Adepticon 2012: I Think I Found My Style

Normally I would have posted something about Team Snake Eyes' 2012 Team Tournament results sooner, but several things conspired against me.  Fist, we got our collective asses kicked.  That stings a bit.  :-)  Second, my photo taking/retrieving process has a few flaws in it.  Considering just about everything that went on this year in Chicago was flawed for us, it should come as no surprise that we can't post a timely blog on the subject.

Well lets pull this band-aid off shall we?  In 2010 we finished 92nd out of 110 teams.  In 2011 we stepped it up a bit and finished 37th out of 106 teams.  This year we finished 99th out of 116.  We managed 0 wins, 2 draws, and 6 magnificent losses.  Awesome.  Here's our breakdown:

184 total points (out of 444)
59 Battle Points (out of 240)
15 Sportsmanship Points (out of 16)
17 Commander's Heads (out of 32)
14 Commander's Tokens (out of 32)
45 Theme Points (out of 60)
39 Painting Points (out of 60)
6 Spirit Points (unspecified)
10 Quiz Points (out of 10)

Not only did we set new record lows for our team performance, we also managed to score lower on both our theme (which was unchanged from last year) and painting (where we specifically included better looking models than those we fielded last year), so we've got that going for us at least.

Our matchups were as follows:

Round #1 = The Midwest Fringe (Orks) - finished 61st

These guys were a great team to play, with an awesome looking Ork army.  This round had weird, random "secret missions" that neither of our armies were prepared to accomplish.  My coalition drew, while the other got tabled.  I didn't mind the poor performance here since they were an outstanding group of guys.

Bray'arth did well this game accounting for a Bike Warboss, War Bikers,
and a squad of boyz.  His lost both is arms and "his Milkshake brought
all the boyz to the yard."

This was what my other coalition's table looked like.  It was not pretty (for us).

Round #2 = Baal to the Bone (Blood Angels) - finished 106th

There were three cool guys on this team and one gigantic tool.  I'm a laid back, low-maintenance guy and I almost walked away from the table twice.  I lost my composure a few times, and I regret every moment I spent at that table.

Although his terminators are gone by the time we took this pic, and Vulkan was drug
down and beaten like a stray dog, they accounted for a great deal of Sanguinius' Sons.

Not sure what happened on the other table.  Things were a obscured by a maddening rage.

Round #3 = Fuster Cluck (Necrons) - finished 79th

This team restored my faith in humanity.  After the second round, I knew that nothing I or my team did would salvage my weekend.  We were going to lose, lose horribly, and no one would weep at our destruction.  These guys not only had a gorgeous necron army, with outstanding Wraith conversions, but before we even got to the first turn, pulled out some beers and gave us some.  It seems a simple gesture, but at that moment, it was the best thing that could have happened to me.  We lost those games, but I had as good a time as I could with those guys.  Top notch Fuster Cluckians, I really enjoyed meeting you guys.

Bray'arth, again, accounted well for himself.  He never died in all four games
despite repeated, determined, attempts to do so.  He may not have "earned back
his points" in all games, but he was fun to play.

Sweet conversion no?

Round #4 = Da Boyz Wolfpack (Space Wolves) - finished 46th

I actually played one of these guys back in 2010...it was a wolf team back then, and they were an awesome opponent then, and they're still an awesome group of guys.  We didn't really get beat by them, we got our faces kicked in.  But they too gave us beer, and they were (for the most part) under the influence themselves.  It says a lot when you can clobber another team while sloppy drunk, but at this point I really didn't care.  I wanted the pain to end, and was laughing and joking with them as everything we tried failed and everything they did turned to gold.  Good times.

This was a mission where kill points could only be earned by one half of a
coalition.  This, entirely ignorant, style of mission supports a perverse incentive
whereby half a an army hides like a little girl and a mini game of slap fighting is played.
In our case, the Space Wolves that hid also had Rune Priests with unlimited range
shooting attacks, so...yeah.

PBR with a smile?  Yeah, it was that kind of day.

Another neat fact?  Of the 17 teams that finished lower than Team Snake Eyes in the rankings, 11 of them had higher Battle Points than we did.  Team Death Star actually dropped out of the competition and finished with more battle points than we did.  Bleh.

5 and a Wake-up

Bray'arth Ashmantle, aka. "Fat Albert"

It's that time of year again.  Team Snake Eyes is headed to Adepticon in Chicago, IL for their team tournament on Saturday the 21st.  There's all sorts of stuff going on up there, and I highly recommend you make the trip if you ever get a chance.  You'll meet some fantastic gamers, and see some ridiculously talented artists put their hearts and souls into their craft for our enjoyment.  We all have a richer gaming experience because of it.  If you see us up there, don't hesitate to stop by and say hello, we'd love to meet you guys.  Some of the team will be heading up on Thursday, but the majority of us will arrive on Friday with everyone leaving at some point on Sunday.  So, without further ado, here's a tribute to my artist of choice, our very own Chaplain Aerion.  He's been the creative powerhouse behind my Salamanders army from the very beginning.  While I do a lot of work on this army, none of it matches the skill and quality that we see from Aerion.  From our very first "test marine" to what you see here today, Aerion has put more time and effort into this ongoing project of mine than I ever imagined possible, and that Mrs. Aerion would likely have wished went into other pursuits.  In that regard, I offer my warmest thanks to them both.

Left side: I'm loving the mural here: Bray'arth as a young lad
giving the Genestealers what for...before getting his face
eaten off and then stuffed inside a Dreadnought sarcophagus
for the rest of his days...

Right side: I love what he did with his DCCWs.

You think he needs to duck coming out of that Lucius
Drop Pod?  I don't, but I'll let you tell him if you do.

I love his power plant, and the heraldry that Aerion
was able to put onto the banner.

Forge World Lucius Pod, aka "Mystery Machine".  Apparently FW resin is as
much a pain in the ass to work with as you might have expected.

Venerable Dreadnought, left side.

Venerable Dreadnought

Venerable Dreadnought: I like this alternate power plant
as well.  On the other hand, I like Dreadnoughts, so
it's never really a tough sell in my book.

 These are a few of our Salamanders we'll be putting on the board this year.  Hope to see you there!