Gamescape North Tournament Report

The gang recently went to an excellent RTT at Gamescape North, which is a seriously awesome game store in San Rafael, CA. Check it out if you are in the area!

So Frankie (Triple Dragon Chaos), Raw Dogger (Grey Knight/IG), young Garret (Farsight Tau) and myself (Reecius with my Bugs) went to a really great tournament at Gamescape North. This even used the BAO format, slightly modified, and was good fun! The event was very well run, with knowledgeable, friendly staff in a seriously cool store (we had a bit of store envy going on!).

They checked everyone’s lists before the event which is always nice and helps to avoid calculation errors.

I give the event a big time A on logistics and organization. My only minor critiques would be: lack of enough LoS blocking terrain. Some of the tables were a shooting gallery  but this is such a common problem with tournaments. It is tough to get enough terrain for a 22 man tournament. Just 1 tall piece of LOS blocking terrain per table in the middle would be awesome to break the table up and create the opportunity for maneuver to play a bigger part in the game and be less advantageous for shooting armies.

They used modified book objective placement. The modification was that there were a set number of objectives (an even amount, which is good, IMO) but they allowed them to be placed per normal. The reason I do not care for that is that you see almost every game where each player puts their objectives as close to their board edge as possible and as close to each other as possible so that they are easily defended. This again benefits sit and shoot armies and discourages maneuver. We modified it in the BAO to force players to place objectives in no man’s land or the other player’s deployment zone. This meant we saw objectives in the middle of the table to encourage movement and more dynamic games.

Lastly, they used Kill Points as the secondary objective in each game. This is good for ease of play and keeping things simple, however it is a bummer to MSU or high unit count armies. I think a bit of variety would go a long way to keeping things balanced. Maybe even reverse KP in 1 mission where the player with the most units left on the board gets it, etc.

That said, the event was great! I would go back to each tournament even if not one thing changed, those are just my very minor critiques.

I brought my Nids which I have been having just a blast playing lately. Here’s the list:

Tyranids	1750 Pts
Unit	Description	Size	Cost
HQ
Swarmlord		1	280
Troops
Tervigon	Catalyst	1	175
Termagants		15	75
Tervigon	Catalyst	1	175
Termagants		10	50
Hormagants	Poison	20	160
Elites
Hive Guard		3	150
Doom		1	90
Pod		1	40
Zoenthropes		3	180
Fast Attack
Gargoyles	Poison, Adrenal	30	240
Heavy Support
Biovores		3	135
Totals		89	1750

The list was the result of a good amount of play testing and I felt very confident about it going in. I had wanted more Gargoyles, but I didn’t have time to assemble them (they are a royal pain to assemble!).

Game 1:

My first game was against another Nid player!

Mission: 4pt The Scouring (4 objectives), 3pt Kill points, Book Bonus points. 10 points total.

 

His list from memory:

Swarmy with Tyrant Guard

Flyrant: Wings, Dual Devourers

Hive Guard x 2

Zoeys x 2

Doom in a sPod

Trygon

Termagants x 10

Termagants x 10

Tervigon: Crushing Claws, Poison, Furious Assault, Catalyst, Onslaught

Tervigon: Crushing Claws, Poison, Furious Assault, Catalyst, Onslaught

Things looked rough right out of the gate when he drew Iron Arm on every MC apart from 1 Tervie and I got no Iron Arm! Haha, yikes! I gave him first turn to see if I could capitalize on any deployment mistakes he made.

He made 2 mistakes in deployment. He put an objective mid-field (mine were as close to each other and my back board edge as possible) and he put his Trygon on a flank, somewhat out of position. His forces were also spread over a broad line, allowing me to counter deploy in a forced flank. I reserved my little bugs to come in where needed later and to avoid giving up first blood. I forgot to deploy my Gargoyles at all! Haha, my head was just not in the game at first.

He and I both made a number of mental errors in the first two turn due to being rusty. Despite that, my opponent was kicking my ass in the first few turns! I thought I was going to lose and lose big. It looked really bad when a Tervie that had perils’d while trying to give himself Fell no Pain got hit by the Doom and rolled a 15 on leadership! He exploded on turn 2! haha, that was painful, I lost a linchpin unit, early. My Doom on the other hand, came in and did jack and shit! The dice were really favoring my opponent in this game in the early turns.

My luck turned around when I managed to ground and kill his Tyrant late game, and my Biovores killed most of his troops before dying. My Doom dropped in a position that forced him to send his Trygon backwards to kill him (or risk losing his support and scoring backfield units) which took the Trygon out of position to do anything else for the rest of the game. The point when things really went my way though, and when I knew I was in all likelihood going to win, was win my Hormagants came on from reserve turn 2, and turn 3 charged Swarmy (who would have charged into my lines the next turn, fully buffed with all the psychic powers) and killed his Tyrant Guard and dropped him down to 2 wounds! Way to go little guys!

The Gargoyles came in after that to finish him off and then consolidate onto the central objective. That allowed me to win on objectives (2-1). I had also got the secondary and most of the bonus points, giving me the win in a very tough game! My opponent was a great guy and fun to play against.

Game 2

Space Wolves

Mission: 4pt Big Guns Never Tire (4 objectives), 3pt Kill points, Book Bonus points. 10 points total.

Rune Priest: Mastery Level 2, Termie Armor, Living Lightening, JotWW

Wolf Priest

Grey Hunters x 10: P.Gun x 2, Wolf Standard, MotW

Grey Hunters x 10: P.Gun x 2, Wolf Standard, MotW

Grey Hunters x 10: M.Gun x 2, Wolf Standard, MotW

Grey Hunters x 10: M.Gun x 2, Wolf Standard, MotW

Hyperios x 4

Long Fangs x 6: M.Launcher x 5

Long Fangs x 6: M.Launcher x 5

Long Fangs x 6: M.Launcher x 5

A really tough list! This would be a super hard fight for me on a straight list comparison. There was no LoS blocking terrain on the board, either, which made it a bit of a shooting gallery. My opponent got first turn, too, and there was no Night Fight. Ouch. If things went badly, I would get smoked turn 1. We both placed our objectives mid board, as close to each other and our board edges as possible.

My opponent deployed along a broad front, which allowed me to again force a flank and get some of my key units out of range of some of his units on the first turn and it left 2 units of Grey Hunters hanging out way out on a flank where they would be out of position for at least 3 turns.

I reserved my Gants and a Tervigon. I left one Tervigon on the board along with Swarmy to present him with multiple targets and hopefully confuse his target priority.

I failed to seize and he made the right call, trying to kill Swarmy right away, ignoring the bait Tervigon unit. He dropped him down to 3 wounds. It would have been worse if I had deployed Swarmy centrally. As it was a few of his units were out of range to shoot him which is what saved his bacon.

Having weathered the storm, I went up the flank with most of my force, seriously hugging the board edge! The Gargoyles went right in his face and with FnP, Telekine Dome, and some incredibly hot dice, took almost his entire army’s shooting to the face and lost a single Gargoyle! It was crazy. I knew I had won at that point as there was no way he would be able to recover with that much disruption going on. My turn 2 the Doom came in, survived the interceptor fire and did what he does, sucking the brains out of a ton of infantry. My other reserves came in and secured my back objectives with really no chance of my opponent getting to them to challenge.

The Gargoyles wrapped up his units, and the Homrgants came in right behind, killing a unit of Grey Hunters. The game was a grind at that point with him trying to get enough support in to beak the Gargoyles and Hormagants while also putting enough firepower on Swarmy to prevent him from getting into combat. In the end, the game was a giant scrum in his backfield with me holding 3 objectives, having killed 2 of his Heavy Support units and contesting the last objective. Swarmy did get smoked though, when the Rune Priest stopped Iron Arm (first time I had gotten Iron Arm in 5 games!). It didn’t matter though as the Zoeys were there to provide Synapse.

I took the win in a very tough match-up!

Game 3

Dark Angels

 

Mission: 4pt The Relic (4 objectives), 3pt Kill points, Book Bonus points. 10 points total.

Belial

Libby: Mastery 2, Termie Armor

Termie Command Squad: L.Claws x 1, Hammer x 1, Apoth, Banner, Plasma Cannon

Deathwing x 5: Assault Cannon, Chain Fist

Deathwing x 5: Assault Cannon, Chain Fist

Deathwing x 5: Assault Cannon, Chain Fist

Scouts x 5: Snipers, M.Launcher with Flakk

Scouts x 5: Snipers, M.Launcher with Flakk

Ravenwing x 3: P.Gun

Ravenwing x 3: P.Gun

A solid army, but horribly miss-matched against a horde army. Plus it was the Relic, which Tyranids with Tervigons have a HUGE advantage in.

He got first turn, reserved his Termies, and scouted his Ravewing up to bring them in. His Scouts stayed back in a support position. I deployed my entire army in a phalanx, as close to the relic as I could get.

My opponent was a really fun guy to game with, and a very good player. He did his best in a bad match-up, but really didn’t stand much of a chance. He went first, dropped super aggressively to try and get first blood. Some lucky saves on my part and some unlucky rolls on his part meant he didn’t get it. He did drop right onto the relic though, and picked it up with some Termies, but I countered by spawning 16 Gants that assaulted them, pinning them in place long enough for me to get into the Termies and kill them, taking the Relic back.

The game was very lopsided, after his initial drop failed to do what he needed it to do, he got assaulted by masses of little bugs who either wiped out his units through volume of attacks (the Homrgants went crazy this game, killed all the bikers and a unit of Termies) or kept key units pinned down long enough for Swarmy to get there and wreck anything he touched. Swarmy got a full deck (Iron Arm, Warp Speed, Endurance) and was in Super Sayan mode. He went through Belial, the Libby and the entire Command Squad without taking a wound. He is insane on the right terms.

The Doom was crazy too, taking out a unit of Termies and Scouts in the backfield.

I ended up winning in a fun, if one sided game. My opponent took it in stride though, and he was a good enough player to know from the word go that he was going to have a very tough game.

After-Thoughts

So the list was fun to play and effective! Swarmy is still my guy. So good, and even when he doesn’t get into combat, he is such a bullet sponge, and his buffs really help. The Zoeys are in. They were an incredibly good buffing and debuffing unit. I went Telekinesis almost every time. Telekine Dome, Objuration Mechanicum and Gate are sooo good!

The Hormagants did great! They were my best offensive unit in 2/3 games! Really earned their stripes IMO, and they do very well following the Gargoyles up the field as a second wave assault unit that is also scoring. Once in combat, they are far better than Gargoyles, and they are less of a PITA to move around the table (moving Gargoyles is really something you have to consider in a game as it takes so much time).

The only change I think I am going to make it to drop a Tervigon (heresy!) increase the Gants up to 20 and add a Flyrant. The Tervies are very good, but I find that having a big unit of Gants to start is better and more dependable in a lot of cases. The Flyrant is an ultra mobile fighter and buffing unit, and he gives me counter Flyer offense which I think will be crucial at Adpeticon where there will be no FW to counter Flyers. He also helps a ton against DE, whcih are my bane! He could take out 2 Venomes a turn (Vector Strike and Shooting) which is crucial to surviving that match-up. Other than that, I am happy with the list and feel that it is very well rounded and ready for my TAC stamp of approval!

Results

In the end, Raw Dogger took 3rd place with Grey Knights/IG (2-1, only loss to Frankie), Loren Kozlenko took 2nd with Crons/Grey Knights (3-0), and I got first place! The Nids fared well. I didn’t see any Fliers but I really wasn’t worried about anything but a Hell Turkey list. Funny enough, Frankie with his Triple Dragon list faced the Nid Player I played round 1, and lost to him. The Bugs grabbed the Relic right away and the Flyrant was able to fight off the Hell Turkies to give the bugs the win. Frankie ended up 1-2, also losing to Loren. Frankie is considering swapping out some cultists for Plague Marines and a Jugger Lord for a Palanquin Lord. Garrett went 1-2 with his Tau and said he had a very good time, which is always the goal!

Great tournament, those one day, Sunday tournaments are good fun. Very relaxed, very social and super enjoyable.

Here is the sweet trophy I won!

Here are the full results! Thanks again to the great TOs and all of my fun opponents, I really enjoyed the event and I know I and the gang will certainly come back.