[Tournament Report] Molten Crown II | The Men of the Sheds and a Wolf In Between Them

 Dear Reader, when last we met I was having a bit of a rough one thanks to a six month losing streak that had robbed me of my hobby momentum and led to dangerous escalations of salt in my demeanour. I could have set course for Molten Crown's October tournament with a heavy heart and a sense of resignation, but instead I sat down, analysed my score sheets and diagrammed the deployment layouts for each map like a sweatlord in an attempt to fix the underlying problem of being Bad At Hams. If I could come away from this one with better scores, the system would be working. If I could come away from this one with a W, better still.

Here's what I crammed into a crate for the epic five minute bus ride yesterday morning. 

Tourneycrons 2.0
Necrons: Hypercrypt Legion

1x Chronomancer (65 pts)

1x Overlord with Translocation Shroud (105 pts)
• Warlord
• Osteoclave Fulcrum (+20 pts)

1x Plasmancer (80 pts)
• Arisen Tyrant (+25 pts)

1x Royal Warden (50 pts)

1x Skorpekh Lord (105 pts)
• Hyperspatial Transfer Node (+15 pts)


5x Immortals (70 pts)
    • 5x Tesla carbine

20x Necron Warriors (200 pts)
    • 20x Gauss flayer


5x Deathmarks (60 pts)

10x Lychguard (170 pts)
    • 10x Hyperphase sword and dispersion shield

3x Ophydian Destroyers (80 pts)
  • Plasmacyte

6x Skorpekh Destroyers (180 pts)
  • 2x Plasmacyte

3x Tomb Blades (75 pts)
    • 3x Twin tesla carbine
    • 3x Shieldvanes, 3x Shadowloom

1x Canoptek Doomstalker (140 pts)

1x Monolith (400 pts)
• 4x Death ray

1x Triarch Stalker (110 pts)
• 1x Heat ray

1x Triarch Stalker (110 pts)
• 1x Heat ray

 Close attention will reveal a couple of changes from the previous iteration. The Deathmarks found themselves back in the bucket at the last minute, as a replacement for the unsatisfactory Cryptothralls, and one of the Stalkers (the one with its front leg on upside down) was benched to make way for a Royal Warden and a reshuffle of Enhancement technology.

These modifications were necessary due to the Diagramming Phase. Once I had the mission pack in hand, I forced myself to come up with an actual plan for setting up aggressively and scoring those primary objective points. The tools I needed were present: three units that could Scout, four that could Deep Strike, two with an extra move available in the shooting phase and two melee brawlers with a guaranteed 6" advance for staging and claiming.

To be absolutely sure I played to the plan, I forswore the random draw of Tactical Objectives each turn and went for the Fixed approach. Engage On All Fronts was an easy pick for this army, which wants to spread out and has a bunch of cheap units to drop into this quarter or that: establishing board presence is a problem I need to work on, so picking up 2-4 VP a turn for doing that seemed like a good reward. 

I changed tack with the other secondary objective after the first round: Behind Enemy Lines seems easy but led me to make poor choices about relocating units on order to score it. Instead, I went for Storm Hostile Objective. More reward for doing things I should be doing anyway - identifying what my opponent controls and taking it off them with extreme prejudice.

Let's see how that worked out for me. 

Round I - #3 Seed You Say?

Mission: Take and Hold, on Search and Destroy deployment

 Plan: So, the bronze diamonds indicate my "castle" units - Doomstalker, Monolith, and Deathmarks. They want to be set up somewhere they can see onto more than one objective (sight lines are indicated in purple), and hold onto the one in my deployment zone. The bronze triangles are my "brawler" units - Skorpekhs, Lychguard, and Warriors. These are the ones I've designed to hustle onto objectives and keep control. The Immortals and Ophydians will always be Deep Striking, and the Scouts can go anywhere in response to opposition deployment, with an eye to pushing onto objectives early and threatening Overwatch.

I immediately stuffed this one when I realised the Monolith couldn't set up in that top left space (its base is closer to 6" than 5") and had it take a central spot instead, lurking behind the big L. This would have worked if I'd had the foresight to set something up in the ruins out front and screen it, but - well, you'll see.

Opponent: Stoo from the club "Sheds of the Grimdark." Stoo's #3 position on the Molten Crown leaderboard and arrival with a team shirt and custom accessories filled me with almost as much foreboding as his army list:

Grampa Eldrad's bag 'o' jank 
Aeldari: Aspect Host

Eldrad Ulthran (110 Points)
  • Warlord

Fuegan (120 Points)

Jain Zar (105 Points)

Lhykhis (120 Points)

Maugan Ra (100 Points)


Corsair Voidreavers (65 Points)
  • 1x Voidreaver Felarch
     ◦ 1x Mistshield
     ◦ 1x Neuro disruptor
     ◦ 1x Power sword
  • 4x Corsair Voidreaver
     ◦ 1x Blaster
     ◦ 3x Power sword

Storm Guardians (100 Points)
  • 10x Storm Guardian
     ◦ 2x Flamer
     ◦ 2x Fusion gun
     ◦ 2x Power sword
  • 1x Serpent’s Scale Platform


Wave Serpent (125 Points)
  • 1x Shuriken cannon
  • 1x Twin bright lance
  • 1x Wraithbone hull


Dark Reapers (90 Points)
  • 1x Dark Reaper Exarch
     ◦ 1x Tempest launcher
  • 4x Dark Reaper

Falcon (130 Points)
  • 1x Bright lance
  • 1x Pulse laser

Fire Dragons (220 Points)
  • 1x Fire Dragon Exarch
     ◦ 1x Exarch’s Dragon fusion gun
  • 9x Fire Dragon

Howling Banshees (95 Points)
  • 1x Howling Banshee Exarch
     ◦ 1x Executioner
  • 4x Howling Banshee

Howling Banshees (95 Points)
  • 1x Howling Banshee Exarch
     ◦ 1x Executioner
  • 4x Howling Banshee

Rangers (55 Points)
  • 5x Ranger

Shining Spears (110 Points)
  • 1x Shining Spear Exarch
     ◦ 1x Shimmershield
     ◦ 1x Shuriken cannon
     ◦ 1x Star lance
  • 2x Shining Spear

Swooping Hawks (85 Points)
  • 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch
     ◦ 1x Exarch’s lasblaster
  • 4x Swooping Hawk

Swooping Hawks (85 Points)
  • 1x Swooping Hawk Exarch
     ◦ 1x Exarch’s lasblaster
  • 4x Swooping Hawk

Warp Spiders (95 Points)
  • 1x Warp Spider Exarch
     ◦ 1x Powerblade array
  • 4x Warp Spider

Warp Spiders (95 Points)
  • 1x Warp Spider Exarch
     ◦ 1x Death weavers
     ◦ 1x Spinneret rifle
  • 4x Warp Spider

 Your eyes do not deceive you, those are four Phoenix Lords and the Farseer of Ulthwé, rumours of whose death are greatly exaggerated. Stoo was clearly loaded for bear, and I am at my most dangerous a mildly vexed otter. I came into this one expecting to be blown away and was not disappointed, but what surprised me was the post-game chat. 

 Stoo turned out to be a thoroughly pleasant geezer, and as we'd wrapped things up in the third round we had time to talk things over. I said I'd seen his list and known I was onto a loser, and he said he'd seen mine and thought "this could be terrifying." In his opinion, all I'd needed to do to change the result was set my Monolith up in that rear position, right at the back of my deployment zone, and then Rapid Ingress it somewhere useful once his Fire Dragons were committed.

What I'd actually done is fail to occupy the ruin immediately in front of the Monolith, which meant those Fire Dragons were able to whoosh right out of their Wave Serpent and unload so much hot melta death that no amount of 4+ Invulnerable saves could stop them. They went on to do the same thing to my Doomstalker and one of my Stalkers, using the Aeldari "extra suite of stratagems" army rules to safely tuck themselves away in the Serpent each time when they were done.

This isn't to say that I totally gave the game away or anything. My aggressive "advance the brawlers" plan did deliver Stalkers and then Skorpekhs/Lychguard onto two objectives. It's just that Aeldari mobility is sufficient that they can concentrate three or four squads' worth of firepower wherever they want it in any given turn: you're always going to be focused down, and that's not what Necrons really want as it makes the Reanimation Protocols do nothing. 

 

Just beyond this rather nice shot of my Lychguard scoring points like champions, there's a unit of Warp Spiders and another of Howling Banshees with their respective Phoenix Lords. Didn't really think I could fight my way through all that, so in desperation, I picked up the Lychguard with Hyperphasing and dumped them into Stoo's back line, where they'd at least score me Behind Enemy Lines.

Our ongoing conversation took in the difference between Crusade and Matched play, the fundamental psychology of playing to say yes, let the cool thing happen vs. no, you can't have nice things. I don't look for opportunities to make units untargetable or wrap tanks so their passengers can't disembark, and while I could probably train myself to do that, I don't want to. I worry it'll become a habit, and as I said on the day, these tournaments are really my rep/variety games and my actual priority is putting up a decent fight in Crusade.

But on the day I was at a tournament, and I resolved to give Stoo's nefarious game plan a try. After all, he was the #3 seed, and he would go on to take second place today.

Lunch impended, and with it the player-voted painting prize stakes. I left my Necrons out since they have had some nice things said about them, and then I saw the other Necron player's army and knew I shouldn't have bothered.

 I also saw (and voted for) some gorgeous oil-washed Space Wolves. Look at the panel lining on those. The almost animatic crispness. The way the dark oil works with the sculpts to imply detail. The fine freehand on Grimnar's axe that shows this painter can do the fiddly stuff if they feel like it, and all of this is a choice. The vibrancy of the base tufts. Dang, son.

 If I didn't get to play into the Chaos Knights whose pilot I'd been having lunch with (Ry, if you're reading this - hit me up, we'll get that game in on our own time), I thought, I'd love to play into these.

Round II - There Are Welshmen on Fenris

Request granted, says the universe. You're welcome.

Mission: Linchpin, on Crucible of Battle deployment. 

 

 

Plan: As you can see from the map, this one adds a new element to the decision making process: the YELLOW LINE OF DEATH, that being a line of sight from a ruin in my opponent's deployment zone straight into mine, along which I can be seen and, potentially, not see. It would be imperative to avoid standing in that. 

You will also observe the presence of the "castle" units in mid-field, as that central objective affords nice juicy sight lines right across no-mans-land while also being snug between two ruins that restrict outflanking attempts to melee (and now we've learned how to place our melee units in ruins to protect our big tank, haven't we, scarabs?).

Opponent: A man I shall refer to here as the late Latey Mc LateFace. It's not his fault. He went into town for pizza, daring the rat run of Abergavenny's tangled through road, and prevailed not. Did mean we were playing this round on a chess clock though, with his set twenty minutes shorter. Anyway, he was playing the gorgeous Space Wolves who I couldn't not vote for Best Painted.

Doggy Style
Space Wolves: Saga of the Beastslayer

Arjac Rockfist (105 points)

Bjorn the Fell-Handed (170 points)

Iron Priest (60 points)

Lieutenant with Combi-weapon (70 points)

Logan Grimnar (110 points)
  • Warlord

Ragnar Blackmane (100 points)

Wolf Guard Battle Leader (80 points)
  • Enhancement: Helm of the Beastslayer

Wolf Priest (85 points)
  • Enhancement: Wolf-touched


Blood Claws (135 points)
  • 1x Blood Claw Pack Leader
    • 1x Plasma pistol
      1x Power weapon
  • 9x Blood Claw

Intercessor Squad (80 points)
  • 1x Intercessor Sergeant
    • 1x Astartes grenade launcher
  • 4x Intercessor


Impulsor (80 points)
  • 1x Shield Dome
 
  
Gladiator Lancer (160 points)
  • 1x Icarus rocket pod
    1x Ironhail heavy stubber
    2x Storm bolter

Thunderwolf Cavalry (115 points)
  • 1x Thunderwolf Cavalry Pack Leader
  • 2x Thunderwolf Cavalry

Wolf Guard Headtakers (110 points)
  • 3x Wolf Guard Headtaker
  • 3x Hunting Wolves

Wolf Guard Terminators (170 points)
  • 1x Wolf Guard Terminator Pack Leader
    • 1x Relic greataxe
  • 4x Wolf Guard Terminator
      4x Storm Shield

Wolf Guard Terminators (170 points)
  • 1x Wolf Guard Terminator Pack Leader
    • 1x Master-crafted power weapon
      1x Storm bolter
  • 4x Wolf Guard Terminator
    • 1x Assault cannon
      3x Master-crafted power weapon
      1x Power fist
      3x Storm bolter

Wulfen with Storm Shields (200 points)
  • 10x Wulfen
    • 10x Death Totem

Lots of Deep Strike (two Terminator units with Logan and Arjac attached to them), and a battle bus for Ragnar and the Headtakers to ride around in. No time to faff around either, with a clock in play, so we got right to it!

My first turn was very quiet, with the Monolith parked in the back per Stoo's recommendation, but coming into my second I was able to go loud, throwing my Immortals out through its Eternity Gate and deleting the hunting wolves, along with about half the Blood Claws.

 I also found a nice spot into which to relocate my Doomstalker, where it could take backshots at the Gladiator and keep that honest.

 On the top left objective, my Lychguard completed operation "advance through multiple walls and be a right bugger to kill" with the Tomb Blades running support for them. Didn't manage to do anything to Ragnar's battle bus with my Overlord, but that's OK...

Surprise play! Pulling the surviving Lychguard out with Hyperphasic Recall and hiding them by the Monolith, I put them and the Immortals into hyperspace. Once Ragnar and the boys had committed to the centre, the Monolith drove forwards, disgorged the Lychguard, and Dimensional Corridor'd them into Ragnar's face. Across two battle rounds, so My Will Be Done was in full effect and it only cost two command points. I'm quite pleased with this cheeky little move, and having typed it out, I now understand why people say current 40K is "like a TCG." It's the wombo combo nature of describing the plays, with everything having a Proper Noun attached to it.

(As you can see, the Skorpekhs are still staging, waiting for the right moment to jump out and blend something. It's coming.)

The Doomstalker is gone, relocated to put its nice big damage 3 gun where the Terminators are (in my deployment zone - nice play from the late Mr. McLateFace, who picked up something like seven victory points from landing Logan just so and scoring Recover Assets and Sabotage in one go). Instead, the Ophidians have arrived and are attempting their "go turn" with Devastating Wounds thanks to their Plasmacyte. It didn't work out, and Bjorn the Fell-Handed came out to blend them into small post-Ophidian chunks a turn later.

This is where the photography peters out. We were both feeling the time pressure, and also, I was looking at a win. The Monolith was still active, and had blasted Ragnar's Impulsor and a bunch of Arjac's Terminators off the board. The Lychguard might not have been able to Ragnar's charge, but a Heroic Intervention from my Skorpekhs ensured that they didn't have to. On my turn the Skorpekhs turned left, powered toward the Wulfen, and did much the same thing to them, securing me control of no-mans-land and... wait for it...

My first win in six months.

Mr. McLateFace gave credit where it's due: I thanked him for letting me break my streak and he commended me on a good, tight game. Turned out it was his first tournament ever, and he'd had a blast so far. He would go on to take the Spoon of Destiny (and also Wood), but we'll be seeing him again. 

Round Three: I Saw Something Narsty in the Woodshed

No time to dawdle, let's get into the action!

Mission: Terraform, on Sweeping Engagement deployment.

 Plan: This deployment gets a bit messy, with two Yellow Lines of Death to avoid and a lot of potential attack vectors from the bottom right if one happens to be, say, a Monolith that nudges forward into that ruin to start blastin', or even hyperphases onto the bottom right objective. (That's why one of those purple lines crosses a ruin, which it shouldn't do: if the Monolith is further forward that lane becomes open onto the centre objective, and if it doesn't it has partial sight up the yellow line of death next to it, and I was trying to indicate both. This has been an unnecessarily pedantic explanation, but I know someone will call me on it if I don't.)

Opponent: We return to Sheds of the Grimdark to face down Paolo and the Leagues of Votann! I told Young Apprentice about this matchup, and he was very keen to know "who won and what was annoying please" as he's currently fine-tuning his own Space Dorfs. (Incidentally, he was busy picking up third place at Armies of Parade today - he had an airbrush in his birthday haul and has been revamping his Thousand Sons.) 

Votann 6
Leagues of Votann: Brandfast Oathband

Brôkhyr Iron-master (105 points)
    • Enhancement: Trivärg Cyber Implant
  • 1x Ironkin Assistant & 3 E-COGs

Buri Aegnirssen (110 points)

Einhyr Champion (70 points)
  • 1x Autoch-pattern combi-bolter
    1x Mass hammer
    1x Teleport Crest

Memnyr Strategist (45 points)

Ûthar the Destined (95 points)
  • Warlord


Hearthkyn Warriors (100 points)
  • 1x Theyn
    • 1x Autoch-pattern bolt pistol
      1x Autoch-pattern bolter
      1x Weavefield crest
  • 9x Hearthkyn Warrior
    • 7x Autoch-pattern bolter
      1x L7 missile launcher
      1x Magna-rail rifle


Sagitaur (95 points)
  • 1x HYLas beam cannon
    1x Twin bolt cannon


Brôkhyr Thunderkyn (160 points)
  • 6x Brôkhyr Thunderkyn
    • 6x Graviton blast cannon

Einhyr Hearthguard (135 points)
  • 1x Hesyr
    • 1x EtaCarn plasma gun
      1x Exoarmour grenade launcher
      1x Graviton hammer
      1x Weavefield crest
  • 4x Einhyr Hearthguard
    • 4x Concussion gauntlet
      4x EtaCarn plasma gun
      4x Exoarmour grenade launcher

Einhyr Hearthguard (135 points)
  • 1x Hesyr
    • 1x EtaCarn plasma gun
      1x Exoarmour grenade launcher
      1x Graviton hammer
      1x Weavefield crest
  • 4x Einhyr Hearthguard
    • 4x Concussion gauntlet
      4x EtaCarn plasma gun
      4x Exoarmour grenade launcher

Hekaton Land Fortress (240 points)
  • 1x MATR autocannon
    1x Panspectral Scanner
    1x SP heavy conversion beamer
    2x Twin bolt cannon

Hekaton Land Fortress (240 points)
  • 1x Heavy magna-rail cannon
    1x MATR autocannon
    1x Panspectral Scanner
    2x Twin bolt cannon

Hernkyn Yaegirs (90 points)
  • 1x Yaegir Theyn
    • 1x Bolt revolver
      1x Plasma knife
  • 9x Hernkyn Yaegir
    • 1x APM launcher
      8x Bolt revolver
      8x Plasma knife

Ironkin Steeljacks with Heavy Volkanite Disintegrators (180 points)
  • 1x Steeljack Theyn
    • 1x Heavy volkanite disintegrator
      1x Plasma knife
      1x Preymark Crest
  • 5x Ironkin Steeljack
    • 5x Heavy volkanite disintegrator
      5x Plasma knife

Ironkin Steeljacks with Melee Weapons (180 points)
  • 1x Steeljack Theyn
    • 1x Autoch-pattern bolter
      1x Concussion gauntlet
      1x Preymark Crest
  • 5x Ironkin Steeljack
    • 5x Autoch-pattern bolter
      5x Plasma sword

 Lots of the new toys apparent here! Now, up front, I'm going to say I thought this would be a weird game, as Paolo was straight down to business, minimum yapping, and I worried I was going to get my clock cleaned and not even a smile out of it. Nope - turns out, like Stoo in the first round, he's just focused, and saves the banter for after the scores are on the doors. We bonked heads a couple of times over rules but, as the man himself said, it's been a long fuckin' day and we're all wrong sometimes. Most Sporting Opponent went here because he was such a nice surprise, and allowed me a couple of takebacks early but knew where to draw the line - fair enough, he'd set up the Overwatch trap and I needed to play around it.

 I came into this one riding high and determined to test the dorfs' defences early. Aggressive deployment and movement of my scouting units on the left cleaned out the Hernkyn and gave me the leftmost objective and an early Storm Hostile score; the Skorpekhs awaited their moment on the middle one while the Warriors advanced forward to cover it from the narrower ruin.

So glad I didn't saddle myself with Behind Enemy Lines with these two parked and giving each other crossfire. It was going to make Storm Hostile Objective a bit tricky later on, but hopefully we'd have some back and forth in the middle, especially if I played it cagey with the Skorpekhs for a bit.

 Paolo's counterattack came in the form of a Sagittaur that proved harder to kill than I'd like, and Buri Withanidonhisbackson. I had to keep the Tomb Blades committed around this objective to match the OC score here, but zipping and zapping off was more Storm Hostile points. Can't argue with that.

 Paolo's melee Steeljacks took the centre objective and my Skorpekhs took them, barrelling out through the ruins and carving them up. Ain't no robot solidarity when there's points on the line.

 Sadly, this is the part where I lost the game. This was the bottom of round three, and I still had control. Then Paolo disembarked the contents of the Hekatons, and... I did not have control any more.

 The Steeljacks, in the first picture, killed off my Skorpekhs and posed a nasty Overwatch threat that meant my Warriors had to shoot-and-scoot backwards or suffer the same fate. The Brokhyr, in the second picture, pointed those big scary graviton guns at an already damaged Monolith (it had eaten two rounds from their Hekaton's magna-rail cannon) and vapourised it. Turns out when you wound any vehicle in the game on threes, and deal a flat three damage with each of your many many shots, very little can stand up to you.

Meanwhile, the Hekatons and Hearthkyn cleaned out everything else, leaving me with a Plasmancer and a Doomstalker holding my home objective, a Warrior brick with no lines of sight, and an Overlord cowering in the ruins with his last two bodyguards. 

(They'd taken a lot of battering from the Hekatons early on, and by the time I'd remembered and started to say they're harder to wound if there's a character leading them, Paolo had already finished one set of attacks and was on to the second. My bad, and I was much more on top of modifiers and maluses for the rest of the game.)

Anyway, I mentioned that round four is where I lost the game. We played on, as I could notch up a few more points from the survivors and potentially grab that top left objective back. Hyperphasing the Warriors and Plasmancer across the table, with Reanimation Crypts sticking their lost wounds back on, I picked up the Deep Striking Hearthkyn with point blank Doomstalker fire and landed my surviving infantry overlooking Buri on the top left objective. 

He'd died in a tragic Triarch Stalker explosion the turn before, but it turns out he's a stubborn bugger and you need to kill him twice. It also turned out that shooting him allows him a reactive move, any number of times in a turn, and he can use those moves to tag things in melee. I'm not at all mad that the older Codices like mine don't get to do things like that and are stuck with "move closer so you can get countercharged more easily." Not at all.

Anyway, I messed up the order of activations here and had to try and kill Buri in melee with a Plasmancer and a bunch of Warriors. It wasn't happening, and they stayed locked off the objective I'd been hoping to Storm. That's a twelve point swing right there, which wouldn't have been enough to win me the game but would have taken it to a 55-69 (nice) loss.

If I'd thought, once the Monolith was damaged, that maybe Hyperphasing it across the board away from the Brokhyr might have been a good idea, I'd probably have been able to deal with the middle and left objective much more easily, and I could have squeaked a win.

Still. Bloody good game, and not as much of a kicking as the final scores indicate: I was still in it, right up until I wasn't, and I know what I could have done to fix that.

Debrief

 

I came into this little local RTT looking to address the problems with my primary objective game and, barring the first round where all I did was hold home and teleport off stuff before I could score it, I did that. Even in defeat, I scored more points than in my best game at the Doubles, and of course, there's the small matter of playing one actually decent game in the middle there and taking home a W! I managed to keep the Monolith alive for one game, and identified (with some help) how to wrangle it better, which is nice, and I'm confident that most of the tech I picked for the army is the right stuff. 

That's not to say I won't make a few changes. The Deathmarks were useless as ever, and their gradual disintegration as physical models makes me less and less inclined to forgive them. The Osteoclave Fulcrum was likewise not the right pick for my Overlord: in practice I have enough ways to relocate him and his crew and Deep Strike doesn't do anything normal reserve rules can't. 

Dropping both of those makes space in the army for a Hexmark Destroyer, who can play a lot more tricks with free overwatch and counterfire if defending the home objective, and is also small enough that hyperphasing them around to score the fourth point from Engage On All Fronts is a lot easier.

I'm also happy with the choice of Fixed objectives. People say Tactical yields more points over a game, and they're right; people say Tactical builds responsiveness and flexibility as skills, and they're right. But I'm not there yet, and arguably I don't want to be there. My strategic goal in all of this is to play people and armies I don't usually see at club, and to improve my primary game so I can put up a better show in Crusade. Crusade, where you have a primary objective and two Agendas that you've chosen. Sound familiar?

Fixed Objectives are closer to what I know and enjoy already, and in my teaching days, I learned all about zones of proximal development - basically, starting from what you know and push in one direction at a time. From where I'm at, picking secondary objectives that force me to play the primary objective better is doing just that.

Drawing out the diagrams definitely helped, as uncomfortably sweaty as it might seem. The fact is, wargames are most often decided at deployment, and so having a plan for the layout - more than that, teaching myself where to look for sight lines and how to hide units in the early game so I can do it on the more freeform Crusade tables - helps me get the game I want, where I was actually beaten as opposed to just losing. 

On top of all this, I think I deserve a brownie point for not melting down or snapping back at anyone all day. The flask of weak blackcurrant drink proved crucial to this, as did remembering to sink my brain medication, but I'd like to think some of my behaviour can be put up to management in the moment and choosing to feel good about things. And I do feel good about things. I have spent ten hours doing something I enjoy. I now have no voice, sore feet, and I'm shattered, but that's the price we pay.

Now, time to stick those bastard Deathmarks back together.