Wound up on table one against Mark's really annoyingly tough IG army to determine first/second for the Tournament... Have to admit I was a bit surprised, I somehow skirted my "bad" matchups and by playing hyper aggressive I think I surprised the Danville players. They really didn't expect the Drop Pods full of scoring Sternguard dropping right on top of them, and the Thunderfire Cannons are just REALLY effective against Infantry based Armies...
Game one I played against Noah's IG force, but it was at the 500 point level... Sternguard dropped in, got "First Blood" by offing his Platoon Command Squad before dying... Was the game winner for me.
Game 2 I wound up against a Tyranid force @ 1000 points with a Swarmlord, Flying Tyrant, Tyrvagon (? Spawns more termigaunts), a few other things... Had 2 full Scouts Squads (one sniper, one HtH/Shotgun), Thunderfire and the 2 Sternguard Squads (5 man each) with Pedro Kantor. I think had the Tyranid player played it a bit more aggressively, I would have been wiped out. My reserves waited until turn 4 to arrive, so it was a hard fight... Surprisingly I did a LOT of damage with what I had though, so when the second wave hit, they claimed an objective and killed the Swarmlord getting me to a draw with a LOT of things killed... Well, dead Tyranids at least. I had surprisingly few casualties given the army I was facing. Thinking back more on it, I REALLY think that had he moved up to engage early, I would have been wiped out before my reserves arrived. But the Draw was enough to advance me, keeping me without a loss, and raking in a LOT of tiebreaker points.
Game 3 was a bad matchup for the kid I faced. He ran a BA/Necron list with a big Fortress setting him back 250-280 points... So, he was starting down points, and he was REALLY not ready for an army as aggressive as mine. Having said that, the ORD missile swarm was REALLY powerful. Not sure it is worth THAT much, but I think I could have used it a lot better... He also had Mephiston and some big named Necron character, so 3 things that were REALLY expensive and hard to protect. Drop Pod hit, Heavy Flamer alone almost wiped the min size Necron Troop squad, and took the Cron Lord to a single wound. Second Sternguard Squad was what killed off Mephiston. SO many Plasma and Melta shots, and no INV save or Cover save for him... Unfortunately, I shot off all of my Meltas against Meph and to kill the Las Cannon/Dev Squad... Building explosion is BRUTAL... The Dev Squad ate something like 15 STR 6 hits when I melta'd the building they were in...
So, on to the final game on table one... Mark's IG force ran the field against some of the armies that I could not have dealt easily with in Necron and GK mostly... OTOH, I could almost guarantee killing a lot of KP if this was what it ended up being or at the least killing off the things he had to hold objectives... I think this was probably the thing that lost it for him. Sternguard dropping in with Heavy Flamers meant that the Infantry screen melted. First Blood, Warlord death and going up in KP almost immediately meant I more or less needed to be wiped off the field for him to win. Sniper Scouts had no targets, but they hid and preserved their KP... Thunderfire Cannon were useless after Turn one, but the Techmarines were huge.... Flamer, TL Plasma Pistol, dual Power Fists? Works really well... BUT having said that, I think that this is the last time I field 2 of them...
Got to say, I'm kind of burned out a bit. Going to take a week or three to see what happens I guess.
