Tale of Many Gamers - Months 1-2

Tale of Many Gamers

We are currently running a Tale of Many Gamers event down at East Grinstead which involves building and playing with an army over the course of the year. You add points to your force each month and are scored based on completing the models by the end of the month and playing them in the first club of each month. This is how the first few months have gone down:

Month One

I picked Deathwatch as I already have a number of models and picked up about £150 worth of them for £50 after taking Christmas vouchers and the Battleforce discount off. The Deathwatch also gives me a chance to do some neat conversions and focus on painting detailed models instead of a factory-style process more suited to Guard.

The first week is 200pts of Kill Team where each model moves individually. This had me thinking of my first squad that would later come together as one unit in subsequent months and I decided to go for a counter-attack/objective burning squad. I picked shotguns for rule of cool plus they get some neat special ammunition that fires an S3 template. To add range, I used an Infernus Heavy Bolter to keep with the template theme and add some ranged punch (always have a long ranged character in Kill Team to snipe with!). Lastly the sergeant with a Combi-Melta to add some anti-tank kick and provide another source of long-range firepower. A power sword finished off the character as a symbol of his office and the entire squad was mounted in a Rhino.

Counter-attack squad lines up

On the board, the Deathwatch faced off against a new player to the club who plays Tau Empire, a perfect start to the narrative! It ended up a close affair with only a few models left on the board and I even got to ram a Piranha with a Rhino! Ultimately objectives won the day along with the heavy weapon's ranged firepower proving indispensable. On to month two...

Month Two

Combat Patrol is next consisting of 400 points and similar restrictions to Kill-Team. This was a chance to see what the counter-attack squad would do as one unit, but I needed more ranged support. The challenge was also to add a Fast Attack choice to the army.

I picked a squad of five Veterans with two Frag Cannons due to the sheer killing power and versatility of that weapon. It is a giant shotgun capable of ripping through tanks and armour at medium range but is expensive and left no room for other upgrades. The rest of the squad was left with just boltguns, picked instead of shotguns as I didn't have a lot of ranged power on the board. A biker with a power Maul sealed the Fast Attack challenge.

My opponent would be Eldar in the second month's game against an opponent I'd both fought alongside and against many times before. A Vyper was causing untold damage to my force and took out the Frag Cannons (who wrecked utter havoc in the warm-up game) in the first few turns. With limited ranged firepower and tough-as-nails Wraithguard with their terrifying Destroyer weapons marching up the flank, it looked grim for the Deathwatch.

The Frag Cannon squad in the warm-up game

Fortunately my opponent made a huge mistake and ran his lightly armoured Banshees up the other flank forgetting about the contents of the Rhino in his rush to kill it. The counter-attack squad disembarked and proceeded to cook crispy-fried Eldar with the Heavy Flamer and finishing off all but one with the shotguns. The Banshee had revenge by charging in and killing some Deathwatch in melee, but they finished off the lone survivor and marched down the board to claim an objective and the line-breaker bonus point. My opponent's bad luck was compounded by his warlord suffering a peril and dying whilst trying to cast a psychic power. Slaanesh feeds, om-nom-nom!

The lone Biker was annihilated by the Wraithguard as they marched up the board, sending the now depleted Frag Cannon squad running off the table. But with the counter-attack squad down the other end, my warlord still alive and first blood to my name, a situation had developed that gave my opponent no way of winning. He either marched back down the board to claim the objective and let the Rhino to claim the other marker or stay where he is to kill the Rhino and fail to pick up enough points,

Summary

So with maximum campaign points so far, I find myself tied with the organiser's Death Guard who also remains undefeated. Planning for the next month has already started and it is 750pts with no restrictions. First job will be to get the force into a legal formation with the Combined Arms Detachment and then add more ranged firepower to the force, I felt it has been lacking these last few games, but with talks of flyers and a Rip-Tide stalking the tables next month it could be anti-tank and anti-air that will be needed the most.