Not dead....

... well a little!

It has been a crazy summer so far. For one it has been too hot to paint most days, and work has been full of "surprises"!

Sadly I had to skip out of Astronomi-Con this past weekend, but my club mates and buddies did a great job without me there (;p). Nick took Best Overall, and Les took Best Sportsman - congrats guys.
Of course Nick has a coveted "Golden Ticket" now...

One good thing came out of my flying visit to the event; I was inspired and I actually put paint to plastic on Saturday evening! Yes, I've started on the last 500pts of my Blood Pact army - for next year's Astro'.
I may find a tourney sooner to attend - GottaCon in Victoria is back on for 2011, plus there is the Seattle ConQuest GT is in January...

My basement is calling.

AdeptiCon 2010

so coming down to the last stretch with painting (I fly at 8:30am tomorrow).
Here is a teaser of my AdeptiCon Team army:

bug alert! bug alert!

No this is not some hacker warning (what the frak is wrong with some people?).
I'm taking part in a local 3-game tourney tomorrow, and the Tyranids are coming back out to play, this is my list:

HQ: Tyranid Prime (1#, 115 pts)
1 Tyranid Prime @ 115 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Bonded Exoskeleton; Synapse Creature; Alpha Warrior; Independent Character; Shadow in the Warp; Lash Whip & Bonesword; Scything Talons; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

HQ: Tyranid Prime (1#, 115 pts)
1 Tyranid Prime @ 115 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Bonded Exoskeleton; Synapse Creature; Alpha Warrior; Independent Character; Shadow in the Warp; Lash Whip & Bonesword; Scything Talons; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Elite: Hive Guard Brood (2#, 100 pts)
2 Hive Guard Brood @ 100 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Claws & Teeth; Hardened Carapace; Impaler Cannon; Instinctive Behaviour - Lurk)

Elite: Zoanthrope Brood (2#, 120 pts)
2 Zoanthrope Brood @ 120 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Claws & Teeth; Reinforced Chitin; Synapse Creature; Psyker; Shadow in the Warp; Warp Field; Warp Blast; Warp Lance)

Troops: Hormagaunt Brood (20#, 200 pts)
20 Hormagaunt Brood @ 200 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Chitin; Scything Talons; Instinctive Behaviour - Feed; Bounding Leap; Fleet; Move Through Cover; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Troops: Hormagaunt Brood (20#, 200 pts)
20 Hormagaunt Brood @ 200 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Chitin; Scything Talons; Instinctive Behaviour - Feed; Bounding Leap; Fleet; Move Through Cover; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Troops: Tyranid Warrior Brood (4#, 160 pts)
4 Tyranid Warrior Brood @ 160 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Hardened Carapace; Scything Talons; Synapse Creature; Shadow in the Warp; Rending Claws; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Troops: Tyranid Warrior Brood (4#, 160 pts)
4 Tyranid Warrior Brood @ 160 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Hardened Carapace; Scything Talons; Synapse Creature; Shadow in the Warp; Rending Claws; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Troops: Genestealer Brood (5#, 110 pts)
5 Genestealer Brood @ 110 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Reinforced Chitin; Rending Claws; Brood Telepathy; Fleet; Infiltrate; Move Through Cover; Scything Talons; Adrenal Glands; Toxin Sacs)

Heavy Support: Trygon (1#, 210 pts)
1 Trygon @ 210 pts (Unit Type: Monstrous Creature; Bio-electric Pulse; Bonded Exoskeleton; Scything Talons x2; Instinctive Behaviour - Feed; Deep Strike; Fearless; Fleet; Subterranean Assault; Adrenal Glands)

Heavy Support: Mawloc (1#, 180 pts)
1 Mawloc @ 180 pts (Unit Type: Monstrous Creature; Bonded Exoskeleton; Claws & Teeth; Instinctive Behaviour - Feed; Burrow; Deep Strike; Fearless; Hit & Run; Terror from the Deep; Adrenal Glands)

Fast Attack: Spore Mine Cluster (3#, 30 pts)
3 Spore Mine Cluster @ 30 pts (Unit Type: Infantry; Spore Mine; Living Bomb; Orbital Deployment)

Not my usual style of "soft" list!
I tried it out last night; beat Les' marines and scared Nick's IG into a tie even whilst making a couple of huge [learning] blunders...

Looking forward to tomorrow!

GottaCon 2010

Returned last night from GottaCon. This was the latest GW Tournament Circuit qualifier, held in Victoria (well Saanich actually), on Vancouver Island.
Took the ferry over on Friday afternoon, along with fellow A-Club-er Nick Daniels. Les Sohlier took the ferry 1 hour ahead of us.
After checking in at the sketchy (and we would find out how much so later) Howard Johnson we headed over to the venue. GottaCon was held in a local community/rec' centre. We were using the indoor basketball/tennis courts as our space, so it was well lit and well ventilated!
First impression of the set up was good - lots of table space (side bars!) and good terrain. It turned out that ~80% of the terrain belonged to the tournament organizer - quite impressed by that.
We took a look over the scenarios and the scoring sheet; we were not so impressed by that - they were using the much hated Massacre system.. So after a bite to eat, and some lively debates about rules we normally let slide in the club (such as how to do multiple combats correctly!) it was time to sleep... or try to. It so happens that our hotel hosted a seedy bar, which generated multiple conflicts during the night, and we were also disturbed by sirens down the street - there has been a shooting murder. In Victoria? W.T.F.

Saturday was a wonderful Spring morning (yes, the Winter Olympics start this week...), and boded well for the day's festivities....

I had elected to run my Penitent list (again), yes it has it's weaknesses, but it is pretty and fun, and I really don't care!

• Cannoness, with multi-melta Celestians, in HF-Immolator
• 2 units of Arbites (5) in Rhinos.
• 10 battle Sisters (HF, FL, VSS with SB) in Rhino
• 2 units of 2 Penitent Engines
• 14 Sisters Repentia with Priest
• Inquisitor with PW
• Callidus Assassin

Game 1

Opponent - Ric Jesson - Guard.

Mission - Dawn of War; Primary - Annihilation, Secondary - Capture and Control

Ric set up first, strung out on his back edge with a few units held in reserve (I'll post pictures later), I deployed aggressively as I wanted to get into combat as soon as possible.
As you can imagine I took a lot of fire, but the game swung my way on turn 2. My Callidus Assassin popped out - next to his unit of 10 Rough Riders. She "flamed" 6 of them down (they passed their morale some how) but then she chopped the rest down in combat. The next turn she repositioned. On turn 4 she went after the psyker choir (and Primaris), shooting and killing them in a similar manner. Turn 4 she stumbles - charging into an infantry squad, she must have been tired... it took two turns to take them down! On turn 7 (yes, one finally went my way!), she cooked the crews of the 3 sentinels that had been a thorn in my side for most of the game.
For those of you at home keeping score - 120 pts of 2 wounds, T4, S4 chick took out 612 points of Guard.
Sweet!

Result - Primary - win, Secondary - tie.
Minor Victory - 17 battle points gainedIf it had not been for the Assassin ripping through the back line it would have gone VERY differently. Ric was a very good sport about the whole thing, and his army was stunningly converted (it was one of my 3 favourites on the weekend).

Game 2

Opponent - James Allen - Ultramarines.

Mission - Spearhead; Primary - Capture and Control, Secondary - Big Game Hunt (kill most expensive unit).

Well this game did not start off well. As soon as I saw his list there was a problem. He was 2 points over. This did not seem to concern him, nor did the TO want to do anything about it (did not want to cause a "fuss"). What really got my goat was James was unrepentant about this... not a sign of contrition on his part (nor did he change his list over the rest of his games).
His list was VERY hard hitting - 2 Vindicators, LR with TH/SS termies, Sternguard in drop pod (with Librarian), 2 Tactical squads in Rhinos and Scout squad with Telion.
Well the game was over on turn 1... his Sternguard dropped in and flamed my Repentia (both these were our most expensive units). They dealt 18 wounds to a 17 wound unit. I did manage to run around and take out the two Vindicators, the terminators, and most of the Sternguard - sadly my Assassin (must have been pooched from game 1) failed to kill off the last of the Sternguard.

Result - Primary - loss, Secondary - loss.
Massacre!- 0 battle points gainedHorrible and controversial...

Game 3

Opponent - Scott James - Space Wolves.

Mission - Pitched Battle; Primary - Annihilation, Secondary - Center of the Table.

Good job there was no rule about unpainted models! Whilst James' army was beautifully converted, only 1 unit dogs had been "washed"... and I think that those were the only models that had been primed. This saddens me, especially when I've taken so long to paint my own army, often for people who can not appreciate the effort or the results. But I digress...

This game was interesting - a two-in-one type of game. The dogs did a good job forcing my units to commit to them (Rage rules), and bogging me down whilst they chipped away at me. Canis Wolfborne is a beast (!), and it took a lot to get rid of him (the Callidus did it in the end). The 3 units of Grey Hunters then did the mop up. In the end it was close, 11 KPs to 9, but due to the Massacre system that was enough, along with the Secondary, to give Scott the Massacre win.

Result - Primary - loss, Secondary - loss.
Massacre!- 0 battle points gainedIf James' army had been painted he would have received a lot more points - it was a fun game, which I thought I had on turn 3, but the GHs were just too much for the little of my army that was left. It is games like this which remind me of why I despise the old GW Massacre system so much, and how systems like they have at OFCC, and at Conquest, are much better.

Game 4

Opponent - Stew Murray - Tau.

Mission - Spearhead; Primary - Seize Ground (4 objectives), Secondary - Assassination (Destroy enemy HQ).

This table had a LOT of terrain, with a bastion and barriers in the middle. I finally one a dice roll, and chose to go first - it was a deliberate move, I wanted to dominate the table. I set up aggressively with the Engines to either side of the bastion, and with the rest of my army split evenly behind them and to their flanks.
Stew chose to keep all his suits (3 identical elite units, plus the obligatory HQ), one (of his two) Hammerheads, and two 'fish mounted 6 man squads in reserve. I asked him to clearly state how they would be entering "all suits will deep strike" was his response. Cool I thought! This left him with one hammerhead, two Broadsides and two 6-man fire warrior squads to deploy. He deployed them in the farthest corner.
Turn 1 was pretty quiet - I think I just moved up my units, and his shooting was ineffectual. Turn 2 saw my Assassin turn up, she immediately went after the Broadsides, destroying both of them, and she also inflicted one glancing damage to the hammerhead - which immobilized it! I love my assassin... Stew pulled in his HQ and 2 units of suits on turn 2. When he walked his commander on the board edge (to go after my assassin) I questions the move. He said he had indicated that the HQ would walk on... O.K. And I must have misheard him (well I am 41 and decrepit!). One unit of suits came in at the "north" of the table, and did little damage to the Engines up there. The other came in "south" and engaged the repentia (thank you!). My next turn I wiped out both units in HtH. I also went after the troops that had been deployed initially - burning one away with a remaining engine (one had been destroyed by the immobilized hammerhead). Turn 4 I went after the remaining 6 man unit - immobilizing my Immolator 2" too short to burn them off with the Inferno cannon... The HQ deployed, and would have to do it on foot the next turn. My Assassin had been taken down by combined fire from the the fire warriors and the HQ. My battle sister squad went after the two transports and the hammerhead that had come in on Stew's 3rd turn. With some luck, and an Act of Faith, I was able to immobilize one of the 'fish. Stew's final unit that had been "delayed" in turn 2, can in again and again it mishap-ed - so I put in in difficult terrain (::evil::) - he made all 3 tests, right by my repentia (:: VERY evil::). Of course I wiped them out... My HQ shot (but did not break) the fire warriors sitting on one of the objectives (I was planted on two others, and one was up for grabs, though I contested it with a Rhino). Stew moved in to my deployment zone and took the objective from the Arbites.
Turn 6 I moved my sisters back to hold one objected, and booted their Rhino, that had been contesting it, over to the one I just lost. I made a HUGE mistake at this point. Instead of my HQ going after the lone fire warrior, who had pulled back from the objective, I went after the hammerhead, and wiffed. Stew punished that unit - taking them off the board, and as his warrior had moved up to the objective I could no longer contest that one. His hammerhead took out the SoB Rhino that had been contesting the one in my zone. Game over!

Result - Primary - tie, Secondary - loss.
Loss - 7 battle points gained

Trygon and Mawloc

so back to the fun stuff...

These took about 2 hours to paint, I'll base them later when I have a few more tyranid models to do. I'm liking the look of the Codex so far, and look forward to trying out new combo's.
I'm sure I'll be one of about 50 Tyranid players at AdeptiCon!

Justice is Served...

http://conquestgt.avalongamecon.com/sitebuilder/images/Seattle.html-5.png

Cheaters - Why do they do it?

Well the short answer is because we let them...

Last weekend I played at the Conquest Seattle Slaughter; the first of the new GW Tournament Circuit. This happened to be my 30th GT since 1999 when I played my first at the same location (and on the same weekend IIRC).
This was the second year of this particular event, and by far a huge improvement over last year's. Yes, there were some "drama Llamas" out there over the club that had been scheduled to run it pulling out at the last minute (2 weeks "notice"), but the organizers pulled an excellent team together, and they worked on terrain for 2 weeks solid (one guy put in over 100 hours alone) and made the show work. I had a great time, and I look forward to next year's event (I'll blog my games when I have more energy).

Now those of you who read my blog (on the infrequent times I update it...) may recall last years write up and the shit-storm over the play-what-you-display issue. Now, I'll be the first to agree that this was not a breach of the rules per se. There is no such rule (well there is now!), but damn it was a thrashing of the spirit of our hobby, and as we English are fond of saying - it was not cricket (!).

The same guy was back this year. Predictably of course - he came second last year, and was gunning for a trip to Vegas. This is a going to be an on going problem with the way GW has designed this Circuit - everyone wants to kick ass... but I digress.

Once it was known he was playing there was a collective groan, and there was even a move to have him blocked from the event. We all knew going into the gaming room what his reputation was, and everyone pretty much dreaded a match up against him (I both dreaded and wanted one!). Well it turned out he played true to his nature. Comments about bad sportsmanship, whining when models were removed, slow play, pre-measurement - these were all in abundance all weekend. And lo and behold, at the end of day Sunday he walks off with the Overall Championship - and that treasured spot in Vegas.
Few applause, no hand shakes from enthusiastic buddies, no "well done mate!"...
So I hear a "WTF?" from you... yeah me too... I did not get to play him, and as all my games went to turn 5 or 6 I did not get chance to see the games. But others did... and they video taped it!

One of those videos can be found here, there is also a good commentary by the videographer here.

It is obvious from this footage that the player did cheat. You know what really got my goat about this? He scored 47/50 on Sportsmanship... yeah the same as ME. Me, who has won 4 GT Sportsmanship awards, who owns up to his mistakes openly, politely calls all his opponents on errors and scores his opponents fairly. FRAK.

So how did he get away with it - for all FIVE games. The opponents let him. Simple.
They. let. him.

Either they were scared of him (he is a big guy), or they did not want their scores affected by him sandbagging (chipmunking) them, or they were too stupid to realize the implications (which I doubt in this case). But either way, no one had the balls to stand up for what is right in the game - fair play.

Now some will argue that the Judges should have intervened. Well, firstly no one told them about it until after the fact. Secondly, note their role - Judges - not one of 3 Referees in a Soccer game, not one of 5 (?) in an NFL game looking for infractions, or even 3 in an NHL game. A Judge, who weighs evidence presented to them, and makes a decisions based on that evidence. Let's face it, in a room of 60 active tables, you can not have 60 "referees" watching the games. It is beholden upon the players to do something about it.

Complaining (even legitimately) after the fact is too late folks.

As a result of these videos, and player discussion, a tourney organizer has taken the bold step of banning the player in question. I applaud this, however, the Seattle GT has been sullied by this player (and I hope he gets beat down badly when he plays in Vegas, 'cos I know some of the guys who play at that level well, and they will NOT tolerate his BS!) two years in a row.

Will it ever recover its reputation as one of the best on the circuit? I played in the first 5 GTs that were held in Seattle, and of the first 20 or so I played in they were the best. I hope it does. But that will take a shift - a shift in the attitude of players; stand up for the hobby! A shift in organizer's attitudes - be willing to ban a bad player. And an education for this individual in the wrongness of what he has done to our hobby.

I hope I can be a part of all three of those "shifts".
Because I love this hobby.

current project...

Something I'm working on for AdeptiCon