Octocon 4! Revenge of the Medicore ELDAR!

Octocon 4

I have been living in Calgary, Alberta for almost 4 years now. Ever since GW Canada removed the Conflict Tournaments I have to say there isnt much of a tournament scene here. So I was delighted to see that there would be 3 tournaments in 3 months this fall! I already finished the first tournament called "September Salvo", which my 'Nids did splendidly and I squeaked out first place.

Next up is Octocon 4, which is one of Calgary's largest tournaments and is generally run each year. This year had a great turn out (26 for 40k, and 18 for Fantasy). The tournament is 2000pts and since my Tyranids are no where near finished and I wouldnt be caught dead playing either my Dark Eldar or Space Marines I ended up going with my Eldar. After checking out what I own I realized that my army is very outdated. When I painted my army it was in the middle of 3rd Ed using the old Craftworld Rules (ie. real seer councils and black guardians) so my current list is filled with too many warlocks, farseers and guardians. This is what I ended up taking:

HQ:
Farseer
Yriel

Elites:
9 Howling Banshees + Exarch
Wave Serpent w/ Bright Lances

Troops:
3 x 10 Guardians w/ Scatter Laser and Warlock
10 Storm Guardians w/ 2xFlamers and Warlock
Wave Serpent w/ Eldar Missile Launcher
9 Dire Avengers + Exarch

Fast Attack
2x Vyper Jetbikes w/ Star Cannons

Heavy Support
Wraith Lord w/ Bright Lance
2 Warwalkers w/ Scatter Lasers/Star Cannons
Falcon Grav Tank w/ Scatter Laser, Shurkien Cannon and Holo Fields


Round 1 - Annihilation vs. Imerpial Guard

I have only played Guard maybe twice in the last 12 years, so I figured it was a good time to get re-educated on what the army actually does. Needless to say that it has changed ALOT since the last time I played it lol. I figured that since he had all tanks, 2 Flyers and a crazy amount of anti Armor weaponry it would be a good idea to hold my entire army in reserve so it wouldnt get shot up on the first turn. This is a new tatic I wanted to try for this army anyways since I have Yriel, who is an Autarch, and he gives me +1 to all my reserve rolls. What I DIDNT know is that the guard have a unit that gives me -1 to my reserve rolls and makes me re-roll which edge my outflankers come on (which greatly changed the game) as well as allow him to re-roll which edge his stuff comes out on. We find out that the mission we are playing is basically a straight anhilation using opposite table Quarters as set up.

High Points:
- Watching him shoot almost everything into my Falcon multiple turns and only accomplish blowing off two guns.
- Having my Wraithlord flip his outflanking Demolisher on the second turn of the game.
- My Banshees and Dire Avengers came in right as my side of the table was about to be overrun by veterans. The Avengers took out one squad, while the banshees minced the other

Low Points
- Some crazy bad reserve rolls. My farseer and banshees didnt come onto the table until turn 4, which meant I was only able to use 1 psychic power the entire game lol
- Having Yriel (who is LD 10) fail a Pinning test (he and the remainder of the guardian squad)
- One of my guardian units rolled "double 1's" for their difficult terrain test when coming in from reserve RIGHT in front of a hell hound. Needless to say that squad was gone pretty freaking fast lol

Final Result:
The game is an exact tie. Both sides do 8 kill points, and based on the tourneys mission you then go to victory points. We add everything up and Wes got 576 on me and I get 575 on him. So I freaking lost by 1 VP LOL. All in all it was a great game and Wes was a fantastic person to play against. Great way to start the tourney.

Round 2 - Sieze Ground vs. Marines

My second game was against Marines. Based on what he had I felt fairly confident that I would do well, as the only plain old marines he had were an assault squad with a chaplain and a commander, a unit in a rhino, a unit with a razorback and a large unit of scouts that go with the techmarine. I figured since he had so much anti armor weaponry I would hold all my armor in reserve.

High Points:
- Some of the most insane luck ever when rolling for cover saves. I swear I made about 90% of the 4+ cover saves I was called onto make
- Yriel Finally gets into combat and almost single handedly kills an entire scout squad
- My banshees did 11 power weapon wounds in one turn (because of doom...which is GOD lol) to a tactical squad that was holding an objective

Low Points:
- Except for cover saves I just couldnt get a roll to go for me the entire game. At one point I had 2xBright lances, Missile Launcher, Star Cannon (into rear armor)and a Scatter Laser followed by 5 Str 9 attacks and 3 Str 5 attacks in hand to hand combat on a Rhino and only manage to blow off the storm bolter...sigh
- I made some bad descions through out the game. There were 3 or 4 things I really should of done differently both in regards to set up and what I did with certain units in the game. The main thing I did wrong was not focus on the objective as much as I should of.

Final Result:
Another tie (we both held one objective). We add up victory points and he does 100 more then me, so it is counted again as an exact tie. All in all he wasnt a terribly fun person to play against. I tried livening it up here and there but alas to no avail. I would say this was my least fav game of the tourney. Main thing I learned is to 100% keep your eye on the objective. The only reason why I lost is I forgot about it.

Round 3 - Capture and Control - Orks

After forgetting the objective completely in the previous game I vowed to make it my only focus. I found out that my opponent had a 10 man nob squad w/ a painboy AND a 5 man mega nobz squad with a mad dok special character (so both units have a 5+ invuln save and feel no pain). As we read over the scenario I started wracking my brains on how on earth I was going to deal with those two units.

High Points:
- My play in general. This was by far my best played game. I really focused on the objective, I set up "bait" units and all my specialist units were used for exactly what they should of been. Everything was set up as well as I could of and I never lost focus on the objective.
- There were many really funny moments during the game. My two favs were watching the Storm Boyz unit deviate away from my army on the the turn they deepstriked in only to be bladestormed TO DEATH the following turn. My second fav was watching MY ENTIRE ARMY shoot at 3 guys, 2 turns in a row only to have the remaining two (one wound each) heavy flamer, then charge my unit of dire avengers. The visual of watching these two complete loons in mega armor with a million little disks sticking out of their armor/faces emerge from a cloud of smoke where their unit was and come in and mulch some puny eldar was great.

Low Points:
- Everything went according to plan. I felt bad that Ian rolled quite terribly in the first half of the game on his 500pts+ Nob squad (couldnt by a feel no pain roll) which allowed me to eventually break the squad and help march them off the board. He eventually made up for it with his Mega Nobs though as I mentioned in the "high points"

Final Result:
A complete Massacre. I held both objectives at the end of the game and all he had left was a Deff Dred. It was a really fun game and he was a really good sport about it. We spent about 5 mins after the game laughing about his energizer bunny mega nobz and how they wouldnt quit till they tasted Eldar blood.

Round 4 - Annihilation - Tyranids

Nathan had a monstrous tyranid army. He had 4 units of 24 Termigants with "Without Number" and two Hive Tyrants with 3 Tyrant Guard each (so 10 Toughness 6 wounds each with a 3+ min armor save). This is the first game in the tournament where I thanked my lucky stars that I brought as many Star Cannons as I did, because if I didnt have them, this game would of been a massacre. Nathan was my fav player at the tournament, and this was by far my fav game. The only sucky thing was time was really running out at this point and I was focusing on getting through the game instead of taking pictures, so alas there arent any (which is a shame, since his army looked fairly nice).

High Points:
- For the first time this tournament I used Yriels electicity storm, which was just devestating. In one round of combat he killed 23 Termigaunts LOL (12 with the first shot, then 11 on the overkill). The best part was there was one gaunt left, so he remained in Hand to hand and couldnt be shot at, which was good because there were 3 Zoanthropes just itching to bast him into next year.
- My banshees managed to killed 9 Tyranid warriors in hand to hand with only taking one casualty
- My 10 Storm Guardians managed to kill a unit of 24 termigants in hand to hand by themselves. If they handnt be charged by a SECOND unit of 24 they would of made it till the end of the game lol

Low Points:
- Having no concept of just how good 2xTwin Linked Devourers on a hive tyrant really are. I was losing a squad of guardians A TURN to this thing. Ugh. Luckily I was able to bring them down before the caused too much death to my forces

Final Result:
I ended up winning the game. This game really could of gone either way for me I have to say. For starters the game started with Dawn of War set up, and I won the roll to go first. I was able to pin most of his forces back in his zone, and only two units of Termigaunts and his Devourer Tyrant were on the board. Everything else had to walk on. That way I was able to focus on that tyrant, then switch targets to his other tyrant who had a venom cannon. If they both started on the table the game would of been very different. The last couple of combats also really changed the outcome of the game. My Banshees/Farseer were able to make 2 key leadership tests at the end of the game. If they failed either that was 2 VPs for Nathan and he would of won. The game was really back and forth also, which made for a great end to the day.

Tournament Results:
I came in 6th overall. I seemed to come in 2nd or 3rd in almost every category lol. I was really hoping to win best painted, but another Eldar army won. It was nicely painted and bright, which I think gave it the edge. I managed to do very very well in the one spot I typically come in the middle of the pack, and that is sportsmanship. I got 41 out of 40 (10pts per game) and was voted fav opponent by someone. I had a really good time, and I am already looking forward to the next one. Below is a shot of the armies that were nominated for best painted. The Eldar army on the far left won.

Things I learned about 5th Ed Eldar:

1) Regular Guardians are possibly the single worst unit in the game. With only 12" guns, T3 and a 5+ armor save they are good for only one thing...giving up VPs. My Storm Guardians on the other hand were amazing, and did something pretty much every game.
2) Mech Mech Mech. Vehicles are king, as well as having the ability to blow them up. I seriously lacked in both departments, especially playing Eldar. As I work on this army I am going to phase out all my footslogging guardians and add more dire avengers with Wave Serpents. I am also going to paint up a second Falcon because even though it got shot at ALOT every game, it only died in one of them. In each of those falcons I am going to put 6 fire dragons.
3) Remove all star cannons for scatter lasers...ESPECIALLY on the war walkers lol.
4) Yriel is god. He managed to live through every game and was just a destroyer when he got into combat. I...love....this...character lol.

Next Up: Conquest Calgary!