I had a fairly busy weekend this past holiday, starting with TTB, rolling into a Malifaux game versus Nate, then Super Dungeon on Saturday. On Sunday, I went to a tournament in Westminster, 2000 points, three rounds. More on that later.
After TTB, which I can't really talk about beyond that its still awesome, we had lunch. But after that I played a game of Malifaux versus Nate. He used my Viks crew with Taelor and three Ronin. I went with an all book one crew, trying to get the feel for models before the new book come out so I can see changes.I ran Leveticus, Rusty Alyce, Hooded Rider, canine, belle, and a necropunk. We had Beatdown, I took Assassinate and hidden Hold Out, he took hidden Grudge on the canine and hidden Hold Out. I of course killed the dog straight away, breaking Grudge. I als drug Taelor through the coals(literally) with Lure on the first turn.
It was rather a slaughter. I did lose the Necropunk on turn two, after he had leaped and flurried into a Ronin. I used Alyce's nothing to live for twice, netting me two cards the first time. The second time, I was safe save for a Red Joker. Johan's slow to die flipped a Red Joker Severe, killing Alyce, but netting me eight cards. I actually worked to keep Leveticus alive that turn, just so I could keep my enormous hand. He won turn three for Beatdown. Turn four went to me, but that was his crew, so only two from the strategy. I managed Hold Out and Assassinate and the Hooded Rider had wondered off, feeling unneeded, and broken his Hold Out. A good game, showed me that even book one Leveticus can be a nightmare to face. This is something I already knew, since pretty much all of my models are book one. Friday will tell how they continue to do as the beta is released.
I played Link in Super Dungeon, we were running the new Castlevania style expansion. It seems rather cool. The game started to bog down though, and so the Heroes started to lose interest. We were also playing vulnerability wrong, as there was an errata we didn't know about. Overall, lots of fun, look forward to playing it again soon, but I am definitely liking my retirement from Consoledom.
That was Saturday, Sunday was a tournament down in Westminster. I had added Reavers, another Seer, and upgrades to my 1750 list. Round one was versus Kevin, who ran Chaos with IG allies. He had two Heldrake, a formation of two Vendettas, vets, command squad, three units of cultists, two units of oblits, some spawn, and a nurgle lord on a bike. I had never faced Heldrakes before, so I didn't really know how to deal with them. My usual answer of hiding up their a flyers skirt doesn't work with a Heldrake, as they just flame you out the butt. I almost took one down, doing to hull points, but he saved another two, so it kept flying. Eventually it healed, and ended the game full. It was probably a mistake to target the drake at all, I should have gone after his troops. I killed a squad of cultists, put another on the ground, meaning they couldn't move onto the objective. The last squad took his objective, and his vets took one of mine, though my hellions came in an blew him off it. Had the game gone to turn five, I might have drawn, but as points were drawn directly from the game, it would have meant I had only four out of a possible eighteen. In the end, it went to him, 5-1.
Game two was versus Ed, the TO, because I bottomed and had to play the ringer. I kind of defeated my self in this one, though it may have been valid. We were playing big guns with hammer and anvil deployment. Hammer and anvil versus Orks is a bad day for my Eldar. They take up to much room, and I end up with no place to go. I actually could have gotten a draw, just by starting my turn four though. On turn two I held off my Razorwing using scrier's, hoping to come in after his second Dakkajet. On turn three I failed to come in at all. I did a bit of damage, tearing through trucks during the first couple turns. He had placed a Skyshield in his back field, loaded it with grots and a couple looted wagons, and put an objective on it. One of his guys pointed out that objectives can't go on fortifications, so he moved it under, then I pointed out the skyshield is taller than 3" and he wasn't controlling. The game went pretty heavily against me, but in the end, my Hellions deep striked in, ran under the pad, then on the following turn, moved up into some ruins, so I could draw line of sight, then charge his grots. They of course stuck after some boss poling, but my Hellions hit and ran off the pad and onto the objective below. His only other remaining troops were on a center objective. The game ended 6-5 for him, with him on an objective, had killed my warlord, had linebreaker, and my Razorwing failed to come in, which is a heavy. I had 5 from first blood, linebreaker, and my own objective. As a ringer he wanted to give me half points, which was 10, but I decided to ask him to just give me the five I had earned, since, had my Razorwing come on, it would have likely killed the troops squad, giving me a 5 maybe 8 if the razor got an objective, win. So, losing basically netted me 2-5 extra points. Losing should never be better than winning.
My final game was versus Pyro. He was running vanilla Space Marines. I feel like I may have been a little abrasive this game, not and out and out jerk, just a bit tired and grumpy and it was a long day that wasn't going terribly my way. It was Emperor's Will, with his objective behind an aegis and mine behind a hill with ruins on top. I took another maiming, but had some seriously awesome rolls. I had one Hellion make 4 or 5 consecutive 6+ cover saves, unfortunately, I took 5 or 6 wounds, so she eventually died, but she did well for the team. Dice down was called for the first time all day right in the middle of my fourth turn assault phase. This was the first hard dice down all day, and was a bit decisive for the game. We ended up arguing it so we could finish turn. In the end he rolled some instant death and non-instant death dice together, which mucked up my Baron's combat to contest my objective, but I'm not sure he would have lived anyway, after failing his 2+ and only having two wounds versus a squad with power weapons. The one at a time rolling really hurts the DE 2+ invul armour. As it was, he scored my objective, I had guardians and my warlord contesting his, he scored 5 points(1 obj, Linebreaker, and First Blood) I scored only Linebreaker. I should have put my council in behind his aegis right away, threatening the squad early instead of trying to get his forward threats.
Overall, I enjoyed the tournament. I felt that my army under performed all day. It didn't seem like my dice were particularly bad, but it just didn't do what it do. It took me until the next day before I really put my finger on it. My list was built off of my 1,750 point list. I added 3 Reavers, 2 Hellions, a Seer and various upgrades. I paid short of 250 points and didn't get 250 points of improvement to my force, while my opponents likely built a 2k armies that filled their points. The last four game I played, my army wasn't under performing, it was out classed. I could have played 250 points down and had a similar effect. The council can handle 1,750 points of shooting, 2k and it starts to break down. I also didn't play agressive enough at the right times. I was afraid of getting stuck in my opponent's back field and being munched.
I do have a couple criticisms about the tournament. Round times were WAY to short. I had had this discussion with Ed before, but was still unprepared for how tight 2 hour and 15 minute rounds are in a 2,000 point tournament. I never made it past four on any of my games, and the game I played Ed only made turn three. You can't really compete in a tournament like that unless you blow your opponent away early, and my force doesn't do that. The other problem I saw was that the missions were pulled directly from the book, and points weren't modified for a tournament situation. For instance, round one was sieze ground with a max points of 18, round two was big guns with a max points of 21, round three was emperor's will with a max points of 9. Round three was almost worthless in the scheme of things.I was beat three times, but each time my opponents only recieved around 5 points. Had my first opponent not faced as much of a denial force as mine, he would have likely won overall. Though, of course, his later opponent's may have been tougher as a result. I think win, loss, draw points need to almost be seperate. This is not a problem I would have seen a week ago, and had considered something similar for the Cons, but with balanced points. A tight game could be as bad as a loss, and it promotes tabling, which I am totally against. Finally, he posted a painting rubric, but never judged painting. He turned it into player's choice, which I am a fan of, just wish I had known. Also, I set up for paint judging three times, and it never really happened. I got out later than I wanted, because I had to put my army away after, once again, setting up to be judged. I would have much rather just put my army away as it died and left 30 minutes earlier.
Don't get me wrong, it was a great event, and if I am able I will definitely be back.
Hope to see you all there!
No comments:
Post a Comment