I’ve just taken part in a local one day tournament and thought I’d let you all know how it went. It was 1500 points and had four games taking place over the day. Awards were given out for sportsman, best painted and overall winner (which was judged solely on results from games). I took an Eldar army that was pretty experimental, but hopefully could get some good results. The rough outline is below.
Farseer – Doom
Autarch – Jetbike and laser lance
5 Fire Dragons w Exarch (firepike)
8 Banshees w Exarch (triskele) in a Wave Serpent
10 Guardians w
EML 3 Jetbikes w Shuriken cannon
8 Warp Spiders w Exarch (powerblades and extra spinner)
6 Hawks w Exarch (Hawk’s Talon)
3 Shining Spears w Exarch
Falcon w Holofields and Scatter Laser
Whilst the army was pretty small, I was hoping they could quickly move about the battlefield and attack vulnerable points. I knew that if I got stuck into a war of attrition I’d lose.
First game was Recon Gamma against World Eaters. Big Daemon Prince, couple of Berserker Squads on foot, unit of bikes, flying Possessed, unit of Bloodletters and a Dreadnaught. I was able to set up in cover and he spread his forces across the board. I gave him first turn and the bikers and beserkers speed over the table thanks to Blood Rage and Turbo boost. With his other forces on the far side, I was able to jump them and take them apart quite quickly, without worrying about the other parts responding. His Possessed were able to tear through the Guardians, but a counterattack of Warp Spiders and Banshees took them and the other berserkers down. The Daemon Prince fell in combat with the Autarch and with him failing to summon the Bloodletters, it just left the Falcon a quick job of delivering the Fire Dragons next to his Dread and letting it eat Melta death by turn 4. That gave me two turns to move all my army into his deployment zone and a nice victory point total. 7 Scoring units, the complete destruction of his army and only the Guardians killed. Massacre and 20 general points awarded.
Next up I found myself facing a Dark Eldar army in Cleanse Gamma. His army was pretty eclectic. Two big Warrior squads, Ravager, Mandrakes, big Hellions unit, Warp Beasts, Talos, Wychs on a Raider and a Lord with 8 Incubi also on a Raider. Neither Raider started on the Table and I some realised why. A Webway portal was released by the warriors and the Raiders and Beasts poured out. This also coincided with my poor Wave Serpent being shot down and only two Banshees steeping out of the wreckage. The Hawks and jetbikes were soon covered by Wyches and Beasts, with the Hawks able to escape combat through Sky Leap. A counter charge by the Spears managed to reduce the two units to minimal size, but couldn’t break them. They chewed up my Spears and Autarch until only the Autarch was left on 1 wound, whilst his Mandrakes charged my Spiders in an attempt to tie them down. But it was this that was able to save me. Breaking the Mandrakes (got to love Autarchs with powerblades), they were able to Withdraw to near his Archon’s Raider. The Wychs and Beasts then found that even two Banshees could hurt and thanks to Doom, broke both units in combat – but lost the Autarch in return. Meantime, my Spiders shot down his Lord’s Raider and took three Incubi with it. His turn was uneventful, moving forwards his Ravager and unable to hit anything of mine. And with my turn 5 becoming and his Lord Retinue about to be hit by a Falcon, Fire Dragons and Warp Spiders …
The organiser of the tournament called time for that game. We added up
VP and thanks to broken Wyches, Warp Beast and Mandrakes – as well as both Warrior squads being below half strength, I came out 31 points ahead of him. We both contested the neutral table quarters (my Hawks return to earth saving me on that one) and held our own. One more turn would have given me
VP to turn it into a minor victory. Still a draw was a good result considering my abysmal first two turns. 10 points each and time for lunch.
Coming back from lunch, I was amused to see I’d drawn one of my best friends, with whom I’d travelled to the tournament. He was a manager of a local
GW and a damn fine Warhammer player to boot. He’d won last year’s managers tournament with an Eshin Skaven army and he and I had teamed up for a recent doubles tournament (in which we finished second with a Dark Elf / Skaven alliance). Whenever I play him the games are really close and good fun – in a local store our drawn game between High and Dark Elves is the stuff of legend (there were 2
VP in it).
His Flesh Tearers army was always dangerous and in a Secure and Control Gamma Mission, I had to be wary. Two Tactical Squads (plasma – lascannon), Assault Squad, Chaplain with Death Company, High priest with Honour Guard and three drop pod Dreadnaughts (two Furioso and one normal). The first couple of turns were cagey, but I was happy to see him deploy both Assault teams on the flanks. Then with a dreadful Blood Rage roll, his Death Company leapt into the middle of the table. Able to take out his covering Tactical Unit with the Falcon’s guns, I charged with everything – and all that was left was the Chaplain. My Spiders and Spears Withdrew, convince the Banshee’s could handle it. Then came the drop pods.
One Dread landed on the far objective – Assault Cannon ready to go. The others hit the middle of the table – where the last two objectives sat. One took a pot shot with his melta at my Falcon – taking off the Pulse Laser. The other flamed my Hawks and promptly rolled four ones to wound. Even the melta missed, causing my Hawks to once more Sky Leap away. In combat, my Banshees blew their “to wound” rolls, only for Doom to save me and suddenly I had 7 wounds pulling the Chaplain down. Both Furioso Dreads went down to a hail of fire from Fire Dragons and Spears, just in time for the rest of his army to get there. I lost my Autarch and Dragons in shooting and combat, leaving the counter attack to occur. Once more the Banshees proved their worth, dropping the Honour Guard. The Assault team vanished under Warp Spider shooting – Doom once more my friend. His last Tactical were charged by the sole remaining Spear and with three attacks, he wiped them out. I was unable to get his last Dread, but thanks to an almost complete wipe out and two objectives to one, it was another massacre. Leaving my mate shaking his head about Doom, I went on with an extra 20 points.
I knew I was in the top three. A Tyranid player was there on 57 points, with the Dark Elder player and me just below him with 50. As it turned out, I was given the player in fourth. It was a Lost and the Damned Army with a considerable Khorne presence. In a Recon Omega, I would have to contend with a Bloodthirster, two Aspiring Champions, two units of Mutants, two units of Traitors packing grenade launchers, a Leman Russ and a unit apiece of Chaos Hounds, Big Mutants and Bloodletters. Immediately I knew that I was going to struggle to kill it all with Esclation, but I could happily pick off some bad guys and commence surgical strikes against anything scary looking (read expensive). With his army set up in a long line and my Guardians central, I gave him first turn (my Fire Dragons and Farseer were set up inside transport vehicles).
The surge of his army move forwards and I elected to hit the two units on my right – the Traitors and mutants with one of the Champions. Within a couple of turns, his Russ had turned up and missing the Guardians with the Battlecannon – whilst I had everything save the Spears and Banshees come along. The firepower easily reduced the Traitors to one man (who broke) and caused the Mutants to flee. The Hounds, thanks to a very lucky fleet move, did cut down two Spiders in combat (who withdrew after the combat) and I lost my Guardians and all but my Fire Dragon Exarch to the battlecannon (lucky scatter!). The Mutants rallied and were forced to summon the Bloodthirster and Bloodletter, as the mutants couldn’t take another round of shooting. Both turned up short of their prospective targets and had to endure a turn of shooting. Thanks to Doom, the Greater Daemon was easily cut down by the Falcon, Dragon Exarch and Warp Spiders. The Wave Serpent and Hawks took the Letters down to half strength. In the meantime, my Autarch and Spears had turbo boosted after the Leman Russ. The Russ turned its guns on them, but couldn’t drop them. The Letters went after the last Dragon and killed him easily, consolidating into the Spiders. However, another Doom and a Banshee counter charge took them down before anything worse could occur and the Warp Spiders withdrew towards enemy lines.
In a very dramatic moment, my Spears flew over the swamp and hit the Russ with their lances, shaking the crew. The Autarch followed this up with a Haywire grenade and blew the tank up. The remaining two turns were spent trying to cause the other flank to panic and moving models towards his deployment. A few Mutants were cut down and on my last turn a tank shock by the Wave Serpent almost broke the Mutants and Big Mutants, but they held. He had 500 points in my deployment zone and 200 victory points. I’d about 670 reach his lines, but over 800 for kills, which gave me the major victory and 17 points. It was all over save for the tournament final scores.
The result from table one had come in and the Dark Eldar had massacred the Tyranids. I had finished second by 3 points. The difference was so slight and could have been changed by a couple of things. The Mutants and Big Mutants breaking to the tank shock or having that extra turn against the Dark Eldar. How close could I have been?
My best unit? Either Farseer or Warp Spiders, neither of which gave away any
VPs all day. The Doom proved invaluable all day long and the Spiders gave my opponents frequent headaches. The Hawks were also useful and I will never leave home without Sky Leap again. My disappointment – the Fire Dragons were killed quite frequently, but they were cheap (100 points) and make back their points against the Flesh Tearers and World Eaters. Seems like I’ll need to make sure I use them better next time and get in some serious practice.
So that’s what I’ll be doing. Getting in some good games in time for my next event in June. Perhaps then the elusive top spot might be ready for me to take?
