Hobby At All Costs goes Tournamenting!

Hey readers!

Yes, we're back.  Well, I am.  Not sure who else still wants to participate but regardless, here's a post.  I am leaving for a couple weeks on vacation but will try and post a few times before then and hopefully keep going after.  

This weekend the writers of Hobby At All Costs participated in a local tournament held by Showcase Comics.  It was a 1500pt, Welcome to 6th Edition event.  Painting wasn't required but did get you one extra point per game if you were fully painted and based (I am sure Green Feevah has a rant on this).  WYSIWYG was (sort of) enforced though with everything needing to be fully built and modelled.  It was 4 games, each one a different mission and deployment.  I took my orks this go around, trying to get more painted.  I was painting the day before still, so... well... I guess I needed to get more painted!

My list was as follows:
Warboss on a Bike:  He had the standard kit - Powerklaw, Attack Squig, Cybork Body, Bosspole.
Nobz on bikes:  My first troop was 5 strong with 2 klaws and a painboy.  Boy on boy, for such a small unit were people ever afraid of these six.  Rightfully so I assume.  They can soak up MASSIVE amounts of shooting and punch face on just about anything in combat.
Trukk Boyz:  Really simple 11 slugga boyz and a nob with a klaw and pole.
20 Slugga Boyz:  Also with a nob with klaw and pole.  Also had 2 Big Shootas
20 Shoota Boyz:  No nob!  Rokkit and Big Shoota though
7 Lootas
Battlewagon: Deffrolla, 2 big shootas, red paint job.  I put on of the two 20 man units in here depending on the game.
Battlewagon: 4 Big Shootas, Killkannon.  My lootas went in here one game, otherwise it was generally empty and more a gun platform then anything.
Blitza Bomma!  Yup, not a dakkajet believe it or not.

There we go, 1500pts of goodness.

Game 1: vs Necrons

Of course!  The battle was dawn of war with Crusade being the mission.  Simple and normal.  His list was a Lord on a command barge, a destroyer lord, praetorians, a pile of warriors, destroyers, a ghost ark and an anihilation barge.   I made a big mistake off the hop, going right after his praetorians and destroyer lord off on a flank.  It really kept the bikers out of the mass of the game and I missed their ability to soak up firepower.  And trust me when I say, Necrons got tons of firepower.  This list was super great and he's really good with it.  It was still a battle though until a solid round of shooting got my nobs off the table, but not before a lone nob was able to hurt and run down a unit of warriors on his own!   I just needed to go right down the throat, get into assault and hunker down on objectives.

Result:  A loss.  :(  Though it was a lot of fun.  The player is really skilled and this probably wasn't even close to an "internet" list.


Game 2: vs Grey Knights

Uh oh!  Another very popular and powerful army.  This was a Purifier Spam army with Crowe, Purifiers with psycannons in a razorback, unit wtih incinerators in a rhino and another unit in a land raider.  He had a vindicare way off in the boon docks pot shooting me.  Plus he had a lone inquisitor in termie armor.  Not sure why, but he did.   I was simply able to out deploy and out move him.  I went on the opposite flank he did in this Hammer and Anvil deployment (kill points was the game).  I centered my shooting units to get him as he came, then had everything else for counter assault.  However... I never assaulted him once.  It was pure shooting putting him down.  Vindicare are so good.  SO SO GOOD. Could not even wound him.

Result:  Win.  Had to play hard and patient to win this one.  Purifiers terrify me.


Game 3: vs Dark Eldar

Oh, Dark Eldar.  How you scare me.  My toughness don't mean jack here.  He had an archon in with incubi, tons of warriors, 2 ravagers, haemonculi, wracks in a raider and a razorwing.  He had a whole ton of guys.  This was the diagonal deployment and objectives.    He had lots of troops, I figured it would be really killer.  Thankfully my nobz decided to be the killers and wiped out the incubi and archon right off the bat.  From there I just picked my fights, using the nobz to soak up wounds and shots.   Great looking army.  Was really fun to see two well painted forces together on the same table.

Result:  Win.  Boy, when dice go south, they go south.  I thought I had good target priority in this so I would like to perhaps think that my skill mattered too, lol.

Game 4: vs Tau

Final game!  A win could put me in contention.  This fella is an awesome player and super nice.  He knows this army, again a well painted collection.  He had a crisis suit and bodyguard, more crisis suits, broadsides, 2 small units of fire warriors, huge squad of outflanking kroot, 2 hammerheads.   I didn't know what to do with this army.  SO much shooting.  I think he killing the bodyguard early helped a lot and really, won me the game as I was able to get the Slay the Warlord much easier.  This was Dawn of War and the mission where you have objectives worth secret points until revealed.  I fluked and got the 4 and a 3 in my army right away.  I just hunkered down on the objectives, didn't stray, stayed patient and tried to make sure I wasn't going after anything or shooting anything that wouldn't play a factor in the game.  Kills for the sake of kills aren't always the smartest idea when trying to win.  This was SUPER tense and close all the way through with bucketloads of drama.  Good drama though!

Result:  Win!  Barely!  Man, what a super close game.  One of the best games I've played in AGES.

So there we go.  I was pretty proud, placing second overall with an army the internet would poop on.  That is why people on the internet are dumb.  Except our readers.  They rule.  I was stoked with the result and the army played really fun.  I could definitely "tweak" it if I wanted but really I am just trying to get models painted.

Let's see if our other authors pitch in their experiences.