Contemptor Kevin’s Road to the West 3: Bon Tempes, Beignets, and Bad Listbuilding PART 1

Last time around Contemptor Kevin’s Road to the West saw him doing some last-minute preparation for the Games Workshop US Open event in New Orleans. This week he’s talking about his experiences at the event itself, including his games.

A. My List

I ran the following list at the Warhammer Open: New Orleans

Awuuu List

There were two last minute additions in the list: the sixth Intercessor and the upgrade of the Rune Priest to Chief Librarian. Originally, I was going to try and toss in an Attack Bike, but did not have time to get one and complete it before the NoLa Open started. The list felt wonky, but I had used many of these units in the past and thought I had a handle on it. So into the case they went, and down to New Orleans I flew.

B. Thursday

I arrived at the Hotel a little after noon, where I dropped off my stuff and went off to go get lunch and do some stuff for work. Since no one else was actually in New Orleans yet, I spent the afternoon wandering around Bourbon Street. I had not been to New Orleans in 25 years, and was thrilled to explore when I was a) An adult and b) not suffering from a debilitating ear infection. I headed back to the hotel, where I met J.D. Reynolds (The ArmorofContempt), and met up with Dan Boyd (Our Boi Deezy) and Craig Sniffen (MasterSlowpoke). I went out to dinner with the three gents, and had a wonderful time. I still regret not getting a souvenir from the shop across the street from the Po’Boy place we went to. J.D. also helped me get unstuck from the escalator when my cell phone charger cord got caught in them. That was really good of him!

That evening, after dinner, we went back to the hotel. I needed to get ready for the GT! I tabbed my Codex and Codex Supplement, and tried to pick my secondaries. I didn’t really get which secondaries to pick and why, so I made my best guess. I knew that I could probably achieve Retrieve Octarius Data. I decided to also go with Oaths of Moment, since I figured I could at least get one or two points for it per round. And lastly, at least for the first mission, I would go with the Mission Secondary.

I also decided it would be a great idea to paint the Event exclusive mini, so I unpacked, unsprued, cleaned up, and primed the Necron dude. It was a wonderful way to relax prior to going to bed.

C. Friday

I woke up and got my workout in. Sure, I was going to be on my feet for the better part of nine hours, but a five mile run was still going to be good for the soul. I touched base with Rob “TheChirurgeon” Jones before Round One began, and then at 9:30 we were off.

(Note: I do not have a subscription to Best Coast Pairings so I do not have access to the names and lists of the folks I played against. That being said, they were all entirely fantastic people to play against, and I’d happily play against all of them in the future!)

Game 1 – vs. Imperial Fists/Black Templars

I don’t remember a lot about this game, because I realized just how out of my depth I was. It was one thing to read about the various stratagems, detachment abilities, and litanies, but it was another thing to have them on recall in a quick manner. So a rather significant amount of my brainpower in this game was spent just trying to manage my army. Indeed, I didn’t realize until the end of Turn 3 that I had forgotten to record my primaries. I did not get tabled, and I did not do too badly, but I lost this match.

Game 2 – vs. AdMech (Graia)

After Game 1, and getting some food, I went back upstairs to do some additional painting to my Necron mini to recenter myself. I then went back downstairs, to play Game #2.

So, if you read Rob’s Day 1 recap, you can surmise that I had most of the same problems with the mission as he did: The terrain layout left three big firing lanes, and not really enough terrain to actually hide all of my heavier units behind. I could pop my infantry into the ruins to hold my objectives, but my opponent had a lot of Skitarii. I did not get tabled in this game, but after losing the first turn roll-off and getting my Redemptor wiped turn 1, I just did not have the firepower to hold off two units of 3 Ironstriders.

Game 3- vs. Death Guard

This one I was up against a Death Guard list with a Volkite Contemptor of its own, two PlagueBurst Crawlers, and a bunch of Blightlord Terminators. I won the roll-off, but my foe had a fair amount of infantry (cultists, Poxwalkers) to hold objectives. More than me.

First turn, my Thunderwolf Cavalry were able to take out his Volkite Contemptor, and tied up his entire left flank.

Bottom of Turn 1, my opponent finished off the Thunderwolves – and then turned his Plagueburst Crawlers not on my Marines, but on my Shield Domed Impulsors. They were rather easily able to shrug off this bombardment.

The remainder of this game went my way: my opponent teleported his Blightlords and Lord of Contagion onto the right flank, but was unable to charge anything. Instead, they were charged by my Impulsor after it dislodged its cargo. When all was said and done, I WON THIS GAME!

I was happy.

Furthermore, during this game, one of the GW Judges came up to me to let me know my army had made the initial painting cut and that I needed to take my army over to the painting spotlight area after the game ended. That was probably as thrilling as winning the game – I knew I wasn’t going to win a painting competition when my army was up against Craig’s or Dan’s, I was just happy to get the recognition.

Afterwards, I went to go get dinner with Rob, Craig, JD, Swiftblade, Goatboy, and a couple of others. The sports bar we went to, Walk Ons, was pretty good. Had some brews, had some chicken tenders, and overall had a wonderful dinner. After happily making some new friends, I went back to my room where I painted my Necron some more and took some antacids. I went to sleep, ready for more fun and games on Saturday.

Next Time: Day 2

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