Invasion - DZC Tourney - Day Two

Day two of Invasion and I had two wins and a loss so far. With two games too play I still had an opportunity to do well....or totally muck it up. Time would tell. Some of the players had helped Hawk Louie celebrated his birthday on the Saturday evening but there was still a room full of expectant gamers ready first thing Sunday morning. 

Above: Dan, are you ready for day two? 

Below: For those of you interested in the animals inhabiting the Drop Zone universe, hidden away in a corner were a few grey images of things to come? 

Above: OB were kindly given permission to provide a tables worth terrain for the event. Darkops and Blots models mainly. All painted by our fair hands.

Game Four - Bunker Assault -  Opponent - John H : playing PHR

The names were called and my good friend and wargaming nemesis* John H was announced as my next opponent. This should of been nice, but I wanted to win, and John is a very adept player indeed. To be honest, I was dreading what the final result could be as he had trounced me 20 to nil only a week previously in a practice game. Oh well, in for a penny in for a pound.

* To be brutally honest quite a few gamers could easily be referred to as this. Today John was my nemesis.

I worked very hard to try and get the win. At one point, I needed to ask John about the firing arc of a Phobos, 'front and side', was his reply, and I gratefully threw an Intruder A containing Warriors in a sweeping arc around the back of his forces, to contest a bunker late game. I was playing hardball, so when he realised his mistake and asked if he could reposition his AA walker, I had to say no. I felt a little uncomfortable about this, but then, if I am to be a more competitive player I need to appreciate that this is exactly how I should play.

Above: PHR walkers trying to cover all the angles.

There were two Apollo Walkers who had aspirations to contest my home bunker. However, they needed to take to the air, if they were to be successful. I moved my despoiler, remaining Minder's and my Overseer to ensure this did not happen. Despite having double shots, the Despoiler failed to do any damage to the Apollos on the ground. The Minder's took a wound in reaction fire. (Yes Mike, I got the term right this time. I didn't call it over watch or opportunity fire!). And, the Overseer, achieved the final three wounds, and the threat was removed.

Above: On the left, the Apollos about to attempt their bid for glory.

At the end of the game I thought that I had managed to secure a draw. Unfortunately, my maths were out, and the 12-8 loss became 14-6, once kill points were taken into account. Doh!

I was really disappointed with the result, especially as I had not been able to use my HQ Overseer to influence the result on a bunker. The problem is, as effective as it is to buff friendlies, it is not very robust, and I was just too scared to risk its 260 points to influence the result. 

In this game I was particular impressed with the PHR Ares. They don't care about skimmer bonus as they always hit on threes. Very scary, and after John pulled two Counter Measures Hack Command Cards early on, my Hunters melted away all too quickly. I know that John struggled with some of his army during the weekend, despite everyone telling him otherwise, the Helios would not work for him. Keep the faith John. I promise they will come good.

Below: John is a wizard with electronics. His Helios have LEDs placed within their engines......

Below: .....and so does the Njord (someone get the PHR Yellow Pages to get hold of a local electrician, one of the LEDs needs fixing)

Above: Mike, Dan, Pete and Joe on the top tables for round four. 

Game Five - Domination - Mark - Scourge

After the disappointment of the last game leaving me on 2 wins and 2 losses, it was down to this last game to determine whether it was to be a winning or losing record for the tournament. No pressure. And this was to be my most competitive game yet. No mucking about here. Mark, with a Scourge army, featured the predictable Overseer, and was similar to mine, but he had a Screamer/Raider combo and a couple of Slayers.

The Scourge were very aggressive with their Minders and Scraider. I got a lucky shot to his Minder's transport, which left only one Minder airborne, and my Reapers got the jump on the bloated Raider transport, and a dice of six, meant that the Screamer never set foot on the ground. 

At the end of turn three the scores across all four table quarters were equal. Mark had a higher level commander than me, which allowed him to chose his targets well. His Hunters, buffed by the Overseer, made a big impression on my skimmers. However, I was able to bring down some central buildings containing Warriors and his Destroyers, and so it was all going to go down the wire at the end of turn six.

Mark won the initiative roll for the final turn, and decided to go first with the aim of destroying some more of my army. Personally, for this mission, I would always take the opportunity of activating last, so that I could choose which quarter to send my points heavy Overseer. And so it came to pass that I had the last activation, and my Overseer was able to choose the correct table quarter to achieve a 12 to 8 victory. Thanks to Mark for giving me such a competitive last round, which I need to experience, if I'm going to achieve more at tournaments. I can tell how much concentration I needed in this game by the lack of photographs I took during it. 

Above: The trophies.

Above: Hawk Dave about to announce the winners. On the left a nervous looking Swedish Erik.

The Results

1st place - Swedish Erik (very well deserved).

1st place team - Team Sweden

Best painted - Ed (OB)

Best sport - Kannan (from our Chessington Club)

Painting raffle - Tim (from our Chessington Club)

Sweden left Croydon victorious, but if you want a different spin on the results:

Chessington 3, Sweeden and the Rest of the World 2. 

An honourable mention goes to Team OB which placed second for the team prize. Not too shoddy considering that there were six of us in the team, including me!

And me. I finished on 49 victory points out of a possible 100, and 33rd out of 65. This was easily my best tournament result ever, not just in DZC. My membership of OB is safe for the time being.

Thanks to all those who took part and Hawk's many helpers for an excellent event. 

As always, happy wargaming to you all.

Alex.