Comic Asylum Tournament, Games 2 and 3

Here's the wrap up on the tournament the Card Pimp in question and I played in last Saturday. Seems like a lot longer than a week ago - these last five works days have been brutal.

Here's a current favorite unit; Scouts with plasma and knives and plasma and chains and plasma and combi. Plasma. What's not to love? In my opinion, plasma is the new melta; the game it is a'changing.

Game II was a rather unique little mission the TO appropriated from Lord of the Rings. I was playing a new player in his very first tournament... and while my opponent's instincts are good and I suspect he'll be a strong gamer in the future, this was a fairly easy win.

We had three quadrants in our deployment zones, which explains the rather odd setup.  Since I got lucky and the vast majority of my units were on the right flank, my plan was to blitz the deployment zone then start punching left.  Hogan's squad would hopefully soak most of the fighting allowing the Scouts and Hunters to bunch up.  Looking at my opponent's army, I had a huge advantage in mobility.  I wasn't that worried about letting his Assault Squads past the line, but I wanted to hinder him as much as possible.

His shooting kills too Brotherhood Guard and sends the Guard Terminators running for the board edge.  He'll rally, of course.  On the right flank the Lone Wolf leads the way, with Hunters and Hogan's boys following up for a strike at his center.  Two Hunters in Rhinos speed along the right flank toward his Predator.

We'll skip ahead.  This is what the Blood Angel's player had in my zone...

...while my 'Blitz the Quarterback' strategy on the right worked out fine for me.  I earned full points on this game.

Again, this player was a really nice guy, and a friend of Neil, the wily vet I played in Round I.  With his instincts and that kind of help, it won't be long before this dude starts racking up wins in his area.

Round III sees me and the Card Pimp in Question duking it out for first place on Top Table.  The CP is not too far behind me, and by this point there were only three players with a reasonable shot at first place.

In this scenario, the three objectives will scatter once on Turn 2 and explode on Turn 3; after that, they're fair game.

Neither the Card Pimp nor I really wanted to have to bust up each other's dreams of a victory, but that's the way it goes in tournament play.  I felt I had the advantage if I could neutralize his Stealers early and sort out the ever-scary Swarmlord.  Tye's route to victory was rushing me with the Stealers and hold me down long enough for the gruesome meat of his army to make gruesome meat out of me.

I was actually scared of the Biovores, which is funny considering how many people were telling the Card Pimp in Question to drop them in favor of something else!  It's not that they do that much damage to Marines, but failing a pinning check at the wrong time could spell disaster.

The Card Pimp infiltrated his Stealers, so my job was making sure he had no spot outside of line of sight of my army - I simply couldn't afford for him to set up within 12-inches.  After careful examination - by both of us - he was forced to set up exactly 18-inches away... meaning a strong run move would put him on a unit early.  There's no way around that; it was a 1 in 6 chance per unit, so a 50% chance on three.

I tried to seize and failed.  The game began with the Card Pimp in Question leaping forward..!

Okay, for some reason the last pictures I took didn't come out worth a crap.  Suffice it to say, I won the game.  The Stealers on the right fell early and the two units on the left suffered early casualties - despite one unit launching a first turn assault on a Rhino - and faced an uphill battle.

The Scouts actually had to come on from the left flank and shoot hot-plasma-death at one of the units of Stealers, who were threatening a Turn 3 munching of a 10-strong unit of Hunters... because the damn Biovores pinned them!

In the center, I hurled the Long Wolf at the Hormagaunts to take away the screen, then slowly whittled down Hive Guard and Zoanthropes with Hogan's Fangs pouring out firepower.

The Swarmlord wouldn't be stopped!  There was a turn I shot everything at that big mother, including the spare tire from a Rhino!  He bit it in half and spit it at me, then launched into Hogan's unit in an assault!  Luckily for me, the shiny armor distracted Swarmy, allowing Hogan to make minced pie out of the Tyrant Guard.

Despite it all, Swarmy continued to lay waste around him until Hogan finally put him down.

I'll admit, I played probably too passively with Hogan's unit, fearing the Swarmlord's vaunted assault ability, but considering what would have happened if my Rune Priest had failed to nullify the 'screw you, have a WS of 1' power...

...well, who knows?

I earned the top spot, and the Card Pimp in Question managed to hold on to third place.  As always, mad props to the Comic Asylum.  I can't say enough good things about this little metroplex venue - if you're in Texas, check it out.