This year I decided to make my first trip to Warwick, RI and play at Templecon. I have heard that the competition is always solid and as for the event, it is pretty crazy because of all the convention goers in costume! My friend Bruce and my bro Ryan came with to represent BFS. I will describe each game first, then go into a little review of the event as a whole.
MY LIST:
-Zandrekh
-2 Cryptek: Voltaic Staff
-8 Immortals: Tesla Carbines
-2x5 Warriors in Night Scythes
-10 Scarabs
-6 Wraiths
-3x Annihilation Barges
-Coteaz
-10 Strikes: 2 Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo
-6 Henchmen: 5 Stormbolters in Chimera
-Dreadknight: Personal Teleporter, Incinerator
Total=2000 points
GAME 1 vs. Ben Williamson (CSM)
All the missions had Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary goals. The tertiary was always old school Victory Points (you earned the amount in points you destroyed) which formed a ratio that if you won by X points you gained between 0 and 8 battle points. This means that destroying your enemy is crucial to earn the max of 20 battle points in a round. With this in mind I wanted to make sure that I killed entire units.
After his first round of fire I decided to go after the units that could hurt my Barges and then pick off some marines.
After a firefight in the middle between my Immortals and Strikes against his bikers and herald, I took to the left flank and assaulted with the Dreadnight and deep struck Wraiths. I eventually whittled down the right side with Barges.
The air support game in and haywire took out the Defiler and the Helldrake
Epic Battle between giants! The Dreadknight did not allow the Maulerfiend to swing!
I earned 20 BPs for my first game. Ben was a great sport and his army was really cool.
GAME 2 vs. Brendan Gallagher (CSM/Daemons)
Facing more Chaos! Brendan is a great guy and I only get to play him in tournaments so this was a treat. I knew to look out for the screamers and flamers but I did not know how cool the Masque was.
I deployed to anticipate the demon drop but with going second, no warp quake. He scattered a little to far and I thought I was safe. Little did I know the Masque can pavane 3 units! He roasted the scarabs leaving one alive. Luckily he rolled low on the Strikes and Wraiths.
I charged the defiler with the Wraiths giving them tank hunters. I don't think I could have killed it otherwise without haywire. One drake came in and roasted some Strikes. Coteaz would end up by himself soon.
My flyers came in and killed the Drake as well as put wounds on the Spawn in the back. I also tried to kill the rest of the flamers but I left some alive. With Spawn then charging my Wraiths and still Screamers and Plague bearers waiting to Deep Strike, I was on the ropes.
With a fortunate turn of events, Zandrekh charged into the Wraith/Spawn combat to hold them for another half turn. I died to a challenge with his Sorcerer and his sorcerer turned into a Demon Prince! Luckily this put his character out of close combat and I shot him down! I also played keep away from the screamers and then shot the entire army at them on turn 4.
Coteaz took on the last of the spawn and won. I tank shocked the Plague Bearers off my objective and charged them with immortals to keep it safe. I got my warriors out of the flyer to contest his. I also managed to contest table quarters and win by a narrow margin. 12 BPs.
GAME 3 vs. Simon Leen (Sisters of Battle/IG)
Simon has won the BFS GT Overall award the first year we ran it. He has done well at every tournament we have hosted so I knew I was in for a tough fight. Never playing against sisters or a Bastion, I did not know what to expect.
His turn 1 was successful destroying 2 barges and immobilizing another with searchlights and his heavy tanks. He moved forward with seraphim and St. Celestine so I figured I would tie them up with scarabs.
The scarabs and then followed by Wraiths kept Celestine in combat all game thanks to Zandrekh removing hit and run from the unit. His IG blob proved to be tougher to take out than usual due to Jacobus giving feel no pain to the unit.
I was able to whittle down the unit with my flyers and killed an exorcist. He downed my Drednight with them the turn before! The game ended in a tie for each goal. 10 BPs.
Results after Day 1.
GAME 4 vs. Brad Nichols (IG/Space Wolves)
The only other time I played Brad was in a tournament at the Bros Grimm in Long Island and he beat me! I would attempt to exact revenge. Brads army was one that I did not want to face. He had 3 vendettas, and a large 50 man squad with 2 Rune Priests giving prescience and a 4++ save.
Due to Night Fight he had little to do on turn one.
My turn one resulted in flaming a packed tight blob. Killing only 8 due to the invulnerable save from the priests. It took him most his army and 2 vendettas but he killed the dreadknight. I advanced on the left flank with my CC units but failed the charge on his Leman Russ.
His warlord trait gave me -1 to reserves so I was defenseless against his vendettas... or so I thought. My turn 3 I destroyed 2 vendettas causing one to fall on a chimera of his exploding that vehicle as well!
His Plasma Russ did a number on scarabs and Wraiths but my Strikes and Tesla slowly took down his blob.
He then failed a 4 inch charge against my Strikes and that gave me the opening to charge him. Locking them up for the remainder of the game. Once my flyers did come in they helped clean up, preventing his units from getting my my objectives. Scouring was the primary.
I was able to contest with the flyers and win the secondary goal of Kill Points. 16 BPs.
GAME 5 vs. Eric Newell (Necrons)
Knowing I had a chance to place I really wanted to get as many VPs as possible. My opponent had a very interesting Necron list with a wraith squad led by a destroyer lord and 3 Scythes. One had a deathmark unit with despair cryptek inside. That flamer wounding on 2s can be nasty.
I was able to get the Misfortune psychic power so my first two turns were very successful. I chose to go first because he would have the majority of his army off the board turn one. I advanced and destroyed the Wraiths, Lord and got the Dreadknight into CC with his Immortals behind the defense line.
Then his flyers came in. 10 Gauss Immortals in 2 and the Deathmarks in another he put a beating on my army. Coteaz lost his Psycannons and he did a number on my flyers destroying one and losing a weapon on the other.
Cool pic of his wraith.
I was able to injure his vehicles but could not kill them. I charged his Immortals with Wraiths and Scarabs to hold over the right flank while my haywire warriors killed his last Barge. Ultimately we called the game turn 4 because he had only a few flyers and some Immortals left. But the damage I sustained prevented me from getting full VPs. 17 BPs totaling 75 For the tournament.
This was the end of the game for the top table. Sean Nayden vs. Alex Fennell. Sean won overall with his Dark Eldar and Alex won best general with his Necrons/CSM. Congrats to both! I ended up tied for third overall leaving me with a 4th place finish.
In terms of organization, I felt that Keith and his staff were undermanned. I only saw 2 or 3 people working with him all weekend. If there were more it was impossible to tell who they were because there were no staff shirts or even name badges. This is something every tournament needs; you must be able to find a judge or staff member easily.
I did not get to see my painting rubric. I even asked to see it twice and I was told that they were either not all done or not sorted out at those times. I ended up with a 13 out of 30. While my army is not a masterpiece I felt that it could have gotten a better score based on other comparable armies. It is helpful so that someone can target areas of their painting and either improve or take greater detail to increase the paint score next time. Also, showing the rubric and having it all done on day 1 allows for more transparency at an event, especially at a traditional tournament where painting can determine the overall winner. I sat at my army in between the rounds they said they would be judging and only once did a judge come over. He glanced at it, no more than a few seconds, and then walked away. I actually did not believe it was judged until at the end of day 1 I was told painting was finished for the whole tournament.
Terrain was good for the most part, but players kept moving terrain in between games to place display boards on and someone needed to rearrange terrain in between rounds. I ended up doing it for most of my games unfortunately. I also wish we had more room, because it was a tight squeeze at most the tables. We had to share room with other tournaments so I understand the limitations there.
All in all a great event and it really got me excited to play more 40K. I think my list was solid and can keep me in any game I play.
Necrons: 28-6-3
OVERALL: 29-9-3
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