10/28/2005

Playing To Win

Yesterday I went to Games Workshop for an afternoon and got three games in: One 2000 point game of USF vs. Tau, one 1000 point game of Biel Tan against Orks and another 1000 point game of Biel Tan against Codex Eldar.

These were games that I wanted to win. Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not saying I wanted to win at the expense of my opponents' fun or that I was willing to cheese out. I just decided that I didn't feel like experimenting today. I didn't feel like trying new things. I didn't feel like test-driving a previously untried idea. Nope... today was about playing games with known quantities and trying to beat my opponent instead of having a "learning experience". I've had lots of those lately. This time I just wanted to kill some stuff.

Jason:
Jason is an experienced Tau player with a damn fine-looking army. We played a Secure and Control game at Alpha level, and I decided not to give him nearly as many chances to kick my butt as I gave him the last time we played (about a month ago). I hunkered down into a corner, annointed everyone with Fortune and Guide, and let the rockets fly like nobody's business. It was still a tough game; Jason knows how to shoot, I'll tell you that. In the end, I managed to take him down and win, but it was a good, solid game.
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James:
Known to Deep Space members as "Bunny Of Doom", James brought a spritely Ork force to the table, and some fun was had in a Gamma level Recon game. My small Biel Tan force was bringing massive pain in the form of Scatter Lasers, Shuriken Cannons and the Forgeworld "Firestorm" tank (which boasts long-barreled, gattling AA mounted Scatter Lasers). I was mowing James down like there was no tomorrow until something happened to me which has never happened before: He launched a Grot Bomb and pasted one of my Wave Serpents. Blam. Dead. Not 30 seconds later, his Slaver got a lucky shot in on the OTHER Wave Serpent and killed that one, too. In the end I beat him with two scoring units in his deployment zone and a comparable number of victory points, but he had me worried for a while, there.
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David:
David is new to Eldar and is still learning the ropes of that particular army, so... for fun we switched lists and I tried to give him a few tips from my own body of experience (such as it is). Unfortunately, he lost his transports (or are those my transports?) pretty early on and didn't quite recover, but it was still a fun game on a really cool table with huge ledges and cliffs. Notice my Farseer on a Jetbike has made a re-appearance after being out of commission for over a year.
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1 comment:

The Black Knight said...

It's nice that you guys switched lists. I always apreciate veterans giving new-comers some guidance, and that's a great way for a newbie to learn a new army. Basically you get to show him what to do tacticaly with his force, and he gets to play with an already well-made list. It also can make games that should be total blowouts a bit closer. Well Done!