Hey what’s up everyone? Geoff iNcontroL Robinson here from Team 0 Comp and I thought I would for no particular reason (teehee) give a bit of a report on my experience at the No Mercy tourney we just got back from in Sacramento. As always, check out the Tactics Corner for more tournament reports!
First of all, if you haven’t been to the shop up in Sacramento called “Great Escape Games” ( http://www.greatescapegames.com/ ) definitely go check them out. They have as many as 35 or so tables with some absolutely top notch players playing there on a fairly regular basis. Had a chance to meet some of the staff and frequent players and I can say with ease this is an awesome place to game.
Not only was the shop a nice gaming location but the tourney itself was really nice. This was a tourney that was inspired by the LVO practice tourney hosted by End Game in Oakland and put on by WH40k’s top TMZ reporter Nick “Tastey Taste” Hayden. As another LVO practice tourney No Mercy did a great job replicating the fairly abundant LoS blocking tables and some of the rules that perhaps everyone is not used to but are quickly becoming more and more exposed to due to the success of ITC. Practicing in general is really important but playing the missions and getting used to the FAQ is a huge leg up and before going any further I want to give a huge shout out to Nick Hayden and Pete Kelly who took time out of their lives to host a tourney for us to get that practice.
With that all said I’d like to report on a tourney I may or may not have done fairly well at.. I assure you that has nothing to do with why I wrote this. The fact I played really well against really solid opponents and took my first RTT win ever has nothing to do with why I am writing this.. really it doesn’t. I’d write this if I took 2nd like I did for the several tourneys I took 2nd at this year… right? RIGHT? Kidding aside the report will be brief on the details with the games but should convey the general idea of them.
The Tourney
Being a RTT it was a 36 man tourney with 3 rounds ran by the ITC rule set. While being fairly small at 36 generals I can say the competition we have going on here in Cali is really really nice! Some super top notch players attended like Paul McKelvicallylinklaltaufart, Trevor Van Cleave, Steve Sisk and Spam Adams to name a few.
The List – Hive Fleet Goliath
HQ: Flyrant x3 eGrubs, Wings, TLDwBL (WL has Fighter Ace and I gave him poison cuz 10 points)
Elite: Malanthrope
Troops: 4×1 Mucloids, 2×3 DS Rippers
LoW: Barbed Heirodule
HQ but really just super bad ass: Swarm Lord
1850
This list utilizes the Leviathan detachment but my WL is a flyrant from the regular Nid cad so I can roll for the WL trait on BRB
Round 1 – Ad Lance with Imperial Guard allies
The tourney determined the first mission at random and then had the top table roll for them on games 2 and 3. We get Crusade (ITC Mission 1) to start the tourney. My opponent was a kindly and gentle giant who ran Ad Lance Knights with guard. The guard included 3 sabre defense platform squads with assault cannons and he had 2 units of mortar teams as well as a command squad and some 5 man squad of obligatory wounds that blew up indiscriminately later. He also had a gorgeous vendetta that he custom built to have hover craft wings that lit up.. looked amazing.
Woah! Didn’t recognize the general but his list was nasty. Was glad he didn’t take las cannons on the sabre platforms as they basically make flyrants auto jink otherwise they are taking wounds and when they all fire into a single flyrant each turn you are making me take roughly 3-4+ saves at 4+ IF I have ruins otherwise I am jinking and then I can’t flame and my ability to do damage is severely diminished.
With Dawn of War deployment I had ample ruins to dip my bug like feet into and enjoy the warm embrace of a 2+ cover save. He fired into it a bunch because he was a masochist with nothing else to do. I had to play super defensively however with my first two turns being mostly uneventful due to the bad psychic phases where I failed to Paroxysm his platforms and give me that confidence to emerge from the bush. My break came however when despite my WL trait reducing his reserve roll by 1 his vendetta frolicked out of reserves *gulp* but he then gave me his sweet sweet ass after he was done pew pewing at me… big mistake! AV12 flyers are very survivable against flyrants but if you expose that AV10 rear I will take it… I will take it deep. Made my cover save and did just that. After that his blobs got widdled down due to in part bad rolling by him and me some how making 3+ saves like they were jinking white scar bikes on any turn/objective ever. Seeing the game was heading in a good direction for me I began to get into a smooth groove where I rolled dice and he picked up toy soldiers. The highlight however came towards the end of the game when I was playing more for the tabling than anything strategic and he HAD to move his Ad Lance out. Yeah, we discussed it later and that was a mistake.. if you play Ad Lance get out there and play! Be super aggressive.. if you play Knights you should know by now it isn’t a question of IF you will lose the Knights (you should) it’s a matter of did you drag the entire opponents army down to hell with you? Anyways I digress, He exposed his Lance and had hard choices between flyrants on several facings and a Barbed Heirodule grinning a little too much… one Knight goes KABOOM escalates to a 5, scatters and D 6’s the WL Knight who also blows up and finishes off the last surviving men of a blob. We laughed, he cried and then asked if we can pretend the last few guys died for realz so he could go shit. Being the kindly gentleman that I am I wasn’t going to deny them man a bowel movement in the name of going through the motions of killing his last few guards men.
10-0 ACE! I ended up losing nothing outside of Mucloids which contractually have to die.
Round 2 – Steve Sisk running his Blue Scars with a Knight (think he won BAO with a list very much like this?)
Ah! My nemesis! Steve Sisk gave me a beating at Kublai Con and was the man who slammed the door shut on my dreams of winning a major at the BAO 2014. Both times with lists very similar to the one I was now facing (White Scars). Outside of that Mr. Sisk is a fantastic player. He is intense and is a very good general so if you make mistakes you can often times kind of mentally collapse on yourself vs him because you know he will punish you for it AND you know the likelihood of recovering is low.
However, on this day, the great Buddha or some lady luck was on my side. Our table was gorgeous.. but it was ermm… crammed with ruin structures. Now, as a Nid player.. this makes me happy. Like, really really really to the 30th power times 9. Sisk however saw the writing on the wall and began our meeting with a deep and sorrowful sigh.
Being the top table we rolled for the mission and got ITC Mission 2 which is kill points (Purge the Alien). This was also good for me as my army is built up on the idea of never actually dying. I have squishy ripper worms you can have. I got Mucloids that are actually designed to die.. after that? Nah, if things are dying I am in a lot of trouble. Sisk on the other hand has 5+ biker squads, characters, a Sicaran and a Knight. Kill points is rough for him against me.
We both deploy in our van guard corners and I of course am getting a million cover saves.. he too has the Night Fight White Scars special (2+ jink) so I anticipated a rather domestic turn 1.. my Barbie had other plans. I gave Sisk first turn and he did what he could to maneuver around and take some shots.. doing a wound to the malanthrope and putting himself in position to grab 2 maelstroms. I can’t grab any of my maelstrom (I actually end the game with 1 while he had 6+) but I fired off a double salvo from my Preferred Enemy aided Barbed Heirodule at the Sicaran.. behind ruins with Night Fight, shouldn’t do much, right? 12 shots, 10 hits, 8 penetrations and 1 glance.. good boy Barbie.. you done good. Sisk predictably doesn’t make it out of that and I get first blood. That should kind of give you an idea of how the game went. At almost all turns when Sisk needed something to go his way.. fairly reasonable (no huge hail mar y plays or anything) they simply wouldn’t. Eventually his army was widdled down and I had what I needed to win primary and all 3 tertiary. We score and go our ways after a turn 6 tabling down to him. It was a bit later I realized that if you table someone you win primary, secondary and get WL/Linebreaker no matter what.. only First Blood is immune to a tabling (if you didn’t originally get it). We consulted Reece, the tourney admin and confirmed it. I felt dirty as hell having to give Sisk more bad news but he took it in stride. I actually super appreciate playing tough opponents like Sisk who if they are guilty of anything it is wanting to win really really bad.. I am the same way and it seems natural to me as a guy that LOVES this game and loves it primarily for the competition and fun derived from that.
10-0 tabling!
Game 3 – Jason Rockhill from Team0Comp running the Lynx with 2 Wraith Knights, 2×6 Warp Spiders, 3 Farseers and 30001312000120 with a Voidshield Generator
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I have played GTA from out team 4-5 times with a variety of lists all based around the Lynx and I have won none of them! Recently at TSHFT I lost my final round to him with a game I really really should have made but 1 lucky shot and a horrible mistake by me later says otherwise. Jason is a super tough opponent who knows his rules and (like me) isn’t afraid to argue and defend them. When our names got called out he yelled “I CHALLENGE YOU” as well.. for those that don’t know we at Team0Comp run a very competitive squad and we have top tier amongst the team we call “The Elite 8” — these are considered out top 8 players. I am one of said players… but you are only there until someone from the team outside that top 8 challenges you and beats you. You are immune to challenges for a month if you win a tourney but otherwise it’s all about that blood. Well ok, Jason wants to call down the thunder? Let’s do this!
We end up playing The Scouring (ITC Mission 4) which is Hammer and Anvil deployment.. easily my hardest deployment given 75% of my firepower comes from flyrants who really benefit from the mobility Vanguard and DoW offer. The table was nice and had a big LoS blocking terrain in the middle which played a big role in preventing his Wraith Knights from shooting a couple turns and gave me options vs the Lynx. I get the WL trait that allows me to infiltrate the WL + 3 flyrants.. super deadly vs a army like his that relies on a single LoW or heavy to do the heavy lifting. Jason won the right to deploy / go first and did a really nice job counter deploying my options.. I ended up in ruins but not as close as I would have liked and unless I wanted to get charged by Wraith Knights I wasn’t going to be as close as I wanted. He fired the Lynx and I think I could have pressed authentic clam generated diamonds out of my ass with how hard I was clenching. He had 2 hits on 2 of my flyrants (they start on the ground) and 1 on my non WL flyrant.. thankfully, again, I got lucky and the Great Devourer saw fit to deny those emo elves the nasty D slap. From there a chess game ensues where he is spawning/using bikes to try and limit where my flyrants can go as they needed 2 turns of shooting to drop the Lynx.. but they do! The explosion does nothing but FB on turn 2 being the Lynx is a deathly blow.. 2 towards the secondary AND most of his scary firepower gone? Check please!
After the death of the Lynx Jason fought hard and well but it was going to be tough. With me going second his bikes were getting targeted so he couldn’t hop on objectives but inevitably even when/if he did they would die due to my mobility/firepower. The table didn’t have much in the way of ruins so his 2 Wraith Knights kind of chopped their feet and piddled themselves just outside of anything-scary-range due to the Barb shooting str 10ap3 shots. At the end of the game I secured the clinching point by killing his FA Warp Spiders which counts towards the primary and with the bonus points from the Lynx he was never really able to recover on the secondary. Jason made me work for it and this was one of the most satisfying games I’ve played in awhile.. he is a great general running a brutal list that will really challenge you. I was able to play at a level where I could get lucky and capitalize on a few of his mistakes to take my first RTT win!
So there you have it! I won’t be changing my list for the LVO as I am a strong believer that this is my best Nid army I can field. The synergy, durability and mobility of this army is ideal for ITC and really doesn’t have a weakness outside of a few very specific situations where even in the worst of cases I feel I have SOME options that aren’t completely luck based. If I get a 5/6 on the Fighter Ace my army goes up in power.. if my stomps go ham (which they usually do, ask any of my opponents) I can beat anything… so we shall see!
Conclusion
This win puts me back in the running to maybe steal the ITC win at the LVO! I’d need to win or something close to it but I have some faith. This win also proved I can WIN! I have taken second a few times this past year but otherwise I played in 8-9 RTT/GT events and never won.. I’ve been playing the game for 17 years (with a 10 or so year break) but only this last year have I started to go to tourneys and compete. I got the bug.. expect to see me at all the big tourneys and many of the small ones! I’m also excited to once again jump in on some FrontlineGaming content once they get beyond the chaos of putting on the LVO! So expect bat reps, pod casts etc…
Hope you all enjoyed the read! Peace!
iNcontroL