No Contest

I got in a game this week.  I have to say it was an odd one.

We got kicked off a little late.  The local league was getting started and to say that we were lucky to find a table is an understatement.  There is a wait list to join both the Fantasy and 40K leagues.  There are thirteen tables and 26 people in the league, so I'm sure you can do the math.  Gaming involves a steady string of excusing yourself to slide past the guy at the next table, interspersed with jokes about buying them dinner after bumping into their backside.  It may not be the most comfortable environment, but it is pretty cool to see the community's intensity.

The horde approaches

With two folks no-showing, we grabbed the lone empty table in one of the back corners and set up.  I was running a pretty standard 2000 point list.  Basically, it takes a Land Raider to get me up to that point level.  My opponent pulled out a list he touted as one he found on the internet to beat my kind of army.  What he came up with was a massed Shoota Boyz list supported by some Killa Kanz, Lootas, a Deff Dread, and a pair of Meks.  He also had some outflanking Kommandos and Storm Boyz to deep strike.  I could see the theory, but I didn't see anything in the list that could reliably handle the Land Raider.

We rolled Capture and Control with a Spearhead deployment.  I gave my opponent the first turn, and I think the reality of the game set in for him.  We had a couple large buildings in the middle and the only way to get to my end was to split his boyz up, meaning he wouldn't be able to bring his massed fire to bear.  Not only that, but his Shokk Attack Gun had no line of sight to the building with my objective in it. 

Six vs. 80?  Yeah, I'll take my chances...

My turn one saw me deep strike in my now typical aggressive manner.  In comes the Logan pod and the Dreadnought.  Away goes a bunch of Lootas.  I hated to put them out there by themselves, but it was on a flank, so they were protected from some of the fire.  They promptly ate a whole bunch of shoota fire, I ended up failing four saves, which is a little more than average, but two of them were on Logan and one on Arjac which made me sweat.  They took a charge from Snikrot and his Kommandoz and saw them off.  Next turn, the Dreadnought finished the Lootas, while Logan and company took out a Shoota squad with a couple more losses.

It went like this until turn four.  I was down to just Logan and the Dread from the original deep strike, plus the next pod and the Land Raider with its cargo.  He had nothing within 24" of my objective until he tried to deep strike the Storm Boyz in and had a mishap.  My opponents frustration was pretty palpable, and I had taken my foot off the gas in the previous turn.  I started skipping attacks and failing an extra save here or there.  Nobody likes to be on the wrong end of a one sided game, and I thought I could give him something positive to walk away from the table with.  And then things went sideways.

Logan wades through yet another squad

We were running out of time.  It takes a while to move an Ork horde, which is understandable.  So when he said we should call it, I agreed.  It made sense.  We wouldn't finish.  He was obviously not having fun.  I knew how this was going to end.  So it surprised me when he said, "It's a draw."  Umm... what?  I own mine.  You're down to one scoring unit that could get to yours.  I have a full squad with a Wolf Priest, a second partial squad with Assault Terminators, Logan, a Dreadnought, and a Land Raider all converging on one location.  The prospect of a draw hadn't even entered my mind.  Yet he persisted and we now definitely didn't have time to finish it out.

It was really disappointing because the last hour of the game had been a rough one.  He had essentially disengaged, which sucked the fun out of it for me.  The insistence for a draw, followed by the demand that I say it was, left a horrible taste in my mouth on top of that.


It wasn't a pleasant way to begin 2012.  Where do I go from here?  What's the sportsmanlike way to go forward?  Do I squeeze the next time I have a death grip, even if it means my opponent has a terrible time?  Winning isn't the only thing, but it's not like we play to lose.  I've never run into something like this before.