some more pics
Tim 'tiny-tim' Hunt's Ulthwe
Dave 'dptdexys' Thomas's Codex marines
Mark Preston's steel legion
Tom's largely DRM Tyranids
Gavin 'ginger' McKenzie's Biel-tan
Simon 'mintroll' White's Iyanden
Simon 'Kyussinchains' Holyoake's Steel Legion
Tournament report.....
Game 1 - meeting engagement - MikeT
I've probably played against Mike more than I have played anyone else, having defeated his Ulani force a couple of times before, I was quietly confident.... he won the initiative and hit my artillery with his own, taking them out of the game for 2 turns, I subsequently deathstriked one of his shadowswords, rolling a double 5 for damage and killing it many times over.... this was quite a cagey game, but Mike struggled to push forwards into my half, I focused on taking out as many of his supporting formations as possible to reduce his activations, which worked quite well, as turn 3 neared the end it looked like it might go for another round, but I had 3 activations left and I was able to use my warhound to blow up the lead tank in his formation (the only one of his models in my half) then fly my planes through the 4cm gap between his flank bubbles and break his basilisks before marching my hydras and nabbing his blitz, 2-0 to me, hurrah!!
Game 2 - Force Primus - Mark Preston
Mark managed to forget his warlord on the saturday so had borrowed a space marine dreadnought for a proxy, fortunately for me however, he didn't have it in this game.... I made a couple of very stupid mistakes which cost me dearly in this game, I won the initiative and hit his manticores with my basilisks, breaking them, I then
should have retained with the deathstrikes and hit one of his shadowswords, however I thought the deathstrikes were safe to wait and rather than risk them failing, I opted to hand the initiative back to mark, who subsequently suicide charged his hydras into range and broke the deathstrikes.... I also left my shadowsword in the open, I assumed he would have to drive
around the hill in front of his own shadowsword (because I make rookie mistakes in bunches) but instead he simply drove over it and blew my tank sky high.... it then became extremely one sided and there was little I could do to stop him winning 3-0 on turn 4
Game 3 - Force Secundus - Simon White
Simon forced corners, then whizzed his storm serpent to the end of my line, retained, assaulted from the webway with a lethal spirit host, blew up both my baneblades and broke the SHT company, he then retained again and air assaulted my Reg HQ at the other end of the L, fortunately I won the assault and took out his vampire in the process. I also deathstriked 2 of his wave serpents with wraithguard in as I had no more war engine targets. Turn 2 came around and I won the iniaitive and was able to sustain fire and break his wraithguard formation, I also managed to reduce the air-assaulters to 2 broken stands. At this point I had the activation advantage and managed to sneak a 3-0 win on turn 4
Game 4 - Primus+Secundus - Tim Hunt
Now I knew I would be facing Tim in the morning, and had nightmares about his Warlock.... the game kind of played out that way, I got lucky and won the initive, sending both deathstrikes screaming after the titan, one got through the shield and did 2 damage, but no critical, this proved to be my undoing as the damn holofield shrugged off 5 volcano cannon hits, sustain-firing infantry companies and I seem to remember a kitchen sink whistling harmlessly by at one point..... Tim then gave me a lesson/demonstration and proceeded to wipe the floor with me, his warlock and swooping hawks at one end, his air assaulters at the other.... it was my favoruite game all tournament, despite the 4-0 loss, it was enjoyable to watch a true master at work, Tim I take my hat off to you!
Game 5 - Primus + Secundus - Dave Thomas
Dave had suffered with his usual jammy luck and I somehow ended up against him despite the drubbing I recieved prior..... now using the same lists I had managed to hold Dave to a draw a few weeks previous, I didn't assume anything as playing Dave at the club and in a tournament are two different things..... It seemed that Dave's luck had come back in spades, I managed to dodge the worst of his orbital barrage thanks to some unconventional deployment, but had no answer when his thunderhawk and terminators wiped out pretty much the right flank of my army in one go (including the supreme commander which came back to bite me, BIG style) The rest of the game consisted of Dave playing with me like a cat toying with a mangled sparrow.... I did myself no favours by failing to activate 7 out of 8 attempts in one turn, then in a single turn I managed to roll 1's to hit with my one remaining deathstrike, and 2 shadowswords who definitely needed new batteries for their lasers... even the game-winning machine that is Dave Thomas had to show me some pity and comiserate my abysmal luck, before attempting to defeat me 5-0 to get one up on Tim... fortunately for me, it was "only" 4-0 as he was unable to break my mech infantry in his half
After all that I ended up with the wooden spoon.... I'm interested to see how many points there were between the players
All in all it was a great tournament and I played 5 great guys who I would more than happily play again, but 2 weeks of solid painting followed by 2 days of solid gaming has kind of burned me out on epic, time to take a break for a few weeks, see you at open war chaps!!
