Free State GT Recap

This weekend, I played in the rapidly growing Free State Grand Tournament. I brought my Dark Angels Deathwing army, the Rampant Lions. I've been practicing assiduously with this list, and fairing well, so I had high hopes, even against meta lists of Tau and Custodes.

In the first round, my opponent played an Iron Hands dreadnought heavy list and I narrowly won a high point game. It came down to the last turn and I eked out a win. 

My second game was against another Iron Hands list with Forgeworld landraiders, a Leviathan, and an Astraeus Super Heavy! I previously played Colin from the Denver Trolls in another GT and he stomped me then, but we played a razor-thin game this time and I lucked into victory on the last turn. It's one of those games I'm going to remember for a long time.  The best part though it was broadcast on Wargames Live!

Watch day 1 on YouTube

My game starts around the 3:40:00 mark.

My third game was against a Harlequins & Drukhari list and it was a supremely memorable game as well. We both basically stayed in our own half of the board and took a few pot-shots at each other. In that match-up, Harlequins will win every time and because of my passive play and a missed charge early in the game, I lost. That player, Zack, went on to finish 2nd over all. Great game though and again, very memorable! 

My fourth game was against Tim and his Craftsworld army. Tim organizes another excellent event in Omaha so it was a treat to play a well known organizer. Eldar are an easy trump card against Marines and I couldn't do much against his new codex. Eldar are broken, but Tim is also a great player and I certainly don't blame him for choosing such a powerful army to play. He thumped me good! 

Lastly, I played Grey Knights, my worst match-up next to Eldar. It was also in a mission that required hold 2, hold 3, hold more to score Primary points. I was tired and my dice just gave up too. Mark is a fantastic sportsman and played me pretty soft when the game was out of reach for me. As an example of how cold my dice were... I had 16 shots, hitting on 3s and only 2 hit. Neither shot wounded. I would also estimate that only 25-percent of my missiles hit, usually needing 3s... Some days you eat the bear, but somedays the bear eats you. Like I said, Mark is an excellent sportsman and made a tough loss easier on my ego. He's now beaten in a couple tournaments so I joked with him and declared him my arch nemesis. 

In the end, I went 2-3. 2 of my losses were at the hands of top 8 players, and another 14th place finisher. There's room for improvement! 

Also, I bought the Song of Fire and Ice starter set after my games...