Monday, December 12, 2011

Old people, new champions, and other masters snippets...

Hi all,

just a quick update on the masters 2011 results. I'm sure much more is to come over this week, but here's a quick update.

After crushing me 20-1 in the most brutal turn 1 tally I have ever taken, Jack went on to take out the event and come first overall with a record of 5 wins, 1 draw, 0 losses and finishing on 104 points out of a maximum possible 120.

I managed to close the lead down to just 5 points to finish on 99 points, but it was not to be and I managed to finish second, which I am very proud of, with a record of 5 wins 0 draws and 1 loss.

Third went to Dave Dawn with Tyranids, who played a very tight game with a reserve bomb tyranid army.

The upset of the event I guess was Doug Sainsbury doing so poorly with his Grey Knights, still struggling to come to grips with the right way to play the list, and having historically always lacked that "killer instinct" saw him pilot his way to just 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses I believe. His list was still one of the toughest at the event however, in many ways it is a shame to see that Dougs reaction has been the same that he has after every event, tinker tinker change change swap swap.

All of the above being said, the event was highly unorthodox in a most disappointing way. Although Pete is now surely so ancient that looking into the many folds in his face reveal the very secrets of time itself, he still runs the most fantastic tournaments with the greatest level of transparency that are easily the most polished and satisfying to attend.

I have a bit more to rant on that in the future, but don't wish to rob our very deserving newly crowned champion at all, especially as it affected the outcome not one iota. There was however a huge sense of relief from most in the hall when it was revealed that Grandpa Dunn would once more be running the masters.

Three cheers for Jack, and thank god he finally stopped letting me down and let my predictions come through!

- Charlie "Son, if you ain't first, yerr laast" St Clair

10 comments:

  1. Surprised you didn't reserve your army knowing how much firepower Jack can put out in a turn (unless of course he stole the initiative from you)

    looking fwd to hearing the various stories, and opinions from everyone about the event.

    Wes

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  2. Unfortunately due to the nature of the matchup, reserving would have been even worse. Due to Jacks range and maneuverability, and my shooting being short range only unless it's stationary, coupled with the mission being bore-draw meant that it would have been even easier for Jack to take out the army had I chosen to come on uselessly piecemeal.

    This isn't the case obviously for armies that can come on and give his army the bad-touch such as GK's with mass razors and guard.

    I managed to do a very good job of protecting the longfangs, and with average rolling from either side I could have made a real game of it, but unfortunately It was not to be, all but 2 of my vehicles, most in cover were gone in the first turn, with the remaining 2 disappearing in the next.

    I very nearly managed to steal a sneaky draw had the game ended on turn 5 thanks to those dastardly scouts, and Jack didn't have a heap left by the end of the game; but it was more than enough giving him a well deserved and solid win.

    Amusingly, as terrible as my dice were and Jacks amazing in the first game, the total opposite was true in my last game with Hagen, where it was so one sided in rolling that it robbed Hagen of any chance at a decent competition between 2 players :(

    I can't claim foul of a coin I get to experience both sides of now can I :)

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  3. Yeah congrats to Jack for taking it out, he crushed all before him and managed to avoid Doug until the last round (imo his hardest matchup) but managed to scrape out the draw he needed to hang on to the top spot from Charlie's comeback charge.

    Aside from Doug's poor run (largely due to his inability to kill vehicles, which was sadly absent when he played me) for me Dave Dawn and his Nids were probably the surprise of the tournament, no one really gave Nids a chance but he showed that they can get the job done with his reserve based list and clearly justified his wildcard spot.

    Personally I had an up and down tournament, I lost my first game because of a massive positioning mistake turn 2, got myself back into the running and then had a terrible day 2 to end up in the bottom half.

    I agree that it would be nice if we can sort out somewhere for everyone to discuss and give feedback about the tournament at some point in the future. I agree that all the placings were well deserved but constructive feedback from the players can only lead to better tournaments in the future, which is what both the players and the organisers all want after all.

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  4. Jack is running "the" glass cannon, so didn't expect him to have much left at the end. surprised you kept your long fangs. would have thought Jack's ~72 poisoned shots from all those venoms would have eaten them...

    Shame about Hagen's game. would have been interesting to hear how IG did vs SW. do few kiwis run the big internet boogieman armies that we don't get these match ups very often (and certainly not at high levels)

    looking fwd to the explanation/opinion of the tournament as a whole as well as some details on the games you played and how everyone fared.

    Wes

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  5. I'm sure Charlie will be writing up battle reports in more detail at some point, but in that first game he had the Long Fangs hard against his board edge behind the wall of vehicles, as obviously they are going to be the first things to die otherwise. Jack probably could have hit them, but would have been right in the face of the Rhino wall to get range and would have gotten counter struck hard the following turn. Instead Jack just ended up killing almost all the Grey Hunters + Rhinos by the end of turn 2.

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  6. Yeah, I was extremely lucky to get to pick our quarters in that game, because the one I gave Charlie had a big building towars the middle, which meant he could either put the LFs in that building and lose them in the first turn, or put them behind (which he did), limiting their line of sight and also giving cover on almost every shot.

    In the first turn I wrecked a razor, blew the weapon off another, and exploded a rhino, and these were all without cover. The exploded rhino then let me shoot with venoms and also revealed another rhino, which I killed with cover.

    Wes, Charlie putting it in reserve would be as good as handing me the game on a platter. He would come on piecemeal, and the LFs wouldn't even get a shot off before dying. I didn't have much left at the end, about a third to a quarter of my stuff, but was only one LF away from a tabling ;)

    As I'll go into later, I was really helped by very few people (Hagen, Doug and Charlie) having the tools to deal with MSU. Seeing units of 3 Warwalkers and the like was fantastic, since best case they kill a venom or unit per turn, and I have 20 more where that came from!

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  7. Well done Jack, you deserved it... now finish your painting!

    Face

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  8. I disagree with pretty much everything you have said.

    Funnily enough its called drawhammer (one objective each, always placed as far from each other as possible) for a reason and I threw as much as I could at the other objective while leaving enough on my own one. The two drawhammer games I played my opponent was down to 5 marines and the other 8 kalabyte warriors.

    If you look at every game I played my opponent was left with bugger all (except for the first game where I couldnt roll dice) so killer instinct lacking? I really don't agree with that statement. (5 marines, 1 Trygon, 8 warriors, a fire prism and a falcon w dire avengers, an autarch a falcon and dire avengers)

    My list will be changed to better suit my play style. I didn't have many practice games in the lead up to the event because I was stuck painting and so my new list will suit my play style more. Is it disappointing to see my list change? well its easier to change my list sightly to suit my playstyle than to change how I play the game.

    I really don't want to say any more except look out for 2012.

    (W2 - D3 - L1)

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  9. Doug, that actually reinforces my argument.
    They have 8 models left, and you're not swarmed all over both objectives?

    You mentioned in text that Jack killed 3 of your vehicles. Considering that in pitched battle setup as the last mission was, you can potentially contest the objective on turn2, and definitely on turn 3 if you don't leave your vehicle, im a bit confused as to how you could have so much of your army left so far away from his objective at the end of turn 5.

    In the same mission against Hagens mech guard I still managed to park 2 rhinos and 3 grey huntetrs on Hagens objective before turn 5 had rolled around.

    I applaud changing the list to better suit your style, and I look forward to seeing in 2012 whether that style is compatible with victory or not :)

    If in some way my comments help motivate you (whether for the right or wrong reasons) to become a more solid player then I am happy, as my only goal is for our scene to collectively grow stronger.

    Also, just to be clear, when I mentioned that "killer instinct" I'm not at all talking about a more aggressive play. It's about the psychology behind the game. It's about the actions you choose to take, and the tempo you play at. It's about whether you let your opponents feel they have a chance, or consider offering to just buy you a beer and roll over for a 20-0 before you even begin.

    You have the potential to develop this, and it dictates whether you will be looked at as a contender, or as a roadblock/speedbump.

    I'm sure you don't want to be defined as the latter, and with the right attitude I'm sure you can break away from that and be the former :) It just depends on how you choose to approach criticism and develop from there.

    All the best (and I mean it!)
    - Charlie

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  10. (for those following along Doug and I talk quite regularly via SMS etc, so don't read too far into this little back and forth :>)

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