(UK) Throne of Skulls, October 2011

This be thy thread all about Throne of Skulls and for those who participated to post in with their own stories and discussion. I won't bore you to death with what I had for lunch each day or even activities but more an overall report of the event and anything interesting.

Starting with a four hour journey and a Bugman's lunch I went to register and picked up a few items from The Black Library stall they had at the front, Andy Smillie was there who told me about his short story being published in the new Hammer and Bolter about Marines being held in a Wych arena, he also mentioned several Dark Eldar novels are planned. I managed to pick up a signed A3 print of the Path Of The Renegade and ermm.... 2 Promethean Suns. Judging by the amount of prerelease stuff around I wonder whether we will see our novel for sale at the January tournament...

Played a warm up game against someone from my club who was using a Space Wolves list which from what I remember was 3 Rhinos, Long Fangs and erm, can't remember much of the list, or the game, except that I won. Great battle reporting there.

A drink or two, sleep and shower and we were in for the morning and the first game: D........ To be continued.....

Right, I'll chip in here.

4 hour journey, I wish. Got up at 04:45, showered, got in the motor at 05:15 and drove for 3 hours 15 minutes to my mates place just outside Glasgow. Time now 08:30. We then picked up another mate, 09:00 and drove to Nottingham, found our hotel, time 15:00.

Booked in to find they had dumped 2 of us in a double room. Now we are friends but not Trains, Planes and Automobiles close friends, so had to get something sorted out here. Got a Z-bed into the room which I used for the weekend.

Round to WHW for a game (annhilation) against a drop pod BA list which I won pretty easily, then out for some food and a beer. Back to WHW for another game, home and away, against a SW list which ended in a draw. Back to hotel for a game of Campaign. Time now 00:30, I've been on the go for just under 20 hours.....ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

I'll do the important parts later.

Had a great event, was slightly disappointed with the lack of scenery on the top tables and the fact that 4 out of my five games were vs marines 2 of which were blood angles razorspam...

Oh yeah, shiny new tantalus for meee, tis assembled now.

I met up with and spoke to Sky Serpent which was cool, also tried to check in with as many DE games as I could.

I got sang guard first game, that lasted less than 40 mins , he was really great about it, but it was just not going to be a hard game for me, fortunately that was the only easy match.

next up gunline hybrid guard , I got shot up pretty bad but managed to claw it back and the Razorwing won me tha game by turning up and nuking something like 9 heavy weapon teams in one go, it was a game changer in three of the games for sure - turned out I tabled him and I had forgotten to ever bring the wyches from reserve ....

third game day one , quite tired now , full on BA razorspam, with the terrain being so sparse I thought I was in for a drubbing, used what was available, had some shocking bad luck which was made worse by his refusal to fail saves, it was hard work and I strugged with the dice, still top of my turn five I was in a perfect position to jump in and contest one of his claimed objective to get the win , I got sidetracked moving other things and b the time I realised I had forgotten to move the venom I had earmarked for the job I had already started shooting, so an certain win became a draw, this mistake cost me max points in the tournament.... (lesson learned)

I drew the GK player who I think was the top contender for the category at that point , the draw had put me down from table 3 to six , he was also the GK who was nominated for a best army. I blew up his raven really early even with shrouding, I put 48 splinter shots into what dropped out but he passed in impossible amount of 3+ saves and still had the important bits of the squad left , the rest of the game broke down into tit for tat shooting that was largely innefectul, we both had opportunities to really nail it home but never managed it, the dice were truly bonkers for both of us in this game we ran out of turns and I was a kp ahead, this was actually my hardest game as I should have won the one I drew quite easily, this one I had to be very careful with my stuff as did he, I feel safe saying had my Razorwing turned up on the 3+ like I had hoped I would have tabled him for the win.

Last game was blood angel Razorspam again, dawn of war, my only major mistake was forgetting BA have fast vehicles so I moved up too far forward , fortunately DoW still blunted his shooting, so I hit back very hard , knocking down the storm raven , immobilising the dread inside, mauling the deathstar that fell out and getting a turn 2 assault on his vindi with the wyches. he was never going to come back from that easily and my lances and AT were working great for the first time in the tourney, at the end he had a five man assault squad in cover on one objective , they got japanese laser-raved to death as I still had the majority of my lances intact.

I came away as best DE general which was slightly soured by the fact that loads of people thought I should have been nominated for best army judging.

Have learnt some lessons and may tweak my list for the GT in March.

Not a bad showing from The Dark City then at the tournament, especially well done to Sorrowshard for picking up best Dark Eldar, just a shame about not getting nominated. I didn't remember your army from the forum Kenny otherwise I would have come and said hi.

No worries Sky Serpent, perhaps next time we could arrange a time and place beforhand. Might be an idea to get some Dark City T-shirts made up for attending events.

Hers how my games went over the weekend from my rather cloudy recollection, it's an age thing, really.

Game 1. Capture and Control

Space Marines with Chaplin, 3 tactical squads, assault squad, 2 MM attack bikes, Landspeeder Tornado with HF, 2 Dreads, Vindicator, Thunderfire Cannon and ML Dev squad.

Turning point here was when he threatened my Hellion blob with the Landspeeder. Instead of taking it down with a lance I charged it with the Hellions who duly wrecked it. This left them open to a salvo from the Thunderfire and then a dismounted tactical squad. They failed morale and legged it. Still not too bad as my beast unit can slam into the tactical squad and I’d still be in good position. Beasts bounced totally not 1 wound, lost combat, failed morale and then got caught in the chase.
My Wyches bounce into a 1 wound attack bike with 28 attacks, do nothing lose combat and run.
I also lost 2 Raiders, 2 venoms and a Ravager to glancing hits during this game. Final straw was when my 2nd wych unit tried to charge into his dread to plant their HWG’s and rolled a 1 and 2 for difficult terrain. I lost.

Game 2 Annhilation
Imperial Guard with 2 melta command squads, Master of Fleet in 2 Chimera
4 Vets squads, 3 in Vendettas 1 in Chimera. 2 Leman Russ Executioners and 1 Battle Tank.
I made the mistake of going 2nd and full reserve here. No idea what I was thinking as with only 6 long range platforms I could possibly have had a successful Alpha strike.
As it turns out by T5 all I’ve done is immobilise 1 Vendetta, destroy another and make 1 vet unit run off. I am down 6 to 3 in killpoints but if I can take out 3 units in this turn I can squeeze a draw and with a bit of luck win this. I fire 7 lance shots, 5 from ravagers and 2 from raiders at 3 targets, I get 5 pens on a Leman Russ and roll 1’s and 2’s on them all. The other 2 lance shots at the immobilised and still active vendettas result in no damage rolls. I try peppering a vet squad with splinter fire but this bounces as well. I lose.

Game 3 Seize Ground 5 Tokens

Eldar with Yriel, Eldrad, Pathfinders, 3 Dire Avenger units, Fire dragons, 2 Falcons and 3 wave serpents.
I remove the pathfinders right away, knock down a skimmer and stun/shock a couple of others. He does very little. The fire dragons go down, some more bits get shot off his skimmers and the dire avengers that got out get shot down. This ends on T4 with me on 3 objectives and all he has are 2 immobile and weaponless skimmers left on the table.
Even here the dice are having a laugh. It takes Yriel or Eldrad (whatever one has a 3+ inv save) with only 1 wound takes 8 lance or blaster shots in the face and saves the lot.

Game 4 Annhilation

Necrons with destroyer and foot lords with Orbs. 2 x 10 warriors, 3 x 5 destroyers, 2 x 2 heavy destroyers.
I set up for the Alpha strike and he steels the initiative. I lose a ravager and get a venom immobilised but otherwise survive. I lay into the warriors and put a few down. Wipe one of the heavy destroyer squads, looking good. 12 out of 15 warriors stand back up. However the beasts have managed to contact a destroyer unit and take down 1 of them. Turn 2 I lose another venom and a couple of Hellions and I continue to fire away his army, getting rid of the other heavy destroyer unit and continue to eat my way through the destroyer unit with the beasts. Turn 3 he wipes the Hellions to a man leaving the baron on his own. The beasts finish the destroyers in his turn and head for the next destroyer unit which the baron also charges. These are wiped and the destroyer lord is escorted off the table buy the Baron. The rest of his army has been battered with blaster and splinter fire and eventually phases out at the start of his turn 4.

Game 5 Seize Ground 4 Tokens

Terminator Heavy Ultramarines. Libby, 2 x 10 Terminators 1 x 8 Terminators. 2 tactical squads.
I set up on 1 my RHS and he sets up 2 tactical squads on my LHS at the half way line. I come on and hammer them with lance and splinter fire removing 1 whole squad and 3 of the other. I keep the monoscythes for the terminators. He has elected to walk them on so his first turn results in nothing. I hammer away at his army with the beast in the course of the game taking down 4 terminators in a Thunderhammer and lightning claw unit, 7 tactical marines and 4 cyclone fist terminators from another unit. Only near thing was when the Libby and 5 ass cannon and storm bolter terminators gated towards the middle of the table and laid into the baron and hellions. They survived but lost combat but had taken them down to 2 terminators and the Libby. The remaining lances and splinter cannons finished them off in T 5 when I had 2 objectives under control.


So after 2 defeats I came back with 3 wipeout victories which was pretty good.
I would echo comments about the scenery being sparse on most tables with a distinct lack of BLOS on all tables. I never played on a table with more than 1 piece at best to hide a skimmer behind. 3 of my tables had no BLOS on them, which for the HQ of GW is pretty appalling actually. Apart from that a good weekend.

I went to WW the weekend after throne of skulls, and saw someones DE army in a display case... was that someone here?

Was it very loud ?

It was purple, and it had a razorwing, and it said something about throne of skulls.

I thought it said something about being an army from throne of skulls. And I was wondering how they managed to convince people to leave their army behind!

eavy metal makes a lot more sense really.

Yes, how did you guess?
But I live in Exeter now.

Have been meaning to say congrats to everyone who went and had a successful day, 3 wipeouts is pretty nice Kenny, but especially to Sorrowshard for picking up the award for Best DE General. Well done!

That army sounds like it was one of the best army nominees.

Purple with roses on a lot of the vehicles, a razorwing with an explosion covering one of its wings and dragons heads on its raiders by any chance?
If thats the one it's got a blog on warseer,

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=314276

The conversion work on it was awesome.

Did anyone see the Vect army that was packing 40 wyches? Apparently it made my Imperial Fist buddy extremely sad.

Raucir