Hello all,

Well, here it is, Steve's Calgary GT writeup. I'll go over the tourney
as a whole first, and followup with Battle Reports.

So, we left my place in Bellevue, WA Thursday night, and crossed the
border in North-Central WA. We finally stopped ~3:30 am and crashed for the
night. The next day went pretty slow, as we picked a pretty poor route to
travel through, dealing with lots of stop lights, etc. in the early going. The
trip itself was a great deal of fun regardless. We finally arrived in Calgary
at about 8:00 pm Friday night. We got unloaded, checked in, and several of us
went ahead and did open gaming regardless. I played a Tau player who I
pummeled most soundly - my undefeated record against Tau remains in tact. I
also played a 'nid opponent Saturday night where we played to the last man. I
won't do a full fledged battle report, but while I lost in the end (He had a
wounded Tyrant who finished off my Seraphim VSS - I had claimed she would win
the game for me, and she took out his last warrior, his remaining two ripper
swarms, and tagged his tyrant for a wound before, he squished her...), was a
great battle.
The tournament was, by far, the most fun at a GT I've ever had. It
was by no means perfect, there's always room for improvement, but the people
were all great, the organizers were a lot of fun, Paul Sawyer was a kick - it
was just a great experience.
So, for the stuff I thought they could have done better:
1) No people's choice awards - this was pretty disappointing.
2) Painting judging. There were some scores that were coming in from
all over the place. As already stated, Dave's sisters were in my
opinion, the best models there by far. Some Dark Eldar armies which
barely met the '3 color' requirement, and beat out some armies which,
while not spectacular, were at least highlighted, well based, and
obviously had some effort put into them. The judges never got to
see most armies all assembled en-masse, judging most of them during
a game, and looking only at one or two models. This was my biggest
disappointment.
3) Pub quiz was not nearly rowdy enough ;-)
4) A couple of scenarios got rules 'clarifications' at the last second,
which not only scuttled folks' strategies prepared in advance, but
outright contradicted the printed scenario rules.
5) The knowledge quiz was never counted into the scores. Not only that,
but folks were openly sharing answers with each other. Open book is
one thing, but cheating...
6) The 40k room got closed both nights, so all 40k open gaming had to
be done on the terrain-light fantasy tables.

Now that those minor bits are out of the way, the stuff they got right:
1) The 3/3 split of games per day was *great*. It appeared to me, and
I know *I* certainly felt, but better rested for game two, a little
less rushed, and there was more time for open gamine both Friday
*and* Saturday nights.
2) The 1/2-hour offset betewen the fantasy and 40k rounds made for
friendlier tourney-organizaers, in my opinion. I got no attitude,
shortness, or crankiness from them all weekend.
3) Paid lunches *and* Saturday dinner.
4) The scenarios were *very* cool, even the ones which got changed at
the last second.
5) I didn't play a single assholethe whole weekend. Yeah, o.k., the
organizers may not have had any direct influence on that one, but
it was still very cool, and their work may have helped there.
6) No artificial composition rules to follow, as comp. was *entirely*
your opponents' scores. Granted, there were a number of totally
cheesed out armies, and lot of them there built to win, but I liked
knowing that I didn't have to follow stupid rules which would have
had me knowing I couldn't really win with the kind of army I wanted
to field, having to instead field *their* version. My list is US
comp-friendly already, but it was a nice feeling.
7) The terrain was *great*. I got to play my snow-sisters....On Snow!!!
8) gamesDay tables, with custom scenarios. I didn't get a chance to
play on the 40k one, but it was still very cool!
9) Good Q&A with Paul Sawyer and Dirty Steve before awards. They
answered a lot of questions, some to folks' disappointments (Squats,
Zoats, Fimir ;-), some to others' great anticipation (possible Dwarf
Juggernaught for Fantasy - Hoo Ahh!!!!)

Overall, as far as I can tell, everyone had an absolute ball, and I
have already decided to do it again next year (flying instead of driving,
however).
So, now that that bit is out of the way, on t the battle reports:
As always, my roster can be found in the files section:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/battle-sisters/files/Mr.%20Bugman%27s%20Sisters%20\
data/sisters-gt.rst

Not all my opponent's rosters are complete, mostly due to lack of
memory of wargear, etc. I only got copies of two rosters.

Game 1: Crash Site Recovery vs. Emperor's Sword Marines (his own chapter)
Opponent: Eric Loken
Opponent roster: http://www.gametools.com/~steve/Calgary/game1.html
Objective: Whoever controls the most of 6 objectives wins

We were on a cityfight table, but he'd never played CF before, so we
stuck to standard rules.

Deployment: I had my HQ and exorcist behind a building to my left.
My flamer squad went left as well. Seraphim were far right behind
another building. My redemptionists were all left, with the rest of my
sisters squads middle and right. My HB's went up high in a building in
my center, providing a nice wide field of view.
He deployed a tac squad and scouts to my far left, followed by his
Whirldwind behind a building. His predator came next with a screen of
tac marines in front. His Dread came next, with his rhino, and a
Landspeeder. His Razorback and its troops were next, and his last
Speeder far to my right. He deep-struck his assault marines and his
chaplain.

I got first turn.

Sisters 1: I advanced everyone except the exorcist. I kept my
seraphim back a bit to use a building as a fire screen. My
left flamer squad advanced into my screen building to get to
an objective. My leftmost redemptionists caught the first
objective, which promptly exploded, killing a couple reds.
My exorcist popped his dreadnaught, and we managed to stun his
rhino with HB's. HQ rhino popped smoke. Ret rhino advanced to
start causing LoS mayhem in his zone.
Marines 1: He decided to play a sit back marine force, which would
prove to be his undoing in this scenario. He did advance his
scouts to try and take an objective near his zone, which they
promptly did after a great DT roll. His shooting killed a
couple seraphim and a couple reds, but nothing major. No
pinning from the whirlwind. He did shake my ret rhino.
Sisters 2: HQ rhino advanced on his leftmost tac squad. My flamer
squad took their objective. My leftmost redemptionists advanced
on his scouts. The next ones took an objective. My confessor's
squad advanced on a third. Seraphim advanced on his rightmost
tac squad. Both melta-squads advanced as well. The exorcist
Failed to take the rhino. HB's tried to get his nearest LS, but
failed to glance. HQ unloaded and opened fire on his tac squad,
killing a few (DG helped). Seraphim also unloaded on his
rightmost squad, taking 1 or 2. Both units held. Leftmost red
unit passioned towards scouts. HQ, reds, and seraphim all
assaulted. HQ beat up marines, but they held. Reds lost to
scouts, but held of course, but had only got a couple girls in
B2B. Consolidation took care of that problem. Seraphim also
won against the rightmost squad, but they also held.
Marines 2: He finally advanced the rhino, heading straight towards a
melta-squad. Everyone else held, and did some
mostly-ineffective shooting, except for pinning my leftmost
melta-squad. His rhino unloaded for assault on my
melta-sisters, and did so. My HQ pummeled his left squad,
who fled, but regrouped. We consolidated toward the whirlwind.
My reds won vs. his scouts, who held. His marines in the
middle beat my melta squad, but they also held. My seraphim won
against his marines and H&R out to try and beat up his other LS
with shooting. Deep-strikers did not appear.
Sisters 3: My confessor's squad took another objective. I now held 3.
Hq moved to fire on Whirlwind's read, as did their rhino.
Seraphim moved to try and get the LS. Seraphim popped the LS.
HQ and rhino failed to do in the whirlwind, but did shake it.
HB's took out the middle LS. Exorcist took out his rhino. My
ret rhino killed major LoS for his Pred and tac squad, also
creating an obsticle to the last objective. My HQ re-assaulted
his left squad, killing one more. The reds squished the scouts,
taking their objective. My melta sisters held again after
losing in the middle. Seraphim also re-assaulted the right
squad, ending up in a draw.
Marines 3: No movement on his part. He tried to shoot up my rhino and
failed, only shaking it. My HQ finished off his left squad.
My seraphim drew again, & H&R out to go support the melta-squad.
The melta-squad, now under half, held once again, only losing
one sister. He rolled another '1' for deep-strike.
End: The game ended at this point. Erik was a good guy, but an
extremely slow player, mostly due to a vision impairment of some
sort. My aggressive tactics on this one, in combination with
his entirely unaggressive tactics, won this one for me. He only
ever possessed one objective, and only moved near a second one,
even with a third just outside of his deployment zone. Popping
his dreadnaught before it could do anything was also a major
help for me. I'm convinced that had we played a full 6 turns,
I would have, if not wiped him out, held all 5 remaining
objectives, and very likely had reduced him to very few troops.
The thing that hurt him the most, however, was his deep-strike
units never arriving. He had over 300 points less than me on
the table the whole game, and with his slow pace, they didn't
get a chance to come in and even contest anything.
Lessons learned: Nothing really. Everything went right for me, and
wrong for him... I guess from his standpoint, aggressive is
good in an objectives scenario like this one.

Game 2: Twilight vs Chaos Undivided
Opponent: Marty Frost
Opponent roster: http://www.gametools.com/~steve/Calgary/game2.html
Objective: Table quarters with night fight rules after turn 3 maybe

Deployment: I had a melta squad and my melta reds far left. My
exorcist went far right behind a hill, as did my HQ rhino.
HB's went on a hill in my center. Everyone else just lined up
in the middle as best they could.
He had a rhino of troops to my left, with termies nearby behind
a hill. His Havoks were in a wrecked building towards the
middle. His other rhinos went right. He kept one squad back in
his center. His dread was to my left as well.

He got the first turn.

Chaos 1: He advanced all, but his left rhino immobilized itself on
terrain. His right rhinos advanced as well. Shooting did
nearly nothing, killing my ablative retributor.
Sisters 1: I moved my exorcist right around its hill. My left stuff
moved right. My HQ rhino moved forward center to try and
intercept his HQ. Everyone else shited a bit right in their
forward advance. Shooting killed a couple ablative havoks, and
the exorcist popped his rightmost rhino.
Chaos 2: He Advanced his HQ once again, as well as the now
foot-slogging right squad. His backmost squad held. His left
flank all advanced slowly. Shooting did very little, killing a
couple more models.
Sisters 2: Everyone advanced again, but I shited my left side left
again. The exoorcist moved for LoS on his back squad. Seraphim
followed. My HQ rhino moved to get at his backfield as well.
My ret rhino advanced on havoks to fire with SB's. Shooting
killed another couple havoks. We failed to get through
any terminator armor. We failed to pop his HQ rhino.
Chaos 3: His HQ unloaded from their rhino to prepare to munch my
sisters. His left side held for shooting. His shooting
killed a few models here & there, but not much. In combat, he
hit me pretty hard, but not too bad. We held.
Sisters 3: Movement on the left was cautious. My HQ advanced further
toward his backfield. My seraphim moved to support my sisters
in combat with his HQ. They failed their passion. The exorcist
killed a couple in his backfield. In the midle we got a couple
of his bodyguard., and all held. I also finally got the last of
his havoks' ablative armor.
Chaos 4: More of the same from the previous turn. He did finish off
my original sisters squad in the middle, including the
confessor. My seraphim passed Ld and H&R out.
Sisters 4: My other red squad advanced to hit his HQ, as did my
seraphim. My HQ rhino made more advances toward his back
center, but it would have needed to be a great passion roll to
reach them, so I didn't unload. My left side held again,
continuing the standoff. The exorcist popped another of them
anyway. The HB's finally got him down to 1 lascannon, with
their rhino SB's help. We assaulted his HQ, and got him down
to the 2 characters and a single escort. We won combat, but he
held.
End: The game was a complete draw. His back-left quarter had his
dread in it, plus my ret. rhino, his back-right occupied by my
HQ and his over-half squad. My back left had his massive unit
of termies and his other squad, plus my left stuff. My
back-right had another of his squads plus my stuff, plus his
HQ rhino in it.
Lessons learned: I was way too tentative in this one. There was little
LoS to shoot things through to soften them up. I should have
just let him have my back-left, and sent reds after his dread.
His Havoks were of no further consequence, plus the added
support near the middle would have been good. Another turn and
I should have been able to finish off his HQ, and my HQ would
have been stuck in with his backfield, maybe being able to take
that quarter as well. His major punch was pretty much gone,
with the real meat of his army to my left moving extremely
slowly. Had I just ignored them, they would have merely held
a quarter, and I could have taken the other three. Ah well.
Marty was probably the most low-key guy there, but also had a
great sense of humor. My boisterousness with his dry wit
really clicked this game, and we had a blast, so he got my vote
(he got 3 others, too) for favorite opponent.

Game 3: Sugar Rush vs Ultramarines
Opponent: Troy Glowsky
Opponent roster: http://www.gametools.com/~steve/Calgary/game3.html
Objective: Whoever holds the most smarties wins

Deployment: Another cityfight table. The exorcist went center. HQ
went right. All reds went left, with sister-squad screens in
front. My confessor's squad went right, and a melta-squad went
center, behind a building. The rets went right with their
rhino nearby. Seraphim were center as well.
He deployed his scouts on the smarties. His whirlwinds were to
my left behind buildings. His predator went center, his assault
marines and librarian went right. His rhino was center-ish as
well, and his other tac squad went left.

I got the first turn. They also changed a lot of rules at the last
minute *several* times, creating much confusion for everyone
and throwing the best-laid plans (redemptionist conga-lines ;-)
out the window.

Sisters 1: I advanced my left, my confessor's squad went into the
building. HQ advanced with the confessor. Seraphim made a
beeline for the smarties. The exorcist did nothing, HB's
left him with 4 scouts.
Marines 1: He advanced his assault marines, his scouts grabbed
smarties. His predator popped my exorcist. He advanced his
rhino toward the smarties as well. His leftmost marines
advanced toward a building. His dread also advanced. His
whirlwinds pinned one of my redemptionist squads... You'll be
hearing this chorus further... He also popped my ret. rhino,
making for a huge LoS barrier for them, so they couldn't shoot
his assault marines.
Sisters 2: I advanced everything I could again. My HQ unloaded, and
they and the confessor's squad both advanced on the frontmost
assault marines. HB's killed 2 more scouts (this would prove
to be a telling round...). My seraphim got to the smarties and
picked up a boatload of them. My HQ unloaded on his assault
marine squad with flamers and bolters, killing 3 total. My
confessor's squad passions 1 whole inch, killing my plan on that
side. I ended up having to assault with my HQ, who did kill
another marine. He voluntarily fell back, so we consolidated
into his other squad, much to his chagrin.
Marines 2: His librarian's squad moved behind my HQ, his left squad
moved into a building. His dread and rhino both advanced on the
smarty box. Then the shooting started. After it was done, I
had my VSS from my seraphim left (still with a smarty). She did
hold, however. He pinned another red squad *plus* a battle
sisters squad with his whirlwinds (I had horrible pinning tests
all game long...). His rhino picked up a smarty. His assault
marines got stuck in again with my HQ, killing about half. We
got a few back as well, though, but he won, but we held.
Sisters 3: More limited advancing on my left. I shited a sisters squad
to head toward his left tac squad. My HB's couldn't wound his
scouts. My seraphim VSS passed all-alone, and headed for my
deployment zone with her smarty. I assaulted with my confessor
squad into the assault-marine melee. In combat, he chewed up
all but one of my HQ, but my confessor's squad got some payback,
leaving him 2 marines and his librarian. He fell back again,
and I consolidated.
Marines 3: His rhino made a mad dash back for his zone, as did his
scouts. His dreadnaught got to the smarty box, and picked one
up. Shooting pinned some reds again... His chaplain and AM's
advanced on and assaulted my confessor's squad, doing a great
deal of damage, but they held. He was now down to two AM's
and his Librarian over there. Oh yeah, and my VSS dropped off
her smarty.
Sisters 4: My leftmost sisters squad moved to shoot and assault his
marines in the building. My other non-pinned units advanced on
the smarty box, the redemptionists picking up 7 of them.
Shooting was once again ineffective, mostly, killing only one
marines to the left. We tried to kill the scouts, but again
hit poorly and failed to wound. My sisters assaulted his tac
marines in the building. Did no wounds, losing one themselves,
but they held.
Marines 4: His chaplain and dread moved in on my reds. Shooting did
little, killing a couple reds, and for once he failed to pin
anyone. His dread and chaplain killed all but 2 reds.
Sisters 5: We only had a couple minutes, be he graciously gave me a
chance to take away even one smarty for a draw. Once again I
failed to hurt a scout with shooting, and had just made the
passion roll that would get a nearly full squad of sisters to
the smarty box, when time was called...
End: His whirlwinds did the trick for him, slowing me down so much and
killing enough models that I just couldn't get anything to the
smarty box reliably. As it was, he only won by 1 smarty, so
only a minor victory for an army obviously built to win, so I
was able to take the moral victory, and the smarty spoils went
to him (my wife had hid a big block of white chocolate in my bag
before I left, so I just didn't need any *more* chocolate...)
Lessons Learned: Librarians still suck, and I needed to pay closer
attention to where I put my rhino. I killed 80% of my ret' LoS
when I left it to get blown up next to them. The dice also
hurt me a lot in this one, with 4 separate failed pin tests
(out of 5). I needed a better screen for my seraphim, but the
middle of the table was pretty open for a cityfight table...

Game 4: Last Stand vs Tyranids
Opponent: ?????
Opponent roster: http://www.gametools.com/~steve/Calgary/game4.html
Objective: Attacker tries to penetrate defender's deployment zone

Deployment: I pu my exorcist in back on a hill, rets on a hill to the
right, both red squads up front, my melta squads at the front corners,
flamer squads in the back corners, and my HQ and seraphim in center.
He put his biovores in cover to my far right, with his 'fex, and
*everything* else to the left.

He got the first turn.

Bugs 1: He proceeded to advance everyone. The genestealers had terrain
to deal with. His 'fex moved along my right side. In shooting,
he picked off a couple models, and his biovores failed to hurt
much of anything.
Sisters 1: I shifted *everything left except a melta squad and a red
squad, which I shifted to my back right to be available should
Mr. Fex get too close. In shooting, the HB's DG'ed a wound onto
the 'fex, and between meltaguns and exorcist shots, the raveners
were eliminated entirely. A few gaunts also paid the ultimate
price.
Bugs 2: He moved in to assault a lot of my stuff, as predicted, however
all combat would be outside or on my DZ boundaries, a plus for
me, and I just needed to kill him and keep him out. No shooting
and it was off to combat. His hormagaunts assaulted a melta
squad. His rippers assaulted my front-left reds, along
with Mr. Tyrant. The lichter also helped the hormagaunts. He
won both combats, but we held in place for counter-charges.
Sisters 2: I shifted my right-hand melta squad back left, as I felt I
would be able to safely deal with the 'fex with reds and HB's.
My confessor's squad moved in to help with rippers. My
seraphim moved in to help with hormagaunts. With shooting, I
popped a few genestealers with the exorcist, and DG'ed yet
another wound onto the 'fex. In combat we nearly eliminated the
rippers, damaged the hormagaunts some, wounded the lichter, but
he still won, but we held.
Bugs 3: He moved his termagaunts to counter-charge my confessor's squad
and the reds. The genestealers kept moving in toward my
backfield. The 'fex kept advancing, getting somewhat
uncomfortably close, but still more that a turn away. His
biovores killed my ablative retributor. In assault, my reds
got eviscerators into B2B with the tyrant finally. He seriously
hurt my confessor's squad, but in return we pummeled the
termagaunts. With the hormagaunts, he wiped out my initial
squad, but my seraphim H&R to go kill termagaunts. The
hormagaunts were too numerous to deal with with just seraphim.
Sisters 3: My seraphim moved to assault termagaunts. My HQ moved to
unload flaming death into genestealers. My rightmost reds moved
left again to help with hormagaunts, as did my other flamer
squad. In shooting, yet another DG'ed HB shot got through onto
the fex (3 down), and the exorcist and HQ killed about 1/2 of
one of the genestealer broods. The HQ assaulted them. He
didn't get any insta-wounds, but did kill a coulple, as did I.
combat ended a draw. The seraphim pummeled the termagaunts into
near oblivion, also helping wipe out the rippers. That left
almost none of my confessor's squad, and very few redemptionists
which the tyrant did gleefully work on squishing. An
eviscerator did manage a wound on the tyrant, however. The
seraphim, not being silly enough to consolidate into a tyrant,
H&R into position to help counter-charge hormogaunts.
Bugs 4: The fex moved toward my retributor rhino, prepaing to charge it.
His hormagaunts swept towards my flamer sisters. He moved his
2nd brood of 'stealers to counter charge my HQ. He moved the
lichtor towards my HQ rhino. His tyrant finished off the
eviscerators, and got everyone but my RP, but I was able to
finish off the termagaunts as well. He assaulted with the
hormagaunts, but only just barely made it, so got very few
attacks in. He still won combat, but we didn't even blink.
The lichtor managed to toast the rhino. The genestealers took
my HQ down to 2, but they held as well. The highlight, however,
was his carnifex, rumbling over to my retributor rhino, which
had conveniently not moved: 4 auto-hits, 4 penetrating hits, one
6, 2" radius, affects the 'fex, rolls his armor save.....1.
The entire hall heard the cry, "My exploding Rhino just killed
a Carnifex!!!!!!!" All the non-tyramid players let out a big
cheer. All the 'nid players.....didn't...;-) My opponent
took it very well, and thought it was extremely funny as well.
I have this image of painting up a Carnifex, shredding up bits
of a rhino around it, and sending it to him with a card for
Christmas saying "Sorry my rhino broke your Carnifex. Here's
one that got even. ;-)" I've been needing an excuse to paint
one...
Sisters 4: So, on my turn, my other reds could safely move to intercept
his hormagaunts, as did my seraphim. The only shooting was at
the lichtor, which my HB's killed. In combat, my HQ was
finished off, but a couple more genestealers paid the price,
leaving him with 4 total. The Tyrant finished off his little
part of the universe. My seraphim and redemptionists seriously
hammered his hormagaunts, killing their hive-node model in the
process, but they stayed put.
Bugs 5: His genestealers advanced on the grand melee, while his tyrant
advanced on my HB's. In combat, we nearly wiped out the gaunts,
but they held, again.
Sisters 5: We didn't move much at all. The exorcist fired on the
genestealers and pummeled two more into oblivion. The HB's
managed another DG'ed wound onto the Tyrant. The gaunts were
wiped out.
End: I had him down to 2 biovores, 2 genestealers, and a tyrant with 2
wounds lost. It was a total massacre for me, my best victory
vs. bugs ever. We analysed it after the fact, and we both
agreed his placement of the fex alone on my right was a huge
mistake. I was able to concentrate almost all my forces on my
left side, and leave only my HB's to deal with him, which they
did quite well. Odds are even had he survived the Rhino, they
would have got the last wound in anyway. I also did a good job
tying up his tyrant with redemptionists.
Lessons learned: I probably should have focused more fire on the
genestealer broods, but I didn't have many options to do so
without ignoring the carnifex. Overall I think I picked the
best targets I could, and, well, I did win... Odds say on turn
6 his tyrant would have been killed by passioning seraphim, and
the reds should easily have finished off his genestealers, if
not the exorcist itself. Only the biovores would have taken
additional turns, purely by the fact of their being so far off
in my far right corner.

Game 5: Scouting Engagement vs Chaos Nurgle
Opponent: Muskie McKay
Opponent roster: http://www.gametools.com/~steve/Calgary/game5.html
Objective: Patrol with modified reserve rolls. Quarters give VP bonus.

Deployment: I put my redemptionists as far forward as I could.
He placed one of his PM units as close to them as he could, and
another closer to center-table.

I got first turn, and declared that squad 'Diarrhea' would die by the
end of the game!!!

Sisters 1: I advanced both squads of redemptionists towards his nearest
plague marines (Diarrhea). The other squad kept a bit more left
in case of need for a counter-charge. I got a good passion off,
and we were off to the assault phase. I got to strike first,
and picked off a couple PM's. He got a red back.
Nurgle 1: He advanced his second squad in a rhino down the middle.
Combat was a bit messier all around, but we got the better of
it.
Sisters 2: I got all the rest of my troops, and nothing else in from
reserves. I advanced them as far forward as I could. Combat
was more of the same.
Nurgle 2: He got a dreadnaught, his demon prince, his HS squad, and
another 2 more squads of PM's. He advanced them all as best he
could, and summoned his plague bearers to go after my other
reds. His demon price went to go help Diarrhea. Diarrhea was
wiped out, and the DP killed a couple. Nurgle's rot got a
couple more. We consolidated in, but didn't have any
eviscerators in B2B yet. Plague bearers killed some reds, we
got some back.
Sisters 3: I got everyone else, and advanced them all. My HB squad in
their rhino went right to try and get some good firing lines.
HQ stayed back for support, exorcist held back. All but my non-
confessor flamer squads went left. The other went right.
Seraphim went all ahead full. The exorcist popped a weapon off
his shooty dreadnaught. My reds wiped out his plague bearers,
and consolidated toward his dread. We got a wound on the DP,
who killed some more reds.
Nurgle 3: He got everything else in. He brought his combat-dread left.
and his last PM squad went left as well. He brought another
squad over to help the DP. Shooting killed a *lot* of unengaged
reds, and combat killed some more from PM's. He wisely kept
his combat dread away from my eviscerators. He nearly wiped out
the squad in with the DP, but we did get another wound on him.
Sisters 4: I advanced more from my left. My HQ went towards center to
try and help out there. My HB rhino went right and unloaded
behind their rhino so they couldn't be directly shot or
assaulted. The flamer squad stayed back but in their direction.
My exorcist blew up a whole lot of nothing. In combat, my
reds up against PM's and DP were wiped out. My other reds were
also wiped out. He simply consolidated.
Nurgle 4: He advanced a whole lot of stuff toward my left flank, his two
units of PM's over there. He unloaded another unit near my HB
rhino, and another nearby summoned lord nurgle. His HS squad,
having done nothing the whole game, advanced a bit. His shooty
dread and combat dread went left as well. Shooting did very
little. He assaulted my HB rhino, and did nothing to it.
Sisters 5: I tank-shocked his PM's with my HB rhino, and they got out
of the way. My HQ rhino went up a hill and dropped my HQ out
to shoot at the nearest squad of PM's, and my flamer squad
advanced to assist. My left flank all advanced as well, and
formed a line of confessor squad, melta squad, seraphim, melta
squad on my far left flank in his table quarter. The exorcist
blew off yet another weapon from the shooty dread, who was now
useless, except for one minor thing which we'll get to later.
My HQ and flamer squad DG'ed all but one of his PM squad away.
HB's failed to get any wounds through on his nearby unit...
Nurgle 5: His DP, combat dread, all advanced toward my left flank, but
would be too far away to assault this turn. He also moved the
remnants of his two PM squads there as well (3 in one, 5 in the
other). Shooting failed to kill anything, except his DP, who
got nailed by a fire-frenzied combat-dread's HF. Lord nurgle
assaulted my HQ, and his other PM's assaulted my HB's. They
killed only a single retributor (let's hear it for the ablative
sister once again!!!!), and they got two back. Lord nurgle
munched on broke, and ran down my HQ.
Sisters 6: I advanced my who left flank on his 8 PM's and his dread
& one of the 2 squad's rhino. Shooting immobilised the combat
dread, and popped a couple more PM's. I was stupidly unaware
that a useless, but still mobile dreadnaught could contest a
squarter, so I did *not* shoot it with a meltagun... My flamer squad moved
out of nurgle-assault-range, and shot up the last
PM on the hill. My seraphim assaulted the rhino, and popped
it with a melta-bomb. HB's and PM's drew (I won MHG, whee...).
My confessor's squad and a melta squad assaulted his PM's, but
only killed a couple.
Nurgle 6: His combat dread twiddled his....servos. Lord nurgle moved
toward my exorcist. His PM's finally took my ret squad down to 4, but we
got one back again, needing 2 to take them under half.
His PM's on the left broke both of my sisters squads....
End: He won by a hair. Had those two squads passed their morale check
at the end, I win. It came out a draw, based on the points
difference. Had I realised the weaponless dread could hold a
squarter, I would have shot it with a melta gun (it did hit a
PM that turn, and killed him instead...). I was within 6", so
stood a good chance of immobilising it. Had I done that, the
extra 200 VP's would have given me a win...
Lessons learned: stupid mobile, weaponless dreadnaughts...

Game 6: The Final Battle vs. Imperial Guard
Opponent: Johnathan Wong
Opponent roster: http://www.gametools.com/~steve/Calgary/game6.html
Objective: Just beat the snot out of each other

Deployment: I sent grenade reds left, with HQ, confessor's squad, HQ,
& a melta squad. HB's, melta reds, and flamer squad went
center, and other melta squad exorcist, and seraphim went right.
He put his tanks to my far right wit one of his two platoons.
Lascannons went center as did his HQ. His other platoon went
right. There was an empty chimera to each of the far ends of
the table.

I got first turn.

I can't remember the turns on this one so well, as it was all
sort of a blur, and I was getting extremely frustrated with his,
er, generous movement measurements. Basically he pummeled me
with ordinance for the whole game, nearly wiping out my
seraphim on the first turn. He was also 'generous' in being
able to fire over forests from hills.... I used this to my
advantage, in return, by using heavy bolters on a hill to fire
over the same forest and wipe out his lascannons...

I did get one nearly full squad of redemptionists over to my
right side of his half, and wipe out his platoon over there,
and then DoG one of the LR's who tank shocked the remaining
melta-reds. I also got a just-under-half flamer squad over
there as well, who took out the platoon command section. The
first one blew off the cannon, the second blew it up. The
left flank routed by his troops (I'd been severely reduced in
troop-sizes by ordinance), though I did insta-kill his commisar
with an eviscerator. I had some very poor Ld tests on that
side of the table to help him out there, however, with 3 morale
checks that had no business failing.

End: he had a solid victory (*not* a massacre, thank you), due
to my managing to leave him with only a LR, a basilisk, and
no squads over half, one platoon wiped out, the other with no
command section, and both chimeras dead. I had, in the end, a
single, all-alone, meltagun sister, and 3 redemptionists.

Lessons learned: I still hate 3-ordinance-weapon IG lists...


Tourney end: Most of the info from the Q&A with Paul has already made
it out, so I won't go over that. I came in 12th overall, tied for 2nd for
sportsmanship (one more person gives me a 5 instead of a 4, I tie with Jason
Dyer, and win on tiebreakers, that same person picks me as their favorite, I
win it outright...), tie for 2nd in comp, respectable 30/40 for painting. One
of my draws and one of my losses were both very close. Even a minor vicotry in
those two games (two smarties and one dreadnaught...) puts me a 3-way tie for
5th overall.
Still the best GT I've ever attended.

--
Steve (That's Mr. Bugman to you, lad...)