Gauntlet 2008 Aftermath

To be perfectly honest, there were a lot of things about this tournament that I didn't enjoy.

Having said that, because I'm a fairly polite chap, and I was taught to accentuate the positive rather than dwelling on the negative, I'll explain the things I did enjoy first.

I missed out on the 40k Grand Tournament heats due to work commitments, football and Liz and Simon's wedding (I hope you're enjoying Cuba!). So I was overjoyed when I heard about The Gauntlet Tournament. It was an event I'd enjoyed and done well in over the years. I'd been three times previously and won best painted army twice and overall once. The tournament was held on an unusual Thursday rather than a weekend (due to the fact the Warhammer World was booked solid on weekends right through to February) so many people couldn't attend, but this was perfect for me because I have the hardest time getting weekends off. Booking a single weekday off was relatively straightforward.

Another upside to The Gauntlet is that it is a one day competition meaning that it is cheap because no overnight accommodation is required. Games Workshop also organise coach travel to and from the venue, reducing costs further, and they even throw in a meal at the venue. The total cost for me on the day was a bargain £25.

Warhammer World is a great setting in which to play games and the ready access to Specialist Games products and Forge World models is a real bonus. I didn't go mad this year as I was purposely reigning in my model purchases, but I did pick up the Imperial Armour Modelling Masterclass book to read on the coach ride back.

Then of course there are the other benefits to playing in any tournament; playing against a range of different players with unique tactics and armies that you've never encountered before, seeing imaginative conversions and well executed paint schemes. The whole social side of tournaments is great as you check up on how your regular gaming buddies are getting on, how your opponents have fared and chew the fat on the hardest armies, the cheesy lists and the unlucky dice rolls.

But there were problems.

The first was of my own making. I had just committed to painting up my Blood Angels a couple of months before I found out about the tournament and stupidly I decided to take them instead of one of my already fully painted armies. I could have taken my Chaos Space Marines, Imperial Guard or even Daemon Hunters, but no, I stuck with the Blood Angels.

So I ended up playing an army which was severely restricted in the models I could choose from, with a new codex I hadn't used before and with a set of main rules I hadn't really read. I tried to get in as many practice games as I could but they were always at the expense of painting time. In the end I think I played five or six games at most before the tournament. Not good preparation.

Painting was it's own problem. I had a very hectic schedule with work and other social engagements and I was already committed to the Warseer Tale of 40k Painters (TO40kP) painting pledge. If I had relaxed my painting standards I might have been able to add more models, particularly the Troops choices I was severely lacking, but I was already set on painting to my highest quality. I was also wary of painting too much and skewing my schedule for the TO40kP. In the end I had to settle for finishing five Tactical marines, five Death Company and a Chaplain. Although this kept my painting on track it did hamper my army list.

The Chaplain was a bone of contention too. A week and a half before the tournament I had decided that the above would be all I would be able to paint so I wanted to have Lemartes as my Chaplain model. The one I already had was armed with a plasma pistol and cost 10 points more than the special character despite having one less wound and fewer abilities. I went into my local Games Workshop to discover there was no Lemartes on the shelf. No problem the staff said, just order it online and it will be delivered to the store in the next few days. I used the in-store computer but my registration details kept crashing on the brand new UK website and I eventually had to phone the order in (it later turned out that the GW web staff were tweaking the web store while I was trying to access it). In the event Lemartes didn't arrive in the store until two weeks after the tournament was over! I had to go with my overcosted stand in.

I've mentioned this before in my main lone pilgrim blog, but I'll briefly mention it here too. I varnished my models to protect them for the tournament and they got all frosted. I managed to salvage the models to a certain degree but it is still evident on many of them. Aaaaaaarrrrggghhh!

Games Workshop broke one of the golden rules of tournament organisation with the Gauntlet; they didn't produce a rules pack in advance. In fact, having participated in the tournament, I'm still not sure what the tournament rules were, what armies were permitted, if there were any house rules and if there were any 'soft' scores like painting, sportsmanship or army background.

Things came to a head when registration started. Players were handed a sheet which stated which missions would be played - a mix of all mission types and deployment. However, the attached scoring sheet only had space to mark down kill points, not the objectives captured. When we asked what to do we were told that kill points would be used in all missions and to ignore objectives!

Obviously this made no sense whatsoever, and the Imperial Guard player I was standing next to at the time was ready to punch someone. We resolved to just play the missions as they were in the book and write down the objectives we controlled at the end of the game, rather than kill points. It later turned out that other people had been told to record kill points as well as objectives controlled to help with separating drawn players. This made much more sense but I didn't find it out until the end of my second game. I subsequently ended up a few places lower in the rankings than I should have done as I I hadn't recorded my kill points in the first game.

Another rumour that went around the hall was that bonus points were at stake for handing in a page of army background. This absolutely incensed me as I take great pride in writing up battle reports, coming up with character and army backgrounds - for the Emperor's sake I've even created an entire Sector in which my armies fight! If I'd known in advance I could have brought any amount of army background to the tournament. To this day I still don't know whether army background was actually taken into account or not.

Bad feeling continued into the games across the whole day. One guy I was playing next to complained bitterly about his opponent using Mephiston as he thought special characters weren't allowed. Other players complained that many players were using the Space Marine codex as it had only just been released a couple of weeks before. The players themselves didn't know how to play their own armies so their opponents didn't have a chance. I found out after the tournament that my first opponent got two rules for Vulkan, the Salamanders Chapter Master, wrong - in his favour of course.

All this confusion really upset a lot of the players and started everything off on a bad footing. The most frustrating thing was that it was so preventable. A nice early rules pack distributed to all of the participating stores would have solved most of the problems in advance.

All in all then, I'd give the event a disappointing 6 out of 10.

SPACE MARINES - BLOOD ANGELS versus Space Marines

Game: Warhammer 40,000 5th edition, Gauntlet Tournament game 3
Opponent: James Brown
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Pitched Battle
1st turn: Space Marines
Points: 1000
Location: 671.M38, Insolitus, Halasus Marches, Skolarii sector
Background: The Blood Angels track down the renegade Exigators Space Marines on Insolitus and bring them to battle.

Blood Angels

• Chaplain, plasma pistol, jump pack
• 5 Death Company Marines with jump packs
  
• 10 Tactical Marines, flamer, Vet sergeant with Powerfist, missile launcher, Rhino
  
• 5 Tactical Marines, melta gun, Vet sergeant with Powerfist, Razorback with las cannon
  
• Furioso Dreadnought, Venerable, Death Company
  
• Predator Destructor with autocannon and heavy bolter sponsons

Space Marines

• Captain
• Dreadnought
• 10 Tactical marines
• Rhino
• 5 Tactical marines
• 5 Tactical marines
• 8 Sternguard
• Drop Pod

Terrain and deployment
I won the choice of first turn and gave it to James to negate his drop podding Sternguard. He spread his army out across his entire deployment zone. I began with everything off the board. My plan at this stage was to bring everything on on one flank and fight half of his army will all of mine, then roll up the rest.

The game
The enemy marines advanced cautiously forward across the whole front.

I got the Dreadnought, Death Company and Razorback from reserve. I brought them on to the left flank so I could us the central hill to block line of sight.

At this point we remembered the Drop Pod James had forgotten to deploy in his turn one. He brought it down in his third turn, hoping to hit the Death Company. Fortunately for me they scattered away out of rapid fire range.

The Predator came on from reserve and parked on the hill on my left to give covering fire in later turns. My Death Company pounced on his combat squad in the ruins on the left and slaughtered them for no losses. The Razorback and Dreadnought followed up behind.

The Blood Angels attack hard up the left flank

The Tactical squad in the Rhino dismounted to rapid fire my Death Company. Only one Blood Angel died. The Rhino itself zoomed off down my left flank going God knows where. The Captain and Dreadnought tag team made for the Sternguard in the middle of the board. The Sternguard moved up behind the central hill.

My own Rhino exploded onto the board and spilled out it's Tactical squad to rapid fire the Sternguard. The Dreadnought stomped over and contributed some firing too. More firepower rained in from the Predator. The Sternguard unit was gutted.

The Sternguard and Tactical squad are about to disappear

The Death Company tore into the ten Tactical Marines before them and killed them to a man for no losses. Ouch.

The Razorback and Tactical squad immobilised the Rhino.

Now the Captain and Dreadnought turned back to take on the Death Company. The remaining Sternguard failed to take out my Furioso. Long range Tactical squad fire dropped another Death Company marine.

My Dreadnought charged into the last Sternguard and wiped them out. My Tactical squad remounted their Rhino but it's over-charged engines stalled. The Tactical squad in the Razorback destroyed the Rhino.

I charged the Death Company into the Captain and reduced them to one wound, taking one casualty in the process.

The game promptly ended in turn five.

Result: Win (4 kill points to 0 kill points)

Learning points

• James didn't support his own units so I was able to take him on piecemeal and control the game.
• The Death Company were simply awesome in this game, living up to their fearsome reputation.
• A shame the game didn't go on for another turn or two to see how our two HQ's and two Dreadnoughts would have fared against each other.
  

SPACE MARINES - BLOOD ANGELS versus Chaos Daemons

Game: Warhammer 40,000 5th edition, Gauntlet Tournament game 2
Opponent: Gary
Mission: Capture and Control
Deployment: Dawn of War
1st turn: Chaos Daemons
Points: 1000
Location: 278.M41, Mandag, Hexen Sub, Skolarii sector
Background: The Blood Angels discover that the insidious Tau have corrupted the local population and have begun to colonise Mandag. Do they have anything to do with the Chaos Daemon incursion? Amidst the deserted ruins of their settlement the Blood Angels take on the Daemons once again.

Blood Angels

• Chaplain, plasma pistol, jump pack
• 5 Death Company Marines with jump packs
  
• 10 Tactical Marines, flamer, Vet sergeant with Powerfist, missile launcher, Rhino
  
• 5 Tactical Marines, melta gun, Vet sergeant with Powerfist, Razorback with las cannon
  
• Furioso Dreadnought, Venerable, Death Company
  
• Predator Destructor with autocannon and heavy bolter sponsons

Chaos Daemons

• Bloodthirster
  
• 10 Bloodletters, Icon, Instrument of Chaos
• 10 Bloodletters
• 5 Bloodletters
  
• 8 Daemonettes, Icon, Instrument of Chaos
• 8 Flesh Hounds
• Daemon Prince with Iron Hide

Background
We get up at 4:00am and travel for 4 hours to get to Warhammer World only to have to play each other in a game we could otherwise play at any time at home. And we aren't allowed to swap opponents. Great.

Terrain and deployment
I set up my combat squad with the missile launcher near my objective. I had placed the objective there so that it was in relatively good line of sight from a variety of directions, and also near the impassable buildings which would make it risky for the daemons to deep strike close to. I kept the rest of my army off the table to see where the daemons would land before my army arrived.

The game
Gary got his preferred units of the Bloodthirster, one large Bloodletter unit, the Flesh hounds and the Daemonettes. They all landed centrally, supporting each other. In previous games against me Gary had learned not to leave his units isolated and to wait for reinforcements before launching a co-ordinated assault. The Daemonettes scattered onto one of the Bloodletter units which meant I got to place them. Much to Gary's surprise I put them behind my Tactical marines and in my deployment zone.

Daemons, fahsends of 'em

In my turn I moved the marines back toward the Daemonettes, away from the other daemons and the objective. I surprised Gary again by not rapid firing at the Daemonettes but by shooting them with bolt pistols and then charging in. Two marines died but they killed four Daemonettes. The combat continued.

I had put Gary in a tough spot. He could lunge forward and save the Daemonettes but that would leave him vulnerable to my units arriving from reserve or he could hang back and wait for his next wave but lose the Daemonettes and have to weather more shooting. In the end he chose the latter.

The second large Bloodletter squad dropped into the centre and the smaller squad warped in on the Daemon objective. The Bloodthirster was hiding behind a comically small building, as you can see in the photo above.

Another two Daemonettes fell but dragged down another marine.

I got the Predator, Razorback, Dreadnought and Death Company from reserve. Both tanks entered on my left and opened fire on the cowering Bloodthirster but did nothing. The Death Company charged in to butcher the Daemonettes and save the last two marines, including the missile launcher. Both units consolidated backwards. The Dreadnought anchored the right flank of my army.

I now had a thin red line hugging my own board edge.

The Daemon Prince arrived in the wood on my left and ran to the far side of it, threatening the Razorback. The Bloodthirster slid left too. All the Daemons in the middle moved forward toward my objective. Crucially, the Flesh Hounds only got a one on their run roll so they were short of assaulting the Death Company (it was actually so tight that we rolled a d6 and Gary lost).

Both armies dance around each other

I got the Rhino and combat squad from reserve and had my own tough decision to make. I could use them to reinforce the fight around my own objective, virtually guaranteeing a draw or I could make for the enemy objective and risk a win or a loss.

Eventually I deployed them on the far right to try and get the win. They would have to roll lots of difficult terrain tests to get to the enemy objective but I hoped they would give Gary something to worry about.

My Dreadnought charged into the Hounds. He rampaged through them and they were unable to hurt the behemoth. Their fearlessness counted against them as they lost models each turn to the no retreat rule.

Meanwhile the rest of my army shot the snot out of the Bloodthirster. When the smoke cleared from the autocannon, krak missile, heavy bolters, las cannon and bolter shots the Greater Daemon had lost two wounds.

I had slid the Razorback six inches toward the Predator to get away from the Daemon Prince. The Death Company braced for a counter assault into the Bloodthirster.

The Bloodthirster swooped in and crushed the Predator.

The Bloodthirster mangles the Predator

The Daemon Prince got tangled up in the woods and failed to contact the Razorback. The Bloodletters were in a real quandary in the centre as they were scared to push forward past the Dreadnought and were wary of the Rhino squad homing in on their objective.

My Death Company bravely jumped in to take on the Bloodthirster. Four marines lost their lives but the beast was banished back to the warp.

I drove the Razorback twelve inches up to get it away from the Daemon Prince and closer to the objective.

The game hangs in the balance

The Rhino threw a track in the forest on the right. That left the marines stranded miles away from the objective and the action, and effectively out of the game. My daring flank attack had failed.

Gary and I were playing the game very quickly now as the time limit was looming.

The Daemon Prince assaulted the Razorback and destroyed it.

A Bloodletter squad assaulted the Dreadnought. I couldn't understand why Gary would do that and asked him about it. He said he had a decent chance to penetrate the rear armour. I reminded him that because the Dreadnought was a walker with a WS he had to hit the front (just like the combat with the Flesh Hounds). Gary was mortified so I let him move the models differently. It didn't matter much; all they could do was move close to my objective.

I charged the Furioso in and started hacking the Daemons apart. Again their fearlessness meant they kept taking lots of casualties.

My number one priority was now to drop the Daemon Prince. The remnants of my original combat squad, the Razorback squad and the Death Company all opened fire, intending to soften it up before the Death Company charge. When the smoke cleared the monster was dead from shooting alone!

In the next turn my Furioso finished off the Bloodletters and my Razorback combat squad got to within 3" of my objective. The remaining Daemons hung back protecting their own objective.

'If you want the objective then you'll have to come through me'

Result: Draw

Learning points

• This was a much better showing for my Blood Angels against the Daemons. Keeping my units in reserve allowed me to negate the Daemons deep striking and also scared them away from my deployment zone. Winning the choice of second turn for a change helped immensely.
• I also protected my Troops better. In 4th edition I would have left the combat squad on the objective and shot at the Bloodletters, maybe killing a few for the loss of my unit. Instead I pulled them back, sacrificing early kills to keep them alive. In the end this was vital.
• This time against the Daemons I chose the fights and it showed; if the game had gone on beyond turn 5 I might have threatened the enemy objective.
• Will I ever roll better than a one on a difficult terrain roll?
  

SPACE MARINES - BLOOD ANGELS versus Salamanders Space Marines

Game: Warhammer 40,000 5th edition, Gauntlet Tournament game 1
Opponent: Simon?
Mission: Seize Ground
Deployment: Spearhead
1st turn: Salamanders
Points: 1000
Location: 998.M41, Hive Tempestora, Armageddon
Background: During the Hive Tempestora counter-push the Blood Angels 2nd Company and Salamanders 5th Company rush to support the Morpheon Line. Amidst the confusion of battle the two allies mistakenly attack each other.

Blood Angels

• Chaplain, plasma pistol, jump pack
• 5 Death Company Marines with jump packs
  
• 10 Tactical Marines, flamer, Vet sergeant with Powerfist, missile launcher, Rhino
  
• 5 Tactical Marines, melta gun, Vet sergeant with Powerfist, Razorback with las cannon
  
• Furioso Dreadnought, Venerable, Death Company
  
• Predator Destructor with autocannon and heavy bolter sponsons

Salamanders

• Vulkan
• 10 Tactical Marines, flamer, Vet sergeant with Power Weapon, Multi Melta
• 10 Tactical Marines, flamer, Vet sergeant with Power Weapon, Multi Melta
• 7 Sternguard, 4 Combi Meltas, 2 Heavy Flamers, Drop Pod
• Dreadnought, Multi Melta, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod

Terrain and deployment
The table was relatively sparse with three hills in the central third of the table and some ruins and woods on the flanks. We rolled three objectives; two were on the hills on the centre of the table and the third was in the ruins on the right.

I won the dice off and chose to go second, keeping my entire army off the table. That meant they could effectively start the game on two of the objectives and move a combat squad forward to take the third. The Dreadnought drop pod landed on the third too. The Sternguard, with Vulkan, dropped right next to my deployment zone.

My plan at this stage was to claim the objective on the left hill for sure and maybe push on to take the central objective on the hill too. I would try to simply contest the third objective in the ruins as it had twice as many enemy marines on it.

The game
I got my Death Company, missile launcher combat squad and Razorback (with embarked squad) from reserve. The Death Company went straight for the Sternguard and butchered them in short order. Now it was five Death Company marines and a Chaplain versus Vulkan.

I brought the Razorback and Marine combat squad onto the left flank.

The Salamanders occupy all three objectives

Vulkan killed the entire Death Company and the Chaplain without taking a wound. I got the Furioso from reserve and threw him in to instantly kill the meddlesome Chapter Master. It was only after my blows struck home did I discover that Vulkan has a 3+ invulnerable save and immunity to Instant Death. These two were still going at it on the last turn of the game when Vulkan finally succumbed.

Venerable Death Company Dreadnought Blackblood dukes it out with Vulkan, Chapter Master of the Salamanders

The battle for the left objective involved my Razorback, 5 Tactical marines with one meltagun and powerfist, and 5 Tactical marines with one missile launcher versus the Dreadnought with multi melta and 5 Tactical marines with one flamer and power weapon.

I lost.

I hammered the Dreadnought but the best I could do was immobilise it. Whatever hit the Tactical marines bounced off as they passed their armour saves easily. In return I failed every armour save on my unique models. The objective remained unclaimed at the end of the game.

Is this cocked?

Meanwhile, I was still trying to put pressure on the central and right objectives. My Predator continually shot at the five Tactical marines on the middle objective. Over three tuns of all out shooting (autocannon, two heavy bolters, storm bolter) I killed just one model. They remained there until the end of the game and claimed the objective.

A desperate last gambit

My Rhino squad and combat squad arrived late. I threw them forward trying to take on the combat squad that had advanced out of the ruins to threaten my predator. I killed nothing with my shooting. In return the Rhino was destroyed and exploded and my squad was reduced to just the vet sergeant with a powerfist. Undeterred he charged into the combat squad and killed two. The survivors routed away. I carefully followed them up with my consolidation move to ensure they would keep running. It also put him on the other side of a tall pillar from the multi melta in the combat squad in the ruins. God bless true line of sight.

At this point I could have snatched an unlikely draw. If my Veteran Sergeant could survive a round of shooting he could then assault the marines in the ruins. If they broke he could then claim the objective.

Part one of my plan worked as he emerged unscathed from a hail of gunfire (and the multi melta shot - my opponent refused to use true line of sight).

Veteran Sergeant Zephrus gets stuck in

I charged in but then whiffed my attacks. The Salamanders fluffed theirs and the fight continued.

Unfortunately the game did not. I hadn't gotten within 3" of the objective while some of the green marines were so they kept the flag.

Result: Loss (two objectives to none).

Learning points

• Vulkan is rock hard! A 3+ invulnerable save, immunity to instant death, two re-rollable attacks of his own with a strength 6 power weapon and he makes all the flamer and melta weapons in his army twin-linked. Outrageous!
• Everything went my way in this game right up until my army turned up! I started second and off the board to negate the pod dropping Dreadnought and Sternguard which worked but thereafter my dice were poor. I just couldn't get a higher than a 3 on the vehicle damage chart so the Dreadnought was still alive at the end of the game, my predator had brought dummy ammo, I couldn't pass an armour save and Vulkan just kept passing enough of those invulnerable saves to tie up my own Dread.
• Still, despite everything, I enjoyed this game.