8.09.2009

Hard Boyz Semi-Finals, Game 2

Well, today is another day.

*yawn*

Cliches make me tired.

I'm back from the tournament this weekend, the Hard Boyz Semi-Finals (Round 2 of 3) with a disappointing 3rd round finish. Disappointing only in the sense that it's what I earned; who wants what they earned? I'll take 1st on a lucky break and write home about my new 2500pt army GW can pack'n'mail.

But it wasn't to be dear reader (yes, reader singular - as in, there is only one of you). At Challenge Games in Lubbock, TX, a fantastic and friendly venue I highly recommend, Adam took 1st with Mechdar, Bruce took 2nd with Vulcan 'Bestof,Lite', and I scratched for 3rd with my Hybrid Eldar.

I'll write up the other two games over the next few days - look out for Game 3, where it is evidently okay to slowplay a victory - but for now let's take a brief look at Game 2 against the eventual winner, Adam and his Mechdar.

Eldard plus 10 Warlocks
Yriel
2 Dragons (8 inc Exarch DBF) in WS w BL SS
3 Avengers minimal in WS w BL SS
3 Fire Prism w HF SS

Look familiar? It's a netlist, and by that I only mean its a variation of a known, agressive build with hard-hitting units and tons of mobility. Let's talk about that for a moment. I know many players look to the net for ideas. Then there are people who copy their army list point for point from their favorite site. The last category of player develops a list over time, learning its strengths and weaknesses over time, molding an army until it works - so many times these lists resemble other lists across the country because like-minded people are bound to work out the same ideas across the board.

There's no right or wrong in any of that; I think most of us dabble in all three types of development over the years, but keep in mind there are few original ideas out there. Recently Stelek championed the Rifleman Dread, that is, a Dreadnought with 2 TL-Autocannons. Now how long has that option been available, staring people in the face, before its truely awesome potential saw discussion? It's where new builds come from, in my admittedly never humble opinion, some smart-cookie having an ephiphany while sitting on the pot reading a tattered codex for the umpteenth time.

Sorry for the aside, but why did I bring it up? Well, Stelek's been championing his view of competative play for over half a year now which I've described before as economy of points, reason and redundancy, and MechMechMech. Adam's list was more the disciple of these tenants than my own, so when all things else were equal...

I was outplayed and could do little about it. Instructive, no?

A few words about the game: I won't bore you with play-by-play in hindsight. It was played in Round 2 so obviously scenario 2 was used. This scenario was 'Fumble in the Dark (With Your Pants Down And A Stupid Grin On Your Face)'...

Okay, I added that last part, but what a bullshit scenario - who thinks of this shit? Nightfight was in effect the whole game and 6 counters were placed, but only 3 of them were worth anything, so on turns 2, 4, and 6 you'd randomly find out where the money was. This was further clusterfucked by having two Eldrads on the board... know what Runes of Warding do to each other? It makes it much easier for your precious psyker to hurt himself playing with fire.

I lost the choice and was forced to go first. I decided I'd have to play aggressively given his obvious advantage in mobility; obviously he'd swoop in and claim objectives on the last turn and I couldn't afford to allow him that. I attacked on the middle/left, blocking and baiting with my tarpit and trying to force his Serpents down. My plan was to try to force a fight in one place while my Pathfinders waited in the wings to identify then claim the objectives.
So I forced his Fire Dragons out of his tanks. He took a turn firing everything at my Fortune'd Seer Council, killing one. That's what they were there for. He then surprised me by throwing both his Dragons in the assault. It was a good move. They were dead regardless, but he tied down my Council when I'd probably have movd them away completely, killing off his Dragons another way. As it was, it gave him the option to break out on both flanks, abandoning the fight but effectively staking his claim to the win. I played my ass off, making a fight of it, but my Pathfinders and Reapers couldn't do a thing about his Wave Serpents and Fire Prisms. (Note: see the black and orange Fire Dragons on the hill? They were from the Serpent I had blocking the rear-armor shot to the middle Serpent... didn't want you thinking I did the in-game equivalent of turning around and bending over.)
This last picture is from his last movement phase. I'd done my best, but he was easily able to contest all the objectives from me, then he cleaned my Pathfinders from off one objective, cementing his win.

So that's it then. Adam was a genuine guy, very cool and very funny. As an example we were joking around about Eldar on Eldar action and shared a faux-passionate huge with everyone looking on. Not a lot of guys get me, but he had a great sense of humor and enough self-esteem not to sweat the homo-erotic humor. My kind of guy.

A few last points...

The Avatar is always awesome. He played the strong linchpin of my force, tying up the enemy and keeping units in the fight that would have otherwise run. That said, he doesn't have a place in the more mobile army I'm going to HAVE to build in the future.

I have a slight issue with craters. A vehicle explosion leaves (can? should?) a crater that is dangerous terrain. I've only ever used this rule if my opponent has a crater to put on the board to represent it, but Adam's FLGS uses the rule at all times, so I went with it and we proxied it, leaving the clear bases behind to represent the crater. Adam later landed a Fire Prism on one and pointed out my Jetbikes require a dangerous terrain test to assault him. I lost a model. Now, I'm not bringing it up because it changed the game, because it didn't. I'm just not sure how I feel about this convention. I'm sure I could have set up an assault that didn't include the crater had it actually been represented. I was taken by surprise, never having really come across this in-game, so I'm going to have to decide how I want to handle it in the future. How big is the crater? Does it block line of sight? Is it shaped exactly like a Serpent, or Land Raider, or what? It's just an oddity and certainly nothing Adam was doing to trip me up. Quite the opposite - I was really out of sorts that game and he was very cool about it.

Last thing: Adam used a 10-strong Seer Council in a Wave Serpent with Eldrad attached. I've heard Stelek blast the foot-option, but it was a tough nut to crack once it was stuck in. Also, Adam seemed to think it counted as a retinue for Eldrad and 1) he couldn't be targeted and 2) he couldn't leave. We had a brief discussion. He showed me the Retinue rule in the BBB and I said "Yes, but show me where it says Retinue in the Eldar Codex." I maintained it was an option opened up by the purchase of a Farseer but otherwise an IC operated as normal. I'm confident I'm right, but I'm putting it out there anyway.

This has gone on long enough - take care all...

Brent

Note: I've written this blog as a submission for Yes The Truth Hurts, Stelek and Co.'s tactica site, primarily because I believe it illustrates many of his points on Eldar builds. I include it here because this is my blog... but nobody actually reads it anyway!

No comments:

(A new favorite!) Anon: I haven’t even bothered playing a game of 6th yet, cause I have read the rules, and actually understand how they interact with units. I know my armies no longer function how they should, and so I need to change them.

Strictly Average: 'cause 6-inches is all you get.

Stalking Jawaballs since 2009.

Jawaballs: "My butt just tightened up."

Brent, preferred 2-to-1 over Not Brent in a recent, scientific poll.

Brent: emptied the Kool Aid and DRINKING YOUR MILKSHAKE with an extra-long straw.

Unicorns don't exist.

Home of the Stormbuster, the Dyson Pattern Storm Raven.

I'm a comment whore and this whore is getting no play.

Not Brent hurts Brent's feelings.

I think, therefore I blog.

"You should stop writing for everyone else and worry about your crappy blog." - Anon.

Not Brent has been spotted lurking around with a green marker.

He's not like a bad guy from a cartoon, all devious but never quite evil, Not Brent is bad beans, man, bad beans.

Dethtron: "Again I feel obliged to remind you that trying to sound smart only works if you are."

MVB: "I am not one to join the unwashed masses of self-titled 40k experts out there distributing advice from their blogs about exactly how your list should be built..."

Shiner Bock on tap: that's how I choose hotels.

Strictly Average: The Home of Hugs and Gropings.

Don't feed the trolls!

MoD: "Welcome to Brent's head."

Competitive is Consistent.

Dethtron: "...you could use that extra time to figure out a way to get your panties unbunched and perform a sandectomy on your vagina."

Dethtron: “When calling someone an idiot, it's generally best to avoid making grammatical mistakes.”

Warboss Stalin: "You know, if it actually WAS funny, maybe I wouldn't mind."

Mike Brandt: "It's not a successful bachelor party if you don't misplace someone".

"The Master Manipulator (every store needs one): "...now, enough stroking."

Kirby: "I don't know about gropings. Seriously, Brent, keep it in the pants, please."

Loquacious: "No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get Hugs & Gropings or Stalks Jawaballs into Brent's little tribute."

Captain Kellen: "I rate this article a Brent on the Faith Hill to Nancy Pelosi scale!"

Drathmere: "Come for the balls, stay for the Brent? Kind of disturbing, man."

Go no further, lest thee see something thine eyes would fain look past!

Isabelle: "So, thank you for supporting your local and not so local unicorns. A noble gesture like that can show some scared kids out there that they don't have to hide from everyone and it's ok to be who they really are."

There is nothing more interesting than We The People... in all our beautiful, ugly glory!

On Internet Advice: You see, I have an almost religious belief that's it's a huge, colossal waste of time.

...I think I'll call it the Gun Shy Pattern Stormbuster, because after the Internet destroyed my first humble effort, I find I'm a bit worried about the reaction to this one.

Lauby: "Is it left over from that time you thought that you could just complete step one 12 times to meet the mandates of that court order?"

Not Brent: "I guess we'll have to read on and find out. Signed, Not Brent. Especially today."

Cynthia Davis: "I think the scrolling text is from Glen Beck's new book."

Grimaldi: "Spamming certain units creates interesting possibilities but also fatal weaknesses."

Purgatus: "Math can inform decisions. It cannot make decisions."

Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?

You'd be that much quicker to figure out what I mean when I refer to a Unicorn if I covered it in a rainbow flag.

SinSynn: (To Brent) "Curse you and your insidious influence on the internets..."

Dave G (N++): "You know you're an internet celebrity when your following is more akin to tabloids."

I prefer the term Internet Personality (or IP) myself, seeing as how I coined it.

Lauby: "Your attempt to humanize him as failed. I feel nothing but scorn for his beard - it's like a warcrime or something."

BBF: "I've always thought you are a good player but I finally figured out that you are a great player. It's hard to see sometimes because your personality is engaging, sincere and quite charming - to me that is kind of a rare combination."

'Clearly cheating?' I didn't misspeak: you jumped to conclusions. If you'd like to apologize I'll be happy to send you an autographed picture of my ass.

Ass.

I thought I was doing alright before I realized I was losing.

Age and treachery beats youth and vigor every time.

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