Britcon 2008

Once again the 3 day marathon that is Britcon was upon us. I had planned on taking a marine army this year but ran out of time to get it painted. So I feel back to my imperial guard. As it turned out this was good as there were 3 marine, 1 white scars and 2 chaos marines armies entered!

My list was :-

Regimental HQ + Hydra
Mech Infantry Company + Fire Support in chimeras + Hydra
Infantry Company + Ogryns
Infantry Company + Fire Support
Manticores
Basilisks
Shadowsword
Shadowsword
Vultures
Storm Troopers in Valkeries
Hydra Battery
Deathstrikes
Thunderbolts
Thunderbolts

The plan was sort of to garrison the two infantry companies and move forward with the mechanized formations backed up by the storm troopers. It never really happened that way!

Game one - Andy Harris - Space Marines.
"And so it begins"
Andy set the tone for this tournament were I played nothing but marines of one flavour or another!
With his army of drop troops he picked corners. I can’t remember if I got to go first or Andy decided not to take out my deathstrikes but they did get to nuke one warhound and the other was  crippled by the vultures. Reading that I must have gone first as I’m sure Andy wouldn’t let me get away with that kind of attack. After this high point the game went downhill. The air assaulting assault marines managed to kill themselves air assaulting the storm troopers in two rounds of combat. Despite continuing poor rolls for saves and assault Andy played a solid game and took the win in 3 turns.

0-2 lose. 8 Tournament points

Game two - Kevin Bott - Chaos Marines.

Day two dawned with both Kev and I not at peak energy levels. A normal sides game was most welcome as I really didn't fancy another corners game. Somehow I got to go first again and one unit of terminators stood and watched the deathstrike missiles head for the doom wheels. When the smoke cleared both wheels were still operational but one only had one wound left. The vultures then targeted the feral which was left broken with one wound. Kev had already angered the chaos powers and lost one point of his pool of 7 daemons by rolling a 1 for the initiative. The chosen then summoned 5 daemons and ignored the spent deathstrikes and headed for my supreme commander. After a short assault two chosen headed away wondering where everyone had gone! This was the start of some of the worst armor saves I've seen rolled in one game! After three hard fought turns I managed to clear my half of the traitorous Astarte and win the game with hold the line and defend the flag.

2-0 win. 32 Tournament points.

Game three - Joe Jephson - White Scars.

Joe always plays a hard game and I didn't fancy playing against his air mobile white scars. I never felt I was in the game as Joe kept the pressure on none stop. Details escape me but as the third turn drew to an end Joe had to decide if he wanted to risk a fourth turn despite being in a strong position to win 2-0 in three. He took the gamble but couldn't push on and had to settle for a 2-0 in four.

0-2 lose. 41 Tournament points.

Game  four - Mark Preston - Space Marines.

The last game on Saturday was against marks....air assault marine army. Oh joy! I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure I got to shoot my deathstrikes again and killed another warhound and break the other with the vultures. The game turned on turn 4 when Mark teleported in his BTS terminators to attack my Infantry company defending my blitz. The assault went badly with 2 terminators dying followed by a disastrous roll off that wiped out the formation. So instead of having control of my blitz Mark had given me BTS. I could have snatched a 3-1 win in four turns if my supreme commander had rolled a two or more, but he refused! So on to points with me taking it narrowly.

Winning Draw. 59 Tournament points

Game five - Grayde Bowen - Space Marines.

Grayde was a last minute stand in who had volunteered to even up the numbers in Epic so my thanks to him for stepping into the breach. This marine army was a new challenge as it had no thunderhawks or warhounds. There was a warlord however! I had no plan to attack the warlord until I got to go first again! The vultures stripped all the shields ready for the deathstrikes who despite both missiles hitting only did four wounds. Two reactor breaches left me some hope, but they were both repaired in the end phase and I knew BTS had passed me by. I never really managed to get into a winning position in the game as Grayde didn’t get to close to me and rallied formations to stop me breaking them and used overwatch to discourage my advance. The game ended inconclusively on the fourth turn and again I managed to win on points.

Winning draw. 77 Tournament points

Game Six - Mark Hargrave - Black Legion.

Mark was another new face at an epic tournament. He was using proxy squat models as his legion and it was nice to see the small guys on the table. By rights I shouldn't have been playing someone vying for the lead but with 10 players the draw can get pretty messed up to ensure players don't play each other twice. The first turn went to script for Mark when his two chosen formations destroyed both the deathstrikes and the manticores. I then used the vultures to break a feral. Marks drop came in and did a small amount of damage. His daemon prince lead retinue then assaulted the supreme commander formation. The damage was less than expected and we joked that if he rolled snake eyes and I rolled sixes I'd win. He rolled.....snake eyes! A quick intake of breath and I rolled my dice....DOUBLE SIX! My laugh out loud moment of the weekend. After this it went more normally and Mark had to decide if a 2-0 in three was enough for him to take the title or to risk the third turn. He decided to go for it and to be honest it wasn't that much of a risk. A 3-0 win in four turns to Mark.

0-3 lose. 82 Tournament points.


Overall, Britcon was another fantastic weekend of epic gaming and good company. Looking back I won the first turn a ridiculous number of times considering I was 2 or 3 behind on most initiative rolls.

As to my list it looked really cool on the table but lacked the consistent bite to dominate games and take the offensive. As expected the small stuff got killed quickly leaving me to try to win with the mech infantry alone, which was never going to work.

The final placing were

3rd Joe Jephson
2nd Mark Hargrave
1st Matt Arnold, who successfully defended his title with orcs this year.

I managed a somewhat surprising sixth place out of the 10 competitors.

Next tournament is the GW GT at the end of September followed by open war in October and the season ending Dragon Slayer GT in November. Hope to see some of you at one or more of these.

Thanks for the report, Dave.

I have turned a nice shade of green wishing that I could have made it there. Oh well only another 6 years until my lad is old enough to enter and give me the excuse to go to all the tournaments around.

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Thanks for a great report.

Congratulations to Matt and hopefully everyone had a great time.

shouldn't that be Mark Hargrave in second or is Mark Williams truly the Phantom  

Your are quite right, I wrote most of this on the train home and my memory wasn't the best. I'll change the name now!

Nice report Dave.

Just like to say congrats to Rug (Matt A) on retaining his crown. Britcon was really great again this year, cant recommend this tournament enough, cheers to Matt O for organising a blinder - there where definetly no windows left open .

A great tournament brilliantly run, thanks to Matt and also to Gavin for providing almost all the terrain.

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Totally forgot to say thanks to Matt for wearing a bright orange shirt all weekend and to Gavin for bringing 5 tables worth of terrain.

Can people post their lists, as there seems to be some interest in the wider community as to what was used.

43 LEMAN RUSS!!!

and some other bits and bobs!

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You can take my life .... but you will never take my FREEDOM!

Terminators
Terminators
Land Speeders + 1 Typhoon
Bikes
Tactical + 1 Dreadnought (Drop Pods)
Tactical + 1 Dreadnought (Drop Pods)
Assault + Chaplain
Devastator + Hunter + Razorback + Supreme Commander
Scouts + Razorback
Scouts + Razorback
Strike Cruiser
Thunderhawk
Thunderbolts
Thunderbolts
Warhound
Warhound

Dave, your memeory is appalling.  I did take the first turn and smacked your deathstrikes, then you toasted a warhound with your Vultures.

Any chance of reports from others (come on Joe and Andy)and did anyone manage to take any photos.

@ Andy H.
Did you find the drop podding list worked better in the bigger points value games (usually more chance of hitting something).
The odd time they've been used in our usual 6000 point Monday night games they still haven't felt too effective.

I wouldn't really say I was using a drop podding list - I dropped two units.

And no not really.  TBH They're probably better at 3000 because you're concentrating relatively more force in the same area.

Biel Tan Eldar
1.        Mixed aspect in Wave Serpents
2.        Warp Spiders with SC
3.        Guardians with Wraithguard
4.        Guardians
5&6.    Cobras
7.        Falcons with Firestorms
8.        Bikes with a Vyper
9&10.  Night Spinners
11&12. Rangers (x5)
13.      Phoenix bombers
14.      Nightwings
15&16. Vampires
and a Wraithgate

Phoenix bombers were worth their points, especially with the nightwings on CAP to take out Marine air transport. Really wanted to use the Cobras on Rug's Gargant, but fatigue and his Zapps conspired against me.

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I imagine it helps when you tell your opponent that Nightwings have 4 AA atacks on 3+ when on CAP/Int.

Imagine my surprise when I got home......

I would like to thank Matt for organising this, it was my first Epic tournament and I hope the first of many, any my list was based on a solid static base of infantry backed by some fast moving elements with a drop element to add that little extra spice.  

Cruiser
Retinue with demon prince and obliterator in dreadclaws
Forlorn hope in dreadclaws
forlorn hope in dreadclaws
Retinue with 2 obliterators
Retinue with 2 obliterators
4 Chosen with an obliterator
4 Chosen with an obliterator
Feral
Feral
Death wheel
Death wheel
8 Bikers
4 raptors

By and large the army worked well, the orbital barrage was as usual ineffective however the drop podding retinue usually found a juicy target, apart from when they dropped literally on top the great gargant. That’s not to say they performed well, especially on Sunday when the curse of the yellow jersey kicked in.  The highlight being when they failed to beat a group of guardsmen, anything but a double 1.
I had six great opponents
Game 1 – Mark Preston (Space Marines)
Dominated by my obliterators astounding accuracy downing 2 thunderhawks and a transporter full of troops pretty much sealed the game 32-0
Game 2 – Matt Otter (Tank Company)
The large number of Leman Russ companies concerned me as I had not played such an army before, however after squashing the soft elements I was able to whittle them down, got carried away by winning that I failed to notice I could have got another objective, despite Matt hinting at it.  His comments that the 2 points I missed may be important where prophetic 22-10
Game 3 – Matt Arnold Orks
Here was an army that had all the tools to counter my army.  The highlight of the battle was my demon prince retinue dropping in the vicinity of the great gargant, and having no other targets worth going for decided to have a go at it.  The demon price and chums managed to knock 6 structure points of the beast but finally he was on his own, broke from the combat and was promptly shot in the face with the full firepower of a great gargant, toast one demon prince.  Managed to hold on for a losing draw, if it had gone one more turn I am sure it would not have been pretty 14-18
Game 4 – Andy Harris Space Marine
Andy’s inability to win assaults combined with my obliterators unerring ability to shoot down thunderhawks made this a little one sided 32 – 0
Game 5 Joe Jephson White Scars
A game that could have gone either way, Joe fell for my trap of  teleporting the chosen onto an objective, once he had gathered his forces back there to deal with them.  The retinue and demon prince dropped in to say Hi!!.  However my inability to hit and save meant that this went horribly wrong with all my drop troops being broken in short order.  Joe then pulled of a good combination attack to rout my troops guarding the blitz to secure him victory.  This was my most challenging game of the tournament. 10 -22
Game 6 – David Bartley – Guard
The game went pretty much to plan with the exception of the demon prince once again fluffing his attacks and losing to some guardsmen, the shame.  27- 5