Warp Storm 2 - Part 1

So I attended Warp Storm 2 at Maelstrom Games in Mansfield this weekend, the tournament was 6 games over 2 days and scoring included points for game results, painting and sportsmanship. The six games were pre-determined combinations of the deployments and missions in the main rule book.

A couple of things to note before I go into the games, the tables were great and the terrain was fantastic and plentiful, actually too plentiful in my opinion. Every table had a massive piece of impassable terrain in the middle of it, roughly the size of 1/6 of the table, if not a little bigger. As well as that one huge piece of terrain there was probably sufficient terrain to cover at least half the board, so as you can imagine maneuvering large vehicles was very difficult and dangerous terrain tests were required pretty much every turn.

I think the tables would have been much more even if the one large piece had been removed from each table and the rest of the terrain re-arranged. I may have felt differently if I'd taken a foot-slogging horde army but as it was I think it favoured gun-lines who could dig in and footslogging hordes who pretty much always got cover saves. To be honest I don't think different terrain lay-outs would have made much of a difference to my performance but there was one game in particular where I thought terrain played a huge part in the result ... I'll get to that though.

Otherwise the tournament was extremely well run and all the people I played against were great sports and enjoyed the game for the fun of it rather than winning at all costs. That sort of attitude just makes tournaments worthwhile for me as I only really play in them to get a few games against some new people. Anyway, on with the action, I'm not going to go into minute detail, just a quick overview of the key points and anything I managed to take away from the game.

My list:

HQ
Librarian
Epistolary, The Sanguine Sword, Unleash Rage

Elite
Furioso Dreadnought
Blood Talons, Storm Bolter, Meltagun; Drop Pod
Sternguard
(7) 4x Combi-Melta, Power Fist; Rhino
Sanguinary Priests
(2)

Troop
Assault Squad A
(8) 1x Meltagun, Power Weapon; Land Raider w. Extra Armour, Searchlight & Multi Melta
Assault Squad B
(5) Flamer, Power Fist; Razorback w. Twin Linked Assault Cannon
Assault Squad C
(5) Meltagun; Razorback w. Twin Linked Lascannon

Fast Attack
Baal Predator
Twin Linked Assault Cannons, Heavy Bolter Sponsons

Heavy Support
Dreadnought
2x Twin Linked Autocannons; Drop Pod



Game 1
Spearhead / Seize Ground (5 objectives)
vs Grey Knights (Justicar w. retinue, 2x 8-man Grey Knight Squads, 1x 5-man Grey Knight Squad, 2x Land Raiders, Dreadnought (TL Lascannon & Missile Launcher))

Really fun game against a great opponent. There were only two routes across the board thanks to a massive landing pad right in the middle and I managed to block one with two immobilised Razorbacks by the end of turn 1 forcing my Land Raider to drive the long way around to get into the action. I think this decision cost me the game, if I'd kept my main force together it would have been difficult for him to overrun the objectives late in the game and I would have had enough bodies to take at least two of the objectives and probably contest another with the crucial 4th objective well out of his reach.

RESULT: LOSS 2-1


Game 2
Pitched Battle / Capture & Control
vs Eldar (Eldrad, Farseer, 6 Striking Scorpions, 5 Fire Dragons, 2x 6-man Dire Avenger Squads (Wave Serpents), 3x Vipers, 3x Guardian Jet Bikes & Warlock w. Destructor), Falcon, Fire Prism.

The Eldar reserved everything giving me 2 turns to move across the board towards his objective but pretty much guaranteeing a draw as it was unlikely that I would be able to kill enough fast moving units to stop him contesting on the last turn, particularly as he had the last turn. Neither of us played very well, he forgot to roll for his psychic powers on all but one turn and I didn't manage to get my "hammer unit" out of it's Land Raider for yet another game when I feel it could have contributed any number of times. The result was a pretty disappointing draw but again my opponent was a nice guy and the game was pretty close all they way through.

RESULT: DRAW


Game 3
Spearhead / Annihilation
vs Blood Angels (Reclusiarch, Furioso Librarian, Assault Terminators, 10-man Assault Squad (Land Raider), 5-man Assault Squad (Razorback), 5-man Assault Squad, Storm Raven, 2x Predators (Autocannon/Lascannons)

Considering how many Blood Angel Lists there were at the tournament it was pretty amazing that this was the only time I played against one. The guy had a really nicely painted Flesh Tearers army with a Terminator Salvation Hunter Killer counting as a Storm Raven, really nice model and it fit right in with the scale and feel of his army.

Anyway this was a pretty one-sided game, I had real trouble doing any real damage to his tanks. My dice rolling had been bad all day but it was particularly bad in this game, given the amount of firepower I was leveraging I just couldn't roll a good damage result. I didn't help myself by again splitting my army up so that it couldn't really focus it's fire on anything. A funny and memorable moment (lasting at least two turns) was our Land Raiders facing down on each other and pouring as much fire as they could muster but not doing a damn thing! Of course I had a meltagun inside which I should have charged out but hindsight is always 20-20!

Anyway, it was another good game against a great looking army but I was outplayed.

RESULT: LOSS 8-3 (I think)

To be continued ...