Great tournament. Was a perfect venue, good size tables, above a bar, across the road from my hotel; other than perhaps my living room, its hard to think of a better situation. So big thanks to Darren for the organizing. hanks so much for organizing.
I decided to bring my experiment marine list. This was quite a brae venture after my efforts at playing Necron had been so utterly shut down at Leicster.
Once again the pre-tournment friendlies boaded well, but i wasnt sure what to expect.
The list was all fighters and air assaults. The only real questions it gave me were: what to start on board (as in do i want more empty thunderhawks) and which units to go after with the bombing and assaults and generally nastyness.
Well the first game was against Horatio. I had learnt in our last run in that he uses his leman Russ tanks quite superbly and these are to be feared for there lack of willingness to die. Add to that the fact that he has tweeked his list to remove the deathstrikes (any low save small unit is fun for fully air lists), and I knew it was going to be a challenge. That said, I'm pretty sure he looked at my insane, totally against the spirit of the game list, and thought that it wasn't the best match up for the guards.
Turn one was spent exclusively shooting at three hydras. Yup, 6 thunderhawks each with a 4+ seemed totally unwilling to hit. I began to consider if I should stop buying my dice from that Indian graveyard. Rightfully fearing a deluge of nasty air assaults the heroic guard got out their spades and dug in on over watch at the blitz. This continued into turn two, with the only real note being the eventual heroic death of the hydras and the guards TBolts running into a plane armada the size of the Chinese air-force.
Turn three saw me with oodles of activations, leaving my wiser opponent in a powdery. He did a good job of covering the blitz, protecting the BTS, capyuring the two others in his half and trying to secure one in mine, but it was a hell of an ask. Once I had thoroughly bombed things away with the Tbolts, I sneaked the two objectives in my half back, giving a 2-0. It was sadly a case of the better player beaten by the laziest list.
Game two was speed freaks. If you ask me later, i will confirm that i threw this game to thank Darren for organizing. By now the bar had opened and I began feeling slightly bouynent, although the orks gave that damn issue of what to go after? The AA was far to many and always in huge units. The BTS was a bloody gargant, with AA, stompers, and probably surrounded by dogs with sharp teeth - i never checked, i was leaving that the hell alone. It was also heavy with scorchers, which are nasty as hell in fire fights.
...and there was my first mistake, having played Orks a billion times, I had never learn't that scorchers were light vehicles, in other words my THawks could plump in 5 shots (4 ap). I now have a tatoo on right eye ball that says 'check light vehicle' - sore, but worth it. Where it all went catastrophic though was when i had two spare activation's at the end of turn one: terminators in a THawk and an empty THawk. There isnt a bigger delete button outside off Stevie Wonders Keyboard. So i knew the BTS was too scairy, but anything else I chose was gone... I played it safe and went after the battlewagon mob, I'd already shot it up, so there would be some AA, but I should be fine. Looking at the potential resolution I saw that he would outnumber, but I had inspiring, we would both have BM, but he would have more, so plus one to me. AND i had 4 3+, 2 4+ and 5 3+ macros, to his 5's. How could I lose? ... yup, I would be muttering those words for the next two turns. The terms bounced horribly. 3 normal hits, one macro. Contemptuously he even made the 5 3+ saves. This pretty much removed my BTS from the game as it didn't rally till turn three.
Then things just got worse, the AA, which is the worst AA in the world, started rolling 7's. Planes started crumbling out of the sky. Turn three saw me using Thawks to fight the orks of my blitz, at the end of the horrid turn three, I flew my thunderhawks of to re-plan, then realized that in doing so i had left nothing on his side. I accepted defeat as the coup de grace that it was. Shot down by Orks, it was like watching greece win the European Championship all over again.
The final match up saw me paired with Chris' Black legion. This was a weird match up and lots of conflicting things were going on, firstly I had never played against Chaos. they were pretty much my army, and i felt a bit like a traitor (ironically being the loyalists), still i knew they didn't have any light vehicles (my tatoo was working!) Then there was my opponent, one of the nicest guys I've ever played against, whom advised that he had barely played this year.... but there was the raw memory of his gloating pointy eared dancing eldar that had so badly mauled my Thousand Sons list at Birmingham, costing Scotland first place and in all probability Independence. I looked at a list with a space ship and lots of off board activation's, I saw the limited number of AA units, the lack of fighters, and the Emperor's finest began to chuckle like a dark god.
It was in truth an utterly dreadful match up for Chris. He brought in his terminators on turn one so the oblitarators could give some AA cover in the center and the army could move forward, but soon my THawks had shot them into broken. Then in a reversal to my first game, the air assaults game in heavy and hard. The Terminators acted more like Terminators than they previously had, and I was ploughing down activation's for fun. With all but the BTS and the super heavy (both on the chaos blitz on over watch) broken, it was just a matter of spreading out to take a 3-0 in turn three. My casualties had been tiny. I felt like I had masterminded the gulf war.... to the surprise of nobody i didn't win most sporting, or best painted.
I did however win 'least likely to get invited back' which was a new award based on my list.

Haha, awesome write up!

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https://epic40ksweden.wordpress.com/

"You have a right to be offended" - Steve Hughes
"Your feelings are hurting my thoughts" - Aron Flam

Another great Bristol Tournament - thanks again to Daz (and the Duke for a great venue and beautiful tables).

I brought my Black Legion for its 3rd outing on the dark side. As I don't get to play at the moment outside of tournaments its all a bit trial and error, but it was a blast. Still not sure I have the list quite right, but its definitely improving and I had some great games with 2 great opponents, and Dan....

Only kidding ! :-)

Yeah, that marine list caught me a bit on the back foot right at the end of a long day. Not knowing exactly what to expect (somehow I had missed the chat about Dan's list throughout the day) I hunkered down cowering around my only 2 AA units ( a retinue and terminators, both with 2 obliterators) expecting wave after wave of recycled air assaults, hopping I could out attrition the loyalists. Instead by the end of turn one it was obvious Dan had a much more subtle plan, slowly picking my AA apart from range like a pack of hyenas around a wounded prey. Were it a friendly i would have called it and perhaps fought again with a different strategy, but being a tournament I just had to hold on and see how bad it got... I'm still fairly pleased my BTS and Blitz were safe by the end of the game. Dan was is a great guy and tortured me with great grace :-) We'll call it 1:1 and hopefully play again some time soon. I wouldn't even mind taking that list on again now i know what it can do and see how I fair next time...

The two earlier games were also great.

First up was Tom's steel legion. Seeing the opportunity to snipe his deathstrikes and shadowswords from orbit, i changed the plan and used my spaceship for first activation... however the barrage and pin-point missed and the chosen ended up podding into no-man's land right in front of the now royally pissed off Lemanruss Co. No guts no glory, they charged the BTS leman russ and got a damn good kicking for their trouble. Things were looking pretty bad, but sensing that having committed I had to just follow through with the plan and keep piling on the pressure. Thankfully I did as from that activation on the dice changed and everything just seemed to keep going my way, or more accurately, not Tom's. Aside from a single rough rider managing to take out a fresh ferralhound (first strike hit, CC hit + crit all failing my saves) with no hits in return (!) the Black Legion managed to keep hitting the guard just hard enough to stop them recovering for a counterattack.

Second game was with Mark, both a player and list (Emperor's children) that I had never faced. Turn one went well, first with my bombers crippling his flanking retinue and then the chosen pulled off their dreadclaw assault perfectly, breaking a noise marine retinue and destroying a Subjugator into the bargain. Unfortunately my lack of knowledge of the list meant I spent turn two concentrating too much on his hell knights and defilers which just.would.not.die. meaning I left his real strength - noise marines retinues and remaining subjugators - time to surround me and go in for the kill on turn 3. Over all a great game and seeing as Mark eventually came away with the top spot I don't think too shabby.

Roll on Exeter !

Great to see everyone had a good time

Here's a brief run down of my games...

Game One - Duncan

First round matchup saw me up against Duncan and his leftfield marine army, consisting of nothing more than 8 formations of terminators.
I was sure how to handle this, as my list of mostly Wagonz and Light Vehicles isn't great at dealing with RA...

Duncan opted for corners, and placed his two T&H close to my Blitz.
I placed my T&H just over the halfway line on the other flank to, hopefully, force him to split his forces up.
Defending my blitz I placed my supa stompa mob, one Kult of Speed, and one Blitz brigade.
On the other flank, positioned to go after my T&H and the marine blitz were two other KoS, and the second Blitz brigade.
With no AA to worry about I loaded the bikes into the Landa.

First turn no termies teleported in, so I moved my flanking force up towards the T&H objectives.
Figuring Duncan was going to have to bring some termies in to go after my BTS Stompa mob and blitz, I played defensive (and lucky!) and managed to get the Stompa mob, KoS and Blitz Brigade all onto overwatch(!).

Turn two came around, and 4 formations of termies all came in, surrounding my flanking force.
Two combined assaults later and I had lost one of the KoS and the Blitz Bridge on that flank.
Some counter attacks saw me able to break three of the units, although two were to rally.

Turn three started with the remaining termies coming down. One to guard the marine blitz, one to contest both the marine T&H, and two to surround my formations guarding the blitz.
The first squad sustained on my Blitz Brigade, killing a couple.
The second then retained and engaged the KoS by the blitz. This is the only time I've ever had a KoS on overwatch, and it paid off! Ten AP hits later and two of the termies were dead, and the remainder wiped out in the assault.
After this I managed to set up an assault on the Marine BTS, and nap the two T&H objectives for a 2-0 win.
An interesting list and challenge to face, and I was fortunate that Duncans 4+ RA saves started letting him down at decisive points...


Game Two - Dan1314

Great, more marines, and an equally eclectic list.
I don't generally get on well against Marine air lists, so I'll be honest I wasn't expecting to do well in this game.
I deployed tightly, and spent the first turn trying to advance and keep as much as possible under the 3 AA bubbles I had on the ground.
I was worried about Dan1314 focusing on 1-2 formations with multiple flyers and then assaulting them, but fortunately he was content to snipe away with the THawks from a range outside my flakwagonz.

When the Termie assault came in on my flank I feared the worst; although the Fightas on CAP and ground based AA placed BM, meaning I wasn't as disadvantaged as I might have been. I got very lucky here, with the termies performing terribly, and losing the assault badly (only two survivors, who never rallied until the very end of the game)
Turn Two followed a similar pattern, with Dan preferring to shoot at my units instead of assaulting them. In the meantime, with the amount on flyers in the air, and the amount of flakwagonz on the ground, there were huge quantities of AA dice being rolled, even on 7's I was managing to get plenty of hits (Sorry Dan - they are normally shocking, honest!) and whittling away at the numbers.

I was holding the two T&H in the marine half, although with an assault marine THawk assault in my half we looked destined for Turn four. Clever positioning of the Hawk and the marine cargo meant I could only counter-assault one or the other. I took out the marines and figured I'd have to deal with the Hawk in the next turn.
Thankfully Dan had a lapse in concentration and flew the flyer off at the end of the turn, meaning that I had no unbroken units in my half of the table and managed to sneak a 2-0 win.

The first time I had played Dan, and it was a very enjoyable and cagey battle!


Game Three - MarkW


Emperors Children. Never played them, and had no idea what they did. But after a quick run down by MarkW, I was dreading it. ("Your defilers have *how* many shots??")
Turn one saw two of his titans fail to activate, and, to avoid having his forces spreadout, Mark kept his other retinues on his baseline but on over watch, with just the defilers pushing up the table.
I won the T2 roll off, and manged to break one defiler unit in an unprepped assault (lucky) with a KoS, and the other was broken after firing my Stompa Mob macro barrage at it. With all the EC flak gone, and two activations down the game swung in my favour at this stage.

Some very clever play by Mark meant that I was unable to push home my advantage fully, and I was leading 1-0 at the end of T3. We'd reached the end of time and rather than rush through a fourth turn (I had a lot of forms to collect and results to work out) we called it time, which was a draw in my favor.
Another great game, which could have gone very differently....

Cheers guys... hopefully cross swords again later in the year!

Ah yes, I can still remember your cry of anguish at that point!

@blip - Dan1314 was 'subtle'? Isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse?

Plus how many inv saves did Mark make with his daemon knights? It's usually in the region of 18,000 per game! I've had those things in a sustained crossfire from falcons and not even broken them!

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I can happily confirm that in game 3 Mark didn't mark a single Inv save... I pass on my thanks to his first two opponents for soaking up all his good luck!


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@ Redar - yep, in retrospect i can enjoy the humour of 3 lonely lancers charging up to a 40 foot titan, stabbing it in the toe and watching it hopping about until it falls over and self destructs... at the time it wasn't quite as funny! :-)

@steve - maybe "subtle" isn't quite right... more "patient and calculating".

As for Mark's invulnerable saves - i don't remember exactly the rolls, but the knights (and more annoyingly his defilers) did seem to soak up a lot of firepower. But that was probably my main mistake - trying to outshoot the emps children - rather than pilling in with assaults.

Big thanks to Reedar for organising and my 3 opponents(GlynnG, Blip and Reedar) for 3 challenging and fun games. Had a blast.

"Plus how many inv saves did Mark make with his daemon knights? It's usually in the region of 18,000 per game!"

My dice were so jammy against Chris I didn't even need to fall back on invulnerables. Your Eldar got off lightly

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