The Storm of Silence is a 2 day Major ITC event held at Gamer’s Haven in Spokane Valley, WA. I went with a crew of folks from Portland and Corvallis and we carpooled our way there and back, hoping for glory, talking shop, and generally having a good time.
The Venue
Gamer’s Haven is a really great game store with a large supply of a variety of games, a huge gaming area in the side room and another gaming area upstairs. Bob has done a great job of making it an excellent place to come and play.
A lot of the tables had some very cool themes and looked good. My one critique is that there wasn’t enough line of sight blocking terrain I don’t know that any of my tables had it. He added a ton more tables for the event to make it Major, so it shouldn’t be too hard to add some more line of sight terrain next year if he mad that his goal.
The List
In my personal side business I recently came upon a gorgeously painted Space Marines army. Wanting to know more about this side of the second hand business, I shelled out a pretty penny for this lot and it has been in my garage listed on eBay for a little while. I’d been itching to play with it and see what other people thought of the scheme, so I created the best list I thought I could with what I had. Here is my 1850 with what I had Nova Scars.
1850 Nova Scars
Chapter Master White – Shield Eternal, Thunder Hammer, Hunter’s Eye, Bike, Artificer Armour
Chapter Master Blue – Storm Shield, Glaive of Vengeance, Bike, Artificer Armour
Command Squad – Apothecary, 4 Grav Guns
5 Tacticals – Plasma, HB Razorback
5 Tacticals – Plasma, HB Razorback
5 Bike Squad – 2 Grav, Combi Grav
Stormtalon – Assault Cannon, Skyhammer
Stormtalon – Assault Cannon, Skyhammer
Relic Whirlwind Scorpius – Battle of Keylek (Ignores Cover)
Thunderfire Cannon
3 Centurions – TL Lascannons, Missile Launcher
Not the best list by any means, but I thought it had some tools to compete with all the ignores cover. It might catch some people off guard. I hoped to do well in painting and honestly set a goal of 2-3 for the event.
The Games
Game 1 – Eldar
My opponent Allen had a Farseer, Scatbikes, Warphunter, Wraithknight, 2 Hornets, 4 Venoms, and 2 Ravagers. I went first and had a great first turn of shooting, taking out the Wraithknight, a unit of Scatbikes, a Ravager, and a Venom I believe. But Eldar shooting would not be denied! That Warphunter was MVP for him as he peppered me over and over with his main gun. In the end I was able to take it in a very close game that was a lot of fun. Win with 7 points.
Game 2 – Pentyrant Tyranids
My second game was Tyler with 5 Flying Hive Tyrants, a Mawloc, Lictors, and Mucolids. I was also going second! Crap! I was pretty worried going in as I didn’t think my 2 little birds could take out his organic air force. I got really lucky one round when I killed two Hive Tyrants with some ignores cover grav shots and another that crashed and took of his last wound. We went back and forth in another close game and ended up with a tie. – 5 points.
Game 3 – Necrons
My third game had me against Chad from The Heroic Intervention podcast. We’d played a few times before at Guardian Games and Chad is a great guy. He had Necron Decurion with Zahndrek 2 x 10 Warriors 5 Immortals 3 Tomb Blades and double Destroyer Cult. Woof. Tons of ap3 and 4+ reanimation was going to be rough. I was going first but got seized on and lost 9 out of 10 bikes first round. Gulp! I did my best and pushed forward but lady luck was not with me as Chad made a good amount of 4+ reanimations and my Chapter Masters did things like loose their last two wounds in overwatch. Still a good game and Chad was fun. Loss with 5 points.
Day 1 Done!
Day 1 wasn’t too bad 1-1-1 for my aspirations was right in line and I was one win away from my goal. I had a lot of good compliments for my army and it was fun to see it get the attention it deserved. It was also fun to play such a nicely painted list. I’m not the best painter and ceratainly not the worst, but this army blows away anything I could possibly do.
Game 4 – Tau
Game 4 had me against Tau and a Stormsurge! First time with this bad boy but I felt I had the tools to take it on. First turn I launched both orbitals at his marker drones and Commander with drones, but couldn’t clean them out. Turn two I fired everything into the Stormsurge and got it too one wound. I rushed my Chapter Masters at his Ghost Keel squad and he did a good job of blocking my paths and making my charges hard to get which paid off in the end. Another close game that I had a good chance of winning, but couldn’t pull it out. Loss with 4 points.
Game 5 – Eldar
Eldar again! Blergh. This time I was playing Chris whom I had played against at the DMB brawl. He had Farseer, Scatbikes, Wraithguard in Wave Serpent, Wraithknight, Vauls Wrath D-Cannons, Vyper Squadron, Aspect Host with 2 Swooping Hawks and 1 Warp Spider squad. My dice hated me this game. I had a perfect shot first turn on his Farseer and bikes with two Orbital Strikes and 3 lascannons and 3 missle launchers going after it that ignores cover. Both Orbitlals wiffed, but I did kill the scatbikes. A lot of the game was like that with the next turn having me pour everything into a Wave Serpent and not able to kill it, only doing 2 hull points. That’s dice! Just couldn’t catch a break. Loss with 2 points.
Game Over
So I didn’t make my battle goal, but I did make my painting goal when my army won Favorite Army and a $100 gift cert! That was great and went immediately into the eBay listing. It was a ton of fun to play and this army would serve a casual player very well. It needs some work to be competitive, but it was still fun to play and look at.
Team0Comp did well at this event winning 1st – 4th in battle and me winning Favorite Army. It was a good event and we had a great time hanging out and shooting the bull. Gamer’s Haven is a fantastic game store and a real gem in that community. Check it out if you are ever over there.