40k - A Weekend With Drew Carey

Last weekend I played at Call To Arms, a 1750 point event of 5 rounds over two days.

Game One - Alick Harris (Astra Militarum)

This could go one of two ways. Alick had 9 Catachan Hellhounds, a Tank Commander and three units of Scions. I was lucky in that I manage to split the squadrons up and have them attack piecemeal. As in a lot of my games my MVP was Khloe the Haemonculus with her Vexator Mask. She managed to get off 3 charges during the game which saved a lot of dead Eldar. My Archon got into combat for the only time of the weekend, failing his Shadowfield at first attempt.

Win 31 - 9

Game Two - JJ Economu (Custodes)

On paper, Custodes are one of my two worst matchup ups - their silly 3++ Shield Captains and Storm Shield saves. JJ came forward and I removed two Bikes to shooting. He only charged one unit in exploding a Venom. I was able to reduce the second bike unit to one while five units charged the second unit of three, killing them. The next few turns I removed the 3 Custode infantry squads leaving him with only the two Shield Captains.

Win 40-0

Game Three - Alistair Helm (Tau)

My other awful matchup, Tau. And we were playing long ways and he went first. I put four units into the Webway and hid the rest. I didn't come out until Turn 2 and then managed to remove a Ghostkeel. Initially behind on progressive points I attacked the two centre objectives while laying down covering fire. On Turn 5 I went ahead and was able to push on and get Tertiary Objectives.

Win 25-15

So overnight I was lying 5th with three wins and fate smiled kindly on me.

Game Four - Louis Thomson-Gregg (Dark Angels)

Marines! Two wound Marines! T6 Flyers! I was pretty happy going into this. I even won the roll to go first. Louis did STI but I rolled 4++ saves like a 12 year old. I lost a Talos Turn One having but anything mildly unresilient in the Webway or similar dark space. When it came down it did what Dark Eldar do to Marines....Awful match up for Louis.

Win 40-0

Game Five - Dave Hodgetts (Tau)

Great I'm on the Top Table with a chance to win. But I'm playing the NZ Masters' Champion and he's playing Tau. He gave me first turn, it took 40 seconds then back to him. I weathered the storm then brought down the DE Webway force. This combined by Khloe + Grotesque assault put Dave on back foot. I pushed him to his baseline but we ran out of time. Came down to a fight for the centre objective where (with last battle round) Dave could throw everything forward with no Turns 5 or 6. I got a little unlucky with my saves and we contested the objective. However Dave had 4 models to my 3. I had been slack moving my Archon forward thinking I'd survive the storm. Great game. Nice when a tournament comes down to the last die roll and one model. Unfortunately for Dave I did enough damage to him to push him into 2nd Overall.

Loss 10-30

Overall I came 4th. If I could have been bothered to get my display board out of the wardrobe I would have squeaked into 3rd. I was happy with my play as I thought I only had one advantageous matchup.The list is good.....really good. It is very forgiving. Given more practice I reckon I can squeeze a lot more out of it. My biggest gap is the number of games I play. Important to play the full breadth of armies so I know where the threats lie. At the moment I'm still strategising on the fly.

MVP - Khloe the Haemonculus with Electrocorrosive Whip, Hexrifle and Mask