Octoberfest 2016 - 40K Tournament - Part Two

With a hearty lunch of sandwiches and soup to energise us for the next three games, the competitors prepared themselves for the afternoon's combat.

Above: The usual picture of a room full of expected gamers.

Game Three - Emperor's Will and Relic - Dawn of War - Ziad - Dark Angels

After the scariness of the Riptide list, Ziad had thankfully come along with something which was more pleasing to the eye. Some troops, some tanks and some hard as nails Terminators. 

Above: The Termies secured the centre ground and took on all-comers. 

As I understand it the Dark Angels have a secret which they would rather not share with all the other children. It is apparently very, very shameful. Well, Ziad tried to add to this already very large pile of shame :-); one of my mighty Rhinos was down to its last hull point and the Dark Angel commander ordered one of his units to deal with the tank, not just any unit, but the Terminators, 'oh, the shame. Mother must never here of this'.

Above: So embarrassed by witnessing the Terminators being asked to destroy a Rhino, the Tactical Marines all look away.

Above: Result: A dead tank. Unsurprising, as they did 12 hull points worth of damage! (It could have been worse, but fortunately none of the 'brave' terminators died in the resulting explosion).

Above: The Terminators find a more worthy opponent.

Above: Space Marine Driver to Space Marine Gunner, 'You didn't leave the backdoor open did you?'

A very enjoyable and fun game ended in a win for Caliban's finest with the resilience of the Deathwing Knights making a winning contribution.

Game Four - Big Guns Never Tire - Hammer and Anvil - Andy B. - Space Wolves

This was a harsh lesson in how 'modern' 40K army builds have evolved. My Dreadnoughts have two basic close combat attacks, Murderfang, a SW character Dreadnought, has nine attacks on the charge. (Help). What with the Thunderwolf Cavalry seemly impervious to my shooting, and me not being able to keep his close combat monsters from the door, the inevitable was.............inevitable. By Andy's turn 4 I only had my 3 Rhinos remaining. Andy lost only 2 Wulfen in the whole game and unsurprisingly came away with a 15 to nil win. 

Above: Majority of the Nurgle army go weapons free on the big wolf riders. Result. Not even a scratch! 

Above: Wulfen about to empty a Hellbrute of its contents. 

Above: Murderfang. What nightmares are made off.

Above: Players ready themselves for the fifth and final game.

Game Five - Maelstrom Cleanse and Control - Vanguard Strike - Ian - Tyranids

Big monsters require concerted fire power to bring them down. Despite my best efforts the big gribblies refused to lay down. In one particular shooting attack Ian scored ten wounds on one of my five man Marine units. After armour and Feel No Pain rolls the unit was all gone (sad face). Those troops units of mine who decided to stick around scored me a few points, but sadly, not enough to make the result close.

Above: Did anyone bring a butterfly net?

Above: Rhino gunner to Rhino driver, 'Try tooting your horn at it. Maybe it will go away!'

Above: Thank the Gods for the mighty protection of a Rhino.

Ian secured a 14 to 4 win, and with that my day was concluded. I finished second from bottom, but despite this, I had some very enjoyable games. I have to ask myself, 'Are 40K tournament games still for me?' If I want to be more competitive I would need to invest more time in creating an army suited to tournament conditions.

I have some plans for Harlequins, but the current range of opposing forces will just blow them away I reckon. I need to give thought over the winter painting season if I want to go up against the big boys with something more effective.

Congratulations go to Zach, with his five Riptide list, who won the event. From what I heard during the day my experience playing his army was fairly consistent with his other opponents. Apparently he only lost two Riptides during the whole day, one to enemy fire, and one to the Gets Hot special rule. 

I suspect that the army composition instructions for the next tournament may be a little different. Despite the victory point benefits for taking objective secured troop choices Zach's army was still a country mile ahead at the end of the day. Even though his army contained no troops, his tabling of every opponent still gave him sufficiently high victories to finish ahead of the rest.  

Thanks to Dave G. and David P. for hosting a very well run event and we look forward to the next one in May.

Happy wargaming everyone.

Alex