[tinfoil]

A fun day down at Dean's place. I rode down with Patrick, Mike, and Cody -- and we met Brad down there as well. Jack stopped in, though he couldn't stay and play.

The tournament pulled a lot of players in -- 19, I believe. Armies spanned the gamut from barely assembled to fully painted. Lists of all kinds appeared, including multiple versions of Space Marines, Tyranids, Guard, and Tau, along with Space Wolves, CSM, a witchhunters army, Daemons (of course!).

Round One (Capture and Control) started with the organizer telling us to find an opponent and grab a table. After a moment's confusion, I found Bill,


... fielding a nicely painted Imperial Fist list
.

His army was mechanized, bristling with dakka (predator, vindicator, 2 dreads armed with pairs of twin-linked autocannons, devastators, lots of razorbacks....) Oh, and a librarian with null zone. Not the optimum matchup for my daemons, and Bill was an experienced and skilled tactician, so I was fighting to stay in the game from turn one. When, on that opening salvo, my Bloodthirster mis-happed and disappeared into the Warp as he tried to reach the battle, I figured I stood little chance. And indeed, Bill really punished my army, maintaining a wall of armor and raining firepower down on my daemons as they landed and struggled to close.

Fortunately, I was able to time a last thrust by my Fiends with a pair of late arrivals, boldly deepstruck into the Imperial Fists' back lines (the Nurgle prince and a pack of Plaguebearers, landing with only a few inches of wiggle-room to spare) to eke out a draw.

Bill was a great opponent.

Game two (Seize Ground) paired me with Jason:


A local guy and another experienced 40K player, Jason was running orks (Killer Kans, Bikes, a Looted Wagon filled with Burna Boyz -- and 5 Truk Mobs -- or was it 7? It sure felt like it!).


Jason cannily opted to keep his boyz in their trukks as long as possible, and when I failed to get my preferred wave (into which I had loaded my armor-cracking units), I was forced to play conservatively for a turn or two. We spent a few rounds dancing around each other.

Jason played this stage of the game very well, lining things up and timing his move so that everything hit me at once:

My Bloodcrushers, Bloodthirster, and one of my Daemon Princes all fell this round, buried under waves of Boyz. Subsequent counterassaults with my (now defanged) surviving army failed to swing things back in my favor.

So, a loss. But another fun game, regardless. Where were all these unpainted armies and inexperienced opponents I had heard about?

Round 3 (Annihilation) matched me up against Ian,

Ian was a younger player, still learning the game and only beginning to paint his 'Nids (Flyrant, Dakkafex, Doom, Trygon, Broodlord and Stealers, 2 Zoes, 2 hormagaunt packs, a pack of termagaunts). But actually, Ian was a pretty good opponent too. Though he had never played against daemons before, he knew the rules and his own army very well, and showed a pretty keen grasp of tactics. I ended up claiming a lot more kill points than he did, but the game itself felt much closer in terms of controlling the field and dictating the terms of battle.


So, a draw, a loss, and a victory. And three fun games, three fun opponents. All in all, a great trip. Dean is really pulling things together very nicely down there.

Congrats to Brad, who claimed first place (with an Ork army that death-rolla'ed and planked a wide swathe through opponents).

edit: found and added another picture
_________________
The Harrowed. My Army Blog

"the closest thing we have to a nice guy is that asshole fred."
-Bruce of Bruce

"Oh, look at me! I have a bowling shirt on!!! I'm in a little toy club!!!"
-Exokan

[DAPatrick]

I played the guy you played second first.

He was awesome and had a beautiful ork army. Really enjoyable guy to play against we drew after calling it in the 5th. One more turn and I could have potentially won.

Second game I also played a great opponent, but the day begain to fall apart as I spent a whole round of shooting (including 10 plasma gun shots and 3 twin linked melta gun shots, battle cannon lascannon and several multi-las shots) at one Sisters of battle rhino that *had* to die as it ws 6" away from the juicy parts of my army. I only managed to shake it and the day was over for me. Great opponent. Wish I could have played a bit better for him.

Third ame I played a massive blob squad in a kill points mission. A kid who really didn't know what he was doing, but still managed to pull out a win against me.

An all in all poor day for the buttfuckers, but 2 great opponents and 1 good opponent really made the losing bearable.

Oh and Harker sucks - too many points for a unit that is really easily killed.

[tinfoil]

That's right, I really should have mentioned that Jason's Ork army was really nicely modeled -- with great truck and killa kan conversions. He was a great opponent.
_________________
The Harrowed. My Army Blog

"the closest thing we have to a nice guy is that asshole fred."
-Bruce of Bruce

"Oh, look at me! I have a bowling shirt on!!! I'm in a little toy club!!!"
-Exokan

[SterlingSylver]

Fred, I played your first opponent at the 1250 tournament I went to. Very nice guy. Glad to hear that you're all still meeting quality players down there.