Why Mech is King and Purgatus Sucks at Warhams

Hello fellow bloggers.

I am back from the TSHFT Invitational. I had two good wins, two good losses, and two... I don't know, bad losses?

I must admit I didn't really devote any time to studying the format of the event, or the scoring system. For those interesting in the format, you can find out more here.

Suffice to say I am not a huge fan, which is probably to be expected.

I'm not a fan of Battlepoint tournaments. I'm not a fan of crazy missions or whacky "bonus" objectives. I didn't carefully select pairings of secondary and tertiary objectives for each of several different types of opponent armies.

I basically focused on the main mission, and tried my darndest to win it come hell or high water. Many players simply played for draws, and focused on the bonus missions, which were actually worth more than a win.

When you are diving full strength for a win, and your opponent is holding back conservatively and not taking risks to also try to win, sometimes you basically  hand your army to them.

This is doubly true when the "win" condition for two out of six games requires you to take objectives in your opponent's deployment zone, with a foot slogging army. Doubly especially with out any line of sight blocking terrain against a Grey Knight army with 100+ anti-infantry shots that you have to walk into in order to take objectives which are all on your opponent's half of the board.

Ugh.

Now, it didn't help that I didn't sleep very well before or during the weekend.

It didn't help that I basically haven't been playing the game for the better part of the year.

And it certainly didn't help that I was basically playing a whacky battlepoints tournament as if it was a win/loss tournament. So there is certainly plenty of blame for myself.

But the reality is that I didn't have fun. And I get frustrated when I play in settings that are like that. It's not my "schtick." So I won't play in those types of tournaments anymore.

And I'm not going to try and play "unique" armies anymore, either. I'm not going to play footsloggers just to be different. I'm going to mech up, play my Grey Knights like everyone else, and not give a fuck what anyone says about how common, overpowered, or cheesy they are.

But for the record, Psychotrope grenades are complete and utter horseshit. Just sayin'.

So, expect Razorbacks, Psyflemen Dreads, and lots of Psycannons. It's just the way this edition works. Sixth edition might be different but for now I'm just going to play my Knights.

Anyways.

I hope you all had a great weekend, and for the record, all my opponents were completely pleasant and probably putting up with a really bitchy and cranky Purgatus, so I apologize to them.

Heading to TSHFT Invitational

My bags are packed... I'm ready to go... Leaving... in a Hyundai... I'm pretty sure that I'll be back by Sunday...

Yeah, I'm pretty poetic. Anyways, I've earned a spot at this year's The Seattle Heart of Fire Tournament (TSHFT) Invitational. So I'm throwing caution to the wind and going to a GT instead of studying for my midterms. Hooray!

To show just how "unplugged" from gaming I have become, I spent the evening today gathering my crap for the tournament. I couldn't find my codex for like 45 minutes, I was missing several minis, and... I can't find my dice.

Like, at all.

I got so desperate that I had to raid my old RPG dice bag for all the odd colored, mismatched D6's I could find.

How embarrassing.

I also can't find my Tac Template, which is just really really shitty. Playing a foot army without a Tac Template is just asking for trouble. Ugh.

Anyways, I'm heading out early tomorrow morning. I'll try to post the results up here for you guys, along with some photos if I can.

My army list tomorrow, for those who care:

 Logan Grimnar

Rune Priest, Living Lightning, Murderous Hurricane

Lone Wolf, Terminator, Storm Shield, Chainfist
 Lone Wolf, Terminator, Storm Shield, Chainfist
Wolf Scouts x 5, Meltagun

Wolf Guard x 10, Terminator x 2 w/Cyclones and Chainfists, Arjac Rockfist, Power Armor w/Combimelta and Wolf Claw
Wolf Guard x 5, Terminator x 1 w/Cyclone
Wolf Guard x 5, Terminator x 1 w/Cyclone
Wolf Guard x 5, Terminator x 1 w/Cyclone
Wolf Guard x 5, Terminator x 1 w/Cyclone

Longfangs x 2 w/Lascannons, Packleader
Longfangs x 2 w/Lascannons, Packleader
Longfangs x 4 w/Multimeltas, Packleader, Drop Pod

2000 Points

Doesn't look like much, but... well maybe it's just not much. Lol.

 There's a few ways it could be improved, but it's painted perty and that's important. I'm waiting till sixth to do anything new. Arjac rides with the Loganbomb Longfangs in the Drop Pod, and the Combimelta/Wolf Claw goes with the scouts. The remaining eight man unit along with the Rune Priest are my midfielders, supported by two smaller five man units and the Lone Wolves. The two units in the backfield give up a Wolf Guard each to the Longfang units (which should be missiles but I have Lascannons painted so bite me) to make them not totally die to a gentle breeze. And then Logan's unit comes in and hopefully just causes a ruckus. They usually do.

I'm excited to try out Arjac for the first time (giggle).

Later gents.

Best General RTT

Took Best General at a RTT today, a small one with only ten players, but I was the only undefeated at the end and played some tough opponents. I brought a 1500 point version of my Loganwing, and it did very well. I was tied for Best Overall as well, but the other player had a higher sports score and so got the nod. There were some flaws in the paint scoring, but life goes on. In any case, I had a great time in all three of my games, though my last two were very high tension. Onwards and upwards!

GREAT Flames Gaming Day

So DylanGould and I paired up against 3000 points of Soviet armor. Historically accurate? No. Fun? Hell yes! We played on an eight foot table, Hasty Attack, which meant that we started with half our forces in reserve, had Delayed Reserves which meant they didn't come on for a long time, and had Scattered Reserves which meant that they didn't come on where we wanted to. Yikes! To add insult to injury, Dylan and I were both playing 5 Platoon armies, which meant that only 2 of our armies got to start on the board from each army. Yeck. So I started with an eight gun battery of 25 pounder arty, which I set up around our two objectives on the forward edge of some woods. I figured they could fire bombardments and shoot direct fire at anything which tried to get close. Dylan deployed a full Armored Rifle Platoon around the same objective. I took one platoon of Cromwells + Firefly, attached my CO and 2ic, and sent them up the right flank. Dylan deployed a battery of Priests (armored arty) on the right flank too. So facing us... 3000 points of Soviet armor. Two T-34 Platoons with Tank Escorts on one, two units of honkin' huge Assault Guns (one with Tank Escorts), an eight gun arty battery, a mechanized infantry platoon, and some other peripherals. Now, he had the same reserve status as we did, so we didn't face the full might of his army all at once. But he deployed his arty and his assault guns and some 85 mm Heavy Anti-aircraft (really anti-tank) guns, and basically moved up and started pounding on us. I spent most of the game trying to turn his right flank and roll up his arty park, but he was able to stop me with some assault guns which had a hard time killing my Cromwells, but which also refused to die due to ridiculous armor values. His first assault gun platoon rolled up and parked in front of our defensive positions and volley fired us turn after turn. They had breakthrough guns (ignore saves) and 2+ firepower, so every turn they picked off defending troops and guns. His arty kept my arty well surpressed (my guns are Reluctant, so had a hard time unpinning), but at the same time our defensive position was too tough for him to just assault into without weakening it. His reserves came on and he rolled his two large T-34/85 Platoons up the center headed for our gut. Our turn came, and we got a platoon of Cromwells and a Firefly. The Firefly scooted over to a hedge to the right of the objective, with a clear field of fire onto the front side of the objective. The Cromwells double moved to the left and stayed concealed behind the woods that the objective was in. We were able to start popping a few of his T-34s with the Firefly, some direct fire from the Priests and some long-range Cromwell fire (the order this stuff happened in might be a little off but the general idea is there). We got a platoon of Sherman 76's and sent them running up the left flank towards our objective, and put some pressure on him, causing one of the T-34 platoons to divert off to the left. Finally, he committed to trying to take the objective, and killed a few infantry men in assault, moving up to claim. On our turn we got another Cromwell Platoon in, and shot his Assault Guns with 3 Firefly shots from close range, blew up a bunch of his T-34's by combining fire from 2 Cromwell platoons shooting into his flanks, etc. We bailed out or destroyed all the Assault Guns, and then assaulted them with Infantry auto-killing them all. His T-34 Platoon was destroyed, his assault guns were destroyed, and our opponent conceded. It was a great game, and really felt like a battle. We struggled and struggled to turn his flank, our arty batteries were duking it out we came out on top with a vicious counter-attack from flanking reserves. It was a good Sunday. Dylan can correct any errors in my memory, but I think I got the gist of it.

Flames Photos

Ok, so here are some photos of my recent games and my assembled Tank Company. You will see that I'm missing one CS tank, and two Crusaders to bring myself up to the 1750 mark, and of course my AOP plane, my Recce Stuarts, and my 8 gun Arty battery. So still a ways to go actually. Still!

Cromwells... ASSEMBLE!

So, I just got done assembling 11 Cromwells, 1 Cromwell CS, and 3 Sherman Firefly VCs.

Yikes.

Getting the tanks ready to hit the table by throwing on the tracks is easy. Getting all the little 'fiddly bits' like the fenders, the hatches, the crew, the guns, etc. well... it takes some time.

I have to say I am a bit dissapointed by the quality of some of the stuff. The tracks don't have any really clear "line me up here" points, which is strange. Only one of the tanks is actually "screwed up" but, meh.

The fenders don't really want to go on straight, either.

All fixable/ignorable stuff, but it wasn't fantastic.

But at that scale, I can forgive a few sins. These are pretty darned small models.

I will try and take some photos before I prime them all.

And I need to get ahold of an entire 8 gun 25 pounder battery still... so lots to do.

Flames of War - British 7th Armoured vs German Infantry, Quick Recaps

So, I had some excellent learning opportunities provided to me by DylanGould.

I brought out my 1575 list, which is:

2 HQ Cromwells
3 Cromwells, Firefly VC
3 Cromwells, Firefly VC
3 Cromwells, Firefly VC
3 Recce Stuarts
8 x 25 Pound Artillery and the fixin's.
Aerial Observation Post (AoP)

I did take some photos, which I will try to post up at some point. Suffice to say I put my hand into the wood chipper on the first game, and on the second game I almost couldn't have lost because of the mission and his army, and I did in fact "win." Both games were great learning experiences with my army and taught me to respect Pioneers in a serious way. Seriously, these guys in buildings are just ridiculous.

I learned that my army is a hammer, but it's a small hammer which must be applied precisely onto a previously stressed and prepared position in order to win. It's not a "smash your enemy's army to bits" type of a hammer. And that's ok.

It also makes me want to try my hand at infantry. It's always a good sign when playing the game makes you want to try new things, get new armies, etc.