Warp storm 3 Tourney Report

So as some of you know, I was preparing for the past 2 weeks for Warpstorm 3, a slightly different than average 1750pt tourney at Maelstrom games. So how did it go? Fantastic thanks & I had a great time. The venue was great as per usual, it ran smoothly and all 6 games were exceptionally fun and competitive. The staff were fantastic, as were the organizers and overall I had an awesome weekend.

I think its best to start with saying that this was perhaps one of the most challenging tourneys I’ve been to for a while. The player count was very competitive. Not in terms of “arse holes”, but in terms of player ability. For example, most 2 day tourneys, you tend to know where you are on day 2, this was different. Game 2 I was already pitched up against Courtney Rhodes, a very capable player who won the last Brighton Warlords tourney and tends to stay in the top 20 in the rather larger GT’s out there. His also a friend of mine so I knew it was going to be a good game. Was it? Yes, I barely scraped a win 9-8 on Killpoints.

What did I take you ask?

Well originally I was going to take my Space wolf army which I talked about HERE, but due to Wayland deciding its not going to post my stuff for a while (love you guys really J) they wouldn’t be ready. I then looked at my Guard…boring. Next on the list was Grey Knights. Half are still on sprues, nothings painted, and I now have exactly 5 days to paint the army, minus my house party and work which probably leaves me on 3 days of a few hours worth to paint. I also didn’t have my Dreadnoughts in yet as they were still on their way from China. What to do? Wel I did what any crazy guy would, write a new GK list and paint the lot in the few days I had.

Heres what I decided to take on what I had lying around:

Coteaz: 100pts

5 Purifiers: 180pts
2 Halberds, 2 Psycannons & Hammer. Rhino.
5 Purifiers: 180pts
2 Halberds, 2 Psycannons & Hammer. Rhino.
5 Purifiers: 180pts
2 Halberds, 2 Psycannons & Hammer. Rhino.

5 Grey Knight Strike Marines: 150pts
Psycannons & Rhino.

3 Henchmen: 97pts
3 Plasma Guns & Chimera.
3 Henchmen: 97pts
3 Meltaguns & Chimera.
3 Henchmen: 97pts
3 Meltaguns & Chimera.
3 Henchmen: 97pts
3 Meltaguns & Chimera.

5 Purgation Knights: 185pts
2 Psycannons, 2 Incinerators & Hammer. Rhino.
5 Purgation Knights: 180pts
2 Psycannons, 2 Incinerators. Rhino.
5 Purgation Knights: 180pts
2 Psycannons, 2 Incinerators. Rhino.
Total: 1750pts

Yeah…pretty weird right? That’s 23 Killpoints btw ;)

Ill give you all a quick run down, as I wasn’t able to take pics, not only because my camera decided to fall down the stairs a few days before hand, but also because each and every game was hard fought, I wouldn’t of had time to really take pics, rather concentrate on the game at hand.

So, Game 1. This was, perhaps safe to say, the least hard game of the weekend. I wont say easy as I think its fairly rude to my opponent, but his lack of experience at tournaments and his general army composition wasn’t exactly up to scratch. He had a fairly basic Vannilla army which I basically tabled bar his master of the forge. I tried to give him a few tips during and after the games, so hopefully it assisted him in his future games. Great chap and a great sport even under the overwhelming pressure of facing a dirty spammy Grey Knight army.

Game 2 as described above was against Courtney Rhodes and his Black Templars. Ven dread, deathstar hammer squad with reclusiarch & emp champ, Crusader squads with las/plas, 2 typhoons and a Crusader. 10 Killpoints to my 23…brilliant.
I basically pushed him, utilizing my many Rhino hulls to give me cover and started picking away once I got midifield. He tried picking up some easy killpoints, but what looked like a draw turn 5 turned into a lucky win turn 6 as I managed to pop his Crusader which couldn’t kill my chimera in the rear with a Multi-melta & twin-Ass cannon which caused 3 Pens, very close game.

Game 3 put me up against Dave Symcox and his Guard on Table 1 Dave won overall, winning 5 of his games and…well Ill tell you about or game ;). I got first turn and set up aggressively (the joys of Coteaz). Dave soon decided that he hated Purgation squads. Atstral aim is awesome. Wrecking my rhinos after I had positioned them near fairly big terrain meant I could hide them fairly easily whilst still taking pot shots at his army. Also a special mention goes to one Purifier squad which literally ran down his right flank and destroyed 2 Hydras, 1 Manticore and a unit of Guardsmen before finally being brought down…awesome lads. This mission was slightly different, captural and control with 1 objective in the middle. I tried my best to cover the middle objective, but there was still a slight gap for Dave to exploit. The game basically came down to whether or not I could hold it, which in the end I couldn’t. He kept throwing units, which he had plenty of, towards it. Some in Chimeras (Vets and Co.Squads) and then his Psykers & Guardsman squads. I killed all but 1 unit of guardsman, who needed a 4+ to run onto the 3 inch mark. He ofcourse rolls a 6, and the game ends turn 5. Drat! Luckily I had a fair amount around the objective, so it was still a draw, but to lose the win considering I had the upper hand was fairly frustrating. Great game again against a tough opponent, and I would also like to publicly appologise for my moaning at my pen rolls, even though I was popping a good 2-3 tanks a turn, I still felt it wasn’t good enough lol.

So after Day 1, I was left with 2 Wins and 1 Draw with a lot of VPs. The way the Tourney works is all about VPs. A win gives you a lot of VPs, a Draw gives you a decent amount, whilst a Loss gives you none. After each result, you also add the VP’s you scored ontop of that. So for example, game 1 I scored 1637VPs and I won which gave me an extra 3250VPs. This leaves me on 4887pts out of 5k. Nice and simple, which means even with a few good draws you can still do well. This annoyed a fair few people, but I welcomed the change. Makes a difference to all the 3-1-0 tourneys out there.

So onto Day 2. Game 4 I was pitched on table 1 again to face off with Chris Green and his Grey Knights. Chris has a more suitable GK army (it has 3 Psyfleman..damn him) and the mission was the standard Capture and control Dawn of war, so we both knew what the outcome of this would be. Yep…you guessed it..Draw.
It was a great game where we both castled half of our army’s on our objectives, and put the other half against our opponents objective. We both pushed each others attacking forces back, and just played for VP’s. He had the range, I had the….well…not much really. His army did what mine did but better due to range. He still had bodies and a good number of Psycannons, so I know what the outcome would be. Great game and was very relaxed due to the mission played.

Game 5 was interesting. I was put down to table 2 but as it would mean me and Chris would play each other again, we were swapped with players from table 3. I was moved down to Table 3 as I had less VP’s than Chris so I was to play the UKGT winner, Paul Burke. Now this was a blessing and a curse. I have the chance to enact vengeance now upon the guy who beat me down for 1st place at the mentioned UKGT. However, 1 problem. Im facing Gunline Guard and my army just isn’t suited against such an army, more so going second. I faced down Dave Symcox and stood a chance because of the mission & going first, but this was different. The board had some nice elements of terrain but it was also fairly open. Paul also took first turn…drat!
I decided that the best way to win this was play the mission, and not worry about his army too much and hope for the best. I deployed utlisiing as much of the cover as I could whilst providing further cover saves to my army from my own Rhino Chasis as I could. It left only 1 tank in the open which was poped turn 1 fiunny enough. The game was very tight. After not seizing I was nervous, but after his round of shooting and only managing to either wep destroy or stun a few tanks, and pop only 1, I was fairly confident that I could actually do something in the game.

I pushed centrally throughout the game, keeping my Henchmen hidden and my targets spot on. My shooting wasn’t great until turn 3 when I managed to started exploding his advancing Chimeras with his Command squads and troops in.
Turn 4 saw a miracle occur. We had 4 objectives, placed in a square formation around the board, two on the left and tweo on the right. He had two Vendettas remaining ready to capture/contest the right side, and possibly contest the top one on the left giving him either a win or a draw at worst. I had to kill one of the Vendettas, and possibly one of those scoring units. One was left on the ground in cover due to their transports getting wrecked the previous turn. I shot a fair amount of units at it but it wouldn’t even get a scratch. I had 1 man left. One little Purgation marine with his trusty Psycannon which, after an intervening Ref had to check, could see the vendetta out in the open. I roll 4 shots…2 hits…1 6. Ok so I need an Immobolised result at least. I pick up a dice and do a “Venerable Brother” on it (for those of you who don’t know what this is, one day you will). It was warm ;) I flick the dice and it literally flew in the air accidently, we both look up, sweat dripping from our brows as the dice comes tubling down. It lands and rolls a few times and comes up as a one on the edge of the hill. At this point I’m about to cry, but literally a millisecond later, the dice rolls down the hill as if God willed it, and it came up as a 6 :D

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! It explodes 4 inches, catching all the Guardsmen nearby and 4 die in the blast. This can’t get any better right? Oh wait but it does…the Guardsmen then decided enough is enough…and run off the board….

Yeh…that won me the game. Tuirn five I made sure my left objectives were mine and my reserved units took the bottom right one. 3-1 on objectives. Awsome Great game and very tense throughout. I had hardly anything left, but likewise my last 2 turns really hurt him and all he had remaining was half a vendettas, 1 2 units of Hydras and a unit of Guardsmen.

So after all that I was placed on Table 2 for a placing at the tourney. Im in pretty confident, until I see my opponent & the mission. Killpoints…against a Tri-Raide BA list with 2 units of Termies, Mephiston and a unit of 5 Ass marines in 1 raider and 1 unit in a Twin-las Razor.

Not much to say really, I couldnt kill 1 of his land raiders which meant it could go on a rampage picking up Killpoints. Meph died, the termies died and a land raider died fairly early on, but they each picked a killpoint before dieing. Then I had a Lan raider redeemer burning 3 man henchmen units and poping rhinos for a few turns. Was ofcourse a much more enjoyable game than it sounds but it was down to whether or not I could open up his Raiders early on enough, which I couldn't so I lost :)

So overall I came 7th. Not a bad placing since I had no previous experience with the army & that it wasn't an optimal list which I would usually take. Overall I had a great time, no sleep, and learned a lot about Grey Knights :)

Will hopefully have pics for the next tourney, which should be the Brighton event next month.

Killswitch