Bugeater Games 5 & 6 and last thoughts

Ugh real life really hits you in more ways than one and inopportune times.  Job interviews, new baby on the baby, 2 year old at home, a lot to juggle!  I will finally be completing my Bugwater GT review and givey ou some insight on how I finished the tournament.

Game 5 vs Adam Tricola's Grey Knights

Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Mission: 4 Objectives

His List:

Inquisitor w/ Termie, Armor, Psycannon
Inquisitor w/ Termie, Armor, Psycannon

x6 Strike Squad, Psycannon
x10 Strike Squad, x2 Psycannon, Hammer
x10 Strike Squad, x2 Psycannon, Hammer

Storm Raven
Storm Raven

Dreadknight, Hvy. Incinerator
Dreadknight, Hvy. Incinerator
Dreadknight, Hvy. Incinerator

So I sit at 3-1 after day 1 and I am up against Adam Tricola.  I frequent his website every so often to see how he does at other tournaments, and he doesn't disappoint.  He attends the bigger tournaments on the East Coast and plays very well.  He is playing my nemesis army, Grey Knights.  I never do well against them usually, (well 2 of my first 3 games I did!) and he is a very good player. 

His list is one I have not played before.  I have never played 3 Knights and usually knights have Teleporters.  2 Stormravens is odd, but he explains his use of them (given to him for free as long as he uses them!  What a deal!)  he and his group arrive to the event late and our game gets underway 10-15 mins late.  I hope this doesnt come back to bite me, but Tim assures we will get the full time in.

I get first turn and line up and prepare for him to get to me hopefully not fully intact!  he deploys 1 Dreadknight on the right and 2 on the left while putting 1 full Strike Squad on each side with an Inquisitor.

First turn sees me do a couple wounds to 1 Dreadknight and Pin his Inquisitor Warlord squad with the Night Spinner.  I foolishly move my Beasts up a little so I can ensure a Turn 2 charge.  His turn sees him clear out some Beasts and thats about it.

My Second turn I shoot more of the weakened Dreadknight and kill it with the last squad possible to shoot for the turn!  The Beasts charge a 10 man Strike Squad.  One Voidraven arrives and targets the 6 man squad.  Limits the number and cause a LD check which they fail.

**He wanted to argue that the Farseer did not receive the Fleet bonus because he cannot run.  I tried to tell him this did not matter as for the rules of Fleet it says as long as each model has Fleet, you can reroll the charge dice.  Bickering some more from him and then wants a judge.  The judge ruled corretly and allowed the charge.***

In the charge my Int 6 Khymera and Beastmasters kill 3 Strike members!  This sucks.  I didnt expect 2 Khymera and 2 beastmasters to kill 3 dudes.  This now puts my Flocks out of Int 5 Consolidation range and enables him to come in freely.  His Hammers swing away and wreck face killing some Beastmasters, Flocks and my Farseer who tried to absorb some wounds (Yay 1 wound!).  I need a 2 to stay and roll a 3.  I run away and he cant catch me because of Termie Armor.

His 2nd turn sees him flame some Warriors with the Knight, and shoot my Beasts down to nothing left.  His stormravens come in and fly right in front of me.  I Intercept and kill 1 the old fashion way, with a pen 6 roll.  The other one I believe blows a the Ravager up.  Some Psycannons shoot at a Venom and blow it.

My 3rd turn, I shoot everything I can at his Dreadknight that is right in front of my right line.  He absorbs many shots but finally goes down.  Thank God!  My other Voidraven had arrived and takes aim at his Stormraven.  I fail to kill it.

His 3rd turn he flames more Warriors and continues to pound them with Storm Bolters.  Storm Raven blows a Venom.  I am running out of guys and running out fast.  Flamers are devastating and I need him to fail saves rather than Invulns.  Not a good situation.

My 4th turn, I blow his Storm Raven, and pour some ungodly amount of Poison into his Dreaknight, doing 2 Wounds.  He is left with 1.  My Voidraven shoots a missile and Lances at the 2 man Strike Squad left and he fails 2 3+ Saves from the Missile or the Lances (went to ground).  Not a big turn for me.

His 4th, more flamers, more Bolters, more Psycannons.  I Go to Ground like a champ and save many.  His Flamer just keeps ripping through my infantry.  He destroys the Dragons in one go.

My 5th turn, I have very little guns, and not many units to move.  My far Voidraven begins his turn around so next turn he'd be able to fire.  Guardians move over to claim an objective and I shoot my whole army at the Dreadknight.  He makes all his saves.... I Snap Fire the last Splinter Cannon I have, 2 Hits, 1 Wound, he fails it!!!!!!  (Sigh...)  I actually had 1 squad able to shoot at the right squad and he made the LD caused buy the wounds I did.  other Voidraven comes on and shoots the lances at the right Strike Squad.  he fails the Look Out Sir for his Inquisitor, and dies.  Lucky me!

His turn, more Bolters, more Psycannons.  I make 2 LD 8 checks at the end to stay on my objective.

Game ends turn 5!  Damn... I wish it could have gone on one more turn.  I think I could have had enough guns to kill the right squad and taken the primary.  We tied on Kill Points even though my opponent had 2 more than me.  You need 3 more than your opponent to claim Kill Points.  When it came down to Table Quarters, I had them.  My Voidraven was controlling the Quarter with the right Strike Squad and I had my back two.  My opponent didnt think fliers could control quarters, but in the mission packet it clearly states "Any unit may count their points toward the table quarters."  He wasn't happy to find this out.  Not happy one bit.  He also was unhappy to find out units holding objectives dont count towards table quarters.  He pretty much lost it at this point.  I mean, you can be mad that is the case, but it wouldnt have mattered as I had the Quarter with a flier anyway. 

You can see the write up of our game on his blog: Delusions of Grandeur

Overall a tough and frustrating game.  Fail some 2+ saves Adam!  Toughest game of the tournament thus far and it really came down to the wire.  I sit at 4-1 now for the tournament and know I will be in for it in my last game.  Hopefully it can be a nice, fun opponent!

Game 6 vs Alex Farrell's Triptide Tau!

My opponent was a local, and had attended the Bugeater GT in the previous 2 years as well as this one.

His List:

Command Suit w/ the fixins
x2 Bodyguards w/ Shield Drones

Aunshi

Riptide w/ FnP, Burst
Riptide w/ FnP, Burst
Riptide w/ FnP, Ion Accelerator

x6 Firewarriors
x6 Firewarriors
x6 Firewarriors
x6 Firewarriors
x6 Firewarriors
x6 Firewarriors

x4 Pathfinders
x4 Pathfinders
Razorshark Fighter w/ 4++ vs Intercept/Skyfire (forget which one)


Wow!  So I go from fighting 3 Dreadknights to 3 Riptides!  Fun for me!  Honestly I was worried too much, as Riptides can be erratic and unreliable.  The thing that sucked the most.... He had first turn.  GREAT!  The mission was 3 Objectives with Dawn of War Deployment and all objectives in No Man's Land.

Instead of doing a turn by turn, I will premise and say, we both just shot the shit out of each other.  Here are some highlights:

-Nightspinner took out a squad of Fire Warriors a turn
-My Fire Dragon Exarch sniped out Aun Shi
-A Riptide i charged overheated his heavy Burst and killed himself
-He had a Firewarrior who made, no lie, 20+ saves.  He made so many 4+'s and then a lot of 3+ Cover saves... Rediculous!  This fire Warrior also rapidfired the Baron, and the Baron proceeded to fail his first 2++ and then fail his 3+ Ruin save and both Feel No Pain saves!  So he died.... What a bitch!
-It came down to the final turn... Turn 7.

Turn 7 rundown.  My opponent had a Riptide with 1 Wound, 1 Mega Fire Warriors (see above) and his Commander Suit with no Guards or Drones.  His Riptide had been boss with saves and survived the previous turn.  He moved to control the right objective, and killed some Warriors ready to fire.  His lone Mega  Fire Warrior was on another objective by himself. I had some Warriors on the far left objective and the far right was contested and the middle was claimed by the Mega Fire Warrior.  His Command Suit shot and I went to ground with the far left squad and survived.  He then needed an 11 to contest that objective otherwise the game is pretty much over.  He gets an 11!!!!!!!  So now its a game.  He is controlling the middle and contesting the leftand right side at the end of his Turn 7.

My Turn 7.  I shoot all of the Warriors, Guardians, Night Spinner, and Fire Dragons at his Riptide on the far right side.  I leave a 3 man Warrior squad ready to run to the Objective to control it (they were 5'' away) so when I kill the Riptide they can controll it.  Nah, the Riptide wasn't having it.  He made all but 2 saves, but then made the Feel No Pains to save himself.... F$*(*#)@_(#$_(*$_(*#!!!!!!!!  So now all I have left to shoot is the Gone to Ground left squad, my Ravager, and the 3 man squad.  I shoot the Ravager at the Mega Firewarrior.  He fails the 1 save i cause! Thank God!  Well shit... Now the Gone to Ground Squad cant shoot the Riptide.... Dumbass on my part.  Should have shot them first.  So it comes down to the 3 man squad and their shooting.  They shoot, 3 Poison hits.... NO BLASTER HIT!  He rolls a 1... He needs to make a FnP and we draw.... He fails!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I win!!

My favorite game of the tournament was this game.  Great opponent, great fun, lots of ups and downs throughout the game.  It went 7 turns, and came down to the last dice roll!  Thats an awesome game!  He was great and took the game with a great sense of humor!  Thanks Alex!  I was worried about facing a doucher in my last game, but was very happy to have played Alex, thanks again.

So Overall, i finish with a 121/150 battle Points.  This grants me tied for 3rd Place!  I am also named the Tournament Runner Up! (2nd best General)  i am stoked.  I got a cool plaque, and a $75 gift certificate to the Game Shoppe (a local hobby store in Omaha).

Great great great tournament!  i had a blast and had a great number of opponents.  Some very tough games, some easy ones and a very good experience!  I am hoping to come back next year for sure and bring a bigger crew!  Thanks again for a great tournament and a great experience!