Adepticon Battle Synopsis, Gladiator Tournament
Round 1: Chaos Warhound vs. Imperial Warhound. Chaos Warhound dies in one amazing volley of shooting from the Imperial Warhound. Pair of Demon Lords prove to be impossible to catch out of CC, Chaos wins the primary by less than a millimeter for an 18-15 victory.
Round 2: Going first with a Warhound means a dead Necron gunline. Pylon comes out and does the only structure point taken by the Warhound for the day, and promptly dies. Great opponent, but not a fair game, Imperial win in 2.5 turns.
Round 3: Eldar holofields are just plain OMGWTF broken. Crazy 40kwreckingcrew Colorado guy tankshocks me with his perpetually shaken Fire Prisms for 4 turns, and I cannot kill them with the Warhound, Lascannons, charging Rough Riders, or even outright offers of demonic pacts. A last, desperate heavy bolter shot in the rear kills the one in my quarter for a by-the-skin-of-my-teeth win of a game that was never in doubt, except for the whole almost did not win thing. Much laughing, great opponent.
Round 4: Evil marines and the godawful mission from hell. Solid opponent, good tactician. Turns 1-3 are me trying to kill anything and stay alive, turns 4-7 are me hoping his Librarian command squad will get out of CC so I can kill them, while he runs like hell with everything else to avoid the Warhound. I was plain outplayed in this game by Jamie Hatcher of the Cold Steel Mercs from New Hampshire. (I got his card, so I’m not slighting the rest of my opponents by not remembering their names. I make my children wear nametags.) Macharius did smack down the Calidus that tried to assassinate him, which was a happy moment for the day.
Overall: I think I was fortunate in my opponents, as only my first game had any level of acrimony, and we were both exhausted. The Gladiator is probably the least serious of the three tournaments, as playing with intentionally broken armies has little to no reflection on the actual game, and I think people understand that. I had 80 points for the day.
