2012 was the biggest year of my wargaming career. I played
in my first GT (first three to be precise), got what I would say is ‘pretty
good’ at one army, started another, and started developing real hobby skills.
This is a review of 2012 and a preview of 2013.
First though, a quick background to my history in wargaming.
I started playing 40K in December 2002. It took six months of saving my
allowance, and I still to this day fondly remember making the purchase of the 3rd
edition Dark Eldar and Space Marine starter set (which compared to today’s
starter boxes was atrocious). I began playing the dark elder, which was already
an outdated codex, but the fact that I could not afford to buy any vehicles
meant that my gunline DE earned no wins over a three year period, leading me to
quit the game and put my models in a box.
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| Most of my now unloved DE army. |
In 2010 I by chance walked into a lounge were some guys were
playing on a pool table. I asked if it was 40K and we exchanged phone numbers.
The next fall I joined their league at my college, and while I was still
terrible, I focused on learning tactics. These lessons, combined with the new
DE book getting released led my group to call my army over powered and
suggesting that I play in a real tournament. Two years form tomorrow was that
first foray (winning only one game), and I have loved the competitive side
since. I played DE for a few more months
until a temporary move to Detroit led to me leaving the hobby until I got back
to MN. In November 2011 I started playing again, this time with Tyranids. This
brings us to 2012, I am full of energy with a new army and a mind full of
ideas, but I am still lacking refinement in the tactics department.
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| My unfinished army at the Dark Star GT. |
As the New Year began I decided to jump into the GT scene,
signing up for the Dark Star in Minnesota. I began preparing two months out,
and decided to try a fully reserved Tyranid list. I fell in love with it,
getting a bunch of 2-1 RTT finishes where I lost on the top table and went 3-2
at my first GT. I started working on paining techniques as well, especially
blending which I used on my Nids.
As the weather got hotter, so did my army choice. Between
March and April I had built up a three land raider redeemer list for Blood
Angels. It is with this list that I finished in second for the first time as
well as my first few sportsmanship awards. The advent of 6th led to
this list being shelved. Changes to feel no pain, furious charge, and how
vehicles worked were not forgiving for the build.
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| When you live a block from the ocean you take pictures like this. |
In May I moved to Santa Barbara, California for a temporary
job with a UN affiliate, and naturally brought four armies with me. While MN’s wargaming community
was strong, in CA I was able to get in at least one tournament a weekend.
California was the best place I could be for the drop of 6th
edition. After just seven weeks of sixth I had played in eight tournaments
using the new rules. While my full reserve Nids no longer worked, Nidzilla was
in full swing, which was fine by me. When I played in the Golden Throne GT, the
first GT in the world to use 6th edition, my 1500 point list only
had 17 models in it. I placed in 17th of 55 with a 3-2-1 record,
with a highlight of getting to play Reece Robbins in the final round.
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| I am the tall freak. |
Within four hours of finishing my cross country drive back
to MN I was already in a game store with models on the table. In September I
traveled down to Missouri for the Midwest Massacre, the first time I had gone
to an event as part of a group, and had a blast. My Tyranids took 3rd
place, turning a lot of heads as this was prior to the rebirth Nids we are
seeing now.
Through the fall my work load picked up, meaning I only
played in one 40K RTT over a four month period. I did get to play in my first
ever Malifaux tournament were I went 2-1 and my first Warhammer Fantasy GT, the
North Star. I brought a silly Dark Elves Black Dragon, double Hydra, big block
of Corsairs list to the North Star, and ended up going 3-2 with it, getting
myself 19th of 80 in battle points, though my final standing was
much lower due to only being painted to a three color minimum.
While I wasn’t playing in tournaments much in the fall, I
did start building up a CSM force. Harkening back to my land raider redeemer
days with the blood angels, I knew I wanted to play with heldrakes. After
months of tinkering I finally found a list that I plan to use at least through
early 2013, allying daemons. The best part is that the army will be fully
converted, making it one of a kind. I have nearly all of the models finished,
and could possibly have it done by Adepticon. Last saturday marked this list’s first
tournament foray (a report of that is coming later this week).
By the numbers…
I am an avid statistician, and thus keep a lot of statistics
on the results of my games. These is not to say that winning is everything, but
as a competitive player, reflecting on actual results is a big part of my
mental preparation. For a game to count it had to be of a competitive nature.
This means most tournament games are included and abstract play testing is not.
This is not an absolute rule though, as there are some play test partners where
we know we will be going hard on each other and there are lists I bring to
RTT’s (such as Dark Eldar with Ork allies) which I know from the start I am not
taking seriously. In every case though I know ahead of time if I am going to
count the game, so as to prevent losses from not getting counted.
40K 2011 W:29 L:16
D:5 (58%)
5th 2012 W:23 L:14 D:4
(56%)
6th 2012 W:35 L:16 D:3
(65%)
All 2012 W:58 L:30 D:7
(62%)
RTT 2012 W:20 L:15 D:3
(53%)
GT 2012 W:10 L:06
D:1 (59%)
Nids All-time W:39 L:25 D:8 (54%)
CSM All-time W:20 L:5 D:0 (80%)
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