'Ard Boyz semi-finals summary

Well the 2011 40k 'Ard Boyz semis are done. Not as good a showing as I would have liked placing 8th out of 10 people who showed up. Definately goes to show that practice is good. Still had lots of fun and even managed to get a door prize! (which will be added to the Orktoberfest prize pool as I don't actually need it).

Here's a brief summary (detailed reports hopefully later this week)

Game 1 vs. Razorspam Wolves w/ drop pods - Got Massacred
- Had a promising first turn as I siezed the initative and downed a bunch of razorbacks, but the retaliation crippled me way too much.

Game 2 vs. Orks - Major Loss
- Close game but lost my last few terminators in the last assault phase of the game.

Game 3 vs. Chaos Marines - Major victory
- Could have been a massacre for me but couldn't get passed the cover save of an obliterator who had gone to ground.

'Ard Boyz semi-finals scenarios up

They finally put up the 40k 'Ard Boyz semi-finals scenarios here. Seems a little better written than the prelims. They appear to be pushing armies with lots of scoring units but I suppose that's good for them as people will want to buy more models. One of the three scenarios require you to have a lot of scoring units and another may require you to have a lot of scoring units. For most armies though they can only muster 6 without some special rules like combat squads or imperial guard infantry platoons so they will have a hard time I think getting massacres.

Here are my thoughts on the scenarios with my army

Game 1 - 'Ard Boyz 2011 Prelims at Great White

Alrighty, so Game 1 was against a Blood Angels army played by a regular in the area. Quite scary as it had a lot of good assault units.

My list can be found here at the bottom.

The enemy list from what I remember

Seth + Honour Guard
riding in a Stormraven

Librarian Dread w/ blood lance, drop pod
Chaplain
Terminator Squad w/ assault cannon

Full tac squad w/ MG and combi-melta in a drop pod
Naked 5-man tac squad
Death company w/ 1 thunder hammer, 2 PWs
Death company dreadnought
Assault Squad in drop pod

Attack bike w/ MM
2 Land Speeders w/ 1 MM
Flamer Baal

Land Raider

1st Place at 'Ard Boyz in PG

Played at the 'Ard Boyz hosted by Great White Entertainment in Prince George and managed to fight my way through a Blood Angels army, Dark Eldar army and an Imperial Guard army to place first. I earned 2 massacres and a major victory to secure my spot in the semis which, thankfully, this year is being held somewhere nearby (i.e. I don't have to drive 13 hours or fly across the country).

My list was similar to the one I posted previously with a few minor changes (I swapped out the venerable on the dreadnoughts for twin-lascannons and swapped out the heavy flamers for missile launchers, that meant I had to drop a chainfist from Belial's squad though).

So here's a brief summary of how the games went.

'Ard Boyz 2011

Kind of last minute but one of the stores decided to host the 'Ard Boyz prelims this weekend and I am hoping to go with my Dark Angels. No time to practice with a list or the scenarios so I don't think I'll do very well, but at the very least it's free.

Anyways, here's the list. It's very Deathwing-centric but with the updates that's not so bad.

No Semis for Me

So got an email from the local game store. The list of Semi-final venues for the 'Ard Boyz tournament appears to be final according to his GW rep. Kind of silly if you ask me. They let a bunch of stores (at least 4 by my count) in central BC and Alberta host the prelims but the closest place to play for the 2nd round is in Olympia, WA which is like 13-15 hours from where I am (and twice that if you live in Alberta).

Maybe I can convince the store to host an unofficial 2nd round just so the winners in the area can play each other and can call themselves the 'Ard Boyz of Northern BC, lol.

Oh well, maybe next year. At least there's a big tournament (hobby-ish, not completely competitive so maybe I'll take a Dark Angel list instead of a Space Wolf list) coming up in Edmonton at the beginning of July that I will probably try to attend. I'll have to scale down my armies to 1850 and test at that level though.

'Ard Boyz Semi-Finals GRRRRRRR!

So it appears that BC 'Ard Boyz semi-finalists got screwed as far as venues that host the 2nd round of 'Ard Boyz are concerned.

I really hope that my store is able to hold the 2nd round.  I like the competition and to able to face other people with competitive lists is really fun.

'Ard Boyz Game 3 at Great White

Last game of the day and I got paired up with a space marine player.  He had an all foot army so had the advantage but he was rather new to the game.  It was kind of interesting that he was also a physics teacher and we ended up talking shop afterwards.  He gave me some great tips about trying to start a wargaming club at my school which I may try next year.

'Ard Boyz Game 2 at Great White

The second game I played against a regular tournament goer in the area.  Very competitive player and nice guy who runs a store in the next town over.  I ended up visiting his area to play in the 'Ard Boyz his store was hosting.

'Ard Boyz Game 1 at Great White

Ok so I entered two 'Ard Boyz tournaments, one on Saturday and one on Sunday.  This report is for the 1st game on Saturday at Great White Entertainment

3rd Place at 'Ard Boyz in PG!

I played at 'Ard Boyz as hosted by Great White Entertainment in Prince George and managed to get 3rd place.  The competition I have to say wasn't as cutthroat as it could have been but fun and competitive regardless.  Pictures and reports will follow shortly but my final list and the outcomes are below.

Final 'Ard Boyz Army List (hopefully)

Yet another change to my army list.  Probably the last one considering the tournament is this weekend.  The new scenarios prompted a little tweaking in my list.  Not a lot, but still some changes were necessary to get the most out of my list.

Dark Angels & the 'Ard Boyz scenarios

'Ard Boyz scenarios are out.  See here.
They look good and not too wacky in my opinion (except maybe the last one)

Evaluation of my 'Ard Boyz List

I've gotten four games in now with my Dark Angels at 2500 points.  The lists have evolved but I think they all share a few things in common.

'Ard Boyz Test Game #4 vs. Blood Angels

Game 4 vs. Blood Angels 

My list underwent some changes after some conservation over at the Bolter & Chainsword (see here)

The new list has more Deathwing squads and has a little more armour and mobile firepower.  Also included is a drop pod tactical squad for late-game objective grabs or for supporting the Deathwing squads.  Being in the old style drop pod also keeps the squad off the table during KP missions and when they do show up hopefully they have a good target to saturate with bolter fire.

'Ard Boyz Test Game #3 vs. Space Wolves

Game 3 vs. Wolf Guard on Foot

So I tweaked my army list a little prior to this game (original list is here). I changed one of the veteran razorback squads to a tactical squad with flamer and razorback. Then I used the leftover 20 points to give the other veteran squad a combi-plasma and combi-melta in addition to their flamer and missile launcher.
The plan with these squads was to act as home objective holders. I’d hold them in reserve in most objective missions and when they come on they would rush out to hold any objective near my DZ. Hopefully with their mix of firepower they would be able to clear any troops on my objective. This would allow my Deathwing squads the freedom to engage the forward objectives without worrying about back tracking to hold mine.

'Ard Boyz Test Game #2 vs. Space Marines

Game 2 vs. Space Marines

So this game was against a player who just threw everything he had at me. I feel kind of bad about it but he wanted to and actually kind of liked fielding everything he had. The place he plays at usually plays at much lower points values.

Enemy list

-HQ-
Cato Sicarius
Chaplain – Powerfist

Testing for 'Ard Boyz

Well school has taken its toll on my ability to paint and model and game but things have calmed down a bit. Mostly because Spring break is upon me and I've got 2 weeks of nothing. No marking or planning of lessons so I'm using the time to playtest my 'Ard Boyz list since that tournament is coming up in about 6 weeks or so.