Monday, April 27, 2015

League Week 4: End of the Regular Season



This last week was the final week of the regular season of our league.  This week will start the single elimination tournament.



The first game I was supposed to play should have been against sisters of battle, by my opponent didn't show.  In fact there were about 4-6 people who didn't show up at all.  I was disappointed since I have only played one game against sisters of battle.

Harlequins: Capture and Control, Vanguard Strike

I played against this opponent week one, but at this point I feel like all I am seeing is Eldar.

Shadowseer (I think?)

Death jester

Troope in a Transport.

Troope on foot.

Skyweavers: Haywire cannons

Voidweaver: Haywire cannon

I took an early lead in this game by drawing several 'capture objective x' on my side of the board.  From there I started eliminating his mobile units.  I figured I could maintain a lead if he couldn't get anywhere.

His haywire cannons caused me some serious problems, they took out my hellhound first and then went to work on my leman russes.

After exploding my chimera with some fusion pistols he demolished my veterans in close combat.

Only two survived the hammer of wrath hits.


At the beginning of the last turn I was up by four points, but he managed to kill my warlord and score my back objective.  Since he had a card to kill my warlord he got D3 points in addition to his normal point.

In the end we tied.  I thought I had things in the bag, and if my command squad was about an inch closer to my objective then I would have prevented him from capturing it.  Oh well.  Live and learn.


Clan Raukaan: Big Guns Never Tire, Hammer and Anvil

This was the win at all cost player.  His list was the following:

Chapter Master: Bike, power fist, lightning claw, 2+, 3++, 3+ feel no pain

Librarian: (ML 3 Biomancy), Force staff

Honor Guard: Stormshields, Apothecary

5 scouts

5 marines

Stormtalon


I debated even putting models on the table.  I decided to play him, but I won't make that mistake next week.

Our game went something like this.

Turn 1:
His bikes move up.  I shoot my entire army at him and do 1 wound to his chapter master.

Turn 2:
He splits the warlord and librarian off to be a two man squad (with majority toughness 8 thanks to iron arm).  They charge into my blob squad, and I realize that I literally cannot kill them.

I told him he won and I went to go watch other games.

Some meganobz get ready to rip up a few tanks.

These grotesques want to kill the ratlings, but end up getting wiped by the tanks.


Imperial Fists: Hammer and Anvil, Cloak and Shadows

The third game was a challenge match.  The person with the worst record could challenge any opponent.  The league organizer then worked up the rankings until every person had a game.  I was challenged by the Imperial Fists player.

Librarian: ML2 Biomancy

5 Scouts: shotguns
5 Scouts: sniper rifles

10 Marines (combat squadded): Missile Launcher, Plasma gun
Razorback: Twin Linked lascannon

5 Marines: Plasma Gun

Stormtalon

We had three objectives and our maelstrom cards were kept secret from each other.  Each of us had an objective on our side of the board; with one in the middle.  His snipers camped his back objective, and my blob camped mine.

I took out the razorback turn one because it was the only thing that had a chance of hurting my leman russes.  After the razorback was opened up I worked on taking out units that could go after the central objective.

The central objective is just below the camera shot.


He went after the helhound and knocked it down to one hull point, but I went and hid behind some LOS blocking ruins.  In the end the helhound rushed his board edge to score linebreaker.

The stormtalon had a field day.  It came in with a clear view of the side armor of my chimera, and took it out immediately.  After that it flew around killing guardsmen by the handful.  Eventually I got a lucking hit with my vanquisher cannon and knocked it out of the sky.

I ended up winning and my opponent admitted that he thought I was playing with my Chaos Marines when he challenged me. Oops.

This week we begin our single elimination tournament.  The points for the tournament are upped to 1400.  I play my good friend, Drew, (the Astra Militarium player from week 2) for the first game and then the winner of our game plays the WAAC player.  The WAAC player has a bye for the first round, and my friend and I have decided that whoever wins we are going to forfeit the second game.  This means that the WAAC player won't play any games next week.

From the Painting Table:
I have not been painting nearly as often as I want to.  There is only a month to go until the end of the school year, and I am bogged down grading.  As soon as May 22 hits I am going to have a lot more time.

I had primed the helhound, but after a couple of days I noticed that the paint was flaking off of the toxic vat.  Very quickly I realized that the plastic cover from my spray cans (what I used for the vat) weren't meant to be painted.  Once I get a free moment I am going to go back and sand the surface of the tank.  This should hopefully make it abrasive enough to hold onto the paint.

Several of my friends have recently ordered titans from Chinese recasting websites.  I am severely jealous, but even the Chinese knock-offs are expensive.  There is also talk of a massive game of apocalypse for Drew's bachelor party, so I may be at a bit of a disadvantage.

12 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. How old is Mr Waac?

    There isa Waac in my local store, and he was playing Tau. Trassing most of the times. My solution has been learning his rules, so that I could check what he was doing and tell him when he was taking irregular advantages. Then, every army has some weakness, so I played against him with some list designed to go against Tau. He begun to lose. That was a new experience for him. He did not know how to deal with that. His Over-shooting Tau could lose. He challenged me again (I was one of the few that still accept to play against him without feeling the need of hitting him hard on his face) and he lose again and again. His list was really strong, but he was so addicted to trassing that could not remember how to win without trassing. Now it seems that he has accepted the idea that in this game you can lose and win. I can't tell that he plays totally regular now, but almost. It has become funnier to play against him, and a lot of other people play (and often win) against the "old scary Tau list". He his also thinking about to change his army. He likes skitarji now. Everything that makes you think something more that "My army sit back and shoots you so much fire that you cannot survive, and I will win for that" is a good change and makes you a better player. I only hope that he will not choose his next army because it's strength, but because he likes the fluff.
    For now, he is still seen as a Waac, but on his way to healing.

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    1. I would say he is mid-twenties.

      He has been playing in our league for several seasons and he is getting more and more competitive. At first he ran tough, but reasonable lists and won most of his games. Now he runs over the top lists and wins every game.

      At this point I am not even going to entertain the possibility of a game.

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    2. With the extra points for the elimination wouldn't just bringing a Knight or 2 beat his list?

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    3. I don't own a knight. Right now I am planning on converting one from the Glottkin model. I keep starting smaller armies rather than expanding any of my armies to include lords of war.

      I had considered running a cheesy flyer list (2 heldrakes and a vendetta), but I would rather not play him at all.

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    4. We have a WAAC player at our local club. Funnily enough, he finds it very difficult to get games at all. He is in the tournament, and is using Adamantine Lance (of course) where no one else uses super heavies.

      It's a shame as he is actually a decent guy to chat to, but something happens to him when it comes to gaming. Needless to say, I just don't bother playing him now. Life is too short, and there are plenty of nicer people to play games with!

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    5. I know another guy that often ask me to play. I don't like him and his game (always complaining about how strong is your army and weak is his... even if he is bringing a barnblane or a withe scar death star) and I always kindly decline. I asked the age because young people can change their mind and attitude, but for the older one... is more and more difficult.
      Maybe we should try to explain to those players the difference between competitive tournaments and games "for fun"... It is not easy to understand, at the beginning...

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    6. I think if someone is a decent person, and reasonable to chat with, then they could likely be talked into toning down their play style.

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    7. In our gaming group, we often exchange lists before the battle. This gives each other fair warning if there are any unpleasant units (and check if Forgeworld is ok), and helps build the anticipation for the game as you start thinking about tactics etc. This way there are no nasty surprises and wasted evenings!

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  3. About Chinese... the quality of recasting models is often really really bad. Sometimes you are lucky, sometimes you are not. I have tried them and the first time I was reallylucky because I ordered a 20 euro box and they send me 2 30 euro boxes. The second time I did the order with a friend of mine that ordered an heldrake. When it has arrived, it seemed mane of sand, it was dissolving under his touch and it was impossible to use. We have never done that mistake any more.

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    1. Some of my friends have ordered a bunch from a couple of vendors, and have had consistently good results. I have not ordered any Chinese knockoffs as of yet.

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