Record: 3-0 (WWW)

Placing: #2 (out of 23)

Summary

In twenty years, I have never won three games in a day. While I missed first place by ten points (274 vs 264), this is still, easily, my best placing at a tournament, ever. A number of things broke my way and I won't deny being very, very lucky, but I also don't care. I'm over the moon. I went undefeated!

But, for the sake of continuing to improve, here are those fortunate breaks:

1. Terrain was very favorable. The TO was testing new terrain to play on the GW layouts, which resulted in tons of ruins that blocked LoS, but didn't greatly impede my units' movement.
2. Two of my opponents were newer players.
3. My list matched up into all three opponents very well.
4. Overall, my dice were luckier than my opponents, and I went first in all three games.

Game 1

Alex with Adepta Sororitas

Sweeping Engagement. Chilling Rain, Priority Targets

I believe this was Alex's third game in the edition, and he brought a list that he was hoping would be counter-meta. He said it was something like 140 models, and it was 100% infantry. His hope was that if everyone was tooled up for vehicles and monsters, they'd find themselves without adequate weapons to take out a horde of Sororitas. Fortunately for me, my anti-vehicle/monster stuff is a bonus, and my entire army punches into T3, W1, Sv3+ models very, very well. In addition, the six trukks and two Squigbosses present enough high toughness wounds that a Sisters army lacking in multi-meltas (0 retributors) couldn't adequately damage.

I jumped out early, blocking movement onto objectives. He attempted to throw Celestine and her Zephyrim across the table, but a Flash Gitz Overwatch greatly blunted that unit, and in the end, I just ran away with the game. We didn't get to play all five turns, as typically happens with newer players, but the result was never really in question after T2 (I drew really, really bad objectives in T1).

Result: 88-50, Win

Opponent Finished: 0-3, 21st

Game 2

Don with Death Guard

Hammer and Anvil, Targets of Opportunity, Sites of Power

Don is a very, very experienced player, well known for bringing crazy, unique lists. This one featured Mortarion, three defilers, three plagueburst crawlers, a predator, and three of the little trike things. I could see how this would be a problem for someone lacking in the tools to deal with it, but that is not my list. I have the bodies to flood OC on objectives, and I have the punch from Beast Snagga units to kill monsters and vehicles.

This game saw my Flash Gitz get focused early, but both Squigbosses brought down Mortarion and then I just whittled the rest of the army away while scoring. The score was close as this is an easy mission rule to max secondary on, and my list gives up Bring It Down and Assassinate very easily, but I again had a big lead on primary that resulted in the win.

Result: 84-74, Win

Opponent Finished: 1-1, 17th

Game 3

Tyler with Aeldari

Search and Destroy, Chilling Rain, Take and Hold

Tyler was another newer player, who like me was pleasantly surprised to be going into game 3 undefeated. He told me he tried to build his army to fight Knights, and had only one Fire Prism, an Avatar of Khaine, Fire Dragons in a Falcon, Rangers with their character, a Farseer imbedded in some guardians, a unit of D-Cannon Wraithguard, dire avengers in a wave serpent, some warp spiders, a nightspinner, and three of the ranger bikers. I again felt like this was a pretty good match-up, at least as far as I can get vs. Aeldari. Nothing too hard for my Beast Snaggas to kill, not much in the way of fast units to overwhelm objectives, and with the terrain, not enough shooting to just clear me out.

The game went much as the others had. I raced into the middle of the board, weathered some light shooting, and mopped up anything that could threated me on the primary objective. I also drew better secondaries this game, which gave me my highest score of 10th so far (in games were my opponent didn't concede). The Avatar was a bit of a pain, killed my Beastboss on Squig and nearly taking Mozrog down, but in the end, I walked away with a dominating victory.

Result: 92-56, Win

Opponent Finished: 2-1, 10th

List Analysis

I made the decision to change my list on Friday. I hadn't really felt good about the Nobz unit; AP-2 and D2 aren't that great, and the unit isn't durable at all, even with the -1 to wound built in. They also felt slow, despite having Follow Me, Ladz and the ability to walk through ruin walls. Basically, they would get one big charge a game and then evaporate to the enemy response, and even that one big charge could be easily screened, or fail to make a sizeable enough dent if I couldn't get the whole unit to swing.

So in came the Squighog boyz. By giving them the enhancement, I now had a very fast unit that while unable to move through walls, piled its attacks into fewer models with large, oblong bases that makes it easier to swing with each one. They don't have the AP, but between [LANCE] and the [ANTI-MONSTER/VEHICLE] keywords, as well as having more attacks at a better WS, I just felt like they would be more powerful offensively against most meaningful targets. Add in the fact that they are 3 wounds at Toughness 7 with a 5+++ Feel No Pain that I can then slap 'Ard as Nails onto, and they are waaaay more durable. With the points saved, I was able to replace the nobz with another unit of boyz. Downgrading the leaderless Beast Snagga Boyz into Boyz opened up the points for a sixth trukk.

And I think it all worked well. I had so many units that could get on and do objectives, can easily screen large parts of the board, and finally have a few units I feel good about as offensive threats. My only disappointment is currently the footy Beastboss; he lives and dies on the charge turn to try and generate those [DEVASTATING WOUNDS], but even on a good turn, it doesn't seem do do much. And on any turn he doesn't charge, the whole unit feels like a wet noodle. I just sort of feel like the points might be better as more units, or maybe another Squigboss or something. I'll have to think on it.