Semifinals results

Well, I've been back from the semi's for a week now, I guess I should post the results.

We played at Games2d4 in Indianapolis. I took Third place, and yes, I am overjoyed at my placing. Especially since going into round 3 I was somewhere around 7th.

First off, of the five of us that went there, I'm the only one who placed highly. James and his Space Wolves took 7th, after being #2 going into round two. He pulled off two massacres and then got massacred by a Wolf Guard army with 39 missile launchers. Yep, that's right, 39 missile launchers. I doubt I could have beaten 39 missile launchers either, in fact, to be utterly honest, I know I couldn't.

Jack got massacred by that same space wolf player in round 1, got a draw and got massacred a second time. Not Jack's best day, but it happens as we all know. Out of 40 players, he pulled down 32nd.

Betty pulled 12th after getting a draw the first round, a minor win the second game, and a draw in round 3. With what was honestly, a crappy list. Honestly, I didn't expect him to do much other than get mauled by everyone he played. Which proves something I've told Betty for a while, his list building sucks, but his playing almost makes up for it.

Mike got 19th. His first round he pulled a major loss, followed by a minor win, and a draw. Sadly, the TO ruled against the INAT faq that Mike's army relies on, and turned his first game from a minor win to a major loss. But, them's the apples, and while Mike was upset at first, he got over it and soldiered on. After all was said and done, Mike understood where the TO was coming from, and wasn't unhappy. So, it worked out in the end.

My game... Let me preface this by saying the following. I fought three VERY hard opponents who knew their lists, who knew how to use their strengths and how to minimize their weaknesses. I honestly think that at any time in those games it could have gone either way no matter what.

My first game was against Steve Bradford and his Blood Angels. Now, somewhere I have a copy of his list... I think. I honestly don't know right off the bat if I do anymore or not. But, I do remember the gist of it.

Mephiston riding solo. 10 Assault Termies, 5 with claws, 5 with hammers and shields. 2 Priests, and 5 tactical squads. Two squads had lascannons, one squad had a missile launcher, one had a heavy plasma cannon, and the last had a multimelta. He also had two Rhino's and two Land Raiders.

I got first turn and hammered the hell out of his line as hard and as fast as I could. By the end of turn 3 I had fragged Mephiston thanks to a chimera of Melta vets doing a drive by, a lucky autocannon hit, and a vendetta with a grudge. By the end of turn 5 it was a pile of brutality on both sides. I had 1 vendetta left, 1 chimera, my autocannons, and all of my Leman Russ's. I got a major victory over him and found myself 50 points shy of getting a massacre. All he had left was two marines from two different tactical squads and a single land raider. Damned hard game, and a very thoughtful opponent who knew exactly how to fight it. He ended up getting 6th place after pulling two massacre victories in the games after ours.

My second game was against an army I dreaded facing. Variant leafblower IG with a very skilled general. Brice Blair was his name, and just like me, he had three Vendetta. Unlike me however, he had two command squads with plasma and melta, 6 packs of vets in chimeras, a psychic battle squad, a manticore, two colossus, and two medusa. His army put my gray plastic to shame and was beautifully painted and masterfully generalled. Honestly, I think the only saving grace I had in that game was turn 1 and being able to fire first.

I scouted my Vendetta, he scouted his Vendetta to cover mine and be able to neutralize them in his first turn of shooting. Turn one saw my Vendetta each target his artillery. Only his Colossus were able to fire on his first turn, as my Vendetta's had destroyed the gun from one Medusa, and shaken the second, and had both shaken and immobilized his Manticore. Thankfully, my Autocannons shook two of his Vendetta so I was able to keep mine around for a few more turns.

By the end of the game the table looked like a scrap yard. I had 1 vet squad left, without their chimera of course, and 1 line squad left, obviously they were allowed to keep their chimera. I had one vendetta, and five leman russ remaining as well. My saving grace was actually the scrapyard of all the vehicles around the center objective and some careful maneuvering on my vehicles actually allowed me to block him from running a few squads onto the objective to contest my victory. I got a major victory by the skin of my teeth, and very skinned they were.

I have played Imperial Guard for nearly ten years, I have fought against many other IG players both locally and at tournaments. I play against James Wooten and his IG very frequently and have both won and lost against him. Never have I fought someone as tenacious with his guard, or as lucky with his cover saves as Brice. I would go up against Brice any day of the year and feel lucky to get a win, and would be happy to take a loss against him. He was a true class act and one of the most skilled players I have ever had the honor to face. Brice ended up taking 8th place after pulling out a minor win in his third game, at least, I believe it was a minor win. His first game was a major win with 1 bonus point.

Going into the third game I was actually rather worried. I knew that my scores were not anywhere near the top. I thought that perhaps, with luck, I could eek my way into 3rd of 4th if a lot of the top tables had hard games, and considering the victory conditions in the final mission, that seemed almost a certainty. But, looking at it, I was utterly convinced that I had to pull out a massacre for there to be any chance of moving into the top.

And then I drew Edge Tomlinson. Now, let me say this about Edge, I've never met the guy before, and damnit, I wish I had. Hands down, Edge gave me the most fun game of 40k I have had in a long time. He brought vanilla marines, a termie Librarian, ten assault termies, 5 with claw, 5 with shield, 5 tac squads in rhino's, 3 melta attack bikes, and 5 dakka dreads. I knew that with 5 dakka dreads, no matter what vehicle he saw, he was going to rip it apart unless it was one of my Russ's.

I drew first turn, and after we both deployed and I made my scout moves, I kept my first turn. And with Spearhead, there was no chance of doing anything other than shooting like mad, and hoping that the termies didn't manage to get in amongst my guard before I at least had a chance to thin the herd. And my dice were on fire. By the end of the first turn I had immobilized or destroyed three of his Rhino's, and blocked his entire line of advance in it's tracks. Then his termies gated into charge range of my gun line. Then they deviated seven inches right back where they had come from, and that changed the game in my favor. By the end of the third turn the few remaining termies were hiding amongst a set of ruins with a tactical squad, and all but one of the rhino's were dead, along with all of the attack bikes. I had 8 kill points, he had 1, but he held all but two pieces of terrain, and all three of my vendettas were immobilised by his dakka dreads.

And then we rolled kill points for our victory conditions. At that point, all I had to do was continue and build on my lead as hard as I could while trying to deny him as many points as I could. It was not easy. On turn four he went from 1 kill point to 5, and I was still at 8. Turn five however fixed my major worry. I toasted his librarian, his last termie, one tac squad, and a dakka dread. He in exchange broke my platoon HQ, and a special weapons squad. At the end of the game it all boiled down to him hunkering down behind as much terrain as he could, while I did the same as we both blazed away.

Let me say it again, Edge was the most fun opponent I played against that day, and I especially appreciated the fact that both of us decided to take a break after the end of turn two and go for a smoke. A great opponent, a fun guy to play, and as I already said, the most fun opponent I have played against in a tournament setting, or casual setting in a long time. Everything he said was followed by a laugh, he was relaxed and having fun no matter what happened, and I cannot say enough about how cool he was.

Edge pulled a minor win in his first game, and a massacre in his second game. Our game however ended up with a massacre in my favor, and with me getting a 23 point win. He pulled 14th out of 40 players.,I pulled 19 points in my first game. I snagged 18 points in my second which at the end of the day left me with 60 points. I was thinking at the end of my game that I had a shot at fourth, but then I started finding out how many massacres were in play on the top tables.

The top table, which should have included James against the guy in first, instead included the guy in first against the guy in 4th when they matched up double massacres vs double massacres. The guy in first going into round three ended up taking first at the end with 72 points. The guy who James fought and got massacred by ended up pulling second with 69 points. I heard those point totals, and my heart sank. I was 9 points behind the guy in 2nd place, the only chance I had to place in the top three was is none of the other guys ahead of me pulled out a massacre.

And none of them did. In fact, not only was my 60 points good enough for third, but if I had only eeked out a major win against Edge, or even a minor win against him, I would still have been able to pull down third.

All in all, a damned good day for me, and while not the best showing for the five members of Team Scabbard, it was a good day. The first year I played Ard Boys, I went to the semi finals. I pulled down 25th out of 30 players that year. The second year I played, again I went to the semi finals, that year I managed to pull down 5th, while my buddy mike pulled down third and then decided not to go to the finals, the guy in first didn't go either, and I could have gone but didn't know in time. This year marks my third year playing the Ard Boys tournament, and at the semi's I took third, and yes, I intend to go to the finals.

That is, if they ever post the locations, and there is one with a less than 10 hour drive. Maybe I will do well, maybe I won't. I don't care, I'll have gone to the finals and done my best.

Wish me luck.