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Thursday 26 April 2012

Adepticon 2012: What a ride


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Still recovering from Adepticon, but how was it? The 40k Championships were rough. I played against mech IG (1-2), Mech BA (3-0), GK (0-3) and finally SW which I lost on tiebreaker. The last game had some bad luck on t6 turning the game, but other then that, it was really just the matchups. Venomspam is very RPS, that's the way it is. I scored 36/40 on painting though, that was pretty darn awesome! I also played at the FB championships, going 2-2. The FB players were especially great sports and had a blast, I even played against a player last round that remembered reading about my venoms on my blog.

Ofcourse, Adepticon is a lot more then the tournaments. Americans are really nice people, atleast when you share a common love such as miniature wargaming. I had a blast with everyone I met, even getting on 40k radio's Adepticon coverage for maybe 2 minutes. The size of Adepticon is just huge. In Finland, a 60 man tournament is REEEALLY big. Suddenly there are over 400 players playing at the 40k Team Championships (which apparently sold out in 17 hours). The swag bag was really awesome aswell.

Regarding the differences between the US and Finland. GK and IG numbers were the two highest at Adepticon. In Finland, GKs win tournaments, but aren't that large a procentage of the players. IG is even less common. That certainly was not a good start for DE. The more interesting difference was with the terrain. That picture above shows the only table where I could actually hide venoms (and not very many taking into account the long fangs on the third storey of a building up forward). The terrain tended to be very low. Hills were just large enough to block loss to Rhinos, but not skimmers. Just getting over 100 tables together for an event is a major feat, but low terrain seemed to be an interesting trend.

The missions themselves weren't that different, except for one (imho) silly thing. Objectives were placed in conjunction to the roll off. The player who won first turn could put 3 objectives on his side of the board and he knew he would be getting that side. Seemed a little silly to me.

There wasn't much wrong with my list (in fact, the silly stuff like the razorwing and night shields were just awesome when deploying second against space wolves). DE are just very hit or miss for singles tournaments, and Adepticon was a miss. I would have really liked to have watched a DE player play at the finals, to learn something new, but it would seem like the other DE players ran into the same problems.

Just a quick update as real life is being a bitch. I will be taking the weekend off to throw some dice. I'm trying to take my crons to the tournament, as I'm a little burned out with DE. It's gonna be a silly list with the more special rules then in the entire Dark Angles codex (imotekh, Orikan, C'tan, you catch the drift).

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Adepticon, here we come

Tomorrow I'll be leaving for Adepticon as part of the Geek Nation Tours group. I'll be playing at the 40k championships (dark eldar) and FB championships (dwarfs). I'll try and get myself a cap that has the Finnish flag on it. If you see a 18 year old guy walking around with a Finland-cap on, then say hi. I won't know anybody from there, so any social interaction is a bonus. If I'm not busy with a tournament, I'd be more then happy to play a pickup game.

Sunday 15 April 2012

DE: 3-Game tourney in Porvoo


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Hi guys,
            Adepticon is just around the corner (I'll be leaving early Wednesday morning) but April has been filled with tournaments every weekend. Yesterday I went to one of the "preliminary" tournaments hosted by mygamestore.fi, a company that has gaming stores around Finland, that was one ina series of tournaments that will climax at the end of the summer in a 30-man tournament in Helsinki where you can win 400e (which is REALLY huge by Finnish standards). The TO is a fellow blogger (warheadfrenzy.blogspot.com) and overall great guy, who's really committed to giving the Finnish tournament community something special. The top Five in each preliminary round earn an automatic spot in the Finals (whilst others will have to scramble for the remaining 15 spots). This tournament wasn't very big, but had 12 players competing.

I decided to take a razorwing out for a spin. It's very handy against necron scarabs, and I was trying to protect myself against Jabbdo's scarab farm list, but it turned out to be pretty nice anyway.


My first game was against another member of the ETC team, Jouni, with his Ork Kan Wall. Mission was DOW, Capture and Control (20 points) and Victory Points (10 points). Each mission objective at this tournament scaled depending on the amount of objectives in your possession etc., which was an interesting break from the sort of WDL victory conditions We've been playing a lot lately. In this mission, I had no intention of trying to contest the Ork objective, since it wouldn't earn me that many points overall and would put my victory points at risk. Instead, I concentrated on Gazzy, 30 boys and a trukk with 5 meganobz that had come in to threaten my own base. We never got past t3, but by then I had destroyed gazzy and his 5 nobz and dropped the boyz down to ~7 models (who were hiding behind a ruin). My hellions were dropped down to 1 man by gazzy, and I lost one venom. I marginally won on victorypoints, almost making it to the second bracket, but only winning by 16-14.

Second game was against an ETC veteran, Jukka who was playing BT. He had 6 speeders, crusader squads on foot and some elites loaded out with termies (including a deep striking termie assault squad). It was KP (20), table quartes (10), spearhead. I was in for a tough match but won the roll off. My opponent opted not to bunch up in the corner and take away my t1 shooting, fearing the 48" range missiles on my razorwing. Instead, I got to start shooting at templars from t1. I was lucky at the start of the game, suffering relatively few casualties (although my ravagers died t1) and getting to work with the templar infantry. My opponent had a string of bad luck as his marshal just couldn't pass armour saves and was eventually sniped out of a crusader squad by a venom that rolled 7 wounds. He failed a shitload of ld checks and a lot of guys just ran off the board. By t4 all he had was 5 typhoons (one without rockets) and we ran out of time again. I won by 2 killpoints and held all the table quarters. 22-8 victory.

My last game was against Henri, who usually sports a paladin list. GK were comped at this tournament, so that GK were limited to 1650 points (1850 for everyone else) and only 1500 points if the army included a special character. No wonder he was borrowing a space wolf army. He had the usual triple long fangs, 2 rune priests, 4 rhino hunters, 2 razorback hunters and a squad of 3 twc. The game was 5 objectives (20), KP (10), pitched battle. I won the roll off and went first. My opponent didn't protect his longfangs and I got all but 2 single missiles off the table (one squad ran away with 2 missiles). After that, he tried to push midfield, but my blasters were rolling hot and I stopped the majority of his vehicles. He did the right thing and got all his guys out at the same time, as some were already forced out by vehicles being destroyed. I managed to kill off quite a few of his squads whilst taking little damage in return but was somewaht forced to overstretch on t4 as we had to end the game there due to timing (again). My razorwing went supersonic and contested and objective, I managed to barely claim two objectives and my opponent claimed one. I won by 6 KP and 1 objective, 22-8 victory.

Timing was certainly an issue, but I haven't had problems in most of my games in Kouvola (where the rounds are the same length as in Adepticon). None the less, I'm gonna have to be super efficient whilst playing in there, and keep my eye on the clock. I should also remeber to check it in advance and agree with my opponent at the start of the turn, if this will be the last. I got myself in a slightly uncomfortable situation the week before at a team tournament, where we ran out of time on t4, where my opponent was clearly winning. I decided to call it there as lunch was starting, but for a reason my opponent was a little unhappy since he hadn't anticipated the game ending.

In the end, I finished 2/12 and won best painted. It's really nice, as I haven't won a painting award before. I also got my spot at the final tournament and won all my games. Overall, a very good tournament. I liked the razorwing. I was only sporting 19 dark light weapons, which is really light, but I seemed to make do with it. The hellions are good backup for antitank and the single squad of wyches I had is invaluable when you need to surpress a vehicle, but can't afford to use 6 lances to achieve it.

Thursday 12 April 2012

Same threat range, different unit types. Scarabs/Hellions





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Was just chatting with Jabbdo today and we ended up comparing Hellions (as I've been playing them in my DE lists) to Scarabs (Jabbdo's been running a scarabfarm since the new dex came out). This is not concerned with their battlefield role, but how they play out on the battlefield with regards to their ways of movement. Same threat range (if you don't take into account tomb spyders), but there are some fundamental differences.

Scarabs move an initial 6" in the movement phase and move max 18" during or after the shooting phase. Hellions move 12" in the movement phase and only max 12" during and after the shooting phase. Thus, with scarabs you are more capable of moving conservatively, waiting to see how the dice go in the shooting phase, and then make a decision based on that. Hellions have to come within 12" of the enemy in the movement phase (preferably within 7"). Thus, even with a good run roll you might not be able to get out of your opponent's charge range and are more exposed then the scarabs.

Jump infantry has a certain advantage over beasts. They don't roll for difficult terrain, always moving the full 12". In addition, they can move 18" without charging an enemy, whilst beasts need that charge move to gain extra movement. Thus, early on into the game jump infantry are more mobile.

I think this brings up two different kinds of playstyles according to the unit type. Beasts are almost always combat orientated, jump infantry don't need to be. Beasts are also more about waiting, calculating and then pouncing. Jump Infantry, on the other hand, can be in your face earlier. They are faster but also more risky. Once you go for the charge, there's no going back. However, there is also a lot less your opponent can do hamper your movement.

Taking into account unit types can also help you play against your opponent's list. I've played against thunderwolves all the time. One of the things to remember is to NEVER give them the charge. As long as they aren't charging, they are slow. This gives you the advantage. If you let those TWC charge into your face, their threat range will ensure that there's no getting away anymore.

On the internet, we often see people just talking about threat ranges, but that's only half of it. How do you get there? In which phases is the majority of that movement? There are many other factors that are fundamentally gonna effect how they perform on the battlefield.

Wednesday 4 April 2012

Taking Painting Commissions

Hey guys,
     this is just a quick message. I want to say that I now have the time to take painting commissions. This blog shows a wide variety of miniatures painted to different levels by yours truly, and I consider myself a table top painter. All the models I do are intended for the battlefield, and that reflects in my style of painting. If you want a new army, or some additional units into your previous army, quickly painted and onto the gaming boards, then contact me. The price for commissions will depend on the scale of the project (the bigger, the cheaper you'll get per model), the timeframe for the project and the desired painting level. Just shoot me with an email. Here are a couple of pictures to finish it off.


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Tuesday 3 April 2012

DE Tournament Report





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Hi guys,
       On Saturday, I went to a small 3-game 1850 tournament in Kouvola. There were 14 players and ETC style missions. 8 points are awarded for primary, 4 points for secondary and 8 points for KPs (max points at 1201+ VPs). I played my Venomspam+Hellion blob and came in tied 3rd place. Overall, it was another fun experience, and a good chance to practice 2h 15min rounds that are the norm in Adepticon (rounds are often 3+ hours in Finland).

First game was Capture and Control primary, KP secondary with Pitched Battle. I was playing against a full foot SW list (2 TWC lords, 5 TWC, 4x10 Grey Hunters and 3x5 Long Fangs). I won the roll off and the terrain was concentrated in the deployment zones. My opponent had no other choice then to move forward into the open. He should have still tried to give cover to his long fangs on t1 with grey hunters or TWC. Now I shredded his guys with ravagers followed by venoms. In the end, he got his twc into combat twice, destroying 2 venoms. I killed everything else (making some wounds to the deathstar) and we called it on t5. 20-0.

Second game was against my co-writer, Joo-o and his eldar. He had 2 falcons, 3 serpents, 3 walkers, avatar and 2x3 bikes. The serpents had 2x5 firedragons and a big avenger squad with eldrad. The mission was 3 objectives on the centre line, Capture and Control, Dawn of War. I won the roll off and deployed my hellions to threaten his base, the Baron with wracks further back. Here I should have deployed the haemonculus with the hellions. I realized on t3 that I couldn't get that second pain token. Idiot! Anyway, Joo-o deployed Eldrad's car and held the bikes in reserve. I came onto the centre, a little to the right flank where Joo-o's base was. Two ravagers tried to shoot the serpent but didn't see it. Joo-o abandoned his base and came on the left flank. There was no los-block and the objectives were on my side, but he did threaten my base.

We played really slowly and only made it to t3. Joo-o had a good t2, destroying 2 ravagers and a couple of venoms. I killed off the avatar and a serpent on t1-2. Joo-o got both his jetbikes on t2 and brought one onto his base as harassment. My t3, I suppressed almost all his vehicles (one falcon only lost a weapon) and charged the hellions into the walkers to keep them from shooting. Unfortunately, the game ended on t3. Joo-o managed to contest my base and my warriors were still fighting against one jetbike on his base. However, 3 wracks were holding one objective far away from the fighting on the right flank and VPs were a draw. 12-8 victory to the Dark Eldar.

The third game was KP primary, 3 objectives on the centre line secondary and Spearhead. My opponent had Njal, wolf scouts, a rhino, 2 Crusaders and a Godhammer. I once again won the roll off and started out hot, immobilizing two land raiders (the godhammer and a crusader). His return fire concentrated on the ravagers (destroying one). After that, I just couldn't roll with my lances (not too surprising) and didn' destroy anything. Luckily, his wolfscouts rolled a 2 and came on the worst flank possible, trying to destroy a venom and failing. Hellions got their third token from them and prepared to move in. My opponent brought out njal with a hunter squad on t4. I concentrated all my fire on the squad, but his was rolling hot with his saves, leaving a wounded Njal and 5 hunters.

The hellions charged the hunters and the rhino. Destroyed the rhino but Njal passed 5 saves and sticked with 2 hunters in combat. Chain Lightning wrecked 5 venoms and a trueborn squad died in the explosion. Nasty! There was some debate at the time, and afterwards about using the power from combat, but I might have been wrong in assuming I was safe with Njal in combat. The game ended on t6. I snatched another grey hunter squad with the hellions (after dealing with Njal and his buddies) and failed to destroy any raiders. My hellions got 5 killpoints, but I lost royally thanks to a well played chain lightning. I did win secondary and victory points were 200 points in my favour (not enough to give me extra points). 8-12 loss to the dark eldar.

The final loss bumped me down, but paint scores got me to tied 3rd place. Overall, I had a lot of fun at the tournament, and after that hanging out with the guys. I made some screwups (e.g. the hellions in game 2) and maybe had some bad luck/ unfamiliarity with rules in the last game but that is life. Certainly, I'll go there again!
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