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A short review of my games using my Gargant & 2x Supa Stompas list:
GAME 1 - Tiny Tim's Ulthwe Eldar
I believe every one of the 3 Eldar players at this tournament brought Ulthwe, otherwise known as the SR5 Eldar list.
The ability to always act first in the turn didn't help Tim though, as I smashed him IIRC 3-0 by turn 3.
Everything that could go wrong for him, did go wrong. Some highlights :
A big formation of Guardians in the Wraithgate twice failing a 2+ roll to come onto the table, the first time leaving a Storm Serpent stalled between two Supa Stompas, the second time in failing to exit a static Wraithgate to engage a Landa that had touched down on top of the gate.
The Avatar turning up, attacking a Supa Stompa, and getting punched to death by it (despite the TK attack only doing 1pt of damage).
A second Storm Serpent getting hit by a Zzap gun on Overwatch, going from full health to instantly dead as the TK(d3) rolled a 3.
IIRC I broke his Revenant Titans with an Air Assault from a Kult of Speed in turn 2, doing a critical hit to one of the Revenants, and they spent the rest of the game hiding at the back of the board justifiably wary of advancing.
The march of the War Engines was off to a good start!
GAME 2
Darren R's Orks
Games against Darren are always a great laugh. I can't remember too many of the specifics of the early game, but apart from the loss of my Gargant late in turn 2 (he had 4 Zzapwagons in his army, and 9 Fighta Bommers to strip my power fields before the Zzapwagons attacked) it was going well.
I had a solid plan to take the game to turn 4 with a fair degree of certainty, but late in turn 3 however I got greedy, completely forgot my plan, and instead of racing for objectives, I tried to kill his Supa Stompa. Having failed to do so, my brain spent 5 minutes with the gears stuck and I made a couple more silly moves, effectively giving up the chance to push the game to turn 4 (where I would have been left in a good position, I think), and Darren won 2-0... it's always good to remember that Epic isn't just about killing things, but is about winning the game, and whilst I out-played Darren early on, he played a flawless turn 3 whilst I got distracted, and that sealed the game quickly.
GAME 3 - Mark Hargrave's Tau
I bunkered up against the Tau, hoping to break out in turn 3, force a draw, and push the game to turn 4 (which I looked likely to win). However my Gargant was on fire with a lot of BM's having been shot at by the Manta 3 turns in a row, plus a Spacecraft, and a pair of 1's rolled in the end phase of turn 3 meant it broke itself, and I was left not contesting a critical objective.
Mark won the game 2-0 (3 objectives in his own half, and 2 objectives in my half, I think. Mark can confirm).
GAME 4 - Steve54's Space Marines
I never expected to have a hope at winning this game, as Space Marines are so mobile that they should have been able to run rings around my slow War Engines, so I decided to try and play for a winning draw. Steve chose to play Corners, which made that task harder, and I didn't make it any easier on myself by deploying my objectives rather badly I think.
Luckily, I estimated the likely pre-plotted bombardment area for Steve's Strike Cruiser fairly well, and only the Kult of Speed (in cover) and the Gargant (clipped with 1 hit) were attacked, doing little damage.
Turn 3 got off to a bad start for me, as after Steve moved some scouting forces to block my advance, I engaged some Land Speeders with a nearby Warband. Despite being up by 3, the dice saw me lose by 1, and it became a struggle for me to push anything into his table half and prevent him winning by Holding the Line and Defending the Flag. However one Supa Stompa & a Flakkwagon managed to get into his half after my Fighta Bommers straffed his Land Speeders, reducing them to 1 unit which could not effectively block my advance.
Ultimately turn 4 left me with just 4 activations, as Steve had killed everything else: a Gargant sitting on an objective in his half, a Supa Stompa on an objective in my half, a Supa Stompa sitting on my own Blitz, and a Fighta Bommer Squadron. However, I had also killed most of Steve's army, certainly most of its mobile elements including destroying all its Rhinos and Warhound Titans. Lots of careful manoevering meant that he didn't have a chance at winning on Objectives, so he sent in his last mobile force, a Thunderhawk full of Terminators.
The Terminators hit the Supa Stompa formation on my Blitz, were left up by 3 on resolution, but in an echo of my earlier assault on his Land Speeders, lost the fight by a margin on 1 after the dice were rolled. I was left winning 1-0 after nothing in my half managed to rally, meaning that we went to Victory Points, which I won by a large margin (most of his army was dead or broken).
An interesting thought off the back of this game that occurs to me is that if EUK introduce an AMTL army list, the meta game might change, requiring Marine armies to start taking some more AT weaponry or Titans, and a bit less of the so called "cookie cutter" Marine lists might be around. Predators & Vindicators are still overpriced, though, so I don't see them turning up too often. :-P
GAME 5 - Man of Kent's Siegemasters
Siegemasters are generally held to be an annoying list to play against, and I'd like it if EUK would consider adopting Krieg, because they're similar but are more fun to play with/against (as they have a more interesting playstyle than just shoot-shoot-shoot-shoot-shoot-followed by a scoot for objectives).
Anyway, I've played with and against Siege style armies a lot, and the end result was a 3-0 win to me as I think Ryan deployed badly (he took up the whole width of the board, instead of just one quarter of it) and never really recovered from that initial mistake as I knew how to chew his army apart from the edges.
If he'd have castled tightly I expect it would have been a draw, but I think he was scared by all the template attacks I had available and tried to minimise that, at the expense of a layered defence line. Baran Siegemaster games are often won or lost in the deployment phase IMO.
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Overall a fun weekend, roll on Man of Kent's Bristol Tournament in January!
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