Saturday morning, Gina was feeling sick, so she stuck around the hotel room. I headed down to the venue by myself, hoping this would not signal a bad day at the tournament.
Note: Detailed tournament reports are not going to be available due to my camera taking many blurry photos. Note to self-- always test out a new camera a bit to get used to it before using it for something important.
Game 1
Game 1 was against Jeff Tupper's Mixed mark beastmen. I met Jeff briefly the night before, and like everyone I played this year at JimCon he was a class act. His beats list had an khorne lord, undivided bsb, two undivided shamans, four herds, three chariots, minotaurs, two hound units, undivided bestigors, a shaggoth and a fiend of slaanesh. This game went rather well for me, partially because of the relative strength of the daemons, but also do to some abysmal unruly rolls on Jeff's part. I ended up killing both shamans with attached herds because he was forced to either charge or was drug within an inch of my plaguebearer block. His Lord also frenzied out of his unit and was cut down by bloodletters in a fit of rather poor luck. My Daemon Prince started out the day poorly by failing to do a wound to the chariot he charged, then getting beaten down by a countercharging Shaggoth. All said and done at the end of the game, Jeff didn't have much left, while I still had three intact blocks of infantry, two support units, and a single model left in the Daemonettes. Win #1 for the Daemons.
Game 2
The second game I was pitted against a mixed Chaos Mortals Army played by Hank Hunt. Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord, Slaanesh Herald, Slaanesh Hero, 2 units of Slaanesh Warriors, Slaanesh Knights, 2 units of Slaanesh Horsemen, Hounds, and a War Shrine. An interesting Chaos list to be sure, in that it seemed to obviously lean abit on Tzeentch magic, but didn't have the standard backup sorcerers to make me pay throughout the game. Top of turn 1 his gamble payed off, as he managed to gateway my plaguebearer block with battle standard out of existence! This was not going to be a pretty game, as I was in the hole starting out. Luckily, I kept him from casting gateway for the rest of the game by tying his sorcerer's block up in melee with my daemon prince until I could get help around a few turns later. My daemonettes and flesh hounds took care of his horsemen and flesh hounds rather quickly and followed up by killing his block of warriors with his battle standard, which then panicked his war shrine off the table-- things started to really go my way after this. His knights with hero wrecked my horrors, but where in turn killed by my bloodletters. After going through two summoned exalted heroes and putting 2 wounds on the sorcerer lord, my daemon prince finally died to instability. However, I quickly followed him up in combat with Seekers and flesh hounds, which broke this last unit of warriors and left my opponent with nothing left on the table. The game ended in a complete rout for the Mortals and win #2 for me.
Game 3
Game 3 was against James Hutcherson's High Elves. Last year I lost to a similar force of his, and was determined to not lose again. He brought a wizard lord, bsb on horse, 2 units of archers, 2 units of spearmen, sea guard, 2 lion chariots, a great eagle, 2 swordmaster units, and 2 bolt throwers. This game was truly my Waterloo, as my only effective combat unit (plaguebearers) was kept out combat the whole game while my other units got shot and ASFed to death. My Daemon Prince was killed by bolt throwers turn one to show his total punkness. A good game but a very bad result for me. Loss #1.
Game 4
Game 4 was against Randy Atchely's Empire. He brought a Popemobile, Casketsus, 2 wizards, 2 small knight units, outriders, 2 cannons, handgunners, crossbows, swordsmen, greatswords, detachments, and flagellants. Probably a slightly too strong list (any time your character kit out has internet slang, it's way too cliche), but not any worse than bringing daemons in general, so who am I to complain? As is the game went rather badly for Randy, having his knights held up by spells and the daemon prince, lost both his cannons by turn 4, and did not fight a round of combat with any substantial block the entire game. As it was, the only things he was left with at the end of the game was the great sword unit and all the characters. The Daemon Prince still died at the top of turn 6, though. At least this game he ate through roughly his point cost in troops. Win #3 for the Daemons.
Game 5
My last game was against another member of Team Tennesse with an Empire army. His force had outriders, 2 white wolf units, knightly orders, 2 units of crossbows, 2 cannons, a hellblaster, flagellants, swordsmen, greatswords, an empire general, BSB, and two mages. This game against was a flurry of fits and stops. My deamon prince died turn 1 to a great cannon, and again little to no melee actually happened during the game (empire doesn't fair well in melee anymore, so this should be all that surprising) Beyond all this, I was slightly ahead pulling into the final turn of the game. This game I had rapt up with a chain of linking combats in the final turn to kill the rest of his greatswords with general, if I could only blow through a detachment of 8 halberdiers with my plaguebearer unit. The final result of this is of course an insane courage check and a tied game. Slightly disappointing, but not the worst result that ever happened to me-- this was the first JimCon game 5 I haven't lost.
Conclusion
At the end of the event, my record of 3-1-1 with an average paint and sportsmanship placing was going to leave me on the outside looking in for the top placings. Jim Allen of the Amigos did win overall with a very nice Khorne Daemon army, which was rather nice. I also managed to get a plastic box as a door prize, so my high elf army is a little closer to being completed now.
Gamewise, I had five good games against five good opponents, and it's not often I get to say that anymore. My only real disappointments in the list were the plaguebearers and the daemon prince. The latter is just too fragile and expensive for my playstyle, and the former is simply too many points in too slow of a package that my opponent will easily avoid giving anything to fight. In the future (assuming I bring daemons again) I will probably dump the prince and the nurgle herald in favor of a slaanesh herald, khorne herald, and many more core troops. All in all, JimCon was very enjoyable this year as always, so of course I plan on heading back next year. .
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
JimCon '09 - Beginning & List Design
For the first tourney I plan on documenting, JimCon '09 seems like a good place to start. It's a nice tournament that the infamous Jim Livers has been putting on for the last few years in Lexington, KY. Situated out of the always friendly Albright's Store, JimCon has been for the last few years a place you could always bring a nice army to and not expect to get your teeth kicked in by the latest netlist-using chump. In fact, I managed to go 2-2-1 with Dogs of War last year if that's any indication. So of course I decided to take daemons this year...
Now before you strangle me too much, I know this is not the event to bring the BDS (Broke Dick Special) to, so the daemons that I brought had to try to end up being balanced all around the board, while avoiding the numerous cliched item combos that seem to exemplify everything people complain about with the army book. This would be a bit of a challenge, since I was both strapped for painting time, and also was under a 'no new models' ban because of my new house. With that in mind, I decided the best way to start was to load the list down with the biggest boat anchor unit I could: a Daemon Prince. Consulting the piles of unpainted models I had sitting in my basement, an unpainted 4th edition Bloodthirster caught my eye. Worst mark for the worst unit in the book? Check and double check. With this in mind, and the malice of forethought to know I had mixed daemon troops already painted, here was the 2250pt list I came up with to play:
Daemon Prince of Khorne w/ Winged Horror, Armour of Khorne, & Axe of Khorne
Herald of Nurgle w/ Battle Standard, Level 1 Mage, & Stream of Corruption
24 Bloodletters w/ Champion & Standard
18 Horrors w/ Champion & Standard
21 Plaguebearers w/ Champion & Standard
12 Daemonettes w/ Champion & Standard
5 Furies
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Seekers of Slaanesh
5 Nurgling Bases
3 Flamers
Slide show of my Army:
*****
The lack of musicians is both due to a lack of points working out, and also a lack of musician models on my part. This is a very similar list to my list for the Hillbilly last year, with the primary changes being the removal of three of the four heralds and the removal of all the gifts I had originally taken. 8 'Letters were added to make up for the lack of a herald & juggernaut to bulk out their numbers. I didn't expect the Daemon Prince to accomplish anything on his own, but he would be useful at killing heroes and the like as well as taking out small cav units that bother me. So I got down to painting both my objective marker and my Daemon Prince, and about 4 hours later I emerged from my mancave holding something that bordered on being acceptable looking.
As luck would have it, both my buddies that planned on coming out with me decided to back out. Logan's boss decided that he wasn't ready to give him his 40 acres plus mule quite yet, and Pugs didn't want to come along so he didn't have to miss the 49ers game on Sunday night. Skipping a weekend of cool gaming so you can watch the NFL equivalent of a mass suicide-- good call man, good call. However, my cool girlfriend and gamergirl Gina decided to head on out with me. Things were looking up for a cool weekend. After a seven hour drive, we arrive on site in Lexington, KY at about 9PM on Friday night.
With a much larger number of players over previous years, the event was now hosted in the unused storefront area next to Albright's. Of course, Jim shows up late, but Gina and I did get a chance to meet Amigos extraordinaire Paul Vinton and Jim Allen in person. Great guys to deal with, and both were sporting good looking armies this year. Paul even offered to lend me some furies to make up for the unit that I left at my house in my attempt to get out roughly on time Friday morning-- you kick ass Paul. Good guys all around. After a few minutes waiting around for Jim to show and looking at some of the armies arrayed out on the tables before us, (most painted better than mine) Gina looked like she was fading after the long car ride , so we made haste back to the hotel.
Next: Actual Games
Now before you strangle me too much, I know this is not the event to bring the BDS (Broke Dick Special) to, so the daemons that I brought had to try to end up being balanced all around the board, while avoiding the numerous cliched item combos that seem to exemplify everything people complain about with the army book. This would be a bit of a challenge, since I was both strapped for painting time, and also was under a 'no new models' ban because of my new house. With that in mind, I decided the best way to start was to load the list down with the biggest boat anchor unit I could: a Daemon Prince. Consulting the piles of unpainted models I had sitting in my basement, an unpainted 4th edition Bloodthirster caught my eye. Worst mark for the worst unit in the book? Check and double check. With this in mind, and the malice of forethought to know I had mixed daemon troops already painted, here was the 2250pt list I came up with to play:
Daemon Prince of Khorne w/ Winged Horror, Armour of Khorne, & Axe of Khorne
Herald of Nurgle w/ Battle Standard, Level 1 Mage, & Stream of Corruption
24 Bloodletters w/ Champion & Standard
18 Horrors w/ Champion & Standard
21 Plaguebearers w/ Champion & Standard
12 Daemonettes w/ Champion & Standard
5 Furies
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Seekers of Slaanesh
5 Nurgling Bases
3 Flamers
Slide show of my Army:
*****
The lack of musicians is both due to a lack of points working out, and also a lack of musician models on my part. This is a very similar list to my list for the Hillbilly last year, with the primary changes being the removal of three of the four heralds and the removal of all the gifts I had originally taken. 8 'Letters were added to make up for the lack of a herald & juggernaut to bulk out their numbers. I didn't expect the Daemon Prince to accomplish anything on his own, but he would be useful at killing heroes and the like as well as taking out small cav units that bother me. So I got down to painting both my objective marker and my Daemon Prince, and about 4 hours later I emerged from my mancave holding something that bordered on being acceptable looking.
As luck would have it, both my buddies that planned on coming out with me decided to back out. Logan's boss decided that he wasn't ready to give him his 40 acres plus mule quite yet, and Pugs didn't want to come along so he didn't have to miss the 49ers game on Sunday night. Skipping a weekend of cool gaming so you can watch the NFL equivalent of a mass suicide-- good call man, good call. However, my cool girlfriend and gamergirl Gina decided to head on out with me. Things were looking up for a cool weekend. After a seven hour drive, we arrive on site in Lexington, KY at about 9PM on Friday night.
With a much larger number of players over previous years, the event was now hosted in the unused storefront area next to Albright's. Of course, Jim shows up late, but Gina and I did get a chance to meet Amigos extraordinaire Paul Vinton and Jim Allen in person. Great guys to deal with, and both were sporting good looking armies this year. Paul even offered to lend me some furies to make up for the unit that I left at my house in my attempt to get out roughly on time Friday morning-- you kick ass Paul. Good guys all around. After a few minutes waiting around for Jim to show and looking at some of the armies arrayed out on the tables before us, (most painted better than mine) Gina looked like she was fading after the long car ride , so we made haste back to the hotel.
Next: Actual Games
Starting This Off With a Bang
Welcome to 'I Heart Ninjas', a blog that I hope will in the near future be a place to discuss Warhammer and other gaming related stuff. I like to think I'm a somewhat laid back guy about the game anymore. I don't expect this to be one of the more angry GW gaming blogs I've seen around, so check your 'fail', 'teh suck', and 'QQ' at the door.
I'm a tourney player, but a fairly mid-table one in general, so expect a decent number of tourney reports but not a lot of awards. I play in 'no comp no kidding' events, 'fluff bunny' events, and everything in between, so you'll see a variety of lists being played against a variety of opponents. My real final goal with reporting is to give people a decent battle report of normal tournament games, and also an idea of how armies play in a competitive environment.
Before anyone asks, the title of my blog comes from my some would say unhealthy love of ninjas, especially the multicolor ones you beat up while trying to rescue president Ronnie and prove you are indeed a Bad Dude. I'm really hoping the new Skaven book due out in the near future allows me to play my all-skirmished ninja Eshin army even if it does suck. It is just too cool of an army not to drag out for some good old-fashioned fun every once in awhile.
I'm a tourney player, but a fairly mid-table one in general, so expect a decent number of tourney reports but not a lot of awards. I play in 'no comp no kidding' events, 'fluff bunny' events, and everything in between, so you'll see a variety of lists being played against a variety of opponents. My real final goal with reporting is to give people a decent battle report of normal tournament games, and also an idea of how armies play in a competitive environment.
Before anyone asks, the title of my blog comes from my some would say unhealthy love of ninjas, especially the multicolor ones you beat up while trying to rescue president Ronnie and prove you are indeed a Bad Dude. I'm really hoping the new Skaven book due out in the near future allows me to play my all-skirmished ninja Eshin army even if it does suck. It is just too cool of an army not to drag out for some good old-fashioned fun every once in awhile.
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