Friday, October 30, 2015

Last March of the Titans - Tournament Report

This weekend was one wrought with ups and downs but thank goodness for 40k! Patrick organised a 1500 point tourney to herald the farewell to our gaming den, Titan Games. This would be a bittersweet tournament. 

The vibe was contagious. Everyone brought their A game and the meta was really quite different from what we saw at the GREX Invitationals I attended with the boys. Some reason, the TG crowd brought more hordes and large units. In this meta, it would be the large units such as the Knights that would take the crown! 

The tourney was also unique in that it goes back to the GW days where marking is done not purely on your wins but also your ability to paint and knowing your fluff. The TO's prepared a 20 question quiz to supplement the tourney. 

I brought a fairly balanced list comprising the following:
Flyrant: TL BrainLeech Devourers with Wings
Flyrant: TL BrainLeech Devourers with Wings
Hive Guard with Impaler Cannons x3
Warriors with Devourer x3
30 Termangats
15 Termagants
15 Termagants
25 Hormagaunts
Tervigon 
Carnifex 
Tyrannocyte


Ommmnommbommm
My first opponent was none other than Rico with his really beautifully painted Necrons. Was really glad to have our armies duke it out. Unfortunately because it was a tourney and was timed, I couldn't really take as many photos.

Took a few photos of the other tables to give you guys a taste of the meta

Demons vs Grey Knights

Eldar vs Ultramarines
Pretty funny when Marshall and Alan drew against each other as they are regular sparring buddies.

Our Jason with Necrons vs another Grey Knight army

My opponent, Rico with his Necrons
Compared to the previous tourney, you will find there is a lack of large things called Knights. There was however one such player, Fauzi! He would go on to be quite unmolested in the following games.

Jammed on the first birthing
I really love the sea of Gants feel. Really invokes the Tyranids feel. I just wished GW buffed them a little, giving them a FnP 6+ while within Synapse would be amazing. This would really allow them to function in as tarpits and objective scoring units. Please GEEDUBS!

Jam those metal machines with our biomass! 

These things were impossible to kill! 

Going for Zandrekh was also a gambit that never really paid off.

Objective 1 in the middle really sealed the game for me as I just could not move the Necrons off the point
I eventually lost the game to Rico by 2 points, which we both agreed if he had rolled 1 or 2 on the D3 for Ascendancy (Maelstrom card), it would have been a draw. Amazing photos and Rico was relaxed so it was a good game.

Pat then jigged the names and came up with the next round of pairings. I then ended up with our own Ripperling, Jason! We had played once previously as practice and it went in his favour. This was already starting to look grim.

A combined Relic and Big Guns game

Jason had 3 Flyers in Reserve waiting to pounce and I had the first turn, give me First Blood! 
I went after the Wraiths but could not take it out. Ah well - Necrons don't really give out First Blood that easily.

Kept throwing Gant units after Gant unit at the Wraiths. Managed to cap the objective for one round before dying and dropping it
Unfortunately, I lost this game by 2 points again! What is going on! LOL! But playing with Jason was also relaxed so I just took it as a fun game with a buddy.

Pat then rejigged the names and I was paired with Alan! He has been practicing with me recently but I was using Blood Angels instead. Alan has been working at his army quite regularly but fell shy of completing everything.

One major movement mistake opened the Tervigon to the Wraithknight and I lost her

Monster vs Robot! 
Alan kept pushing me to move and do stuff so I didn't manage to snap too many photos. I eventually finished the game and we drew! It was a Draw! Buahahhahahah!

Pat really came up with unique scenarios and I enjoyed it. It was creative and forces players to think on their feet.

While I didn't finish well in this tourney, I managed to get the Lucky Draw ($30) and won the Best Painted award ($50). Really lucky and happy! I took that prize money and picked myself up a Predator (albeit Chaos) to supplement my Blood Angel army - I will just drop off the Chaos bits. Thanks to Titan Games, Liang and Patrick for organizing such a great experience. I think it was the first for many players too - who were basically casual players.

On a sadder note however, Titan Games will be closing this weekend. It was a great place to hang out and make new friends. We were building the community there but I guess the business wasn't sustainable. I know we at ABO go away having done our part. I only hope the next place we go to will offer us the same type of honesty and support. In return, we will support the store and help develop the community.

Farewell TG. 

Thursday, October 29, 2015

First Tournament impressions: Last March of the Titans

I recently attended my very first tournament, the Last March of the Titans, and what a blast it was.

The event was part of the closing down of the our regular gaming haunt, which is really a pity, but everyone of us arrived with the clear intent of having fun in the remaining time.

I was trying to prove you could still be fairly competitive without a Decurion, so I ran a Necron Mephrit Dynasty Cohort. Bargelord, Night Scythes with Immortals inside, Wraiths, and a Transcendent Ctan. my opponents for the day ended up being Grey Knights, Ray's Tyranids, and Space Wolves.

First up was ZY's 2+ Grey Knights, with not a suit of power armour in sight. And here I left home without my AP2 lol. Predictable moment #1 of the day, I did next to no damage against his list, while he slaughtered his way through my bargelord and wraiths. Lessons learnt: Don't charge a bunch of AP3 Hammerhand terminators when they've got Force activated. Major loss for me.

We grabbed lunch and went back into the fray, this time I was up against my old nemesis Raymond. We had tested our lists against each other before, and so Ray spent what would have been list explaining time on deploying his hordes of minibugs. Predictable moment #2 of the day, we started 15 minutes late. Haha.

It was a relic mission, and I charged my Wraiths in to combat to claim it. Ray did the same with all of his small bugs, and it turned into a meat grinder as my Wraiths blended the small bugs one by one, unfortunately not claiming the relic. I lost my bargelord (again), but the game came down to a Kingslayer+Assasinate roll which gave me 6 points in total for killing his flyrant. Narrow win for me.

The final mission set me up against Tim's Space Wolves, which used two separate formations which gave them rerolls to hit and wound. Painful stuff if they were allowed to use it, but I chose to tarpit them and run for the objectives with my greater mobility. Managed to pull off a win, with my bargelord finally pulling in some points.

The final tally saw me end up with some points on the board, thanks to the last two games and a fluff quiz. Pretty fun stuff, and it definitely encouraged me to try out more tournaments. Next up, A Time of Legends! Hopefully it'll be as fun as The Last March.

Many thanks to Patrick, Lim Liang and all at TG for organising the event, and congratulations to the eventual winner Fauzi!

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Blood Angel Fire Raptor

As part of the Slowburn League, I committed a Fire Raptor for my pledge. I actually built this model about 3 months ago but only recently started painting the model. I love the way it looks, the aggressive lines and silhouette. I just wish that the Stormravens all shared the same type of look but alas, that model looked more akin to a flying Rhino. This model however is a work of art. 

Stormraven crew will be flying my Fire Raptor

Mechanicus! 

Some dirty mind actually pointed out to me that this looked like the pilot was "enjoying" himself

I worked on a prototype Objective Marker. I decided to light it up as I very often had trouble finding the markers on the table

Once the model was built, I hit it with a black primer. I completed the cockpit and masked up the plastic canopy

First layer was VGA Scarlett Red. I kept the angle sharp to the model to retain the black shadows

Working in the layers I added Bloody Red

I started blocking out the black colours

Added edge highlights to the model. This was Blood Red

I added black lining to all the panel recesses

I found it a little too red so went back and hit it with some Carroburg Crimson

Added some black lining and detailing work on the ship

At this stage major areas were all painted up. Just one last level of highlights and some weathering for atmospheric entry
Some weathering on the wings and edges and this model is done

Dog FIGHT! 

I hope this has inspired you guys to complete yours. 

Friday, October 23, 2015

Batrep: 1850 Blood Angels vs Eldar - Game 2

With a little extra time on our hands, Alan and myself got a few beers and lunch. Set up for the next game by adding a few units to my 1850. I added units which I thought were successful in our previous game. So I brought in the unit of Tacticals x5 and its Razorback with TL Assault Cannon + Dozer Blade. Because this wasn't technically a tourney prep game (tourney coming up is 1500 and not 1850), I added my Forgeworld units. In came the Sicaran and Fire Raptor.

Mission was a combined of Big Guns Never Tire and Maelstrom Escalation. I managed to get first turn so deployed first. 

Deployment was quite cagey
Because the mission was Escalation, both of us decided to play extremely cagey to preserve them for when the actual missions started flowing in. It was critical to accomplish those in hand quickly as the turns grew on.

In a very uncharacteristic way, I chose to deploy on the Bastion
Until today I still do not agree with deploying vehicles on ruins/buildings. I wanted to see if it made any difference and the answer is a whopping no. It's unfluffy and is tactically silly. Unless of course LOS doesn't matter to the said vehicle, it still is bloody unfluffy!

Tactical misdeployed so Alan sent the Drop Pod all the way back
I tried for a strong drop deep into Alan's deployment zone but scattered off the table. Alan kindly placed my Pod in my own territory. Wootsause

Alan's deployment
My Tactical squad managed to pop open one of the Wave Serpents containing the Fire Dragons for First Blood

And in return, Alan destroyed the Marines

My Reserves turned up
The big issue with Drop Pod armies is that you have to really commit to the push or just risk losing the dropping units. That also forces me to commit to a particular way of playing and if this isn't really the way I want to play them, then maybe I should consider dropping the Drop Pods for a slower army. I still can't decide...

The Forgeworld units go to work

That's a Crimson Hunter!

This was a bold move but irritating as they could do Hit and Run! 

The FireRaptor went to work but between cover saves and lower threat targets, I'm not sure it's that useful here

Pushing into my backlines

Sitting on that terrain really limited my LOS

Pew pew

Ouch

Basically Blood Angels lost again....boohooo story of my life....

Ah well, this was a post beer game so hahah! I had fun and so did Alan that is the most important. 

See you guys around! 

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Batrep: 1500 Orks vs Blood Angels

Tourney prep in full swing. This time against Marshall and his Orks (with a few proxies)

3 Battlewagons, 1 Trukk, 1 Divebomma, 2 Copters and about 60 Boyz
My list was modified to test Mephiston again. I swapped out some Tactical Marines for Scouts and removed the upgrades on my Death Company. I also swapped out the Melta weapons on two of the Tactical units to Grav to allow this list better handle Wraithknights.

Primer done on the Tacticals and Priest.
Modified this list by including Scouts with Mephiston. They will be his extra wounds! LOL!

Hyper aggressive first turn
It was a Cleanse and Control Maelstrom mission. I went straight for the guts and stopped the Orks by sending my Pods into his backlines. That would open the Battlewagons and hopefully allow my units to do the mop up or kite.

Surprisingly it was the Gravguns that blew up the silver Battlewagon (proxy)

Spews out
Unfortunately for Marshall, I managed to roll 12 for my Death Company charge and managed to get them into combat. The ensuing combat saw the unit get destroyed.

Quick return fire

Tacticals were toast and running back to safety
The Orks hit back hard and wiped the Tactical units out forcing me to fall back.

In Turn 2 I sent in the Meltacide Assault Squad to attempt to open the other Battlewagon

Stormraven comes in to assist in taking out more Orks

Boyz managed to charge and kill off one biker
Marshall was reminding me that I was way too aggressive with my bikers. Will have to remember to dial it back a little


While another bunch of Boyz charge into my Tacs

There was some mulling at the garage

Man that Ork Bomba really hit hard. That bomb AP3 destroyed 2 Pods and a Tac Squad

Brought my Stormraven over to support this push
In a bid to try Wings of Sanguinus, I casted it on Mephiston only to read the text to find out that I cannot charge after using it. WTF.com

And was killed by Nobs with Power Claws
I am finding that Mephiston is kinda crappy without his Iron Halo.

The Bomba came back in but majority of the Orks were gone

There was little left
The game was basically won by the Blood Angels at the 2 hour mark but lost at Turn 7. Oddly enough I can't remember how I lost. LOL! Selective memory.

Went home and broke open the box below. 


The astute of you will notice that I had the Sanguinary Guard completed for the game with Alan and may be wondering did I go back in time? LOL! It's because this post was prepared before the game with Alan but I failed to upload it in time! Sorry for the confusion!

So basically after this game with Orks, I tweaked my list to include the Sanguinary Guard and dropped Mephiston. Apologies for the confusion! 

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...