Summer Conclave

With Eoin giving out to me about how he has been writing all of the blog posts of late, I thought it only fair to contribute by posting about the most recent event that I attended.

Conclave is an annual event run by Gary and the lads from The Gathering in Limerick. The event took place in Thomond Park of Munster Rugby fame and it was probably one of the best venues for an event I have been lucky enough to attend.

A large spacious room was provided with generous amounts of room and terrain on each of the tables, upon which games of Warhammer 40K were to be played on the Saturday, with Warhammer Fantasy being provided on the Sunday.

Awesome Prizes including art by Ken Coleman

I went up early Sat morning with Richard Flood driving the pimp-wagon and Daire O Mahony and Hugh Murphy in the back. The trip went nice and quickly as we were all in the mood to discuss our armies for the day, some ETC stuff for Richard and of course 6^th Ed in all of its imminent glory!

This place is grand, but it's not Cork, like

The event was scheduled to begin registration from 9 to 10, with the event due to kick off at half 10. We arrived at 5 past 9 to learn that we were the first there and had to wait until nearly half 11 before the games got underway. While deploying we were then told to rush it since we had little time.

I am a real ball buster about punctuality so this really stuck in my craw, as did the very long breaks in between rounds and being informed that I was not allowed sit at the event, since it was a safety hazard. These issues were all sorted out mainly thanks to Kevin’s Rynn and Stronach, and to be fair to Ryan the event organiser, it was his first time.

Nevertheless an event that I was supposed to be home from for half 8 or 9 ended up with my getting home closer to half 10. This was a long old day and this could have been helped.

The rules pack for the day called for a 2250 list using Imperial Armour rules. No super-heavies but everything else goes: Awesome. I was looking forward to this as I am a poor man and have no Forge World stuff, so the chance to see some in the flesh was great. There were a few bits and pieces around the place but nothing major. Luke did have pretty much a whole IAA force of Eldar but unfortunately I did not get to play him.

How Floody's might look if he had painted it.

My list was:

Mephiston

The Sanguinor

JP Priest

5 Terminators, 3 TH/SS, Claws, Srg (who gets the Sanguinors Blessing) Claws

Furioso dread, Blood Fists, Extra Armour

10 Death Company, BP/CCW, 2 Bolter Fist, Lemartes

2 x Snippy DC Dreads

3 x Storm Ravens, all Extra Armour, all MM, 2 have TLC, other has AssCannon

It is hilarious and a version of a list I had brought to Itzacon, though this time I had no scoring units at a tourney with 2/3 missions involving objectives!

Game one I was drawn against young Eoin and his Ork Horde, and I mean horde.

A Whole lot of Orks

He had:

Ghazghkull and some Nobs in a Truck

Snikrot and some Kommandos

Mega-Nobs in a Truck

Deff Dred

3 Killa Kans

Gretchin

Mob of Boyz (100 boyz)

I later discovered that this is an Apoc formation so was technically illegal, but I had a laugh and was suitably scared looking at this wall of boys across the table. Eoin was a lovely young man and has a good head on his shoulders. He played well and made me work for the first few turns but I eventually got the charge on Gaz and his Nob squad with Sanguinor and Meph, the latter taking Gaz apart and the former inflicting some wounds on the Nobs. They took a few slaps of Power Fists back but still won combat, get surrounded in the process meaning they could not be charged by the approaching Green Tide.

Most of the Armour had been taken down by my Ravens taking turns to move 6” and unload their Blood Strikes, normally bagging a few Orks in the explosion thanks to AP1 and the sheer amount of boys on the table!

I was now able to make the assault on my terms and as Mephi and Sang finished off the Nob squad in his turn, Mephi, his job done jumped back into a Raven to lick his remaining 2 Wounds while the unscathed Sang stood in the middle of the table to ensure everyone got +1A.

The Death Company, Sang, a DC Dread and the Furioso charged the Boys and killed the Warboss and caused 50 Wounds, to none back, with him inflicting 8 Wounds back, I failed 3 and FnP’d them (Including one on Lemartes)

This left him to take 50 fearless Saves, wiping the unit. I next got to run in and kill his Mega Nobs and then had a Raven parked on each objective as we waited for Snickrot and the Gretchen to turn up, at which point I killed them.

20-0 to me as the only damage taken was a Wounded Mephi.

So after a pretty good round I went up against Hugh. I had played him the Thursday prior to the event and was fairly confident that I could take him, but I hadn’t counted on my inability to roll above a 3+ until turn 4!

Pictured: What Hugh Sees in the Mirror

He was running his usual Templars list with a few extra toys.

Marshal, TDA, Claws

Terminator Command Squad, Tank Hunters, 2 x Cyclone

Emperors Champ, AAC

2 x 5 Terminators, Tanks Hunter, 2 Cyclone

5 TH/SS Terminators

3 x 5 Marines, Bolters

3 x 2 Typhoon

3 x Auto Las Preds

He got first turn, forcing me to reserve. My toys turned up one at a time and he easily dispatched them killing the occupants with ease. The Sanguinor managed to get into combat with the TH/SS Termies, where he stayed continuing to roll all 1’s to hit for 3 turns. I eventually managed to do some damage with my Termies joining the Sanguinor to take out the TH/SS Termies and a Squad of Cyclones.

Mephi took out two Preds, the Champ and all of the Troops, the Speeders and Cyclones managed to slag all of my DC with the exception of Lemartes who in turn 6, due to being the only model left was able to use his JP to get into combat with the closest Unit of Speeders, who had closed in on my DC. He managed to kill them both, claiming what I thought was a draw on KP’s.

A hard fought game that I thought I had pulled back, only for Hugh to realise that we had miscounted the KP’s forgetting the Sanguinary Priest.

17-3 to Hugh.

Game 3 was against Kevin Stronach and his Eldar. He had some scary stuff for me to contend with.

Kevin realises that Phil Mitchel has really let himself go

Wraithseer

Farseer, Doom, Guide, Spear, RoW, RoWit

Banshees in a Serpent

Dragons in a Serpent

Pathfinders

10 Wraithguard with Warlock

5 Avengers

5 Warp Spiders

Falcon

2 x Wraithlord

Mission is Dawn of War and I go first, setting up the Sanguinor out of sight in the middle of the board with the rest rolling on in the first turn.

I was cagey with my forces as I was scared he might roll a 6 with any one of his Wraithcannon on my transports removing the Model, and thus the occupants from play!

I turbo on and take some long shots at his Wraithseer who shrugs off all of the Wounds. The Sanguinor moves forward still hiding.

His turn one and his forces arrive but fail to see anything, with my raven all having moved about 20” instead on their full move just in case.

Turn 2 and I used the Gunships to Kill the Wraithseer and the Falcon  pinning the Avengers and the Farseer on that side of the board. Sanguinor moved forward and charged the Wraitguard, dispatching a few with the third Raven containing the Termies Parked on his lines after Turbo Boosting to get into position to rear shot his Dragons, only for him to pass his Boost save.

This left his Dragons free to move over and wreck my DC Raven in the centre of the board, which he did thanks to Crack Shot ignoring my boost, his other shooting bounced off with his Banshees getting into a position to counter charge any further offensive.

Mephi debussed and moved to help out the Sanguinor dispatch the Wraithguard while the Termies moved back to charge the Pathfinders and the Banshee Tank, the Furioso moved to cover them, hoping to kill the Banshee transport and hold up the occupants. The DC and their Dread made light work of the Dragons and their Serpent with the Dread blowing it up with a rear armour shot, killing a few Dragons in the process. This wreck provided a huge piece of dangerous terrain however that my DC would be forced to charge into and having dispatched the Dragons, they were forced to go through and remain in due to them raging at the closest enemy, who was the hapless Farseer and his Avengers bodyguard, who were now the only part of his army left. The Termies and Dread made combat Blowing up the Serpent and a few of the Banshees in it and easily dispatching the Pathfinders.

So began the slow march at the Avengers and Seer.

Kevin unloaded the Avengers with Blade-storm into the DC only for FnP to ruin his day, his Farseer moved bravely forward throwing his Spear and then Charging a DC Dread only to roll 1’s and 2’s on the Chart, both of which are ignored thanks to one of my favourite Special Rule titles “None Shall Stay My Wrath”.

Seriously, none can stay it.

The clean-up was straightforward here and gave me my second 20-0 for the day. It wasn’t until I got home and began preparing this blog entry that I realised we had forgotten the Warp Spiders, which totally gives Kev the moral victory. Great game.

A successful day at the office gave me a respectable 43 points giving me third spot and most importantly finishing above Hugh who finished fourth. Suck it Hugh.

Though I did have some issues with aspect of the organisation as I have already stated, I must say that I had a great day out with some fun and challenging games. My thanks to the organisers and I look forward to returning to the event, especially if it is likely to be in the same venue.

I totally played in Thomond Park!!

I have played here, honest.

K-Con: A Traitor and his Con

Time for another tournament report everyone. Yay, happy times! However, for the first time ever this report comes from a tournament in which I did not partake in any drinking. I know. A scary thought. I'm scared too. The reason I wasn't drinking was because I was the one driving to said event. The event in question was K-Con. K-Con was a one-day, 5 round, 1000pt, 40k tournament held on Saturday, February 11th in Gamers World, Dublin and run by John "Traitor" Stowe.

All of the links, all of the time.

The tournament would be utilising a form of composition restriction that means that you have to take units from each section of your codex in roughly equal amounts. Meaning, after the obligatory HQ and two troops to take two heavy options you must have taken one fast, and one elite etc. The rulespack also denies the ability to take duplicates. This is the reason this format is called Highlander. More detailed info is available in the rulespack available here. Many people believe the Highlander format got it's name from the famous line "There can be only one" which comes from the 1986 film. I like to think the name is Highlander because Christopher Lambert will decapitate you with his sword if you try and spam units because Raiden don't roll like that.

 

Well I referenced Mortal Kombat so this was a logical step

The list I took is specifically designed for decisive tactical play. It was:
Codex Blood Angels
FUNBUS
Mephiston
Chaplain
9 Death Company with 2 power weapons and 2 powerfists
Rhino
Death Company Dreadnought with Blood Talons
Stormraven with Multi Melta, Assault Cannon and Extra Armour. 

See I was wasn't joking about the decisive play. That tactical play just happens to used by my opponent to make my RAGE units to run around in circles. Also my list contains no scoring units so to win objective games all I have to do is wipe my opponent off the table. Awesome.

Anyway, as I said earlier I wasn't drinking so I could drive up a car full of people from the Capital all the way to Dublin. In my car were:

Barry "On a 6 can I do it" Hickey who was bringing broken Space Wolves with a broken Thunderwolf Lord of broken-ness

Merv "I don't need Space Wolves to win" Murphy bringing the Vanilla Marines of mediocrity. Spoiler Alert: He totally needs Space Wolves.

Donal "Lives under a bridge with Lenny" Carroll using Wolf Scouts and friends. Donal was here to see if playing Space Wolves means you auto do well. Another Spoiler Alert: It totally does.

and last and most certainly least  
David "Already wrote a tournament report on this" Coleman using a different version of the Funbus.
 

We were all dressed so Fabulously.

So after downloading some quality 80's tunes and threw them on CD, albeit with some Rammstein (because I know how much Merv complains about music he hasn't heard before) it was time to hit the road. After collecting all the lads it was hitting the road time, for future reference "hitting the road time" is like 6 in the morning, and we struck off to Dublin.

During the journey Merv was nice enough to give me advice for the upcoming Fantasy tournament I was going to (that review is up next) and was my first foray into WHFB. I was going to be playing High Elves, Merv's old army. It turns out that his advice was the same advice I had heard everywhere else. Teclis and White Lions, all the time, everytime. Apparently, Teclis is "face meltingly broken"

Silly Nazi. Using Teclis without proper protection.

Anyway enough about Fantasy. We arrived in Dublin, parked up and high tailed it over to Gamers World to get out 40king up and running. Upon arrival we were chastised for our tardiness. It's all well and good for Stowe to give out about people being late, I mean, Meath is already in Dublin. Due to being late it was straight into game one with no time for chatting with the lads. That'll have to wait until after game 1.

Game 1 had me up against Alan Garvey and his Chaos Marines. At K-Con there was a prize awarded for people who created a list that used the third "tier" of the comp restrictions. This mean bringing at least 2 HQs, 3 Troops, 2 Elite, 2 Fast, 2 Heavy and 1 more unit at 1000pts with no duplication. A mean feat by any standards. My first opponent completed these specifications so his list was something like:

All squads are minimum size with no upgrades(including the havocs)
Chaos Lord w/ no upgrades
Summoned Daemon
Noise marines
Chaos Marines
Khorne Beserkers
Havocs
Raptors
Preadator
Dreadnought
Chaos bikes
Chosen
And some other things I've forgotten.

Like this but Chaos Marines

Now having a list with only a single gun being able to kill my Stormraven might seem ideal but we were playing an objective mission, meaning I had to kill his entire army to win the game.  12 or so units. Class. Well the game was very straight forward. Alan knew exactly how to win the game even with a complete inability to kill my units. He reserved his bikes to have them boosting around for the end of the game. He got my death company out in the open and have them running around in circles for the game. Fortunately for me I was able to just barely kill all of his units. Game ended 20-0 to me. I must say that Alan is one of the nicest people to play. He had come with a list that was designed to do nothing but win the novelty prize but he had passed 1 more save in turn 5 it would have been a draw. Great game against a lovely player.

I don't have a picture of Alan but here's a different nice guy.

After Game one it was time to say my hellos to people. It was great seeing all of the Dublin and Northern Ireland based gamers. After many chats I was pitted against an Northern gamer and an old nemesis of mine, Rowan Sheridan. We had played at Warpcon and he had beaten me and now we were playing at K-Con, it was time for revenge. Hopefully. He was once again playing Necrons which included:
Lord on a barge,
Destroyer Lord,
Wraiths,
Annihilation Barge,
Warriors,
Immortals,
Solar Pulse,
Veil of Darkness

I'm not saying anything. It's just a band in a wagon.

We were playing Dawn of War, Killpoints. Also know as yay, I don't have to wipe him completely. Class. I won the dice roll and elected to go first. Meph deployed front and centre next to "his" Rhino. The raven was boosting on turn 1. All of Rowan's unit were rolling on turn 1. Long story short Rowan killed half of my army, which unfortunately for him is 3 kill points. I managed to kill an Annihilation Barge, Command Barge, his warriors, the wraiths and the Destroyer lord. Game ended as a win to me on Killpoints and roughly equal on VPs, so a straight 15 - 5 to me.

That day it was Death Company flavoured.

After this game it was time for a burrito break. I headed over to Bujom(sp?) with Ryan "Has never gotten sick from drinking" McMullan as he was signing this places praises for what seemed like one thousand years. After a very edible lunch it was time to head back to the shop for game 3. This had me up against Grey Knights. I was playing Ray O'Kane in Pitched Battle, Capture and Control. Ray's army consisted of:

Draigo
5 Terminators
5 Paladins
Psy-rifle Dread

In this game I suffered from a serious case of didn't read the rulespack-itis. I was unaware that games could not go on past turn 5. I won first turn and deployed my army. Ray reserved everything. Paladins and Dread walking on and the Termies were deepstriking. I was boosting around in circles until turn 3 when the Paladins and Termies turned up. The 1 psycannon destroyed my Stormraven leaving all of my stuff fall out. Meph and the Death Company killed his Terminators while my Dread charged the Paladins. The Death Company Dread couldn't kill the paladins and the rest of my stuff was too far away to contest his objective by turn 5. Ending in a win to Ray. Entire game over and done with in less than 10 minutes.

And makes you look like less of a fool at tournaments.

All of that spare time was a very bad thing as I a) couldn't fill it with drinking and b) was in a place full of things I wanted to throw money away on. I am an absolute fiend for impulse buying. Luckily Dave finished his game early too and we could sit down, play liar's dice and hurl abuse at people. This kept us entertained until it was time for Game 4. My game four was against Kevin Salendini and his Eldars Noirs (That means Dark Eldar, he's french) in Dawn of War, Wipe him out (or as he called it, objectives). Kevins army consited of
Ravager,
Venom,
Razorwing,
Raider,
Incubi,
Wyches,
Trueborn,
Warriors,
Scorges.

I won first turn and deployed Meph about 7 inches behind the Rhino which was on the 24 inch line. My Raven was hanging just off the board ready to launch forward. Kevin, being French, seized the inititative, came on and blew up the rhino. Turns out Meph was just within 6 inches of the tank which rolled a 6 inch explosion, rolled a 6 to wound him and he failed his 2+ save. Pretty much sums the whole game up. In my turn my Raven drives forward 24 inches. My assault cannon doing nothing to a Raider. Meph double one perils casting his jump pack, double six perils casting preferred enemy before charging some scourges(?), I think that's what they were. He kills 2 and takes a wound from them in combat. It was all coming up Mephy.

Kevin destroyed me here. My death company did nothing before dying to a incredibly low amount of splinter rifles. My DC dread took 3 turns of combat to kill 5 trueborn before get shot and dying. I'm pretty sure the game ended 18 - 2 to him. Moving swiftly on.

Your wyches fight like girls. ICE BURN! I feel better now.

After some more hanging around it was time to play game 5. I was up against someone who had in the game just before played Dave's fun bus and had not come out the better for it. Luckily for me it meant he had some practice against this list. Wait...... actually, that's not good for me. Ah well, it's not like it changes my tactic of RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR CHARGE THINGS. 
My opponent was Jamie Byrne and he was playing Chaos Space Marines with:

Demon Prince, Wings, Warptime
10 Chaos Marines, Meltagun, Chaos Glory, Power Fist
8 Berzerkers, Power Weapon, Rhino
8 Summoned Daemons
3 Obliterators


Basically I won first turn and had a serious advantage going first. In turn 1 I boosted the raven which had Meph and the Dread in it towards his 'zerkers and Prince while my fast rhino went after his marines. His reply is to shoot the Oblits to no effect and position everything to make it harder for me. Thankfully with a solid fleet roll from meph he manages to get into the prince and draw combat at 2 wounds each. The DC Dread manages to melta the Rhino and charge the contents. The Death Company make the marines and wipe them out. The Raven also kills an Oblit. With the marines with the Icon dead the daemons also die. In his turn 2 the oblits immobilise the Raven while Meph kills the Prince and the Dread finishes the 'zerkers. My turn 3 I kill all the Obliterators. Game ends with a win to me. I felt bad for Jamie having to play 2 fun buses back to back. The same thing happened to Rowan as he played Dave right after me but he beat me at Warpcon, so screw that guy.

Jamie, sorry you had to play Dave.

So all told I ended up in 7 place. My congratulations go to Ralph risk for winning the whole tournament. Colin Murray for picking up second and Dave for going for the sad, hiding draw in game 5 and getting 3rd. It was a shame but after the event the validity of ralph's win was called into question. He has been accused of trading certain "favours" in return for his round 5 opponent throwing the game. I don't know the validity of the statement but I can tell you I think neither party would ever be involved in anything like that.

Ever.

So after we said our goodbyes, got ourselves a nice bit of food we all got in the car to head home. After getting lost, thanks to Dan "Nerd, True Story" Ahern and having to head through Naas, we got on our way home. On the way home we worked out a hilarious Space Wolf list for Itzacon for Donal after Wolf Scouts and friends doing so well at 1000pts. A great day had by all. Thanks John for a great event and I'll see you this weekend in the same place for the masters(report due in 4 years).