SAWS – Arrival

SAWS is held at my local game store, and is run by a top notch player, Mark Havener.  Mark has been mentioned here before; we played a game at a team event a while back.  Historically he has gone first for the year at CoCs, and won individual events.  I’ve only known him for 5 years or so (or however long I’ve been playing) and as I’ve gotten more into the game, he seems to have gotten less.  I’ve played other games with him, such as blood bowl, and know he runs or plays in other leagues/tournaments.  He still comes back every year for SAWS though, and hopefully will continue to do so.

Mark brings some of his own terrain and tables, but a lot of it is the well-loved Great Escape Games (GEG) terrain.  The faces are all familiar, though some of the absences are striking.  GEG doesn’t allow drinking in the shop, but that doesn’t keep people from sneaking some in and drinking in the parking lot.  This year I’ve decided to participate and had brought with me a small amount of the pineapple infused vodka I make.

Despite the website, and my previous posting about the 3 point objectives each game the sheet that was provided included different objectives.  Some of those that were on the website were modified.  There were also duplicates of some, loosening the restriction on selections.  I think that what was provided on site was better than what was on the website; I just wish the website had included them.  The revised objectives were:

1.       Capture more enemy banners than you lost (cannon take if either you or your opponent have no banners)

2.       2x Eliminate over half of your opponent’s army (based on model count)

3.       Destroy your opponent’s most expensive non-character unit

4.       Control more table quarters than your opponent (have a non-fleeing 5-man unit without your opponent having one)

5.       Destroy your opponents most expensive character

6.       2x Kill all spellcasters (includes anyone who channels or casts spells and cannot be taken if they have none)

7.       Keep at least 75% of your army alive (based on model count)

8.       Have more non-fleeing units in your enemy’s deployment zone at the end of the game than they have in yours

9.       Kill twice as many unit champions as you lose (cannot take if either your or your opponent have no unit champions)

10.   Keep all your character models alive, on the board and not fleeing at the end of the game (pursuit off board would still allow for this objective)

This objective discrepancy may just have to deal with the general lack of updating that occurred for the 2013 SAWS website rules.  There were also issues with list submittal deadlines.  I do hope next year Mark gives the whole thing a facelift (like dropping Rhinox Riders).

As the fact that I had so little deploy, most of my opponents started the game bunkered and then moved very little.  While there were some exceptions, this led me to having to photograph much less of the table than normal, so instead of 4 shots per turn sometimes I only had to make 2 or even 1.  Given that there are much fewer pictures, but not because I forgot (at least I don’t think so, guess I’ll find out when I construct the individual games).