11th Company GT 2012 - Recap

Hey all! So this is a bit late but I had the great fortune to be able to attend the 11th Company GT 2012! Before I go into the games, let me mention that I am a huge fan of the 11th Company Podcast. I've had the pleasure of meeting Pat, Neil, Stephen and Larry on a few occasions now and every time has been very positive. I strongly encourage anyone interested in hearing a good 40k podcast to go have a listen. I also appreciate the Discount Game Store and KR-Multicase for providing excellent prize support at the event!

The 11th company event was held in an good location, very low rates, and had a very jovial and positive atmosphere. There were only a few hickups with pairings, and those were solved relatively fast. There was a very cheap but good bar next door which most of the attendees found themselves at during lunch and dinner which greatly contributed to the comradely atmosphere.

As follows below is a recap of my games with some corresponding photos!

First off, my list!



The entire ragged crew, excluding my two precious dakkajets!

2k Orks - designed as an all comers list.
HQ
Mega-armored Warboss, Boss Pole, Cybork - 115
Big Mek - Kustom Force field, Burna, Cybork - 115ish

Troops
20 Shoota Boyz - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 2 Big shootas - 170
20 Shoota Boyz - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 2 Big shootas - 170
20 Shoota Boyz - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 2 Big shootas - 170
20 Shoota Boyz - Nob, Power Klaw, Boss Pole, 2 Big shootas - 170
4 Meganobz - 4 Combi-Skorchas - 180
    Dedicated Transport: Battlewagon - Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115
Gretchin - 40

Heavy Support
Battlewagon - Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115
Battlewagon - Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115
Battlewagon - Deffrolla, Big Shoota - 115

Fast Attack
Dakkajet - Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace - 130
Dakkajet - Supa Shoota, Fighta Ace - 130

Elite
Lootas - 75
Lootas - 75

So something should stick out right away to most people playing in the 6th ed paradigm. I'm rather vehicle heavy! This turned out to be a significant advantage through the course of the GT.

Let me also say, I don't recall everyones names and every detail of every game! Please don't be upset if I forgot something! All of my opponents were fantastic, played excellent games and would be an instant yes to play again.

GAME 1 - Objectives vs Sean(Tau/Eldar)!
My first game was versus Sean, who was playing Tau with Eldar allies. He brought plenty of fire warriors and broadsides to the table with a smattering of eldar farseer. With the level of torrent he was bringing and the heavy anti-vehicle firepower; I knew I was going to be in for a rough ride unless I got stuck in quick!

A devastatingly bad deployment on my part

I won deployment and first go. I deployed as shown to the left with Sean setting up directly opposite. He then seized the initiative on me! doh! I was perfectly setup to have some broadsides mow down b-wagons and that's exactly what happened!

The first squad you see on the far right got dakka'd down to a few boyz (who proceeded to skulk in the ruin the rest of the game to capture the objective).










Poor Tau, they always end up being pasted

  After a weathering a withering torrent of fire, I  launched myself forward in a desperate bid to get up close and start dakkaing/ assaulting as soon as possible. In this I was mostly successful and was able to launch turn 2 assaults. The picture on the right is the top of last turn of the game. Sean was a good sport and went on to win his bracket on day 2!















Game 2 - Quarters vs. Orks WAAAGH!


Turn 1 ! Begin!

My next opponent was another ork player. He was playing what I've noticed seems to be the current ork meta at the moment. Lots of boyz on foot, lobbas, lootas, dakkajets and an Aegis defense line. One interesting twist he added in was the use of a mini deathstar with a warboss on bike and a number of reasonably inexpensive nob bikers. We both had roughly the same number of boyz on the field, though he outgunned me severely with many more lootas than me, not to mention his lobbas. So this game would be determined by the effectiveness of my armor keeping his torrent at bay, while I dakka'd from the relative safety of the mighty battlewagons.

Side armor shot from 10 lootas? Unfortunately yes =(

My opponent won first go, and proceeded to move his nob bikers forward and dakka'd my b-wagons with loota fire. In an over-eagerness to pop my battlewagons, he made a fatal mistake which most likely cost him the game. He moved his nob bikers close enough to be tank shocked by every single battlewagon. I proceeded to do just that, killing all the nob bikers in a single glorious turn! In fairness, had his group held even with a little bit of success, he would be been in a prime position to ravage me, so he took a roll of the dice and just came out on the bottom.

Thanks to some excellent side armor shooting, my battlewagons went down really rapidly. We had a glorious shoota boyz on shoota boyz pileup in the middle for a turn or two which I managed to come out on top of.


I failed to capture the end game shot, but I think it ended with a loota or lobba still on the board lurking in the back left ruins and my meganobz standing proudly next to some lobbas but confused as how to operate them!

Storm ravens with hurricane bolters are painful =(

Game 3 - Objectives.. vs. Grey Knights

So this game I failed to remember to take any photos except this end of game shot.

My opponent brought to the field, 2x storm-ravens with hurricane bolters, 15 paladins, (10 man and a 5 man), a psybolt dread, Draigo and maybe something else I'm forgetting.

Short summary. I moved to the middle, turn 2 assaulted Draigo and 10 paladins with the meganobz, warboss, big mek, and 2x squads of boyz. Came out on top of that fight by a significant margin. Draigo lolzy challenged the warboss to combat and it was accepted. That was actually the most tense moment of the game. Draigos weapons bounced off of the Warbosses 2+ continuously, but so too did the power klaw bounce off. Eventually Draigo went down, and just in time too! The other paladin squad almost made it to join the assault and tip the balance back in favor of the Grey Knights.
The storm ravens fell down to a combination of dakkajets + lootas.

Game 4 - Quarters vs. Lukus (Space Wolves / IG)



End of game result. All the action took place here

Game 4 is when the rounds broke into their final brackets. I suddenly found out I was placed on the top table with Lukus, a SW/IG player who had gone 2-1. Apparently he had done well enough to find himself promoted to the 3-0 bracket!

So I must admit, I started this game with a bit of a yawn and over-inflated sense of ego. Pfffttt, thought I, this guy knows I'm #1 atm and he's playing what looked like a non-optimized space wolves list. I quickly found out my arrogance was undeserved as I stared at my models on the bottom of three, realizing I was being seriously outplayed and about to lose. I managed to see a path to victory though and pull it out! Not that Lukus didn't try to stop me!

He had Njyal (who swapped for book powers and found himself with ignore cover, bad for me). Logan, Grey Hunters, Wolf Guard, Drop Podding grey hunters or wolf guard.. don't remember, and plenty o longfangs. Not to mention an IG Vendetta, commissar, plasma vets, and an Aegis line with a quad gun.

This was my toughest match up of the tourney, period.

I managed to bottle up Lukus in his quarter for the entire game, but in the process lost 2 boyz squads, all my b-wagons and meganobz, warboss. A reserved squad of boyz held one quarter, and half a boyz squad held another with some lootas holding the third. Logan tried to be a terd and was contesting a quarter all by himself after slaughtering about 30 boyz but luckily died to shoota boyz torrent. He passed saves like a boss though for a couple rounds of fire/combat.

Games 5 Objectives vs. Dark Eldar / Eldar

The beast pack did what they were supposed to do
bottled me up- stalled my advance

This game I again forgot to take pictures. My opponent brought Dark eldar/eldar (as the title suggests). His list was composed of something like... The Baron, Maugan Ra, a massive beastpack with all the fixings (The Baron and Maugan ran around with it), a bastion with a quad gun, a fire dragon squad w/ the crack shot exarch(manning the quad gun on top of the bastion). Some large dark eldar squads with the splinter cannons for withering firepower, A squad with dark lances (hung out in the bastion), a void raven bomber, a venom, several squads of guardian jet bikes, a ravager, and two reaver jetbike squads. All in all, a lot of fast moving stuff with a good mix of shooty and assaulty. I would say this would have been my hardest matchup except for the previous game vs. Lukus. I only remembered to take this picture, as I was seriously contemplating the fix I was in. 

My opponent won first go, and proceeded to march his beast pack forward up and over the ruins to set up for a turn 2 assault. I rolled my b-wagons forward 6 inches and proceed to dakka for everything I was worth into the beast pack, removing a huge chunk of them. I also managed to use my lootas to down the Ravager despite night fight (thank goodness!)

Turn 2: He marched his beast squad over the middle terrain and assaulted my b-wagons and manage to pop one. Bottom of 2: I  used my dakka to reduce his beast squad down to the size pictured above (its in the bottom right). I did this while moving what I could forward as far as I dared to start moving towards his side.
Turn 3: He used Maugan Ra to blow up a my meganobz battlewagon with a rear armor shot, then assaulted into the squad. His venom danced around and removed some lootas. I ended up cleaning up in the combat leaving me free to consolidate towards his bastion.
Turn 3/4: Everything moved forward to take on the remaining squishy dark eldar. Culminating in a very lucky charge against the bastion, wrecking it. The b-wagon on the hill stayed steady holding the objective and torrented anything that got close.

 One highlight of the game was prolonged combat between my gretchin squad and guardian jetbikes (aided by a venom torrenting first) on the back right objective. The gretchin managed to win in the end rather hilariously!

Games 6 Objevtives vs. Jessie / Tyranid!


 So due to a mix up in the pairings, Game 6 happened to have a late start. Given that Jessie and I were the only ones 5-0 in the room, we found each other rather quickly and shot the shit until we were allowed to play. Jessie with several of his buddies were representing the PA area. (Sorry i can't remember the club name!).

Jessie's list was
2x Flyrant w/ twin linked dev
2x Tervigon
2x devilgaunts
3x 3 hiveguard
1x 2 dakka carnifex's.
So it was a very straightforward list. Having played against tyranid on many an occasion, I knew full well the weight of dakka coming to gun down my poor orks. Not to mention that biomancied flyrants + tervigons are a terror for orks. Hive guard make short work of battlewagons....! Gaunts are great versus orks, its good to trade a cheap unit you can replenish for a cheap unit the other guy can't.'

Jessie had first turn and deploying a neutral optimal position, allowing him to quickly move to either side of the board to control. Notice his hive guard are also relatively center, so they can make a quick dash to the middle and start dakkaing the entire board. (which is what they did!)


So I decided to play extremely cagey. I deployed all my models in the ruins to give them a 4+ vs. shooting from the hive guard so i didn't end up wrecked early. Turn 1, the flyrants came at me and dakka'd my lootas. I moved almost everything down the left middle side of the field up to 12" and pivoted all my wagons to present front armor to his entire army. Then proceeded to snap fire for minimal effect.


Deployment! Night fight rules are in effect - Dont
Worry those lootas in the bottom left got shuffled back
before we started!

Turn 2. His flyrants pursued my wagons, going for side armor shots, the rest of his army moved closer to the bwagons to position for shooting and assault on the following turns. On the bottom of 2, both my dakkajets and gretchin squad arrive from reserves! The gretchin went to lurk on the bottom right objective. I scooted my wagons 6 inches towards board middle, hopped out the meganobz + boyz, and proceeded to dakka down his bubble wrap around the tervigon with the battlewagons. I also shot ineffectually at his flyrants with my dakkajets (a waaaugh wasted = ( ), but it wasn't a total loss, a boyz squad disembarked from a b-wagon and sat next to the flyrant I was shooting at in the hopes of assaulting as a follow up. Feeling pressured by a lack of success/knockdowns in dealing with the flyrants by the dakakjets. I risked dakkaing with the boyz, and success! A flyrant fell to the earth and promptly died in assault. I also assaulted a tervigon and a hive guard squad with the boyz + meganobz, wiping out a tervigon.


Turn 3 - His remaining flyrant lands, shoots at and assaults the boyz squad which had killed his friend. The remaining tervigon spawns babies and runs as far away from the boyz as it can. The dakkafex's come out to play, and after much deliberation decide to shoot at the freed meganobz, they manage to kill a meganob and the kff big mek, which turned out to be bad as it cost them the needed charge range! The hive guard shot ineffectually at the dakkajets. His hive tyrant did not manage to kill enough to render the boyz non-fearless so combat continues into my turn! On my turn, my boyz clear the combat from the hive guard, and the boyz (and a dakkajet) first dakka then assault the carnifex's killing one and taking off a wound or two on the other. My meganobz + warboss smash the other Tervigon, losing a meganob in the process to the tervigons smash attack. My remaining boyz join the fight vs. the flyrant!



Game End - bottom of turn 4 i think

Turn 4 -  Game is called, I don't remember if it was the top or bottom. Not really important. Remaining Tyranids are: two hive guard squads, a squad of gaunts in the back field objective, and the flyrant.
Two boyz squads have lost just under half their members, two meganobz died, and the kff big mek.

I think what tipped the balance in this game, was letting me get the charge off on the Tervigon and knocking out one the flyrants on turn 2. Being able to remove two such huge threats for relatively little loss so early on flipped the game on its head.


Victory!