Gaming, Etc Tournament, Stratford CT

My first tournament with the Baron! Many of my Ordo brothers and I took the arduous 1 hour journey to Stratford on Sunday to play in their 1750 tournament. There were about 20 people playing (I think it was 10 tables?), and 8 of us were from Ordo! Awesome!

The day started very early for me, after a late night. My son's football team had to meet to get on the bus at 6:30am, so we got up at 5:45 for breakfast, football gear check, and bus. From there I drove from Bethel to Brewster to grab up Brian, and back to Danbury to meet up at Rodrigo's for carpool to Stratford. The night before, I went to bed nice and early (9pm), but the wife woke me up for to fight a little (a daily occurrence...) at about 11pm, and not back to sleep until after 1!

So by the time the first game started (10ish), I'd been on the go for over 4 hours on only a few hours sleep, and was so wired on coffee I couldn't move any models without knocking over 10 others. I was terrified I was going to break some one's toys!

I was using my Dark Eldar, with just a few things dropped off my 2k list I've been building:

Baron Sathonyx
Haemonculus (Venom Blade, Liquifier Gun)

17 Hellions (Helliarch; Agonizer)
Three units of 5 Warriors (Blaster) in Venom with xtra Splinter Cannon
3 Wracks in a Venom with xtra Splinter Cannon

Three units of 6 Reavers each with 2 Heat Lances
and Three Ravagers with Dark Lances and Flickerfields.
It's interesting...a blog I read just had a discussion about the luck of the first pairing in a tournament. The second and third games pairings are typically done by the results of the preceding games, but that first pairing...it's so random, and so important! I mean, if you get paired up against that army that you have trouble with and blows your doors off, you're playing catch-up the rest of the day! But if you get the soft stuff (I mean no disrespect to anyone I've ever played in the first round of a tournament!) then you're a leg-up!

So as I'm downing my 7th cup of coffee and struggling to get my Hellions and Reavers on their flying stands (which I'm developing a very unpleasant relationship with, by the way), I look around. I knew what the Ordo brothers were bringing...Draigo-cheese; a couple (very different) Space Wolf builds; Orks; CSM; Ultramarines; Eldrad/Yriel Eldar....but looking at the others, there were several Blood Angel foot (DoA) armies; a couple Space Wolves; one mech IG; a purifier/strike GK army; a couple Orks (neither with 3 Battlewagons); Eldar...the only thing I saw that looked really serious for me was the mech IG...not only was it the ubiquitous solid IG list, but it was well painted and based, which meant to me that he was a player used to competitive play.

So of course, my first game is against Frank and his IG!

Why couldn't I get the CSM guy? :)

Game One IMPERIAL GUARD

Well, I looked at what Frank had on his tray, and was very concerned. I mean, this is perfect storm stuff for me...the list I abhor (no offense to anyone!) to play against, and have the hardest time dealing with:

CCS (I believe he had an Astropath in here) - Chimera w/ Hvy Flamer
PBS - Chimera w/ Hvy Flamer

3 Vet Squads (all Plasma Guns, I believe) - Chimeras w/ Hvy Flamers
2 Vet Squads (Meltas)
2 Vendettas
2 LRBT (the "normal" ones) w/ Hvy Flamers
and a Manticore, also w/ Hvy Flamer

The bulk of my AT ability comes from Reavers and Hellions, that have to get up close and personal, and take flamers to the face. Sigh.

I must confess, I felt a bit of despair as we were reading the scenario. C&C primary; secondary was to pick one enemy unit, extra points provided for that; tertiary was to have a unit within 12" of center, with opponent not having any. C&C vs. all those vehicles...how can I even get in there to contest, I'm thinking? Deployment, though...Dawn of War. A glimmer of hope for me...that's my favorite deployment type. One way or another, it saves me a turn of getting shot!

So we roll for first, I win the roll, and decide to go first. I gave it no thought, I just went on caffeine and sleep-deprived instinct. I put my objective in my left corner behind a hill, he put his objective in the opposite corner (my right) behind a bigger hill. Great...the ideal place for him to castle up, I thought. :(

His turn 1 movment...driving the armor on to the table!

For Drug I rolled the free Pain Point. Not my favorite, but workable. I deployed the Hellions front and center, all behind a large bridge that would likely block LOS, at least give good cover. We'd decided it was impassable unless driving up the ramp, but the jump troops had no trouble flying up there. This put them left of center, far from his objective. I'd hoped this would motivate him to send some guys after the Hellions instead of going in to his castle. He deployed nothing, everything driving on turn 1.

On my first turn, the Hellions flew up to the top of the bridge, leaving a tail for the Baron to hang on to. The Warrior Venoms flew on to my right, ducking behind some Orky Huts to claim cover saves from any shooting that saw them through the morning gloom. Two of the Ravagers hid behind some silos, while the third went far back near my objective where I thought he'd be too far for first turn night-fight shooting, but be able to move in to range of where I thought his castle would be. The Reavers all flew up almost max 36". I'd hoped to keep them far enough back that they'd not be in Hvy Flamer range, but close enough to be able to threaten things no matter where they moved on. The Wracks' Venom came on empty. The Wracks walked on with the Baron, who took their Pain Point and caught on to the Hellions' tail, while the Wracks got in their Venom. The Haemonculus walked on and got in the Venom with them.

His Turn 1 still, starting to shoot.

 On his turn 1, he brought on the LRBT and Manticore behind the hill near his objectives, then the Chimeras drove on front and center...from my left to right were Vets, CCS, PBS, Vets, Vets. All were far from his objective, and all in front of my bikes and Hellions. Interesting! The Vendettas each went 12" up a flank, with their shooting doing nothing. He shot two Chimeras at the Reavers on my left, killing only 1 thanks to the 3+ cover save from Multi-laser fire. He then made a minor mistake, doing something out of order, I think...he used the PBS on them to drop their Ld, but they hadn't taken enough saves to cause a Morale test yet. His other shooting at that squad caused no casualties, so the PBS was wasted on this crucial turn. I think he should have waited until he'd killed enough of a squad to force a Morale test, then used the PBS. He fired flamers at the middle Reavers, catching 2 with the first shot and 1 with the second...I guess I moved up a bit too far. Sloppy! But with FNP, they only lost 1. The right-most Reavers, however, were on a hill. One of those wonderful GW hills where the models can't stand up because the slope is too great and the debris makes everything fall over. Because of the hill, I left them far too clumped up, and they were an inviting LRBT target. Two shots, both shots rolling Hits on the Scatters, and 4 Reavers died total, despite the 3+ cover. The two HL guys failed their Morale, and zipped off to the webway. Bastards. I could have used those Heat Lances! Still, not a horrible first turn, with a lot of stuff still in his face ready to rock.

My turn 2...Charge!

The Hellions lept forward, with their sites set on the three left Chimeras. I made the PBS a priority...I didn't want to have to deal with those things the whole game. I'd need a good run move to get the Hellions in to their PBS, but taking down the two left Chimeras would be OK too. I was really happy to have opportunity to stuff him up against the board edge, where I thought the troops would be unable to get out. The left Reavers moved to shoot at and assault the PBS Chimera. The other Reavers moved to shoot at the PBS Chimera if it didn't die, or a Vet Chimera if it did. The Venoms on my right moved in to blaster range to shoot at the right Vendetta, the Ravagers behind the silo moving to shoot at Vendetta or LRBT as needed, while the Left Ravager moved towards center table to do the same. The Wracks zipped away from that left Vendetta.

The first Reavers shots at the PBS Chimera were ineffective, so the back-up guys picked up the slack, and Exploded it! Most of the psykers died in the explosion. In assault, only the left Reavers made it thru the crater, the others being a bit short...leaving them standing there in front of two angry Chimeras full of pissed-off vets. The Blasters and Ravagers did nothing more than Shake both Vendettas, and the Venoms had nothing to shoot at yet.

In Assault, the Hellions got many glances and pens on both vehicles, but couldn't manage better than immobilizing, stunning, shaking, and taking a weapon off each tank. I foolishly chose the Hvy Flamer from both...I knew they were immobile, and I knew I wasn't going to stay there on my next turn...should have taken them out of the game by killing the ML...sigh. The Reavers nearly failed vs. the PBS...I believe I killed none, he killed one, and I barely passed with a 7. Yikes!

Mt. Dew, save me! My turn 2, backfield lurking.

On his turn two he moved the LRBT to either flame-down the unengaged Reavers, or blast at the Hellions. The unengaged Chimeras backed away a bit. The right Vendetta didn't move (he forgot it? thought it was stunned? I really don't know), and the left moved up a bit past half-way, threatening my uncovered left flank.

The Chimera and passengers unloaded on the poor Reavers, who died in a pile of plasma and heavy-flamer roasted goo. The LRBT rolled two hits, killing a bit over half of the Hellions. The Manticore fired at one of the Venoms, rolling another hit on the first shot, getting 2 others, one of which scattered right on to a second Venom, the other nicking the primary target. One of the Venoms passed it's Flickerfield, but the other failed and was Destroyed, the squad losing one guy and passing pinning.

The all-important Hellions morale test....an 8! They stay for another turn!

In Assault the Reavers killed the PBS and consolidated out of the crater.

My turn three...the Hellions move to assault the two remaining Chimeras. The Reaver moves to get an LRBT. All three Ravagers shift to focus fire on the Vendetta coming down my left, while one of the two remaining Warrior Venoms shifts left such that the Venom could fire at troops anywhere while the blaster get hit the right Vendetta. The Wrack Venom moves nearer my objective, where I was hoping the Liquifier Gun might have some use on my turn 4.

In Shooting, the first Ravager did nothing to the Vendetta. The second Ravager did nothing to the Vendetta. The final Ravager got one hit, one pen, explode! 4 of the Veterans died in the explosion, 4 more were killed by Venom fire, the last two failed morale and left. The Reavers immobilized and stunned an LRBT. Blaster fire shook the right Vendetta.

In Assault, the Hellions immobilized both Chimeras, took Flamers off both (again), and one was shaken.

Turns out there was room to disembark!

His turn three. The Right Vendetta moved Flat Out to mid-field. The CCS and a Vet squad disembarked; I think both lost a few models because they couldn't fit. The CCS tried to move through the PBS crater, but failed with a 2, leaving them too far to assault the Hellions (more's the pity...I would have loved if they had made it!); the Veterans began the long journey across the table to get to my objective.

I must confess at this point I was a complete zombie. I was so pumped from caffeine, realizing I had a chance at a win on objectives, and lack of sleep that I forgot to do any more photos, and honestly am a bit fuzzy on gameplay details.

He shot up the last Reaver squad with the passengers from the un-shaken Chimera, doing lots wounds to 4 guys, some from plasma and some from lasgun. I decided I needed them to live and soak up fire, so they went to ground...being behind the Hellions, and with FNP, I thought they'd be pretty hard to kill. Sadly I didn't differentiate which of the wounds was the plasma (2 I think). I mindlessly removed the 3 models for the three failed saves, without opportunity for FNP from the lasguns. I basically flubbed the whole thing....with allocation there would have been only 1 guy taking plasma wounds, and the others would have had FNP. Instead I lost three of the 4 models, including both Heat Lances. Fail. The last guy did manage to survive long enough to attract all the firing from the two Multi-Lasers on the left chimeras (the ones I should have left with only Hvy Flamers!) and the LRBT before dieing, so not horrible...basically his whole army, except the CCS who shot at the Hellions, who had cover so only took a few losses, and the manticore, which again had 3 templates, all 3 rolled hits, and resulted in an Immobile and Stunned Venom.

My turn 4, and time's running out. I move all the Ravagers to drop the Vendetta at mid-field to keep it off my objective. Venoms move to shoot at whatever falls out, or at least at the vets running across the field. Hellions jump behind the LRBT.

All my Ravagers again are a fail, as they only shake and remove a Lascannon from the Vendetta. The Venoms unload on the Vets on foot...I think they were wiped out, but I'm not sure.

The Hellions jumped on to the LRBT, one Wrecked, one Exploded! Finally, some satisfaction! The Explosion of course killed a few Hellions, who again passed Morale.

His turn 4. He again moved the Vendetta flat-out, putting him about a foot from my objective. The CCS ran on foot towards mid-field.

All the Chimeras and the passengers that could see the Hellions unloaded on them. When the shooting was done, I had the Baron and one Hellion left, and they passed Morale!

At this point there was about 5 minutes left to play. I begged Frank to do another turn, as having gone through all that with neither of us on an objective (I'd foolishly moved my Wracks away on turn 4 to get shots at the Vets on foot...stupid!). He agreed, since I demonstrated it would be fast.

I put the Baron and last Hellion in a crater on his objective (which he had nothing near), moved the Wracks on mine, and move Ravagers to kill his Vendetta...also moved a Venom near mid-field to prevent him from getting the extra points for holding the center.

I felt the Ravagers were due, as they'd done nothing much the whole game, killing one Vendetta only. Instead they failed horribly, only shaking the thing!

On his turn he moved up the Vendetta, got the Vets out, they shot up the Wrack venom and contested my objective. He moved the Manticore up to contest his objective...and it was STILL a draw. And not just on the Primary...neither of us got the Secondary or Tertiary objectives either! I was up by about 200 VP, I believe (thanks to those LRBT deaths on turn 4!)

I was feeling really happy that I'd gotten a draw against such a hard-as-nails army and competent player, when my friend Sean walked up and said, "All you had to do was separate the Baron from that last guy, put the Hellion on the objective and have the Baron kill the Manticore; then bubble-wrap with the Ravagers: since the Vendetta is not a Tank it can't Ram through."

Sigh. He was exactly right. In my haste to do something cool on turn 5, I missed the cool part and did nothing at all, really. It was really sad to see that I screwed it up that badly at the end, but also was nice to see that I played well enough to put myself in that position to win on turn 5.

Frank was a really great player, and most definitely my favorite game of the day. His army was solid, he knew exactly what he was doing at every point in the game, and moved with alacrity and confidence through the game. He was a lot of fun, and I really hope to meet him again at another event!

Game Two: ORKS

I was next paired up against another super nice guy named Jorge and his Orks. His list had a bit of everything, and I wasn't really sure what to make of it until things started moving around. As best as I can remember, he had:

Ghazghkull Thrak

BigMek with KFF

30 Choppa boyz on foot (PK Nob)

19 Shoota Boyz in a Wagon (PK Nob)

7 Nobs in a Trukk

Deff Dredd with 4 CCW

two units of 3 Deffkoptas (striped for wound allocation...clever!)

a small unit of grots with a runtherd

three units of 5 Lootas (I thought this a good idea, too!)

and 5 Stormboyz

The mission was Annhilation; secondary was capturing terrain pieces (basically Seize Ground with 5 terrain pieces being defined as objectives); and tertiary kill opponents most expensive unit (Hellions for me, Ghaz for him). Deployment was Spearhead. With the Baron's help I got first turn again, and while I'd rather he go first, I didn't want him to have one particular corner that had way too much Loota friendly terrain, went first and took that corner. My Drug roll was +1 WS...boring, but not shabby.

I decided to deploy aggressively, with the Hellions and Reavers front and center; the former ready to go hide behind a ruin at center-table, the latter ready to turbo-boost for some Bladevane fun. The vehicles went behind, waiting for the troops to mvoe out so they could take up firing positions. I wanted to get the Wagon and Trukk down asap so the Venoms and Hellions could shoot up and assault the gooey ork goodness inside.

Ready to shoot up some Boyz!

He deployed his grots in front in a line to give cover to the foot-boyz and Lootas. The trukk, wagon, and Dred were closest to my long-edge, all hiding behind the ruin in the middle. I felt pretty good about this, then he seized the initiative and I got worried!

If someone has to seize, I'm glad it's this army!

The Grots moved up, as did one unit of Lootas. The Trukk, Wagon, and Dredd moved to go around the center ruin, while the Boyz on foot followed up. His Deffkoptas were Flanking, and the Stormboyz were deepstriking. His Lootas shot at Reavers, who got cover from the Grot-screen (those grots work both ways, Ork players!), so only 2 were lost.

Here they come!

I contemplated sending the Hellions in to the Trukk. It would be a gamble, hoping that the Reavers and Ravagers could pop the Trukk so the Hellions could assault the Nobz and Ghaz...I'd then lose the Hellions likely to the two mobs and Dredd they'd eat the next turn, though, so decided to be a bit more conservative...-ish. Two Reavers flew over a unit of Lootas, killing them all with Blade Vanes. Hellions shifted away from Wagon and Trukk...I guesstimated that the Wagon Boyz could get me if he Waaaghed, but the Nobz couldn't. The third Reavers I then messed up with, and moved them to try to get a shot on the Wagon. The Venoms and Ravagers took up firing positions.

Lots of shots at the Wagon that bounced off KFF. Hellions shot up the Grots to clear the way for Venom fire, but didn't kill enough. Venoms shot up the first Loota squad, but they went to ground, only one died...but that's at least a turn of shooting they don't have to endure. One venom was wasted being too far from the back lootas, but another got a few shots on them that were all saved. Bummer.

One Loota mob dead, another Pinned: Reavers poised to strike!

On his turn he was way too conservative, in my opinion. The Wagon just moved 6", content to fire shootas at the Hellions. The Nobs and Ghaz got out, and tore apart my Reavers....stupid mistake on my part! The Dred shuffled around a bit, while the foot Boyz mob moved to shoot and assault Reavers. Unluckily for him, he shot at the Reavers a bit too much, I lost two and took the two closest, leaving him too far to assault. Ghaz shot and blew up a Ravager (note in the photo he was more than 2" from the nobz, he split them up on purpose). One Deffkopta unit came on, shot up and assaulted a Ravager, but did nothing thanks to poor Ork shooting and a timely flickerfield save from a Buzzsaw penetration (kinky!).

The Reavers of course died, and the Nobz went behind the Trukk.

I wasted my Reavers again...a bad habit!

I decided it was probably best to shift away from the Nobs and wagon, and make him chase me. Warrior Venoms moved so the passengers could fire at the Koptas, while the Venoms could shoot at Grots, Boyz, and Ghaz. Hellions flew up right in front of the Grot screen, waiting for careful coordination with the Venoms. Ravagers moved 12" just to not get hit so easily from the next Koptas!

A Venom, the Liquifier Gun (the only shot it fired all tournament), and two Warrior squads combined to kill off the three Deffkoptas. Another Venom killed off all the Grots and Runtherd, clearing the way for the Hellions to run up to the big Foot Boy unit. The other two Venoms fired prematurely....I should have had better fire discipline and waited until the Ravagers fired...at Ghaz, doing two wounds to him. The Ravagers then fired, Wrecking the Wagon. If I'd waited to fire the Venoms, they would have killed off 1/3 of the boyz, leaving him in a bad spot.

The Hellions assaulted the big Boy unit, and the Reaver squads each attacked a Loota squad. The first Reaver squad shattered the Lootas; but the second one rolled poorly, lost combat by 2, and ran away never to rally. The Hellions surprised Jorge here, I think...54 attacks hitting and wounding on 3s left him with just a few boyz to hit back, who killed a couple Hellions, but failed their Ldr 2 test, and were caught and killed in Sweeping Advance, making the Hellions Fearless. They consolidated a solid 5" away from the Deff Dredd. A good turn!

Ork Turn 3. The Stormboyz come on, and Deep Strike middle-table. I don't know why. The Dredd runs through the ruin towards the Hellions and surviving Reavers. The Wagon-boyz walk towards my Venoms and Ravagers, while his Nobz and Ghaz get back in their Trukk and drive towards the Hellions also. The Boyz shoot down a Venom, the Warriors losing one and are not pinned.

During Ork turn 3, Stormboyz arrive!

A nice respite, as the Dredd and Trukk changed direction, giving me an extra turn of shooting. The Reavers move to shoot up the Dred, while the Hellions move to kill the resilient Lootas. Ravagers and Venoms shuffle around to shoot at the Trukk and Boyz respectively.

Another decent round of Shooting, as the Boyz are reduced to 9 or so; the dredd is Wrecked, and the Lootas are eliminated (4 pain points for the Hellions).

No more pictures, again I got too excited and was thinking about the game more than the photos...sorry!

His turn 4, and the final deffkoptas arrive on my right edge. They fly up and shoot at Hellions, as do the Stormboyz, killing a few. The Trukk turns left and heads for my lines, the Nobz and Ghaz get out and split up again, and the Waaagh is called! His Wagon-boyz and Mek run towards the downed Warriors and another Venom. Ghaz runs towards a Ravager, while the Nobs get in to two venoms.

The Nobz Wreck one of the Venoms, the other is untouched. The Boyz kill off the Warriors, but the other Venom is untouched. Ghaz doesn't roll a 6 to hit the Ravager. The Deffkoptas and Stormboyz assault the Hellions and Reavers, and are annihilated by all the I6 attacks...I think the Deffkoptas killed off the last of the Reavers with Buzzsaw, but they lost combat by too much, failed, and were caught by the Hellions (6 pain points).

Despite his having gone first, we were out of time here, as we'd already gone in to our lunch break. I would have liked the opportunity to dump Lance fire at Ghaz to finish him off for the bonus points, but no biggie. I think it was something like 11 to 6 on Kill Points, and I had the Terrain objectives locked up pretty well too...so a solid win for the Kabal of the Blackened Sun!

A call to the wife and son, who won his football game, and was very proud to tell me that he didn't even cry! Shared some of my excitement with them, and ran to Duchess for one of the worst fast-food burgers I've ever had...$7 for a combo meal with a burger that was smaller than the value double-burger from McDonald's. WTF?!

Ran back to the Gaming Etc just in time for pairings, and found I was paired against the other Ork player, Mike from Ordo! This was going to be interesting, as he took a minimalist list that focused on getting a million boyz on foot across the table while he shoved Nob bikers down my throat:

Two Warbosses on bikes with all the toyz: cybork, squiggs, klaws;
10 Nob bikers with all the toyz, striped for allocation (I think 4 klaws total?);
three units of 30 Choppa boyz with PK nobs
and 10 Shoota boyz to sit on an objective.

The missions was Capture and Control (again...?) with Pitched Battle. The Secondary was to have one IC you nominated to kill 500 VP worth of stuff, requiring players to keep track of who killed what when...ug. Tertiary was table quarters. I don't remember who won the roll, but Mike went first.

He deployed with 10 guys sitting on his objective in a little 2-walled building with limited ability to see in to it. Smart. His 12 Bikers were front and center, spread out in a long line. The 90 Boyz came behind, all spread out across the entire table.

I was SO tired and zombied at this point, I wasn't sure how I wanted to handle it. I went refused flank, with nothing on my objective, all my Venoms, Hellions, and Ravagers in a little cluster right across from his objective, with the Reavers to their left. I intended to jam up the Nobz with the Reavers, planting themselves in likely charge lines to deny them useful charges while rolling up his flank with Venoms and Hellions, moving back towards my objective late game.

Ye Olde Refused Flank; note the Nobz moving towards the Reavers...

I did not even try to seize, as I wanted him closer on my first turn. He moved the Nobz up between the building in the middle and some eerie Halloween black trees. All the big Mobz ran up the table, with some miserable run dice for all (I think it was two 2s and a 1 for runs? a recurring theme here...). The dakka flew from the bikes, gunning down only three Reavers (only a few of them were in range).

That guy with his ass on our table was an ass...

At this point I'm suddenly conscious that the room is deafeningly loud, is absolutely packed with people, they're all yelling and cheering and pounding things in their laps, and they're leaning on our table knocking our shit over. Turns out this place was also holding some video game tournament (I briefly struggled with myself deciding which tournament was the geekiest....). I had to say something several times to the people that were crowding our table, and one guy in particular nearly got an Incubi shoved up his nose for having such a nasty attitude...eye-rolling, smirking, refusing to keep away. Crazy!

It sure is intimidating to see 100 Orks running at you, even if they do run slow...

I moved the unit of three right up in front of the nobz, while everything else moved up to get at max range and shoot em up. I don't know if it was the smartest thing to do, wasting all my shooting going at them, but it kind of worked. I killed 3 models and all but one of them had 1 wound on them, with one of the warbosses having taken 2. The full Reavers then backed away, while the unit of 3 moved to 1" away, and leaving only a the forest as his way to assault anything with the Nobz other than them that turn.

The Nobz bravely run away, away...

Mike decided he didn't like running his nobs up into the teeth of my guns, so turbo-boosted towards my objective. He moved all the boyz up again...the ones near the Hellions getting a mighty 2 for their difficult terrain. He called the Waaagh, and that unit rolled a mighty 1, losing a model. They then rolled 1, 2 for difficult terrain to assault, leaving them stranded. The middle mob jumped on the weakened Reavers, who died horribly, taking no Orks with them.

I moved the Ravagers and two Venoms to keep shooting up the Nobz, while the other two Venoms moved towards his objective. The Hellions moved to tear up his right Mob, while the two full Reaver squads moved to engage the other.

In shooting the Reavers and Hellions each shot down a huge chunk of the Mobs. The Mob on his Objective was dropped down to 4 models, while the nobs lost another model, one Warboss had 2 wounds, the other 3, and the guy unwounded on turn 1 had a wound on him.

In assault the Hellions killed giant handfuls, won assault, and caught the boyz. The Reavers didn't roll as well as I'd hoped, killing several and winning combat, but didn't force the mob to run as I'd hoped. Their FNP kept them alive for the most part, though...I think I only lost 3 total.

Aftermath of Hellion attack.

Why won't those Bikes die?!

And here I think Mike made a mistake. He moved the Bikers back to the right side of the table to attack the Reavers to save his Boyz. His last Mob continued their slow advance across the table. In Melee the Reavers killed NOTHING, while the Boyz and Nobz killed only 2 Reavers! ...at least, until all the Klaws swung, one Reaver was left standing, and he got Sweeping Advanced! Good, though, as that left me free to shoot up the nobz, who consolidated in to that middle building...mistake, I think.

No more pictures again, sorry. I seem to always forget half-way through the game!

The Hellions jumped over to finish off the mob that had fought the Reavers. Two Venoms moved to shoot up the guys on his objective some more, and be in position to get on the objective on turn 4. The Wracks shifted over to be within range to get on my objective on turn 4, but still able to shoot at the Nobs. Ravagers also shot up Nobz. Shooting wasn't as effective as earlier rounds, I think one of the Warbosses died and another took another wound, with one or two more dieing. The Hellions wiped out the mob they attacked, and advanced back towards his objective. Venom shooting at his objective did many wounds, but they went to ground for 3+ and 2 guys lived, refusing to run away. :(

His turn 4, and I pushed him to play fast as they were yelling something about time, but I couldn't quite here...I assumed by the clock and the tone of the yelling that we were down to 5 minutes play-time. He moved his last mob towards my objective, but couldn't reach it. He moved the nobs out of the building, but couldn't turbo-boost out of terrain to get to my objective, and lost his painboy to dangerous terrain! The remaining bikes were able to shoot down the Wrack's Venom, leaving them on foot but too far for the bikes to assault.

My last turn, and I just did the important stuff...two Venoms moved on to his objective and killed the two boyz on it. The Wracks ran up to my objective holding it. Game over, with another win for the Kabal of the Blackened Sun! I of course didn't even try to get that Secondary objective, but held 2 table quarters to his 0, taking that one too!

So we filled out our form and I went to turn it in, and saw this action on a table I went by...it looked very cool, so I had to get a picture.

Rodrigo's Ultramarines vs. Blood Angel Vanguard Veterans!

Both armies were expertly painted, looking wonderful on the table. I sure like to see that, and wish I had that level of talent and dedication to get my guys so beautiful!

As it turns out, several of the other tables took quite a long time to finish their games, so we probably could have done another turn. I think worst-cast is a Draw, if I failed moving horribly...but likely I would have held his objective with Hellions while Ravagers contested what had been mine, so same result, I believe. I hope Mike doesn't feel I ended the game prematurely to gain an advantage, but with all the yelling from the TO I really thought we were up against the time limit.

So I went undefeated! Two wins and a draw, not too shabby! In a three-game tournament, I had no expectation of placing well after the first-game Draw, so was very surprised to be rewarded with 4th place which came with a $30 gift certificate!

Even better, my friend Brian took first-place with his Draigo-wing; and my friend James took second-place with his Chaos Space Wolves! I believe Rodrigo went 2-1 with his Ultramarines; Mike went 2-1 with his Orks; Bobby went 1-2 with his CSM. Brian and James were both 3-0. Eric sadly only got to play one game...there was an odd number of players, so Eric volunteered to help be a judge. He was a ringer in the 3rd round for someone else that dropped out, and had what sounded like a very strange game vs. a sociopath that cursed the whole game and stalked out after losing having killed nothing other than Yriel. It takes all kinds to make the world go round. :)

So a great day for Ordo! The third place player was Blood Angels, with an all foot list (I don't know the details...maybe Brian or Eric can fill us in?). James played the IG player I'd fought round 1 for second place, and his Thunderwolves apparently rocked out on all the vehicles.

Now I have to get the Baron's Kabal painted to 3-colors and get ready for BFS!

or maybe I'll just take Orks :)

Thanks to Adam of Gaming, Etc for putting together a fine event. I think the secondary/tertiary missions were a bit painful to follow and understand: perhaps shifting to a Nova-style format for second and third tie-breakers would be easier for everyone. The tables and terrain were top-notch, with plenty of cover and BLOS, but the tables didn't feel crowded. My only complaint was the spectators at the other event that were disrespectful of our event. The players were intent on bashing their buttons (I think someone told me it was Marvel vs. Capcom...), but the spectators were crowding our tables and were so loud we couldn't hear the TO. The merchandise was a bit picked over, but they had a 10% discount during the tourney...with my winnings I picked up Land Speeder for my son, and a Mt. Dew for the ride home! I will definitely be going back to another event when the BFS is done...so November, I'm there!