Friday 3 February 2017

Horus Heresy Doubles Weekend Review

Good day good Bunnies,

The Doubles weekend saw four of the Bunnies, in 3 teams, attended the Horus Heresy Doubles Weekend and a we wanted to share our experiences with you all. Kaelo and Darien formed a team with Death Guard and Sons of Horus, Ikthelion's Iron Warriors teamed up with Death Guard, and Spectre's Raven Guard formed a team with some Mechanicum.

Initial thoughts:
Darien: I was surprised when I got to the top of the stairs at Warhammer world and ran into a queue! Turned out it was indeed the doubles registration queue, I've not experienced one that long before! 93 teams took part which is an awesome turn out, every table was in use for the event and given the number of people the event ran as smoothly as ever. Kaelo and I quickly established that we should have put more thought into tactics and lists! 

Ikthelion: This was the first Warhammer World gaming event that either my teammate or I had attended so we didn't really know what to expect. We travelled up with Darien and met Kaelo outside before heading in and joining the queue to register. I was surprised by the number of people at the event, the hall was definitely full to capacity but it all seemed to run very smoothly.

Game 1:
Darien: It took us a while to get our heads in the game! We played 2 knights and blood angels in the first game, both armies were beautifully painted by Sam and Wilph. Turn 1 Knight number 1 erased the Plasma Cannon squad and the blood angels immobilised my Contemptor. The game went downhill quickly after that! Around half way through the game, after most of our army was dead, we remembered that killing a knight would earn us 10VPs! We could have deployed so much better and had far greater success. Still we had a good laugh at how under prepared we were and figured game 2 was our game! 


Ikthelion: I was fielding my Iron Warriors and my teammate brought his Death Guard along. Our list was Dreadnought and Tactical Marine heavy, as we thought we'd be able to grab lots of objectives and score some points - sadly, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy and we managed to end up losing all five of our games across the weekend! We met some fantastic people while playing and it seemed almost everyone there had a really good attitude. Our first match up was against a Solar Auxilia and Mechanicum list which had a fair few Thallax, a Thanatar and three SA Storm Sections in two fliers and a Dracosan. We managed to hold our own and put down the major threats to our army, however, we ended up surrendering board control to our opponents as they were simply faster than we were. This was the first game that I used my Tyrant Siege Terminators in, and I was quite pleased with how they performed. We lost the match, but our opponents Chris and Mike were magnanimous in victory and a good laugh was had by all.

Spectre: Game 1 against Duncan from Warhammer TV. My tactical squad sergeant started a rampage!








Game 2:
Darien: Kaelo and I put slightly more thought into our deployment but didn't ask what would be arriving from reserve, which is just another example of how well we were planning and playing! We faced off against a mechanicum and Emperor's Children army. It was a great game, Kaelo's Plasma squad wiped out 15 tacticals in one shooting phase, however in return the Thanatar Knocked out Abaddon and 3 Justaerin! Kaelo's great shooting continued and a tactical support marine killed Eidolon with a melta shot to the face. We managed to avoid being tabled thanks to one of my Justaerin surviving 3 rounds of combat with a Castalax, Magos and a Thanatar. 



Ikthelion: Game two saw us pitched against Matt and Paul who were both fielding Iron Warriors - these chaps went on to win the most favourite game votes of the event (we both voted for them too!). They both had fantastically painted armies and a very relaxed approach to gaming which meant the whole match was great fun. They fielded a pair of Domitar Ferrum (Iron Circle!) which was great to see as I've thought about picking some up myself. We deployed quite conservatively to avoid their Iron Havocs and Quad Mortars, and tried to push forwards later on. The Tactical Objective cards were not with us as we drew the cards that required us to secure the three objectives that our opponents were sat on! As Iron Warriors were on both sides of the table, the Bitter End rule saw us play a full 7 turns as the Sons of Perturabo and Mortarion threw themselves at each other with reckless abandon.



Game 3:
Darien: In game 3 we got to play Eddie and Andy from the Community Team which was a great game, unfortunately Peter Turbo was beyond our lists capability to deal with! Despite our best efforts we were unable to get far enough away and he torn the Death Guard apart. Abaddon did slightly better and wiped out 2 tactical squads but not quick enough. My contemptor, missing a leg and arm managed to survive to the end of the game and prevented us being completely wiped out!




Ikthelion: The last game on Saturday saw us pitted against Iron Hands and Mechanicum. The match was going alright until turn two when two Lightnings turned up and deleted my teammate's two Leviathan Dreadnoughts with a frankly sickening number of sixes showing up on the dice! After that they wiped out both of our Contemptors and set about killing off my Tyrants. We were left with just three Tactical Squads hiding in their Rhinos. The Iron Hands player sent his Tacticals in to dig us out, and the last few turns were dominated by our respective Troop choices slugging it out at close range. I've now got a brand new respect for Lightnings, but my teammate has told me that if I field them against him he'll fall out with me!

Spectre:





Quiz: 
After Game 3 the Bunnies had curry and quiz - we formed a team, receiving Drop Pod reinforcements in the shape of Aveinus who joined us for the quiz and much Heresy was had by all! We were only foiled by naming the World Eaters' home planet and the planet Angron was found on! In the end we finished just outside the top 3. It definitely helped to have players from different Legions there as there were some questions that stumped some of us but others knew immediately! 

Game 4:
Darien: Game 4 saw us take on a 4 flyer and cultists list! We were slightly more on form for this game but our tactic for the flyers was to first hope they didn't show up (Which worked a treat) and when the did ignore them (which did not work a treat). The cultists held us up to long and claimed too many of the Justaerin and breachers in the process. Unfortunately the losses added up and it was another loss. 



Ikthelion: Game 4 on Sunday morning had us pitted against a Blood Angels Day of a Revelation list and a Prosperine Spire Guard (Solar Auxilia) list. By the end of their turn 1, the board was filled with red Models - be they Deep Striking Assault Marines or the hoard of Spire Guard who were supporting them. Both armies looked great together, and their tactics complimented each other well - The Blood Angels ran forwards to pin us in place while the Spire Guard grabbed objectives and took pot shots at targets of opportunity. They got off to a sprint start and secured plenty of Tactical Objectives in the early game that we just couldn't keep up with! 

Game 5:
Darien: Spectre challenged us to a game to round the event off and we gladly except the challenge. The game, however, did not go our way when Spectre's tactical support squad blow up the medusa first turn and then proceeded overwatch the Contemptor to Death! The game was rounded off with Abaddon being killed by a tactical squad sergeant!! The event ended how it started for us with a tabling and brought our total to 5 for 5 on the loss front! 




Ikthelion: Our final game of the weekend was against Iron Hands and Imperial Fists. This was quite a nasty army for us to face off against as they had a Spartan full of Storm Shielded Imperial Fist Terminators, a Lightning with all the toys and a Phosphex Bomb, Phosphex Quad Mortars and a Malcador with both a Demolisher Cannon and a Battle Cannon! My teammate and I shared a moment of dread when we realised that as it also had a Flare Shield, we couldn't harm the front armour without some very lucky rolls. Thankfully, my Warlord Trait came up as Void Walker and I was able to Deep Strike my Tyrants into the very small gap between the rear of the tanks and the board edge which stripped it of the majority of its hull points. The Iron Hands player then landed 56 Phosphex wounds on my Tyrants and they died a horrible death! The Lightning arrived and essentially nuked a Leviathan. The Imperial Fists hit us like an avalanche and the rest of the game was just our opponents mopping up our survivors. 

Spectre:



Highlight of the Event:
Darien: In game two my only remaining Justaerin fighting off a Castalax, Magos and Thanatar for 3 rounds of combat and living till the end of the game to prevent us being tabled! Kaelo's epic shooting in this game was also something to remember!

Ikthelion: For me it has to be our second game; our opponents made the whole match a scream to play and we all had a great time.

Spectre: My tactical squad sergeant punching so many characters, including Abaddon, to death! 

For the Next Doubles Event: 
Darien: We need to do a bit more forward planning and think a lot more about lists that would work together. Also some sort of tactics would go a long way! I will definitely be attending the next doubles event, it was great fun. We got to play against 10 really great guys with some beautiful armies which was awesome!

Ikthelion: My teammate thought we had planned our lists really well together, but in hindsight, our only units that could move over 6 inches in the movement phase were Rhinos full of Tactical Marines. Next time I think we'll need to bring some units with a bit more speed so we can get out and secure the board quickly to shut down our opponents' options (as happened to us so many times!). We're also going to aim to play a lot more Maelstrom missions to get some practice in! We'll definitely go to the next Heresy Doubles event; the atmosphere was fantastic and we met some great people; I'll take more photos too. Next time I think we'll be a little more prepared for what we could potentially face, and might actually win a game!

Spectre: I thought the event was great fun overall. However, I would rather the tactical objectives were only able to be captured by scoring units to encourage people to take more of them. I did however enjoy five great games, including my opening game against Warhammer TV's Duncan. I met some great people, the great community of Horus Heresy gamers continues to impress me. I'm am already looking forward to Throne of Skulls in March!

Warhammer World did a great job with the event and standard of the armies was really high. Well done and thanks you to those that we played and to the team at Warhammer World for another great event!

7 comments:

  1. "The Blood Angels ran forwards to pin us in place while the Spire Guard grabbed objectives and took pot shots at targets of opportunity"

    Targets of opportunity being of course - the Tyrant Siege Terminators :D

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    Replies
    1. Indeed! Everyone wanted to shoot my Tyrants!

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  2. Is that a Squats army using Blood Bowl minis?!

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  3. Great gaming and GW celebrities. Sounds awesome. Just hoping Spectre's Sergeant receives a promotion!

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  4. It's my Squat army but not using Blood Bowl minis.

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