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The Irish GT was this past weekend in Athlone (the Paris of the midlands). Fifty two gamers showed up to fight for the title “Champion of Ireland.” There were six games with pairings based on rankings after the first game. The scoring was: win, 30; draw: 10; loss: 1; concede: 0. The only soft scoring consisted of 15 points for your army being based (5), painted (5), and details painted (5). Thus for the GT the maximum points were 195 (six wins plus 15).

It was a 1750 point tournament. I brought my pink battlewagons: Warboss, Beg Mek/KFF, 3x20 boyz, diversified nobz with Battlewagon, 11 grots, three battle wagons, 2 deff koptas.

Game 1 vs. Salamanders
His list: Vulkan, 5 terminators in LR, Dreadnought, x2 tact. Squads in rhinos, x2 2 speeders, vindicator, x2 predators
This game was Capture and Control with 24” pitched battle deployment using the short table edges. When I received the rules pack I figured I would get a draw here. I would have at least three turns of full moving with my wagons before I could assault, but if I opponent played denial it could take four turns of movement. To make matters worse, my opponent was sure to be able to use his speeders to contest my objective. It would be tough. The table was basically barren as well so no line of sight issues for my opponent at all.

The Salamanders went first and my luck starts out great—the Kustom Force Field made at least four saves. Basically all his shooting pinged off the front armor of my wagons or was saved. On my second turn I did a successful boarding plank attack and wrecked his Land Raider. By turn three most of my wagons are dead—I think I had one left. The Nobz/Big Mek/Warboss managaged to get a multi-charge on his vindicator and predator and took care of them booth. The Nobz were also in control of his objective.

So at this point—turn 3 lets say—it’s pretty clear we’re heading for a draw. His terminators and two tactical squads will wipe the nobz and his speeders (he had 1 remaining from each squadron will try to contest my objective. I had to dispatch boyz to take care of the speeders and the game ends in a draw with me severely behind in VP.

Game 2 vs. Imperial Guard

His list: I know nothing about the codex so this is going to be vague. He had a company commander guy/master of ordnance, four heavy weapons squads with las cannons and a few auto-cannons, three infantry squads in chimeras, 2 or 3 other infantry squads (or platoons?), a solo leman russ, a squad of 2 leman russ, and a demolisher.
This was a kill point mission—Hurray for me! The deployment was ‘Call to arms’—pitched battle with your zone divided into three and some randomness on where you could deploy. This broke up the guard player. About three-quarters of his army was in his left corner and the other quarter in his right corner. I was in the middle.

The game started off horribly for me because my opponent seized the initiative and then immobilized the Nob wagon (once again a table with only two significant pieces of terrain-WTF!) Two of my wagons survived to get their assault payload delivered by turn three and that, plus the one or two kill points my nobz were able to get) was enough for me to barely earn a win. I was basically wiped by the end of it—only the painboy from my nobz and the gretchin were alive.

The deff rolla earned their points for the tournament in this game alone. It is so nice to be able to tank shock units with LD as crappy as my own.

Game 3 vs. Space Wolves

I was in the middle of the pack here and hoping for a good middling draw. The Space Wolves player had a fresh list and was obviously still experimenting—not a particularly strong list. He had Ulrik,, Bjorn the super dread, two units of long fangs, two squads in rhinos, some type of close-combat squad in a land raider. He also had some Inquisitor ally with a few lackeys and a lone wolf.

The scenario was three objectives placed per player with hidden point values of 3, 2, and 1. The deployment was spearhead. I placed my 3 point objective in the middle of the table, put my grots baby sitting the 1 point objective and placed my 2 point objective in a corner far way—let him have it if he wants it. He put his objectives near his long fangs, and towards the middle of the table.

I went first and drove forward. His turn 1 shooting managed to pop the nob wagon and the nobs disembarked into a ruin. More shooting at the nobz failed to do much. My second turn went really well. Using a boarding plank attack from a Nob I managed to destroy Bjorn’s DCCW. My other 2 nobz in battlewagons managed to wreck the LR on turn three after the grabbin claws prevented it from moving the previous turn. Without his DCCW Bjorn was no match for the big Nob squad. My strategy now was to trade him my three boyz squads for two of his. The guys in the wrecked land raider did manage to wipe a squad of boyz but the next turn I wiped them with another squad. I also managed another trade with one of his tactical squads. So in the end my nobz and gretchin are holding more than enough in objective points for a win.

I end the day 2-0-1 and we get beer and settle in to get gak faced and do the table quiz. We then proceed to get more beer and hit a chipper. Lovely.

Day 2.

Not too hung-over; not too sleep-deprived.

Game 4.
His list: x2 Demon Princes with Lash, x3 units of 2 obliterators, x2 small squads of plague marines in rhinos, summoned greater demon, two units of summoned lesser demons.
This game was ‘capture the banner.’ Dawn of war deployment with a banner in your half. Infantry troops could carry the banner and the goal was to get it into your table half. If you were able to flee off the table with it you would automatically win. I had a great strategy for this if I went fist—of course I lost the roll.

He deployed a squad and its rhino in the middle with a demon prince behind it. I deploy my nobz and the warboss 18” away. My other three battle wagons and the big mek will try to rush his banner. The nobz ended up getting tar-pitted for three turns by the rhino/demon prince/plague marines/summoned greater demon. They emerged from the mess unscathed but by then the battle elsewhere had taken a turn for the worse. His summoned lesser demons were able to deep strike near my banner.

Meanwhile his obliterators were tearing me into pieces. I was able to get one unit of boyz into two of the oblit. Units. My other boyz died fairly horrible deaths after their Wagons were popped and they were then lashed into hell. The game ends in a draw. With two draws and two wins I am the height of mediocrity.

Game 5

His list: Warboss, Big Mek with KFF, lootas, three small units of foot-slogging boyz, snikrot, small unit of nobz in a wagon. This guy had been winning well up to this point and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a real ‘2008’ list—a classic killer. The lootas will blow the hell out of all the transports in the meched armies and snikrot will rape Tau, IG, and runa-away-hidy eldar. However, I didn’t think I would have much trouble with this list because I was guaranteed of getting the assault in most cases.

The scenario was three objectives with the deployment zones determined by rolling a scatter die in the middle of the table and then drawing a line. You had to deploy a mere 6” from this line.
I tabled him on turn 4.

Game 6
So I’m 3-0-2 going into the last game. I have 110 points and I’m in fourth or fifth place. There was an undefeated gentlemen ahead of me, and three players who were 4-1-0 (121 points). The funny thing is I’m in negative numbers in terms of victory points. I get paired with the only other player on 110 point.

His list: Eldrad and council in a serpent, two fire prisms, unit of harlequins in a serpent, a unit of fire dragons in a serpent, 2 small guardian jet bike units, and a dire avenger squad on foot. Very grim but I had play tested this particular mission and so thought I might get lucky.

The mission was Kill Points—you had 20 to distribute in your army. Mandatory allocation was 3 per HQ, 1 per troop and 1 per dedicated transport, 3 for most expensive unit. The rest of the points you secretly allocated to your army. I put my big mek and warboss with my nobz and gave them every spare point I could—that made it a 15 KP unit in total. I knew that Eldrad and his council were worth 6 points, plus 1 for their transport, so if I could kill just those bastards I would win. The deployment was normal pitched battle.

I won the roll to go first and my Deff Koptas which had been doing quite poorly managed to immobilize Eldrad’s ride. They would not be getting away. By turn four I had lost all my wagons and my three squads of boyz and my deff koptas. No matter—I still had my 15 point HQ/Nob squad and they had finally got into assault Eldrad after making some incredible invulnerable saves against the fire prisms. It took two turns but I managed to kill Eldrad and his council. A win for me.

I finished with 140 points with 15 added for the soft-scores giving me 155—Third place! Second place was on 165 and the winner of the Irish GT had a perfect score of 195. I was the only player in the top ten—let alone top five!—in negative victory points. Hilarious but if you focus on the actual scenarios giving away VP may matter less in the end.

The winner ran a chaos list which included abaddon, demon prince with lash, summoned greater demon, and 7 oblits. I’m not sure what else (Hey winner—you said you were a dakkadakka lurker so register and post your list!).

Second place was a dual-lash chaos list with only 3 oblits, 2 demolishers, and I’m not sure what else.
All in all a great tournament. My only complaint was that the terrain was a bit patchy—of the twenty six tables I’d say half had five good buildings or pieces of area terrain.

Congrats on third!
By the way how many points was it?

GT was 1750pts. i do agree that abit more terrain... would hav been nicer. But the weekend was long and fun. And the place had us stock up on food which was really decent of them to do .

Backstabber wrote:GT was 1750pts. i do agree that abit more terrain... would hav been nicer. But the weekend was long and fun. And the place had us stock up on food which was really decent of them to do .

Two lunches and a 'light breakfast' with loads of tea and coffee--that was a nice touch alright.

Good thing you didnt win, otherwise you'd have to endure the "Everybody at the tournament must've sucked if you won with a list like that" drivel.

Sounded like a fun tourney though....been thinking about going myself.

Isnt the Irish Tourney smack in the middle of the country though? Not much opportunity for tourism in that case is there?

Deadshane1 wrote:Good thing you didnt win, otherwise you'd have to endure the "Everybody at the tournament must've sucked if you won with a list like that" drivel.

Sounded like a fun tourney though....been thinking about going myself.

Isnt the Irish Tourney smack in the middle of the country though? Not much opportunity for tourism in that case is there?

I was very happy with the result. There were people from Ireland, Northern Ireland, and the U.K. so I'd rate it as a fairly tough competition in the top half of the tables.

Yes, Athlone is central but does not have a lot to recommend itself. In 2008 the tournament was in Dublin. Perhaps in 2010 it will be back in Dublin. Evidently in 2008 it was a nice hotel in Dublin with a bar and you could get pints and bring them to your table!

I saw that you were thinking of going over to Britain. Look, Ireland is REALLY expensive--obscenely so, a rip-off in fact (i've only lived here a short while and it is still a case of sticker shock). For the same money in terms of travel/hotels/food you will be much better off, MUCH, going to the U.K. That's a simple fact.

Congratulations on the placement.
Nice report.

Interesting. A taster of what's to come at my GT later this month? We shall see.

Very good job.

G

So here are some pics. I had initially planned on doing detailed battle reports for all of my games--not a chance in hell once I started worrying about actually winning a game. Thus these pictures are fairly random, but nevertheless nice I hope.

I brought pink orks. This player brought purple and black ones!


This Templar army won 2nd or 3rd place for best painted. 1st place was a stunning Ravenwing army--sorry no pics of that!



My opponent's Salamander army from Game 1. He was much nicer than his list.



Turn 1 of Game 1 of the 2009 Irish GT--let's roll boyz!



There was more Mech. Guard than you could swing a dead cat at. I thought the color scheme of this army was nice.



This Salamander army was five votes away from best painted I think. It's hard to make out but the Land Raider has a finely detailed dragon's head made out of thin plasticard.



Last but not least: my boyz in Action. Diversified Nobz and koptas hitting a Greater Demon and a Rhino full of Plague Marines. The gretchin are wondering how the hell they ended up so close.

Yep, I'm the Malaysian guy that came over with the CSM list, Olympia.

I didn't have a greater daemon.

Basically it was Fallen DA with Abaddon, single lash D Prince, 7 oblits, 1 land raider, a 3 man termicide unit with combi meltas, Plague marines in rhino, CSM in rhino and 7 Khorne berserkers.

Glad to meet all you guys from the Warheads club, your club (though new) basically swept the top tables in the second day. Well done with your list, you had a bad draw in your first game and you managed to bounce back from it.

It was an interesting meta as there were two double lash lists, a few other single lash lists as well. Orks and IG were everywhere and SMs were pretty much mid table. There was a lot of variety at the top tables, basically:

Ninja Tau
Lash CSM armies of various flavours
Battlewagon Orks (Olympia's)
Hybrid Orks (mix of foot and mech, always with requisite Nob shenanigans)
Mech Eldar (almost always with Eldrad or with a seer council or both)
Nidzilla

Hey Redmane, congratulations on a solid victory and for being, by the account of all of those you CRUSHED, a great sport. So yes, the top four tables in the last round included Tau, Dark Eldar, my orks, two mech. eldar, and two CSM. I think overall there were some Black Templar armies in the top ten. Two weeks prior to the GT there was a large (30+) independent tournament won by one of the Black Templar players with the Tau army taking second, and Mech Eldar in 3rd.

I came with three other guys from the Warheads club and we took 2nd (CSM) , 3rd (me), 8th(mech. eldar), and 16th (nidzilla) and won 'Best Club.' You beat two of our guys, the CSM player and the Mech. Eldar. Better them than me! I'll probably be here next year so you are required to come back and defend your title or a Grey Knights squad will be dispatched to kidnap you. Let's hope it's in Dublin next year.

Redmane, congratulations on the victory.
Good to see a fellow CSM player win a great tournament.

Exactly how many people attended this year?

Also things that I've noticed with your pics then tables need a serious update in regards to quality and scenery, as they have been kicking around for a while now. And to be fair they do look crap because I played on them at Q con in Belfast.

Considering there is three stores in Ireland it wouldn't take too much work for them to get together and make new scenery/tables as it looks like a bit out-of-the-box and that stuff has been kicking around for years. After all we are supposed to be encouraged to paint and play with the new army each year ideally maybe there is a lesson that the stores over here could learn.

For example some of them scenery is not even paint?, what's going on there? And the Green hills on Desert boards looks fantastic. Not???