My LVO games

It started early one morning, and Las Vegas isn't pretty at this hour

I had the pleasure I attending and playing in the LVO this past weekend.  This was my first major tournament and was lots of fun.  Reece and Frankie, and the whole Frontline Gaming crew, put together an awesome event.  I played in the main 40k tourney, the first ever beerhammer 40k tourney, as well as the pub crawl.  I’ll take it from the top.

Last Place

1st Place

This was my first time in Las Vegas too.  What a crazy town, and an excellent place for this to all go down.  This place is lots of fun and I’ve barely scratched it.  I will have to return to see more of it, as I mostly played 40k while there.

First, my list:

CSM/Daemons

Dark Apostle (warlord)

10 Cultists

10 Cultists w/ autoguns

10 Cultists w/ autoguns

2 Baledrakes

3 Spawn of Nurgle

2 Obliterators of Nurgle

1 Lord of Change

10 Horrors

3 Plague Drones

1 Daemon Prince of Tzeentch

I learned lots and there is plenty of room to improve, but before I get into all that I will go over my games.

I went in with the only goal of winning my first match.  In hindsight this was a tall order, but I figured it was all luck of the draw over who I was paired up with.

The first game was Emperor’s Will Primary and Crusade Secondary w/ Dawn of War deployment.  I was paired up w/ a Nid player who was using the new book (as you had the option to play either the old or new nid book).

His List:

Hive Tyrant w/ Devourers

3 Hive Guard

3 Hive Guard

2 Venomthrope

3 Warrior w/ Devourer

3 Warrior w/ Devourer

Harpy w/ Venom Cannon, Spore Mines

Harpy w/ Stranglethorn Cannon, Spore Mines

Harpy w/ Stranglethorn Cannon, Spore Mines

Exocrine

Exocrine

Exocrine

I probably could of deployed better.  His masses of blast templates cleared out my troops fast.  The final score was 2-3, he won w/ first blood and no objectives were scored.  Sounds close, but I only had my drakes left and he had only lost his Tyrant, Venomthropes, 1 Exocrine, and some warriors.

Second Game was vs White Scars with Tau ally.  It was Scouring primary, Purge the Alien secondary, and Hammer/Anvil deployment.

His List:

Chapter Master (bike, fist, artificer, shield eternal)

Librarian (termi, shield, sword)

5 Bike w/ 2 grav

5 Bike w/ 2 grav

5 Bike w/ 2 melta

4 Centuraion w/ grav, missiles, and amp

Buffmander

10 Kroot sniper

3 Broadsides w/ high yield missiles, early warning override, and 5 missile drones

This game started out great with my plague drones getting first blood off the kroot on a first turn charge.  He took down my Prince, as it was the only thing w/ an armor save.  Then in my turn 2 I screwed up.  I cast misfortune on his broadsides, but then later decided to not charge them.  My drones and spawn charged the Cents which had the characters and my Lord of Change went after a bike squad, figuring his troops should die as the heavy objectives were on my side.  After that combat I was informed he was using white scars tactics.  I’m not sure if he told me this and I didn’t hear him, or if he had forgotten to mention this, but either way it really screwed me up as my LoC went down.  My drakes helped a bunch, but his bikes were able to claim objectives and I lost.  I forget the score but I don’t believe the game ended naturaly.

I was now a bit frustrated as I had been doing quite well w/ my list, but now in a larger pond I was suffering.  Also, finally having tasted White Scar hit and run, I realized a major flaw in my list and my standard tactics would not work against them, since they could just leave combat and hose down my monsters.

Final game of the main tourney for the day, game 3 was vs Farsight w/ Tau ally.  Relic primary, Big Guns secondary, and Vanguard deployment.

His list:

Farsight

O’Vesa

Buffmander

Riptide w/ Ion

6 Fire warrior

2 broadside w/ missiles

2 broadside w/ missiles

3 crisis w/ flamer/plas, fusion/plas, and fusion/plas (deep striked w/ farsight)

4 INDIVIDUAL crisis w/ burstx2, plasx2, plasx2, fusion/plas

Sky Ray

I was not happy w/ this match up.  After 2 losses, how was I paired w/ an O’Vesa star?!  Turns out my opponent missed his first game, so that makes sense, but was still feeling a bit bummed.  He was agressive w/ his O’Vesa Star and my spawn were able to tie them up for a few rounds (3 game rounds?).  While that went on my Prince and Lord of Change went forward, I lost the Lord of Change, but my Prince went on to take out a broadside team, the skyray, and scored line breaker and an obj.  My drakes fried up his crisis suits.  His Riptides eventually freed up and started nuking down my cultists covering my back field, but a few were able to survive and he contested their obj, while the 3rd squad and warlord apostle grabbed a different objective and my Horrors grabbed the relic.  God did that win taste so good.  That was the last game of the first day of the tourney, but I still had Beerhammer.

Beerhamer is an awesome game.  It was done w/ Dawn of War deployment, Kill pts, every drink you finish comes down on the table as S6 AP2 barrage, ignore cover.  After scatter and wounds are done, push any models out of the way, and it becomes an impassable, line of sight blocking piece of terrain.  You also gave your opponent a point every time you went to the bathroom.

First game I played my new friend whom is splitting my room w/ me.  Seemed fitting, since we had just met that morning and we were roomies.

His List:

Tigerius

Tact Squad in drop pod

Tact Squad

Dev

Rune Priest

Grey Hunters in drop pod

long fangs

Terminators in drop pod?

I don’t remember exactly, but it was a pretty quick and brutal game.  I won 13-0.  Moving into the 2nd and final game I was told if was for the championship.

His list:

Spirit Seer

Avatar

2 serpents of wraith guard w/ d-scythes

serpent of guardians

2 wraith knights

I knew this would be pretty damn hard as my army is not good w/ wraith knights.  I hadn’t ever fought one, but I knew going to Las Vegas that they would stomp me good.  It wasn’t a complete stomping, but he did beat me 7-14.  I congratulated him, but was told I was the beerhammer champion.  I’m not sure on how this came about, I aim to find out, but my speculation is either my first game allowed my combine score to be the highest, and/or since I drank more than both my opponents I won extra points I was unaware of.  Either way, I am now the defending beerhammer champion.

The next day I was paired against another White Scar army (painted ultramarine, but I made sure to know) w/ Space Wolf ally.  Crusade primary, Emperor’s Will secondary, and dawn of war deployment.

His list:

Chap master w/ Bike, Artificer, shield eternal, thunder hammer

8 Bikes w/ 1 Attack Bike, gravx2 and multi melta

8 Bikes w/ 1 Attack Bike, gravx2 and multi melta

8 Bikes w/ 1 Attack Bike, gravx2 and multi melta

10 Tactical in drop pod melta, multi melta

10 Tactical in drop pod flamer, missile

Rune Priest on Bike

10 Grey Hunters in drop pod meltax2

I fared a bit better this time around against the Hit and Run, but it was still a solid loss by the end.  I rely a lot on locking things in combat and since they can just leave, I can get rocked pretty hard.  I kept pressure on 2 of the crusade primary, but his drop pods were right there, backed up by bikes.  My monsters and drakes did as much as I could ask.  Losing a drake to a snap fire multi-melta was rough, but it has to happen sometimes.  This was also the first time I saw a Rune Priest shine, and it sucked for me.  Can’t wait until they lose their 24” bubble of BS.

Anyways, last game was against Orks.  Big Guns primary, Relic secondary, and vanguard deployment.

His list:

Warboss mega armor klaw

15 Loota

7 ‘Eavy armor Nob and Painboy in Battlewagon (outflanking w/ Warboss)

11 shoot boy w/ klaw nob in trukk

11 shoot boy w/ klaw nob in trukk

11 shoot boy w/ klaw nob in trukk

Dakkajet

Dakkajet

Dakkajet

This was a pretty fun game.  His Warboss and Nobs outflank gutted my backfield while my Daemon Prince gutted his backfield.  Game ended with him holding one of my obj, and I had one of mine and one of his.  I think if he would of broke his warboss off and charged the cultists holding my objective, and this would of at least tied the game, if not won it for him as the cultists would probably die and/or run.  Anyways, I wasn’t gonna argue and take what I can get.

LVO was a ton of fun, I don’t think I have ever played 5 games in one day.  Also, it really exposed a lot of problems in my list that previously were not due to a restricted meta where I play.  Even though I may sport a sour face by the end of some of these thrashings, it isn’t dislike of my opponent, it’s more an issue of me, my list, and the game.  Sometimes the best thing that can happen is getting the shit kicked out of you and I’m looking forward to improving my list.