Games Summery for Karak XII

I began Saturday with the disadvantage of staying up all night drinking rum with a group of really great Czech guys. They were happy to keep the conversation in English or translate it for me and it went a long way to making me feel welcom. I had only two hours of sleep before my fist game at 9 in the morning. My focus got progressively worse throughout the day.

My first game was against shooty orks with Wazdakka, lots of bikes and deffkoptas in an Annihilation mission. It was a bad match up for him, I was able to crush his bikes and nobs (in trukks) in assault. Named characters were worth an extra kill point in this mission. The Redeemer's Flamestorm cannons also assisted in burning down the bikes. I scored 18 out of 20 battle points pushing me close to the top tables.

My second game was a much more difficult match up against Imperial Guard. We played Capture and Control (aptly named "roll dice and tie" by The 11th Company). He was using veterans in Vendettas (though only two of them), a large infantry platoon, a psyker battle squad in a Chimera and three Leman Russ varients including Pask. He set up his tanks at the back of the deployment zone and bubble-wrapped them with his infantry to prevent my scouts from assaulting. I tried to push forward but couldn't get close enough to contest his objectives. He managed to kill most of the units I sent forward. My crowning moment of the game was assaulting his parking lot with my scouts. The turn before they came in, he moved one of his tanks (the Chimera with the psykers) out of position. I left just enough room for my scouts to come in and destroy his Russes (including Pask). As per the name of the mission, we ended up with a tie.

My third game was against Toshiro (Martin Szolár) of the Czech ETC team. He was playing Blood Angels and our mission was seize ground with dawn of war deployment. His army included two units of terminators with sanguinary priests in Redeemers, two 10 man units of assault marines, and a librarian. We set up the objectives along the center line of the table and both tried to push to control them. I made several early game mistakes which Martin took advantage of and he won the game 15:5. It would have been a 18:2 victory if not for a couple of fluke dice rolls. Overall, I'd say it was my favorite game of the weekend.

I went to sleep fairly early Saturday so I would be rested for my Sunday games. The first game was against a Tau suit list. The mission was Capture and Control again with an additional objective in the center of the table worth 2 points. My scouts came in on turn 2 and assaulted one of the broadside squads. I beat them in combat and they ran off the back of the table. They were shot to death the next turn. The rest of the game involved me seeing how far across the table I could get before being shot to death. It really underscored the need to put extra-armour on my Land Raider to keep in moving. The game ended in a draw.

The final mission was unique to the tournament. There were 4 objectives, 2 placed by each player. At the end of each turn, you scored one point for each objective you controlled. I played against an Eldar player. He took 3 Vypers with Shuriken Cannons, 2 Wraith Lords, 2 units of Jetbikes, Dire Avengers and Fire Dragons in Wave Serpents, a Fire Prism, and a Farseer on a Jetbike with guide and fortune. I had the first turn and pulled ahead early, taking one of his objectives on my turn two. Unfortunately, I got careless in turn 3 and left Grey Hunters in two squads in charge range of his Wraith Lords; I got pulled of my objectives and he moved in with his Jetbikes. At the end of turn 5, the game was tied but he was up by 2 points by the end of the game after turn 6. My opponent was really great and it was a hard call between him and Toshiro for my favorite game of the weekend.

I came in 27th place for combat points (which I'm pretty happy with). My overall score wasn't as good since my army wasn't fully painted. I'm really looking forward to playing in more Czech tournaments. In fact, I have another one this weekend (4 games, 1500 points). It's a one day tournament at one of the local game stores. (Černý Rytíř) My list is now fully painted and based so I expect to do quite well in my overall score. Again, my goal is to win half my games. I'll let you know how it goes.

My next post won't be so Warhammer focus; I plan to write about L5R RPG after I run game this weekend.

Edit: I also need to credit my wife for all the photos of my miniatures. I'm terrible with a camera so I need to thank her for the good photographs.