++Game 4++ Serendipity
The clocks went forward overnight in NZ on Sunday and I woke up late. I was halfway down Brooklyn Hill before I remembered that I had forgotten my display board for the Beauty Pageant finals. I had to go back and retrieve it and ended up 10 minutes late for my first game of the day. I had no time to get a coffee which was a huge blow to both morale and mental faculties. I also badly needed the toilet. I couldn't possibly get any more flustered so I just relaxed and went with it (not enough to let go of my bowels, but you know what I mean). Upon arrival at the hall, the TO informed me that I had drawn a bye and didn't have to play. Blessed be the RNG Gods! I quickly grabbed caffeine, relieved myself and spent the next 2 hours wandering around, chatting and taking pictures. With no opponent to play, I scored a default win. Bliss. Since I have no pictures of my own game I've included a selection of other people's:
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| Aidan Corlett vs. Hagen Kerr |
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| Craig Latta vs. Paul Knieriem |
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| Shane Rongonui vs. Simon Smith |
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| Erm... ahh shit I've forgotten |
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| Liam Miskelly vs. Dave Hodgetts |
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| "Shhh! Be vewy qwiet. We're hunting wabbits.." (Craig Stewart vs. Sam Whitt) |
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| Adam Thornton vs. ....? |
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| Spot the grumpy T.O. |
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| Rory Taylor vs. Jordan Green |
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| Bob Pearce vs. Ryan Moran |
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| Dave Lewy vs. Sean Sullivan |
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| Marked for death. John Murrie vs. Cody Parlato |
++Game 5++ Cameron Robertson - Blood Angels
This was a kill point mission essentially with extra points for killing vehicles and characters. Cameron had brought Mephiston, Astorath the Grim, Slamguinius and Slamguinius-lite. I didn't rate my chances with a single Jump Pack captain of my own so I castled up in the corner of the board and milled about in confusion.
He had named his army the 'Bloody Nose' which was either displaying bravado or a wry sense of humour, I'm not sure which. I got first turn and blew up a Redemptor. Good start! My opponent then launched the most inept assault I have ever seen. The primarch of the Ninth would have been appalled. Oh, there was nothing wrong with his tactics. He had Stratagems and psyker powers which practically guaranteed a devastating charge.
Mephiston and the two Jump Pack captains were set up to come down on me from the heavens with vampiric fury and shut down my shooting. Astorath and the Death Company would then sweep through my back lines. The problem was that Cameron's dice had gone on a short holiday to hell and he failed practically every roll in his initial psychic, assault and charge phase. Captain Precarius took full advantage of the situation to bash Mephiston's head in (God that felt good. I love Dante but Mephiston gives me the fucking willies).
Then my (completely un-teabagged) heavy artillery opened up like rolling thunder. The result was slightly underwhelming; they only just managed to take Slamguinius down. But I was ahead on points. Cameron's second wave of assaulters was successful but I had done enough damage to stay ahead. If the game had gone a full 6 rounds it might have been a different story but I was saved by the bell and the T.O. called time.
++Game 6++ James Milner - Black Templars and Sisters
I got Celestined! I've never faced St. Celestine before and the trash talk is true. She's utterly frustrating to deal with on a heavy terrain board where all first level ruins block line of sight. This was another progressively scored objective mission, but with only 4 Objective Markers. I took out the Land Raider and killed Celestine but she just came back to life, popping up in the soft underbelly, stealing my home objective right out from under my nose.
Cpt. Precarius decided to rectify this affront to the Chapter's honour and declared a charge after I opened fire with everything in range and only managed to kill the Geminis. She butchered him out of hand. Thinking about it now, I must have forgotten that he had the Shield Eternal but those termies in the background would have finished the job next turn anyway.
James's Thunderhammer/Stormshield Terminators were a real thorn in my side, which probably shows how weak my list (and my generalship) is. I tried a few shenanigans and shot all his scouts off one of the objectives with the Madcat but I was playing it counts-as Stormtalon Gunship. The 'Boots on the Ground' rule prevented me from capturing the objective myself.
I even killed his Landraider but it didn't matter because Celestine was playing merry hell with my back lines, dancing in and out of LOS blocking cover. The flyer nabbed Linebreaker again (is that illegal now too?) so I salvaged one point from my final game.
In total, I had scored 1 win, 1 bye and 4 losses with a smattering of bonus points. Not my worst result by any means but this tournament was not just about generalship. In fact, battle points only counted for 40% of your total score. I had maxed out both my Painting and Sportsmanship scores. We were also marked on army composition which accounted for 10% of the total. I bagged 7/10 so effectively won an extra game over someone who scored 0. All of which meant I came in 19th out of 59. Not bad at all, considering. And I got best painted too which, as you can probably guess, I was trying very, very hard to win.
Rogue's gallery. Click to enlarge:
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| Alistair Morgan |
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| Craig Latta (Interesting hand positioning!) |
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| Dave Lewy |
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| Hagen Kerr |
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| John Murrie |
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| Jordan Green |
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| Josh Hill |
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| Liam Miskelly |
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| Ryan Pike |
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| Sam Whitt |
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| Glen Burfield/Cody Parlato/Jake Easton won best terrain |
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| Scott Avery |
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| Ryan Moran |
