40K Tournament and More Thoughts About the Finale

So I said I would post some pictures from the 40K doubles tournament, and here they are.
If you want my thoughts on the finale, go ahead and scroll down past the picture of the greenskin standing on a tank. They will be immediately after that.

The set-up was a single force-org chart split between the teammates, each with 2500 points to spend. This made my job somewhat tricky as the Necrons don't come cheap. Our basic infantry come in at 13 points each, and it takes a unit of at least 15 for them to be effective unless I were to buff them with some other support choices like the Necron Lord or Cryptek.
My teammate and I had the option of either taking a bye for the first game or playing against a single person with a 2500 point list. That single person just so happened to be my fall back in the case my teammate wasn't able to show up. He also had a collection of Blood Angels.... I think I just heard Matt Ward jizz his pants from here.

My final list consisted of the following, tailored specifically to provide a stabby Ork list with the dakka.
HQ - Overlord: Resurrection Orb, Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs,
Cryptek - Harbringer of Eternity with Chronometron (re-roll any rolls once per phase) and Timesplinter Cloak (3+ invulnerable save)
Lord - Warscythe, Mindshackle Scarabs (the tournament was what-you-see-is-what-you-get, and the model didn't have a res-orb, so I was stuck)
Four Destroyers (with one Heavy)
Five Wraiths all with Whip Coils (drops enemy initiative down to 1 when in base contact)
Two large units of Warriors.
One Doom Scythe

He had a Warboss with a Meganob unit, a-fucking-lot of Boyz, three Trukks with Deathrollas (that were used to hilarious effect in game three), and one Dakka Jet. Our strategy was to hit hard and hit fast.

The tournament was to be decided by victory points. Each team receives 5 points for a win, 3 points for a draw, and 1 point for a loss. 0 points if you concede before turn 5.

So here is how it went down.

Game 1 - Versus Blood Angels, Three Objectives, Hammer and Anvil Deployment (Table split long-ways, for those who don't know)

The game started out with him controlling two, and us controlling one, with us seizing the initiative. I kept a unit of Warriors with the Cryptek on the objective while everyone else moved in to cockslap everyone else.

Yeah... that didn't work as well as I thought it would.
We got a fairly decent round of shooting in. I think I was able to pop one of his Assault Marines with my heavy destroyer, and my Wraiths covered a decent distance, and his shoota boyz didn't do too bad either.

Then along came Mephiston in turn two.... dear fucking god, remind me to never charge that bastard ever again because he utterly decimated my Wraiths in one round of combat! I failed exactly five saves, and my Wraiths all got instakilled...... remind me to never charge Mephiston again. That bridge was able to provide a 5+ cover save from my destroyers, so I wasn't as effective as I should have been.

By turn three, we resolved to move the Boyz up so I could strafe the advancing Assault Marines with my destroyers. Stupid me, I wish I had realized those were shoota boys. There were few survivors.

Then this happened:

And so did this:

Lube up there boys, because you ain't gonna last.

And by turn 2, this:

And the marines had sheet-metal and bolt sandwiches for lunch that day.

All things considered though, the game wound up coming to a draw, with him ending with the two objectives being controlled. Those marines that laid the smackdown on my warriors were fast-attack, so they could not hold the objective, only deny.

Game 2 - Versus Chaos / Salamander, The Scouring, Vanguard Strike Deployment (table split diagonally)

Yeah, a Chaos and Salamander pairing. Give 'em a break, they were 10 years old. And to be fair, they put up a decent fight. Their list was surprisingly balanced, and I had a tricky time figuring out how to get my wraiths up the board without getting crushed by his Land Raiders. But in the end, they didn't have much strategy (also, one of the kids I beat (narrowly, Necrons don't do so well in smaller games) in a 500 point teaching game a while back, so he was itching for a chance to get back at me).

We started out with the 4 point objective being safely in our grasp in the bombed out building in our corner of the board. Once again, I left my Warriors there to guard.

We opted to split our forces. His shoota boyz would abandon the 1 point objective, and we would do our best to either capture or deny the objectives they held. They started with both 3 point objectives and the 2 point objective, so all-in-all it was a decent start for both sides.

So what are we, chopped liver?

As for my Wraiths, they went down the side of the board, keeping out of range of the Land Raider. Which in hind-sight, I probably could have moved straight in because the chaos kid seemed more focused on the Trukks than the Wraiths. Those ruins to the right of the next picture was where I decided to hide my Wraiths. Right on the other side of that wall was a 3 point objective, and a whole lot of marines.

Sneaky sneaky

My original tactic was to pop out and gank these guys in my next charge phase, then a more juicy and safe opportunity arose from the all out clusterfuck that came next.

Sorry... was that objective yours?

Also, never leave your men in a single file line when you're playing against me. The shots I got off from my Doom Scythe here were pure fucking gold.

That entire center column got roasted.

So in all it was a rather crushing victory for us, bringing our total tournament points to 8 and bringing us into a tie for second place overall.

Championship Game - Versus Team Templar, Emperors Will, Dawn of War Deployment

This final game we actually had to rock, paper, scissors for being that we were tied for second against Team Blood Angel. We won that and moved on to play the first place team, and damn I loved that game for so many reasons.

Turns 1 and 2 were fairly uneventful. Those rockets in the back we both knew would be a problem for when the Doom Scythe and Dakka Jet came in, so it was my job to ensure that they got taken out. We set up a tarpit in the center of the board which Jake (one of the other team, and the same guy who's terminators shoved thunder hammers up my troops metalic asses a few weeks prior) termed Vindicator bait... drat, saw right through us...

Unluckily, I wasn't able to blast the shit out of those rockets like I thought I would have been able to, so they were able to rain hell on my teammate's dakkajet.

Preferred Enemy (Everything!) means piss if you can't hit shit you dingleberries!

By turn 3, I had my Wraiths up and ready to cause some mayhem with the terminators in that land raider, and eventually my teammates boyz in the Trukk joined the party. We did a decent job there, but I didn't pull my Wraiths far enough to get Linebreaker.

And then this happened, probably the most glorious display of Orkiness I have ever seen.

Here is what happened. Originally I wanted him to disembark his Warboss so that he didn't die in what I was sure would have been a catastrophic explosion courtesy of the Vindicators. However, he went for another tactic. He fucking RAMMED THE GODDAMN TRUKK RIGHT INTO THE LAND RAIDER AND WRECKED THAT SHIT!

Azerus would be proud.

WOT FUCKIN' LAND RAIDER?! WAAAAAUGH!

Overall, we held our objective and the game wound up being a draw, with us getting First Blood and them getting Line Breaker as secondary objectives.

Meanwhile, a Tau / Chaos team beats the Chaos / Salamander team and pulls ahead of us in tournament points.

In conclusion,

Team Templar - 14
Team Chaos / Tau - 12
Team Necrons / Orks - 11

It was a great day of gaming, and if you ever find yourself in the Frederick Maryland area, swing on by. We meet on Saturdays at Hobbytown USA from 10 - 6.

Now for my thoughts on the episode.

This episode really struck a chord with me for many reasons, but the primary of which would have to be the concept of reflection.

Many would say that this episode was rushed, and taking the episode at face value I can agree with that. However, the writers had a tremendous task on their hands. They basically fit three episodes worth of material into a single episode, and I am pretty sure that somewhere along the way Daniel Ingram had to have had a nervous breakdown trying to write enough music for the damn thing. Seriously, there were... what, four different songs in the episode?

But I digress. Let's look a little deeper at the episode.

First of all, Twilight got trolled.

Very.
Fucking.
Hard.

And to make matters worse, she got trolled by her own teacher mentor, with a spell that she herself knew was not even finished. This was her student's final test, and she wound up passing with flying colours. It is a concept that we as fanfiction authors have explored in many different fictions (my personal favorite, Eternal, being one of them). And.......... that's about it.

So what about this episode will make it stick in my mind?

It made me stop and reflect not just on the fandom, but on how much my life as a whole has improved since this all began for me two years ago.

Those of you who read my previous blogs know I am no stranger to depression. When I first started watching the show, I was just finishing up my third and final year of college through an accelerated program. Before that, I had spent my senior year of High School going through a course that wasn't even part of the normal curriculum and had to split my time between two different schools. I went straight to college from there, where stress was the norm for me, and more than once I would wake up in the middle of the night either through nightmares or other stress related health issues. Ponies came along at the tail end of my college career and to be honest, I wish I had embraced the fandom sooner. I was a lonely and miserable person in college. The people I socialized with in my classes I considered to be mere acquaintances, and nothing more.

Fast forward three years later. I went straight from college into a full time position as a programmer. I work at a place where the employees are not only underpaid, but underappreciated for the work that they do on a daily basis. It was only last week, after a full year of working for this company, that I received the first legitimate "good job Mike" ever; that is just how bad the work environment is. And through all of this, you guys and the fandom as a whole have given me something to fall back on; something to provide some sliver of comfort in a world that flat out sucks. The fandom and the show has taught me to keep the faith that we should always hold in other people, and after the past week, I feel like things might improve if only a little bit in the company I work for. Fucking hell, even the CEO paid me a compliment, something I have never heard him do outside of company events where he is more or less obligated.

Ever.

I have been on the fast track my entire life, and not once have I ever stopped and given myself a chance to reflect. Today, it hit me that that is what the shows creators were trying to do with the finale. They wanted us to stop and reflect on our own lives. Up until this point, the show has been an ointment. It has numbed the pain that I knew was there, but never provided a... heh, irony.... it never provided a cure. Like an alcoholic drinking themselves into a stupor to forget about life, there was never any real healing. But today, I was able to look back and see just how far I have come and how much my life has improved. My earlier ramblings about the Warhammer 40K tournament are a testament to that. I feel like I made a few connections in that club, something that I haven't been able to do for a long time.

This scene, do you remember this?

Look at how far Twilight has come. We have seen her and her friends go through so much in so little time, and come out on top every step of the way. It was here I realized that even though there was alot of heartache in my life, I still did the same exact thing. I am still here, still breathing, and I have all of you to thank for it. I have come out on top in my own way, and so have all of us. So many of our lives have been improved for the better. This episode was meant for us, the bronies specifically.

Through the two years I have been in the fandom, I have been able to actually feel like I could live for myself for the first time in a decade. I was able to open my heart to other people again in the game club I have been going to. I re-kindled my creative side in both writing and through Warhammer 40K models. I was able to re-kindle that competitive side that I had long ago repressed through the same. I realized that maybe I am a bit too honest for my own good. I learned to legitimately laugh again not just at other people, but at myself (and Pinkie Pie will forever remain my all time favorite character because of this). And I was able to find faith in other people again. The same faith that had been crushed by years of social torment a long time ago.

Thank you, all of you.

Keep the faith.

Mikey

Comments

[Lord One Fish]

I used to play warhammer 40,000 like you, but then I took an overdrawn bank account to the knee...