I took my Scourge along with three other members of the Orbital Bombardment Podcast crew, Mike, Joe and Ed took part. I recommend you catch Ed's video log of the two days available at their blog site.
Reading Warfare has been going for decades and is one of the longest running wargaming conventions in the UK but it is the first time I have been. It's current home is the Rivermead Leisure Complex in Reading. The Drop Zone Commander tournament, along with many others, was taking place in the main hall, along with a good sized trader's hall all the other available space at the venue was being used for tournaments (the Flames of War event was taking place in a squash court).
Game One - Greg Joynson - PHR - Mission Targets of Opportunity - Draw 10 points each
A drawer, but I did have opportunities to do better. A Triton containing troops was left high and dry within the threat range of three Reapers. Unfortunately I went of to attack two Januses. This was a particular low point. And yes the said troops were the ones which held an objective in a building at the end of the game! Doh! A close game nonetheless. Many thanks to Greg.
Game Two - Joe Whiddet - Resistance - Mission Ground Control - Loss 20 point to nil
What with 12 competitors taking part and four of us travelling from OB there was always a strong likelihood that I would play a colleague. Step forward Joe with his numerous Resistance bikers.
A problem for old style Scourge is a multiple wound unit, especially one with the dispersion rule. Answer, like other Scourge players, I really should invest in a Screamer and a Raider, the latter having flame weapons. The other flame option is the Tormenter, but the OB guys tell me that as a heavy choice it's difficult to get into the fast army you need for Scourge. My only option was to man...er...sorry, Scourge the windows, and shoot the bikers that way. It was more effective than doing nothing, but it wasn't a game changer.
Despite all Joe's helpful advice during the game, I was trounced, and suffered over a thousand kill points of pain.
Game Three - Guy Hiddleston - PHR - Mission Secure the Flanks - Loss 14 points to 6
Guy had a very capable Athena fast mover for the first turn. What I now realise is I should have just kept my heavy shock troops of the table off the table first turn to give time for the Reapers to set up. I didn't, at at the end of turn two neither the Destroyers or the Eviserators had a transport. They spent the rest of the game sitting in a building hoping for a Underground Monorail or the Call for Extraction Command Cards. They didn't come (alien sigh).
Game Four - Chris Lobodzinski - Resistance - Mission Military Complex- 12 points to 8.
A narrow victory to me, but a few extra kill points gave me a 12-8 instead of 11-9.
A problem which I had in this game was getting enough shots at troops left in the open.
Chris made a valiant attempt to get an objective off the table, but it finally ended up in the hands of an Alexander Tank which was going nowhere fast. A tight and close game.
Game Five - Nick Gray - Shaltari - Mission Recon+ Win 16 points to 4
You had to admire Nick as he took Shaltari. If there was ever a faction that's seen better days it's the Space Hedgehogs. None of my colleagues play them, so my recent experience is limited to other tourneys.
Recon+ has a slightly different approach to the Recon mission in the rules. When rolling to search, the dice results are as follows: 1. Booby trap - a D6 number of energy ten hits to the building causing falling masonry as usual, but a piece of intel is still found. 2,3,4,5. Intel found as usual. 6. It is turned into a focal point, that does not give a piece of Intel, and is treated otherwise like a normal focal point which flyers do not score.
In the game both of us gained four pieces of Intel, but I discovered a focal point as well which was helpfully on my side of the table. The Shaltari struggled to get over to it, and I was able to pick off when they arrived. It would have normally resulted in a 12 to 8 win but the difference in kill points took me to 16 points, and gave me a finishing position of 8th out of 12 participants.
It was very noticeable how busy the trader's hall was on the Saturday. I was only free to get in there at lunch time and it was cheek by jowl. However, despite this a number of purchases were made including visits to Antenocitis Workshop (some more of their smart futuristic hover cars for my Infinity table) Ainsty Castings (various items for my Bushido board) battle foam (a very nice and much larger bag to cart my Ariadna around). All of the traders were very friendly and there were special deals if you looked around and smiled nicely.
Above: Where's Mike? Children can find Mike in this picture of the trader's hall?
There were a great many tournaments taking place and I managed to capture some photographs and speak to some of those running demonstration and participation games. Pictures below.
On the journey home I shared the car with third place Ed, second place Joe and first place Mike. At least I had a top ten finish as a crumb of comfort! Below, from left to right, Ed, Joe and Mike.
Happy Wargaming.
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