Team Challenge Results

As I mentioned in my previous post, last weekend saw a group of us from Kingaroy Wargamers travelled down to Toowoomba for a 750 point 40K Team Challenge against the boys from the Darling Downs Gamers Club Inc.  The format was a simple - two players per team, with each team playing two games each.  With our two teams chosen, we drove down early Monday morning; quasi-fresh faced and eager to do battle (perhaps fresh faced was an overstatement as two of our team members had pulled extremely late-nighters before-hand).  Our line-up was as follows:

Mark – Blood Angels

James – Tyranids

Ryan – Chaos Space Marines

Me – Space Wolves

The day before we’d decided on who would make up each of the teams and I was decided that Mark and James would combine their Marines and Nids into a Power-Armoured Godzilla force, while Ryan and I combined our forces into a venerable combination not seen since Pre-Heresy times.  I’m sure Mark will no doubt go over his experiences over at Project Circle, so I’ll be running down how Team Marine performed.

Game I – Eldar & Necrons

Our first game was the Auto-Tie mission using the Spearhead Deployment.  Our illustrious opponents were highly skilled players and had made the most of their combined 1500 points.  Utilising the historically-proven tactic of Divide and Conquer, they worked well to separate our forces before systematically tearing them to shreds.  While this was a tough game, I was able to learn a good deal (including the potency of the Rune Priest’s ability to dispel Psychic Powers on a 4+.  Take that Eldrad!). Overall it was great to see four painted armies going at it hell for leather on the table-top.  Ryan and my rolls for most of the game weren’t particularly spectacular, but them’s the breaks I guess.  With a tabling by turn 5, there really wasn’t any place for us to go but up in the next game. 

My Librarian - Man of the Match after cancelling
Eldrad's Pyschic Powers 9 times in a row

Game 2 – Dark Eldar & Orks

The second game saw us playing an Annihilation mission using a modified Dawn of War deployment (2 Troops and 1 HQ for Each player) and upon winning the roll off, we took up a strong position inside a chunk of ruins that dominated the centre of the table.  With the vast majority of our armies on the table already, both our opponents decided to walk on in turn 1.  This gave us the time we needed to set up a couple of kill-zones and prepare for the onslaught of Xenos.  The Orks had both Gazgull Thrakka and Snikkrot in their 750 points as well as a crap-tonne of Orks to make up numbers.  The Dark Eldar were toting a fairly mech-heavy list with a flyer, two Ravagers and a Venom.  The vast majority of the fighting was done in the centre of the table, with the entire Ork army and the Dark Eldar Archon and her Incubi bodyguard slamming into Ryan’s Chaos.  The centre turned into a meat-grinder as Bezerkers and Chaos Marines fought tooth-and-nail against the Xenos, killing a swathe of Greenskins before they were overwhelmed. Kharn was torn apart by Gazgull who eventually died at the hands of Ryan’s Dreadnought (which was killed at the same time by Gazgull).  The survivors were shot to pieces by my Salamanders who were then set upon by Snikkrot and his Band of Kommandos. The stalwart warriors of Nocturne managed to hold their own against the Orks, setting them to rout before gunning them down.  With only my Salamanders left to face the Dark Eldar, they hunkered down and weathered the storm of Dark Lance fire until the last turn.  As the kills were tallied up, Ryan and I had managed to win the game by a single Kill-Point, closing out the Tam Challenge with a Loss and a Win. 

Dread and Vindicator were men of the match surviving 6 turns
of Dark Lance Fire from 2 Ravagers

As the dust settled, the scores were tallied and the result for the day was a draw but a win for all – a fine end to a fun day of gaming and merriment.  Next time I'll be sure to take a harder list and get some more practice in. A big thanks to the guys for hosting us at Battlestation, they have a great set-up there with some awesome players to boot.  I heartily encourage everyone to stop in and say hi next time you’re in Toowoomba and put your skills to the test.  I promise you won’t be disappointed. 

Catch you all later

Trev