Friday, August 1, 2014

So Much Sparkle!


Fucking Peter.  

Oh wait, I am getting ahead of myself.  Let’s go back to the beginning.
On July 27, a group of five Black Sheep made the journey to Seattle to partake in the Sparkle Party Deathmatch, a 2999 point Warhammer Fantasy Battle tourney hosted by the Dimensional Cascade podcast.  I have been burned out on Warhammer for the past couple of months, but as I had purchased the ticket prior to my doldrums, I found myself travelling with the rest of the Black Sheep that morning.

For the event, I threw a quick list together, the centerpiece being an Exalted Great Unclean One, which was represented by Taylor’s Forgeworld Great Unclean One model, which he was kind enough to trust me with.     I also ran a regular Big Poppa with a full kit, as my goal was to take double poppas.   The rest of my army consisted of a stone throwing Soul Grinder, a BSB on palanquin, three beasts of Nurgle, two units of plaguebearers, and unit of nurglings.    As the paintjob on my army was merely adequate, I knew that I needed to overachieve with Generalship in order to score well in the overall rankings.  

I started out strong, winning my first game against an Empire army.  My opponent was a really nice guy and took his bad luck and my totally bent poppa super squad in stride.   I wish I remember his name, but I forgot to write it down.  I believe his name was Jonathan or Michael, unfortunately I don't remember, and he was a Seattle local.   The game saw a steam tank get carved up by Exalted Poppa and his Balesword.  Then his Hurricanum was smashed to bits by a Soul Grinder hit, and his forces slowly started dwindling.   He had some bad luck with his demigryffs not being able to handle the unit of beasts and his knights getting eaten by the Little Big Poppa.   Through it all, he was cheerful and was a really awesome opponent.  My score after this onslaught was 25-0.

My next opponent was Anthony, another Seattle local, and his great looking Daemons of Khorne army.   Anthony started out apprehensive about his chances, but I figured his two cannons could help even the odds.  It quickly looked like his prediction was the more valid, as I was able to steal the initiative from him and gain the first turn.   I was able to move into some strong positions and then passed turn.   He whiffed with his two cannons, which became a theme of the game as he constantly rolled 1’s when rolling to wound with those bad boys.   The Exalted Great Unclean One handled a unit of Bloodcrushers and Bloodletters together and Little Poppa brought down billy the bloodthirster and then helped finish the job on the Bloodletters.   When we finally called the game, I was only missing 5 models from my army, and Anthony had a cannon left and a few units of Hounds which forgot to ambush my forces.       I felt bad for him as he didn’t have a very enjoyable game.  His army couldn’t focus enough damage to weaken my forces and he couldn’t get really any rolls to go his way.   I could tell he was frustrated, but he was a great opponent and took the loss well.    By end of the second round, I was sitting at 50 general points and ready to play for Best General.


Originally in the third round I was set up to play the eventual Overall Champion and his dwarf army.   Then the event organizers threw us a curveball and redid the match ups and I found my self playing Peter Davis, a member of the Canadian team Chop!, and his skink cloud Lizardmen.     A little background on Peter’s and my history;  two years ago, we matched up at the Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge, him with his lizards, and me with the Nurgle boys.   During that game he feathered my great unclean one with 20+ poison shots and took poppa down.   It was an awesome game and he was just as awesome an opponent.  

Back to the present.   I was looking for some vengeance and this time I brought not one, but two Great Unclean Ones, and they wanted some skink blood.    We began the game with some posturing, mother insults, and the usual trash talk.   Both of us were looking forward to a fun game and it didn’t disappoint.   He was ahead of me on points leading into the end of the final turn, but not enough to make a difference in the best general race as the difference was almost at a draw level.   Pete then went all in shoving two units into my Exalted Great Unclean one, praying for his destruction as it would send it over the top.   At that point in the game, Super Big Poppa only had six wounds left and it looked like I would be able to survive the combat, but then Pete managed to drop 8 wounds on him, and I made 2 saves.   Game over.   With a yell of “CHOOOPP!!!” Peter won the game, and Best General.   He also earned my Favorite Opponent vote.   

I was knocked down to 5th in the Best General Rankings and took 16th overall.   I had a great time at the Sparkle Party Deathmatch and will definitely make the trip again in the future.   Why would I not with all the great opponents that were there?
But until then,

Fucking Peter.