DZC Tournament - The Dice Saloon

Seems quite a while since our last Drop Zone Tournament, but April arrives and OB are off down to Sussex to take part in the one-dayer, Costal Assault, in Brighton. Mike B, Dan, Ed and myself, were joined by Nathan from the club.

The real pleasant surprise was the the venue. I had heard of the Dice Saloon, but not been before. Unlike most games 'stores' this was in an office block, which you had to be 'buzzed in'. It was hidden away from the hurly burly of a main street and was a haven to the board gamers and war gamers community. It had a small cafe inside, where hot and cold drinks, cakes and hot meals could be purchased. It certainly ticks the 'family friendly' box. It also had a well stocked shop, with all the current popular ranges, miniatures and board games (I bought two Gecko Tags for my Nomads). I would definitely recommend a visit and their website can be found at:

https://www.dicesaloon.com

And here are some pictures of the venue:

My list for the tournament was shamelessly copied from a blog by Dan that appeared in OB recently.

Above: Some of my Resistance 1500 point army.

I am short of games with the Resistance. I have had three small escalation battles, and one full game. This will be my second go with the accursed Thunderstorm, and first experience with the Scout ATVs. 

Game 1 - Bunker Assault - Adam - PHR 

Adam came with a group of friends from Bournemouth. He was relatively new to Drop Zone, but despite this, he weilded his PHR walkers very well, out shot my army and and went on to a 17 to 3 win. His army included the usual four Helios, but only one Medusa (he hadn't had time to paint his second one). He had a six legged walker as his HQ, some Valkeries, scout drones and unit of Apollo types. 

It is safe to say the terrain on the table was not set up for the goliath, which is the Thunderstorm, (I refer you to my earlier blog). Lots of small and medium buildings quite close together meant that my movement options were limited. With regard the the Scout ATVs I began to realise, you need to keep them far back, otherwise they melt away as they don't have some of the buffs that the Freeriders enjoy (Evasion 3 and Dispersed Formation). And also, I should have targeted them at Adam's HQ walker, which I didn't. 

Above: A Thunderstorm no go table.

Above: Adam's very nicely painted PHR.

Game 2 - Military Complex - Ken - Scourge

Ken and I had played each other at the recent Crawley tournament when I had sneaked a narrow win due a unit of Scourge Destroyers who had refused to die. Time for Ken payback I feared, and I was correct. When I play Scourge this is my favourite mission as the armour 8 central buildings give you a fairly safe place for your heavy and expensive infantry units to hold up whilst they carry out their searches. Ken was taking two units of Destroyers and one unit of Eviserators. 

Above: Ken plotting table domination.

Above: Ed's Tron PHR. Two Medusa's is just rude.

Ken, with the aid of the Secret Entrance Command Card in turn one got his Eviserators into a middle building, and after being dealt Underground Monorail in turn two, the heavies were into the building holding an objective on my side of the table! A hand of cards perfectly played. Unfortunately my infantry were not prepared for this turn of events, and threw themselves pointlessly at their opponents. Other disappointing news, a Kraken was taken out and took with all three Gun Wagons, and a massed Hunter unit removed the Thunderstorm. 

Although, Ken was only able to remove two objectives from the table, I had retrieved none, and after all the kill points were taken into account, I had lost 17 to 3. Revenge for Ken.

Game 3 - Quadrant Control - Chris - UCM 

Bottom table beckoned and another previous opponent, Chris, who I had played last year at Reading. This game can easily described as cagey and ended in a 10 all draw. After both of us had suffered large losses against our previous opponents I think we just fancied not being torn apart for a third game.

The first half the game flew by as we manoeuvred and positioned our forces for the all important end game and the inevitable final turn of number crunching (this was not as bad as Ed and Dan's final game. The amount of maths being undertaken by them at the end was scary.....and very.....very long). This appeared to have paid off, as by the end we both held and contested two table quarters each, and the difference in victory points was only 11 in my favour. 

Above: 'Now let's work this out, three stands of Freeriders are 105 points and two stands of Hazzard Suits are........'.

Above: A room of happy gamers.

Results

For those of you who are concerned with the winning rather than the participation, Dave Clark finished first (Shaltari), Ed second (PHR) and Mike B. third (UCM). Dan picked up best painted, and I received best sports. 

Thanks go out to Brighton Mike for running the tournament, my opponents, and all those at the Dice Saloon for making a very welcoming addition to our tournament experiences. 

[A slightly earlier post this week, as Salute is Saturday and some of OB, will be at the Hawk stand during the day, running participation or demonstration DZC games. Come and say hello].

Happy wargaming to you all.