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Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=3711		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
Hello!  I just thought I'd share my experiences at the Epic Full Scale Assault Tournament in Mansfield, which took place yesterday (25th).  This was my first Epic Tournament, and also two other (fairly embarassing!) firsts:

- my first Epic game since the playtest days  :blush: :down:
- and my first game with Marines - having taken my Iron Hands army.

So seeing as I entered this tournament an untested Epic player, let alone Epic Marine player, I anticipated a rough ride.

So here we go: 3 battles, 12 players, and lots of blast markers...  :laugh:
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
My first battle was against Bill Ely's Feral Orks.  Bill (quite deservedly) went on to win the Most Sporting player award.

He had my vote for his extreme patience with me during this first game, when (inspite of having read the E:A rule book how-many-times-I-do-not-know) my mind suddenly seem to empty of any kind of idea what the rules are!  :8: But he was very sporting and patience, helping me get to grips - and through this first game!

Anyway, having a Marine army I won the strategy rolls for deployment, and set out my army as pictured below.  I think my deployment was my first mistake - against such a large horde (Bill's army had at least a dozen formations, to my 7!), my forces were too spread out - I should have set up in more of a classic refused flank.
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
Here's Bill's Feral Ork deployment - just one or two Orks there, then!  :D
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:38 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
I didn't do very well in this game, losing 3-0.  :oops: I did all the classic things wrong: over committing formations too early (bad enough as I'd spread my formations so thinly), forgetting how many formations Bill still had to play (I focussed on shifting his garrisons).

Also, I should have used my Warlord far more aggressively.  There was nothing in Bill's army which could really do a significant ammount of (shooting) damage to it, and its weapons really took their toll on infantry - when shooting at formations not in cover.

And when I teleported the Terminators, I should have gone for Bill's blitz objective (defended by a relatively small Trappaz formation), rather than on to one of my own - a turn later they were broken by a combined assault/fire-fight/shooting whammy from three formations!  They weathered this well, considering how outnumbered they were! :cool:

So the biggest lessons I learned from this game:

- when facing horde armies with a relatively small force, don't spread your formations too thinly.
- Don't be afraid to be aggressive with resiliant, well armed formations like Warlords or Terminators.

The pic below shows how the game ended - what remained of my initial lined, pretty well surrounded or broken!
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:42 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
My next game was against Joe Stephson's superbly painted Eldar force.  I was determined to draw upon my mistakes in the last battle, so I deployed my formations so they were close enough to support each other.  Also, I was fearful of losing my Warlord early on to Eldar firepower (pulse & lance weapons), so I deployed behind a hill and buildings.
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
As the next pictures demonstrated, that fire power of which I was so fearful immediately took its toll - but not how I expected!  One of Joe's first moves was to advance one of his Scorpions to fire upon one of my Tactical formations.  In one round of Pulse fire, it was gone.  :80:

I quickly learned that terrain makes no difference when all of your opponents tanks can still 'pop up' and fire at you!  Very quickly my formations got whittled down.  Here's what I'd lost after only one turn:
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
...and after the second:
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
By the end of the third (and final) turn this picture shows all I had left.  Joe controlled pretty much all the objectives - and nearly got the Warlord, which was limping off the battlefield having been broken and with only ONE damage point left after taking fire from several formations!
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
So after two battles I had only 9 points to my name! ?:O

I learned from that battle how deadly Eldar fire-power is, and also another classic lesson:

When facing armies with lots of firepower, don't deploy formations IN their transports! ?Because of this I lost a Tactical formation to MW pulse shots in one go. ?Ouch! ?:80:

My final battle was against David Bartley's Space Marines. ?David hadn't been having a much better day than me, though I think this was less to do with inexperience and inability (as in my case) than to what he described as 'bad dice karma'.

Once again, I did badly. ?AGAIN I over-committed formations too early, and on the first turn lost my Supreme Commnder-led Tactical formation to a combined assault of Thunderhawk-dropped assault formations, Landspeeders, and a fire-fighting Tactical formation, as the pic below shows.
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 2:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
So once again the pile of dead quickly mounted!
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 3:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
My biggest mistake in this game was that I simply forgot to take in to account the formations which weren't on the board.  David's Thunderhawk, even after it had dropped its two formations of Assault Marines, was a constant thorn in my side (not helped that I couldn't seem to roll anything other than a 3 for my Hunter's AA shots  :angry:  - what was that about Bad Dice Karma?  :laugh: ).

To be honest, I did this with all three games - I feel I need to learn to have a bit of foresight about what formations my opponent still has to play, and keep this in mind BEFORE I activate my formations.

Also, David pointed out that I was making a mistake by retaining initiative - which I did frequently.  As I had so few formations, when I retained I'd used up my activations in two-three moves, and then had to sit and take everything my opponent could throw at me - without having any kind of response.

In any case, the tournament was a great event - I had a great time even if I did so badly!  :D   There was a nice, friendly atmosphere, and the level of sportsman-ship was very high.  I've been to GW tournaments where things can be a bit tense, people can take a bit too seriously, which creates a bit of an atmosphere.  But there was none of this at this tournament.
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 3:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
The tournament was eventually won by Nathan Hoole (on the left here), who was playing Marines, whose final match against David Thomas (another marine player) was very close, going right to a draw. ?As you can see from the pic, this game required both players' total concentration!
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 3:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
There were some extremely well painted armies there, too.  Here's Matt Otter's Marines, which were nicely detailed:
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 3:22 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
Another impressive Marine army, these belong to Matt Philpott (who came Third place in total).  Obviously a fan of the new Warhounds!
Author:  firestorm40k [ Sun Mar 26, 2006 3:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Full Scale Assault Tournament - Firestorm's report
Finally, here's Joe Stephson's fantastic Eldar.  Quite deservedly, this won the Best Army award!
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