Saturday 1 May 2010

Event Report - Exeter Legionary 2010

Freshly returned from and very satisfied with the results of the Legionary 2010 event, a one day, 3 game 40k tournament played at 1000pts. I used my Imperial Guard Army List B, a not exactly competative gun line list I think you'd agree and reasonably balanced with just a couple of toys, though I would add if anything terrain is a little sparse which does help armies like mine out a bit more then usual, terrain is maybe 20% but only one or two bits which really completely block LoS on each table.

Game 1 - Dawn of War, Annilation

Game 1 saw me up against a regular opponent from my local club, the Exeter Inquisition (apparently we're now known as the Militan Wing of the Exeter Gaming Clubs! Hmmm!), he was fielding a pair of Valkyries with Hevay Bolters and Missile Pods and a Vendetta, in them were mounted three Carapace Armoured Veteran Squads, two with Plasma Guns, one with Meltaguns (and some with Demolitions so Demo Charges though this did'nt come into our game) as well as a Primaris Pysker.

I deployed a blob unit of all four infantry squads in cover, reasoning that even with the Valks firing at them they'd be able to last two or three turns at least protecting the two Lascannon Infantry Squads and their Plasma Guns, they were supported by the Command Squads and the AT Squad moving on in turn one, unfortunately my reserves arrived before his leaving the Roughriders with very little to do other then trying not to get shot and the Valkyrie being exposed to his Vendetta. His reserves arrived all at once in exactly the right places, the Valks on my flank and the Vendetta on the other which promptly downed by Valk, his other shooting this turn was poor however as he failed to even cause a check on my blob unit. My own return fire was also poor however merely shaking and knocking a weapon off one Valkyrie despite successful orders.

He now switched tact, targetting my smaller more vulnable units and ignoring the blob, the Veterans went down as did the Roughriders as he positioned himself to disgore his infantry at the appropriate moment, my return fire did down the Vendetta and again shook a Valkyrie but nothing else. Aiming at my Command and Heavy Weapons Squads but failing to do too much damage, in return I downed a Valk, though his squad was in a good position behind ruins as a result, in the following turn his Melta Veterans pounched on and destroyed the Demolisher while one of the Command Squads and the Heavy Weapons Squad were wiped out - at which point the game ended a Crushing Victory for him with 6KPs to my 2KPs, exposing the weakness of my small units when I simply could'nt expose his.

Game 2 - Pitched Battle, Objectives (3 evenly spaced across the board)

I was paired off against one of the Cross Swords contingent for my second game, her Space Marine list featured two ten man Tactical squads, one in a Rhino, a Captain and 9 Sternguard also in a Rhino and a Venerable Dreadnought. I deployed around my objective on the left flank with a couple of squads in the center as a guard, she placed the foot slogging marine squad on her objective, the Sternguard poised to push across the center and the Dread and other mounted tactical squad on my left to have a go at my deployment. Turn one saw me popping the Rhino's and then targetting the Tactical Squad which was cut down to below half strength, they punished the Veterans hard and shook the Valkyrie (where I was lucky as it was a twin-linked Lascannon targetting it), however in the following turn they were wiped out bar one Marine running off the board (I remained within 6" until I was free to pop him with Meltaguns), the Valkyrie was then destroyed and an Infantry Squad fell victim to the advancing Sternguard.

However I was now free to turn the Lascannons on the Dread which I did destroying it (I was asked to re-roll an immoblished result with it being Venerable, which turned up a wreck, though I agree with the decision as it had already lost it's Lascannon) and then the rest of the army on the Sternguard who started to reduce rapidly in number, the Roughriders then assaulted killing one but holding in combat only to be finished off in her turn - I responded killing the last two with the AT Squad and an Infantry Squad as the rest moved and ran towards the central objective comfortably holding it with three units on turn 5. She then opted to try an dislodge me with her remaining Tactical Squad advancing towards it, I think it would have been better to hold her ground and go to groun to hold her objective, but as it was the game ended on turn 6 with her in dead ground with 6 tactical marines left facing off against a fairly intact army giving me a Crushing Victory (17pts to 3pts).

Game 3 - Pitched Battle, Single Central Objective

The final game was against a rather nice Space Wolf army, it featured three units of Grey Hunters with Wolf Guard, a Runepriest, Longfangs and a Dreadnought in a Drop Pod. We basicly deployed in opposite corners with me in the right and him in the left with the woods which were the objective in the center, my first turn was ineffective and his looked potentially like a game winner as his Dreadnought deepstruck into the middle of my lines with Heavy Flamers, however critically it failed to do too much damage with no sqauds destroyed or running, I was lucky enough to quickly pop it in return and added one of the Rhino's into the bargin as well as felling a couple of the Marines with the newly arrived Valkyrie - which unfortunately arrived right in front of the Longfangs

His following turn saw him pushing forward, picking off a couple of squads and blowing the Valkyrie away, one Rhino was now on the edge of the woods with the dismounted squad alongside it, I popped the remaining Rhino with the Demolisher and started thinning out the previously dismounted unit.

In my turn the I did very little to the Grey Hunters, however importantly the bigger remaining unit was forced to go to ground to preserve them by a bang on shot from the Demolisher, in return his Long Fangs knocked off the Demolishers main gun and a squad was assaulted and broken by the remaining Grey Hunters of the smaller unit. These were then counter assault by my Roughriders and swept away, while concentrated firepower almost wiped out the remaining Grey Hunters in the woods. His following turn achieved little, though he did move his remaining Foot slogging unit up towards the woods - no idea why he had'nt as soon as the Veterans were dealt with really. I pushed forward with everything, litterally, towards the objective gaining it with a couple of units with the rest within 6" at which point the game ended leaving me with the objective and him only able to contest at 6-12" giving me a second Crushing Victory.

The two wins combined with the Painting and Sportsmanship averages left me in 5th place overal (which I'm really rather chuffed about) and I was very happy to recieve the award for Best Painted Army at the event (40k and WFB combined), despite a few early misgivings it was a really great day, though sadly it sounds like it may not be repeated next year.

Even better from a club point of view Exeter Inquisition gained 1st for WFB, and 1st, 2nd & 3rd for 40k, not bad, not bad at all!

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