HGR Journal Entry No. 061 - A Good Day For HGR...

Date: June 28, 2008...
Venue: Robinsons Galleria
Regulars Present: Kyuzo, Deadeye, Balian, Sigismund, Henri26, BattleCaptain, Commissar Alfred, Birthday Boy Ebon
Other Players Present: Greenshadow, with special appearances from John, the Other Marty, JR, Mark the Dwarf
Highlights:

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Game1 - Deadeye(Ultramarines) vs. Kyuzo(Black Legion)
2000pts Annihilation, Dawn Of War (5th Ed Beta)
Kyuzo Wins!

Killpoints determined the winner with Kyuzo's 4(Terminators, Vindicator, Landraider, Termie Librarian) against Deadeye's 1(CSM Squad). Good game.

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Game2 - Balian(Dark Angels) vs. Sigismund(Salamanders)
2000pts Seek and Destroy Omega
Draw!

Sigismund finally able to salvage a draw against his long time mentor's all-infantry Dark Angels.

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Game3 - Henri26(Iron Wolves) vs. BattleCaptain(Luna Wolves)
2000pts Cleanse Omega
Henri26 Wins!

Iron Wolves VP in claiming two quarters pretty much made the difference. Lesson learned by the Luna Wolves: never let your Land Raiders straddle two quarters by the end of the game. ;)

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Game4 - Greenshadow(Ravenguard) vs. Commissar Alfred(Armoured Company with Daemonhunter Allies)
1750pts Seek and Destroy Omega
Greenshadow Wins via VP!

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Game5 - Deadeye(Ultramarines) vs. Ebon(Order of the Clenched Fist)
2000pts Seek and Destroy Gamma
Ebon Wins via VP!

This was a very tactical game with the thick of the fighting pretty much in one critical spot. But the Birthday Boy Ebon will not be denied! Happy birthday Dude! :D

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Game6 - Balian(Dark Angels) vs. BattleCaptain(Luna Wolves)
1500pts Seek and Destroy Gamma
Jesse Wins via VP!

Balian and BattleCaptain played a record 1hour and 15minutes including deployment! with BattleCaptain's Land Raiders now wary of meltagun/meltabomb toting Dark Angels, the Luna Wolves were able to edge out on VP's. Good game.

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We decided to pack up and go straight home. Most of the vets got a lot of models to assemble and paint for the next session. Session ends 8:00pm

40k Mini Tournament

Ten players...
Six tables...
A whole lot of miniatures...
One champion!!!

It's been a long while since galleria saw tournament action with respect to the 40k game. So it was with much anticipation that the HGR guys organized an event that would let the new blood have a taste of what 40k tournaments are like. It involved a lot of work ( we never knew! ) but all in all everything turned out well. The players played nicely, the day went without incident (except for one dude going MIA for round 2 :P *and no. we'll never let you hear the end of it! as valid as your reason may be. :P ). At the end of the day though our legs and feat were tired from walking around inspecting the games and answering rules queries, we all had fun and all the hard work was worth it! Here's how it all went down:

We went to Galleria around 10 a.m., just around opening. Embarked upon Kyuzo's dedicated transport was Balian, Salubri, The Meanderer and of course... Kyuzo! Once there we proceeded to set up the tables with a lot of help from NG Staff and Omegatron who came early.

Thanks to manong guard for making sure our terrain stays in place and not end up as kiddie souvenirs!

Round 1 Begins!

The match ups were called after Balian's short opening address (naks!). With the player's at their seats and armies rearing to go, round one kicked of with a bang!

The player outstripping all others for this round was Green Shadow and his Ravenguard. Claiming a whopping two quarters to none. Sadly we have not recieved his battle report but interesting highlights I remember was when both the Dark Angel's and the Ravenguard's Assault Squads met at the center of the table. Aided by their Chaplain, the Ravenguard side came out on top and later some fancy maneuvering trying to dodge a hail of plasma cannon fire won him the game.

Raven guard Deploy in a set of ruins.

Other interesting things of note was The Meanderer's fateful morale check against shooting that sent his entire Sons of Light Tac squad running off table. Necron's taking a "Draw" from Mike's Ultramarines(perhaps the only one who managed to avoid a loss against the necrons and a newbie at that) which managed a lucky shot against monolith and destroying it early in the game.

Sons of Light Vs. Tzeench and Khorne Chaos

Henri's Space Wolves Vs. Arximperialis' I.G.

Round 2 - The Battle Rages On!

After taking their lunch, the players headed off to round 2 and the match ups became very interesting with some veteran vs veteran action. ( one player was lost in the warp but later found his way back to the mission area. lol )

Shink1m burried the opposition by running out with a 3-0 score on objective. Here's what he has to say about his game with Omegatron:

Kim’s Necrons (Tomb Fleet Vyr) versus Art’s Chaos Space Marines
By Shink1m

The mission required the winner of a roll-off to decide to be an Attacker or a Defender. The Defender will have to set up in the center of the table, deploying only his Troops and Heavy Support. The Attacker, on the other hand, will arrive from his table edge with all his units. At the end of the 6 turns, the player who has the most scoring units within 6” of the center will win.

Looking at Art’s army list, he has nothing there except Troops and Heavy Support. So if he was the Defender, he’d have everything on the table except his HQ. I’d be stuck there with a Monolith, Heavy Destroyers (2) and Warriors (22) – and no Resurrection Orb support. So with that and winning the roll-off, I decided to be the Attacker.

Art’s deployment was impressive – using two Rhinos to shield his Land Raider, and two Havoc units perched on elevated advantage position. I deployed using a weak left flank bait, placing the two Heavy Destroyers with firing position on his Land Raider. I failed in breaking his Land Raider, but the rest of my army succeeded in breaking the two Rhinos, forcing the units inside behind them for cover from the withering Gauss fire. My opponent has been unlucky with getting his winged HQ on the table, rolling several 1’s on his Reserves roll. I concentrated heavy fire on one of the Havoc squads but he managed to pull them back into the safety behind his wrecked Rhinos. Being behind area terrain, Art denied me any LOS to his troops. I assumed he will wait for the final turns before he’ll surge out and assault me, or just wait the storm out and win via objective...[read more about it here]

Shink1m broke thru this very impressive wall of ceramite armor! Kudos to you dude!

Round 3

The last game had several players in contention for 1st place but Marty's Tau army eventually took the crown. Read about his Battle reports for all three games [here].

Ravenguard vs. Necrons before and after shot. lol

It was definitely not the Meanderer's day as his multiple assault on Naj's single Dark Angel Squad ended in his own units losing the close combat. Another assault on the Veterans seen on the left hill ended in utter devastation of the Sons of Light.

Arximperialis and Omegatron read the mission

And so the day ends with a pose from us incredibly attractive guys. hehe

HGR Journal Entry No. 060 - Warhammer 40k 5th Ed Beta...

Date: June 21, 2008
Venue: Robinsons Galleria
Regulars Present: Salubri, Henri, Balian, Kyuzo, Deadeye
Other Players Present: Gelo with special appearances from Francis and Owen
Highlights:

Some of the Regulars attempted to playtest 5th Ed rules after having secured an advanced *ahem* copy of the new rulebook (either that or its a very elaborate hoax) and try to see how the new rules play out.

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Game1 - Balian(Dark Angels) vs. Kyuzo(Black Legion)
2000pts Seize Ground (5 terrain counters), Spearhead (5th Ed Beta)
Draw!

I decided to start out with my usual Black Legion list (Slaanesh Lord on bike, 2 Termie squads, 3 Rhino squads, 2 Havoc squads and 1 Obliterator squad), on the logic that I don't change anything and see how it plays out in 5th Ed and start experimenting changes to it by next gaming session. Balian's infantry-heavy DA turns out to be more formidable especially with combat squads and what units can claim or contest or claim objectives. The game's got a little bit more dynamic, with some new changes needed in army config and tactics. True Line Of Sight needs a little getting used to, though I don't think it should be a problem. I'd say Balian and I have been generous in terms of True Line Of Sight and cover saves which proved interesting in how to move units about. And, my Terminators were the first to use and fall to the Deep Strike Mishap Table! Haha!

The objective needs a bit of getting used to. Eventhough Balian's forces was reduced to four models, his remaining Dark Angel trooper almost sealed the win if it were not for one of my Chaos Rhinos contesting it for the unlikely draw. Special mention to that particular Rhino that rolled "5's" in the repair roll for three Turns before fixing itself on the fifth Turn to contest the same terrain counter! That was memorable. Lolz.

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Game2 - Salubri(Eldar) vs. Henri(Iron Wolves)
2000pts Capture and Control, Dawn of War (5th Ed Beta)
Salubri Wins! Eldar Objective Claimed, Iron Wolves Objective Contested

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Game3 - Kyuzo(Black Legion) vs. Salubri(Eldar)
2000pts Annihilation, Spearhead (5th Ed Beta)
Salubri Wins!

Second 5th Ed game, this time against Salubri's Eldar, which my Chaos Marines have yet to beat in 4th Ed and now just as difficult in 5th Ed. With the Mission in mind, I decided to go on the defensive and wait for the Eldar advance and hope to stop it where they decide to hit. Only one of my Havoc squads proved effective in providing cover fire, while the other wasn't as effective having been wrongly deployed and had difficulty in picking out targets via TLOS. Scorpions' and Warp Spiders' hit and run tactics was annoying, enuff said. :P I had no intention of being the first Regular to tap out using 5th Ed rules (Beta or otherwise) and was happy by end of 6th Turn with only three Chaos Space Marine units left on the table against much of the Eldar force intact with only a few immobilized skimmers the only damaged done to them.

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There were still some 4th Ed games played with a special appearance from Gelo aka Badbeef! Here's where the gaming gets funky. :P

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Game4 - Gelo(Daemonhunters/Witchhunters/Space Marine Allies)[Uhm... did I get this right?] vs. Mike(Ultramarines)
2000pts Cleanse Alpha
Gelo Wins!

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Time flies, and so were a lot of things when we realized Typhoon Frank was posting Signal No.2 (Turned 3 later that night) already. Straight home everybody went, with a lot of new adventures to tell. Session ends 8:45pm.

Tau takes 1st place for the greater good!

Game 1
Opponent: Luna Wolves
Mission: Cleanse

This was my first tournament game in this hobby. I went against Jesse’s pre-heresy marines. Our game lasted for only 4 turns since we were still fooling around while the other tables were already deploying. I guess this was because of us being excited and very eager since it was our first time playing in a tournament. Anyway, our mission was to control table quarters and the map had a forest in the middle with some ruins scattered around the table. The 1^st turn had very minimal casualties from both sides. The battle officially started in the 2^nd turn when Jesse’s terminators and tac-squads pounded my kroots and my battlesuits. But my battlesuits were able to retaliate by killing some of his termies since they were in rapid fire range from my plasma rifles. All the battlesuits did was get into rapid fire range, give the marines hell, and jump back into safety. The slow advance of the marines and close support of the land-raider caught my battlesuits. I then gave up on this side of the table and focused my tactics on the other half of my hunter cadre which was doing better. My other half of battlesuits and pathfinders on the other side were doing great. XV-8’s were able to kill lots of marines with markerlight support from my pathfinders deployed in a level 3 ruin. The pathfinders had a great vantage point and they were able to “light up” high priority targets. One of the highlights of this game was when a lone heavy weapons marine was marked by the pathfinders, 3 XV-8’s unleashed a variety of ap2/1 weapons on the poor marine and to our surprise, I rolled a lot of 1’s and 2’s thus a lot of my shots missed. 3 low ap shots were on target but this marine made all his 5+ cover saves (what a lucky bastard). My broadsides weren’t that effective in tank hunting in this game, they didn’t have clear LOS on Jesse’s land raider and predator. But on the brighter side, my broadsides took pot shots on the steadily advancing termies thus removing their “scoring unit” status.

Game ends on the 4^th turn. The Game ended with a draw with me and Jesse controlling 1 table quarter each. Good Game!

Marty's(the guy with the cap) first game match against Jesse. Salubri on the left... and is that Naj's hand grabbing the DA codex? lol

Game 2
Opponent: Dark Angels
Mission: Hold at all costs

My 2^nd tournament game had me defending an objective in the middle of the table. I had a bad feeling at the start of the game. I should have chose to attack instead of defend the objective since the marines I am facing is more assault oriented. The Dark Angels had an assault squad with a scary looking chaplain. If these marines were to assault my units, it will surely be a massacre. What I did was use my mobility, long range weaponry and superior fire power to my advantage. I picked-off marine units slowly one by one. This tactic gave my hunter cadre minimal losses and saved lots of precious tau lives. Towards the end of the game, I left the objective unguarded and used it to lure the other Dark Angels scoring units to grab and secure it. Once the bait was taken and 3 DA scoring units went in to grab the objective, I mobilized all my forces from the right flank and half of my forces from the left flank to the center and unleashed tau firepower. The combined vehicle and battlesuit attack killed enough marines to rend them of their scoring status. At the end of the attack, my battlesuits, jumped to secure the objective but the vehicles were the most an inch short of being within 6” from the objective.

I committed a big mistake when I forgot to roll for my commander coming from reserves. I learned a lesson to not to be too excited when all my plans were coming into play since I tend to forget some things and become too careless. But in this case, I was lucky since my opponent played my game and tried to shoot it out with the tau. Another good game!

Game ends with two scoring units securing the central objective. A victory for the “Greater Good”!

Game 3
Opponent: Ultramarines
Mission: Secure and Control

My last game for this tournament was against my good friend Mike. This is actually our first official game even though we got into the hobby the same time. What made this game fun was all the trash talking (with special participation from john) and fooling around by both players.

Our mission was secure and control 5 loot counters. The table was filled with buildings, bunkers and ruins. I really like this setting since I can use the terrain to my advantage. The buildings and ruins provided my units a lot of cover and hiding places. Mike deployed first and what I did was counter his deployment. Every time he deployed a tank, I deployed a unit with tank busting capabilities. And as for his infantry, I countered them with battlesuits and firewarriors. I was actually surprised with Mike’s tactics because he opted to slug it out with my army. He played a static game in a map filled with lots of potential hiding places for my fire caste. Since he set up a fire base along his deployment edge, I opted to attack aggressively using cover which was readily available to advance. I did not use the classic tau maneuver which was jump, shoot and hide back in the original position. What I did was jump out, shoot and jump again but this time closing in on the marine firebase but still hiding in cover. Mike’s psycher was really annoying because of the FOTA ability. This attack, pinned my broadsides for two turns and the tank hunters weren’t able to anything besides hide in cover. The good thing was my deathrain battlesuits (twin-linked missile pods) were able to step up and destroy 3 tanks and weapon destroyed/immobilize a dreadnaught. My aggressive tactics forced my units to move forward into his firebase and killed enough marines to rend them of their scoring status. The only scoring unit left for the Ultramarines was the pinned tac-squad.

One highlight and game turning event of the game was when a squad of terminators deep-striked near my firewarriors and battlesuits. If these terminators were to assault my units and cause havoc within my lines, Mike would certainly gain the upper hand. The good thing was one f my commanders was near the area and was able to kill 4 terminators all by himself.
Game ended with me controlling 4 loot counters and scoring big in victory points.

Good game!

Final match between two shooty armies. Mike and his Ultramarines on the Left vs. Marty and his Tau Army.

HGR Journal Entry No. 059 - First HGR Mini-Tourney...

Date: June 14, 2008
Venue: Robinsons Galleria
Regulars In Attendance: Kyuzo, Balian, Salubri, Ebon, Sigismund
Mini-Tourney Participants: Art, Meanderer, Marty, Jesse, Naj, Francis, Shink1m, Mike, Henri, Alfred
Other Noteable Appearances: Carl, Ferds, Dexter, The Other Marty, Carlos, and What Looked Like CrispyBeefRibs and Garrboi (it just can't be them :)), Jaime and the Cua Brothers

Highlights:

First HGR organized Mini-Tourney! Good turn out of participants, with a few hiccups in logistics as well as scheduling the start of the rounds. But this was too much fun for those who joined we kinda forgot all the worries in between.

There were Quotable and Forgettable moments too many to mention but surely forever remembered by those who said/did them as well as those who heard/saw them. Evisceration in fiction all around. Lolz.

Mini-Tourney Results

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Round 1 - Cleanse Alpha (Most number of Quarters controlled wins)

Art(CSM) vs. Meanderer(SM-Sons of Light) - Art Wins
Marty(Tau) vs. Jesse(SM-Luna Wolves) - Draw
Naj(SM-Dark Angels) vs. Francis(SM-Ravenguard) - Francis Wins
Shink1m(Necrons) vs. Mike(SM-Ultramarines) - Draw
Henri(SW-Iron Wolves) vs. Alfred(IG with DH Allies) - Henri Wins

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Round 2 - Hold At All Costs Gamma Modified (Most number of Scoring Units within 6" of Center wins)

Henri(SW-Iron Wolves) vs. Francis(SM-Ravenguard) - Francis Wins via forfeit
Jesse(SM-Luna Wolves) vs. Mike(SM-Ultramarines) - Mike Wins
Art(CSM) vs. Shink1m(Necrons) - Shink1m Wins
Naj(SM-Dark Angels) vs. Marty (Tau) - Marty Wins
Meanderer(SM-Sons of Light) vs. Alfred(IG with DH Allies) - Alfred Wins

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Round 3 - Secure and Control Gamma (VP determines winner and break any resulting ties)

Jesse(SM-Luna Wolves) vs. Henri(SW-Iron Wolves) - Jesse Wins
Meanderer(SM-Sons of Light) vs. Naj(SM-Dark Angels) - Naj Wins
Shink1m(Necrons) vs. Francis(SM-Ravenguard) - Shink1m Wins
Mike(SM-Ultramarines) vs. Marty(Tau) - Marty Wins
Alfred(IG with DH Allies) vs. Art(CSM) - Art Wins

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When the smoke cleared it was Marty prevailing over the field via a slim VP difference. Some key highlights and hopefully some pictures will follow.

Congratulations to Marty on his first mini-tourney win! Congratulations and thanks to all those who joined and helped organize this event.

See you across the gaming tables soon.

HGR Journal Entry No. 058 - Pre-MiniTourney Gaming...

Date: June 7, 2008
Venue: Robinsons Galleria
Regulars Present: Ebon, Balian, Kyuzo with later participation by Salubri
Other Players Present: Mike, Henri, Naj, with special appearance by Kuneho
Highlights:

Some of the players were in attendance to do some more tune up games before next week's mini-tourney.

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Game1 Mike(SM-Ultramarines) vs. Henri(SW-Iron Wolves)
1500pts Recon Gamma
Henri Wins! via VP

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Game2 Ebon(CSM-Deathguard) vs. Balian(SM-Dark Angels)
2000pts Take and Hold Omega
Ebon Wins! Balian taps out on the 5th Turn

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Game3 Naj(SM-Dark Angels) vs. Henri(SW-Iron Wolves)
2000pts Secure and Control Alpha (3 Loot Counters)
Henri Wins!

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Game4 Ebon(CSM-Deathguard) vs. Mike(SM-Ultramarines)
1500pts Secure and Control Gamma (5 Loot Counters)
Ebon Wins! via VP

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Game5 Balian(SM-Dark Angels) vs. Kyuzo(CSM-Black Legion)
2000pts Seek and Destroy Omega
Draw! 8 Turns!

This was fun. Balian and I were not in tourney tune up mode and tried to play a fast and furious game, as expected from us Regulars. Right off the bat Balian immediately took full advantage of the terrain and my deployment and made me think twice in moving my ML havoc squad to the same flank as my AC/LC havoc squad who's suffered heavy casualties from plasma cannon and missle launcher fire. I decided to let the AC/LC havoc squad suck it up a couple of turns while a bulk of my troops in rhinos come in from Balian's uncovered flank and sweep towards the center while I wait for Balian's Assault squad coming in and exploit any weak flank I might expose.

I rolled up an Obliterator and a Terminator squad on the 3rd Turn so I decided to deepstrike them right into enemy lines. Deviate direction and distance from the two squads almost ended in disaster with the two squads landing right next to each other. Good thing since after whittling down Balian's Veteran squad with combined Obliterator/Terminator shooting, Ezekiel counters with that Hellfire thingy (thanks Salubri for the correction) and actually survive (Balian rolled an S7 AP4! Whew!), but not for long. Game ended after the 8th Turn, with last turn heroics from a melta toting Chaos Marine bringing down the Dark Angel Dreadnought which was enough to salvage a draw.

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Mini-tourney next week. Results to come in a week's time.

HGR Journal Entry No. 057 - Two Week Countdown...

Date: May 31, 2008
Venue: Robinsons Galleria
Regulars Present: Kyuzo, Sigismund, Ebon, Salubri
Other Players Present: Henri, Marty, Mike, Jesse, Alfred
Some New Potential Players in Attendance: Nelo, The Other Marty, JR, and The Other Adrian
Gaming Highlights:

Balian noteably not among the early arrivals, who is on BF duties for the weekend. And Sigismund kept on saying he misses him! Aaawww....

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Game1 - Sigismund(SM-Blood Ravens) vs. Henri(SW-Iron Wolves)
1500pts Seek and Destroy Alpha
Sigismund Wins! 6-0

Sigis went on mini-tourney tune up mode, pitting Blood Ravens against what was initially heard as a drop pod assaulting Iron Wolves. Sigis went on millimeter gaming mode, probably wanting to make a good showing in the coming mini-tourney by the looks of it. Not much into the rest of the gaming details except for the outcome where Sigis had a heavy advantage of 6 scoring units left on the table compared to none for the Iron Wolves.

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Game2 - Marty(Tau Empire) vs. Kyuzo(CSM-Black Legion)
2000pts Secure and Control Omega (3 Loot Counters)
Kyuzo Wins via VP! (7 Turns)

My first game against Marty's Tau. Had that sinking feeling I should've brought Dark Eldar instead. Hehehe... Anyway, I knew I had to get Tau to come out of any potential hiding places while my troops make a steady advance to claim objectives. The agreed terrain rules on the table (all hills with no difficult terrain, without cover saves unless you're behind it and blocks LOS) as well as majority of our respective armies in reserve, forced the both of us to deploy aggressively, with Chaos Havoc Squads literally doing a staring match with Tau Broadsides. First turn was key, and when I won out, I was only able to kill off one Broadside. But I got lucky on this one when Marty failed the Broadsides' leadership test and fell back off table on the first turn!

Bad luck changed places for the next two turns, where the rest of my reserves only started coming in on Turn 3 (SEVEN(!) units failed to come in during the 2nd turn!). Was pleasantly surprised when my Obliterators and Slaaneshi Lord on bike was able to reach the Crisis Suits and took them down one by one. But not at a cost though, as some impressive defensive shooting from Fire Warriors took out one Termie squad and one the Slaaneshi Lord when they're left in the open.

Game ends on the 7th turn with one Loot Counter contested, and one Counter claimed by each side, and the Victory Points eventually breaking the tie.

Good game.

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Game3 - Salubri(Eldar) vs. Ebon(CSM-Deathguard)
2000pts Seek and Destroy Gamma
Salubri Wins via VP!

Saw only parts of this game, which was cerebral from Turn 1. Ebon and Salubri are quick to read each others' moves, with Salubri making a strategic retreat to a defensive position on one flank while his "Eldar Beautician" (Eldar Wraithlord) kept the Greater Daemon and Daemon Prince of Nurgle at bay for three Turns and stop the Nurgle sweep short. A more colorful description by Salubri: "Eldar run and gun bading maneouver worked well against them moving walls of maggot infestation!". Salubri pulls off a major victory against Ebon on VP count.

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Game4 - Mike(SM-Ultramarines) vs. Jesse(SM-Luna Wolves)
2000pts Take and Hold Omega
Draw! (7 Turns)

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Game5 - Marty(Tau Empire) vs. Alfred(IG w/ Daemonhunter Allies)
2000pts Seek and Destroy Alpha
Marty Wins! 6-2

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Some of the boyz went on to have dinner over at Dencio's Metrowalk. Other than Sigismund's bloody chicken episode, the boyz were in relatively high spirits. Some talks on finalizing some details and logistics for the coming mini-tourney ensued. Session ends 10:30-ish.