Game 1 - Ben W (codex marines)
this was Ben's first 3k tournament but he's certainly a strong player, it went back and forth for most of the game, him dropping two terminator formations on my blitz, then losing the iniative and ending up being assaulted by a couple of infantry companies... he was quite cagey but out-waited me (him having the threat of a thunderhawk and terminators meant that I couldn't afford to sit in my half, in the end I was unable to move to contest his blitz as he sensibly didn't move his tactical detachment to contest his T&H objective, dropping the thunderhawk on it instead (this may have been at my suggestion and it wouldn't be the first time I've talked myself out of a win! 2-0 in turn 3 to ben
Game 2 - Enri (codex marines)
Erin had taken an all-drop army so had nothing on the table on turn 1, his barrage and drop pods were due to arrive on turn two, so I had the experience of setting up my whole army in one go!
Erin took out one of my basilisk formations with tbolts, but it wasn't a huge loss as they had no targets! he teleported in two formations of terminators and thunderhawked some bikes in on turn 1, I was able to move my shadowsword and zap the t-hawk before it could take off again.
turn two and the barrage killed a sentinel and missed a shadowsword, erin podded all his drop formations in to the same point (he wasn't aware you can plot them separately...) so I ended up with a tactical formation with a captain and two devastator formations right in my pants! the deathwinds had mauled the nearby reg hq and he did a combined engagement with the tacticals and a devastator formation on them, then regretted it as the plucky guardsmen scored 11 hits, killing seven marines, a nearby warhound shot two more dead, but the combat was drawn, the second round saw the last marine go down and the guard ended up broken through casualties suffered... I was then able to do the classic one-two with my mech infantry and warhound, and blatted the other devastator formation.
Erin then dropped a thunderhawk full of assault marines onto my Reg HQ, reducing it to the broken-yet-fearless commander who fled into the woods
while this was going on, my shadowswords had been sniping terminators and had also reduced the bikes to two broken members, erin moved his final formations to contest objectives, but I had the activation advantage and turned a 3-0 position into a 2-0 win to myself by breaking his terminators, advancing into his half and nabbing the two T&H objectives there, unfortunately both his terminators and bikes rallied denying me DTF but a win is a win, I was happy how much I'd battered the marines, reducing them to six stands in 3 turns!
Game 3 - Mark Preston (codex marines)
I've now played mark 4 times in tournaments, he'd beaten me twice before and I held him to a draw at open war last year, he had a landing craft full of land raiders and terminators, a thunderhawk with terminators, a couple of warhounds, speeders and scouts
firstly he dropped his barrage and thought he'd hit only a sentinel until I informed him that strike cruisers are 5BP rather than the 3 he had been playing all day (and neither of his opponents had corrected him, for shame....
) so he flipped the extra template onto my basilisks and broke them too. His planetfalling landing craft dropped in and destroyed my warhound with ease, then he retained and destroyed the shadowsword..... I spent the rest of the game hanging on for dear life with near invulnerable terminators in my back field and evasive scouts and warhounds to cope with.... I did at least manage to kill his warhounds, but could do little to stop him winning 2-0 in turn 3
my win against erin ensured that I recieved the coveted 'best Simon' medal for coming top out of the three simons who attended (also for being undefeated by any simon last year) Simon white promptly warned me that he's got his eye on me for this year, and being the senior simon, deserves the medal by right...
once again thanks to all my opponents, Steve54 and maunsfield for hosting (and the extra helping of pudding!)
