I actually took part in a Warhammer 40,000 Tournament last weekend!

I’ve been an avid hobbyist, in particular, mainly as a miniature painter for a long, long time. But didn't really get into tournament gaming as such, until 2010. I spent the next year or so going to various events. But things change in the real world, so last year, after the birth of my son, I took a bit of a step back from gaming and became more of a collector, maker and painter once more. However now that my son is a toddling fourteen month old, it is now possible for me to go and take part in tournaments and events again.

The remainder of this post is all about the event I attended last weekend at “The Sanctuary Gaming Centre” in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, on the 15th of December.

Winter Warm Up: A One Day, 1850 point, Warhammer 40,000 Event.

The event was planned and run by the one and only, Tim King, a proud member of the Scotland ETC, Warhammer 40,000 Team, avid hobbyist and gamer. As the title of the event suggests, it was a “Warm Up” event, aimed at allowing gamers who would be attending the 2014 Caledonian Uprising tournament, to try out their lists before the submission deadline and to enable them to game at “The Sanctuary Gaming Centre” in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, for the first time if they hadn’t done so already or for other hobbyists who just wanted to take part in the tournament for a laugh and to support Sanctuary (as it's been open a little over a month now.)

The army list I took, to the event was, what I call a “Standard” Matt list… which means, it involved Terminators and wasn’t really an overly competitive list.

I was gaming with the following Grey Knights list.

HQ: Lord Kaldor Draigo 
HQ: Grey Knight Librarian
Troop 1: 10 x Grey Knight Terminators 
Troop 2: 1 x Grey Knight Paladin 
Elite: 1 x Venerable Dreadnought 
Heavy1: 1 x Dreadnought 
Heavy 2: 1 x Land Raider Redeemer 
Heavy 3: 1 x Land Raider Redeemer

Games at the event.

There were three, three hour games, with an "Alpha" and "Omega" mission taken from the standard scenarios from the Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition rulebook and three secondary missions: "First Strike" (First Blood), Line Breaker and Warlord, which are also found in the rulebook.

Each game was enjoyable and entertaining and a challenge for different reasons.

Game 1:

My first opponent was a chap called Brad. He was using a White Scars army, with a Chapter Master, Kor'sarro Khan, a large number of Grav gun toting bikers, two Stalker tanks and Two Razor back tanks. It was a rather cool game, but as I'd not played in a while I felt quite rusty and kept having to double check things. As the alpha mission was to claim five objectives placed around the battlefield and the omega mission was to kill as many enemy units as possible, I elected to pursue the omega mission. Partly because my army was quite small compared to my opponents and partly because the quicker I took out his units, the less capable he'd be of gaining the objectives.
Although I was able to start steadily taking out his units, eventually his army still having the advantage in numbers, combined with those rather annoying grav guns, meant that my army began taking loss's. It went from bad to worse and I sadly lost the game.






My favourite moment of the game, rolling three six's for three invulnerable saves for my lone Paladin.

Game 2:

My next opponent was a Necron player called Nicholas. He was running a vehicle heavy list, where a Triarch Stalker, a Ghost Ark, two Annihilation Barges and two Night Scythes were supported by Necron warriors, Deathmarks, Canoptek Wraiths and Scarabs and some Destroyers. This games alpha mission was kill points,and because my opponent had an army full of targets, I gladly pursued it. Taking out his scarabs within the first two turns, to ensure my tanks could survive longer and pummel his army as much as possible, proceeding to take out as many of his vehicles as possible before moving onto his small number of troops and trying to gain control of the objectives. Unfortunately, my opponent managed to bring down more of my units before the game ended, causing me to lose the game. Luckily not before I'd done enough damage to gain more tournament points than in my first game.


Game 3:
My final opponent was a chap called Josh, who I knew already but had never played against. This was a thoroughly entertaining game as Josh was using my other favourite army, the Dark Angels Deathwing. This game was primarily about taking and holding five objectives and three relics for the alpha mission and kill points for the secondary mission. The main difficulty we both had was due to our army sizes, Josh had Belial, a terminator librarian, five Deathwing Knights, a Deathwing command squad, two standard squads of Deathwing terminators, a Land Raider, a Razorback and a five man tactical squad. Meaning he only had one more unit than I did.I purposely set my three objectives up in a rough triangle, so that I could deploy units in a manner that would easily allow me to adapt my plan depending upon the direction he attacked. 

When the game began, I focused upon demolishing his Land Raider as quickly as possible and was rewarded in blowing it up in my first round of shooting. Josh walked his terminators and knights forward while pushing up his tactical squad on the other flank leading to my having to split my forces to prevent him form taking the lead. over the next few turns, we played tactically, each trying to gain the advantage over one and other. I thankfully managed to remove two of the relics from his possession and gain control of some of the other main objectives which meant I'd manage to win the primary mission. When we totalled up the kill points, it became clear I'd managed to win this also. Overall this was my favourite game of the day, because playing a similar force to my own lead to my having to think very tactically in the game and my opponent was yet again a good laugh to play against.

Where did I place overall:

I ended up coming in twenty eighth out of forty, which after a year of not gaming and being completely rusty I didn't think was too bad really.

Finally:
The event was a damn good laugh, well run, well worth the cost, the venue (The Sanctuary Gaming Centre) is awesome and I look forward to it being developed further in the future.

But most of all I really enjoyed gaming again after such a long break from it all, and can't help but wonder which event I'll next be able to attend?