This February the Battle for Salvation Gaming Club began its first League. Run by Ed, our club secretary, who divided the players up into two divisions. Each entrant wrote their name and their primary force, which would not be allowed to change for the duration of the league. These cards were shuffled and drawn randomly to decide which players played in each division. The Battle for Salvation Divisions (BFS) and the Comic Book Heaven Division (CBH) were created:
BFS
- Ed (Dark Angels)
- James (Imperial Guard)
- Andrew (Space Marines)
- Mike (Chaos Space Marines)
- Silex (Grey Knights)
- Gerard (Dark Eldar)
CBH
- Bob (Necrons)
- Ryan (Orks)
- Joey (Chaos Space Marines)
- Will (Chaos Space Marines)
- Fareed (Space Wolves)
- Matt (Space Wolves)
The rules of the league are as follows:
- Using the preliminary NOVA format missions on the Nova Open website, each week the entire league would play a randomly determined mission.
- Each week would also be at a different points level. Week 1 was 1500 points with no allies. Week 2 was 1750 and allies could now be used. Week 3 was at 1850 points continuing the use of allies. Week 4 was at 2000 points and now your list must be set so that no more changes can be allowed from week to week. Week 5 would be a repeat of week 4 and the end of the regular season.
- The schedule was set up to play each person in your division once. Thus the regular season would be a 5 game season.
- The top two in each division would enter the 4 player playoffs. The first game is the divisional games and the winners of each division would then play each other for the title of league champion.
- If there was a tie for a spot in the playoffs, the head to head matchup would be the tiebreaker.
As competitor this was so much fun to be a part of. It was like an ongoing tournament from week to week. There were some silly scenarios that there could be a possible 3 way tie in the CBH division but everything went smoothly and here are my games.
Week 1 vs Matt
This game was really one of futility. I had chosen to go first in this Kill Point mission. Matt set up a refused flank and seized the initiative! His long fangs tore into my immortals killing them all and destroying one of my Annihilation Barges.
I held up in the middle avoiding his scouts and awaited my flyer relief. I failed many rolls and Matt was taking advantage of it. Ultimately the flyers proved to be a saving grace allowing my destroyer lord, wraiths and scarabs to hit his lines.
As the luck began to turn and the game neared its end I managed to wipe most of his squads and get the wraiths into one big combat with his rune priests. We tied on Kill Points and I won on the tie breaker of Victory points by about 75 points.
(1-0)
Week2 vs. Will
Now at 1750 and allies I felt more at home with my original force. Will brought 2 Helldrakes though at 1750 can be really nasty.In this objectives game I chose to go second.
Wills flyers and my failure of reserve rolls let his hell drakes have free reign killing my Strikes and Immortals.
Once some reserves came in and I was able to get rear armor shots with tesla the drakes were eventually down over two turns.
I focused mainly on eliminating scoring units as did Will. The main issue was his deployment. My overlord on a barge and wraiths and scarabs got into his ranks tying up his plague marines and havocs.
In the end it came down to killing his scoring warlord. Getting him off the objective would tie and slay the warlord gives me the win. 3 annihilation barges shot and the last one killed him.
(2-0)
Week 3 vs Joey
My cousin Joey and I have been known to have many close games. Especially in 4th and 5th ed. This is not the case for 6th. In this game I forced Joey to go first but after seeing his deployment I attempted to seize the initiative and thanks to coteaz, I succeeded!
Because his lascannon havocs were a real threat I set up across from two of the squads and creamed them on turn one. From that point on my CC got closer and picked off some of his units from a far. The deathmarks came in and killed the other Havoc squad eliminating the threat against my tesla. I pulled another victory out.
(3-0)
Week 4 vs. Ryan
This game was by far the closest and most controversial game. Ryan, not only desperately needing a win to stay in contention for a playoff spot, is my brother so that makes this game even more important!
Going first now, using my full army, I pushed forward and attempted as many shots as I could. Once the flyers came in I began to be a bit worried. He used the Waagh and got many shots against my one flyer but he rolled poorly and I managed to survive the attack.
I managed to down his flyers with barges and moved my deathmarks into position. After ryans boyz killed my Dreadknight I exacted revenge! But Ryan hung tough and fought back. He ran over my scarabs and wraiths pushing me back to the mid field. His remaining lootas and lobbas attempted to pick off my scoring units and immobilized the chimera. I was forced to keep the remaining strikes in the chimera and hoped the henchmen would survive.
Looking as though it would be a tie on primary objectives I still was confident that I would win on Victory Points but then ryan took the center objective with one of his two remaining boyz squads. He also turbo boosted his warboss to eventually contest on turn 5. Luckily for me one Barge totalled 9 hits and 7 wounds and he failed 3 killing that warboss.
But Ryan had one ork left on the objective after I shot the rest of my army at the squad. If the game ended it would be his. If it went on I had a chance. Here is the controversy. We were running out of time to play at the Comic Book Store and Bishop made the decision that he wouldnt mind if we finished our game. So I rolled and it went on. I was able to remove him from the center and win the game. I felt bad because if it had ended on time he would win. But all is fair in love and war. :)
(4-0)
Week 5 vs. Fareed
With my playoff spot guaranteed this game was more or less to help Fareed understand how to utilize his new Imperial Guard Allies. Fareed had been eliminated from the playoffs but his army had some strengths that did well against mine.
Fareed had 40 Grey Hunters in rhinos. Which I couldnt deal with. They swarmed my right flank. Fareed failed to kill my Annihilation barges and I beat the left side. Roughly an even battle all the way through, I won on a last minute contest with my warriors in a scythe.
(5-0)
Playoffs
With the regular seasons conclusion the playoffs looked like this:
BFS- Mike vs Andrew
CBH- Bob vs Joey
Game 1 vs. Joey
Joey was unhappy about his list as he was forced to lock in when he did not have the desired models. Despite doing well in his last two games and finishing 4-1, Joey felt that his list was poorly designed. I agreed.
I forced Joey to go first as this was Objectives and Quarters. He had no real shooting other than Drakes and I could take advantage of that with my deployment.
I destroyed most of the Nob bikers on turn 1 and 2. His Drakes came in staggered and on turn three we had this epic match up!
Joey hung around for a while but with the lack of troops and scoring units and all his tough to kill units dead we called the game winning me our division!
A little foreshadowing. This was near the end of Mike and Andrews game. Mike would eventually go on to win against andrew. Similarly mike went undefeated in the BFS division too...
Necrons: 35-6-3
Ultramarines: 1-1-0
IG: 0-1-0BA: 1-1-0
Overall: 37-9-3
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