The Waaagghh at the Kalm! Part 5

The Waaagghh at the Kalm! Part 4

We got up for the breakfast at the hotel that was ok, except for the OJ! Ugh! It tasted like water with some orange juice in it…well I said something else but I want to keep this clean! Yea, we are OJ snobs it seems as Florida has spoiled me on one of my favorite juices to enjoy morning, noon or night!

We then went outside and hung out talking to various people waiting for the bus and limo to pull up and take the next wave over to the bar. This was another cool perk of the event as we didn’t have to drive after drinking and the van/limo was nice touches!

Upon arrival to the bar it was a madhouse…packed with tables and gamers scrambling to get their armies ready for the big day. We got checked in and I setup my cart as Chris loaded up his tray with his army. The Space Wolves was ready to rock. We munched down a second breakfast that was WAY better than the hotel including the OJ that was much better! I was able to walk around some and snap a few shots of several great looking armies and display boards before the event started. I knew once things got rolling it was going to be a crazy day.

Announcements was made, a honorum of given to a lost gamer that passed away and we got our table assignments and shot glass objective markers. It was funny that George Flowers dropped one when he was showing it off and giving an update that the winner of the first game would get a bonus shot glass! Off to our tables!

My first game was against Shawn Williams and his IG. He had a great looking winter guard look going and it was packed with armor. Here is what his list looked like:

Cmnd HQ: Chimera, 4 Plasma Guns, Plasma Pistol (officer)

Marbro

Battle Psyker Squad with Chimera

3 Veteran Units with Chimeras and 3 Melta Guns

Platoon HQ with Chimera and 3 Flamers

Special Weapons team with 3 Demo Charges

3 Platoon Squads with a Chimera each

Vendetta

Plasma Sentinel

Leman Russ Executioner

Mainticore

2 Hydras (squadron)

We took a look at the mission (a parody of Army of Darkness) and setup everything, then we rolled the dice to see who setups and goes first. After looking over his list I knew I was screwed if he won the dice roll, it was one of those games of “he who goes first will more than likely have the edge to win”.

We had a straight 12” deployment, 3 objective markers down the center of the table in even spacing. One of the three was the Orkinomicron and the other two was Vortex traps.

Objectives:

Control the Real Orkinomicron = 6pts

Capture the Enemy Keep – 5pts (declared building within deployment zone)

Kill Ash/Evil Ash = 4pts (players roll winner picks an IC to be Ash/Evil Ash)

Who Else Wants Some? Most expensive unit must kill 150% more VPs excluding HQs.

Ahhh! It Burns: 1pt (reveal a fake Orkinomicon) (could get this twice)

Setup was straight forward but slightly slow for both of us. He centered most of his army and was ready to surge forward and pound me with firepower for the early half and then check the objectives and clean up on points. Mine was simple, hide my armor, take cover with the Long Fangs and pray I seize. Otherwise take a beating and then push forward and pray I am on the right side for the Orcinomicron as the Capture the Keep was going to be tough unless I could get my scouts in there. The scouts held in reserve and the Battle Leader went solo due to the dumb INAT FAQ call.

Well, the game was just as I predicted. I failed to seize, Shawn pounded my army with shooting and I was punished by the Battle Psyker Squad. I could not get a clean shot on them or much else (considering I lost one Long Fang squad the first turn, one depleted to 1 man and the other took a single loss). The first two turns was also just horrible as I think I rolled more 1’s than binary code has. Dismal….I tried to figure out what I could salvage and hope I could distract him from some points and let the vortex help even the score.

Well, the Vortex did suck up a squad and Chimera and a few other figures (sadly we forgot to keep the vortex going each turn like the rules said. We thought they were one shot and this was an early AM game. This may have helped me a bit more and made him a bit more cautious with his army.

Towards the end the objective was in the middle, if I was lucky I could get a squad there but it would be tough and down to a run roll. They was shot down, fled back and rallied, 3” rally, moved and ran falling short to contest the 6 point objective.

We checked the rest of the points and he claimed the Capture the Keep, the rule was vague (it did not specify the entire unit, a percentage of the unit or just part) and I finally agreed. Shawn appeared to really want to win big and it was not worth pushing, after my rough week, I just wanted to throw some dice, have some fun and drink some beer. Who knows, maybe I would swing another award from their crazy pile of trophies.

I was able to break his HQ and I got credit for the killing Ash as my Evil Ash managed to live (the Wolf Guard Battle Leader that came in on a bad flank and was forced to hide in a tank to avoid being shot up.

He also claimed the 150% and I could not, then he got the two bonus points for checking the other two fake objectives. This left us 17-4 at the end of the first round. Not a great start but maybe if my next two games went better!

Overall, we had a great game. I was tired and forgot a few things as did Shawn but we both was cool about how to handling any issues there. Other than a small rules issue with LOS and cover saves that we did resolve was the only major issue we had the entire game.

Perhaps I could have been more aggressive but the dice was simply just against me for the first two turns and he taking the lead put me in a defensive posture the entire game. Oh well, on to the next game!

Here is some photo’s of the game!

Shawn, IG commander

Scout move...

Shot from my angle...

Amusing notes was found on each table...would you open the one that was the objective?

The second game was against John Brewer and his Orks!

After lunch we found our table and exchanged lists as well as glanced over the next mission called Winning, a spin on Charlie Sheen and Denise Richards gag.

John’s list was like this:

Ghazghkull Thraka

Big Mek with KFF and Burna

Two Units of 15 Lootas

15 Burna Boyz

18 boyz with shootas

3 units of boyz in trucks each with slugga and choppa and Nob with Klaw/pole.

3 Battle Wagons

The Objectives was like this:

Winning! 5pts, VPs (by 200) exclude HQs and any units killed by or in part by HQs.

Custody of the Twins – 5pts, control the two shot glasses

Fire the Crazy Guy – 5pts, one FOC is declared crazy, you must get it killed.

Domestic Abuse – 4pts, the Sheen and Richards declared models kill the other.

Adonis DNA: 1pt, if you win by 800 points or more.

John won the roll and setup in the center of the W deployment he had to use. He was setup within range of the KFF and ready to go anywhere on the table ready for a first turn charge. I spread the Long Fangs out, split the Rhinos up and hid in cover from the Lootas to avoid being shot up early on.

I seized the first turn and started to pound his ork army with shooting. This was a game of just ups and downs. John could barely get to me to engage men but I also was holding back to avoid giving him an easy charge to give him any advantage.

When time was called we checked to see what we scored…neither of us won by VPs (right at 200 with the exclusions), I had one shot glass but not the second. Neither of us got our Crazy guy killed. Sheen and Richards never got to face off, another zero. As we were under 200, the 800 was out of the question. So, we both got big goose eggs!

John was a great opponent and we had fun just drinking beer, shooting the hell out of one another and clobbering one another in close combat…a true Space Wolf vs. Ork game!

Here are some shots of the game…

Meet John! A kick ass Ork!

Beat down in the ruins!

The beatings will continue until someone dies!

The table early on...

 

The last game was against Dark Angels played by Josh Alexander. He had a tough list of Dark Angels that looked something like this:

Belial,

6 Deathwing Terminators (troops), 2 with bolters/cyclones, 4 w/ thunder hammers/shields

2 Ravenwing bike squads (3 each) with 2 meltas and 2 attack bikes with multimeltas.

Tough, small, elite and fast was what I was facing with the mission being simply a two fold VP game. Your first score of Victory Points you killed. Then you got a Margin based on the difference for a bonus.

We rolled off to see the deployment zone and ended up with Spearhead (random deployment zone) and then for first turn that Josh won. I moved to bunker down in one corner and set my rhinos up to counter attack whatever heads my way.

He scout moved and I failed to seize. His shooting wasn’t that great the first turn as I passed most armor and cover saves, and then started to attack back in force. I mobbed forward Belial’s squad and another squad that landed near my army using the bike locator beacons and quickly removed the bikes from the game and turned into a slow grind game of trying to kill one squad off at a time to get some VPs…

When time was called I had 7 battle points and he had 4 with a +2 bonus for me. 

Josh was another great guy to play against and the Bourbon part of the way through the game really was enjoyable. A true gentleman and gamer here again…this is the type of player that makes travel 11 hours worthwhile.

Here are some shots of the game…

Shawn, a kick ass guy for a Dark Angel (and I can say that as I own DA also!)

Here comes the bikes and first wave!

The dogs of war cried out and the slaughter began!

Advance!

Fighting was brutal!

Awards were announced and it was enjoyable to watch the wrap up. What I liked about this event was the type of awards they gave out as they touched on other aspects of the hobby from your basic Overall, Sportsman and painting to awards to those that contribute to making the Kalm a reality to those that support the hobby community in a positive way. They also give an award for the biggest bar tab and furthest traveled award as fun awards. To me this is a true cornerstone event that pushes the hobby to the fullest by making a fun and special event.

Here is some other odd random shots I got of the event!

Random cool scenery!

My vote for the best dressed player there!

The ladies seemed to think so!

The bar sign...

A shot of Dave's shirt!

He was playing a grot revolution army.

Viva! Da Revolution!

There was of course some competitive players there at the event, but even for the most part they was restrained somewhat and they was not arseholes about how they played at the event as they knew this wasn’t that type of event. Sure, everyone wants a trophy but I was there to throw dice and have fun. It was the trip, the experience and hey I still got a cool trophy the night before so I was pleased.

It was mentioned on another blog and I have to agree now in retrospect, there WAS NO JUDGES! Really, that is amazing, boys and girls playing together and having a good time? Amazing is all I can say!

Apparently one player quit after the first turn when his Grey Knights was tabled. Wow, didn’t he read the mission statement for the Kalm? If I travel anywhere, I am going to play my games no matter what, I never understood the logic of some people going to an event and leaving (unless it was a legit emergency) to me it disrespects the players and the organizer(s). Oh well….I had fun and next year I plan to be there to kick some butt with either Dark Angels or Chaos Marines more than likely!