Arcanacon 2013

[majorspeirs]

Last weekend I attended Arcanacon 2013 which involved six 1200 point games over two days. I’ve written up my six games, however they are more general than my usual blow-by-blow accounts.

I placed 52/118 which was up from 99/146 last year. I was stoked to have improved my standing and to have placed in the top 50%. All six games were enjoyable and resulted in two wins, a draw and three losses. I also walked away with the award for the best display base and the award for the TO’s choice of best army. This is the force I took:

CCS w/Power Weapon, Lascannon, MoO and Camo Cloaks
Veterans w/Shotguns, 3x Flamer, Carapace and Demolitions (aka “Engineer Vets”)
Veterans w/2x Plasmagun, Autocannon and Forward Sentries (aka “Regular Vets”)
Veterans w/2x Plasmagun, Heavy Bolter and Forward Sentries (aka “Regular Vets”)
Marbo
Vendetta w/ 3x Lasannons (aka “The Blimp”)
Manticore w/ Heavy Flamer
2x Griffon w/ 2x Heavy Bolter
Colossus w/ Heavy Flamer
Total: 1200

Overall the list was enjoyable to play with and performed okay. It was able to deliver a punishing barrage of artillery and large blast markers, but as soon as it started taking hits it crumpled like a wet paper bag. I pointed this out to a few opponents who were a bit irked with the initial damage and they promptly perked up when they realised that I wasn’t joking . Here is a shot of the army arrayed on their display board, along with my prizes for the weekend.







I was particularly pleased with the book, as I had been planning on buying it. I apologise in advance to my opponents for any inaccuracies, and I apologise to you the reader for the less than perfect photo quality and grammar.

[majorspeirs]

Game 1

The first game of the tournament was against Jason who had a foot-slogging Space Wolves army. It comprised of a Rune Priest, a unit of Drop-Podding Wolf Guard Terminators, a Chain Fist/Storm Shield/Terminator Lone Wolf, three large Grey Hunter Squads with Terminator Wolf Guard and a unit of 4x Missile Long Fangs. The army was themed as an Iron Hands successor chapter and had lots or really nice and effective conversions.

The mission was Dawn of War deployment with five objectives, however there were predefined attackers and defenders. I was the defender and had scoring heavy support units which game up victory points, whilst the attacker had the same with fast attack. It is worth noting that standard secondary objectives added to our individual score for the round, but weren’t used to decide victory.

After rolling night fight my opponent took first turn and deployed evenly across the centre of his deployment. I placed my Colossus as far into my left corner as possible (our or range of the Long Fangs). The Griffons were placed a foot to its right (out of LoS of the Long Fangs), with the infantry squads deployed in between. The Manticore didn’t really fit in the plan so I placed it far off to my right, reasoning that I would reinforce it with the Engineer Vets in the Blimp when required (or just use it as a distraction unit).





Much to my surprise I seized the initiative (it rarely happens)! With careful application of searchlights and fields of fire I proceeded to launch a deluge or artillery fire at the other side of the board. The end result was 15 dead marines, with one squad breaking and regrouped half an inch from the board edge.

On the left flank the Wolf Guard terminators dropped down and plastered the Griffons, only to be promptly Plasma gunned in the face by my infantry squads. My left hand squad was shot by the Long Fangs, broke and eventually ran off the board. In return I managed to hit the regrouped marine squad who were hiding behind a building) with the MoO which netted another casualty, causing them to again break and flee off the board edge.



On the right flank the Lone Wolf, Rune Priest and Grey Hunters advanced. The Lone Wolf minced the Manticore and hid to claim Linebreaker. The Rune Priest and Grey Hunters hunkered down on the objective and suffered many turns of sustained artillery bombardment. I eventually managed to kill the Priest, but was unable to shift the remaining few Grey Hunters (thanks largely to the Terminator Wolf Guard leading the squad (who eventually rolled a 1 and died)).



Back on the left flank the remaining Vet squad spent a few turns trying to Krak Grenade the Drop Pod, but after only knocking off two hull points had to double time it onto the nearby objective. After its failed attempt to fry the Lone Wolf the Blimp boosted across the board and deposited the Engineers on an objective. The Long Fangs then unleashed upon the poor Engineers for two turns, but they were able to hang on and take the objective (it helped that I made all five 4+ saves on the last turn).







It was a victory to the Engineers as we called the game at Turn 5 as we thought the round was almost finished. It turned out we could have played another turn or two (if we’d rolled appropriately). If we’d continued it could have gone either way, as my Engineers may have been shot off their objective, however the remaining few Grey Hunters or the Long Fangs (the threat to the Engineers) would probably have been killed by the MoO and Colossus.

[majorspeirs]

Game 2

My second game was against Dan, who eventually went on to win the tournament. His army was Space Wolves and friends, and consisted of a Thunderwolf Lord with a unit of accompanying Thunderwolves, a Rune Priest, two small Grey Hunter units in Rhinos, an Imperial Guard Primaris Psyker, a Veteran Squad and a Vendetta. I must apologise to Dan for not taking more photos of his lovely models and not being able to write a more detailed report.

The mission was the reverse of the first game, and unfortunately I was on the same board (damn Table 40). My deployment was on the opposite side but ended up mirroring that of the first game. The Space Wolves deployed a Rhino with the Rune Priest and Grey Hunters behind a building on the objective in the far corner and the Thunderwolves were ready to advance straight down the centre.



As I had first turn I launched pretty much everything I had against the Thunderwolves. In the end I managed to kill one plus the Lord’s wolf, after which they promptly failed their Morale test and fled straight off the board edge. Despite this 500 or so point setback Dan proceeded to outplay me at every stage and comfortably win the day.

A few incidents of note were that it took me about three turns to eventually kill that damnable first Rhino, and my Blimp was immediately shot down by the opposing Vendetta (killing all on board). The Colossus also lost its main gun, meaning it drove around acting as a mobile shield.



I wasn’t paying nearly enough attention to the objectives, which was capitalised on by Dan who secured three to my one. Despite the crushing defeat it was a fun game and Dan was a great opponent.

[majorspeirs]

Game 3

The third game was Vanguard Strike Deployment, with 4-5 objectives and a special rule allowing terrain to be set on fire. My opponent was Kenneth who was playing with an all Drop Podding/Deep Striking Black Templars army. It comprised a Castellan, the Emperor’s Champion, two Crusade Squads in Drop Pods, a regular Terminator Squad in a Drop Pod and a Deep Striking Assault Terminator Squad. To my horror I was again placed on Table 40, but my opponent was kind enough to agree to swapping to another much more interesting board.

I castled up defensively in my corner and prepared for the assault to come on turn one, which arrived in the form of the Castellan with a Crusade Squad and the standard Terminators. They managed to knock two hull points off the Manticore but unfortunately failed to damage the Colossus. This was unfortunate because when combined with the Veterans in the ruins it killed the Castellan and his Crusade Squad. The remainder of my firepower managed to kill two of the Terminators.





My opponent took advantage of the mission special rules and managed to set the ruins on fire. This meant that the building was now difficult terrain and blocked all line of sight. Furthermore units were unable to shoot in or out of the building. In an awesome visual the remaining Terminators came stomping into the fire-wreathed chaos and engaged the veterans as the building crumbled around them. A Terminator was killed due to dangerous terrain but the two that remained hunted down and killed the Vets. Unfortunately I was unable to shoot them inside the fiery chaos, so they came lumbering out and assaulted the Colossus.



Whilst they attempted to take down the tank I tried to move the CCS away from their threat radius, but they were eventually caught. After about three rounds of combat they were killed, but not before taking down one Terminator (this was my first instance in 6th of, “Oh! Oh! I actually bought a Power Sword!!... oh... wait.... AP3...”)



Meanwhile on the centre of my board edge the second regular Vet squad arrived, and much to their horror the Assault Terminators materialised next to them.



The following turn they, Marbo and all available artillery unleashed upon them and killed all bar one, who was then killed by overwatch when he assaulted the Vets (for memory). The remaining Crusade Squad’s Drop Pod landed in front of these Vets, and was followed very closely by an Colossus shell which killed six of the Crusaders. They retaliated by killing the Veterans and advanced on the central objective.



In one of the coolest moments of the game the Emperor’s Champion (the cool version of the model, not the horrible new one) split off to take out Marbo. Unfortunately the poor Engineer wasn’t up for the challenge and was killed.



The Engineer Veterans had flown across the board in their Blimp and claimed the far objective, and despite unleashing everything I had at the three last Marines holding their objective, I was only able to kill two.


Despite the initial devastating casualties Kenneth successfully fought back and the result was a draw. This turned out to be quite a tense game and was very fun.

[majorspeirs]

Game 4

My fourth game was against Gideon and his glibly Nids. His army comprised of a Tyranid Prime, two Hive Guard, two Warrior Broods, a large mob of Hormagaunts, a flock of Gargoyles and a Mawloc. I particularly liked his use of gloss varnish on the chitenous carapace, as it really made the models look alien and icky. The mission was Hammer and Anvil with an objective in the centre of each table third. What made it different was that you retained control over the objective once you moved away from it.

The table was a lovely snow covered wasteland with blasted ruins and rocky outcrops. I really enjoyed this game because it really had that theatrical feel to it. Throughout the entire game it felt like the beleaguered Imperial Guard had set up a defensive line of men and artillery to hold off the advancing Xenos horde. My plan had been to hold my objective and use the Engineers in their Blimp to take the opposing home objective.

The Nids deployed at the 24 inches ready to jump off, with the Warriors in the centre and the smaller beasts moving down the flank. I deployed my infantry in the centre and my tanks around the perimeter. I made a point of perching the MoO on a rock for LoS across the incoming field. Very importantly my opponent rolled the Stealth(Ruins) Warlord Trait (there was a very large area terrain ruin in front of his deployment zone).









In the centre the small units swarmed forward either side of the central ruins whilst the Warriors and Hive Guard advanced through them. These units came under constant artillery bombardment throughout the game (it was the only game where my artillery actually survived more-or-less intact). The Gaunts suffered about 50% casualties from the Griffons, whilst both Warrior units were mauled by the constant artillery fire. Those damnable 3+ cover saves from those ruins preserved the Warriors from the worst of the barrage, and a number of Look out Sir rolls saved the Prime from being insta-gibbed by the MoO and Manticore. The Gargoyles lost all bar one of their number and I figured I’d ignore it and shoot at something else, but hilariously the MoO scattered about 12 inches off the Warriors he was firing at and landed directly on top of the poor little bugger and killed him.









Marbo also decided to pop up in the middle of the Ruins with the Warriors, but wiffed his demo charge (those damnable 3+ cover saves!) and was promptly munched.



Meanwhile back in my deployment zone I had a rather pressing matter to attend to: The Mawloc had popped up and stolen my pig!! “Hands up or the pig gets it!!”



After exhausting every possible weapon at my disposal, ranging from infantry squad Lasguns and Plasmaguns and the Blimp’s Lascannons to an incredibly risky artillery shot from my MoO (his first shot landed square on an infantry squad, but thanks to Bring it Down was able to re-roll), I reduced the Mawloc to one wound but was unable to take it out. The Mawloc had killed most of one infantry squad with its blast template-thing (three left) and charged into combat with the second Vet unit. What ensued was the most ridiculous 5-6 rounds of combat I’ve seen in a long time. In the end the last plucky Plasmagunner had seen at least two rounds facing the beast on his lonesome before the beast gave up and “hit-and-ran” out of there.





Meanwhile I had moved the remnants of my other infantry squad to screen the CCS to prevent losing my Warlord (and to allow the MoO to continue firing). The remnants were promptly eaten, but the game finished before the CCS could suffer the same fate. Also by this point the Mawloc was back up to five wounds due to Regeneration.



After a few turns the Blimp finally made it to the backfield to try and take the opposing home objective and it was here that I made a critical error and lost the game. I should have deployed the Engineers as far away from the approaching Warriors and Prime as possible and hoped they rolled poorly to charge them. Instead I went for Death or Glory and deployed to try and kill them. Normally this unit is pretty killy with its Demo Charge, Flamers and Shotguns (plus the Blimp’s Lascannons), but alas the Prime and a Warrior weathered the storm (those damnable 3+ ruin cover saves!!). The engineers were promptly munched, resulting in my opponent holding two objectives to my one.



Despite the loss this was my favourite game of the weekend. It was very fun, thematic and most importantly it came down to the very closing moments to decide the result.

[majorspeirs]

Game 5
My fifth game was against Steve and his crazed Khorne Bezerkers. He had a Lord on a Juggernaut, three units of Bezerkers, a Maulerfiend, a Hellbrute, a Rhino and a Helldrake with the turret-flamer-thing. This was two objectives on Dawn of War deployment with some crazy rules about units worth less than 200 points popping up randomly, but I was boring and didn’t use them. The culmination of these was a Hellbrute arrived in the centre of my table edge from reserve.

The table had a spectacularly huge tower with large causeways and a landing pad. Since there was no area terrain I simply deployed out in the open, tight into one corner. The opposing army was arrayed opposite ready to advance and reap some carnage.



With first turn I proceeded to kill five of the advancing Bezerker squad and wound the Maulerfiend (which promptly regenerated the damage). Over the next turn or so as the Khorne forces advanced I managed to destroy the Rhino, kill some of the Bezerkers camping on the home objective, and most importantly took a gamble and cunningly insta-gibbed the Khorne Lord with the Manticore.





Things began deteriorating when the Chaos units started hitting my lines. The Maulerfield munched through a Griffon before the MoO called in a barrage and exploded it. The Hellbrute arrived and killed the other Griffon whilst the Helldrake proceeded to systematically kill pretty much all of my infantry. This corner of the field became a bloodbath with everything of mine dying bar the Colossus (which had lost its big gun). Amusingly when there was a Bezerker from each advanced unit left the Manticore fired on one, missed, then scatted the two remaining templates directly on top of each (it only killed one). The last scoring Bezerker in this quarter was killed off by three Lascannon rounds from the Blimp







Meanwhile on my opponent’s objective the Engineers zoomed in, deployed and killed three of the four Bezerkers holding it (the rest had been hit by the Colossus earlier). The Bezerker Sergeant survived and proceeded to die to overwatch fire when charging the Engineers.






The game ended here as a win, with the only scoring unit on the board holding the opposing objective. It was a bloodbath all round (Khorne would be pleased – blood and skulls all round) and was a very tight victory at the end. If we’d rolled another turn and my Blimp had failed to shoot down the Helldrake I could have kissed the Engineers goodbye. Regardless, it was another great game.

[majorspeirs]

Game 6

Much to my delight my sixth game was a rematch against my sixth round opponent from last year; Gene and his stunning Elysians. Last year I lost with my Osarian 10th, so this year I would attempt to reclaim some honour using the 42nd Krieg Engineers.

Gene’s army was the same as last year and has held up remarkably well to the changes of 6th Edition. It contains Creed in a Chimera, a PCS with Flamers, two bald Infantry Squad blobbed together, two Melta/Demo Vet squads in Vendettas and an outflanking Hellhound Squadron (thanks to Creed) with a Hellhound with Heavy Flamer and Banewolf with Multimelta. I’m really fond of his army build, as it is very aggressive, punchy and focussed.

It was an Annihilation mission (same as Round 6 last year) on Hammer and Anvil deployment, and I deployed ready to unleash hell on the units opposite. The Elysian blob, PCS and Creed’s Chimera all deployed either out of LoS or in cover.







The Elysians advanced away from their board edge and were met by a wall of artillery fire. The PCS was wiped out and the Blob squad broke and fled (luckily they had been moved away from their board edge as they were able to regroup the following turn).



After weathering a turn of artillery strikes the Elysian reinforcements arrived and started to wreak havoc. A Vendetta damaged the Manticore whilst the Hounds damaged the Colossus and killed half an infantry squad. The Manticore retreated away from its foe whilst the MoO and CCS Lascannon blew up the Banewolf. The Vendetta proceeded to deploy the Melta Vets, which went after my Griffons, while the Vendetta finally killed the Colossus. While in Hover mode the nearly dead Manticore and the MoO lobbed shells at it, taking it down to only one hull point. My mauled Veterans launched into combat with the remaining Hellhound and Krak Grenaded it to death. The Vendetta then retreated and blew up the Manticore, which exploded and caused these Vets to break and flee off the board.







Before the Griffons were taken out over two turns by the enemy Melta Vets they had managed to destroy Creed’s Chimera and damage his squad, who decided it would be best to hunker down in cover.







My second Veteran squad moved to intercept the Melta Vets whilst they were occupied shooting at the Griffons, and after failing to make their charge on one turn launched into combat. As the squads hammered at one another the Sergeants duelled, and at the end of the combat the Engineers prevailed, having successfully cut their Elysian foe down.



My Blimp flew directly into the fray a turn or two late and shot at the second enemy Vendetta, taking off two hull points (again?!). This Vendetta proceeded to blow the blimp out of the sky, killing all but a lonesome Flamer operator.





The end result was a resounding victory to the Elysians. Last year had been down to a single kill point (that damnable Veteran Sergeant!!), but this year it was a more substantial defeat on my behalf. That said it was still a nice heated game, and I hope that we are able to have another rematch at the 2014 Arcanacon for me to restore my twice wounded pride.

[majorspeirs]

In all I had a blast at Arcanacon, and I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at my game reports. My list handled itself well given its flaws, but in future I will be making some changes to stop it folding like a house of cards whenever anything gets near it. After the six games I’m awarding three decorations:

Man of the Match: The Plasmagunner who survived about six rounds of combat with a Mawloc
Consistency Award: The MoO once again proves to be an incredibly good use of 30 points
Rubber Ducky: Marbo proved to be useless in pretty much every game. I know he can be amazing, but if there are no valuable infantry targets (he is rubbish against vehicles) when he arrives he severely suffers.

Thank you to my six stellar opponents and thank you to the Arcanacon organisers, as the weekend was a blast.

[Ponen19]

Sounds like it was a good time! Was there an actuall numbered placeing for you board and army or did you just win that part of the con? Thanks for the BatReps!

[majorspeirs]

The award for the display board was the only one, whilst the "TO's Choice Best Army" was one of four best army awards (alongside Best Painted, Best New Army and the illustrious Players Choice).