So with it closing to the festive season the dawn broke on what was to be the last tournament of the year down in the land of the long white cloud, the sun rose over a crisp morning and 8 generals strode forth to do glorious battle for the prestige and honour of the coveted Epic Trophy.
As the battle lines were drawn, Enemies old and new jostled with there stratigec council and gather counter intel for the ensuing engagments.
All tables were readied and the high commaned gave the orders, off to death carnage and glory they ventured.
THE GENERALS :Mark "Da Boss" : Feral Orks
Tim "The Jobless" : Imperial guard
Jon "Mr Statistics" : Imperial Guard - Minervian 
John "Odd boy" :Imperial Guard
Mike "Oh no Bombards" : Imperial Guard
John "The Hand Grenade" : Marines
Jesse "Oh no Orcs" : Eldar - Yme Loc
Kevin "+10cm ..." : Tau
Round OneImperial Guard vz Imperial Guard - minervian
Imperial Guard Win 4 - 0 Turn 3With the minevian player having 3 tank companies i was daunted by the prospect of facing all that RA, so my plan was to turtle all my infantry into cover and lay low on objectives for aslong as i could and screen my battle lines holding the tanks at bay aslong as i could why my artillery took apart all his "soft" amour formations and reducing his activation count for later turns.
I admit i was fairly lucky with a few rolls in this match and also confess gaining initiative ont he first turn certainly helped in supressing / removing his artillery and Deathstrikes.
At the start of turn 2 i had about a 5-6 activation lead which from there it was just a ride over the victory line.
Feral Orc vz Eldar Yme Loc
Feral Orcs Win 2 - 1 Turn 3With jesse having only debuted this army for the first time at this comp, he was still learning the list and getting a feel for the eldar, and sadly his first opponent was probably the worst match up he could have drawn with so much AT focus the orcs pretty much just stormed up the guts of the feild and knuckled down for the win with pure numbers.
But there was a very amusing situation where the Orc warboss in full pride and motion barging up the field on his orkasuars which in turn was taken down by eldar AT fire and as our glorious Warboss jumped to saftey to push on with the battle, he failed to move fast enough and felt the full weight of his beast as it crushed him into chow for the next meal.
Tau vz Imperial Guard
Tau Win 3 - 0 Turn 3I didnt get to see much of this game but from what i heard it was pretty stock standard tau , using there marker lights and speed disected the guard and moved in for the kill.
Marines vz Imperial Guard
Marines Win 2 - 1 Turn 3With the marines sporting 3 formations of terminators 3 whirlwind batteries and 3 t.hawks with devs and assualt marines the imperial player did fairly well to with stand the huge air assualt and combined engagements the marines threw at them, and with just a 2 - 1 win to the marines it was a good game by both players.
ROUND 2Imperial Guard (Tim) vz Imperial Guard (Mike)
Imperial Guard (Tim) Win 5 - 0 Turn 3In this game it was almost a bit of a mirrior match with mike having opted for a bit more amour vz my artillery, hes win the initiative and takes out my manticores , and with my 2 bombard batteries untoched the carnage began, the thunderbolts took out his artillery and the game from there pretty much went downhill for him with infantry dying by the droves and his amour being held by mine in a stand off i was able to reduce his activations down to 4 by turn 3 to my still 11 activations and from there it was just mass of numbers that gave me the overall win
Tau vz Marines
Marines Win 4 - 1 Turn 3Not much to say, Tau teleport in roll 4 1's on six dice, marines 12 terminators Teleport in roll no 1's on 12 dice and it just got worse for the tau player from there, more of the standard marine smash and grab for a easy win over the tau.
Eldar - Yme Loc Vz Imperial Guard - Minervian
Eldar - Yme Loc Win 5 - 0 Turn 3with a formation of vultures on Overwatch i and 3 tank companies i thought the eldar would be in for a real hard win here if at all, but the Guard player played right into the hand of the eldar player and with so much AT / lance and macro those RA puppies just went down to easy, and when the vultures did unleash he opted for the revenants and hit with all 8 shots, which was then followed by 8 saves, lol have to love holo fields
Feral Orcs vz Imperial guard
Feral Orks Win 4 - 0 Turn 3Again Up the middle with the mass of green and the inexperienced guard commander just didnt know how to handle it and make use of his formations to there best in this game.
Round 3Feral Orks vz Imperial Guard
Imperial Guard Win 2 - 0 Turn 3Again Bombards paying huge returns on this game, and with shadowswords taking down a few orkasuras and there contents it thinned down the mass wave of green stuff , the poor imperial guard infantry on the front line weathered teh storm of the warrgghhh and the steam gargants whooopppinnggg !! 12Bp of MW lol, a good fun game with big losses both sides and a narrow win to me in turn 3, i have to say rolling 3 damage on nearly all but one of my shadowswords hits certainly i think may have been the factor that gave me the win here.
Imperial Guard (Mike) vz Imperial Guard (john)
Drawn Game Turn 3 Due to timeLots of guard lots of buildings , many guns and many explosions but not alot of dying or pushing to objectives, with his last few activations there could have been a 2- 0 win to John but he opted for the gamble on a shooting manover that didnt pay off in the end over the safe play and ended up with the drawn result.
Tau vz Eldar - Yme Loc
Eldar Win 2 - 0 Turn 3I didnt get to see much of this game sadly as i would have liked too, from what i gathered, it was lots of guns blazing huge losses both sides and a real boom town mining rush to the objectives turn 3 for a fragile win.
Marines vz Imperial Guard - Minervian
Imperial Guard -Minevian Win 3 - 0 Turn 4Whats to say here really, marines win initative, here come the boys in there suits of death teleporting in, poor old leman russ didnt really stand a chance, then it was followed by some air assualts and then just a matter of mopping up the pieces for the marine player, until a well played 4th turn by the minervian commander to pull out a victory.
Conclusions and AwardsA good time had by all at the end of the day and for me personally i had some great games with excellent opponents, there were yells of peril and chants of joy to be heard across the day as the events of the games unfolded, imperial guard made a good showing making up half of the armies present.
Final standings and awards were as follows :
1st : Imperial Guard (Tim)
2nd : Marines
3rd : Feral Orks
4th Eldar - Yme Loc
5th = : Imperial Guard -Minervian
: Imperial Guard (Mike)
6th : Tau
7th : Imperial Guard (John)
There were also a few extra Awards handed out for other feats of strength and granduer, these were not known until after the games had been played so that people wouldnt change there plans to attain just certain awards, they were awarded to the players that achived the highest points in each catergory with the exception of the overall winner being eligable, ( so the love gets shared around
)
Supreme Assasin : for the most enemy S/C's killed in the fastest time based on turns.
The Tactican : for the most victory conditions over the course of the day
The Warchief : For the most battle points earned
The Emblem of Honour : Best sportsmanship
Cheers
Tim NZ
