Rapid Fire Tournament report

Just back from Rapid Fire 2017, one of the longest running tournaments in Scotland, and one of the first tournaments I every went to about 10 years ago. Number were a little down at this event, but it was v2.0 of the event, the “main” Rapid Fire having taken place in October (I couldn’t make the date). It was hugely oversubscribed, so they decided to run another event a couple of months later. They had 34 at the first one, and 28 at this one. 

I was speaking to the TO, and he things they will do the same next year, but have one event more “fluffy” with some comp on army lists, with the other a little more “hard core”. Think that would work well. There is not a particularly deep pool of competitive players in Scotland, but those who are, are particularly competitive. Most people are casual players who just want to play toy soldiers with the friends over a couple of days. Often they “clash”, so having seperate events would I think work well.

Anyway, on with the bat reps

Winter War Tournament Report

Just back from Winter War, where I was trying out a Pure Harlies list (set out in the last post). Shadowseer, 2 Troupe Masters, 5 Troupes in Starweavers, a unit of 5 Skyweavers with Zephir Glaves, and 2 units of 2 with Star Bolas. It was a one day 3 game tournament, but with 46 players it was a big one.

Game 1

Genestealer Cult - Short Tournament Report

I attended a small 4 game RTT at the weekend. There were 6 of us, and we only played 1250pts on 4’X4’ tables. I took a different list, with 2 main changes. I didn’t take a Cult Insurrection Detachment, just a CAD and one SubT, and I took Metamorph Leaders in the 3 units of Metamorphs in the SubT. I wanted to see if I missed the bonuses in the Cult Insurrection Detachment, and assess whether the Leaders were worth it, given the not insubstantial extra cost (32pts per model).  

LVO Genestealer List Analysis

So some thoughts on the list I took to the LVO

Genestealer Cult's First Tournament

Last weekend was the GSC’s first tournament. I had a blast and went 3-2, which I was pleased with, particularly when you read about how I lost my first game…..!

The list I took was

Back From the Dead

Yet again, rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated!!

After a dramatic start to the year (3 tournaments in 3 months Caledonian Uprising, LVO and Dark MIllenium 3), I hadn’t played a game of 40k until this weekend!! Real life has conspired against me, and the hobby has been on the back burner for some months – even to the extent that all my models, paints etc are packed away to the garage.

However, things have improved, and I’m getting back to playing with my toys again. Breaking news is I’m going to the LVO again in 2017. After this year I know I don’t want to sight see in Vegas (horrible place), and my hope that I would recover from jet lag by getting there early was plain silly. So next year it will be a flying visit – I fly in on the Thursday and out on the Monday. My gaming buddy isn’t joining me this year (he’s just back from the ETC, and feels that a trip to Vegas might just be a little OTT), but my brother is. So I’m going to fly half way around the world for 9 games of 40k, and to spend some time with my brother (who I only see a few times a year because he lives in the US). Sounds good to me!! 

But anyway, I played in a one day 20 man  RTT on Saturday. … and that’s really what this post’s about.

Caledonian Uprising - After Action Report

Just back from Cally. What a weekend! Never been to such a big tournament. One hundred and eighty people registered. I think something like 175 people played in the end. Haven’t’ drunk so much beer in a very long time, laughed so much, or played so many challenging games of 40k. 

For those of you who haven’t seen it, this is the Facebook sight with all the information (https://www.facebook.com/events/542549995871068/646210672171666/?notif_t=plan_mall_activity)

I can not recommend this event enough. Incredibly well organised, and professionally run. It’s probably the closets thing we have to the big GTs in the US (Adeptacon, Nova etc), although without all the side events.

The Road to Cally

The Caledonian Uprising is one of the most competitive tournaments in the UK Calendar. Traditionally it’s also one of the biggest. This year it has 180 people registered. I don’t think there are any other tournaments in the UK that will exceed this. 

It's held in the North West Gaming Centre in Stockport near Manchester (I think .. my English Geography is a bit limited). It’s a bit of a drive (around 3 hours) but there is a bunch of us making the trip south so it will qualify as the closest thing I get to a “boys weekend” these days. Really looking forward to it.

Malifaux Masters Battle Reports - Part 1

Hello Sir#67 here to tell you about my latest Malifaux antics.

A few weeks ago some of the best players in the country gathered together for the Malifaux Masters and somehow I qualified!

For the people who are unfamiliar with the Masters format; the Masters is an invitation only tournament held over two days. To qualify you need to finish the year ranked somewhere in the top 16 Malifaux players as listed on Rankings HQ.

The players are split into four different groups with the top four players in the UK are seeded so that one of the top four is present in each group. The actual draw took place a week before the event and anyone could listen in via conference call. Points for transparency there!

On day one you play each member of your group once and the top two players in each group will go through to day two. Day two is a straight knockout event.

I was in Group 2 with James Doxy (UK No 2), Jacob Senett and Matt Ledgerwood. I’d never played any of these guys before so I had no idea what to expect. I’ve been to some of the same events as James and know him to be very good with Ramos but that was about it. I was taking my Neverborn. I’d been playing Neverborn and Malifaux in general for about a year by the time the Masters rolled round but my M2E experience is not the best (dam you Dropzone Commander, you beguiling destraction you!) I was hoping to make it to day two and to do that I’d have to finish at least 2^nd in my group.

I’m terrible at recording battle reports and you don’t really have time to take notes at the Masters so I’m not going to post proper battle reports more just general thoughts. I've also totally forgotton which upgrades were taken by either side. If you just assume that I look Beckon Malifaux every time I played Lilith you shouldn't go far wrong. 

Game 1: Recconoiter 

Opponent: Matt Ledgerwood (Ressurectionists)

Crews:

Lilith

Bad Juju

2 x Waldgeist

Young Nephlim

2 x Terror Tot

Primordial Magic

Seamus

Hanged

Mortimer

Bette Noir

3 x Belle

Punk Zombie

This game kind of set the tone for the rest of the Masters. We both played very cagey. I used Tangle Shadows to swap Bad Juju with Bette Noir. This put Bad Juju in the middle of Mark’s crew and he proceeded to make a nusience of himself. Lilith delt with Bette Noir with the rest of her ap and Saemus blew the face off a terror tot I moved a little but to far up the table. Bette Noir popped out of the tots corpse and Sameus made a belle. Bad Juju repositioned slightly and cast Landslide. Landslide is an amazing spell, I managed to catch 2 Belles and the Hanged in the pulse. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to put slow on any of the models but I did get a 10, 12 and 13 out of Marks deck. 

The game devolved into a bit of a stalemate at this point. Neither of us could make any real dent in each other’s crew. The Young Neph went down and Lilith killed Bette/summoned Belles repeatedly. My other tot and the Illuminated managed to drop markers for me to secure max points from break through and 1 from Power Ritual. Mark managed to score 2 points from Distract.

We had to call the game at the start of turn 4 and when points were totalled up I managed to win 5-4.

Game 2: Turf War

Opponent: Jacob Sebnett 

Crews:

Jacob Lynch

Huggy

3 Illuminated

Beckoner

Teddy

Nicodiem

Nurse

Bette Noir

Mortimer

Canine Remains

Punk Zombie

Crooked Man

Mortimer started off by digging up corpses for Nico to summon from and Nico made a Hanged and some Punk Zombies. My models hung around the edge of the scoring zone around the marker. Trying to take advantage of my superior threat range. 

Turn 2 and my Illuminated charged and killed the Canine Remains, Bette popped up and proceeded to Red Joker my Illuminated. Nico summoned a Canine Remains from the old dogs corpse and one of my illuminated gave it a cursed object. Huggy double walked through a church to enguage half of Jacobs crew. I’m pretty sure either Lynch or a Beckoner put Bette back into the ground. 

Again we hit a stalemate. I fed models into the zone to keep scoring for Turf War and passed out some Cursed Objects. Huggy went down in Turn 3 but I brought him back in Turn 4 to score for Bodyguard. Teddy went a little bit wild but ended up being killed by the Hanged. 

We were on even points until one of the last activiatons of the game where Jacob killed his own model denying me a point for Cursed Object resulting in a 9-8 loss to me.

I really should have been far more aggressive in this game. If I had activated Jacob at the start of the turns instead of at the end for extra cards, I could have cranked my crew’s damage out put enough to keep up with the attrition battle.

Game 3: Reckoning

Opponent: James Doxy

Crews: 

Lilith 

Bad Juju

2 Waldgeist

Barbaros

2 Terror Tots

Primordial Magic

Ramos

Joss

Howard

Electrical Creation

2 Molemen

Metal Gamin

James moved his electrical creation forwards and Ramos used magnetism to move towards it and kill it for scrap. He then proceded to summon 3 Steam Aracnids and arranged them in “Swarm formation” (all bases touching). Lilith moved forwards and cast Tangle Shadows on one of the spiders, swapping it with Bad Juju. She killed the spider in base to base with her and summoned a forest to block Joss’ line of sight to Bad Juju. Bad Juju delivered the message to Ramos and cast Landslide making Ramos Slow!

The two Molemen did their scheme marker thing and Howard set off to smack one of my Tots. The Waldgeists set up some forests and Barbaros hunkered down behind one and used his zero action to Challenge. Joss disgarded Imbued Energies for Fast and used the extra ap to walk then charge Barbaros. Joss missed with his first attack and Barbaros hit his defensive trigger pushing Joss away again. For some reason we both forgot that Joss’ axe doesn’t allow defensive triggers.

Turn 2 and Bad Juju punched a spider in the face and cast Landslide again. Ramos used Magnetism to push towards the Metal Gamin. Lilith cast Tangle Shadows on the Metal Gamin and took it down to it’s Hard to Kill wound. Barbaros ended up next to Ramos as part of the Tangle Shadows. Howard Langston murdered a Terror Tot and Barbaros hit Ramos. A combination of the Repulse trigger and Barbaros’ weapon meant that he was able to nimble away and plant a scheme marker.

The Waldgeists killed the Metal Gamin getting me a point for Reckoning.

After that nothing changed in the subsequent turns. We both got maximum points for our schemes. I took Protect Territory and Deliver a Message, James took Break Through and Protect Territory. The single point I was able to get for Recokoning in Turn 2 handed me a 7-6 victory.

I was really nervous going into this game. James had only ever lost 1 game of competitive M2E up until this point and to be honest I was expecting to either win my first 2 games and so stand a good chance of getting out of the group or loose both my games and not progress. 

Having to beat James made things very interesting because if Jacob also won his game there would be three players in our group with a 2-1 record and it would be soul stone difference that would decide who went to day 2.

Thankfully Matt did James and I a favour by beating Jacob and I progressed to the quarter finals. 

My write up for day 2 will follow shortly.

Thanks for reading

Sir#67

Preferred Enemy Bat Reps

Just back from Preferred Enemy in Stirling. About 24 of us turned up for a 7 game 1,650pt tourni. It was the first big test for my revised bike army using the new codex.

The list I took was in the last post

Preferred Enemy Take 2

Thanks to Sam for pointing out the error in my last list (need to make Khan the Warlord to give the bikes Scout). It has made me think again about whether he’s worth it. I’ve hummed and hawed (good Scottish expression!), and I’ve decided not to. I want to see if the list works without Scout.

There are a number of reasons – I want to see if my theory hammer on how to play Stalkers works, and that depends on Iron Hands being the Primary. Also, I like having the Inquisitor as my Warlord, allowing me to “throw away” the Chapter Masters. Finally, Khan is pretty pathetic for everything else, other than scout.

Back from a Year Off.

Hello,

I think it’s been about a year since I posted on this blog. Don’t worry I am still alive but it has been a busy year.

I’ve worked in Cardiff for most of last year, got a new job at a consultancy in Newcastle and bought a house. Unfortunately neither of those things has left a lot of time for blogging.

I also decided to give up 40k in the early part of 2013. A combination of 6^th edition rules and rising prices really turned me off the game. I’ve been on quite the gaming odyssey over the past 12 months, in my quest for something new to try I’ve dabbled in:

Warmachine/Hordes

Magic the Gathering
Infinity

Malifaux

X Wing

Dropzone Commander                    

Dropzone Commander has been something of a whirlwind at my local club. Two of us took a gamble on the two player starter set and it turns out the game is pretty damn good. In just over a month we now have around 10-15 people looking to play regularly.

Dropzone hasn’t been my main focus however. I’ve spent most of my time playing Malifaux. I’ve really fell in love with that game. It’s got great models and great mechanics, not to mention a fantastic competitive scene. Everyone I’ve met has been great right from the start, in all the tournaments I’ve been to I’ve never had a single problem with anyone. One of the guys at the club John had a bit of trouble at the first tournament we went to but the next time he saw the same person at an event the player in question made a point of apologising for his previous behaviour. I’ve never even heard of that at a 40k event and to actually see it was something else. This doesn’t mean that every tournament is fluffy bunnies and cotton wool. There are some very good players in this country and most tournaments are hard fought but good natured contests.

Speaking of tournaments I’ve been to quite a few this year:

Vapnartak (4^th)

Monkeyfaux (11^th)

Breachside Brawl (6^th)

The Dark Breach (1^st)

Henchwench (5^th)

4M (1^st / team event)

Back to the Breach (15^th)

Scottish GT Hardcore (2^nd)

Scottish GT (5^th)

That’s nearly 1 event every 6 weeks!

The icing on the cake of my year of Malifaux was finding out that I’d managed to qualify for the Malifaux Masters. I finished the year ranked 13^th in the UK so I only just scraped into the top 16 but I’m still pretty proud of myself.

The Masters is taking place on 18^th/19^th January and I’m in the middle of my preparations. That basically means I’m painting like mad to try and get everything finished!!!

Now that my life has settled down a little bit I’m hoping to start blogging again but Malifaux and Dropzone Commander will be the main focus of the articles I write.

I’d also like to thank EYIG for keeping the blog going for the past 12 months while I’ve been busying my time with anything but 40K

Thanks for reading, hopefully it won’t be 12 months before my next post!!!

Greg (Sir#67)

Counter Attack Tournament Report.

My faith in 40k is restored (despite GW’s determination to break the game!). Had a great weekend at Counter Attack, 5 great, pretty tough games against fun opponents.

My list was the one I posted in the last post, 2 Mark’O’Rain teams, 2 teams of Double Burst Cannon XV8s, a team of 2 double fusion gun XV8s, 2 packs of Kroot, 2 Skyrays and 2 Hammer Heads with Plasma Cannons.

Tournament List, Counter Attack 2013

This weekend a buddy and I are off to Counter Attack a 5 game, 1750pt, Forge World allowed Tournament in Edinburgh.

In my continuing quest to take something a little different (!), I’m taking Tau, with no Ethereals, no Firewarriors, no Riptides, and no Batman Commander. Trying out a Farsight XV8 army.

Common Ground Tourni 10 November

Went to a fun tournament at Common Ground Gaming in Stirling  at the Weekend.

Took a list that I thought would be “fun”, but it turned out to be just really bad!

Farsight

Commander, Twin Fusion, target lock, Stim Injectors. Warscraper Drone

Riptide, HBC, ECPA, Talisman, VT, EWO

3 - XV8s. One with twin Fusions and Target Lock, 2 with Twin Plasma, one with a positional relay and the other with Vectored Retro Thrusters

3 XV8s all with Twin Burst Cannons and Stim Injectors.

2 Skyrays

Allied Tau Commander with all the toys

2 packs of 10 Kroot, plus a hound.

Hobby Killers

The observant will see that I haven't posted up my report from Rapid Fire (brief summary I went 3-1-2 and came 10th out of about 30 people). Well, I'm not going to post up detailed reports, rather I'm going to post up some thoughts which have crystallised as a result of going to that tournament, and the Warrington GT.

Warrington GT Tournament Report

Had a great weekend at the Warrington GT, played 6 tough games against 6 fun opponents, but man it was hard.

I had read before that this was one of the most competitive tournaments in the UK, and I can see why. It seemed like about a third of the field had played in the ETC at one time or another, and the lists were just brutal (I played a 3 Wraithknight list, and a 9 Broadside one … neither of which went well!). Still, didn’t play any idiots and had 6 fun games. When the dust settled I went 3-0-3 and came 27^th out of (I think) about 50 people … what can I say – mid table obscurity! I was nominated for best painted however, and I came 3^rd on player voting, which was pleasing.

Usual format, (very) brief bat reps, and some general thoughts.

List for the Warrington GT

I’m trying to settle on a list for the Warrington GT at the beginning of September. As part of that prep the non-club is hosting a day of gaming tomorrow.

 

Three games over the day with 16 people coming along. The first game is a random draw, but after that we swiss pair. While we try and making these days reasonably relaxed, it’s a pretty competitive bunch that come along. Most of them are regular tourney goers and standards are reasonably high.

 

Clan Wars Tournament Report

Just back from Clan Wars, great tournament at a fantastic new facility in Stirling, Scotland (Common Ground Gaming). Five very varied games against cool opponents. New Tau’s second tournament.

Although it wasn’t a big field (about 20 or so people) Competition was pretty tough, with a good few of the Scottish ETC team among the 20.

So, usual format, brief summary of games, and lessons learned.

List for Clan Wars 2013

OK, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth (and some excellent input from Rathstar and Bottom Banana) I’ve settled on a list for Clan Wars next weekend. Here it is