Well, that was a fun tournament. Thanks to Steve and Epic UK for organising another great event.
Somehow, I managed to win the thing! I was massively shocked, as I’ve always been firmly mid-table in previous tournaments. I expect winning may be a one-off experience, so I’ll make the most of it for now.
Anyway, thanks to my opponents for three very enjoyable and friendly games.
Game 1: The first game was against Jon and his space marines. This was Jon’s first tournament, but it was a good close game with lots of damage dealt on both sides. I managed a 3-0 win in the end, but that score probably flatters me to be honest. It felt closer than that during the game, as Jon’s air assault caused carnage and I spent a lot of time sorting out terminators in the backfield rather than doing anything more aggressive. I got lucky destroying the BTS (a warhound pack) and then was wily about achieving the goals in turn 3. Jon was a very sporting opponent, and I hope he enjoyed the tournament.
Game 2: My second game was against Chris (Curis) and his exquisitely painted World Eaters army. Another fun game against a great opponent. I spent most of this game terrified of the hordes of very hard and fearless things rumbling in my direction and descending on me from space. Eventually though, sheer weight of numbers told and I managed to kill off most of the enemy while still having a reasonable number of ork boyz remaining. Without enough activations left, Chris couldn’t stop me getting a 4-0 victory.
The highlight of this game was when the two BTS formations went toe-to-toe at the centre of the table (my Warlord leading his massive horde of boyz against a load of khorne berserkers and daemons, led by a daemon prince). The orks got the better of it after drawing the first round, but Chris seized some measure of revenge by swiftly running over my Warlord with his Lord of Battles a few moments later.
Game 3: For my third game I found myself enjoying the heady heights of the top table, facing the mighty Dave Thomas and his Blood Angels. Dave is great to play against – he will almost certainly beat you, but he’s a gentleman about it!
Anyway, I had a bit of luck at the start of this game by winning the initiative. I took this chance to soften up his BTS with my fighters and then dropped a landa on it. A few nice dice rolls later and Dave’s BTS was dead. 1-0 to me.
I then spent the next three and a half turns hanging on for dear life. By Turn 4 Dave had an activation advantage and so was dictating the pace. He was leading 2-1 going into the final dice roll of the game – I needed to roll a 4+ to rally my horde of boyz and deny him “They Shall Not Pass”.
I made the roll and (though I didn’t realise it at the time) that roll won me the tournament. The game ended 1-1 on goals, with Dave scoring more victory points and so claiming a winning draw.
I was pleased with how things had gone in the tournament, but had no clue I’d won. I assumed that Dave getting the better of our draw would take him ahead of me. I also thought that, because we’d drawn on the top table, whoever won on table two might leap ahead.
Apparently not though – I’d done enough in my first two games to stay ahead of Dave by 2 points, despite him edging our draw. I’ll take it!
What a great day – capped off by a five hour drive home in the snow, occasionally stealing sneaky glances at the trophy.
