Last weekend I played in the Freestate Games Grand Tournament in Holton, Kansas.
I have been practicing with a Space Marines Ultramarines list that features both Marneus Calgar and Roboute Guilliman as well as twin Whirlwinds, twin Predator Annihilators, and a cadre of my silver marines, the Rampant Lions. A very similar list beat up my Space Wolves at the Las Vegas Open and I hoped to duplicate that army’s success.
My practice games gave me some victories but I wouldn’t consider it broken or game breaking, and my game play at the tournament bore that out; going 2-3. I must admit, that my two wins were against opponents who had worse dice than I think I’ve ever seen and demonstrated no real skill on my part.
Here’s a brief recap.
Game 1 vs. John Indelicate and Genestealer Cult
John, also known as Archon John, is a fantastic player. His cultists cut my army down and while the game felt closer than the score, I was clearly outmatched. I had beaten Quinton’s GSC in a practice game recently and I felt optimisitic going in, I was quickly thumped by hoards of Abominants.
Game 2 vs Kyle and Imperial Knights
Kyle started off with a great couple of turns, crippling or destroying my heavy armor that could kill his knights. My old roommate, Darrin, walked by the table and commented how my “dead pile” looked much larger than Kyle’s dead pile and realized it was only the bottom of turn 1… Many more Astartes joined that dead pile to my shame.
Game 3 vs Sean and Imperial Guard
Sean and I play frequently and his souped-up Astra Militarum list with 3 Rogal Dorn Tank Commanders chewed up my army, post haste. I didn’t make many saves or wounding rolls. Or charges. Or morale tests… Good night, Space Marines.
Game 4 vs Torben and Thousand Sons
Torben started off the game by telling me how his army was designed to kill mine and that I wouldn’t do well against him… I was frankly a little put off by what he was saying and I was bracing myself for, “one of those games.” However, Torben’s dice were horrible. I mean, just awful. In turn two, he yeeted Magnus onto an objective and I heroically intervened with Marneus and slew Magnus in one round of combat. Then Torben, despite being upset by that turn of events, gave me constant advice and tips throughout the rest of the game to score more points and position myself in better spots throughout the rest of the game. I thought he was going to be a horrible sportsman, but he turned out to be very nice. I must have misunderstood his frankness for conceit. My mistake. Torben probably should have won, but he talked me into more points that I deserved and I slithered away with a win.
Game 5 vs Derek and his Eldar
Poor Derek. Whilst I had average dice throughout the game, Derek could not find any number other than 1s. It was freakishly bad. The strands of fate left wove him a bad hand time and time again, and there should be some sort of case study performed on his bad rolling. On paper, his army should have shredded mine but bad dice left his pointy-eared army on the backfoot and I Forrest Gumped my way into a win in the final round. No skill on my part but Derek kept his chin up and soldiered on.
Throughout the tournament, I kept day dreaming about playing my orks. I have this habit of thinking about another army instead of focusing on what I’m doing. I’m sure I have ADD but I think I’m going to paint nothing but Orks until I’ve got a playable army.
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