Dark Wood glue and Sand for the win!

By: farmpunk




The local invitational was on the Nov. 21st, and I had a packed weekend of family stuff as well, followed by a short Thanksgiving week.

I took the same list I did last time. (Farmpunk's 1500pt WH w/IG tourney list) I like the list, and think it handles most conventional forces well. It's got some mean units, but little in the way of Close Combat, and residual psychic defenses from the Sisters.

I figured I'd need all the soft points I could get to do well, so I spent the night before the tourney with a bottle of wood glue, and sand.

I used toothpicks to smear wood glue for Dark wood on the bases, and dipped the bases in sand (from the particle filter on our old house's well), then set it aside to dry. On some of the bases, I went back after it was dry, and put some more glue and coffee grounds to look like areas of dark dirt in the sand.

Then, I went to the tourney the next morning. (more..).




10 men enter, 10 men left. Being an invitational, the top 12 or so people were invited to play. 2 guys couldn't make it. (incl. SandWyrm)
The spread of armies went as such (as best I can remember)
1 Space Wolf
1 DemonHunter (BlueMoon)
1 WitchHunter (Me)
1 Imperial Guard
1 Ork
2 Chaos Demons
1 Black Templar
1 Space Marine
1 Tyranid

It was a very interesting cross section of forces, actually. Several types of armies one wouldn't expect to show up.

Mission1:
objective: Kill points
set up: Pitched Battle
Bonuses: +1pt for having a troops unit in opponent's deployment zone
+1pt for having a Heavy support unit in opponent's deployment zone

I settled in for my first game: traitor IG.

Albino ork was back with his Berlin themed IG traitor list. I was suprised to see a punisher across the table, and decided it wasn't too much of a threat. I knew it could pound away at my platoon, and I wouldn't have to really worry about it until I'd killed most of the rest of the force.
Since I got first turn, I had to react to his setup, and hadn't distributed my meltas and flamers very evenly.

I did well enough though, and Massacred Albino, and got +1 for getting troops into the other deployment zone.


Mission 2:
Mission: Sieze Ground (5 objectives)
Set up: Dawn of War
Bonus: +1 for controlling All of the objectives at any time during the game
+1 if your opponent doesn't hold or contest any objectives at the end of the game

My Second game would be against Scott and his Chaos Demons.
Fateweaver is sick, causing every save to be re-rolled, and turning the Saint into a spawn. Apparently he turned Bro. Captain Stern into a Spawn as well. I wish our 'psychic defenses' actually worked vs. Demons.
I got to go first, not that it really matters. I castled up, and had an abysmal turn 2 of shooting. He had 5 flying meltabombs, and I killed 3 of 4 WITH MY ENTIRE ARMY. I rolled horrible, and he rolled well for saves, making around 6 saves. I knew it would be a damage control game for me after that.
I ended up salvaging for a minor loss. Neither of us got bonus points.

Mission 3:
Mission: Capture and Control
Set up: Spearhead
Bonus: +1 for having a unit in every quarter of the battlefield at the end of the game
+1 for having your most expensive HQ contesting or holding your opponent's objective


The third game would be against Carlos and his Chaos Demons. Daemons? Again?!?! It was a similar build as Scott's even, but probably a bit more friendly for me to handle, and a friendlier mission.
Carlos brought the Lord of Change. the non-named version of the Tzneech HQ. Much nicer to play against.

I also liked the bonuses for this mission. I knew I could probably get both of them, and did. Carlos and I tied our game.

We also got a nice "whaddaya mean I missed something? Boo!" pic:

Summary:
I took Second, by 3 points over Carlos and BlueMoon. That's how many points putting sand on the bases got me, or how many bonus points I earned.

Scott came in first. Carlos and BlueMoon were tied for third, but Carlos did a little bit better on the tiebreakers (paint and sportsmanship) than Bluemoon.
I'd like to get a game vs. BlueMoon sometime with his GK tourney army.

I was the only person to have to play Demons twice. they can be mean when you can't hit the broadside of a barn shooting. I also got pretty lucky this time and rolled to go first all 3 times (unlike last time, where I was second all 3). This time with facing Demons, going first just meant I got to pick slightly more favorable terrain to start in.

I'm looking forward to BlueMoon's tourney coming up in Feb. It's going to be 1750pts. I've got to figure out what I'm going to add for that point total. If there's no Comp, that opens up possibilities.