Bruce's Happy Face

Oh how a grown man can gloat! The last picture is the money shot, but let's take our time, shall we? I played in a smallish, out-of-town tournament last Saturday, so on Friday I played a little test game. It was a bit strange; due to space constraints and the tournament theme, it was 1500pts on a 4x4 board. I won't bore you with the details (yet) but the whole point was as an introduction to tournament play for new players, so round 1 was experienced players vs newbie, but all subsequent rounds the players were divided. I ended up winning the veteran bracket but my list was definitely improved by my test game with Bruce.

Who won. And was very, very happy about it. *sigh*

My set up. I have a very compact force of a Farseer with Council on Disks (Jetbikes; deal-wit'-it-yo) and two each 5-man Fire Dragons and Dire Avengers in Wave Serpents and Falcons, respectively. Note: this is very different from my normal, mixed arms approach, and I had something of an ephiphany about changing to suit the 'metagame,' which I will share in due course.

It was DOW. He set up with the DP behind the building; I reserved everything. This is an opening shot, with my air force working the flanks and the Council boosting straight at his line. Bruce didn't really fall for it - what I wanted was for him to engage with his DP and the rest of the force, including the 'zerkers in the Land Raider, so that I could tar pit and set up a counter attack as needed. Instead, Bruce sends his Prince toward my weak flank and drops his Terminators behind it to boot.

He dropped my Falcon; the Avengers hoofed it for cover while my Council tied up the Prince. So. *mmm* So... I'm not that experienced with using a Seer Council, only recently making moves with my Eldar in that direction, but I certainly learned firsthand how weak they can be in certain situations. They rely on survivability and the ability to cause wounds with a Witchblade - but these aren't unsavable, so what happens when your opponent doesn't play along and fail those wounds? You're in a war of attrition, baby, and that ain't the Eldar's bag.

Let's not drag it out. There were three objectives; so while the Council fights a boring battle with the Terminators over a tiny spot of ground neither cares about, the real battle was on the other side of the board. I parked on the objective in the upper right hand corner, my only real option, but of course Bruce promptly charges me to contest it… and all this allows the Berserkers in the Land Raider an easy walk to the last objective. I roll a 1 and mercifully the game ends. I wouldn't have fared better with more turns so I was glad enough to end it.

Here's the money shot. This isn't posed - I actually got this on camera mid-gloat... frankly, I think only a man's wife should see his silly-face, but I'm private that way. Ah well, enjoy it Bruce! You won, fair and square.

So, what did I learn? Well, 4x4 boards change the flow of the game. My tanks didn't have the room to properly play the flanks, while every unit in his army was able to support each other. Frankly, my list wasn't that great, and I was counting on this 'super unit' to do all the heavy lifting. That would have been fine if Bruce had played along, but of course counting on your opponent to play like an idiot isn't the best strategy.

More than anything though, I realized I've been fielding lists that just aren't me. I'd gotten away from the strategies I've developed over the years that play to my strengths; instead, I'd started trying to fashion lists that looked like the ones I've been reading online.

I scrapped that and played my game on Saturday. More later.