Adepticon 2013 Aftermath

So, I took WAAGH! Drillteef to Adepticon and the army did me proud.  You can view the Overall results on the Adepticon website.  My results are listed under "Fasoldt, Adam" in 33rd place overall. This is something to be proud of, I think.

The thing I'm most proud of, of course, is my appearance score.  I received a 37 in appearance.  The man who got top dog in appearance got a 40.  I have no doubt that my conversions played no small part in this appearance score and I'm super pleased.  Apparently, 37 is the highest score you can get before additional points are rewarded in the second round of judging.  I don't remember seeing the 2nd round judges. I think I may have gone to the restroom.  That's unfortunate, because I would like to have gotten some pointers from the judges.

Anyways, again, I'm really pleased at my results.

Now, as for the list, obviously I could have taken something more competitive, but I doubt highly that I would have placed as high as I did because my shooty list is nowhere near as cool-looking as this list was.

What did I take?  Here was my list:

WAAGH! Drillteef - Adepticon 2013

5 Doc's 'Ardcases (Looted Paladins), 330 pts (Cybork Body)
   1 The Electrork Mayhem (Red Paint Job; Reinforced Ram; Big Shoota x1)
1 Mad Doc Drillteef, D.D.S., 160 pts (Warlord)

1 The Fat Pig, 105 pts (Red Paint Job; Reinforced Ram; Big Shoota x1)
17 Yeller Shoota Boyz (Reserves), 153 pts (Shootas)
   1 Sarge Zagdakka (Bosspole; Power Klaw; Big Shoota)
1 Big Mek Scar 'Ead, 115 pts (Kustom Force Field; Power Klaw; Cybork Body)

1 Orktimus Prime, 105 pts (Red Paint Job; Reinforced Ram; Big Shoota x1)
19 Furhat Shoota Boyz (Reserves), 170 pts (Big Shoota x1)
   1 Sarge Ledstorm (Bosspole; Power Klaw; Big Shoota)

1 Steemrolla, 120 pts (Boarding Plank; Deff Rolla; Big Shoota x1)
19 Da Brute Squad's Shoota Boyz, 145 pts (Big Shoota x1)
   1 Sarge Skardakka (Bosspole; Big Shoota)

5 Da Skyhamma Boyz, 145 pts
   1 Shazzo Blitzklawz

10 Da Lucky Gitz, 40 pts
   1 Zorn Da Kunnin

1 Da Red Barork, 130 pts (TL Supa Shoota x3; Flyboss)

1 Da Rokkit Ship, 130 pts (TL Supa Shoota x3; Flyboss)


So this list was more in the 5th Edition style heavily focusing on Battlewagon rush. I did do a bit of driving around and shooting with it, but there were some elements which simply did not work out well. The reserved Gretchin simply do not perform the way they once did with Heldrakes (or even any flyer, really) on the scene.  They can't hope to be a successful deckchair in most games.

I mainly took "Zagstruck" because he's awesome and he does have the ability to assassinate squads. Unfortunately, my deepstriking with him was less than stellar during the tournament.

I also believe that this kind of list still wants choppa/slugga boyz either instead of or as well as shoota boyz.  Sometimes you absolutely do need to wipe the unit you're assaulting and I found myself wishing I had some good, old-fashioned choppa boyz to cleave some skulls in (or, better yet, hack down monstrous creatures with).

Again, I have no regrets on list choice.  I don't think that another list would have looked as good on the table and probably wouldn't have drawn me a 37 on my appearance score.

It is important to note that every one of my games finished to a natural conclusion.  My aggressive list may have something to do with that.  Note that a lot of the top players had Linebreaker. This is no mistake.  Regardless of people saying that assault is dead, I believe you still have to be aggressive in order to solidify victory.

The Games

Game 1

Army:  Chaos Space Marines with Daemon Allies
List:  Bloodthirster, 10 Bloodletters, Kharn, Nurgle Chaos Lord with Black Mace, Plague Marines, Cultists, 2 Heldrakes, Land Raider, 3 Obliterators to babysit Kharn.
Missions:  Crusade and Purge the Alien if I recall correctly.
Deployment:  Dawn of War.
Game:  I had a good first game.  The player was friendly and understanding.  I was unable to drag down the bloodthirster with my boyz and Meganobz.  Kharn with some Obliterators tore through boyz, as did the Chaos Lord with Black Mace and Plague Marines.  Challenges were the bane of my existence in this game. No matter what I assaulted, it won combat.  Mad Doc's One Scalpel Short of a Medpack was a serious flaw for me in this game as he launched himself and his Meganobz at the Instant Death-causing Bloodthirster.  Challenges are really the bane of my existence.  I have to double-assault something to kill it, which is awful for boyz who should be wiping small units when they assault them.  I think I don't double up on enemies because I continue to obstinately believe I ought not have to.
Result:  Crushing Defeat

Game 2
Army:  Sisters of Battle with Imperial Guard Allies
List: 2 Battle Sister squads in Rhinos, Saint Celestine, a squad of Dominion with flamers and melta, a squad of Retributors with heavy bolters and a heavy bolter Immolator, 2 Excorcists, Uriah Jacobus, a Battle Conclave with Deatcult and Crusaders in a Rhino, a squadron of 2 Hydras, and a priest with a Penal Squad.
Missions:  The Scouring and Emperor's Will
Deployment:  Hammer and Anvil
Game:  So I've always had trouble with Sisters and my Battlewagon list.  Battlewagons react poorly to melta and Boyz not getting a regroup after assaulting a vehicle don't react well to flamers.  I was also relying on my Meganobz chewing through Jocobis and his Death Cult a lot faster than they did, but the Death Cult were passing invulnerable saves like demons.  Because of this, I could not threaten or clear off an important objective. I also stupidly relied on the Gretchin to score the 4 point backfield objective.  I should have held back a squad of boyz to kill the outflanking units. This was the best army I faced. I really liked his conversions for his Adeptus Arbites theme.
Result: Crushing Defeat

Game 3
Army:  Blood Angels
List: Mephiston with Biomancy, 10 Assault Marines with a Priest, 5 assault marines with a Lasplas Razorback, another 5 assault marines with a Lasplas Razorback, Stormraven, Baal Predator with Assault Cannons, Death Company.
Missions:  4 Objectives at 12" and 18", and The Relic.
Deployment:  Vanguard Strike
Game:  This was the best game I had that day.  My opponent and I threw our models at each other and let Mork sort it all out.  He was able to keep Mad Doc's unit pretty well baited the entire game thanks to fast vehicles, but it was not enough, in the end, to keep me out of his lines.
Result: Crushing Victory

Game 4
Army:  Imperial Guard
List: Infantry. So much infantry.  I believe it was 10 squads of infantry with plasma and Lascannons, two Company Command squads with plasma (one with a Master of the Fleet) in Chimeras, 2 Veteran squads with flamers, and 3 Vendettas.
Missions:  Objectives and Purge the Alien
Deployment:  Dawn of War
Game:  This was the toughest game I had all day regardless of the win. I always struggle with Imperial Guard, however I also believe luck played a large part in the result of this game.  He deployed all his men in individual squads instead of blobbing up.  It was exhausting watching him roll orders and hits one at a time.  Oddly enough, he killed zero battlewagons in the first turn.  This stroke of good luck provided me the momentum I needed to press the attack and move in for the kill.  I made a few positioning mistakes  but recovered quickly, munching through one unit after the other until I had taken over half of his side of the board.  If the game had continued to turn 6, he would have blown what was left of my army off the table, but in the end he rolled a 1 to continue the game.
Result: Crushing Victory.

Pick-Up Game with Cairan:

I had a fun pick-up game with Cairan from The Overlords on Sunday. He was great fun to play against and my wife got to listen to his dreamy voice the entire time, so a good time was had by all.

Army:  Chaos Daemons with Chaos Space Marine Allies
Cairan's List:  Bloodthirster, 2 squads of Bloodletters, Bastion with Icarus Lascannon, a big squad of Daemonettes, 2 Soulgrinders, Warpsmith, Cultists, Forgefiend, and a Heldrake.

My List:  Basically my tournament list except replace a unit of the shoota boyz with choppa/slugga boyz and Zagstruck's squad with my Deff Dread, "Da Yeller Klaw!"
Mission:  Emperor's Will
Deployment:  Vanguard Strike

Cairan deployed hugging his Bastion and hiding his 'Thirster for the counter-assault.  I, of course, deployed as close to the line as possible.  I held my Dread back to help guard my objective.

I, then, proceeded to immobilize two battlewagons on terrain in turn 1.  Cairan then took the opportunity to inform me that his men had booby-trapped that woods prior to the game. Curses!  Additionally, Cairan got a free unit of Bloodletters which he used to draw Mad Doc and his Meganobz from the task at hand.  Double curses!

I did my best to get into position to pull the enemy from their positions, but they refused to take the bait.  Oddly enough, the Heldrake didn't kill my battlewagon on the pass-over.

I assaulted the Daemonettes that turn just to see what all the hubbub is about.  I made a LOT of tee-shirt saves.  They were cut to pieces the next turn, of course.  The rending and number of attacks is quite overwhelming.  Yes, that is the kind of unit for avoiding and shooting at for sure. 

The result of this game slowly becomes a foregone conclusion.

Poor dready gets burned down before he can even make it into assault.

Mad Doc's fate was rather predictable.

Chaos wins again!

The Orks are not amused...!!!

My mistakes were, again, assuming 20 boyz can handle a unit of ANYTHING Chaos, especially with an IC attatched or a Monstrous Creature. 

Again, this was a very fun and super-casual game.  I sure am glad I got so many good games in this year.

Boota Town

Boota Town this year was a lot of fun.  We did a dreadnought slugfest, played a lot of random games, and got a lot of prizes.  MightyTim from the Freebootaz did an amazing job pulling it together.  

Is that it?

No, not by a long shot, but that's all I'm going to report on for now. I did so much and had so much fun with so many people that I couldn't possibly get it all down.

What I do want to do is thank Teras of Geek Nation Tours for showing us a great time! My wife and I were treated like VIPs the entire time and our needs were met beyond our expectations.   If you're considering a nerdy vacation, you need to at least consider Geek Nation Tours.  If you're planning one by yourself or with just a significant other, then I'll say straight up that you should book through them.  The camaraderie alone is worth it.