Ard Boyz end of the road

Well I was pretty lucky this year as I enjoyed playing all six of my opponents. They were all very competitive games but still fun and very challenging. Mostly this post is just a shout out to all I played to say thanks for the games.

Ard Boyz takes more and more motivation to go and play. I think the system had an impact on 40k gaming in the US and I like to see more competitive systems so that is something good. On the flip side the missions for the semi finals left a lot to be desired for me... I just think it wouldn't take that much effort to do a better job in that regard. To me it seems like it is dying a slow death. The chance to win a 2500 point army of your choice seems to have a higher interest than playing for bragging rights in the last round. They used to give ya really cool patches and certificates... Not anymore. Maybe next year they can revitalize the system - that would be pretty darn awesome in my opinion.

Ard Boyz semi final results

Here is my secret list (to the best of memory) I brought today:

Draigo
Librarian - Might of Titans, Quicksilver, Sanctuary, The Shrouding, Warp Time, master crafted Warding Stave, 2x servo skull

10x Paladin -
Master crafted daemonhammer & master crafted psycannon
Daemonhammer & master crafted psycannon
Master crafted daemonhammer & psycannon
Sword & master crafted psycannon
Falchions & master crafted stormbolter
Master crafted falchions & stormbolter
Falchions & stormbolter
Warding stave & stormbolter
Sword & stormbolter
Brotherhood banner & stormbolter
(psybolt ammo)

10x Grey Knight terminator -
Justicar Thawn
2x halberd & psycannon
2x daemonhammer & stormbolter
5x halberd & stormbolter
(psybolt ammo)

Dreadknight - teleporter & heavy incinerator

Psyfleman dreadnaught
Psyfleman dreadnaught

Venerable psyfleman dreadnaught


The first mission was versus a good friend from Naples playing mechanized eldar. This was a tough matchup - not much LOS blocking terrain which was pretty much the case for all three tables I played on today. My basic strategy was to sacrifice the GKT so Thawn could slog his way across the table for the bonus victory points... The Justicar ended up getting back up five to six times taking out a squad of Dire Avengers, Fire Dragons, one Farseer and finally finishing off a squad of Dark Reapers to just make into the opponent's deployment zone the last turn for the bonus 500 victory points. At one point towards the end the Justicar passed three invulnerable saves versus Mind War then took out the Dark Reapers. He got up every time every game - it was kind of crazy.

The second game was versus Blood Angels - versus another player from Naples. His army was kind of a mixed bag. The Dreadknight was the man of this match taking out around three squads of assault Marines and wrecking a razorback... He finally got hammered the last turn but held off a squad of Death Company lead by Lemartes to save my Paladins.

The final match was versus dark eldar - lots and lots of skimmers... Lots and lots of shooting across the table from both sides... My cover saves were really crazy good this game. We were playing for table quarters and my opponent had six scoring units while I only had two. I focused on killing all his scoring units. The Librarian was the man of the match - The Shrouding kept the dreadnaughts on line each turn plus he popped a couple skimmers with Warp Rift.

I'm very familiar with both Blood Angels and dark eldar so that experience I believe helped a lot as I knew exactly what I needed to do to win those two games. Blood Angels really have an uphill battle versus Grey Knights. Dark eldar have the speed and lots of S8 AP2 shooting but gosh are they fragile. ; )

I'll try to post up the batreps this week. I ended up in 4th place overall but still got an invite to the finals since the person who came in first place can't go. There were only 12 players so that helped a lot for me. I wanted to bring my Draigowing which is not optimal for these missions... I only had two scoring units each game as I always rolled a 1 or 2 for the Grand Strategy each game and decided to always outflank the Dreadknight (which worked out well and I'll go into that in more detail when I post the batreps).

Draigowing for Ard Boyz Semi Finals

I'll be bringing my Draigowing this weekend (of course). The store I'm playing at in Florida has lots and lots of players signed up so with only three rounds you can win all three games and still not make the top three. My army is not optimized to max scores for the missions so I will have to hope for a little luck. It's the army I want to play though and if nothing else it should be challenging and hopefully I will learn some more about how to optimize the army in general. The good thing for me is Draigowing scales up well at 2500 points and you can bring just about everything you want and feel you need. My favorite (only) aspect I enjoy about Ard Boyz is the opportunity to play at 2500 points. I think I'll see lots of mech lists for sure.

I'll post up my list after it's all over. I've made some fairly big changes to the list I brought to the preliminaries. The missions are kind of crazy so it should be interesting to say the least.

In - Ard Boyz Preliminary Results

As life would have it I was away from my local area due to unforeseen circumstances and as such unable to play at my local FLGS. :'(( Luckily though there was a store in the area and I had my army so I played there.

The 1st round was versus a good Black Templars player. Very tight game and I was just able to keep ahead on killpoints for a minor win. The Templar Vindi was a real pain - over the course of the game I penned it at least 6 to 7 times but could never do more than shake it. Paladins along with GM and Librarian made a final turn assault on a landraider to crack it wide open for the win.

The 2nd round was versus Necrons... Ended up eventually phasing out the toaster heads for a massacre plus all the bonus points.

The 3rd round was versus my buddy's IG... got stomped that game. Victory points is really good for guard.

Overall I ended up coming in 2nd place (IG took 1st and the Templars took 3rd). So I'm happy with the results having had two brutal games.

G

Stasis

Typically I will post my army lists prior to a tourney I'm attending but I'm keeping my list for Ard Boyz a secret. If I do well I'll post about the army here. I have done very well so far in all my practice games and I've played against some stiff competition. I have found that if the missions favor a certain style of army then it tends to do well come tournament time.

Review of Ard Boyz 2010 semi final missions

I saw a great article by Danny Internets on his blog this morning so I'll try to follow suit.

1st Mission - DA FOG OF WAR
Deployment: Spearhead
Objectives: 3 Objectives, 2 are placed in the neutral non deployment zone table quarters & the 3rd is placed on the center of the table. Night Fight is in effect and takes place in the two neutral non objective table quarters. On a roll of 4+ starting on Turn 2 the fog dissipates, you roll separately for each table quarter. Note that there is always clear LOS looking through a 12" circle centered on the table.

There are 6 full turns.

This mission could easily favor assault armies & is obviously a hindrance to shooty armies. The hard part is holding all 3 objectives to score a massacre. Two objectives for a major victory should be easy though. So you will need four to five scoring units to massacre which is typical for Ard Boyz in general. Fast assault armies can flank through the neutral table quarters in the early game to collapse their opponents. To me this is a bad mission for IG Mexh. How long has it been since Night Fight was included? It's been a really long time. So this mission favors fast assault armies.

2nd Mission - GIT DA SHINY'S
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Objectives: 4 objectives. Each player gets to deepstrike 2 objectives at the beginning of their turn after deployment. They scatter 2d6". The objective that lands closest to the center of the table counts as 2 objectives. You must control 5 more objectives than your opponent to score a massacre.

There are 6 fixed turns.

If it was me I'd try to go second and deepstrike my objectives on top of my opponent's. Again another mission that could heavily favor assault armies depending on how you place your objectives and how they all scatter. Again you will need 4 - 5 scoring units. This mission is very dependent on the scatters so it could be anyone's game. I wouldnt make any changes to my list for this mission. Just make sure your army is mobile & has enough scoring units. This is another mission that could screw IG Mexh depending on the scatters. If you are running an assault army try your best to keep the objectives as close together as possible forcing IG Mexh to bunch up.

3rd Mission - DEM BOYZ IS IN DA SIDE
Deployment: Dawn of War (no Night Fight)
Objective: Killpoints plus objectives for bonus battlepoints. You must roll on the 1st turn to see which long table edge your reserves arrive from.

Again another mission that seriously hampers IG Mexh. The best for any army is to hold everything in reserve, bringing everything in on Turn 1 and use Outflank if you've got it. This is a fantastic mission for Tyranids if they bring the right units; Ymrygal genestealers will be very strong!

I did not see anywhere in any of the missions that you can roll to seize the initiative, which I find extremely interesting but maybe I just missed it. If I were playing I'd probably bring my Khornate daemon force as being able to deepstrike your entire army will be very powerful in all three missions. A deep striking Blood Angels army should also do very well. In my opinion these missions will hurt IG Mexh and we will see less of them moving on to the finals.

G

2010 Ard Boyz 3rd Turn Mission Blues • 1st Round

Seems like most everyone is really upset with the newly released 3rd turn mission... Basically any unit that can move 12+ inches in a phase is worth 3 killpoints. HQ are worth 2 killpoints & everything else is worth 1 killpoint each. People are saying it's collateral damage for the new Blood Angels. I'm going to play Blood Angels myself & to be completely honest I think the mission is pretty hot. That said hopefully my words won't come back to bite me in the arse...

* knocks on wood *

I can certainly understand why people don't like the mission and it's already starting to mess with peoples' minds in a major way. People are thinking "Should I lose my tanks & transports and totally blob up??" It's a confounded situation for treadheads across the country and I'm sure we will read a lot this weekend & following week about people crying the blues. That's just the way it is. Mech is King.

My army I am planning to bring for the 1st round will give up a maximum of 24 killpoints and this is the list I was already planning to bring prior to reading the scenarios that were released late this afternoon. If you stop & think about it what you are going to see is people switching over to IG blobs, Nid horde & ork horde... Maybe some walking Marine lists as well. Lash armies & daemons will have a field day. To me I can't help but see some dark humor in this... A lot of people will swear up & down that both Nid horde & daemons are two of the worst armies currently in 40k... Now suddenly they both have an edge.

I don't think that GW will cave & make any significant changes to the mission other than to better clarify some particular units as to do they give up 3 killpoints. Vehicles that deepstrike like the Monolith & drop pods in my mind should only be worth 1 killpoint apiece. I can even see certain people trying to make a claim that if you double lash an enemy unit 12+" that is should be worth 3 killpoints. You know how it is.

So in closing I have no problem with the mission & I think most likely it will probably end up helping me in the first two missions if people go ballistic & totally change up their armies in an attempt to over compensate.

G

Ard Boyz Preliminary Round I

Well next Saturday will be the first round of Ard Boyz for 2010. I will be able to play again & will bring my Blood Angels for yet another go at it. Last year I also played Blood Angels and managed to just squeek through the 1st two rounds taking home 3rd place both times. I was running a primarily mechanized list with a small component of jump infantry. The list was tweaked through the first two rounds and I ended up with something like this:

-HQ-
Dante
Corbulo

-Elites-
* Veteran assault squad (x8) - 2x meltagun & 3x power fist/jump packs
* Death Company (x8) - rhino
* Assault terminators (x5) - 4x lightning claws & stormshield

-Troops-
* Battle Sisters (x9 + Sister Superior) - heavy flamer, flamer, eviscerator, hand flamer, Book of St. Lucius - rhino
* Grey Knights (x5 + Justicar) - psycannon, incinerator, psychic hood
* Tactical Marines (x9 + sergeant) - lascannon, meltagun, power fist - rhino
* Tactical Marines {same as above}

-Heavy Support-
Landraider - extra armor
Landraider - extra armor

The trick was to mount the Grey Knights in the Death Company rhino and they were one heck of a great unit. The assault terminators & Death Company rode in the landraiders. The landraiders & assault terminators were also great units as was Dante joined with his veterans. I didn't do so well in the finals but I have to say my first opponent in Chicago was a really shady character... towards the end of the game he practically shoved two squads of genestealers about halfway across the table when I momentarily looked away, telling me that he rolled a pair of 6s for his fleet rolls. I just shook my head in utter disbelief. I was ahead on killpoints which was the primary but you had to win by a certain margin so I ended up with a draw. I was matched up against the Nid player again in the second round but we got that sorted... My second opponent had a buddy at the table and the game slowly digressed into me having to argue with both of them time & time again, plus when I asked twice how much time was left in the match all I got was stone cold silence. I left with an unpleasant feeling about the nature of Ard Boyz in general & there was some petty stuff about me being posted on another blog, so going into the finals it just felt like a really huge uphill battle. Being somewhat of a high profile player has some perks but it also has it's downside... Especialy most I hate when noobs try to play the name game to boost their own reputation.

Anyways this year I have a new & more powerful codex & I plan to take full advantage. I will be mentally prepared for the TFGs and ready to roll some dice BBF style... Heh! I have been playtesting my new list a lot and it is basically an evolution of last year's list. It's definitely stronger, has more punch in assault plus it's got some really wicked shooting thrown in for good measure. There are going to be some good players where I intend to play the first round so I know it won't be a walk in the park but I feel confident going in. Basically in the first round if you can massacre twice that should get you through to the semi finals. I'd love to win 1st place but I will definitely be very happy to just make it through again. I'm really looking forward to the Ard Boyz this year.

G

Why I am against the use of INAT FAQ in the Ard Boyz

Okay so last year I said I was okay with but this year I am dead set against it. The same set of rules should be used each and every round. Fortunately the Adepticon council is not strong enough to force us to use INAT FAQ in the state of Florida. One of my biggest issues with this FAQ are the horrible rules interpretations they released for the Tyranid codex. To me it's unfair that the Chicago Battle Bunker can force other gamers from outside that area to have to play Adepticon-Hammer. The FAQ has more pages than the 5ed rulebook... What is up with that??

We need to rally together now & be focused letting GW know that we don't want the INAT FAQ forced upon us again. Last year I gave it a chance but it did not work for me.

G

Ard Boyz style Nidz list

Okay so I needed to challenge myself and come up with a solid list to use in Ard Boyz this year. I decided I don't want to field any of the following popular Nid units you see proliferated across the Internet:

•DoM
•Tervigons
•gaunts
•Hiveguard

So here is what I came up with based upon lots of playtesting:

_HQ_
Flyrant/2x TL Dev, Hive Commander, adrenal glands
Prime/2x bone sword, deathspitter, adrenal glands, regen

_Troops_
15x genestealer w. Broodlord
15x genestealer w. Broodlord
10x genestealer
3x Warrior/all w. 2x bone sword & deathspitter, adrenal glands - Mycetic Spore/Cluster Spines
(Prime runs w. Warriors)

_Elites_
10x Yrmygal genestealer
10x Yrmygal genestealer
3x Zoanthrope - Mycetic Spore/Cluster Spines

_Heavy Support_
Trygon Prime/adrenal glands, regen
Trygon Prime/adrenal glands, regen
Trygon Prime/adrenal glands, regen

- Why This Army Can Win Big...

•In your Grill!
The entire army can outflank/deepstrike/inflitrate. Genestealers outflank & Yrmygal genestealers come in from the middle of the table; this combination amazing things. It really puts a hurt to mech armies that castle up. Basically there is nowhere to hide. The other units come behind the genestealer wave and destroy. Flyrant & Zoies pop transports. Trygons can also pop side armor and then charge into melée. Regen works very well with the Trygons & is definitely worth the points at 2500 points. No other army can beat this in close combat.

•All Synapse & No Instinctive Behaviour Tests
Basically you have Shadow in the Warp running from one end of the table to the other so you are shutting down enemy psykers. Who cares about psychic hoods?? This list gets around Instinctive Behaviour Tests (IBT). This is a huge advantage in the end game for the Tyranids.

•Speed Kills!
This is an extremely fast army and can shutdown mech eldar. I've done it consistently too. You can start wherever you want on the table and take it from there. This army can do what daemonic assault does but even better.

•Anti Tyranid Factor
Take this list and play any other Tyranid list. Stealers own gaunts & Tervies! You quickly cut through the gaunt wall and destroy the Tervigons; that's huge. The only issue is the Swarmlord but you still have a huge edge since you have so many more assault units. Hit the Swarmlord & his Tyrant Guard with two blocks of genestealers and watch them go poof! The Swarmlord & his Tyrant Guard can't put out enough attacks to counter the dual charge plus this army outmatches them with speed.

I think there will be lots of Tyranid armies at the Ard Boyz this year so being able to trounce them is a huge advantage. This is a Win Big/Win Big army for sure.

G