Control: Tournament Results, Again

So I, Dalton Lewis, stayed up for twenty-four hours yesterday. I woke up around midnight after taking my nighttime meds early on the evening before. I watched some Starcraft 2 — IEM Katowice was this weekend, and it marked one of the biggest tournaments of the year. I watched the pros play — terran got buffed and was more effective this year. I worked out, pushing myself to do twenty-five exhaustive minutes on the exercise bike. I felt drained but stronger and faster afterwards.

Around seven am an uber took me to Highland Park. I rode in silence and made it to my destination: Dunkin Donuts. I ordered a muffin because donuts are forbidden. They are bad because I weigh 300 pounds and that’s way too much. I ate two muffins — way too much food — and sat there, waiting until eight fifteen. Then Philip showed up in his car and moved his car food into the back seat. I put my wargaming miniatures into his back seat and got into the front seat. I gave him his bagel — everything bagel with cream cheese. He started to eat and ignored the hot chocolate that I had bought him. He grabbed gas and a Gatorade and began to drive us an hour and a half southwest to a gaming store. We talked as we went, discussing life and death and art and wargaming. We made it to the event with ten minutes to spare.

Game one: my chaos knights versus tyranids. I played someone I had lost to before. He had a lot of little guants, hive guard hidden in a building, and genestealers, a trygon, and three hive tyrants in reserve. I sat my knights and discolords on objectives for the first two turns and got a strong early lead. Then his heavy hitters dropped in, and the game started to get out of hand. I began to shoot my huge knights at his heavy-hitting units instead of his units that sat on objectives. He built a large late-game lead as he sat his little guys on objectives all over the board. I lost 24–16 but wasn’t wiped out or anything — I could have done worse.

Game one: loss.

Game two: my chaos knights versus astra militarum, aka imperial guard. My opponent apologized at the beginning and explained that he hadn’t played very many games since returning to the hobby. He had played a long time ago and wasn’t used to the new rules. He said that he was giving Pask, his tank commander, a relic.

“You can’t give Pask a relic,” I said. “He’s a named character.”

“You can,” he said. He was wrong. It irked me; being right and not winning an argument pisses me off.

I went to the tournament organizers. They ruled in my favor. We began the game. He went first and immediately killed a knight. I was pissed. I began to shoot at his tanks.

“They have cover,” he said. “More than fifty percent obscured.”

“You need to be in cover to have cover,” I said.

“Not with tanks,” he said.

I gave him that one even though he might have been wrong. I continued to play. I killed two of the three Lemann Russ tanks that were causing so much trouble. He dropped in veterans with plasma and double shot the plasma even though he was more than twelve inches out. I finished off the Baneblade, but he had too many people on objectives. I needed more dakka to finish off his little guys.

Game two: loss.

I talked to Philip after the game.

“You need to be in cover to be in cover,” he said. “And plasma doesn’t double shot unless he’s within twelve inches. And he had to have written on his sheet in order to have the anti-chaos strategem. Did he have it written on his sheet?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“He cheated,” Philip said. “You got cheated. It happens. He isn’t new. He lied to you.”

Oh.

I got scammed. It happens. People get scammed.

Game three: my chaos knights versus drukhari, aka the dark elves. He was a frustrated player towards the bottom of the tournament win-loss record. So was I. We began to play. I got first turn because knights have fewer drops. I destroyed vehicles very quickly because that’s what thermal knights do. He got upset when his archon died very quickly. He got madder and madder as the game continued. I managed to learn my lesson: I sat on the objectives and stopped him from sitting on objectives. I managed to win the game.

Game three: win.

I went 1–2 and was around fifteenth or so out of twenty-two people. I learned a lot and had fun. That tournament showed me a lot of people, good and bad, and I learned a lot. Philip got second place after winning all three games. A tau player won first place with a great list. I rode home in Philip’s car but became moody and withdrawn because of mental issues related to my schizophrenia. Philip felt upset because driving home for an hour and a half is a nightmare. I made it home around midnight and took my meds an hour later. I went to bed after a long and fulfilling day.

Thanks, and take care, friends.