The Cranky Old Gamer brings us his 30k tournament report and LVO experience in a great guest blog post!
 Hey everyone! Just back from Vegas and wanted to share my experience and my pictures of the Las Vegas Open 2017, particularly the Horus Heresy events I attended. This year at LVO for the 30k scene there was a “Horus Heresy Mega-Battle” (giant apocalypse style game), and a 6-round 2,500 point tournament played on Saturday and Sunday. The Northwest 30k crew made it down to Vegas and had a blast playing 30k, meeting old friends, and making new ones, all while enjoying the 30k hobby. Warning – pic heavy! Check out the Horus Heresy action below! Getting there in one piece – “the Shenanigans”About to get on the plane at SeaTac. This is one happy guy! We got to Las Vegas, well a good part of the NW30k crew – and we took a limo to get to Ballys. Never had been in a limo before! I’d like to say we were traveling in style but I guess you just can’t take the goofball out of us. Only in Vegas… We stopped by Guy Fieri’s after dropping our bags off at Bally’s. We ordered drinks. This is Just a little drink to help get us ready for the event…
Oh can I try that drink? Don’t mind if I do! Not all of, but a part of the 30k group, having lunch and drinks on Thursday. This was what I ate for lunch. This marks the beginning of a long, long list of mistakes that were made in Vegas. Poor life choices for the win! This is the bacon mac-n-cheese burger. Yep, its as glorious as it sounds. Many jokes of Donkey Sauce were made (you had to be there…) Thursday afternoon – helping set up and looking aroundWe then laid low for a bit, then checked out the event center in Bally’s, where tables were already getting set up. We helped set up for a bit. Here’s some cool tables we saw. The event space was huge. Last year’s main tournament hall had the adjacent hall And of course, Forgeworld was there… Walking around the strip…
Dinner at Planet HollywoodWe met up with friends at Planet Hollywood. Here we see the future champ getting his Friday – looking around at booths and tablesI spent some time looking at booths and tables set up. Some cool stuff there. Some of the Narrative Guys tables – awesome!
Some other tables around – Malifaux, Infinity, other games… Horus Heresy Mega-Battle (Friday 2/3/2017)We then all started gathering at 11am on Friday to start the Horus Heresy Mega-Battle. The TO (Dylan) set up the scenarios and tables. We had enough interest where we had 3 Mega-Battle tables on which hard-fought games of Heresy-Era Warhammer were battled. The goal was to have fun, and bring 3000-3,500 points per person to battle against specific missions. On the table I played on, we had 6 players on one side (Loyalist) and 5 players on the other (Traitor) and we duked it out for 8 hours. Much carnage and destruction was had. The Loyalists saw fit to bring themselves a Warlord Titan. That thing was a sight to see, as it carved wide swathes of destruction all day. In the end, the loyalists won that battle on that table. However, across all 3 tables, the \ Traitors carried the day, as they had met their objectives on their tables. Pics of those battles below. It was essentially Ultramarines and Raven Guard on the Loyalist side, and World Eaters, Sons of Horus, Traitor Raven Guard, and Dark Mechanicum on the Traitor side. Much fun was had!
The Traitor Reaver Titan got slagged (the first time…) So much destruction… Horus and his Justaerin Terminators deep strike in to cause destruction… Some pictures of the action on the other 30k Mega-Battle tables, going on at the same time. Back to the table I was on – the Clash of the Titans! Post Mega-Battle funAfter beating each other armies to a pulp, we settle down (or get rowdy?) with a post Mega Battle round of drinks. Horus Heresy Tournament – Armies on ParadeSome really and truly beautiful armies at LVO 2017. I enjoyed looking at them all and got some inspiration for my next projects. Horus Heresy Tournament – Games in ProgressDuring the weekend, I had a few chances to walk around and take some snaps of other games going on. I thought I’d share them here. Horus Heresy Tournament – My GamesSo on Saturday and Sunday, there was a Swiss-pair matching tournament for the 30k players attending LVO. I *believe* there were 68 players at the start of the tournament (I may be a little off but I think that’s about right). I brought a 2500 point Mechanicum list. It was:
Game 1:My first pairing was with an Alpha Legion player from California who had a gorgeously painted tank army. He was a fun opponent, a true scholar and a gentleman. I think the combination of the specifics of my army and the mission made this a tough matchup for the Alphas. I ended up winning the scenario. This was the first time I battled against a Legion Glaive, and that thing was terrifying! I spent a lot of effort (2x Krios Venators and my Kraken-loaded Primaris Lightning fighter) to take it out. Took several turns to strip 12 hull points off that super-heavy. Really fun game and enjoyed playing this scenario against a wonderful opponent. Game 2:My 2nd pairing of the tournament was against a Iron Hands Legion list with Cerastus Knight allies. My opponent was a really good player from Wyoming. He was a really solid opponent and he got first turn, and his Knights came racing towards my line. He had a squad of Volkite marines who, with the help of a special character in a Sicaran Battle Tank, took out my Triaros and then the marines Volkited my Graviton Imploders to death. It was all downhill from there as I tried to keep him from both crashing into my lines with his knights as well as not pummel me to death with his shooting from Volkite and Quad Mortars. In the end I lost this game and it was fairly short, so I had some time to chat him up and learn a little about his army, and we talked a little hobby. Was a great game and opponent and I really enjoyed the battle! Game 1:My third opponent was also from California, and he had a really nice looking and solid army list of Imperial Fists. His army included a lot of variety of units, including a Land Raider with Terminators, a few Tactical quads in Rhinos, a Leviathan in a drop pod, some Quad Mortar crews, just to name a few. This was a really tight game and we both battled hard to gain the upper hand. At the beginning of the game it seemed I was pulling ahead, but then his reserves started coming on and the withering firepower of the Imperial Fists took a toll on my Mechanicum list. In the end, the Imperial Fists won a solid victory over the forces of the Mechanicum. I had a great game and would love to play this gentleman again!
Game 4:My 4th opponent was Sunday morning. After a night of carousing, I considered dropping from the tournament and just hanging out, but dammit I paid good money to roll dice with awesome people, so I plowed on. My fourth opponent was from Mississippi and was playing a Raven Guard list with Corax, a big unit of jump-pack-murder-claw guys, some drop pods with melta and plasma dudes, a squadron of Graviton cannon artillery, a Fire Raptor gunship, and a large tac squad. Really fun opponent. This mission was to secure objectives and score each turn you control an objective (not contested). He grabbed an early lead and held on to it and ended up winning the game 8-5. Really fun game and super nice and chill guy, was a pleasure to play against him. I started realizing the weakness of my list – lack of scoring units. But much fun was had. My favorite moment of this game was when my Lighting came onto the table and pumped 4x Kraken penetrator missiles into Corax. It took him down to 1 wound! Corax survived the game but it was a pretty epic moment. Game 5:My fifth and final game (I had to drop my 6th due to needing to catch my flight home – which is another story…). I had the pleasure and the honor of playing my last game against a fantastic opponent. In this battle, the mission was the one player is the “defender” the center of the map (36″ circle), and the other is the attacker, and rolls onto the map from each side of the board, trying to get into the center. Each player gets 7 victory points for controlling (not contested) the other player’s deployment zone, 5 points for no-mans land, and 3 points for controlling their own zone. My opponent played a very balanced and cool Salamanders list and we had a lot of fun making “pew pew” sounds and laughing at our bad dice rolls – maybe mine were a little worse than his…! In the end I was able to pull out a win in this game. Great fun and would love to play a game against or with him again. Games from the Finals!Here’s some shots from the final round of the tournament! I walked around during the last round of the tournament because my plane was (supposed) to leave that evening. Turns out it didn’t as Seattle got buried under 6″ of snow (that’s a LOT for Seattle) and my flight home was delayed till Tuesday. Anyways, I took some pics, and was fun watching the other battles unfold. Enjoy! And just like that…And then the gaming weekend was over. Many games were had, many hours spent with friends new and old. Time to wrap up and head home. Of course, there was the flight drama for many of the Northwest 30k team as it snowed a LOT in Seattle on Sunday night, causing our flights to be cancelled and we had to get new flights. Mine headed back to Seattle on Tuesday night! Yikes! We spent some time relaxing and just chilling out after a long weekend of standing and focusing on games – we were tired and spent. Time to go recuperate with a big juicy burger and good friends at Wahlburger. And thanks for visiting! LVO 2017 was a really fun time, met lots of great new people and hung out with great friends. A very memorable experience! |
