We had the IFL 40K RTT yesterday.

The format was… imperfect.  Due to the excessive squeaking of a couple of squeaky wheels, the format was changed at the last minute to something that was pretty clearly put together by a Fantasy player without much familiarity with 40K.  Given that that’s what the TO was (non-40K-playing fellow council member Ben was doing the 40K playing council members a solid and running the 40K tournament so they could all play), this isn’t enormously surprising.

That’s not to say that it was a bad format.  Just not perfect.

All of the games had a special scenario rule.  Victory conditions were based entirely on Victory Points (with a margin of >= 300 points required for a win vs. a draw), and there were a couple of bonus victory points.

The problem with relying on VP is that they remove all of the checks that KP impose on the game.  They might not be perfect, but they really do provide a disincentive to loading up on transports and minimum strength units.

Also, it was at 1,800, which is a weird points level.  I’m quite certain this wasn’t intentional: just a non-40K player quickly trying to change tournament rules while 1) annoyed and 2) on vacation.

My List

HQ
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might
Bloodthirster – Unholy Might

Elites
Bloodcrushers x4 – Fury of Khorne, Icon, Musician

Troops
Bloodletters x16 – Fury of Khorne, Icon
Bloodletters x8 – Fury of Khorne, Icon

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Karanak
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder – Phlegm
Soul Grinder – Phlegm

In each game, I blew every single Powers of Chaos roll, and ended up with my Reserves Wave coming in at the beginning of each game.  Once is odds.  Three times is just goofy.  The scatter dice made up for it, though, as I nailed an unbelievable number of Deep Strike rolls: I think I don’t think I scatter more than twice in a single game.

Game 1

vs. Jeff Payne’s Eldar

HQ
Eldrad
Yriel

Elites
Striking Scorpions x10 – Exarch w/ Stalker & Scorpion Claw
– Wave Serpent – TL Shuriken Catapults, TL Shuriken Cannon, Spirit Stones

Troops
Storm Guardians x11 – Warlock w/ Embolden & Singing Spear, Fusion Gun x2
– Wave Serpent – TL Shuriken Catapults, TL Bright Lances, Spirit Stones
Storm Guardians x11 – Warlock w/ Destructor, Flamer x2
– Wave Serpent – TL Shuriken Catapults, TL Bright Lances, Spirit Stones
Guardian Jetbikes x8 – Warlock w/ Embolden, Singing Spear, Shuriken Cannon x2, TL Shuriken Catapults x4

Fast Attack
Vyper – Scatter Laser, TL Shuriken Catapults

Heavy Support 
Fire Prism – Holo-Field, Spirit Stones
Fire Prism – Holo-Field, Spirit Stones

Scenario rules involved a single Night Fight-style roll that affected all units on the table and got progressively worse as the game progressed.  Turn 1 was 6d6+6″ on down to Turn 7 as d6+6″.

It’s weird; every time I have a Disagreement with another IFL member, it turns out that within a couple of weeks, I’m at a tournament at Game Parlor Woodbridge playing them and the game proves theraputic.

Jeff and I had a very good game that, given the circumstances, was much closer than it should have been.

Mechanized is something that gives my army heartburn, and mechanized Eldar is even worse.  Jeff decided to throw caution to the wind and get in my face with the Guardians.  This actually worked quite well: a 5+(i) is still only a 5+ save, after all.

There was a lot more back and forth than there needed to be in that game, and I’m thankful for it.  It certainly made it a fun game.

I lost, of course.

Game 2

vs. Frank Abel‘s Space Marines

HQ
Shrike
Librarian – Terminator Armor, Epistolary, Avenger, Null Zone, Storm Shield

Elites
Assault Terminators x6 – Lightning Claws x1, Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield x6
Venerable Dreadnought – Multi-Melta, DCCW w/ Heavy Flamer, Extra Armor

Troops
Tactical Squad x10 – Meltagun, Lascannon
– Razorback – TL Assault Cannon, Dozer Blade, Extra Armor
Tactical Squad x10 – Meltagun, Lascannon
– Razorback – TL Assault Cannon, Dozer Blade, Extra Armor
Tactical Squad x10 – Flamer, Plasma Cannon

Heavy Support
Land Raider Crusader

Scenario was especially weird: all movement was cut in half, even fleeing, running, and the assault fall-in.  Also, all line of sight was reduced to 20″.  Think about that.

Frank is really my kryptonite.  I don’t think I’ve ever beaten him; it’s weird.

The range restriction on shooting didn’t handicap him nearly as much as it could have because I was all up in his face as quickly as possible.  The movement penalty was a huge problem for me, though.  Early on his Librarian and the Terminators assaulted the Bloodthirster, who pasted the Librarian as quickly as possible.  (Null Zone bad!)

The terminators, and then Shrike, ended up chewing their way through the small unit of Bloodletters before getting stuck in with the large unit in a combat that lasted the rest of the game.  Bloodthirsters died to massed fire, which is usually what kills them.

In the end, it was a pretty close game.  Had my last Bloodcrusher survived long enough to toss some attacks on Shrike in the last round, we’d probably have drawn.  A very good game, though.

Game 3

vs. Scott Ripley’s Blood Angels

(probably going to get this wrong, but we’ll try)

HQ
Company Captain – Combi-melta, Power Weapon

Elites
Furioso Dreadnought – Librarian, Blood Lance, Sanguine Sword, Extra Armor, Magna-Grapple
Furioso Dreadnought – Blood Talons, Extra Armor, Magna-Grapple
Sanguinary Priest – Powerfist, Meltabombs
Corbulo

Troops
Scouts x 5 – Sniper Rifle x5
Tactical Squad x10 – Missile Launcher, Power Sword, Plasmagun
– Rhino – Extra Armor
Assault Squad x10 – Hand Flamer, Power Weapon
– Razorback – TL Lascannon, Extra Armor

Fast Attack
Vanguard Veterans x5 – Power Weapon, Meltabombs, Plasma Pistol

Heavy Support
Devastator Squad x5 – Lascannon x2, Missile Launcher x2
Storm Raven – TL Lascannon, TL Multimelta, Extra Armor, Locator Beacon

Scenario involved d3 Strength 6 meteors falling from the sky and hitting non-vehicle units on a 6 and vehicles on a 5 and a 6.  Ultimately, they really didn’t cause anything to happen, though.

This game was… not great.  Scott’s models weren’t even in the neighborhood of WYSIWYG.  I’m down with the occasional, “This Stormbolter is really a Heavy Flamer,” sort of thing.  This was altogether different.  Guys had weapons that they didn’t have, all sorts of things.

Also, he started his entire army in Reserve.  Now, I get that this sounds a little hypocritical coming from a Daemon player (trust me: I’d love to be able to bring them all in at the beginning of the game), but I’ve found that keeping your entire army in reserve is a great way to start the game off on the wrong foot.

Finally, his converted Storm Raven was… let’s charitably call it enormous.  Built out of a Star Wars shuttle with a Rhino stuck on the front, it was at least 4″x12″.  That would probably be okay, except then he stuck Corbulo with his aura effect in it… that aura had a range that covered something like a third of the table!

I wiped out his Devastators with a Soul Grinder in the second turn, which meant he really didn’t have anything with which to deal with my Bloodthirsters.  He threw his Dreadnoughts at them.  This was, in a word, awesome.  Khorne created Bloodthirsters with the express purpose of completely bitchifying Dreadnoughts.  The Furioso wouldn’t even get the chance to think about swinging before the ‘Thirster would vomit five penetrating hits into its face.  The sheer pwnitude involved in ‘Thirster-on-Furioso action was enough to really improve my attitude about the game.

Overall, I made it out of the day 1/2/0, which isn’t anything to complain about.  I had two good games, plus a third that ended on an up-note.

More significantly, I won the Player’s Choice award!  It was supposed to be a conflation of all of the various soft scores, but it looks like it worked out to be mostly an Appearance ranking thing.  I’m very flattered and proud about this.  Honestly, I think the display board is what pushed it over the edge: there were a lot of really awesome armies there (like Doug’s and Kevin’s, which were my two favorites).