Maelstrom VIII

The paint was still drying when I went to bed in the early hours of Saturday morning but, blow me, my Maelstrom VIII list was finished.   May I present 'Floaty Balls of Death':

Mostly Harmless

My list consisted:

Hive Fleet Detachment
3 x Tyrannoctyes - Venom Cannons
3 x Hive Tyrants - Wings, Electroshock Grubs, Devourer w/brainleech x2
5 x 3 Ripper Swarm
1 x Lictor
1 x Venomthrope
3 x Shrike - 1 Lashwhip & Bonesword, 1 Twin Bonesword, 1 Scytals, 3 x Toxin Sacs

Sporefield Detachment
3 x Mucolids
3 x 6 Spore Mines

Fortification
Hivestorm (Firestorm) Redoubt - Comms Relay, 2x Quad Icarus, Void Shield


I might as well come right out and say it; I got my arse kicked. Again.

Rank	Player	Army	Total	Other awards
1	Sean Sullivan	Necrons	113
2	Carson Turnbull	Necrons	99
3	Wil Hoverd	Adepta Sororitas/Flesh Tearers/Imperial Knights	96	Executioner (Most Slay the Warlord),Umpire’s Award - Death of Fluff
4	Glen Burfield	SM: Blood Angels/Imperial Knights	94
5	Robert Ransom	Chaos Daemons	91
6	Scott Engerbretsen	Orks	85
7	Nathaniel Pihama	Tau: Farsight Enclave/Imperial Knights	84
8	Craig Stewart	Astra Militarum/Imperial Knights/Space Marines	83
9	David Hodgetts	Tau	79	Berserker (Most First Bloods)
10	Ryan Lister	Tau/Imperial Knights/ Grey Knights	79	Umpire’s Award – Liquorice Allsorts
11	Alex Neil	Necrons/Imperial Knights	74
12	Kevin O'Leary	Astra Militarum/Inquisition	70
13	Aaron Twose	SM: Imperial Fists	69
14	Jordan Green	Khorne Daemonkin/ Chaos Space Marines	66	Vexilla (2nd Best Presented
15	Mike Talks	SM: Iron Hands	62
16	Deon Adamson	Grey Knights/ Assassinorum	58	Living Saint (Best Opponent)
17	Luke Forrest	Tyranids	58	Aquila (Best Presented)
18	Adam Neather	SM: Dark Angels	51
19	Nigel Ritchie	Tau	45
20	Cameron Talks	Astra Militarum	44

I believe the internet term is 'roflstomped'.  The fact that I had played zero practice games didn't help.  Failing to read the players pack (apart from the rules on painting) was another demerit.  Subsisting on 5-6 hours sleep a night for the past week practically destroyed my short term memory and in game 5 I made the worst mistake I have ever made in a game of 40k.  I had a great time!

Necrons, Tau and Knights made up a large proportion of the winning armies. (Nathaniel Pihama vs. Sean Sullivan)

The tournament rules specified Primary, Secondary and Tertiary missions in every game.  Primary was the standard Eternal War mission (worth 10 battle points).  Secondary was Maelstrom (worth 6) and Tertiary consisted of the secondary objectives from normal missions (first blood, slay the warlord etc. worth 4 points).  So it was entirely possible to tie a game, even if you lost the primary mission.

Cry Havoc! (Jordan Green)

It took me until game 3 for this to actually sink in.  In retrospect I think its a very good mission pack and gives you something to play for even in the direst of games, since your battle points count towards your overall score.  It was possible to win the tournament without winning the most games (I think).  I would definitely play this system again.

How can I possibly find Blood Angels desirable?  Perhaps if Wryth paints them (Glen Burfield)

My first opponent was Adam Neather playing Dark Angels.  He detonated my Hivestorm Redoubt in turn 2, boiling everything inside it alive.  We were level pegging for most of the game and tied on the primary mission.  However, I was an idiot and killed his Dreadnoughts for the 'Big guns never tire' victory points only to discover that they are Elites and not Heavy Support (cue: hysterical laughter).  He  got 1 more secondary Maelstrom point than me and First Blood too, so I ended up losing 11-9.

The Sons of the Lion (Adam Neather)

The Redoubt was a bit of a liability to be honest.   I only took it as a safeguard for my 'reserve bomb' army.  Since the majority of my units are meant to deep strike in from reserve, there's a very real possibility that I can be tabled in turn 1.  But it really wasn't worth it this time around (the contributing factor to my 20-0 defeat in game 5).  I only faced one flyer in the tournament and killed it with Flyrants. Additionally, interceptor is not actually very good against Drop Pods.  It doesn't so much 'intercept' them as cough weakly at the assaulting units after they have already disembarked.   I should have just taken a defense line for the Comms Relay and brought something more 'killy'.  Oh, and the void shield was a waste of time.  I consistently forgot to regenerate it.

Sturdy marines (Aaron Twose)

My second round opponent was Aaron Twose.  His Imperial Fist army seemed fairly unspectacular at first glance.  But that bolter drill tactic is pretty cool in large blocks of marines and they had heavy weapons practically falling out of their arseholes.   I dealt with his drop podded veterans and librarian but I didn't have an answer for  terminators consistently making their saves.  I'd also never faced Centurions before and they had blasted 2 Flyrants out of the sky before I realised the danger.  I was soundly beaten.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends. (Cameron Talks)

My third round was against Cameron Talks who had brought a mind bogglingly large Imperial Guard footslogging army.  I just kept killing them and killing them and there were always more.  Quantity is a quality all of its own, as they say.  I was laughing up my sleeve at his Rough Riders.  Right up to the point where they nearly won him the game.  I beat him on the primary mission but he won secondary and tertiary so we ended up with an amicable draw.

All in the valley of death, rode the six hundred (Cameron Talks)

It was a good battle and his strategy of throwing countless bodies into the meat grinder is very true to the image of the Imperium in the 41st millennium.  However, it took him forever to deploy so I think he was a bit sick of it by the end of the day.  Having played Tyranid horde armies in the past, I feel his pain.

Hard as Nails (Kevin O'Leary)

Fourth round opponent was Kevin O'Leary and more Imperial Guard.  He had some absolutely brilliant Bullgryns and some stunning conversions.  The mission was Relic and was a standoff really. We spent the entire game shooting each other off it.  I scraped a win on Secondaries.  My Rippers were great for the Maelstrom secondary missions.  Quietly grabbing objectives via deepstrike and keeping a low profile.  They only resorted to cannibalism occasionally.

This is how Tauroxes should look (top). Kevin could give lessons in converting them (Kevin O'Leary)

Venom cannons on Tyrannocytes are hilarious.  About a quarter of the damage they did was to themselves or my own units.  I didn't encounter any problems with the 'instinctive fire' rule.  4 out of my 5 opponents agreed that all of the guns could fire because it was a Monstrous Creature.  The other player let me shoot them all as long as I could draw line of sight from the end of the gun.  The stupid ITC ruling that they are vehicle mounted weapons didn't come up.

He's beind you!!!  Oh, no he isn't! Oh yes he is!

Mucolids and Spore Mines were pretty hit and miss.  They regularly mishapped and either had a terrible accident or my opponent placed them 12 km away from the battlefield proper.   Moving only 3", they were easily avoided and died in droves to small arms fire.  I found they worked best defensively, at choke points with a Lictor homing them in.  Some Spore Mines did manage to take a hull point off a Land Raider once.  Not that great, but they make excellent distraction units and the entire Sporefield detachment only cost 135 points so I'm not complaining.

No Mercy (Ryan Lister)

My final round was against Ryan Lister and his licorice allsorts list. This was where I made the biggest blunder of my entire 40k tournament career (such as it is).   Looking at his Riptides, shunting Dreadknight, Imp. Knight, Broadsides and 1st round deep striking Grey Knights, I was frankly shitting myself.  He won the roll off for first turn.  The terrain was reminiscent of a football field.  If ever I was going to get tabled turn 1, this was it.  My Nids' worst nightmare come true.  I deployed the Hivestorm Redoubt so far back in my deployment zone that it nearly fell into my lap.  I buried some rippers in the cellar of a ruin where even I couldn't see them (insurance) and hunkered down with the Shrikes and Lictor.

What was I thinking?  

The tactic worked and I survived turn 1 but it was apparent that my fortification was not long for this world.  So I had a brilliant idea!  I would jump off the battlements and exit the building!  When it detonated, the previous occupants would be completely unharmed!  An unfortunate oversight on my part was that Ryan had 2 units of outflanking Kroot which promptly arrived on the correct side of the board and occupied the fortification.  My Hivestorm Redoubt was now a fricking Taustorm Redoubt.  Yay me!

To add insult to injury, I no longer had a Comms Relay and as my reserves began to arrive piecemeal instead of the intended blitzkrieg, my own bloody Quad Icarus Lascannons intercepted all my flyers, with sickening results.

I swear this Imperial Knight is grinning. (Ryan Lister)

My Flyrants had been excellent all weekend.  Moving in formation around the board, reacting to emergencies and often devastating opponents with 36 twin linked devourer shots.  I found a use for every one of the Psychic powers they rolled during games (well, except for Onslaught).   But they were no match for intercepting Riptides and friendly fire.   They still managed to kill the Imperial Knight despite my incompetence but the whole affair was embarrassingly awful (thankfully, Ryan is a gentleman and didn't rub my nose in it).  A 20-0 defeat.

I think I'm in love (Alex Neil's Necrons)

Shrikes were the most surprising of my units.  In all honesty, I only took them because they look nice (yeah, yeah I was blatantly gunning for best painted).  However, I have discovered that they make decent 'full-backs'.  I hid them in or behind the redoubt in every game.  They sallied forth to counter deep striking units or provide synapse cover or tarpit something nasty and they did it very well.  Many of my opponents had never seen Shrikes before and someone asked me if it was a new Tyranid kit!

Objective complete

So, all in all, a good weekend.  I met some great people, played some interesting games and Hagen Kerr hosted a very professional tournament with some of the best, most dense terrain I've ever seen (my game 5 was an exception, but it was still a great board).  I won best painted which was my primary goal.  My secondary goal was to win 2 games which I failed but that is entirely my own fault.

I am now going to sleep for a month.