Match Up/ Player intro
In this match Zack (me) plays Jack, for a show down of the acks. Its novitiate into legionaries again. At this point I spent a good 2-4 hours looking over each team in the top 8 since we had a day in between rounds. I’m hopping for legionaries and intercession who make up about 50% of the top 8. These two match ups I have a lot of practice into and liken my odds to maybe a 40-60% win chance versus almost any player.
These make up I think half of the top 8 going into day 2. So me getting this matchup is definitely how we would write it up if I was going to somehow win the event. (a man can dream)
I think everyone with a 3-0 record comes into game 1 day 2 serious about our chances at a top spot in the tournament. I’m sat at table 1… I kind of cant believe it for my first tournament, but I try to let it all wash over me as we get into the game.
disclaimer: This was my first game of the day, our pace of play was pretty fast, and I just pretty much forgot to take any pictures for this entry will be pretty much all text. the cover photo is the only photo I remembered to snap.
Map
Never going to guess this one… junction
Mission
Loot
Tactical Operations
Novitiates
Reconsecrate ground
Secure vantage
Recover item
Legionary
Rob and ran sack?
??
??
Barricades
I feel like I have this down at this point I’m able to place these bad boys to a millimeter of what I want them.
Map Thoughts:
Map selection for this is random, the tables have been moved around for day 2 and I just happen to sit down at another table the happens to have the same objective map set up… there’s actually a really great software development story about how the ipod version 1 would make its album shuffle truly random and in doing so people would always pick out a patten in the same selection of songs. Now adays shuffle on Spotify, apple music etc is no longer truly random as people will always ascribe pattens to random selection.
this is mentioned at the end of this article here
this is mentioned at the end of this article here
Operative Setup
Operatives are set up almost entirely the same way as my game 3, as im going into pretty much the same team with the same set of operatives.
Scouting
I choose infiltrate
I believe my opponent chooses infiltrate as well?
Turning Point One
I hand initiative over to my opponent and make some very passive moves, keeping most of my operatives in conceal, looking for explosive activations only at the end of the turning point.
My opponent moves forward to begin capturing some points and setting up for charges turn 2.
My strategic patience is rewarded though, the last two activations of the turn are my flamer move, dash shooting into my opponents anointed, then my penitent getting off a crazy krak grenade bringing the heavy gunner down to 3 wounds.
We end the round 10 operatives to 6, but im not so sure this is reflective of how the next firefight phase will begin. That said my opponent has brought Nurgle, so injury is pretty much non-existent.
Turning Point Two
I win initiative, and both me and my opponent think this is going to pull me into a commanding lead.
I use the ploy defenders of the faith, and im able to confirm kills onto both the anointed and the heavy gunner before the turn starts in Ernest.
Then I activate my penitent and can confirm a 3rd kill on a charge. All of a sudden novitiates take the operative count to 10-3 in the span of one activation.
I use the ploy defenders of the faith, and im able to confirm kills onto both the anointed and the heavy gunner before the turn starts in Ernest.
Then I activate my penitent and can confirm a 3rd kill on a charge. All of a sudden novitiates take the operative count to 10-3 in the span of one activation.
My opponent gets one activation to look and try to confirm a kill with shooting
Then its back to my flamer with improved profile that eliminates a 4th Legionary.
Turning Point Three and Four
We play out the rest of the game, but a 7-8 operative advantage is just crushing. The result of the game is 23-7 for the novitiates bring me into the quarter finals.
After Action Thoughts
These two Legionary teams were both dispatched by Novitiates pretty commandingly, but the plays that led to this aren’t large mistakes. Rather what made this games tilt toward novs was small details of movement, positioning and operative to operative match up.
Another thing to consider for this match up is the flamer damage has changed alot due to the last data slate and many legionary players have not faced a nov team since their damage reduction change. This means plays that might have been considered very safe and no longer.
also like I said in the last game write up: I think its hard to play a (correctly balanced) popular team, there are over 20 teams to know with shifting rules. While the majority of my games make up legionary, intersession and Komandos, many of my opponents haven’t played a novitiate team in months.
also like I said in the last game write up: I think its hard to play a (correctly balanced) popular team, there are over 20 teams to know with shifting rules. While the majority of my games make up legionary, intersession and Komandos, many of my opponents haven’t played a novitiate team in months.
All that is to say, this match up is won and lost on very small details, some of which have changed very recently. The scores of these games I think fail to reflect how close the games might have been.