Conflict GT tournament Report.

First off sorry I have been away for so long, life has been kicking by butt recently.

Anyway  I attended the Conflict GT this past weekend and figured I would put down my thoughts on my games and the event as a whole.

I'll start off by saying that I had a great time, met and hung out with a bunch of great guys, and played 6 fun games (2 of which were really great games, that were super close right up until the end.).  The venue at the Palisades mall (home of this event and the Battle for Salvation GT) is always great, with easy highway access, lots of food options, and a decently large room.

All that said I think this event took a step backward from last year in pretty much every regard.  Last year despite the fact that the TO really had little help, he did a good job of having the event organized ahead of time, updating the website, emailing requestes for lists, posting the missions, having packets ready at the event.  Last year I had very few complaints (there was not enough terrain, the missions needed some work, and I think everyone thought that the TO needed a little more staff.).  This year there was really no improvement on those concerns, and overall other things got worse.

So starting at the beginning, prior to the event I had to email the TO to find out when to turn my list in as the turn in date was not posted anywhere.  Upon arriving to the tournament there were no tournament packets describing the rules of the event, providing sportsmanship rubrics, scoring for missions etc., these were available last year.  Looking at the terrain, while it was a slight improvement, there was still very little terrain on most boards, especially terrain that blocked line of sight.  I found that the mission for the first game had been placed on the table, and looked at the mission.  It was the same first mission as last year, objectives, that scattered randomly, and were placed after deployment (2 by one player 1 by the other.), and that terrain was not set on boards but instead scattered randomly and could not come within 6" of the table center or another terrain piece (this was true for all missions, and I heard multiple accounts of players being unable to place all the terrain due to these rules).  One player went to the TO, and described the issue with placing objectives after deployment, and it was fixed, but not every player heard the announcement of the change.

The first game was scheduled to start at 9:00, but as the start time rolled around we were told that 6 people had not yet shown up (to a 50ish person GT, ende up at 42 players) and that we would wait for them to show up, and start in 15min.  While I don't agree with waiting for players at large events (especially when we are playing 4 games in 1 day), I figured 15 mins was not too bad, but 15 min became 30 and 30 became about an hour....  Finally, the match-ups were posted...and my name was not on the list.  Well another player was not on the list, so ok we were paired together...until 2 members of the same club came up to tell the TO they were paired together, so I switched pairing again.  Again no big deal, but just one more thing.  As the round started we found out that because the Fantasy GT had spilled over onto the tables reserved for 40k that the table numbers were now wrong and we had to take time to figure out where we were supposed to be.  THis all became a larger issue because the TO was pretty much running the whole event by himself (he had a couple of guys who helped hand out missions and put numbers on tables, but no judges, not paint judges, no main administrator, etc), this would be problem enough if it was just a 42 man 40k GT, but when you have a 70ish guy fantasy GT, a Flames of war tourney, a 40k doubles tourney (and a failed, i.e. no one showed, warmahordes event.)., it is just too much for one person.

As the tourney went on we all found that the TO just reprinted the missions from last year, and was using them again.  All of these missions are far too easy to tie.  Missions went  3 objectives, Get troops into your opponents deployment zone, Kill points, Table quarters (scoring to control, anything to contest), 3 Objectives, 3 objectives.  NO tie breakers on any mission, so except the KP mission all of these were very easy to draw (hence I finished 3-1-2), and I know plenty of people who finished with 2+ draw results.  This really hurts when you are on the top tables and the players all end up drawing, and get jumped by people playing easier games who win. (I think I have mentioned before I am not a big fan of kill points.

At the end of day 1 after many people had already packed up their armies, we were told to leave our armies out so they could be paint scored overnight....only to then get paint scored during our games the next day.

Other issues I heard from people were: NO time remaining announcements (people never seemed to know when the round was ending and it caused issues), lectures from the TO about painting (he told at least 1 person that if he had seen their army prior to the event he would have not allowed the player to play...if you are not going to check the armies prior to the tourney, don't bother with the lecture.), the tables were placed very close to one another, leaving little room to move around, and no room for display boards, but there was still empty space at the front of the room on both sides of the room, this resulted in delayed games due to peoples armies being on tables people were trying to play on (at one point another player and myself moved 2 tables to the center of the room so people could put armies their so games could get started).  Lots of the 40k players did not feel the need to play 6 games (for a battle point tourney) especially 4 games the first day (5 if you played doubles which had 2 rounds friday night and 1 round at 10 pm on saturday.), then 2 on sunday which meant we got out pretty early sunday which was nice...but why not just 5 games 3 and 2.

Announcements, were made as to expanding the flames of war event to 30+ for next year....which gave me the thought that if the TO did not get extra help I would no longer want to go to this event.  3-4 tourneys are too much for one person to run/ref/paint judge, the room does not have enough space to comfortably fit 150+ players and tables.  The TO of this event really needs to let go of some of the control and ask other people for help.  I know that many of the players had a good enough time because the group of players in attendance was a great group of guys, but I also know many of them mentioned to me that they probably won't go next year.  Which leaves me in a quandry, the event is local to me and an easy trip to make, I have had fun enough games both years, but I wonder if my money would be better spent at other, better organized events that the same group of players are attending....

Game reports will be upcoming....

NOVA Open Games 5-8

SO we are a month out now and at this rate I’m never getting through these things so here we go.

Game 5: Vs Nids

Mission was Table quarters I think.

My opponents list was a bit of a mishmash of tyranid stuff.

Swarm Lord

Hive Tyrant (Heavy Venom cannon, LW/BS, Hive Commander, Armored Shell)

Troops

10 Termagaunts

Tervigon (With Catalyst and maybe some other stuff)

2 squads of Stealers

Elites

2 x 2 Hive Guard

Heavy

Trygon Prime

So lots of points in HQ.  I think he won first turn, Deployed The Tyrant, Swarm Lord and Hive Guard, and Reserved everything else (he was going to outflank the Tervigon. Right away I thought that this was a mistake given his list and mine.  I seized, blew away the swarm lord and 1 of 2 hive guard units turn 1.  Turn 2 his trygon and stealers came in (the stealers hid)  The Trygon then died on my turn.  Then turn 3 his tervigon came in and hid.  I killed the Tyrant, and hive guard, and the game was pretty much all over.  Major win for me I think I won all 3 objectives.  I felt my opponent should have started with everything on the board to overload my target priority, if I have few targets they tend to die.

Gave 6 Vs Space Marines

Mission was Kill points I think

My opponent was running

A thunder fire cannon,

Vindicator

Libby (null zone)

Land Raider with TH/SS termies

2 Iron Clad Dreads

Some tactical squads.

This was a close game that came down to objectives (which was the 3^rd tie breaker) I held 3-2.  It was very back and forth with me killing some of his stuff, then he would hit me hard and kill my stuff.

Game 7 VS Mech IG

Mission was Objectives I believe

This was a very close game my I won the roll off to go first and go seized.  This got a bunch of my stuff get hurt by his 2 Mantacores. We tied all 3 objectives and I lost by 15 VPs.  Great game, though thinking back on it I think he may have gotten one extra turn (we went 7) because I have the feeling that he went last, and I know I got seized.  But the game was so good it did not even matter.

Game 8 Vs Wolves

Mission was Quarters.

 His list was pretty standard SW fare with a Wolf Lord and 2 Cav.  I won first turn and my opponents dice were terrible.  Turn 1 I killed 5of 6 long fangs in 1 unit (they fail morale), entirely killed another unit of Long Fangs and killed 2 Rhinos.  On his turn he kills nothing, I then I kill the one of his speeders, his other long fangs, his cav down to the lord.  This pattern pretty much continues as he cannot make a 3+ save.

SO overall I end up 4-4, not too bad given that all my losses were close.

NOVA open Game 4:

Now standing at 1-2 I was really feeling the pressure to finish out day 1 as 2-2 (as my goal going in was to try to finish with more wins than losses).  I lined up across the table from a Codex Space Marine Player, and looking at his list I felt pretty good about my chances.  His list consisted of Vulkan, 3 Tactical squads, a Thunderfire Cannon, A typhoon speeder, a Land Raider, A Libby with Null Zone and Gate, 2 MM attack bikes, and some TH/SS termies.

Mission was Objectives, Quarters, and KPs, my opponent won the roll off and gave me first turn.  I deployed in one quarter and he deployed opposite me.  He reserved 2 of his tactical squads.

At this point I honestly don’t remember much of what happened turn by turn.  This game was my one contentious game of the tourney, and unfortunately I think both me and my opponent handled it badly.  He was very concerned that I was moving things too far early on so I took it back and moved them again.  Then it seemed to me that he did not know many of the rules for his particular army (or base rules as well.) So the game took a while as I let him take back a few moves because he did not realize that they would cause things like dangerous terrain.  The game came down to turn 5 being the last turn due to time, and my opponent was able to control 2 objectives and contest 2 of mine.  One with his terminators killing a purifier squad, and the other with a librarian Gating himself to the objective from inside the land raider.  This was a contentious point which ate up some time, as I was not sure that gate would work from inside of a vehicle, but the judges ruling said it could so he was allowed to do so.  Honestly though I had forgotten that he had the power, so that was my fault as I could have deployed to block him out of 3” from the objective, and cast warp quake to attempt to prevent the move had I thought about it.  We rolled to see if the game would go on and it did.  However, since we were up against time the judges had ruled that the game would only continue if both players wanted to go on (which is not a very good ruling, either allow it, or call a hard cap, leaving it to the players can lead to bad blood as in a close game the winning player will never want to go on), my opponent said since he was winning he did not wish to continue.  This attitude upset me (not because he was in the wrong simply because I am just not that competitive as to want to win by a time out), and the game ended on somewhat bad terms.  Reflecting on it later I realized that what I should have offered was to give him the tournament win, score the points as they stood, and finish out the game just to see what would have happened (as that is what I wanted to see).  I think this was made worse because we were both tired.

I’m better when I am losing??!!!

So after then NOVA open (when I had time to reflect on my games) I noticed a trend in all but one of my losses.  The trend I noticed was that I felt that I was winning the game.  Now you may ask why that is a trend that matters but the more I thought about it the more it kind of bothered me.  How had I lost 3 games that I felt confident that I had the upper hand?  Why did I not notice the plays that gave the wins to my opponents?  Why did I make silly, unnecessary mistakes?  Think about this I came up with 3 things.

1.)    I play too fast.  This is not really a problem when I am losing or when I am crushing my opponent (tabling them effectively). I had 2 games in during the NOVA which required no thought at all on my point after about turn 2 as I was so thoroughly beating my opponent anything shy of a miracle would have been needed for my opponents to pull out a win.(One I seized and crippled my opponent turn 1, the second my opponents dice were the worst dice I had ever seen, for the entire game, and he could not offset his poor dice).  Also when I am losing I tend to take more care as any bad play can cost me.   I feel that I really need to slow down and take a breath at the beginning of the latter turns (4+) and try to work out why my opponent is making the moves that he is, and is there any thing that I am missing.

2.)    I make mistakes.  Following up my fast play, when I am confident I have the advantage I make more mistakes.  I aim to press my advantage, and I carry out “my plan” with little regard to what moves my opponent is making.  After all, “my plan” is working, I’m winning and I don’t see anyway for my opponent to comeback from this.  This has often been a bad habit of mine, even from back in my Chess playing days, when I am dominating my opponent I seem far more likely to let them make checkmate moves, simply because I fail to see them as I press my advantage. When I am losing I tend to be fine playing fast as I often have only one choice, and it is to be aggressive to try to get back to even.  I also know that I absolutely cannot make mistakes so I do a better job with my moves and my target priority.  Not that I am bad at these things in games I am winning, but when I am losing I don’t fail to notice slight changes in my opponents plans.  Maybe this is because I need everything to go right for me to even have a chance.

3.)    I get greedy.  My last bad habit when I am winning a game is that I get greedy.  I have a solid win locked up on the tertiary objective, but that is not good enough I push for the win on Primary and it costs me.  Or I am winning on Kill points so I press to get more instead of protecting my lead.  I multi-assault to kill 2 units when 1 would be just fine.  This results in me being out of position to achieve objectives, leaves me vulnerable to counter attacks, and generally does me in.  When I’m losing I’m more likely to be stingy and do just what I need to in order to win, no more no less.

Does anyone else have bad habits like this?  Acknowledging this going forward I am going to attempt to work on it as I don’t feel like I was outplayed in any game at the NOVA, and yet in most of my close games (all save 1) I lost, and in 3 of those 4 games I felt that I had the advantage.   

NOVA game 3:

Game 3 I draw another IG player Mech this time.  Standard fare pretty much Vets in Chimeras, 3 Vendettas, 3 Hydras, a mantacore, and a Leman Russ executioner( plasma tank). And  Alraheem.

Mission is Kill points (win by 3), Quarters, Objectives.  Deployment is Dawn of war.

My opponent wins the roll to go first, and deploys a command squad in a chimera.  I deploy 2 empty razors (with Search Lights).

Turn 1: My opponent moves everything on (except the Alrahim platoon), he boosts his vendettas, 1 on the left, one in the center, 1 on the right.  He moves his Mantacore, Hydras, and Leman Russ on my left, then brings his Chimeras in on the right.  On my turn I roll everything on to my right to deny him shooting with this Leman Russ, and Hydras.  I light up 1 Vendetta shoot it, he fails cover, and I wreck it. I fail to light the other one up, but my purifiers roll to see it (moved 12” on, and disembarked) see it, and blow it up.   So things are going pretty well.

Turn 2:  My opponent kills one Dread with his Mantacore, moves his Hydras up the left side of the table.  Kills one of my Razorbacks with his vendetta, and really not much else.  I move up the right side killing another chimera and the squad inside.

Turn 3: Alraheem comes in kills a razorback, a Dread and tries to kill my paladins, he ends up getting stomped, and losing my opponent 3 KPs.  I continue to move up and pop a few more another Chimeras, Crowe assaults a vet squad, and wipes them out.

.

Turn 4: My opponent has killed a few marines, and immobilized a Rhino and takes out another dread with his, I kill another Chimera and Crowe assaults another vet squad, and wipes them out.

Turn 5: Looking at the table  I am leading in KPS but just by 4, I think I am tying table quarters, and figure I will win 2 – 0 on objectives, if KPs get tied.  My opponent kills Crowe and a purifier squad, to bring us to me leading by2  .  I figure, ok I can probably get 2 Kps, but if not I’m winning on objectives and I figure quarters were tied.  SO I shoot My 2 Psycannons, and 2 storm bolters at a vet squad, but they pass LD.  I shoot his vendetta with 12 Psycannon Shots and gain nothing.  I end up killing one Chimera to get up by 3 Kps.  So we tie KPs. The game ends, he actually ends up holding 3 quarters for the win as he had just snuck his Leman Russ into a table quarter to out point me by 60 VPs (Crowe and the purifiers dying ended up being key). On my turn 5 I should have just accepted tying Kps, and made sure that I was tying quarters, but I was confident that I had enough points and got greedy for KPs.

NOVA Game 2:

So after dropping my first game (in part due to my own stupidity), I went into the second round feeling like I needed to get a win.  Upon arriving at the table I saw that my next opponent was a player I have played before (a great guy) and he was playing a nicely painted Blob (skaven) IG.  The mission was Table Quarters, Kill points, Objectives.  Seeing my list my opponent had the same idea that I did, if my Purifiers hit this IG blob this game was over.  Unfortunately for my opponent…the game was effectively over even before that.   The issue for my opponent was that deployment was table quarters and there was a large LOS blocking piece of terrain in the center of the table.

He won the roll to go first, and set up in the quarter to my right.  He deployed his blob in front, with his Heavy weapons and Vets behind it to get cover.  I was able to hide my entire army from half of his shooting (most of his Heavy weapons) and get cover from the units that could see.  On his turn he shot a bit but mostly moved to try to get LOS.  On my turn 1 I shot and killed 3 out of 4 of his heavy weapons squads as he failed to make just about every cover save he was called to make.

Turn 2 My AlRahim outflanked on my right and moved onto an objective. My opponent shot a bit more but still failed to do much damage.  My Paladins Deepstruck in near my opponent and shot and killed one of his vet squads.  The rest of my army moved up, shot and killed his remaining heavy weapons. 

Turn 3 He killed maybe 1 paladin, then my paladins assaulted his blob to pull them closer to my advancing purifiers.  He killed 2 more paladins, but I won combat and we got stuck in.

Turn 4 one of my Purifier squads and Crowe assaulted his Blob, and killed the whole blob except the Commissar.

Turn 5 The game ended with my holding 4 table quarters for the win.

NOVA tournament Report and Game 1

So I’m back from the NOVA, and I must say that it is the best tournament I have attended to date.  The atmosphere was great and I played 7 good games (one was a little contentious).  I ended up going 4-4 (1-3 the first day and 3-1 the second day) all my losses were extremely close and mostly due to mistakes on my part, and well timed plays by my opponent.

My list

2k Grey Knights

HQ

Crowe

OM Inquisitor in terminator armor w/ Psycannon and 1 servo skull.

Elites

5 Paladins (3 Halberds, Hammer, Sword, 1 Psycannon,, 1 MC Psycannon)

Troops

2 x 10 Purifiers (5 Halberds, Hammer, 4 Psycannons) in Rhino (one squad had psybolts)

2 x 5 Strikes (Psycannon, Hammer) in Razorback with Psybolts and search lights.

Heavy

3 x Dread with 2 TL auto-cannons and psybolts.

The list functioned well all tournament and the shooting power was quite devastating at times.  Most games I worked around trying to take center table and pushing my opponent back.  I also made use of the terrain to keep my opponent from being able to shoot with large portions of their army.

Game 1: Vs Space Wolves (Hulksmash)

Mission was Objectives, Quarters, Killpoints.  Deployment was Pitched Battle.

My opponents list was foot Logan wing and was sporting 24 missiles per turn.

He won the roll to go first and deployed his army across his table edge with a large Squad of 10 Wolf Guard (8 termies) and Logan in the Center of the table.  I deployed in the left corner of the board using the terrain to hide my army from view.  At this point I joked that now that I went through all the trouble to hide my army that I would probably seize….and then I did.

Turn 1:  I moved up which exposed my army to some shooting, and shot one Wolf guard squad down to 1 PA wolf guard, and did a wound or 2 to another.  On his turn he weapon destroyed and immobilized my 2 Razorbacks, which rendered them useless.

Turns 2 -4 We Traded shots but really not much damage was done (I killed a second wolf guard squad and a few of logans squad) His scouts came in and killed a couple of Paladins. 

ON Turn 5 I was moving up the left side with my Purifiers trying to kill a couple more of his units and getting set up to take objectives on turn 6 (and here was my first mistake of the tournament, I though all games were at least 6 turns, because that was the case in the NOVA primers).  His turn 5 he contests one of my 2 objectives and Moves on to a second objective and then we roll and the game ends in my loss. Really not much had been killed I think I was up maybe 2 Killpoints, and we had each killed about 600 points of the others army.  But not realizing it was the last turn cost me the chance to win.  I say chance, because there was no Guarantee that I would have been able to win with another turn, but I certainly had none when I did not grab for objectives on turn 5 ( I could have tried to contest the center objective turn 5 and I certainly would have moved more quickly toward the center if I had know I had fewer turns.