Astronomi-CON 2011 – Back Home!

Hey everyone,

Back from Astronomi-Con 2011.  I snapped as many photos as I could during the whirlwind weekend that was Astro 2011 however as I forgot my camera they’re just taken with my iPhone.  Click on the images to get a larger photo.

 

So a quick recap on the weekend, my stats and the gaming group in general.

I won 4 games and lost 2.  I placed 4th-6th for best general (based on scores given for the top 3) with 56 battle points out of a possible 78.  First place won with 64 I believe.

DAY 1

Game 1 vs Les (My apologies now if I’ve spelled your name wrong or even forgotten it!!!) and his Deathguard army which included a plethora of plague marines, nurgle bikers, and a BLIGHT DRONE! Very cool army and a great game.  The mission was to control more supply crates than your opponents (6).  The difference being that any model with a suitable hand was able to move them around.  I quickly realized Les’ plan to grab 3 and rush them back to his corner while using the bikes to harass/steal mine.  It almost worked too!  I was able to finally push to his corner and get him to drop 1 of his objectives while holding 3 of my own (You dropped the crate if you were charged or charging).  I finished with 3 crates to his 2.  I believe I scored 11/13 points.  Funny fact, I lost 13 marines to dangerous terrain this game!

Game 2 vs Magnus and his space wolf drop pod/thunderwolf cavalry list.  The circumstances surrounding my playing Magnus is actually quite funny as the week before I was looking to buy craters from an ebay auction.  After chatting with him through eBay and him noticing my blog, we both discovered we were going to Astro.  Fast forward a week and I now own 6 of the rhino craters and 1 of the LR craters from http://www.twistedironindustries.com/

The game was tight and well fought on both ends.  There was a big plateau in roughly the middle of the table and probably consumed 1/3 of the table.  On said plateau there was a smaller hill (probably 2 rhinos long by 1 rhino wide) that was considered the peak.  Any unit on the hill scored you victory points, while scoring units on the peak were worth double!  It came down to me needing to charge a fresh 10 pack of grey hunters into a half strength pack stuck in combat on the peak.  Hopefully I could finish em off and consolidate onto the peak gaining me roughly 400 victory points and denying magnus approximately 300-400.  I think I needed to roll a 4+ (or even a 3+) and I was rerolling 1s from the banner.  I rolled double 2s and that was that!  Great game, great opponent!  I scored 5/13.

Game 3 vs Jason and his Space Wolf.  Jason played a termy rune priest leading a pack of blood claws in a LR.  Another pack of blood claws in a rhino and a grey hunter pack in a rhino.  This was all backed by 2 speeders and a trip-las Pred.  The goal was Victory points however the entire table (minus a small 6″ deployment zone strip) was dangerous/difficult.  I managed first turn with my shooty wolves across from a close combat wolves army with nearly zero LoS blocking terrain.  There were a few tight spots, namely Jason’s LR redeemer running around with me unable to hurt it even with meltas.  Ultimately though, me finishing off his 200+ point rune priest and full unit of blood claws in addition to causing damage throughout the army helped me to seal the deal.  13/13 points.

DAY 2

Game 4 vs K40K’s very own Daemon player Will.  Will was throwing down 2 shooty tzeentch heralds, fateweaver, 4 shooty tzeentch daemon princes, 2 units of min sized units of horrors, 1 larger block of plague bearers and 3 bloodcrushers.  The game was 6 supply crates which could be moved around by anything with a hand and captured by any model (not just scoring).  Each player was forced to deploy only 2 Force Org choices and reserve the rest (including the daemons).  I put out both long fang packs while Will threw down fateweaver and 2 heralds.  I chose second and realized my folly after losing both packs to mass AP3 firepower (as 2 of the princes came down in the first wave).  Will landed right near a bunch of the objectives and proceeded to retreat away from my with them, keeping in mind I was completely in reserve.  A lucky reserve roll saw all 3 of my rhinos roll in and shoot 12″ firing smoke.  All vehicles were still standing after wills shooting phase.  What followed was 20 grey hunters multi-charging 2 heralds, a daemon prince, fateweaver and 6 horrors.  After losing 2 models and will suffering 10 wounds/deaths he was forced to take 8 fearless saves on every unit in combat killing a herald, a daemon prince and fateweaver. Ouch.  I was counter-charged by bloodcrushers and then threw in another 10 grey hunters and a rune priest.  After the dust had settled and my dreadnought/pred gunning down a dp in the open, only 3 grey hunters remained from that combat.  I had lost 26 of em and a rune priest while Will had lost 2 herads, 2 dps, 3 bloodcrushers, 6 horrors and fateweaver.  I quickly parked rhinos near objectives and used the last 3 grey hunters to charge his Plaguebearers who consequently dropped their 2 objectives.  I finished with 12/13 points.

Game 5 vs K40K’s Grey Knight player Brady.  Brady fielded a Grand Master, Coteaz, a unit of 3 guardsmen in a razorback, 4 MM servitors and 4 daemonhosts in a chimera,  2 units of 7 halberd wielding purifiers (2 psycannons) in rhinos, 1 unit of 5 halberd wielding purifiers (2 psycannons) in a rhino, and 2 psyflemen dreads.  The mission was victory points with a catch.  All but 1 unit was put into reserve.  The unit left in play was put on your opponents side of the table.  You earned 300 bonus victory points if you managed to get that unit to your deployment zone.  It was a very blood game with neither side making any huge error.  I lost my grey hunter pack on his side of the table while he lost his purifier unit on my side of table.  Basically it came down to me not hitting well but doing damage when I did hit vs him hitting well but rolling nothing but 1s and 2s for damage.  I pull out with 12/13 points.

Game 6 vs K40K’s Jeff and his space wolf army.  Jeff fielded a Rune Priest, 3 drop pods full of grey hunters, 1 rhino full of grey hunters, a razorback full of grey hunters, 2 long fang missile squads, and arjac.  The mission was victory points with me deploying in a 24×24″ square on the back table edge.  If i got my HQ off the table he was worth 150 bonus VP while if your opponent killed him they got the 150.  The enemy needed to walk in first turn from any of the 3/4 table edges and proceed to attack.  More hordey marines seems to be my armies main weakness but rolling terribly doesn’t help either.  For instance, 20 kitted out grey hunters (2 wulfen, 2 fists and 16 regulars) was unable to kill 7 grey hunters.  Jeff was able to make a lot of the cover saves on his long fangs and then proceeded to encircle me in marines.  I finished with 3/12 points.

 

As you all know I finished my painting goal of getting the vehicles done but not the infantry.  I paid for it in my painting scores unfortunately which knocked me out of best overall right from the get-go.

For army display board I got a 0 – Rightly so, I just brought a basic corkboard.

For Conversions I scored a 5/5 – I was wondering how this would pan out and if everything I did would be noticed.  Every marine is cobbled together from various kits including the fantasy range (WoC) and some have stuff like capes, bolters with straps, arms cut and reposed/swapped, plus a crapload of bits.  Each of my vehicles included 100 skulls as well as a host of other chaos bits.  It was good to see it was all noticed!

For Brushwork I scored a 6/20 which is basically the minimum score for 3 colours.  A note was made that unfortunately as the army was not finished this was the best I could get.  Furthermore, if the infantry was finished to the same level as the vehicles I would be looking at something like a 17-18.

For overall look I rocked a 3/3.  The description being something like “a master at work.”  Basically it looks at the overall vision and if everything pulls together nicely.

Bonus Points 2/2.  +1 for rust and +1 for the skulls.

Basically everything that was done nailed a perfect score.  If my infantry and display board was finished I would have had a perfect 30/30 (with the bonus point help).  Not too bad imo.  My goal is to maybe taken what I’ve learned and paint the infantry maybe better than I could have at the beginning.

Between the tourney, almost getting kicked out of our hotel (twice) and the meat sweats it was a great weekend.  Looking forward to next year!