Ven is NOT singing in the rain...Tournament Report

Nor am I WYSIWYG according to Pete the TO and WYSIWYG NAZI!!! .....My (70) Space Wolves all had two grenades on them, but some of those grenades were concealed inside pouches...this is not good enough and I lost 6 points and 3 tournament places...

Fair enough, its a system that applies to all without exception so... but still, that cost me 3 places. I knew it'd be important... I'll try and sort it out for next time. Bastard.

The weekend has been and gone and the largest singles tournament I have attended has flown by… A great time was had and many dice were thrown. When the dust settled it had been a ridiculously hard series of games, a tournament rife with ‘top’ tournament dudes…

The calibre of players at this tournament was fantastic and there were so many dudes who ended up with ‘middling’ sorts of results…including me, a really tight tournament..

On the otherhand, whilst I may have achieved solid, but not impressive results, I did score the most VPs of the tournament with 8460 from possible 10.5k, so I know I can kill stuff….not bad from 47 dudes or whatever it was…
Lets examine in brief these games.
Game 1 Pitched Battle, Capture and Control, Chris Boulton Coteaz Spam
List:
Coteaz
Ordo Xenos Inq-Power armour Conversion beamer 2x servo skulls
5x Purifiers - 2 psycannon, 2 halbreds, demon Hammer - Rhino
5x Purifiers - 2 psycannon, 2 halbreds, demon Hammer - Rhino
5x Purifiers - 2 psycannon, 2 halbreds, demon Hammer - Rhino
3x plasma cannon servitors - Chimera
3x heavy bolter servitors - Chimera
3 x henchmen with meltagun - Chimera
3 x henchmen with meltagun - Chimera
3 x henchmen with meltagun - Chimera
3 x henchmen with meltagun - Chimera, dozer blade
Dreadnaught , twin linked autocannon, psybolt ammo
Dreadnaught , twin linked autocannon, psybolt ammo
Dreadnaught , twin linked autocannon, psybolt ammo

My list is here. I know, it's not conventional SW wisdom...but I liked it. Will be making some changes over next few weeks...

Result: Draw
Summary: Went first, he reserved as he didn’t think he’d survive the extra turn. I, meanwhile, got into fantastic position with my boys, organised into 2 waves depending where Chris came in. Heavily pushed his right flank which is where his objective was, mine bottom left corner of table, diagonally opposite his. He came in strong off the first reserve roll – bringing in all bar 1 purifier, 1 melta hench, one dread and coteaz with heavy b servitors….so just 8 vehicles roll in on turn 2…rest of the game boiled down to - couldn’t “Explode” tanks…kept wrecking them and blocking line of sight to squishy stuff… he created such a wall of av that I simply couldn’t get past it.
I kept my scouts walking on as I didn’t think they’d do more than kill one thing then die, I wanted more, plus with him reserves I pushed them to midfield before he came in. I should have brought them on from OBEL and hit up some rear armour hard and instead of being greedy, just used them like the throwaway bitches they are…
The game was tied and level on VPs with just 8 points between us. Great opponent and a tough list, proving that “The Core” works…Coteaz spam :(
In terms of control though, man, I don’t think the GK’s EVER got within 3 FEET of my objective. Seriously. I aggressively fenced him into his corner and pushed hard at it from the word go.
I NEVER felt like I would lose it.
Where I could have really used some help would be if the Rhino full of GH sat like idiots on my objective could have contributed to the game in some way (offensively)…a 5 man pack for 75 points…leaving quite a few points spare for something hard hitting and fast.. that is what I needed…

Game 2 – Spearhead, Seize Ground, Draigo Storm Raven Knights

List:
Lord Kaldor Draigo
1 Librarian-Quicksilver, Sanctuary, Warp Rift, Might of Titan, Nemesis Daemon Hammer, 1x Servo Skull
5x Purifiers – 5 Halberds
4x Paladins – Banner, 3 Halberds, Apothecary
5x Grey Knight Terminator – 3 Swords, Psycannon, 2 Halberds
1 Stormraven Gunship – Bolts, TLAC, TLMM, Hurricanes
1 Nemesis Dreadknight, 2 Fists, Heavy Psycannon
1 Nemesis Dreadknight Sword, Heavy Psycannon
Result: Win
Summary: Went first, blew the SR out of the sky and killed the foot Purifiers to just one man who’d gone to ground in cover. Driago and his Paladins pushed towards my lines, so I swept the majority of my force into firing positions and killed all the Paladins and wounded Draigo. I cant actually remember if Draigo and Libbie hit anything, I think the Libbie tried to Warp Rift my scouts, but I rolled well. The heroes of the GKs then died to more fire. In the meantime in the top left of the board, a Dreadknight killed a rhino, then killed a squad of GH, but then died to massed firepower. The second Dreadknight ate a GH squad and then the Rune Priest, then died to massed firepower. The Termies fell last…to massed firepower.

There was a trend in this game – I shoot stuff, it dies. Throw mud at a wall, some sticks sort of mentality.

Great opponent who didn’t deserve the pounding. But the list did. It had a few good ideas, notably a tough target priority between Dreadknights, termies and Paladins…a lot of armies don’t have the tools to deal with them all…but it was such a small army that I could separate and engage on an almost individual level the various elements of the army, like a dissection.
We chatted after the game and Richard was clearly against the kind of Coteaz-spam lists that are all over the internet. He was very ‘hobby-focused’ and played what he thought was cool. I’m down with that choice even if I don’t always do it myself…for always read: very rarely…

Game 3 – Dawn Of War, Kill Points, Bully’s Deathwing


List:
Belial - Twin LC's (130)
Deathwing Squad 1 (5 Terms): TH/SS x5 - CML / Apothecary / Banner (290)
Deathwing Squad 2 (5 Terms): TH/SS x3 - TH/SS/CML - LCx1 (235)
Deathwing Squad 3 (5 Terms): TH/SS x3 - TH/SS/CML - LCx1
Deathwing Squad 4 (5 Terms): TH/SS x3 - TH/SS/CML - LCx1
Deathwing Squad 5 (5 Terms): TH/SS x3 - TH/SS/CML - LCx1
Ravenwing Squad 1 - 3 Bikers, Sarge - Melta Bomb, Melta Gun x2
Ravenwing Squad 2 - 3 Bikers, Sarge - Melta Bomb, Melta Gun x2

Result: Draw 4-4.
Summary: Bully and his bastard Deathwing. Again. Two tournaments in a row. And, unsurprisingly, it Kill Points..again.
Bully has 8 KPs.
Killed all bar Belial and 6 dudes.
It was a hard slog as ever with Bully. He moves perfectly, keeps 2” gaps to minimise massed frags and is sure not to overlap for Jaws etc, he know exactly how the army ticks, what it can handle in combat… Luckily for me I had very little in the way of vehicles and kept the easy KP’s away where I could, I did lose a couple of rhinos, but in the main he struggled to put down all the marines I had on the table top. This was a massive benefit to me of course as it meant I could really throw down with him.
A very strategic game with a lot of jostling and feinting for positions for charging, rapid firing etc
I’m sure Bully will cover in more detail, suffice to say I was fairly confident in the first half of the game, then it got tight, I had the edge, he pulled it back and boom, before we both knew it….the game ended and it was a draw. It was that tight that I thought I had one, he thought he had it…we had to sit back for a moment and it struck us it was a draw! Bloody hell!



Game 4 – Dawn Of War, Kill Points, Co Rhodes Black Templars

List:
Emperor's Champion - Black Sword, Armour of a 'reet cunt, Accept Any Challenge
Marshall - TDA/TH/SS, THons, Adamantine Mantle
4 Bodyguard TDA, Tank Hunters, 2 x CML
5 Shootie Terms, Tank Hunters, 2xCML
5 Assault Terms, Tank Hunters, 5 x TH/SS
Venerable Dread - TLLC, Tank hunters
6 Initiates - las/plas, 3 Neo's
6 Initiates - las/plas, 3 Neo's
4 Initiates - las/plas, 2 Neo's
2 x Typhoons (squadron)

Result: LOSS! 8-7
Summary: Joke. Courtney had 4 marines and the Emperor’s Chimp left. I got 1618 VPs worth, but again only got 7 out of 10 KPs, Courtney got 7 from mine…and then the unthinkable…or at least highly unlikely…The final moments of the game came in Courtney’s T5. He charged a Rune Priest and 2 Grey Hunters with his EC and last Termie with PF. PF Termie on RP and EC on GH. EC kills both GH and RP kills Termie. Netting us both our 7th KP each. My Rune Priest lost the combat by 1 wound, reducing him to LD9…and I promptly rolled a pair of 6’s… he fell back and the game ended as we had run out of time. I have to say that with the greatest of respect to Courtney that I feel I had that one in the bag from more or less the word go and did not feel pressured at all. I know I gave up almost half my VPs, but again, not mission critical things – transports, scouts and a couple of GH packs. Massive amount of the army was left on the board and had the game continued it would have been a tabling. I fully accept this loss, but still am left feeling that I should have at least drawn, with a massive VP difference making it at the very least a moral victory.
Courtney did state that it was very unlucky, but he is class act and a top opponent.
Other memorable moments?
- Scouts came on behind the Ven Dread with OBEL and blew it up with melta…they then got stuck into assault with a Troop squad, who promptly killed them, but at least the guys took a few down before they fell.
- Long Fang unit swept into a damaged TH/SS Elite Termie unit that was about to wipe one of the Wolf Guard units…and killed them. Yay! But too late to save the remaining Wolf Guard.
- I misjudged 12” by about half an inch to rapid fire plasma into shootie termies, wasting their combi’s…d’oh!!
- Game of cat and mouse between a full pack of GH and 2 Black Templars who were running in a circle around a wall that blocked LOS, the inevitable happened however and they were caught by the cat…



Game 5 – Spearhead, Seize Ground (4), Matt Vendetta IG

List: (sorry if any mistakes in this list, I copy and pasted and can't be arsed to edit properly today...)
company command squad power fist
company command squad master of the fleet
marbo
veterans foward sentres 3 snipers 1 missile launcher
veterans foward sentres 3 snipers 1 missile launcher
veterans demolitions
veterans demolitions plasma gun
penal legion
2 vendettas
2 vendettas
1 vendetta
5 storm troopers 2 melta guns power sword
demolisher 2 multi meltas 1 laz cannon

Result: WIN!! Massacre
Summary: Went second. Lost a pack of fangs. Lost a couple of fangs from another unit. Lost a rhino. My turn 1, killed 3 Vendetta’s, killed some squishy things. Demolisher failed epicly vs my disembark, clumped up marines, who promptly melta’d it. Missiled the other 2 vendettas….Long Fangs killed the outflanking penal legion that assaulted them in CC. Marbo did fuck all, but took 19 2+ saves before dying…in one round of shooting..mind you, it was only him and a unit of 5 Storm Troopers left at that point. The troops fell to scout and GH assaults in turns 3 and 4…game over. Great opponent to play, crap list. Sorry dude. Expensive vendetta squadrons and Command Squads with powerfists and nothing else are not competitive choices…you’d still have the cool air infantry theme if he ran Elysians? A lot of his models were Elysians and FW is legal at BWL…..food for thought?
Game 6 – Pitched Battle, Capture and Control. Deathwing Matt
List:
Master Xoth (Counts as Belial), with TH/SS
5 x Terminators; 4xTH/ss, 1 w CML, 1 w Banner, 1x CF/SB
5x Terminators; 2xTH/SS, 1w.CML, 3xPF/SB
5x Terminators; 4xTH/SS, 1 w.CML, 1xLC
5x Terminators;2x TH&SS, 1x LC, 1xHF/PF, 1xCF/SB
Ravenwing Attack Squadron, 3x Bikers (1x Sergeant, 2x Bikers) & 1x Attack Bike MM, 2x Melta Guns,
1x Vindicator with Demolisher Cannon, Storm bolter, Smoke launchers & Searchlight
1x Predator Destructor With Autocannon, Heavy Bolter sponsons, Smoke launchers and Searchlight
1x Land Raider (Godhammer)

Result: Draw
Summary: Ah. Deathwing had 2 models left from one troop squad, on his objective, ringed by 2 units of Wolf Guard, 2 damaged Grey Hunter packs, Rune Priest, Wolf Scouts in the sights of all 3 Long Fang packs… with my objective held by damaged Grey Hunter pack, screened by a rhino and a wrecked rhino… massively frustrating. Never felt like I was going to lose it, but always worried I couldn’t kill enough Termies.
Jaws failed me on this game, or should I say, Matt made a lot of low rolls for Jaws…I think he saved 7-9 across the game…
Scouts were heroes (again), coming in and blowing up the land raider on their arrival.
Wolf Guard units were great, sweeping out on both the left and right flanks and putting in cross fire into units and side armour all game.
Long Fangs were great, putting easy wounds onto Termies and blowing up the Vindicator first turn. They also then blew away the bike units in one salvo from 2 units after the bikes had outflanked and killed a rhino.
Overall, an enjoyable game, a great opponent but a frustrating finish from my POV…needed turn 7 to happen and it didn’t…a tabling would clearly have ensued had it gone to 7…
Didn’t push enough with rhino’s early enough as I was (rightly) fearful of the assault capability of the Deathwing vs grey Hunters.

A note on Terminators and rolling 1’s..
Look dudes, it’s going to happen!
There were a lot of terminator-heavy armies here, not the least of which were the 2 Deathwing armies I played, the 2 DW I didn’t play, several GK armies, Assault BA dudes….etc…
I took extra AP1/AP2 for this reason, but I also had a huge amount of S8..now I know what you are thinking – “But I have a 2+ save, it shouldn’t happen!”, well it does, because when we are forced to roll dice in this game, bad shit happens, look at my final roll in Game 4 :(
Volume of fire still works for terminators, and when the volume of fire is not anti-infantry, but anti-tank, you need to accept that when you are forced to roll ~14 wounds, you’ll lose a couple of dudes...per turn. Over the game, accept that missiles will kill a couple of squads if you let them shoot you…
Jus’ saying man. Stop whining about losing Termies to missiles… not that anyone whinged about it all weekend ;)
Final Placing:
I finished on a measly 2 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss.
I do feel a bit pissed at the loss and the draw in Game 6…that’s 29 extra points on top of what I got that I think I should have got…a draw at least in Game 4 and a win in Game 6.
Other than that, I am very pleased with the performance. I am pissed I didn’t get Top 10.

I finished 20th out of 47.

My WYSIWYG farce cost me 6 points and 3 places in the tournament (remember me saying it would be really close and that it was important? Yeah, it was) and the travesty (of the dice gods making...double bloody 6's...) in Game 6 that cost me an extra 20 points from not getting the win was the difference between a MUCH higher position.

There was a massive number of really good, ‘big name’ tournament players at this BWL and I am really pleased about that. It was incredibly hard and the competitive level, that was already decent, was turned up to 11!
Am I disappointed? Yeah, a little.
Can I hold my head high? Yeah, I can hang with the big boys and know where and how to improve.
More on this next week.

Survivability Vs Performance:
I had so many marines that in every single game I still had loads and loads of dudes left. This was great as it meant that I was able to acheive a wide variety of things consistently. The large number of threats meant that my ranged and mobile fire support were still up and running (by and large) in all games, this was really useful. Having so many dudes meant it was really hard to remove all of them and I never really felt that damaged.

In addition, the single largest amount I lost in terms of VPs was just over 1000 vs Bully, every where else I lost in the region of 400-500 points on average, my first game vs Chris' Coteaz spam cost me 600-odd points, but that stands as a real testament of the survivability of the list and how effective 20 missiles and 70 marines can be when on the offensive and reducing incoming fire...

On the otherhand..I did not have enough PUNCH!, I recall talking to Bringer of Death and Luke Nurser after their game and both just talked up the BearThunderLord running rampant through the Grey Knights lines. I didn't have this. The Grey Hunters are consistent performers, but not superheroes...I think a superhero would have been useful to the extreme, especially to finish off some of the Termie squads in 3 of my games and to rape the Coteaz spam in Game 1...list tweaking time..

Wicked tourney, love Brighton, staying over next time to relax with a beer instead of 2 1/2 hour drive home and back each day..