MetuCon 40k Tusot Tournament - Game 2

And so we begin the second game..

As stated.. I was not aware that there was such a large break in between games.. though I probably should have checked the scheduled list posted up as it is pretty clear.. my bad..

So I find out that I get to play against a Blood Angel player! Yay! I have played a friendly game against them once loooooong ago when the book first came out, with my Orks.. have to say they are scary in close combat.. but I was hoping I would be scarier :)

Now it is funny to say, but my opponent almost immediately informs me that he has been told something weird.. that because this is a tournament, we are not to believe our opponents, and should be playing to win at any cost.. not sure who had stated that to him, but he asked if that was my mentality. I responded with a laugh and said, "I am playing Daemons and this is my second game of 40k in a long time.. would rather play to learn and have fun.. " to which he agreed. You might find this section strange to put, but wait for the punchlines throughout the game itself where this should have been enforced..

It is worth noting that my opponent also has started with warning as his troops are not completely WYSIWYG.. personally I can agree with this for veteran players who have many models, but it seemed to me that my opponent was a new player with limited troops. But whatever.. I am not a referee nor did I set up the rules here.. so.. on wards we continue..

So as usual, I lose with regards to which section to start on ( or rather to force my opponent into a corner of my choosing ) and he places his units first. Now to say that this guy was kind is an understatement.. almost immediately once set up, he realizes one of his Razorback is over the edge of his deployment zone and begins to apologize profusely. I can honestly say I was happy to see this as it meant that this game could be played more casually and that if something messes up, just state it, and we could come to a solution.. to which we did.. since he had first turn it was easy to just say that it moved, or even didn't as I had nothing on the table, and we didn't see it as game breaking!

As you can see the Razorback is over the line.. oooo such an infraction.. my opponent was too much of a nice guy to worry about such things... but it could be the atmosphere of the tournament also.. 

So Turn 1..
With his items placed.. nothing really moved, except to get into a good firing solution, and he bunched his vehicles up behind one of the fortresses.

My Turn.. saw my first batch of flamers coming in right beside the aforementioned Razorback , with the others popping in on the other side closer to his land speeder. A Daemon Prince of Nurgle, and the Blue Bloodthirster land on the other side, closer to the second fortress.

For shooting, both big guys attempt to run, but roll 1 and 2 respectively. Meanwhile, the flamers open up!

The one closest to the rhino immobilizes it, and shakes it in the process, while also removing the meltaguns from the Storm Raven.. in hindsight.. I should have taken the Twin-Linked Plasma instead.

On the other side, the Flamers shake up the land raider and make it so it cannot shoot.

Good placement for the flamers initial drop, and for the big guys.. not so great, but not the worst. 

Turn 2.. 
With his Rhino stuck, and his Land Speeder without a gun, he speeds forward at full to get closer to the big guys. His Dreadnought goes after the further most Flamers, killing 2 with his guns, and the last in close combat.

My opponent also forgets about his reserves, and although provided the opportunity to bring them in if he wants, he foregoes it, and states that he wants to play fairly.. between us.. this conversation would continue where we would own up to our mistakes, and take the consequences.. as a game should be..

Shooting at the big guys sees no wound occur. He just does not have the same amount of guns to bear, and with his movement, he could only shoot the Lascannons at them anyways.

In my turn, I made a big mistake to begin with.. in fantasy everything can be pre-measured.. in 40k.. not so much :) I had forgotten this while moving Big Blue... and the ref politely reminded me of this. I was thinking of moving him behind the Tower after I saw he would fail the charge, but since I can't pre-measure, I moved him to where I had measured.. No problem.. the other Daemon Prince however was ok with his distances and attempted a good move against the Storm Raven.. it would also be from here on in, that the head referee would begin to watch our entire game..

NO reserves come in this turn.. very frustrating, but only fitting since none of my opponents came in either.

Flamers moved in behind the dreadnought, shaking it enough to prevent it from shooting.

Close combat saw nothing but fluff attacks getting thrown out, as I needed 6s to hit the flying behemoth!

Flamers between 2 juicy targets, and big guys ready to get into combat as soon as they can.. 

Turn 3.. 
All of Assault marines with jetpacks arrive, and they land in a triangle formation around my big guys.. the Storm Raven speeds off behind the Bloodthirster, while the speeder gets closer to the action, and the  Razorback  drives forward a bit also.

Shooting from the  Razorback  now, since its status is back to normal, see 2 flamers die. 2 wounds against the Daemon Prince of Nurgle from the assault marines and Lascannon on Razorback. His other units attempt to wound the Bloodthirster, but to no effect.

On the Daemon side, the Plaguebearers join the fight, and land behind the Lascannon totting Razorback. Horrors pop up on the hill behind one of his assault units, and put a bit of pressure on him. The lone flamer jumps up to the top of the fortress ( as we had rolled to see if it was open terrain at the beginning of the game, and it was. The ref doubled checked this after I had stated it to confirm it was true with my opponent ). And the second Daemon Prince of Nurgle pops up, and is right beside the immobilized Razorback.

For shooting the Flamer attempted to burn the Razorback once more, but fails to do anything. The horrors open up against the poor assault marines beside them, and with 42 shots, and a bolt of Tzeentch, remove the entire combat unit off the table.

*It is worthy to note that the ref jumps in here to explain the rule concerning armor saves against units with different weapons or gear. The only part I understood at this point was that each needs to be wounded separately. This part I kept in mind for future parts. When asked if all is OK, I got the traditional nod, and we continued on. *

Prior to assaulting them, the Bloodthirster attempts to shoot them with Death Strike, but fails to hit, and instead goes toe to toe with them in combat. As does the Daemon Prince with the other unit.

Combat would see both assault squads losing and causing no wounds in return.

There used to be assault marines on the hill.. Horrors are probably the only thing scary for shooting in this army with assault 3, str 4 ap 4 shooting at their disposal. 

Turn 4.. 
Trying to get around to save the immobilized Razorback the Lascannon cousin of it, attempts a quick turn around to take down that new threat that appeared. The stormraven flys over and past the fortress, and sets up for a deployment of terminators with characters soon enough. The dreadnought also begins to head up the hill once more to take up a better firing position.

However, even with the high ground, and the big guns, neither do anything to the new Daemon Prince of Nurgle threatening the immobilized Razorback.

The StormRaven was able to get a shot of his Twin-Linked Plasma guns off on the horrors, killing a few in the exchange.

Combat sees the first Daemon Prince of Nurgle kills the assault marines, and begin to wander off towards the Lascannon Razorback.

In the other combat, it is tied, with both inflicting 1 wound each. However, it is at this point that I point out a little used item that no one ever takes unless they have points left over.. like me :) The instrument of Chaos! Meaning I win by 1.. which means nothing as he passes his leadership.

*It is interesting at this point however that the Referee asks me if this is included or an upgrade, to which I agree it is an upgrade. He then also does a "random" check of my list. Not asking me what is what, just getting the other judge to check it over. The verdict.. my list is correct and I haven't done anything wrong. To boot, I played the rule correctly.. but I digress.. *

In my turn, the final piece comes on the table. Big Red! Landing further from the dreadnought that I had planned, but still on the table. The Plaguebearers move closer to the central Razorback, readying themselves for a charge.

Shooting sees the Horror with Bolt of Change take down the Land Speeder! Fire and debris everywhere! Big red also attempts to damage the dreadnought with Death Strike, but rolls a 2 for armor pen, and needed a minimum of 4..

Close combat sees the Daemon Princes charge their respected Razorbacks, with the newest one landed 5 auto hits, 4 which turn into penetrates, and the last being a glance. Needless to say the vehicle is destroyed, and the occupants are pinned after failing a leadership test.

The other one sees 20 attacks from the Plaguebearers, but none of them hitting. And only 2 penetrates from the Daemon Prince, but only a stunned and shaken result. Meaning it is going to get hit next turn!

Combat with Big Blue sees the sergeant die, and combat finalizing there.

Turn 5..
With the lose of the razorback, and the other now stuck, it wasn't looking good for the Blood Angels. Moving the Storm Raven closer, and disembarking his Terminators, and Characters to meet the threat of the forces of Nurgle beating upon his poor Razorback.

With his opening salvo of shots from the Storm Raven and characters, the Daemon Prince of Nurgle falls, and the Horrors ( whom I left in a grouped position ) suffered another round of getting slammed with the Twin Plasma guns. Losing more in the process.

Combat saw the Plaguebearers attempt to do damage to the stopped Razorback, and both stun it and removes the Lascannon from it.

With my movement, Big Blue fly to a safety of behind the back fortress, while Big Red flew to behind the dreadnought. The last Prince moves around the assault marines who were pinned, and the Plaguebearers attempted to surround the openings of the last Razorback.

*Again I would like to note that while this is happening, my list is being re-checked again, but this time I am not being asked about it.*

The lone Flamer, opened up and killed 4 of the assault marines ( after being checked for range and target by the ref as well ). Shooting from the Horrors of the bolt sees it hit, but doesn't go farther than that.

Combat sees the Prince assault the lone marine, killing him where he stands before over running 6 inches towards the dreadnought. Who had problems of his own with Big Red coming at him. However even with 5 attacks, and monstrous strength, can only manage to make him not move or shoot.. so he gets no attacks back and we stick around for another round of combat.

Turn 6..
So with a final push, the Blood Angel commander hurls his Terminators and Characters at the plaguebearers, and flies the Storm Raven behind the fortress so that he can attempt to shoot Big Blue. The razorback continues to just sit there, with its crew of 5 assault marines who are stuck thanks to the Plaguebearers blocking the exits.

So, with movement finished, he begins his shooting but unfortunately does no wounds to Big Blue once more. Also the combat with the Dreadnought sees him stunned once more and doing no attacks back.

*While moving into combat, we find out ANOTHER rule from the referee.. characters move first.. now.. it was my opponent that moved things, and to be honest it was against Plaguebearers so I did not expect much out of them. So after learning about this rule, my opponent moves his guys so that his characters are now in front. *


The combat scene is as expected.. the terminators kill 5 Plaguebearers, while another dies to a character. No wounds are hit back, and the Daemons lose, and die due to instability and fearless.. such is the life of a Daemon :)

And so on wards to my last turn.. I know there are lots of side notes here.. but it is worthy to note that I am actually winning! 6 to 3! So this turn is not really required but since we are both here.. we continue to play anyways! Plus my opponent is learning a lot about his army, and I am learning a lot about the 40k game.. almost confident I know what I am doing at this time..

So for movement, I bring the Flamer down beside the terminators lining them up for a nice BBQ, and Big Blue goes to try to hurt the Storm Raven in close combat if possible.

So with shooting to start, I begin to line up and see what I can reach with the flamer template. I think it is 6 plus Razorback, my opponent says 7, and the ref begins to interfere once more. So I attempt to roll to wound.

Now, way back in turn 3, there was the deal with the different models with different load outs.. and the way I understood it was that I needed to roll each individually.. and with everything going on over how many I am hitting, I just begin to roll.. choosing the Librarian first. As I roll, the Ref again interrupts and says I am doing it wrong. Ok.. so now it is explained once more.. but this time to me, instead of my opponent.. in the end, the number of hits is checked AGAIN.. and its from the ref that it is the whole unit.. so I begin to roll for wounding on all of them when the ref throws up his arms and explains he is sick of all my cheating and that I need another warning.. and he storms off..

My opponent and I look at each other wondering why the big fuss.. and he even states to me that it is a bit extreme. So we try to continue on, however.. yes you guessed it.. the ref comes back to me and interrupts our game once more..

Remember also back on the second turn.. when I pre-measured the distance.. or in the last post where I did not have a hard copy of the FAQ.. well this would be my third warning! So with a triumph, and a huff.. he declares that I have lost this game, stop playing, and congratulates my opponent.

Suffice it to say.. I am thoroughly confused as this is the only time he spoke English to me in the entire tournament so far, and before anything can be said.. he is off again..

We did finish the turn, and I think we still played the rule wrong, but honestly at this point it did not matter as both of us were shaken as to what was going on, and why.

I would like to point out at this time, to any members of Tusot who might read this.. I think this was incredibly unprofessional, and considering that me and my opponent had no objectives to what was happening, and correcting mistakes as they came, I think this was completely uncalled for. I have left this game, and overall the tournament, with a feeling of prejudice against me. It has left a very sour taste in my mouth concerning the refs and their interaction when not needed, versus when required.

It should also be a warning to the guys who were asking me who happened ( and were also foreigners ), and when I explained that the rules and judging were being done in pure Turkish, they too were kind of taken aback by that statement.

In the end, although I continued on to play my last game, I was less than thrilled to even be in this tournament still, let alone having to deal with someone who obviously had it out for me for some reason. If that reason can be explained, please let me know. I would greatly appreciate it.

However as of now, this is my last Tusot tournament, be it 40k or the soon to be Fantasy variety. Only exception would be if it is someone who is willing to "bend" the Tusot rules, and explain the odd thing to me in English.

Thanks