Chaos Wins!

After a great weekend, another tournament is in the bag.

The List:

1998 Points

HQ:

Company Command Squad (Meltagun x4; Chimera (w/ Heavy Bolter))

Elite:

Inquisitor (Emperor's Tarot, Psychic Hood, Hierophant x2, Mystic x2; Chimera (w/ Multilaser, Heavy Bolter)

Troops:

Platoon Command Squad (Flamer x4; Chimera (w/ Heavy Bolter))
Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher x1; Chimera (w/ Heavy Flamer))
Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher x1; Chimera (w/ Heavy Flamer))
Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher x1; Commissar)
Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)
Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)
Veteran Squad (Demolition Charge; Melta Bombs; Meltagun x3; Demolitions; Chimera (w/ Heavy Flamer))

Fast Attack:

Vendetta Gunship
Vendetta Gunship
Valkyrie (MRP)

Heavy Support:

Hydra Flak Tank Battery (Hydra Flak Tank x3)
Manticore Rocket Launcher (w/ Heavy Flamer)
Manticore Rocket Launcher (w/ Heavy Flamer)

The Results:

For starts, my organizer based Army Comp, used for Game 1 and Game 2 pairings, was 8.5, with my peers having a high of 12.5 and a low of 2 so I was right in the middle. Other armies with an 8.5 were a Dark Eldar list, a Tau list, and another Imperial Guard list.

With an 8.5, my first opponent was Silas Burdick and his Dark Eldar. This was a great first game. I had a chance to play against Silas' Dark Eldar at the Broadside Bash earlier this year and it was great and this game was no different. Much like the results of the Broadside Bash, due to my poor generalship and his good generalship, I lost this first match. The mission was a modified Dawn of War with 3 Objectives. For objectives, it was a draw. However, I wasn't paying attention to the secondary objectives, for which I could have easily obtained, but space out. I lose 7-10. A great game against a great opponent.

My next opponent was Wayne Kaufman. Amazing, he also was playing Dark Eldar. This was also a Army Comp pairing and Wayne had a score of 9, higher means the list was "less hard." This was a reverse kill points mission. I initially had initiative, but my opponent siezed. Base on some of my scout moves that put me in a compromising position, I thought that I might be in trouble. However, my opponent had a run of bad luck and I survived the first turn unscathed. In response, I made short work oh his army. I win 13-1. I missed out on most of the secondary and bonus objectives, but I was happy with the results.

My third game was the first battle point paired mission and I was paired up with Jeff Kaminsky and his Chaos Space Marines. This was a modified pitched battle, "destroy" objectives, mission. I won initiative. Jeff had initially decided to hold everything in reserve, but I reminded him that if he holds everything in reserve, with my skimmer scouts that hold troops, that I would destroy his objectives before he even had a chance to be on the board, and gave him a chance to change his mind, which he did. In the future, I have decided to just take the win, but I really didn't want to win that way. So with the revised deployment, we had a hard fought battle and tied 9-9.

Game 4 was against my good friend Ryan Shephard and his Imperial Guard. This mission was about getting points for detroying all units in a each of the Elite, Troop, Fast Attack, and Heavy FOC slots. Unfortunately, there was also a preliminary bombardment aspect of the mission that left 90% of my vehicles stunned on round 1. As a result, I was fighting an uphill battle, but managed to eek out a loss but at 12-15.

My last game was agaist Sergio Alvarez' Blood Angels. This was a Spearhead Slaughter Style kill points, with Table Quarters as secondary, mission. I won initiative and the Blood Angels tried to hide. Unfortunately for the Blood Angels, the Manticore don't care where you hide and I managed to severly hurt their mobility for the rest of the game and slowly grinded through most of his army resluting in a win, 16-4.

The total was 57 battle points, which gave me 9th out of 28 in battle points.

For Opponent Scored Sportsmanship, I got a 29 out of 30. I am not sure who dinged me, but I did do an illegal scout move in game 2, which was later corrected, but I can see how I could have deserved a rules ding. Mistakes happen, but it is a tournament and I need to pay better attention.

For Opponent Scored Comp, I got a 24 out of 30. This didn't surprise me, until I noticed that the average was around 29 and that I had the second lowest opponent scored comp at the tournament. Just more evidence towards how arbitrary it really is.

My paint score was 27 out of 40. This didn't surprise me and was better than what I got at Broadside Bash, so I guess I am happy with it. I know my vehicles are a bit bland, being mostly brown and most of the detail is really subdued. I really prefer the natural, grimy, look for my renegades, and I am still a novice (color blind) painter. So I'll take what I can get.

This gave me a total of 137 points and 14th overall.

I seem to have a knack for scoring middle of the pack. There is definitely room for improvement.

I can't control comp, and I can't control sportsmanship, but I definitely and going to try to become a better painter, and I already noted all of the mistakes I made during play to help me improve my generalship.

* Never forget the secondary objectives, if they exist.
* Don't give a win away. Remember its tournament and play to win. Be nice while doing it, but don't absorb someone elses mistakes, since odds are they won't do the same.
* I've done my scout moves so many times, I should never forget the 12" space. No excuses for shoddy play.