Battle for Salvation over!

I just got home from a gruelling two days! I had a wonderful time, met a lot of great people including Neil and Stephen from 11th Company Podcast; Mike Brandt of Nova, and many other wonderful people.

Details will be coming in a few days as I download both my camera and my brain, but a brief summary now while I'm winding down getting ready for bed.

Skipping to the end, the results...


...I won best Sportsmanship! I was super psyched to win this, it came completely unexpected and felt really good! I did go out of my way to make sure that the folks I played with had fun...my concept is that this game is supposed to be fun WITH your opponent, not at their expense...but I really didn't expect that honor.

The event was Nova Style, with 4 games on day 1, and day 2 being single-elimination brackets based on results of day 1.

My first match on Day 1 was a win versus Brandon Waldon from Brothers Grim on Long Island.

My second was versus "Brother Captain" James of Battle for Salvation and his Shrike led all-foot Space Marines. I won, tabling him in turn 4!

The third game was against Stephen of 11th Company and his Logan-led Space Wolves. This was by far my favorite game of the event, though Stephen pulled out a super close win on Objectives with a draw on Kill Points and Quarters. My typical late-game fail happened here...I had a Ravager try to shoot down a Lone Wolf that was going to be able to move to contest an objective I held on the last turn, and didn't kill it. After the game I realized all I had to do was move the Ravager to get in the way of the Lone Wolf and he wouldn't have been able to contest, giving me a 2-1 victory on Obj. Oh well, I have no regrets...it was a super-close game that was back and forth, tooth and nail, and hard-fought the whole way through. My most vivid memory of the event was a unit of Reavers sitting in front of the Hellion blob as the Hellions were pounded with frag missiles, giving cover to the Hellions as they went to ground and weathered two turns of dozens of missile shots. 2+ cover and FNP is fun! What a blast!

The fourth game was versus fellow Ordo member Sean Nayden and his unconventional foot Dark Eldar. I was super tired, super out of it, and was a complete failure. I made a plan which I failed to follow through with; I made poor movement choices, leaving myself in range to be assaulted by reserved troops coming from the board edge (I was too focused on the WWP); and we both confused things part-way through as Sean was able to go first, and have last turn as we got it mixed up part-way through. Certainly things might have been different if I'd had a last turn, but it would have taken some playing a level above how I'd played that whole game. Oh well.

So ending the first day 2-2, I was in the Bronze Bracket (third bracket) on day 2.

The first game was against another BFS member, sadly I can't remember his name now, but will definitely find out to let you know. He was playing a very mechanized Space Wolf list with 6 Rhinos, 4 Razorbacks, and the ubiquitous 3 Long Fang squads. His Tempest's Wrath was frustrating, but I was able to win on kill points 10-5. The Incubi were able to do well here, killing off 3 squads by themselves!

The second game was against yet another Logan-led Space Wolf list owned by Daniel of BFS. I didn't really follow it, but he had a bunch of Wolf Guard on foot while he ran around 2 empty Rhinos and dropped in 2 empty Drop Pods. I was able to get the Hellions in to cover-granting terrain at center table where they again weathered storms of Frag missiles while the Reaver's blade-vane attacks were able to weaken up units for Venoms and Ravagers to finish off. I ended up winning 3 quarters to 1 as he was left with just a handful of troops and two long fang squads.

The last game was against an extremely well-played and attractive Belial led Dark Angel Deathwing force. I was again able to hold center-table with Hellions while shuffling around to gun-down terminator squads to manageable levels so they could be beaten in melee. I lost the Hellions when they broke from combat and were escorted off the table by a Land Speeder, but my Reavers were able to finish off 2 terminators that assaulted them to ensure me the win on objectives at 2 - 0...sort of. My opponent got frustrated and quit after the top of turn 5, though the outcome was hardly in doubt. It might possibly have gone to kill points, but I think I had him there too, as well as in Quarters. Either way, I don't begrudge him quitting as losing two terminators to three wounds in such a critical melee is sure to cause frustration, and it had been a great well-fought game. I was quite proud of how I played!

After seven games I was 5-2, winning the "Bronze" Bracket. I was awarded a box of Grey Knights (ick!), a nice medal for that one. For Best Sportsmanship I won a very nice plaque and an army transport case. I was told after that I was ranked third for Renaissance Man (Overall), which was a tremendous surprise and made me feel really good!

Again, I have lots of pics to download. I'll have some moderately detailed battle reports coming soon!

-Ordo Bob