It's been chaotic but between another move, I've finally been able to set my computer back up again.
I went 3-1 on my first day at NoVa, then after my 5th game, my army was not able to be fully repaired in time, and I had mentally shut-down ("Forgot to shoot with Lootas. Positioned Warbuggies out of LOS. Screwed up bubblewrap against Wolf Scouts. Etc."). Twas actually my first GT, and so I missed out on a lot of the important bits (Protip: Invest in an Army Tray!).
It was nightmarish at bits, part of it being my army wasn't fully ready prior to the tournament due to a *lot* of personal/life issues hampering my time. Having spoken with the TO beforehand, saying I wished to cancel, he said for me to come anyway. He was a champ to the end, even if I ended up basically forfeiting sleep on the nights before to get enough stuff assembled last-minute and a bleary-eyed proxy-mess on-table.
Despite it all, it was incredibly fun even at the parts where I was keeled over in pain. My opponents were friendly and understanding for the most part, (my 4th game was fairly nightmarish though. I feel like if I were better-prepared for the event, it would've been more expedient). Got to chat with Gav Thorpe about game design theory and "What happened with Chaos/Eldar/life?" Got to meet a lot of infamous folks.
Modelingwise:
-I need to assess damage and repair my army
-Now planning to build 2 more Warbuggies, and 2 Wartrukks.
-Buying sheet metal and plywood, and building a custom army tray to make setup between games easier on my part.
-Movement trays for my Boyz. I don't want the normal "square" trays, just because I found that as the game progressed, I was using increasingly intricate formations in my army.
For the record, I ran:
Ghazgkull Thraka
Kustom Forcefield Mek, Bosspole, Eavy Armor, Grot Oiler'
Elites:
7 Lootas
7 Lootas
3 Meganobz, 2 Kombi-Rokkits
-Battlewagon w/ Kannon, Deffrolla, Red Paint Job
Troops
3 Meganobz, 2 Kombi-Rokkits
-Battlewagon w/ Kannon, Deffrolla, Red Paint Job (The original Wagon was going to be converted based off a Russ hull. Due to assorted issues with that, I ended up buying a Battlewagon cockpit and extending it to the front of a Chimera instead the night before. This
17 Shoota Boys, Nob w/ 'Uge Choppa and Bosspole
17 Shoota Boys, Nob w/ 'Uge Choppa and Bosspole
13 Grots, Slaver
Fast Attack
2 Warbuggies w/ Rokkits
2 Warbuggies w/ Rokkits (the third
2 Deffkoptas, one Buzzsaw (the second kopta was a stand-in).
Heavy Support:
3 Kannons (I had leftover tank turrets and large bases. Basically, instead of artillery pieces one would limber around, I basically had several emplaced turrets. I like this outcome and will convert them up further).
3 Killa Kans w/ Kustom Mega Blastas.
3 Killa Kans w/ Kustom Mega Blastas.
My first opponent ran:
Kharn
Daemon Prince of Nurgle with Warptime, Wings
Summoned Greater Daemon
Unit of 10 Plague Marines with 2 Meltaguns, Champion with Fist, Icon
Unit of 10 Plague Marines with 2 Meltaguns, Champion with Fist, Icon
Unit of 10 Khorne Berserkers, Champion with Fist, Icon
Unit of Summoned Lesser Daemons
2 Obliterators
2 Obliterators
Chaos Land Raider
Tied on objectives, won on quarters.
Second opponent ran:
Sanguinor
Librarian w/ Jump Pack, Blood Lance, Shield of Sanguinius
Blinged out Honor Guard
Sanguinary Priest
4 units of 10 Assault Marines,
Blinged out Vanguard unit.
Won *that* game 1497 VP to 323 VP due to a mix of MSU multi-assaulting of units, a *really* well-timed Ghaz charge which took out half of his Assault Marines (and the Power Fists being forced to allocate their attacks onto him, leaving my MANZ fairly free to punch the living crap out of the Bloodbloods), and a well-placed Deffrolla tank-shocking the Sanguinor in a manner that he got pushed into range for one of my Kan units to assault him. This basically locked Goldenboy out of the fight for the rest of the game.
Third game was me winning by idiotic luck, barely by KP. (Dawn of War Deployment, incidentally). The guy ran:
3 Haemonculi, 2 w/ Liquifiers, 1 w/ Shattershard
3 units of 3 Trueborn, 3 Blasters, Venom w/ Dual Splinter Cannons
3 units of 5 Warriors, Blaster, Venom w/ Dual Splinter Cannons
3 units of 9 Wyches, Haywire Grenades, Hekatrix w/ Agonizer, Raider w/ Flickerfields and Enhanced Aethersails.
3 Ravagers
Just to make it *more* fun, he rolled a 6 for his Combat Drugs, so his Wyches all started off with 2 Tokens (basically, most melee attacks bounce off them and they hit like Orks on the charge).
Fourth game was against a Ghaz tide, and *that* game had a fair bit of a mess pre-game just because I mentioned my army was "NOT FINISHED" (I had basically forfeited my appearance score), and pre-game I was subject to a random spot check of my army. This screwed me over time-wise, and by then I was mentally making mistakes I shouldn't have...like deploying my Lootas LOS-blocked by my Kannons. Then Snikrot escorted a Bike Boss behind my lines and there went most of my plan. After that, I called it. I *really* feel that were I better-prepared as a player, things could have gone very differently.
His list btw was:
HQ:
Ghazgkull Thraka
Warboss on Bike, w/ Power Klaw, Cybork Body
Elites:
Snikrot's Kommandos, Big Shoota
Troops
4 units of 30 Shootaboyz, 3 Rokkit Launchas, Nob w/ Bosspole and Power Klaw.
Unit of 20 Grots
Fast Attack:
3 units of 2 Rokkit Warbuggies
Heavy Support:
2 Looted Wagons w/ Boomguns
Being Spearhead, he deployed 2 mobs in the far-right corner, spread out to camp objectives and he reserved everything else. Ghaz started on-table, and the Bike Boss came in with Snikrot's Kommandos.
My *fifth* game was against a judge as I had overslept. The lack of prior sleep caught up to me (and was still doing a horrid number). The guy ran an "Ambush" Space Wolf list based heavily off last year's list by Tony Kopach (Tony won again this year, incidentally).
Njal Stormcaller
4 Wolf Guard w/ Combi-Meltas, 2 w/ Combi-Meltas and Fists (The Fist/Combimeltas joined the Scouts. The rest joined the Hunters).
2 units of 5 Wolf Scouts, Meltaguns
4 units of 8 Grey Hunters, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Rhino
2 units of 5 Grey Hunters, Flamer, Razorback w/ TL Lascannon
3 units of Long Fangs, each with 4 Missile Launchers.
This is a "type" of army I've practiced against before. Had my setup ready...then he seized the initiative. I lose a Battlewagon and my Deffkoptas from the getgo. From there, I'm basically running my Buggies to screen against Wolf Scouts entering from behind, but mess up my model spacing. My Lootas manage to snipe one Wolf Scout unit off the table...I lost my Kannons after an assault, counterassaulted with Boyz, spaced badly and lost my Lootas to the *next* Wolf Scout unit (I had forgotten to, you know, *shoot* with my Loota in the turn before), and after suiciding a Meganob unit to kill some more Fangs, and him reserving some additional Rhinos to basically tankshock me off objectives, we called it.
It was one of *those* games that I really felt was more me screwing up as a player rather than being a list-matchup issue, to be honest. After that game, I said I would be back next year, mentioned my desire to withdraw from the tournament because between my being at a state of "oh god, can't play anymore," my army being a proxy repair-nightmare, I really felt playing further would be doing everyone else a dissservice. I thanked him for the game, asked for general advice, and for the most part things were rather helpful. One thing he did (and several others) mention was that despite it all, going 3-1 with Orks on a first tournament is still something not everyone does.
That's that mostly. Planned army update will be in a separate thread.