Oh sure, I hate losing to James, but the build he brought against me just kicked my ass, and yes the dice continued to not be my friend, but the dice are not the reason I lost my games. I'm the reason I lost my games.
Hit the jump and I'll summarize each game, plus discuss some of the ancillary stuff that I enjoyed so much.
I had 3 lists I made for the weekend ranging in point totals from 200 to 1500 to 1750. I never used the 200 point list, but it was used by our friend Mike who was introduced to the game this weekend.
200 Points (Kill Team)
Troops - Shoota Ork Boyz - 78 pts
Elite - Lootas - 75 pts
Fast Attack - Deff Kopta - 45 pts
1500 Points
HQ - Warboss - 95 pts
HQ - Big Mek w/SAG - 95 pts
Troops - Nobz w/Trukk - 415 pts
Troops - Boyz w/Nob - 215 pts
Troops - Shoota Boyz - 195 pts
Troops - Deff Dread - 95 pts
Elite - Lootas - 75 pts
Heavy - Battlewagon - 180 pts
Heavy - Killer Kans - 135 pts
1750 Points
HQ - Ghazghkull Thraka - 225 pts
HQ - Big Mek w/KFF - 85 pts
Elite - Lootas - 150 pts
Elite - Kommandos w/Boss Snikrot - 215 pts
Troops - Nobz w/Trukk - 415 pts
Troops - Shoota Boyz - 230 pts
Fast Attack - Deffkoptas - 225 pts
First up I played Jason and his Chaos Space Marines. Our lists were 1500 points, it was a Seize the Ground mission with five objectives, and we used a Pitched Battle Deployment. I deployed first, placing a mob of boyz on each side of the board. I had the Nobz in a trukk with the Warboss, and Lootas in a Battlewagon. I had 3 Kans and a Deff Dread, and the Big Mek had a Shokk Attack Gun. Things started well, but Jason effectively swung away from my mob of shoota boyz, and focused on my middle ground and slugga/choppa boyz. I took out some non-scoring units, but in the end he was able to take out all of my scoring units I had while he still had one, and after the 5th round what I had left wasn't able to contest because they were either too far from any of the objectives or immobilized, so we called it.
Next I played James in a 1750 list. This list total I mixed things up, but it didn't really play out the way I would have liked. Part of the problem was James built a list of Tau that had Orks as preferred enemy. So he got to re-roll all of his assaults. Initially he forgot to do it, but once he remembered the rout was on. The game was an annihilation game with a Dawn of War deployment. We both forgot about Night Fighting, well until James remembered it as I was destroying his Devilfish with my Deffkoptas. So when I rolled a 3 for my range that effectively ruined that shooting, and then the 'koptas were taken out by James and they never really did anything after that aborted shot in Turn 1. My Kommandos with Snikrot were effective, but with all of the armour saves that James had going on, he was able to tarpit them from running rampant behind his lines. I also brought Thraka who did his share of damage, but the Nobz were innefective. I had them in a trukk, and 6 of them were wounded when he blew it up, leaving the Nobz too far away to do anything, except be shot at.
Finally I played Marc and his Grey Knights. I hate the Grey Knights. Their 6 initiative, and 2+ armor saves made them pretty difficult to go against. Combine that with pretty much no knowledge of how they worked (I was on the other table playing other people every time Marc played) and I started in a hole. I had the same list I used against James so it really fit right into his strengths since my list had only 1 mob of boyz, so I wasn't able to overwhelm him. It was another annihilation game, only this time we had a spearhead deployment. He kept most of his stuff to deep strike, my only reserve was Snikrot and the Kommandos. Things started out okay, but fell apart quickly. My Nobz in a trukk were again easy pickings. When the trukk got a Kerunch on the Ramshackle table I was happy not to take any damage, but I had them piled up outside the trukk, and learned the agony of heavy flamers. I had never faced them, so I had no idea that there was a 12 inch reach for the template. So that saw a lot of boyz, and the Nobz suffer painful defeats. The Nobz actually failed their Ld save and ran off the table. But that was something I faced a lot, failing my Ld saves when I needed them. My Kommandos failed on an assault and were cut down by a sweeping advance, and my boyz suffered major losses thanks to Fearless. In the end he took out my last unit in turn 5, and thus the game was over. My only kills were 1 guy with a tank shock by my Battlewagon with a Deff Rolla, and two guys that failed perils of the warp rolls and their resulting saves. Both were in assault, so I claim those deaths as kills for me.
So what did I learn? Well I like the Lootas, but I'm not sold on having them in the Battlewagon. James was scared to death of my battlewagon so targeted it into oblivion, and Marc was able to negate it's effectiveness by dropping his Deathknight behind it keeping it moving which kept the Lootas from shooting. The Lootas are great, and I love them, but I'm going to just place them and let them shoot rather than move in the Battlewagon. The Battlewagon I'll probably just load a 20 boyz shoota squad in and let them drive around and shoot. A lot. The Deffkoptas were okay, but my best round was negated with some bad luck. Thraka was fun, but he costs so much I doubt I'll take him unless I'm running a 2000 point or higher list. I like the Shoota boyz, but in my game against Jason he used terrain to effectively keep them from shooting him. I think the next army list I try will have 3 squads of boyz, and a warboss, and then from there I'll add things as I see fit. I also need to figure how to get my Nobz into action faster. They are super powerful, and the 'Eavy Armour helps, but the trukk is a tasty target, and lately I seem to roll more Kabooms than Kerrunches on the Ramshackle list. Also, I'm no fan of the Shokk Attack gun. It's very Orky in the way it looks and works, but more often than not it was an ineffective gun that hurt me more than Jason. The KFF is a far better tool, which I had heard but having experienced it I now understand why.
Outside of the games, the weekend was fun. Yes there was a lot of nerding out, but we had a fairly good group dynamic, we were able to introduce the game to a new player, Mike. He liked the Orks, but not the numbers for Orks. He played them and Grey Knights in a couple learning games and I think he had fun and would be a great addition to our gaming group. We also had a good vibe for the hobby side of things. We talked rules, but we also talked painting. Steve worked on modelling and painting, Chris worked on modelling, I put together the stuff that broke in transit, and we all enjoyed seeing each others paint jobs. I know I came away recharged and ready to get back into painting (I hadn't done a thing since finishing up my Deff Dread), and I know several other people felt the same.
Broadcasting the games worked really well, but recording was a different beast. We had a couple people come watch the game between myself and Jason Friday night. One of them was Chris who couldn't make it until Saturday so it gave him a way to be a part of the group, and to provide direction on some rules we had questions about. I was recording the game between James and myself, but a windows update was messing with my laptop and it crashed so it was only about half of my ignominious defeat not the end that is recorded for posterity's sake. I also started to record the Blood Ravens vs. Space Wolves game that was epic, but we broke for dinner and so most of the recording was while we were upstairs eating. And I had to leave before that game was done, which sucks, because it was an epic game.
I did have a friend, Dave, who came out to the streaming and hated it. He's quite the negative person, and spent most of his evening Friday while watching the stream littering my Google+ account with very sarcastic comments. I found them funny (I know what kind of douche my buddy can be), but when I regaled the group with his commentary they didn't enjoy it. That's the thing with 40K streaming. There's a lot of slow time to the game (at least when we play), and so it's not the most fast paced watching. So for someone like my buddy who came into it looking less for what 40K is and more for ways to insult and berate us the broadcast fulfilled his needs. But then again, we had a guy who was prepping for a tournament the next day come out and watch us and enjoyed the broadcast. And for my buddy Chris it was more entertaining than a podcast. What I'm trying to say is, that for the right audience I was pleased with how it worked, and how our broadcast was a benefit. Unfortunately for some people, like Dave, it was nothing but a chance to harass nerds for being nerds. Do I mind? No. But is my friend a troglodyte? Yes.
Other than that, it was a great weekend. Honestly the big problem with weekends like this is how it reinforces how little we get to play in between them. Honestly I need to win the lottery so I can open a gaming store and have a built in excuse to play 40K at work...all the time.
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