Phew! Another Britcon over and done with, and as usual was loads of fun Smile
I'd decided to take the Tau, as despite the last event i'd taken them to didn't go as well as hoped, i felt the list had legs (against anything other than the hard counter of Space Marines at least). Same list, so we had a unit of crisis suits with a supreme commander in, a big unit of fire warriors with transports, etherial and skyray for BTS, two more smaller fire warrior units with skyrays, to units of hammerheads (6 railhead versions) with skyrays, and another with 5 fusionhead variants with skyray. On top of that, 2 units of tetras, some broadsides, and a unit of the mighty Kroot! Then there were some baracuda fighters, an Orca, and finally a spaceship to add a bit of TK punch if needed.
Game 1: Glynn (Necrons)
Glynn took a very different approach to necrons, and at 4k had two 'Abattoirs' (big war engines), 4 full units of Obelisks, 3 min sized units of warriors, some monolith phalanx, and a C'Tan.
Glynn went for a pretty bold move at the start, putting all the obelisks and monoliths on one flank, with the intent (i believe) of trying to take down my tanks early on before i could get to work on the abattoirs, leaving just the C'Tan off the board so i couldn't take him out with the space ship. However, he had to get through the tetras first, and with the usual blast marks from teleporting, things didn't go according to plan, and while he won 1st activation only a couple of tetras died (Obelisk shooting is ok, but not great). I responded by taking out the two full units of Obelisks that hadn't activated as yet with my railhead tanks, and the other two units got missiled and broken over the turn. Glynn tried to salvage something with some warrior assaults, but these went pretty sour, and he ended up losing them too. The Abattoirs were at least getting into the mix now, which was somewhat concerning. The C'Tan came down, and i think Glynn won activation again, and one Abattoir had a bit of a rough time against some fire warriors, after some pretty rough dice for Glynn, and then his C'Tan failed to activate on the retain, so i shot it to death with my fusionhead tanks. From this point in it was a case of throwing the kitchen sink against one Abattoir and then the other, and things didn't go well for the Necrons... Game finished 32-0 to me.
Game 2: Mike (Death Korps of Krieg)
Mike had decided to give the army i'd been terrorising the last two britcons with a go, taking a slightly different route to me however with the addition of some ground based flak, an earthshaker battery, and a warhound pack. However, the meat and bones of the list (gorgon units and shadowswords) remained.
Mike was understandably a bit worried by my Lance shooting, and therefore played it pretty cagey early on. My spaceship failed to activate turn 1, which was a bit of a pain, but at least came in and did good work on turn 2, taking down his commisar gorgon (with supreme commander inside) from his BTS unit (personally i'm not that keen on having the BTS and supreme commander in the same unit if at all possible), and i was able to use the hammerheads to keep the gorgons at bay. The bloody warhounds proved pretty much indestructible though, wading through a frankly absurd amount of firepower unscathed after a combination of poor shooting and excellent saves. Still, with the BTS broken i was able to keep plinking it down nicely, and by the end of turn 3 it was pretty much dead. In the meantime Mike tried to get the offensive going again, but some crossfired lance and macro shooting did a lot of damage to the Gorgons, and the Fire warriors helped deal with the guys inside. The stupid warhounds just wouldn't die, but after mike failed to activate them on turn 4 i was able to take the game to a 3-0 win.
Game 3: Steve (Eldar)
Steve was trying out a different variant of his brutal Biel Tan list, using 2 aspects in wave serpents, along with a third in a vampire. On top of this, 3 units of falcons, double void spinners, 2-3 units of rangers (can't remember), and some war walkers, which were having a rough tournament. Oh, and the obligatory spaceship.
Steve started off by bombarding my BTS with both the spaceship and the void spinners, i rallied though, which stopped them breaking. Turn 1 was otherwise pretty damn cagey, with both of us trying to jockey for position going into turn 2. I finished the turn off though with a cheeky broadside drop on a flank, breaking a unit of falcons. My Spaceship got it's chance turn 2, and managed to break one of his void spinners, although the other one got away with just a blast marker. Steve managed to erase the kroot with the aspects in vampire, however i was giving him problems with my hammerheads, which were getting cheeky shots on his transports and suchlike, and generally being a pain. Turn 3 went very south for Steve though, and after a relatively rough rallying phase (not helped by me sniping out the remnants of a few units) i was able to take a 4-0 win, with just the BTS sitting there pretty much close to being broken and a few other remnants.
Game 4: Dave (Black Legion)
Dave's army had 3 big units of infantry, along with the usual terminators, chosen, lots of daemons, and nasty war engines. This game was pretty damn cagey, with Dave deciding his infantry units wanted none of my fire warriors, especially as the terrain didn't allow for a particularly safe advance on one flank. I spent my time taking out the war engines and smaller units, but with the big infantry units on overwatch, i was unable to really get to them, especially when Dave took a punt at my BTS on turn 2 with his terminators, which unsurprisingly broke it, and i had to bring back units to deal with it. This left me unable to get into a position to really threaten his BTS or blitz, so i took the 2-0 for none shall pass and take and hold and was reasonably pleased with the result.
Game 5: Tim (Ulani)
Aah, tanks - lots of tanks. Tim had taken a pretty damn solid list, with the Regimental HQ unit (10 standard leman russ) and hydra as his BTS, a unit of 10 executioner tanks, 6 more executioner tanks, 6 demolishers, a unit of conquerors, 2 units of flak, 2 units of planes, some hellhounds, some griffons, and two units of salamanders. Sadly going for no super-heavies, so my spaceship was basically just going to be a stalling activation this game.
Given both of us had nasty tanks, we were both very careful early on, as either of us could trash the other's core units without too much trouble. A cagey first turn saw me probably with the advantage, sniping out some tanks and suchlike, and i was able to take down one flank with the fusion tanks and some tetras. The other side however was a different matter, as Tim had sent his big executioner unit down that side. Tim managed some very solid armour saves (despite the lance shots) and kept the bigger tank units pretty intact, until things went a bit pear-shaped for him turn 3. There was the big executioner unit facing off against some hammerheads, and Tim won the rolloff to go first. Things were looking grim, and then Tim did his usual, and promptly failed to activate, and the resulting shooting was likewise pretty awful. This allowed me to capitalise on his misfortune and take out the executioners and demolishers, and then the big unit of executioners got sustained on later in the turn, smashing that flank. However, a cheeky rally on a 5 in my half kept Tim in the game, and after i had a spate of failed activations at the end of turn 4, i was unable to get more than a 2-0 win.
Game 6: Simon (Squats)
Simon had a very interesting list, with a big warrior unit for BTS, 4 berserker units with a warlord in each (a very tasty addition), 2 units of bikers, 2 units of iron eagles, 2 thunderfires, some thudd guns, and no less than 3 land trains! Ouch.
I was able to corral the Squats early on with tetras, but Simon had a superb run of armour saves, which stopped me really hammering him too badly. I did however manage to take out one of the land trains, and take another down to half wounds, which was a good start. Things went downhill from there though, and Simon had ran a couple of units at the end of the turn at me, hoping to win initiative. Which he did. The poor Kroot got wiped to a man, and the broadsides at least managed to fight off some bikers. However, there were more to come, and quicker than i could seemingly deal with! I'd had some fairly decent dice over the weekend, but things started going downhill at this point, with hammerheads either failing to hit anything, or failing to activate at all, and losing the initiative each turn for the next 2, costing me any chance of a win, as the berserker units were taking out an activation each time they went (Tau don't so much lose assaults as disappear in a puff of smoke). I managed to take down another land train eventually, and the last wounded one was well back, but with Simon's epic rallying i just couldn't capitalise on any gains. Still, i'd killed enough to stop him pushing for the victory at least, and so the game ended a winning draw to me. Really interesting Squat list, and i'd be quite keen to have a go with them myself at some point!
So 5 wins and a draw in the end, and i was really pleased with how the Tau got on. I also managed to come away with the Slytherin trophy for best results across all the systems along with the win for Epic, so it was a pretty successful Britcon!
A big thanks to Dave for running the event, and to all my opponents for making it another fun year
