Dernicus here, having put together a short series of recent events I’ve been able to attend in the last month or so. As those who are unfortunate enough to have me in their social media feeds can attest, I’m no slouch in announcing my attendance at these events. I felt like going a bit more into these games would be fun and might give anyone curious about what tournaments mean to a player like myself. Perhaps these will encourage readers to give the various events a go in the future, all of which being regular affairs at their respective locations.
Event: Blue Ox 40k Tournament(Quarterly) (Aug 21, 2016)
Location: Blue Ox Games, Greenville NC
Format: 1500pts, 3 source
List: DA(CAD)/UM(Skyhammer)
Here we are, with the most recent Blue Ox Games tournament, and their Quarterly event no less. For those unfamiliar, the gracious hosts over at Blue Ox feature a Quarterly 40k event that includes an automatic prize support of $250(in store credit)!!! This regardless of attendees, so long as there are enough to play the event. Furthermore, unlike most events, they host their tournaments every month on the 3rd SUNDAY of the month. Always a classy event, and especially with the prize incentive, it was a forgone conclusion that I was going to bring my A game.
For this occasion, I decided to bring a brew of mine featuring Dark Angels, in the form of a CAD of 2 Techmarines as HQ’s and 3 squads of 10 Scouts for all the massed Objective Secured shenanigans that I could muster… this was all supported by/supporting a maxed out Skyhammer Annihilation Force of Ultramarines. This Formation included 20 Jumpack Assault Marines (2x Flamers in each squad of 10), a 10man squad of Devastators with 4x Grav Cannons, and a 10man squad of Devastators with 4x Multi Meltas, both in Drop Pods. This combo of Hammer + Outflanking or Infiltrating/Scouting Marines felt aptly strong at 1500pts, and given Blue Ox’s tournament packet which includes Maelstrom Objectives.
Round 1 saw me paired against the Spacenoid himself Frankie and his UltraMarines. This event he tried to bring as much Heavy pain as he could muster… and boy did he. Something like 3 Vindicators, 3 full squads of Devastators (with Lascannons and Plasma Cannons galore), a squad of Devastator Centurions(Grav Cannons of course), a Thunderfire Cannon, and scouts to sprinkle for flavor. It was a bloody fight, with my Hammer coming in strong early on, but Frankie’s counter punch was, well to say it correctly, HEAVY. I managed to squeak out a close win at 15-12, but there were plenty of points where we were both sweating bullets.
Round 2 put me up against Rob and his insane list of Harlequins and Corsairs. And let me just say, Space-Pirate-Ninja-Clown-Magic-Fairies are ridiculous. To his credit, Rob does field this army regularly (don’t look to closely at his models, man’s a bit lack luster on finishing his hobby work at times), but even so, the list functions on the obscurest of the obscure factions. With rules on top of rules and things that constantly make you question if someone is just making stuff up, the combo’s it brings to bare can be demoralizing. Both sides set their sights on sweeping away each other, with a lot of crazy dice rolls (a Techmarine holding out in CC vs a Corsair Prince + a Harlequine JetBike for 3 rounds of combat!!). That said, the soldiers of the Imperium stood strong, making plenty of our own ludicrous plays, pulling out a 20-7 win (Go Go gadget Grim Resolve overwatch shots!).
Finishing off the event was my 3rd round vs Jack’s Daemons. A bit of a change up from playing the Tetrad formation of Daemons, Jack instead just decided to have some fun with a trusty Great Unclean One, a Nurgle Daemon prince, a pack of Khorne Hounds, a couple different flavors of Heralds, and a pair of Tzneetch Chariots. The mission was primarily Kill Points and Jack was determined to throw everything the Warp could muster at my Marines. I made some questionable choices, and with some great rolls Jack held the day in a close loss of 19-20!! It goes to show that even a non-optimized list has plenty of play in that Codex if played to the mission (or played by a witch like Jack, ha!).
In the end I came in 2nd place overall to Frankie, who’s games against the others (as he lost to me first round) were max point tablings, pushing him just past me by 1 measly point!! Still the event was great despite the low turnout. Nick and the guys at Blue Ox do well by us and its always a good time. I hope you enjoyed this brief glimpse into a tournament with me, I’ll be posting more like this (perhaps with some Plays of the Game mixed in… and better photos!). Until next time…. Data-link Disabled.