Warpstorm 40k Tournament Games Workshop Antwerpen

Past saturday, the 23th, I joined in my first tournament ever since the Battle of Small Armies for Warhammer in 2012.

In a venue I have never gamed before, being the local Games Workshop store, the Warpstorm tournament was organised.

So that gave me a chance to face three new opponents in all probability, some armies I might not have faced before, and see how rusty I am.

The selection criteria for the tournament force where as followed:

A 500pts army that follows the matched play and organised play rules. In addition you must bring a minimum of 1 patrol detachment that has a min requirement of 2 troops instead of 1 for this tournament. Armies also have to be painted and forgeworld is allowed.

Following these rules, the force I fielded consisted of a Sorcerer, who was also my Warlord.  He comes with his Force Stave and Bolt Pistol, drank the Elixer for +1 S and A, and has the Unholy Fortitude trait for a further 1 wound and ignore wounds on 6+...

The Troop choices where 5 Noise Marines with a blastmaster and a power sword wielding, doom siren equipped champion, and 13 cultists hauling along a heavy stubber and a shotgun for the champion.
On a Fast Attack level, to put in reserve and drop on objectives if needed, are 5 Warp talons, while a Hellbrute with a Plasma Cannon and Missile Launcher provides the long range heavy firepower in the Elite slot.
Considering the restrictions and small size of the forces, I only have 3 CP, whom I'll probably spend on Veterans of the Long War for three times I guess...

The scenarios as well where pre-set, and would be the following:

Round 1: Eternal War - No Mercy
Round 2: Eternal War - Secure and Control
Round 3: Eternal War - The Relic

So all packed and ready, off we went to the store... with as the only goal, NOT to end last, and be very, very happy if we end in the first half of the table.

The tournament hosted 6 players, so that's a little pool to be paired off against, but would give me three totally new opponents.

Round 1: No Mercy

For my first tournament game over 7 years, I faced Pieter and his Drukhari force.  This also made me realise my force was to much my usual "fluffy TSA night" force, and not an optimal tournament force.  I should have gone for 2 small flamer equipped cultist squads for the objectives, and three Helbrutes for the firepower or something along those lines.

The Raider and three Venom's raced my way, and an abysmall set of rolling (which was going to haunt me all day) later my squads where rolled up one by one.  I managed to kill a Raider transport... which actually smashed down my Noise Marine champion in combat.

Insult to injury, my melee tooled sorcerer lost the combat to kabalites after rolling a lovely four 1s on his 4 attacks... so a well deserved 8-1 loss was my part.

Round 2: Secure and Control

For the second scenario, Nicholas and his Dark Angels was my opponent.  We deployed in our corners to saveguard our objectives, but his Hellblasters with Grim Resolve dessimated my forces piecemeal.

In a last ditch effort to get a draw, I rushed over the cultists to get Linebreaker, but in the end they fell and a 4-3 loss was my part.

Round 3: The Relic

The final game of the day put me against Necrons, commanded by Tyrone.  I got the first turn and did some damage, but then the shroud teleported his heavies on my flank and they decimated the Noise Marines.

I actually managed to grab the objective twice, but my Sorcerer managed to fail the save on his last wound against a Cryptek (sigh... I guess I rolled 727 ones today), the Talons once again failed their charge (as always) and in the end he won a minor victory as I had no infantry to go and grab the objective with left...

So, an abysmall 0 for 3 today, and a bit of a wake up call that I need to "restart" my tournament lists building thinking in the future, instead of going to those sort of events with the mindset of a in-character force.  Especially on such small points battles, where heavy, multi shot guns, preferably with AP modifiers, are the way to go...

In hindsight for example, the Warp Talons would go out of the list (and after all their abysmall performances, out of my grace just like my Possessed) and be replaced by either Obliterators, a second dreadnought, or a Predator with autocannon and heavy bolters...

Never the less, it was a fantastic day, even though I was a walking corpse after a very busy week and the late club evening the night before.  I got to play three armies I barely or even haven't faced in this edition before (okay, once the Necrons, that is it) and learned a lot both about the armies, some rules, and my own mindset which has clearly started hibernating over the years.

Or take a totally different army... maybe it's time to finally round out my Wild Riders...