Back from Caledonian Uprising!

Made it home safely (with a few minor detours on the way home *cough* Ven Bro can’t navigate *cough* ;P ) after a great weekend of gaming!

Me vs. Sheridan's 'Crons

Oliver here, with a short summary of my Cally experience.

Overall I had two draws and three wins, netting me a total of 63 points in Generalship. This put me in tied for 20-22 place out 115 in Generalship, something I am fully content with for my first showing on the UK tourney scene. 

My overall performance throughout the 5 games I felt could improve. I need to become better at making decisions under pressure, and plan ahead to limit the amount the amount of tough decision I have to make late game when I am tired… All of that will hopefully come with more practice with the list and tournament gaming here in the UK.

On to a short rundown of my games. If you want to know what list I ran, it can be seen here:

Game 1 vs. Scott Milne (Scottish ETC player), CSM/CDM 
Scott ran 2 Spawnstars with a Sorcerer on steroids in each, along with a big unit of Plague Drones, and a Heldrake. Mission was Crusade/KPs with Dawn of War

• Scott started and advanced on me, but failed Grimoire on the Drones.
• Some poor shooting by me (forgot stealth and shrouded on the Drones like an idiot..) only saw a few Drones getting killed T1.
• T2 Scott charges the Drones into the O'vesastar - no wounds in CC and I HitnRun out
• I proceed to nuke Scott's troops, while hiding my Single suits on ruins/impassable terrain to prevent Scott from charging them.
• Late game I shifted my army away to the left flank, securing it by killing off one of the Spawnstars. In the last turn both I and Scott have one objective with KPs being tied after Scott killed a Single Crisis suit with a boltgun on the Sorcerer last turn :-(
• 10-10 draw

Game 2 vs. Mark Pocock (Markymark on the blog/ English ETC candidate). CDM
Mark was rocking the double trouble Screamerstar which can be checked out here. Mission was KPs/Scouring with Vanguard Strike.

• Mark got 1st turn and took it, got Forewarning but no Misfortune (phew)
• I deployed very spread out with O'vesa central, to avoid those pesky multycharges
• Turn 1 he advanced to midfield with the council and shot at the O'vesastar, but the Talisman did its job nicely... In my T1 I moved towards the council aiming to tie it up, while the rest of the army continued down either flank
• Having failed to get Scriers Gaze off, most of Marks troops came in T2. He managed to kill a Sky Ray with some Horrors, and the council charged the (stubborn) O'vesastar. What would follow the next couple of player turns was me tying the council up in Mark's turn, then HitnRunning out to Target Lock on some troops with the Burst Tide. Subsequently I would charge into the council in the end of my turns to lock it up again. 
• The rest of the army took care of Marks troops, but his second Screamer unit managed to do a number on me. I did a stupid decision when charging a Riptide into 4/5 Horrors, thinking he could handle them in a round or two - the combat ended up lasting like 3 game turns -.-
• In T5 Mark flew up Fatey. Seeing an opportunity to get a KP and Warlord kill, I decided not to go for the council, instead grounding and charging Fatey with the O'vesastar (to which I had joined a cheeky Solo-Suit). Fatey died, and the O'vesastar grabbed an Objective, while Mark's scoring Screamerstar held another. We tied in KPs and I won the Tertiary obejctives.
• Another 10-10 draw 

Game 3 vs. Darll Dobbin ( from Beasts of War ) SW/Inquistion
Darll was running an interesting list with 60 Fenrisian wolves, with Canis Wolfborn, a Jump Rune Priest and 2 kitted-out Lords leading each unit, with Coteaz/henchmen allies. Mission was Hammer and Anvil, Relic/Emperors Will and KPs

• Not much to say here, other than it was a very bad matchup for Darll. By mid-game I had shot most of his army away (once the characters are dead, SMS does a number on those dogs) and Darll conceded.
• 20-0 victory.

Game 4 vs. Rowan Sheridan ( Northern Ireland ETC captain) Necrons
Rowan was running the Necron Spiderstar with Obyron, Zandrekh in a CCbarge, a Overlord on all kinds of performance enhancing drugs, 2 units of wraiths, scarabs and a pair of Annibarges/Flyers. Mission was Scouring/KPs with Dawn of War

• I got first turn and took it. Rowan deployed his spyders and scarabs in a corner out of LoS, with Obyron and the Overlord joined to it. Zandrekh hid out of LoS as well, while the Wraiths conga-lined his deployment edge.
• T1 I plucked away at his wraiths, only killing a few. Knowing that Rowan had very limited shooting, I decided to bubble wrap my army with the 2 Kroot units this game, to block off his assaulting units.
• In his T2 Rowan moved up with the Wraiths behind LoS blocking terrain, and the Spyderstar Veil'ed forward right in front of my army. Both his flyers came on as well.
• In my T2 I got greedy and tried to kill both flyers - at which I failed miserably, only scraping a few HPs off... The O'vesastar put a dent in the Spyderstar . However Rowan was unable to charge any of my important units in his turn 3 due to the Kroot-block. 
• In my T3 I finished off a flyer. What ended up happening during the late-game was a clusterf-ck in the middle of my Deployment Zone, with the O'vesastar being tied up in CC by all 3 characters and some Wraiths. In my final turn I managed to HitnRun out of combat with O'vesa, killing some of Rowans troops and his other unit of Wraiths. 
• In the end Rowan managed to sneak in a small win on the primary with unit of 5 Warriors walking in from Reserve. However, I won KPs and Secondaries, resulting in an 11-9 win for me. I did make a few silly mistakes during the game, since we were very rushed for time in the end.

Dave's double-trouble ScreamerStar

Game 5 vs. Dave Symcox (English ETC player, 40kglobal fame) CDM
Dave was running a double Screamerstar similar to Mark, except he had opted for IG allies (2 Vendettas) instead of the additional Horrors and the Bastion. Mission was KPs/Big Guns with Hammer and Anvil

• Dave got T1 and took it. I again decided to spread my army out to avoid multicharges. Dave failed Grimoire T1, and went on the defensive, lining up against the board edge to mitigate damage... I shot at the screamerstar in my T1, killing about 5 or so. Decided to save the missiles on the Skyrays for when his Vendettas came on.
• In Daves T2 he kept all his Troops off with Scriers, and his Vendettas killed a Skyray. The Heralds changed to the other screamer unit and advanced up my right flank.
• Seeing that Dave was trying to refuse flank me, I Deep Struck my Troops on the opposite flank, and moved the O'vesa star into midfield, hoping to kill his troops when they came on. His Vendettas got dealt with by the surviving Skyray and the O'vesa star in my T2 and T4.
• Late game Dave managed to get a charge in on a Riptide I had left as bait on the right flank (had bubbled wrapped kroot around him to make it a 7-8 inch charge - a risky decision for Dave to take) The Riptide almost managed to hold the Screamers up for a turn, but lost a wound in the second round of CC and ran off. 
• In Daves T4 his troops came on, and I advanced further into midfield/Daves backfield, killing his troops in the process. 
• The game ended T5 with me sitting on 2 Objectives and Dave having none, while we tied on KPs. Had I known Dave was going to play it so defensively, I probably would have bunched up more to conserve vulnerable KPs with the threat of the O'vesastar... Next time.. ;) Btw you'll hear me on the podcast next week (I'll be the guy with the weird accent).
• 12-8 win for me.

Thanks to all my 5 opponents for great games! The weekend was a great on the social side as well, thanks to the Essex boys for being such good company!

The list will most likely be changed a slight bit to fit another Sky Ray in there, need to get some more firepower down field T1 (But that's another post). Other than I feel that I simply need more practice, especially in this type of gunfight (I’m not used to playing against ETC players 4/5 games xD ). 

BUT – I’m off to a good start and there are many tournaments to come this year. Death or Glory is up next, in about 6 weeks!

Speaking about future tourneys, I might just have booked a flight… to Washington D.C.… in late August…. I’ll leave that for my readers to figure out for now ;)

Probably heading up to Nottingham next week to get some games in at Warhammer World against the 40kglobal cast. Should be good practice, might just write up a batrep on the train-ride home....

That's me for now! It's Friday night, so hope you are all out getting shitfaced and/or laid! Some of us have lectures at 8.30am tomorrow morning, and cannot enjoy such luxuries.... Studying at Cambridge has its ups and downs....

Peace off, enjoy life, and keep rolling dice!