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The Captain A LVO Experience and Review!

CaptainA

Greetings 40k and gaming denizens, it is I, Captain A, returned from Vegas with scars, stories, and thoughts about the largest 40k event in the world. Join me in going down the path of memory, glory, and battles fueled by caffeine and sheer force of will. I had a great time overall at Vegas this year and although my wallet is lighter my life is perhaps fuller and I look forward to a new year of events and fun with friends created on this crazy journey that is the 40k tournament circuit.

 

The LVO List

Here again is my list for LVO:

LVO 2018 – Stag Boyz

1998 Points – 3 Detachments – Chaos Space Marines/Chaos Daemons

Alpha Legion Battalion

HQ

Troops

Elites

Alpha Legion Spearhead

HQ

Heavy

Chaos Daemons Battalion

HQ

Troops

I had practiced quite a bit with it, but one thing I wish I had was some sort of indirect fire. Reapers hiding in buildings turn one is something that will continue to be a problem until at least March (fingers crossed) and stinks that I didn’t think sooner to find a way to make that happen. I felt the list was solid though and it did catch a few people by surprise.

My Games

Day 1

Round 1

Round 1 saw me face my greatest fear – Dark Reaper spam. Pretty standard list with character support, rangers, guardians, swooping hawks, etc. I went first and should have been much more aggressive with my cultists and bloodletters, but instead focused on clearing screens, which my opponent used to deepstrike a second screen down and block my path. Things deteriorated quickly from there and I got smoked. Round 1 Loss.

Round 2

Round 2 saw a different spam, in the form of flyer spam. IG Vultures, and the like backed up with artillery made a hard fought game. I made a huge mistake in the last round (we got to a quick last round 3) and I forgot to bring in my bloodletters, which would have most likely given me the win as I could have scored the bonus, got more objectives, linebreaker, and perhaps a big game hunter point all in one go. Round 2 Loss.

Round 3

This time I faced off against a Tyranid player with Double Trygon/Devilgaunt bombs, Swarmlord, Genestealers, and some other psychic support. This game I just could not finish of Swarmlord or Old One Eye. Had I done so I might have gotten a win. We ended in a tie which is better than a loss and made us both not ultimate losers. Round 3 Tie.

So day 1 was quite a disappointment in my performance, but not in my players as a whole. Good guys and good games. Shouldn’t complain too much except in my performance and decisions that day.

Day 2

Round 4

Round 4 was against a chaos player so it was Civil War! Alpha Legion Vs Black Legion. My round one was pretty devastating and the only thing that made it a game was when my cultists failed to charge his artillery batteries and would have locked them in combat the rest of the game and shut down his main shooting. Hellforged Rapiers are pretty funny with 24 Heavy bolter shots each. I scored all my Reaper points, First Strike, and Recon that game so it was pretty one sided from the get go. My opponent was classy and kept it in stride though and I pulled out a win. Round 4 win.

Round 5

Round 5 saw my first foray into Tau Commander suit Spam (kind of). It was maximized in spamminess as a true spam list could have 12 commander suits bouncing around. I see why people gravitate towards that as those guys are very good. My opponent was great, but made a critical mistake in not finishing off my Cultist bomb which I had used to seal off the table going from one side to the next and even up in buildings, blocking off a lot of his first turn deep strikes. His first turn was pretty terribad and he only scored one point. My successive turns saw a bit better and secured me the win. Round 5 win.

Round 6

Last round saw me against the Magmaborn (Salamanders). My opponent Dallin was a great guy with a list that was surprising, but a bit undertooled for hordes. Again he didn’t kill of the cultists and next round had to inform him of the Tide of Traitors stratagem. He was a bit sad, but kept up good spirits and ended up boxed into the corner. I tried to go for a funsy move and sent my Chaos Lord to challenge his warlord, but my guy got ganked by a thunderhammer and thus wasn’t able to secure Slay the Warlord. Still a fun game and he took things in stride. Round 6 win

Game Thoughts

So I think had I pushed some things and worked faster I may have done better, but I beat my goal with 3 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie. I placed 155 out of about 480 players so finishing in the top third was fine by me. I stayed in it when I could have dropped and was pleased with my opponents and games as a whole. It was a great weekend of gaming and I went away satisfied. I ended the season at 236 in the ITC and 22nd in CSM.

BCP

BCP did well on the whole, which some hiccups along the way, all on Friday. There were two issues, one that cost 30 minutes and one that cost an hour. I believe one was an update error and one was a user error (the longer of the two). Still though, an event like this is near impossible without software and the other days were flawless. In hearing from BCP, they are using these as learning experiences as on Friday there was the 40k champs, everyone checking in, all the other events, and even a large one in Australia. They saw the error and it is fixed which is good to hear. The other days were flawless.

Terrain

Terrain is a big thing for events. Without proper terrain,gunlines pretty much reign supreme and certain armies are not viable. I think tables should be shooting for a lot more terrain than in 7th edition as things are more deadly and certain armies must have proper terrain to have a chance to compete. I know I want to see variety of lists and good terrain will help that for sure. I’m glad to say that most of the tables had pretty good terrain with some tables being great. My table round 5 was, in my opinion, quite poor, with 2 L shaped buildings in two opposite corners, and long beer can terrain in the center and a ton of knee height area type terrain scattered around elsewhere. Besides that, most of my tables were strong and many tables had a great amount of terrain. Good job on that. Hopefully al the tables will be to an even higher standard next year as I was impressed with how well it was given the increase in numbers from last year.

Event Layout

The event layout this year was excellent and I was pleased with where things were. The 40k champs was in the back and you had to walk by the vendor tables, demo tables, other events, and hobby classes to get there. This was a good thing as it gave some areas more exposure and allowed you to dawdle through the vendors should you choose. Vendor support is extremely important as these are the guys donating a ton of stuff to the different events and they spend a lot of money for their space.

Speaking of vendors, I was really glad to see Hammerhead Games there with their very cool line of laser cut products. I have a custom etched carrying tray with our team logo and used it as a display board as well putting in a piece of foam that was carved to look like my bases. The carrying tray is super great and I love it. I also was able to pick up their latest tac template that has 9”, 6”, 3”, and 2” markings on it making it the ultimate tool for deep striking and checking that 9” range. It was awesome! I really like Tony and his crew as they have that small business, entrepreneurial spirit I love to see and they are good guys too.

They had a lot of other great vendors such as the FLG second hand shop, the used vendor from Adepticon, other hobby game stores, Battle Foam, Shapeways, and Forge World! I tried to get some Plague Toads but those had already gotten scooped up, but I did get something for a friend. It was a nice selection as a whole and vendors add a great extra thing to an event like the LVO.

High Rollers Package

I did the high rollers package this year and was pleased. The biggest thing was avoiding the giant line Friday morning, think I saved an hour! At first look it didn’t look like much, but in counting things up FLG was true to their word with over double the cost of the ticket.

Food

One of the great things about Vegas is all the unique food places to go to. Last time I had a very pleasurable experience and this time was pretty good as well. Know you are paying a lot more than you would in your local area, but there are always ways to get around that if you really needed or wanted to. I’ve recently been doing Keto (and have lost 21 pounds) but all bets were off in this carb laden arena of gluttony. The following are the places I went to, what I had, how much they were, and my overall feeling about them.

Sportsmanship

This is a topic I think I am going to write a whole article about, but there was some behavior in the top players and in the top tables that was unacceptable in my opinion. You have already probably heard a lot about it, gentlemen’s agreements being broken, top 8 players taking 1 hour long turns, shouting matches, judges having to babysit tables, etc. It was pretty sad to see in my opinion. I realize that about eight grand was on the line, but this speaks bad for the hobby on the whole and keeps people away from attending events. Events are built upon the bottom 80-90 percent of us that aren’t top players. We play for fun, personal goals, and the chance to be in such a grand spectacle. Without us, events will not succeed and grow. If players want those big prizes, who is paying for it? We the everyday players going out to events to see friends, have fun, and try to win some games. If more and more people see the poor sportsmanlike play happening on a large platform like Twitch, it will drive away players and we will not grow like we could because of it. Its sad and something needs to be done. I think a contract at least for the top 8 and better guidelines for regular play should be in effect.

Final Thoughts

Whew! What a doozy. I had a great time this year at LVO and got to hang out with people from all over and that I rarely get to see. I ate some good food, played some great people, and in general had a blast. It was a bit spendy overall but my wife and I had an excellent vacation away from responsibilities like family and jobs and it was very good for us to be together like that. Thanks to the LVO crew for all the hard work in putting this together.

 

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