Local GT Failure.

The weekend after Labor Day they were going to run a local GT level event called "The Tides of War". The only one that I can play in and sleep in my own bed and have a chance at a Golden Ticket, but it looks like it is not to be.

Well, as it turns out that they had only 2 people sign up for it and had to cancel it. 

I got some flack because I posted that I wanted to go and I did not pre-register and they wanted to know why.

And here is why:

Getting ready for the So Cal Smackdown

Well after a long hiatus it is time once again to bring forth the foot Eldar to the So Cal Smackdown on Labor Day.

 

I have only played my Eldar twice this year at the Broadside Bash and at the 'Ard Boyz prelims. I have gone 6-1-1 with them, but there are now a ton of Space Wolves and Blood Angels players and I get to see if the humble foot Eldar still have what it takes to go up against the heavy hitters in 5^th edition.

 

Because of the missions of the So Cal Smackdown I am going to modify my list just a little bit and take a couple of falcons to help out with a bit of the mobility issues the army has. Sure I feel a little dirty and like I am cheating taking them, but hey, I need a golden ticket. If it were not for the missions, I would not take them and I would take Wraithlords instead, because you end up saving a lot of points in your army that can be applied elsewhere. In these missions though, nothing is as good as taking a couple of resilient, fast moving, transports. Last time I failed to build my army around the missions, and just took whatever army I wanted to and it ended up biting me on the rear for not specializing, so I will not make the same mistake twice.

 

So now I get to work on my Jetbikes. I have been using some bad models for them in the past, and I am converting some to be Harlequin Jetbikes to also go with a future Harlequin army.

 

Took my Demonhunters to a 1750 RTT

Well, I took my Demonhunters to an RTT Saturday. 

My List was:

HQ

Inquisitor Lord w/Psycannon, Null Rod, Emperor's Tarot, Psychic Hood

3 Mystics

2 Sages

1 Familiar

3 Warriors w/2 Heavy Bolters, Plasma Cannon

Brother Captain w/Psycannon 

Elite

3 Terminators w/Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield, Psycannon

1 Brother Captain w/Psycannon

Vindicare assassin 

Troops

5 Grey Knights w/2 Psycannons

1 Justicar

5 Grey Knights w/2 Psycannons

1 Justicar

5 Imperial Storm Troopers w/2 Melta Guns

Chimera w/Multi-Laser, Heavy Bolter

5 Imperial Storm Troopers w/2 Plasma Guns

Chimera w/Multi-Laser, Heavy Bolter 

Heavy Support

Land Raider

So for those keeping track at home, that is 42 shots at strength 5 and 6.  

Game #1

I was matched up against a Tyranid player in the KP mission. He advances and I shot him up, and he made a ton of cover saves. I charge the Tyrant with his one tyrant guard with my terminators and I was cut down. The game ended after 3 turns (I hate short games) and I lost 3 KP to 2. Loss 

Game #2

I was matched up against a Mech Eldar player in a command and control mission. He kept on turning his rear to me to disembark his Fire Dragons. If it was not for that, I only have the Land Raider that can hurt him, but he took that out pretty early. I was stunning him a lot, but that was not a shooting war I can win. He ended up on my objective, andilling my contesting unit. I had another that was going to contest and kill his wave serpent, but the game ended on turn #5 : Loss 

Game #3

I get rewarded with my loss by facing Mech Guard with 3 objectives. Well this is not that army I wanted to face…ever. So I he starts by killing my Land Raider with a Medusa or a Manticore (I always get those 2 mixed up). Well that is it for my anti-tank. I end up knocking the gun off of the medusa though with a Psycannon, so that was a big break. One of my Melta gun guardsmen (who was all by himself at the end of the game) accounted for a Vendetta, 2 Chimeras, and a Devil Dog and to top it off he was trying to hold an objective at the end. That boy was a killer! But in the end Paask in a LR Executioner was mowing down my Grey Knights, and there was nothing I could do about it. He had one objective, and he was contesting mine. I screwed up because next time I need to put all of my Grey Knights on the objectives. I have one in a building on the other side of the board, and I needed them to be on the objective when the other squad got shot off of it. 

Well, I tried out the Vindicare assassin for the first time…I was not impressed. He can put a wound or 2 and then dies. Not that useful as I had thought. That Caldious is still my favorite assassin. 

It is funny going back to Demonhunters and looking what the new codexs can do. Wow is there is no comparison. The new codexs get more attacks at a cheaper price with a lot of options for re-rolls. Where their terminators use to be good are now below average at a huge cost. Oh well, I will just wait a few months until their new book comes out. Too bad too because my grey knights look great. 

They might be able to work with 2 Land Raiders and 2 Dreadnoughts, but it is not worth it at this point adding an army that will be going through a lot of changes.

Demonhunters or Space Wolves?

Here I am again with a few weeks before a couple of tournaments still waffling between two armies.

I am always struck with indecision before GTs and this paralysis is one of the reasons why I suffer with poor paint scores because I am still deciding which army to play up until nearly the last moment.

So I am down to 2 choices: Demonhunters or Space Wolves.


Demonhunters
Pros:
If you win a GT level event with pure Demonhunters, everyone is impressed.
No one plays against Demonhunters, and don't know what to expect.
Lots of unique units/tricks
I like playing armies no one plays
Better comp/sports scores? (If applicable)
Great looking models

Cons:
Way, way, way over priced
Weak codex
Loose some of the prestige of winning if you rely on allies.
In a mech environment, poor anti-tank

Space Wolves
Pros:
One of the best codexes out there.
Lots of good units to choose from.
Cool looking models.

Cons:
Be one of half of the tournament field playing Space Wolves.
Another MEQ army
If you win, it will because of the army you play.


So my question is: Should I play Demonhunters or Space Wolves?

A quick Bols/War Games Con report

Thursday

Well I hitched a ride to the Phoenix airport from my lady-friend at 12:30pm and got on the plane at 1:30pm. Then Southwest wanted to know if anyone would give up their seat because they were over booked. I agreed and ended up getting a voucher worth $450. I can resist anything be the word "Compensation". So it looks like I will be headed up to the Big Waagh in the Bay Area in Oct. and the Da Boyz GT in Rochester NY thanks to Southwest. 

So I get in at around 10:00pm, and Romeo from Battlefoam was on my flight and we took a shuttle to the hotel and we talked about 40k radio some. 

Friday

So I wake up at 8:00am and then I realize that it is 6:00am PST. I work the second shift and work from 12:30pm to 9:00pm and I normally get up around 9:00am in the morning, and this is way early, so I am pretty tired.


I team up with ETC team member Jon Willingham for the team tournament and we are playing Space Wolves.


Wow, what a difference between Chaos and Space Wolves! Space Wolves are so much better. We end up with the final game on table #1 playing against Rob Baer and Paul Murphy who are playing Mech IG. Thanks in part to my dice being on fire we ended up with a win. Lucky for us the game went 7 turns and each turn helped us a lot. They were able to keep us from getting a primary though, and so we ended up being in second place for the team tournament. .


Saturday

Wake up at some God-awful time for a person living on the west coast. Times like this makes me wish that I drank coffee!


So on to 4 games!

Upcoming items

I am still working on my post-BolsCon/War Games Con report, but looking at the score I was right in the middle of the pack. 

I hate being average. So do you know what that means? I have to resort to this:


 Training for my next game!

 

First after Bolscon thought:

I will post a lot more about BolsCon…er War Games Con and here is one thing that should have been apparent to me a long time ago…

 

Re-rolls are everything.

 

Chaos really does not get any do-over's, except for Warptime, so it was a shock to me when I played Space Wolves on Friday in the team tournament I found out it was like playing Choas on easy mode. With all of these preferred enemies and wolf claws and lot of other things they have going on, it was a hard army.

 

So is it any surprise then that Vulcan Salamanders and Space Wolves did the best this weekend?