Doubles Tourney Report!

Hey, folks, Kasrkar here, coming to you with a full tourney report. This one is on the doubles tournament that Jaybie and I attended on Sunday.

Now, before we get into it, I need to sum up the things I should've covered already. As for the 1500 tourney that I mentioned in my last post: I got stomped first game by a space wolf power gamer who I found out cheated several times, I then stomped a different mean wolf list. I ended with about 7/14.
As for the 1250 that Jaybie covered: I ate up a dark eldar player, tied a 'nilla marine player, and barely beat a tyranid player. I got 2nd out of 14.

Since that's out of the way now, on to the doubles list! We were going IG x CSM, 500 points per player, a shared force org chart of 0-1 HQ, 0-1 Elites, 0-2 Troops, 0-1 Fast Attack and 0-1 Heavy Support.

HQ:
-Daemon Prince, wings, mark of Slaanesh, lash of submission

Elites:
-4 Chaos Terminators w/ power weapons and twin-linked bolters

Troops:
-Platoon Command Squad, 1 autocannon, 1 grenade launcher
-Chimera, Multilaser/heavy bolter
-Infantry Squad, 1 autocannon
-Infantry Squad, 1 autocannon
-7 Khorne Berzerkers, 1 champion w/ a power fist
-Chaos Rhino

Fast Attack:
-Vendetta Gunship, 3 twin-linked lascannons

Heavy Support:
-Leman Russ Battle Tank, battle cannon and heavy bolter

Going in, we had never attended a doubles tournament before, and didn't get any practice in with our list.

Game 1: Our opponents had space wolves and blood angels. The angel army contained 2 10 man assault squads with a power weapon in each, 3 plasma pistols in 1 and 3 infernus pistols in the other. The wolf army had a land raider redeemer with extra armor and a multimelta and a 10 man squad of wolf guard w/ a thunder hammer and 2 power weapons. Jaybie and I groaned when the land raider was unveiled, it was the one thing we hadn't prepared for.
The mission was killpoints, and the deployment was pitched battle. They win the roll-off and place their land raider in the center of the board, the assault squads were deep-striking. Jaybie siezes the initiative after we deploy in the right corner. The rest of the game was slow and unfortunately underwhelming from our perspective. The vendetta failed to harm the land raider beyond blowing off its multimelta, Jaybies guys got locked in the assault for a long time, the enemy gets a lot of lucky shots off at our guys, and we eventually realize that the enemy only has 4 killpoints in their army. At the end of the game, we Looked down at the casualties. The vendetta was shot down by a hunter-killer missle, the leman russ died to plasma pistols, Jaybie's berzerker rhino was blown up by an assault cannon, and his daemon prince was smacked around by a thunder hammer dude. We had killed both assault squads, 6/10 of the wolf guard, and immobilized the land raider, giving us a loss and 750 victory points.

Game 2: We faced off against the store owner, Jimmy, and a younger player named Chris. They were playing 'nilla marines and space wolves. The marine army contained 10 combat squaded terminators with 2 cyclones, and the wolf army contained a wolf lord w/ a thunderwolf, thunder hammer, storm shield, wolftooth necklace, some anti-psyker thingie, artificer armor, and saga of the bear. It also had 6 long fangs with 2 missle launchers, 2 lascannons and a plasma cannon. The mission was sieze ground, and the enemy had not troops...
This was a really fun game, especially since they only had 17 models. Inevitably, the thunderlord would be chopped up by berzerkers, the long fangs pulped by a battle cannon, 5 terminators would die to a mishap, and 5 more terminators would die to epileptic seizures from my lasguns. Among our casualties, a chimera was wrecked, 2 guardsmen died due to an incompetent and/or spiteful leman russ gunner, and the daemon prince was smacked around by a thunder hammer (again...). We won with a massacre.

Game 3: We somehow ended up against the same wolf and angel players we'd faced in game 1. The mission was capture and control, pitched battle deployment. This time Jaybie and I needed revenge. We lost the die roll, and were forced to go first. Jaybie thrust his prince up as far as he could and lashed the single assault squad that was holding their objective into a nice little circle. I shot my battle cannon and missed completely. Other shooting killed 2 assault marines. Said assault marines assaulted and killed the prince, but were reduced to 4 men in the process. The battle cannon kills the remaining 4 marines, the land raider is shaken by my essentially useless vendetta. In their turn, the other assault squad advances next to the land raider. I coax Jaybie to both suicide-rush his berzerkers into the assault squad AND use his terminators as bait for the land raider by plopping them behind enemy lines. While the berzerkers mop up the last of the 2nd assault squad, the land raider turns around and kills a chaos terminator. Seeing that the landraider is facing the wrong way, I try and take advantage of the fact that I could immobilize it without being shot. My stupid vendetta fails to do anything again, but luckily, my more reliable russ immobilizes it on a glance. The berzerkers kill of the last of the assault squad, but are only 2 men strong now. Wolf guard pour out of the land raider and shoot at the berzerkers, killing 1/2. I convince Jaybie to kill off his farther dude so that he can still be assaulted and he can bring the wolf guard into the open. Jaybie listens, and his berzerkers are assaulted and killed, the wolf guard consolidate into the open, 9/10 are instantly vapourized by a single battle cannon shell, the last man being pegged by an autocannon. So, the enemy forces are limited to a single immobilized land raider that's facing the wrong way. We spend the remaining turns shooting the raider with the vendetta, until the leman russ finally delivers the deathglance. Another massacre for us, and more importantly, sweet revenge!

So, we ended the tournament with a loss and 2 wins, and 2,750 out of 3,000 VPS. Unfortunately for us, 3 players went undefeated, so we ranked 4th out of 19 teams. The really nice tyranid player that I beat in my last game of the 1250 ended up winning the whole thing after his partner left. Of all the teams, we got the most victory points. It was a great event, and we look forward to future ones. If I learned anything from it, I learned that getting your teammate's army annihilated to bait the enemy is okay sometimes. Hope you enjoyed...I'll be attending a 1k w/ 3 mandatory elites on Saturday, so I'll report that as well, with pictures hopefully. It will be my eldar's 1st tourney.

Hope you enjoyed, folks.

Tournament report: Jaybie style

Hello, all, and time for a tournament report, also known as the beginning of Jaybie's comeback. It was a tournament held by the same store as the 1000 pointer a month or so ago, but this time it was 1250 points, and required 3 heavy support. My list that I took was:

Kharn

7 naked berzerkers in a rhino

7 thousand sons in a rhino

7 plague marines with a powerfist and 2 meltas and rhino

2 oblits

2 oblits

1 oblit

There were a very good spread of armies this time, with 2 each of IG, Wolves, Tyranids, and Chaos Marines, and then a Vanilla Marine player, a dark eldar player, some Blood Angels, an Ork army, and a Demon army which took 1st overall, and finally some Grey knights.

So, first round is announced, and I find myself against Kasrkar's brother. Great. His Blood Angels army is:

Meph

furioso with blood talons

10 assault marines with a powerfist and 2 meltas

5 assault marines with TL las razorback

2 preds, both with autocannon and lascannon sponsons

Stormraven with TL las and TL multi-melta

The mission is DoW annihilation, and Kasrkar's bro gets the first turn. He rushes up with the Raven full of meph and the dread, hold everything else back. Basically, nothing in my army does anything except kill the raven, and meph and the dread kill my entire army, with his fire support taking out all my rhinos. So, full VPs to Kasrkar's bro, who got 4th overall, and 200 VPs and a loss to me.

Next round I draw a Guard player who has a rather unusual list. It is, from memory:

CCS w/ lascannon team, chimaera

10 vets w/ 2 meltas, plasma, lascannon team, chimaera

10 vets w/ 2 meltas, plasma, lascannon team, chimaera

Valkyrie w/ multi-laser

Leman Russ Vanquisher w/ Lascannon, Knight Commander Pask

Leman russ punisher w/ heavy bolter sponsons

Manticore

This guy had just finished being beaten up by some Demons, so he wasn't in the best mood. Especially when i steal the initiative. The mission is 5 objectives, pitched battle. First turn my oblits take out the valkyrie, and he retaliates by killing most of my thousand sons and their transport. In the next couple of turns, Kharn murders the Punisher with 6 penetrating hits, the lonely oblit deepstrikes and kills a vet transport, and the 2 remaining berzerkers take down the occupants. The obliterators caused a lot of havoc this battle, and drew a lot of fire, and only in the last two turns did my opponent remember that this was an objective mission, and to target my scoring units, but it was too little, too late. 2-1 victory goes to the Chaos Marines.

Final round is announced, I draw an ork player, and thinking back, this is undoubtedly the best game of 40k I have ever played. The ork list was:

Warboss w/ cybork body, power klaw

Big Mek w/ kustom force field

5 Meganobz w/ 2 combi-skorchas, combi-rokkit

20 boyz w/ nob w/ power klaw

20 boyz w/ nob w/power klaw

12 boyz w/ nob w/ power klaw, trukk

3 Battlewagons, all with armor plates, boarding planks, deff rollaz

This mission was spearhead 2 objectives. This game was unbearably close, coming down to a final tank shock from a battlewagon to the plague marines, i death or gloried it with a melta, and then the PMs held in combat. It was too little too late, however, as the meganobz caused too much damage, and it was a 1-0 win to the Orks.

So, with a 1-2 record, I figured I probably got 11th or 12th out of 14. So I was absolutely shocked when I found out I had gotten 8th, which was a lot better than I had expected.

Next weekend, Kasrkar and I are heading to a doubles tournament, and we have something special in mind...

Successes in Wargaming (And lack thereof)

Hello, all, it's Jaybie here again, to talk about my recent lack of gaming success, and how I aim to rectify it.

Okay, so, at the dawn of 5th edition, when I fist started playing warhammer 40k, I got a bunch of friends to start it too, and we were off. For the first year or so, I don't want to say my Chaos was undefeatable, but it was pretty close. Victory followed victory, and I was feeling pretty good about myself. (Yes, this is all going somewhere)

Then the great advent happened, that is, Kasrkar and, later, his brother joining our little group of gamers. The first two games I played against Kasrkar I, believe it or not, won. The fist time was his first real game ever, and I mercilessly crushed his 4th edition guard, and the second was with him using Black Templars, and I had exactly 5 models still standing, but I managed to hold onto my objective, and contest his.

Then Kasrkar got ahold of the 5th edition IG codex, and I haven't beat him since. I realized then that what my army needed was something better, something more. And that's when I discovered the Internet. Sure, I dabbled with a lash/plague/oblit spam army, but I eventually decided to do what I should have done from the beginning: Test. Test units in games, try using them differently, learn their limitations, etc. And even though I still wasn't beating Kasrkar, I was having success against less competitive players.

So the testing continued, and I think that for about 10 games in a row I didn't use the same army twice. Units came and went, and some didn't make the cut, notably Thousand Sons, Raptors, and Vindicators. But a lot did, and they are now my most dependable units, that perform well in every game, the best example being Khorne Berzerkers.

But then, just recently, I've started losing a lot more than I win. Why is this? Well, 2 reasons:

1) Playing against really good players (Kasrkar, his brother, Grandpa Rhino, etc.)

2) Overconfidence.

The 2nd one is perhaps hurting me a little more than the first. For instance, about a month ago I played a good friend of mine's Blood Angels, and he's just recently returned to the hobby, so I was thinking "Yeah, I can beat him." Well, bottom of turn 5, all my models were dead, and I hadn't killed that much of his army. What really hammered it home was my slightly sad performance at my first tournament a few weeks ago.

Which I guess narrows it all down to, similarly, 2 solutions:

1) Respect your opponent

2) Kill things!

The second one might seem a little obvious, but it bears repeating. Over the course of the tournament I racked up an astounding victory point total of just over 700, while Kasrkar, who got 2nd, got near 2500.

So, that's it for today, any questions or comments are much appreciated!