Task Force Armageddon

[ursidae]

Sorry to bring back an old thread but... I really have top know your recipe for eyes Koyote. If you can PM it to me that would be cool. Thanks again

[Koyote]

The current incarnation of Task Force Armageddon has returned, exhausted and battered, from its last Grand Tournament. I am not certain of this, as the final scores were sorted by name and not rank, but after scanning through all six pages at the end of the event, I think I took either 5th or 6th overall. Out of 120-150 40K players that's not so bad. :confused:

 

For those of you who walked up and introduced yourself, it was nice meeting you.

 

Thanks to all of my opponents for five fun games.

 

The prize support for the winners and judges (rather than players) scoring painting scores were both huge improvements over previous years' events.

 

Overall I have to say that it was a very good event. :blink:

[Venerable Jazzman]

as the final scores were sorted by name and not rank,

That just kinda sums GW up at the moment, doesn't it.. <_<

 

Congratulations, wherever you placed..:lol:

[Brother Drakist]

The current incarnation of Task Force Armageddon has returned, exhausted and battered, from its last Grand Tournament. I am not certain of this, as the final scores were sorted by name and not rank, but after scanning through all six pages at the end of the event, I think I took either 5th or 6th overall. Out of 120-150 40K players that's not so bad. <_<

 

For those of you who walked up and introduced yourself, it was nice meeting you.

 

Thanks to all of my opponents for five fun games.

 

The prize support for the winners and judges (rather than players) scoring painting scores were both huge improvements over previous years' events.

 

Overall I have to say that it was a very good event. :lol:

 

Grats Koyote! Was anyone at the event allowed to use the new BA rules?

[Koyote]

Grats Koyote! Was anyone at the event allowed to use the new BA rules?

Nope. The new Blood Angels rules have not been officially published yet.

[teutogen]

How did you do?

[Koyote]

Round #1

BA vs Thousand Sons

Patrol

 

stacked flying daemon prince

6 TS terminators

3 x 9 TS w/ stacked asp w/ wind of chaos; rhino

2 x predator w/ las-las-las

 

The Patrol mission made for a slow game with units trickling on. I zapped both of his predators and one of his rhinos. He fell back behind a piece of terrain in the center of the table, mostly safe from my fire support and dared me to assault him. Not one to disappoint, I set up a nice double assault with an assault squad and my DC + Libby that would have allowed me to consolidate into the remainder of his squads. Time was running out and to get to where I needed to be, my DC had to leap into difficult terrain. In the assault phase, my DC, who were 2 or 3 inches away for their TS target, rolled 'snake eyes.' My assault squad assaulted alone, but were unable to finish off the squad of fearless 2 wound TS's. On his turn he shot my DC up pretty good (wind of chaos) and then I spent the rest of the game being assaulted by wave after wave of TS's and TS terminators. The highlight of the combat was my Libby (force weapon) and daemon prince simultaneously slaying one another.

 

If my DC hadn't flubbed the difficult terrain check it would have been a very different game.

 

6 Turns

BA 1002 vps

Thousand Sons 745 vps

Minor Victory BA

[Koyote]

Round #2

BA vs Witch Hunters

Secure and Control (3 counters)

 

saint celestine

6 seraphim

2 x 10 sisters w/ vet, 2 mgs & rhino

10 sister w/ vet, 2 flamers & rhino

10 sisters w/ vet, 2 mg

10 sisters w/ vet, 2 sb

10 retributors w/ 4 hb, vet

2 x exorcist

10 faith points!

 

I got lucky and knocked out an exorcist and a rhino on turn 1. The rest of the game was spent with me advancing and the sisters slowly falling back. The low point of the game was the suicide run upon his last exorcist (which I couldn't shoot with my other fire support elements cuz of intervening terrain), by my attack bikes. My multi-melta hit but then I failed to roll a '5' or better on 2d6. Needless to say, my attack bikes were destroyed during his next shooting phase.

 

Saint Celestine was a pain in the arse. I must killed her 3 times and she kept coming back.

 

At the end of the game, all that was left of the sisters were 5 sisters huddled in the far corner, behind their wrecked rhino. I captured 2 of the 3 loot counters, but that damn Saint Celestine prevented me from capturing the 3rd.

 

6 Turns

BA 2741

Sisters 520

Massacre BA

[Koyote]

Round #3

BA vs Ultramarines

Hold At All Costs (field of battle)

BA Defender/ Ultra Attacker

 

tigurius

honor guard command squad: ancient, chapter champion, 4 honor guard & drop pod

2 x 5 terminators w/ 2 a.cannons & drop pod

2 x 10 tactical marines w/ vet pf, mg, mm & drop pod

3 x 1 tornadoes

 

The list doesn't look all that daunting at first, especially when pitted against a mobile BA army, but the mission combined with my lousy reserve rolls played right into his evil hands. :( This is a weird mission out of the back of the book. It requires that the defender set up one or more Troop and/or HS picks on the objective, which is in the center of the board. Then the attacker goes first and moves on his entire army from his table edge. Starting on turn 2, the remainder of the defender's units may come on as reserve.

 

Not particularly interested in letting my fire support elements get vaporized by his tornadoes and his deep striking units I put only a single 4-marine las/plas squad on the objective. Against all odds, the scrappy little Tactical squad survived for 2 turns and shot down 2 tornadoes!

 

On his turn 2 a single Tactical squad lands near the objective. On my turn 2 my devs, attack bikes, 1 assault squad, 1 las/plas squad and my scouts arrive. All walk on full move. On turn 3 Tigurius lands with his command squad about 15" from my table edge. A squad of terminators arrives 12" from my table edge. The second tactical squad lands near the objective. Tigurius causes havoc with his 24" radius Fear of Darkness. My assault squad, attack bikes, and las/plas squad ALL run off the table. My Scouts are savaged by assault cannons and storm bolters. Only my scout vet survives.

 

On turn 3 his last terminator squad arrives and my remaining assault squad arrives. My DC, Libby, and last las/plas are nowhere to be seen. My scout vet heroically assaults the terminators by himself. He somehow miraculously survives being cut down by a power weapon, but fails to kill a single terminator with his power fist. For his efforts, he is splattered by 8 power fist attacks.

 

My assault squad fairs better and desperately assaults tigurius and his honor guard in the hopes of putting an end to the Ultra's psychic assault. Most of my assault squad gets butchered by honor guard, but clever model placement allows me to squash the troublesome tigurius with a power fist. I lose the combat but my 3 assault marines refuse to give ground.

 

Things look REALLY bad for me at this point.

 

On turn 4 he moves his tactical squads onto the objective and one of his terminator squads falls back towards the objective. My remaining 3 assault marines are brutally cut down by the ancient, champion and one remaining honor guard.

 

Now all that I have left are my chappy, DC, libby and a 6M las/plas squad. All arrive on turn 4 and the fun really begins. :rolleyes:

 

In a desperate attempt to save VPs my las/plas are deployed on the far corner of the table, out of range and line of sight of any of his remaining troops. My DC + libby on the other hand, dive right into the heart of the ultras. The terminators that killed my scouts are the first to be destroyed. I then consolidate into the surviving UM honor guard.

 

On turn 5 the champion and last HG are slain. The ancient runs away. I let him go, but stay 6" behind him. I use the consolidation move to get closer to the objective. On my turn five I shoot up a tactical squad with my DC and my libby's SotEW. The Ultras flee, but because of the difficult terrain, can't get more than 6" away from my DC so they can't rally.

 

On turn 6 he moves up to shoot my DC with his remaining tactical squad, tornado, and all of his drop pod storm bolters. I lose a couple of DC. On my turn 6 I split my libby off from my DC. The libby jumps 12" to set up a shot and an assault against the remaining tornado. My DC moves closer to the tactical squad. In the shooting phase a lucky FotA attack from the libby destroys the tornado. In the assault phase my chaplain and DC decimate the tactical squad. The sole survivor runs away.

 

The Ultra player ends the game with 3 fleeing ultra squads, a full terminator squad, and 5 drop pods. I ended the game with my zero point scoring DC on the objective, a libby, and a 6M las/plas squad far away from the objective. Stupid me, I forgot all about the las/plas squad. If I had spent turn 5 and 6 shooting at drop pods, I probably could have scrounged up the extra 7 points I need to get the minor victory. :confused:

 

6 Turns

BA 1415

Ultra Marines 1247

Draw (by 168 points - only 7 points shy of a BA minor victory) :(

[Koyote]

Round #4

BA vs Mech Tau

Cleanse

 

2 x commander w/ plasma & missile pods

3 x 6 fire warrios w/ devilfish

10 kroot

3 x 1 crisis suits w/ plasma & missile pods

3 x 1 hammerhead: 2 w/ railguns & 1 ion cannon

3 x 1 piranha w/ fusion blaster

13 mobile scoring units!

 

People keep telling me that Mech Tau are tough, but after fighting them in two GTs, I just haven't seen it yet. This game was a Tau blood bath. Without hesitation I sent my assault elements into the heart of the Tau and reaped a mighty harvest of vehicles and fire warriors. At one point I set up a quadruple assault with my DC and attacked 2 crisis suits, a hammer head and a devilfish, all in the same assault phase. My fire support elements spent the game blasting away with impunity safely ensconsed in cover. My attack bikes spent the game harrying a devilfish full of fire warriors, first shooting it in the side and rear and then assaulting with S5 attacks.

 

Round 4 was the only game in which my chaplain died. He suffered 2 wounds from a tau commanders shooting (snake eyes once again) and then was finally struck down on H2H by that same tau commander after inflicting only 2 wounds on the Shas'o.

 

The game ended at the top of turn 5 with the destruction of the last Tau model on the board. I only lost my chaplain, 7 DC, half an assault squad, and an attack bike (due to a failed dangerous terrain test). I captured all 3 table quarters.

 

5 Turns

BA 3500

Tau 452

Massacre BA

[teutogen]

The game veruss the Ultra sounded ridiculous. Hopefully when the Chaos and marines codexes are redone such nonsense will be removed from the game for good.

[Brother Drakist]

Grats Koyote! Was anyone at the event allowed to use the new BA rules?

Nope. The new Blood Angels rules have not been officially published yet.

 

Yeah your right, I was just wondering if somehow it was an option, oh well.

 

That Ultramarine player sounds like someone from my gaming club who I know went to the GT in Vegas. If it's him, he loves his Tigurius Fear bomb. Did he have homemade Drop Pods?

[Koyote]

Round #5

BA vs Emperor's Children

Recon

 

Keeper of Secrets

2 x 12 damonettes

1 x 6 mounted daemonettes

2 x 6 noise marines w/ stacked asp & infiltrate

2 x 6 noise marines w/ stacked vet & rhino w/ warp amp AND blasphemous rune (-4 LD tank shock)

1 x 6 chosen w/ 2 pg, asp w/ kai gun, asp w/ daemonic chains, & infiltrate

 

This was one of those games where both the dice and tactics work in perfect harmony to inflict a crushing defeat upon one's opponent. Everything went my way. I blew up both of his rhinos with glancing hits, while they were under smoke. His mounted daemonettes failed to destroy or drive off my attack bikes on turn 2 and were counter attacked by my DC. His first squad of damonettes arrived 2" short of an assault and were flamed, shot, hit by SofEW, and finally finished off by my libby in an assault. The libby and assault squad then hit his left flank and cut down 2 squads of noise marines.

 

After his initial losses, he drew back behind some area terrain and clumped up his surviving Keeper of Secrets, daemonettes, 2 squads of noise marines and his chosen. I then took a couple of turns to carefully position my 2nd assault squad, my DC and my libby for a two pronged assault; all the while taking a couple of wound off his Keeper of Secrets with shots over a level 2 hill.

 

On the top of turn 6, I assaulted his Keeper and remaining chosen with my assault squad. From the other side I assaulted his daemonettes and 2 squads of noise marines with my DC and libby. The chosen and Keeper were destroyed. Most of the noise marines were decimated and half of the daemonettes were sent back to the warp. On the bottom of turn 6, the last of the noise marines were slain by the two Blood Angel heroes, but in return, the last of the DC were cut down by the vengeful damonettes.

 

At the end of the game all that remained of the Emperor's Children were 5 daemonettes. I had lost my DC (no vps), an assault squad, a wound on my libby, 4 scouts, and a couple of marines here and there from fire support units. My scouts, an assault squad and a 6M las/plas squad were in his deployment zone on turn 6.

 

6 Turns

BA 2175

Emperor's Children 446

Massacre BA

[Koyote]

That Ultramarine player sounds like someone from my gaming club who I know went to the GT in Vegas. If it's him, he loves his Tigurius Fear bomb. Did he have homemade Drop Pods?

His name is Alex C. I don't remember where he is from, but he's a nice guy and his army was very well done.

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/round3.jpg

 

This is the turn 6 photo taken from his side of the table. The Ultras on the hill are all casualties from my last assault. The Ultras in the middle are all fleeing. The red and black on the objective are my chappy and DC. The blue marine to the left of the objective is my libby. The speeder is wrecked. My last las/plas squad is just out of the frame in the upper left hand corner of the photo.

[Brother Drakist]

That's him! Wow, small world! I forgot to mention earlier he also likes his assault cannons. He's a tough opponent, but he knows that list will not last too much longer :tu: .

[Koyote]

That's him! Wow, small world! I forgot to mention earlier he also likes his assault cannons. He's a tough opponent, but he knows that list will not last too much longer :sweat:

I enjoyed playing against Alex. He was a tough opponent with a beautiful army. Just the sort of person you want to play at a GT. Aside from a little bit of confusion over how kill zones work, we had a pretty clean game.

 

I think Alex will get to keep his assault cannons for at least another year. I don't expect to see a Space Marine redux before that time.

[Bannus]

Those are some awesome minis, Kyote. Really awesome.

 

It is interesting that you picked black for your Scouts - that was the original color of their armor in 2nd edition (black with red piping).

 

Tell me:

 

How did you paint up Tycho?

 

I painted up one recently for the Citadel Celebration competition (but he didn't win) - and he didn't turn out anywhere as good as yours.

[Koyote]

Those are some awesome minis, Koyote. Really awesome.

 

It is interesting that you picked black for your Scouts - that was the original color of their armor in 2nd edition (black with red piping).

 

How did you paint up Tycho?

 

I painted up one recently for the Citadel Celebration competition (but he didn't win) - and he didn't turn out anywhere as good as yours.

Thanks.

 

Red Scouts just seem silly to me. :geek:

 

The gold was really very simple. Multiple thin coats of shining gold (to create a smooth finish that doesn't obscure detail) over a white primer basecoat. Once this is dry, I give it a wash using watered down brown ink. The red was painted in the same manner as the power armor on my Blood Angels. The black was highlighted with increasingly lighter mixes of chaos black and skull white. The hair is dark flesh with a brown ink wash. The wings were given a base coat of codex grey and then first a highlight of codex grey/skull white mix and then finally skull white.

 

http://webpages.charter.net/paulboulet/Koyote/tycho2z.jpghttp://webpages.charter.net/paulboulet/Koyote/tycho1z.jpg

 

I would really love to use the model again as he was the basis for my entire army (3rd Company). I used him in my first Grand Tournament army back in 2000. Too bad that his rules in the new BA codex now suck more than ever. :(

 

I have always found it odd the lengths GW will go to, NOT to sell models. :devil:

[Bannus]

Hmmmm....that is similar to how I painted mine - only I added burnished gold highlights between coats of ink.

 

Oh well.

 

I am planning on resurecting my Blood angels army and will still use Tycho. He can still do what he he intended to do - command. While offensively he isn't as powerful as other Hqs, he is quite survivable with Artificer armor and an Iron Halo. With his lower point cost, you can afford to trick out his Honor guard more to make up for his deficiencies.

[Damocles]

Greets Koyote, good to see you tearing up the GT scene again. Too bad I won't see you at Chicago this year, but I'll console myself with the fact you got 5th (or 6th) at Vegas. Was there a Golden Demon there, or just the Tournament?

 

Damocles

[Koyote]

Greets Koyote, good to see you tearing up the GT scene again. Too bad I won't see you at Chicago this year, but I'll console myself with the fact you got 5th (or 6th) at Vegas. Was there a Golden Demon there, or just the Tournament?

Just a GT.

 

I hope that you have spent this last year honing your painting skills. I expect to see your Golden Daemon winning model in White Dwarf this year.

[Damocles]

That's what I thought - didn't see anything in the GW coverage about it.

 

Oh, I have. While last year I was just getting into blending, since then I blend/feather all the time, became great at NMM, better at color/composition in general, etc. Somewhat recently I've taken great interest in the European painting style - darker, grittier, amazing shadows, 'real' metallics. I hope that my entry done in this style is successful at Chicago this year. It's a huge undertaking, intimidating to say the least, and hopefully I get it all done in time. Keep your eyes peeled for any entry by a 'Sean'.

 

Damocles

[Koyote]

Once again, Task Force Armageddon prepares for war!

 

The battlefield...?

 

Adepticon 2008

 

http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/10011970/army1.jpg

[BOBMAKENZIE]

Good Luck Koyote...and damn you for painting so well

 

And Good Luck to the rest of the Blood Angels Blues Team for that matter.

[Tyrannicide]

That looks nice, Koyote. :) Here's to wishing you luck at adepticon.