Why My Hard Boyz List Sucked...

(Send it to the Chop Shop!)

Okay, so the army I took to Hard Boyz sucked pretty hard.

I could probably end the post here and everyone would understand, but let's take a look at it and try to understand what went wrong. Other than the obvious that is: I shouldn't have changed my list the day before, regardless of the good reasons I had. Anyway, here's the list...

2500 Pts - Chaos Marines Roster - Hard Boyz List 2009

1 Abaddon the Despoiler @ 275 Pts
Drach'nyen; Talon of Horus; Twin Linked Bolter; Fearless; Personal Icon; Mark of Chaos Ascendant

1 Chaos Lord @ 170 Pts
Blood Feeder; Bolt Pistol (x1); Fearless; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Mark of Khorne

5 Chosen @ 160 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x5); Bolter (x4); Close Combat Weapon (x5); Lascannon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Infiltrate; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Chosen @ 160 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x5); Bolter (x4); Close Combat Weapon (x5); Lascannon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Infiltrate; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Chosen @ 160 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x5); Bolter (x4); Close Combat Weapon (x5); Lascannon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Infiltrate; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Khorne Berzerkers @ 171 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Fearless; Furious Charge; Personal Icon; Mark of Khorne
1 Skull Champion @ [61] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Fearless; Furious Charge; Mark of Khorne

4 Chaos Space Marines @ 170 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Chaos Glory; Rhino
1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

4 Chaos Space Marines @ 170 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Chaos Glory; Rhino
1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

4 Chaos Space Marines @ 170 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Chaos Glory; Rhino
1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Bikers @ 248 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Twin Linked Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Chaos Glory
1 Biker Champion @ [73] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike

1 Land Raider @ 245 Pts
Twin Linked Heavy Bolter; Twin Linked Lascannon Sponson (x2); Dirge Caster; Dozer Blade; Extra Armor; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Havocs @ 185 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Lascannon (x1); Missile Launcher (x2); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Havocs @ 150 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x4); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Summoned Lesser Daemon @ 65 Pts
Close Combat Weapon; Fearless

Total Roster Cost: 2499

Let's break it down.

Abaddon and the Berserkers in the Land Raider = Good
Khorne Lord w Bloodfeeder on Bike with supporting Bike Squad = God Awful
Chosen w Lascannon popping out of a Rhino x3 = Good
5-man core units w PF and melta gun popping out of a Rhino x3 = Average
5 Daemons = Poor
Havoc squad with melta guns popping out of a Rhino = Good
Havoc squad w Lascannon and Missle Launchers popping out of a Rhino = Poor
The Rhino Spam theme = Good
Screwing up the Rhino Spam theme with some poor choices = Priceless

So, I had 8 Rhinos and a Land Raider, which in all 3 games were great. I wasn't sold on the idea of bare-bones tanks until I tried it, now I'm a convert. 35pts works if you use a lot of 'em. That part of the army worked, but there was a supplemental.

That is, the idea of KEEPING THE SQUAD IN THE RHINO and secondarily using the hatch to turn the Rhinos into pillboxes. All this was to the good, but you have to do it right.

So let's take a look at one example of poor execution, the Havoc squad with 3 heavy weapons. Two points here: 1) having 3 weapons encouraged me to disembark the squad, which is counter to the strategy, and 2) I didn't realize more than 1 weapon could fire from the top hatch.

How's that for stupid? I change my army and didn't actually know the rules that applied to the new force I was playing. You can see this mistake in the choices I made. Since I can have two weapons shoot from my cheapo pillboxes, why not give the Havocs two lascannons and stick them in a Rhino? This is better than having the Chosen in the same role with only one.

I could go on, but let's look at the true elephant in the room, the Khorne Lord with the Bloodfeeder and the Bike Squad he accompanies. This, my friends, is over 400 points of stupid. On paper... it's still stupid... but let's look at it the way I did. I have the models, but more importantly the Bloodfeeder can add 2d6 extra attacks! That gives me a close combat character to match Abaddon. Well, it doesn't, but that's actually what I was looking for, a close assault or counterattack option to balance Abaddon. Notice these two units are the only CC element in an army primarily designed to be a gunline, so I figure they have to be good. Truth be told, even discounting how the Lord won't fight if he rolls a 1 on either dice, the option just doesn't work. It's a power weapon, true, but it simply won't hit or wound enough for me to build a significant portion of my army around. He doesn't come close to being an Abbaddon.

Okay, those are the primary problems with the list. Even then, it did pretty well, with 1 win and 2 good losses; nobody rolled over me. How much better, then, would my performance be had I practice enough with the concept to tighten it up some, or (even better) played the army I was familiar with, the Eldar?

I think that's pretty obvious.

So my goal now, for the coming year of tournaments, is to apply a critical mind to what I'm doing, be it lists, changes, strategy, tactics... any and all aspects of what I'm doing.

Next post, I'm going to change up the list, see if I can make one along the same principles that's obviously better.

Take care - Brent

An Open Letter re: Hard Boyz

(I wrote this on YTTH re: Darkwynn's Hard Boyz win.)

Okay folks, this is some bullshit.

The Flylords have every right to roll out the red carpet for one of their own winning a major US tournament. There is zero wrong with that; had someone here at YTTH done the same, you can bet they'd post it. None of this is 'crowing from the rooftops' or bragging, and you can't minimize this away: for right now, with the scene the way it is, Hard Boyz is THE competative tournament.

Now Stelek is planning a tournament next year that promises to, if all goes well, take that spot. I believe he can do that; I'm planning on attending. But that's then and this is now.

Getting to the tournament isn't easy, no matter how you cut it. Sure, the first round can be hit or miss, but by the time you play in Round Two you've got to wade through some nonsense. Placing is an accomplishment, and certainly luck is involved in doing it. Luck is also useful in winning the whole thing: who you play, choice of move, maximizing points, et cetra. Keep in mind, there was no special rules in this last round.

Each scenario was right out of the book. The scenery was spread evenly on every table. The judges deliberately didn't want anyone claiming they'd win Hard Boyz 'if only I didn't play in table 10...'.

I'm guessing some of you are thinking you'd have won if only you'd been there. And I call bullshit. It wasn't a soft event.

Now, all that notwithstanding, I've got no beef with Stelek taking a shot at the list - it's what he does. Frankly, I don't think anyone else does army creation better (and I had my nose rubbed in that last weekend, thank you very much), so it's always interesting to visit YTTH.

Just keep some perspective. The King has it right; congratulate the man before you have a go at him.

Anyway...

In Round Three the top table was IG v Ork, IG v Ork, and Ork v Eldar. I took a picture and frankly was thinking it would be funny to Stelek, figuring it would be hard for him to say Orks weren't competative after all. So then what happens? The Orks all lose.

I found that pretty interesting, considering that the best armies, with of course the few odd exceptions, made it to the top tables.

Anyway, enough of all that. As always, take care all - Brent

(And of course I put some pics up there to look at...)

Hard Boyz is done!

I'm not going to post the name of the winner, since I know Bell is working something up and I don't want to scoop them.

Not that anyone actually reads this blog...

I did okay, winning one and losing two. I lost the first round to the guy on table one who played orks... he lost to the Hard Boyz winner...

Anyway, after losing Game One I didn't work too hard but rather enjoyed the day. I'm going to be posting the games here, of course.

So, did I make a mistake changing armies? Yes and no. My army worked well except for the Khorne lord and bike squad, which sucked hard. That element of my army didn't work at all and I would have known that had I had practice with my list. I think I would have probably done better with my Eldar, but I'm not sure it would have made a difference as far as placing.

Be ready to hear some bitching about prize support. As in, there wasn't any. Only the top three spots got anything.

Anyway, more tomorrow, including pictures.

Brent

Comments from Chicago

Okay, the image is here because I don't like to post without pictures. You have to get something out of coming here...

So, Bruce and I are here in Chicago. We visited the Battle Bunker this evening and all I can say is wow.

It's like the Mecca for game-geeks. Gonna get my fix on tomorrow during the event.

The terrain in the main room is incredible; we got in a quick few rounds on a really cool Ork-themed table, just I can try out my army. For the record, here it is.

2500 Pts - Chaos Marines Roster - Hard Boyz List 2009

1 Abaddon the Despoiler @ 275 Pts
Drach'nyen; Talon of Horus; Twin Linked Bolter; Fearless; Personal Icon; Mark of Chaos Ascendant

1 Chaos Lord @ 170 Pts
Blood Feeder; Bolt Pistol (x1); Fearless; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Mark of Khorne

5 Chosen @ 160 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x5); Bolter (x4); Close Combat Weapon (x5); Lascannon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Infiltrate; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Chosen @ 160 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x5); Bolter (x4); Close Combat Weapon (x5); Lascannon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Infiltrate; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Chosen @ 160 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x5); Bolter (x4); Close Combat Weapon (x5); Lascannon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Infiltrate; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Khorne Berzerkers @ 171 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Fearless; Furious Charge; Personal Icon; Mark of Khorne
1 Skull Champion @ [61] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Fearless; Furious Charge; Mark of Khorne

4 Chaos Space Marines @ 170 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Chaos Glory; Rhino
1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

4 Chaos Space Marines @ 170 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Chaos Glory; Rhino
1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

4 Chaos Space Marines @ 170 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Chaos Glory; Rhino
1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Bikers @ 248 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Twin Linked Bolter; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Chaos Glory
1 Biker Champion @ [73] Pts
Bolt Pistol; Power Fist; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike

1 Land Raider @ 245 Pts
Twin Linked Heavy Bolter; Twin Linked Lascannon Sponson (x2); Dirge Caster; Dozer Blade; Extra Armor; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Havocs @ 185 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Lascannon (x1); Missile Launcher (x2); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Havocs @ 150 Pts
Bolt Pistol; Close Combat Weapon; Bolter; Meltagun (x4); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Rhino
1 Rhino @ [35] Pts
Twin Linked Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers

5 Summoned Lesser Daemon @ 65 Pts
Close Combat Weapon; Fearless

Total Roster Cost: 2499

So it's a pretty big change. The army hearkens to the days of 3rd edition, and the beginning of 4th, when 5-man units were king. The general idea is 'the tank-as-unit.' With the exception of the Havoc squads, the men are meant to stay in the Rhino, and I'm leaving it up to my opponent to force them out.

Obviously, I have two heavy duty combat characters, but at Hard Boyz you have to have the counter-punch. I just want to make sure mine is better than my opponents.

I really don't know how it will work; like I said in a previous post, it can give up a lot of KP's. I can't worry about that. It will be what it will be. The army is really Stelek inspired, though I don't think he's a fan of Havocs, but I added those simply because I wanted to spam the tank theme. I think I have to add the caveat that if the army does well he deserves some credit, but if it doesn't that's on me: it's inspired by his game theory, but I trust my instincts as well. I have to play it.

Now, I'm saying that I don't really know how it will work, but that doesn't mean that I don't think it won't work well. In fact, I'm pretty much betting it will work really well. We'll see what happens.

Take care all - Brent

PS Some well-known hobbyists and bloggers are in attendance. Darkwynn stopped by and said hi, Jon Shaffer is one of the judges at the event, and I understand two of the WC are here, including Green Blow Fly. GBF evidently has a reputation for nonsense; this according to scuttlebutt this evening. Now to be fair, this is complete hearsay: I don't personally have any experience, positive or negative, with the dude.

I'm just name-dropping. :)

Off To Chicago

I'm off to Chicago this morning for Hard Boyz Round III... wish me luck!

Of course I completely changed my army; nothing unusual for people who know me, but in this case I think I made the right decision.

You see, I just couldn't come up with an Eldar combination, with the units I had available, that I felt completely comfortable with. Had I another 100 bucks to invest, I'd have been okay, but with school starting and having to purchase a plane ticket I just didn't have the money to spend on it. I know of at least 2 Eldar armies that will be there, both of whom have better lists than mine (in the context of this tournament), Adam and Peachykeen. Adam's army has about ten Serpents and a ton of mobility while Peachy runs a dual council list.

If I'm going to this tournament, I wanted to to have a plan and an army to execute it, and for several reasons went back to the well with Chaos. I don't have time right now to write a longer post, but basically Abaddon is going to lead a MSU Rhino SPAM. The downside is it can potentially give up a ton of Kill Points, but it should make up for that in other ways.

Hopefully I won't lose all three games...

Take care - Brent

PS: Here's some pics from Galaxy Games, including a nice little Flesh Tearers army.

The Nonsense Called Game Three...

So it’s been a week or so since the Hard Boyz semifinals. I’ve posted about Game 2 and promised I’d make time to post about Game 3. I’ve had to think about it some, given how disgusted I was about the whole thing.

My opponent was (and forgive me if I butcher this) Simonold, a casual player from Lubbock. I’m fairly sure I’ve got his name wrong but I guess that’s beside the point. He said he didn't play much this year, coming out only for Hard Boyz.

Let’s run through a quick synopsis of the game.

So we have table quarters and an objective in the middle; pretty standard stuff. I set up my Dark Reapers, screened by Pathfinders, at the extreme diagonal with a view of the objective. My Serpents and Council lined up behind cover and my Avatar was front and center; I had two units of Pathfinders on the wings. My opponent deployed in a fairly standard brick, Land Raiders up front ready to blitz forward, providing cover for more breakable units to approach behind. Each Land Raider had a 14 strong Crusader squad (mixed Initiates and Neophytes), one led by the Emperor’s Champion and the other by the High Marshal. I knew the Black Templars were going to teleport a Terminator Assault squad and land a Drop Pod with Crusaders, but I didn’t allow this to adjust my deployment much other than to lay out some bait. Both would have to deploy from reserves, so I judged it safe to assume one would arrive in Turn 2 and the other in Turn 3. My Reapers played bait and I gave him a nice big hole to land in, but when these units arrived they didn’t deploy in my backfield at all. More on this later, but this was the reason I kept my Harlequins in reserve; I didn’t want to give him an easy opportunity to take out this squad. I had the first turn; he tried to steal it but didn’t. The first two turns the armies jockeyed for position. I quickly immobilized a Land Raider and this seemed to throw him off his plan, which naturally was driving both forward and unloading two squads all over me. There was sort of a ‘No-man’s Land’ in the middle, where neither army wanted to step foot since it would give the opposition the opportunity to jump all over them. I was content with this, but it was the bottom of Turn Two when he realized he needed to break the stalemate and move forward, otherwise I was going to have an easy game of it…

(There was some discussion of this later; for the record, I would have turbo-boosted everything forward, deploying my Seer Council as a long screen against his army, backed up by Serpents and Avatar, with troops behind this holding the objective. The Seer Council is a fantastic tar-pit; even his assault-oriented Marines couldn’t have shifted all this for a win. I wouldn’t have bet against the Eldar, either, with the Avatar and Eldrad backing up the army.)

The middle game was a fight around in the center with elements of both armies held in reserve. For the record, I think he was too passive. I destroyed the Land Raider he moved forward to sit on the objective and killed the troops inside it, but this shouldn’t have stopped him from trying. When his Terminators and Drop Pod came in, he teleported the first behind his lines in relative safety and dropped the second on one of my flanks… why? Had I been in his shoes, I would have dropped the Terminators in the middle of the fray and landed the pod right on the objective. Yes, I had the tools to take care of both, but he still should have made me do it – that’s why you roll the dice during a game! Had any portion of these units survived the initial assault they would have made my life miserable. Regardless of all this speculation, we tore each other’s armies up some and tried to be the one holding the objective at the end of the game.

Here's the last pic I took. The poker chip is the objective and I'd placed the Dire Avenger in range to control it but with the squad strung out to take cover behind the close combat. This is from the last movement; after my shooting and assault phase, there wasn't as much left.

*sigh*

Okay, I’ve been avoiding really talking about the bullshit that happened. Let’s cut to the chase: I won the game. It wasn’t that exciting and, except for the argument at the end, I had no real trouble winning it. Simonold was a really nice guy and we both laughed and joked during the game.

That said, we were both disgusted and argumentative by the end of it, because he was one of the slowest players I’ve ever come across and he didn’t want to play the last turn.

Okay, it’s like this.

The people who played him in the first two games told me there was an issue with time, so I told him right up front that I wanted to make sure we got to Turn 5 and beyond. I was nice about it, telling him I understood he was meticulous, but that it was important we have a fair game since it would determine who went to Chicago. I made this point twice and he understood. During the game, I took very little time, hurrying through my rounds. I also played cheerleader during his turns, trying to keep him moving.

Turns 1 and the top of 2 took 15 minutes, the bottom of 2 (his turn) and Turn 3 took 1.5 HOURS. Believe me when I tell you, it wasn’t me. So now we were in a position where we began Turn 4 with about ½ hour of play left. I explained this to him and told him we could do it. After all, this is a competitive event, right? Turn 4 took 15 minutes, so we’re about to start turn 5 and we have 17 minutes left…

And he doesn’t want to play Turn 5.

Why should he? He’d taken his turn knowing he had no intention of going on, so he’d slyly placed one model to control the objective. I’d seen it, of course, but it didn’t matter to me since my Harlequins were going to kill that unit next turn. After all, I’d taken my Turn 4 with the expectation I’d get another.

Even as I write this a week later, I’m getting angry. This, more than anything else, is why tournaments have the reputation they do. The BULLSHIT people pull to win that has nothing to do with the game at hand.

I wasn’t going to stand for it. Had I known we weren’t going to get to Turn 5 I would have played Turn 4 differently. It wouldn’t have been optimal, because obviously I wanted that extra turn of shooting/assault before jumping on the objective, but I tell you truthfully I would have won regardless, barring some outrageous shift of luck. I basically had at him. I said approximately the following, “Look, this is bullshit. We got through the last turn in 15 minutes and we’ll get through this one the same. I guarantee you you’ll get your turn. But this is Hard Boyz and if you didn’t want to finish the game you have no reason to be here… Hell, this isn’t a surprise: I told you we needed to hurry, and it wasn’t me that used the bulk of two hours. My army wins in the last half of the game; you think its right to deprive me of that? Bullshit. We’ve got plenty of time, but we’ve wasted 3 minutes on this shit and I’m getting my turn. If you don’t want yours after that, fine.”

Then I moved and started telling him which dice to roll. I only moved the part of my army that mattered (and I actually forgot to move an element that was going to control a board quarter) and got done in a few minutes, leaving 10 minutes for his turn. He stood around mumbling to himself but finally got around to rolling dice.

So I won, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth. After the game he kept saying he couldn’t believe I’d ‘talked him into that,’ pointing out he had the win at the bottom of 4. I was pretty sick of the whole thing but stuck to my guns, telling him that the only turn that matters was the last one and slow-playing to avoid it was a bullshit strategy.

And make no mistake, I found out later it was his strategy. I talked to his opponents from round 1 and 2 afterward and they pointed out something I’d missed: he kept checking his watch throughout the game. He knew exactly how long he had. His game 1 got through 3 turns, which he won; the guy he beat said it was really frustrating to sit through these long turns and to lose knowing he would have won had the game gone on. The dude Simonold played game 2 said the same thing but with the twist that Simonold started playing really, really quickly when one of the random objectives fell into a bad spot for him and he needed more turns to grab it… Guess what? He then asked his opponent to start another turn with only a few minutes left on the clock.

One last thing… While I was adding up points he went to tell his sob-story to the judge, so I felt the need to call him out from across the room. Look, I’m a decent, chill guy for the most part. People tell me they enjoy playing me and I can put up with almost anything, but I’m not the kind to let something like that go. I won’t be walked on in this world, not even over a game of toy soldiers. I tell you three times, I would have taken the whole thing a LOT further.

Bottom line, you have to advocate for yourself. The tournament scene can be really cool and most people on it are decent, honest people, but the sad fact is even good judges can’t do much to the guy that’s cheating, or slow-playing, or pulling some other form of nonsense: the judge or TO only has so much authority. The best tournaments are those where the judge doesn’t tolerate such bullshit, but those are usually local events where he gets a chance to know the players and what to watch for.

Any comments?

Hard Boyz Semi-Finals, Game 2

Well, today is another day.

*yawn*

Cliches make me tired.

I'm back from the tournament this weekend, the Hard Boyz Semi-Finals (Round 2 of 3) with a disappointing 3rd round finish. Disappointing only in the sense that it's what I earned; who wants what they earned? I'll take 1st on a lucky break and write home about my new 2500pt army GW can pack'n'mail.

But it wasn't to be dear reader (yes, reader singular - as in, there is only one of you). At Challenge Games in Lubbock, TX, a fantastic and friendly venue I highly recommend, Adam took 1st with Mechdar, Bruce took 2nd with Vulcan 'Bestof,Lite', and I scratched for 3rd with my Hybrid Eldar.

I'll write up the other two games over the next few days - look out for Game 3, where it is evidently okay to slowplay a victory - but for now let's take a brief look at Game 2 against the eventual winner, Adam and his Mechdar.

Eldard plus 10 Warlocks
Yriel
2 Dragons (8 inc Exarch DBF) in WS w BL SS
3 Avengers minimal in WS w BL SS
3 Fire Prism w HF SS

Look familiar? It's a netlist, and by that I only mean its a variation of a known, agressive build with hard-hitting units and tons of mobility. Let's talk about that for a moment. I know many players look to the net for ideas. Then there are people who copy their army list point for point from their favorite site. The last category of player develops a list over time, learning its strengths and weaknesses over time, molding an army until it works - so many times these lists resemble other lists across the country because like-minded people are bound to work out the same ideas across the board.

There's no right or wrong in any of that; I think most of us dabble in all three types of development over the years, but keep in mind there are few original ideas out there. Recently Stelek championed the Rifleman Dread, that is, a Dreadnought with 2 TL-Autocannons. Now how long has that option been available, staring people in the face, before its truely awesome potential saw discussion? It's where new builds come from, in my admittedly never humble opinion, some smart-cookie having an ephiphany while sitting on the pot reading a tattered codex for the umpteenth time.

Sorry for the aside, but why did I bring it up? Well, Stelek's been championing his view of competative play for over half a year now which I've described before as economy of points, reason and redundancy, and MechMechMech. Adam's list was more the disciple of these tenants than my own, so when all things else were equal...

I was outplayed and could do little about it. Instructive, no?

A few words about the game: I won't bore you with play-by-play in hindsight. It was played in Round 2 so obviously scenario 2 was used. This scenario was 'Fumble in the Dark (With Your Pants Down And A Stupid Grin On Your Face)'...

Okay, I added that last part, but what a bullshit scenario - who thinks of this shit? Nightfight was in effect the whole game and 6 counters were placed, but only 3 of them were worth anything, so on turns 2, 4, and 6 you'd randomly find out where the money was. This was further clusterfucked by having two Eldrads on the board... know what Runes of Warding do to each other? It makes it much easier for your precious psyker to hurt himself playing with fire.

I lost the choice and was forced to go first. I decided I'd have to play aggressively given his obvious advantage in mobility; obviously he'd swoop in and claim objectives on the last turn and I couldn't afford to allow him that. I attacked on the middle/left, blocking and baiting with my tarpit and trying to force his Serpents down. My plan was to try to force a fight in one place while my Pathfinders waited in the wings to identify then claim the objectives.

So I forced his Fire Dragons out of his tanks. He took a turn firing everything at my Fortune'd Seer Council, killing one. That's what they were there for. He then surprised me by throwing both his Dragons in the assault. It was a good move. They were dead regardless, but he tied down my Council when I'd probably have movd them away completely, killing off his Dragons another way. As it was, it gave him the option to break out on both flanks, abandoning the fight but effectively staking his claim to the win. I played my ass off, making a fight of it, but my Pathfinders and Reapers couldn't do a thing about his Wave Serpents and Fire Prisms. (Note: see the black and orange Fire Dragons on the hill? They were from the Serpent I had blocking the rear-armor shot to the middle Serpent... didn't want you thinking I did the in-game equivalent of turning around and bending over.)

This last picture is from his last movement phase. I'd done my best, but he was easily able to contest all the objectives from me, then he cleaned my Pathfinders from off one objective, cementing his win.

So that's it then. Adam was a genuine guy, very cool and very funny. As an example we were joking around about Eldar on Eldar action and shared a faux-passionate huge with everyone looking on. Not a lot of guys get me, but he had a great sense of humor and enough self-esteem not to sweat the homo-erotic humor. My kind of guy.

A few last points...

The Avatar is always awesome. He played the strong linchpin of my force, tying up the enemy and keeping units in the fight that would have otherwise run. That said, he doesn't have a place in the more mobile army I'm going to HAVE to build in the future.

I have a slight issue with craters. A vehicle explosion leaves (can? should?) a crater that is dangerous terrain. I've only ever used this rule if my opponent has a crater to put on the board to represent it, but Adam's FLGS uses the rule at all times, so I went with it and we proxied it, leaving the clear bases behind to represent the crater. Adam later landed a Fire Prism on one and pointed out my Jetbikes require a dangerous terrain test to assault him. I lost a model. Now, I'm not bringing it up because it changed the game, because it didn't. I'm just not sure how I feel about this convention. I'm sure I could have set up an assault that didn't include the crater had it actually been represented. I was taken by surprise, never having really come across this in-game, so I'm going to have to decide how I want to handle it in the future. How big is the crater? Does it block line of sight? Is it shaped exactly like a Serpent, or Land Raider, or what? It's just an oddity and certainly nothing Adam was doing to trip me up. Quite the opposite - I was really out of sorts that game and he was very cool about it.

Last thing: Adam used a 10-strong Seer Council in a Wave Serpent with Eldrad attached. I've heard Stelek blast the foot-option, but it was a tough nut to crack once it was stuck in. Also, Adam seemed to think it counted as a retinue for Eldrad and 1) he couldn't be targeted and 2) he couldn't leave. We had a brief discussion. He showed me the Retinue rule in the BBB and I said "Yes, but show me where it says Retinue in the Eldar Codex." I maintained it was an option opened up by the purchase of a Farseer but otherwise an IC operated as normal. I'm confident I'm right, but I'm putting it out there anyway.

This has gone on long enough - take care all...

Brent

Note: I've written this blog as a submission for Yes The Truth Hurts, Stelek and Co.'s tactica site, primarily because I believe it illustrates many of his points on Eldar builds. I include it here because this is my blog... but nobody actually reads it anyway!

Hard Boyz List V3

So maybe I'm being dragged kicking and screaming to a new way of thinking about Eldar.

I've had success, but in many ways I don't want to embarrass myself when I get to BOLSCON, what with Fritz, Jawa, Goat, JWolf - hell, all those guys and more are converging on Austin in August, and I want to hold my own or do them one better. I just need to make sure I have the proper tool.

I've been arguing with Stelek over on his blog, and while I don't think I'm wrong I'm not sure I'm right either. I won't waste words rehashing it; I've put the link in my last post. Suffice it to say, I need to trim some fat, so I cranked out some tighter lists this morning (concentrating on Hard Boyz points value, though the same theory applies to the 2000pt roster due this Friday).

2500 Pts - Eldar Roster - Eldar Hard Boyz List V3

1 Eldrad Ulthran @ 210 Pts
Psyker; Doom ; Eldritch Storm ; Fortune ; Guide ; Mind War ; Divination; Fleet; Independent Character; Ghost Helm (GH); Rune Armour (RAmr); Runes of Warding (RofWard); Runes of Witnessing (RofWit); Spirit Stones (P:SpStn); Shuriken Pistol (Sp); Witchblade (WB); Staff of Ulthamar (SofU)

1 Avatar @ 155 Pts
Unit Type: Monstrous Creature; Fearless; Deamon; Inspiring; Molten Body; Wailing Doom (WD)

4 Harlequin Troupe @ 126 Pts
Fleet; Flip Belts; Furious Charge; Hit & Run; Holo-Suit (H-S); Harlequins Kiss (Hkiss) (x4); Shuriken Pistol (x4)
1 Harle Troupe Master @ [38] Pts
Fleet; Flip Belts; Furious Charge; Hit & Run; Holo-Suit (H-S); Power Weapon; Shuriken Pistol (Sp)

9 Fire Dragons @ 332 Pts
Fleet; Fusion Gun (Fg); Melta Bombs
1 Fire Dragon Exarch @ [43] Pts
Fleet; Tank Hunters; Dragon's Breath Flamer; Melta Bombs
1 Wave Serpent @ [145] Pts
Energy Field (Wave Serpent); Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat); TL Bright Lances (TL-BL)

9 Fire Dragons @ 332 Pts
Fleet; Fusion Gun (Fg); Melta Bombs
1 Fire Dragon Exarch @ [43] Pts
Fleet; Tank Hunters; Dragon's Breath Flamer; Melta Bombs
1 Wave Serpent @ [145] Pts
Energy Field (Wave Serpent); Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat); TL Bright Lances (TL-BL)

10 Pathfinders (Rangers) @ 240 Pts
Fleet; Infiltrate; Move Through Cover; Stealth; Ignore Difficult Terrain; Pathfinder Stealth; Scouts; Pathfinders; Shuriken Pistol (Sp) (x10); Ranger Long Rifle (RLRifle)

10 Pathfinders (Rangers) @ 240 Pts
Fleet; Infiltrate; Move Through Cover; Stealth; Ignore Difficult Terrain; Pathfinder Stealth; Scouts; Pathfinders; Shuriken Pistol (Sp) (x10); Ranger Long Rifle (RLRifle)

10 Pathfinders (Rangers) @ 240 Pts
Fleet; Infiltrate; Move Through Cover; Stealth; Ignore Difficult Terrain; Pathfinder Stealth; Scouts; Pathfinders; Shuriken Pistol (Sp) (x10); Ranger Long Rifle (RLRifle)

4 Dark Reapers @ 217 Pts
Reaper Launcher (RL)
1 Dark Reaper Exarch @ [77] Pts
Crack Shot (CS); Tempest Launcher (TL)

4 Dark Reapers @ 217 Pts
Reaper Launcher (RL)
1 Dark Reaper Exarch @ [77] Pts
Crack Shot (CS); Tempest Launcher (TL)

1 Falcon @ 190 Pts
Holo-Field (Vehicle) (H-F); Spirit Stone (V:SpStn); Bright Lance (BL); TL Shuriken Catapult (TL-Scat); Pulse Laser (PL)

Total Roster Cost: 2499

This isn't the first build I came up with this morning, but it does make use of stuff I currently have. I may need to buy two more tanks.

Brent