I love reading these things, and whilst I doubt that I'll do justice to the experience, I felt it would be fun to try and capture the first tournament experience of a complete Newbie.
A bit of background about me first as a sort of introduction. (God, I hope I don't sound too vain
) Played a little bit of 40K over 10 years ago when it was still 2nd edition, but life got in the way and I drifted away from it. Started playing Combat Hex and Heroclix about 12 months ago and got the bug for gaming again. Only problem couldn't find anyone playing that stuff down in the Gong so i checked out the local GW store around January this year and was pleased to find out there were regular games of 40K going on. A little bit of e-baying later and I had an Ulthwe army ready to run and I was hooked into the game. Was also able to get some games in with Scott Grey down here and he's a definite inspiration. Planning to get some painting advice from him as soon as I can get the chance. Anyway was planning to play Ulthwe Strike Force at Lev, but couldn't get it painted - so due to the inspiration of these forums and a generous influx of Termagants from some of the guys on here my dipped Tyranid army was born. (Also helped that my wife and 16mth son had to go back to Dubbo for 10 days - so part painted nids flooded every flat surface around the house).
Ok, enough crapping on - time for the list.
1 Winged Hive Tyrant (Barbed Strangler)
1 Land Based Hive Tyrant with 2 Guard (Venom Canon)
1 Carnifex (Venom Cannon)
3 Warriors, 2 with Deathspitters & 1 Venom Cannon
2 Raveners (only cause i thought they were painted nice - not effective as a squad of 2)
1 Zoanthrope
8 Genestealers
16 Hormagants w/ Hive Node
8 Hormagants
24 Termagants w/ Hive Node
Never even had a practice game with the Nids, but i'd played against them a few times so I felt that it would work out fine.
Arrived on time Saturday morning - that's an achivement for me since it was a 2hr drive from the Gong
. Never seen so much terrain and gaming tables in one place - this was going to be fun. Excuse me if I get names wrong now!
1st Game David Jordan Chaos - playing Cleanse
Lord with Lightning Claws
w/ Assault squad in a Rhino
3 x Chaos squads mix of bolters and Heavy weapons (as you can probably tell i know next to nothing about chaos
)
A Tank - think it was a predator with Lascanons
and 2 Defilers
David setup at the back of his deployment zone with most things and pushed his Lord and that squad up towards the front. I just put a mess of my things down and hoped it would work.
I got first turn and unloaded with the venom cannons at the tank - wild misses and 1 glancing shot later I rolled a 1 and the Demon possessed tank played on unaffected. Rushed a bit of stuff up but not getting anywhere quickly - all thought of claiming quarters already forgotten in the rush of blood to attack.
Dave stayed back and unloaded with his pie plates into the swarm. Genestealers and part of the big swarm of Hormies evaporate. Moved the remaining hormies into the assault squad - sitting in cover and get owned but they don't all die and they hold them there long enough for the Walking Tyrant to get into combat. The flying Tyrant attacks an empty rhino - lol
Game continues in this fashion for a few more turns - eventually wipe out the Lord and half of another squad but nearly every Tyranid is dead - not an auspicious start but the starting nerves are gone. Must learn to think about the mission objectives - would have made a big difference in how i played that game.
18-10 loss.
Game 2 Oliver Shead Armoured Company Random Mission (Assasinate)
A Guard army with 2 Leman Russ
and about 7 Chimeras (some of them might have been other tanks)
Zoanthrope and a squad of gaunts on one flank opposite a Russ. The Raveners on the other and everything else in the middle. Oliver had one Russ on a flank and everything else in the other corner.
Charged everything towards him in the first turn and the Genestealers had inflitrated 18 away. They charged towards the tanks and Oliver proceeded to open fire on the Genies. Guns were S6 but no AP and i proceeded to roll more 6's than ever in my life for armour saves. Eventually gone but a round of shooting used up. A few pie plates took there normal toll on my swarm.
Turn 2 and we rolled up assasinate. No idea where his commander is so we have to start popping tanks. Fortunately the big winged Tyrant is next to a tank after the 2nd turn and we start to work our way down the line. A round of shooting at the other Tyrant who i've nominated as my Commander bounces off the extended carapace and they are getting close to assault as well. Oliver finally remembers his plasma guys in the tanks and opens fire during round 3, but it's too late and monstrous creatures start tearing apart tanks. Very bloody, but a good fun game.
19-8 Win
Game 3 Wayne Bracher Altaioc
I wrote about this army on the forums last week and so I won't really go into it again. Never the less my entire army was sent into reserve with 11 displacement rolls at the start (all rolled together and then allocated as fit his purposes best
) His pathfinders rolled enough AP1 to wipe my big guys out as they came back on piecemeal. I also failed to pay attention to the mission objectives again and played terribly.
19-6 Loss
End of day 1 bit of a hammering but having fun.
Turned up late day 2 - mick called to make sure i was still turning up. Fortunately i was already outside and was able to quickly set up for my game.
Game 4 forgot your name so sorry - LATD based on a guard army.
2 more pie plate wielding Russes
Lots of guard
A couple of units of Marines
A Terminator sort of guy with Lascannons (not sure of the name of it)
And 5 Chaos Spawn
Saved by the mission - there was a chemical in the air that made your units charge if you failed a Leadership test. Good for me, but bad for him. Those few units of guard charging towards me instead of firing heavy weapons meant i could get the swarms into his units fairly free of damage and once we'd made contacts the Nids ate him up pretty quickly.
19-8 Win
Game 5 Vs Stewart Mann Eldar Swordwind in Fuel
Avatar
Farseer and 4 Warlocks
Vyper
2 Warwalkers Scatter lasers and Star Cannons
Wraithlord with Brightlance
Warpspiders
Falcon with Full Squad of Fire Dragons
Howling Banshees
Stewart had just played Nids and didn't really want to play them again but he was a very nice guy considering what was about to happen.
He got first turn moved a few things up including the Falcon close so that it could unload it's deadly payload of Fire Dragons. The 11 scatter laser shots and 6 star cannons heavily hammered my Termagants, but most of the other shooting caused fairly minimal other damage. The genestealers finally earned their keep - got into assault on the falcon and brought it crashing down. The gaunts were in range of the Banshees and although losing a few early on had enough attacks to wipe them out and consolidate on the Avatar. Everything else moved up. Then the cruelest part of fate stepped in. On a 1 vehicles lurched forward and couldn't act. Stewart's Vyper, Wraithlord and Warwalkers all rolled ones and then it was just a matter of moving forward and wiping him out. The gaunts got a few hits on the Avatar and more failed saving throws and he was gone. The vyper died from a venom cannon. The genestealer killed the Wraithlord and consoldated into the pinned Firedragons. The Flying Tyrant finished off the Walkers and then battled the farseer till the end of the game.
The one reamining FireDragon exarch made it to the end, but i had 20 plus models at the fuel at the end and was enough for the VP's.
A 19-8 win to finish off and that was enough with my soft scores to take me up to 5th overall.
Sorry it's so long and if there are heaps of mistakes, but hope it encourages casual gamers to get into the tournaments. They are a lot of fun and inspiring to get your armies done up well. Cool to listen to some of the people who know what they are doing talking and hope to bump into you all again soon.
Thanks again to Mick and his offsider for running a really great couple of days. Didn't see any real dramas happening and everything went really smoothly. Everyone I spoke to had a good time and was looking to come back again - let's try and get more players than the Fantasy guys next year. Time to aim for the big hall
Cheers,
Tim
