Warhammer Forums are evil?

Blogs and forums serve different purposes but basically I have come to the conclusion that the internet allows the worst brand of anonymity complex.  Hidden by hundreds of miles and thousands of electrons, people lose all civility and worse, they lose perspective.

I can tell you honestly that little I ever say on this blog will change your life.  But it doesn't have to in order to provide value.  The same goes for so many units in Warhammer.  So many units are valuable, albeit not necessarily a statistical juggernaut.  Suggesting they have value is just asking for it on many forums.

Many minds jump from what you actually SAID ("the unit has value") in their mind to "its the best thing ever".  Think for a moment.  Even if I had said that, and I never did, would that be a reason to jump someones ass and pee in their cheerios?  NO!  Obviously not.  However I think whats obvious isn't the issue.  The issue is that people can intentionally ignore the tenets of basic goodwill and act snarky, self important and omniscient because, put simply, you cant stop them.

Then when you try to explain the reasons for something having value they act like YOU peed in THEIR cheerios.  This reversal isn't real.  But their mind convinces them that you somehow called their opinion (that opinion being that your opinion is stupid) stupid.  Oh sweet irony.  And really, how do you ever correct course after things go that far sideways?

Does anyone else reading this find that hilarious?  Probably.  But only because you know I'm telling you something you've seen on a hundred forums before with your own eyes.  Facebook is the same thing.  People vomit their emotional state minute by minute to a hundred "friends" who couldn't care less and they carry out mean spirited exchanges via facebook on occassion, as if they'll never see this person again?  Why would they ever think it's going to be forgiven?  You didn't just air out the dirty laundry.  You did it in WRITING, publically!!!

My point is this:  we need to be a ton kinder to one another on these damn forums and blogs and whatever.  We really do.  And we need to stop acting like no one knows the Wizard of Oz is a short guy behind a curtain with a megaphone.  That veil isn't that hard to pull back my friend.

Foot Eldar vs. Draigo Wing

Another battle report using the mission Blitzkrieg from the upcoming tournament.

Foot Eldar vs. DraigoWing.

Enemy army (roughly):   

Draigo,

Librarian,

Paladin

10 Paladin squad (2 Psycannon, 2 Psilencers, psybolt, apothecary etc...)

5 Terminator Squad plus Thrawn (Psilencer)

6 Interceptor Squad (2 hammers, Psycannon)

5 Strike Squad (psybolt, Psycannon)

Mission:  Blitzkrieg

Enemy wins and chooses NE corner, I am in SW.  Huge bridge spans from one long table edge to the other down the middle roughly, space underneath.  Ruin in my corner, the NW corner and the SE corner.  Small LOS blocking wall sections in his NE zone.  trees smattered here and there but fairly inconsequential placement.

Draigo and his buddies start on their quadrant line ready to go.  Strike Squad in outflanking reserve.  Terminators hide behind a wall section towards the eastern edge of the enemy zone.  His Interceptors go into outflanking reserve.

I deploy the Dark Reapers in the ruin near me SW board  corner, Guardians set a floor above them.  The second reapers deployed amongst trees on the far southern board edge about 15 inches from the short table edge.  The D-Cannons hid behind a cargo container just east of them, obscured by both the bridge and the container.  The Farseer went into that unit.  All Scorpions and Warp Spiders plus the Autarch Deep Strike/outflank  reserved while the Jet bikes reserved normally.

Round 1: 

Draigo moves and runs forward, wisely spreading out to avoid the worst of my barrages.  There really wasn't much else for him to do.  His Vindicare assassin had snuck into the top level of a building in the NW quadrant and shot the Runic armor right off my Farseer, causing him a wound as well.

On my turn I began the fusilade.  The assassin vanished in a puff of purple Lance vapor, while small blasts and reaper cannons smacked him around a bit.  The D-Cannon did the same.  Thanks to Guide, the D-cannon was deadly accurate and caused several wounds but killed no one.

Score:  Eldar-3  Draigowing-3

Round 2: 

Draigo moved forward under the bridge and fired Psybolters, killing a D-Cannon while the Strike squad came in from reserve on the eastern board edge and moved towards the objective there to contest it (now all three of their own contested as one was near the bridge where Draigo was).  They manifested WarpQuake for good measure.  Terminators waited patiently for the slaughter to begin.

3 Warp Spider units zapped in and aware of what WarpQuake could do to them, two appeared on the northern board edge near the bridge while a third unit scattered into the ruin the Vindicare assassin had been in killing a Spider towards the NW corner.  None were remotely close enough to shoot so they all just ran and then warped towards the bridge.

Striking Scorpions streamed onto the board as well from the Eastern side, shot and then charged the Strike Squad on the objective, killing all but the Daemon Hammer, but they were able to hold.

Three of the four bike Squads streamed on as well, and took cover behind a container in my quadrant, behind the bridge, at maximum speed.

The D-cannons, Guardian Lances and Reapers bombarded Draigo and his cohorts again, killing a Paladin.  The Apothecary however MORE than paid for himself as the unit was doomed by the Farseer and still withstood it all.  Amazingly impotent.

Score:  Eldar-3  Draigowing-9

Round 3: 

The librarian took a wound from Perils. while the Draigo unit blasted into the Jetbikes and killed two of three in the farthest trio.  The lone bike stayed his ground against the amazing fusilade.

The Strike Squad died fighting while the Thrawn led Terminators made their way towards the Striking Scorpions and opened fire.  The scorpions weathered it well though.

The interceptors outflanked and tried to charge up into the ruins to get to the guardians above the Reapers.  They failed the charge but did kill one with shooting.

The Eldar responded.  The guardians shot and charged the Interceptors, winning combat by killing all but the hammer wielding sergeant.

two Jet bike units blasted from hiding and headed towards the northern board edge of the enemy quadrant.  One wen to the SE quadrant behind a ruin while another unit of Jet bikes came out out of reserve there.  Both settled in the ruins.

2 Warp Spiders units floated to the side of the Striking Scorpions and fired on the Terminators in the enemy quadrant, along with the Scorpions, leaving Thrawn "dead" and only one Paladin alive.  No charge was possible at that point.  So they bounced backwards. 

The third Warp Spider unit with the Autarch ran and warped north of Draigo's position, trying to tempt him into a charge that would divert him further north.  They essentially did nothing to the Paladins.

The Reapers plowed into the Paladins...  to no real effect.  Not a Paladin died.  The D-Cannons were just so-so against the yet again Doomed unit.  While most Paladins had a wounds on them, none were dropping.

Score:  Eldar-3  Draigowing-6

Round 4:

Thrawn rose up and charged the Scorpions with his Terminator buddy but the Scorpions won, killing them again!   They then consolidated around the point where Thrawn might rise again, near the enemy objective.

The Guardians finished the Interceptor and consolidated downwards to contest an objective. 

Draigo moved and shot the Farseer plus the bike and should have killed the Farseer but we forgot that his armor had been stripped in round 1.   That was my fault although it didn't impact the game any.

A lone Paladin landed right in front of the Reapers in my ruin and shot at them, in easy reach of most of my units.

The Reapers continued the onslaught and again could not hurt the Paladin unit much, dropping only the second Paladin of the fight, the lone one that had just landed.  Had they not, he would have struck at the Reapers in the ruin in all likelihood.

The Farseer joined forces with the reapers in my building after they moved down and out to him., to contest the middle objective and protect him.  The D-Cannons and other Reapers unloaded as did the Autarch and Warp Spiders north of Draigo...and did nothing to them.  The other two units of Warp Spiders got shots in also on the rear end of the unit but did nothing.  Fun.

Jetbikes roared towards the enemy objectives, taking all three.

Score:  Eldar-36  Draigowing-0

Round 5:

Draigo shot and forced one of the Jetbike units to flee the field for good, freeing one of his objectives.  Thrwan rose up and struck again to contest one.  That was pretty muc it for them. 

The Eldar, now dangerously close  to the Draigowing unit, fired everything and with every Warp spider and gun in the army, managed to finish a single Paladin off.  depressingly ineffective.  The only thing that went right was Thrawn dying again to Striking Scorpion fire.  Lol.

Score:  Eldar-27  Draigowing-0

Round 6: 

Draigo charged, killing the reapers and Farseer and claiming the objective solidly.  Thrawn did not rise again.

The Eldar responded with everything, killing nothing.

Game ended. 

Score:  Eldar-24  Draigowing-9

Mephiston rant

I feel that Mephiston is easily GW's second biggest failure, right behind the Steadfast/Hordes fiasco of 8th Edition Warhammer Fantasy.

Whenever I play against this particular model I just sigh inside.  Here is a character that at the best of times, you get to make an LD 6 check against or else Mephiston gets to re-roll to hits and misses.  It isn't even a Psychic power.  No chance of failure and no runes will stop it.  If it doesn't work, he just uses his Psychic power to re-roll hits anyways.  And then rolls to get STR 10 if he even needs to.

Let's just review a few things here.  First, this guy is a freaking historian for a living.  I dont care what fluff they conjured for this guy, the bottom line is, his role as the most dominant special character to come along is not supportable by rational fluff any more than Grey Knights being the "Men in Black" makes much sense.  Captain Tycho should have been the beast this guy is, not this friggin page turner.

But getting beyond that, I took some time and went through all 16 codex's.  I couldn't find a single model able to do the things he does in one package.  I found some damn scary stuff that I hadn't considered in a while, but nothing like him.  He:

1.  flies
2.  is fleet
3.  HAS A PSYCHIC HOOD that is almost instantly midboard every game
4.  2+ armor.  That right there puts him beyond the ability of most weapons to scratch him.
4.  5 wounds.  5.  REALLY?  With 2+ armor?
5.  Tough 6.  Because he wasn't already hard enough to hurt.
6.  Costs as much as a Land Raider... and kills 4 times as much as a Land Raider.
7.  Storm Ravens.  So before someone says "yeah but Eldrad..."  let me ask you a question.  Can Eldrad stop a Storm Raven from moving 24" in round 1?  No.  Do you see Eldar played en masse at tournaments anyways?  No.  The Storm Raven makes his most dangerous ability, his speed, twice as bad.
8.  Force Weapon:  Okay.  So now with or without his powers he can wipe your Tyrranofex on a single wound of 4+.  Because he needed the help.  Oh...and yeah...  Grey Knights and their Force Halbers, while awesome, go AFTER him.  So even they may not be alive to swing and even if they do, see #3 for details on why it only kinda matters.  Dont bother pointing out the Psyche out Grenades.  You'll never be the one charging.  See #1 and #2 for that.  Unless he's ready to die, you'll not be charging HIM.
9.  Init 7?  Talk about ridiculousness.

It takes herculian luck to down him until he is point blank in front of an entire array of plasma.  For those who like math, you need to hit him 8 times with plasma to drop him out in the OPEN, which takes most armies 16 plasma shots to do, which in turn means it is likely that FIVE TO EIGHT UNITS are being dedicated to his erradication depending on the dice. You can't possibly beleive the rest of Mephistons forces are twiddling their thumbs in the meantime.  Oh and if he's in cover, forget it.  You'll need 32 plasma shots.  Las/Plas Razorbacks if you even have access to them are decent but...  You'd have to stand perfectly still to do it....  Sound like a good idea to anyone?

True story, and you can't even make this stuff up:  Mephiston once got 7 KP from me in a 5 round game.  Do the math in your head on that one.  It hardly mattered that there was ANYTHING else on the field on his side, to tell you the truth.

His defenders tell me "Plasma Guard can kill him".  Super.  So what should the other 15 codex's do about him BEFORE he gets to KP #7?

Other suggest volume of fire.  It takes 90 STR 5 shots to drop him.  90.  How many units that you actually field regularly that have STR 5 are you comitting to just that?  How many do you have that can even do that?  God help you if a Sanguinary priest is anywhere near him.  Then its 180 shots.  Where are those shots going to come from?  9 Vindettas maybe?  Are we going to start building every list to handle this one guy?  No.

Sometimes you just have to get lucky to stop him because the math is certainly not on your side.

He's not as bad as 8th Edition, but he's right up there with it.

Here's how I deal with him:  You kill the Storm Raven and let Mephiston have lunch at your expense.  You then bring reserves on and blast him at very short range in round 3.  Unfortunately for you, his whole army has moved up behind him in that time and will wash over you.  So you must reserve a lot and lure him into isolation and accept that your plasma is forfeit the rest of the game.  This is such a bad idea when objectives can simply be blockaded by he and his trusty Furioso buddy that really...  Still, blowing the Storm Raven slows his help down even though its tempting to fire those same shots at HIM and allows him to BE isolated for that critical window of time.  So focusing on him first is a mistake.  Let him kill something while you kill the Ravens and then you MUST blow him off the board or he will simply have too much help coming for you to stop it.  His death will not come easily and he will likely kill TWO high value targets in the best of possible worlds but if you limit him to that, you've done seomthing.

Ridiculous.  But there you have it.

End of rant.  I feel better.  =)

Eldar on foot.

I began more testing for my Eldar and found that having no psyker defense is just asking for it.  While I don't actually need the added firepower or goodies the Psykers bring, I do need defense.  It interupts my list to add a Farseer because I lose the almost ironclad assurance of a turn 2 massive strike.  However, in so many ways, the overpowered Mephiston and power excalating Njal have made it clear they are true game changers and must be anticipated even at the expense of surety on reserves.

Nonetheless, the list has done very well to this point so its my hope that the changes will make it stronger.

The key to the list is the Autarchs ability to boost your reserves nad bringing on devastating waves of firepower to bear all at once then skating away from danger.

Its ability to do that will be somewhat hampered adding the Farseer, but its ability to stop Psykers will have to suffice.  The Psykers seem to really be the ones causing problems.

2000 Pts - Eldar Roster - 2000 Eldar

Total Roster Cost: 2000

Heavy Support: Support Weapon Battery  (9#, 150 pts)
   3 Support Weapon Battery ,  D-cannon)

Heavy Support: Dark Reapers (3#, 167 pts)
      1 Dark Reaper Exarch, +  Crack Shot+  Fast Shot + Tempest Launcher

Heavy Support: Dark Reapers (3#, 167 pts)
      1 Dark Reaper Exarch, +  Crack Shot+  Fast Shot + Tempest Launcher

Troops: Guardian Jetbike Squadron (3#, 76 pts)
   Shuriken Cannon x1

Troops: Guardian Jetbike Squadron (3#, 76 pts)
   Shuriken Cannon x1

Troops: Guardian Jetbike Squadron (3#, 76 pts)
   Shuriken Cannon x1

Troops: Guardian Jetbike Squadron (3#, 76 pts)
   Shuriken Cannon x1

Troops: Guardians (11#, 118 pts)
      1 Weapon Platform, 30 pts + Bright Lance 30

Elite: Striking Scorpions (8#, 180 pts)
     1 Striking Scorpion Exarch, Shadowstrike  +  Stalker + Scorpion Claw)

HQ: Autarch (1#, 125 pts)
   1 Autarch, Mandiblaster + Warp Jump Generators + Power Weapon + Fusion Gun )

HQ: Farseer (1#, 135 pts)
   1 Farseer, + Runes of Warding + Spirit Stones +  Doom  +  Guide

Fast Attack: Warp Spiders (8#, 218 pts)
      1 Warp Spider Exarch,= (Withdraw + Powerblades + Death Spinner x2)

Fast Attack: Warp Spiders (8#, 218 pts)
      1 Warp Spider Exarch, = (Withdraw + Powerblades + Death Spinner x2)

Fast Attack: Warp Spiders (8#, 218 pts)
      1 Warp Spider Exarch, = (Withdraw + Powerblades + Death Spinner x2)

Thoughts?  Questions?

The newest player

I had a discussion with a Heroclix organizer who has grown his small two man group into a 28 man group in a short period of time and he asked me, since he knew I was in marketing, how he should go about getting sponsors for his tournament as we have done for ours.

I got to thinking about this and thought I would share my thoughts with you.

My advice to him was simple:  You can't talk to these sponsors about giving you free maps/Dice/Templates/whatever for the sake of people who already are buying or likely to buy their stuff.  That's a non starter.  What you need to do is remember what this game and everything they do should be about:  the newest player.

As organizers, we need to talk the sponsors language and that language is increasing their market.  I provided him two ways to approach it but for simplicities sake, suffice it is to say that if you bend your mind to this simple principle and get creative as to how YOU will use your prize support to bring people INTO the hobby, then they will be more likely to listen to you when you ask them for something.

Once you make the promise, though, your second job is to track the results of those marketing efforts and communicate with them in every way afterwards like an extension to their marketing department.  Every time you succeed in increasing your player pull, document the hell out of it and use that to show that you can get results for them.  If you bother them by talking about what you want out of the deal, you will fail.  But if you talk to them about what you're doing for them, you will never fail and you'll always have sponsors that will at least listen to your proposal.

The proposals they are always going to be most receptive to are those that involve them making more sales to new customers that arern't already engaged in the hobby and drawing people from other miniature wargames into theirs or perhaps brining those who normally eat at a competitirs location and changing that habit.  That's the golden rule.  The newest player is always what they are marketing to.  You should too.

Ambassadorial Tournament Mission Battle Report

I thought you might like to see how a battle in the first round might look like so we played a friendly game today using the very first mission on the docket for the tournament.  It's lengthy.  Enjoy.

Mission:  BLITZKRIEG

He played with:
Njal
Wolf Lord on thundercav (frost Blade, Beastslayer, Storm Shield)
5 Thundercav (wound shinanigans in full effect, all storm Shields but one)
5 units of 5 Grey Hunters in Rhinos (Flamer)
3 units of Longfangs (2 lascannon+3 Missiles)
2 Lone wolves (plasma pistol)


I played with:
2 Autarchs (Warp Generators, fusion gun, Power Weapon, Mandiblasters)
3 D-Cannon
2 units 3 Reapers (Tempest with Fast and Crack shot)
2 units Guardians (Brightlance)
2 units Jetbikes (Shuriken Cannon)
10 Striking Scorpions (Shadowstalker, and move through cover, Claw)
2 units 8 Warp Spiders (Exarch with Powerblades and Extra gun)
1 unit 9 Warp Spiders (exarch with Powerblade, and Extra gun)

      N

       |

W-----E

       |

      S

Eldar won the Roll off, SW Quadrant.  They deployed the Triple D-Cannon unit well out of the Wolfstar's (5 Thundercav + Battle Leader) initial charge range and pretty central to the quarter center.  A large ruin there became home to the Guardian Defenders and their Bright Lance.  South along the deployment line were the other Guardians.  The two Reaper Squads split up:  one about 6 inches behind the boards midline in praparation for the inevitable reserves and the other west of the southerly Guardians.

The Eldar held the Striking Scorpions (outflank), Jetbikes (normal reserve) and 3 Warp Spider units (DS) in reserve, two of which had the Exarchs with them.

Space Wolves placed two Longfangs (2 LasCannons+3 Missiles) on the short and the long board edge of their quadrant, pretty much central to both.  The third Longfangs went in a ruin in the center of the Quadrant with Njal's Rhino+5 Grey Hunter unit(flamer) safely ensconced.   The WolfStar began the game to the north of the central ruin, as other ruins and their proximity's would have slowed them down if deployed south of it.  Two Lone Wolves were placed as sentry's near the objective along the midline between the NE and SE quadrants.

4 units of Grey Hunters in Rhinos were placed into reserve.

Round 1:

The D-Cannons were too far away, so they stood pat.  The Guardians and Reapers wounded 3 of the Wolfstar collectively!  Really that was about it, but that was big.  Each Reaper unit did a wound and a Bright Lance caused one.

The Space Wolfs responded by hitting hard with missiles, devastating the D-Cannon unit that unwisely clumped up (all but three Guardians one Artillery piece gone).  Njal also blasted several of the Guardians south along my quadrant border to repay their earlier kindness.  The WolfStar Ran forward.

The Lone Wolves advanced on the Eldar also.

All in all a fair exchange of pleasantries to kick things off.

Round 2:

The Autarchs had a strategy.  Warping from the Webway came the Spiders to the NE quadrant: one close to the northern Longfangs, one behind Njals Rhino and one at the midline of the board, shading into the SE quadrant with line of sight to the Longfangs.  The Scorpions showed up for the party as well, outflanking on the right side, in perfect synchronicity.

The Jet Bike units stayed put in reserve for now.

Wasting no time, the Warp Spiders crushed Njals rhino, blew the Northern Longfangs completely away and withered the Longfang unit along the eastern board edge down to two Missile Fangs, making them run for the hills (not fast enough as fate would have it in the end).  Meanwhile the Reapers and Bright Lances once again put enough wounds out so that every ThunderCavalryman including the Battle Leader, were down to 1 wound and finishing 1 entirely!  The D-Cannons repositioned to get ready for reserves, and took cover as they were down to one Cannon and did not want to lose it to more Longfang fire.

Surrounded, the Space Wolves called for help, but none came.  The Missile Fangs, too close to the Scorpions to regroup, ran again.  They did kill a Scorpion with their pistol as they passed.  The Scorpions foolishly had clumped up when they came in, and got blasted hard by the Longfangs in Njals ruin, killing 5 scorpions!  Njal and his escorts killed three Warpspiders and then with wind and fury he used his powers to scare two Warp Spider units into running from him!  Epic fail as these were ALSO the ones with the Autarchs in them!  Rotten luck for the Eldar for sure.  Both LoneWolves took Plasma shots at the Warp Spiders.  The WolfStar turned around and came back to bolster the line but were unable to yet reach anything worth hitting.

Njals unit attacked the Warp Spiders who were not smart enough to run, and bashed their faces in.  The Eldar were unprepared for the onslaught and although they killed all but one of Njals Grey Hunters, they lost, held fast and then Hit and Run to collect themselves, their Exarchs powerblades finding little purchase against the wily Njal.

The Space Wolves were not to be trifled with.  The vortex of the Warp rift might have caught them off guard for a moment but they were, after all, the mightiest Chapter of Space Marines in the Segmentum!

Round 3: 

Round 3 saw a unit of Jetbikes appear on the SE horizon, moving up to a ruin for cover, whie the two Warp Spider units recovered their composure in the sameruin.  The Lone wolves closing in nearby.  They could do little there except plan their next move  An Autarch detached from his squad and wounded the closest Lonewolf with his Fusion Gun while the Warp Spiders finished him off.

The D-Cannon crew waited patiently for their chance while the Guardians shuffled backwards now that there was no target in range worth speaking of, and the Reapers moved closer to objectives in preparation to contest them later in the game.  So really the backfield was pretty uneventful.

The Striking Scorpions had a decision to make:  Attack the WolfStar and risk letting the Missile Fangs regroup, or stand their ground, escorting the Missile Fangs off the board but in the process, allowing the inexorable Wolfstar to decimate them pretty much with ease.  They chose the path of aggression, for is that not the Path of the Scorpion?  First their pistols finished one Wolf, and then they charged, killing the Battle Leader and two others, but only the Exarch survived it.  He stood his ground for the moment...

3 of the Space Wolf Reserves revved onto the field in their Rhinos and popped smoke on the NW horizon at all possible speed to start taking objectives.  Njal wheeled around and unleashed lightning on the Guardians far away hoping to make them fall away from their objective and it worked.  They broke and ran backwards, missing the board edge by about 3 inches!  The Missile Fangs regrouped, and shot the newly arrived Jet Bikes dead-on, but their cover held.  The Longfangs in the Ruin shot down range since they could not see past the Rhino wreckage, at the D-Cannons but were unable to hit their mark enough to matter.  Cover did the rest.

The LoneWolf killed a Warp Spider that had regrouped and charged, but could not finish them.  They hit and Ran, jumping right in front of the LongFangs and the bewildered Lonewolf trying to follow their sudden departure with sad eyes.

Meanwhile the last of the Wolfstar annihilated the last of the Striking Scorpions.  Easily.

At this point, the score was 6-6 (Longfangs and lonewolf contesting their own and Guardians and Reapers contesting their own).  All was teetering in the balance.

Round 4: 

The last of the Jetbikes came onto the board and hid behind a ruin on their eventual path to the northernmost objective.  The first bike squad shot forward towards the more central objective.  Both could reach next round.

The first Autarch struck the Lone Wolf dead, jumping to contest an enemy objective should Njal get there.  The second Autarch jumped and shot the the last Thunderwolf Cavalryman with a Fusion Blaster and killed him.  All that remained in the Space Wolf backfield were Njal, the Long Fangs in the ruin, the LoneWolf  and the 2 Missile Fangs that had regrouped.

The Warp Spiders now finally able to move upfield did so.  One of them shot the Longfangs in the ruin until there was just one left then charged, but were unable to break him, rolling terribly.  In the meantime the second squad of Warp Spiders jumped and shot Njals unit, then charged it but not-so-miraculously the Librarian survived and thrived, punishing them for their insolence.  They barely stood their ground and it was no small feat to do so as he whacked five of them in one swat.  The Guardians falling back regrouped and ran towards the objective again, while the D-Cannon exploded one of onrushing rhinos that had come on in the NW sector .  In seconds, One of the Reaper squads had vaporized everyone inside to a man while the other one ran 6" with no target to hit, towards an objective.  The second unit of Guardians also moved to firing position and clipped the storm bolter off one of the Rhinos.  Still, that left 2 Rhinos alive and kicking, full of Grey Hunters on the Eldar doorstep.

The Space Wolves rushed their Rhinos forward again, and the last reserve Rhino came on as well, but stopped short because of the wreckage of the one the D-Cannon had annihilated.  They fired Bolters out of the top and the three Stormbolters, but did little against the Reapers tough armor.

Njal continued to paste Warp Spiders, who once again whiffed, and then they Hit and Ran from the fight with their meager remnant (only the Exarch himself!).  Njal had absolutely brutalized them and once again, the lone Longfang managed to win combat as well!  The Warp Spiders engaged with him hit and Ran also.  The Missile Fangs really had no target and so they moved to get lines of sight for the late rush of the Jet Bikes.

Round 5

The Warp Spiders had long since lost their taste for close combat.  They concluded that the Space Wolves were simply too much for them to handle, so they shot the Longfang in the ruin dead.  they then tried to do the same to Njal but again his Artificer armor proved more than a match for the fusilade aimed at him.  The Autarchs jumped to objectives to contest while the Jet bikes took two objectives on their own, Turbo boosting. 

The Guardians that had broken two turns before, rushed to contest their objective while the Reapers backed away to contest theirs.  Only the D-Cannon fired, but missed.

The score was now 27-3 (Njal contesting one of his).

The Space Wolves Tank shocked the Guardians, making them run from the objective and thusly claiming it.  They poured out and fired, killing a reaper in both squads and forcing morale checks on them but they stood fast.  They dropped flaming death on a unit of Guardians and essentially killed them.  The Missile Fangs took their shot at the Jetbikes but missed.

Njal had a choice.  He could run and try to use his power to scare the Jetbikes from one of the objectives or else blast them.  He chose to blast them and hit SIX times, but the (formerly) trio of Jetbikes managed to hold their ground.  The two units of Grey Hunters were now all clumped outside their rhinos save for the one in the back that hadn't reached the action yet.  If those Tempest Launchersand D-Cannons were any kind of accurate...

However, the game ended.

At the end the score was 24-12, Eldar.

Victory Points:

Eldar: 1272

Space Wolves:  626

Sportsmanship at the Elvensword Tournament

One of the fears I had when preparing for this tournament was how sportsmanship might be handled.  It has been an incredibly explosive issue over the decades, and some tournaments have sprung up that are focusesd very specifically on NOT giving prizes for winning but instead raffling all prizes or even just being about "having good games" and really making it more like a games day.

This tournament is aimed at a more competitive brand of plyaer, whose well rounded against all forces. Because of its structure (see registration website under the tournaments section) sportsmanship has to be accounted for in a different way.

So this year, you will see an approach to giving prizes for Sportsmanship that is different perhaps than you have seen in most tourneys.  Players AND judges will be part of the scoring instead of just the players.  The scoring will not be a punitive grading approach so much as a "giving your opponent more chances to win the prize" approach.

The website will eventually talk about it as the tourney gets closer.  However, the discussions I've had on how this can be done in a competitive tournament are pretty cool.  I think that if it shapes up like it sounds like it will, this will be fun for everyone instead of being a source of controversy like it so often becomes.

In any event, I'd really like to hear your ideas about how this could be accomplished.  So many good ideas are out there.  The final decision hasn't been made on it and any last minute input is welcome.