But I shall first point out, I'm not master gamer - hell I'm not even a mediocore one. I'm still very much in the beginner range of gaming. This was my first tourny and I basically went to meet people and have a laugh - which I did. So my scores were more or less expected, though I would have prefered to have done slightly better...
Anyways. I stayed at my mates house the night, Chris/Knape/Knape0rz, and we got up at 4:30am to get to Peterbough for the train leaving at 5:45am. We got there in plenty of time and to try and keep ourselves awake we counted the cars. We saw twenty cars between Stamford and Peterbough. Well all was fine and we got on the train in time, only for us to be told of a ten minute delay. Nothing major, it infact cut our waiting time at the other end. Although our train did have to reboot the computer. I'm sure we heard the windows tune when it rebooted.
Anyways after a train journey to Gordon Hill we caught a bus taking us to Alexandria Palace (or just in front) and walked there. This was 8:00am ish. Then the next part was fun and just shows a lack of security... we had no clue where to go so we spotted these two blokes with bags and followed them (yes we stalked a pair of random males...). As it turned out there was a small group of about ten blokes smoking after which a GW staff member told us to come on in. So in we went. And.. well it turned out those blokes were indeed helpers, and we had just sneeked into the event hall before anybody else. We spotted them with the Wood Elf stuff, including the FINAL AND ONLY Wood Elf Army Boxed set in the country. Then we were discovered, well we asked actually, and followed a few security guards outside. And were about fifth in the cue.
Whilst in the que I was approached by a person named Creepy Chris. I of course knew him as he was the Palace's own Owaria, he was then replaced by a bored Ginger kid... WITH A GINGER BEARD!!!! *ahem* And we chatted for a while. Then ten minutes late the doors open and we calmly walk in to register, followed by choosing a table. Well I never chose I was forced onto table one by the GW staff there, everyone else chose a table. I was then pitted against Owaria. Oh and Chris/Knape disappeared only to reappear with the FINAL AND ONLY Wood Elf Army Boxed set in the country. :blink:
So... onto the game. Dwarfs vs Cav Empire. It ended in a draw but only because of my hard troops and my luck. It ended with only the big block of 25 warriors and 16 ironbreakers remaining, both of which were in combat on all sides. I had a knack of rolling under five or six for my break tests throughout the day. ^_^ Good game.
After a delay in the results I find myself facing a Chaos Undivided army, with a huge unit of 20 warriors and two huge beast herds, 3 Dragon Ogres, 3 units of hounds, 2 units of maruder horsemen and a beastman chariot.
This was definately the best game I've ever played, I never realised how fast his army could move but turn two he was in combat. The chariot bounced off my single lined thunderers, and in subsequent turns it was broken. The marauders took down the ST quickly and then moved onto the FC, it was here the problems were had. Three horsemen (two died to flames) killed two crew and for three turns of combat my single crewman held against the remaining two and he even managed to kill one!! But ultimately he fell. In the middle my big warriors and IBs stared down against the warriors and Dragon Ogres, for three turns. Then because I wanted a bit of fun my warriors complete with Thane of Pain charged the warriors. It was then I realised why the stupidity tests... His chaos Exaulted champ with GW had the HoME. That equaled a dead thane. But for their credit the warriors held that unit for the entire game, even managing to wound and kill a single one. But they were in the final turns flanked by beastmen and broken due to the loss of the BS. The Ogres and beasts charged my IBs in the front. One Ogre was killed over the three turns of combat, compared to the many IBs - Damn those Ogres with S7!!
Again these broke and were run down. As was the Thunderers. I had nothing left IIRC.But top bloke, very nice army he gained full scores from me.
The last game I swapped as I was paired with Owaria again, so he played Burp instead and I took on a Slannesh based Chaos army. Two mages on steeds of Slannesh, a unit of 5 chosen slannesh knights. 25 marauders with GWs, 5 mounted deamonettes, furies and a chariot.
It started so well. FC took 12 marauders in the second turn, the furies were killed in turn three from thunderer shooting. But then it when downhill. A combination of nasty spells (One made the unit unable to do anything, another frenzied a unit - his knights as it turned out - and the last was a d6 s6 magic missile), bad placement on my part and his sheer luck won it for him. The knights minced through everything they touched, me rolling ones for almost all saves but still being able to stay due to BSB before I was fianlly crushed. End of game I had a unit of thunderers left and had killed his furies, a mages mount and the marauders due to a nice ST hit. Oh and I failed to destroy the chariot with a perfect shot, by wounding on a 1. >.<
All in all a fun day, I met various people. Chuckled at various tshirts and people. I did try to meet two from Druchii.net but unfortunately they appeared during my last game and I kinda shunned them. Then realised I didn't know what they looked like. Bugger eh?
So winding up, Burp's dragon won an award I got nowhere and I was left holding the beers as it was. Now my pics. I will warn you most are quite badly out of focus and blurred you will have problems seeing what they are, sorry for that. But still, I have pics.
http://img82.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=conflict530ru.jpg
Group Pic -
http://img82.imageshack.us/img82/2083/conflict526nu.jpg
In order from Back Left to front -
Chilli, Owaria, Me (KU), Xarhain, Burp
(Front) Turks/DarkLordJim and Goblit
I will hopefully attend next year. See you all there!!!
KU