| Brood Brother |
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Joined: Sat May 17, 2003 2:06 pm
Posts: 25
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This was my 3rd Club Challenge, but my first trip to GW's HQ - Warhammer World for what was a the best Tournie I've been to. The food was great and I really felt I got the ?35 pounds worth from the event.
It was also great meeting up with the usual suspects. Tiny Tim, The Real Chris, Mott, Mephiston and others.
I'd got up at 6,30 on Saturday morning preparing for the trip to Nottingham. I picked up my club mate Chris who would be competing in the 40k event and we left at 7.10am. I suprisingly quick journey up, of an hour and ten minutes saw us arrive at Warhammer World in plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere, enjoy a dohnut/pastry and coffee and chat with old friends/rivals.
I would be using the following army. Pretty close to what I've been using all year.
Terminators
Assault Marines + Chaplain
Assault Marines
Devastators + Librarian (Rhinos)
Landing Craft
Land Speeders
Devastators + Hunter (Rhinos)
Thunderhawk
Warhound
Warhound
Warhound
Thunderbolts
14 clubs with 206 competitors would be competing over 6 games systems (Warhammer FB, 40k, Bloodbowl, Warhammer Ancient Battles, Flames of war and Epic) to be crowned top British club. My club could only muster 4 gamers (we needed 9 to compete) thanks to holidays and other committments so we offered ourselves up as mercenaries for a club called Snakeyes.
Game 1
I was facing Matt Otter and his Eldar in the first round. This would be our 3rd meeting, with him having won the 2 previous encounters. I would be assured a fun game though as Matt is very nice bloke.
He was using;
Aspect Host (Dark Reapers + Autarch + Exarch) + 3 WS?s and 2 Falcons
Aspect Host (4 Striking Scorps + 4 Dire Avengers + Exarch) 4 Wave Serpents
Guardian Host
Guardian Host
Rangers
Falcons (2 Firestorms)
Fire Prisms
Scorpion EoV
Revenants
In fear of his Revenants and the other firepower I went for a corner deployment in an effort to reduce the Eldar being able to double and shoot me up on the first turn.
This would mean however that after despatching the Rangers in the first turn 2 of my Warhounds were way out of position.
It was a cagey game with Matt staying back and hoping to pick me off at range. I had to wait until the end of the 2nd turn to unleash my Landing craft (after I?d reduced the AA) and managed to wipe out his Dark Reapers Aspect host and break a guardian host. I lost my Termies and a lot of my landing craft assaulters in the third turn but managed to break the Revenants with the attentions of my Warhounds and force them off an objective.
At the end of the 3rd turn I had BTS and the Take and Hold objectives giving me a 2-1 victory which equated to 22-10 in tourney points.
Great game which I really had to concentrate on to get a win. Suprisingly all my Warhounds survived.
Game 2
Next up was another Eldar general called Joe Jephson who would go on to win best painted for his force. (again) Another nice fella ? aren?t all Epic players?
His list looked a little something like this;
Wraithgate
Guardian Host
Aspect Host (8 Shining Spears + Autarch + E)
Aspect Host (4 Banshees + 4 Dark Reapers)
Vampire
Aspect Host (4 Striking Scorps + 4 Swooping Hawks)
Vampire
Scorpion EoV
Scorpion EoV
Scorpion EoV
Jetbikes
Falcons
I may be missing some things to be honest and my memory about this game is a bit sketchy. Think it blended into the Eldar match in game 4.
Suffice to say I lost.
The things I do remember are that I made far to many mistakes and Joe played well. I was too aggressive with my Warhounds and ended up losing 2 of them, my Thunderhawk and Thunderbolts were in effective and my speeders and devs did nowt but get broke and fail to rally.
I managed to kill the BTS Shining Spears with an air assault, but then got jumped by the Aspects in Vampires.
My Landing Craft struggled to find any targets in the game really (and not for the last time this tourney) struggled to find something worthwhile to assault)
I lost 3-1 in the 3rd which ment a 8-24 pts loss. Think he got Blitz, take and hold and BTS.
Game 3
My last game on the Saturday was against Orks, led by Andy Smith. A very nice chap to play indeed.
I don?t get to play Orks all that much, but enjoy the games immensely.
Andy had a nice looking army, not too dissimilar to my own Ok list.
Something like
Stompa Mob (Supa Stompa + 3 Stompas + 3 Dreads + 3 Kanz)
Big Warband + 2 Soopa Gunz
Warband + 4 extra Boyz/Grots
Warband + 4 extra Boyz/Grots
Uge Blitz Brigade + 2 Supa Zzaps
Big KoS (Bikes, Buggies and Scorchas)
8 Stormboyz
6 Fighta Bommerz
A lot of Flak wagonz were sprinkled about as well
He setup most of his army in the centre and to the right of centre (from my point of view)
I set my sights on taking out the Big Kult of Speed and trying to spread out his forces and line up a nice intermingled assault for my Landing craft. I figured I?d ignore his Stompa Mob (the BTS goal) and use my mass of AP firepower to whittle down his Ork infantry.
Straight from the setup I knew the large centre hill would really help me, especially if I could assault to one side of it and reduce the firepower from oddboyz on my right.
I used my Warhounds to advance and hammer the Orks in the woods on my right, doing enough damage to force them to come to me in the open. I then retreated over subsequent turns forcing him to retreat to the woods for cover as the casualties mounted.
I also hammered his KoS early and used my Thunderhawk and Thunderbolts to keep them out of the whole battle.
My opponent put his Fighta Bommerz on CAP, fearing my Landing Craft for the first 2 turns and in the third failed to scratch my Land Speeders.
The killer blow was dealt when I managed to draw the Uge Blitz brigade and a large warband to the left of the centre hill and isolate them for my Landing Craft. Despite the attentions of the FB?s I managed to get the big bird down to deliver its cargo.
I targeted the Blitz Brigade and got an intermingled assault on the Boyz (who couldn?t get enough bodies into CC) The assault was a blood bath with all 12 Gunwagonz and 12 odd boyz/nobz/grots being wiped out either in the assault itself or through resolution hackdowns.
I have to say I had some good dice and was lucky the overwatching Big Warbands soopagunz were just out of range of my Landing craft and only caused a few casualties to my Devs. Think I lost 2 Assault Marine stands and perhaps a dev and rhino.
Andy tried to pull his Stormboyz over to his left flank where the blitz objective was but my teleporting Termies sustained fired and broke them.
I lost a whole Assault detachment to the Stompa mob, but with the other 2 warbands kept at bay by my 3 Warhounds I had the right flank secure. (where my Blitz was located)
I managed to grab the blitz, defend the flag and take and hold objectives for a 3-0 win in the 3rd turn which equated to 28pts - 4 pts.
A good game, although I felt a little sorry for my opponent as my army had all the right tools to counter his strengths (mass of AP, speed and the drop out of the ability
to pick the assaults)
Game 4
It was day 2 and I felt bloody awful thanks to staying out till 2.30am at Nottinghams Rock City and having far too many beers.
I was currently in 3rd or perhaps 4th and was on the dizzy heights of table 2.
I would be facing Matt Arnold and his Eldar (which again 'roughly') had;
Avatar
Wraithgate
Guardian Host + Wraithguard + Wraithlords
Aspect Host (Swooping Hawks + Autarch = Exarch)
Aspect Host (Dark Reapers?)
Storm Serpent
Storm Serpent
Vyper Troupe
Jetbike Troupe
Nightwings
Falcons
Warwalkers
Rangers
I?d faced Matt in Mansfield a couple of months back and had managed a 5-0 victory thanks to a rather good first turn assault. 
I knew Matt would not be making the same mistake twice and that he was hungry for revenge.
Throughout the game he was always aware of my Landing Crafts potential and never put a foot wrong. It got to the point that at the end of turn 3 I was forced to use it for objective grabbing. This cost me the game as I?d been playing 1000pts light and 4 activations down for virtually the entire game.
I was fortunate to protect my Blitz objective late on when I broke the Swooping Hawk Aspect host and managed to fend off the Vyper troupe.
Luckily for me we ran out of time at the end of the 3rd turn with Matt poised for a big win in turn 4. However as it stood after 3, he only had BTS so we had to go the VP?s. Where he was WAAAAAY up with his dead pile looking pitifully small compared to mine.
So a 14-18 loss on Tourney points for me.
Matt would go on to Table 1 for a chance at the title in game 5. I was consigned to 6th place and table 3 where I would face Feral Orks. Eeeeeeeeeeeeek
Game 5
Feral Orks it would be. My first encounter against this much feared army.
Steve Thorpe and nice, chatty guy who was about to unleash his horde at me 
He had roughly;
3 Steam Gargants
Big Warband
8 Madboyz
6 Trappas
3 Uge (I think) units of Boarboyz
Big Squiggoth mounted Warband
I think he had something like 9 Wierdboy upgrades as well.
I tried corner deployment to keep him at bay for longer, but his Boarboyz soon had me pinned down as his Gargants closed in.
I tried to shoot up his Big warband but they soon rallied and I had to retreat with my Warhounds. My Termies tried to grab the Blitz but ended up having it contested.
The closeness of the game came down to my air assault on the big squiggoth warband. I thought I?d softened them up enough, but wholly under estimated what 2 Squiggoths could do and proceeded to only kill 6 worthwhile Ork units for the loss of 8 of my own men to a mass of normal and MW CC attacks. The assault bounced (the first ever time with my Land Craft) and that was that.
I tried to contest a few objectives but couldn?t quite reach and had my Thunderhawk shot from the sky by Weird boyz at is desperately tried to contest my Blitz on the very last activation of the game.
This meant a 2-0 loss swiftly turned into a 3-0 loss and 4-28 in Tournie points. Ouch.
I had a great time throughout the Tournie playing 5 nice chaps.
My army suffered a bit in some games as I was left desperately waiting for a juicy air assault target.
Nathan, who eventually won showed just what a Marine (mostly ground list) can do, but while my army can be potentially devastating against some armies it?s not ideal.
The Thunderbolts weren?t great and I?d probably have preffered my 4th Warhound (with a few) tweaks. Overall though I think it?s time to retire my Landing Craft, as playing 2 or 3 turns with only 2000pts on the table is far too restrictive.
On the plus side, I did win the best sportsman trophy (after a roll off) should have maybe just conceded the trophy. But actually quite wanted it. 
Oh yeah, I finsihed 8th of 14 come close of play. Not the greatest finish, but I'll take it
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