Astronomi-con

Lee · Initiate Joined: 04 Oct 2008 Posts: 15

Vancouver Astronomi-con 09

I brought my Ork's to Astronomi-con in Vancouver
My 1,500pts:
• Warboss on bike with PK, combi-scorcha and cybork body
• Big Mek with KFF
• Loota's x 8
• Burna's x 7 (they ride in the Battle wagon with the Big Mek)
• Mega Nobs x 4 (two with scorcha) truck with Ram
• Slugga Mob x 30 (Nob with PK and pole)
• Slugga mob x 30 (Nob with PK and pole)
• Ard boyz x 12 (Nob with PK/pole), truck with Ram
• A Scorcha and a shoota buggy
• Battle wagon with Deth roller, armour, 2 x BS's

This list gave me a 17 out of 20 for comp (an extra HQ, extra Elite, and one extra Troop choice more than your supposed to have). I didn't think my list was to hard or cheesy but someone else might....and thought so and dinged me two points

My painting needs more work but I was very busy this year so next year I'll have to try harder. This year I got 14 out of 30. Ouch! I was going to play my Tau but they were even less painted...

When I arrived I there were about 26 players with some beautiful armies. I post some pictures later.

Game One
I got to play Magnus from Washington state and his Space wolfs on a desert board. He had about 16 Grey Hunters, 11 Blood claws, scouts, Wolf guard and Wolf Priest HQ, Drop podding Dread and a Crusader LR.

The primary mission was to Retrieve canister's on a neutral convoy heading to the right from the neutral zone in front of each of us. There were six armour 10 trucks with heavy stubbers that would randomly try to get of the board.

I won the roll to pick sides and to go first, and so I set up everything as close to the middle of the board as I could while Magnus did the same.
The trucks started first with most of the them rear ending each other in a line closer to my side than Magnus's side (lucky for me Wink

.

Once the game began there wasn't a lot of shooting as the trucks fell to mass boyz or Loota fire, Magnus Space wolfs were very eager to destroy the trucks and managed to destroy two trucks and the cargo, leaving four containers, three near me and one truck racing toward the edge of the board. This escaping truck was damaged by the Loota's 3" from the board edge because we would both get a victory point for destroying all the trucks.

Magnus was unable to get any real firing on my boyz because he hadn't provided any flamers to his Wolfs (just Melta's) so most of our fighting was in CC. At the end there was the Battle wagon, one Mob, Burna's, Loota's vs A dread and Wolf Leader.

Our game ended on turn five with him holding a Canister with his dread at the far side of the map (smart move by Magnus), and his leader holding the other and staring down 30 boyz holding my two canisters and burna's who were moving in on him. Draw for both of us. Magnus played for the "Mamma's boyz" and was cool to play with.

Ork MVP - none really, they all worked well together.

Space Wolf MVP- The Wolf guard battle leader was a pain by eliminating my Ard boyz in CC (with some Hunters), one combat by two and chased down the Ard boyz, then took a canister.

Game two
This was a game versus Dan, an Idaho gamer from the "Gamers Haven" club. This game was on another table without much terrain but with a building in the middle with a neutral Inquisitor (with Retinue) who was trying to interrogate a demon vessel. The building was protected by a force field so that anyone trying to get in would be damaged by D6 str 9 Ap2 hits unless the pylons on the ends were damaged (armour 14)or overloaded on a six while trying to cross. Cool thing was that you would draw from four cards to get your secret mission. He drew the mission to kill the inquisitor while I had to keep him alive. Escalation rules were in effect.

He brought a Tyranid monstrous creature list with four shooty TMC's, Shooty Tyrant with guard, and three Genestealer broods (ten each).

I again won the roll to go first and placed two Mobz near as possible to the inquisitor as did my opponent. With his scout move he moved closer to the inquisitor, who will shoot at the closest enemy (unless you have the ally card like I had). The Inquisitor fired all game at the Tyranids but maybe removed about six Stealers (removing one Brood).

The Tyranids tried to sneak past the force field (on a six the field would come down) but lost four stealers instead. He wouldn't try again until the big bugs came on turn #2 and easily shoot down the one force field wall on his side. Since I was an ally, I could go through the wall with ease, which I did to assault one Mob into a Brood after it was shoot up and scorched by the warboss/mob. My Ork's were able to assault almost all the big bug's as he had to concentrate on shooting the Inquisitor. At the end he had one TMC left while all my Ork's were in his deployment zone.

He had the inquisitor retinue shot off the table but wasn't able to get any wound in on him (2+ save, whew...). Win for the Ork's.

My opponent was great also and besides trying to get through the wall one (which he shouldn't have), there wasn't much more he could have done as the Inquisitor/retinue had a 4+ cover save. A couple lucky rolls in which his Barbed stranglers didn't deviate might have won the game for him.

Ork MVP - Well, I would have to give it to one of the slugga Mobz which won CC vs two TMC's and a Genestealer Brood ( they were down to about eight boyz by then)

Tyranid MVP - Definitely the Tyrant and guard who only had two turns to play but shot once at a mob to eliminate eleven boyz, then put eight wounds on the Inquisitor (which were all saved...). They were removed by four Meganobs in CC after killing one Nob.

Game three
I now was matched against James from Vancouver with his "Hands of the emperor" CSM with a loyalist/Tzeentch flavour. He had a Lord on a bike with Tzeentch daemon weapon, Land Raider with CSM squad of ten, Rhino with a squad of five CSM, a large CSM squad with 15 marines, three CSM bikers, and a possessed Vindicator.

The primary mission was to capture up to four buildings on a desert world with an Oasis in the middle. To capture a building you needed to roll a six on a d6 to find the hidden treasure(or something)but with a +1 for each extra unit or up to +2 for a Big Mek/Loota/techmarine/etc. Some units couldn't even help like Ripper swarms or Berzerkers.

Only three units were allowed to start on the board while the rest came on the board on turn one on a 5+. I placed my two Mobs behind the two buildings on my side with the Loota's, while James placed his Land raider, Vindicator and large CSM squad out. I concentrated on discovering my two buildings which I got both on turn #3, while James mostly shot at my Loota's and searched one of his buildings.

In the end I had to race into the Oasis with one Mob to claim it as a objective since I didn't realize it was an objective until James placed a squad there on turn four. The game then came down to James trying to run into one of my buildings but not rolling the 4" that he needed. The game ended on turn 5 but anymore turns would be definitely in my favour. Ork's win.

James played well but needed more units to search with.

Ork MVP - The warboss helped search in a building, eliminated the Lord, survived a demolisher round, and destroyed the Vindicator.

Hands of the emperor MVP- His squad of seventeen CSM won in CC vs my Ard boyz, then some Meganobz and searched a building

Game four (day two)
I got to play Greg from the Gamers Haven club in Idaho. He was playing a Khorne daemon list with a Ironthirster, three units of Bloodletters, a unit of eight Bloodcrushers (ouch!), and two Soul Grinders.

Greg was a hoot to play with and gave everyone he played a comic book about his army (issue 2 as a continuation from last year, I'll love to have issue three next year).

We played on a desert sandstorm table were any shooting over 12" needed sixes to hit and vehicles couldn't move that turn on a 1. there were a few buildings near the middle with the tallest one occupied by a Vindicare assassin who would be under control of the highest roller each turn ( he didn't do much removing a burna and wounding a crusher during the game.

Mission was table quarters and I again got first turn (wow). I made Greg go first and left everything in reserve except for the Battle wagon and buggies ( I was hoping I'll be able to flame his troops if the appeared too close).

Greg got his A team of Thirster, crushers and two grinders which landed near the middle and my table edge. I moved my Battle wagon into the middle of the board and tried to move the buggies which became stuck in the sand for one turn. On the next turn Greg got two units of letters , one near my board edge and the other near his Thrister in the middle of the board. His grinders charged and removed the battlewagon and buggies but the Burna's got out safely. On turn two I was able to charge and remove the Bloodletters near my board edge while the Ard boyz charged and immobized one of his grinders ( they were stuck in CC until turn 5 when the Ard boyz finally won but Greg rolled really bad for the grinder), The burna's flamed the other letters and removed the squad except for one Blood letter who ran circles around a building as it avoided the sniper and my Mega-nobs in a truck who were trying to kill him. The Mob that removed the Blood letters near my board edge was in turn charged by the Crushers, losing 18 boyz, then the rest to CC resolution. Then my other Mob charged and eliminated the Crushers (100+ str 4 attacks). In the end Greg didn't have enough units to contest all the quarters so I won by one quarter.

Ork MVP- none really, they all worked well together.

Khorne MVP/Turkey - Iron thirster as it removed the Meganobs, hurt the burna's, claimed a victory point for being in the centre of the table, but couldn't stop the truck the Meganobs were in for a few turns (and denied his last squad of Blood thirsters a quarter).

Game five
Was a game vs. Dark Eldar player on a board with four dangerous terrain buildings. The mission was to claim the most of six containers which we placed around the board. He placed his three near the center while I placed mine in three table quarters farthest away from the center.

The Dark Eldar player didn't give me a army list so I'll say he had an Archon, two Succubi units in Raiders, three warrior squads, Warp beast squad, and two Ravagers. He placed half his units in reserve after winning the roll to go first.

The game really resulted in charge, counter charge for both of us with him having much better shooting. Two key points was that I needed to save two wounds on my Turbo boosting Warboss as he was shot up by two warrior squads that I didn't make, giving him a container. The other was the game ending on turn #5, Damn I needed one more turn!

I didn't like to find out later that Web way portals only allow designated reserve units to enter through them, but he was able to use either the table edge or WWP for any of his reserve units. I'll be more informed of Dark Eldar WWP next time but since I haven't ever played against one before I guess I'm allowed some leeway.

Ork MVP - Hmm, they did ok but nobody was great.

Dark Eldar MVP - Nobody great here either but one Succubus squad with the Archon eliminated one Mob after a couple of turns (The Archon died to a choppa taking down his field, then a PK slicing him in half).

Game six
Another James from Vancouver was running a Vulkan list with Vulkan (of course), two squads of Marines, Terminator's with SS/TH, Iron clad dread with pod, Vindicator and Crusader.

The mission was on a somewhat open forest table. James got to be a defender who had to get his HQ off the table to get 150 VP's in a straight VP scenario. He had to set up on his side in a 2' x 2' box. My Orks would come on turn #1 from the three other board edges before he could move.

I ran all my vehicles in on my right side while the two Mobs came in on the left. Loota's arrived on my table edge. James dropped his Dread in front of my vehicles to block them, the rest of his army headed to the Mob side. His shooting wasn't very good as only a few boyz died and hit's on the vehicles missed or did nothing.

On turn two all the vehicles went around the dread/pod and the Mob charged and blew up the Crusader. The Vindicator died to the Loota's also. On James turn he surprised me by turning back into the vehicles and charging my Mega-Nobs (now truckless)and Warboss with Vulkan/five marines/Terminator's and Dread. In the end the Boss and Nobs were sent packing but did manage to kill Vulkan. On the other side his one squads flamer managed to re-roll it's wounds and eliminate 11 Orks (ouch!)
Over the next few turns James removed both Mobs of Ork's and we both denied each other anymore Vp's but the Ork's won for eliminating Vulkan. James was pretty cool to play with too.

Ork MVP - Warboss for removing Vulkan.

Marine - Terminator's, Removed my Warboss and eliminated a Mob of boyz without taking a single causality.

Astronomi-con has to be one of the best tournaments I have attended, (this is my third year) I would highly recommend that if you can attend one, give it a try. http://www.astronomi-con.com/
I gave all my opponents full marks as nobody was playing a cheesy list and were all good to play with.

Kommander Blackrock (Lee)

Oh yeah, would I make changes to my list?
Warboss - I like him but need some more plain Bikers to assist him as he died too easy to shooting (even at T6 3+ save) 7/10
Big Mek - 5+ save isn't good for the boyz when there's escalation, otherwise he helped protect the Wagon, I think I'll replace him next time 5/10
Loota's - These guys are in 100% of my lists but I only take eight as any more become a big target or I over kill the target (or do nothing...)7/10
Burna's - Had a couple of good games but I'll trade them in for a Shoota mob in a battle wagon instead 4/10
Ork Slugga Mobs - Hmmm, they did ok, but they're better than truck boyz and I didn't miss the heavy weapons at all. Still hate combat resolution 6/10
Ard boyz in a truck- They did pretty good as a threat or getting stuck in 8/10
Mega-Nobs in a truck - Pretty good to vs. the right target's and they give me more Scorcha's 8/10
Buggies - Usually screen my other vehicles but didn't have any good games 3/10
Battle wagon - drew a lot of fire but I didn't get to Deth roll anything... 6/10

Muskie · Posted: Fri Jun 12, 2009 2:03 pm Post subject:

Good job typing this all out. I'll get something up tonight or this weekend.

Lord_Infestus · Initiate Joined: 09 Jan 2007 Posts: 22

Thanks for the great game Lee. I'll never forget my last Letter running around that building trying to stay alive until the end of the game. Alas he became nothing but bait for my Thirster.

See you next year!

Lee · Initiate Joined: 04 Oct 2008 Posts: 15

That was a good game. Your club was very cool, we need something like that around here....

I hope to get issue three from you next year too Wink

Lee