Review of my 2013-2014 Gaming Year

For those of you who used to read my blog over the years here and back at B&C, I benchmark the start of the gaming year at August 15+/-, coinciding with what had been the HardBoyz tournament prelims.  The following is my W/D/L record for the past four years, nearly all as 3rd Company Ultramarines.  

2013-2014 Record for Third Company: 19 Wins 1 Draws 11 Losses
2012-2013 Record for Third Company: 21 wins 3 Draws 17 Losses
2011-2012 Record for Third Company: 18 Wins 7 Draws 15 Losses
2010-2011 Record for Third Company: 35 Wins 10 Draws 30 Losses

As last year's blog post, I have normalized each year to get a measure of improvement, giving a win 3 quality points, a draw as 2 quality points, and a loss as 1 quality point. The game year averages then become:

2013-2014 QPS = 2.258
2012-2013 QPs = 2.097
2011-2012 QPs = 2.075
2010-2011 QPs = 2.066

The first thing that really sticks out is that I'm average (Still a solid "2") and improving. Pretty much on average every game could have been a win or loss. Anyone reading my reports could come up with the same conclusion.  Most of my games can hinge over a single deciding point or set of dice results, which remains for me, pretty cool.  I'd rather have fun games than one-sided struggles.  

Another way to normalize the data is as percentages:

2013-2014 = 61% W; 3% D; 36% L
2012-2013 = 51% W; 7% D; 41% L
2011-2012 = 45% W; 18% D; 38% L
2010-2011 = 47% W; 13% D; 40% L

Of course, one other aspect of the numbers above is also apparent...I've been playing in fewer games (still)...in part because life is very busy these days, and also some of my improvement is that I'm seeing fewer games vs my overall lifelong gaming nemesis, RippedDragon, and more Wednesday night casual games than "3-game tournament days".      

One other aspect is that I'll soon hopefully get my 100th Win as 3rd Company (I'm actually at 95 wins at the moment). You may recall that RippedDragon achieved the 100th victory mark with his Orks over 2 years ago in 5th Edition...

One aspect of course that I'm enjoying is that in 7th Edition, most recently, my Ultramarines have proven to be really good with Maelstrom Missions, and the game sizes have been somewhat smaller (1500 to 1750 points in size).  Of course that is more of a qualitative observation than something I've collected data on. However, I did manage a win vs Orks this week...and that is a rare event...

Now that summer nears its close, I hope to see more games.  Tomorrow is the "Maine 40K League" finals, where I hope to catch up with old friends and maybe get three great games in.  We'll see about that!  Based on my numbers above...maybe I can pull out two solid wins from the three games and be in the top three players there...Wish me luck!

PyroTiggy is Fun

First off, I've been really busy with trips, work, and other stuff going on.  So it has been a bunch of time.  The weird thing is, I have a couple of draft blog entries in the que, but just have not finished them.  On the fly, I thought I'd just push forward one of my favorite things for 7th Edition - the fact that if you choose all your librarian spells from one discipline, it can be fun!

So, my favorite Librarian is Tigurius.  He is a level 3 psycher, with OK stats, mediocre armor, and a plain old master crafted stick to smack opponents with.  But, imaging what happens when you play a game with his spells assigned!  He rolls for three spells and gets re-rolls for the spells you don't want.  Once in play, he shines, since you can reroll your failed spell rolls!  So, what does that mean in a practical sense?

PyroTiggy.

The ideal spell set includes (he gets 4 plus force):

Force (of course, its free with the stick, which is 2+S, concussive, soulblaze)
Flame Breath (primaris, template, S5AP4,assault, soulblaze)
#1 Fiery Form (yields a 4+ invulnerable to Tiggy, rerolls every failed to wound roll inflicted by other pyromancy powers).
#4 Sunburst Nova (9", 2D6, S4, AP5, ignores cover, soulblaze).
# 6 Molten Beam (12", S8, AP1 Meltabeam).

Alternate for #1 is #2 (Fireshield, 4+cover save plus 6" dangerous terrain bubble for the unit)
Alternate for #4 or#6 is #5 (Inferno, 24", large blast, S4AP5, ignores cover, soulblaze).

So, pretty much every power (except #3) is really really good!

Remember, in this edition, a psycher can use the powers on as many different targets as possible.

Assuming that PyroTiggy gets an average roll of 4, +3 for his level, you have 7 psychic dice.  So, in an ideal perfect turn, he could roll up all 4 spells plus force successfully...with an extra dice or so to give some extra support and make it happen!  Sweet!

Of course, my dice never let me actually get perfection.  I don't know how many times I've tried to roll up a #1, rerolled it, and got #3 or #2...not that I can complain for a #2.  I also don't know how many times I tried to get Tiggy in Nova range and failed that too.

I have a few more games playing PyroTiggy.  Then maybe on to TeleTiggy!

Playing in a tournament this weekend, wish me luck!