Back to back Tournaments

So I am a sucker for 40k tournaments. In fact the only times I ever play are either teaching games or in tournaments. It is very rare for me to play a pick up game. Anyway, last weekend Merlyns (a local store in my area) hosted an 1850 point tournament. Merlyns is pretty much the most cutthroat store in the area so honestly I didn't really expect to go in to win. With that in mind I wrote up a list that would at least be fun for me to play with. I was expecting there to be a large number of Nid players there, unfortunately that was not the case. Any way here is the list I took:

HQ:
Eldrad
Farseer: spear, Runes of warding, runes of witnessing, spirit stones, doom, guide
Elite:
6 Harlequins: Troupe master w/ power weapon, shadowseer, 2 w/ kisses, 2 w/ fusion pistols
Troop:
10 Dire Avengers: Exarch w/ double catapults, blade storm
-Wave serpent: TL Scatterlasers, Shuricannon, spirit stones, star engines
20 Guardians: Missile Launcher, warlock W/ Embolden
Fast:
9 Spiders: Exarch W/ Double death spinners
Heavy:
3 Warwalkers, Double Scatterlasers
5 Reapers: Exarch W/ Crack shot, tempest launcher
-Wave Serpent : TL BL, Shuricannon, Star engines, spirit stones

The first thing that I would like to point out about this list is that it sucks ROYALLY. If you get paired up against Mech you are screwed. Sure Spiders and Walkers can take down a rhino like a champ, but they only get 1 chance before the enemy is on you. Problem is the enemy rarely comes at you with only 1 or 2 rhinos, and if it's a wave serpent I am up against I have no hope to take it down on turn one or two. Land raider? Heck no, with only fusion pistols, a brightlance and a missile launcher to take one down I'm helpless if I'm across the table from one. Like I said though, I was expecting to face a large number of Nids and this list rips them apart, I can handle Hordes with ease. And even a tyrannofex can't hold out against 50+ Str 6 shots.

So with all this in mind how did my tournament go? Horribly... like even worse than expected. Round one I was up against Fritz Style Saim Hann. The scenario was capture and control (we rolled for 3 objectives), deployment was dawn of war. And objectives were hot (They dealt D6 S5 AP- hits against each unit within 6" at the beginning of each player turn) With the sole battlepoint modifier being +1 BP for each turn you begin controlling at least one of these objectives. This was a rough match for me, three wave serpents w/ 1 unit of Avengers, and 2 units of dragons inside, two 7 strong units of Guardian jetbikes, 2 prisms and of course a seer counsel. He won the die roll and took turn 2. My dice decided that my opponent should win due to his superior build and I missed all 5 shots with my missile launcher and all three shots with my brightlance despite it being twinlinked. His tanks moved about at will and ripped me apart one thing at a time. Meanwhile I owned all his jetbikes and firedragons through my own means. My Walkers outflanked to perfect position to open up on his counsel, and didn't even cause one casualty. That's ok though, their objective was to put a very juicy target across the board from the rest of my army for his counsel to chase after... He fell for it hook line and sinker. I hate people like this who take net lists but don't even take the time to understand the underlying tactics of their armies. The war walkers barely posed a threat to his army and he could easily ignored them and blasted them down at will with his guardians of prisms or serpents from range. But no he took them out with his counsel putting his most valuable unit out of the game as they took the last two turns getting all the way across the board to my poor huddle of troops. For as horribly outclassed as I was in this game I actually ended up not losing too horribly, The game ended with him getting a minor victory due to me contesting two objectives and him holding the other with his avengers. He easily could have wiped the floor with me if he would have spent more time playing this army instead of just taking everything fritz said and running with it.

Second game I played against horde orks w/ lots of vehicles. I am very ashamed of this game. I should have won this hands down. My opponent had thraka and a big mek w/ KFF in a battlewagon with 7 (I think) Meganobs. He also had 2 units of 10 lootas and 2 trukks w/ 12 slugga boys each as well as 3 units of 20 slugga boys each. I should have obliterated this army. He won die roll and took first. Scenario was Annihilation w/ Pitched deployment. The scenario was modified with some weird blizzard rules, coherency was dropped to 1", Blast weapons were not modified by BS, EVERYTHING had a 5+ Cover (<- I can say with certainty this lost me the game, my opponent could make 5+ saves that would make a Daemon player VERY proud) Skimmers could only move 6" or they must take a Dangerous terrain test, and Dangerous terrain tests failed on a 1 or 2. Basically if I moved my serpents odds were that they were going to crash and burn, meanwhile my opponent had full mobility. Regardless of the Scenario I knew I could still pull out a victory. But between poor die rolls once again failing to even take down a trukk with my Brightlances/ Scatterlasers (all 9 of them)/ Missile launchers and my poor decisions when deploying (I always forget to use divination) He got to me with the boys and thraka turn two and I ended up losing to him giving up a massacre result. Talk about demoralizing. I should have wiped the floor with him easy. Oh well, this is what I get for bringing a crappy list and not having my head in the game. (I spent more time doing my Make-up and hair and picking out my outfit than I did preparing for this tournament. Behold the perils of embracing my girly side.)

So round three I was just looking for a fun game and I was getting tired. So honestly I can't really remember the specifics beyond the scenario being two objectives and spearhead deployment. My opponent was also playing eldar with a very 4th edition list. 3 serpents with all the fixins and two falcons. Two warwalkers w/ starcannon and brightlance. (ewwwwww......) and two units of guardians inside two of the serpents w/ warlock and farseer/ eldrad each. Lost this game too. he had much better mobility than my and outflanked me with Scorpions to my base of guardians and reapers. He almost tabled me, I just had two walkers and a serpent at the end of the game. I would have tied due to shocking with my serpent turn 5 if the game would have ended.

So with that tournament behind me I am looking forward to this weekend up at one of my favorite stores to play at, Hobbytown. Hobbytown tournaments are much more laid back And put huge emphasis on Sportsmanship and painting. The painting scores usually leave me out of the running for best overall but I am usually in a pretty good position for best general/ sportsmanship. Anyway the hobbytown tournament is going to be 2k doubles without a modified force org chart. So basically my partner and I have 4 HQ choices, 12 Troop choices etc... The 4 compulsary troops is a very limiting factor. I'm really expecting high levels of mechanized opponents at this tournament although I'm not really too worried about abusive lists. The fight club will have a strong presence at this tournament and everyone knows that you don't bring an abusive list to a fight club event. (We put a very strong emphasis on sportsmanship and playing fair and having fun in the fight club)

Anyway Here is the the that Kayla (my roommate) and I will be playing this weekend.

Jenn: Chaos Marines
HQ:
Daemon prince of Nurgle, Wings, warptime.
Lord, Mark of Nurgle, Daemon Weapon
TROOP:
8 Plague Marines: 2 Meltas, Rhino
7 Plague Marines: 2 Plasma guns
12 Chaos Marines of Nurgle: Banner of Nurgle, Missile launcher, Flamer
Kayla: Chaos Daemons
HQ:
Herald of Tzeentch: We are Legion, Master of Sorcery, Bolt
Elite:
8 Flamers
Troops:
11 Horrors: Bolt, Changeling
7 Bloodletters
Heavy:
Prince of Tzeentch: Mark of Tzeentch, Bolt, Gaze, Instrument
Soul Grinder: phlegm

An explanation: You may notice a lack of Rhinos and a random unit of bloodletters in a pure Tzeentch list. Basically Kayla refuses to play with unpainted models so she only has one unit of horrors painted up My other choices were daemonettes and Bloodletters, I decided to go with the letters for the punch. Meanwhile I am a poor college kid so I've only been able to invest so much for my Chaos marines army, as such I am using black reach marines for my chaos marines (plus some of my chaos marines to fill the ranks) so that's what is up with the weird flamer/ missile launcher load out. I will be loading them up to be flamer chosens or havocs in the near future.

Anyway I know this list is far from perfect, but one of my goals is not resorting to a power gaming list for my victories. I am fully capable of winning games while running with units that are sub-par. Just don't let my first tournament report fool you.