Team Deathbridge takes on Mythacon!

This post and, frankly any update to this site, has been long in waiting.  The club en masse recently took to Mythacon competing mainly in the 40k event though a couple fellas did try out Fantasy.  It was a three day event with all kinds of RPG's, MonPoc, Infinity, Warmahordes, Dystopian Wars, every weird small GW game there is and of course 40k and fantasy, the two dominate games there.  It was a really neat concept and put together VERY well.  They had a professional chef on hand making the usual burgers and hot dogs, but awesome suppers like Butter Chicken and what not.

There were a ton of tables in the venue with just awesome terrain for the GW games.  They used Zuzzy gaming mats on all tables with matching terrain so it looked awesome.

It was, supposedly, a heavy comp tourney with lots of soft scoring.  The comp system, I am sorry to say, was not my jar of pickles. I understand where some of it was going and why, but still mystified by a few choices. There were full out Leafblowers, tons of guard/Wolf lists.  Lots of Blood Angels.  A lot of hard, hard lists.  Of non marines/guard there was an orc army, Tau (teaming with all Tzeentch Chaos marines), 3 Dark Eldar armies that teamed with either guard or blood angels and our club even brought necrons (teaming with chaos marines).  About 50-60 players and 8 weren't guard or MEQ.  By the break between games 2 and 3 I had plenty of people come up and hope they were playing our team simply being bored of playing the same armies over and over.

Still, everything there was painted which was nice.  Some better then others.  The Tau/Tzeentch army was cool.  A Space Wolf player had a brilliant Scottish themed army.  Our club has some nice armies including an Ultramarine/Vulkan Sally combo.

The tourney was three games doubles, 1200 per partner.  We had a good 2.5 hours for games, so they finished on time usually.


First, our lists:

Bloodthirster w/ Instrument, Blessing, Might
4 Crushers: All kitted out
8 Bloodletters
9 Horrors
7 Seekers
2 Soul Grinders with Phlegm

And my partners:
Masque
Herald of Tzeentch on a chariot w/ Bolt, Gaze, MoS, WaL
3 Flamers
2x7 plaguebearers
10 daemonettes with a banner, Trans Gaze
Tzeentch Prince w/ Bolt, Gaze, Flight, Might, Hide
Slaanesh Prince w/ Flight, Instrument, Might, Hide, Musk, Aura, TransGaze

GAME ONE
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Guard/Wolves

3 Grey Hunter units in Drop Pods: Melta, Fist, Mark of Wulfen
Wolf Guard in Drop Pod with all kinds of stuff and a Rune Priest with Wolf Tail Talisman and Jaws
5 Scouts with Melta Bombs and a melta gun

Company Command with plasma in a Valk
Psyker Battle Squad in chimera
2 units of melta/lascannon vets in Chimeras
All Plasma Executioner
Plasma/Lascan Demolisher
(The guard was played by fellow Warseer Sir_Lunchalot!)

The game was 4 Objectives with Dawn of War.  There were some other weird extra points that I can't remember off the top of my head and didn't matter.   No one deploys anything at all.  Their first turn they rumble on everything they can and 2 drop pods land directly on an objective.  We get the waves we wanted (2 grinders, Crushers, Thirster for me and Masque/Lazer Prince/Flamers/Netts for him).  Without going into too crazy detail, the game ends up being a disaster and we lose 16-2.  Chariot doesn't come on at all, dying when it autolanded on turn 5... and then mishapped.  Horrors mishapped as well.  Soul Grinders were doing giant damage, as they did all game.  In a local marine heavy meta they are super scary.  Thirster, as usual, was destroying and taking a bucketload of firepower.

The big thing was their strategy.  A giant line of tanks to open up was blocked because the drop pods cut the table in half.  Fighting through 30 space wolves is not an envious task. The guard didn't leave transports at all minus the CCS who just were a speedbump for the Crushers.   Masque did almost nothing, only pulling the Wolf Guard out of cover once to get assaulted and make them fall back... which they proceeded to do all game.  We did manage to get one objective and were about to clear another.  I, however, am too nice.  They had ONE remaining guy on the objective who took a bunch of shooting in cover.  I told him he should go to ground, so he did.  If he never, he woulda died.  LOL... worst competitor ever right here.   A great moment was the valkyrie moving full out to contest an objective only to be jumped by the remaining daemonettes who got the super rend of 6-6-6 and made it crash!

All in all not a bad game but a pretty bad defeat.

GAME TWO
=========
OMG!  It's not marines, it's orks!... and marines.  Sigh

Orks:
Warboss and Nobs in trukk.  Nobs had the usual wound allocation shenanigans and a doc
15 Lootas
KANNONS... yes, they had grot artillery
Looted Wagon with a battlecannon
Huge unit of Kommandoes with Snikrot, who proved to be invincible in this tourney
20 (at least) shootas
(At this point I am going more off memory)

His partner was Nilla Marines
Chapter Master with Stormshield/Thunderhammer
10 Assault termies
Dreadnaught
Tactical Squad
Sniper Scout Squad
Devvie squad

I have to admit this game as a bit tough to play.  The guys didn't know 40k that well and had to be coached through some rules, meaning we were often giving them strategy that worked against us.  We also noticed they never at all did wound allocation, but weren't about to start an argument so let it be.  They are new and seem like nice enough guys so let's keep them in the hobby, lol.

The game was pitched battle deployment, capturing table quarters as main objective.  Secondaries were capturing the middle, terrain pieces and killing all their troops.  We won this one 9-8 and if we were more hardcore (and they didn't roll 2 insane courages to keep them on the table) we could have wiped them out I am sure.

Deployment was much better this time for us, again getting our preferred first wave (I went for the same as game 1, partner put down the chariot, Masque, tzeentch prince and 'netts)  They started everything on the table as well, including his termies who apparently mishapped in the first game and died.  Even the kommandoes started on the table.  Masque was amazing in this game, putting everything right where we wanted all the time and effectively making the lootas a non factor.  She moved them out of cover where a Grinder (again, magnificent) killed half of them.  Then later moved then out of LOS of anything.  She was pretty brilliant here.  Having the chariot on the table was also huge.  This thing is a beast.  Takes lots of attention, busts open vehicles, kills marines.  Great!   The Tzeentch Prince mishapped and got put into a back corner.  However, with wings he got back into it right away, flying 12, shooting and still being a factor.

Back to Masque.  I think one underrated thing is her combat ability.  A great invul save and hit and run really allows her to get into a small combat to hold something for killer units and then hop away to do her job elsewhere.  She pulled the Devvie Squad out of cover, a soul grinder destroying it in one shot.  She was so invaluable in this tourney.

Our plaguebearers dropped in the back to take table quarters and did nothing else during the entire game.  Well worth their points!  LOL.  The Bloodthirster landed on their one flank, effectively destroying everything over there.  Artillery, most of the kommandoes (who only lived because of a double 1! against BOTH the thirster and prince), etc.  He is such an attention whore.  If you ask me, his biggest strength is how an army effectively repositions to face him and mistakeningly ignores other stuff.   His Chapter Master charged him and got bug squished in one shot.  I love him so.

Not a bad game at all, minus us practically using this as a teaching game.  I think having fun and sportsmanship is much more important in the game then cutthroat winning (unlike the other douchenozzles in the event).  It showed in our opponents.  They came in a bit grumpy having been tabled the game before (probably because their opponents didn't help them as much) and by the end were having a good time.

Note:  Sorry for the lack of army shots.  Couldn't seem to find any.

GAME THREE
===========

The best game of the entire tourney!  If I wasn't gonna win best painted it was one of the guys we played in this game.  Plus neither team was in contention so we went out SOLEY to have fun and it happened!  It was a very weird game.  Spearhead deployment and VICTORY POINTS (say whaaaaaaat?!) with secondaries of KILL POINTS (WTF?!), 2 objectives and killing HQ's.   Though the result didn't matter we called the VP a draw and went off secondaries.  We killed all their HQ's, had more KP's and had an objective so won 14-10.  I would play these guys again in a second

The Space Wolves half was a BEAUTIFUL converted army.  It was this really rich brown with a jagged hardline camo pattern on the vehicles.  Most of the marines were converted as well, guys drawing swords, repositioning, using arms from other kits.  They had tartan pattern cloth on them: tabards and sub kilts and the like.  Just awesome to look at.

His army was:

Rune Priest with Tempest, a Wolf Tail Talisman.  You never saw a single rune priest in the tourney without it.
A big unit of Blood Claws
Long Fangs
Dreadnaught
Land Speeder
Whirlwind
Grey Hunter squad
(I was exhausted by the end of the day so I hope I am right on this)
and of course... scouts!

His partner was playing nurgle themed marines
Lord with Jump Pack and claws in a big unit of raptors
Chaos Marines with melta in a rhino
Plague marines with melta in a rhino
Defiler

With us vowing to have fun, we went for crazy deepstriking.  We landed the daemonettes, a Soul Grinder and Tzeentch Prince right behind their lines and on target.  We landed the flamers RIGHT BESIDE the long fangs (and wiped them out in one fell swoop).  Almost everything landed, nothing crashed and died.  It was amazing.  Every fight in the game was desperate and dramatic as well. The Whirlwind was right up front and would ruin our day.  The chariot and tzeentch prince immediately took is out! Scouts taking on plaguebearers, the tzeentch prince taking on ALL the Blood Claws and Rune Priest, killing the rune priest and lasting for a long time, even after the initial FOURTY SOME attacks they poured out.   His defiler charged into the flamers.  They held with 1 left and then Masque charged in and survived and held the defiler long enough for the Slaanesh prince to come in and SMASH it!



The Bloodthirster went on a RAMPAGE.  He killed the Chaos Lord, all the raptors, the chaos marines and their rhino all in combat.  It was ridiculous.  The Nettes charged the immobilized land speeder (who was proving to be so, so dangerous, using missiles to just wipe out squads) and got 9 pens, blew it up and lost 7 of their own!  There was pretty much NOTHING boring in this game.  At one point one of our opponents called his friend and told him to come watch the game because it was so good.  This team ended up winning best sportsmanship and it was well deserved.

Our team mates from our club did pretty darn well.  Even the new kids went 2-1 and even tabled someone despite barely knowing the game yet.  Two of our played won the entire tourney with a completely off the wall guard list with no chimeras or tanks and a deathstrike missile, using almost soley platoons.  His space wolf partner had all the usual gibbins: Long Fangs, Grey Hunters, TWC.  Notoriously grumpy, he even kept his composure in the last game against a team that cheated at every moment they could, even on their army lists.

We won best painted, which was pretty awesome.  Sportsmanship last tourney with daemons and now painting.  Go soft scores!

All and all, a good time.  However, my list is going to be harder next time.  I am a huge fan of comp.  Only Hard Boyz really shouldn't have a comp system.  Hell, if you don't have a comp system, don't have any soft scores.  Everyone is just gonna bring their best possible list anyhow.

And now, for a "Report Card" on the armies
Bloodthirster: I've already said how invaluable this guy was
Crushers:  Took a ton of firepower and hit hard.  However, 4 is far too few at 2400 (or, more correctly double 1200).
Bloodletters:  They're obviously dangerous so people went after them.  However, they were key game turners at times, wiping scouts off an objective in the last game
Horrors: Shockingly resilient.  They killed the sniper squad in game 2 with a shooting/charge and then held up the termies for a good 2 or 3 turns.  That 4++ is huge.
Seekers:  Game 1 they landed bad and got shot.  Game 2 they got charged and took a unit down with them.  Game 3 they were about to MASS charge wolves and the game ended.  So... did nothing.  Too bad, they woulda hit hard.  But then again, people kept away from them when I told them what they do.  Sometimes you make points back on pure intimidation
Soul Grinders:  If not the Thirster, these guys were the MVP's.  They did MASSIVE damage effectively destroying the shootas in game 2, taking charges and wiping out marines, etc.  So tough and underrated even in a melta environment.

Masque: Started off slow and then won us game 2 on her own.  Also super resilient.
Herald: I will admit, I was skeptical, but this guy being on the table changes everything.  It's crazy how much attention he gets and damage he does.  Plus he was always where he needed to be and could get out of the way of danger.  except when the warboss and nobz charged him.  He sucks in combat.
Flamers: Super bomb.  Land, kill something, die.
Plaguebearers: NEVER DIED!  The units weren't killed at all and in every game held objectives.
Daemonettes: Shockingly good as well.  So much for Slaanesh sucking.  The banner helped get the plaguebearers onto objectives and they did a good amount of damage themselves.  That rending is huge.
Tzeentch Prince: So much more then a Bolt platform.  He could tear apart vehicles and hold big units.
Slaanesh Daemon Prince:  Wasn't game turning.  Just solid.  Took lots of fire.  Killed what he needed to.  Nothing spectacular but not the failure I thought he might be.

Things to change in the same scenario:  Gotta get Changeling in there.  I never realized how good he was before I sent in the army lists.  More Crushers perhaps instead of the Slaanesh prince.  Fiends.  I definitely was NOT unhappy with how we did 2-1 and best painted.  Works for me!