OK, this is a little late as the event took place in mid-August, but hey, it was my second ever tournament and my first ever 40k tournament win!
This was a small 3 game, 1750pts 6th edition no-comp event at Walberton Wargamers. I took my MSU mech Spaces Wolves having had a few games to get used to the new rules. A few bonus points were available for painting and about 11 players turned up including some Brighton Warlords tournament regulars.
My list was adapted from my typical 5th edition army, with the intention of experimenting with dual Rune Priests with Divination for Prescience on the two Long Fang squads for additional anti-flier support, dual multi-melta landspeeders and loading up on plasma pistols for the Grey Hunter Wolf Guard. After some last minute undercoating, my list was:
1750pts Space Wolves
Rune Priest (Runic Axe)
Rune Priest (Runic Sword)
Rifledread
Rifledread
5 Wolf Guard (4x combi-melta, 1x cyclone missile launcher)
4x 5 Grey Hunters (Rhino, melta, plasma pistol)
1x 5 Grey Hunters
Landspeeder (2x multi-melta)
Landspeeder (2x multi-melta)
2x 5 Long Fangs (Lasplas razorback, 4x missile launcher)
Game 1 vs Tau with Space Marines
Crusade (Vanguard)
The army consisted of a mixture of different units including a librarian with terminators in a land raider and some objective sitting scouts. I deployed in a refused flank, avoiding the terminators, and proceeded to roll through the army, leaving only one unit of scouts alive and in combat in the far corner. Land speeders did their job against the land raider (no surprise here). 20-0 win and a good start!
Game 2 vs Epidemus Nurgle Marines and Daemons
Purge the Alien (Dawn of War), Table 1
I'd not played against daemons before, but thanks to this article on deep strike defence, I had a good idea what to do. The enemy list had two squads of plague marines and a flying daemon prince starting on the board. I took first turn, spread out and focused fire on the prince, gaining first blood before the swooping began! Second turn I spread some more, then slowly withdrew shooting all the way. Successfully managed to bait a great unclean one into a kill zone with a rhino, then whittle him down in the open. Ended something like 9-2 VPs, and a 20-0 win. Thanks to Abuse Puppy for the tactics article!
Game 3 vs Saim Hann Eldar
Relic (Hammer & Anvil), Table 1
I was sure I'd loose this one, especially when my opponent won the first turn. And to be fair, I think I should have done, except for my opponent reading the mission rules incorrectly (see more below).
The list included a shining spear and dual farseer deathstar and a night spinner, plus a lot of jetbikes. I thought the jetbikes would power forward, grab the objective first turn, turbo-boost 6" in the shooting phase, then move a further 6" in the assault phase, whilst the rest of the army formed a cage and blocked my army (anyone play Blood Bowl?).
Thankfully, the Eldar shot me instead, giving me a turn to flat out over the relic. The shining spear deathstar then started to quickly run through my units, but due to both our naivety with the rules (and my opponent mis-reading the rules when he checked - I had no reason to doubt the reading), my hunters holding the relic didn't drop it when they lost combat and fled. The following unlikely chain of events saw a single hunter hold up the deathstar in combat so the relic holders could escape, then my opponent failed his hit-and-run roll, giving me a slim opportunity to retreat and jump into a razorback. I then focused on destroying any remaining enemy scoring units to at least stop the Eldar from claiming the relic. The game ended with me holding the relic and my opponent scoring first blood and linebreaker. 16-4 win and 1st place overall with 65 tournament points (results can be found here)!
Conclusion
So I think I should have come second, but I had a great time and will not forget the relic rules in the future! Thanks to all my opponents, who were all great sports. I felt bad winning effectively thanks to a mis-understanding of the rules, and I think would have come second overall if this had gone the other way (a draw would have still left me in top place), but at least it wasn't me who mis-read the rules! We did play another game a couple of weeks later with similar armies, and I nearly tabled my opponent that time, so at least I know I can win fair and square!
With this tournament under my belt, I was ready to start my preparations for the 40kUK GT Heat 1 at Brighton in October. This was going to be a completely different level of play, so I had a lot of work to do finishing my list and getting some practice in before getting hammered by some hardcore gamers. Perfect.
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