Adepticon 2011: There and Back Again...A Salamander's Tale

Team Snake Eyes' Adepticon 2011 Display Board

This year's results are in.  Last year's results can be found here, but I'll summarize quickly:  In 2010 we finished 92 out of 110.  Hardly a confidence booster.  This year, however, we brought two teams (I'll discuss the 2nd team below) and finished 37th out of 106 teams.  Here's the breakdown:

247 total points out of 444 (37th overall)
109 battle points out of 240 (45th)
14 commander's head points out of 32 (66th)
18 command token points out of 32 (26th)
54 theme points out of 60 (10th)
44 painting points out of 60 (15th)
8 quiz points out of 20 (86th)
14 sportsmanship points out of 16
6 spirit points

Overall we had a blast.  There was a bit of stress involved as I wanted us to perform better on the table top and Aerion wanted to improve our scores in the theme and appearance categories.  I think we managed both, while still having something to strive for at subsequent events.  I saw some very impressive armies out there Saturday, so I am humbled to have gotten the scores we did on theme and painting, and I have to credit to Aerion's talent and the handful of folks who pitched in to help us get the Salamanders ready for Chicago this year.

Aerion's freehand banner design for my 2nd Company...beyond awesome.

While I won't be doing battle reports for this year (I concentrate too much on the game at these things so I never remember to take pictures) I can break it down a little:

On the day we went 5-3-0.  Round 1 we played "Team Rock Heads - Dances with Wolves" (placed 52nd).  They beat our faces in.  They brought two Space Wolf armies and two Blood Angels armies.  Mephiston and a Furioso w/Blood Talons in a Storm Raven?  Yes please.  We had both objectives and the middle of the board at the bottom of turn 4.  Turn 5 that unit showed up and ruined our day.  Head over to Dark Future Games to see a picture of the "Dexter Dread".  All of that gore belongs to my Salamanders.

Round 2 we played "Dragonfire" (placed 100th).  They had 3 Eldar armies and 1 Dark Eldar army.  It was my first opportunity to play against the new Dark Eldar.  There were some nice conversions in this army, but one of the players had recently injured himself and was drugged up pretty good.  That meant he played a bit slow and we weren't made aware of that until after the game.  Still, it was fun, and we ended up with two wins from this round.

Round 3 we played the "Emperor's Grease Monkeys" (placed 79th).  I believe they were all Blood Angels armies.  We also came away with two wins this round, although those wins were bitter in my mind.  At my table, the other team clearly kicked us up one side and down the other.  They won the primary objective, but our winning of the secondary as well as some tactical points gave us a higher total.  The other game was played by two coalitions that were unfamiliar with their respective armies.  My inexperienced guy told the other inexperienced guy some bogus armor values for one of our tanks a few times during the game.  I have no idea what kind of impact that had, but I still feel quite badly about it.  I did, however, get some great tactical advice on my Salamanders, and Space Marines in general, from this team.  It was also probably the most fun I had all day.

Chosen1 playing on table #1 "So you're saying there's a chance..."

Round 4 saw us playing the "Ironfist League" (placed 67th) on table one.  No kidding.  If seeing a 3-3-0 team on table one on round 4 of the Adepticon Team Tournament doesn't tell you they randomize tables, then nothing will.  We knew we weren't playing for a chance at the big prize, but it felt good to play there anyway.  Stop laughing, at least my mom was proud of me.  These guys were an all Chaos Space Marine team and it too was a fun game.  We split the games here, and the take away message for me was to stay away from IA Blood Slaughterers of Khorne.  Yeah, they're that bad.  The second bit that upset me occurred here.  The army lists we handed to our opponents are hand typed.  I loath Army Builder with a passion typically reserved for bullies and exercise.  While I spent a lot of time on a lot of things, I did not review them enough to catch a few omissions.  I did not spell out that the tactical squads (which were nearly identical throughout the army - and were correct on the individual player's army lists) contained flamers and multi-meltas.  This came as a surprise to our opponents, and I am sorry for that.  The fault lies with me.

As you can imagine, this ended badly for us.

Despite the two mistakes, the tournament was a success.  I saw some great armies, and met some great guys...including meeting up with the Michigan crew from Dark Future Games and Seer Karandras from Craftworld Lansing.  My big regret was not introducing myself to the Back 40k crowd, but when I was free, they were playing, etc.  I'll have to have Chambers work something out.  It was a blast fellas and I hope to see you all again soon.

Team Snake Eyes - Iron Hands Adepticon 2011 Display Board.

Team Snake Eyes - Iron Hands also attended the Big Show.  They finished 82nd out of 106.  I believe they went 2-6-0 on the day which is fantastic considering they were using two different armies than they originally planned and playing with two alternates.  Yeah, all that mess, and they still finished better on their first year than we did.  Great job guys, I'm glad you came and enjoyed yourselves.

Team Snake Eyes - Iron Hands engaged in something terribly important.