Now that the dust has settled and Gary has shown you all how the weekend panned out I thought I'd chime in with my own views. Rather than do detailed battle reports (Gary has done a brilliant job of that) I'm just going to briefly go through them and we'll see what's what.
Firstly, let me say that this was the first doubles event I've ever been to. I've done team events before but never teamed up with anyone for each game. We're both from the north of England, travelling to the south coast for a weekend seemed slightly mad but it was worth it. Not just for the unexpected success we had but the whole experience was simply great fun, from going to the wrong hotel and getting a little tipsy (ok, really quite wobbly), to playing great games against people we had never met before but would be more than happy to play again.
We initially thought we might struggle, given that we had decided to take armies we would have fun with rather than 7th edition optimised lists. There were plenty of lists that were right up there with hard core tourney armies but also plenty of others that, whilst tough, were more friendly. There may have been an element of luck in who we were drawn against but that was fine by us
Our good buddy Steve called a grudge in the first round which we felt honour bound to accept. This turned out to be a mistake given that the deployment was Hammer and Anvil and they had a very shooty combination (Tau and Ynarri). There was simply too much distance to cover before we were shot up. When my Bloodthirster was D shot off the table before he even swung his axe we knew it was all over.
Spot the Bloodthirster
Spot the Bloodthirster now...
Gary and I both thought we had a chance in this one, given the Orks propensity for getting stuck in and so it proved. The result properly reflected the game, getting the win was the icing on the cake.
Martin and Tristan's combined Tau had the potential to repeat our first game, ie shoot us off the board. Their decision to deep strike half their army helped us a lot. Before their reserves turned up we were all over them. Combined with some of their reserve units suffering mishaps we could comfortably take on their units on our terms.
After more drinks on Saturday evening and much banter regarding team placings Sunday morning rolled around. We were initially drawn against an Imperial Guard/Skitarri combo and again thought we should have a chance with our much more mobile force against the somewhat static Guard fire base. However fate intervened with some players having to drop out forcing the TOs to rejig the table order. Our new opponents were fielding Skitarri and Grey Knights, a much more difficult match up. The Skitarri half contained a Sydonian Dragoon formation that could outflank from turn one, with two big units that could do some serious hurt given the chance. This gave rise to Gary's accusations of, shall we say, reluctance to engage the enemy. I maintain that, rather than charging hell for leather across the table, we needed to be aware of the threat of the outflanking units. To that end I held my 'thirster and Prince back, ready and waiting.
However by the time our flank was clear it was too late in the rest of the game. Dreadknights and Grey Knight termites are too effective against daemons, which is as it should be. Well played Rob and Callum.
Back down the table order we went. I always maintain that our opponents are on the same table as us for a reason, be it bad match ups or bad luck. When Charles and James told is they were fielding combined Ynnari and Dark Eldar our hearts sank a little. Better mobility and firepower plus psychics, against which we had no defence, meant that, on paper at least, this could be a bad match up for us. Hammer and Anvil deployment limited their room for manoeuvre so we lined up and went for it. Apart from their Wraithguard, the enemy shooting proved to be ineffective allowing us to do our thing. Our assaults finished off unit after unit and we ran out the convincing winners.
You already know how we fared overall so I won't repeat it all. Suffice to say it was a brilliant weekend with our awards being an added bonus. I was first inspired by Khorne as originally (ie Rogue Trader era) Khorne was more about martial ability, honour and pride, not just mindless violence that that is today's take on him. I still maintain some of my decisions were based on how I saw the tactical situation at the time, not the yellow streak that will never see my models because it doesn't exist 😲.
I think our opponents enjoyed the banter between Gary and I, being very receptive to how much fun we were having, in defeat as well as victory, not least the unusual alliance between the ancient enemies.
See that, that's Khorne and Slaanesh that is...
