X-Wing - First Tournament Report

First X-Wing tournament under my belt and I went a respectable 2-2 with 2 blowout wins and 2 losses.  Not bad for my first go around against opponents who can read and use the full rules.  The tournament took place the weekend before Wave 8 released so no one had any of those ships.

The list I took on the day ended up being

Colonel Vessery - Veteran Instincts, Heavy Laser Cannon
Omega Leader - Juke, Comm Relay
Carnor Jax - Push the Limit, Targeting Computer, Royal Guard TIE (for flavour)

I like flying the Defender and the Interceptor and Omega Leader is just too good not to use.  The list has good synergy and when Carnor gets close, enemies can't help but eat the heavy laser cannon shots from Vessery.  Omega Leader does a good job cleaning up as well and his damage is pretty consistent.

Anyways on to the matches!

MTG - Constructed Pauper and UR Fiend

For the first time in a long time I participated in a paper constructed event.  I usually participate in pre-release tournaments and maybe a draft once in a blue moon but not constructed.  Playing competitive constructed Magic just takes too much time and effort, at least in the Standard format.  I could try an eternal format like Modern but the meta-game is rather large and would require a large initial investment (both time and money) to be competitive.

Thankfully, the friendly local game store (Great White Entertainment) hosted a legacy Pauper tournament.  And fortunately for me I had built a legacy Pauper deck a while back to mirror one I played a lot on MTGO.  It's a ridiculously fun deck and can win out of nowhere while also rewarding skillful play as some match-ups require it.  I wasn't running the most optimal version but I had no idea what the competition would be so didn't think a fully optimized version was necessary.  Unfortunately I was wrong.  Still had fun and now I know what to expect for next time.

The deck I played is as follows and the event only ran 3 rounds due to time constraints and having only 10 people participating.

Warhammer - New Tournament Format?

I'm in the final stages of preparing for this years Orktoberfest and it just dawned on me that I really ought to change the format.  Not so much in the actual rules of the game, but in how people select their army lists.

Currently (and in previous years) I opted for a fairly large points value for the area (2500 points for Warhammer Fantasy and 2000 points for Warhammer 40k prior to the double FOC rule).  That might have limited the number of people who wanted to participate as a lot of them thought it was a bad thing to have so many points.n

One of the chief arguments was that making army lists was a no-brainer as you could take anything you wanted.  I never saw this as a bad thing because it meant that you had an answer to whatever anyone brought and it was up to you to deploy that answer in the proper way.  Most people in the area prefer smaller points values (around 1500) so they have to think carefully what they put in their list.  Most arguments against this points value (and I agree with these people) is that the smaller points values tend to favor certain armies/lists and if you aren't prepared for it, those lists just steam roller you.

A good example of this was the dual-lash chaos list from a few years back.  At 1500 points it was nigh-impossible to beat if someone wasn't prepared for it.  Similarly triple raider lists at that points values were hard to deal with unless you specifically tailored your list to fight it.  Now if you aren't prepared for that kind of game, those lists would just steam roller everyone at a tournament.

So to solve this problem, for next year's event I might opt for a smaller points value with 2 flexible detachments.  For example in Warhammer 40k I would play 1500 point games with a 1000 point core detachment and a 500 point flexible detachment.  The core detachment would contain the required 1 HQ and 2 Troops and then the player would have 2 flexible detachments of 500 points.  The idea being that you would have the option to switch your flexible detachment based on your opponent.  So maybe one flexible detachment would contain lots of melta/plasma to combat monstrous creature spam while the other contained massed templates to fight hordes.

I'd have to figure out away of how the players choose which detachment to use against each other without giving either player a huge advantage.  Like using an anti-monstrous creature detachment against a Tyranid player only to have them switch all their monstrous creatures out for hordes.  Might have to tie it in to the deployment roll (i.e. player who deploys first chooses his detachment first) or the player's placement in the tournament (i.e. player who has a higher ranking in the competition chooses his detachment first).  Alternatively it could just be blind pick and both players reveal their choice prior to deployment.  Could create a Sicilian argument which could be fun.

Doing it this way is similar to how Warmahordes tournament players have two lists or how Magic: The Gathering tournament decks have sideboards.  This would allow people to fight against cheese lists with their own list and will make list building more involved as opposed to just cramming as many monstrous creatures into 1500 points as possible (or in my case Terminators).  I haven't read of any other Warhammer tournament that does this but I've been out of the loop as far as checking on the big events goes.

One of the sponsors to Orktoberfest is wanting to put on some smaller in-store events so I might try to convince him to let me run this style of tournament for one or more of those events as a test run for next year.

Entering my First 6th Edition 40k Tournament

This weekend I've decided to go to a 6th edition tournament being held in a town about an hour away.  Haven't played much 6th edition yet but from what I have played, the Deathwing are pretty darn strong.  No need to fear power weapons anymore, land raiders are resilient enough to deliver cargo and typhoon speeders went from awesome to something better than awesome.

Anyways, the tournament is 1500 points and I've decided to take the following list

Belial - Claws
Deathwing Squad 1 - Apothecary, 3 TH & SS, Heavy Flamer
Deathwing Squad 2 - 1 TH & SS, 1 Chainfist, 1 Pair of Lightning Claws, Cyclone
Deathwing Squad 3 - 1 TH & SS, 1 Chainfist, Cyclone
Deathwing Squad 4 - 1 TH & SS, 1 Chainfist, Cyclone
Land Raider Crusader
Ravenwing Typhoon Speeder
Ravenwing Typhoon Speeder

Went with 4 squads this time rather than 3 as I found 3 scoring units was not enough for objective based missions in the last 1500pt tournament.  Mind you the only army that gave me trouble last time was a Grey Knight army that got into close combat.  That same army wouldn't hurt so much as their nemesis weapons aren't AP2.

Maybe I should drop one of my Deathwing squads for another land raider?  Two squads in raiders and 1 squad using Deathwing Assault could make for some nifty rapid deployment strategies.  Super easy to pack as well.  Although there is a really good player attending with Necrons so vehicles won't be that great against him (and who knows how many other Necron players might be present).  Still, having to deal with 20 scoring terminators will be tough for any army to deal with at 1500 points.

Tournament Results

Store tournament was this past weekend and I took the list from my previous post to it.

Escaped with a 2-1-1 record.  EDIT:  Apparently this was good enough for 2nd place (out of 8) after taking soft scores into account.  Either that shows the intense level of competition in that no one escaped with a perfect record, or the soft scores factored in quite predominantly.

Game 1 vs Necrons - Win
- First time playing Necrons in an annihilation mission.  The player didn't take a super-nasty list so I was able to pull out a win.  He seemed surprised that my terminator squads could weather two squads worth of firepower.  I told him after the game that he should dedicate twice that if he wants to bring down a terminator squad with regular anti-infantry guns (I did the math once and it requires a ridiculous amount of wounds to reliably kill a squad of terminators in one round of shooting)

Game 2 vs Grey Knights - Loss
- First time playing Grey Knights.  It was Capture & Control and I think the only reason I lost was his grand master and grey knight terminators were able to assault my Deathwing.  I grounded their ride, but they were still close enough.  Those 4 guys tore through all 15 of my terminators without too much trouble (initiative S6 power weapons and the grand master with a 2+ ward save really sucked).  By the time I killed them I had no troops left.  His shooting took down the land speeders so couldn't contest in my last turn.

Game 3 vs. Daemons - Draw
- First time playing Daemons.  Sieze Ground with 4 objectives.  12 blood crushers, blood thirster and 3 soul grinders.  My shooting was enough to nullify the blood thirster and soul grinders but those blood crushers annihilated my terminators (made the mistake of disembarking from the land raider a turn too early).  Forced a draw by killing all of his horrors and contesting the one objective from the one horror I couldn't kill.

Game 4 vs. Chaos - Win
- Nothing really of note, his vehicles were rendered useless for the most part by my shooting.  He had a vindicator that was pretty ineffective and a land raider of berserkers that spent 2 turns shooting at my land raider.  His rhinos and the squishy squads inside were his downfall.  Easy KPs for my rockets and terminators.

Next 40k tournament should be in July and I think I'll bring a more competitive list.  The lists that were present were much more competitive than I expected (probably because everyone was from out of town).  Time to go and paint some more terminators.

Tournament News

Popped into one of the FLGS in town last week and found out they are planning on hosting small monthly tournaments in addition to their larger Remembrance Day Challenge and Spring Fantasy tournament.  It appears tournament attendance has been low so they are trying to get more interest in tournaments by hosting smaller and friendlier events.

I whole heartedly approve of this.  Mind you I only really care about this because the more people that are interested in tournaments means the more people who might be interested in attending Orctoberfest in October.

For my part I'm going to try and attend as many of these tournaments as possible so I can push Orctoberfest 2012 and hopefully get a few more people than I have the past two years.  I keep hearing that it is an absolute blast to play in and everyone would love to attend but the numbers just don't show it.  Mind you I think I picked a bad weekend for Orktoberfest 2011 (Canadian Thanksgiving weekend) and I changed the format from Fantasy in 2010 to 40k in 2011.  Orctoberfest 2012 will be Fantasy again so that might affect numbers.  Still, I am hoping that I get more fantasy players this year than in 2010.

First tournament is a 1500 point 40k tournament.  Although I did sell some of my Deathwing (the black reach half) I still have enough painted models to bring a decently competitive force.  I probably should hold back as the tournaments are meant to bring in new tournament players, but what good are new tourament players if they don't play to win or can't stomach losing?  Anyways, got about 2 weeks to think about the army I will bring to this first tournament.

Lists for the Remembrance Day Challenge....

So regardless of my reservations about the tournament format, I'm still going to try and play. Hopefully my super themed army of terminators won't affect my army selection score too much. Considering everyone will outnumber me (aside from maybe Grey Knights) it shouldn't be too bad.

Unfortunately deciding on what to bring at 1850 is causing me a lot of problems. I have, however decided on at least the core. Regardless of what list I use it will at least contain the following:
HQ
Belial - Claws (maybe TH & SS if I can get the shield arm painted in time)

Troops
Deathwing Squad 1 - Apothecary, 1 TH & SS, 1 pair of Claws
Deathwing Squad 2 - 1 TH & SS, Cyclone, Chainfist
Deathwing Squad 3 - 1 TH & SS, Cyclone, Chainfist
Deathwing Squad 4 - Cyclone, Chainfist

Fast Attack
Ravenwing Land Speeder - Multi-Melta, Typhoon
Ravenwing Land Speeder - Multi-Melta, Typhoon

This brings the core part of my list to 1245 points. So I have 605 points to spend. Here are the best options available to me based on what is painted and/or easy to paint given the time I have (these are the best in my opinion at least)

14th Annual Remembrance Day Challenge

A tournament I can actually play in! The longest running 40k tournament in the region is coming back for its 14th iteration. I've played in this tournament every year I think except last year (Penny was born the week before) and when I was completing my 2 year Bachelor of Education.

Sadly, I generally don't do very well at these tournaments (somewhere in the upper half usually though) as I've only finished in the money once (I'm not counting my string of consecutive pop quiz wins) but they are still a blast. Admittedly I have reservations about playing in the tournament this year because of how I ran Orktoberfest (and Orctoberfest last year).

Orktoberfest 2011

Another year, another Orktoberfest.

Not as big a turnout as last year but fun nonetheless. Lots of prizes so everyone walked away with something. I will probably organize it again next year, but I'll need to do something to ensure I get more people attending. It would give me more money for prizes and will help grow the hobby more.

My new sportsmanship scoring worked better as I got a wider spread of scores this year. Also refined my Renaissance, Artistic, Honourable and Tactical rating formulas so the probability of a tie between the top players in each category should be practically non-existant.

Anyways pictures!

Orktoberfest 2011

'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

To go to tournaments or not to go - Part 3: My Army Isn't Painted

So far I've talked about two reasons for not attending tournaments: cost and attitude. Those I think are the biggest deterants. But if neither of those reasons are a big enough deterant, the last reason generally finishes it for most people and that is the issue of having their army painted.

To go to tournaments or not to go - Part 2: Serious About Winning

Reason 2: People who play in tournaments are serious about winning

I think people fail to understand why tournaments exist in the first place. It's to find out who is the best at something, whether that be winning, painting, background fluff, or whatever, a tournament is there to see who is the best. One should expect that kind of attitude in a tournament. On the other hand, that is quite a turnoff for some people, especially if all they ever do is lose the games they play. It's frustrating to lose and even more frustrating to lose to someone who is super serious about winning.

However, I think this is a great way to make yourself a better player (and a better hobbyist if you go for the painting/fluff stuff).

To go to tournaments or not to go - Part 1: Cost

The area I live in had a pretty lively wargaming community at one point. I remember being able to play pick up games no problem at the local gaming store and my friends played often and well it was good times. The local store also hosted annual events for both systems (plus some misc. events in between) and generally supported the community.

Then stuff happened (i.e. people grew up, less time to game, models got expensive so new blood didn't come in, etc) and well the wargaming community kind of dwindled.

Now there seems to a resurgence again as the guys who grew up are finding the time to play again and there are newer players who are just entering the work force so have lots of disposable income but there are no events to go to. What to do...

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.

Orktoberfest 2011 & Other news

New Event!
Orctoberfest was such a success last year that I decided to do it again this year. The difference is that I decided to change the format to 40k. It made the most sense and if I continue organizing this event I can change the format back and forth (or maybe even try for a 40k & Fantasy event to please both crowds).

Unfortunately it seems that most of the Fantasy players from last year won't be able to attend as they don't play/don't like 40k. That's ok though, I know there are a lot of 40k players in the area (Northern BC if anyone from there is reading) so hopefully word gets out soon.

Now the big thing is can I get enough sponsorship (i.e. will last year's sponsors provide the same amount of support) so I can actually provide prizes, lol. At the least the gamers are getting lunch on both days.

My Gaming
Haven't had much time to game much in the last few months. Between the new baby (born November) and year end school stuff my time allowed very little for gaming. Admittedly I did get back into Magic: The Gathering as that required less of time committment than Warhammer and with MTGO I can play whenever I have free time (no need to set up a table and what not).

With that said, I still have my Dark Angels and now have time to model some cyclones on my Deathwing terminators. Just have to dig up some of the old missile pods from the plethora of random mecha models I have. My next project after that is to try and get a box of Grey Knight Terminators so I can have a proper Deathwing command squad (and maybe a new Belial model)

I'm hoping to test the scenarios I came up with for Orktoberfest 2011 this summer so there should be more stuff up in the next 2 months regarding 40k, the Dark Angels and gaming.

March Tournament & Army List

I just got a heads up on a 40k tournament in March being put on by one of the local stores. It's slated to be 1500 points and with the advent of the new Dark Angels FAQ should provide ample opportunity to test out the changes.

I would have preferred a 2000 point tournament, but the store owner is playing it the UK/GW way, but whatever. A tournament is still a tournament and I love the competition.

The list I plan on taking is not going to take complete advantage of the changes. Not because I am feeling nice and un-competitive, but because I cannot change my models or add new models in time.

Pictures from Orctoberfest

A week late, but I finally sorted through my pictures.

Orctoberfest 2010

Again thanks to everyone who came out! It was great to see everyone having a good time and playing some good games! I'm already planning for next year and hopefully more people come out. Lots of prizes this year and hopefully the same amount or more next year!