Karel's Wrapup

Thanks to everyone who played in the tournament last weekend. I know both I and C. had a great time, and I think everyone present would be willing to play another in a couple months. Overall, the game size (1500) and random missions worked pretty well, but we may want to retool the way we pick the pairings. Eric was a really good sport and I think he learned a lot, but experience-wise his second round was a bit of a mismatch.

In the future, I think we should consider pairings based on seeds for the 1st game. A player’s seed could be determined by rank in their last tournament, and maybe have newcomers always start out at the bottom for their first tournament. For second round pairings and overall tourney ranking, we need to decide whether we want to use total victory points or have folks earn what I’ll call “juju-points,” based on what type of victory/loss they experienced. I think the latter is most common at normal tournaments; it’s normally used at Dragon's Lair to good effect. The two methods produce slightly different results - in the Karel's Folly tourney, using the total VP method resulted in this ranking (the official results):

1st: C.
2nd: Mack
3rd: Bully
4th: Marcos
5th: Pat
6th: Eric

Just for the sake of providing an example, using the sliding scale the result would be:

Tied for 1st: C. & Bully
2nd: Mack
3rd: Marcos
4th: Pat
5th: Eric

In this case, it didn't make much of a difference (ok, besides bumping me past Mack - suck it, Necrones de Guerra!), but it decides the 2nd round loser/drawer brackets a bit better. We can still draw for pairings in cases of juju-point ties or to keep folks from playing the same person twice in the same tourney.

Karel's Folly Narratives

In the wilderness surrounding Tristan's capital city of Gallioli, Toggog and his minions attempted to ambush and loot a heavily armored Tau hunting party but were fought off, the battle ending in a stalemate. Later, when the demon prince's army encountered a rival band of chaos raiders amongst the ruins of the city, his rage was too great to contain and they slaughtered the rivals to the last man. Skulls are skulls, after all, and Khorne must be appeased...

After their rok transports were caught in a sudden warp displacement, a marauding band of orks from Waagh! Mahkook found themselves stranded on the surface of Tristan. As they began to set up a staging area for later assaults on the nearby human settlement, they were detected and attacked by elements of the 14th Tiefwalder Armored Infantry Regiment, sending them fleeing into the urban wasteland. Unfortunately, this placed them directly in the path of the newly awakened necron juggernaught. The plucky greenskins put up a valiant fight against the silent robot phalanx but were defeated in the end.

A large group of chaos raiders traveled through a warp storm and descended upon the Tristan wilderness. As they went about scouring the planet's surface for valuable slaves and munitions, they unknowingly disturbed a Necron battle group from multimillenial slumber. Rising from their newly exposed tomb, the somber automatons repelled the chaos raiders and eventually sent them running for cover amidst the ruins of nearby Gallioli. As the chaos lord attempted to reorganize his battered company, they were suddenly set upon by another chaos faction and slaughtered to the last man.

A hunting party of Tau were pursuing a contingent of orks from Waagh! Mahkook when their ships were caught in a freak warp storm and sent hurtling halfway across the galaxy to the surface of Tristan. As they surveyed their new surroundings, they were suddenly attacked by the Demon Prince Toggog and his ruthless band of chaos veterans. After some heavy initial losses, the Tau managed to find their footing and repel the attacking psychotics long enough to get away. Eventually they picked up the trail of their original ork quarry, but it led them into an imperial guard encampment in the ruined city. Battle ensued, and the Tau were narrowly defeated.

Units from the 14th Tiefwalder 3rd company were deployed as auxiliary planetary defense forces on Tristan. Just before the traitor Karel declared secession, he sent the loyalist Tiefwalders out into the Tristan wilderness to investigate a rather dubious account of xeno invaders. After being pummeled overnight by intense storms, they came upon a recently arrived party of orks from Waagh! Mahkook. After a day of pitched battle, the orks were routed and the guard pursued the surviving enemy back into Gallioli. Startled to find the capital city in ruins, destroyed by unknown forces, they made camp and evaluated their next course of action. It was then that a tau hunting party stumbled onto their position and battle was joined. Tanks fought tanks and losses were heavy for both sides but the tau were eventually defeated.

An age-old cell of necrons was reactivated when the monolith capping their tomb was exposed by violent warp storms and disturbed by marauding chaos looters. After annihilating the band of pirates, the necrons swept into ruined Gallioli. From afar they perceived a roving band of orks and moved to intercept them. After these new opponents were similarly defeated, the necrons simply resumed their pilgrimage through the desolated streets, following their ancient impulse to wander the planet until all usurpers were ground under their metal heels.

Battle Report: Chaos vs. Chaos 5-12-07

C. vs. Eric - 1500 points - Annihilation



Turn 1

Chaos (Eric): The predators and havocs kill four of C.'s havocs with heavy weapons. One squad of berzerkers moves up.

Chaos (C.): The surviving havoc targets the nearest predator with his lascannon, stunning and immobilizing it. The rest of the army moves forward, including the demon prince (off-camera at the bottom).

Turn 2

Chaos (Eric): One predator tries to move away from the approaching demon prince, while the other swings wide and takes down one of the terminators. On the far side, a squad of berzerkers goes crazy and charges toward C.'s rhino. The obliterator moves up with the berzerkers.

Chaos (C.): Blood rage must be answered by blood rage! The bloodletters answer the call, and together with C.'s berzerkers they charge forward into Eric's obliterator and berzerkers. They bring down the obliterator and four berzerkers, killing the last by outnumbering him. They consolidate into Eric's second squad of berzerkers. One predator is shot up a bit, and the demon prince gets closer to the other predator.

Turn 3

Chaos (Eric): The chaos marines try to stop the enemy rhino but inflict no damage. The predator shoots up the terminators but can't make get them to fail an armor save. In assault, C.'s berzerkers and bloodletters finish off their rival khorne freaks and consolidate into the chaos lord's squad of marines.

Chaos (C.): The obliterators destroy the stunned predator. The demon prince swoops in on the chaos havocs and wipes them out with his massive axe. The possessed join in the massive assault at the top and kill a few chaos marines.

Turn 4

Chaos (Eric): The chaos rhino pulls around and unloads another big squad of marines. They shoot up the bloodletters but when the smoke clears, only one has been killed. The chaos lord and several marines are killed in the large melee.

Chaos (C.): The demon prince charges the predator, destroying it. The possessed and last berzerker finish off the squad of chaos marines in close combat, but the berzerker is killed. The bloodletters charge the marines that shot at them, killing three of them and losing one of their own.

Turn 5

Chaos (Eric): One more marine is killed in assault by the bloodletters.

Chaos (C.): The possessed charge the rhino and trigger an explosion that kills one nearby marine and one bloodletter. The bloodletters finish off the rest of the marines.

Chaos (C.) wins, victorious slaughter.

Battle Report: Imperial Guard vs. Tau 5-12-07

Bully vs. Marcos - 1500 points - Cleanse



Turn 1

Tau: The stealth suits, having infiltrated so close to the guard flank, open fire on the lascannon teams, killing four of them. The hammerheads tear up one of the infantry squads, sending it running off the table.

Imperial Guard: The demolisher moves left and fires on the stealthsuits, hitting four but killing only two of them. The sentinels and lascannon team shoot up one of the piranhas, shaking it. The ion cannon hammerhead is stunned by mass missile fire. The heavy bolter teams move into the tower.

Turn 2

Tau: The hammerheads zip into their adjacent quarter and fire their weapons, destroying the leman russ and killing two guardsmen in the far right squad. The devilfish kills one of the guardsmen in the tower. The intact piranha flies over the walls and tries to bring down the demolisher with its fusion blaster, but -alas- misses the crucial shot.

Imperial Guard: The basilisk goes fires indirectly at the battle suits but the shot scatters and hits the devilfish, shaking it. The heavy bolter teams destroy the piranha's weapon, and the lascannon team finishes it off. One sentinel moves to attack the approaching stealthsuits but misses, and the other fires across the battlefield, stunning one of the hammerheads. The first squad to target the ion cannon hammerhead brings it down with a missile. Additional rocket and plasma fire kills one battlesuit and inflicts a wound on a second.

Turn 3

Tau: The unshaken hammerhead shakes the basilisk. A devilfish darts around the chapel and its passengers disembark. The battlesuits and the fire warriors' pulse rifles bring down 4 guardsmen. The shas'el jumps out of cover and kills two of the guardsmen in the heavy bolter squad. The stealthsuits attack the threatening sentinel and it explodes, but they and the nearby lascannon team are unharmed. The remaining piranha circles further around the imperial guard flank.

Imperial Guard: The demolisher turns and fires on the squad of fire warriors, killing four of them and destroying the devilfish's smart missile system. The nearby guardsmen wipe out the rest with plasma and lasgun fire. The surviving lascannon team kills two stealthsuits with lasgun and lascannon fire and the hellhound finishes off the last two. The shaken basilisk zooms forward to move into cover.

Turn 4

Tau: One of the devilfish moves over and kills two guardsmen with its last weapon. The other devilfish immobilizes the sentinel. The hammerheads kill one guardsman and destroy the hellhound's flame turret. The last piranha's gun drones detach and move towards the guard position.

Imperial Guard: The stars align for the emperor's dogmen and they make some important shots: the basilisk fires indirectly at a hammerhead and destroys it on a glancing hit. The intact sentinel rolls to immobilize the other hammerhead, and when its decoy launchers attempt to change the damage result, the reroll is a 6 and it goes down for good. The demolisher hauls ass to stay away from the piranha's fusion death. One of the infantry squads runs into the cratered section of road to grab some cover. The hellhound stuns the devilfish.

Turn 5

Tau: The battlesuits jump from cover and kill one of the guardsmen in the far right squad, breaking them and sending them off the table.

Imperial Guard: Guard missile launchers blow up the stunned devilfish, and the lascannon team and hellhound finishes off the gun drones. The basilisk backs up to get in position for one last indirect shot on the battlesuits.

Turn 6

Tau: The last devilfish kills one guardsman.

Imperial Guard: The basilisk fires off the last guard shot of the game, hitting the battlesuits but failing to wound either of them. The hellhound and infantry squad move to contest both adjacent quarters (the infantry squad was straddling the line and rolled to occupy the crucial quarter).

Imperial Guard wins, solid victory.

Battle Report: Necrons vs. Orks 5-12-07

Mack vs. Pat - 1500 points - Take and Hold



Turn 1

Necrons: The necron forces advance and the destroyers take down 2 grots and 6 boyz with their heavy gauss weapons.

Orks: The orks charge forward into the fray, firing off big shootas and rokkits, and bring down 2 warriors. The looted leman russ looses its battle cannon, taking down three more warriors and wounding the VoD lord.

Turn 2

Necrons: Three warriors reassemble and continue their silent advance. Two more boyz and a couple of grots fall to the necrons' green beams. The monolith nears the center of the battlefield.

Orks: The leman russ again lets fly with the battle cannon and brings down one warrior. Three more warriors are killed by rokkits and big shootas.

Turn 3

Necrons: The necron technology is having a good day and 3 more warriors stand back up. A squad of warriors teleports through the monolith, and together with the flux arc, disable the orky dreadnought, blowing each of its arms off in turn. The monolith also hits a grot and a boy, and the destroyers kill four boyz themselves.

Orks: The leman russ scores a kill on the destroyer squad, and the disabled ork dreadnought is stilll able to bring down one of the warriors in assault.

Turn 4

Necrons: The ordnance blast was too much for the destroyer, and he stays down. The warrior climbs back to his feet and his squad again teleports through the monolith. The squad and the monolith open fire on the killa kans, immobilizing one and wrecking the other. The destroyers wipe out five grots.

Orks: The rokkit buggies sweep around and kill two necron warriors. The warboss slowly but surely approaches the meat grinder. The boyz charge the necron warriors, killing one and losing two in the process. They fail their morale check and fall back, also failing their mob check.

Turn 5

Necrons: Two warriors stand back up, two stay dead. They fire on nearby grots and boyz, killing several of them. The dreadnought is immobilized.

Orks: Rokkits and big shootas drop a destroyer and a few more warriors, and the warboss wades into the squad in front of the monolith, killing two of them with his power klaw. The big mek sidles up to the dreadnought and fixes up the big machine, restoring its ability to move.

Turn 6

Necrons: The destroyer and two warriors get back up. Massed gauss shooting kills 7 of the rokkit boyz, bringing them below scoring capacity.

Orks: The orks make a last ditch effort to take down as many necrons as possible. Two warriors are killed by the battle cannon. Somehow the warriors near the monolith are able to bring down the warboss. The big mek fixes up the immobilized kan, making it a scoring unit and earning the orks a few more victory points.

Necrons win, solid victory.

Battle Report: Necrons vs. Chaos 5-11-07

Mack vs. Eric - 1500 points - Secure and Control



Turn 1

Necrons: The destroyers draw first blood and kill one of the havocs. Warriors and the monolith move forward.

Chaos: One of the squads of berzerkers rolls blood rage and charges through rocky terrain on their way to the warrior squad in yon forest. One of the predator tanks and the obliterator move out and fire on the monolith, inflicting no damage. The chaos bikes zoom forward and drop one of the warriors in the closest squad.

Turn 2

Necrons: The necrons ready their gauss rifles and flay up the bikers and one of the berzerkers approaching on the far side.

Chaos: Both of the berzerker squads go crazy and charge the warriors squads closest to them. On the necrons' left, the berzerkers go last, having charged into cover, and lose three of their number. Though their champion's powerfist drops two warriors in return, the fearless squad misses two armor saves from being outnumbered. The other berzerkers kill 2 warriors and one of their own is killed.

Turn 3

Necrons: One of the warriors felled by the berzerkers is reanimated, and their squad teleports through the monolith, out of combat. The monolith, destroyer, and other warriors take apart the stranded berzerker squad, killing everyone but the champion.

Chaos: The berzerker champion charges into the destroyers, killing three with his powerfist and sending them fleeing off the board. The rhino rolls around the monolith and its passengers disembark, shooting down two of the necron warriors in a hail of bolt fire.

Turn 4

Necrons: The foot lord uses his veil of darkness to teleport himself and a squad of warriors across the table to nearby the obliterator. For all their gauss fire, they are unable to inflict any damage on the hulking monstrosity. The monolith stuns the predator tank with is flux arc.

Chaos: The havocs pick off two of the necron warriors, and the rhino whips around to try and tank shock the necron warrior squad near the obliterator. One of the warriors tries to shoot it down and is run over for his trouble. The lord and his squad of marines approach the squad of necron warriors in the forest on the far side of the field.

Turn 5

Necrons: The monolith powers up its particle whip and annihilates 8 of the nearby chaos space marines. The surviving two fall back in horror at the green beamy death that had enveloped them as the warriors and lord immobilize the rhino with more of the same.

Chaos: The lord and his retinue of chaos marines charge into the necrons on the forest hill, killing one but losing two of their own in trade. The rhino stands down on its guns and manages a self-repair.

Turn 6

Necrons: The foot lord and warriors bring down the obliterator with another hail of gauss fire. The destroyer lord sweeps around and charges into the mass melee between the warriors and chaos lord and marines. Four marines and one necron warrior fall.

Chaos: The chaos havocs drop two necron warriors in front of the monolith.

Necrons win, solid victory.

Battle Report: Chaos vs. Tau 5-11-07

C. vs. Marcos - 1500 points - Chaos Choice (Seek and Destroy)

(missed the setup picture)

Turn 1

Chaos: Chaos starts off well, rolling to choose the mission type and get first turn. Pressing the advantage, their big guns take down several enemy skimmers: the terminators blow up one of the piranhas with their reaper autocannons, the obliterators stun the devilfish and destroy its missile system, and the havocs stun one of the hammerheads. The berzerkers press forward in their rhino, followed closely by the flying possessed.

Tau: Shrugging off their early setbacks, the Tau regroup and counterattack. The crisis suits jump from cover and take out the rhino with plasma and rocket fire, killing four of its passengers in the process. The last two berzerkers are entangled in the wreckage. One of the hammerheads lays fire into the havocs in the bunker, killing two and sending the rest falling back.

Turn 2

Chaos: The havocs regroup, readying their weapons. The obliterators move out from cover and finish off the stunned hammerhead. The possessed fly out from behind the rhino and try to take down the piranha in midair but fail to inflict any damage.

Tau: The piranha flies away from the possessed and try to shoot up the entangled berzerkers, missing them. Its gun drones detach to create additional targets. The battlesuits and ion cannon hammerhead shoot up the possessed, killing all but the aspiring champion. A very close call for chaos - both of the summoning units for the bloodletters were nearly wiped out this turn.

Turn 3

Chaos: The possessed champion flies over the rhino and smashes up the gun drones. The berzerkers extract themselves from the rhino wreck and leap to catch the piranha. The chaos heavy weapons stun up the center devilfish.

Tau: The hammerhead finishes off the berzerkers with its ion cannon. The other hammerhead and devilfish circle around the chaos position, and the stealth suits streak forward with their jump packs.

Turn 4

Chaos: The bloodletters arrive from the warp, just in time to save the possessed champion and finish off the circling piranha. The terminators fire their reapers at the stunned devilfish and bring it down, killing four of its fire warrior passengers in the process.

Tau: The Tau Shas'el and the ion cannon hammerhead move forward and kills two bloodletters, and the other hammerhead and devilfish circle further around the left chaos flank.

Turn 5

Chaos: The terminators kill one of the approaching stealthsuits, and the obliterators destroy the remaining railgun hammerhead.

Tau: The battlesuits and and stealthsuits move to the center and the devilfish moves closer to the chaos position. Suddenly, something large stirs behind the trees!

Turn 6

Chaos: The demon prince flies over the treeline and drops in on the devilfish, but is simply unable to destroy the swiftly moving transport.

Tau: The firewarriors in the devilfish deploy in front of the demon prince and open fire with their pulse rifles. After the smoke clears, the chaos HQ is still standing, unharmed.

The match ends in a draw.

Battle Report: Imperial Guard vs. Orks 5-11-07

Bully vs. Pat - 1500 Points - Take and Hold

Turn 1

Imperial Guard: Sentinels and tanks move out from behind the wooded hills to fire on Pat's approaching horde. Several orks and gretchin fall to rocket and ordnance damage.

Orks: The orks advance and chew up a couple of the Guard infantry squads. The rokkit buggies flank out on the basilisk and hit it, shaking the crew.

Turn 2

Imperial Guard: As the shaken basilisk moves into better cover, one of the infantry command squads crawls out of hiding directly in front of the advancing rokkit buggies and open fire with their special weapons, destroying them but losing their plasma gunner in the process to a weapon overheat. More orks are killed by various guard units and the battle cannon turret on the looted Leman Russ is destroyed.

Orks: The skorcha buggies take vengeance on the command squad that killed their rokkit buggy buddies, setting them ablaze and wiping them out. More guardsmen are wiped out by big shootas and rokkits on the far side of their battle line.

Turn 3

Imperial Guard: Concentrated fire kills ten grots and sends one of the squads fleeing to hide. Lascannons and tanks pour fire into the ork walkers, destroying the dreadnought and the big shoota on one of the killa kans. One of the skorcha buggies is also destroyed.

Orks: The gretchin slaver on the far side points his rokkit stick in the rough direction of the guard hellhound - a moment later and the hellhound explodes in a ball of flame. The grots move up behind, inspired by the nearby warboss in mega armor. The big mek struggles to repair the looted russ to no avail.

Turn 4

Imperial Guard: The heavy weapons again target the ork walkers, destroying their remaining shooting weapon (rokkit launcher). The second command squad emerges from hiding and opens fire on the closest slugga boyz squad, killing four of them. A few more orks die from guard shooting. The big mek again fails to repair the leman russ. An infantry squad moves to occupy the defense turret and make ready for the remaining skorcha buggy, now making its way towards them.

Orks: The skorcha buggy circles around the bunker and douses it with flame, killing 8 of the guardsmen inside. The survivors hold fast! The guard command squad behind the ork lines loses a couple of their number.

Turn 5

Imperial Guard: The survivors in the bunker man up to their best weapons and open fire on the buggy that wiped out their buddies. It explodes around them. The plasma gunner in the command squad kills one of the rokkit boyz but dies from an overheat. The junior officer kills another with his bolter. Another plasma gunner, in the building on the guard line, also falls victim to a misfire. The leman russ splatters a couple more boyz and sends their squad running for the hills.

Orks: Envious of his colleague's hellhound kill, the other ork slaver targets the leman russ with his lucky rokkit stick and fires away, destroying the battle cannon. Blast that stick! The falling back boyz mob up in time to wipe out the command squad with slugga fire.

Turn 6

Imperial Guard: The chimera fires on the rokkitboyz, killing one of them. The survivors take cover, pinned by the tank's indirect ordnance fire. Guard armor and infantry scramble to the center of the battlefield to try and overpopulate the objective area. Target freedom is granted and the hustling guardsmen drop a few scattered grots, wiping out one squad and sending the other skittering off of the battlefield.

Orks: The big mek and warboss take personal offense to the nearby leman russ demolisher, charging it with swinging powerclaws. Unfortunately for them, the siege tank was just moving too fast to hit.

The Imperial Guard win a crushing victory.

Karel's Folly

Princep Karel, governor of the resourceful but isolated planet of Tristan, inexplicably declared secession from the Imperium. In response, forces of the Imperial navy surrounded the system and prepared a blockade to starve out Karel’s rebels. The situation might have been locked in a standstill for years but for a mysterious warp rift that opened suddenly near the planet. For nearly a month, the surface of Tristan has been ravaged by powerful storms, its cities razed overnight by bands of mysterious raiders. Excepting the few disorganized holdouts of the local defense forces, the planet lies virtually unguarded, its vast spoils free for the taking. Arms, slaves, and ancient technologies await new masters. Imperial adepts detect strange signals emanating from the surface; blood is in the water and sharks from all corners of the galaxy are moving to converge…

The new terrain is almost done and the pairings have been decided. They are as follows:

Friday
4 PM: Imperial Guard (Bully) vs Orcs (Pat)
7 PM Chaos (Christina) vs Tau (Marcus)
10 PM: Necrons (Mack) vs Chaos (Eric)

Saturday
10 AM: Necrons (Mack) vs Orcs (Pat)
1 PM: Imperial Guard (Bully) vs Tau (Marcus)
4 PM: Chaos (Christina) vs Chaos (Eric)

Standard missions, gamma (infiltrate, deep strike, dusk & dawn, victory points).

The first day's battles will take place on the forested outskirts of Tristan's capitol city. On the second day, the carnage will move deeper into the wasted urban sprawl.