Winner Winner Chicken Dinner... Again!

 I have been severly lacking in posts as of late, and I am sorry. 

Over the past weekend was the 1750pt Contest of Champions at Great Escape games in Sacramento, CA.  usually the 1750pt tournament has around 50+ at the tournament, unfortunately this one was much smaller, with only 24 attendees.

This is the list I brought:

The Baron
x5 Wyches, Haywires, Venom
x5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom
x5 Warriors, Blaster, venom
x10 Warriors, Cannon

x5 Beastmaster, Clawed Fiend, x5 Khymera, x6 Flock

Ravager, Nightshields
Voidraven, x3 Shatterfield, Flickfield
Voidraven, x3 Shatterfield, Flickfield

Farseer, Doom, Bike, Runes
x10  Guardians, Scatter Laser
Night Spinner

Defense Line, Quad-Gun

So a pretty straight forward and typical list by me.

Round 1:  Tim Trammel and his Deathwing

I know Tim from the shop and have gamed against him a number of times.  He is a great opponent and has had some very good luck against me in the past.  His luck didn't fail him this game as he seizes the initiative on me!
He ran a fairly typical Deathwing list with Belial, Ezekial, x10 Deathwing w/ Heavy Flamers, 3 other 5 man squads of Deathwing, and a squad of Deathknights. 
He seizes and proceeds to Drop in Belial with the large squad of termies in and Flame 8/10 of my Guardians.  With Split Fire, they take out a Venom as well.  The Shooting from his other 3 Squads, knocked out my other two Venoms.  So I was not sitting pretty my first turn.
My first turn was actuaklly more sensational than his.  I Doom Belial and his nicely grouped up Squad.  I move the Beasts to intercept a 5 man squad and shuffle other squads around to pick a few termies off.  Shooting sees The Night Spinner cause 7 Rends and 6 total Deaths on Belial's squad.  Combine it with other shooting, and Belial was left with 1 other Deathwing  Termie.  Other shooting sees me kill a 5 man squad on Deathwing.  My Beasts fail a charge!
Other highlights include my Beasts being charged by 5 TH/SS termies and his Deathknights and being 2'' from falling off the board.  Turn 2/3 for me saw me wipe his army off the board with my Voidravens and get me a 19-1 Victory.

Round 2:  Paul Mckelvey and his Tau

I know Paul from Stockton and we have a number of mutual friends.  He placed 3rd at the Bay Area Open by beating me out by 1 point!  He is a great player, and this was the first time we had a chance to play.
The mission was 6 Objectives with modified Purge the Alien and Hammer and Anvil deployment.  Dedicated transports and fliers were each worth 3 KPs a piece while everything else was worth 1 KP.  I knew I would be at a disadvantage since I had 3 Venoms and 2 Fliers... But I needed to concentrate on the objectives.

His list was a suped up Commander Suit with Bodyguards and Marker Drones, a 2 man squad of suits, a Riptide, 20 Kroot, 10 Kroot, 3 Fire Warrior Squads, Longstrike Ion Head, and a Skyray.  With Hammer and Anvil Deployment, i knew I would be in for it.

He took first turn and proceeded to kill a Venom first turn and not much else.  My turn saw not much bsides some Kroot or Fire Warriors dying.  We traded blows back and forth all game.  Each making rolls and failing terribly when we needed them. 

Highlights:
* Riptide killing both my Farseer and Baron in CC.... I failed both saves
* 2 Razorwing Flock (all that was left of my beasts) causing one wound to the Riptide, his Riptide whiffing, failing LD and getting Swept
* 2 Razorwing Flock making 5/7 Cover Saves then charging and killing an Ethereal and 7 Fire Warriors
* He had an indestructible Stealth Suit... So many 4+ Cover saves!
*Indestructible Venom on my part that couldnt get hit, or penned, or I made saves... Very good!

When the dust cleared, I held 3 objectives to his 1 and he beat me on KPs 13-11.  I made a valient effort for KPs but couldnt get everything  I needed.  It was a tough and intense match, and was by far the best game of the weekend.  I ended up winning 15-12 as we both got all secondary objectives but First Blood.

Round 3:  Mack Martin and his Grey Knight w/ Imp Guard allies

So I know I would be in the hunt comign in last round but I knew 2 players were ahead of me.  I definately needed a high score to even be considered. 

Mr Martin had just played my brother in the previous round and had beaten him.  So if anything else, I wanted revenge on him for that.

His list was:  2 Inquisitors, 2 x10 Strike Squads w/ Psycannons, 2 Landraider Crusaders,Vindicare Assassin, Command Squad, 10 Vets in Chimera, Leman Russ Demolisher.

I won the roll off and set up and went first.  He deployed very far forward and Infiltrated his Vindicare within 18'' of my Beasts.  This would be a big mistake as would not giving cover to any Land Raiders and such.

My first turn all but sealed the deal.  I move my Beasts up shoot the Assassin with the Beasts.  They killed him.  The Chimera was toast from the Quad Gun.  The Ravager killed a Crusader.  I killed 9 of the Knights in the exploded Crusader with the Spinner and other shooting.  Vets lost 6/10 from Venom fire and fell back.

His turn, he shot everything into the Beasts and charged them with the other Grey Knight squad in the Crusader.  When the dust settled, I had killed all 9 of the 10 Knights and I Hit and Run out of combat. 

My turn 2 saw the Beasts assault the Demolisher and blow it.  Kill the lone Striker from poison.  Spinner knocks out both Inquisitors and the lone Strike with them.  Venoms cause both the Vets and CommandSquad to flee.  He shakes my hand for good game.

Through it all, he was a great opponent, but he just got blown off the board.  All in all the game took about 20 minutes. 

The two people ahead of me drew and I squeaked in for the win.  I beat out Paul (my round 2 opponent) by 2 points!  This was my first singles tournament I have won and I am very happy.

Thanks to all my opponents and GEG for a great tournament!

YEE!  YEE!