For the 4th year in a row I went along and played 40k. 1550 point armies, 7th ed rules, no fortifications, no FW, no Knights, no D Weapons... very restrictive but we all made do with our core books.
I of course used my Eldar, employing the Iyanden supplement.
Spiritseer
5 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent, scatter lasers, shuriken cannon, holo fields
6 Dire Avengers
Wave Serpent, scatter lasers, shuriken cannon, holo fields
5 Wraithguard, cannons
Wave Serpent, scatter lasers, shuriken cannon, holo fields
3 jetbikes, cannon
3 jetbikes, cannon
2 War Walkers, bright lances
Wraithknight, heavy cannons
Wraithknight, heavy cannons
One of the Wraithknights was always my Warlord as per the Iyanden option.
Picture taken from the War Incorporated FB page
Up against my first Cantabrian(11 players came up from Christchurch to play), Tim had a Wolf Lord on Thunderwolf, 2 Rune Priests, Thunderwolf unit, 2x Grey Hunters in Pods, Blood Claws in a Pod. Tim and I were pacing each other well using the random tactical objectives, he had dropped down into my deployment zone contesting potential objectives while Biomancy buffed Thunderwolves moved across the table. I moved around my mobile gunline taking points where I could and inflicting greater damage then I was suffering. Turn 4 hit and I drew some pretty optimal objectives and it was all uphill for the Eldar ending with 20 VP to the 5 VP the Wolves had. Tim was a riot to play against and a fantastic player to face in the first round of the event. Loved his battered inverted Drop Pods as well.
Game 2 - Tactical Objectives - Robert Ransom - Adeptus Sororitas
We got to play on the table where Luke Forrest had provided the awesome Tyranid infestation terrain, see them HERE. Each turn we had 3 tactical objective cards. Robert deployed his numerous tanks in a parking lot formation, surprisingly not making use of the LoS blocking buildings in his deployment zone. My 3 Wave Serpents swung around the massive Tyranid structure in the middle of the table and went into action. Between the Serpents, War Walkers and Wraithknights 3-4 tanks were wrecked or exploded and Battle Sister units pinned or moving for cover. Robert had underestimated the Wave Serpents and said he now understood why they are moaned about online. He did credit me with ONLY bringing 3 in my list =D For the rest of the game I eliminated the rest of his army including killing Saint Celestine, her returning and Heavy flaming some Dire Avengers then dying again to Bright Lance fire from the War Walkers. Robert had a rough game but was happy to play through to the end, another good opponent.
Game 3 - Purge the Alien - Karn Snyder Bishop - Eldar
This game was going to be 'interesting' as we were both bringing the Eldar Fu. Karn from Christchurch only had 1 Wave Serpent but was extremely mobile with Swooping Hawks, Warp Spiders, Crimson Hunter alongside his Wraithknight, War Walkers, Night Spinner and Guardians. Karn went first and with the first shots of the game instant killed one of my Wraithknights with a 6 to wound on the Wraithcannons - Eep, that's what it feels like - Ryan Lister who was in between Fantasy games laughed after witnessing it, he has suffered such attacks many times from me - I took out Karn's Night Spinner and stripped some wounds off his Knight, no 6s for me. Karn then scored another 6 to wound on my Warlord Knight! Scoring a 6 for my cover save I let out a sigh of relief. Karn had rolled the Warlord trait where his Warlord and 3 units got to outflank so on came a flanking Wave Serpent, jetbikes as well as deep striking Warp Spiders and Swooping Hawks. What followed was a brutal game, I was running the Victory points throughout the game and they simply moved in pace with each other. Some key moments were his Crimson Hunter coming on, scoring 4 penetrating hits on the rear of my Wraithguard Wave Serpent only for me to make all my jink saves then follow up by turning around and scoring a lot of 6s to hit the flyer and dropping it in one go. I also managed to cast Terrify on his Linebreaking Jetbikes and force them back out of my deployment zone to get a last ditch 1 point win. My god what a tense game, well played Karn.
Game 4 - Crusade - Scott - Orks
So many Orks... 3x30 Ork boyz, characters to prop them up and Zzap guns with as many grots as you can get to stand in front. I was really trying to work out how the hell I was going to cull the horde before it could engage my forces, especially when Scott was in a far better position to take the 4 objectives we had deployed. I went first and fired everything I could get in safe range at his massive Zzap gun battery. Thank the Eldar Pantheon for Serpent Shields and high dice rolls! With concentrated fire I removed enough grots, then artillery pieces themselves to force a panic check, which they failed but did not quite leave the table. Seeing as I had no template or blast weapons Scott rolled for his run moves alongside movement and shoved the masses forwards, unfortunately all 3 mobs rolled a 2 to run and his grots failed to regroup and fled from the board. I focused fired his central mob until they were pinned then whittled away at his HQ filled unit causing what damage I could. Again Scott's mobs didn't move very far in his turn and I continued my ranged assault. Scott had moved his Big Mek with Kustom Force Field to the front of his diminishing mob and after Look out Sir'ing a lot of damage he failed to stop the War Walkers Bright Lances as was removed. Scott politley conceeded at that point. He was happy to finish there and we talked it through. A Gentleman to play against.
So a very long Day 1 and 4 wins and almost maximum bonus points for Warlords, First Bloods and Line Breakers.
Day 2
Game 5 - Emperor's Will - Dave Hodgetts - Tau
Dave and I had been fairly certain at the end of day 1 that we would be playing each other and here we were. Dave had a Buffmander, 2 big Fire Warrior units, outflanking Kroot, 2 Riptides, Missilesides, 2 Hammerheads. Dave had an amazing first turn, he managed to wreck the Wraithguard's Wave Serpent with long range cover ignoring Broadside shots then kill all the Wraithguard leaving the Sprirtseer heading for cover - bloody Tau ;) I then employed an amazing tactic - cast Invisibility on a Wraithknight and send that Wraithknight straight at the Tau lines. I used this tactic for the duration of the game and when the first Wraithknight eventually died to Fire Warrior Overwatching(after taking out the Buffmander and Missilesides in 1 turn and finishing a Riptide) I then cast it on my Warlord Wraithknight and he did the same thing. Now this was distracting for Dave but we still had a knock down drag out game. With only 1 objective each every little gain really counts. His Kroot got the intended focus of my rear field objective holders for a couple turns while his tooled up Riptides and Hammerheads absorbed their own fair share of fire as well. I played for the 5th turn win, contesting his objective from the battered Fire Warriors and when it went a 6th turn he cleared them out. Luckily in the 6th turn I had a single Jetbike left to do it again and my Warlord Wraithknight to stomp the last of a Fire Warrior squad while the single remaining War Walker finally finished off a Linebreaking Hammerhead. Win to me but Dave played like a champ. Invisible Wraithknights FTW
Game 6 - Relic - Josh Evans - Dark Angels(Deathwing)
Final game and against my third Christchurch opponent. This was the one scenario where I Josh's army would be harder than normal(ok the Purge the Alien would have been difficult too). Josh had Belial, Librarian, 2 10 man Deathwing Squads and 5 Deathwing Knights, 27 models. In this final game the players who had been recording ALL the mysterious objective results from all previous games, could now every turn add them to the Relic and the effects stacked! The only way to remove the upgrades was to take the Relic from the opponent, resetting it. Belial's unit teleports down, picks up Relic, puts Scatterfield on it for increased cover save and holds the central ruins. Trying to stay out of range of the other 2 squads my forces shoot everything at the primary unit, I may have removed 1 model? Josh stacks another cover save on the Relic and we quickly move through the rest of the game as Belial's unit now is rolling a 2+ armour and 2+ cover save. Josh had lost his dice by the way and was using my dice, my traitorous dice which seemed to lose the ability to roll a 1 lol. I lost, but I had as fun a game against a player with very similar comedic tastes as any. A highlight was after losing a Wave Serpent the disembarked Dire Avengers fired at and killed a Deathwing Knight, this prompted over the next few turns a narrated tale of Jeff da Eldar trying to 'waste' the flash Deathwing Knights and his fellow Dire Avengers claiming he was 'too drunk' to deal with them. Alas poor Jeff da Eldar did not survive his melee experience with the Deathwing Knights.
All done and dusted and 3 of us had scored 5 out of 6 wins. It went to the bonus points which I had been focused in claiming and I am happy to announce that I came First! Karn came second and Josh got third. Luke Forrest deservingly won Best Painted(see his army in the link above). Congratulations to all the Winners and thank you to Thomas Max of the Wellington Warlords for running our event. This may have been one of the best batches of players I have faced at a tournament with great attitudes throughout all the games. Great to meet the Chrsitshurch players and catch up with the likes of Wes, Blaise and visiting Hagen again too.
