Post by Horst on Oct 4, 2009 23:06:01 GMT -5
in a truly epic feat of driving, covering more than 1000 miles in a single weekend, while still managing to make it back for my college project presentation at 10am today (though I felt and looked like gak), I have been to the mechanicon and back! Here, for posterity, is a record of the events that took place.
My list, in all its glory -
HQ- Chappy w/ melta bombs - 105 pts
HQ- Libby (null zone + avenger) - 100 pts
Elite- 5x ass termies (2x claw 3x hammer)
Elite- Ven dread w/ TLAC - 175 pts
Elite- Ven dread w/ plasma cannon - 175 pts
Troops- 10 man tac squad (flamer, combi-flamer, multimelta) in rhino - 215 pts
Troops- 10 man tac squad (flamer, combi-flamer, missile launcher) in rhino) - 215 pts
Troops- 5 man tac squad in razorback (TLassCan) - 165 pts
Heavy- Land Raider + multimelta - 260 pts
Heavy- Predator (2x LC+AC) - 120 pts
Heavy- Predator (2x LC+AC) - 120 pts
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GAME 1 - vs Eldar
I draw a mech eldar player, in a grab the objectives game(5 objectives), dawn of war.. not a great matchup for me. His list from memory -
Eldrad
Yriel
scorpions in a serpent
Guardian squad w/ meltas in a serpent
Guardian squad w/ flamers in a serpent
Avengers in a falcon
2 vipers w/ star cannons
2 prisms
He wins the dice off, and I have to go first. great. i deploy a razorback w/ 5 man tac squad, and a librarian, halfway up the field. He deploys nothing.
Turn 1- I move my army in in a staggered formation near the majority of the objectives, to try to knock his transports down before they can get to the objectives. I move the razorback back a bit, to be safe from first round fire from him. He brings his entire army in, except his scorpions, who outflank. He moves everything on in such a way that they all moved more than 12", and in many cases 24".
Turn 2- I unload on his serpents in the front of his formation (2 of them)... and score 4 penetrating hits. Unfortuantely, his dice are blessed in holy baby blood, and he rolls all 4 cover saves. i do jacksquat to him first turn. His turn, his scorpions come in, and outflank on the far side of the map. He moves everything up at least 12", and fires 3 weapons at me. He fires one scatter laser into the side of a predator (moving 36" in 2 turns gives him side armor no matter what I do....) and pen 6's it. He fires a prism blast into my land raider... and pen 5's it. his outflanking scorpion serpent fires a scatter laser at my other predator... and pen 6's it. yes, you read that right. 3 weapons, 3 penetrations, 3 destroyed vehicles. If you see my list, note that I have really no anti-tank anywhere except my heavies... which are now all dead.
Turn 3- I move a ven dread closer to his advancing serpents, the other back towards his scorpions. I move my tac marines in rhinos who are not sitting on objectives (a total of 15 marines) out in 2 rhinos in order to attempt to stall him.. as it stands I hold 2 objectives, and I'm going to try to keep him off of them. the terminators run into the middle of the field and attempt to spread out, to chase down any serpents flying by. My one dread manages to pen6 the enemy serpent with the scorpions, they go down and pass their LD check. He spreads his forces out more, still staying close to the left side of the board, far away from my right side where i have 2 objectives. yriel and friends get out of a serpent, and try to pop my rhino with 2 melta shots and 2 spears. They immobilize it, but nothing more. his prisms fire at my dreads, score no meaningful damage.
Turn 4- I move my tac squad out of the immobilized rhino, and move into position to flame the guardian squad w/ yriel. I spread my ven dreads out some more, along with my termiantors, to form a line of skirmish. If he moves any of his serpents / prisms 12-24" in almost any direction, he will be charged by one of them. my other combat squad not on an objective takes position on a hill with the missile launcher, and prepares to lay down some cover fire for the terminators (like 1 missile will make a difference). my librarian and squad get off their objective to move into position to deal with the scorpions. I try to flame them with avenger, my librarian's head pops, (I rolled a 12 on 3d6). thanks eldrad. I still lay into them with flamers, and manage to kill all but 2. (the exarch + 1). I fire on yriels unit with my other squad, and kill the entire guardian unit. yriel is OK. I assault his scorpions with my librarian, and bring down the rest of the squad. He moves his a prism flat out across his table edge, a falcon with avengers across his edge, and a serpent that used to contain yriels unit across my edge. he tries some shooting, is ineffective.
Turn 5- my terminators move into position to charge his falcon.... my ven dreads move into position to charge his serpent. I ignore his prism for the most part.. I can't stop it. my librarian's tac squad moves onto their objective again. my multimelta finally has a target... his wave serpent! its been sitting on an objective until now. I shoot, and don't hit anything. My ven dreads and missile tac squad assault the serpent moving across the bottom... and kill it. my terminators charge his falcon with eldrad + avengers... and even though I have 6 attacks with hammers in range, and re-rolls to hit, I don't make a single one. no damage. his turn, his falcon moves onto an objective i'm contesting with my rhino. his prism moves close to my multimelta squad... but is not within 3" of the objective. his other units shuffle around, and consolidates his serpent with other guardian squad onto a far corner objective. at this point, I hold 2 objectives, he holds 1. I pray the game ends now. it does not.
Turn 6- I try again to take down a prism, the one within movement range of my objective, with my terminators. again, my hammers fail to hit anything... the falcon is immune to death! I try shooting down the serpent, but my highest strength weapon is a multimelta, and they aren't great vs serpents. He disembarks eldrad + the avengers, moves the falcon they were in onto my librarian's squad's objective, and moves his prism onto my other objective, being careful not to tank shock in such a way to touch my multimelta, so I can't even death or glory against it to try to stop it. eldrad and company fail to kill the rhino contesting the one objective, so I still contest it, but he contested both of the objectives I held, and still held one himself. This gives him the edge he needs to push himself into a minor victory, while I get a minor loss. Overall, I think I held out well, considering the onslaught of rape my forces had to deal with turn 2. loosing all 3 heavy support chocies in one round was more brutal than i care to think about.
RESULTS- minor loss for me, minor win for my opponent.
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GAME 2- vs Nids
I draw a nid player, using the following list -
Tyrant
30 stealers (3 squads)
2 large squads of termagaunts
1 large squad of hormagaunts
1 large squad of warriors
zoanthrope
2 fexes
The mission is straight up victory points, whoever kills more wins. I win the dice off, and choose to go first. I deploy in an armored spearhead, predators/raiders/dreads up front, rhinos in theback. he deploys his fexes so they get cover from my shooting, and uses gaunts to wall everything else in. he holds his hormagaunts off tot he side of the map, with a zoan there for synapse.
Turn 1- I don't move much except for my dreads forward... I want him to know I mean business with them I unload on a fex, and vaporize it. He tries to shoot at my raider, and fails to do damage. he moves his army forward, keeping a gaunt wall up between his stealers / fex / tyrant and my dreads / terminators.
Turn 2- I move my dreads back slightly, I have no wish for them to be held up in hand to hand with a billion gaunts. I open fire on the other fex, and kill it. he now has no way of really killing my land raider. He moves up some more, not much, his forces roll poorly for terrain. his hormagaunts + zoanthrope sneak around the flank, behind a large building. I ignore them.
Turn 3- I move my plasma dread up onto a hill very near his gaunts, and my other dread up near his other unit of termagaunts. I figure if I can get him to charge the dreads, my raider will have a clean path to assault his warriors. I open up on his tyrant, and kill it, along with ~6-7 stealers from random fire by dreads/rhinos/ass can. He charges a rhino I have on the flank with his hormagaunts, and charges my one dread on the hill with a mob of gaunts. he keeps his stealers near my dread but behind the assaulting mass of gaunts. he keeps the other gaunt wall up, keeping my raider from his warriors, who move closer to my dread. his hormagaunts do nothing to my rhino.
Turn 4- I disembark my tactical squads. the librarian's combat squad moves into position near my engaged dreadnought, to flame the stealers behind the combat through his mass of gaunts near my dread. my other tac squad gets into position to flame his hormagaunts. my venerable dread that is not engaged moves through a hole in the gaunt wall opened up by a tank shock from my raider as it gets closer to the warriors, and puts down 3 stealers with shooting. my librarian kills 7 stealers in the other squad with avenger, as well as 5 gaunts. my ven dread charges and kills 2 stealers from theunit he shot. my one tac squad kills all the hormagaunts with flamers. at this point, he has an unengaged unit of gaunts, a zoanthrope, his warriros, and 3 units of genestealers left, the stealer units are 1 model, 2 models, and 3 models in size. his turn, his remaining stealer and warriors by my librarian's combat squad charge the librarian's unit. the other gaunts that are unengaged assault my tac squad on the other side of the field. his unengaged stealer unit of 2 models triest to get within charge range of that tac squad as well as the gaunts, but fails. his warriors kill my entire librarian's tac squad, and the librarian takes a wound from ATSKNF after he fails his leadership. my autocannon dread kills the last stealers in the squad he's engaged with. he moves towards the last genestealer squad. the termagaunts that charged my marines don't get many within assault range, and I kill ~ 6 of them, after he took fearless saves.
Turn 5- my terminators finally get to charge his warriors! I disembark the terminators + the final tac squad and move into position to charge his warriors. my autocannon dread moves into position to charge his last stealer squad. I charge the terminators into the warriors, thetac squad into the warriors + the squad of gaunts the dread is engaged with, and the other dread into his last stealers. the long and short of it is all gaunts are now dead, all warriors are now dead, all stealers are now dead, and somehow my librarian, who was in the middle of that storm, survives (he made like 6 armor saves). my opponent has 1 squad of gaunts left, as well as a zoanthrope. we decide to call it a game here, and just agree I get a massacre win, as I've only lost 5 tac marines and a few damage results to my rhinos. (inconsequential damage)
Results - Massacre win for me, Massacre loss for my opponent
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GAME 3- vs dark eldar
His list, from memory-
archon + incubi in raider
wyches in raider
3x raider squads
2x foot warrior squads with lances
5x reaver jetbikes
2x ravagers with disintegrators
1x ravager with lances
I win the roll off for first turn... and let him go first. its a 2 objective spearhead mission, and in order to massacre, I need to take all objectives. He deploys in a corner, I deploy with my objective as close as possible to him, and hold my army in reserve.
Turn 1- He moves the archon and wych raiders onto a large piece of difficult terrain... the archon's raider explodes from the terrain. he spreads out his army.
Turn 2- He moves his wyches onto my objective (about 18" from my board edge) and moves the archon and incubi squad over towards the wyches raider. he moves the jetbikes to the 20" line, and prepares for my assault. My turn, 2 predators, a 10 man tac squad, my razorback squad, and my autocannon dread come in. The razorback moves 12" advancing on the enemy objective. the 10 man tac squad moves up to his wyches, deploys in such a way to be out of LOS of his other forces, and flames the wyches. there are no survivors. my preds and dread open up with autocannons on the ravagers, I score 5 hits, but nothing damages (I roll 1's and 2's to penetrate).
Turn 3- He moves his archon's raider down near my lines, moving it 24". he moves his jetbikes in position to assault a predator. he shuffles his back raiders around. He opens fire, and all his lances bounce off my armor. his jetbikes try to hit me with haywire grenades, and score 2 hits, both of which pen 1 and 2 my predaotr. no damage. My turn, my other dread, and other tac squad comes in. terminators are still a no show. I move the plasma dread in position to assault the archon's raider, and move a tac squad into position to assault it as well. I disembark my librarian from the razorback by himself, and move him into position to use avenger on the reaver bikes. I move my razorback up, and the tac squad that just came in up the left flank, towards the enemy objective. Avenger kills all the bikers, the marines blow the raider out of the sky with bolt pistols, and the dread kills an incubi warrior with his plasma cannon. the other predator and other dread manage to shake the enemy disintegrator ravagers. My marines charge the enemy incubi, but the dread's charge range falls short, leaving the marines horribly exposed. I end up loosing that combat by ~4 marines, but pass my leadership check, and have 6 marines left stuck in.
Turn 4- he moves his lance squads into position to try to stop my rhinos advancing on his objective. his ravagers try to get into position to pop my predators, or lay disentegrator rounds on marines that blew out of rhinos. he once again fails to damage any of my vehicles with his lances, and I loose nothing in this shooting phase. in close combat, I loose by ~2 marines, leaving 4 left stuck in. again, the pass their leadership. My turn, the terminators finally come in, and move to support my tac squad engaging the incubi. The librarian runs to rejoin his razorback squad. my dreads move up to provide covering fire for my advancing rhinos, to try to take the enemy objective. The rhinos move up another 12", and are now within a foot of the objective. I manage to bring down both disintegrator ravagers this turn, the lance ravager which is proving to be useless, I leave alone. In hand to hand, my terminators charge the incubi, and he decides to try to direct most attacks against them. I make all my terminator's saves, and promptly wipe out the incubi. at initative 1, my hammers all swing on the archon... he takes 5 hammer wounds, fails a save, and dies.
Turn 5- his remaining raiders move into position to block my razorback's advance. he doesn't hinder my flanking rhino, however. he manages to shake / immobilize my razorback and empty rhino advancing with it. he tries to use his lance fire to take out my predators / dreads, and does nothing. he charges my shaken rhino / razorback in hand to hand, and destroys the razorback, forcing the 5 man tac squad + librarian out. My turn, realizing this may be the last turn of the game, my tac squad in the unshaken rhino rushes forward, and gets out as close to his objective as possible. I am a good 4" away at closest though. if he holds it, the game ends in a draw. my librarian splits from the combat squad, and moves to engage a dismounted warrior squad. the combat squad itself moves to engage a second warrior squad. the terminators march forwad, as do the dreads, but they are too far back from his objective to help the tac squad try to take it. I decide to try and shoot up the warriors on his objective to make him take a morale check, and run my marines onto the objective. My librarian kills the squad he engages, and the marines that engaged the other squad stick in combat. the warriors on the objective hold their ground.
Roll a d6...see if the game ends... 1 more turn at least!
Turn 6: in an unexpected move, he moves his warriors off the objective, to a position to assault my tac squad. He fires everything he has left at them, kills 3 of them. his warriors charge them, and its a drawn combat, 2 kills each. My librarian runs towards the enemy objective, and engages the warrior squad on the objective along with the tac squad. together, they force them to flee, and run them down. I now have both objectives.
we roll a d6... the game ends. I win, 2-0, a second massacre. day1 just turned around.
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GAME 4: vs imperial guard.
mission type: table quarters as objectives + victory points as a secondary, spearhead deployment. one unit can hold multiple quarters (lame ruling)
Enemy list-
Command squad w/ master of ordinance
2x squads of 5x stormtroopers w/ meltas in chimeras
40x guardsmen w/ flamers
40x guardsmen w/ las + plas
25 conscripts (without number)
2 platoon commands, 1 led by chenkov
rough riders
hellhounds
demolisher
Deployment: He won the roll for first turn. Deployed with his demolisher up front, surrounded his army with a conscript wall, chimeras + rough riders in the rear. I deployed in an armored spearhead, 2 empty rhinos and a razorback w/ the librarian + combat squad to the north, predators across the middle, and my raider to the bottom. AC dread near my raider, Plasma dread near my rhinos.
Turn 1- he shuffles his army around, advancing with infantry + tanks. the only damage done from shooting was my razorback is immobilized. turn, the rhinos move forward, the razorback re-mobilizes itself, the raider moves forward, and the dreads move to support. my AC dread pops his hellhound, and my raider pens his demolisher with its multimelta. I managed to roll a 3 though (the worst roll possible) and its now a demolisher turret. predators try to pop it with lascannons, and fail.
Turn 2- He gets a chimera in from reserves, moves it 12" up my left flank. he moves his conscript wall down to attempt to shield his demolisher, they don't run far enough to prevent the charge. his demolisher shoots and pen4's my land raider, immobilizing it. he shoots some more, does nothing to my army. My turn, I decide I need to silence that demolisher... but that would require me disembarking my tac marines in the raider, and they would be vulnerable to enemy fire. So, I disembark just the chaplain, planning to hit it with a melta bomb if I don't destroy it in shooting. my razorback moves up, as do my dreads. one predator turns to deal with the incoming stormtroopers. I move the other predator up to have range on the basilisk next turn. I shoot, manage to pen 2 his chimera, so its not going anywhere next turn, and blow the turret gun off his demolisher. I see no reason for my chaplain to assault it this turn, and as such assault his conscripts. 25 conscripts vs 1 chaplain... I win the combat by 3 wounds, he passes leadership (he's LD5 stubborn because of chenkov within 12").
Turn 3- He moves his infantry about 22" away from my raider, and parks them there. his rough riders come in, and he starts to fire... he blows the combat arm off my plasma cannon dread. not much other damage done. my chaplain wins combat again, but he manages to make another LD check. My turn, my terminators come in, and I deepstrike them front of my raider, and realize its now or never, this turn will make or break me. I disembark my tac squad from the raider, and move as close as I can to him, preparing to rapid fire. I run the terminators all of 1", I was trying to have them screen my tac marines. I fire 1 predator at the chimera on the flank, and blow a multilaser off. I fire the other predator at the basilisk, hoping to stun it, and fail to deal any damage. my autocannon dread tries to put down the chimera as well, but fails to do any damage. my tac marines rapid fire on the closest enemy squad, and kill 4 of them. my chaplain again wins combat, and runs down the conscripts. he runs for cover against the hull of the crippled demolisher. the plasma dread wins combat and breaks the other squad, running it down.
Turn 4- his stormtroopers disembark from the chimera, and hide in the corner. His chimera moves to the 24" line. his conscripts come back in near them. his other chimera with stormtroopers comes in near them as well. is rough riders move into position to assault my tac squad next turn. his infantry squads move around some more. he fires at my plasma dread, blows its plasma arm off. his crippled demolisher fires a single lascannon at my chaplain, and is lucky enough to hit, then wound, then for me to fail my 4+ invul. chappy dies. he pops my razorback, forcing my combat squad + librarian to disembark. his reinforcement stormtroopers open up on them, and gun them all down except for the librarian. his master of the ordinance gets a lucky shot off, hits 3 terminators, I fail a save, then fail my pinning check... terminators are now pinned, when I need them most. he unloads into the terminators with like 3 squads, but they all pass their armor from this point on. My turn, my last combat squad comes in, and my librarian heads for the enemy conscripts. they are worth 175 VP per kill. the tac squad moves up to assault chenkov and another squad of guard. both my predators open up on the chimera moving into my table quarter... I manage to blow off its other weapon, but its still mobile. my multimelta from the raider finally puts his demolisher down. my armless plasma dread assaults another guardsman squad, while my tac marines assault chenkov + another guardsman squad. the dread murders another squad, while chenkov gets some lucky rolls in and ties my tactical squad. My librarian charges the conscripts, wins, and runs them all down.
Turn 5- his chimera moves into my quarter... he moves 2 infantry squads on the right flank into my quarter. he moves his conscripts back in along both his quarters. he now contests all 4 quarters. he pops my librarian with a melta gun shot... finishes my plasma dread with a barrage of plasma fire from another squad... he charges my tac squad with his rough riders, and kills all but 1 marine, who holds strong. my turn, my terminators move into position to help my final tac marine, as I can't clear out the guardsmen in the quarter and I might as well get as many VP's as possible. I move my predators in position to try to get lascannon shots on the chimera in my deployment zone, which is now behind a building. I score a penetrating hit one the chimera from 1 predator... he makes his cover save. I score a penetrating hit from the other... he fails his cover... and I roll a 2. I try to assault it with my combat squad holding that corner, but I roll a 2 and a 3 for movement, and not much better for assault. my terminators engage and kill chenkov, the rough riders, and a guardsmen squad.
Roll a d6... game ends. In the end, he contested all objectives. My terminators froze up when I needed them most, or else they would have been able to hold a quarter (I had a small combat squad in that quarter as well)... my predators, firing at a chimera for 4 turns, couldn't manage to blow it up. the difference in victory points (while in my favor) wasn't over 400, thus giving us a draw. lame.
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GAME 5 - Vs Salamanders
mission: kill enemy troops as primary, kill enemy HQ's as secondary.
his list -
vulkan
librarian w/ null zone + avenger
10 hammer terminators in 2 redeemers
3 MM bikers
1 MM/HF speeder
20 tac marines in rhinos
This is the battle for first place space marine player... and possibly the tournament. we both only trail the leaders by a few points.
Deployment: I win the roll off, and choose to go first. I deploy in a formation to give me maximum lascannon coverage no matter where he deploys... I know I need to stop his redeemers at range, or i'm in trouble. I hold a combat squad in a rhino in reserve. He deploys his redeemers in front, with everything stacked behind them.
Turn 1:My first turn, I pen 2 one of his raiders with a lascannon, but nothing serious happens. I make the mistake of moving one of my raiders up a few inches to give myself unobscured lascannon shots. he moves his raiders up, and pen5's my raider with a single MM shot from one. he turbo boosts his bikers to get nearer to my lines. he tries to hit one of my dreads with a MM from the other raider, and misses.
Turn 2: My terminators + chaplain move to assault the enemy raider that blew up their raider. not great odds, but i'll take it. I have a dread move into position to assault each raider. 3/4 lascannon shots miss the raider I fire at, do no damage. my chappy squad charges the flanking raider, my one dread fails the charge with a double 3 on the rolls... he needed a 4. my other dread charges the other raider. I immobilize the one raider with a lucky thunderhammer swing, my dread penetrates the other raider, but again, I rolled a 2. His turn, he moves around my dread with his raider. he disembarks in front of my predators with 5 TH/SS terminators + vulkan. his bikers immobilize my plasma dread, and his redeemer uses its MM to stun my other dread. he blows up both my predators and a nearby rhino in his assault phase with vulkan.
Turn 3: my terminators move away from the raider. the librarian + his squad disembark, and join the chaplain as a new squad. my terminators move into a nearby building to assault a rhino behind the raider. a 10 man tac squad tries to rapid fire on the enemy terminators... does no wounds. my terminators pen6 his rhino, all marines jump out and pass their pin check. my combat squad + chappy + libby assault his raider, and the melta bombs on thechappy pen 2 it, so it cannot fire 1 redeemer cannon next turn. his turn, his MM bikers bring down my mobile ven dread, and his redeemer blows up my other ven dread. MM's are vicious when twin linked. his one flamestorm kills 3 marines from my combat squad. my chaplain, during the assault phase, plants a melta bomb on the raider and pen 5's it, forcing the terminators to make an emergency disembark. his terminators + vulkan charge and kill 3 combat squads.
Turn 4: my reserves come in.. I move them in 12" from the extreme far side of the table, out of everything's range. I join the chaplain to the assault terminators, and the librarian and 2 tac marines move to take on the bikers. I cast null zone (success!) and get through the other librarian's hood. my terminators charge his, and I kill them all with hammers, loosing all but 2 hammer terminators in the process. the enemy librarian lives. my librarian kills a biker in hand to hand. opponents turn, he joins vulkan back to his other terminator team, and gets into position to charge my librarian + combat squad. his terminators make it into base to base with the tac marines, but not the librarian, so he's safe for this turn. he kills both tac marines, the librarian force weapons the other biker, so drawn combat. my hammer terminators kill his librarian, and move 6" towards the enemy terminator unit threatening my librarian.
Turn 5: I move my rhino further up the flank out of harms way... the only way i'm winning this now is to kill vulkan. my terminators + chaplain assault his terminators (of which 4 remain) + vulkan, getting the terminators in base with vulkan. The librarian throws up a null zone... Vulkan swings, kills nobody. my librarian + chaplain swing, and between them kill all 4 terminators. This game has just swung wildly in my favor... my hammer terminators cause 2 wounds on vulkan, and he passes both. I force the re-roll with null zone, he passes both again... My opponents turn, he has nothing to do but go to combat, because my only units on the table are locked in hand to hand or fleeing up the flank. he tries to kill my chaplain, but I make my invulnerable saves. My hammer swing.. and all miss. drawn combat. vulkan vs my terminators...
We roll a d6... the game ends. I didn't kill both his HQ's, so I didn't get the bonus points. He didn't kill my HQ's, so he doesn't either. we both have troops left. He scored significantly more VP's off me (he killed 2 more tac squads than I did)... so by a narrow margin, he wins the game. If he had failed one of his invul saves on vulkan, it would have swung in my favor. ah well. GG. Minor loss for me, minor win for him.
In the end, over the weekend, I went 2-2-1 W/L/D. Not that bad. I ended with 60 battlepoints. I would like to note that both of my losses were to lists that use "power builds", I.E., vulkan th/ss +mm spam, and eldrad mech eldar. I held my own against them, and both games were close. Overall, I prefer tournaments with composition points included in the scoring, so those who take that kind of list are discouraged, but I still had fun.
My list, in all its glory -
HQ- Chappy w/ melta bombs - 105 pts
HQ- Libby (null zone + avenger) - 100 pts
Elite- 5x ass termies (2x claw 3x hammer)
Elite- Ven dread w/ TLAC - 175 pts
Elite- Ven dread w/ plasma cannon - 175 pts
Troops- 10 man tac squad (flamer, combi-flamer, multimelta) in rhino - 215 pts
Troops- 10 man tac squad (flamer, combi-flamer, missile launcher) in rhino) - 215 pts
Troops- 5 man tac squad in razorback (TLassCan) - 165 pts
Heavy- Land Raider + multimelta - 260 pts
Heavy- Predator (2x LC+AC) - 120 pts
Heavy- Predator (2x LC+AC) - 120 pts
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GAME 1 - vs Eldar
I draw a mech eldar player, in a grab the objectives game(5 objectives), dawn of war.. not a great matchup for me. His list from memory -
Eldrad
Yriel
scorpions in a serpent
Guardian squad w/ meltas in a serpent
Guardian squad w/ flamers in a serpent
Avengers in a falcon
2 vipers w/ star cannons
2 prisms
He wins the dice off, and I have to go first. great. i deploy a razorback w/ 5 man tac squad, and a librarian, halfway up the field. He deploys nothing.
Turn 1- I move my army in in a staggered formation near the majority of the objectives, to try to knock his transports down before they can get to the objectives. I move the razorback back a bit, to be safe from first round fire from him. He brings his entire army in, except his scorpions, who outflank. He moves everything on in such a way that they all moved more than 12", and in many cases 24".
Turn 2- I unload on his serpents in the front of his formation (2 of them)... and score 4 penetrating hits. Unfortuantely, his dice are blessed in holy baby blood, and he rolls all 4 cover saves. i do jacksquat to him first turn. His turn, his scorpions come in, and outflank on the far side of the map. He moves everything up at least 12", and fires 3 weapons at me. He fires one scatter laser into the side of a predator (moving 36" in 2 turns gives him side armor no matter what I do....) and pen 6's it. He fires a prism blast into my land raider... and pen 5's it. his outflanking scorpion serpent fires a scatter laser at my other predator... and pen 6's it. yes, you read that right. 3 weapons, 3 penetrations, 3 destroyed vehicles. If you see my list, note that I have really no anti-tank anywhere except my heavies... which are now all dead.
Turn 3- I move a ven dread closer to his advancing serpents, the other back towards his scorpions. I move my tac marines in rhinos who are not sitting on objectives (a total of 15 marines) out in 2 rhinos in order to attempt to stall him.. as it stands I hold 2 objectives, and I'm going to try to keep him off of them. the terminators run into the middle of the field and attempt to spread out, to chase down any serpents flying by. My one dread manages to pen6 the enemy serpent with the scorpions, they go down and pass their LD check. He spreads his forces out more, still staying close to the left side of the board, far away from my right side where i have 2 objectives. yriel and friends get out of a serpent, and try to pop my rhino with 2 melta shots and 2 spears. They immobilize it, but nothing more. his prisms fire at my dreads, score no meaningful damage.
Turn 4- I move my tac squad out of the immobilized rhino, and move into position to flame the guardian squad w/ yriel. I spread my ven dreads out some more, along with my termiantors, to form a line of skirmish. If he moves any of his serpents / prisms 12-24" in almost any direction, he will be charged by one of them. my other combat squad not on an objective takes position on a hill with the missile launcher, and prepares to lay down some cover fire for the terminators (like 1 missile will make a difference). my librarian and squad get off their objective to move into position to deal with the scorpions. I try to flame them with avenger, my librarian's head pops, (I rolled a 12 on 3d6). thanks eldrad. I still lay into them with flamers, and manage to kill all but 2. (the exarch + 1). I fire on yriels unit with my other squad, and kill the entire guardian unit. yriel is OK. I assault his scorpions with my librarian, and bring down the rest of the squad. He moves his a prism flat out across his table edge, a falcon with avengers across his edge, and a serpent that used to contain yriels unit across my edge. he tries some shooting, is ineffective.
Turn 5- my terminators move into position to charge his falcon.... my ven dreads move into position to charge his serpent. I ignore his prism for the most part.. I can't stop it. my librarian's tac squad moves onto their objective again. my multimelta finally has a target... his wave serpent! its been sitting on an objective until now. I shoot, and don't hit anything. My ven dreads and missile tac squad assault the serpent moving across the bottom... and kill it. my terminators charge his falcon with eldrad + avengers... and even though I have 6 attacks with hammers in range, and re-rolls to hit, I don't make a single one. no damage. his turn, his falcon moves onto an objective i'm contesting with my rhino. his prism moves close to my multimelta squad... but is not within 3" of the objective. his other units shuffle around, and consolidates his serpent with other guardian squad onto a far corner objective. at this point, I hold 2 objectives, he holds 1. I pray the game ends now. it does not.
Turn 6- I try again to take down a prism, the one within movement range of my objective, with my terminators. again, my hammers fail to hit anything... the falcon is immune to death! I try shooting down the serpent, but my highest strength weapon is a multimelta, and they aren't great vs serpents. He disembarks eldrad + the avengers, moves the falcon they were in onto my librarian's squad's objective, and moves his prism onto my other objective, being careful not to tank shock in such a way to touch my multimelta, so I can't even death or glory against it to try to stop it. eldrad and company fail to kill the rhino contesting the one objective, so I still contest it, but he contested both of the objectives I held, and still held one himself. This gives him the edge he needs to push himself into a minor victory, while I get a minor loss. Overall, I think I held out well, considering the onslaught of rape my forces had to deal with turn 2. loosing all 3 heavy support chocies in one round was more brutal than i care to think about.
RESULTS- minor loss for me, minor win for my opponent.
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GAME 2- vs Nids
I draw a nid player, using the following list -
Tyrant
30 stealers (3 squads)
2 large squads of termagaunts
1 large squad of hormagaunts
1 large squad of warriors
zoanthrope
2 fexes
The mission is straight up victory points, whoever kills more wins. I win the dice off, and choose to go first. I deploy in an armored spearhead, predators/raiders/dreads up front, rhinos in theback. he deploys his fexes so they get cover from my shooting, and uses gaunts to wall everything else in. he holds his hormagaunts off tot he side of the map, with a zoan there for synapse.
Turn 1- I don't move much except for my dreads forward... I want him to know I mean business with them I unload on a fex, and vaporize it. He tries to shoot at my raider, and fails to do damage. he moves his army forward, keeping a gaunt wall up between his stealers / fex / tyrant and my dreads / terminators.
Turn 2- I move my dreads back slightly, I have no wish for them to be held up in hand to hand with a billion gaunts. I open fire on the other fex, and kill it. he now has no way of really killing my land raider. He moves up some more, not much, his forces roll poorly for terrain. his hormagaunts + zoanthrope sneak around the flank, behind a large building. I ignore them.
Turn 3- I move my plasma dread up onto a hill very near his gaunts, and my other dread up near his other unit of termagaunts. I figure if I can get him to charge the dreads, my raider will have a clean path to assault his warriors. I open up on his tyrant, and kill it, along with ~6-7 stealers from random fire by dreads/rhinos/ass can. He charges a rhino I have on the flank with his hormagaunts, and charges my one dread on the hill with a mob of gaunts. he keeps his stealers near my dread but behind the assaulting mass of gaunts. he keeps the other gaunt wall up, keeping my raider from his warriors, who move closer to my dread. his hormagaunts do nothing to my rhino.
Turn 4- I disembark my tactical squads. the librarian's combat squad moves into position near my engaged dreadnought, to flame the stealers behind the combat through his mass of gaunts near my dread. my other tac squad gets into position to flame his hormagaunts. my venerable dread that is not engaged moves through a hole in the gaunt wall opened up by a tank shock from my raider as it gets closer to the warriors, and puts down 3 stealers with shooting. my librarian kills 7 stealers in the other squad with avenger, as well as 5 gaunts. my ven dread charges and kills 2 stealers from theunit he shot. my one tac squad kills all the hormagaunts with flamers. at this point, he has an unengaged unit of gaunts, a zoanthrope, his warriros, and 3 units of genestealers left, the stealer units are 1 model, 2 models, and 3 models in size. his turn, his remaining stealer and warriors by my librarian's combat squad charge the librarian's unit. the other gaunts that are unengaged assault my tac squad on the other side of the field. his unengaged stealer unit of 2 models triest to get within charge range of that tac squad as well as the gaunts, but fails. his warriors kill my entire librarian's tac squad, and the librarian takes a wound from ATSKNF after he fails his leadership. my autocannon dread kills the last stealers in the squad he's engaged with. he moves towards the last genestealer squad. the termagaunts that charged my marines don't get many within assault range, and I kill ~ 6 of them, after he took fearless saves.
Turn 5- my terminators finally get to charge his warriors! I disembark the terminators + the final tac squad and move into position to charge his warriors. my autocannon dread moves into position to charge his last stealer squad. I charge the terminators into the warriors, thetac squad into the warriors + the squad of gaunts the dread is engaged with, and the other dread into his last stealers. the long and short of it is all gaunts are now dead, all warriors are now dead, all stealers are now dead, and somehow my librarian, who was in the middle of that storm, survives (he made like 6 armor saves). my opponent has 1 squad of gaunts left, as well as a zoanthrope. we decide to call it a game here, and just agree I get a massacre win, as I've only lost 5 tac marines and a few damage results to my rhinos. (inconsequential damage)
Results - Massacre win for me, Massacre loss for my opponent
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GAME 3- vs dark eldar
His list, from memory-
archon + incubi in raider
wyches in raider
3x raider squads
2x foot warrior squads with lances
5x reaver jetbikes
2x ravagers with disintegrators
1x ravager with lances
I win the roll off for first turn... and let him go first. its a 2 objective spearhead mission, and in order to massacre, I need to take all objectives. He deploys in a corner, I deploy with my objective as close as possible to him, and hold my army in reserve.
Turn 1- He moves the archon and wych raiders onto a large piece of difficult terrain... the archon's raider explodes from the terrain. he spreads out his army.
Turn 2- He moves his wyches onto my objective (about 18" from my board edge) and moves the archon and incubi squad over towards the wyches raider. he moves the jetbikes to the 20" line, and prepares for my assault. My turn, 2 predators, a 10 man tac squad, my razorback squad, and my autocannon dread come in. The razorback moves 12" advancing on the enemy objective. the 10 man tac squad moves up to his wyches, deploys in such a way to be out of LOS of his other forces, and flames the wyches. there are no survivors. my preds and dread open up with autocannons on the ravagers, I score 5 hits, but nothing damages (I roll 1's and 2's to penetrate).
Turn 3- He moves his archon's raider down near my lines, moving it 24". he moves his jetbikes in position to assault a predator. he shuffles his back raiders around. He opens fire, and all his lances bounce off my armor. his jetbikes try to hit me with haywire grenades, and score 2 hits, both of which pen 1 and 2 my predaotr. no damage. My turn, my other dread, and other tac squad comes in. terminators are still a no show. I move the plasma dread in position to assault the archon's raider, and move a tac squad into position to assault it as well. I disembark my librarian from the razorback by himself, and move him into position to use avenger on the reaver bikes. I move my razorback up, and the tac squad that just came in up the left flank, towards the enemy objective. Avenger kills all the bikers, the marines blow the raider out of the sky with bolt pistols, and the dread kills an incubi warrior with his plasma cannon. the other predator and other dread manage to shake the enemy disintegrator ravagers. My marines charge the enemy incubi, but the dread's charge range falls short, leaving the marines horribly exposed. I end up loosing that combat by ~4 marines, but pass my leadership check, and have 6 marines left stuck in.
Turn 4- he moves his lance squads into position to try to stop my rhinos advancing on his objective. his ravagers try to get into position to pop my predators, or lay disentegrator rounds on marines that blew out of rhinos. he once again fails to damage any of my vehicles with his lances, and I loose nothing in this shooting phase. in close combat, I loose by ~2 marines, leaving 4 left stuck in. again, the pass their leadership. My turn, the terminators finally come in, and move to support my tac squad engaging the incubi. The librarian runs to rejoin his razorback squad. my dreads move up to provide covering fire for my advancing rhinos, to try to take the enemy objective. The rhinos move up another 12", and are now within a foot of the objective. I manage to bring down both disintegrator ravagers this turn, the lance ravager which is proving to be useless, I leave alone. In hand to hand, my terminators charge the incubi, and he decides to try to direct most attacks against them. I make all my terminator's saves, and promptly wipe out the incubi. at initative 1, my hammers all swing on the archon... he takes 5 hammer wounds, fails a save, and dies.
Turn 5- his remaining raiders move into position to block my razorback's advance. he doesn't hinder my flanking rhino, however. he manages to shake / immobilize my razorback and empty rhino advancing with it. he tries to use his lance fire to take out my predators / dreads, and does nothing. he charges my shaken rhino / razorback in hand to hand, and destroys the razorback, forcing the 5 man tac squad + librarian out. My turn, realizing this may be the last turn of the game, my tac squad in the unshaken rhino rushes forward, and gets out as close to his objective as possible. I am a good 4" away at closest though. if he holds it, the game ends in a draw. my librarian splits from the combat squad, and moves to engage a dismounted warrior squad. the combat squad itself moves to engage a second warrior squad. the terminators march forwad, as do the dreads, but they are too far back from his objective to help the tac squad try to take it. I decide to try and shoot up the warriors on his objective to make him take a morale check, and run my marines onto the objective. My librarian kills the squad he engages, and the marines that engaged the other squad stick in combat. the warriors on the objective hold their ground.
Roll a d6...see if the game ends... 1 more turn at least!
Turn 6: in an unexpected move, he moves his warriors off the objective, to a position to assault my tac squad. He fires everything he has left at them, kills 3 of them. his warriors charge them, and its a drawn combat, 2 kills each. My librarian runs towards the enemy objective, and engages the warrior squad on the objective along with the tac squad. together, they force them to flee, and run them down. I now have both objectives.
we roll a d6... the game ends. I win, 2-0, a second massacre. day1 just turned around.
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GAME 4: vs imperial guard.
mission type: table quarters as objectives + victory points as a secondary, spearhead deployment. one unit can hold multiple quarters (lame ruling)
Enemy list-
Command squad w/ master of ordinance
2x squads of 5x stormtroopers w/ meltas in chimeras
40x guardsmen w/ flamers
40x guardsmen w/ las + plas
25 conscripts (without number)
2 platoon commands, 1 led by chenkov
rough riders
hellhounds
demolisher
Deployment: He won the roll for first turn. Deployed with his demolisher up front, surrounded his army with a conscript wall, chimeras + rough riders in the rear. I deployed in an armored spearhead, 2 empty rhinos and a razorback w/ the librarian + combat squad to the north, predators across the middle, and my raider to the bottom. AC dread near my raider, Plasma dread near my rhinos.
Turn 1- he shuffles his army around, advancing with infantry + tanks. the only damage done from shooting was my razorback is immobilized. turn, the rhinos move forward, the razorback re-mobilizes itself, the raider moves forward, and the dreads move to support. my AC dread pops his hellhound, and my raider pens his demolisher with its multimelta. I managed to roll a 3 though (the worst roll possible) and its now a demolisher turret. predators try to pop it with lascannons, and fail.
Turn 2- He gets a chimera in from reserves, moves it 12" up my left flank. he moves his conscript wall down to attempt to shield his demolisher, they don't run far enough to prevent the charge. his demolisher shoots and pen4's my land raider, immobilizing it. he shoots some more, does nothing to my army. My turn, I decide I need to silence that demolisher... but that would require me disembarking my tac marines in the raider, and they would be vulnerable to enemy fire. So, I disembark just the chaplain, planning to hit it with a melta bomb if I don't destroy it in shooting. my razorback moves up, as do my dreads. one predator turns to deal with the incoming stormtroopers. I move the other predator up to have range on the basilisk next turn. I shoot, manage to pen 2 his chimera, so its not going anywhere next turn, and blow the turret gun off his demolisher. I see no reason for my chaplain to assault it this turn, and as such assault his conscripts. 25 conscripts vs 1 chaplain... I win the combat by 3 wounds, he passes leadership (he's LD5 stubborn because of chenkov within 12").
Turn 3- He moves his infantry about 22" away from my raider, and parks them there. his rough riders come in, and he starts to fire... he blows the combat arm off my plasma cannon dread. not much other damage done. my chaplain wins combat again, but he manages to make another LD check. My turn, my terminators come in, and I deepstrike them front of my raider, and realize its now or never, this turn will make or break me. I disembark my tac squad from the raider, and move as close as I can to him, preparing to rapid fire. I run the terminators all of 1", I was trying to have them screen my tac marines. I fire 1 predator at the chimera on the flank, and blow a multilaser off. I fire the other predator at the basilisk, hoping to stun it, and fail to deal any damage. my autocannon dread tries to put down the chimera as well, but fails to do any damage. my tac marines rapid fire on the closest enemy squad, and kill 4 of them. my chaplain again wins combat, and runs down the conscripts. he runs for cover against the hull of the crippled demolisher. the plasma dread wins combat and breaks the other squad, running it down.
Turn 4- his stormtroopers disembark from the chimera, and hide in the corner. His chimera moves to the 24" line. his conscripts come back in near them. his other chimera with stormtroopers comes in near them as well. is rough riders move into position to assault my tac squad next turn. his infantry squads move around some more. he fires at my plasma dread, blows its plasma arm off. his crippled demolisher fires a single lascannon at my chaplain, and is lucky enough to hit, then wound, then for me to fail my 4+ invul. chappy dies. he pops my razorback, forcing my combat squad + librarian to disembark. his reinforcement stormtroopers open up on them, and gun them all down except for the librarian. his master of the ordinance gets a lucky shot off, hits 3 terminators, I fail a save, then fail my pinning check... terminators are now pinned, when I need them most. he unloads into the terminators with like 3 squads, but they all pass their armor from this point on. My turn, my last combat squad comes in, and my librarian heads for the enemy conscripts. they are worth 175 VP per kill. the tac squad moves up to assault chenkov and another squad of guard. both my predators open up on the chimera moving into my table quarter... I manage to blow off its other weapon, but its still mobile. my multimelta from the raider finally puts his demolisher down. my armless plasma dread assaults another guardsman squad, while my tac marines assault chenkov + another guardsman squad. the dread murders another squad, while chenkov gets some lucky rolls in and ties my tactical squad. My librarian charges the conscripts, wins, and runs them all down.
Turn 5- his chimera moves into my quarter... he moves 2 infantry squads on the right flank into my quarter. he moves his conscripts back in along both his quarters. he now contests all 4 quarters. he pops my librarian with a melta gun shot... finishes my plasma dread with a barrage of plasma fire from another squad... he charges my tac squad with his rough riders, and kills all but 1 marine, who holds strong. my turn, my terminators move into position to help my final tac marine, as I can't clear out the guardsmen in the quarter and I might as well get as many VP's as possible. I move my predators in position to try to get lascannon shots on the chimera in my deployment zone, which is now behind a building. I score a penetrating hit one the chimera from 1 predator... he makes his cover save. I score a penetrating hit from the other... he fails his cover... and I roll a 2. I try to assault it with my combat squad holding that corner, but I roll a 2 and a 3 for movement, and not much better for assault. my terminators engage and kill chenkov, the rough riders, and a guardsmen squad.
Roll a d6... game ends. In the end, he contested all objectives. My terminators froze up when I needed them most, or else they would have been able to hold a quarter (I had a small combat squad in that quarter as well)... my predators, firing at a chimera for 4 turns, couldn't manage to blow it up. the difference in victory points (while in my favor) wasn't over 400, thus giving us a draw. lame.
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GAME 5 - Vs Salamanders
mission: kill enemy troops as primary, kill enemy HQ's as secondary.
his list -
vulkan
librarian w/ null zone + avenger
10 hammer terminators in 2 redeemers
3 MM bikers
1 MM/HF speeder
20 tac marines in rhinos
This is the battle for first place space marine player... and possibly the tournament. we both only trail the leaders by a few points.
Deployment: I win the roll off, and choose to go first. I deploy in a formation to give me maximum lascannon coverage no matter where he deploys... I know I need to stop his redeemers at range, or i'm in trouble. I hold a combat squad in a rhino in reserve. He deploys his redeemers in front, with everything stacked behind them.
Turn 1:My first turn, I pen 2 one of his raiders with a lascannon, but nothing serious happens. I make the mistake of moving one of my raiders up a few inches to give myself unobscured lascannon shots. he moves his raiders up, and pen5's my raider with a single MM shot from one. he turbo boosts his bikers to get nearer to my lines. he tries to hit one of my dreads with a MM from the other raider, and misses.
Turn 2: My terminators + chaplain move to assault the enemy raider that blew up their raider. not great odds, but i'll take it. I have a dread move into position to assault each raider. 3/4 lascannon shots miss the raider I fire at, do no damage. my chappy squad charges the flanking raider, my one dread fails the charge with a double 3 on the rolls... he needed a 4. my other dread charges the other raider. I immobilize the one raider with a lucky thunderhammer swing, my dread penetrates the other raider, but again, I rolled a 2. His turn, he moves around my dread with his raider. he disembarks in front of my predators with 5 TH/SS terminators + vulkan. his bikers immobilize my plasma dread, and his redeemer uses its MM to stun my other dread. he blows up both my predators and a nearby rhino in his assault phase with vulkan.
Turn 3: my terminators move away from the raider. the librarian + his squad disembark, and join the chaplain as a new squad. my terminators move into a nearby building to assault a rhino behind the raider. a 10 man tac squad tries to rapid fire on the enemy terminators... does no wounds. my terminators pen6 his rhino, all marines jump out and pass their pin check. my combat squad + chappy + libby assault his raider, and the melta bombs on thechappy pen 2 it, so it cannot fire 1 redeemer cannon next turn. his turn, his MM bikers bring down my mobile ven dread, and his redeemer blows up my other ven dread. MM's are vicious when twin linked. his one flamestorm kills 3 marines from my combat squad. my chaplain, during the assault phase, plants a melta bomb on the raider and pen 5's it, forcing the terminators to make an emergency disembark. his terminators + vulkan charge and kill 3 combat squads.
Turn 4: my reserves come in.. I move them in 12" from the extreme far side of the table, out of everything's range. I join the chaplain to the assault terminators, and the librarian and 2 tac marines move to take on the bikers. I cast null zone (success!) and get through the other librarian's hood. my terminators charge his, and I kill them all with hammers, loosing all but 2 hammer terminators in the process. the enemy librarian lives. my librarian kills a biker in hand to hand. opponents turn, he joins vulkan back to his other terminator team, and gets into position to charge my librarian + combat squad. his terminators make it into base to base with the tac marines, but not the librarian, so he's safe for this turn. he kills both tac marines, the librarian force weapons the other biker, so drawn combat. my hammer terminators kill his librarian, and move 6" towards the enemy terminator unit threatening my librarian.
Turn 5: I move my rhino further up the flank out of harms way... the only way i'm winning this now is to kill vulkan. my terminators + chaplain assault his terminators (of which 4 remain) + vulkan, getting the terminators in base with vulkan. The librarian throws up a null zone... Vulkan swings, kills nobody. my librarian + chaplain swing, and between them kill all 4 terminators. This game has just swung wildly in my favor... my hammer terminators cause 2 wounds on vulkan, and he passes both. I force the re-roll with null zone, he passes both again... My opponents turn, he has nothing to do but go to combat, because my only units on the table are locked in hand to hand or fleeing up the flank. he tries to kill my chaplain, but I make my invulnerable saves. My hammer swing.. and all miss. drawn combat. vulkan vs my terminators...
We roll a d6... the game ends. I didn't kill both his HQ's, so I didn't get the bonus points. He didn't kill my HQ's, so he doesn't either. we both have troops left. He scored significantly more VP's off me (he killed 2 more tac squads than I did)... so by a narrow margin, he wins the game. If he had failed one of his invul saves on vulkan, it would have swung in my favor. ah well. GG. Minor loss for me, minor win for him.
In the end, over the weekend, I went 2-2-1 W/L/D. Not that bad. I ended with 60 battlepoints. I would like to note that both of my losses were to lists that use "power builds", I.E., vulkan th/ss +mm spam, and eldrad mech eldar. I held my own against them, and both games were close. Overall, I prefer tournaments with composition points included in the scoring, so those who take that kind of list are discouraged, but I still had fun.
