On Saturday I spearheaded a group from the Sugarland Gamers heading up to join a neighboring club for their 1 year birthday tournament. Five of us made the 30 minute drive to Frederick Maryland to attend the Frederick All Inclusive League (FAIL) birthday celebration and tournament and had a great time! This was a 1750 tournmanet with 22 people attending. Prizes went out for:
- Best Overall – Awarded to the player who has the best overall score in all the categories combined.
- Best Commander – Awarded to the players on the top tier for Battle Points score.
- Best Presentation – Awarded to the players in the top tier for Painting score.
- Gamer’s Choice – Awarded to the player with the highest Player choice score.
- The Illustrious Order of the Crimson Smear - Presented to anyone who suffers an egregious walloping throughout the tournament .
Before I go into my overview of the tournament games and the pictures of some of the painted armies, I want to make a special mention of the "Illustrious Order of the Crimson Smear". This was a great prize that was hotly contested, and I want to applaud the FAIL guys for how they handle this. The Crimson Smear award received a gift certificate to the store, a framed certificate with blood splatter graphics on it, and a T-Shirt proclaiming membership in the Order (again with stylized blood splatter). This award certainly kept the game fun for everyone involved and is an idea I am considering stealing for any tournaments I take part in organizing in the future.
The Games
So my three games were enjoyable through the day, with my first two games really standing out compared to my last game. I faced 2 Marines and 1 Nob-Biker list.
Game 1 I found myself across the table from a Dark Angels marine army. After speaking with my opponent for a bit and looking at his army, it was clear he was a new player. I did not yet know I had received the privilege of starting my day against a future Order of the Crimson Smear inductee. Our game was fairly straight forward Capture and Control (1 objective each) with a secondary objective of killing the enemy HQ. I spent much of this game helping my opponent learn the rules and overall we had a great time. At one point his Chapter Master started running from my Autarch, with my Autarch giving chase. I spent some time trying to figure out how to move/run/assault around a couple squads in order to create a HQ vs HQ epic battle, only to have a Fire Prism blast drift slightly and obliterate his Chapter Master to a failed invuln save. At the end of the game it was 1/0 to me, with me also achieving the secondary objective for a 20/0 win.
Game 2 found the DTP across the table from another marine army, this time led by Vulcan. While I was yet to find out, I was lucky enough to face the other end of the tournament as my game 2 opponent ended up winning best overall for the day. I had played this opponent in the Inner Circle pancake breakfast tournament last month and he is an excellent opponent. I was facing a heavily mechanized marine army in a modification of the Battle Missions Pre-Emptive strike mission where I was the attacker. This was a very bloody game with a final kill-point total in the neighborhood of 22 - 20 at the end of the game, with the win going to the marines. The secondary objective was to break a unit in close-combat and then either run them down or escort them off the board. My opponent was successful in running my Fire Dragon exarch across the board (starting at turn 2) while I was not successful in breaking a unit. This game ended at a 20/0 to my opponent.
Game 3 found the DTP facing a Nob Bikers list. This was a rock-hard list for me to face (2 tooled up 10-Ork squads of Nob Bikers, each with a Warboss on Bike), especially in this mission. The mission was a loot-grab mission with 3 objectives based on the Battle Missions Pillage mission, slightly modified. The rules of the scenario forced both sides to start with 2 troop units and 1 HQ on the board, with everything else in reserve. This kept the bulk of my army off the table until Turn 3, where I started down on points coming into the game. Overall the game was challenging, and would have been an excellent game on par with my previous games were it not for some issues with my opponent. I talk about this a bit on the podcast, so will not go back into it in this post. At the end of the game I was at 15/0 for this mission with me losing the game. This brought my total for the day to 20 our of 60 on Battle points.
This is getting a bit long, so I will follow-up tomorrow with a post showcasing some of the armies at the tournament.
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Sounds like a cracking tournament mate, shame there's so few in the UK.
ReplyDeleteType your reply...The tourney was a great time and there only seemed to be one snag in the whole day. Overall, I consider that a win for the local crew, as between the 5 of us, only 1 snag in 15 games is excellent.
ReplyDeleteIts too bad to hear there are not more tournaments in the UK... I thought there was a larger number? Are the UK tourneys mostly WHFB?
The tournament scene in the UK is next to non-existent mate, especially on the 40k side. I think you'd struggle to find one a month across the entire country.
ReplyDeleteOur GW stores don't really run them at all really other than 'ard boyz. The club scene is pretty quite on the tournament front with the vast majority only running the occasional tournament for club members. Both of the gaming clubs I go to only have 1 tournament per system per year.
They're a lot more popular on mainland Europe but in the UK, we're far more shits and giggles gamers.