ChowHammer 2016 - Carnage for Charity (Round 3 Report)

PART 3: Tau vs. Iron Hands at the Pagan Idol

For my last game, I was matched up against a fluff/narrative list of Tau that included an Ethereal, Fire Warriors, Breachers, Crisis Suits, Hammerheads, and some bigger suits that I don't recall the names of!

The mission was a modified Relic mission, with a strange figure moving about randomly on the battlefield. The Relic was actually a sentient being of great malevolence, attempting to steal the Cornucopia of Life. To hold it, you had to pass successful Strength and Initiative checks to lock it down.

I didn't get as many pictures during this round, as it was getting late and we were playing as quickly as possible.

Basically though, I deployed very aggressively and took the first turn, tearing the turret off of one of the Hammerheads before he had a chance to shoot with it by weight of combined fire from the razorbacks. I marched up with my plasma command squad, tearing into the Crisis suits. My Grav-Cents locked down the left side of the board, and my Dreads went straight up the middle.

Very quickly it started going pretty unfortunately for my opponent. He's a good guy, new to the hobby, but he grasps the rules very well and was refreshing to play against. I felt a little guilty having such a competitive list against his somewhat narrative list, but I suppose in a competitive setting my list was probably not the most competitive one he saw today.

He conceded in turn 4, after I had wiped most of his units. I held the Relic with my Dreadnought, but he scored a morale victory for himself by destroying my Contemptor (which was unscathed thus far) with a lucky shot from the big mechabot in the rear (yeah I know, I don't play Tau enough).

The rest of the evening, I roamed around looking at other people's models. I didn't happen to get any pictures, but luckily the shop owner did, and put them on the store's Facebook page: Here:

For posterity, I'll repost some of my favorites here- 

Warhound Titan

Mastodon

 

Harridan

Tau suit of some kind or other

Another shot of the Ork superheavy bomber

So I didn't win any of the main prizes. Our local group doesn't usually do painting prizes, which I was kind of disappointed with, considering that I spent the week preceding the event working furiously to paint and base enough units to field a fully-painted army.

However, for winning the Round 3 match, all winners of their 3rd round got a special prize for their effort and for sticking it out until the end...

The Bearer of the Cornucopia, now tribute to my victory over the Tau.

I am currently Bronzing the prize, and will be keeping it as my first trophy since playing Iron Hands :P

ChowHammer 2016 - Carnage for Charity (Round 2 Report)

PART 2: Orks vs. Iron Hands on The Barren Steppes

For my second game of the day, I played yet another Ork player. This time, it was a mechanized Meganob list coupled with a particularly brutal Bomber detachment, including the super heavy bomber! It was quite an impressive model, with the contents of practically an entire bitz box dumped onto it.

I wasted a turn of shooting on it before I realized it was a pointless exercise. I was under the impression that knocking 3 points off a Superheavy gave you a VP, but in this tournament that ended up not being the case.

This game went south pretty quickly. I strong-sided my right side of the board, on an objective on my side of the board. Grav-Cents and my Grav-heavy tactical squad hunkered down, dumping shots on an advancing truck full of Meganobz. I popped the truck and the Nobz hopped out, which I then proceeded to dump bucketfuls of Grav-cannon fire from the Grav-Cents. Unfortunately for me, my opponent had a large stockpile of event tickets (see prior report) and burned through a large number of them to give the Meganobz invulnerable save rerolls.

 

Once you let nobz into your Cents, you are gonna have a bad time...

I murdered most of them before they arrived, but his Warboss managed to make contact and begun to slaughter the hapless Centurions wholesale at that point.

Meanwhile, my poor tactical sub-squad (only a single grav-gun as the special weapon) tried to take the hill objective. Finding their weapons ineffective against the Deffdread, they quickly became fertilizer for Ork agricultural endeavors.

My Iron Father quickly leaped up to the top in order to continue the fight, shrugging off multiple hits from the Deffdread and slaying it in single combat with his mighty Chainfist. Unfortunately, however, his command squad didn't accompany him and found themselves beset upon by hordes of the greenskins!

In the end, I realized I should have read the mission objectives better. Thinking that all objectives were of equal value, I attempted to claim the hill, when in reality the objectives in our deployment zones were worth double points. So I lost this game pretty soundly.

ChowHammer 2016 - Carnage for Charity (Round 1 Report)

Part 1: The Feudal World

Intro:

The Carnage for Charity event is a great event held every year at my local game store. It's a fun and wacky day of gaming that directly benefits the local community by donating all proceeds to a local support shelter. We also round up tons of donations in clothes, food, and personal hygiene supplies. We also make it into somewhat of a pot-luck event, where everybody brings food! Thus, ChowHammer is a very popular event in these parts. Bonus internet points if you know which one is me!

Breaking previous records, we had a 22 player turnout this year. We raised $1148 for the MyHouse shelter, as well as a huge amount of clothes and food. For donating, players were awarded "tickets" based on an approximate value of their donations, which were used for fun in-game effects. You could use tickets on shenanigans such as rerolling dice, forcing an opponent to reroll dice, giving a unit FNP or an invulnerable save for the turn... etc.

You also could use the tickets you earned to gain entry for some very unusual units! The Points Limit for the tournament was 2000 points, but with tickets, you could buy "slots" for a Superheavy unit, or even use 30k lists! I had considered using 30k Iron Hands but decided against it this time. I stuck with a familiar 40k Fist of Medusa formation, with a decent mix of Grav, Dreadnoughts, and tough Command Squads.

PART 1: Iron Hands Fist of Medusa Vs. Ork CAD on the Feudal World

In round 1, I drew one of my old friends "from the good ole days." We have played many games together since I entered the game at the end of 4th edition, so it was a very laid back and fun game! He was playing Orks in a CAD, mostly mechanized in trucks, wagons, or riding bikes.

Mechanized Boyz with Heavy Armor, they used Trucks and Battlewagons to leap across the board. Using my superior ranged weaponry of the Lazorbacks and Dreadnoughts, I managed to explode a Battlewagon and wreck a truck, as well as break a unit of ork bikes, before they got too close. But it wasn't enough...

  

Didn't take long to get in my front lines!

On the other side of the board, my Command Squads made short work of a biker squad and a squad of nobz on foot, vaporizing them in a hail of plasma discharge.

The Contemptor put up a valiant fight, but fell to a band of Waaagh'ing Nobz with Powerklawz! The tactical squads were as grass before the scythe, however, falling in droves without inflicting much damage to the bloodthirsty horde.

Taking a battlewagon ram head on, the Drednought stood defiant!

Meanwhile, a wave of boys descended upon my centurions.

Grabbing the objective, my Dreadnought hunkered down for the remainder of the last turn. The boys turned their fury onto my Razorback, attempting to secure more VPs through unit kills. They succeeded in popping 2 out of my 3 razorbacks in the last turn, securing the win by a single VP! It was a fun and close game throughout.

Post Tournament Photo Dump: Iron Hands Raising the Storm

This months' tournament at my local store was a 2500 point ITC-format event that was themed around a "quest for knowledge", tipping the hat to all the students returning to classes this fall semester. For my list, I kept it simple, but brought out a "secret weapon" I was anxious to try!

It was a straight CAD, totaling 2500 points. I brought:

• Captain in Cataphractii armor with the Gorgon's Chain, Chainfist, and Combimelta
• Command Squad with 3 plasma guns and an Apothecary in a Rhino
• Techmarine
• Cataphractii Terminators with 4 Lightning Claws, Sgt with Powerfist and Grenade Harness
• -Land Raider dedicated transport
• Contemptor Class Dreadnought with a Kheres Autocannon
• 2 Tactical Squads, +5 marines, with 1 grav cannon and 1 gravgun each
• Centurion Devestator Squad with Grav cannons and Missile Launchers, sgt Omniscope
• Devastator Squad with 4 Missile Launchers
• Devastator Squad with 2 Lascannons
• Cerebus Heavy Tank Destroyer (Lord of War Superheavy Tank)

My first opponent played Blood Angels, using some Storm Raven shenanigans and Death Company dreadnoughts... The mission was Crusade, but I lost both on the Maelstrom objectives and the Primary. Notable events include my Cataphractii terminators being held in reserve, and mishap'ing twice in a row! They eventually made it to the table, but too late to make a difference. Also, the Cerebus made a decent showing in it's inaugural game, killing two storm ravens that went into hover mode. I also made the mistake of letting my Contemptor become immobilized with his back to the enemy, which proved to be it's undoing. Also, my techmarine made a valiant stand protecting the Cerebus from attacking Death Company, tarpitting them long enough for the Cerebus to secure a few kills.

I received 0 points out of 10 for this match, a pretty overwhelming defeat as far as points go.

I had to take a bye for the 2nd round, as some players had to drop out for work or other responsibilities. As close as the first game seemed, since I didn't actually secure either primary or secondary objectives, I ended up with 0 points for the first round. So being in last place, I was tokened with the bye. I actually would have preferred to play my 2nd round, even if I would have resulted in a loss, but I didn't have much choice in the matter. They awarded me 8 points out of 10 for taking the bye. 

For the 3rd round, I played against Black Templars. Another CAD, he had a Knight and some drop pods, along with a small contingent of predators and dreadnoughts. By carefully deploying my units in cover and giving him the first turn, I was able to shield myself from the worst of his alpha-strike, and the Cerebus made some great returns by blowing apart his Land Raider early on before it could disgorge Grimaldus and his retinue. My Grav did wonders here, glancing hull points off the Knight, allowing my Cataphractii Terminator Sgt. to finish it off with a few well-placed Powerfist attacks.

My contemptor also did wonderful work, completely rendering his squads useless in CC, as they lacked powerfists or meltabombs. With the front armor value of 13, without being immobilized, once getting into combat their weapons were useless, driving them before him.

I won the game solidly, gaining both the Primary objective (special theme of multiple relics) and the Maelstrom objective, winning 9/10 points for the round.

As for my performance? I think I was pretty solid. I may not have been in any sort of running for the top 3, but I came in solidly middle-of the pack, which was actually better than I had hoped to come in, considering that I haven't been to a tournament for the majority of the year. I made some mistakes in the first round, such as forgetting to reroll failed wounds on the grav cannons that had amps, but I corrected those in the following round and played a solid game from then on.

Had I been able to play my 2nd round instead of taking the bye, I think I would have fared well. Maybe not securing 8 points, but I am sure I would have secured one objective or the other. Purge was a game type that I might have done well in, and that was the 2nd round's mission. I kept my unit count fairly low so it probably would have gone well, but who knows?

Either way, a satisfactory showing by my Iron Hands for their first tournament.