[long post warning]As ususal, a good if somewhat lengthy tournament over 2.5 days that was marked by some incredible statistical anomalies.
In keeping with my traditional style, I tried a somewhat excentric Marine list. My intention was that the list would be both reasonably 'fluffy' (so no titans) totally air-drop force containing iconic formations (Dreadnoughts and Land Raiders). The other intention was to see if the Land Raider price drop made them sufficiently attractive if used as a drop formation. So:-
200 Space Cruiser
350 Landing Craft
350 Landing Craft
200 ThunderHawk
150 Thunderbolts
150 Thunderbolts
500 Terminators, Dreadnoughts and Chaplin
400 Terminators and Chaplain
350 Land Raiders
300 Tacticals
300 Tacticals
250 Devastators
250 Devastators
250 Marine Bikes and Chaplain
Although I did consider alternative deployment options, in the end I used the same strategy for all games keeping the entire army off-table.
Game #1 Vs Paul Sutton (Marines)
As we both had marines, we diced to see who chose the Spaceship turn. Paul won, choosing turn #1 (and corners), so mine had to arrive on turn #2. With my entire army off-table, Paul didn't know where to go, so advanced his entire army towards the centre of the table. He tried to entice my flyers to land, but the targets were not tempting enough.
On turn #2, my planetfalling troops arrived in the rear of his army, and retaining, the Land Raiders were able to sustain on and break a formation of Predators. My flyers arrived in the face of his army which then scattered away from the table centre. Despite having a set of "dice of Dave", Paul then threw sub-standard dice and I was able to capture his Blitz and kill his BTS. 2-0 to me.
Game #2 Vs Steve Gullick (Marines)
As before we diced, Steve won, choosing turn #3 for his spacecraft and sides. He deployed his BTS Tacticals and some Lanspeeders in one corner; two Warhounds, tacticals and scouts in the other corner; and a Warhound and scouts in the centre. My planetfalling troops aimed at the relatively empty centre, the Land Raiders sustaining on and breaking the central Warhound. With a great deal of thought I was finally able to get rid of the scouts in the centre and mount a successfull assault on Steve's BTS tacticals. In turn #2 my terminators teleported in and eliminated his BTS, but Steve made judicious use of his air-mobile formations. His reserves moved across from the other flank, pushing my forces away from his Blitz, battering my army and killing my BTS in the process. 0-2 to Steve
Game #3 Vs Mark Hargrave (Eldar)
I chose corners hoping to cover Mark's Eldar in templates, but his clever deployment forced my drop pod death wind attacks away from some more vulnerable formations on one side. On the other side, Mark gambled and teleported his Avatar into a position that bunched up and intermingled my formations. My templates did not cause sufficient damage and then the Land Raiders failed to retain. Licking his lips with anticipation, Mark declared an assault with his Warlock on my intermingled Landing craft, Land Raiders, Tacticals and Devastators breaking the lot! I managed to launch my big Terminator assault on the Warlock inflicting 5 damage on it, and later on Mark tried to move through some ruins and it tripped up. 0-4 to Mark
Game #4 Vs Simon Jenkins (Ulani - IG tank army)
I chose corners and Simon set up his tanks - an awefull lot of BIG tanks with reinforced armour, completely filling the deployment zone with
hundreds of tanks. A really pretty army with many scratch-built modifications.
The marines dropped into the teeth of his entire army (hindsight is a wonderfull thing) and though I did break two of his weaker formations, the reinforced armour protected most of his army. I made several tactical errors and continued to press on with my plan to keep him bottled up in his deployment zone, only to have Simon critical both Landing craft, each with a single hit (highly unlikely). My ThunderBolts failed to arrive for much of the game only turning up to shoot Simon's scouts off my Blitz. 0-3 to Simon
Game #5 Vs Chris Steel (Vanaheim - IG air cavalry)
I chose corners again and decided to be more cautious in my deployment, aiming at one flank and slightly further away from Chris' deployment zone - then he started deploying his truely
awesome army (
I hope someone posts some pictures of it). As his army all had 'scout' it covered a triangle almost to the neutral corner on the 'short' side, leaving a small space by some ruins and a tiny spot on a nearby hill. I teleported my terminators into the ruins to support the Land Raiders that were to land in this gap (scoring 3x '1's). Some Devastators landed on the hill while the rest of my drop pods were moved outside his army, the deathwind attacks severely mauling a number of his formations. I then proceeded to throw a further 6x '1's to fail any activation that was not automatic - 9 out of 10 dice or odds of over 12 million against. Meanwhile the Vanaheim wiped out the devastators and destroyed the Landing craft and two Land Raiders, forcing the broken remnants into the ruins with the terminators where they were surrounded by his supreme commander's formation. Turn #2, Chris very sportingly let me change my declared action, and the terminators assaulted out of the ruins, clearing the landing zone for my Landing craft to assault and destroy his BTS formation. In a final twist of fate, a sentinel formation won an assault made against it by some devastators despite losing three of the four units, and the surviving sentinel rallied to deny me TSNP. 2-0 to me
Game #6 Vs Andy Harris (Eldar)
I chose corners and tried to repeat the 'cautious' deployment. This time the spaceship bombardment and deathwind attacks were devastating, breaking four formations outright and putting a large number of BMs on most of the other formations in Andy's army, much to his understandable dismay. The Eldar Phantom assaulted the intermingled Landing Craft and Land Raiders breaking them, consolidating to pin some tacticals and Devastators against other Eldar formations. Again I started throwing '1's to fail a succession of activations which caused Andy to comment that he only needed to let me beat myself. I then compounded the effects of this inactivy, making several tactical errors to snatch disaster from the jaws of defeat. Despite having 4-5 formations permanently broken throughout the game, Andy, managed to turn the game round in spectacular fashion. 0-3 to Andy.
Many thanks to all for some incredible games, and a special note of thanks to 'Mephiston' for umpiring throughout without playing.
