Just a reminder: Tomorrow is Bel Air Game's 50ss Gaining Ground Tournament.

Bel Air Games
1202 Agora Drive, Suite B
Bel Air, MD 21014

Doors open at noon. Cards start flipping at 12:30pm. We'll be playing for three rounds.

There will be a Miss Ery as part of the top prize! There will be a prize for the best painted crew, but painting is optional! Beginners are welcome!

The store phone number is: 410-776-3491

Game Four of Templecon will never be written about.

I realize that I'm never going to really write a battle report of Templecon game four, not because I lost or anything, but merely because enough time has passed that I've forgotten all the salient details. It's the perils of having a mind like a steel trap: rusted, broken, and catching nothing. And I have no pictures of the game, so it's kind of a moot point.

Suffice to say that Corey and I had a great game, I ended up winning by a decent margin, and I took 6th in the tournament, which is the best placement I've had at an event so far. I'm fairly pleased, and that placing brought me back into the top ten in the US Malifaux Rankings.

But all that's a moot point, because time and tide wait for no man, woman, or nephelim of indeterminate gender! And I'm running a tournament! And not the Nova Open, but one held locally! It's this weekend, in fact!

I hope to see you there!

Game three of Templecon

My Two All Stars

The last two games were playing a master which with I wasn’t familiar: Jack Daw. But the tables I was to play on featured something I don’t usually encounter, namely Hazardous Terrain. And as Joe Girard mentioned in this month’s Wyrd Chronicles (out today!), Hazardous Terrain adds a whole new dimension to your games. It was a dimension that dear old Jack is more than interested to explore, as he is a master of positioning and pushing, with the ability to maneuver his and his enemy’s models via Writhing Torment.

The first game put me up against a Leviticus crew in a game of Headhunter, one of the 2015 Gaining Grounds scenarios. Essentially, every significant model that dies due to enemy action drops a head marker, and a (1) interact picks that head up. There are other rules, but the nitty-gritty doesn’t matter, and I trust you, gentle reader, to be capable of the research needed to delve into the strategy’s finer details. Needless to say, engagement ranges factor into your ability to interact, and it’s tough to collect scalps when a Teddy is trying to eat your face. Speaking of Teddy, I was facing a finely tuned Leviticus crew being run by “Jesus Ian.” Our battleground was a town square  with large buildings on the flanks, a central gallows, and hazardous terrain in the form of choking smoke.

I took Daw with Writhing Torment, Betrayer, and all the Curses, Ama no Zako with Oathkeeper, Lady Liegia, 2 Drowned, 2 Crooked Men, and, last, but not least, Jaakuna Ubume.

Ian brought Levi, with Pariah of Iron, Rusty Alyce, two Waifs, Abominations, a Teddy, and possibly more, but since I have no pictures (round times were short), I don’t recall.

It was Standard Deployment, Head Hunter, and I took Breakthrough (undeclared) along with a declared Plant Evidence. Ian took Line in the Sand declared, and Breakthrough undeclared. As for my choice of schemes, it seemed to make sense. I know Daw isn’t that kill-oriented, but is the great wall of frustration. Crooked Men are great at protecting and accomplishing schemes, and with Hazardous terrain built into the board, Drowned seem ideal. It was my plan to hook left with Daw and the main crew, and send a Crooked Man and Ama on the right flank to accomplish schemes as a team. To that end, I moved most of my models hard left at first, drawing Ian towards that side. When it came to my second to last model, I activated Daw, cursing Ama with the Guillotine curse. That, of course, does nothing to a Henchmen like Ama, but it does provide her with a permanent Tormented Characteristic. So, she was able to push an additional 3 inches on her initial movement, moving her an amazing 15 inches on the first turn. Ian played Levi brilliantly, using the Teddy with its Regen 2 as a card draw engine and using the soon to be disposable aboms for the same actions. Second turn saw Ian with a summoned Desolation Engine, and ready to tear the heart out of my crew. I had gotten lucky with some lures, and I ended up killing off Alyce before she became too great a threat, but with a Teddy and a Desolation Engine in my face, with a Drowned and Jaakuna already dead, things were looking grim.

It was at that point that I realized that Lady L is amazing. She does so much by denying the enemy the ability to cheat. Terrifying goes from being an annoyance to being an actual threat. Card drawing doesn’t really matter. Lady L and Jack’s terrifying shut down the Desolation Engine and Teddy both. It was great. I was able to get the Firing Squad curse off on the Engine, and I was able to push him around, mostly into the hazardous terrain and out of combat. Levi moved to my right to attempt to kill Ama, but I was saving high cards, and she escaped wounded, but otherwise functional. The Crooked Man on the right also was dropping and protecting markers with his zero, as was the crooked Man on the left, who was sneaking around a building and was unable to be assailed. The Lady/Daw bubble just absorbed a ton of flips, and kept upright because of the no cheating lock down. Because of Daw’s and the remaining Drowned’s melee range, Ian had no way of picking up heads, and I was able to push out of combat, after forcing the Engine to abandon ideas of killing me. I picked up a head marker with a Drowned, dropped scheme markers enough to get my six, and had enough movement with Daw to kill one of his scheme markers for Line in the Sand, denying him the points.

It ended up 7-5 in my favor.

Back from Templecon 2015

Stolen from Ian with zero regrets

So, I'm back from Templecon, held every year right outside Providence in Warwick, RI. At six hours away, it was quite the haul. Trish and I went together, and it worked out well. Having a SO to go back to at the end of the evening made it a far different experience, for sure.

A variety of henchmen ran the events, with people trading off so that everyone could play in their favorite events.

I arrived late Thursday, and barring a 5 am fire alarm at my hotel (pro-tip to the person smoking at the pool at that time of the morning: those fire alarms are no joke), it was a good night's sleep. The next day (Friday), I rolled in at 11 for the Story Encounter, were I was blasted off the table in most instances. I just couldn't gain any traction at the event, but I still had a good time. The stories were interesting and varied, and played to an attacker/defender role that I'd like to incorporate into the Nova's Malifaux narrative.

Friday's Henchman Hardcore was great. We abandoned the 4 minimum rule, and so I played Ten Thunders Filth: Kang leading Ama w/Recalled Training and Izamu for Great Justice!

We did three rounds with me tying in rounds one and two (though I should have won two, but I was stupid). Ama was a star player in all three rounds, and should have won me round two (I "Promising whisper"ed a model to move to be killed by Kang, rather than telling it to go off out of the turf war area). Ama definitely won me round three by doing that exact same thing to the other player's Teddy. It's not often you can win Hardcore with just Strat points, but I did it.

On Saturday, we had a single model shootout called the Quick and the Dead. You could take any model, as long as it had an SH projectile attack. I was a bastard, and took Tara. Little did I know exactly how awfully good Tara was at a single model vs single model competition. As she was a master with six AP and a bury attack trigger, as soon as she hit you, and you failed that WP flip, you were buried. She was like an assassin. I felt awful, but I also won, so... Yeah.

After that, there was some lull time between that and the Gaining Grounds tournament at four. Someone wanted to play a practice game, and I got to pull out my Kirai crew. It was fun spirit slinging again, and I'm glad to see that I hadn't lost the zen of playing her. I barely needed to look at her cards, which was comforting. Sadly, we had to call the game to start the tournament.

Who are two models I finished that got used this weekend?

The GG had 24 preregistered, 2 on the wait-list, and finally, 20 participants, so I'd be pretty pleased as a Tournament Organizer.

Round one was Extraction. I took Von Schill, as the player I was playing against was relatively new, and was using Guild. I assumed there would be a lot of shooting, but it seemed she was using models that her friends were letting her borrow, so it was somewhat of a hodgepodge list.

Ali was using Lady J, Sadir, a watcher, some death marshals, a stalker, and an austringer, I think.

I took VS w/ Shirt, Survivalist, and I Pay Better, Libby with Oathkeeper, Strongarm Suit with Oathkeeper, 2 Trappers, and Two Friekorpmen.

I took Assassinate and Frame for Murder on the Strongarm Suit. I placed my Trappers out on the flanks, where they had clear shots on everything (not much cover on the board), and formed up the Freibubble in the center to take the marker. Ali set her stuff up on the flanks, and kind of hesitated on coming in to the center. She got two models up there, so she starting gaining points, but I ended up picking people off pretty quickly. She moved Lady J up aggressively, but I was able to Strong Arm Suit her off the board, leaving me with just Sadir as an option to kill the Suit for full points. Sadly, it was not meant to be, and the Suit survived. 6-5, my favor.

Round Two took me up against Raul in Reckoning against Marcus. He also took a Cerberus, Joss, two Waldgeists, and a Soulstone Miner.

My list was Levi with Pariah of Iron, Unnatural Wasting, and two Waifs, a Deso Engine, Miss Step, Rusty with From Aether and Desolate Soul, and a Trapper. Assassinate was on Marcus and Frame for Murder was on Miss Step.

Raul moved his Cerberus right up on my right flank, threatening a next turn assault, or so I thought. The rest of his crew played cagily, and moved center with Miranda in the center, giving + flips to def to most of them.

I moved towards the lower center, and waited for him to blink, but to my surprise, Raul brought Marcus down to Alpha the Cerberus, and take on the Deso engine for a Murder Protege run. It was all going so well for Raul, until he forgot the Cerberus got + flips to damage as well. By the time he realized it, it was already into the next activation, and so the Deso engine lived on to slaughter the Cerberus and regain some lost health. I hit Miss Step and Rust with Levi's shooting cast to move them into position to take on Marcus after all his stuff  had activated, so I was able to hit Marcus with the flurry from Miss Step. Sadly, the effects alll passed along to Waldgeists, and I had to hit Miss Step with Rusty's reactivate and wiffed against Marcus for that due to his ++def flips from Defensive and Miranda. As I got initiative, I flurried against the other waldgeist and I took that down quickly, leaving only Henchmen and Masters on the board, and Miss Step at 1 wound. Raul activated Miranda, she did her thing and shape changed into a Cerberus. I took Rusty's turn and gave Miss Step Reactivate again. The Cerberus leapt and took her down, giving me two more points, not the full three I was hoping for. Marcus activated, punched Joss, made him a beast and Alpha'ed Joss. Joss took the Alpha Turn, and moved next to Rusty. He then took his normal turn, and punched her dead. I then charged Joss with the Deso Engine, and took him down to one wound. Then, Joss got reactivate (since Alpha isn't a reactivate), and punched and paralyzed the Deso engine. I had some activation screw ups the next turn, but it came down to Joss taking down the Deso engine for three VP, and me killing him for Frame for Murder, and all in all, netting Raul six to my five VP, even though I had Marcus right next to Levi, and all I needed was for it to go into one more turn to get assassinate. Oh, well.  5-6, Raul's favor.

I'll finish this up tomorrow.

WAFFLES

Painting and a Tournament!

I've gotten more than a few models ready in the past few days:

All these have been for Templecon and Adepticon after that. I'm nervous, as I haven't practiced enough with the majority of my Outcasts to truly get a feel for them. I might just work with the ones I do know (Tara and Von Schill) so that I can feel comfortable/be in the Zen of playing. In other words, I'll play with what I know well so that I can be thinking about the game/strats/schemes, rather than how my models work. Levi might see table time, but that depends on my mood.

In other news, I'm the henchman for Bel Air Games, going on for six months now. I've run a league there, but I've never run a single day event/tournament. Well, as of 2/21/15, that's about to change. We're going to have a three round, 50ss Gaining Ground Tournament. We're relaxing the painting requirement, due to this being a new store/group and all, but the terrain should be awesome, the place is well stocked, and a Miss Ery is up for the prize pool for the top placer.

Here's a FB event notice for you if you'd want to join in!

A Flesh Construct and My Sorrows

Gotta get ready for Adepticon!

I need to prime and paint a metal one of these, and then get Sebastian painted as well.

I got these guys painted up, and the Poltergiest is almost done as well, though I might go with a Primordial Magic instead of the 'giest, because that's gonna save me 3 points. I still need to prime Lilith, and then figure out how she works in time. It looks like we're just shy of two months!

Malifaux at the Nova Open

Just a bit of news:

My friend, Maht Crestborn, and I are going to be event leads at the 2014 Nova Open.

We'll be running all the Malifaux events there, and I'm excited. We have at least two tournaments to plan, a few other events, and not a lot of time to do it. We're really looking forward to bringing a great series of events to one of the fastest growing conventions on the Eastern seaboard.

Add to that my prep work for Adepticon and Gencon, and I'm a busy bee. I really looking forward to this year's con season.

NOVA Open Round Three

The third round saw me facing Joseph Trueblood, a gamer I had not met before. He plays mostly in the VA area, and, like me, was undefeated coming into the round. Scenario 3 saw us setting up as a pitched battle, with table quarters as the primary, with objectives as secondary, and VP's as the tertiary. As you can see from the very brief video above, I completely slacked on the recording of my games as the day wore on. This was the last video that I took for the day.

Joe was playing a highly mobile BA force.
Mephiston
3 5 man assault squads with various special weapons in Razorbacks
3 Furioso dreads
3 Vindicators
3 Baal Preds, 1 flame storm, 2 Twinlinked Assault Cannons

I won the first turn, and set up in the far corner, castling and waiting for the pain to come my way. He toed the deployment line, getting as close to me as he could. He attempted to sieze initiative, but failed.

He scouted forward, and my valk scouted to the flank to get side shots on his preds and vindicators. The valk also served as a distraction to draw away fire power, as did my ratlings, which were also deployed to get side shots. I had Marbo and a guard squad in reserve. The guard squad was to enter on another table quarter and hide to add 75 points to my total there.

With the set-up we had, I was able to whittle him down over time. Anything that threatened my area of the board got unloaded on until it was stunned, immobilized, or destroyed. He clumped his vehicles together, which allowed my manticore, devil dogs, and medusas extra leeway in targeting, and indeed, got me extra hits. That being said, it was still a hard row to hoe. I had to maneuver to get shots in his vulnerable side armor for his baal predators and his vindicators. He made excellent use of cover as well. My guard squad that was meant to hide was actually forced to do something, and plasma-gunned on of his vindicator's guns off.

It was another desperate, hard fought battle, but in the end, it was tied for quarters, tied for objectives, and I won in VP's. Set-up was very favorable to me, and it accounted for my victory.

NOVA Open Round 2

Round two was possibly the hardest fought game that I had. The impossible happened, and we ended up going through tieing all three victory conditions until a winner emerged.

Out of eighty-eight possible opponents, my foe was no less than Leigh Brady, a fellow Fr.A.G.er. I knew I was in for a hard fight, but little did I know how hard. I don't have his list, but you can see it on the video: Razorspam with Gating Terminator bully boys and Dakkadreds. It was hard as hell, and twice as ugly to have to face. The mission was objective capture, and the deployment was pitched battle. Secondary tiebreaker was VP by a 250 point margin, and tertiary was table quarters.

As with the last post, my camera work was hit and miss, but I hope that it lends you all the impression that after turn two, I thought I was done. My losses at that point: My Devil Dog, two Manticores, a Chimera, a Platoon Command Squad, and I was sitting looking at Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminators squarely in my deployment zone.

Then it all took a turn for the better. I torrented the Libarian away from the Terminators, and they took a ton of wounds. I passed my Weaken Resolve roll, and they fled for the rest of the game. My hydras, Chimeras and autocannon squads pummelled his vehicles senseless, and my melta vets captured a key objective in the center. Each of us were tearing each other to pieces, but the game ended all too soon. At the end, we tied on objectives with two each, we failed to clear a 250 threshold for a VP victory, and both of us had two table quarters. It came down to raw victory points.

I won the game by 5 points. Let me repeat that: 5 points. Less than 1/3 of a Marine. But a "W" is a "W", so... Leigh sucks. Forever.

Seriously, though. This was a hard fought game, and it couldn't have been closer had I tried. It also goes to prove that whole addage of "never giving up". Had I conceeded after turn two, I never would have had that great game. Neither of us can beleive that the game turned out that way. It just goes to show you what massed firepower can do.

NOVA Open Recap, Round 1

After watching these videos from the weekend, I realize that I am unqualified to do these things in a tournament environment. I'm far too into the games to actually remember to take the videos in the first place. But the videos are all I have, as my still camera crapped out on me. So, they're what you get. My apologies.

That being said, the NOVA Open was a great time. 4 rounds of some of the best (and closest) 40k games I've ever had. I can't say enough about the level of competition and sportsmanship on display this weekend, and the dedication of the staff on hand to resolve issues that arose during the game. The format can be found on the Whiskey and 40k blog.

So, let's get onto the games, shall we?

Game 1 had me facing Casey Campbell, from the Iron Fist League, a group of veteran gamers based in Northern Virginia/DC.

His list:
Swarmlord
2 Tyrant Guard
Warrior Prime with Lashwhip/Bonesword, Deathspitter
8 Warriors with Rending Claws, Deathspitters, 1 Barbed Strangler
9 Stealers+Broodlord with scything talons
9 Stealers+Broodlord with scything talons

10 Termagants with spine fists - 60
Tervigon with catalyst, scything talons, cluster spines, adrenal glands, toxin sacs - 200
3 Hive Guard
3 Hive Guard
Doom with Pod
3 Ravenors with rending claws

What did I bring? The glorious Valhallan 42nd Mountaineers, pride of the Motherworld!

Lt. Sorin Company command with lascannon, plasma x 2 Chimera with HHB and TML
Chef Gordo Ramsey and Kitchen Crew (3 Ratlings)
Psyker Battle Squad 7+1 Overseer, Chimera with HHF, TML
Guardsman Marbo
Revnik's Ragers, 1st Platoon, Faith Company
-Platoon Command, flamer x 4, Platoon Commander, Chimera with HHB, THF
-3 Autocannon/plasma squads
-Commissar Price, power weapon
Veteran Squad with 3x Melta, Chimera with HHF, TML
Al-Marakesh's Irregulars (Veteran Squad) Plasma riflex3*
Devil Dog, HHF
Devil Dog, HHF
Vendetta Gunship *(The plasma rifler's ride)
Manticore
Medusa squadron of two
Hydra squadron of two

Mission: Dawn of War set up, VP primary objective/Table Quarters tie-breaker/Objective secondary tiebreaker

How do I sum this game up? It was a dawn of war mission with a shooting army opposing a close combat army with no real form of transport. Casey's only chance was getting his infiltrating stealers into CC early, and getting Doom quickly to distract me. Due to his terrain rolls and reserve rolls, it just wasn't happening. He made some interesting choices for his list that-- which as someone who doesn't play tyranids-- I just didn't understand. Not spawning, including warriors, not including another tervigon, allowing termigants to slow the Swarmlord down... I think the cards were stacked against him, but I think at that point, you have to play more aggressively than he did. He attempted to keep the termigants in cover, and the tyrant guard/Swarmlord squad behind them to give them cover. All that ended up doing was hold the Swarmlord back, and I never had to worry about him. I know what he was attempting to do, protect all at all cost, but that was the wrong strategy to employ with a Tyranid list. He was so afraid of failing that he ended up failing. All my list had to worry about was: the Hiveguard, stealers, and the Doom and pod. 2000 points versus 806 points tells you how that scenario will end, no doubt.

Of Tournaments and (Little Tiny) Men

Games Workshop has posted their final revisions for the 'ard Boyz Scenarios, which can be found here.

So, what do I think about them? They're clearly slanted towards assault based armies. Considering I'm taking Blood Angels, I'm strangely okay with that. I've made plans for all three missions, which I will not reveal until later, for obvious reasons. Bwah-ha-hah.

Also of note, I am strongly considering the Nova Open. The internet buzz seems fairly positive, and the Tournament Organizer's dedication to balance in both scenario and prize support seems dead on. I've invited my teammates from Team Banzai; let's see if they want to play along.

All this will be prep for the Team Tourney and Championships at Adepticon, which I'm really looking forward to participating in. Oh, I have plans within plans for the Team Tourney... Bwah-ha-haha-hah. All secret of course, I passed the reality check course at villains school, and I won't be monologuing my plans to you all.

Oh, and then there's Games Day as well. I'm attending on behalf of a gentleman in Chicago who can not make it to Baltimore,  but still wants the Games Day model. Oh, if I must. Since it's likely to be the last one in Baltimore, I think it'll be good to attend. I've heard rumors that next year it will be in Vegas, which would not offend me in the slightest. I did fairly well with craps last time I was out there, so I might have to add dice rolling to my rolling dice hobby. Games Day would be a lot better with cocktail waitresses, to be sure.

Hive of Activity (Works in Progress)

I've been getting things together for this week's Tournament @ Blob Park, and since it's a "paint optional" event, I don't have to get things together for it.

But it still feels better having a cohesive looking army on the board. To that end, I've been working on getting things painted if I can make the tourney.

You can click on any of the images, and it'll take you to the image's dakka page, where you can see it full sized, and even zoom in on things. Dakka's Gallery is free for members, and membership to Dakka is free. So, win.

These terminators are not fully highlighted, and are missing lens work on the two in the back. Plus, My Baal Red wash got all shiny. I'll have to dullcoat them at some point.



I need to work on the siege shield, the smoke stacks, and the cupola gun, but otherwise, we're done with this one. I still have to finish another one, though.



This is nowhere near done, paint job wise, but I like how the conversion came out.



All metal bodies + all plastic arms means I pinned each of them. There's nothing worse than hunting for missing body parts.



These High Priests are pretty much done, except for basing and a few touch ups.

INAT FAQ

A good deal of ink seems to fly each year prior to Adepticon about one topic more than any other: the INAT FAQ. It is either viewed as the most comprehensive tournament FAQ ever produced, or reviled as a serious undermining of the rules system by which we play.

We've all come across that rule which is vague. It seems invariably that the rule that causes the most arguments is the one for which GW hasn't made an errata or clarification: Doom of Malanti's, Deff rollas (finally taken care of), the use of Descent of Angels for Storm Ravens with embarked squads, the Manticore's template scatter... Maybe those have come up in your games, maybe they haven't, but I guarantee you that in six months, these things will be gone over line by line by the FAQ council that Adepticon appoints.

But is that a good thing? Opponents have valid points. There are out and out rules changes in the INAT, no if, ands, or buts. This is not all from GW's canon. A group of people are putting thier own clarifications, changes and spins on the product that you've purchased. It's fan based, not offical. And there's the very valid sticking point. It's not official. Stelek, a well known opponent of the FAQ, articulated his views thusly: "You have no right to change the way the game is played."

Proponents are very quick to point out that even GW doesn't count its own FAQs as official, except for the errata. And GW's FAQs fall very short of answering questions that will come up in the higher levels of play, things that if answer one way or the other will determine who walks home with a pat on the back, and who walks home with a thousand dollars worth of prizes. Things like that can put real pressure on a judge to make the "right call", and no matter what call he chooses, the blood-crazed hounds of internet will savage him. The proponents value the transparency that the INAT brings; here's the call we made on this, it was put up months ago, please review it. At that point, there's no argument. There might be bad blood, or hurt feelings, but the matter is closed.

As for myself, I find the proponent's argument more measured. Having been to Adepticon but the once, I only found reason to call upon the FAQ one time. The judge came over and quickly applied the ruling needed with minimal fuss. I played seven tourney games under the FAQ, and really didn't have to consult it. Which made the sturm and drang over the FAQ seem wasted effort. Differences in play exist from person to person, region to region, and state to state. The INAT, or something like it, is needed at nationwide events to smooth out those differences. Is the INAT appropriate at every event, regional or otherwise? That depends on the payer base and the Tournament Organizer's call. The only reason I would be unlikely to use it at an event is player feed back.

As to the charge leveled that the organizers of Adepticon have no right to change or clarify the game to their liking, I would refer the gentleman to the gray box on top of page 2 in the 40k Rulebook, under "The Most Important Rule". The game designers want you to do with your game what you want, including making house rules and house clarifications if you see fit. The only difference with the INAT is its scope.