Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Whiskey Challenge!

I got to play my friend Andrey Gonyo and his absolutely stunning grey knights. He painted most of his army in the past 2 weeks, and I must say, it was easioly IMO the best army in the invitational, and top 10 out of the open. Everything was converted, every single model, everything was magnetized, the bases were straight up green stuffed, it was amazing. I was also sharring a hotel room with him, and as soon as we got in we showed each other our armies, and my heart sank a little. I spent countless hours on my army and then I to see that I was out done that much by someone in 2 weeks! Thankfully, he really earned his appearance award, it's not that I suck, it's that he's the man!

So onto the game. Since there's 14 reports, to do I'm not going to go into crazy turn by turn detail but I will give you the jist of what happened in all of my games.

We decided to play round one of the invitational, not because it was the hardest mission for either of us, but because e both knew that if we won round one, our confidence would be good for the rest of the day. Start strong, finish srong.

he mission was objectives primary, kill points secondary, quarters tertiary. Deployment was pitched battle.

His list was a good list to take mine out, but less balanced in a tournament setting. We both used our invitational lists.

I played this

HQ
Coteaz 100

Elites
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino- dozer blades 45
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons, demon hammer 145
Rhino 40

Troops
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts, dozer blades 55
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50
5 Strikes- psy cannon, demon hammer 120
razorback- psy bolts 50

Heavy
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannnon, psy bolts 135

1750

He played something a little more interesting, and bland at teh same time.

HQ
Coteaz
Karamazov

Elites
Ven dread- AC MM
Ven dread- AC MM

Troops
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
5 acolytes- storm bolters
psyback
6 deathcults, 5 crusaders, 1 banisher with evicerater (This unit slogged around on foot ith coteaz and karamazov, and was quite the interesting deathstar)
psyback

Heavy
Psyflemen
Psyflemen
Psyflemen

So he won the roll for first and took it. He deployed spread out through his deployment zone, with the deathstar in the center, and his dreads behind terrain.

I cpunter deployed by keeping everythign in the center. This is my standard deployment, and I underestimated my opponent and assumed this would work lol. A good move would have been reserving or doing a refused flank behind a rock, but I got lazy, and all those required thought.

Needless to say he made me pay for my cockyness. He knocked hout all 2 rhinos, 2 razors, and a dread all on turn 1. He made half of my army footslogging in my deployment zone! I then moved up and tried to gaint a foothold. I shot ateverything at his weak flank, which happened to be my strong flank at this point and took it right from him. But after another few turns of shooting the game was more or less over.

I had a chance on turn 4 when he decided to be fun and play aggressively. He charged his deathstar into coteaz and a purifier squad. I was planning on casting sactuary and then cleansing flame and then strike first to kill his death star and take his foot hold in the center. It all fell apart though when I failed sactuary, and then only caused 4 wounds with cleansing flame. 2 went on coteaz and karamazov, 2 went on deathcults, but they roled a 5 and 6 (at this point all the crusaders and banishers were dead). My unit and coteaz were dismantled in short order. And then my attempts to counter charge were easily thwarted since in combat they struck first with dumb numbers of attack, that hit on 3's and wounded on 2's thanks to rad grenades and hammerhand.

In the end I lost pretty handily, but it was a good wake up call. I took the rest of the event seriously. (Or at least the invitational lol) In the end I'm actually happy I lost here. It taught me how to think again.



Monday, August 29, 2011

Back from Nova!

So a long weekend of 14 games. I got there early thursday met up with my friend Andrew Gonyo, hung out for awhile, and then played my whiskey challenge against him. He then proceeded to kick my ass. A surprisingly good start actually since it really put me in my place. I've been beating up so many locals lately that I forgot what it's like to play a good player, and getting my butt kicked so hard was a great wake up call. My over-confidence flew right out the window and I really stepped it up for the rest of the weekend.

Well for those of you who don;t know, I took the invitational! Best general going 5-0 playing Marc Parker, Andrew Blackwell, Mark Ferek, Kurt Clauss, and Aaron Aelong. All great games against great opponents. For what it's worth I also took Ren Man by a mile, but I couldn't win 2 prizes so they gave it to my 5th round opponent Aaron.

In the open I went undefeated day one, and scrubbed out quite hard day 2, losing twice. Once, where I had no business losing, I just made a really dumb move. (Like walking off objectives lol). You win some you lose some I suppose. A bunch of my friends placed well, with 3 of them taking their brackets.

Congrats to Tony for taking the Open 2 years in a row. Maybe one of these days we'll actually get to play lol.

i'll get battle reports up in the next few days. Sorry if this is all over the place with infomation and incoherent, it's been a long weekend.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Painting like crazy!!!

I have 3 more dozer blades, and 10 more grey knights to get done. Then I just need to finish priming my display board. I'd also like to get some free hand on my tanks, time permitting. This is really cutting it close for me. Hopefully I can make it in time! I leave Thursday morning, that means I have tonight and then 3 more days. Tomorrow I'm busy from 12 onward, and I'll probably only get a little done Tuesday. But, Wednesday, shit is going down as far as painting. Now, I'm going to get some more paint on my army for an hour or two.

Pics before I leave and a complete battle report of the invitational, and the open.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Tyranids took ard boyz! Round 1

So I don't have enough time to do a full set of 3 real battle reports, but here's some brief descriptions of my games.

The list I brought was,

Swarmlord 280
2 Guard- lash whips 130
10 ymgarls 230
3 hive guard 150
3 hive guard 150
4 Tervigons- adrenals, sacs, catalyst, clusters 195 ea. (1 was HQ)
3 units of 10 gaunts 50 ea.
3 Trygons- adrenals 210 ea.

Round one I got paired up against a space marine bike ulkan list played by a friend of mine, Ben.

His list from memory,
Vulkan
Captain on bike- relic blade, combi melta
Command Squad- apothecary, bikes, 4 plasma guns
2 units of 5 bikes- 2 meltas, combi melta, multi melta attack bike
2 units of 5 bikes- 2 flamers, combi flamer, multi melta attack bike
5 TH SS termies
Land Raider Redeemer- multi melta
Random techmarine
3 Vindicaters
3 lone land speeders- MM HF

It's got some nteresting stuff. It has all the tools it needs. It just depends how he plays it. From my perspective if he plays properly I have no business winning this game.

The mission was pitched battle, modified KP's. We each gave the opponent traitor, if we kill the traitor he's worth 5 KP's. He gave me a bike, I gave him a guant.

I won the roll for first and took it. I deployed with a gaunt wall up, and a wall of monsters and hive guard behind. I left one squad of gaunts with the traitor in reserve.

He deployed in a refused flank set up with eveything in one corner. This was his mistake since I could bring my whole army at him in one direction. Had he deployed in both corners I would have had to split up, and he could have used his superior mobility to isolate and destroy me.

With the stealers I had to make a decion, whether they should come up in a terrain piece near teh heart of his army, or a terrain piece in the center. The one closer to him was riskier since he could block it off entirely if he saw it coming, but id he didn't I could win the game right there. I chose to go the safe route and put them in the center. On a side note he made no effort ro cover the terrain piece near him.

Turn 1 I moved up and shot a vindicator or something. i'm almost half way up the field after running and everything. Then he pushed forward on his first turn, blew awa my gants and almost killed a trygon. My next turn the ymgarls came in and multi charged 2 biker squads, one of which had the traitor. I also put I threw the wounded trygon out to die in order to kill the land raider, but failed. The hive guard started blowing open speeders. And I moved up some more and replemished my gaunt wall. Also, I made the bikes and traitor run off the table.

He then shot me to bits, I think he killed all of my gaunts, the wounded trygon and a fresh tervigon. He only killed 5 stealers, thanks to FNP and cover. Vulkan and his boys got out and charges a trygon and raped him. I rebuttled with spawning gaunts everywhere tying up all of his remaining bikes. Throwing swarlord at vulkan and instakilling him. The stealers ate a vidicater and so did the hive guard. At this point the game was just clean up. His shooting was next to gone. My army was in combat. His only countercharge unit was not going to get free from swarmlord. The only thing he really has is his land raider.

The game ends 25-0 I believe after bonus points.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Ard Boyz Results!

Took first by a mile with tyranids. We only got 10 players but it wasn't bad as faar as competition level. I beat up vulkan biker marines, horde orks, and horde orks.

Brief battle reports to follow, and some list analysis.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Updates!

My lists are finalized for the open and the invitational. I caved and I'm bringing Grey Knights to both lol. I'll put the lists up in a bit. I still have 9 purifiers, 9 strikes, coteaz, and 5 sets of dozers to do in 13 days. And, an untouched display board. And, not much is getting done this weekend between ard boyz Saturday and a warmachine tournament Sunday. I don't really like warmachine all that much, but I'm having quite a warmachine boner lately so I've decided to play.

On another note I've come to the realization that I'm just not going to own enough grey knights to run the ard boyz list I want. So, tyranids it is!

Here's the list

Swarmlord 280
2 Guard- lash whips 130
Tervigon- Adrenals, Sacs, Catalyst, Clusters 195
3 Hive Guard 150
3 Hive Guard 150
10 Ymgarls 230
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
10 Gaunts 50
Tervigon- Adrenals, Sacs, Catalyst, Clusters 195
Tervigon- Adrenals, Sacs, Catalyst, Clusters 195
Tervigon- Adrenals, Sacs, Catalyst, Clusters 195
Trygon- Adrenals 210
Trygon- Adrenals 210
Trygon- Adrenals 210

So far it's won both its test games. First against draigo wing in the kill point mission by tabling it on turn 5. And next against a descent of angels list with mephiston and a land raider.

Lots of interesting stuff here. Now I'm hungry.



Sunday, August 7, 2011

Painting like crazy

Nova. Less than 3 weeks. Painting. 1 Razorback, 1 dread, 3 rhinos, 6 sets of dozer blades, 10 purifiers, 11 strikes, coteaz, untouched display board. I'm screwed as each model takes about an hour and half, 3-4 for tanks.

Expect pics soon, and a full battle report of all 14 games.