Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Adepticon 2010 - DTP @ the 40K Championship



It never fails that when you make plans life jumps up to change those plans for you. In this case, work jumped up to change my plans to post this yesterday, so here we go.

Sunday at Adepticon found the DTP headed down at an ungodly 7am for a full day of 40K championship. I brought along my display board and my army as pictured and listed in the earlier post. I was excited for the day and had a chance before the games started to walk around and snap some pictures of the armies. For those interested in checking out all/most of the 150 pictures taken over the weekend, check out my album here.

Here are a couple pictures of armies I did not play, before I jump into my game reports.



Sadly I did not get the chance to actually play any Tau at the tournament, but I grabbed a picture of this army while walking around.





A couple pictures of a great Tervigon model.



your eyes do not deceive you, that's Dave Taylors Blood Pact on the table. Its armies like this that look so good it makes you wonder why you try for best army appearance. Surprisingly, Dave did not win best appearance or players choice, but more on that later.





And here we have an Ork player with the "right" idea on how to win the tourney! I may have to try this next year.

Championship
That brings us to the three games I played on Sunday as part of the 40K Championship. I have to first point out that while I did not place well in the tournament, these were 3 of the best games of 40K I have had in a long time. All three of my opponents were a whole lot of fun to play. Their armies were very nice and fully painted. They challenged me tactically and I hope that despite giving up the primary objective each game, I provided the same challenge for them.

Game 1







Game 1 I faced off against Brandon from GMM Studio Pro-Painting. Brandon had an incredible army and ended up winning both Players Choice and Best Army Appearance. I have to admit it was well deserved. To top that, Brandon was a great player and an excellent opponent to start the day out.
Lets take a look at Brandon's list:

HQ
Daemon Prince (Wings, Mark of Slanesh, Lash)
Daemon Prince (Wings, Mark of Slanesh, Lash)
Summoned Greater Daemon


Troops
5x Plague Marines (Flamer, Meltagun, Fist, Combi-melta)
w/ Rhino (Combi-Melta)
5x Plague Marines (Flamer, Meltagun, Fist, Combi-melta)
w/ Rhino (Combi-Melta)
5x Plague Marines (Flamer, Meltagun, Combi-melta )
w/ Rhino (Combi-Melta)
5x Plague Marines (Flamer, Meltagun, Combi-melta)
w/ Rhino (Combi-Melta)

Heavy
3x Obliterators
3x Obliterators

The mission was as follows:
  • Deployment - 12 inch "Pitched Battle" deployment zone
  • Primary Objective - Annihilation: Kill points
  • Secondary Objective - Elimination: Eliminate all of your opponents troop choices while having at least one of your own troop choices alive at the end of the game.
  • Tertiary Objective - Victory Points: Player must score at least 250 more victory points than their opponent.
  • Tactical Bonuses:
    • +1 if your opponent has no surviving fast attack choices at the end of the game
    • +1 if your opponent has no surviving heavy support choices at the end of the game
    • +1 if your opponent has no surviving elite choices at the end of the game
I ended up losing the primary, drawing the secondary, and losing the tertiary objectives here. This was my first time facing the Lash, and I ended up facing a double lash list here. I have to admit that it really did not affect my game at all. Brandon kept much of his army in reserve so the Daemon Princes came in on separate turns. I was able to kill the first lash prince off prior to the second coming onto the board. In addition, the Eldar Runes of Warding and sticking inside my tanks truly limits the effectiveness of Lash overall. The game came down to a lot of ranged shooting and each of us trying to blow apart each-others transports and then dump shots onto the infantry inside. Over two turns my dice turned against me and I was unable to do any damage at all. In one of those turns Brandons smoked rhino ate every single shot fired at it without actually causing any damage.

Game 2

Game 2 I faced Brian's Dark Eldar. I realized after Adepticon that I did not get any pictures of his very nice looking Raider army. This was a great match-up as I have only had a chance to face Dark Eldar one other time and it is always a fun game. I have to admit that it can be a bit overwhelming to face 13 raiders across the table and realize that there is a load of lance shots coming my way. Brian was at Adepticon from Atlanta GA, coming up from the Warfan Gaming club, a club I have played against previously when I was traveling to Atlanta.
Lets take a look at Brian's list:

HQ
Archon (Agonizer, Shadow Field, Trophy Rack)
w/ 5x Incubi retinue
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp)
Dracon (Crucible of Malediction)
w/ 5x Warrior retinue (2x Dark Lance)
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp, Trophy Rack)

Elite
5x Wyches (2x Blaster)
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp)
5x Wyches (2x Blaster)
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp)


Troops
5x Warriors (Dark Lance, Blaster)
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp)
5x Warriors (Dark Lance, Blaster)
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp)
5x Warriors (Dark Lance, Blaster)
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp)
5x Warriors (Dark Lance, Blaster)
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp)
5x Warriors (Dark Lance, Blaster)
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp)
5x Warriors (Dark Lance, Blaster)
w/ Raider (Dark Lance, Torture Amp)


Heavy
Ravager (3x Dark Lance)
Ravager (3x Disentegrator)
Ravager (3x Disentegrator)


The mission was as follows:
  • Deployment - Deployment was long tabel edge, up to 6" away from the center line. (18 inch deployment zone)
  • Primary Objective - Seize Ground: Capture terrain elements, to claim a terrain element you must have a unit wholly in/on an uncontested terrain element. To Contest a player must have a unit wholly in/on the element.
  • Secondary Objective - Elimination: Eliminate all of your opponents HQ choices while having at least one of your own HQ choices alive at the end of the game.
  • Tertiary Objective - Victory Points: Player must score at least 500 more victory points than their opponent.
  • Tactical Bonuses:
    • +1 if you have a model from a scoring unit within the 3" of the center of the table and your opponent does not
    • +1 If your most expensive unit is not fleeing or dead at the end of the game.
    • +1 if none of your HQ choices are destroyed at the end of the game
I ended up losing the primary and drawing both the secondary and tertiary objectives on this mission. Against Brian I was simply unable to do enough damage to his mass of raiders and 6 troop choices to bring this out. We both spent much of the game knocking each-others skimmers out of the air and trying to pick apart the infantry that popped out. The highlight of the game was a face-off between Brian's Archon and Incubi retinue vs my Spiders plus Autarch. During the fight my Autarch chose the worse part of Valor and attacked the Incubi opposed to facing the Archon. In a fit of rage, the Archon carved his way through the spiders to pull the face-off with the Autarch. In a surprise move, the Autarch landed enough blows to break the unit and then ran down the Archon as the Dark Kin broke.


Game 3







Game 3 I faced off against Rex's Space Wolves. This was the last game and we were on the bottom tables. I had heard that Rex was a very competent Space Wolves general from Mike Brandt, who faced Rex during the first round. This was something to keep in mind, but I also have not had the same problems with Space Wolves that I have heard other people have.
Lets take a look at Rex's list:

HQ
Wolf Lord (Thunderwolf, Runic Armor, Wolftooth Necklace, Frost WEapon, Storm Shield, Warrior Born)
w/ 2x Fenrisian Wolf
Rune Priest (Wolftooth Necklace, Runic Weapon, Jaws, Storm Caller)


Elite
6x Wolf Guard (3x Combi-Melta, 3x Combi-flamer)
w/ Droppod

Troops
5x Grey Hunters (Meltagun)
w/ Razorback (Lascannon, TL Plasmagun)
5x Grey Hunters (Meltagun)
w/ Razorback (Lascannon, TL Plasmagun)
5x Grey Hunters (Flamer)
w/ Razorback (Lascannon, TL Plasmagun)
5x Grey Hunters (Flamer)
w/ Razorback (Lascannon, TL Plasmagun)

Fast Attack
4x Thunderwolf Cavalry (Fist)
4x Thunderwolf Cavalry (Fist)


Heavy
4x Long Fangs (2x Missile, 1x Lascannon)
4x Long Fangs (2x Missile, 1x Lascannon)

The mission was as follows:
  • Deployment - Table Quarters
  • Primary Objective - Objectives Markers: At the start of the game 1 player sets up 3 objectives, then the other player chooses one objective as the "Primary objective Marker". At the end of the game a player gets 11 points for control of the primary objective marker, 5 points for contesting the primary objective marker, 5 points for control of each secondary objective marker, and 3 points for contesting each of the secondary objective markers.
  • Secondary Objective - Battlefield Control: Have at least one unit wholly in every standard table quarter at the end of the game. The unit need not be scoring nor can this objective be contested.
  • Tertiary Objective - Victory Points: Player must score at least 750 more victory points than their opponent.
  • Tactical Bonuses:
    • +1 If your opponent controls no objective markers at the end of the game
    • +1 If you achieved the secondary mission and all units used to control the quarters were scoring
    • +1 If your opponent has fewer than 4 units left at the end of the game
I ended up claiming 1 secondary objective marker and contesting 1 secondary objective marker. Rex ended up claiming the primary objective marker and contesting one secondary marker. Rex won the secondary objective with more quarters than I had, and we both drew the tertiary objective. This was a very fun game with a chance for me to finally see what Thunderwolf Cavalry can do. I will admit they can take a boat load of shots and still stick on the table. They also move much quicker than I anticipated. Overall the game was challenging and it came down to bring a bit short on the last turn to contest the primary objective marker. I had waited a bit too long to pull my skimmers into position to make the 24 inch ramming move to claim or contest on turn 5.


Conclusion
Adepticon was an incredible experience and overall the DTP performed as expected. I certainly need to work much harder on my tactics if I expect to place well at a tournament. On the modeling and painting front, I do not feel bad at all on how I scored. I am unsure what the painting score chart looked like, but Brandon had a 45 overall for painting, while I cam in with a 26.  Not a score I am disappointed in. I think the only disagreement I have with the scoring at the tournament was with the sportsmanship award being given to the lowest battle points of the tourney. In my opinion, this turns sportsmanship into a consolation prize, which I think lessens the total award.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Adepticon 2010 After-Action Report



I returned from the great convention in the Midwest of the USA known as Adepticon 6 days ago and it has taken this long for me to catch my breath! To sum up in the briefest way possible, wow.

Fear not intrepid reader, I will not leave you wanting for more information, I am here to blog, describing how the DTP did in the tournaments, and to provide pictures of the amazing things seen. Over on the Gamers Lounge podcast you can hear me waxing philosophically on events that happened along with listen to the interviews we conducted with some amazing guests during the weekend. Here, however, we duck our heads and focus on the DTP, less the Autarchs decide we would make the fitting sacrifice as the next young king.

I will be sharing pictures I took at Adepticon as we continue on through this post, but for a quick reference now, you can see the whole set of 150 pictures here on Flickr. Now on to the report.

The Dead Tau Project took part in 2 tournaments during Adepticon 2010, the Friday Combat Patrol and the Sunday 40K Championship. I was also lucky enough to get in a late Friday night game vs CSwizzy of Dice Like Thunder fame and his Black Templars.

Combat Patrol
So Friday found me in the room with 400 points of Eldar for Combat Patrol. Combat patrol had 3 very interesting missions and I had 3 excellent games with great opponents. I ended up placing slightly above the middle of the field at 26th out of 59 players. I scored 40 battle points out of a possible 90 points. I also (apparently) maxed my sports and paint score with 9 points in each. I am not entirely clear on how ties were broken on these, although I do know there was a Players Choice selection during the tournament.



Game 1
My first game was vs Anton and his Crimson Fists. I did not grab a copy of Anton's list, as (if I remember correctly) he was notified at the last minute that he had made it into combat patrol and he was not completely prepared. The mission was as follows:
  • Deployment - 12 inch deployment zones across the "long table edge".
  • Special Rules - Established Defenses - Outflanking units may not enter the table from the enemy deployment zone. Each Deep Striking model or vehicle arriving inside the enemy deployment zone must take an immediate Dangerous Terrain test (failing on a 1 or 2).
  • Primary Objective - Breakthrough - Have at least one scoring unit wholly within your opponents deployment zone. 
  • Primary Bonus Points - 
    • Draw them out: if your opponent has no units or vehicles in his deployment zone at the end of the game
    • Hold the line: if your opponent has no scoring units wholly within your deployment zone at the end of the game
    • Only the strong: if your most expensive unit is in your opponents deployment zone at the end of the game
  • Secondary Objective - Dead Soldiers can't fight back: The player with the most kill points wins secondary objective
  • Seconday obejctive bonus points:
    • Crush their spirits: if you destroy your opponents most expensive unit
    • Crush their skulls: if you destroy an enemy unit within your deployment zone at any point during the game
    • Self-preservation: limit your opponent to only scoring 1 or less kill points
This was an interesting game, as by the start of turn 3 I had killed his sternguard and we both thought the game was well in hand for me to win. Then, during the end of turn 3 both my Bikes and Dire Avengers failed leadership checks and broke, running from the board. This left me with 1 unit remaining, which was a non-scoring unit. This game ended as a hard fought win to Anton.



Game 2
Games 2 found me facing Josh's Eldar. Once I met my opponent and saw his army, I was very excited about playing this game. In my local area I get very few chances to play against other Eldar players, so I have very limited experience playing against them. Here was a chance to truly match my Autarch's prowess against another Autarch!
Josh brought a heavy walker list, as follows:

Troops
5x Dire Avengers
5x Dire Avengers


Heavy
2x War Walkers's (ScatLsr, StarCan / ScatLsr, ScarLsr)
1x War Walker (StarCan, StarCan / StarCan, StarCan)
1x War Walker (StarCan, StarCan / StarCan, StarCan)


The mission was as follows:
  • Deployment - Table Quarters, 4 objective markers
  • Primary Objective -Control the Depots: claim more objective markers at the end of the game than your opponent. If both players fail to claim any objective markers, then score this objective as a loss for both players (not a draw).
  • Primary Bonus Points - 
    • Cheap and Dirty: if your least expensive scoring unit controls or contests an objective marker at the end of the game
    • Work for it: claim or contest more than one objective marker at the end of the game
    • Lead by example: Have your commander within 3" of a controlled or contested objective marker at the end of the game
  • Secondary Objective - Costly Units: destroy the opposing players most expensive unit.
  • Secondary objective bonus points:
    • Sever the head: If you destroyed your opponents comander
    • No enemy too small: Destroy the opposing players least expensive unit
    • There is no glory in hiding: You decline to take any cover saves (including obscured) throughout the entire game
I knew this would be a tough match-up as I needed to eliminate his Avengers while knocking out his walkers. Through the game I was able to unleash a bladestorm against one walker, immobilizing it, Destructor the squadron, blowing up one of the walkers and then assault the remaining walker to witchblade it into a wreck. I was also able to unload my own scatter-laser walkers into his Avengers, wiping out one squad and maneuvering for the other. He successfully eliminated my bikes and warlock while only picking apart a couple dire avengers. At the end of the game I had made a play to stretch my avengers across 2 objectives to pick up a 2 to 1 win. I ended up about an inch short and did not pull it off, leaving the game at a tie.



Game 3
Games 3 found me facing Dan's Imperial Guard. I should point out that through the day the star of most armies appeared to be the IG Hydra Flak Tank. I was relieved to see I would not have to face one of these during my game vs IG.

Dan's list, as follows:
Troops
Vets w/ Shot Guns, Power weapon, Bolt Pistol, 2x Flamers, Heavy Flamer
Chimera w/ hunter killer
Pernal Legion

Heavy
Medusa

The third mission was very different. See as follows:
  • Special - Before deployment zones are determined, both players secretly select a primary mission objective from the 3 below. Declare the primary mission to your opponent.
  • Deployment - Per mission: 
    • Mission 1: Take and Hold - 12 inch deployment zones along "long table edge"
    • Mission 2: Assassinate - Table Quarters
    • Mission 3: Disrupt and Report - 1/2 board deployment
  • Primary Objective -
    • Objective 1: Take and Hold - after your deployment place 3 objective markers outside of your deployment zone, at least 12 inches apart. You must claim or contest two or more objective markers at the end of the game to win the primary mission.
    • Objective 2: Assassinate - destroy the opposing players most expensive unit
    • Objective 3: Disrupt and Report - have at least one scoring unit wholly within your opponents deployment zone at the end of the game
  • Primary Bonus Points - 
    • Clear the LZ: have no enemy units within any part of your deployment zone at the end of the game
    • Error on the side of carnage: achieve the 'Wipeout' criteria as described in the warhammer 40K rulebook by the end o turn 4
    • Forward Base: Have your most expensive scoring unit finish over 50% starting strength wholly within your opponents deployment zone
  • Secondary Objective - Get Some!: stop your opponent from accomplishing his primary mission
  • Secondary objective bonus points:
    • Mission's FUBAR, Kill Everything: if you did not win your primary mission and have more kill points than your opponent.
    • Dead in his Grave: if you destroyed your opponents commander within his/her deployment zone
    • Self-preservation: limit your opponent to zero kill points
This game went against Dan throughout the 5 turns we played. I chose Assassinate, with his Medusa ending up as the target while Dan chose Disrupt. I had bottom of the turn and reserved everything, leaving two turns for him to spend along on the board. His penal legion came in and shot at my Avengers, who promptly failed a leadership check and ran off the back of the board. This left the legion open to the bike squad and warlock's destructor. My walkers outflanked onto the board and promptly knocked the guns off his Medusa. After some maneuvering, I knocked the medusa out with some well placed rear shots. His Chimera immobilized itself rolling into difficult terrain in my deployment zone. At the end of turn 5, I fired my last shots and ended up winning via wipe-out conditions. Dan was a great opponent, and after a very minor hiccup we had an excellent game!

Sum total, I really enjoyed my combat patrol games, even though I apparently played them backwards (starting with a big loss, then a tie, then a massacre). These games were the first time I have failed so many leadership checks and had so much of my small army run off the table.

I certainly plan to play again next year. Hopefully the Eldar codex will be updated by then (although I think it is very competitive in 400 points now). If not, it will be a tough call to take Dark Eldar (who should be getting a new Dex this year) or the DTP.

I will get the Championship coverage posted tomorrow!