2000pts battle report - Tyranids v Harlequins & Ynnari - Game 1 - North West Open

The North West Open Tournament @ Wargames is an ITC format competition using the following rules pack: ITC 8th ed Combined Arms Missions. Each mission was rolled for randomly before the game and we were then all told which one to play.

Game 1 low down:

• Scenario 3 - No Mercy [kill points based on Power Level]
• Vanguard Strike deployment
• Kill points [power levels] and Maelstrom

First game and it was opposite Max Koch and his lovely Harlequins, now I hadn't intended to do a thorough battle report so forgive the fact I didn't get much of Max's first turn but it's clear those Venoms made some ground into the centre of the board and in the trees on the left.

To which I totally got sucked into dealing with. I'm not sure if that was Max's intention but having put 9 wounds on the Tervigon I had to use it to deal with the nearest Venom but in so doing left the Termagants outside of it's range to reinforce and add rerolls to 1s on their shooting! My whole reason for it's inclusion dismissed in the first turn!

I did manage to get First Strike this turn  - the combined shooting of the Bastion, Hive Guard and Flyrant on the Venom in the top, middle of the board. But with secure Objective 1 [in the centre of the board] and have three Tyranid units and none of my opponents within 12" of my board edge I couldn't quite secure any Maelstrom missions.

Max disembarked some Harlequins who flipped over my Termagants so they could target the Carnifex with their Fusion Pistols - wiping it out.

My Trygon Prime and Genestealers had come on in a hope of removing the Dark Reapers in the ruined bunker. They'd failed their charge, or I didn't even bother with the woods adding 2" to their charge. They then paid the price with the Tygon being shot to pieces, I think from a Soulburst action at some point.

I suddenly remembered I had Command Points so re-rolled a save and he went back in place with just 3 wounds left - foolish?

The Venom on my left got destroyed and it's occupants took revenge on the Tervigon - the one saving grace it was too far from my gaunts to cause any synaptic backlash.

More Harlequins somersaulted through my lines, killing the second Carnifex

And then the Malanthrope.

The other Troupe used their Fusion Pistols to surgically take apart the Bastion, killing a Hive Guard in the process. This left the Aeldari exposed allowing my Warriors to whittle their numbers down a bit.

Teragants suffered some more casualties and with no Synapse battle shock took a further toll.

Genestealers and Trygon assaulted the Dark Reapers

And made them pay the price for their visious long range attacks. Unfortunately their consolidate left them far away from the remaining action and my Rippers were hoping to secure an objective.

However they were shot off the board and thr game came to a close.

Max had secured the most kill points so scored 8VPs for that. He also beat me for Maelstrom Mission points and gained another 8VPs. He secured 2 bonus VPs for King of the Hill [most units in the centre of the board] and Slay the Warlord. He failed to get First Strike [kill a unit in your first turn] but I got it in mine. Final score 18:1

Max was a great player, subsequently I found out he'd previously won the WarhammerFest GT and in his next NWO match tabled Richard Hope from Geeks Wargaming. The fact I still had some units on the board made me feel a little better about the loss, but it was a really relaxed game and any moment where things had gone wrong, he brushed the errors aside with no issue. For instance Max was unaware my Trygon Prime had synapse so hadn't ensured he killed it outright [no doubt thanks to my re-rolled save], when he realised it was anchoring the Genestealers a casual "mistakes were made" and we moved on. To have someone so successful in tournaments and yet play so casually without forcing an issue and so keep the game flowing was a real pleasure, not to mention his army was really nice too. Onto game 2.

North West Open result

As you saw in the last post I was off to Wargames for the North West Open and the picture below clearly indicates I had some success. Typically it also reveals 'I'm a lover [of the hobby], not a fighter' as I came 49th out of 54 or something. I was actually on the bottom table for the final game!

That's not to say I was disappointed with my tournament result - far from it. Every match was fun for one reason or another and each person I gamed with was the very definition of what is great about the hobby. I was really hoping for the wooden spoon but actually managed to be successful and win my final game while all my other losses belie the insanely good dice rolling in most of my games - fortune was on my side, success was not ;)

YouTube legend and all round good guy Aceface hisself, John Hickton ably managed the crowd, with Martin from Wargames and Dave [the real brawn keeping the socring and pairings on track. Ace, was well aware by the time you got to the second floor, and those lower down the tables the chill factor, and fun factor, was so much more evident. This reaffirms my view that the bottom tables may not be where the cool kids are at but we're definitely having the most fun :)

And lets not forget all the chickens that were sacrificed for us gamers!

Anyone for a baguette? If you recall one of the main reasons for picking up the spare ticket was to try and get to grips with 8th and as much as I loved all my games and all the players were amazing sports I'm not convinced of how 8th plays. To me it's become geared to a cuthroat all or nothing first turn and that's just not something I'm comfortable with - either by skill, unit choice or basic lack of a killer instinct. Equally it might be the nature of matched play, although the narrative game I played the other week felt similar. In fairness the ITC format, although a little weird did help mitigate those unfortunate rolls on the Maelstrom table in normal games.

But I think it also becomes apparent that the way I'm learning to play bears no resemblance to how someone trains in other activtities. When you look at most sports, or my kendo past, the activity is proken down and you work on techniques and skills - creating scenarios so that when you take part in a competition or any kind of one-on-one you will have muscle memory and visual cues that when the moment arises you can act without thinking and confident in your ability. And yet my 40k experience is always just the one-on-one now and I'm not sure that's the best way to develop but I'm not entirely sure of how you can engineer 'real world' training exercises in 40 to develop greater understanding and tactical nouse...

My 8th Edition Wound Marker Transport Case

 Anyway, I took these pictures of some Forgeworld Rippers as I want to try and get some of my plastic ones and recreate these, regardless of how ineffective my Rippers were all weekend.

They scored me a Linebreaker though so I shouldn't be too hard on them.

But overall the NWO was great, Wargames were fab, my partners were all awesome, my army was rewarded for being pretty [if not effective] but there's still a ways to go before I love 8th. Luckily though the gaming crew will be off on tour to Warhammer World in February for the third heat of the 40k GT, so if you're going we'll see you there! Now, on to my battle reports...

North West Open

Earlier in the year tickets went on sale for the North West Open - the largest ITC format tournament in the North West [or wider UK, not sure]. This tournament is the brainchild of YouTube legend and all round good guy Aceface hisself, John Hickton.

As such it generates a lot of interest and demand for the 50+ spaces is unsurprisingly high, particularly from those who are after ITC points and other YouTubers/bloggers. You can imagine I was therefore unsuccessful in securing a ticket, but thankfully a couple of cancellations came along last week and for various other reasons I had funds and family support to throw my hat in the proverbial ring.

It's a two day tournament, 2,000pts but with 3 hours per game to take into account all the 8th rules gazing we're likely to do. Granted there are some who are going with a competitive mindset but I thought 5 games under such conditions will either make or break my approach to 8th. Luckily it seems there are a few casual gamers also attending and I think some of the recent FAQs have cleared up some of the [absolute] filthy lists that have begun to crop up.

I'll be taking the 'nids and given the way I've begun to observe 8th, my Fortification of choice will be... the Bastion! Points wise it's ridiculous, the Aegis would have been a better option, but it's really not much to look at. The Skyshield would also be cheaper and is undeniable as a centre piece but without confering cover saves [as well as it's reduced invul save] to those sheltering behind/underneath it I'm much more inclined to take my own LoS blocking terrain piece that is harder to destroy [T9] and has a Quad Gun to attempt to deal with Flyers [although 8 shots at 5s to hit isn't as good as when you could fire it with a single Zoanthrope with twin-linked :( ].

Anyway, the rest of my army is standard fare, just some Warriors, Malanthrope and Rippers added and made sure my Trygon was a Prime for the Synapse. It did mean I threw away my competitive advantage by swapping out the Swarmlord for a Flyrant though, it's almost as if I'm rejecting GWs attempt to help out nid players! I'll just have to see how it all plays out, but then that's the point. I'm a bit apprehensive about such a long weekend, it finishes at 8pm on Saturday and then 5pm on Sunday, but hopefully I'll survive it.

Meanwhile I've been adding some extra touches to my Genestealer Cutlists but nothing worth noting and this has somewhat impacted the blog. I'm hoping the NWO may kickstart my 8th interest, although I don't imagine in-depth battle reports afterwards, whatever we'll play it all by ear.

North West Open

 
One of the next tournaments coming up is The North West Open. It's the brainchild of Acefacehickers with the support of Martin from Wargames in Southport.
It's 1850pts Warhammer 40k Tournament using ITC rules. 2 days 5 games. Loads of fun. £60 per ticket price includes food and drinks Lunch time on both days.

23 July - 24 July
23 July at 9:00 to 24 July at 18:00

All the details can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1011176782286528/

And Martin posted up this YouTube video of the efforts to prepare it for the tournament ans also so you can have a look at the venue, which I've been really impressed with every time I've been.

Currently though it's unlikely I'll be able to make it. Ironically the most local big tournament ever is taking place when I was actually supposed to be on holiday, 350 miles away in Cornwall! So I was not likely to attend. However, the situation was already in flux as my wife was due to work a shift on the Saturday we were supposed to leave. Now it transpires my mother-in-law is having carpal-tunnel surgery and so the holiday has been cancelled so we can be there for support.

That kind of brings my attendance back into the realms of possibility. Unfortunately as the wife has difficulty changing shifts she may not be able to swap the Saturday out, she would for a family holiday but for me to play toy soldiers, well it's currently a big ask. Bottom line, the event sounds awesome, I'd love to attend and if I can I will. In the mean time check it out