A Day of Retribution!

On Saturday I went 60 miles north to Levin for a day of 40k gaming. Glen Burfield and Wil Hoverd organised ten gamers to play a three round tournament that they named “Retribution”. I posted the various lists last week so you can check them out if you wish.

Now I haven’t played a 40k tournament in New Zealand since 2005, way back in the early days of 4th Edition. I had played the various Liber Animus events in Melbourne 2006-08 but again they were all 4th Ed events. In total I believe I had played eight games of 5th Ed over the three years it has been out (four of those in the first two weeks). So it was with some trepidation I sent in my list for this weekend.

Game 1 – James Stewart (Space Marines) – Dying of the Light

Six objectives which are whittled to three over the course of the game. Jimmy had a bike army backed up by two Vindicators and a Land Raider of Assault Termies. I managed to work plasma magic on the bikes and reduced him to a single scoring unit. The game went the full seven turns and going into the last turn I had units on two objectives. I managed to bring down his Land Speeders to stop them from contesting. My unit on the central objective spread out over 4 levels to minimise the effect of the Vindicator. The game came down to whether Jimmy scored a 5-6 for the run on his Termies. He managed a three so failed to bring it back to a draw.

The Assault Terminators make a run for the central objective.

The lone Plague Marine sitting on the objective wins the game

Game 2 – Ryan Lister (Grey Knights) – Kill the Fast Ones

This mission assigns 3 KPs to any unit that can move more than 6” in movement phase. Given I had four rhinos and he had two psychically-enhanced Rifleman Dreadnaughts I was on a hiding to nothing. So I went second, reserved everything and came on in smoking terrain which blocked LOS to 2”. Ryan came forward but then on Turn 5 realised I’d have the last turn and he went and promptly hid. Game last 7 turns, twenty minutes and no shots were fired.

The table of smoking death - 11 smoking terrain pieces

Hidey Plague Marines are Hidey!

And even Hidier!

Given our early finish we played a game of Seize Ground. I was really happy that I ran out the winner 3-0, especially as I hadn’t read the Grey Knight book. I sacrificed a unit of Oblits to take out one Rifleman. Combined meltas and plasma worked on reducing termies and deep striking troops.

Game 3 – Cody Parlanto (Dark Eldar) – Yes It Hurts.

Here you pick 5 Kill Points from the enemy list to kill and place five objectives (one in middle, rest just in from corners. Obviously I’ve never played the new Dark Eldar but knew a bit about them.

I didn’t think that I played particularly well – rusty, lack of knowledge, strength of DE shooting and the pressure Cody put on me. We each killed 3 Kps and I had two objectives to his one. Cody was very unlucky ½” from forcing a draw with his last Kabalite Warriors who needed a 5” run last turn.

My Daemon Prince about to discover all shooting attacks are Poisoned

The same Hellions taking bearing down on my rhino

My central unit which eventually die to sustained Venom fire

Cody's Incubi about to meet Mr. Plasma Cannon


Quick Wrap

So I finished with two wins and a draw which gave me the second highest total. The winner (Tyranids) got two wins and a loss but the wins were massacres.
I had a great time. Thanks to all three of my opponents and to Wil and Glen for organising the event.

Sorry for crappy photos. I'll get it right next time.