Ok, so we came, we saw, we conquered the majority of the time. It probably doesn't make for a great latin phrase, but it's still pretty good.
The Tournament was using NOVA style missions. The only difference was that for two of the games the Objectives were deployed as per book missions rather than 5 centered in their respective NOVA locations. For the third mission the Objectives were deployed NOVA style.
Here was our lists:
Space Wolves
Logan Grimnar
Wolf Guard x 5, Terminator, Cyclone Launcher, Storm Bolter
Wolf Guard x 5, Terminator, Cyclone Launcher, Storm Bolter
Wolf Guard x 5, Terminator, Cyclone Launcher, Storm Bolter
Wolf Guard x 5, Terminator, Cyclone Launcher
Longfangs x 4, Lascannons x 4, Pack Leader
Hive Tyrant, Old Adversary, Heavy Venom Cannon, Tyrant Guard x 2
Tervigon, Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
Hive Guard
Hive Guard
Hive Guard
Tervigon, Catalyst, Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs
Termagants x 10
Gargoyles x 10, Toxin Sacs
So not perfect, but workable.
First game was versus Space Marines and Sisters of Battle. Sisters had two Exorcists and two big blob sister squads. The Space Marines had some Devastator support and some other stuff I don't recall exactly right now. Primary was quarters, secondary was "your house, my house" objectives.
The Exorcists put out a staggering number of shots until we started suppressing them effectively on the second turn. Logan's squad was out of position so ended up not contributing until later than I had hoped. Eventually we were able to effectively suppress or destroy their shooting.
We ended up tying on quarters and securing our objective while Logan cleared theirs. Win.
Second game was versus my two favorite opponents, who happen to be twin brothers. One of them comments here (I'll let him throw himself under the bus if he so chooses). Their army was Blood Angels and Orks. The Blood Angels were rocking 2 Lasplas Razorbacks, 2 Baal Preds with Assault Cannons/Heavy Bolters, and two normal Preds with Autocannons Lascannon Sponsons.
The Ork side had a Bigmek with Custom Force Field, a Nob squad and two squads of Boyz, in three Battlewagonz. Because the Bigmek provided his bonus to "all models" in range, their entire team had 4+ cover saves on the vehicles pretty much the entire game.
We did manage to explode the nearest KFF Battlewagon early (I think the Heavy Venom Cannon did the deed). The Nobs lost a man in the ensuing explosion (most of them were not optimized for wound allocation).
The remaining two Battlewagons moved up on our right flank. Disgorging their load of Boyz into one of my Wolf Guard squads and a Hive Guard. Through a combination of Termagant charges and nice Wolf Guard showings, we managed to clear out both squads.
The second Battlewagon was destroyed by a combined effort of Hive Guard, Krak Missiles and Lascannons. On the other side of the board the Nobs got shot a bunch (including with a Heavy Venom cannon that took out several) and then seen off with more Termagants. One of the Battlewagons got a nice Tank Shock in which hit two units of Termagants and the Longfang squad, but was destroyed the next turn by Tank Hunting Krak Missiles on rear armor. I guess when your primary mode of attack involves you diving into the opponent's army, that becomes a problem. ;D
So now we went to work on the Blood Angels. at the end of the game we had put damage results on pretty much everything, wrecked one of the Razorbacks, and held three of the objectives. The Hive Tyrant got into melee with a Baal, Termagants put some glances on another Baal, and shooting suppressed enough additional shooting to keep our opponents from shifting us from the objectives. Win.
Game three was against a combined Blood Angels/Space Wolves army. Three full Longfang squads. Three full Devastator squads. Two full Assault squads, several Wolf Guard squads with Cyclone toting Terminators and Logan, and a Blood Angels Librarian accompanying one of the assault squads.
This one was Dawn of War. My most hated deployment type. It's really just a pain in the butt. We deployed the Hive Tyrant with his retinue, a Tervigon behind him and the Termagants in front to screen, all at the 24" mark. Our opponents deployed their Assault Squads 18" away, with the Librarian. As was every other psyker power we attempted within range of that hood for pretty much the rest of the game.
We made a valiant effort, but man it was just too much to handle. Our dice weren't really helping us either, but I just didn't see a great path to victory even with decent dice. We did make some mistakes, mostly with the Nids and mostly due to lack of experience with them. That's just something that will come with time. We ended up getting beaten solidly on Kill Points to that army.
So at the end of the day we won two, lost one, had one of the better painted armies there and got at least one vote for favorite opponent. So a good showing and a nice re-introduction to the game for my partner, I hope.
The TO did a good job overall. His rules knowledge is very solid (easily more comprehensive than mine outside of my own codices). The selection of NOVA missions was a good one, and everything generally went smoothly. I do have one critique, which is that the TO allowed players to take multiple prizes. This is something I haven't seen before. One was awarding a prize for Best Paint, Player's Choice and Undefeated. He also awarded raffle prizes, with the players winning tickets based upon the number of games won, their paint score and the number of votes they received for Player's Choice and Favorite Opponent.
I know one team took home Player's Choice, Best Painted and a Raffle Prize. Another team took Undefeated and a Raffle Prize. I'm not entirely certain how everything else played out, but I am not a big fan of that idea.
Anyways, it was a generally fun day, and I'm glad I got to hang out with my buddy. I hope we get more games in soon.
