Kev101 won best painted, with the amount of time and effort this guy puts into his beautiful armies he thoroughly deserves it, here's a few closeups I took, enjoy!

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I took an 'unconventional' Eldar army that majored on countering most of the usual strategies, having a formation of Swooping Hawks and five 'brigades' each consisting of a formation of Guardians, Falcons, Night Spinners and Rangers - 21 activations in all.

Game 1. - Dptdexys Codex marines
I started my 'Hawks off-table, castled each of the initial brigades inside Ranger screens and waited. Fortunately I dodged Dave's orbital bombardment. Dave put his Terminators in one THawk and spent the initial turns pinging away at the Falcons from long range to try to whittle down the AA. Later on we both pushed forward cautious probes on the flanks and I brought my 'Hawks in on the 4th turn into an unprotected location (where they died), but after 5 turns Dave only had 1-0 (DTF). Counting up at that point, Dave just won on victory points and if I had used the Hawks more wisely this would have been a straight draw. . . .
(A masterclass in how to fight this army)

Game 2. kev101 Orks
Kev garrisoned forwards from his blitz and a T&H objective, reaching towards the two T&H just inside my table half. As before, I started the Hawks off-table and the 'brigades' castled against the Orks air-assaults. Very un-Orky caution left me with few targets as the Eldar crept forwards. At the start of turn #3 I forgot to bring in my Hawks meaning that my 4x Falcon formations each became by BTS! This finally encouraged the Orks to advance in order to try to pick off a Falcon formation. The Stompas duly broke one which fled back to my blitz where somewhat reluctantly Kev tried an air-assault, but to my intense relief this fell out of the sky to a critical. We ran out of time towards the end of the turn and, counting up the objectives at that point, Kev was awarded a 2-0 win (DTF and TSNP) although I still had a good number of formations yet to activate . . .

Game 3. Tom Largely Tyranids
This was the one army that I feared as I had never played them before. Foolishly I continued the theme of placing the T&H objectives within reach of my infantry which allowed Tom to garrison hordes of critters on the halfway line - not a good start. I won the initiative and blasted away at his single artillery formation, and then at any and all bugs coming my way from my deployment zone. I concentrated huge volumes of fire at his Dominatrix, but I think scored only one hit. During turn #3 food intervened after which we resumed to try to play to a conclusion but it ended with Tom ahead 1-0 (TSNP). Unfortunately we were forced to call it a draw at that point as we had run out of time . . . .

Game 4. Jeridan Tyranids
Learning from my last game I decided to place the T&H 30cm from the Tyranid baseline. Jeridan promptly placed his two T&H on the centre-line directly in front of one of them allowing him to garrison his immobile spore nest between the two claiming one and protecting the other. The BTS Dominatrix then led much of the Tyranid army forwards to claim the second T&H. A simple and very effective strategy!
As before I laid large volumes of fire on the advancing bugs and was rewarded by killing off several WE and breaking the BTS - which promptly rallied. In turn #2 both sides gravitated towards the three T&H objectives on my left flank building up for the critical turn #3. I teleported my 'Hawks on my right flank in order to try to threaten the lone T&H objective (the Tyranids were closely guarding the blitz) while some Lictors suddenly appeared in the Eldar rear, putting many formations under their ZoC. I decided to ignore them as all my Night Spinners and Falcons were invulnerable to their assault- only to have them pick on some Rangers (which they eat in short order) placing BMs on 4 nearby formations. More nip and tuck followed and the turn ended with the Tyranids 1-0 up (DTF), but again we had to stop there so it was declared a draw . . .
(But a really well fought game - thanks)

Game 5. Jez Lock Marines
I set up poorly and was forced to leave one ‘brigade’ clumped together. The marines gambled on the Terminators breaking them with an assault, but were very narrowly defeated due to OW fire from some nearby Rangers. In this game I started to use the Night-Spinners and Falcons aggressively advancing several formations against the Warhound pair during the course of the 1st turn. This also brought the disengagement moves of the THawk and TBolts within AA range and both fell to lucky dice leaving the Marines without air cover. The Eldar won the strategy role in turn #2, capitalised on their increased activation advantage and pushed forwards more aggressively. However in turn #3 we ran out of time and the game declared a draw, although the Eldar had DTF and TSNP at that point with good chances of T&H and even the blitz (so a moral victory).

Postscript
Thanks to all for five really good games, with my apologies for presenting you with such an awkward army to fight. In retrospect, I think the army tended to cause the draws by its very nature. Next time I shall have design a list that is a little less prone to generating draws

Sounds like a good event! Was a shame i couldn't make it this year

So what were the final positions?

Thanks to Flame on, Jeridian in particular for running the event and all the Epic players for making it another great tournament

After failing to settle on a Tau list I took Codex SM
Tacticals+SC+Hunter
Scouts+RB
Scouts
Devastators
Thunderhawk
Strike Cruiser
Warhound
Warhound

Reserve A
Terminators+Chaplain
T-bolts
Land Speeders

Reserve B
Terminators+Captain
T-bolts
Thunderhawk
Predators (2 Annihilators, 2 Destructors)

1st Game - Mintrolls Iyanden

This was an escalating engagement with the reserves coming on in turn 2. I put my blitz in the centre right with my 2 objectives on the right and right-centre. Simon put his blitz in the extreme left with an objective on the midline on the same board edge and the other (the gate) in the centre.

I put the devs, tacs +whounds around my blitz under the hunter coverage with the scouts screened in front to protect frotm the Storm serpent marching+then assaulting thorugh its gate. I decided to put my bombardment on his blitz as I thought he would use the gate to threaten the right had objecticves and his objective placement suggested he would move forward off his blitz to the other objective.

I then watched as Simon put everything under where the barrage would go unfortunately he won the strategy roll and then moved the BTS mech Wraithguard and the night spinners forward. So the barrage broke the falcons+put a few BMs. I can't remember a great deal of this game in order - I teleported my terminators into my half+attempted to pick up with the thawks but one got shot down by the nightwings, the avatar killed a Warhound, the terminators were assaulted by a vampire with 6 WG, the seer council+ 4 WS providng buckets of support but still won and then survived (though were broken) by the WG+WS then assaulting and the predators managed to break the BTS WG in wave serpents by sustaining twice.

Quite early on I decided a result was unlikely so concentrated on killing units for VPs - 0-0 VPs win to me (helped by Simons broken BTS not rallying)

GAME 2
Jez Locks SM

The barrage did minimal damage (just a hunter), unfotunately for Jez his first activation - doubling his Land Raiders, put them just the other side of a building from some unseen Speeders which, after Scout prepping, broke them. My terminator air assault destroyed his tactical BTS and though he managed to break mine with tbolts+thawk it then ran away and he couldn't finish it. By turn 3 I had a significant activation advantage and could break the unit contesting his blitz with BMs and take a 2-0 win (blitz+BTS)

GAME 3
Kevs Orks

Kev took
Gargant
Supa Stompa mob
Big blitz w 2 Soopas
Kommandoes
Fighta bommas
landa
Warband
Warband in battlewagonz
big warband

This was probably the game I wanted to play Kev in as he was low on activations in this combination. My barrage broke his blitz brigade and in response Kev air assaulted my scouts - killing all but one who then ran back to my blitz+rallied to be my blitz guard, but I then killed the landa with BMs+zone of control and broke the warband with a warhound. I tried to remain hidden from the big WEs while moving forward. Kev doubled forward his mech warband which was then broken by a warhound assault with tacs in support. The only thing that went wrong for me was losing 2 terminators when assaulting his broken BB.

Turn 2 I pressed forward trying to wipe out broken formations while the big WEs killed a Warhound+mauled the devs

Turn 3 The warhound shot up the big warband+then it was broken by the tacticals assaulting (Kev had rubbish dice rolls both to hit+save).. The Gargant then ran back to Kevs blitz with the Stompas on the 2 objectives in my half. Looking at the situation I decided I couldn't win without big risks turn 3 so decided to try and wipe out all the small+broken formations to ensure Kev couldn't come back and to win in turn 4.

Turn 4 Kev only had his Gargant, 2 Fightas, the Stompa mob and a couple of orks from the mech warband. As a result I could break the Stompas through lots of units targetting them and claim a 2-0 win (defend the flag+take&hold)

So at the end of day 1 I had 2 wins and a draw and was in about third. I faced the prospect of probably facing a Warlord and a Warlock the next day

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NetEA NetERC Human Lists Chair
NetEA Chaos + Black Legion Champion

I like what Kev's done with those Orks. :-)

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GAME 4
Mark Ps Steel Legion
Warlord
Tank co+hydra
Inf Co+support
Inf Co
Inf Co+hydra
hydras
hydras
sentinels
sentinels
shadowsword
shadowsword
sentinels
sentinels
t-bolts
manticores

This game I opted to drop pod the devs, I targetted a hill with both the barrage+the pod. Killing a few guardsmen from the reinforced inf co, killing a Russ and breaking the manticores. I tried to hide behind cover but lost a scout formation to an infantry assault but broke the inf co+the hydras on the left. This allowed me to air assault and destroy a shadowsword and then move those terminators towards the tank co. I then air assaulted and broke them. Turn 1 had been very successful breaking 3 of Marks units and destroying 2 more for the loss of a scout formation. The turn ended with the Warlord intermingled with a BMed infantry Co - if I won the roll off I could assault with my terminators and get in B to B eith the infantry foricing the hits to be taken on them with no save. So I would stand a good chance of breaking the Warlord.

Unfortunately Mark won the roll and destroyed the terminators+scouts and the moved the inf co into buildings on the 2 forward objectives. The Walord took 1pt of damage which went critical though. I tried to surround the titan with scouts to restrict its movement while moving into position for turn 3. At the end of the turn unfortunately the titans crit repaired.

I attempted an ill advised assault into the building with my tacs to shift the inf co which broke my tac BTS. At this point I decided to make sure I didn't lose and try and kill formations for VPs as the titan was still fine, the inf was sitting in buildings and I hadn't reduced Marks activations enough while weight of numbers was grinding the SM down. Turn 4 the broken tac BTS survived (1 stand left) while I managed to finish off the tank co. It wasn't enough though as Mark claimed a VPps win

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GAME 5
Tiny Tims Ulthwe
Warlock
Swooping hawks
Night spinners
falcons+firestorms
falcons+firestorms
guardians+support
guardians
vampire
vampire
rangers
council+guardians+wave serpents
guardians+wave serpents
jetbikes+rangers

Looking at the objectives - both the ones Tim had placed were close together on the right and that Tim had said 'I want this side to hide behind that hill' I put the barrage + podding devs behind the woods which he could deploy behind to threaten all the objectives in my half.
That resulted in (from barrage, deathwind+ devs retaining+sustaining) both falcons and the night spinners broken and the 3 guardians, warlock, jetbikes + rangers with the odd kill+BMs. A really good start but could have been better given the number of units under the templates. Tim used the warlock to kill the devs+then move forward while removing BMs elsewhere, the empty vampire strafed my tacs removing the hunter and a rhino. I decided I had to be aggressive and press my advantage so the warhound doubled forward to put more BMs on while the preds, scouts +speeders moved behind cover at mid table. The terminators then air assaulted breaking and killing most of the mehc guardians (including killing the SC) while the other set lost to the 2nd mech guardians

Tim then failed to rally any of his broken units and very fortunately I won the strategy roll so could move the warhounds away from the Warlock. Tim responded by breaking the 2nd terminators with the surviving mech guardian and the preds with the avatar. The warlock doubled and shot up some scouts killing 2 and a rhino. o concentrated on killing the broken formations to make sure Tim couldn't recover.

Turn 3 Tim again failed to rally anything, though this turn he went first. The vampire+guardians air assaulted and killed the speeders but the jetbikes then refused to retain. This failure to do the triple retain pretty much ended Tims hopes. The warhound destroyed the guardians, jetbikes + broken falcons and then Tims Swooping hawks refused to activate and the Warlock failed to break the scout blitz guard. In response my tbolts had freakish dice killing 2 wave serpents and 3 guardians preventing them moving back to their blitz while the surviving thawk broke the ranger, Tims vampire then failed to kill the sole predator to break them. Tim then ran out of activations allowing me to take 2-0 (blitz+take&hold)
The game started badly for Tim but the failure to rally anything, go first turn 2, take advantage of going first turn 3 and poor dice for him compared to great for me stopped him recovering

After that i reckoned I was just ahead of Tim but needed MikeT to not lost to MarkP. Fortunately he held Mark to a draw and that gave me the tournament victory..

Unofficially i think it was
1 Steve54 Codex SM
2 Tiny-Tim Ulthwe
3 Mark P Steel Legion
4 MikeT Ulani
5 Dptdexys Codex SM

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www.epic-uk.co.uk
NetEA NetERC Human Lists Chair
NetEA Chaos + Black Legion Champion

Very well done! Especially playing against two titans with Marines - they're tough to deal with, especially the warlock!

Thanks. I think the second had more to do with Tims bad luck than me, I generally ran away from them both - I don't think I even shot at them apart from the barrage.

PS I've emailed Rohan

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www.epic-uk.co.uk
NetEA NetERC Human Lists Chair
NetEA Chaos + Black Legion Champion

Thanks for posting up pics of the armies, I didn't get time too!

Thanks to all the Epic players that attended Battle of the Chumps 2012 a thoroughly enjoyable and problem-free tournament on my part, no pesky Scout special rule questions...

Onto what you’re all waiting for, the final results:

1 Steve Gullick 110
2 Tim Hunt 103
3 Mark Preston 100
4 Mike Thomas 98
5 Dave Thomas 93
6 Kev Bott 77
7 Jez Lock 70
8 Gavin McKenzie 68
9 Simon White 63
10 Simon Jenkins 62
11 Simon Holyoake 58
12 Tom Sanders 58

Most Sporting- Tom Sanders
Best Army- Kev Bott
Wooden Spoon- Simon Holyoake

Hope to see you all at Battle of the Chumps 2013!

Si

Thanks to Si for running the Epic - as always the slightly different army restrictions add a little extra to the weekend.

Thanks to my opponents: Steve, Mike, Simon H, Dave and Kev; and good to see everyone else.

My, very yellow, Iyanden were a mixed bag. With three wins and two draws, they never really had the winning edge (or not the way I was playing them). Had a lot of fun with a wave serpent mounted spirit host though, not sure it's sensible... but twas fun.

Some comments on the games. Steve is either psychic or a witch, and should be burnt at the stake... but shooting down thunderhawks and killing warhounds was fun. Ulani Vs Iyanden 4+ RA slugging matches are brutal. Guardsmen are not so funny when they sustain fire. Dave forgot his warhounds, so only managed a draw. Finally, was good to see the orks beat the eldar... even if I was on the losing side.

That chocolate dessert was good... I strongly support their addition at future Mansfield lunches.

Simon