Compare and Contrast: 2 Competative Games

Tasty wrote a great article on Bell; here's the link.  Why do I like it?  In my opinion, opinion pieces allowing for multiple, yet possibly equally valid opinions are great for discussion, in that they can change one's opinion.  It's best for you to read that before reading this; go on, I'll wait.

...

Back?  Okay, if you're a decent person, you're probably a bit irked at the thought of bullying going on in our hobby.  I know I was - and no, I didn't need Tasty to point it out, I've seen it for myself on occasion.  Moving on, our hobby attracts every different type of person, but let's face it, by the definition of a gamer, we've all got a bit of nerd in us.  Maybe you can fit in elsewhere, maybe it's not that noticeable otherwise, but the moment you pick up a man-toy, or hell roll dice anywhere outside of Vegas or an Indian Casino, you're something of a geek. 

(EDIT:  Does Blogger have some kind of auto-edit function?  There was a rather risque joke that somehow got deleted.  Strange.)

Okay, part of me finds it funny that anyone on our hobby plays at being a bully.  We're simply not the culture that produces dangerous aggressors... which is not to say that we some of us can't be dangerously aggressive, but c'mon!  Imagine it, if you will:

"I'm totally going to BoLSCon (being held the last weekend of July in sunny Austin, TX) with my bag of toys to threaten and verbally intimidate those smaller than myself... so I can win some more toys.  I'm going to be totally cool..!"

But joking aside, it happens.  Even in my FLGS, we've seen grown men acting out.  Two of our locals almost came to blows during a tournament, and I know the organizer was embarrassed about the image of our store, as there were out-of-town'ers present.  I'm not innocent: I yelled at a dude who wasn't watching his kids.  One of them almost got really hurt, a 3 year-old that was climbing on a table, and she almost took a nosedive.  Then this grown man yells at his 5 year-old for not watching his sister closely enough.  I kept my cool until he tried to stare me down, then I tore him a new one, using language that wasn't so appropriate for a 3 or 5 year-old - he hasn't been back much, that I recall.  No loss; piss on him - he was a card gamer, anyway.

I guess my point is that any group with multiple guys will occasionally have the testosterone-fueled episode, but bullying during a game crosses the line.

Here's two games from my archive.  These are the links, so you're responsible for following them and reading them, or not - your option.  Thing is, both of these games were competitive and became tense but in different ways with different results.  The BoLSCon 2009 game against Joe Cherry was great, tense in the sense of competition but that's enjoyable.  The Hard Boyz 2009 game tense in that the ending was marred by controversy.  Until our disagreement about playing the last turn, the game was fine and I would have said my opponent was a decent guy - truth is, he may well be, and I have the wrong idea about him.

http://strictlyaverage.blogspot.com/2009/10/bolscon-game-5.html
http://strictlyaverage.blogspot.com/2009/08/nonsense-called-game-three.html

You be the judge.

For No Apparent Reason...

... pictures from last week's tournament, from Little Barrera's camera.

Game 4: Daemons Vs Salamanders

Okay, we've reached the end of the local tournament I've been posting about.  This was top table, #1 (yours truly) and #2, Farseer Tim.  My Daemons Vs his Salamanders.  The last game we played was a pretty brutal affair... truth be told, I don't remember who won.  I know it was the first time I'd played against an Ironclad Dreadnought before, and I hated the experience.

In that previous game, his Ironclad assaulted a Plague Bearers squad and I'd countered with a Daemon Prince.  I'd knocked off an arm, but that just extended the whole affair out and he kept me there the entirety of the game.  Annoying.  That was also the game where I rediscovered how little I like Null Zone.

Null Zone cost me my game against Nick's Salamanders at BoLSCon 2009 (from Chapterhouse Studios, and Nick was a great guy - I highly recommend him and his products), but that was when I still played my Eldar.  Daemons have a whole other reason to dislike it!

Anyway, I didn't capture too many pictures, because I ended up playing like a maniac.  You see, Evil Homer's opponent forfeited on Table 2, on Turn 2 (there's a story there, but I'm not sure it's mine to tell), giving Evil Homer a major victory.  I knew points were close, so I thought there was a good chance I'd have to score a major against Farseer Tim to take first place on the day.  I knew to have any shot of doing that, I'd have to fit in a full game.  That means push the game, play faster, roll faster, move quicker..!  I probably annoyed the hell out of Tim, but he was a good sport about it.  He knew why... and something that occurs to me as I write this: he could have deliberately played for a draw rather than pushing for a win himself (playing not to win but to cost me a win), and probably cost me the tournament.  I'm sure he knew he could do it, but I'm equally sure he never would have.  He's one of the good guys, and I've got mad respect for him.

But you still have to wear a tinfoil hat around him - his power of suggestion is legendary.

Bah!  5 objectives means I've got to... you know, it only just occurred to me, writing this now, that I literally HAD to table Tim for a major.  I'm pretty sure the victory conditions were to control all the objectives for a major and more than your opponent for a minor.  While I like having major and minor wins as a category, I think that's taking it too far.  If you roll for 5 objectives, like we did, you'd better hope you'd filled out 5 troop slots.  The missions seriously need another look, much like the guys were saying in the recent comments.

In the above shot, you see I've played for my toughest drop, which is all 4 beasts units (Fiends and Khornedogs) and all 3 Daemon Princes.  I consider this my all-or-nothing drop, and while I'm aware many Daemons players advocate this style, I normally don't.  I don't like to win or lose on one roll of the dice, so normally I have my 'shooting / not shooting' split, that way regardless of what I get I can work a plan - either set up charges or drop aggressively for an alpha strike.  The above drop gets all my best units on the table from Turn 1.  Farseer Tim sets up in a line with his Land Raider centralized, balanced by his two Razorbacks.  He's got attack bikes on the wings and in the middle, 5 in all.  I drop, we mix it up... what's to say?  Nothing, except that once again I misjudge how far a Land Raider can move and disgorge troops to assault - doh!

I'm afraid I didn't get the pictures of the middlegame.  Suffice it to say, we mixed it up good.  Tim used Null Zone to great effect, but I managed to neutralize the Terminator Librarian and Terminator Assault Squad... with some help from Farseer Tim, who managed to roll 3 ones for saves in 1 turn!

The picture is rather later in the game, when I was beginning to wonder if I had the goods to win this game!  A unit of Fiends is assaulting a Tac squad in the upper right quadrant, fighting over an objective.  I win, then plant 'bearers there.  My Horrors move left, screened by my Great Unclean One, and take the centralized objective.  My GUC drops Breath on the Land Raider, immobilizes it, then charges, destroying it.  My other two Plague Bearer units have a tight control of the two objectives, but his two Attack Bikes manage to kill a Daemon Prince - who was in combat with them, no less! - and charge off to attack the 'bearers on the left flank.  I end up having to reposition my last unit of Fiends to help them out.  The fight ends up hottest on the last objective, where the Iron Clad is.  I fight hard, but ultimately can't beat the last of his army and claim the major.

Truth be told, I wouldn't have done so even with another turn.  He still had two squads and two vehicles, and certainly wouldn't have just handed them to me on a silver platter!  I was disappointed with a Minor Win, thinking I'd lost the tournament.

But I'd won!  I'd misunderstood the conversation; basically, I'd made a scoring error in my game with Evil Homer, but it was a point (or two, not sure) they weren't going to worry about unless it mattered, and it wouldn't unless I failed to win my game.  As it turned out, I needed a Minor Victory to secure the top spot, which is what I got.

Stressed myself out for nothing!  Still, it was a good game, and Farseer Tim put up a sterling defense.

Wow.  Slow blogging week; I can't beg people to comment!  Still, I need some feedback, so if you have any experience with or against Daemons, please take a quick look at this post and comment on the lists.

Birdsong directed me to a rule I'd completely missed... I wasn't fleeting my Khornedogs!  That's d6 extra inches of goodness a turn (heh), but when I went to the forum I laughed when I spotted his tagline.  Check it out.

If you didn't get it, you haven't read this blog closely enough!  I've been working with the labels, so feel free to look around.  There's some good stuff on here.

There's also some stuff that sucks  pretty bad...  What can I say?

Brent

Grade the List: Competative Daemons

Okay, I'm taking a short break between posting my games from last weekend's tournament; have no fear, gone are the days it takes me a month or more to post a day's worth of games, a la BoLSCon 2009...

...I recall it took me forever to post all those.

But I digress.  This text is strictly business - I want your honest opinion.  I want you kind folks to look at my competitive 2000pt Daemons list and tell me what you think.  There are 3 to consider.


Here's my primary list synopsis:
(3) Herald of Tzeentch: Chariot, Gaze, Breath, Bolt, Master of Sorcery... 130pts
(3) Fiends: 6 models, 1 champion upgrade... 190pts
(4) Plague Bearers: 5 models... 75pts
(1) Flesh Hounds: 12 models plus Karnak... 230pts
(3) Daemon Prince of Tzeentch: Breath, Bolt... 170pts

Here's a few changes I was considering:
- 1 Herald
- Breath from the 2 remaining Heralds (they would cost 100 ea)
+ Great Unclean One with Breath
This is a variation of the army I ran at last week's tournament.  At that event, I ran a significantly reduced Khornedogs unit, but it still worked just fine.  I wanted to increase the size of the unit to make it a threat on par with the Fiends, but that's something that can be adjusted.  Point is, this army includes the Great Unclean One with Breath, a surprisingly effective model on numerous fronts.  I'm leaning heavily in this direction.

Lastly, here's a very trim, trim list.  It takes off options that I've grown to love, such as Breath, in favor of increased unit numbers.



(4) Herald of Tzeentch: Chariot, Gaze, Bolt, Master of Sorcery... 100pts
(3) Fiends: 6 models, 1 champion... 190pts
(1) Plague Bearers: 5 models, Icon... 100pts
(3) Plague Bearers: 5 models... 75pts
(1) Flesh Hounds: 7 models plus Karnak... 155pts
(1) Flesh Hounds: 8 models, 1 champion upgrade... 130pts
(3) Daemon Prince of Tzeentch: Bolt... 140pts
This army lacks Breath but adds two units to the army's total.  That's 16 units in the army, so I could stack a drop of 8.  (The other two variations are 14 total.)  As an aside, this army looks much closer to the ideal Stelek created for me.

The changes happened due to play-testing, as all good changes should: I found I was getting huge mileage from Breath of Chaos... to the point I seriously question my army's effectiveness without it.

Obviously, I hope to get more play-testing in prior to BoLSCon, which is the next major event I'm attending.  As a note, I still hope to attend Hard Boyz, but I've got to try and find a Sunday event, since GW in its wisdom scheduled Hard Boyz for the most popular college graduation date of the month.

Let me know what you think - Brent

Game 3: Daemons Vs Mech Guard

For Game 3, I played my nemesis, the very evil Evil Homer, who of course played his Mech Guard.  I'd say it's a tossup between this army and Little Barrera's Space Wolves for which is the most feared at our FLGS; in that, we're pretty much like other areas.

I don't know where my army fits into the bunch - you'd have to ask someone else.

But I digress.  The mission was, again, modified from the Battle Missions book, and it only took one look to realize I wanted to be the Defender, not the Attacker.  Take a look at the picture - and remember, as always, you can click on the picture to zoom in.

So the Attacker is forced to play aggressively and get into the enemy deployment zone.  Had I rolled lower than Evil Homer, he would of course chosen to defend; while it would have been difficult to shift all those vehicles, I've done it in the past.  My army is suited to it.  His, however, is not.  This was obviously a huge uphill battle for him, and he practically had to table me to get a minor win, much less a major.  I was pretty happy with this turn of events, but just as obviously he wasn't.

Let's take a moment to talk about that.  I won't bore you, but there were some good and bad things about these scenarios.  My FLGS has almost always used missions modified from the main rulebook, so armies pretty much knew what to expect.  These last two months first the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) and then Little Barrera used these modified missions, really shaking things up.  I think that's a positive thing.  It more represents the type of missions played at events like Hard Boyz, BoLSCon, and Adepticon, where there is almost certainly multiple missions to achieve in order to claim a major victory... and you can pretty much guess you'll need a string of majors to win the day.  It forces people to consider elements of their army they may not normally pay attention to, and perhaps top-heavy gunline armies may be reworked as a result, hopefully to the enjoyment of everyone concerned.  In short: it's a form of comp built in.  The problem with this, other than those who hate the idea of comp at all, is that it leads to mismatches such as this.

Game 2 worked out well for me, and I saw Birdsong posted a comment; I meant to ask him, but haven't yet, if he believes he would have been better served by not using the full reserve option in that particular game, with that particular mission.  I think the match would have been more equitable.  In this game it wasn't a choice that resulted in a mismatch: I won a dice roll and the game became lopsided as a result.  Now, that in no way invalidates my win, or my ultimate first place position on the day, because lucky draws in certain scenarios is a factor in every tournament anyone plays in.  Evil Homer wasn't happy, but he didn't complain or throw a fit - that's just the nature of a tournament, and if you can't deal with it you should consider another venue for your hobby.  I certainly didn't blame God and everyone when Birdsong pulled the Sanctuary Screwjob a month ago; in fact, I love that game!  Now I'd best move on, since I'm certain I've bored most of you...

The attacker goes first - that's Homer! - so of course I'm off the table.  He moves on along the entire long edge, concentrating his artillery on the opposite end of the table in the picture you see here.  Basically, the objectives were in the quadrant on my right flank, so of course that's were he focused his power. 

Here's my drop and run moves...

...and here's the table after the top of 2.  His shooting was pretty brutal.  I lost two units of Fiends, some Khornedogs, and had wounds dumped on my Great Unclean One.  I'll admit, I was blown away by how effective his shooting was.  If that doesn't seem impressive, consider that each Fiend has two wounds and I had a cover save for practically every shot.  That's a lot of hitting, wounding, and failing... and I'm not known as a player with bad luck failing saves - these failed the old fashion way.  By overloading me with dice to roll.

My army has 4 elements, which is my personal idea of proper army composition, but I won't go into that much today - hell, maybe ever!  Everyone has ideas about what's best; who's to say I have anything both original and useful to say on that score?  Anyway, I have Placeholders, Disruptors, Aggressors, and Gunners in this and every other army I build, though the proportions change... and this obsession with these elements sometimes results in odd choices in my armies, such as the lone Vyper in my old Hybrid Eldar army (I lacked Disruptors). 

Blah!  Moving on, what made me nervous is Evil Homer blasted most of my Aggressors off the board.  I still had one unit of Fiends and a unit of Khornedogs... not to mention the Great Unclean One, who could fulfill that role in a pinch.  His turn was great, and I know he was well satisfied with it...

...and then I went.  I've rarely had a more perfect turn than this one.  I'm very aware of what my army is capable of, but so is Homer.  He's my nemesis, after all.  It's fair to say we were both shocked.  Two Daemon Princes and a unit of Plaguebearers came in from reserve.  On my left flank, my Herald got in position to attack Homer's artillery, making sure I could overlap the Breath template and pick up at least two tanks.  The two Princes dropped on the flank as well, taking up the slack left by the destruction of the two units of Fiends.  One Prince blasted a Chimera and the other knocked a Vendetta out of the sky.  My remaining unit of Fiends had a juicy target to charge!  On the right flank, my Khornedogs were going to have no problem reaching the Vendetta, but let's not pretend they wouldn't have had problems doing something to it... after all, what does the dog do when it catches a car?  My other Herald solved that problem by moving into position, Bolting the Vendetta and immobilizing it.  Consequently, my Khornedogs were able to target the bird AND the Chimera sitting next to it, which I would have been able to do had the bird still been in the air.  The difference between charging the base and charging the downed Vendetta along its entire span is huge, and it allowed me to space my models enough to pick up a treat.  The Great Unclean One used Breath on his targets but got a bit unlucky and failed to roll high enough to charge, and the Khornedogs failed to hurt the downed Vendetta, but Karnak the Khornedog of Vengeance lifted his leg on the Chimera, blowing it up and spilling shocked Guardsman all over the board!  Good stuff!  In the subsequent turn, Homer's, the remaining Khornedogs did blow up the Vendetta, spilling Guardsman out the back in a nice pile for my Herald.

Here's a shot of the right flank during Homer's shooting phase.  He failed to kill the Great Unclean One, who subsequently ravaged the Autocannon squads in the corner, but he did kill all but a few of the Khornedogs.  The remaining, pissed off at the affront, took their close combat attacks in Evil Homer's turn - like they're allowed to as long as the vehicle hasn't moved - and blew the Vendetta up.  Notice the Herald?  He came along and blew his halitosis all over them!

I think this is the 3rd turn.  Evil Homer later said that my brutal Turn 2 caused him to realize he was playing for a draw.  He sped his Vendetta up and took what troops he had left to go after the Herald on my right flank.  I believe his plan was to sneak them along the edge, going for the Horrors whose job it was to control the corner objective.  Ultimately, it didn't happen, but Homer's a gamer - he'll fight to the end.  Moving on, my last Daemon Prince dropped and destroyed the Vendetta with Bolt and Breath, disgorging the troops below it.  As you can see, it's still on its base, but that's because we didn't want it balanced on the terrain; we understood it was wreaked.  Meanwhile, on the left flank, my remaining Fiends and Herald, as well as the Daemon Princes up there - which you can't see in the pic - continued to lay waste.  It was a fight, though, as Homer marshaled his forces for the counter-attack. 

Here's a picture taken from the short edge, right flank.  The Great Unclean One killed his opponents but was finally put down by the remaining Autocannons and the PCS in the Chimera.  The Vets with Melta, who'd previously been dumped out of their Chimera by Karnak, went after the Herald.  Karnak, meanwhile, had been forced to go to ground.  It didn't help, and he was sent yapping back to the Warp.

Same angle, next turn.  The Daemon Prince in the middle moved up to attack the remaining Guardsman with Breath.  The Herald closest to the camera was targeted by the Vets, who are hoping to kill the Herald and move on to the Horrors.  In the middle, the Psychic Battle Squad (btw, they'd killed half their squad by rolling box cars on the first turn of the game - fun!) and a Vet Squad, both in Chimeras, are making a play for the center objective. 

Here's the last picture.  When Turn 5 rolled around, we had 18 minutes left and chose not to play on.  I had a minor win and there was no way Evil Homer could improve his position.  It's possible I could have, but it wasn't likely enough for me to care.  Certainly Homer would have given me the last turn had I wanted it, but weighing that against relaxing 15 extra minutes between rounds and I think I made the right decision.

This last picture is the board with my models removed.  Keep in mind, the Vendetta in the middle is wrecked, but the point is my opponent had plenty of stuff on the table, but his artillery was trapped in one corner and his PCS in Chimera (out of the shot) was in the other, along with the remaining Autocannons.  Ultimately, they couldn't affect the last turn, other than maybe killing off a model or two. 

I find that interesting.  I handed the Guard a butt-kicking, yet there's still a lot of plastic on the game board.  Simply put, it's the type of army that's hard to put away completely, and had I been in the unenviable position to play the Attacker, I'm wondering if I could have shifted so much off the objectives.

Ah well!  That's how it rolls, and keep in mind I had quite a bit as well.  We went through 4 turns and it was  a random game length mission; a lot could have happened.

Thoughts?

Battle Report: Daemons Vs Blood Angels

This is game two of yesterday's tournament, and I played Birdsong, a wily veteran of the North Texas / Oklahoma scene.  As I recall, I first met him 2 or 3 years ago in OKC for a Hard Boyz tournament, and since that time he often makes the trip from Lawton, OK to Wichita Falls, TX for our local events.

He's also the dude that pulled the Sanctuary Screwjob on me last month.  That's one of my favorite games, but I was just as happy to find out I wouldn't see Inquisitor Pissoff on the table again.

Okay, the tournament coordinator, Little Barrera, used missions modified from the Battle Missions book.  As you'll see from these games, this decision was somewhat controversial, especially in game 3.  I was fine with them, but then they tended to play to my strengths.  Case in point, this game.  The astute reader will recognize the mission as that from one of my previous video battle reports, Daemons Vs Blood Angels (Brent Vs He Who Shall Not Be Named).  As I said there, this mission plays to the strength of Daemons who are able to work through the synergy of 1 or 2 units, whilst other armies aren't quite as capable.  I also said we determined the Defender should turtle up in the middle, which is possible since regardless of the sector you roll, you can set up within 24-square inches of the center.  The attacker is forced to move on from the board edge of whatever quadrant he rolls.  Also, there is an objective in the center of each of the 6 sections.  Got it?

Well, I rolled higher than Birdsong and chose to be the defender, turning the mission on its head.  He was forced to go first and deploy from the long edges onto an empty battlefield.  Truth be told, that shouldn't have made much of a difference, since it's very similar to what's going to happen when you play Daemons, regardless of the mission.  Consider: he would have had a turn to set up and a turn to fire/assault before I could launch an assault, and in fact I would have had less ability to escape the assault since I would be Deep Striking for the middle of the table.  All that said, for some reason the scenario made a difference to his strategic thinking and he made what I believe was the worst decision: he kept everything in reserve.  Also, he chose not to Deep Strike his Assault Squads but rather move in from the long edge... but that makes a certain amount of sense, given he'd have the ability to launch an assault on the turn he arrives.  The downside, though, is he loses the ability to re-roll his reserve roll.  Point is, the Daemons army is designed from the ground up to function through Deep Strike - it's difficult to beat it at its own game.  Moving on, I got my preferred wave, and I'm obviously setting up my Fiends and Khornedogs to assault whatever comes on, wherever it comes on at.  Birdsong was forced to drop a Pod, so his Librarian Dread hit the table.

At the top of 2, Birdsong gets his Baal Predator, an Assault Squad, and a Devastator Squad with Corbulo.  Like I said, he's a canny player, so he immediately targets my Troops.  The Baal on the left flank targets Plaguebearers in the ruins, as does the Assault Squad in the middle.  The Librarian Dread flies over and engages my last unit of 'bearers.  I go to ground then weather the assault as well as possible.

I weather the storm as well as possible, then launch my Fiends across in a series of assaults.  Two points; I send Karnak to reinforce the Plaguebearers against the Librarian Dread, and while the Fiends would have been a better choice to destroy it, I needed them elsewhere.  Karnak had a chance, and at worst I could hold the Dread in place.  Second, check out the above picture - this is something Birdsong pointed out to me, and I'd like to pass it along to you.  This unit of Fiends failed to roll high enough to cross the difficult terrain and assault the Devastator Squad.  As you can see, the other unit had no problem doing so, given they had a straight shot.  Birdsong pointed out I could have targeted the vehicle and avoided the terrain test, then possibly picked up a few of the Devastators.  This was a great point, and I missed it because of the angle of the table - had I walked around it, or examined it from another view, I would probably have seen it.

So, Birdsong gets some Scouts in the corner, I get the Great Unclean One... and boy, I needed that!  I was worried about my opponent's strategy of targeting my Troops.  The big boy dropped Breath and knocked off the TL'd Assault Cannons.  The engagements continue.

My Horrors are dropped into Sector One (see the big casino dice?) as is Birdsong's smallish Assault Squad.  He ignores the Fiends and heads for the Troops, following his strategy.  I agree with this decision, even though it didn't work out for him; sometimes it's most important to stick with your plan when it seems like it's not working, because the moment you change it is guaranteed not to work.  Obviously too, you have to know when to abandon and idea - but that Catch 22 is what makes the game fun.

At this point, the game is coming close to its end.  It's hard to see here, but the Horrors are firmly in control of Sector 1 and I still have a Plague Bearer in the ruins in the middle of Sector 2.  In Sector 3 my Great Unclean One and a Daemon Prince are tackling a Tac Squad with Razorback and the still dangerous Baal.  My Khornedogs are dying off slowly but surely, but are eventually reinforced by a unit of Fiends, who manage to bring it down.  Anyone notice what hasn't made an appearance?

Yea, yea, yea...

Ah, there he is!  Yup, Mephiston didn't show up until Turn 4.  He charged one of my Daemon Princes and began to prove what a monster he is.  Frankly, I'm lucky he didn't show up earlier, since he was fighting off my Daemon Prince and a unit of Fiends on the charge - what the hell else was I going to have to throw at him?  He's a true beast, and I'm a bit more worried than I was about Jawa and Goat's Blood Angels at the BoLSCon Team Tourament.

Basically, that was game.  Birdsong asked afterward if I felt vindicated.  Yup!

I'm aware the scenario was an uphill battle, but I thought it was made more so by his decision to full reserve.  Given this is a topic that's pretty pertinent, I'll weigh in.  Ready?

It depends.

Brent

(What?  You expected more?)

Daemons Vs Necrons

I've been kind of a hobby madman lately; it's true, it's true.  I've been spending quite a bit of time on my super-secret Eldar build for the team tournament with Fritz at BoLSCon, not to mention working on and painting my Daemons and Blood Angels.  I've been frustrated with the Blood Angels, if you couldn't tell; more on that later this week, but suffice it to say, the all-infantry army list I put together sucked pretty hard.

You wanna know what I learned about Blood Angels?  They're still Marines.  That's all - they've got some extra stuff, here and there - but they're Marines all the same.  I can hear you now, "No shit, Brent, get your digital head out of your ass."

Problem is, I think I have a point.

Blah!  This is a battle report, and I've wasted 4 paragraphs already.  Okay, while I've been having problems with Marines, my Daemons army, and my ability to play it, has peaked nicely.  I took a version of my BoLSCon variant to the FLGS tournament today and won 1st place.  

Here's Game 1 against Necrons.  This game was called Brawl; you earned 3pts/HQ, 1pt/Troop, and 2pts/other unit type.

 

I took the 2nd turn, so the original Tony (Chemotep) moved forward.  He's rocking a 3 Monolith variant; the 3rd, which he borrowed from me, is Deep Striking.

I stack my Alpha Strike drop - that is, everything with a shooting weapon - and dropped modestly.  I was more passive than usual with my Heralds, but I hoped to save them.  The Horrors didn't deviate - they were bait.

When playing Necron, I always ignore the Monoliths and concentrate on phasing out the army.  This game was no exception, except for this one shot and joking around at the end.  Having no other shot, I Bolted the Mono, got lucky, and blasted off a weapon.  To represent that, I broke his toy.

The Wraiths take the bait, moving up to take out my Horrors.  I'm a bit unlucky and fall to his rapid-firing 'Crons, so the Wraiths are even more out of position.

My Heralds blast the Wraiths off the board.  My Daemon Princes and Great Unclean One sweep to my left flank.  My drop is nice; I'm conservative, since my Fiends have plenty of speed.  The Original Tony is a canny player, so he constantly shifts his units in and out of whatever combats I manage to engage in.

This is from the left flank.  I've learned with Deep Striking that it's best to be fairly conservative if you can afford to be.  In this case, his threats are centralized, and while I can't pin him in the center completely, as his Monoliths can run me over, I do feel in control of the flow of the game.

On his turn, the last Monolith Deep Strikes in and deviates to the edge of the board.  The Deceiver moves in to threaten my Great Unclean One, but without fleet I see it coming a mile away.

 This is a pretty chaotic picture, but basically I'd set up my charges on the previous turns and on this turn pulled the trigger.  This is the aftermath.  The Other Tony was completely unprepared for the Fiends; reading an entry or having a unit explained doesn't prepare you for what they're capable of.  I charged the Deceiver with the Great Unclean One and a unit of Fiends, trying to torrent wounds through Rending.  That worked, there as well as against the other units.

The combats wind down and wrap up.  I find out I'm a model away from phasing the army out.  Tony pulls his army through the Monoliths, moving away in 3 directions, trying to salvage what he can. 

The last two pictures are just wrapping up the game.  This was a bit of overkill, but I needed to assure this unit's complete destruction in order to end the game a turn earlier than it normally would...

...and this was my experiment, trying to bring down a Monolith.  It's pretty impossible - or I should say, the odds are long.  I had 4 monstrous creatures shooting then charging, but it was a huge waste of time.  It wasn't important; I was curious and the Original Tony thought it was funny.

After the game, the Original Tony commented on the Fiends; basically, he thought they were broken.  Don't get me wrong - he didn't bitch or whine, he's not that kind of guy - but he thought they were pretty overwhelming.  I'm not sure I agree.  Certainly I think Fiends or Bloodcrushers are powerful and one or both units are necessary to a competitive Daemons army, but the army is designed to drop, take a certain amount of punishment, then attack in close combat.

The stats reflect the assumption the unit(s) won't be whole, but rather shot to shit.  Most armies are fairly capable of of dishing out that kind of damage, if played properly, and modern games become an application of applied force.  The Necrons aren't capable of that, regardless of what others may say.

Most people think the Codex is broken, or at best challenging to use.  The best build at the moment is the Destroyer-spam, with the idea of keeping the Troops off the board to avoid phase out while the Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers play the angles.  While this is the best version, I don't think it comes close to competing, all things being equal, so I don't think of myself as some huge tactical genius for this win.  I just played my army properly and it worked out as expected.

My next game was against Birdsong... the same dude that a month prior had pulled the Sanctuary trick on me.  While that's a personal favorite game of mine now, I wasn't interested in a repeat performance.  That was the first question I asked, but it turns out that Birdsong was playing a Mephiston Blood Angels variant.

(to be continued)