Adepticon Predictions • Mirror Mirror on the Wall

Every year it is the same...

The first year I attended Adepticon followed the release of the 4th edition Tyranid codex and there was so so many Big Bug armies there - I'm not lying if I said they accounted for anywhere from 40-60 percent of the total armies. The year following the release of the 5th edition Space Wolf codex saw lots and lots of Space Wolf armies in Chicago - same thing with the 5th edition Imperial Guard codex. TriFalcon-Eldrad-Avatar-Harlequin spam was the big army the last year for 4th edition... They had an invitational tournament that year and I'd say eldar accounted for at least 70 percent of the armies in that event.

It is a constant that whatever is the flavor of the year will be the most popular army. There is something about Grey Knights though that I predict will throw the proverbial monkey wrench into the works... Psykout Grenades - they are the bane of Grey Knights and ironically enough it's kind of fitting in my opinion. When the fourth turn rolls around it's hard to avoid melee any longer as you're usually fighting for objectives... on the other hand SW versus SW is not such a big deal as they all swing at the same initiative for the most part (excluding characters and power fists). This year you have to factor in the psykout grenade and I've seen Strike squads maul Paladins - it can and does happen. Unless you've played lots of matches versus other Grey Knight armies with your own Grey Knight army this little piece of wargear can throw you for a big loop. In my mind most people who'll be bringing Grey Knights won't be properly prepared for the mirror matches - those that are will profit at the tables.

Sure psykotropic and rad grenades are just as deadly if not more so but you can't take them in every squad like the psykout grenade. Smart players will wisely avoid those units like the plague! It is what it is.

It seems like the two big Internet meta lists for Grey Knights are Draigowing and Purifier spam. I give the nod to the former for a better overall performance as little five man squads of Purifiers aren't really all that scary versus other armies that have significant dedicated melee units. If it were me playing my Draigowing versus a Purifier Spam army most likely I'd reserve my psyflemen and bring them in firing at the opponent's psyflemen. You cripple a couple and suddenly the game can swing. Versus a Vindicare assassin it's easy - simply outrange him with your psyflemen and keep popping him until he fails a save... And all it takes is one failed save then you push forward. The Coteaz henchmen list is fairly popular but I can't see those fragile units going toe to toe with Grey Knights. Sure there are the much feared Death Cult assassins and rightly so but a smart player will cripple their transport first and foremost then mow them down with stormbolters. There is also the Mordrak list but it's not as popular as the other three.

So I'm thinking this year probably some people relatively unknown on the Internet will win the big events at Adepticon simply because they are better prepared for the mirror matches and I think it's going to be quite interesting indeed.

Adepticon 2009

Played in all three events - had a blast!

Gladiator - 2250 Chaos - all Nurgle except for 1 lash Sorcerer - no forgeworld - like taking a knife to a gunfight!

Game 1 - against a chaos Marine with Warhound titan. Night fight for all game. Deep struck oblits next to warhound - took out 1 arm weapon. Warhound runs away from Oblits (demon prince killed them bad) - but too close to dread. Dread assaults - lays the smack down and drops the warhound. Rest of his army breaks on the rock that Nurgle is - Max point win for me. Great opponent and good guy - had a blast.



Game 2 - deployment is short edge of table - playing against Angorroth the Undefeated and Fateweaver combo - along with 2 princes and a Grinder + several regular demons. Angorroth is hideous! 888 points - 8 wounds - fateweaver lets him reroll everything - unstoppable. I basically won this game by playing the objective and using Nurgle toughness. Good dude from Tampa as my opponent.



Game 3 - against the Reaver Titan my buddy Sabote also faced in 4th round. My only chance was to deep strike oblits in close to him - but the inquisitor with 2 mystics lets him nominate another unit to shoot - and that was the Reaver. Reaver has 9 5" D template shots - 3 at 3 seperate units. HIDEOUS and UNSTOPPABLE unless you have another one or are very lucky. I think the oblits were the only non-f'world thing that could stand up to them - but needed all good luck to work. Pulled a big fat ZERO.

(I played against the white Reaver in this pic)

Game 4 - Against Guard with a Marauder bomber. Great opponent and one of my funnest games of the entire tournament. Marauder is cool but not over the top. Nurgle was annihilating the guard - but so many to kill and so little time. I took primary - he got secondary - a minor win for me (I think). Was a great game.




Sabote coveres the team stuff below. Our 8 Landraider's looked impressive - but performed not so well. Missions played against our army a lot. Still had a lot of fun. Our team - from left to right: Gimli, Sabote, Corwindal, Aldonis. We were dead middle of the pack overall. Good on battle points and theme. Painting was shaky. We had a rough time our second game and had issues with our sportsmanship (which was otherwise perfect) - just bad karma I guess - we didn't gell - personally disappointed as Sportsmanship is something I really strive to do well on. But, sometimes you have to stand up to blatant cheating.



Saturday team games.

1st game- was against a witch hunter guard army we both won our games. Sabote was teamed with Aldonis and Corwindal and Gimli were together.

2nd game: was against Chaos. Corwindal and Aldonis lost- this is the game the guys had a non valid list. Gimli and Sabote drawed our opponents. We almost tabled them. But a lucky shot on their part at the end gave them a draw. Gimli killed Abadddon though

3rd game- Gimli/Aldonis played a chaos/demon list and lost. Corwindal and Sabote played a ork/nob army and pulled a draw out of the game.

4th game- Corwindal/Gimli won their game against a Marine army. Aldonis and Sabote won our game against a Marine army

40K Nationals: Great tournament - with an average showing from me. Ran pure Nurgle Deathguard.

Game 1 - against a Witch Hunter army a kid from MN ran - fun game - after I took the organ cannon gun off the big tank - I pretty well ran rough shod over his army. 28 point win.

Game 2 - against a Chaos army - nurgle and slaanesh - with two lash demon princes. My favorite opponent of all the games - cool guy from Dallas that I've invited to our forums and hope joins. We played a slap and tickle love fest shooting game for a few turns. Pivotable moment - Chaos lord with plague bringer charges 4 termies - if I drop them - I can continue in to the objective. Roll a 1 for attacks - take a wound - termies slice and dice me with claws and chainfists - then kill remaining 2 troops squads. I lose big. Fun game and great opponent. It's cool when the guy who wipes the floor with you is still one of your favorite opponents.

Game 3 - against an ork Horde. Well balanced and good ork army from a kid from Tampa Fl. We slug it out. Nurgle Marines in hth with even 30 orks are like a tar pit for the orks. 2 squads of plague marines in hth with 40 some orks for 3 rounds - and were still swatting at them at the end. We wound up with a draw. Oh yeah - in two rounds of combat - the same Chaos lord rolled 2 more ones for number of attacks. Dung'er - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take the curse from me!!!!

So 1-1-1 for me - I'm sure middle of the pack.

Best showing for me was Gladiator - 3-1 and was surprisingly a lot of fun and great challenges - except for the game vs the Reaver Titan - which is just overpowering.