First 8th edition tournament summary

So when I go to tournaments I usually don't do full reports because I'd rather just play and concentrate on the game then worry about filming. So I'll just give you a brief overview of what went down on Saturday at Glimpses of Wonder and Warfare.

Game 1 vs Tau: The Scouring

He had 2 stormsurges and 3 hammerheads..and not much else.  We rolled and the 4pt objective was on my side and I went first.  I jumped 30 shootas to the area on the right, killed a unit of Firewarriors for first blood and shooting and assault took down the first stormsurge by 7 wounds and a couple wounds on Longstrike.  Not too bad. He wiped out the shoota boys quite easily and put a couple wounds on the tanks.  Next turn I just poured the firepower and knocked down the stormsurge some more.  He then moved up a bit and used what he could to do damage to another unit of boys. That small unit then jumped and assaulted some pathfinders.  I jumped the last unit and killed stormsurge and assaulted the 2nd.  Near the end Zhadsnark moved up and tried to finish the last 4 wounds on the stormsurge but he made all his invul saves.  I held the 4pt, and he had 3 objectives for a 5-7 minor loss.  I didn't have much left on the board!

Game 2 vs Salamanders, No mercy.

Varied marine list.  Couple libbies, 4 melta in a drop pod (I surrounded the tanks), bike command squad and chaplain, a couple razorbacks, and lascannons, but the most deadly thing there was 4 Centurions with Heavy Bolters and Hurricane Bolters - OH MY!  They had to die.  First turn I jumped the shoota boys, killed one in shooting..and then failed the charge!  That unit didn't last long. Next turn I jumped another unit took out the apothecary and librarian.  It took a couple turns to finish off the centurions, and zhadsnark mowed through the command squad despite the storm shields (a turn of complete whiff with thunderhammers helped).  Again, not much left at the end.

With first blood and warlord I scored a 120-45 major victory.

Game 3 vs demons, secure and control.

He had a ton of seekers of slannesh, brimstones, 15 thousand sons terminators and Magnus. I ended up with first turn yet again!  I jumped the shootas over and tried for first blood on the brimstones to no effect.  I also took 2 wounds of magnus after some re-rolling 1's and a command point for another save.  I should have gone for the seekers. But the seekers spent half the game doing nothing but killing boys so that was quite nice. He then dropped all the terminator and flew magnus right in my face, wiping out most of a unit of boys in shooting but opted to charge mostly another unit so there wasn't much damage in combat.  I then jumped the remaining big unit out of combat to assault the smaller unit of termies, locking them up until they died in turn 5.  The other bigger unit stayed locked in for most of the game.  Zhadnark did a TON of damage to the termies all by himself.  Magnus was able to kill off most of my characters but I kept hounding him getting him down to 2 wounds at the end of the game.  It ended on turn 5 or I probably would have killed magnus and taken my objective from the 3 remaining termies.

Result in a 0-8 major loss.

Yep 1-2 that day, and with a bit of better play it probably would have been 1-1-1.  My biggest errors were not attacking magus with the deffrolla! Totally forgot to attack with my tanks at all while he was locking them in combat. GRRR!! Even the Kill tank is pretty bad ass in combat and can do mortal wounds on the charge!

Despite losing most of my army every game none of them felt like I never stood a change. They were all excellent games and could have gone my way with a bit better play and/or remembering my rules.

Battle Report: Age of Sigmar tournament

First I have to say the tournament was a bit of a letdown. There was suppose to be a big wind storm blow through Portland today but it was mostly a dud and it looks like that kept people away. Only 6 out of the 26 that signed up showed up.

We went ahead and played anyway, and it was still totally worth it.

Not to mention how happy I was with the way my army looked!

 
Game 1, mission 1 vs Chaos (mostly Nurgle)

A glotkin, plague drones, some Knights, and other misc gribblies.

The game was to hold objectives one in each deployment zone.  I ran up as Orcs are suppose to do and just got wiped out. However he couldn't get to my objective earning only a minor victory.



Game 2, mission 2 vs Death

Vampire on dragon and lots of crypt ghouls that come in on turn 1.

This was quite a bit of a different mission with earning points for objectives. having many units helped out and despite losing most of my army again I still ended up with a major victory simply by outscoring on the mission.

BTW crypt ghouls are very hard to kill.  But don't do a lot either...

Game 3, mission 6 vs Order

Lots of Elves shooting and a dragon.  So. many. bows.

Another one objective each.  I lost almost all my army with just the doom divers, grots and shaman left.  I did quite a bit more damage though this time mainly with the doom divers able to take out the general on dragon.  He made one mistake leaving his objective, and the game came down to a hawk rider vs my shaman..but he couldn't kill him giving me another major victory.

There was another destruction player, playing Ironjaws with about 15 Gore Gruntas and a Maw Crusha. It looked AWESOME on the table, for sure. But He went 1-2 to me 2-1 netting me the Destruction award.

So I learned A LOT today.

What worked:
1. Goblin netters. Holy crap these are awesome. it's amazing how much a -1 to hit really hurts. I am thinking about how to keep some near every combat, it seems to be the way to go.
2. Boys with shields (kinda).  The boys units with shields were quite a bit more survivable then the unit with 2 choppas.  They just simply get a re-roll in close combat (not shooting though, which they need) and made them fairly hard to kill. Using the Great Waggh! banner gave them the same re-roll 1's that the 2x choppa guys had so I don't see any reason to take 2x choppa guys in the future.  The -1 rend on such basic models is also pretty good.
3. Spider Riders. Still an awesome unit.  I ran them into things that they should have avoided but with Inspiring Presence and Bellowing Tyrant they are quite remarkable ..if used correctly. I was super aggressive and of course have no idea what I'm facing but careful use of these guys is well worth it. They are quite spendy at 80pts per 5 but worth it.
4. Doom Divers. Having more then one is the key, and they are basically twin-linked and when they do hit they do a lot of damage.
5. Destruction abilities.  Another holy crap moment.  Giving units a D6 move in the hero phase plus their normal movement is amazing.  Not only for longer threat range but to re-arrange everything if needed prior to moving.  I took bellowing Tyrant which gives one unit +1 to hit..and it's amazing.
6. Grots.  The massive unit of grots were just so fantastic, so many models that they take forever to chew through and with the netters they don't take anywhere near as much damage as you would think.

What didn't work:
1. boys.  SOOO fragile. And then you combine battle shock losses on top of it and once someone starts concentrating on them, the units just melt away.  They need to be immune to battleshock above 10 models. They also don't hit very hard unless they have buffs on them.
2. Big things. Orruk big things have almost no save so they don't last long.  And they are seriously expensive.


Going forward:
If I spend any effort on this army for future AoS tournaments, I will need to replace the basic boys with something better for the battleline requirements.  I think Ogres are the way to go there.  Also leadbelchers could add some better firepower. Something to consider.

First game of Frostgrave!

I was so excited to play that I didn't remember to take even pictures, much less a video. 

It was a pretty dense terrain board, with big buildings in the middle.

I did a split deployment with Kristianna and the archers on one side and Seoni and everyone else on the other. I got first turn.

First thing was to cast +2 fight on my Barbarian in a group activation. My thief moved up next to the first treasure token.  The apprentice cast Wizard's eye on the other side of the table.

I was playing against a witch that summoned up some companions and potions before the game. he also brought treasure closer with telekinesis.

Second turn I put speed on the barbarian, and tried a mind control through the wizard's eye with no luck.

He grabbed a couple treasures, and some wolves appeared near my archers.

Third turn was bad, with my uber barbarian downed with a single poison dart. Despite being Fight +11 with cover, he rolled a 19(+5) to my 22 and the roll was just enough to one-shot him! I was sad.

My thief made off with a treasure and the archers attempted to shoot the new monsters. 

The game went on with me trying to glow, bow and mind control. He killed Kragmar with another poison dart. Even killed one of his own soldiers that was under mind control.

The end was 4 treasures to 2 his favor.  I ended up with 160xp, a Staff +1 fight for my wizard and a staff of casting I sold for 300 gold.  The barbarian is fine, but the thug will need to sit out next game.  For my level bonus I took a bonus to cast mind control.

However I have more then enough gold to fill out my warband. I'm thinking a man-at-arms or a knight..not sure yet.

I didn't really have much strategy coming into the game but now I definitely have a plan going forward.  The goal will be to cast wizard's eyes on the other side of the board and then hide the casters in the back, while my soldiers move up (hopefully) with fight and speed buffs.  My main offensive spell is easily mind control and with line-of-sight coming from the wizard's eyes I think I will be happy with the plan.

So now I need more models to finish off the warband, something for the wizard's eyes and treasure tokens. I will also at least have pictures next time!

Taking the Ork Decurion to an ITC one-day

So I pulled out the Decurion again, making a few slight changes to upgrade the KFF to the Mega Force field.  This time it was a 30min drive out to Sherwood, Oregon's Glimpses of Wonder & Warfare.  It had enough room for the 16 players and some X-Wing going on.

Anyway on to the games:

Game 1 vs Tyler's Space Wolves: Blackmane's and Thunderwolf star.

Same list I played against at the last event, and ended up tabling him (other then drop pods).  Talking about what he should have different was detrimental to me this time, as he surrounded me with drop pods and guys, de-meching as much as possible.  I was pinned in against the pods and could not get the assaults I wanted.  Ghazzy never got to his wolf star this time, and the Knight killed a few grots and not much else, but lived.  Result: 1-10 loss.

Every time I've played Tyler he's gone first and hopefully next time that changes!

Game 2 vs Matt's Eldar

Not quite a tournment-level list with 2 flyers, a bunch of scatter bikes but onlly 5 warp spiders, Wraitguard with d-cannons and fire dragons.  He gave me first turn which I used to run full bore at the pansies!  The fire dragons blew up the battlewagon, and the Knight stomped the meganobz and most of the Council but Ghazzy lived and harassed units one by one. I kept a few units back to defend against spiders and turbo-boosting bikes.   There wasn't much left at the end but I pulled out a 6-5 victory.

Game 3 vs Jason's Chaos Space Marines

Ah the two red-headed stepchildren of 7th going head to head.  Ariman with 2 units of thousand sons, terminators, a formation with the forgefiend, maulerfiend, and dark tech marine guy, demon prince and helldrake.   He let me go first again, resulting in me heading right up the middle..as it's the only thing the decurion can do!  The battlewagon was destroyed but Ghazzy extracted his revenge on the maulerfiend while the Meganobz make short work of the forgefiend. Then it got interesting.  The meganobz got bogged down by the terminators and a ton of 4+ invul saves, the boys died in droves mostly to exploding trukks and doom bolt's 2d6 explosion range, and the demon prince casting enfeeble and gift of contagion on the council stranding them in the middle of the board not able to run and get into combat. Once the prince went down, I was able to come back somewhat but being killpoints means I was fighting an uphill battle from the start.  Result was a nice and clean 5-5 tie.

So another day and another mediocre showing for the Decurion with a staggering 1-1-1 record. 

What can I say?  the Council with it's ability to run and change isn't a small threat for anywhere on the table, and even jetbikes had problems staying way (if they wanted to shoot) but the rest of the army is just so incredibly fragile without much overall killing power. 

I think I might be putting away the Decurion for a while. It's incredibly boring to play with a very unexciting and monolithic style.

Raindog's Rampage (1500pt WHFB tournament) Part 4

As the day winds down, I am again on the Table of Shame, this time against Sean's Lizardmen

Game 4 mission: Road Warriors.  There is a road down the middle of the table. You can a bonus point for each unit on the road at the end of the game.  You can an additional bonus point for each unit in the opponent's deployment zone (so a unit in the opponent's zone and on the road is worth 2).

Lord: Slann Mage Priest (lore of light); Focus of Mystery, Focused Rumination, Cupped hands of cheat.

Core: Saurus Warriors x20; full command, spears
Core: Saurus Warriors x20; full command, spears

Special: Temple Guard x20; full command, Sun Standard of Chutee
Special: Chamelion Skinks x5
Special: Chamelion Skinks x5

Rare: Salamander Hunting Pack

 This was the only game everything more or less worked out.  The mangler took out the Salamander and a few temple guard.  The skinks tried to shoot down my spiders and chariots running to the opposite side of the table but failed, both units got shot down by warmachines and spider riders.  The big'uns did their job against the saurus warriors, not only going first but all the attacks and S5 just chew through the heavy armor.  At the end of the game I get off a small bad moon, and just happen to roll initiative and the template hit 15 out of 16 remaining warriors, wiping out all of them.  He called it in turn 5 with only a handful of guard and the mage left.  Counted up 6 bonus points and a solid 16-3 victory.

Took me out of last place! lol ended up just 4pts above last place (in battle points) and 10/13 overall. However I did win best large model (warmachine/chariot/whatever) so I was quite happy about that.

It was a great day and I really hope I took all my lumps in stride.  After all, if I was really worried about winning I wouldn't play Orcs and Goblins!

Raindog's Rampage (1500pt WHFB tournament) Part 3

So after getting completely obliterated first game, I was in sent to the "Table of Shame".

Game 2: Master Mage. In this scenario one mage is given loremaster for their chosen lore, and in addition get a casting bonus from ranks in the unit he is in, up to 3.  There is a lot of magic here.  You get 5 bonus points for killing the opponent master mage and 5 points for having yours still alive.

I got to play Karl's Ogres.

Hero: Butcher; Level 2, bloodgruel
Hero: Brusier; BSB, Sword of Striking, Armor of Fortune

Core: Ogres x8; Full command
Core: Irgonguts x8; Full command, great weapons, Standard of Discipline

Special: Leadbelchers x4
Special: Sabertusk x1
Special: Mournfang Calvary x2, Ironfist

Rare: Ironblaster

In the few games I've had, I can actually stand up pretty well vs Ogres, with the exception of the Mournfang.  The leadbelchers hold up in a building, but I charged them bottom of turn 1 with my spiderriders, and killed all but 1 chasing them down!  I spent a few turns slowing whittling them down, to the point in turn 4 where the ogres were dead, the ironguts down to 4 models and the mournfang had a couple wounds.  He took the last 2 units with the Butcher and charged the big'uns.  I thought I had it won at that point. But he cast trollguts on an irresistible force. This killed one mournfang, and an irongut.  But it also killed 7 of my guys!!!  Even at that I still had my full attacks, but he ended up failing only 1 save the entire combat phase! I lost that combat and was chased down.  At the same time the single sabertusk charged my 8 remaining spider riders.  He killed one of them, and I completely whiffed swinging back (even the hero) and the lone cat chased down and destroyed the whole unit!

Basically my entire army wiped out in one combat phase.  After that all I had left was the doom diver, the mage and 8 goblins. I tried to finish off his last few guys but no luck and I was tabled.  His mage lived, so it was a complete loss 3-20.

----

Game 3: King of the Hill

A hill is set up in the middle along one side. Any unit or banner on the hill at the end of the game is worth 1 bonus point, up to the max of 10.

I was still sitting on the Table of Shame, up against Shawn's Orcs and Goblins

Lord: Orc Warboss, Gold Sigil Sword, Armor of Destiny, Shield

Hero: Orc Shaman, level 2, Dragonbane
Hero: Night Goblin Shaman, level 2

Core: Boys x24, Additional hand weapon, standard, musician, Big'Uns
Core: Night Goblins x29, Shields, Musician, Standard, 3 fanatics

Special: Black Orcs x17, Shields, Standard, Musician
Special: Orc Chariot
Special: Orc Chariot
Special: Orc Boar Boys x5; Spears, shields, standard, musician

Rare: Mangler
Rare: Mangler

This game didn't last long. I messed up deployment so there wasn't room for my mangler, so it sat on the edge, useless. First turn my NG squabbled, so I didn't cast. Then both my warmachines wrecked themselves on misfires.  It went downhill from there.  I called it at end of turn 4 as I was about to get charged by his whole army.

We measured units to see how many could get on the hill, awarded him 6 bonus points.

Another crushing defeat, 3-16.

Last part will be my last game.

Breaking out the Blood Angels..

Monday I remembered to grab an army for when I swung by Red Castle Games after work.  I broke out my Blood Angels, which I haven't played since early December and was actually able to get a game in.

Played against Tyrannids.  It was Dawn of War with 3 objectives. I played my OFCC list.

Roughly he had:
Hive tyrant w/sword/whips
2 Tyrant guard w/whips
Prime with sword/whips

8 ymgarls
8 ymgarls
Doom in a pod

Tervigon
Tervigon
10 gaunts
10 gaunts

3x Trygons

What struck me though is most of his models had no upgrades. Tervigons were stock - to glands, sacs, or even catalyst...all of which would have helped tremendously.

The objectives were placed roughly in the middle length-wise, with one on my left and the other 2 on the right.  For deployment he put a tervigon on the middle-ish objective, and I put a Razorback with libby behind a rock on my left.  He failed to steal initiative.

BA turn 1:
I rolled on everything 6" to shoot the tervigon, except the devastators which come on next to the razor on the left. I failed all my searchlight rolls, but was able to knock off a couple wounds.  DC blast up the middle.
Nid's turn 1:
Everything walked on.  1 Trygon was right in the middle, then another trygon to it's right, then the deathstar, then the 3rd trygon.  The tervigon and gaunts moved to the objective on my left.  Tervigon that was already deployed spawned 10, but rolled doubles, then moved back. Everything ran as he had no shooting.

Based on the way he came on, I came up with a plan.

BA turn 2:
Dante fails to come on even with the re-roll.  I shuffle all the tanks around, including going flat-out with the libby to the parking lot in order to shoot the tervigon.  Shooting, the devastators take 3 wounds off the middle trygon, and I am able to get the tervigon down to just 1 wound.  DC move to the objective on the left.
Nid turn 2:
One unit of ymgarls comes on and wrecks one razorback (passed pinning) and shakes another while removing the plasmaguns.  Everything else moved up and ran.  2nd tervigon spawns 12.

So here is the plan: kill the tervigon and gaunts on my right, then slaughter everything on the left leaving the one objective open and my opponent with no troops...

BA turn 3:
Dante comes in, drops on his board edge on my left.  Tanks shuffle around again.  Shooting the tervigon on the right dies, and ends up killing all remaining gaunts as a result. One Baal kills the ymgarls outright.  The 3 meltas on the jump pack unit do 2 wounds to the tervigon.  The wounded trygon that was in the middle dies. The DC jump out and assault a unit of spawned gaunts, wiping them out.
Nid turn 3:
Everything moves up again. The Doom drops in, but scatters away enough that nothing is within 6" so it runs.  The ymgarls move on, killing the 5 guys from the wrecked razorback. They also assault the libby's razor, but it had moved 12" and they completely failed to damage it.  The remaining tervigon spawns 12 more without doubles.  It then assaults the death company, I get 2 wounds in and he kills 2.  The 32 gaunts shoot and assault the jump pack guys, I lose 2 to shooting but none in assault, resulting in most of them dead from damage + no retreat.  Dante's unit hits and runs out of combat.

BA turn 4:
Dante splits off to assist the DC. The other jump pack guys get ready to assault either the gaunts or Doom.  My tanks then start moving to my left, getting away from all the nasties.  Doom goes off, killing a DC, but the other 2 units make the LD tests!  Shooting wipes out the 2nd unit of ymgarls, does a couple wounds to the 2nd trygon (which is the only other thing that is a threat to the left objective). I shoot a bunch of S8 stuff at doom, but he passes all the saves (which is a theme for the rest of the game).  Assault phase I move in against the doom, but can't kill it ..he makes a ton of saves and nothing on my side dies. Dante and DC brings the tervigon down to 1 wound, and stay locked in combat.
Nid turn 4:
Stuff moves up and runs. The trygon blows up a Baal Pred.  The trygon spawns 11 more gaunts and he uses them to block the objective.  The doom kills an assault marine and the last 2 DC, but does nothing in the assault phase again. Dante finishes off the last wound on the trygon and does some damage to the gaunt units but they all stick around due to synapse from Doom.  Again, a bunch of saves on the Doom keeps the combat going. 

BA turn 5:
I continue to shuffle the tanks to the left.  The libby and assault marines move out and kill off the gaunt unit on the objective.  Dante finishes off the biggest of the other gaunt units, and shooting kills another. That leaves 2 gaunts remaining that have gone to ground.  The doom kills 2 assault marines, and in the assault phase is able to kill the priest (thanks to being S9 so no FNP). Missiles kill the pod for lack of anything else to do.
Nid turn 5:
The wounded trygon moves to my left, hoping to get over there in time to do some damage.  The doom's combat continues, I pass my LD and I'm able to do just 1 wound to it.

We roll for a turn 6.

BA turn 6:
All my tanks move up and block the objective from the trygon.  Dante has just 1 wound remaining, all from the doom's power and failed invul saves so he kinda stays away. The libby's unit gets back in the razor and sit on the objective.  The assault continues with the doom.
Nid turn 6:
The trygon moves up and blows up the 2nd Baal.  The doom kills another marine but finally falls to the power fist!

Roll for turn 7 comes up a 3, giving a 1-0 objective win to the Blood Angels!

I knew I cold not handle his list in combat, too many MC's, he had just too much and I don't have the bodies to deal with the number of wounds I'd suffer.  Being able to isolate the much weaker troops units and concentrate on them for shooting and assault was the key here.  I played the mission instead of trying to go toe-to-toe with an obviously superior combat force, and the result was a solid victory.