Dr DestroyerLord, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Assault

"Lefou, I'm afraid I've been thinking"
"A dangerous pastime..."
"I know"

I've read some people talking about Necrons in assault and how weak they are. The key to beating them appears to be, as Jean Luc Picard would say, "Engage." Others like the surflord tricks (but with D3 attacks, they really are just tricks), or Destroyer Lords - but the loss of the Court seems so bad.

Can it be done?
Yes... Kind of.

Necron First Build

This is my first go at a Necron army for 2000 points. It's what I'm currently building. There is nothing too flashy or ground breaking in it - I'm using it to get used to playing them before I try any real tricks.

Necron FAQ Review

GW updated a bunch of FAQ's today, including the Necrons. As usual, some really obvious questions got answered, some good questions got answered, and some were left untouched.

Fake!

Whew! The 6th Edition "leaked" rulebook is not real. Thank goodness.

While there was some good things in the PDF (and a lot of pipe-dreams). There was a lot of "Nope" in it too.

Escalation

Most years, my local gaming store holds an Escalation Event that goes for three months. I'm going to explain some rules, and then ask for some help/insight if you have any.

The purpose of an Escalation is to start new armies, or bring back old ones that perhaps have been sitting on a shelf. Participation is free, and models are not required to be painted - this is really just a modification for friendly play.

Baby Steps

Ah, first post in fourteen months... yeah. I don't even know if anyone is still going to read this, but I think I'm putting this up more for my mental health than anything. This is about my baby steps returning to the game.

For those that don't know, I am no longer involved in any way, shape or form with Yes the Truth Hurts. The fallout from that caused me to pretty much abandon the hobby for over a year. I haven't played in a while, and really haven't followed much either. Grey Knights and Dark Eldar have both come and gone, and I am mostly clueless as to those codexes.

To Run a Con...

So I'm going to run YetiCon for 2011 from beginning to end. Wow. I feel a bit like doctor Frahnkenshteen above.

This is my first time ever arranging such an event... okay, any event other than something like my son's birthday party - this should be marginally more complex. I'm going to be posting here the things I learn, the things with which I struggle, my victories and defeats.

NOVA Open, Game 4 BatRep

Game 4 vs Michael J (finished 50/88, went 2-2 - I know because we were both 2-1 coming into this game)
As usual, at the end of the day I was running out of my ability/desire/memory to take pics during the game, so I have 2 for you. Yeehaw.

There's not a lot to learn from this game - except that if you're going to run mixed Space Wolves (which is totally feasible), then you've got to know how to support your own units when you play against a non-standard list (like mine).

Nipple-Wing, Take 2

So after taking the Original Nipple-Wing to the NOVA Open, I decided to review what I learned about the Shiny Ones.

A - They can actually be quite competitive given the right scenarios
B - They have several shortcomings that when exploited leaves you with a sound, sound beating.

I'm a Net Celeb, Yay Me!

So I finally listened to the two podcasts from the NOVA Open. At the time, the Gamer's Lounge seemed to have a little bit more organization - and of course they had the ustream going. The 11th Company was also there, and while theirs seemed a bit more informal at the time, with post-processing they end up sounding much better.

I'm on both, but the 11th Company I'm not being overshadowed by the presence of Chumbalaya (jerk). I start talking at 1:56:35 on Episode 30.

Also, if by some miracle you came here first, and haven't been over to YTTH lately, we just announced YetiCon. Go forth and check it out!

NOVA Open, Game 3 BatRep

Game 4 vs Sam P (finished 4/88 on day 1, 4-0. finished 5th overall with 5-2 final record)

Sam kicked my ass. There's not a lot of picks here, but I'll try to identify how he did it, what he did right, and what I did wrong. Yes, his dice were rolling well and mine were atrocious, but even without that, he still would've beaten me - it just wouldn't have been a tabling.

NOVA Open, Game 2 BatRep

Game 2 vs Bob S (finished 24/88, looks 3-1 from his score)

>>> WARNING <<<
Do NOT click pics to see zoomed version - you will think you need glasses. This is the last time I try to use a phone camera for pics (who cares if it's 8 megapixels if you can't see %#@*?).

The Next Big Thing

So here's the next army I'm working on. Right now it's all proxies - I want to solidify my feel for the game before I buy that many more vehicles.

It's Blood Angels - and it's kind of AV13 MSU. Kind of... anyways, I don't feel the need to keep it secret, so here goes:

Searching for Mr Goodbar... er, Trueblood

I'm hoping that someone out there knows Joseph Trueblood. I played him on Sunday at the NOVA Open against his Blood Angels. I have some questions I'd like to ask. If you could direct him here or have him send me an email at john[at]yesthetruthhurts.com, that would be awesome.

Thanks!

NOVA Open, Game 1 BatRep

Game 1 vs Nathan M (finished 69/88 looks like 1-3)

His list (doing this from memory/pic now will double check list I have at home tonight):

NOVA Open - Army Pics, the Return of the Blurry Pics

Last of the blurry pics (that aren't part of a batrep) - I swear!

NOVA Open - Army Pics, pt 2

More army pics, more to follow...

NOVA Open - Army Pics, pt 1

I have no idea whose armies these are, so don't ask... I just went around when they were setup for paint judging and took some pics. 90% of the players weren't at their tables - they were doing the same thing I was.

I present to you, in no particular order, pictures of armies I found interesting, be it theme, paint, or conversions. Click the pics for the large versions, I apologize for blurry pics - apparently my phone has an 8 megapixel camera, but no image stabilization.

NOVA Open: Army Thoughts

So I had a great time and went 3-1 with my army... but I need to add a disclaimer: my pure Sanguinary Guard army is NOT competitive.

Yes, I beat 3 tournament armies and 2 friendly games as well. But I lost spectacularly to Sam in round 3 because, unlike my other opponents, had A) had a good list and B) wasn't dazzled by my army deep-striking all around him. Not to say the other 3 were noobs or had bad lists, but they either didn't have the low AP guns or power weapons, or they just weren't able to isolate and remove threat elements.

On day 2, I was asked to play Joe Strongblood's Blood Angels for his placement round, because his opponent had left. He also had a decent army list and knew how to protect his stuff - he never gave me the chance to use my 2+ armor with FNP. It was a slaughter.

I knew this coming into the tournament. I had decided to take it as a fun list... and I had a TON of fun and got lots of comments on it.

So as a final warning:

DO NOT TAKE THIS LIST AND EXPECT TO DO WELL!

Heading Home

Well it's time to head on out.

I would really like to thank Mike Brandt for working with us and keeping pushing so that we made the trip. Honestly, the cost was nearly the same as our trip to Vegas for the 2008 GT (travel was $200 more, food $25 less, event $100 less, and lodging $100 less - so we came out on top!).

The event was a blast!  I met a lot of great people - practically every one of them would be someone I would hang out with and would DEFINITELY play a game with.

Special props go out to Bob, Sam, Nathan, and Michael (my opponents), and Chumby, Islyfe, Mobious, and the rest of the Grim crew.... and especially Mike (again) and all his wonderful crew (except John - you'll be getting a bill from my ear doctor, holy hell man ;-) ).