The Aftermath: Loki

Sorry for the delay on the report from my end. I have been busy with work the past few days and the thought of an in depth post was not first on my mind when I got home, so without any delay, here's my review of the Bloomington event.

Ok so I will give some basic information regarding the event that was missed in the prior post by Brother Ishamael. The event was 1850 per army, with standard force organization allowed. Rules were standard Rogue Trader meaning that Painting accounted for up to 40 points. I will break down how the R.T. rules work.

Each game allows a both players points according to how they performed. Usually its 10/10 for a tie, 13/8 narrow victory/defeat, 17/3 crushing victory/defeat, and 20/0 if the defeated player is tabled. Now on top of this battle points are available for completing goals in the game (such as killing the enemy's most valuable unit, holding the enemy objective, etc.) These usually add an addition point per.

Once all games are finished, the army's standings are determined by adding the points from all of their games, and their painting score, and divided by the number of games they played. As you can see this can give a good edge to those who played well and even more so if you have a well painted army to score in the mid thirties or so.


Here are the tables so you can get a feel for what the boards were all like.




This is the experimental list I ran using a powerful synergy and the best of Kantor's "Hold the Line" rule. If you are not interested, skip to the "Game 1" section.

HQ
Kantor

Lysander

ELITES
Sternguard Veterans (10)

Sternguard Veterans (10)
Drop Pod

Ironclad Dreadnought
Drop Pod

TROOPS
Tactical Squad (10)

Scout Snipers (6)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Land Raider Crusader

The sterns had a power weapon and 5 combi-meltas each. The Tactical Squad had a meltagun, multi-melta, a Power Fist, and a combi-melta. Scouts had Telion

Game 1
So this game was against a well known face to me, our own ZerkeX. Having played him many a time in the kitchen, it was a bit of a disappointment to us both as we had hoped to play new faces in the event.

We both played good games, and both experienced good and bad luck. However, I will admit to a degree that I had superior luck in many cases in that game.

Overall, it was an interesting game, and the scenario used victory points, which was a refreshing change, but in the end, the only model remaining on his side of the board through a mistake was his lone wolf, which (following it's rules) gave me points for not dying, giving me a total of 1850.

Game 2
This game was not much of a game in my books. If I were to forcibly throw a game with nothing but pre-game information, I doubt I could have done much more to shaft my army in this round. Keep in mind I am not saying this was the case, only that the odds were very heavily against me from square one.

I had to stare down 20 fleet TH/SS Terminators, on Spear Head Deployment (great... no where to run) with bases placed in a unique style (1 per board quarter) with only a limitation of 12 inches from board edge and each other. My opponent placed his first in the middle of the board, slight offset to one quarter, and his second 12" straight down the middle line in his own quarter.

Now that is a tough nut to crack already... but wait folks there's more. Night Fight for the whole game. WHAT!?!?!? So my inherently shooting based army has to face down an inherently assault based army... with NIGHT FIGHT!?!?!? Where's the balance? I guess it was long forgotten.

Needless to say I was steam rolled, narrowly avoiding getting tabled with nothing more than 2 scouts and Telion left.

Game 3

Well I hope this game gives a benefit to the shooting armies out there since they got raped by the last game... DAWN OF WHAT!?!?!?!

Yeah, Dawn of War deployment for game three was not exactly what I was hoping to see for the final round.

I played against Harly-Lord Eldar (Harlequins and Wraith Lords) and managed a solid win, but it was a tooth and nails fight to the finish.

I attempted to cluster my forces on the left flank after having lost my ironclad to firedragons turn one... A tactical mistake on my part. But it took any a sternguard to finally topple the massive pile of Eldar and Lords stomping towards my force.

In the end, I managed to pile a healthy win using a kill point system based on what slot it was from

HQ = 3
Elites = 2
Troops = 1
Ded. Transports = 1
Fast Attack = 2
Heavy Support = 2

Pulled an astonishing 20 to 5, which surprised me as turn two looked like it was going to be uphill both ways in the snow.


Overall I had fun at the event and managed to place third. I will say the scenarios were not very balanced in that they game assault armies a major advantage (and seeing as the first two placing armies were TH//SS fleet termies [yes them] and Blood Angels, I'd wager I'm on to something). The only thing saving my skin and giving my third was a healthy painting score. The organizers realized this fact, and i am confident they will look to fix this in their future events. I have been to 4 of their events now, and each one has been enjoyable. Baring the game two bum-rape I received, I had a really good time.

So let me open it up to you the readers. What are your thoughts on these style of events? Do you have any ideas for custom conditions (hopefully more balanced than one sided)? We would love to hear them. But until the next time, may your dice comes up sixes.

Cheers!