Theme Tournament: WITCH HUNTERS!!! (Part 2)
Let me start off by saying that I rarely get to play in local tournaments. First of all, they consume an entire Saturday (generally starting at 11AM and finishing around 7PM). Secondly, I have a girlfriend, a 6-year old son and a new house. Needless to say, I rarely get to play in local tournaments.
So when I do, I treat them as an opportunity to PLAY! I get to play THREE games; sometimes I play regulars (Aventine is a tournament regular) and sometimes I play new people — in any case, I play to have a good time. I build competitive (but not abusive) lists. I play as hard as my opponent requires (if he’s all juiced and super competitive, then I’ll play that games — if he wants to have a good time and chat, I’m happy to do that too).
That means I was particularly excited when I made a deal with the family to play in a local tournament — especially when I found out it was a “hobby” tournament.
This is going to be a long post, so I’ll get right into it.
ROUND 1 — Mech Eldar
Okay, I was a little surprised to see a Mech Eldar list in a “hobby” tournament. Probably just one abusive list and I had the bad luck to draw it, right?
THE LIST (what I remember anyway):
Avatar, Wraithguard/Warlock (Wave Serpent w/Spirit Stone, Brightlance), Howling Banshees (Wave Serpent w/Spirit Stone, Brightlance), 3-4 small Pathfinder units, three Shining Spears, a Vyper (Missile Launcher), three outflanking War Walkers, and TWO Fire Prisms (Holo-Fields and Spirit Stone).
Ouch. Tough list. When I asked him about the Fire Prisms, he half-jokingly explained that it was a friendly list “because he could’ve taken three”.
Bullymike took a picture and posted it to his blog (looks like turn 2). He has a great blog. You should read it.
THE GAME
I’m wracking my brain trying to remember the mission objectives. The primary was victory points (we tied, barely scratching each other), the secondary was something like table quarters (we tied on the secondary too). I can’t remember the tertiary, but he won that one.
Nice guy (I’d played his wife in the Ard Boys semi-final last year). We had a good time chatting and killing each other. My only complaint was that the list was a little hard for the theme tournament, but it was still fun and I’m happy that I pulled out a Victory Point draw (we were within 30VPs of each other).
ROUND 2 — KoS Orks
Ouch, another tough list. THREE Battlewagons with Deff Rollas protected by a single Kustom Force Field? Really? Does anyone understand the term “hobby” tournament?? Lol.
THE LIST
Warboss (PK, Cybork), Big Mek (KFF), 8 Nobs (Cyborks, 3 PKs, Painboy, banner), 19 Shootas (Nob w/PK), 20 Shootas (Nob w/PK), 12 Sluggas (Nob w/PK, Trukk), 12 Sluggas (Nob w/PK, Trukk), 12 Sluggas (Nob w/PK, Trukk), 2 Killa Kans, and THREE Battle Wagons (w/Deff Rollas) — all protected by the Mek’s Kustom Force Field.
THE GAME
The primary was annihilation (his 15 kill points to my 21, so I started in a hole). The secondary was capture and control (3 objectives), I think. And I’m not sure about the tertiary.
I’d never played Daniel before, but I’ve seen him around the store (I believe his other army was Tau; it’s always cool when a player picks up a new army). He’s a fantastic guy and a very knowledgeable player. I actually enjoyed the situations and questions that came out of the game — more than the game. That’s probably why we only got two turns done before we ran out of time.
In those two rounds, he faced an impressive round of shooting (even trukks have a hard time standing up to that many heavy bolter shots). And he managed, by the bottom of turn 2, to assault my ENTIRE army (well, except for maybe 3 units). My units did what they do best (hide in Book of St Lucius range) and at the end of the assault — which I lost by more than 25 wounds — not a single unit failed their morale test.
I was also lucky that Daniel split his attacks as much as he could to try to kill ALL of my units, instead of focusing on a few that he could wipe out with wounds. In the end, I miraculously won the primary (the only kill point he managed to get was from my Sentinels that didn’t reserve on the board — and I managed to get two or three from destroyed trukks). I believe I also won the Secondary and/or the Tertiary.
I will say that if the game went a full six turns (or even as many as four), he would’ve destroyed me completely.
ROUND 3 — Imperial Guard
The last game was against a more familar opponent (although I’m not sure if he’d played against one of my WH+IG armies before). But I’d played against Kingsley’s IG army a handful of times. It’s a nasty list (that I won’t remember well enough to do it justice).
THE LIST
Command Squad (Regimental Standard), Anti-tank Squad, Infantry Platoon (4 infantry squads), four 5-man Grenadier/Storm Trooper units (at least one Chimera), Hellhound, 3 Sentinels (lascannon), and 2 Demolishers (and I’m sure even more nastiness). Doctrines included Chem-Inhalers (such a pain).
Bullymike managed to get a shot of Kingsley’s army as well (it’s the one on the right).
THE GAME
The objectives included Sieze Ground (a tough mission against IG), Victory Points, and something else (killing the highest point unit, I think). It was a tough fight and I just couldn’t break his army (regimental standard + chem inhalers is just as cheaty as books of st lucius).
My Seraphim just couldn’t reach any of his infantry in time (I had to settle for taking out a demolisher) and they got gunned down (giving him the tertiary). My copious amount of lascannon and battlecannon fire (and even a couple of meltaguns that made it into range) failed to bring down his other demolisher (the one worth battle points).
He was well ahead of me on Victory Points at the end (securing the secondary), but neither of us could wrestle the primary objective away from the other.
CONCLUSION
Overall, it was a fun tournament. Not exactly the “hobby” tournament I expected, but tons of fun. I got three challenging games under my belt and determined that Witch Hunters are still the best army in the game for forcing ties!
Thanks to all of my opponents and the cool guys at Battleforge!
