Tournament fever well and truly caught.

I arrived at Open War with one goal in mind - don't come last. So why after a mid table finish do I feel so underwhelmed?

My list

Wolf Lord
Thunderwolf Mount
Storm Shield
Thunder Hammer
Fenrisian Wolf x 2
Saga of the Bear
Rune Priest
Living Lightning
Murderous Hurricane
Chooser of the slain
Melta Bombs
Elites
Wolf Scouts x 5
Melta Gun
Melta Bombs
Plasma Pistol
Troops
Grey Hunters x 9
Meltagun
Wolf Standard
Mark of the Wulfen
Power Weapon
Rhino
Grey Hunters x 10
Meltagun x 2
Wolf Standard
Mark of the Wulfen
Power Weapon
Rhino
Grey Hunters x 10
Plasma Gun x 2
Wolf Standard
Mark of the Wulfen
Power Weapon
Rhino
Fast Attack
Thunderwolf Cavalry x 4
Storm Shield
Wolf Claw
Melta Bombs
Heavy Support
Long Fangs x 6
Lascannon x 2
Missile Launcher x 3
Long Fangs x 6
Heavy Bolter x 3
Plasma Cannon x 2

The morning started with a pint and a face off with an Imperial Guard list.
It all started so well. I faced 16 vehicles, Chimeras mainly with a Manticore, 2 squadrons of the AA guns (can't quite remember the names) and 2 Valkyries and most importantly a psyker battle squad who I had never come up against. First couple of turns went well, dispatched the Valkyries and a squad of guard. Forgot to attempt to bring my behind enemy lines scouts but no big deal and only lost a couple of heavy bolter marines. And then the battle squad hit. Who knew they could reduce my leadership to 2? Thunderwolves off the table, 1 squad of grey hunters off the table, plasma long fangs decimated and again I had forgot about my scouts.

I narrowly avoided getting tabled by hiding but it was a white wash. My own stupidity cost me, I never moved my rune priest towards the battle squad to negate their powers along with forgetting my scouts. In the end I had 12 points to add on my 25 for painting so the day was going well I was not bottom.

Second game pitted me against one of my frequent opponents Steve. A very good necron player who schooled me on only Thursday night with this two monolith list. I have to say I had some monumental luck. The first bit being that I had played him on Thursday night, I knew what he was capable of and I knew that he would be attempting to surround my Rhinos with scarabs so I couldn't disembark and blow them up. On discussion with my team mates I went for the approach of not putting anything in my rhinos and just walking behind them. My second bit of luck came on my first turn when my first shot of the game destroyed a monolith taking a lot of points and more importantly Steve's ability to teleport in and out of combat and get those we will be back re rolls.

In the end the result wasn't nice. Not only did I table Steve on turn four but he only killed one and a half units giving him a paltry battle bonus of 1. The result also gave me the fear of moving up the table and facing someone far better than me.

And so for the last game I found myself on the lofty table 11 facing someone who Andy had actually heard of in gaming circles with a chaos army and I have to say I played the game perfectly. It was by far the best I have ever played. I shot everything when I had to, I charged to remove furious charge bonuses and my rune priest was superb. I was on the way to a famous victory and then we ran out of time. Turn 4 finished and I had killed 80% of his army while I still had 85% of mine left on the board. I needed only one turn to table him and receive 25 points, instead because of the general ship score I got a paltry 12. The same as in my first game when I was awful. It didn't seem fair.

I have reviewed the game many times and I don't think we were desperately slow. I don't think I am a slow player, I have never been accused as such before. My opponent requested a bathroom break and a drinks break in the game and I thought nothing of it.

I left the tournament with the realisation that I could have been in the top 10 if not for our poor timekeeping in the last game and I have to say I sulked something rotten on the drive home and it got even worse when I realised how silly I was acting when my goal was to not finish bottom.

I look forward to the next tournament I attend and hope that there will be one before the unofficial UK GT where I plan to cut out the silly mistakes.