I got back from the ETC qualifier this morning - I had a fantastic time! 3 great games, and a slew of new faces who may soon end up as regular opponents when I've moved house.
The top 7 qualified for places in Poland, and sadly I came 8th. Here's hoping that people mysteriously disappear...
Game 1 vs Sons of Dorn
I was massacred. First few turns went well with my mole mortars pinning his lascannon devestator squad so my Russ could drive about unmolested after turn one's night-fighting ended, but I was eventually massacred. My shooting phases were absolutely dismal and very few marines feel thanks to a combination of power armour, cover saves and damned medics. When my infantry platoon turned up they were in very tight formation and subsequently murdered by the 4 rocket launchers in his other devestator squad.
The interesting thing that cropped up from this game was the use of medipacks. The Sons of Dorn had one in most of its squads, which got very annoying when his marines I plasma gunned down got patched up by the medic. I always interpreted the rule that they ignore the first failed armour save to mean you don't get to use the medipack when the casualty was caused by a weapon with sufficient AP to deny armour saves. If you don't take a save, you can't fail it so you can't use the pack. However, Ben went on to argue that if that was the case then there was no need for the rules to go on and mention you couldn't use the medipack against power weapons. We agreed on his interpretation, and Matt also tells me that's how he plays it so I'm now happy that Ben's is the correct interpretation. However, it's still a grey area for me and I'm going to hunt for an official ruling to point to next time the discussion arises.
That rule makes medipacks a lot more worthwhile me taking. And also considering my command squads with 4 plasma guns suffered horribly at there own hands I desperately need to reinstate my medics. I love the Squat medic models too.
Interestingly, on the subject of medics, Living Ancestors (the elderly squat pyskers) used to have the same rules as medics back in the days of the Warhammer 40,000 compendium. I have been fielding them as allied Daemonhunter Inquisitors so they can take psychic powers and act respectfully on the battlefield. A lot of people have been suggesting I field them as sanctioned psykers, which are quite pathetic, and also use up a precious doctrine point for being restricted troops.
Game 2 vs Waaaagh! Fotheringham-Willoughby
Warmaster Gorun slaughtered the Warlord though - killing his first enemy general in his tournament career. I think a trophy is in order, though I don't want to disfigure the model itself, and sticking a head to the base is just 'Sunday Child'.
Regardless, I was massacred again.
Again, this game flagged an interesting point - the use of grot cover saves. He fielded a line of grots 2" apart spreading most of the 6' table. When I fired through them and used the screen to take cover saves he took the grot casualities caused by succesful ones not from the grots in front of the orks but from the ones on the extreme ends of the squad (up to 3' away). RAW (rules as written) say there's nothing wrong with this, and the grots just have to be removed from the squad rather than from within line of sight of the unit that caused their casualties as would be the case with firing at the grots directly.
I'd like to point out I'm not bitter about either of these, or regard them as bad sports. They were both fun games with sporting opponents. It just wakes me up to the general level of tournament play. RAW is the best way of interpreting rules as it's the only thing that can't be argued against.
Game 3 vs Drop Guard
Again, this lead to the surreal scenario of having both armies drop. We both enjoyed having our lasguns actually do something in the shooting phase, and it was a very bloody game as infantry squads gunned each other down in vicious fire-fights, and our meltaguns stalked each others' Russes. I don't have any photos of this game, which is a shame.
It was a fantastic time, and much of a learning experience for my army. It has been blooded on the tournament ground.
My biggest regret was that it was so unpainted. I hate using unpainted models, especially in tournaments. But with only 9 days' notice I had no choice. I just made sure everything was undercoated in keeping with Warhammer World policy. A lot of them weren't even assembled properly, and I look forward to going back and lovingly drill out their barrels and green stuff the arm gaps in the coming weeks.
Labels: Squats
Posted by Curis at 11:24 AM
