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Hi everybody. After great reports from Troy Tempest (on Dakka) from last year, I decided to check out Vapnartak last weekend.

This is a 4 game, 1000pt limit, 1 day tournament held at a fantastic venue, York racecourse. There is also a gaming trade fair held there covering all aspects of wargaming.

The points scoring was as follows:

15 points for a win, 10 for a draw and 5 for a loss.

Bonus points: +1 for killing the highest point enemy unit and also HQ. +1 for a unit in the enemy deployment zone. +1 for no enemy scoring unit in your deployment zone. +1 for wiping your opponent out.

Minus points: -1 for each HQ killed. -1 for no friendly troops surviving. -1 for each unit including unpainted figs.

As there was a shortage of scenery the tournament organisers had made the following rule: all woods should be treated as V4 rules. You can shoot in and out however you can't see through.

My List:

HQ
Farseer + Spirit Stones + Runes of Warding + Doom + Fortune + Singing Spear

Elites
6 x Harlequins including Troupe master with Power Weapon & Shadowseer
All Harlequins and Shadowseer have Harlequins Kisses (X5)

8 x Striking Scorpians including Exarch with Scorpians Claw + Stalker + Shadowstrike

Troops
9 x Dire Avengers

10 x Guardians + Eldar missile launcher + Warlock + Embolden + Singing Spear

10 x Guardians + Eldar missile launcher + Warlock + Embolden + Singing Spear

Heavy Support
3 x War Walkers (1 squadron) + 6 x Shuriken Cannons




Round 1 - 5 Objectives - Dawn of War setup

My Opponent, James brought a Dark Eldar list:

HQ
Haemonculus (sp?) + Shattershard + Venom Blade

Troops
5 Warriors + Blaster + Venom + 2 Splinter Cannons
5 Warriors + Blaster + Raider
3 wracks + Raider + Shockprow
3 wracks + Raider + Shockprow
3 wracks + Raider

Fast
4 Kymera, 6 Razorwing flocks 4 Beastmasters

Heavy
2 Ravagers

Deployment



The Eldar weapon platforms in this pic are objectives
My plan was to try and use the Harlequins for cover while moving the Dire Avengers around the flank to try and steal one of the objectives in his deployment.
I put both the scorpians and War Walkers into reserve to outflank them. A tactic that usually works quite well for me.
I knew I was up against it as James had all the mobility and more scoring units.
Dark Eldar was also a list I hadn't played against since they have received their new codex.

Turn 1



I stole the initiative but decided I didn't want to go first as I wanted to react to James.
This is the end of turn 1. At this stage I was quite worried about the assault speed and capabilities of the beast pack.

Turn 2
The Venom had started to whittle down the Guardian squad hidden behind the rocks on my left flank.
I got my WW on this turn and I decided to try and cause as much hurt as possible on the beast pack. I think I managed to kill a couple of beast masters and kill another couple of beasts. My Missile launchers didn't hit a thing - both fired crack and missed. The WW then assaulted the pack. The beast pack whiffed their attacks in the assault against them and lost the combat. They then run. Not off the board but importantly not far enough to escape the influence of the WW.

Turn 3
This started with the beast pack running off the board. I was feeling good at this stage as the beast pack (his most expensive unit) was gone and I already had a bonus point for this.
He moved his raider forward to the ruins.
The WW took a lot of shootiing (8 lance shots) which resulted in one losing a gun and the same one becoming shaken. The venom continued munching on the same guardian squad.
My turn. The WW tried shooting up one of the ravagers resulting in a stunned result. Both missile launchers whiffed their crack missiles again!
The Harlequins and Farseer took the bait of the raider next to the ruins and tried to assault it. They whiffed too.

Turn 4

His HQ dismounted and fired his Shattershard covering everyone in the Harlie squad and the farseer. He then told me what it does. OUCH!
I lost the Farseer, Troup master, Shadowseer and a trooper. That'll teach me to not know what an opponents army can do.
My turn consisted of trying to shoot his ravagers again. Everyone whiffed or couldn't penetrate. I knew the game was over by this stage.
I also got the Scorps this turn and got them on the flank I didn't want. They would charge across the table for the rest of the game and do nothing.

Turn 5

He started moving in for the kill this turn. Three wracks and a warrior squad assaulted the guardian squad on my right. Wiping them out.
By this stage I had lost the right hand squad as well to assault by more wracks. I turned the WW back and the Dire Avengers as well. Hoping to at least get one objective as he was holding 3.

Turn 6
This was a mop up for him.

I took one hell of a beating. He scored near maximum and I scored 7 points out of 20.

I could not do enough damage to his vehicles. I think I had managed to immobilise 2 by the end of the game. My scorps let me down. My EML couldn't hit a barn door and when they did didn't cause enough damage. I also got suckered by his HQ. I'll learn from that.

I wont take anything away from James. He deserved to win and knew what he was doing. A worthy winner in this game.

Next game 2 - Blood Angels!

Brother Bartius wrote:This is a 4 game, 1000pt limit, 1 day tournament held at a fantastic venue, York racecourse. There is also a gaming trade fair held there covering all aspects of wargaming.

Given the poor quality of the table's terrain (i.e. lack thereof), are you sure York racecourse qualifies as a fantastic venue?

That aside, nice Batrep, short & concise.

Thanks.

The organisers had been let down at the last minute and didn't have the amount of terrain they would've liked.

Still doesn't change that the venue was fantastic though however more scenery would've been better.

Looking forward to part two! Nice report.

Game 2 Vrs Blood Angels, Capture and control + Pitched Battle

After a less than encouraging start I was now facing one of the armies of the moment - Blood Angels.

There were 9 Blood Angels armies out of 43 entries. No less than six seemingly had Mephiston.

I had considered taking Eldrad and thought against it, thinking that he'd be too many points in 1000pt list!

My opponent's list, Paul, was small but powerful. It was mostly painted as Nurgle and had something I hoped I wouldn't face at 1000pts or was equipped to face - a Landraider:

HQ
Mephiston
Chaplain (with Death Company in Landraider)

Elites?
5 Death Company with power weapons

Heavy Support or dedicated transport
Landraider Redeemer + Extra armour + Multi Melta

Troops
10 Assault marines with 2 melta guns ( I think this was 2 troops choices but not sure as I don't know the BA codex).

I don't really know what happened in this game as I thought his landraider was a godhammer and reserved my WW again. I did the same with my scorps, thinking that he'd leave a troop choice on his own objective. This game was lost due to my own incompetence before it began. During the list building phase! The only half threat I had for his LR was my singing spears.

Turn 1
I castled in a ruined building around my own objective.
My harlequins were providing cover for my Dire Avengers to the right of my Castle. I thought that the hill in front of the my fortuned harlequins would help protect them a bit.



Paul went first and tried to use wings with Mephiston which cost him a wound (due to runes on my Farseer). He then moved his LR forward 12" as well as his assault squads behind his LR. His LR then proceeded to try and spot the Harlequins. He rolled and got 20" which meant he could see them and proceeded to shoot them with Potms with the LR assault cannon.
This killed 2 Harlequins.
I then moved my harlequins and my Dire Avengers back. I fortuned my DA. Don't ask me why. Both Guardian squads fired their EML at the LR hoping for a lucky glance. No luck.

Turn 2
Paul moved the LR up again and split the assault squads off from behind it. Both squads heading for the ruins in front of my guardian squads.
The LR opened up again on the harlequins and once again was in range (veil of tears doing me no favours here). I lost another 2 harlequins. This left the Troupe master, Shadowseer and Farseer.
I didn't get any reinforcements this turn. My response was to charge the remains of the harlies forward with the farseer to try and stop the LR while I moved the DA back and to my right. I also moved the ground floor guardian squad back to avoid the charge from the assault squads. Both EML fluffed their shots against the LR. The thrown SSpr from the farseer hit but didn't pen. I then charged the Farseer and harlies in. As the LR had moved 12", the Farseer needed 6's to hit in CC. I rolled 2 x 6's. Yay! My penetration rolls came up a 4 and a 1. My penetration rolls all day were this poor, not only in this game. At least I had stopped it though.

Turn 3
Mephiston jumped forward into assault range of the harlequins. The Death company disembarked from the LR in to assault range of the DA's. The Jump squads moved up just outside of assault range for the ground floor Guardian squad. Mephiston proceeded to slaughter my Farseer and the death company did the same to my DA's. I did manage to score a couple of wounds off Mephiston from the troupe master and shadowseer.
My turn. I got my Scorps this turn on the flank I wanted. I thought at this stage if I managed to kill both his jump squads that I would be able to scrape a draw as long as I wasn't wiped out. I moved the bottom floor Guardian squad into rapid fire range of the right hand jump squad. I was hoping that the Scorps would be in range of the left assault squad.
I shot the guardians at the right squad and charged them in. After the shooting and assault I had managed to bring the squad down to 1 marine. Not enough.
The scorps were 1mm out of assault range. Bugger. The ones lying down in the pic were lying down because they wouldn't stand on the slope. The pic hides the assault between one assault squad and one guardian squad behind the building.



Mephiston wiped out the remains of the Harlies.

Turn 4
Mephiston used his wings power to jump into assault range of the Scorps. Both the left hand assault squad and the death company proceeded to multi assault the guardians already in combat and the ones remaining in the building. Mephiston assaulted the scorps. The remaining marine in the previous assault was cut down by the guardians before they were wiped out. The other guardians were wiped out by the other assault squad and death company.
Mephiston proceeded to run down the scorps but took another wound in the process.
This left me with nothing but the WW still to come on board.
My turn. The WW arrived, on my right flank. I placed them as far away as I could to avoid me getting wiped out.

The rest of the game consisted of my opponent rolling to see if Mephiston could make it to assault the WW. By the end of turn 6 he hadn't made it.

I forgot to take any more photos in this game. I came out this game with 5 points for a loss. Upon reflection I think that I had should have scored less in this game due to bonus points which I hadn't scored at the time (I think I scored 3 instead which would have resulted in me being placed one lower than I was - apologies to my next opponent who finished one place below me and should have finished above me due to VP). This was not intentional.

Next game - Codex Marines.

You play well your paint job is amazing but you need to work on your luck.

Death Company are troops.

Overall it seems these last 2 games you lost because you don't know the codexes. Honestly not the best thing to do when you're joining a tournament. Hope this gives you a modicum of experience even if it's at this low of a point level.

@ Eldrad. Luck did play a part (or lack of it) however If luck had been on my side I'm not sure it would've mattered too much in the end.

@ Grayspark. I would agree. I didn't know either of the codexes well and this did affect me. I learned loads from these two games.

Game 3 - Cleanse + Table Quarters

Cleanse was a special mission for the tournament. The table quarters scored as follows:
Having a scoring unit in your home table quarter = 1 point
Having a scoring unit in your adjacent quarter = 2 points
Having a scoring unit in your opponents quarter = 3 points

My third opponent, Elliot, was someone who had played 7ish games under 5 edition rules and didn't really know his opponents (much like me). The advantage I had in this game was that I had faced codex marines before and had 3 scoring units compared to his 2. I was also facing another Landraider! Bugger!

Elliots list - Codex Marines:

HQ
Captain + boltgun with hellfire rounds + Relic Blade + digital weapons + artificer armour + auxilliary grenade launcher

Troops
5 man tactical squad with bolters
5 man tactical squad with bolters + powers sword on the sergeant

Elites
5 man terminator squad + sergeant with power sword

Heavy Support
Landraider with 2xTL las cannons + TL heavy bolter + extra armour (tac squad with power sword and captain in this)

Turn 1

My opponent won the role for deployment. I stole the initiative for the second time in the tournament.
The following pic shows the end of turn 1. You can just see the marine squad to the left in Elliots home quarter. There was also a guardian squad camped in a ruin to the right in my home quarter.

I had camped a guardian squad in my own quarter. I was also starting to learn about my scorps and had decided to infiltrate them behind the woods in my adjacent quarter rather than flanking them. I move the harlies forward and the guardian squad moved to my left. I held the scorps behind the los blocking woods and moved the DA up towards the termis. Both guardian squads then fired at the LR and both fluffed. The DA fired at the termis and the sergeant dropped. The marine return was to move the marine squad forward into his adjacent quarter that the guardians were now in. The LR and Dread advanced towards the harlies. the termis advanced towards the scorps. Elliots shooting ended with 1 guardian dropping out the closest squad and 1 DA dropping.

Turn 2
The harlequins moved to my left putting most of them behind the woods. The guardians followed on behind. the DA advanced towards the termis and the scoprs moved forward towards them as well. Both Guardian squads fluffed their missile shots again. The DA dropped another termi.
Elliot moved the LR and Dread forward toward the Harlies. The marine squad with attached captain disembarked. The other marine squad moved toward the guardians and the termis moved towards the DA's. Shooting consisted of me losing 2 Harlequins to the combined shooting of the LR and the disembarked marine squad + the dread. Fortune and cover really helped here. I lost another DA to the advancing termis.

Turn 3
The Harlequins and the farseer went their seperate ways. The farseer headed through the forrest towards the dread and the harlies towards the now disembarked marine squad. The DA moved into assault range of the termis as did the scorps. I also got the WW on this turn on my right flank. My shooting consisted of the DA's shooting up the termis , dropping another one. The scorps dropped another from their shuri pistols. The harlequins dropped a marine from their pistol shots and the farseer fluffed his singing spear shot against the Dread. The WW only managed to drop 1 marine from the squad on my left as did the other guardian squad (through a crack missile). the guardain squad in my quarter once more fluffed their missile shot against the LR. My assaults then followed. the harlequins assaulted the disembarked marine squad, wiping them all out except the captain who took a wound. the Farseer assaulted the dread and fluffed and was promptly insta killed for his trouble by the Dread. The scorps slaughtered the remaining termi and headed towards the action in the middle of the board.
The return from Elliot was to move the advance the dread towards the WW. He also advanced the remaining marine squad towards my forward guardian squad. The guardian squad took a couple of casualties from the marine squad shooting and assaulting. They did cause a couple back though. The dread proceeded to shoot then assault and rip the WW to shreds. The LR decided to move at max speed into the forest to try and get a shot in against the guardians. This resulted in it immobilising itself. The harlies took another wound from the captain who took out all of his opponents bar the troupe master.

Turn 4
This is how the battlefield looked:

The scorps moved towards the captain. My shooting consisted of the guardian squad camped in my quarter fluffing their shot against the LR. I then assaulted the scorps into the marine captain. The captain killed the troupe master and was subsequently killed by the scorps who consolodated back towards the hill. The forward guardian squad killed the remaining marine and kept in the same quarter that the LR was in.
Elliots return was to move the dread into sight of the DA. His shooting consisted of killing a DA with the dread and killing a scorp with the LR.

Turn 5
The scorps moved back into cover from the LR behind the hill and the DA moved a bit further behind the hill to get out the line of sight of the dread but still remained in my adjacent quarter. The encamped guardian squad once again fluffed their shot against he LR. The other guardian squad fluffed their shot against the dread.
Elliots return was to kill another scorp from the LR.

This pretty much finished this game. I think there was another turn however it didn't make any difference to the outcome.

How the game finished:


This win resulted in me scoring 17 pts. I was so glad as I thought I was heading for the wooden spoon.

Next game - Codex marines (imperial fists).

cool batrep BB, well done on turning your tourney round!

Nice reports, thanks for sharing. A sidenote in the first game if you steal the initiative I believe you HAVE to take the first turn.

Cheers Troy.

@ calypso2ts. My opponent pointed that out at the time as well however he was good enough to let me go second.

That was great of him to do, especially in a tournament. Looking at your list, other than not knowing the opposing codices that well, what changes do you think you would have made to your play?

Would Fire Dragons been a better addition given you already had an assault unit (the Harlequins)? The usual footdar includes an Avatar as well, (I am not sure if he requires a certain point level, I know the codex is older), is there a reason not to take one?

I wouldn't take Fire dragons in a footslogging list as they would become too much of a priority target.

If I had to change anything I would've tried to squeeze in the Avatar. I do normally take him however I thought at this point level it would've been too much spent on HQ. I would have got the points from dropping the scorps and took another harlequin with the spare points.

The Harlequins were a unit to hide the Farseer in.

This would've given me something solid to anchor my line and give me more anti armour.

I would also have taken scatter lasers on the WW. I know I can get three shuricannon ones for the price of two scatter laser ones however It does mean that you need to rely on outflanking them. I found out on the day that outflanking isn't always reliable.

If I could've found the points I'd also have tried sueezing in a BL in one of the guardian squads. The small blast template on the EML was never used all day.

Game 4 - Annihilation with Spearhead

I would have paid my entry fee for this game alone. I was facing a beautifully painted Imperial fist force against a really fun opponent - Andy.

I didn't photograph his list so this is from memory:

HQ
Chaplain Cassius

Elites
5 or 6 man CC termi unit

Troops
1 x 10 man marine unit with missile launcher and flamer + HB razorback
1 x 10 man marine unit with las cannon and melta gun + HB razorback

both of these were combat squadded. The heavy weapons outside of the RB.

Heavy
Landraider redeemer. (Another one)!!

Deployment:


Andy had won the role to pick deployment zone and go first. The other one of his razorbacks was behind the large building in the centre. Cassius and the termis were in the crusader.
The marines on the left were the one that were embarked.

I had infiltrated the scorps into the top right corner 18" away from his squad in the ruins.

Once again I stole the initiative!

Turn 1
I moved the harlequins and the Dire Avengers forward towards the centre ruin. The WW advanced towards the las cannon squad hiding behind the small hill. Both the guardian squads shuffled around to make good shots on the razorbacks. The WW opened up on the las cannon squad and dropped one. The scorps advanced on the squad at the back of Andy's lines. I shot at both the razorbacks with the guardians and both fluffed. The scorps, harlies and DA's advanced towards the marines.

Andy's reply was to move the LR forward towards the harlies with support from the left hand RB squad. The right hand RB squad and the las cannon squad both fell back towards the marines at the back who were threatened by the scorps. The right hand RB squad disembarked in front of the scorps. They opened up on the scorps as did their RB. 2 scorps fell.
The LR opened up on the harlequins and he only managed to drop one due to their improved cover save combined with fortune. The other RB gave up it's shooting to move forward and disembarked it's squad in front of the harlequins. The harlequins lost another and the farseer took a wound.

Turn 2
The WW continued their advance. The harlequins jumped into the centre ruins and the farseer split from them and went with the DA's who fell back towards the guardian squad. The farseer doomed the marine squad in front of him. The scorps moved towards the other disembarked squad, shot them and then charged in. The left hand guardian squad failed to penetrate the closest razorback and only managed to stop it from shooting the next turn. While the other guardian squad whiffed again. The DA's shot at the doomed marine squad. After the dust settled not a single marine had dropped. The WW shot at the retreating marine squad they had shot at before, dropping another one - the las cannon one! During my assault phase the harlies charged the charmed marines and slaughtered them. They then bounced back into the cover they came from. The scorps managed to kill 2-3 marines between shooting and assualt.

Andy decided against throwing more marines into the combat against the scorps and moved the remains of the las cannon squad to my left. He then pulled the RB closest to the LR round the back of the building and advanced the LR level with the harlies. He then flamed them, dropping another 1. The combat squad with missile launcher shot at and destroyed a WW. The razorback in front of them then destroyed the other two with it's HB! The CC termis and cassius now emerged and assaulted in to the DA and farseer. The DA's were slaughtered however they did manage to kill a termi in CC. The only survivor , the farseer fell back out of combat and started heading for the table edge. The Scorps and marine fought on with no casualties on either side.

Turn 3 & 4
My farseer fell back more and cast doom on the termis. The left hand guardian squad advanced towards the termis and were now in shuricat range. The harlequins went for the razorback through the ruins from them. The other guardian squad blew the HB off the other RB in revenge for the WW's. The other guardians shot at the termis and then assaulted in killing another 2 for their efforts before they were wiped out by the termi's. The scorps wiped out the remaining marines and consolidated towards the missile launcher combat squad.



The termi's now re-embarked into the LR and started heading for the other guardian squad. the LR killed the Farseer with it's assault cannon.
The scorps survived both combat squads rapid firing into them and hitting them with a crack missile without taking a single casuallty.


The guardians get butchered


As do the space marines.

Turn 5
The remaining Guardians now started to fall back away from the approaching LR and continued trying to pop the gunless RB, unsuccessfully. The harlequins charged the other razorback while the scorps charged the missile launcher combat squad. The harlequins only managed to rip the gun from the RB and stun it. the scorps dropped another couple of marines without reply.

The LR moved closer to the guardians and the other RB moved towards them to try and tank shock them. The other surviving marine squad (2 marines decided to fall back away from the scorp combat.

Turn 6
The harlequins could only immobilise the RB while the scorps killed the remaining missile launcher combat squad.
The guardians now shot a missile and singing spear into the other RB before assaulting it. Only managing to stun it.

The Termis were now in range to charge the guardians and did so. Wiping them out. The remaining marine fell back out of assault range of the scorps.

Turn 7
The scorps moved into shooting range of the remaining two marines and shot at them. Both dropped! The Harlequins finally managed to destroy the RB they were with.



This pretty much ended the game with a draw! Andy was a great opponent and this game was a blast to play with some great turns of luck for both of us throughout.

I learned a few lessons from this tournament and can't wait for my next one.

I came in 32 out of 43 players! Still I was the top placed Eldar player just like I'd hoped before it began. I was the only one right enough

Glad to see the eldar but the hurt on some power armored foes. I'm a huge fan of harlies, but never been too impressed with scorpions.
Would you say you were pleased with their results overall?

I'm just getting used to the Harlies and need more practice with them.

I'm a big fan of the scorps. They shone in that last game I had but overall didn't do much for me in the other three games.

They would've been good if I could've got them in against the DE but their outflanking move brought them in on the wrong flank and the DE player just kept moving away from them.

They usually do a great job for me however this tournament they were average at best.

I have learned not to rely on outflank though!

One of the most surreal things I ever saw in 40k was BB's scorpions chewing through a 30-ork boy unit (orks doomed scorps fortuned).

In fact if memory serves they chewed through 2 of these units and then held a 3rd up. Crazy!

Sadly Scorps have it rough, and I'd have to rate them under Banshees by far wit hthe growing trend of Feel No Pain and the overgrowth of Marines out there.

A fun little trick you may want to think of for your Harlies is to take a 5 Man Dire Avenger Squad and buy a Wave Serpent for them, then buy a Falcon with EML and Holos. Start out the DA in the Falcon and the Harlies within 2" of the back of the Wave Serpent. Turn one you have a 48" 3 S8 scoring gunboat (Falcon) and now the Harlies have a ride to jump in to get them across the board a bit safer.

The harlequins can also take two fusion pistols, which are 6" range meltaguns. I think that even just as a threat that is well worth it, in these particular games at least you would have had something that could realistically kill a landraider.

Good point Cosmid. I normally take them however I was struggling for points and didn't think I'd face much armour 14 at this points level. How wrong can you get?

GO ELDAR

I agree that the scorps have it tough with the abundance of FNP these days. They are just too cool not to take for me and I can get them into combat easier than either banshees or harlies.