Prior to the tournament, myself and Commander W psyched up the rest of the gang to join up for the experience. Cmdr Desmondus and Wolf Lord Melhammer obliged, being the good sport that they are.
Both Melhammer and myself were not in it to win the tournament, although I had some expectations.
BEST APPEARANCE
I was one of the winners for BEST APPEARANCE for the previous tournament that I took part in. Judging by the overall standards of painting by other participants and given Melhammer's high standard of painting, I felt that we stood a pretty good chance of winning BEST APPEARANCE again.
After I realized that Rico is taking part as well, I am not as certain of our odds. Rico is one of the best painters in Singapore and have clinched a Golden Daemon in Australia before. While I was particularly worried, I lowered my expectation a bit.
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| Lucky to have Melhammer as partner, enabling us to win best appearance |
The day came and the judges awarded our team for BEST APPEARANCE. It was a close one. The judges have mentioned that painting are judged based both armies in the Team. As a result we won, Rico might have won if his partner had a well painted army as well.
TOURNAMENT PERFORMANCE
I had already known my list was sub-par. In a competitive setting, I would rate my own army list a 3/10. I am fully aware of how limited my list is and its weaknesses. But I paint too slow to be able to churn out a competitive list.
Melhammer OTOH had some beefy units that are useful. Unfortunately they are not configured properly and were lacking the proper equipment to pull off the viciousness that Thunderwolf Calvary list were known for. He also lacked ablative wounds by not having enough Fenrisian Wolves. Likewise, it is too late for him to paint something new in such a short span of time.
Still his list hits harder than my does and I am counting on his Wolves to carry us. While I count on my experience to help carry us further into the game, since I have more games under my belt than he does.
First Game - vs Necrons & Blood Angels
I had faced Blood Angels before and knew more or less what they were capable of. But Necrons was completely new to me. The special rules or mission packs also threw us a curveball. I think on the whole, I should have redeployed or moved my troops to assist Melhammer's Space Wolves. Our opponents utilize a divide and conquer strategy which we fell for. At later stage, I could not find suitable targets to shoot at while Melhammer was tied down and slowly being whittled down by Necron Wraiths.
It was indeed a learning experience. All my previous game experience counted for nothing since I only faced other Marine players before. At the end, we lost by a significant margin and barely had enough troops left to make a difference.
Second Game - vs Blood Angels & Space Marines
We faced up against our own friends. Desmondus and Cmdr W. I had faced this army before and knew what to do. Tried my best to deny any advantages to Skyhammer Annihilation Formation and opt to go second. Although the deployment generally helped, choosing to go second did not.
At the first turn, we lost several key units in Space Wolves element to Cmdr W's move 12" and shoot str 10 barrage template Vindicators... something which I really dreaded. Again, our forces were slowly whittled down until very little was left. At the last turn (game time ran out), I moved all my units that are still alive to the objective and secured them, played accordingly to the special rule of the mission.
We still lost, but it was marginal difference in VP. Not bad. But then later, Desmondus realized that his Grav Cannons actually had 3/5 Salvo and not 4 shots. He had played them wrongly. So if he had done it correctly, I think our different in VP would be much more significant.
Third Game - vs Tyranids & Eldar
I have some rough idea of what Tyranids and Eldar could do in theory but never played against them before either and our opponents are two of the most experienced players in the 40K tournament scene.
At this point in time, I could no longer focus with my headache and knowing we stand very little chance against our very experienced opponents - I have mentally thrown in the towel already.
The mission this time requires us to pick up the relic and hold it until the end of the game. So we deployed most of our forces in the center near the relic since we have no idea how to deploy against our opponents.
As expected, our opponents took us apart piece meal and eventually tabled us. Both of us were quite tired and just conceded after 3 or 4 turns. The saving grace was that our opponents were quite entertaining and we had a lot of funny moments in that game even though we lost. Out of all three games we played, the last game was the most entertaining.
CONCLUSION
I think that both my partner and myself were not really prepared to go all out to win. We basically wrote army list based on our collection of painted models. A competitive player serious about winning would include competitive units or set-up within their army list and have appropriate models for it.
Although I am a little disappointed with myself that I did not help carry our team and that we ended up at the bottom of the tournament. Felt that I let my team down.
At this stage, I think I fall into the category of a narrative gamer/collector.
My current focus still remains to finish my backlog of unpainted models to the level I am satisfied with. What this means is that I will still be far away from actually being able to compete seriously in a tournament. I will need to re-adjust my expectations regarding competitive gaming. I should probably refrain from giving tactical advice or commentary until I have some substantial wins under my belt.
I really should paint up more transports. My current list feels so much like a sitting duck army list. It is just waiting for things to happen and far too passive to win any games.
Still a looong way to go....
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