Loose Ends: Mechanicon GT Game 5 Batrep

Hey guys, I hate to post old news but I wanted to wrap up this loose end cause guys have been asking for it.

Mechanicon Game Five for the win?

As most of you know, I took 3rd at Mechanicon. But in game five I was playing for the win! Stressful indeed.

Game Five:
Modified Victory Points Objectives.
Kill all troops for major victory
Kill Commander for victory

Opponent:
Nidzilla. 3 shooty carnifexs, 3 killy carnifexs, 2 shooty hive tyrants and 4 squads of Genestealers. Not a list most guys want to face... ever.

He knew I had to kill his two hard to kill tyrants and then mow down 4 squads of stealers for the win. To take me down, he had to kill my 20 marines and corbs. But to get to them he had to get through my armor! This was going to be a great game from the start.

He gave me first turn.

I deployed with all of my forces bunched up in the center of the table on my edge. I wanted to keep them away from the edge incase he outflanked his stealers. Corbs was in a rhino with a combat squad behind and the rest of the boys were set up with their weapons ready and the predators off to the side a bit to keep them out of terrain. He set up a wall of bug flesh. His carnifexs were in front with the shooty fexs behind and the tyrants behind them. I had to blast through a wall of death to get to the tyrants. My plan was simple. Blow a hole in the wall and then dump all my fire power into his tyrants until they were dead. Get the minor victory then run the hell away with my combat squad and corbs in a rhino and keep them alive. I had no delusions about killing his stealers. They were in reserve and if I did manage to kill three of the squads, he would just run the last one away. But I had the advantage when it came to commanders, him being unable to hide his, so I took it.

Turn One:

I advance my preds and attack bikes, I had 6, and opened up on carnifex one. With notihng to block LoS, he did not last long. That opened up a hole and angle where I was able to start blasting away at his Tyrants. So I took the shots. Killed one!

On his turn, he saw my strategy and adjusted. He only had to cover about 18" to get to me, so he would be on me no later then turn 3. He just had to weather the storm and get those carnifexs moving. He opened up on my bikes, killing a couple and hurting my shooty love.

Turn Two:

I had to take down a shooty fex this time to get at his second tyrant. One of my pods came in and I took the melta shot at the tyrant, as well as laying down more Asscannon and Melta law. It died. My plan was working almost to well? I think he was ill prepared for the fire power that I threw down. Taking down his tyrants was shocking to him for sure. He probably doesnt see that often. But that would be the end of my free shots. Next turn his Carnifexs would be in my lines.

On his turn, he advanced his big bugs again and brought on two squads of stealers. His shooting killed more bikes and stunned a predator. The stealers attacked my dread, landing something like 48 hits. When it was all said and done from that charge, and I frustrated the crap out of him by making him reroll about 10 rending wounds to my benefit, it came down to one last rend. It was a pen and he rolled a weapon destroy. High from all the luck, I decided to press it and made him reroll it. He rolled a destroy. I learned a valuable lesson that I would then carry over to the Battle for Salvation tournament. Always take the weapon destroyed against a Pen result on my ven dread. That is the best option.

So he destroyed my dread.

Turn 3:

My other pod came down. I got out and flamed a stealer squad and killed most of them. My tanks and bikes opened up on the nearest Big Bug and reduced it to one wound. I also layed down some fire on a shooty fex because it had the gun that could hurt my tanks and reach me as I retreated. He had two carnifex that would assault this turn and three shooty fex that would pepper my tanks and troops. Next turn, I would pull my move and fast move my rhino away. I just wanted to keep his attention away from it, plus I had to move my tactical squad out of the way without drawing attention.

He assaulted my second dread with three stealers squads. This one was a Death Co. dread and it actually won combat!!! Two of the squads fell back, but one managed to stay in so I could not sweeping advance. They would regroup and come back next turn.

He assaulted my last bike squad with a shooty fex, and the tough buggers would hold it up for two assault turns. He moved and assaulted one of my predators and killed it.

Turn 4:
At this point things are breaking down fast. Those two carnifexs are tearing me up. My dread lasted another turn against the stealers, tieing them up and but the rest of them were on the table and it would die soon. I layed down more fire on his carnifexs but was running out of options. I killed the fex that destroyed my tank, but there was another right there, and I was out of shots. My escape route was ready and on turn 5 I would get the hell out. I used my other rhino to block the carnifexs assault route on my escape rhino.

He assaulted my las cannon combat squad and killed it, and was sizing me up for a way to keep me from getting away, my plan now obvious.

Turn 5:
Time to go! I roll OCE on my rhino and score a 4, so It will get well away from trouble. But then travesty. My cursed ability to roll 1s rears its ugly head and I immobilize the rhino on terrain. For the love of god! Knowing that the best he could do would be to assault Corbs rhino and kill it forcing him to bail out, I panicked and disembarked him any way. I made a line of armor with the rest of my tanks and ran corbs to what I hoped would be safety behind a tank and out of assault range. My other dread goes down to stealer rends after killing his share and his shooty fex kills my bike squad. I assaulted his carnifex with another combat squad trying to slow it down, but he wiped them out.

On his turn it came down to his last shot. His assaulty fex was almost dead and would not last turn 6 if the game went on. (I should have kept corbs in the rhino...) He placed his big template, a str 8 ap 4 or 5 shot, I dont know what it was called... after the scatter, it clipped corbs. I had to make a 3+ save and have the game end. Die roll? A 2. Corbs is instant killed and a draw is born. The game ended turn 5.

It was a fun game! I killed a lot of giant bugs. He certainly felt the sting of the Baal Predator and it was this game where I learned the true value of the Venerable Furioso. Had I not taken that reroll which killed my first dread, he would not have had so many squads on my second the next turn. They likely would have both lived, and killed all the stealers! The second would have finished off the ones that assaulted it while the first tied up the majority of them, then the second would have jumped in to help. Instead he killed the first and piled onto the second. With all those rending shots, it is tough to survive.

I made my biggest mistake in my 40k experience so far though by disembarking Corbs. All I really had to do was keep him in that rhino. But I feared that he would kill the rhino and the game would go on, leaving corbs in the hands of a fex that he could not out run if I didnt get him some distance. I suppose it was more of him defying the odds then me making a mistake. He got a perfect scatter after all and I failed a 3+, but still. The game was mine to lose.

As it turned out, it was costly. I ended the game tied with Rob Baer who won best overall. He finished with 10 more points then I did. 8 of them he gained from a fluff quiz which I forgot to turn in, and two he gained from his painting score. I lost 2 points for now having a painted display board. (His army was exceptional though.) So would I have lost even if I won game 5? I think so. I would have had to kill his stealers I think. I would have needed a massacre to make up the 8 point difference Rob got from the quiz.

So there you have it! Interesting point here. Should fluffy 40k quizes be part of GT scoring? This particular one was very difficult, but they gave us about 3 hours of down time to do it. Rob only knew a couple answers and I had a few guesses, but as I found out, looking up the answers was ok. We were allowed to use rule books and codexs. Rob used his iphone! I could have used my laptop. Knowing that now, I don't see much value in the quiz above giving out door prizes. For the quiz to have a major affect on overall scoring, it should be a true measurement of 40k knowledge. We should have 5 minutes before game 3 to answer the quiz. In that case, you either knew the answers, or you did not. Regardless, he would have topped me any way because of the painting score which I could do nothing about. You want to bet that next year I am going to Mechanicon with every codex loaded up in my travel bag and my army will indeed be ready to earn max painting! Lessons learned. :)

Jawaballs

Battle for Salvation Fall 2009 Tournament Game 2 Battle Report

Game 2

I ended up on table 1 against one of the hardest armies to beat in a 5 loot counter mission. Ben Bangley was my opponent and he had an Eldar army that would have made Fritz proud!

Eldrad with 5 warlocks
Autarch on bike with troop bike squad
another bike squad
a vyper squad with scatters
two fire prisms
a falcon grav tank with brightlance
three wave serpents with dire avengers

Ben came to the tournament because he is a daily follower of The Way of Saim-Hann and he knows Fritz's tactics in and out. It was obvious from the start, he did a classic Fritz objective deployment! I knew this was going to be a death match to the end. And was not disappointed.

Mission: 5 Loot counters
Deployment: Table Corners

Ben gave me 1st turn.

I deployed with my preds as forward as possible, standard opperating procedure for table corners. The objectives were clustered mostly in the center, with one in the far left corner of my deployment zone. I placed a las cannon combat squad on that single objective and would move my rhinos in behind my tanks later in the game to take objectives in the middle.
He deployed his vypers, prisms and eldrad with warlocks in the Falcon. Every thing else was in reserve.

Turn 1:

With very little to shoot at, I focused on his Vypers, which were deployed behind cover getting saves. I hit them hard with heavy bolters and las cannons, but only destroyed one. I advanced my preds to move on and contest objectives. I knew that this game was going to come down to turn 5 WOSH style contesting, so I had to be prepared.

On his turn he opened up on my tanks with his prisms. Immobilizing one, luckily in range of contesting an objective. That was about it!

Turn 2:

Prepare for pods.

I rolled for reserves, and NOTHING came in. I had a bike squad in reserve too and nothing. Oh well. I turbo boosted my bikes to the far side of the table to prep for his entry, taking a wound in the process. During my shooting I finished off his vypers and actually penetrated his Falcon, but only shakened it. The trend of the day for me was to roll a 6 to penetrate, and then roll a 1 for damage. It also didnt help that all of his tanks had the sneaky Eldar 2d6 take the loweset trick.

A serpent and his autarch/jetbike squad came in for him, which he brought on on the left side of the table, far away from the objectives and action. Yup, a Fritz tactic for sure! His shooting would blow the Asscannon off a pred and shake the other two. Grr. He would not be in range to assault my immobilized pred though.

Turn 3:

All three pods come down. Now it is time for a party.
I deployed one pod next to his Prisms. And the other two next to Eldrad's Falcon and close to his Autarch. They were about 12" from the table edge and close to the objectives. I wanted them in position to eat him if he tried to move his bikes in.

I popped the prism with the first dread, but Eldrad shenanigans managed to save the Falcon. That would be all the melta fire they would get. Ben smartly took those arms off when he damaged them.

On his turn he destroyed one of my predators and assaulted one of my dreads with Eldrad. Those nasty warlocks managed to destroy him... my first dread loss of the day.

Turn 4:
Every thing was in play for me. I started moving my Rhinos and one of my Las teams towards objectives. Now it was going to be a matter of positioning. I actually managed to get a predator to fire all of its guns at Eldrads squad, killing 4 of the 5 warlocks. Lucky for him the one that survived had Embolden, because he failed his leadership test but got to reroll. I destroyed a serpent with meltagun fire and killed off some of the Dire Avengers. In the assault I sent my death company and a dread after the autarch and bike squad, and sent my other dread after his other bikes. Those definitely had to be destroyed. The autarch was squished and his bikes killed, but the other squad managed to make their leadership and live.

On his turn, he made his move on the single objective in the corner. He moved the remnants of the first dire avenger squad on them, and the serpent with another. He slaughtered the bikes that were supporting the combat squad, leaving me with one bike squad.

At the bottom of 4 it was working out as follows:
He had a prism, weapon destroyed falcon, serpent, 1.5 dire avenger squads, and eldrad with a warlock and a few bikes locked in combat with a dread. (dead meat)

I had a bike squad 2 predators, 2 dreads, and four combat squads. Three of them were moving on objectives. He was going to try to take the lone objective in the corner and contest the other 4. I was going to try to hold the lone objective and stop him from contesting the others for the win. Our strategies were obvious, it would come down to trying to stop each other!

Turn 5:

I move a rhino up with my captain to claim an objective, and got out and unloaded on Eldrad. My captain vaporized him with his combi melta after I killed the warlock with a predator. My dread finished up the bike squad and my bikes assaulted his 5 dire avengers, killing them. Good round for me. Now I just had to hope he could not squeeze his boys into contesting range. I was holding 4 objectives and he had none.

On his turn though, he turned the tables. He bladestormed my combat squad holding the corner objective and destroyed them. On the other side, he moved his prism and Falcon into contesting range, tank shocking one of my troop squads in the process. The squad failed leadership and fell back! So much for using my meltagun to destroy the damn prism.

Bottom of 5 and the game was lined up to be a draw. All objectives were contested.

Die roll! Game goes on.

Turn 6:

I assaulted his prism with two dreads, but since it moved fast failed to destroy it. He had a serpent with dire avengers in it on the lone objective and moved my last bike squad to not only contest the objective but get shots at the back. I immobilized it and weapon destroyed it. But the kicker was that I blockd his boys inside! That objective would remain contested if I did nothing. My squad fell back again because of proximity to his tank. I spread out one of my combat squads to contest two objectives. At the bottom of my turn the game was going to end a victory for me. All he had left was an immobile serpent with trapped dire avengers inside that were contesting an objective. he had a serpent and weapon destroyed prism that were also contesting. But I had one more objective then him and would get the victory... unless I screw up. Commence screw up. I assaulted his immobilized prism with my bikes to get them into better position to contest and trap the avengers. I just wanted to get them to a guaranteed contesting position, I was unsure that I could reach, and wanted to make sure he could not unload and vape my bikes. Of course, I roll two penetrations on the krak grenades and destroy the damn thing.

On his turn his avengers slaughter my bikes and claim the objective. His tanks contest two and I claim one. We each hold an objective... draw. Game ends. Guh.

The play of the game though was managing to squeak in his tanks to contest. He found one little hole that I was unable to plug and angled the front wing of his tank into it, but stay an inch from my tanks.

I have to say that a draw was a very good result for me, despite the fact that I almost tabled him. His list is almost tailored to win this mission and is very very hard to beat. Plus he was a pro at palying it. At the end of the game he had a few dire avengers, and two weapon destroyed tanks. I had two preds, two dreads, two rhinos, 3 combat squads and my captain. His tank shocking my combat squad and them failing leadership was huge for him. They had a melta and would have dome some damage to his contesting tanks. He also employed the very smart "Tank Shock Snipe" attack, by staying well away from my melta gun so I could not Death or Glory and just clipping the base of one of my models. Great move!

At the end, the game was a well played nail biter. Every turn there were ups and downs, with die rolls deciding the results instead of cheeze. Neither of us could point to any single instance that dominated the game or turned it one way or another. Cant ask for more! I hit him hard and he hit back. Ben was a smart opponent and knew the capabilities of his army. It was also stressful, because we both knew that every centimeter mattered. It certainly was a game of inches. We both knew the rules for movement and model proximity and this game was an artful chess match to try to stop each other from them. For example, had I rotated my rhino about half an inch to the left, he would not have been able to get that tank in to contest... the game was that close.

The one big mistake was me assaulting his serpent. I really did not want to destroy it at that point, just get closer to the objective. I may or may not have been within 3" to contest and had to make sure. But thats ok, he made a pretty big tactical mistake by exposing his Autarch and Bikes to my dread assault. I don't think he was prepared for the horror that is Venerable Furioso. Maybe he thought he could pop the dread before it got a chance to attack with his superior initiative. Venerable was key.

So there you go. Game two ended with me having 31 battle points and primed for a shot at the top. I would have liked to have scored a minor victory, which would have gotten me a few more points, but a draw is better then a loss!

Next game would have me on table 4, in 7th for battle points. When I got to the table though, I got very very nervous, because across from me was a jacked out Space Wolves army with 2 Vindicators, 2 characters, a rune priest, a land raider full of terminators and loads of troops in transports. Yes folks, I was in for a rumble! That batrep tomorrow and watch my youtube channel for the video.

Eldar armies are no joke when it comes to the objective contesting game. What have your experiences been like? What was your one biggest game losing blunder?

Battle for Salvation 2k tournament Blood Angels list

Since I posted my win from Saturdays tournament, I have had few dozen emails and comments asking for a breakdown of my list in detail. Being one to share, and knowing that my list will completely change in a few months, here you go!:

HQ:
Space Marine Captain
Power Weapon
Combi-Melta

Troops:
10 man tactical
lascanon
melta-gun
power weapon
rhino
extra armor

10 man tactical
lascannon
melta-gun
power weapon
rhino
extra armor

Elite:
Death Company
2 models

Furioso Dread
Venerable
Death Company
Extra Armor
Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod

Furioso Dread
Venerable
Death Company
Extra Armor
Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod

Furioso Dread
Venerable
Death Company
Extra Armor
Heavy Flamer
Drop Pod

Fast Attack:

Attack Bike x2
Multi meltas

Attack Bike x2
Multi meltas

Heavy Support:

Baal Predators x3
Heavy Bolters
Storm bolter
extra armor

The instant reaction to this is "Where are your jump packs?" "Where are your troops?" And most people, like I used to, laugh off Baal Predators without a thought. They also laugh off Pod Dreads because they know they have to suffer a round of shooting before they can assault. Usually dreads dropped close enough to use their meltagun will die to the return fire. No big deal.

My basic strategy is to combat squad my two tacticals. I place four bolters and a las cannon back in cover and on an objective. I put the other combat squads in their rhinos and the captain jumps in with one. I hold back the rhinos and send them out when needed. I line up my three preds together, with the two bike squads hiding behind them and my two death company standing with their backs up against the front of one of them. They are big enough to block 50% and give me a front cover save. Of course with nothing to stop them from taking their Death Company move this only lasts until the first turn but every little bit helps. If I can I advance them 6" and advance the tank behind them and try to squeeze out another round of that cover save. Yes, I admit, this is cheezy. Why should two infantry grant a tank a cover save? Well, that is out there for all you Land Raider rotaters. :)

So I hold back my advance until my pods come down. But in the meantime I sniper speeders and exposed troops with the heavy bolters. I focus on speeders and bikes first.

My general target priority? Any thing melta of course. Then I work on his troops if I have nothing else to shoot at. I try to supress pockets of armor in prep for my pods to drop. If I can I will pepper transports with asscannon fire near my intended drop pod target locations in an attempt to Stun them, since most guys refuse to take extra armor. If I can pop transports, even better. Lets get those juicy vet squads out on the table in nice clumps of disembarked fun where I can lay down the flame. If they fail their pinning test from their transport being knocked out, even better.

If I have no speeders or bikes to snipe with lascannons, I will use them to suppress armor as well. Hopefully by the time my pods land, they are coming down in a pocket of suppressed tanks and disembarked troops. That raises their survivability.

Now the pods drop. I have had 1 or 2 rounds of supressing fire and hopefully killed or imobilized stuff that can get over to my pods and kill the dreads. I use the pods as little walls, blocking off the majority of his stuff, and disembark the dread to take advantage of cover while getting a nice shot at the back of a tank or transport. I will almost always drop the pods together. Strength in numbers. If I can get them out and pop a transport with one, I will attempt to lay the flame over the troops while targeting the next tank in line with the second dread. Three dreads working in a triangle are truely frightful. If I can drop them behind something full of death that has to die, like a land raider full of terminators I am good to go. I will shoot the middle dread first and hopefully get two flamer shots on the terminators inside. I will also use the pods to stop enemy advance. If I need to slow down a Land Raider I will drop pods in front of it and try to box it in. The best best is to try to catch the LR while it is still in his deployment zone. Often times guys keep it back on the first turn to protect it while they try to take out my tank killers. If I can catch it on the back edge, I will always go for the kill.

"But Jawa, dreads are only armor 12, don't they get destroyed by all the melta guns?" Well, if I am lucky I have successfully suppressed most of the tanks in my drop zone. Now they are creating road blocks stopping active transports from moving up and unloading the troops to get their melta shots. Or there is so much stuff around, speeders cant get close. Etc. Use his armor against him. Pick your targets, stun things that will then grant you cover, support them with cover fire from the predators, and have faith in your wargear!

Finally, the dreads only work if they have extra armor and venerable. What shots that do make it through the cover have to pen or glance. Then they have to Immobilize or destroy the dread. A Shaken has no effect except for not shooting, a stun becomes a shaken with extra armor and a weapon destroy just reduces my attacks by one. If I get through the round only taking a weapon destroy and a bunch of stuns/shakens, I am good to go. I will be assaulting with up to 6 attacks next turn. So if he gets a 4+ on the damage roll, I make him reroll. He has to do it twice.

When used properly, ven furioso dreads are incredibly resiliant and devastating in combat. If they actually get a chance to move, shoot and assault, things are gonna die. I have yet to play them against a full guard army with chimeras and melta vets or a army with super serious fire power, but I am confident that smart placement, suppression and a little luck will get them through the fire and they will roll some heads.

Weakness? Yes, I lack the loads of assault punch typical to a Blood Angels army. But ask yourself, is the BA dex all that assaulty? Sure, Assault Squads are troops. But they cannot take special weapons. They cant take a melta gun to pop a transport and assault the boys inside. Plus, only the sergeant can take a power weapon. They are not vets so they only get one attack, plus off hand and charge. Orks with shootas are as good as that, cheaper and can take tank popping guns. I'm not griping, I love the BA dex. I am just pointing out that I have focused on a weakness and turned it into a strength.

Guys look at a BA army with no jump troops and think "Oh sweet, a really expensive generic space marine army." Which quickly turns into "That dread gets seven attacks???"



I also lack the troops that most people believe 5th edition requires. Sure, I combat squad them down into four squads. But that makes them squishy 5 man squads. Most guys will say that my biggest weakness, especially in objective games, is that if you want to beat me, all you gotta do is kill 20 marines. My answer? Try it. Easier said then done.

So there you go folks! Please dont mistake my explanation as arrogance. It is hard to talk about how you have won games without sounding arrogant. I went into that tournament prepared, but with low expectations. My game plan and surprisingly strong, unconventional list carried me through. If you can get the right combination of those two, and throw in a smattering of luck, any one can win a tournament. I don't consider myself any better then any of the guys who did not win. Believe me, there were some fantastic players at that tournament. But when the dice were done rolling and the smoke cleared, Blood Angels and Jawaballs were standing on top! :)

2009 Battle for Salvation Fall tournament results!

Hey all! First off, make sure to watch my youtube channel for the video uploads from this tournament. I got a lot of footage and will be posting it up furiously all week. But on with the batreps!

I went to this tournament with a fully untested list and very low expectations for myself. This was a 2k point tournament and I have played very few games at this total, and the ones I did were with a very different list. I had success at Mechanicon at 1850 with 2 Venerable Furioso dreads, so I went balls out and played 3 venerable death company furioso dreads. All I can say is "Epic". One is scary, but three? Lets say that they earned their name, Furioso. They were some Mad Robots.

The rest of my list was filled out by my three jacked Baal Preds, 2 two bike attack bike squads with meltas, two tactical squads with rhino, lascannon, meltagun and power weapon, and a Colorados, captain of the 2nd company. (So far as I can tell, that is the offical name of the 2nd company captain for the BA.)

At first glimpse, my army gets two reactions. "Shooty Blood Angels?" With a scrunched up mock confused face... and "Where are all your troops? Two troops squads?" Etc. I just smile and shrug.

Game One:

Matt and Bobby, the head organizers, opened up this tournament to something unusual. They allowed round one challenges. If some one wanted to drop a challenge on round one, the challenged player could decline. Or take the challenge. Basicly Matt allowed dudes with balls to step up and pick a hard opponent to begin with. Only one challenge was made however. Charlie, the guy I narrowly beat in round three of the first BFS tournament to earn me the best overall win wanted a rematch. Remembering his bad ass Blood Angel army led by Mephiston, I wanted no part of him and tried to weasel out. Matt would have nothing to do with that though, calling me nickname for a female cat and giving Charlie his shot at glory. Accepting my fate, I lined up across from Charlie, and announced to him that he would indeed suffer this affront.

Time to deal some suffering.

My 2k BA vs Charlie's 2k BA. Charlie ran a new list though. Dante, a couple rhinos and razorbacks, a couple of assault squads, one being a 10 man squad, a couple of tactical squads, again, one being a 10 man squad, a 5 man Devastator squad, and a Predator with all Lascannons and a Land Raider full of Death Company.

Mission:
Kill Points Modified: We had to select 5 units of our enemy force and nominate them as KP. Those 5 KP were the only ones we could grab earn.

Deployment:
Modified DoW. Instead of DoW happening on turn 1, you rolled randomly for it. On a 4+, DoW happened, but it only happens once per game.

Turn 1:
I won the die roll! Or did I seize initiative? I forget, and I forgot to make video, so I will never know. It matters not though. Suffering would come early, and I would waste no time trying to cut him down. I deployed just my two Lascannon Combat Squads in cover. Every thing else came on turn one except the pods with dreads.

Charlie selected my angel wing Predator, two bike squads, and two rhinos as his kill points. I selected a rhino and razorback, a 5 man tactical, a 10 man tactical and I forget which other at the moment.

So I rolled on my forces and got them ready to advance and slaughter in turn 2. My Lascannons shot at a Razorback, but failed to destroy it. My bikes turbo boosted up for a second turn attack on his Land Raider. That was about all I could do.

On his turn, he rolled out his forces, getting them all on the table. With my Las and Melta guns, and knowing that he had to protect his rhinos, he kept them back and away from my guns. This left his assault forces having to advance into my predator fire. It would go badly.

Turn Two:
I deal some big hits. First of all, all three pods came down. I played balls to the wall. Go big or go home. In every game I dropped my pods very close to the edge of the board, right in the thick of it. I drop one near his devastators and the 10 man tactical in rhino hiding near a bastion. The other two drop near his Predator and razorback. I kept them well away from the Land Raider and death company. The stuff that was nearby was particularly squishy, the only thing he had on that side of the table that could hurt my dread was a single power fist.

My predators shot up a tactical squad, reducing it to 4 models that my Death Company would assault, and also his Devs, reducing them to two models. My dreads destroyed both his Predator and the razorback. And to make matters worse, my attack bikes destroyed his Land Raider. The game went very badly, very fast for Charlie.

On his turn, he assaulted my dreads. He dual assaulted them with his 10 man jump squad, and he threw in Dante and a 5 man tactical. This was not a good idea. His shooting was accurate, but the venerable dreads shruged off his shots. Turning two destroyed results into Shaken instead. Then It was time for the assault.

Poor Charlie, his Blood Angels resembled those from the recent GW novels. No luck at all. (By the way, Charlie is a cool dude, and he knows this is all for fun. I am not being a dick to him.) He failed to hurt my dreads, and I dealt 5 wounds, killing 3 members from the tactical squad and two from the assault squad. Not a big deal, but when you lose combat by 5, that means leadership tests... Luckily Dante was not attached to the squad and he kept his Fearless feature. That would mean my dreads could not sweeping advance. His tactical squad made its leadership, but the Assault squad with the only weapon that could hurt my dreads failed... and with my dreads being locked in combat, they escaped and ran off the table. His death company assault and killed the bikes that destroyed their ride.

Turn Three:

I moved up my rhinos previously to deal with his 10 man tactical. My dread moved and popped the rhino and my troops assaulted. Risky, but I wanted that squad dead. Most of them would die in the charge to three power weapon attacks, including my captain. The dread was short on movement to get into base to base. But I didnt need him. My predators took out his devastators and finished off his first assault squad, and my two Lascannon combat squads started working on his Death Company. I would get two rounds of shooting on them.

On my assault though, my dreads would pretty much finish the game. One squished Dante and the other finished off the tactical.

Turn Four:

The game was pretty much over. My Lascannon squads finished off his Death company, and by the end of my turn he had nothing left on the table. I condensed a lot of the action and might not be accurate on when things happened, but it was definitely over at the middle of four, without Charlie taking his turn. Massacre for me!

Charlie was prepared for my predators and knew what they can do, but was completely unprepared for the dreads. Those things would turn the tide in all three of my games today.

As for the day? I will go ahead and let the cat out of the bag. Jawaballs repeated for Best Overall and this was a big tournament with some great players. It came down to a tie breaker between me and Greg Sabino from Brothers Grimm and his name is Saab online here, and the nod went to me due to strength of opponents. I played my last two games on the 1st and 4th tables, meaning I played against the 1st and 7th best performing guys sequentially. Greg, while matching my battle points, did it on lower ranking tables and against guys who scored less battle points. Table one was the highest ranking table and so forth. While Greg's opponents may have been no less skilled then mine, they scored less battle points, making them "weaker" in this tournament. We were tied at sportsmanship. The only other tiebreaker could have been painting, but since Matt did not use a numeric rubric to judge painting, there was no real score to measure. I would have probably won any way though if painting was a tie breaker. (Not to be cocky or any thing. It's just that my army was in the running for best painted, and had I just a little more time to finish the details like power swords and transfers, might have won. Greg's, while nice, was not there.)

That wraps up game one. I will post game two tomorrow. Loads of video to come too.

More to come...

Jawaballs

Warhammer 40k Full Size Blood Angels Death Company Furioso Banner

I thought you guys would appreciate some pictures of my newest full size banner. This one is a Blood Angels Death Company Furioso Dreadnought banner to comemorate the newest form of my army. I painted it up for this coming weekends Battle for Salvation tournament in White Plains.

I used a black heavy fabric banner that was made up by Black Matt's wife. Then I used acrylic paint to layer in the color. It takes a lot of layers I learned, so when painting with yellow over black, I use 50/50 white and yellow on my first layer. White is a very opaque color that lays down a good base. After that you only realy need a single coat of yellow on top. The skull and scroll were painted brown first, then I mixed in white for successive layers until I got to just the highlights with pure white. The blood drops were made laying down a few layers of red, then highlighting with Orange and white. Feel free to ask any questions!

Jawaballs

The History Channel as a propaganda piece part 2.

As a related post to my previous post, here is a list of companies owned by the same company that owns The History Channel. Make sure you read the first of these two posts before commenting. We can continue the discussion here.

Time Warner - Cable
HBO
Cinemax
HBO Video
HBO Independent Productions
HBO OnDemand International
HBO Mobile International
Adult Swim
Boomerang
CNN
CNN International
CNN en Espanol
CNN Headline News
CNN Headline News in Latin America
CNN Headline News in Asia Pacific
CNN Mobile
CNN+
CETV
CNN Newsource
CNN Pipeline
CNN To Go
CNN fn
CNN Radio
CNN Interactive
Court TV (with Liberty Media)
Time Warner Cable
Road Runner
New York 1 News (24 hour news channel devoted only to NYC)
Kablevision (53.75% - cable television in Hungary)
In Demand
Metro Sports (Kansas City)
Time Warner Inc. - Film & TV Production/Distribution
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Studios
Warner Bros. Television (production)
The WB Television Network
Warner Bros. Television Animation
Hanna - Barbera Cartoons
Telepictures Production
The CW Television Network
Kids' WB!
Castle Rock Entertainment
Warner Home Video
Warner Bros. Domestic Pay - TV
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution
Warner Bros. International Television Distribution
The Warner Channel (Latin America, Asia - Pacific, Australia, Germ.)
Warner Bros. International Theaters (owns/operates multiplex theaters in over 12 countries)
Warner Bros. Online
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
Warner Bros. Technical Operations
Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Warner Bros. Studio Facilities
Time Warner Inc. - Magazines
Time
Time Asia
Time Atlantic
Time Canada
Time Latin America
Time South Pacific
Time Money
Time For Kids
Fortune
Fortune Asia
Fortune Europe
FSB: Fortune Small Business
All You
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated International
SI for Kids
Money
People
Who Weekly (Australian edition)
People en Espa�ol
Teen People
Entertainment Weekly
In Style
Southern Living AT HOME
Southern Accents
Cooking Light
Cottage Living
This Old House
Sunset
Health
Hippocrates
Coastal Living
Real Simple
Wallpaper (U.K.)
Bride To Be
English Woman’s Weekly
Practical Parenting
Who
In Style Australia
25 Beautiful Homes
4x4
Aeroplane Monthly
Amateur Gardening
Amateur Photographer
Angler’s Mail
Beautiful Kitchens
Cage and Aviary Birds
Caravan Magazine
Chat
Chat - It’s Fate
Classic Boat
Country Homes and Interiors
Country Life
Cycle Sport
Cycling Weekly
Decanter
European Boat Builder
Eventing
Family Circle
Guitar
Hair
Hi Fi News
Homes and Gardens
Horse
Horse and Hound
Ideal Style
In Style (U.K.)
International Boat Industry
Land Rover World
Livingetc
Loaded
Mountain Bike Rider
MiniWorld
Model Collector
Motor Boat and Yachting
Motor Boats Monthly
Motor Caravan Magazine
NME
Now
Nuts
Park Home & Holiday Caravan
Pick Me Up
Practical Boat Owner
Prediction
Racecar Engineering
Rugby World
Ships Monthly
Shoot Monthly
Soaplife
Sporting Gun
Stamp Magazine
SuperBike Magazine
The Field
The Railway Magazine
The Shooting Gazette
TV & Satellite Week
TV Easy
TVTimes
Uncut
VolksWorld
Web User
Wedding
What Digital Camera
What’s on TV
Woman
Woman & Home
Woman’s Own
Woman’s Weekly
Yachting World
Your Yacht
Ambientes
Audi Magazine
Balance
Chilango
EXP
Expansion
IDC
Life and Style
Manufactura
Obras
Quien
Vuelo
Yachts
In Style Mexico
Magazines listed under Warner Brothers label
DC Comics
Vertigo
Wildstorm
Mad Magazine
Online Services
CompuServe Interactive Services
AOL Instant Messenger
ADTECH
Advertising.com
AOL.com portal
Digital City
AOL Europe
GameDaily.com
Lightningcast
ICQ
The Knot, Inc. - wedding content (8 % with QVC 36% and Hummer
WinbladFunds18%)
MapQuest.com
Spinner.com
Relegence
TACODA
Third Screen Media
Truveo
Userplane
Weblogs, Inc.
Winamp
Xdrive
CNNStudentNews.com
NASCAR.com
PGA.com
Time Warner - Online/Other Publishing
Road Runner
Warner Publisher Services
Time Distribution Services
American Family Publishers (50%)
Africana.com
Time Warner - Merchandise/Retail
Warner Bros. Consumer Products
Theme Parks
Warner Brothers Recreation Enterprises (owns/operates international theme parks)
Time Warner Inc. - Turner Entertainment
Entertainment Networks
TBS Superstation
Turner Network Television (TNT)
Turner South
Cartoon Network
Turner Classic Movies
Cartoon Network in Europe
Cartoon Network in Latin America
TNT & Cartoon Network in Asia/Pacific
TNT Latin America
TNT HD
TCM Asia Pacific
TCM Canada
TCM Europe
TCM Classic Hollywood in Latin America
Adult Swim
Boomerang
CETV
GameTap
TBS
Pogo
Toonami
TrueTV
Peachtree TV
Film Production
New Line Cinema
Fine Line Features
Picturehouse
Turner Original Productions
Sports
Atlanta Braves
Other Operations
Turner Learning
CNN Newsroom (daily news program for classrooms)
Turner Adventure Learning (electronic field trips for schools)
Turner Home Satellite
Turner Network Sales
Other
Netscape Communications
Netscape Netcenter portal
AOL MovieFone
iAmaze
Amazon.com (partial)
Quack.com
Streetmail (partial)
Switchboard (6%)
Advantages
European Magazines Limited


To continue the discussion, and continue to play devils advocate, I get it that television channels are about making money. But some one mentioned that THC is likely just airing relevent content to what is going on today. But knowing that all of the above media outlets are controlled by just a few people with the same agenda, could it not be possible that these channels would be used to influence public opinion? Especially considering that these people may or may not have friends in US government, and their interests abroad may be greatly affected by American policy.

History Channel: Educational TV or Propaganda?

I know, this is a 40k gaming blog and we shouldnt mix politics with pleasure. But at least I am keeping this away from hijacking some ones forum post! I just wanted to point some thing out. Once in a while I like to post up some thoughts that are relavent to our lives. If you don't like to read about the real world, these are not the droids you're looking for. Move along... move along.

The History Channel, while being one of my favorites, is a vehicle for our government's manipulation of it's people.

I love the History Channel. When it first came out, they caught my attention with a cool show about the history of the gun. I thought it was intriguing to see how guns developed and how they work. I was hooked. Shows like Tactical to Practical and Mail Call were always there to give me something intereseting to watch when I was bored.

But I noticed before the 2nd Gulf War began that they pulled a shift in their programing. For weeks before G.W. Bush announced his decision, while he was in the stage of "Preparing to make a crucial decision.", the History Channel abandoned their usual programing and started spamming documentaries on Hitler, Saddam, Facism and Patriotism. 24/7 you could not turn on THC and find images of dead jews, dead kurds, and victorious US soldiers parading down a boulevard with their flags or helping a needy child. I know I found myself hating Iraq and hating Saddam and getting behind G.W. and charging for a war to rid the world of those nasty chemical weapons and 30 year old tanks. Well, by the time GW announced his decision, the population was ready. Thanks in part to the History Channel.

It is happening again. I support Barak Obama. I support our troops and I support our country muscling around the rest of the world. There are limited resources, and we do not have them. In order for our country to survive in the future, we have to take steps now. I get it. I mean no offense if you live in another country. But Obama inherited a war started by a stupid child trying to fill his father's shoes. I mean... really... Afghanistan? Didn't the Soviets get their butts kicked in that country in the 80s? And Obama is now faced with having to deal with it. For weeks, he has been getting ready to "announce an important decision." Will he send more troops to Afghanistan or pull them out? Well, if the current programing on THC is any indicator, more of our boys will be on their way over there soon. This week has been all Hitler, and patriotism. Last night was WWII in HD with Rob Lowe voicing an American officer's diary. I watched a super interesting program about the assassination attempts on Hitler depicted in the movie Valkrye. Tom Cruise spoke about how honored he was to play the German responsible for leading the coup attempt. It goes on and on.

Something to think about.

Jawaballs

Jawaballs at Mechanicon GT Game Four Battle Report BA vs Salamanders

Here is what turned out to be my favorite game of the tournament. I played against Tim, who had heard of me from my youtube videos and blog. He is the big goofy looking kid in the picture, the shorter one is Brad from my necrons game.

Me vs 1850 Salamanders:
2 LR Redeemer
Vulkan
2 five man TH/SS termies
2 10 man tacticals with Multi Melta and rhinos split into combat squads
1 3 man bike squad with MM
1 speeder with mm
librarian

Tim's army was pretty straight forward. A hard hitting, in your face army.

Mission was control table quarters
Deployment was table corners

Tim won the roll and passed me 1st turn. I deployed with my preds lined up 12" from center, with bikes lined up ready to support. I reserved 1 pred and a bike squad and a Rhino with Corbs. Oh, and I bought my scenic resin bases from www.jawaballsproductions.com go there for great resin bases at great prices. Also, I bought How to paint space marines from Jawaballs.

Turn One:
He left his bike squad poking out from behind his LR so I shot lascannons at it and killed one model. That aughta teach him. I attempted to shoot his LRs with assault cannon fire but could not reach. That wrapped up my turn.

On his turn, Tim decided to dip deep into the Kracker Barrel for some supreme cheeze. He had deployed his LRs sideways on the edge of his deployment zone, roughly 24" from my tanks. He then looked at me with a rye smile saying how he was surprised I did not notice this... He Then proceeded to rotate his LR with Vulkan towards my tank, then measured from the front of it, gaining about 4" in the rotation before moving at all. This would have him getting 4" from the rotation, 12" from the movement, 2" from the deployment, and you guessed it, 24" from the charge, assaulting my tanks turn 1.

I called cheeze, and told him that yes, I have seen that before but had expected better of him. (Laying on the shame hard here... but he deserved it.) He claimed it was legal because he can rotate the vehicle for "free" any number of times. More on this later.

So I shamed him, but let him do it. I rarely bust out the rulebook mid game and rely on my opponents honor. Besides, I thought I would let the Emperor decide if he was right through force of action, not words.

I told him to go ahead and move it as he sees fit, but remember, that would cause a terrain test for his vehicle, and the Emperor would grant me a 1. He rolls the die... and of course, a 1 is the result. Immobilized Land Raider. After that, he either felt too much shame, or was afraid to chance the terrain, so he did not try to move his other LR into it. He moved his bikes around to my left flank to try to get in on my tanks, and kept his tacticals in rhinos hiding behind land raiders. His shooting would hurt me though. He killed two of my bike squads. I stupidly left them exposed.

Turn Two:
Angered by his afrontery, and inspired by my faith in the Emperor, I told him that fate was not done with him yet. That cheeze would cost him in blood. I then pointed at his second Land Raider and dubbed it heretic, and condemned it to death by assault cannon. Death by assault cannon? Thats right. My preds could have fired on his bikers instead, but I decided that a show of strength was in order. I lined up my first predator to shoot its assault cannon at his other LR. 4 hits. Then I roll the dice to wound. Ass Cannons rend on a 6. That means I can roll an extra d3 and add it to my pen roll. I roll the 4 hits, and the Emperor granted me a 6. I pick up the rend, and hold it in front of Tim. He squirmed as I sang him some terrible 80s song, I forget which. I was using my Blood Dice. The die rolled around the palm of my hand and he eyeballed it like the rate from Ice Age after his acorn. Not looking at the table, only looking at his eyes, I rolled the die, letting the look on his face tell me the result. Yes, another 6. That was a penetration. 6Str, plus 6 on the pen, plus 3 for rending. 15 penetrates the armor. Without looking down, I pick up the die again, and proclaim his Land Raider exploded. Continuing my 80s song, I roll the die again... his eyes follow it around the palm of my hand, then down to the table... then they glaze over as the result is yet another Blood Drop. (a six). Yes. I not only exploded his Land Raider with an Assault Cannon, but I called the shot.

Land Raider Crusader/Redeemer: 60.00
Package of Blood Drop from Army Dice: 24.00
Look on Tim's face when I destroy his Land Raider with an Ass Cannon: Priceless

After scraping his jaw off the floor, and my resulting seizure from hysterical laughing, we carried on.

So the rest of my shooting would do nothing. One of my pods came down and it failed to hurt his other LR.

On his turn, he bailed out of his two LRs. His librarian led one squad of terminators into my gun fire. Vulkan would lead the other after Corbulo and my Pred that came in from the side.

Turn Three:
My shooting would devestate. I killed the last of his bikes, his Librarian and most of the terminators from the squad. My dread ignored his LR that was immobilized, knowing he could come back for it later, and went after a rhino and speeder that I did not want to escape. He layed the flamer over the speeder and back of the rhino, and shot the rhino. Destroying the speeder, and weapon destroying the rhino. Then I assaulted the rhino... hit it 7 times, and only immobilized it! Jeez. This sucked because I wanted to get that rhino away from the LR and its Multi melta.

On his turn, he would turn things around. With lucky ass cannon shooting of his own, and his LRs melta, he killed both of my dreads. But here is another thing that did not occur to me until just now. He had the Ass cannon on this Land Raider mounted on top. The legal mounting point for a LR Redeemer's Ass Cannon is on the front, giving it only a front arc. It is not Turret Mounted, so cannot shoot behind the tank. He shot my dread with it, that was standing behind the tank. Next time I see him, I will have to point that out. Regardless, my dreads were dead and this game was now back in action, because he also took out Corbulos Rhino and my pred that came in from the side.

Turn Four:
All he had left on the table were 4 combat squads, an imob LR, Vulkan and a few terminators. I had 2 preds, a bike squad, corbs and squad, 3 combat squads and a rhino.

I charge corbs into Vulkan and company. It is a tough fight and I kill a terminator but he wins over all. I take the opportunity to cut down his other terminator squad and get into position to contest table corners. I shoot up some of his tactical marines and we move on.

On his turn, he finished corbs and massacred on. He had to take corners of his own, and still had to knock out my pods. He focused fire on them and took them down, again, rending from behind with a front mounted Land Raider assault cannon.

Turn Five:
It was time for the chess match. First of all, I finished off Vulkan and the terminators with gun fire. A lucky Lascannon shot ending Vulkan. Then I shot up some tacticals with what I could, after moving my bikes and my rhino onto his table corners. Now I was contesting or owning all of them.

On his turn, he assaulted my bikes with a combat squad, but that was all he could do.

At the bottom of five, I contested three objectives, and owned one. He had none. I would roll the die, and of course, rolled a 2. Game over. Minor Victory Jawaballs.

Tim was a likable guy, and very apologetic about his cheeze. There were a couple of other points of contention during the game as well. For example. A terminator squad dual assaulted two vehicles. As I understand the rules, the units must declare their target before assault. 3 terminators declared the Pred, 2 terms and Vulkan declared the Rhino. Vulkan destroyed the rhino on his initiative, but then Tim insisted that the other two, who had moved in to take on the Rhino, could attack the pred. They were legally in range to do so, but had he clearly had them after the rhino. He also said that he technicly never declared they were attacking the rhino... Cheeze.

I wont get into any more because I dont want to blemish a good game and a fun guy. But he needs to seriously rethink some of his tactics.

The LR Rotation trick. As I understand the rules of movement, it is completely a cheat. It is the same as picking up a model, then placing it down 4 inches closer to the direction he wants to move, then measuring with the tape.

What he is supposed to do is measure from the tank BEFORE he moves it in any way. That means if he wishes to move towards my tanks, but the side is pointing that way, yes, he has to measure from the side. The rules say "As you move" you may rotate it any number of times. So sure, as he moved the LR he was free to then pivot it and move with the front towards my tanks. But the tank must stop 12" away from where it was, measured from the original position of the side. You cannot rotate a vehicle, then measure from the new position of its front. Even if rotating is considered "Free" it is still moving, which you cannot do until you measure.

Tim pointed out the "Free" rotation. That refers to a tank that intends to remain stationary. The rules says that it may rotate for free and still count as staying stationary for purposes of shooting.

At any rate, I will get a judgment from an offical on this ruling before any games with Land Raiders in Tournaments. I can deal with trying to assault my predator after declaring assault on a rhino, but cheating out an extra 4" of movement is just wrong.

Am I wrong? Was Tim's bonus 4" rotation move legal? Are you allowed to move a tank before measuring its distance? I will put up vid on this tomorrow.

Jawaballs

300th post! Battle Report Mechanicon Game 3 BA vs Nids

After taking my licking from Brad in game two I found myself against his buddy Nick and his nidzilla list. There would be no mercy.

1850 Nids Hive Tyrant with warriors
squad of 3 warriors
HT with wings
several squads of genestealers
3 zoanthropes
2 Lichtors
a few carnifexs.

Deployment: Table Corners
Mission: Bases

I set my base about 20" away from the table edge to protect vs Genestealer outflank and placed my Lascanons and tanks to get ready to shoot! I reserved a Pred, squad and bike squad and had my dreads in pods. He deployed similarly, prepared to run the gauntlet of my guns to get to my base. He had some stealers in reserve. My plan? Shoot the crap out of him and fall back. Rinse and repeat. Prepare for the outflank. Shoot the crap out of them. Tank shock. Move around. Go fast. Contest his base. Hold mine. Win.

Shock and Awe in other words.

Turn 1:
Nick goes first and charges ahead. He does not have a lot of shots, but tries to use his Zoenthropes to do some damage. Thats about it!

On my turn I start working on the Zoanthropes. With all of my multi meltas and other shots it does not take much. Two go down and one is reduced to a single wound. I also lay some wounds on a carnifex and shoot up a stealer squad charging through cover. They go to ground.

Turn 2:
He charges again, another round of running into my gunfire. He brings in a squad of stealers, but they fail to get into assault near my base, leaving them high and dry.

On my turn I lay down more hurt. One of my preds turns to deal with the outflanking stealers while my tanks and bikes move to get good angles on the charging bugs. I deep strike a pod behind his base and the dread gets out and lays down some flame, burning one of the warriors. Corbs comes on in a rhino with some troops and heads for his base to claim it once the dreads have cleared it out. The shooting is vicious, but before that, I tank shocked the stealers with my rhino, and they failed their test. My rhino chased them off the table. I killed the squad of stealers that had gone to ground in the middle, but that was the end of my shooting gallery. The next turn would see bugs in the wire for sure.

Turn 3:
His falling back stealer squad continued to fall back due to my rhino and ran off the table. He deep striked his hive tyrant right next to my base. Sadly, it scattered onto troops and died. He also tried to bring another stealer squad onto the table near my base. A lichtor came on right on my base and would get into assault, but my boys would beat it off. Some warriors got into assault with a bike squad and would eventually win that one. And a Carnifex actually made it to my base. It killed a combat squad, but I had 3 there. He assaulted my first dread with his Hive Tyrant... bad choice. The dread killed off the warriors while forcing him to reroll any damage rolls and taking none himself.

On my turn, I tank shocked the other stealer squad with my rhino, and they failed leadership as well. :) Just no luck for poor nick. Corbulo got out of the rhino to deal with the last Zoanthrope and the rhino charged forward to claim his base. I forgot to bring in my Death Company, but my guns did their work for them. I killed off the Carnifex at my base. At this point, there was not much more to do.

Turn 4:
His stealers fell back some more and he brought on another lichtor, but it would not last the turn. That effectively ended the game. My other dread came down and flamed a squad of stealers to death that was trying to double back and protect his base. Meanwhile, the first dread was locked in combat with the HT on his base, dealing a couple wounds and taking no damage.

By the end of 4 the game was locked up. My second dread would be assaulting the HT on turn 5, this one was the Death Company dread. I was going to get troops onto his base and since the HT moved away from the objective I would claim it with no chance for him to contest. He had nothing left to try to contest my base

Turn 5:
The game played out. I killed his HT at his base and claimed both objectives. So it would end.

MVP of the game? My shooting. At least a dozen times guys came up to my army and gasped at the thought of Shooty Blood Angels. But the fire power is undeniable. Big bugs die to multi melta fire. Nids in general die to Bolter rounds. Picking and choosing the assaults that I wanted to enter was key. I sacrificed a combat squad at my base to his Carnifex knowing it would be left in the open. Meanwhile I used that speed bump to wrap up every thing else at my base and prepare for the incoming fex. The Hive Tyrant on his base was not prepared for the pods of death coming down. Those Venerable Furioso dreads ate him for lunch. Nick was a fun opponent and I hope he enjoyed playing me. He was a little shell shocked at the end of the game but I think that was the first time he faced 3 Baal Preds. :) Being able to fall back 6 and still fire all of the guns is huge.

That ended day one. I finished the day with 46 out of 60 battle points, and was a little behind but not far from where I wanted to be. I was hoping to have 48-50. At any rate, it lined me up for an epic game vs Tim and his Salamanders in game 4.

That one will be up tomorrow. Can any one say "Called rending explosion on a Land Raider?" Muahaha.

jawaballs

Jawaballs at Mechanicon GT Game Two Battle Report Blood Angels vs Necrons

Game two at Mechanicon brought me to the table against a kid I had met the night before, Brad. He had Necrons. Necrons you say? Game two bye right? Wrong. What can I say? The kid knew what he was doing and had a tough army.


Victory Points Annihialiate
1850 Necrons vs Blood Angels
Necrons:
Deceiver
Monolith x2
Immortals x10
Destroyers 2 squads
warriors 2 or 3 squads.

From the start I knew I was in trouble. I played him the night before, and barely won in a similar mission. My goal was to drop my dreads and take out his deceiver and monoliths. It was my only hope. I could not phase him out because I lack the intense assault power to do it. I had to rely on my hard hitting dreads and my torrent of fire to do the job.

Turn 1:
I deployed first and set up to shoot. I had to stay out of his range and try to hurt him, and hopefully get some high strength shots at his deceiver and drop it before my pods came down. My first shot immobilized the Monolith that was blocking his Deceiver from LoS. Good start. But that would be about all the luck I would see all game. No other shooting from me would do any thin this turn.

On his turn, he advanced the other Mono and brought out his deceiver behind some cover. That would be my opportunity! I had to make use of it. He did some shooting at my preds and glanced two of them. This would happen all game too, he did just about all Necrons can do against tanks, and kept them from shooting most of the game.

Turn 2:
Time to play! I dropped both my pods, boxing in his other monolith. Then I fired every thing I had at his Deceiver, scoring a few wounds on it. I had hoped to kill it so it would not be assaulting my dreads. :(

On his turn he kept supressing my tanks, and assaulted and killed one of my dreads with the deceiver. Thats about it!

Turn 3:
This game was turning into a chess match now. I began shooting at his troops to try to take em down. I had the immortals down to just one model but failed to wipe it out. He would then suck them through his monolith and bring them all back. I assaulted his other monolith with my dread, ignoring the deceiver since he would be assaulting my dread any way and going first. I did take more shots at it though, wounding it again. It would be more of a fair fight this time. My dread exploded his monolith and prepared for the charge.

On his turn, Brad did more cursed supressing fire. How totally effective against my army! He tried running away with his warriors and charged my dread with his deceiver... He failed to hurt the dread due to Venerable status, and my boy got his licks in, killing the deceiver! Now I had just two turns to get over to the other lith and take it down.

Turn 4:
Much of the same. I unloaded on a Destroyer squad this time, brought it down to one model, and he sucked it back through the monolith and brought them all back. Then he destroyed my other dread with Destroyers from behind! That would eliminate my chances of a victory. And in fact, turn the game into a win for him!

Turn 5:
I did all the shooting I could do. I reduced another squad to just one model, but he brought it back with the monolith. He killed most of my bikes, and my death company rolled snake eyes jumping into terrain and died. Ugh.

At the end he would have 400 more victory points then me and score the morale victory.

My biggest mistake was to keep my two tacticals in full squads of 10 and not move them. All game all they did was shoot their damn Lascannons instead of moving up and assaulting. This is what cost me the game. Had I combat squaded them, I could have gotten into his face and finished the jobs my Predators started but could not finish themselves.

Oh well, this game set me down a few tables, and paired me up against Brads friend Nick and his Tyranid army for game 3. More to come.

Holy Mechanicon Jawaballs!

So much to post. I just got home a little while ago. It took 4.5 hours to do it. Damn traffic. I have so much content that I don't know where to begin. Plus my head is all loopty so I really shouldnt do any writing at all right now. This week I will be putting up video on youtube, and I have 6 more batreps to write up from all my games in PA. You will no doubt see the results posted some place before I get around to finishing with the batreps, so I will just let it out now. I took 3rd best overall. But would likely have taken 1st. All I had to do was keep Corbulo in his rhino at the end of the last game. Instead I thought it would be smart to get him out and run away from a couple of Carnifexs that were bearing down on him. He got picked off by a Hive Tyrant and caused me to draw instead of win the last game. Oh well!

I just wanted to thank Tony and the guys at Mechanicon for putting on a great event. Complete reviews coming soon!

In the meantime, ponder this. If YOU had your choice of what would happen at a GT event, what would you want? What kind of events? Prize Support? rules? judging? How would you create your perfect GT?
Jawaballs

Battle Report: Mechanicon Game 1 Blood Angels vs Dark Eldar

Hi from West Chester PA! Mechanicon is underway and what an event so far! Friday night started with open gaming and I got in two games. Batreps on those to follow. The boys at Mechanicon have it wright so far. There is a bar right in the convention room! The tables are beautiful, with actual GW terrain, along with some they made up, like one piece that has parts from the Millenium Falcon all wrecked. They have been on time so far and right on top of things. Tony, Jeremy and the guys are friendly and open. Definitely the way to be when running an event like this. There is nothing worse then surly event staff that ignore you unless you are one of the recognized 40k mainstays.

The highlight of Friday night was the guy dressed up as a Blood Angels Death Company trooper! He had a suit of armor made from resin, a power weapon and a bolt pistol and he looked fantastic. Pics to come as well as video.

The boys at Mechanicon have developed a pretty good scoring system. The first game was broken down by Victory points. You earned certain victory points for completing objectives, like 500 for each loot counter your own, 500 for your HQ surviving etc. The max for game one was 4k victory points for each player. Then there is a scale. It is a little complicated, but the best game resolution system I have seen so far. On the scale, the winner is decided by comparing Victory points. If you scored 1000 more then your opponent for example it is a Victory. What I see from this scale is a lot of drawn games. That is not a bad thing in tournament play becaue it levels the playing field.

On with the Batrep!

Mechanicon Game One:
Blood Angels vs Dark Eldar
1850
Dawn of War
5 loot counters

I won the roll to place the counters, and set up the standard diamond plus one formation with a diamond on one side of the board and a single objective far removed. This kept all of the fast moving DE right where I wanted them.

My opponent won the roll and went first.

Turn One:
He deployed a squad in the middle of the table on an objective in cover in the diamond formation, and one at the back on the lone objective. He placed an HQ with the one upfront. I placed two 5 man combat squads with lascannons on my side in cover and attached Corbs to one of them.

On his turn, he brought on all of his Skiffs and attempted to shoot my Las team with Corbs, but nothing could reach.

On my turn I brought on every thing except for my Dread pods. Of course, both of my rhinos rolled 1 for terrain tests and got immobilized. Damn me and my cursed ability to roll ones. It got worse. Almost every thing got range on his squad in the middle, and I killed all but one of them. The last model made its morale and stayed. It would last to the last turn!

Turn Two:
On his turn, he moved his skiffs up, deployed and got ready to assault my Death Company distraction. (I moved them up as far as they could go looking to tempt him out into the open by assaulting them.) He layed down a lot of fire, reducing my Lascannon team with Corbs down to just the las, and wounded cobs. He knocked the Ass cannon off one of my preds. The one with the angel wings. Dante's favorite tank. It is not good to anger the Blood Angels Eldar scum. My death company died in the assault, and his witches ran for cover after. My ploy failed. Oh well, they would get cover saves. And they would need them.

My turn came up. Both of my pods came in and I dropped them right into the middle of his stuff. They got out and opened fire. One missed, but the other destroyed two transports with melta and heavy flamer fire! The resulting explosions killed a lot of guys and pinned even more. Then the rest of my army opened up. It was not good. I exploded or destroyed all but one of his skiffs, and killed a lot of troops in the process. At the end of the turn, most of his squads were hurt and hiding in wreckage. The dreads were foaming at the mouth with so many targets in range, and Corbulo was confidently giving orders from the rear. Dante would be proud.

Turn Three:
With most of his armor dead, and his troops hiding or pinned, he tried to deal with what he could... the dreads. He opened up on them with str 8 weapons, but failed to hurt them. The Venerable upgrade was a HUGE buy. They were each destroyed 2 times, but the reroll reduced that to shaken! Beautiful. He would then assault my Death Company dread with his HQ squad, fail to hurt it and take 4 losses in return... But they made their leadership test.

On my turn it was back to business for my guns. One of my rhinos rolled a 6 for repair, and fixed itself! Woohoo it would be able to move and take an objective next turn. My bikes got into position to take out the rest of his armor, and my preds began shooting up his troops. All but one of his ships were destroyed now and my preds mowed down most of his troops. At the end of the shooting there were just a couple clinging to life. He was lucky enough to get one of his squads out of assault range for my dread by removing the closest models. That just made him mad. In the assult, my dread would take no wounds from his HQ and only killed 2, but that was enough. They failed leadership and broke. Already dangerously close to the edge of the table, he rolled low and lived, but did not get away from my dread.

Turn Four:
The game was all but over. Now Jeff was playing for pride. He assulted a bike squad and killed it with a couple of witches and shot at the dread chasing his HQ but missesd. The HQ still did not run off the table however.

On my turn I would complete the massacre. First of all, it was time to move onto objectives. My single las cannon moved to claim an objective. A combat squad left their immobilized rhino to run for the center objective about 15 inches away. My other las team moved to claim, and my other rhino? A 1. Thats right. Immobilized again. Frag. The guys got out and hoofed it. In this game I had to claim as many objectives as I could to get victory points and score maximum. So I had to get my boys onto those objectives! In the assault, my dreads mopped up the stragglers. One assaulted the HQ and they died because they were falling back. The other assaulted the last two in cover on his objective and killed them.

Turn Five:
With him removed from the table, it was time to run my boys through all the wreckage and score objectives. I had to difficult terrain and run checks on all 4 of my combat squads. Some were pretty far and I would need 5's to reach... but the emperor was with me and my Blood Dice, from Army Dice, came through.

At the end of the game, I held 4 objectives. It was a complete massacore for me.

I scored 20 points out of 20 and Jeff scored 6.

The MVP of the game? Dawn of War. His inability to reach me in turn 1 was key, plus it kept him clustered when he did come on. In turn two and three I was able to lay down the law. The co-MVP was my bike squads. Their multi meltas were getting +2 on his transports and exploding them like it was their job... because it was. I felt bad for the ruthless victory, but all is fair in hate and war. Jeff understood. He was a fun opponent and gracious in his failure to achieve victory. I wish all opponents were like him.

So there we go! Round 1 has me with 20 points in a difficult scenario to score 20. I will be surprised to see more then a few players equal that.

The overall makeup of the tournament looks like mostly marines, with some nids and orks thrown in, and just a few IG mech lists. Most notably is Ork Boy Rob from Thewarstore. He has a beautiful IG army, made up of orks. I'm not too crazy about him using orks as IG, but they look good, so it is forgivable.

More to come!

Jawaballs

Final Mechanicon List

I decided. My mechanicon list, provided that I can get the models ready by Friday.

Corbulo

Tactical squad x10
Lascannon
melta
power weapon
rhino
extra armor

tactical squad x10
lascann
melta
pw
rhino
ea

death co x2
jump packs

furioso dread
death company
venerable
heavy flamer
drop pod

furioso dread
deato co
heavy flamer
drop pod

Attack bike x2
multi melta

Attack bike x2
multi melta

Attack bike x2
multi melta

Baal Pred
heavy bolters
storm bolter
extra armor


Baal Pred
heavy bolters
storm bolter
extra armor


Baal Pred
heavy bolters
storm bolter
extra armor

The obvious weakness of my list is fragile troop squads, but when you think about it, my list before had 3 troops choices, 2 of which were 5 man assault squads. I can combat squad a tactical, and have the same number of troops as before. But with this list, I get a stronger assault presence, and dreads in pods are two big fat bricks in the face. Cutting Dante shaved 200 points off the list that I was able to spend on a second dread. Why? Well, as good as Dante is, I found him serving the role of decoy too often. Plus, he still had to charge through open terrain to get into grips, and often found himself snipped by las cannons.

Maybe I just needed a nice change. At any rate, here you go. My plan? The tacticals CS. 2 squads with Lascannons stay back, hold objectives and shoot the las. The other two with melta and MW mount up and charge out to take objectives. Drop pods land near objectives I want to take, or near targets of opportunity and mess it up. Corbs jumps in with one of the squads to catch a ride. 2 DC with jump packs file in behind that rhino, using it to block LoS and lend a hand in assault. 3 Baal Preds do their dakka thing while the 3 squads of 2 bikes hide and seek and kill.

Wish me luck!