Hi guys, sorry about the late posting – been really busy
since Blog Wars. Anyway, I’ll start by saying BW5 is probably been the best one
yet, so a massive thanks to Alex for organising it again (you should start
doing this professionally…or at least make some money off it)!
I say it was my favourite yet – this in large part came down
to how I finished (more on that later), but also that I played against some
great guys with some fun armies as opposed to uber-competitve or some of the
new scary Tau or Eldar (which admittedly probably helped with my final placing).
You can see my list
here. Unfortunately it wasn’t until near the end
of the first game that I realised I had forgotten to take pics/notes…so the
following summary is from what I can remember (apologies if I get anything
wrong).
Game One was against Luke Frogg with an Imperial Guard army
with Sisters of Battle allies. The list seemed to be Pask in a fancy Leman
Russ, 2 Vendettas, 2 Manticores, lots of guardsmen, Celestine and 2 units of
sisters in Rhino’s. The game was Purge
the Alien and Vanguard deployment.
I wasn’t completely confident against this list. Saying
that, I wasn’t confident full-stop with this being my first game with the list.
Previous smaller games had gone well until a T3 tabling by Greylamb… It seemed
to have a lot of infantry AND tanks AND fliers; something I didn’t expect.
Luke hid his Manticores out of LOS behind a building and set
up around it with the Leman Russ and Guard. The Sisters were on the edge of his
deployment. I set up in as much cover as possible and crossed fingers.
Night fighting took effect and I stole T1 – managing to pop
a Rhino and kill a few Sisters. Luke killed the Forgefiend in return and
advanced Celestine to attack my lines. T2 and I dropped Abaddon and his Termis
behind Celetine and surprisingly inta-gibbed her with a combi-melta shot… The
Heldrake arrived and flamed a couple of Guardsman, but Luke had managed to
deploy in a way that I couldn’t get a Vector Strike in. Luke replied by
bringing in his Vendettas and killing the Heldrake. The rest of the game then deteriorated
into a brutal shootout, with Abaddon and Termis getting killed by massed Lasgun
fire (after Abaddon fluffing a charge with 12 attacks…), with both of us trying
to cling onto units by the skin of our teeth.
The game ended 7/6 to Luke.
Game Two was against Matt Calow with a mixed Space Marine
force containing Khan (White Scars), a couple of bike squads, a Kheres
Contemptor, 2 Vindicators, a Predator, the DA flyer, a Librarian and some
tactical squads. The game was Scouring and Hammer and Anvil deployment.
Matt deployed first – pretty offensively, but left me two
great sets of ruins to hide in. Given the amount of firepower in his list – I
definitely wanted to be hidden T1. Nightfighting took effect and we had a look
at the random objectives – I got all the high pointed ones, so Matt was coming
to me!
T1 and it was the start of Matt’s bad dice for the day – he
moved everything up and shot…but only managed to stun a Rhino. I replied by
stunning a Vindicator and killing a few bikes. T2 and Matt brought in Khan and
his flyer. The flyer managed to take a wound off an Obliterator and Khan got
into position to kill the CSMs holding a juicy 4pt objective. I brought in my
Heldrake and dropped Abaddon in his backfield to trouble the tactical squads
holed up there. A combination of the Heldrake and Havocs killed his flyer, the
Forgefiend wasted the Contemptor, the Obliterators popped a Vindicator and
Abaddon and chums shot apart a tactical squad. All good!
In T3 the Forgefiend was killed and the remaining Vindicator
cleared out a couple of CSMs for Khan to charge…who was then overwatched by a
Lascannon which killed him instantly… Having
only lost about 8 models so far, the rest of the game was spent with my taking
out the remainder of Matts army – which was tabled in Turn 5 and allowed me to
grab all the objectives for a massive 16-0 win.
After that win I was bounced to table 2 to take on Jamie
(from
Index Astartes) with a great mixed SM army. I have been following Jamie’s
blog for a while and really thought he was going to win the painting
competition – every unit of his was a beautiful example of a different
component from various SM armies and his NMM Lysander was stunning (and got my
painting vote). We both found it weird that we are more painters than players,
yet ended up on table 2…
The mission was Emperors Will and Dawn of War. Jamie took
Lysander, Assault Termis, Sternguard in Drop Pod, Storm Talon, a Bike squad,
Predator, Scout squad, Assault Marine squad and some Tactical squads.
I got to choose deployment so went for the side with two
large ruins looking opposite a single ruin in my opponents deployment. We both
deployed in cover with the Heldrake, Abaddon & Termis, Stormtalon,
Sternguard & pod, Assault marines and Termis all going into reserves.
I took first turn and took some pot shots at the ruins
opposite me – but Lysander and his warlord trait gave the ruins a 2+ save –
only a few marines died. In Jamie’s turn, he daringly landed his drop pod
directly behind the ruins with my objective and Lysander and the Sternguard ran
out and opened fire on the CSMs guarding it.
In T2 I brought in my Heldrake
which wiped out the Bike squad. Abaddon and Termis walked on from my edge to deal
with Lysander and the Sterngaurd. Their shooting took Lysander down to 2 wounds
and the rest of my nearby forces wiped out all but two of the Sternguard. In
Jamie’s turn, the Stormtalon came on and immediately targeted the Heldrake –
but failed to cause any damage. The Scouts and Assault marines entered and
pushed towards my objective. Lysander fluffed his charge through cover into my
CSMs leaving him exposed for next turn.
In T3 the Heldrake downed the
Stormtalon and started flaming the squads protecting his objective. Shooting
from the rest of the army thinned down the Assault marines to 4 strong. Abaddon
charged Lysander and killed him before he could strike back. Jamie then managed
to deep strike his Terminator squad next to my ruins where they would try to
clear out the objectives next turn. The Assault marines and Scouts moved to the
edge of my ruins.
T4 and the Forgefiend made a mess
of the Terminator squad – showing what 3 S8 AP2 blasts can do to a tightly
packed Terminator squad. Abaddon charged in to finish them off. By now Jamie’s
army was blunted with only his Scouts and half an Assault squad left out of his
deployment. The rest of the game involved Abaddon, Termis and CSMs keeping them
at bay (and eventually killing them all) whilst the Heldrake and the rest of my
army cleared out his ruins.
It was close but the last roll of
T7 was Jamie trying to save his last marine holding his objective. A
pintle-mounted combi bolter fired…hit…wounded and Jamie needed to make his 2+
save to draw the game. It was a 1…tabling him and winning me the game 3-0.
That was the last game and in the
end, left me in 2nd place…something I really hadn’t expected at the
beginning of the day.
In the Character painting
contest, it was apparently a three-way draw between myself, Jamie (and his
awesome Lysander) and Nathaniel Gibbs with a nicely painted Coteaz, who managed to just swing the win. I am more than
happy to share 2nd with Jamie on that.
In the Army painting contest, I
placed 2
nd as well! This time behind Henrick who had a very nice
Dark Angels army that you can see more of on
From the Fang.
So overall – an awesome day playing some awesome people, with three very unexpected
2nd places for Weemen!
