I think I'm getting better at this
Between the Battle Bunker and Fanatic Games, there is a 40k tournament every month. So get used to seeing a lot of battle reports. =)
Anyway, the first battle this past Saturday was against Frank. It seems every time I go to a Fanatic tournament, I'm fighting Frank and his custom Marines. We drew Unplanned Assault for our Scenario. This is where you start with a small part of your forces, and half-way through the battle determine what your objectives are. Well, most of my forces showed up early and pounded his, while his came on piecemeal. The ultimate objectives were to control terrain features, and we had 4 picked out. We had two close combats where we wiped each other out (very rare), and I chased him off one objective in turn 6, so I ended up winning 2 objectives to 1.
Battle 2 was against Kolton and his Eldar, a somewhat new player. This scenario was "Suicide Squad." This is where you are trying to get one of your own units killed, while trying not to kill his suicide squad. You receive 150 victory points of your suicide squad dies, and you lose 150 points if your suicide squad doesn't die. The short story is, I smoked him. I rendered his two vehicles weaponless, and wiped everything else off the board, except for his HQ and his suicide squad. I was mostly intact, except for the suicide Dreadnought. Kolton killed it gleefully, not understanding the rules. He's young, and hopefully this will teach him to read the scenario.
The last battle of the day was against Jared and his Space Wolves. This scenario was "This is heavy, Doc" where the gravity was variable. Jared got first turn and proceeded to smoke me like a fine cigar. His first shots killed my tank and my Heavy Weapons Squad. Things went downhill from there. At the end of the game, I had one squad alive, only because they were way away from everything else, pouring fire into a Land Speeder. I managed to immobilize it and kill a weapon, but it was still there. His HQ squad wiped mine out without breaking a sweat. But then again, he was carrying all power weapons, something you don't get a save against. I don't get to carry stuff like that =(.
After the smoke cleared, I ended up in 3rd place! I won a $10 blister figure, so I got my money out of the tournament. Hopefully I will get a little better and start placing higher in these tournaments. I'm starting to get a consistent 2-1, and the one loss is against the player who ultimately wins the tournament (which is what happened here).
Anyway, next tournament should be Oct 21st at the Battle Bunker. We'll see you there.