I know, I know - but better late than never, right?
The Evil Goatboy; a picture capturing the awful truth. Okay, maybe there were SOME changes in Photoshop... but the eyes weren't touched - they are naturally an evil red. He'd get along with the Master Manipulator (every store needs one), who also has naturally evil-looking orbs planted in the center of his face.
So this will finish off the reports of my games at BOLSCON 2009. As I've said in the past, this was by far the best tournament I've ever attended, and while I've read the information out there in 'Ye Ol' Blogosphere' that says it was a failure on *enter phrase here* level, I can only say this...
Make plans to attend in 2010. Chances are, you will have a blast. Let the forces arrayed against each other out there argue the finer points of what someone should or shouldn't enjoy - it's all beyond me!
(No, they're not paying me to say any of this.)
Game 7, Eldar HQ vs Ork HQ
So here we've set up our forces... mmm - something's wrong... Where is the rest of the forces? Well, in case you've not figured it out, we did an HQ battle...
And I lost.
So what happened? Nothing much. It was the final game, and while both of us were comfortably resting in the championship bracket neither of us was going to be in the money. It should be mentioned Goatboy was drrruuuuunnnkkk! He was celebrating his engagement that weekend, doing it up right; he plopped down on the table and said, "Hey - wanna do an HQ battle? I don't want to get my shit out again!"
"What?" says I, "That's unethical! It would be bucking convention to change the rules to suit our selfish purpose."
Crestfallen, Goat drained a bottle of beer (not really) and burped.
At which point I said, "I'm struck by the intricacy of your argument. I'm in."
He had a Warboss and Mekboy while I had the Avatar and Eldrad. We agreed I wouldn't use Doom but could use Fortune. His Warboss ran with the Nob Bikers, and I agreed they should join the fight!
I can take 'em! Okay, so that was dumb, but my feeling was a Fortune'd Avatar and Eldrad had a chance to win a war of attrition. Had they been able to, that would have been bragging rights for years - but it wasn't to be. When the dice started rolling, it soon became obvious it wasn't going to be a green-sorta day.
So I was put down for a loss - but who cares? It was the perfect way to end the tournament, as far as I was concerned. I got to take my wife and mother to a nice restaurant while all the games were playing out, then I stopped back in to see the trophy ceremony.
I'll end it here - there's nothing more to say about the games or event that I haven't already. I did learn something about shepherding your army through a major event and how best to maximize the chance for a good result, but I'll share that another time.
Cheers - Brent
EDIT
I just got this over the email - interesting, no?
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?aId=14700053
This was against Simon, who does some amazing graphics on his little blog... you know, when he ACTUALLY does it (yea, that's right - blog more Simon). I'm going to start stealing his stuff to make this site look better, I promise you that. Okay, Simon is a very new player, yet he shepherded his Orks to the top table, fighting for first place. He hasn't played much but he's a sharp dude, and one of those people who can make progress by just thinking about the game. So... that means he'll be a ton better than me real soon, but he's not quite there yet. It's no slight on Simon to point out he just didn't have my experience - and that makes the difference in picking fights you can win and those you can't. The above pick shows the game in progress on Turn Two, and as you can see he jumped one of my DP's with his flying-bike-things; frankly, that was throwing away the unit. The rest of his movement is fairly standard stuff. My plan was to hit his flanking Boyz with the Fiends; I was confident I could run 'em off, but I didn't want to pick a fight with the Kans - I'd leave that to the Princes.
Here's the bottom of two, where everything almost went to plan. On my right the fiends ran down the Orks they'd sent fleeing; in the middle my Flamers hit their drop and decimated the Ork unit there; but... but... but... damn it - I FAILED to roll high enough to hit the Orks on my left flank! Doh! Still, it was a good turn, everything going to plan. You'll also notice my other Princes and a unit of 'bearers dropped in behind Simon's army.
Snikrot's squad comes in, accompanied by the Warboss on bike. That's a unit that can potentially ruin my day - it certainly ruined the Fiends on the left. He's putting the surviving unit of Boyz in the terrain on the objective. He charged my Flamers with his Kanz, failing to destroy the unit only because he didn't target the IC. Given my Inv. Saves, I'm not sure that wasn't the correct decision.
Regrettably, I think this picture skips ahead too much. There was a huge scrum in the center, where my DP's charged the Kanz and were in turn charged by the Warboss, Snikrot, and Co. It ended when my Fiends counter-charged. Ultimately, my Plaguebearers quietly collected objectives, and while Simon's last unit of Boyz spread out to grab at two, I was able to sweep in and contest those. The game went another round and the Daemons finished off the army.
