Maul in the Mall 2012!!

The Wolves at the Maul

I have returned Dearest Readers from The Maul in the Mall, and I must say fun was had by all. There were a multitude of beautiful armies on parade, with over 40 people in attendance. It was nice to be able to have gotten my Wolves all put together, painted, and based, something long overdue. I ended up with some really interesting match ups, playing against two 4th edition codexes and one that the Interwebz has deemed uncompetitive. My Wolves went 1-2-0 for a total of 20 battlepoints out of a possible 60. Not the greatest showing on my part, but I had fun, and isn't that what matters? Fellow DDK Bloggers Pariah Stevo and Wiley the Nord were in attendance, with Wiley snagging Best Sportsman.

Armies on Parade

Danny's Tau Army

Game One

The first game was against my buddy Danny from Cookeville playing his Tau, a table quarter objective game with 1st and 6th turn being night fighting. I went second against a Farsight/Crisis Suit/Blacksun Filter/Missile Pod army. Lets just say that his first 2 turns of shooting were devastating, and not one of my models ever made it halfway across the board.I ended up with 2 battle boints for having my drop pod in his deployment zone, he got everything else.

Andy's Kroot / Nids

Thor Starin Down a "Trygon"

So after such a butt whoopin, I figured, "Can't get any worse, Right?" So I go into the next game ready to lay the smack down, playing the 5 objective mission that we did the battle report on previously.

I come up against Andy, a nice enough fella with his Kroot "Counts As" Tyranids, a really cool army that, when finished, will be a true testament to what "Counts As' is. He ran 2 Tyrants, 2 Tervigons, 2 Trygons, a Tyrannofex, a few gaunt squads and genestealers. The table really hurt me, as the centerpiece blocked nearly half of the table from LOS, and I did not deploy as intelligently as I could have. This led to it taking me way too long to kill his big bugs, and his ability to control the table. His shooting was very effective too, and I ended up losing the game 3 obj's to 1, with 1 contested. I was extremely frustrated with myself after this game, as I believed that I was capable of much better play and could have put myself in a better chance to tie/win. But i did not, and Andy took advantage of my mental lapses and played a great game. 

Bart's Beautiful Black Templars

So on we went to the Third game, the Classic Maul in the Mall mission, the mission that up to that point, I had never lost, going 4-0-0 thus far. I get paired up with Bart and his fantastic Black Templar, which ended up taking best painted. 

Thor Sees His Big, Juicy AV14 Target

Once again I am on a board with severe LOS blocking terrain, with spearhead deployment. Not good when you are facing up against assault armies. Luckily, his Landraider-O-Doom with Helbrecht/Emp. Champ/Chaplain/Crusaders immobilized itself in his deployment zone. This game was a ton of fun, with things dying all over the place. coming into the last turn, we were almost dead locked on victory points, with Bart having the edge by about 100vp's. 

Long Fangs Preparing for the Charge

On the bottom of 5, i was able to finish off a terminator squad, kill his general Helbrecht, kill the Landraider, and take out 2 squads of Crusaders, tallying over 900vp's in one turn, winning me the game, and keeping my streak on the mission alive. To play on the same table with an army as beautiful as Bart's was simply a pleasure, and made for an even greater experience.

So All in all, a great tournament and some great opponents. I would have loved to have had a better W-L-T record, but hey, can't win em all. Now the priority will be to get crankin on the Grey Knights to get them ready for this year's American Team Championships. I picked up a hard copy of the codex while at the tournament, and am very excited about getting this army together. More pics below of all the goings on at tne Maul. Grizz, signing out.

Ride: Busted

Wiley the Nord's Grey Knight Army

New Tyrannofex

Thor and His Drinking Buddies Dismounting