Okay, time for part 2 of my Rapid Fire 40K Tournament coverage that happened at Game Vault in Fredricksburg, VA last Saturday. After Game 4 we broke for lunch. I was feeling pretty good, I had 3 wins and 1 loss. I was smarting from my loss and wanted to get back into the win column. That unfortunately was not to be.
Battle Reports (continued)
Game 5 vs Mike's Chaos
Mike had a pretty nasty army comprised of 2 squads of Plague Marines each in a rhino. Also the table we were on was kind of rough, lots of high rocky hills with deep valleys and a rock bridge across some dangerous terrain. I deployed the Noise Marines on the bridge, my 10 man squad on some rocks, with my rhino squad behind them. The mission was kill points again.
Turn 1, I moved the Noise Marines up and to the right. The Rhino squad moved to the left and the 10 marine squad dug in and opened up on one of the Plague Marine rhinos. However it was deep in cover and made its cover save. Mike charged his army forward hoping to close quickly and get inside the reach of my guns. Turn 2 was much the same, I shot at him while trying to move to his flanks and he moved forward. Then he got out and started blasting. I took some injuries but actually made most of my armor saves.
Then I fought back, firing the full squad of Noise Marines with a hit from
the Blast Masters template, and the point blank shooting of what was left of the 10 man squad into his front squad, doing a good amount of damage. He charged with both squads into the remains of the 10 man squad. At the same time he with drew his rhinos. My next turn, I moved my Rhino squad to their flank, hopped out and vaporized a rhino with a metal gun. At the same time the plague marines killed off the end of my 10 man squad and both squads rolled high for their consolidation roll.
Not sure I would be able to kill the plague marines with just 5 marines, I headed out after the second rhino, getting into mine. That was my mistake. Mike managed to charge out after me with the plague marines and catch my mounted squad. He assault and destroyed it rolling a 5 on the damage table. However in the process he had managed to surround the rhino and the squad was destroyed too as they dismounted the wretched vehicle. Sigh. 3 wins and 2 losses.
Game 6 vs Seth's Orks
Seth had a massive ork horde that took me by surprise. He had two large squads ork boys with shootas, one lead by warp head. He also had a Deth Kopta and some other stuff (sorry I do not remember what else was in his list, it did not really have alot of effect on the game). This was the army mine was designed to fight. I had purposely pulled alot of the special
equipment out of the orginal version of my list so that I could better concentrate on massed fire. I deployed my army as one big gun line. Firing round after round into his boyz. However the board put the game in his favor, providing him cover saves all the way in so that I only killed a small precentage of his boyz before he reached me. Also early on he got my Rhino with the rokket on his Deth Kopta. With no where to manuever and an inability to kill enough boyz the game was over as I was wiped from the board. 3 wins and 3 losses.
Game 7 vs Frank's Space Marines
Frank's army consisted of two 10 man squads of marines each with an Assault Cannon Razorback and containing a Plasma Cannon. The mission was Capture and Control with the setup
of Spearhead again. Frank chose to combat squad is marines giving him two 5 man squads in the Razorbacks and two 5 man squads with the plasma cannons firing at me. I did not have enough AP stuff to take out the Razorbacks that were leading out ahead of his force while the Plasma Cannons stayed back and shot. I got shot up pretty good and needless to say lost the game. 3 wins and 4 losses.
Game 8 vs Ben's Space Wolves
Ben's list was let me see, strong. His army was a squad of Bikers, each with wargear and equipment making them nearly impossible to kill. In addition he had a squad of Grey Hunters to hold objectives. The terrain allowed him to setup in cover, out so sight fo my guns. Turn one he turbo boosted towards me staying mostly in cover. I shot him with a Krak missile and thanks to a piece of wargear the biker managed to live. Sigh. I then charged him with the Noise Marines, dumb dumb dumb. His bikers wiped them out with no effort at all. Turn two saw them assaulting the 10 man squad and they were wiped out too. Top of turn 3 it was all over. Wow that was a beating. 3 wins and 5 losses.
Game 9 vs Russell's Orks
Russell's list consisted of 2 big squads of boyz, 2 tracks with Rokkets, 2 Killa Kans, and a squad of lootas. I thought I had a good shot. The mission was kill points again and I deployed much like I had against Seth, in a gun line. Russell came charging at me with his boys supported by the tracks and kans while the lootas sat back and shot. This time however there was a lot less terrain and I managed to get in some good shooting. In the last rounds of the game I had wiped out both big squads of boyz, killed one of the tracks, and destroyed one of the two kans. He had wiped out the 5 man squad, damaged the rhino, and wittled down my other two squads. I was in a good possition sitting on 2 Kill Points to his 1. Then my luck returned, or rather lack there of. He opened fire killing of my last few marines with the lootas, Killed the last Noise Marine with a rokket from the Kan, and got the Rhino with another rokket from the remaining track. He wiped me out. Ouch. 3 wins and 6 losses... Sigh.
Wrap Up.Well I had fun though I dropped my last 6 games. There were several list at the tournament that really out shown everyone elses. Ben, my opponent from Round 8 ended up winning the whole thing by winning 10 of his 15 games played. In additioned he tied 2 of the remaining 5. Casey and his nasty one unit army, 18 plague marines took longest winning streak with 8 in a row (actually he went lossless for 10 games but had 2 draws in the middle). As I mentioned in Part 1 Bill took best painted with his Tzeentch Daemons (nice job Bill), and to round it all out Don Mondo took best conversion with his Lizardmen IG army.
Other list to watch out for were Perry's Eldar which I played in round 4 and Jeff P's version of it that got him into 4th place overall that used a mix of the shooting of the warwalkers with some faster elements to help take objectives and out flank better. Kevin Farrell also had a nasty list using two big squads of Genestealers and a lictor which he used to win himself 8 games over the course of the day and secure himself a strong position as second place overall with 14 games, just one less then Ben. Me, I placed a disappointing 18th out of 24. Sigh. Next time I will have to take a stronger list.
A chance for you to get in on the action!For everyone who enjoyed reading this summary that missed out on the action you are in luck. The Iron Fist League will be running another Rapid Fire Tournament at Games Day Baltimore. I will be posting more info as the event gets closer but you too will have a chance to battle it out on the fields of battle. Just do not forget to bring your forces with you to Games Day and I will see you there. If you are there come by and say hello, I will he helping out at the Rapid Fire tables all day.
Until next time.
As I said above when I get home this evening I will post more detail pics of these vehicles and pics of a few additional things.
Then when the Apocalypse expansion 
came out for our beloved 40K I decided I need something more for a game I was running for my local group, the Iron Fist League. So I put together 6 objectives from stuff I had in my bitz box mounted on the old flat titan/sentinel bases. You can see pics of them to the right and left. They were pretty simple, just piles of ammo, leaking fuel cans, or big blockly generator looking things. Very simple but they got the job done.
One of the big challenges was creating 5 individual objectives that where interesting from every angle while still allowing them to come together to form the barrier. For the most part I think I achieved this. Below you will find close up detailed pics of each piece with a front (left side) and back (right side) view.
to be working for my Armies on Parade display is my Thousand Sons Squad. This unit was created by using a combination of many different kits to create a unique look for the unit. I started with Thousand Sons heads from the current existing metal and plastic kit. Then I added pieces from the current chaos space marine kit including some of the thousand sons specific pieces. I decided to use the new Dark Angels robed veterans bodies as the main component. Most of the chest pieces and several of the backpacks are from the new possessed box sets. I finished it out with a few pieces from the Chaos Terminator Lord kit.
On a side note I really love the new 
possessed kit. You will notice as this series goes on just how much I love that kit as it's influence is prominent all the way through the army. In addition to the Thousands Sons unit I converted a Rhino just for them. I will be updating the rhino to go with the unit.
Mike had a pretty nasty army comprised of 2 squads of Plague Marines each in a rhino. Also the table we were on was kind of rough, lots of high rocky hills with deep valleys and a rock bridge across some dangerous terrain. I deployed the Noise Marines on the bridge, my 10 man squad on some rocks, with my rhino squad behind them. The mission was kill points again.
the Blast Masters template, and the point blank shooting of what was left of the 10 man squad into his front squad, doing a good amount of damage. He charged with both squads into the remains of the 10 man squad. At the same time he with drew his rhinos. My next turn, I moved my Rhino squad to their flank, hopped out and vaporized a rhino with a metal gun. At the same time the plague marines killed off the end of my 10 man squad and both squads rolled high for their consolidation roll.
Seth had a massive ork horde that took me by surprise. He had two large squads ork boys with shootas, one lead by warp head. He also had a Deth Kopta and some other stuff (sorry I do not remember what else was in his list, it did not really have alot of effect on the game). This was the army mine was designed to fight. I had purposely pulled alot of the special 
equipment out of the orginal version of my list so that I could better concentrate on massed fire. I deployed my army as one big gun line. Firing round after round into his boyz. However the board put the game in his favor, providing him cover saves all the way in so that I only killed a small precentage of his boyz before he reached me. Also early on he got my Rhino with the rokket on his Deth Kopta. With no where to manuever and an inability to kill enough boyz the game was over as I was wiped from the board. 3 wins and 3 losses.
Frank's army consisted of two 10 man squads of marines each with an Assault Cannon Razorback and containing a Plasma Cannon. The mission was Capture and Control with the setup
of Spearhead again. Frank chose to combat squad is marines giving him two 5 man squads in the Razorbacks and two 5 man squads with the plasma cannons firing at me. I did not have enough AP stuff to take out the Razorbacks that were leading out ahead of his force while the Plasma Cannons stayed back and shot. I got shot up pretty good and needless to say lost the game. 3 wins and 4 losses.
Ben's list was let me see, strong. His army was a squad of Bikers, each with wargear and equipment making them nearly impossible to kill. In addition he had a squad of Grey Hunters to hold objectives. The terrain allowed him to setup in cover, out so sight fo my guns. Turn one he turbo boosted towards me staying mostly in cover. I shot him with a Krak missile and thanks to a piece of wargear the biker managed to live. Sigh. I then charged him with the Noise Marines, dumb dumb dumb. His bikers wiped them out with no effort at all. Turn two saw them assaulting the 10 man squad and they were wiped out too. Top of turn 3 it was all over. Wow that was a beating. 3 wins and 5 losses.
Russell's list consisted of 2 big squads of boyz, 2 tracks with Rokkets, 2 Killa Kans, and a squad of lootas. I thought I had a good shot. The mission was kill points again and I deployed much like I had against Seth, in a gun line. Russell came charging at me with his boys supported by the tracks and kans while the lootas sat back and shot. This time however there was a lot less terrain and I managed to get in some good shooting. In the last rounds of the game I had wiped out both big squads of boyz, killed one of the tracks, and destroyed one of the two kans. He had wiped out the 5 man squad, damaged the rhino, and wittled down my other two squads. I was in a good possition sitting on 2 Kill Points to his 1. Then my luck returned, or rather lack there of. He opened fire killing of my last few marines with the lootas, Killed the last Noise Marine with a rokket from the Kan, and got the Rhino with another rokket from the remaining track. He wiped me out. Ouch. 3 wins and 6 losses... Sigh.
Blood Angels - I am currently working on completing a bit more then a full company of Blood Angels.
My first game was very challenging as I faced 2 units of Necron Warriors each backed by a Tomb Spyder. Luckily the mission was Capture and Control (3 objectives) using Spearhead for setup so I had a few turns to shoot at the spyders and warriors before they got up close. Turn 1 I managed to plunk a Spyder for 1 wound with a krak missile and knock over a few warriors. In answer his warriors opened up on my Noise Marines doing enough wounds to take advantage of my in ability to roll armor saves (something that plagued me all day) leaving me with just 1 Noise Marine with a sonic blaster at the end of round 1.
I had 1 squad of Marines on one objective fighting 4 Necron warriors and my Rhino on the other contesting against an almost full squad of warrior. We rolled to see if the game ended at the end of the turn and luckily we rolled high enough to get another turn. Some who I manage to finally kill off his 4 remaining necron warriors holding one of the objectives. Then he goes, choosing to shoot my 4 remaining marines on the other point as in the 3 previos turns of shooting at the rhino so far he has only managed to blow off the bolter. He fails to do any wounds and the game ends with me holding one objective, he and I contesting an objective, and the third with no one on it. 1 Win for Jay (barely).
I have to say, Hunter was a really great opponent and I happen to know even though he did not do very well during the course of the tournament, he still had a great attitude and enjoyed himself and if there had been a best sportsmanship award for the event he would have had my vote. Hunter was playing a fairly irregular IG list, using several small expensive specialist squads (2 Storm Trooper squads and a hardened Vet squad) supported by 3 sentinels and a Chimera. Our game was dominated by my superior long ranged fire power and me out manuevering him in several places. This game was also Capture and Control using Spearhead (again with 3 objectives) and I managed to wipe out most of his army through good manuevering and creating fire lanes on one half of the board while keep is Chimera occupied with the Noisemarines on the other side. In the end I had 2 objectives to his 1. 2 Wins for Jay.
Bill is a long time friend of mine from the Iron Fist League and he has always had interesting, competitive, well painted (when he has had time to paint them) armies. His Daemons were no exception, putting out shocking amounts of shooting and taking best painted at the tournament. This game went very quickly and ended up with me completely masacreing Bills army. What was my secret you ask? Well it was my first time playing against the 40k Daemon list and while discussing how his earlier games had gone Bill mentioned that his army was horrible in assault and people had been beating him by assaulting him. Sigh, normally I would not have jumped on this key bit of info but I already had 2 wins under my belt and wanted to keep up the streak and though I appologized for using the key piece of info against him I still feel a bit dirty though I would have figured it out fairly quick anyways (I hope). 3 Wins for Jay.
Perry had a good list. 3 Warwalkers each with a shurken cannon and a scatter laser, a good sized squad of guardians with a star cannon and a warlock with embolden, 5 rangers, and a small squad of Dire Avengers. This game ended up being my first Kill Points game of the day and through some poor deployment by me and the amazing amount of fire power his warwalkers put out my first loss of the day too. We were playing spearhead again, I put my squad of 10 marines on one flank (closest to the war walkers and star cannon toting guardian squad and the rhino and Noisemarine on the other closest to his rangers (his dire avengers were in reservers). At the end of the game he had wiped out my 10 man squad, my 5 man squad, and my Noisemarines, almost exclusively with the warwalkers, and I had killed the rangers and dire avengers. If I had thought about it more I would have stacked everything on one flank and concentrated on taking out the warwalkers early. Then used the rhino to screen me from the rangers and focused on killing the guardians. But instead I went after the rangers thinking there AP1 possible shots were the biggest threat and ignored the warwalkers till it was too late.
ainting schedule, Forgeworld Renegades. I have been collecting bits and pieces of the army for a while now, and after Baltimore Games Day I should finally have enough pieces to put together a solid 2,000pt army or so. To that end I painted two test models to get an idea of what I wanted the army to look like. They are the two models seen to the right. The picture is pretty close to the real colors (I need to build myself a light box), click on it to see a larger view. I can not decide which I like better, Tan or Green. What do you guys think? Maybe I will put up a poll.
The list includes:
