Crimson Sundown

Maybe we can bring back the light

I have a lot going on right now.  Anyone who knows me personally or follows my Twitter account, knows this to be true.  After the epic Convention month of March as I have been running around like a crazy man, I have most certainly earned a break from the madness.  So how will I relax?  By setting up a LAN Party.

Thanks to the awesomeness that is Steam Dan we have started preparations to start up a LAN / Hamachi gaming group.  Translation, all of the friends in our group are going to get together and play a crap load of video games.  Honestly, nothing could be bad about this prospect.

In response to this idea and while trying to figure out what our first event would be, I have composed a Co-Op competition that I believe would be a crap load of fun.  What follows below is the structure that I have setup.  The basis of this idea, is my attempt to get some Co-Op gaming in, along with some multiplayer team fun.  I also want something that will take up most of the night / weekend and has stats.  It is with all of that in mind, that I have decided to go with a L4D marathon.

Here is the setup in my head, along with the requirements.

Requirements

• An absolute number of 8 people.
• Each of these 8 people must have Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 (combined total of $70 on Steam)
• Each person must have, or be provided a computer that can play said games.
• Each person must never grow tired of killing zombies

The Marathon

1. Of the 8 Players we have, for fun purposes we pull names out of a hat.  First person picked, gets to pick their survivor of choice.  Then second person from the hat chooses from the remaining survivors, and so on until all 8 players have a survivor.

   This will be their survivor for the rest of the marathon, until the Grand Finale.  Players should note that once they pick that survivor, it will determine whether they are playing L4D or L4D2 for the rest of the day.  Choose wisely!

2. Once we have our two groups of 4 survivors, those teams will split up and boot up their game of choice.
3. From there, each group will go through the process of playing through every single Campaign that is available in L4D / L4D2 from the beginning until the end.  Every single map will be played (difficulty being determined), and if the group dies at some point, they will restart that map until they finish it.
4. Stats are tracked at the end of each campaign segment and we will be using that information to dole out points to exceptional survivors.  A full list of stats and point values are still being determined but this information is available after a campaign is completed so it will be readily available.
5. At the end of each survivor group finishing their game, all the point values will be tallied up and the top two survivors from L4D and the top two from L4D2 will be selected as the winners of their campaigns.

The Showdown

1. The 2 L4D winners and 2 L4D2 winners will now combine and play an assortment of L4D and L4D2 multiplayer modes.  When possible, the winners will use their survivors.  If their survivors are not available because we switch games, they will flip a coin for the other two available survivors.
2. The other 4 players will be playing as infected and their goal will be to get the most points and survivor kills possible.  While you are out of the running for top survivor, you can now get top infected!
3. Stats will once again be compiled (point system pending), and at the end of a still to be determined amount of multiplayer games, a winner will be announced for both Survivors and Infected.

That’s my idea and plan.  What does everyone thing?!

The first weekend of March was a very interesting time for me.  After the snow storms that had ravaged the state of New Jersey, but before the rain and flooding that sought to wash it all away, we mighty few Champions of North Jersey once again descended on the southern part of the state to take part in more Warhammer 40k for Paul’s Basement League.  This was officially the third weekend of games for PBL Season 2, and the competition is quickly starting to heat up.

I came into the weekend sporting a record of 2 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie.  Solid start, but this week was going to really make or break my chances to win the league.  Was lucky enough to fit in two games this week, and I am proud to say that I came away with two victories.  My first game was against one of my best friends, tQ and his Imperial Guard.  We played Pitched deployment with Seize Ground Objectives, and the end result was 4-0 in favor of me.  It sounds like a lot but the game was very close, and also had a little bit of a friendly controversy.  For a specific rundown of the game, Read the Battle Report at tQ Studios.

We both forgot some special rules and weapon upgrades that we had, and so the game might have turned out differently.  tQ and I though are good sports and thankfully no bad feelings were exchanged and we really look forward to the next game!  Even with all of that though, I learned some nice pointers from the match.

• 1750 points is where my army starts to really sing.  Gives me 2 more Zoanthropes for more consistant tank busting, and all my Monstorous Creatures gain regeneration.  Just makes my balanced list more durable.
• Tried out the Harpy and I really like it.  It gives me yet another Flying Monstrous Creature with a twin-linked Venom Cannon / Regeneration for less points than a Carnifex.  Fits in with my reliance on flying bugs.  Also, Hive Guard did well, but I will need to not run squads of one each, run one squad of 2 for redundancy.
• Outflanking Genestealers continue to impress.  Giving a squad of Hormagaunts outflank via the Hive Tyrants special rule is also great.  Might have to give that ability to a squad of Tyranid Warriors in the future.

After my match with the Imperial Guard, I played my good friend Corey and his Bad Moon clan Orks at 1500pts level.  I pretty much played the same list as I did against Pedro.  You can read the full army list here.  Only difference from that list, is that I dropped the Venom Cannon Carnifex, replacing it with a Harpy and giving the Tervigon the psychic power to grant Feel No Pain.

The game for this game was once again a Pitched deployment which gave me the full field, and objective was simple Kill Points.  I had the first turn on this go around, and I used it to my full advantage.  I quickly rushed my full army up, keeping my Genestealers in reserve and deep striking the Trygon.  The first two turns were not pretty for Corey and da Ork Boyz, as I was able to destroy two trukks and one battlewagon and left many of his Orks having to footslog along the board.  Second turn got worse for Corey, as I was able to bring in my Trygon Prime and my Genestealers.  The Genestealers were able to quickly destroy his entire Loota squad, and the Trygon put some serious hurt on one of the Slugga Boy squads with his 12 shots.

Within the first two turns, I had tallied up about 6-7 kill points and had not given any up.  The rest of the game was much closer to that, and Corey quickly began to use his Power Klaws and his great number of close combat attacks to his advantage.  Second turn saw Corey get his Kommandos outflank in, but it took them two full turns to kill 3 Tyranid Warriors, and lost most of their squad in the process.  Even after they were able to kill the Warriors, they died in a hail of Termagaunt fire.

The Orks were also able to start inflicting some damage as Corey uses Ghazghull very effectively, taking out the Trygon, and Zonathrope in quick succession.  Even with the accompaniment of a Pain Boy and Nobz though, Ghazghull and that squad was just far too exposed in the middle of the table and was taken down in size due to small arms fire and then finally killed my the Genestealer Brood.  Making matters worse, was at the end game, Corey’s Stormboyz were just about to deep strike in, but landed on my Hive Tyrant.  This causes a mishap and I put the entire squad way in the corner and out of position.  Even though that squad eventually was able to kill the Tyrant, it had taken far too long to get to him and by that point the game was over.

Like any other battle, I learned a few things from this as well.

• I already knew that Orks were durable in close combat, but this game really proved that.  While my Tyranids are amazing in close combat, they simply don’t have enough attacks to wipe out an entire Ork squad, no matter what it is.  When the Orks eventually fight back, it’s just too many armor saves to make, and I will slowly lose.
• Having squads of 1 Hive Guard each, really hurt me in Kill Points.  Once the enemy gets them in close combat, despite their Toughness 6, I am essentially giving away Kill Points for free.  I will resolve this by keeping them closer to my Tervigon and his brood of Termaguants.
• The Trygon deep striking in is still working, but in a game like this, I simply lost him too quickly due to being too close to Power Klaws.  For a game against Orks, where their BS and weapons are really terrible, I should elect to keep him on the table and use his Fleet ability to get into position, and then open fire.  This will make sure he has smaller creatures to protect him, and open up close combat opportunities for him.

So at the end of the weekend I have been able to come away with 4 wins, 0 losses and 1 tie, gain some painting points, and am now up to 7 Hexes.  I need 10 Hexes to win, along with playing 8 different opponents.  Thus far I have played 5 different people so I’m close to being able to win soon, but the level of competition in PBL is far too great.  I expect a lot of close games coming up and I most certainly have a target on my back now so it’s going to be exceedingly difficult to win.  That being said, I’m just happy to get some good games in, and glad that my Army List and tactics are proving to be up to snuff.

[View with PicLens]