective is placed in the middle of the table. At the end of each turn whoever controls the objective gets a counter. At the end of the game whoever has the most objective tokens wins.
The Game: I’ve played Keith before so I was familiar with his army and his play-style. This was another bloody game, but it basically came down to me landing on the objective on my first turn and just collecting points. He put all of his Jump Troops in Reserve so that they could Deep Strike. When his Sanginuary Guard came in I killed all of them off with a Vortex of doom. Killed 4 of his 5 Honor guard with another Vortex of Doom. Once the Sanquinar and Dante came into play the game was basically decided. Due to Random Game Length the game ended at the end of Turn 5. If the game would have went on to Turn 6 then Keith would have forced a Draw, Turn 7 he would have won.
Result: My only win for the weekend. We both agreed that another turn would have changed the game, but I think that if he had deployed his jump troops on the field to begin with he would have contested the battle earlier on and eventually won just by having his characters in
hth.
Game 5:
Opponent: Jennifer Hill and her Sisters of Battle
Her Army: 3 big squads of Battle Sisters, Celestian and Retinue (whom I am still cursing), Inquisitor and Retinue, Dominion squad, Seraphim Squad, 2x Exorcist Tanks
Scenario: Table Quarters and
KPs (only Scoring Units count as
KPs).
The Game: I will admit that I underestimated the SOB. I generally play against Marines, Chaos, and Orks. SOB play a lot differently than the armies I typically play and I would say that the main thing that cost me this game (besides my poor tactics) was underestimating the Acts of Faith. I don’t remember the one that continually killed my armor was the
AP 1 on rolls of 6s. Her three big Sister squads used this to great effect whittling down my units. I had tried to drive Vulkan and the boys right up the middle and they did an admirable job of surviving two rounds of nasty shooting, but ultimately getting some melta right in the face. Her Seraphim squad was fantastic. At the end of the game it had accounted for killing 2 Thunder-termies, at least 7 Tactical Marines, and my Scout Squad. I really dislike Hit-and-Run now.
Result: Loss. I think I should have Outflanked my Scouts (thus maybe popping her Exorcist tanks) and relied on my Ranged shooting. Since I moved a couple of my units up I had moved into range of her bolters and Exorcist tanks and was not taking advantage of cover.
Jennifer was a great opponent. She really knew her army and played it well. When the game was in her favor (and we both knew it) she still played for the win instead of slacking off. I can tell that she is very patient with the “OMG Gamer Girl” crowd. One of the guys playing next to us came over and was asking about her army in the middle of our game. He then proceeds to tell an Imperium/Shopping joke (I wish I was joking). She just moves her hand over her head and says, “you better aim lower, I didn’t get it”. I thought I was going to lose it when she said that. We both rolled our eyes and kept going.
Final Results for the Weekend: I ended up 1-2-2. Lately I have played more
40k than I have in years, but I haven’t played in a
40k tourney like this since late 3rd Edition. Alex my opponent from Round 2 came in 3rd, Jennifer from Round 2 came in 9th, so I didn’t mind losing to either of them. I ended up 18th out of 30 (which is better than my usual Fantasy results). I got full points on painting, Full points on Sportsmanship (and a couple of bonus points) had I got another bonus point I would have won Best Sportsmanship, but oh well next year. Overall it was a great event. The biggest distraction was the lack of
AC, but that just made us want beer even more. I will definitely be back next year.
Jeremy Yates ended up winning overall (3rd year in a row
) with his Traitor Mech Guard.
