Huzzah Hobbies RTT - 40k 1850 This Sunday 7-20

Greets all,

Normal 40k RTT at huzzah Hobbies this sunday. (7/20).

Please arrive between 10am and 10:45. Round 1 will start at 11am. No need to sign up though it is preferred. You can call the store at  703-466-0460 or visit their website www.huzzahhobbies.com for location / number. We have room for about 30 people, so come one come all!

1850pts.

We are following the NOVA open missions / FAQ's this month. So that means Single CAD, and only two sources for your units (so no INQ/ SW/ SM nonsense). Please do note though that every stronghold assault model is allowed, (which is a slight difference from NOVA), so feel free to bring whatever, just please no networked building / systems. If you show up with two bastions or two void shields i'm going to tell you to re-write your list.

Costs are $15 and include lunch! All the rest of the money is rolled back into prize support.

Anyone with questions please just reply to this post.

ATC Battle reports (sorta!) - Ziggy Wardust and the Hammers from Mars recap

Team Ziggy Wardust and the Hammers from Mars!
http://whatc.org/40kstandings.php

We got 6th place with 530 pts.
Mark had an AV13 necron wall, and was 2 points from best Necron player
Tilly was in contention for best CSM player with spawntide with deamon screamer star allies
Justin played balanced waver serpent / wraithknight elder
Chip played a drop pod marines with dark angel ally army
James played 5 Imperial melta knights




Tilly and Mark  vs. round 1 opponents

Ben, super chill guy

Warner, super enthusiastic it seems!

Neil !

Wooo screamer star

The Gaming hall

Round 1 vs. 2 Minutes to ATC


 

Round 1 top of turn 2

I was matched with Ben who had a very unique Vanilla marines list. I felt pretty awful about this round, but he did the best he could given the tools he had. I just kinda stomped across the board and kicked the marines around. 30-0 win.

Round 1 bottom of 4

Round 2 vs. The Gypsy Curse



I deployed first and let my opponent have first turn. His army was a typical tau gunline and elder allies list. Broadsides with buff commander in a bastion, two riptides, wraithknight, 2x jetbikes, firedragons wave serpent and an autarch.


 

Round 2 - Middle of turn 1

I moved forward and left a knight titan within melta range (though closer than I actually wanted) to bait the fire dragons into going for an easy kill. They did, costing me the knight titan, but I was able to shoot/assault them the following turn removing the largest threat from the board. Other than that I stomped forward with tow knights, and help my side with two, and slowly eliminated the opposition. I think we tied emperors will, but otherwise I got 22 or 24 points from the round, and he got 6 or 8.



Round 2 - Turn 4

Round 2 - Turn 5






Round 3 vs. Killer Koalas

Round 3 - Turn 1 / 2

For this one, I fought an elder wave serpent army with three wraithknights, and a farseer on a jetbike with the laughing god mantle. It was a tough match. At the end of it, he had a wraithknight and some dire avengers on the emperors will objective. I had a single knight titan standing on the emperors will. His wraithknight claimed an objective. So we split. I got KP and he got objectives, we both tied emperors will. I got first blood, warlord and he got warlord. So I won 16 - 14. It ended on turn 7.



Round 4 vs. Name Pending

This match was pretty interesting. Three knight titans with Pask / IG allies, vs 5. At the end of the game, my warlord and one knight titan remained, meanwhile he had a single wyrven, and a taurox and two squads of vets. He had bottoms, so was able to use a Taurox to contest my emperors will, hold an objective with a wyrvren and vet squad, and hold his emperors will with a vet squad. I got First blood, warlord and linebreaker and kill points. He got Emp will, objectives, and linebreaker.
 

Round 4- Deployment

Round 4 - Turn 1 bottom.

Round 5 vs. The Sons of Vulcan

Due to some pairing issues.. *cough cough*, I ended up playing vs. an all flyer necron army. This is a huge facepalm for me, as I literally can not even hurt the flyers or do anything about them. Meanwhile they have tons of shots to fry my knights. My saving grace in this game was rolling outflanking warlord trait, which let me outflank my warlord and two knights, the deployment being hammer and anvil (to reduce potential arcs of movement for him), and winning the roll to decide who goes first. I made him go first, and having bottoms was super useful as it always is vs. a necron army.
I got lucky with this game, I lost three knight titans, but was able to contest emperors will, win kill points, and lost objectives. But I did get first blood, warlord, and linebreaker, which gave me 16, and the win.
I found out my opponent was a super cool guy, and, better, was a fellow ork player! So we spent a lot of time shooting the shit about orks. I also lost my cool at my dice, when after 3 rounds of shooting at a squad of 5 immortals with all of my guns, I couldn't kill them (because of scatter and general rolling of 1's to wound). But I was mad at myself, not my opponent, so I composed myself quickly and apologized.

Round 5 - Top of turn 2

Round 5 - Top of 5

Round 6 vs. Roll to Wound

So because all the top teams had already played each other, we, as the team in 7th place, somehow got paired with Tony Kupachs team, which was in 2nd place. Nicks list was put out as a defender, and Justin placed me to attack. I was fortunate in two things in this game which were super clutch, one, Nick did not roll any greater deamon summons except on his book herald, and I won deploy first, so made him take first turn.

Turn 1 Nick summoned plague bearers to prep for assaulting me turn 2, and moved his pink horrors forward. I assaulted the plaguebearers rather than let myself be assaulted, managed to roll 3 stomps in the combat, and the remove from play ability, and promptly stomped out a herald who was about 6 inches away, woooo. Nick lost another herald due to a bad perils roll. So that was super advantageous. From there, lots of combats with deamons ensued, and a ton of plaguebearers were summoned, and assaulted by knights. Fortunately I got a few D stomps, and they evaporated reasonably quickly.

The game ended on the bottom of 5, with me winning objectives, killpoints, slay the warlord, linebreaker, and first blood. We tied emperors will. Nick got linebreaker.

Round 6 Top of turn 2




Round 6 - Turn 2



Round 6 - Bottom of 5

SO MUCH RECAP- ATC Thoughts - Tim G's team's antics

Greets all's,

This post contains edits in light of new information and feedback from the TO and other sources.


So this post is going to have a lot. I just returned this morning from the ATC. For those who don't know, it mimics the ETC style tournament. This means you go as a team, but play individual games which collectively score for the team. Pairings for each round are based off of overall team score, and individual game pairings are determined by the two teams playing each other. In essence one team will put forward a player / army list, and the other team will select an opponent for them to play. Then that team will put forward a player / opponent, and the first team will select an opponent for them to play.

It results in really interesting matches and is really quite a fun format.

http://whatc.org/40kstandings.php


So let me get out front and center that Tim G and his team, "The Gypsy Curse", are a bunch of cheaters and were caught multiple times at the event doing so. In my opinion Tim should not have been given best grey knight player.

- Tim round one "Misplayed" Coteaz's "I've been expecting you", by not following the RAW and resolving the shots immediately after the unit arrived from reserve, and instead waited for a drop pod player to bring in/deploy his entire army, then shooting all of them (essentially crippling him). His opponent trusted him as Tim is a GT player, big mistake. He did not find out until after the game ended that Tim has misplayed it, and by then of course its to late.
- Tim was lying to an opponent saying Banishment is a 24 inch NOVA power. His excuse was that he had a BOLS print out saying it was so... Right....
- A team called a judge over for suspicious dice rolling
- They brought an army that was explicitly banned (Legion of the Damned), and played it. Despite the fact that lists are turned in a week a head of time, this was unfortunately missed. It was not caught by players until round 4. The TO's of the event solved this problem by docking 10 points per game played by the LOD player, and forcing him to change the LoD to vanilla marines.

There were lots of other word of mouth rumors about the bullshit he and his team were pulling, but those were the only ones I can directly verify as truthful / accurate, by direct participation or direct contact with opponents / judges.

Those alone, add up to a picture of a cheating, disingenuous team. As the saying goes.. fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.. Tim's repeated shengigans each round should have been more than suitable to incur serious repercussions

So that's out of the way..

What did I think of the event?

Positives
- The venue was solid and was priced beneficially to maximize player returns. The on site food  / drink vendors was good.
- Shane and his judges made sure their presence was felt. They were responsive and friendly. I never felt like I couldn't find a judge, or couldn't have a reasonable conversation with one.
- The event more or less kept on schedule reasonably well
- Location was good with lots of hotels, food places and such
- Table themes, I enjoyed that the event organizers attempted to keep each table themed, so it felt cohesive and not a hodpodge of random types.
- The format was good, the atmosphere was positive and energetic, and that was quite an accomplishment considering how annoyed many of the attendees were by the before mentioned BS.

Other notes

- It was difficult to see round to round progression and verify the results were correctly input. Only the overall results were displayed which is not ideal for a nervous team hoping their 72 points were entered properly and forgot their previous overall scores.

- Lack of clarity on terrain types and placement. Spending the first few minutes of a game having to discuss or arguing with your opponent about how to rule terrain pieces can be awkward. Especially as people play all sorts of different ways, impassible vs. not, battlescapes vs. difficult terrain, what's considered a ruin etc. I had the normal GT issue where people shoved their terrain out of the way to put models / displays / books on the table. Then left it that way at round end, and unfortunately next round opponents insisting that we don't touch it to fix it.

- The quality of the terrain. Many of the tables were just fine, but there were always one or two tables in each team match that needed some extra LOS blockage.

- Starts to damn early. I think it'd be better to do 3-3 rather than a 4-2 split. But that's just me grumping about waking up super early, so maybe its fine.

- Prize support did not follow as stated on their website. Their website explicitly stated teams 1-6 would receive prizes, instead at the event only teams 1-4 received prizes, and the top two teams were allowed to select a second prize each.  Shane has noted since the event that this was an accidental oversight, and that the teams involved will receive their appropriate support.

- CSM award  - Edited based on Shane's feedback.

- Swag bags could have used a bit more oomph. A secret weapon miniature base + random other thing, and a ton of advertising.

- Objective markers were randomly colored poker chips. When trying to run an event with 6 objectives on each table, 4 of one type and 2 of another,  it left open the potential of people forgetting which colors represented which type of objective over the course of a long game. Shane has noted this was not the intent of the ATC to use the poker chips, but was to correct a last minute problem.

I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting for both positive and negative. So Shane and company, if you read this, I hope you take this as a critique, instead of me just bashing. The event is promising, and I think with a few changes it'll be much better in the future. I'll state for the record I do plan on attending again, so clearly I have faith that the team will fix issues, tighten up the rules ship and handle things properly.

Ork Codex review / thoughts / RTT 1850k July 20th, NOVA OPEN format

Hey all,

So I specifically waited to post this as I wanted to make sure I had time to absorb the ork codex, see other peoples thoughts and play some game with it to make sure I didn't miss anything. I'm glad I waited as my opinion now is not the same as a week ago.

Also we have our monthly RTT on July 20th this month. We'll be using the NOVA OPEN missions, and nova open FAQ. Same things as usual, show up around 10:30!
What this means importantly is, please note that the nova open is not allowing double CAD, so neither will we. However, As I do believe stronghold assault is fine now, all of stronghold assault is still legal. (despite nova FAQ otherwise).

Last time we had 20 people turn out, lets try and repeat that!


Ok. So orks.

When I got the codex last week and had a first go, it looked like the codex was actually weaker than the 4th edition codex. There are far less options in it, no neat FOC manipulations or use of combinations to make the sum of the parts greater than the whole.

Having now gotten several games in with it, trying different lists and all of the models. I feel that this codex is just barely stronger than the previous ork codex. It's gained a lot with a few specific units, but its lost a lot with its lack of FOC manipulations, and as mentioned, there are very few "combinations" of units that are what i'd consider effective. That said, there are a few, and I'll outline the few things I like below.

Let me state again for the record, I think GW screwed up big time by not maintaining, or adding unique FOC combinations to give orks a unique twist. People have been pointing to the formations as the unique combination elements. That's nice, it's not the core rulebook. Not everyone allows formations.

Fear not loyal reader! Despite my misgivings, I will continue to make orks work through all 7th edition. My CSM are mostly hitting retirement for now. I've played them almost all of 6th and its time to mix things up. So we'll give it a go.

So here are the models / list I'm currently using, and the reasons why.

Warboss  - Mega armor - da lucky stikk
- This is good. So so so good. This gives orks a re-rollable 2+ save, and a warboss who is almost always going to hit and wound. It's cheap and powerful.

Big Mek w/ KFF - a 5++ invuln vs. shooting is still useful, even if it doesn't extend beyond a vehicle and is only models not units. I recommend running him outside of your vehicle on the top of turn 1, then hopping in and joining a ride.

Mad Dok Grotsnik - Holy crap is this guy good now. He still can't leave a unit after he joins it, but he gives fearless and rampage. Seriously I had to read the rules for this several times. He literally gives the unit those rules, if he dies for some reason, or if its an IC in the unit he's "conferred" it to, as it were, that unit/IC keeps the rules. As according to the raw text, they "HAVE" the rule, simply because he joined them. So, use this to give your orks so much needed umph. Combo this with meganobz/warboss for a really good time.

Slugga choppa boyz -  Shoota boyz are infinitely better in almost every way, but its not worth 7pts a model. So now is the time of the slugga/choppa boy. I previously advocated for using big shootas, now is also the time of the rokkit, use them instead of big shootas. Anytime previously you thought of using a big shoota, or you get a big shoota, simply make a it a rokkit, this goes for all units in the codex.

Meganobz - same as always, dead hitty and resilient. Now more so with a painboy for FnP

Trukk - Cheap rokkits and fast

Warbuggies - these guys were great in 5th, and now they're great again in 7th. 25pts for a rokkit buggie is solid. Run them in squads of 2 or 3.

Battlewagons - still great, don't bother with upgrades though. Deffrollas are trash now, seriously don't bother. If you want to buy things, give them wreckin balls, boarding planks or rokkits. I'm running mine with just a single rokkit though to keep the points cost down.

Tankbustas - Now amazing, its hard to argue with EVERYONE GETS A ROKKIT AND MELTABOMB! They're very effective at killing MC's and tanks. Use them, seriously. I'm running squads of 10 in trukks or bwagons depending on how I feel. Trukks can be solid for 12 inch movement, and snap firing out. Super awesome in the elite slot.


Of the other models that are new or rules revamped.

Gretchin artillery - this stuff is still a trap - admittedly a cheap one. You're talking about a maximum of 5 shots, 3 which hit, and maybe do something. For a fairly low cost. The real problem? They are in the heavy support slot, where you want to grab better things like b-wagons or lootas.

Lootas - Still good, and slightly cheaper, shame they share the heavy support slot

Morkanaught / Gorkanaught - I complained about these guys previously, and i'll do it again. They're at least 150pts way to expensive for what they do. Even then, they'd still be questionable for useful in an ork army. These are more like pretty models you felt like painting than combat effective monsters. They needed to be a super heavy, and i'm not sure why they are not. Seriously GW, go FAQ that shit and make them one. It's not like you guys have a problem changing other things (i.e. super deamon ally friends with the heralds)...
For their point cost, they need to be super heavies. They should also be assault vehicles, like seriously.