Da Boyz 2014 - Part 2/2

A new day dawned at Da Boyz GT and I was ready for it!

Grand Tournament, Day 2

Game 4

Opposing Army:   Space Marines

Combined Arms Detachment:  Chapter Master (The Shield Eternal, Artificer Armor, Burning Blade, Melta Bombs), 5x Honour Guard (Chapter Banner, Power Axe, 4x Relic Blade, Drop Pod), 5x Scouts (camo cloaks, sniper rifles), another 5x Scouts (camo cloaks, sniper rifles), 10x Sternguard (5x combi-grav, 2x meltagun, drop pod), another 10x Sternguard (5x combi-grav, 2x meltagun, drop pod), Contemptor-Mortis Pattern Dreadnought (Kheres Assault Cannon x2, Automantic Shielding, Helical Targeting Array), 9x Devastators (4x missile launchers, 4x Flakk missiles), Thunderfire Cannon.

Primary Mission (20pts):  Cumulative Objectives x6.  Starting on turn 2, tally Objectives you hold at the end of your turn.  Compare totals at the end of the game.
Secondary Mission (10pts):  Marked for Death - select any 3 units which are not dedicated transports.  Whoever kills more units they marked for death wins.
Tertiary Missions (1pt each):  Last Blood, Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker
Deployment: Dawn of War

Bill is a jolly man who's a blast to play with.  His army, pre-heresy Emperor's Children with a Fulgrim model used as a Chapter Master, is both fluffy and great to look upon.  It was also a really cool take-all-comers build with anti-air, anti-vehicle/monstrous creature, and anti-infantry elements, some of these spanning different units.  This is what you should expect from a proper Space Marine list.

Bill designated my Warboss, Painboy, and their unit as his three units marked for death.  I designated his two Scout squads and one of his Sternguard as mine.

I moved forward to the middle of the table with my center line and turbo-boosted up the flanks with my other units.  I capped objectives and fired upon the Space Marines, causing a handful of casualties.  Bill responded with his Sternguard dropping and the Honour Guard charging at the Orks on his left flank while his Contemptor shot and charged the unit on his right flank.  Like a boss.  The Honour Guard did serious work against the bikes while the Contemptor found himself stuck for several rounds.

The game swung back and forth the entire time until our Warlords found each other at the center of the table. The end of game roll came and he had won the primary Mission by 1 point!  However, I insisted that we continue the fight between Fulgrim and Zhagsnark which ended on turn 8 with the demise of my Warboss!

Thanks for the great game, Bill!  I'll get you in 2015!

Emperor's Children:  21
Orks:  11

Game 4

Opposing Army:   Chaos Space Marines

Combined Arms Detachment:  Be'Lakor, Daemon Prince (Mark of Nurgle, Mastery Level 2, Wings), 3x Obliterators (Mark of Nurgle), Chaos Land Raider, Heldrake (Baleflamer), 10x Cultists, more 10x Cultists, Chaos Space Marines (Mark of Nurgle, 2x Meltagun, Chaos Rhino), Chaos Space Marines (Mark of Nurgle, 2x Plasmagun, Chaos Rhino),

It won't stop staring at me!

Primary Mission (20pts):  The Scouring
Secondary Mission (10pts):  The player who killed the most expensive unit out of all the killed units wins the Secondary Mission.
Tertiary Missions (1pt each):  First Blood, Linebreaker, Slay the Warlord
Deployment: Vanguard Strike

Jon from the 13th Legion gaming group out of Buffalo brought a cool and thematic Nurgle-themed Chaos Space Marines list with a cool Grim Reaper model standing in for Be'Lakor.  This is the kind of thing I love seeing at tournaments and what I've come to expect at Da Boyz.

Jon began the game by pushing his Land Raider up the middle with a Rhino in escort.  He sent a Plasma squad up his right flank to engage my Warlord's scouting squad.  Within the Land Raider were the Cultists and a squad of Cultists held the backfield.  His Daemon Princes stormed my lines attempting to harass with vector strike attacks and psychic powers.

I responded by surrounding him on all sides, attempting to ground his Daemon Princes who refused to fall from the sky.  I assaulted and destroyed his Rhinos while the Nobz failed to kill the Land Raider.

When my Tankbustas came in, Jon was deeply engaged with Orks, and they decided to take some snap shots on Be'Lakor, dropping him another 2 wounds (down to 1 remaining).  On turn 3, they were able to join the other Orks in the center to assault and destroy the Land Raider with 8 penetrating hits and 5 Explodes results.

The Trukk Boyz finally arrive and take out Be'Lakor before anyone else can shoot him.  The remaining Orks on the center and left side of the board drop the Heldrake by shooting it in the butthole.

At the end of the day, it is my impression that Jon is a good player and a great guy to hang out with (as are all the folks with the 13th Legion), but his dice despise him.

I literally double my Battle Points with one game.

Orks: 33
Nurgle Marines:  0

Scoring

Best Table

One of the cool things about Da Boyz GT is that players who attend also bring some of the terrain and tables are voted on by the players.  I really should participate in this one next year!  Below is the table I voted for and I think it may have won, though I'm not sure.  It featured floating land masses attached by chain which reminded me of World of Warcraft.

Player's Choice

I wasn't surprised that I didn't take home a mug trophy for Player's Choice this year.  I didn't have the time to work on a real display board and that's really key for wowing my fellow players.  I intend to do better next year.  Also, I must say, the other folks who won the Player's Choice awards brought some truly incredible armies to the tournament and I was pleased to see them.

I, personally voted for the winner, Kris Werner's Astra Militarum Ghostbusters. One might believe, at first blush, that this win was due solely to the silly and fun theme he had for his army.  This is not true at all.  Kris's army belied the theme right down to the details on every last model.  Every single model in the army was dressed like a Ghostbuster and every vehicle boasted decals.  He also made little "ghosts" to use for Malefic Daemonology and had a model of the Stay Puff Marshmallow man for summoning greater Daemons.

Even the Command Squad truly looked like the characters from the original Ghostbusters.  I couldn't have been more impressed.

Sportsmanship

I scored 28 out of 40 in Sportsmanship.  I'm not going to lie, but I was quite surprised by this. I won't go into any detail as to who scored what, but I guess I'm glad it's above average. I'm not sure what I need to work on, though it is possible the answer is nothing. I've worked very hard at being gracious at all times.  Twice during the tournament I insisted that we quickly continue the game to a natural conclusion (which worked out in their favor) when we ought to have stopped so that my opponents wouldn't get skunked on time.  Sometimes there's another guy someone played who was just more fun or less annoying or more or less whatever else to them and there's nothing I can do about that.

At any rate, this is an improvement by 4 points from last year.

Appearance

Although scoresheets are not available, here's the best guess I can manage of my 37/85 paint score:

If this is true, I think the extra basing score was kind, but I think my bases were really only a 3, but I would have liked to have seen some points for my weathering which I used paint, powders, and graphite to achieve, for at least a 41.  I am also very sad that there is no allowance for conversions which are an integral part of the hobby. Next year I will really have to work on a display board and do some additional freehand work in order to win a few more points in those areas.

In all, my score improved by 13 points this year and I can't be sad about that.  We'll see if I can't get into the 40s in 2015.

Overall

With a score of 131, I was 70/118.

Da Boyz Meta

Nick Nanavati took best General with the highest Battle Points with a Daemons list using plague drones. Tony Kopach took Best Overall with Eldar using 3 Wave Serpents, 3 Hornets, a Farseer with Mantle of the Laughing God and Jetbike, an autarch on jetbike, and 1-2 warithknights which boosted over Nick with his sportsmanship score. (Thanks, Max for reminding me of their lists.)

Did the missions and comp restrictions change the perceived notion of which armies would be strong?  I'm not sure.

What I can say is that I saw a lot of bikes and a lot of different armies.  The comp restrictions of Da Boyz and the current national meta really did allow for a lot of different armies to be represented. Unlike last year when the comp did little to dissuade the use of super deathstars, this year Waveserpents were quite limited and the use of Adamantine Lance was impossible with the max 2 Knight limitation.  It is true there were some folks running 2 Knights and 2 other beasties, but I can imagine some of the missions gave those armies a bit of trouble.

Eldar were still out in force, but the use of Bikes and Wolf Cav was a strong contender as you could move very quickly into position for the assault without having to rely on transports to get you there. Of course, with a limit of 0-3 on dedicated transports, you didn't see traditional drop pod armies, which further increased the use of bikes and Wolf Cav.

The general idea was play Eldar or play something really fast and resilient that could assault Eldar. Even Nick's list, while not Space Marines on Bikes or Wolf Cav, was a fast-moving force of hunters which could prowl about the board and quickly strike at foes with assault while enjoying good saves while they closed with the enemy.

Did the missions and comp restrictions make for a more fun tournament?  I think it may have for a lot of people. There seemed to be quite a broad array of armies in attendance. I do wish there were more metrics in that regard so that we could have a true discussion about that, but the standings don't help in that regard.

Though I'm sure better folks than I at that sort of assessment can chime in on these matters.

Thanks, Da Boyz!

Thanks to the folks who run a great event. I love going to Da Boyz GT and mingling with the friendly people who attend. I will certainly be seeing you all next year.



Stay tuned for an upcoming article about the Da Boyz spam-busting missions and also check out pics of some of the competing armies below.  Be sure to ZOOM to see all the glorious details!