Having given good account of themselves at Britcon, the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Askepios turned their gaze north to the Scottish capital! Run by the Edinburgh League of Gamers, I'd heard about this annual one-day tournament from my regular opponent Kenny. He'd emphasised the friendliness of the competitors as well as the quality of players who generally attend, and was offering a lift - how could I resist? All I needed was to trim my list down from 2000 to 1750 points and I'd be set! Here's what I ended up taking:
A Hive Tyrant with Heavy Venom Cannon, Old Adversary, Hive Commander & Acid Blood
2 Tyrant Guard
2 units of 3 Hive Guard
The Doom of Malantai in a Mycetic Spore
2 Tervigons with Adrenal Glands, Toxin Sacs, Catalyst & Onslaught
2 units of 10 Termegants
2 Trygons with Adrenal Glands
GAME 1 - Capture & Control, Pitched Battle
versus Chaos Space Marines:
Winged Daemon Prince with Lash of Submission
Chaos Sorceror with Lash of Submission
2 units of Khorne Berzerkers in Rhino transports
1 unit of Plague Marines
1 unit of Chosen Marines
1 combat squad of Chaos Marines
3 Terminators with combi-meltas
3 units of one Obliterator each
So my first game would see me facing the dreaded 'Twin-lash' for the first time ever. Knowing the Spiky Marines Codex and having had plenty of experience fighting against the other elements of this sort of army though I was fairly confident about this one. Our objectives placed at opposite corners of the table, he got first turn and set up the core of his troops round his objective. Those Plague Marines were gonna be hard to shift! He kept 2 of the obliterators and the terminators in reserve. I put everything but the Doom on the table, with the Tyrant as close to his objective as I could get him, ready to stride forward, backed up by a Tervigon + gaunts. The Trygons set up shop centrally behind a huge ruin, out of sight of the Chaos guns as much as possible. Tervigon number 2 held the fort on my objective. In the early turns I was mainly reacting to his reserves and the advance on my objective. The Doom put an unprecentedly effective stop to this - destroying an entire unit of Khorne Berzerkers the turn he arrived! This took the wind out of sails to such a degree that the Tervigon guarding my objective really only needed to sit there spawning gaunts to fend of the rest of the Chaos Marines. With my own objective looking safe, the Tryant began his implacable advance to the right hand side of the table, while the Trygons made a bee-line for each of the Lash HQ characters. With close combats and consolidations giving all of these units some much needed extra movement, I was eventually swarming his objective. The plague marines held their ground though, so I couldn't quite claim the objective for the Hive Mind, but as my own was secure that was enough to win me the first game.
Game 2 - Annihilation, Dawn of War
versus Orks
Cybork-Biker-Warboss with Power-klaw
Big Mek with Kustom Force Field
5 or 6 Cybork Nob Bikers with 3 Power-klaws, 2 or 3 Big choppas, Painboy, Waaagh! Banner
10 Cybork Nobs in a Trukk with similar equipment as above (Troops)
12 Boyz with Power klaw Nob in a Trukk
20 Boyz with Power Klaw Nob in a stripped down Battlewagon
30 Boyz with Power Klaw Nob
This mission featured a special rule which meant any non-vehicle units which were destroyed would re-appear from reserve from the owning player's board edge. So pretty much all of the army would be on the table all the time. And it was Orks versus Tyranids. And it was kill points. Both my opponent and I knew from the start we weren't going to get through many turns! Assaults were in full swing from Turn 2, I think we got to Turn 4 before time was up - brutal!
The Heavy Tyrant advances towards the super-tough Nob Bikers.... by this point it was pretty much all over! Some terrible deployment as my army scuttled onto the Table on Turn 1 saw me position my Trygons behind cover on one flank. What were they doing there? What were they hiding from? Who knows what I was thinking. Anyway, this gave my opponent the generous option of simply arriving from the other flank and rolling through my units one by one. As I'd made the mistake of doing in previous kill-point games, I also made life easier for him by using the Tervigons to spawn gaunts. Some very easy kills for him there. Then as my units started recycling from my board edge, he was supremely placed to take them out as they arraived. It was a true and almost utter Annihilation. No points for me then!! But a fun game nonetheless, as is always guaranteed against the Orks!
Game 3 - Seize Ground, Spearhead
versus Space Marines
Lysander - with a full unit of sterguard veterans
4 full units of Tactical marines (no power weapons or fists)
2 5-man Scout squads
A Devastator squad with Missile Launchers
an attack bike and a Whirlwind Tank
Looking at this list the main threats were Lysander and his veterans, and the Devastators. The special rules for the scenario which saw every building either smoking or on fire helped with both of these however, making every scenary piece either Dangerous, blazing ruins or blocking line of sight with plumes of smoke. So Lysander's advance was hindered by the flaming buildings and the Devastators could hardly draw line of sight to a single one of my units. My opponent Joe was a pleasure to play against, a very nice guy, making jokes as the game progressed (i think my Monstrous creatures sort of suited his suggested names of Tricia, Karen, Sharon.... lol!). By turn 4 I'd ploughed through most of this predominantly-infantry army and the game ended with me holding 4 objectives. I really felt for Joe when Lysander, his sternguard bodyguard destroyed, made a heroic last charge towards a Trygon, and was killed before he could lift his great Thunder Hammer to land a blow. But that's the way the dice roll sometimes...
So ended a thoroughly enjoyable tournament. I finished 4th of 14, which I was really pleased with. Kenny finished 2nd which of course he was pleased with - hopefully we did the highlands proud! However no prizes were awarded for winning the event, instead there were some different categories, just for a break in the usual routine. I picked up a prize for the second-greatest margin of victory in a game, with Ian the Ork player (who probably scored those points in Game 2 against me!) taking first place in that category. Best army went to Jamie Farquhar - his Space Wolves can be seen above. Jamie's work is prolific and of an extremely high standard. I faced his Iron Warriors at Rapid-Fire Stirling last year, which also saw him take home the Best Army award. Anyway, here are some pics of other armies from the event!
Above - Kenny's Chaos Marines, headed up by a summoned Greater Daemon!
Below - I had to get a shot of this ace Eldar Seer Council - on hover-boards!!
Above - Commander Farsight leads his Tau Battlesuits into battle
Below - Part of the Dark Angels force that got my vote for Best Army
Having given good account of themselves at Britcon, the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Askepios turned their gaze north to the Scottish capital! Run by the Edinburgh League of Gamers, I'd heard about this annual one-day tournament from my regular opponent Kenny. He'd emphasised the friendliness of the competitors as well as the quality of players who generally attend, and was offering a lift - how could I resist? All I needed was to trim my list down from 2000 to 1750 points and I'd be set! Here's what I ended up taking:
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