Just wanted to say thanks for organising the tourney, and of course to all my opponents Andy H, Simon, Mike, Steve and Dave.
First up for me was Andy's Codex Dark Angels
Five games has seemingly killed my memory, but I seem to recall that the game slid away from me from the second turn onwards. Andy's orbital barrage and deathwind planning proved insightful, and I also failed a comedic number of activations - including a re-rolled 2+ of course. We did not finish in time but I didn't feel like a flat draw was a fair result so we called it as a winning draw to Andy.
Second was Simon's second game with his brute swarm Nids. I felt like this game went OK, I was able to be sneaky and generally Eldar-like. The turning point was perhaps when I landed some guardians deep behind enemy lines and pasted Simon's BTS in a crossfire. During the course of the game I also managed to kill a harridan with a single critical hit. Twice. Of course luck goes both ways however, and a series of lacklustre activations took the game down to the end of the third turn. I can't remember exactly what it was - either a rally or an activation - but it ended with a 2-1 win for me (BTS, TSNP to BTS I think).
Next - more Nids, this time Mike's assault swarms. I spread the objectives wide and tried to whittle down effective formations. Mike presented me with his harridans early in the first turn, which I obligingly burst apart, but I don't remember many other details of the game I'm afraid - all my games are a bit jumbled together in my head. Towards the end it felt like there weren't enough bugs left to get near the objectives so was confident of the win (obviously I'm biased!) but we didn't have the time for a 4th turn to find out so it ended as a draw.
Sunday morning saw me matched up against Steve's Black Legion. I've never played against CSMs and was caught out a few times with some of their abilities, but nothing too extreme. This was a quirky game I felt. I got something of a sinking feeling when the drop pod, barrage and teleport coming into play on the first turn, but it didn't go as badly as it could have. The assault from the chosen+dreads bounced and the terminators were shot up. I ended up with a couple of blast markers and a broken falcon formation. However I made a mistake by allowing the hellblades to CAP, which left me playing a defensive position which I am generally not comfortable doing. I felt more exposed as the game wore on - having to leave formations out in the open for instance. When I failed the first activation of the "master plan" in the (3rd?) turn I felt decidedly like I was trying not to lose. The game turned into one of maneuvre, activation order and initiative rolls with Steve unable to take the objectives needed for the win, and I think it ended 1-0 in the 4th. Rallying a couple of formations and destroying the expensive aspects had given Steve enough VPs for the winning draw.
My final game saw me reluctantly facing off against Dave's ulthwe. He only needed a few points to win the tournament so set out not to lose, playing a defensive game of corners. Throughout the game I managed to keep a lid on the three falcon formations and lost very few units, but for some reason I got a bit stupid and ended up allowing the night wings to swat my BTS out of the sky. Dave's banshees met a similar fate too. There was a lot of careful positioning of miniatures to avoid my overwatch and each others' AA which made for a cagey game, and as is so often for me we were short of finishing in time. A draw was therefore declared. We did play the game to its conclusion afterwards however, with a successful rally denying me TSNP and leaving me 2-1 to the good in turn three (TnH, DtF to BTS).
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