We had about 18 people show up, which is alright. It was 1750 points, and 3 rounds. Here's my quick re-cap of the event.
I played my Eldar, easily my favorite and go-to army. My army consisted of the following:
HQ-
Farseer-Doom, Guide, Spirit Stone, Runes of Witnessing,
Runes of Warding
Farseer-Doom, Guide, Spirit Stone, Runes of Witnessing
ELITES-
5 Fire Dragons
Wave
Serpent- Twin Linked Shuriken Cannons, Hull Mounted Shuriken Cannon, Spirit
Stones
TROOPS-
3 Guardian Jetbikes-Shuriken Cannon
10 Dire Avengers-Exarch, Bladestorm, Dual Catapults
Wave
Serpent-Twin Linked Bright Lances, Spirit Stone
10 Dire Avengers-Exarch, Bladestorm, Dual Catapults
Wave
Serpent-Twin Linked Bright Lances, Spirit Stone
FAST ATTACK-
2 Vypers-2 Shuriken Cannons, 2 Scatter Lasers
HEAVY SUPPORT
Night Spinner-Spirit Stone
Fire Prism-Spirit Stone, Holo Fields, Hull Mounted Shuriken
Cannon
Fire Prism-Spirit Stone, Holo Fields, Hull Mounted Shuriken
Cannon
-1750
Game 1 was capture and control, pitched battle. The board was arranged with a huge, stepped hill covering most of one quarter, a fairly large tower blocking LOS in the middle, some rocks and craters scattered around and a landing pad opposite the hill. I played against a Tau player with a list something like this:
Commander with 3 Battle Suits and 4 Drones
Commander with 3 Battle Suits and 4 Drones
12 Fire Warriors in a Devilfish w/Smart Missiles
12 Fire Warriors in a Devilfish w/Smart Missiles
20 Kroot, 8ish of which were Hounds
3 Broadsides and 2 Shield Drones
Hammerhead
Hammerhead
I ended up going second, which was fine with me, and put everything out but the 3 bikes. He held back the Kroot to outflank, and both groups of suits to drop in. I set up fairly poorly opposite my opponent who, being Tau, wisely took the side with the huge hill to give his broadsides excellent sight. He had LOS to several of my vehicles and turn one popped open the Dragons Wave Serpent and took off one Prism Cannon. Could have been worse. From there on out I rolled kinda crappy, not managing to do much of anything to his army. The Dragons took over one of the Avengers rides, heading up the hill towards things they'd like to blow up leaving the Avengers to sit in cover on an objective.
He made the mistake of splitting his army up, leaving the Broadsides, one Hammerhead, and one group of Fire Warriors at the peak of the hill, and the rest in the field below. This is what lost him the game, as I sent my whole army up the hill and fairly soundly beat up his forces there, despite my terrible rolling throughout.
The game ended up coming down to a tank shock into his objective contesting it, and him not making it to mine for an Eldar victory. I walked away with 17 out of a possible 20 points (14 for a win, bonuses were earned throughout the tourney for things like having an HQ at the boards center or killing your opponents most pricey unit). I have to say Tau in the right hands are still a dang scary army no matter what the internet says.
Game 2 was annihilation and spearhead. Out table had a smattering of rocks around, a few of which were big enough to hide a vehicle. I played against the guy who won the last tournament with his Chaos Marines. he had something like this:
Lord with lightning claw and combi melta
Great Deamon
5 Lesser Deamons
10 Marines on Foot
5 Havoks with 2 lascannons and a Rhino with havok launcher
5 Marines in a Rhino with a melta and fist
5 Marines in a Rhino with a plasma
3 Terminators with fists and a flamer
3 Terminators with combi meltas
3 Bikers with 2 meltas
3 Bikers with 2 meltas
1 Lonely, lonely obliterator
He went first and turbo boosted his bikes to either side to try and flank me, and managed to stun a prism. I responded by dooming both bike units and guiding both avenger squads, moving 12, disembarking, and doing roughly 20 wounds to each bike unit. 2 Kill Points. I then fired a Bright Lance into the lone Obliterator, vaporizing his face. 3 Kill Points. Some fire from the dragons serpent and the vypers exploded a rhino in his center and killed 4 out of the 5 Marines (!!!!!) inside. 4 Kill Points. With the only real threat to my vehicles being the 2 lascannons which I fairly quickly dispatched, turn 1 left me pretty much able to run the board and pick off what I wanted when I wanted to. Things got ugly fast.
My opponent quickly became discouraged but battled on, his dice abandoning him slight more with each step. I saw some of the most horrendous rolling ever from this poor man. By the end of the game he had his lord, 2 marines, and the havok rhino left compared to my...most of my army. Is was a sound thrashing. Supreme kudos to my opponent for laughing off his dice and riding through the game as a gentleman. Eldar victory, I believe I got 18 or 19 points out of 20.
Game 3 was a seize ground mission with dawn of war deployment-pretty good for my list. I was faced up against Black Templars with:
the Champ
3 Groups of Crusaders in Rhinos
8 Assault Terminators in a Land Raider Crusader
2 Individual Tyhpoon Speeders
Vindicator with PotMS
Our table wasn't very balanced, with big rock formations on one side and little cover on the other. My opponent went first, which I wanted. He selected the side with the rocks and drove all his vehicles on. On my turn one, I got lucky through the night fighting and wrecked the closest rhino that happened to be the one with the Champion in it. These guys would spend the game slogging to an objective and getting Night Spinner'ed every turn, which slowed them and nearly wiped them out. I got my Dragons in position to shoot up his Land Raider the next turn.
He proceeded to, as predicted, drive at me and shoot stuff. One unit of Crusaders disembarked and attempted to fire a melta at one of my Wave Serpents. I then proceeded to double-doomed-guided bladestorm them into mush. The speeders were a nuisance, but they only got to shoot once. It took me 3 turns of rolling damage results multiple times on both of them before they finally died. The Dragons made their move aaaaaand...Imobilized and Weapon Destroyed his Land Raider. 5 Melta Guns....sheesh. This left a gap between the nearest rock formation and the raider not quite wide enough for his Vindicator, effectively trapping it unless it spent 2 turns driving around things to maybe shoot once. I proceeded to ignore it for the remainder of the game, and it never shot its cannon. Unbelievably one Dragon survived his return fire, and still even after assault with melta bombs and another meltagun shot, didn't manage to destroy the Land Raider. Turns out this was ok though, as it was far enough away from the action.
As we aproached the late game I positioned my Prisms to make last turn tank shocks into his objectives and sat my scoring units on mine, juuuust out of Vindicator range. With a solid 24 inch move, the game ended in and Eldar victory. I believe I got 18 or 19 points again.
I ended up placing second overall which was great! Got a little swag out of it.
The only thing about the event that rubbed me the wrong way a little was the inclusion of a new sportsmanship system that Dave was trying out. Essentially each player picked the one person they played that they enjoyed the most, and gave them a point. This gave everyone a sportsmanship score somewhere between 0 and 3. I got a 0. I consider myself a fairly nice and mild mannered guy who is knowledgeable about the rules. I was a little surprised to get a fat 0... especially after the first game. You see, with 1:15 on the clock we had one turn left to play. This is not enough time for a turn. And I was winning. Buuut my opponent was adamant and wanted to enact his plan, so I said "sure but hurry". So he moved his transport towards the objective and started shooting. A moment later he says "oh shoot I forgot to disembark my troops that will need to run if they have any chance of scoring can I do that now?" Against my own best interest, as I was still winning, I said "go ahead". So he did. 15 minutes after we weren't supposed to be playing anymore, he didn't make it to the objective, I move 2 units and win the game in about 30 seconds.
Now maybe I'm biased, maybe I'm being silly. But...he played a game against a more forgiving opponent than that? Maybe he did; I didn't watch all his games or anything. Or maybe he was just mad because he lost. And then there's the second round against the Chaos player when we had plenty of time for a final turn which could have gotten me a few more bonus points and a tabling when I said we could end the game there (without calling it a concession).
Look don't get me wrong, I'm not being a nice guy to get prizes. I had a great day at the event and I still placed. But when the TO tells you that the deciding factor between first and second was the sportsmanship and the above mentioned is taken into account...something seems weird. I'm all for encorporating sportsmanship somehow, but this system seems like it needs a little work. Anyone agree?
So that's my recap. Hope ya'll enjoyed the read. And again, if you're ever in the area check out Your Hobby Place in Martinsburg WV.
I've got some projects in the pipe so hopefully I'll get those on here as well. Workin' on a weird janky Eldar list.
Thanks!
