Astronomi-con Toronto 2012 Game Reports – Day 1

I attended Astronomi-con Toronto 2012 this past weekend and as a final 5th edition event it was quite the send off. Our gaming group made quite the showing, with 7 of us attending.

Before I get into these reports I should mention a few things to those of you that may not know what Astronomi-con is. Astro is a 1500pt tournament that has about 50-60 people participate each year. The best part of the tournament is that every table has different custom tailored missions. Games are scored with a 10/7/3 system. Each mission also has 3 secondary objectives worth 1 point each and 3 “Cost of failure” conditions worth -1 point each. I highly recommend the tournament to pretty much any 40k player. Check out their site for more info!

My Army

I brought my Salamanders and this was my list. It was only a small change from last year’s tournament list, swapping out a squad of sniper scouts for an assault squad. I went into some detail over why I made this change in a previous post if you are interested.

Game 1

For my first game I was matched up against Mike K and his Dark Eldar army. The table we were playing at had the Lost Patrol mission, which used Victory points as a victory condition. The twist was one squad had to be nominated as the ‘lost patrol’ and they started on your opponent’s board edge with the rest of both armies in reserve. If this lost patrol squad ended the game in our own deployment zone you would get bonus VP.

His list was the following:

• Asdrubael Vect
• 8 Wyches with an Agonizer in a Raider
• 8 Wyches with an Agonizer in a Raider
• 5 Warriors with a Blaster in a Venom
• 5 Warriors with a Blaster in a Venom
• 5 Warriors with a Blaster in a Venom
• 5 Warriors with a Blaster in a Venom
• Ravager
• Ravager
• Chronos Engine

With the way our reserve rolls ended up, this army was just too much for me to handle. I chose my Assault squad to be my lost patrol, and after one turn of moving Vect and his Wyches came on the board to wipe my squad in CC without me even striking back. Vect and his squad just cleaved through the units I sent in to support the Venoms/Ravagers picked off  my other units as they came on the board edge. The table was a city fight-ish type board so lots of cover for him and due to some mistake on my part the majority of the fight was done in an area I had limited access to. I also had some poor reserve rolls, meaning he just picked me off a squad at a time. A major loss for me.

Final points: 1 for me, 12 for him.

 

Game 2

No army picture

My second game had me playing Paul with his Dreadnought Space Marine army lead by a Master of the Forge and 6 Dreadnoughts. Our mission was an an attack and defend type senerio with Victory points. I had to defend these two Ork gun emplacements with extra VP going to him if he could destroy them and myself if they were still alive at the end of the game.

His list was the following:

• Master of the Forge
• 10 Marines on foot (x2)
• 5 Scouts with bolters
• Dreadnought with Lascannon/Missile Launcher
• Dreadnought with Lascannon
• Dreadnought with Assault Cannon
• Dreadnought with Multi-Melta
• Venerable Dreadnought with Plasmacannon
• Venerable Dreadnought with Plasmacannon

This game was a little rough on my opponent and it probably wasn’t the greatest matchup. While his first two shots of the game took out both objectives to got him some early VP, I had pretty much tabled him by the end of 5 turns.

Final game points: 13 for me, 2 for him.

 

Game 3

My third game was against Andrew’s Eldar Army. Space Elves were the originators of transport spam! The mission was to defend a building against an assault. Whoever had the most Victory points in the building at the end of the game won.

His list was the following:

• Farseer
• 5 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent
• 5 Dire Avengers in a Wave Serpent
• 5 Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent
• 5 Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent
• 5 Pathfinders
• Fire Prism
• Fire Prism
• 3 Vypers (individual)

His deployment:

I won the roll off and decided to be the defender. This game went to 7 but only through pure force of will on my part. When he was shooting at me I would fail saves 2 and 3 at a time when he was only causing 4 or 5 wounds. In the end I only lost by 300VP but that was only because he had trouble finishing off squads as I had 3 single marines running around and two immobile vehicles by the end of 7.

Final game points: 5 for me, 13 for him.

 

So 19 points for day one. Not bad considering a 55 in Battle points got me 3rd overall last year when other scores were considered!

Check in tomorrow for my day 2 battle reports