Went to try out a new store that was hosting a tournament. After a long 2 hour drive we arrived at Mega Gaming and Comics. The tournament was packed out with 16 players, the table space was a bit cramped with tables right against one another. After the first round, the store was also hot due to the # of players packed near one another.
The store itself is nice, lots of comics all over, displayed nicely. Their gaming area was perhaps one of the top 3 best stocked gaming stores I have been in. They even had a selection of Forge World in 3 cases, sadly nothing that I was wanting or was willing to ask my wife to dip into the savings to let me get some resin fix that weekend.
The store manager was very nice, though this is the first tournament that I was charged tax for and the price was unusual, $12 instead of the usual $10 most charge. Some charge $15 but you usually bought pizza for lunch. The TO was a bit meek and shy, I had a sense he was really new at this and was still trying to figure out what worked and what did not. Two others from my area was there and well agreed that the TO could have organized the tournament better. I guess we are spoiled by some of the local stores here that have had reliable and regular organizers and know how they want to run things. Many of the players was very nice and welcomed us to the store, there was a few guys that I felt like looked at us like predators that just had invaders in their lair. Guess they was worried about being knocked off the hill and no longer king.
I had a few ideas of army lists and batted out what I thought would be great to bring to the table. After I kicked some heavy handed lists to the side as I didn't want to go to a new place with a list that would give people a bad impression. So, I picked Orks as they was fun, well painted, a challenge and just enjoyable.
Of course I forgot the camera this time! So, sorry no pics....
My List:
Ghazghkull Thraka
Big Mek with KFF, Klaw and Cybork
15 Kommandos with Snikrot with 2 burnas
9 Kommandos with Nob with Klaw and 2 big Shootas
13 Grots with a Herder
20 Orks with 2 rocket launchers, Nob with Klaw and Bosspole
20 Orks (same as above)
18 Ard Boyz with Nob with Klaw and Bosspole
11 Trukk Boyz with Nob (same as above) with big shoota, red paint and ram
12 Trukk Boyz with Nob (same as above) with (same as the first Trukk unit and same upgrades)
3 Battlewagons, 2 with ram and 1 with a deathroller. Both with red and a single big shoota.
Game 1 was against Eldar.
I think his name was Devin or something like that. A nice guy and had this for a list:
Eldrad
Yuriel
Wraithlords (full squad)
Guardians in Wave Serpent
Harlequins in Wave Serpent
3 Wraith Lords with assorted Weapons
8 Jetbikes with two shurikin. Cannons
The main objective of the game was Kill Points for a Win or Loss. The table had a good bit of scenery on it including a large building down the middle. He won the dice off but I took first turn on a 6. This was a standard DOW game.
We had a good game and was close. I won by one kill point and had a few delays waiting to see what his battle plan was before I struck. Once I got the boyz into the fight I was plowing him down. I took my share of losses but that is how orks work. You can hurt me, but I have more things to hurt you.
At the end of the game he had one Wave Serpent, a surviving unit of Harlequins and about half of his Wraithguard unit.
Second game was against Grey Knights (forgot the guys name)
His list was this:
Librarian with several powers
Purifier Squad (full) with psycannons and the two blades
Two Strike Squads (full) with psycannons
3 Razorbacks with las/plas
3 Dreadnoughts with TL Autocannons with psybolt ammo
Inquisitor with several Crusaders (meat shield to give 4+ cover to the rest and then casts Stealth power to get a 3+ while they have a 3+ in the front).
2 Vindicare Assassin's (get into this later)
As we swap lists I see that he took two Vindicares. I point out this list is illegal. He pulls out the book and it does not show 0-1 for each FOC. That is because I missed the word <UNIQUE> in the profile. I was already starting to get hot, I did not remember the Unique rule, so I let it slide. I was uneasy and knew I was right. I still wonder if he just didn't read the codex or was just a cheat or power gamer. He was married to one of the store staff that was helping to run the event and was playing an army also. She interrupted the game several times telling him about her game, asking questions as we was playing and was to a point generally annoying to a point. She was nice enough but the social tact of keeping her mouth shut at times during the game did drag our game. I saw this a few times in the first and third round.
I won the dice toss, I setup, he setup everything in a castle of sorts. Dreads, layered by Las/Plas Razorbacaks turned sideways, then a Purifier squad in a long line, then the Strikes (the other in reserve), the Warband in front this game was standard 12" pitched battle with objectives in an X pattern.
There wasn't much to talk about this game, it was a cluster f*** from the start. I lost half my stuff first round, the other half the second round. I was getting shot apart the entire time. I lost the game as by the end I had little left. Oddly he was bitching it was such a pain to remove all my orks, but I guess he was expecting to roll over everyone he played. I heard he did this to the other two games with little to no issues.
Round 3 vs Blood Angels (John)
This guy was really a great guy. When he parked next to us as we waited for the store to open he came over, introduced himself and talked to us. A very nice guy and a good player, those guys I like to see at tournaments.
His List:
Mestiphon
Librarian in Terminator Armor
Terminator Squad with assorted close combat weapons
2 Storm Ravens with las/melta weapons.
Death Company Dread with Blood Talons
3 TL Lascannon Razorbacks with 5 man assault squads inside with power weapon and a melta
2 Baal Predators with heavy bolter sponsons
He won the dice toss, took his spearhead quarter and setup. I held all in reserve. He moved about for two turns until I could come on in Turn 2. 2 Wagons (Gazzies and one of the boyz) and the KFF Truckk hit the table. Snikrot jumped out of a side spot and tried to take down a Razorback. Damm fast vehicles. He ran forward....perfect....I raced forward, jumped out, piled into his Razorback and slowly starting on turn 3 I was milling down his army.
He ended up winning the match but with only 2 table quarters to my 1. VP holding was based on total VPs in the space, not just scoring. One more round Mephiston would have died (only had one wound left) and he just barely beat me on VPs by 6 points for that quarter. It was a close loss and a good fight.
Two losses and one win. I have done better, still that illegal list annoyed me, I would have no doubt lost to a superior codex and a very cheesed out build, but to cheat (either on purpose or not) just ate into a loss even more so.
We plan to go back again, perhaps when it gets cooler as those close quarters and heat just makes the experience less than happy,
