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This 1750pt 40k tournament consisted of 3 games.

My list consisted of: Eldrad, guide seer, 3 units of fire dragons (2 in wave serpents), guardians with EML, 2 units of 3 jetbikes (with cannons), 3 units of war walkers, Eldar defence line with quad gun.

I won’t give a turn by turn account – more of a general timeline of events in each game.

Game 1 - Big guns never tire, diagonal deployment, 3 objectives
I was drawn against birthday boy himself, Chef. But unfortunately Chef couldn’t make it! So I faced his last-minute replacement Kev Hooper.

Kev had brought foot slogging Marines. Can’t remember the exact list, but it was something like: 4 large tactical units with heavy bolters/meltas, a sternguard unit, 5 termies with some termie character, a stormtalon, and a dreadnaught.

Kev chose the table corner with the 2 objectives, I had 1 objective in my deployment zone, and I kept 2 units of walkers, plus the jetbikes in reserve. Kev also won first turn, but I’de managed to deploy most of my units out of range of his heavy bolters (his only long range weapons), so Kevs first turn was mostly movement.

Kevs stormtalon arrived and was promptly swatted from the sky by the fire dragon exarch manning the quad gun, this gave me First Blood, and also my secret objective (destroyed opponents fast attack). Disaster struck me early on though – it was pointed out to me that in the new FAQ Farseers cannot cast ANY powers whilst inside a transport! That messed up my entire tactic for the army, and would affect all the games!

Kevs termies deepstruck just a couple of inches behind my guardians holding my objective, and inflicted 8 wounds… I saved all but 2 thanks to going to ground. The rest of Kevs army advanced forward, apart from the 2 tactical squads holding the objectives. The termies were then wiped out from a combination of fire dragons, jetbikes, snap firing guardians, and war walkers, plus a cheeky mindwar from Eldrad on the termie character. The other fire dragons took out the advancing dreadnaught in the centre of the board, whilst a unit of walkers, accompanied by a unit of jetbikes whittled down the marines, and advanced towards Kev’s closest objective.

Kev immobilised one of my advancing walkers – making it a separate unit. He then destroyed it, earning him a victory point. At this point Kev still held 2 of the 3 objectives, and was left with 2 tactical squads, a single captian? (who was his warlord) and 3 sternguard. But with all the walkers now free to focus on the marines, I quickly reduced their numbers. The lone captain charged my walkers and was cut down by overwatch (6 hits out of 14 snapshots!), earning me a point for Slay the Warlord. On the last turn I tubro-boosted the jetbikes to contest one of Kev’s objectives, and also give me line breaker.

Outcome : Win, 6 pts to 4 pts
I had FB, StWL, LB and 1 objective (plus my secret mission)
Kev had 1 objective, plus 1 point for killing a walker

Analysis: Planned tactics have to change from now on due to psychic nerf in FAQ. Quad gun got me FB and secret mission. Both wave serpents survived. Mindwar was fun!
My losses: 2 guardians, 1 fire dragon, 1 war walker, 1 jetbike
Kev’s losses: everything apart from a full 10 man tactical unit, and 4 other tactical marines

Kev was a really nice bloke, and good laugh, and I look forward to playing him in future.

Game 2 – The Relic, Hammer & Anvil (length ways)

Next up was John Stewart with Grey Knights. Again, I can’t remember the exact list but it was something like: Aegis line with quad gun, 3 razorbacks, 2 dreadnaughts, a unit of marines who can teleport 30”, 3 10-man units of grey knights, a couple of 5 man deep-strike greyknight units, a dreadknight, a vindicar assassin and some character as his Commander (I want to say Coteaz?).

The table has a huge ruin in the middle, which blocked a lot of LoS. We both deployed fairly symmetrically. John had a dreadnaught facing down each flank, most of his other units behind the Aegis line which was 12” from the relic. He put the Dreadknight and 2 5-man units in reserve for deepstriking.

I positioned a wave serpent on either flank and the jetbikes in the middle, all the walkers into outflank reserve, and everyone else behind the defence line.

I won first turn, but John could re-roll his Steel the Initiative roll! Luckily he failed both times and I got off to a good start. Eldrad fortuned both units of jetbikes, who both started 12” from the relic. I moved one unit onto the relic and the other hidden just to side of the ruin as a back-up. All dangerous terrain was passed. Once again the quad gun won me First Blood, killing the vindicare assassin. The wave serpents boosted forwards towards the dreadnaughts. The jetbikes carrying the relic boosted 6” back towards by line.

John’s initial shooting was astonishingly ineffective. Both serpents totally unscathed, and only one jetbike killed. However, the jetbikes broke, dropped the relic and fell back 11” – good job I hid the other unit on the other side of the wall. John walked the teleporting unit into the ruin, closing in on the abandoned relic.

2 units of walkers turned up. The unit with full scatter lasers ended up on my right flank, which was the most exposed flank AND in full view of the quad gun, and dreadnaught. This was bad, as my secret mission was to keep this walker unit alive. I hid them as best I could behind the wave serpent. The other unit arrived on the left flank, and I positioned them to shoot the teleporter marines through the windows of the ruin. Both units of fire dragons disembarked and let lose a volley of fusion fire, killing the dreadnaught on the right flank, and immobilising the one on the left. The back-up unit of jetbikes now picked up the relic and boosted 6” back. The serpents, quad gun, and left flank walkers whittled down the teleporter marine unit to just 2 men. Now, in hindsight, this is the moment I probably let victory slip away – rather than finish of the 2 marines with the last unit of walkers, I opted to shoot the quad gun, fearing that it would destroy my walker unit next turn, and lose me the secret mission. The walkers totally fluffed, scoring a7 or 8 hits out of 24 shots! Only 2 wounds on the quad gun, and John saved them both.

Both the forward units of dragons got wiped by bolter and special flamer fire. John’s quad gun only killed one of my precious walkers on the right flank, and heavy bolters took out a couple on the left flank. The dreadknight and deep-striking grey knights arrived, dropping right infront of my line, and the teleporter marines teleported behind my quad gun. My quad gun killed a couple of the deepstriking grey knights. Again, John’s shooting wasn’t massively effective here, and I only lost 2 of the back fire dragons, and a few guardians. The all-important jetbikes made all their saves.

I badly needed the last unit of walkers to turn up, but they didn’t. The empty serpents swept back towards my deployment zone to help out, as most of the threat from John’s end of the table had been nullified. The jetbikes moved back with the relic. The last 3 fire dragons leaped over the defence line to take on the monsterous dreadknight, as did the guardian unit lead by Eldrad. This again was a mistake. I should have detached Eldrad, and used the remaining guardians to help tackle the small units of marines, but at the time I felt confident that the serpents, walkers and jetbikes would be enough to dispatch the marines… I was wrong. Yet again the scatter laser unit fluffed and scored only 6 hits, and then only 4 wounds! John made up for poor shooting earlier with some jammy saving, and I totally failed to make any impact on the threatening marines in my deployment zone. The fire dragons took a wound off the dreadknight, but I lost 2 of them when charging due to overwatch, Eldrad managed to take another wound off him in combat.

John then used his hand full of deepstrike greyknights to take on the jetbikes, finishing them off in close combat. He now had 3 infantry units firmly in my deployment zone, 2 of them scoring, and within an inch of the relic!

Finally the last unit of walkers arrived, and with all the firepower I could muster, I wiped out the 2 scoring greyknight units from my deployment zone. Unfortunately, John’s saves were pretty good again, and there was nothing left to take on the last 2 teleporter marines (the 2 guys I SHOULD have shot at earlier!!!). Eldrad finished off the dreadnkight in close combat, with a little help from fortune and doom. But the game had to end there as we were out of time. Had it continued, I feel pretty confident I’de have won, as all I had to do was kill 2 marines and keep Eldrad alive. Relic was just a few inches from my table edge.

Outcome : Draw, 1 pts to 1 pts
I had FB (plus my secret mission)
John had LB

Analysis: A couple of silly mistakes from me. Quad gun got me FB again! Both wave serpents survived again! Jetbikes rock in relic missions.
My losses: 2 full units of fire dragons, 4 more fire dragons from last unit. 3 guardians, 3 walkers (split over 2 units), all 6 jetbikes, a hull point on the wave serpent
John’s losses: vindicare assassin, 1 dreadnaught (plus another dreadnaught badly damaged), 2 5-man grey knight units, a dreadknight, and most of the teleporter unit.

Again, John was a great opponent, very nice guy. Hope to play him again some time.


Game 3 – 5 objectives, dawn of war

Final game saw me up against Mike Locke, and his Bloodtearers(?). I’ve played against Mike in the last 2 tournaments I’ve been to, each time we’ve had similar lists to the ones we were using today, and they are always great games. In our last 2 encounters, I’ve had the upper hand all game, up to turn 5. On both occasions the games have carried on, and somehow Mike pulls off a win! Blast his cheesy flying Thunderhawks!

His list was something like: 2 assault drop pods, with assault dreadnaught in each, a normal drop pod with 10 tactical marines, 10 jump pack marines, 2 thunderhawks, one containing 10 more marines, the other with his character commander (I forget who. Maybe Mephiston? They are all the same to me, I just kill them as quickly as possible).

I won the roll, and elected Mike to go first, as most of his army was arriving from reserve. Mike had 3 objectives on his side, I had 2 on mine. Not much terrain on this board, just a few large, low hills, and a skinny tower in the middle. In my deployment zone I spread the defence line over the top of a central hill and down onto the ground beside the hill, encompassing both my objectives. The quad gun was then placed on top of the hill. Mike deployed his jump troops in the far corner, sat on an objective. I put the 5 man unit of firedragons manning the quad gun, and guardians behind the line to the side of the hill. The wave serpents containing the seers and remaining dragons hid behind the hill, along with the scatter laser walkers. Jetbikes were reserved and last 2 units of walkers outflanking.

I knew how much Mike hated the firedragon exarch/quad gun combo and I knew he’de go for that first with his assault dreads. Down they both came on his turn 1, and both landed right infront of the quad gun. The dreads got out, one of them taking a hull point from the doomed exarch manning the quad. They opened up with flamers and meltas, but Mike’s rolling was shocking and he only killed 3 fire dragons (along with 2 guardians who got caught in the flames!). He charged both dreads at the remaining 2 dragons and predictably wiped them out. First blood to Mike!

I then disembarked both my remaining fire dragon units, along with the guideseer and Eldrad. One unit moved up on top of the hill where their comrade’s mangled charred remains were still smoking, the exarch positioning himself in the exact same spot as his unfortunate fellow exarch, directly behind the quad gun. The other unit stood at the foot of the hill looking directly up at the dreadnaughts. Both dreadnaughts were instantly turned into bubbling pools of molten slag. The guardians destroyed a drop pod with the EML, and the other drop pod was glanced to a wreck by the walkers.

Mike’s last drop pod arrived, as did the Hawk containing Meph. The replacement exarch now opened up with the quad gun, but the shots pinged off the Hawks armour. The marines poured out of the drop pod, which landed in front of my defence line, and let lose a volley at the guardians, but only felled 3 of them. The hawk targeted the quad gun and took a wound off.

At this point one of my walker units arrived, right next to the jump marines hiding at the back, the surprised marines were cut down to 2 men, who then fled, stopping just short of the board edge. Eldrad guided the fire dragons, and did the guide seer. The scatter laser walkers were also guided by Eldrad, and they too cut down the drop pod marines to 2 men, with a little help from the guardians. Together, both units of guided dragons only managed to take 2 hull points off the hawk, thanks to its cheesy hard to hit rule and “ignores melta” hull.

The damaged hawk then switched to hover mode, Meph leaped out and made a b-line for Eldrad (Oi, I wanna word with you sunshine!). The last hawk swooped onto the battlefield, aiming straight at the quad gun. But the exarch’s superior Eldar reflexes meant he got a bead first. He scored 1 glance and 2 pens, detonating the hawk mid-air in a spectacular explosion that only 3 marines survived. Seconds later the quad gun was put out of action by the remaining hovering hawk – but it was too late. The last 2 jump marines rallied and charged the walkers… but fell to overwatch. The last 2 drop pod marines charged the fire dragons on top of the hill… but fell to overwatch. Meph barrelled down the hill towards Eldrad and his fire dragon body guards, also taking a wound from overwatch fire. In combat he took a wound from Eldrad’s staff, with Eldrad staying alive protected by fortune.

The last unit of walkers arrived on the left flank, facing the rear of the hovering hawk. The scatter laser walkers behind the hill cut down the last 3 marines from the exploded hawk, in the centre of the board. The fire dragons on top of the hill destroyed the hovering hawk, killing 2 of their colleagues at the bottom of the hill in the ensuing explosion. The jebikes boosted onto objectives in the enemy deployment zone, safe in the knowledge that the area was cleansed. The remaining guardians took back their position on their objective and destroyed the last drop pod. The walkers on the left flank had arrived too late! There was nothing for them to shoot!!! Finally, Meph was slain by Eldrad in a final challenge of warlords. Not only earning me Slay the Warlord, and tabling Mike, but I also had Legendary Fighter as my warlord trait, so it also earned me an extra victory point, AND it was my secret mission to keep Eldrad alive!

Outcome : Win, 12 pts to 1 pts
I had StWL, LB and 3 objectives, plus and extra point for Legendary Fighter (plus my secret mission)
Mike had FB

Analysis: Everything went perfectly! Quad gun killed the 2nd hawk before it did anything. Guided fire dragons were disappointing against flyers.
My losses: 5 guardians, 1 full unit of fire dragons, 3 more fire dragons, quad gun
Mike’s losses: EVERYTHING!

Its about time I got a win off Mike! I’m sure he’ll get his own back next time.


So overall I came 3rd in the tournament. Not bad at all
Great tournament, great fun, cool people – hope to see many of you at X Legion in March!
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