This is going to be a bit of a long post so for those who don't have time: I took second and won best painted again, and with my winnging picked up these.
The Event
18 players, so we didn't hit the player cap which was cool. I'm not going to remember the exact make up but I think it was like this: 3 Templar (no kidding), 3 Tyranid, 2 Chaos (both Nurgle I think), 2 Space Wolves, 1 ork, 1 dark eldar, 1 eldar, and 5 various marines.
So we went from 50% IG to, what, freakn 0? Crazy. But I like that the players change it up and you really don't have a clue what is going to show up each event.
Each round was 2 hours, had different deployment but all the same scoring. We played the growing in popularity '3 x 5' game. How it works is there are 3 objective, one in the center and one placed by each player not within 12" of the other objective or board edge. Then you choose 5 'kill points' in you enemies army that you try to kill, and he does likewise. Objective are 10 points (only scored with troops still), 0 for contesting, 3 points for killpoint, and a bonus 5 for killing all of them. A total of 50 killpoints.
We had a brief chat before the tournament started with the TO. I brought up the questions about tabling an opponent. The challenge that we see with this system is if you table an opponent and have 0 troops left should you get all 50 points? Most 'wins' in this system are probably in the 30ish points. To just table and get 50 is .. eh, I guess a good question. What was ruled was that you would have 1 turn (given that it existed by the rules) to try to take objectives. Everyone seemed to think that was fair and we were off to the races.
Game 1: Peter's Tyranids, Dawn of War
I'd played Peter's Nurgle with my orks before and he is a hell of a nice guy. This would be my first game with the new bugs so I was eager and scared. His list looked something like:
Tyranid Prime
4x Shooty Warriors
3 Hive gaurd (shooty)
2x18ish Gaunt small bugs
Tervigon
2 Zoanthropes is Spore
18ish Gargoyles
Mawloc
Trygon
I choose to kill his Zoes, Prime, 2 Gaunts, and Tervigon. He chooses my 3 speeders and 2 drop pods.
I barely remember this game already. I know I spend a lot of time shooting at his Gargoyles and I was even at the time wondering why was I even bothering. I had one speeder scatter into his guys but the roll went back to reserves, and most of the rest of my deployment was not bad. I rolled some amazing cover saves against his Mawloc coming up on my troops in cover. The zoes shot horribly. The tervigon only generated 13 gaunts but crapped out on doubles. That probably helped me a lot.
In the end I took 2 objectives, killed his Zoes, Tervigon (go Marshal) and one Gaunt squad. He had one objective and killed 2 pods and one speeder. Time was effectively out at the bottom 5 so we just called it with like a minute on the clock at 29 to 19.
I had killed his Trygon and his Mawloc only had one wound by the end of the game. I should have definately chosen to kill them as I HAD to deal with them, while the gaunts and the Tervigon were harder to actually get to in the game. I couldn't even approach his warriors, hive gaurd, or prime as they were behind walls of small bugs. I should have also chose the Spore pod. Alas, I was satisfied how it ended up in the end.
Game 1: Michael's Tyranids, Spearhead
So here we are game 2, and I'm playing Michael again (who I played in round 2 last time) with another bug list. Are you frak'n kidding me? I now am terrified I'm going to play a 3rd bug list in game 3. Michael is an excellent general and his list looked something like:
2 Winged Tyrants with Nasty Nasty (trademark)
5 Non shooty Warriors in Pod
2 Zoanthropes in Pod
2x24 small bugs (with poison and the reroll 1s thing)
Trygon
Michael confides that he thought of me when he made the list. I don't know if that was a 'I will pwn you' or the fact that basically the whole list was designed for turn 2 deepstriking/reserve hell. He wins roll off and makes me go first.
I chose this time around both Tyrants (thinking I WILL have to deal with them), his Zoes and their spore, and one gaunt squad. He chooses all 5 pods.
I deploy my speeders since there are boatloads of building to hide behind (and why risk scattering) and he deepstrikes/reserves everything.
I scoot around turn 1.
Turn 2 I roll for my 5 Pods, and perhalps by the blessing of the Emperor NOTHING COMES IN for me. Hallelujah.
Turn 2 everything comes in for Michael (thanks to a 2+ reserve rule) except one Hive tryant.
Again the game is a blur but here were some highlights.
Deathwinds (plural) > Guants in the open
I need to take Extra Armor on the Dread (for 5 points, yes please)
Nasty Nasty Hive Tyrant with the 'you are now WS 1 for a while' is boo boo. My Uber Marshal still managed to kill him, but died to the Trygon later.
Warriors w 3 Wounds are nasty, but enough Melta and HF action is still bad for them.
In the end I tabled him in turn 6, but it was really much closer than that sounds. His Trygon got an excellent move through cover roll and was able to clear off one of my troops on an objective which hurt. I only had 2 other crusader holding in absolute terror another objective. I additionally had left two pods, and immobilized dread, the EC soloing it and two speeders. In the end I got 30 points (all kp, 1 objective) and he got 9 for kp I think.
There was only rule bit which I let slide which I think is correct (because it mattered little). He had a warrior and a bunch of gaunts in combat with a group of marines. I killed something like 7 gaunts and he killed 1 marine. Should both his fearless warriors and gaunts taken saves? He said no, so his gaunts did and died off, leaving his 1 Warrior who promptly died the next round. However I think it is all units have to take the LD/saves with the modifiers. In fact I just looked up the rule, page 41 of the Big Rule Book under Assault Results for Multiple Combats section:
"When determining assault results in multiple combat, total up the number of wounds inflicted by each side to see which side is the winner. Every unit on the losing side has to check their Morale (they all use the same penalty as described in the Moral section)."
So there you go, warrior should have taken 6 4+ saves. Again it mattered little and I didn't really want to become captain rules lawyer in a game that was pretty much going my way.
Also slightly hilarious that I tabled someone after being concerned how that could skew the points if I had been given the full 50 points, hehe.
In retrospect (and not that it mattered) I will always chose the spores with this army since it is not hard to kill with Meltas for this type of mission (though I honestly missed the fact he had a second). I also should have kept my speeders out of the center as he would have had to really go out of his way to get them when he deep struck into play.
Later I walked up to Michael chatting with some guys and he said he was just comenting about my deployment. Michael said he thought I would be 'safe' and try to turtle around 'my' objective and we would kind of duke it out in the middle. Instead I went full bore on his back line and took some (his words) crazy risks that ended up paying off for me (ok maybe not his exact words but in that vein). I said I just thought that would be more fun because if it works it's epic, and if it fails oh well, there's still a great story in there. Michael's a gentleman and a great challenge and I hope we get to play each other again in the future.
Game 3: Bill's Black Templar, Long Table Edge
Bill came to us from up North to check out the store with his Dark Eldar friend. This was a matchup I had not expected in the slightest since I have really yet to see another real Templar player (and of course there was 3 of us). Bill brought a list that also had me wonder what the hell I would do.
Emperors Champ, AACNMTO
Marshal, Twin Lightning Claws (I assume Iron Halo also)
10 Neos/10 Initiaties Fist/Melta
10 Neos/10 Initiates Fist/Melta
8 Assault temires in LRC
Lots of guys, not a lot of units. I basically choose not his Champ, and he chooses my 4 crusader squads and the dread (I think).
I'm looking at his force. There is not a lot there. The big squads are scary because he's bigger and ergo better in CC and I can't do a ton with my abundance of meltas. I lack a lot of heavy (ie plasma, demolisher cannong) shooting that would be great against these big mobs His Termies are terrifying. I'm not sure my list is built to deal with this and realize my only hope is a bit of startegy, and a healthy dose of good fortune.
I win the roll off and make him go first. He puts everything in reserve.
Turn 1 nothing happens.
Turn 2 he gets his Champ squad. They move up on the board and get a 1 for run.
My turn 2 I pull everything but the champ and the dread. I position my pods so that I'm basically creating a wall between him and my troops and all 3 objectives. There are buildings in between with very small gaps to get through. My deathwinds go bananas, and I think I must have killed 8 or 9 guys. The rest of my squads pull back with their run, excpet for 1 which I foolishy left closer thinking cover would help them. A few turns later they would be creamed by assaulting Terminators our of the LRC.
However the rest of game is a blur as the turns went fast.
His Marshal squad did kill one guy in my marshal squad. I pass LD, and chose not to move forward. Oddly Bill isn't too sure about that rule, and now I feel horrible because I assumed he would play it the way we always do because it is incredibly helpful for Templar.
I MUST make a consolidation toward the closest enemy following the rules of the consolidation for massacre.
The Consolodation rules now state that you MAY move D6 inches. Not MUST move, MAY move. So everyone can choose to move toward the closest enemy or move .00001 inches.
Unfortunatley he was counting on me moving up so he could charge. As I explained the rule I said 'look I roll my consolidation' and rolled a two and explained I MAY move up that distaince but chose not to do so. I'm not sure if two inches would have let him assault me anyway. Some guys in his 3rd row were unable to shoot me, so his closest guys were maybe 9 inches away. The 2 would have kept me at distance, but all the same the whole thing would soon lead to boo boo for Bill, and I regret that might have happened over a rule question. The next turn he blew a LD 10 save with his Marshal and they barely fell off the table (thought to be fair I was close enough to route him in his turn anyway).
The rest of the game was a lot of slogging and not much meat. My EC squad got brave and went diving into his termies, but I only had the EC and the fist left up against 2 LC and 1 hammer after that so that was going to go bad is the game continued. However the game ended after 5 so we never got resoltion to the epic assault.
In the end I had two squads securing objective and we were contesting the 3rd. He had about 10ish marines with his EC that would have either been able to secure that 3rd objective killing off my EC and fist if the termies didn't manage somehow) or challenge my 2nd objective had the game gone on more turns. His termies where near dead (EC would probably have killed them mostly off) and his LRC was immobilized facing a non helpful direction. I think he would have easily taken that 3rd objective safely if the game had gone on and he played safe. Had he gone after my Marshals squad he might have contested instead, but I think my Marshal > Emperor's Champ and that could have worked out even better for me point wise. However as it stood in the end I took 26 points to his 3 points.
Bill was really nice and very gracisous about the rules in question (there was a second LOS question he did not deliberate after my explanation of his lack of LRC cover from his terminators vs a speeder MM) and when he had some really shit luck in the game (in particular the LD roll). He has 4 LRC in his army bag, and I hope he comes back down at 1850 and jams those down people's throats in the glory of the Emperor's name. :)
In the end I think the final breakdown was:
Jeff's Eldar 109 points. He got 40 points 2 games which are huge wins in this mission.
I got, if I'm not mistaken 85 points. Well behind Jeff, even if I had collect 50 for tabling so I'm glad I didn't.
Then Kevin's (I think is is name) Bugs (who I didn't play) had I think 83 points after being 'raped' by Jeff in game 3.
I'm willing to bet there were a number of players right on our heels as well.
I also won painting again which is really an honor. There were still not a lot of complete armies but there were a few and I thought they gave me a run for the money. Jeff was kind to say that mine should win becuase of how hard the white is to do and I think most people are excited about the pods. Either way it is very kind to be given that award again.
So $50 for 2nd this time, $25 for paint. Another $20 out of pocked (not to mention the $10 for the tournament) and I've got my 6th pod (sigh) and a second Battlewagon which I'd been thinking of getting 'at some point.' Since I don't need anything else I figured why not.
I had fun, and I hope everyone else did too. Templar podding is really exciting to play and I think I'll try one more tournament before giving a go with one of my other armies. After all I've still ONLY plaid IG, bugs, and Templar across 6 games.
