Returning to Fantasy

Hello! Today I'll be writing about starting Warhammer Fantasy, with Wood Elves, and I'll include a few battle reports from the start of our Escalation league.

Firstly, my apologies for the long delay since the previous post. I've recently started a new job, and have been working long hours so just haven't had much time to blog. However it's settled down now, so I've got more free time for hobby-related activities!

The Plan

So, why Warhammer Fantasy? I used to play back in 5th edition with a Skaven army, but I got bored fairly quickly and didn't enjoy the painting at all. So I sold the lot and focused on 40k. However recently a couple of players at my local club have started playing Fantasy, and it looked great fun. Add to that one of them had a load of Wood Elves for sale- an army whose aesthetic and playstyle has always appealed to me- and I was in. I prefer manoeuvrable, shooty armies to combat oriented ones (like my 40k Eldar), so the Wood Elves seemed a perfect fit. They also just got a new book released along with a couple of new kits, which made it seem like the perfect time.

From my initial games Wood Elves seemed pretty good, and after chatting with some more experienced players they agreed that the new book was considered quite strong. I had mixed feelings about this- on the one hand, it's good to know that an army you're going to spend money on is good and won't be frustrating to play as it frequently fights uphill, but on the other hand I was quite looking forward to more casual games of Fantasy and it was a shame that I was already playing a very strong faction. Luckily, many of the other guys who play have either High Elves, Warriors of Chaos or Undead Legion, all of which I'm assured are very strong too!

The League

Our Escalation league starts at 600pts, with a 300pt increase every 3 weeks to 1200pts maximum. All painted models get Hatred (Unpainted Models), which I think is a great idea. List changes are allowed as much as you like, but I decided to keep the same so I could get used to it.

My list was the following:

Spellsinger (Lore of Shadow)
Level 2
Dispel Scroll
Elven Steed
150

10 Glade Guard
Trueflight Arrows
Musician
160

5 Sisters of the Thorn
130

5 Deepwood Scouts
Hagbane Arrows
80

5 Deepwood Scouts
Hagbane Arrows
80

This comes to 600pts on the nose. The plan was to not have much to deploy, and hopefully get first turn with the +1 bonus for finishing first. The Glade Guard should sit behind my free wood, while the Scouts and Sisters harass as best they can. I made sure to bring plenty of magic, as I wanted to learn the mechanics behind it, and experiment with different spells!

The Games

This was the second week of our league, and I was able to get some photos for battle reports this time- previously I was pretty busy learning the mechanics, but now I'm more confident with them I had time to take photos. In every game, the large snow based wood was the "free" Wood Elves one. I always put it just inside my table half, in the centre of the board.

Game 1- Jay's High Elves

Jay brought more or less the following:

Mage
Level 2 (High Magic)
Mounted

5 Ellyrian Reavers

5 Sisters of Averlorn

5 Dragon Princes

5 Shadow Warriors

Jay went for both the High Magic signature spells on his Mage, Drain Magic and Soul Quench, while I got Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma and Okkam's Mindrazor on the Spellsinger.

Deployment and Wood Elves Turn 1

Deployment and Game Turn 1
The Trueflight Glade Guard line up behind the free wood and get ready to shoot through. The Sisters of the Thorn deploy on the left with the Spellweaver and use their Vanguard move to get up the middle. I put a unit of Scouts in each wood.
Jay deployed his Dragon Princes on the flank and his Reavers centrally, with the Sisters of Averlorn. His Shadow Warriors scouted on my right.
I won the roll off thanks to the +1 bonus and went first. The Trueflight Glade Guard wheeled and shot at the Shadow Warriors, reducing them to a single elf. My Sisters of the Thorn got behind Jay's Sisters of Averlorn. Their magic did little except cast Shield of Thorns on the middle Scouts and Miasma on the Reavers. However the javelins combined with 1 unit of Scouts and killed all but 1 Sister of Averlorn. Finally the other Scout unit killed 2 Reavers. Jay passed all his panic tests.

High Elves Turn 1, Wood Elves Turn 2Jay advances his Dragon Princes, and desperately charges his last shadow warrior into my Glade Guard. Unfortunately the 10 Trueflight arrows cut him down, ignoring all penalties.
In the magic phase, Jay removes Miasma and then casts Soul Quench on the central Scouts. However he miscasts and rolls a Dimensional Cascade, and he fails the 4+ and his mage is destroyed! He does kill 3 of the Scouts with the spell though, who flee. His Reavers also kill 2 Glade Guard.
In my turn I rally the scouts, who do nothing more. I wheel the Glade Guard and clip the Venom Thicket with them, before they shoot into the Reavers again, but this time for no damage. The left hand Scouts finish the last Sister of Averlorn, and the Sisters of the Thorn throw javelins at the Dragon Princes to no effect. Magic this turn has little effect except reducing the Reavers to BS3 with Miasma.

 High Elves Turn 2, Wood Elves Turn 3
Jay's Reavers try to shoot some Scouts, but they need 6s to hit and do nothing. His Dragon Princes line up a charge on the Glade Guard for next turn.

In my turn, the Glade Guard swiftly reform and walk backwards into the trees, aiming at the Dragon Princes along with the rallied Scouts. Between the magic arrows and Jay's terrible saves they manage to kill 4 out of 5, and the 5th Prince flees!
My other Scouts and Sisters kill off another 2 reavers.

High Elves Turn 3, Wood Elves Turn 4
Jay's Dragon Prince fails to rally and is almost off the board, while his final Reaver tries and fails to shoot a Sister of the Thorn. Miasma has been really good this game, neutering a lot of Jay's shooting.
In my final turn, I shoot down the Dragon Prince and charge the final Reaver; the Sisters get the job done and the game is over.

After Action Thoughts
That was fun! The list plays how I hoped- fast, manoeuvrable, and hard hitting. I think in small points games, the arc-dodging of the Wood Elves is very strong, so it remains to be seen how that will pan out as the points increase. I felt bad for Jay, as to lose a wizard to a miscast on only 3 dice, on the first turn, is such a shame, and from then I could dominate the magic phase.

Jay was a great opponent as always, and we've got a rematch arranged for as soon as possible!

Game 2- Andy's Brettonians
Andy is organising the Escalation league and has played lots of Warhammer Fantasy, and he was really helpful with the rules. He had the following list:

Battle Standard Hero
Mounted

Priestess
Level 1 (Beasts)

Cheap Lord
Mounted

8 Knights Errant
Lances/Shields/Command Group

10 Peasant Bowmen
Spikes

10 Peasant Bowmen
Spikes

For magic, Andy gets Curse of Anraheir on the Priestess, while I get Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma and Purple Sun.

Deployment and Game Turn 1
My set up was similar to before, but the scouts stuck together opposite the big unit of Knights. Andy won the roll off and went first, plowing towards my lines. His longbowmen moved up and killed 1 Glade Guard and 2 Scouts.
In my turn, I get quite a low Winds of Magic roll so cast Curse of Anraheir on the Knights and move around them with the Sisters. One unit of scouts discovered a Fungus Forest and wandered forward in a daze. My shooting wasn't very effective, killing just 1 knight.

Game Turn 2
 The Knights charge the Scouts and kill them all, but not before 4 of them die and the BSB, Wizard and Lord all take wounds through a combination of dangerous terrain, and my rerolls to hit and also rerolling wound rolls of 1. The other scout unit panics at the sight and flees from the board. The Longbowmen try to shoot at my sisters, but only kill 1.

My Glade Guard panic one unit of Longbowmen off the board, while the Sisters fail to Javelin anything. Curse of Anraheir is maintained on the Knights.

Game Turn 3
 The Knights break apart to make a hail mary move, the 2 Errants marching towards the Sisters while the characters surround my Glade Guard. The peasants swift reform and kill 2 Sisters, who then fail panic! It's not quite off the board, but I'm getting charged next turn.
Luckily I rally and get a strong magic roll, so I can cast a boosted Miasma on the Peasants, Anraheir on the Knights, and Shield of Thorns on the Glade Guard. The Glade Guard then shoot down the Battle Standard Bearer in a hail of Armour Piercing arrows.

Game Turn 4 Onwards
Andy charges the Glade Guard with his Lord, and passes Dangerous Terrain, then 2 saves from Shield of Thorns, then 3 more from my poisoned rerolling attacks. He kills 3 Glade Guard and runs down the rest, again passing Dangerous Terrain.  Andy also casts Anraheir on my Sisters and fails to dispel Shield of Thorns, which promptly kills the 2 Knights! The peasants have already marched though, so luckily can't shoot me.
Turn 5, Andy's Lord tries to leave the woods and trips over a tree, losing his last wound. His peasants shoot at my 2 remaining Sisters and Spellsinger, but only kill 1 and they pass panic. We thought this was turn 6, and so as I was winning on points I didn't move due to fear of Dangerous Terrain, and so that was another narrow win for the Wood Elves!

After Action Thoughts
What a close game, with some real swings at the end! It's a shame we only played 5 turns, as it would have been interesting to see what would have happened next, although I'd likely have braved the dangerous terrain tests and hidden in the corner of the board. That was a great game- I didn't manoeuvre quite so well this time, and I think I should have focussed on clearing the peasants first and then running around the Knight block all game and keeping Curse of Anraheir on them to attrition them down through Dangerous Terrain tests.


Finally, I played Andy's Dwarves straight after this game, as we still had plenty of time.

Game 3- Andy's Dwarves
Andy has several Fantasy armies, and brought 600pts of a few to help the Escalation get running. This time it was his Dwarves, with a gunline:

Thane

10 Thunderers

10 Thunderers

Organ Gun
+1 BS
Reroll misfire

For magic I got The Withering, and took Miasma as well.

 Deployment and Dwarves' Turn 1
Andy sets up in a line, as do I, out of range of the Organ gun with most things but in range to move and poison it. However he goes first and in a hail of bullets tears apart 6 Glade Guard! Fortunately they pass their panic test.

Game Turn 2 
In the Wood Elves' first turn, I move up, Anraheir the Organ Gun and Miasma one unit of Thunderers. Then my poison scouts try their best to kill the Organ Gun and only do 1 wound. However, my Trueflight arrows do 4 hits and 2 wounds, finishing it off!
Andy responds by marching both units straight forward, and then in my 2nd turn I Wither one unit and kill 3 with shooting. The other unit gets Miasma to reduce their BS.

Game Turn 3
Andy shoots at the Sisters, with both units, but they have soft cover and Miasma to protect them, and only 1 dies. In my turn I again get a good Wither into the weak unit, and their toughness 1 exposes them to my bows, killing another 5. The other unit is again Miasma'd, protecting me from retribution.

 Game Turn 4

Andy turns to face my Sisters and shoots them, but needs 9s to hit and does nothing. The Spellsinger again casts Withering, this time only reducing the Dwarves' Toughness by 1 and the following shooting phase is much less effective.

End of Game
So on my turn 5 I charged into combat to see what would happen... and it did not go well. I'm sure given time Andy's T6 Thane would have ground me down and broken or killed everything, But luckily the game finished while I still had enough points left for the win, although he was able to kill 4 Scouts, 2 Sisters and my Spellsinger!

After Action Thoughts
Another close game with Andy! I probably should have just shot his Thane and friends at the end of the game, but in the spirit of the league I tried to win via melee. Rerolls from Always Strike First are nice, but they only go so far against T6 and a 2+ save! The Organ Gun was brutal, but after it died so quickly I was able to mow down most of Andy's army as it crossed the board. The Withering was an amazing spell too- reducing his higher Toughness by 2-3 almost every turn was invaluable.

That's the end of this week's battle reports! I had a ton of fun, and it was great to play something different. Hopefully I'll have a couple of Warmahordes games in the next few weeks, so watch out for those battle reports as well. I've played a few practice games and I'm feeling more confident about the mechanics, if not the precise detail of the rules.

I hope you enjoyed the games even half as much as I did, and as always thanks for reading!

SimonW

40k GT Heat 1 Tournament Report! Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my tournament report for the independent UK 40k GT Heat 1! Part 1 is here if you haven't read it, and my list is here. The draws for round 4 were completed Saturday evening before we left, so I knew I'd be playing Matt Edmonds and his Daemon army on Sunday morning.

Game 4

Matt plays for Team Scotland at the ETC, so I knew I was in for a tough match. He'd brought Daemons, with a twist on the classic "Screamer Council" build:

The game was The Relic/Spoils of War on Dawn of War deployment. Something worth noting was that the Relic was played exactly like a normal objective that could be moved- so it was possible to contest within 3" if it was picked up, and it was even possible to claim it with ObSec if a non-ObSec unit had picked it up!

Pre Game

I'd heard a lot about Plague Drones but had never actually faced them before, so this would be a good challenge. They looked very durable, with 3 wounds, toughness 5, Shrouded and Feel No Pain from the Herald. Matt explained that with clever use of the Beam power from Fateweaver he could increase their Feel No Pain save too, to a max of 2+!
When playing Daemons it's always good to try and kill Fateweaver as soon as possible, and in my 2nd game on Saturday I'd already made the mistake of letting him fly around killing tanks. The Screamer council is a different matter, and I just needed to get it in melee with the Wraithknight to lock it down permanently.

Deployment and Eldar Turn 1

Matt wins both roll-offs and sets up the council and Fateweaver behind the large rock, while the Drones spread along the the edge of his line, hoping to tie stuff up and glance out some tanks with a few multiple assaults. My deployment is fairly symmetrical, spreading out my firepower so I can get shots everywhere, but especially on the Council should I seize...

So naturally, I seize! I waste no time in lining up shots on the council- I can't see many heralds, but I can thin out the screamers and make it more vulnerable late  game. My whole army bar the Wraithknight shoots the council, and we have some crazy dice where Matt's Portal herald fails 5 Look Out Sir rolls in a row, but then passes all 5 Invulnerable saves!  Meanwhile, my Wraithknight jumps up onto the hill and can just see Fateweaver. 1 wound goes through, and despite a 3+ cover save with the reroll...

...Fateweaver is sent back to the warp, for Warlord and First Strike. Result!

Daemons Turn 1
Matt's Plague Drones advance and try to glance out a Night Spinner but only manage 1 hull point. The council gets the Grimoire off and moves around the side. This turn is a bit quieter- Matt's psychic phase is naturally crazy as he casts all sorts of powers, but the only one of note is a Beam that explodes my red Serpent for First Strike!

Eldar Turn 2 Onwards
Not many photos this time unfortunately- it was such a great game and we didn't stop until the end.


Turn 2 I was able to butcher 5 of the Plague drones with Serpent Shields and the Wraithknight, while my Hawks tried to kill off some Horrors. I started to take a steady lead in the Maelstrom mission too, which I maintained for the entire game. Matt glances out the Green Serpent with the remaining Plague Drones, while the council beams and summons its way around the board. The Nurgle Herald splits off to charge 5 Dire Avengers, who turn on their secret ninja abilities- despite needing 5s to hit from Fear and then 6s to wound, they cause 2 wounds and Matt fails both of his saves and FNP!
Eventually the Screamer Council gets stuck in melee with the Wraithknight, but Matt is able to summon enough Drones and Horrors to completely cover the Relic, and with the advantage of last turn he can win the Primary, despite my best efforts to fly in with ObSec tanks. However I win the Secondary and Tertiary, resulting in a 10-10 draw!

Post Game

This was really a great game against a great opponent. It was really in the balance at the end, and Matt played really well despite an early setback with the loss of Fateweaver. Plague Drones do seem like a strong unit, but unfortunately my large volume of high strength Ignores Cover fire, combined with some poor FNP rolls, pretty much took them out of the game on turn 2. They're great for summoning though, as they're pretty mobile. Jetpack Cavalry is also the most unusual unit type I've seen!

Game 5
My 5th Game was against Dan Sackett. I'd seen him playing earlier, so had an idea of what to expect, but 30 Warp Spiders look a lot more menacing once they're set up! His full list is below:

The game was The Scouring/Deadlock on Vanguard Strike. The Scouring points were modified, so there were 2x1, 2x2 and 2x3 for the 6 objectives.

Pre Game
Dan's Reaverstar looked menacing, and they had Invisibility, so they'd need to be dealt with by the Night Spinners. My plan was simple- kill the Warp Spiders as soon as possible before the Reavers arrive, and then focus on them. I also needed to thin out the Jetbikes as much as possible, to stop Dan stealing the Primary. Overall the Primary looked good, but the Secondary was maybe going to go his way with all the Jetbikes.

 Deployment

I chose this corner to stop Dan hiding behind the big rock, and clustered my tanks. He lined up all the Warp Spiders, and after I measured some threat ranges I chose to let him go first!

Game turn 1

Dan's Spiders all sprint forward as fast as they can- 20 hiding behind the rock on my right and 10 in the tower to the left. His Wraithknight spiked a Distort on mine, but luckily I just passed my cover save.
In my turn, I lined up as many shots as I could. The Night Spinners both barraged the tower, taking advantage of the new 7th Edition rules and killing 4. The Serpents killed another 8 from the second squad, while the Wraithknight got into melee and swept a full squad of 10 for First Strike!

Again there are no more pictures this time.

Turn 2 is quite quiet as no Reavers arrive until turn 3. The remaining Warp Spiders try to hurt some tanks, but I Jink and then finish them all off.

The Reavers arrive, and Shriek my wounded Wraithknight to death with a 15! Slay the Warlord to Dan. However they fail Invisibility with 6 dice, so in the following turn I reduce them to 2 bikes and 2 Farseers. By the end of the game both Farseers are reduced to 1 wound and all the Reavers are dead, thanks to the Night Spinners. Dan has a commanding lead in the Secondary, but I've got the Primary locked down by killing 4 Fast Attack choices and claiming 7 points of Objectives. The Tertiaries are a draw- I can't quite finish Dan's Warlord Farseer, and he didn't get First Strike. We both get Linebreaker, because Eldar. The final score is 12-8 to me!

Post Game

That was a brutal game- losing 22 Warp Spiders early on meant Dan had to use his Reaverstar to take down my units, but then he failed Invisibility too! Despite that, Dan's Shriek meant he was able to control a lot of the board with his Wraithknight, and my Dire Avengers couldn't quite get it done fast enough to kill him. He was also able to hide his jetbikes well, and out of Scatter Laser range to limit my firepower. This game put me on 68 points, a score I was almost certain would qualify. As for the Maelstrom, Deadlock is very prone to first draw skews- taking 6 cards turn 1 and having all 1 pt/difficult missions vs 2 point/easier ones can really decide the mission early on.

Game 6
My last last game was against Dan Sargent's Eldar/Tau:

The final game was Crusade with 4 Objectives/Contact Lost, on Hammer and Anvil.

Pre Game
I was really tired by this point, but powered through. Dan's army looked pretty strong on paper, and his summoning Farseer would be a pain, but I felt like I had most of the tools to deal with his list. However, this was not to be...

Deployment
Dan won the roll and chose to play first. With hindsight, I should have split my forces to deploy far away from Buffmander and the Missile Crisis, preserving another tank. As it happened, I didn't and this would prove costly.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures during this game, as it went very badly from the start and threw me on a tilt. Dan's first turn saw him kill the red Serpent, and the Orange one, and also manage a single Distort to kill my Wraithknight.
In return I was able to kill 1 Serpent, and the other Jinked. That was not the reply I was hoping for. Despite my deployment mistake, I still had a chance at the game but unfortunately I didn't make a couple of clutch plays- the Fire Dragons failed a charge at close range onto a Wraithknight, and my 20 Dire Avengers were firing marshmallow discs, unable to rend the Wraithknights for 2 turns. The game went this way until turn 6, where he Stunned my last remaining Serpent eliminating any chance of points for me and we called it there, with a 20-0 victory to him.

Post Game

As much as my dice weren't great, I also didn't play very well, and Dan did. He used the summoning Farseer to keep the pressure up all game, and his Wraithknights overwhelmed my lines. I did eventually kill them both, but I couldn't kill them and Buffmander's unit, who were able to kill a tank 4 turns in a row. Meanwhile I was tired, and it really showed- my target priority was poor, and my positioning could also have been better. However throughout the whole game Dan was a great sport, and very gracious in his (overwhelming) victory.

So that was my last game of the event! We had a short break while the final standings were calculated, and then the qualifiers were announced:

So I'd qualified! It was closer than I would have liked, but I was still happy with 9th place. I also think I'm a better player for the event, despite that poor final game.

I'd make a few changes to the list:

I'd remove the Night Spinners, Autarch, and Swooping Hawks, and put in a Summoning Bike Farseer with the Spirt Stones of Anath-Lan, a 2nd Wraithknight, and some more Ghostwalk Matrices & Cannons on the tanks.

I didn't need that much anti-infantry all the time from the Night Spinners and Hawks, but a 2nd Wraithknight would have definitely helped me score bigger wins in most of the games. Summoning is so good too- you can lock down the backfield early doors, then use Horrors and Daemonettes to dominate midfield and clear out infantry (effectively replacing the Hawks and Night Spinners).

So that's my first Tournament Report! It was a great event, and all my opponents were great players and great sports. Even though the standard of competition was pretty high, everyone there was much more relaxed than last year and it was an awesome atmosphere. I'm already looking forward to the final, and I hope to see all of my opponents there- they all qualified (including Rich through a Best Painted nomination).

Moving forward, I'm starting to play more Warmachine/Hordes with my Legion of Everblight, so I think there should be a couple of battle reports soon. There's also a Warhammer Fantasy escalation league starting at my club in the next 2 weeks, so that will inspire me to paint up my Wood Elves and get playing with them!
I'll still be playing 40k and a bit of X-Wing too, but hopefully the content of the blog will become a more even spread across the different systems.

Thanks very much for reading! If you've got any questions or comments, let me know beneath!

SimonW

40k GT Heat 1 Tournament Report! Part 1

Welcome to my first Tournament Report!

This was the first of 3 qualifying heats for the UK's annual independent 40k GT. I was running my Eldar list and was feeling quite prepared. Going into the event, my primary goal was naturally qualifying, however a top 10 finish would also be nice. I thought that the best record for this would be at least 4 wins, and at least 60 points out of a possible 120 for gaming.

I've got battle reports from every match, although due to the strict time limit I wasn't able to get turn-by-turn photos for most of my games.

I had seen the list of players beforehand, and knew it would be a tough heat, but upon arrival on Saturday it really sunk in. There were at least 6 ETC players in a field of only 26 players, including the current European Singles Champion with the infamous "Beast Council" death star build (Gas Jones). There was only 1 other Beast Pack (Paul Burke), but there was a Screamer Council (Matt Edmonds), a couple of Taudar/Eldau lists and at least 5 Serpent Spam builds. The Round 1 draws were included in the mission booklets, and I awaited my first opponent...

Game 1: Matt Robertson's (Team Wales ETC Captain) Tau/Imperial Knights "Pacific Rim".
Matt's list was the following, the infamous "Pacific Rim" army from the East Coast of America:

Primary- Farsight Tau
Ethereal
3 Crisis, Bonded, No Weapons
1 Crisis, Bonded, No Weapon
1 Crisis, Bonded, No Weapon
Riptide, Ion Accelerator, Early Warning Override
Riptide, Ion Accelerator
Allied- Adamantine Lance Formation
3 Imperial Knights: 2 with Battle Cannons and 1 with Melta Cannon, as far as I remember.


The game was Big Guns Never Tire/Tactical Escalation on Hammer & Anvil.

Pre Game
What a first draw! This was a great way to get started. Adamantine Lance is a really strong formation, allowing Knights to reroll failed charges and Ion Shield rolls if they're within 3" of another Knight. I did a post about this sort of army not long ago though, so I wasn't feeling that bad about the match.

Deployment Matt wins the roll-off and deploys first. He spends a whole 2 minutes setting his 3 Knights up in a line and putting 2 Riptides down behind them, declaring everything else in reserves.
My counter deployment was similarly brief, hiding everything behind the big blocking pieces of terrain. My Wraithknight got to Infiltrate, and did so just clipping the big piece to get a 4+ cover save (we agreed to play it like ruins).

 Game Turn 1

Matt went first, firing pie plates galore down the field to try and chip hull points and wounds. After his shooting is done I lose 1 wound on the Wraithknight and a hull point on each of the red and orange Serpents.
With my return fire, the Night Spinners chip 2 hull points from the centre Knight, the barrage avoiding the Ion Shields. The rest of my shooting chips another 1 hull point from the centre Knight, reducing it to 3. My Wraithknight then assaults, and smashes the Knight into pieces before it can D-saw me in half! I'll almost certainly lose it next round, but I'm happy to trade it to kill 1 Knight and get First Strike.

 Game Turn 2
Matt's Knights combine to take down my Wraithknight for Warlord. The Riptides continue to send pie plates down field, but don't achieve anything meaningful.

In my turn I manage to get in the side arc of 1 Knight and reduce it to a single hull point! The other gets dropped to 5...
Not such an intense turn, but I start spreading out to form a U-shape, surrounding the Knights and getting in as many arcs as possible. A crisis suit arrives and is misplaces into the bottom left corner, while the Ethereal hides behind a big column at the back. My hawks hide behind the column in the middle, ready to Haywire any nearby Knights.
Matt has built up a good lead on the Secondary by this point, but I've still got a chance at the Primary and Tertiary.

Pacific Rim Turn 3
The badly damaged Knight gets down the field, blowing up the yellow Serpent and assaulting the unit inside. Unfortunately he gets to make Stomp attacks, taking out 4 of the Hawks too...
The Riptides finish off the red Serpent, while the final Knight shoots across at the other Serpents to no effect.

 Eldar Turn 3
I need a plan to deal with both Knights this turn, setting me up with 2 more turns to kill the Riptides and win the mission. After 4 of the Hawks died, I need them and the Fire Dragons to kill the 5 HP Knight. Attempting to clear a path, the Night Spinner decides to Ram first Knight... and succeeds! Boom! It blows up a Swooping Hawk, but this is fine by me. This clears a path for the FIre Dragons to get to the other Knight, and with an Explodes result are able to take it out. Suddenly this game is going very well. I then start shooting Riptides, doing a wound.
I've almost certainly won the Primary Mission now, and I'm closing in on Matt's Secondary score too.

 Game Turn 4
The Crisis suits all arrive and try to grab objectives, but start losing numbers to my firepower. Dire Avengers start Bladestorming Riptides, and they start losing wounds. My Hawk jumps and gets ready to pummel the Ethereal.
After the turn, Matt has 3 Crisis suits left and 2 Riptides with 5 wounds between them.

Game Turn 6

Due to time, I could only get a picture at the end of the game.
Turn 5 involved Matt grabbing a couple of Objectives, but my Serpents flying into to contest with ObSec. I also finished off a Riptide. The Hawk came in behind the Ethereal and took his first wound.
At this point, I was winning the Primary and Tertiary, but Matt had the Secondary. However, the game continued...
Turn 6, Matt killed a Serpent in melee with a Crisis suit and he attempted to Nova Jump into my deployment zone for Linebreaker, but failed. In my turn, I killed everything except for the final Riptide, who was sat on 1 wound!
We then timed out- I won the Primary and Tertiary Missions, while Matt took the Secondary, for a 14-6 win for me!

Post Game
What a match! I was really pleased to get a positive result from the game, especially as he went on to win the tournament with only 1 loss and 5 more wins. I think I played quite well to get around the Ion Shield, but I did get a bit lucky with the Ram attack! I could have played the Maelstrom Missions better, but I was pretty focused on killing the robots. On reflection, not winning 20-0 was a blessing, as it meant I could avoid a top-table game the next round. Overall Matt and I had a great game, and it really put me in a good mood for the rest of the event.

Game 2
This time I was matched against a player from my club, Rich Lewis, He had the following Daemons/Chaos Space Marines list:

The game was Kill Points/Cleanse and Control on Vanguard Strike.


Pre Game
Rich's plan seemed pretty clear- rush with the Hounds, while they had the Grimoire and Invisibility to protect them. Multi-assault a load of vehicles at once and then mop up. Luckily we had Kill Points, so Rich couldn't really summon. My counter strategy was simple- tie up the dogs with the Wraithknight, challenge out his Herald and then kill the rest of his army.

Daemons Turn 1
The Hounds rush up with the Grimoire and Invisibility as expected. The Screamers/Fateweaver/Belakor come up the other side. Rich's turn is otherwise quiet, as he doesn't get First Strike.

Eldar Turn 1
I position the Wraithknight far from the Herald, ready to avoid his attacks. He jumps into assault and kills 1 dog, taking no wounds back from the Str 4 Hounds, and the Herald is out of range to attack.
Meanwhile the rest of my army focuses down the Screamers for First Strike- despite Shrouding  from Belakor granting them a 2+ reroll cover save, the Serpent Shields take them all out.

Daemons Turn 2
Rich's Cultists and Heldrake arrive from reserve, but do little damage. Fateweaver's Beam power immobilises a green Serpent and kills the purple Night Spinner! One squad of backfield Horrors turn themselves into a Lord of Change. In melee, the Wraithknight challenges out the Herald, survives the "6s to wound are Instant Death" attacks, then stamps him into the floor with Str 10 attacks. Now I can tie up the dogs all game with him, so I'm feeling pretty good.


There's no picture from the Eldar Turn 3. One Serpent shot at Belakor and did 2 wounds, while the others made various Snap Shots at the Heldrake to no effect. My Hawks arrived and killed 8 of the Cultists, and the survivors ran off the board.


By this point I'm winning 3-1 on Kill Points and have a strong lead in the Maelstrom mission too. I also have First Strike and Rich can't get my Warlord, so it's going well.

Rich's Turn 3 onwards
Fateweaver flies around and beams the Yellow Serpent, then kills the squad with Flickering Fire. He ends up trying to beam more tanks but can't manage it. His Lord of Change glides into the centre of the board, does little damage, and then gets the Serpent treatment. The red Serpent also takes out the Heldrake. Belakor drops to the floor, and assaults the green Serpent on Turn 5. It explodes, then the squad lose 2 men and fall back off the board for a 2 point swing! We thought this tied the scores at the time at 5-5, but looking back I think it was actually 6-5. My last turn was a mad dash to kill a squad of Horrors that I thought I needed for the win, and despite Rich passing his first 10 saves, I was able to kill off a squad for a 6-5 (actually 7-5) win.

End Of Game
Everything has moved up to tackle the Horrors in the back right corner. 1 dog is left in melee with the Wraithknight!

Post Game

That was close! The Wraithknight was pretty clutch this game, tying up the Dog Rush for the whole game. Rich's psychic phase was brutal, including a couple of times casting Invisibility on 2 dice! Still, I was able to win all 3 missions, for a 20-0 final score.

Game 3

This time I was up against Gary Morgan's (Team Wales ETC) Taudar- including 3 Riptides, Broadsides in a Bastion with Buffmander, and a Wraithknight. His full list was:

The game was Emperor's Will/Contact Lost on Dawn of War.


Pre Game
Due to the table, I knew Gary could castle up well, and could use the Bastion to my forces away from his Emperor's will. I won the roll-off and chose turn 1. With hindsight, I could have gone second, absorbed the alpha strike, and done better in the Primary with a Turn 5 swoop. Ah well!

Game Turn 1-2
My Fire Dragons turbo boost over to the Bastion, hoping that Gary will have to sacrifice all his shooting to kill them, and I might even have 1-2 left to tackle the bastion full of Broadsides. I also get First Strike on his Wave Serpent, tucked in his castle on the left. Over the 2 turns I am able to take down 1 Riptide, while Gary's shooting isn't very hot- he has to use everything to kill the Fire Dragons and Serpent turn 1, then Turn 2 he forces 1 Night Spinner to Jink and the Bastionsides kill a Wave Serpent.

Game Turn 3
My Wraithknight has hopped closer and closer to the Bastion, and this turn kicks it down! My Hawks were on top and 4 of them die, but it's a good trade. A Broadside dies in the explosion, and the 2 remaining are forced to fire Snap Shots too. However this doesn't stop them killing another Serpent!
Meanwhile 3 of the Dire Avenger squads decide to Battle Focus and shoot the big guys, but unfortunately the Fleet rerolls let me down on the left and I can't get into range. The yellow squad takes the right hand Riptide to 1 wound though.
Gary brings his Kroot on, and my Night Spinners split their time between clearing them out and trying to snipe Gary's Farseer in his castle. 2 of the Dire Avengers bodyguard perish, and one squad of Kroot is all but annihilated by the torrent.

Eldar Turn 4
The Wraithknight does his thing this turn, killing Buffmander and his friends for Slay the Warlord. My tanks reposisiton and stay safe, and continue to score Maelstrom points. At this point I've taken quite a lead in the Secondary mission, but the Primary is anybody's as I went first.

 Taudar Turn 4
Gary responds by using a Nova Charge move to threaten my home objective with a Riptide, and pulls his Wraithknight forward to threaten my vehicles. Gary also closes the gap in the Maelstrom missions.

End of Game
3 of my tanks block off my home objective, preventing Gary's cheeky Nova Jump attempts. I try to steal his objective, but my 2 Hawks can't wipe out his 2 Dire Avengers, so a Serpent flies over but gets stamped by a Wraithknight. We also tie on Maelstroms, as Gary kills a vehicle to draw it level.
Final scores: Primary Draw, Secondary Draw, Tertiary Win for me, resulting in a 12-8 victory overall!

Post Game
That was close! As I said earlier, I think going second could have won me the game here, as my Serpent Shields would have got me through the alpha strike, except for the Bastionsides. However it's far from certain, as he might have been able to get through 2-3 serpents in turn 1 which would have killed off the game.


Day 1 Summary
I'd managed to go 3-0 on Day 1, so I was happy. All of the games were close and at times in the balance, so I was glade to be able to get a good result each round.
Getting the 3 wins meant that on Sunday I only really needed 1 win to guarantee qualifying. I was sat on 46 points, with full paint score, so with about 20 points tomorrow I would almost certainly be through.

Part 2 is now up here, where I face off against Daemons, Eldar/Dark Eldar and Eldar/Tau!

Thanks for reading!

SimonW