Indy GT Circuit: Ard’ Boyz Results

It is kinda funny… the GW website reads “Here we are, at the onset of the 2010 'Ard Boyz Season and the question still stands, 'Who is the best 40k player in North America?'”

To be fair, they wrote that a few months ago. Yet here we are at the conclusion of the 'Ard Boyz “Season” and we have three winners?

Really GW? WTF?

Full scoring for the East Coast Event is here:

http://www.biggunz-ne.com/

Thanks Magilla!

Having 3 regions is better IMHO. Someone can make it through their FLGS prelims, drive a hundred miles or so to get to the Semis…but not everyone can afford the time or money to fly cross-country for the finals.
If we 'really' need the Ardest Boy, set them up in a round-robbin in Vegas as a side tourny….or score their KPs/VPs on the side with that deciding the overall winner (and give him something kool…like a paid for trip for 2 to GWHQ in Britain).
If they keep the regional format they may get even greater turnout now that people can plan a more realistic trip to the finals (and you've essentially tripled the number of 'finals' spots).

(EDIT) I was recently in Hawaii on business…they don't even have Ard Boyz (or anything beyond a LGS RTT) because of the distance thing…imagine this setup:
Congrats, you won the Hawaii Ard Boyz (having flown to another island to play in the 1 store holding a prelim). Next month you get to fly to LA for the Semis. If you do well, the next month you get to fly to Chicago for Finals. If you do well, in 6 months you get to fly to Vegas for the GT Finals.
Thats alot of cash for a maybe.

What happened to Stelek? Did he not make the finals?

Except that the whole point of the Ard Boyz Tournament is to find out who is the best. Now you have 3 bests?

And the region system still means a lot of travel time. Our local winner than went to the Chicago finals faced the choice of flying or taking a 17 hour one-way drive.

If you are going to have regions, at least put the finals location in the middle of the region.

I think next year the effect will be the opposite of what was intended. Instead of encouraging attendance people with think “I already won my army, there's no cool trophy/prize support and there are going to be three winners anyway, why bother?”

In your Hawaii example, how does the regional system make that better? You still have to fly to LA twice and to Vegas. Is the one difference of adding another 3 hour flight that big a difference after you're already flying a whole lot already?

Best? That's pretty subjective. At most I think that the point of this tournament series is to boost sales. It is, and has been, put on by the sales dept. of GW. If they are continuing it every year, I can only assume it does it's job.

Does Ard Boyz really find out who is the best player? Don't know. Does it accomplish it's real goals for sales? Probably.

True, but at least they could keep up the illusion. Now they are just saying, “Meh, there's not going to be a winner, but we still want you to buy a bunch of stuff.”

I know the gentleman that won the midwest; I wonder if I can con him to post some thoughts here…

This is what my internet buddy Cole wrote about his win:

So as promised here are my reports. I'll start off with my list.

HQ:
CCS w/ 3x melta guns, officer of fleet, astropath, chimera

Inquisitor Lord w/3x mystics, psycannon, emperors tarot, psychic hood

ELITE:
Psyker Battle squad w/ 5 additional psykers, chimera

Callidius assassin

TROOPS:
Platoon Comand squad w/ 4x flamers, chimera with heavy flamer turret
Platoon squad 1 with chimera
platoon squad 2
*Neither of these have any upgrades, they just sitin vendettas to make them scoring. The chimera goes to the inquisitor on first turn.
Vet squad w/ 3x melta guns, chimera w/ hull heavy flamer
Vet squad w/ 3x melta guns, chimera w/ hull heavy flamer
Vet squad w/ 3x plasma guns, lascannon, chimera
Vet squad w/ 3x plasma guns, lascannon, chimera

FAST ATTACK:
Vendetta
Vendetta
Vendetta

HEAVY:
Leman Russ Demolisher w/Lascannon, plasma cannons
Leman Russ w/ 3x heavy bolters
Manticore

Rnd 1: “When Diplomacy Fails”
Deployment Zones are pitched battle, but you use modified DOW-no night fight, and no additional units other than the Observers and Staff may be placed.

There is a marker in the exact center of the board where the “Peace talks” will take place.

Observers:Two units of troops and one HQ. These may not include vehicles, transports, or MC. (An army with only MC HQ's had to put one out)

Staff:One Non-vehicle, non MC unit chosen from elites, troops, FA, or heavy.

You Dice off and the highest roll goes first or second. They must deploy their observers in theire DZ (this is where pitched battle came in) at least 18″ from the center point. Then Player 2 does the same.

Then Player 2 places his staff unit within 3″ of the center, and then player 1 does as well.

Everything else is left off table and comes on per DOW deployment

Chaos demons made their waves as normal, but then had too choose their staff and observers per the mission and deploy them per the mission. They had to be from the same wave, and then that wasthe wave that came in first turn.
*This really helped demons I think. It allowed them to overload the wave they wanted, and gave them an icon on the board for the rest of their first wave.

Before the first turn, something goes wrong in “negotiations” and the staffsquads attack each other, you dice off and whoever wins moves their staff unit into the other players unit. They both count as charging, and unless a unit is wiped out, it is counted as a drawn combat, which continues as normal the first turn.

Results:
If one player can hold the center point, it counts as 500 VP's.

Massacre, 1500 more VP
Major, 1000-1499 more
minor 500-999
draw 499 or less
+1bp for killing an enemy HQ
+1 for have your staff unit alive
+1for destroying enemies staff unit
+1for having all you HQ alive

My opponents List:
Blood thirster
Keeper of secrets

3x flamers
3x flamers
6x fiends

20x bloodletters
17 demonettes
6 plaguebearers
6 plaguebearers

6 seekers
5 screamers

Nurgleprince
Nurgleprince
Slaneeshprince

Very wierd mission. I decide to make one of my naked platoon squads my staff unit. I pick my CCS, a plas/las vet squad and the other platoon squad as my observers.

He chooses his seekers as his staff, and the thirster, the demonettes and 1 plaguebearersquad as his observers. The rest of this wave will include 1 flamer unit, 1 nurgle prince, and the screamers

I put my las plas squad in cover, with the 10 man platoon squad in front of them so they have to get charged first. My CCS goes by my board edge to jump into its chimer first turn.

Pre Turn 1:The negotiations fail fight. He kills 4 guardsmen, and I kill 4 seekers in return (even without counting as charging due to seekers defence grenades). Huge win, since he only has 2 seekers left and i have 6 guardsmen.

My turn 1:I bring everything on, with my inquisitor in the middle, the russ and demolisher to either side, 2 emty chimeras on myweak flank farthest away from the inq. I end up getting the thirster down to 2 wounds, and kill about 12 demonettes, but the icon is still there. I kill 2 plague bearers. The combat with the seekers has me lose 1 guardsmen, but hold.

His turn. The screamers come down out of mystic range, butroll a1 for run. The thirster and demonettes move up towards teh 2 squads in cover outoftheir chimeras, and anurgle prince and flamers come downby my empty chimeras. The flamers blow the multilaser of of one and stun it. The seeker combat has me making the 3 saves i needed, killing one seeker and then having her fail her fearless save. The guard win!

My Turn2: The assassin shows up and with Psyker squad kills 2 plague bearers, but rolls 1's for assault and cant reach them. I kill off the Blood thirster, the nurgle prince, the demonettes, the screamers and 2 of 3 flamers.

His turn 2: He gets the other flamer unit, a plague bearer unit, and the slaneesh prince.
The flamer stuns another chimera, and the Plague bearers that survived the assasin break my guards men that just beatthe seekers in combat. The flamer unit mishaps and is destroyed.

My turn3: I wipe everything off the board, And start moving to position myself for the rest of the demons and grabbing the center.

his 3: He getsthe Bloodletters, the Keeper of secerets, and the nurgle prince. they move to hit my side with the vetsin cover.

My turn 4:I kill the nurgle prince, and get the BL down to4 guys. THe KOS has 1 wound left.

His 4:The bloodletters wipe out the 10 platoon guardsmen and explode a chimera. I kill 2 in return. The KOS fails its charge.

My 5: I wipe everything off the board again.

his 5: All he has left is the fiends, but concedes as they will just come down and get shot onmy next turn before they can assault. I have only lost 1 chimera, a few guns from chimeras, and 2 naked 10 man infantry platoon squads.

I get 23/24 pts, as mystaff unit died so i couldnt get full points. I get 3000 victory points (+500 for the center objective)

This puts me in a tie for 3rd and at the 3rd table.

Rnd 2: Scorched Earth
Seize ground with 5 objectives.

All pieces of area terrain must be rolled for before deployment. On a 1-3 its on fire and counts as dangerous terrain, on a 4-6 its smoking and a unit with models inside may add +1 to their cover save.

Spearhead deployment

The player scoring the most KP's may count one objective as vital and then it counts for 2 obj. points.

Scoring:
4-6 more obj=massacre
2-3=major
1 more or if a tie whomever has more KP=minor
same number of obj and same KP=draw

+1for having an HQ in their DZ
+1 for destroying all enemies heavies
+1 for destorying all troops
+1 for holding and obj in a piece of terrain

I am playing Chris Mehrstedt, who got 2nd at the Greenbay Regional where I got first. Here is his list.

Chaos Termie lord w/demon weapon
Chaossorcer w/ lash
Greater demon

8possessed w/ mark of khorne, champ, rhino
Dreadnaught w/ Multimelta
8termiesw/ champ witha fist, 1 Chain fist, 1 LC, 1 combiflamer, 1 heavy flamer, 3 combimeltas
12 chaos marines w/ champ w power weapon, autocannon, flamer, icon of CG
12 berzerkers w/ champ w/ fist, personal icon
12 T-sons w/sorceror w/ warptime
12 lesser demons

Defiler w/ CC arms
3x oblits

All 5 objectives get placed pretty centralized, and every piece of terrain but 2 are smoking, which means he is going to get alot of 3+cover saves.

He gets first turn and keeps the oblits, termies, demons, and dreadnaught in reserve. HE deploys his T-sons forward, screening he berzerkers, screening his chaos marines. He defiler and possessed in rhino go to one side. All the marines are either in 3+ cover are behind it.

I deploywith inq. and demolisher and 2 vet squads (1 plas, 1 melta) to one side, most everything else to my long side of my deployment zone to go get obj.

His possessed get scout and zoom up right in front of me.

His turn 1:
Possessed move right in front of me and pop smoke, everything else moves forward, and he strings out to get icons and chams close to me, but keeping most of his units in cover for the 3+ save. His defiler blows a lascannon off a vendetta.

My 1: I wreck the possessed rhino, and kill off the possessed. I immobilize and blow the BC off the defiler, and go to work on the marines in cover. I end up only killing a few, due to t-sons going to ground for a 2+ and the zerks making alot of saves and good wound allocation on his part.

His turn 2:he gets the dread and the greaterdemon. The dread misses a chimera, and the demon wrecks one in combat. He jockies around some more, but realizes if he comes out of cover hewill get shot to shit, and he can reach 3 obj. if he can survive till turn 5. The Chaos marines shake a vendetta.

My turn 2:
I shake the dread, and start mocing up to get more guns in range of his 30 or so marines in 3+ cover. It takes alot of shooting to kill the Blood thirster, but finally do. I kill a few more marines from each squad.

His turn 3: He gets the termies and the demons in. The demons hunker in back by the marines, and the termies scatter away from my russ, out of half range for the meltas. They shoot the side of a chimera and shake it. Autocannon immobilizes a vendetta.

My turn 3: My assassin shows up and with the psykers kills 3 or 4 of the termies. I stun the dread again and blow off the multimelta. I finish off the deifle as its sitting on an objective. I kill a few marines and demons from each squad (damn 3+ cover). I then shoot and kill off the last of the termies, but leave the lord alive. Not thinking this makes him fearless so the LD 2 test wont bother him. I assault him with the assassin, and tank my rolls and he kills her.

His 4:His oblits come in and land near the cover where marines are hiding. THe dread assaults and explodes the immobile vendetta. He starts moving out to grab objectives in case it ends on turn 5. The termie lord shakes and blows a gun off of a chimera. The Oblits stun and immobilize the demolisher.

My 4:I explode the dread, kill the termie lord, get the demons down to 8 or so guys. I Get the zerks down to 2 and the t-sons down to 2 plus the lash sorcerer. I make the chaos marines run off the board with the psyker squad. I kill 2 oblits.

His 5:The zerks and t-sons wreck a chimera, the demons grab an objective. The oblit misses a tank.

MY 5:I kill everything but 5 demons, and go and grab the objectives.

the game continues, and he concedes. He has 5 demons which I will tank shock off the objective and then more than likely kill as I have almost everything left (I lost about 20 guardsmen from explosions in 4 or 5 squads, 1 chimera and a vendetta)

I get the full 24 points and 2500 VP. He has about 550 VP from me.

Im now tied for first with 47, and playing Spacewolves at the top table.

Rnd 3:Hold the Line

3 Objectives. One in the center of the board, and 2 18″ away along the center board line. At the beginning of turn 4, roll a d6 and one of the objectives is now worth 3 obj. Points.

The player with the most KP's may make 1 obj. worth 1 more Obj. Point.

*this made it so 1 obj. could be worth 4 points. A little odd, but not too bad.

Deployment:Pitched

Scoring:
Massacre:5-6 more obj. points
major:3-4 more
minor:1-2 more or more kp if its a tie
Draw:Same obj, and same KP
+1 no enemies in your half of board
+1more units in your opponents DZ than they have in yours
+1 for primary obj
+1for killing highest enemy unit

His list:Wolves
Logan Grimanar
Rune Priest
Thunderwolf lord with bear saga and TH SS
Thunderwolf lord with Warrior borne, PF SS

2 thunderwolves with th SS
2 TW with TH/SS
Lone wolf w/ TH/SS

6 Longfangs in pod with MM's
Arjac
4 units of greyhunters in pods composed like this:
6GH-1 with wulfen, 1 with melta, 1 with standard, and 1 Wolfguard termie with combimelta and fist

1 unit of GH in pod w/ wulfen flamer, standard termie with combi flamer and fist.

I Get first turn, and deploy to the left, with an empty chimera acting as screen to my open flank. Everything else is to the left.

He deploys logan and the runepriest out of the pod and attached to the TW's so they can be fearless first turn. HE also attachesboth TW lords to one unit. THe lone wolf and unheroed up TW are off to my right.

Turn 1:I shoot everything I got at The mega Twolf squad and get a wound on everyone. Logan has 2 wounds on him (both failed termie saves) and the bear lord has 2 on him. I also did some jockying with chimeras.

His turn:Arjac comes down in a pod by himself, and I put a wound on him with the mystics. 1 melta unit comes down out of mystic range, and the Longfangs come down near logan and the rune priest, who break from the T-wolves and join them. They are in mystic range and I kill 2 long fangs. The twolves with the lords charge my demolisher and wreck it. Arjac stuns the psykers chimera.

MY turn 2: The callidius shows up and kills arjac in assault. I wipe out the longfangs, logan and the rune priest. I wipe out the 2 TW lords and their twolf riders. I put a wound on another twolf.

His turn 2: nothing comes in from reserve. He is out of range with the t-wolfs and the lone wiolf. THe grey hunters shake a chimera

My turn 3: I wipe out the grey hunters, kill the t-wolfs, and start popping pods. I put 1 wound on the Lone wolf

his turn: Lone wolf stunns a chimera.

My 4:I kill the one wolf and blow the last pod. Everythings off the board, so I move to grab objectives.

His 4:He gets the last 3 pods, 2 land on the super obj. which is farthest from me. I kill 5 from the one squad that was not by the 3 tobjective with my mystics. HE fans out and gets into cover to try to survive and hold the 3pt objective.

My 5:I wipe out the every GH but 3. 2 are fleeing and out of it, as they are 6 inches from the board edge and i have a chimera right next to them. The other is pinned 5 inches away from the objective. I fail to blow the last pod.

Game ends at turn 5 with me on all the objectives, and him with the pod left.

I get 23/24 pts as the pod was in my half. I get 2483 Vps

I finish with 70/72 pts, and 7983 vps out of a possible 8000. Second place was orcs who had 69 battlepoints and 3rd was all pod SW with 65. Hans, a friend of ours from madison who got 1st in the minnesota reginal, got 7th with demons.

Top 5 tables going into the last round were:
1:IG vs wolves
2:orks vs IG
3:Wolves vs eldar
4:IG vsnids
5:ig vs nids

the army breakdown was like this:
9 IG
7 Space Marines (4 salmanders) (1 Khan list) (1 Shrike list) (1 Ultra marine list)
7 Tyrnids
6 Orks
6 Space Wolves (4 with Thundercav, 2 w/o)
3 Eldar
3 Chaos Marines
2 Demons
2 Blood Angles (one was a counts as BA)
1 Black Templar

Looks like a pretty good mix of armies, which is nice.

The missions sounded kinda silly, however.

The first one is the only one that sounds really odd. The Scorched Earth one would be a nuisance to keep track of and the objective one is pretty basic.

Leafblower IG seem to be all the rage these days. More IG armies than anything else doesn't sit well with me. God I wish they hadn't put Vendettas in the guard list. Vultures would have been better. Vendettas are a cop out and annoying as well as underpointed.

(Note that I'm saying this and IG has been my primary army since 1987 – I like a lot of the new Guard list a lot, but do not like the Vendetta).

I think once mystics go away that IG will lose some of its luster. Then armies that can deep strike effectively (MEq, Daemons, Nids, heck, even Tau sort of…) will pressure them better; and lists that rely on psychic abilities will have free reign (Eldar mostly).

Not to say that it won't still be powerful; just not as overwhelming.

In addition; Cole was the only IG player to win an 'Ard Boyz final with Guard this time; I think that players are already shifting to deal with this stuff; and also, Cole is a great general.