Battle report - Warlords Tourney Walsall

[Da Boss]

First of all : A GREAT DAY out - extremely good fun and great organisation! Much thanks to all involved - fabulous!

Notable for Ken NOT being robbed! - I'll let him say more on this!

my day 8)

Game 1 Skirmish - I took Liati, Kutai and 2 Haven - facing a couple of Teshlan and some Nials. I was completely stupid at the start - wandering around with my ships and not really doing anything apart from getting them shot at by Nials!
Realised there was a gap in the asteroids and followed the Teshlans in with the Laiti which rapidly carved one Teshlan up. We danced around for 5 more turns before I could get a lock on the last ship with the Liati one point form being crippled! A good game with a opponent not used to the Minbari - but this did not show and fighter pilots able to fly in and out of Asteroid fields all day!

Game 2 Raid - Liati, 4 Demos, Elutarian.Vs Vorlons (ahhh scary Vorlons - dislike playing them as much as Minbari)
I tried desperatly to keep out of the beam arc using the planet as much as possible but to no avail on turn 2 the Elutarain was diced and barely survived by the destroyer. Two transports combine dtheir beam into a fully fledged lightning cannon and sliced demos in half. I began to dispair that I would even kill a ship! Next turn it all changed - the Liati and Demos avenged the Elutarin that died at the start of the turn and killed a transport and the destroyer even as a veritable swarm of fighter enveloped another Demos and killed it. Mopping up continued as the Vorlon ships quickly perished, their beams failing to connect - unlike their smaller fighter bretherin! As the last tranpsort persihed, 8 fighter surrounded the undamaged Liati and hit it with 19 beam hits! :shock: It survived but shocked me. My opponet kept going to the last, battering the Liati again before it and the survivng Demos unleashed their full armement to kill all but one fighter - the game closed as the Vorlon streaked in to attack for one last time - 4 beam hits later and the Liaiti battered but functional tore it from the void.

Final game - against my previous compatriot in the Mongoose Doubles tourney! Liati, Primus, Primus, Demos (x4), Balvarin, Maximus, Corvan
Only 6 Narn ships made me happy -especailly the two G'qoun - always a relief :wink: - much less so the G'Varhn!!!
A good sized table meant we had a good few turns of manuevere as I used the terrai to approach and flank, then shifting back on myself on one flank to smite an impudent Varnic that had left the safety of its fleet. Having split the Narn fleet up I launced the assault - starting hammering one Gqoun for little response and all looked rosy. Then the G'Varn came baout and lined up it Mag Gun- Digger grinned as he rolled for the 4 dice beam on the lead Primus about to finish the G'qoun. Twenty hits later and the Primus was vapourised and the fight as on - I swapped another Primus (to the G'Varns beam) but killed all but one G'qoun (no front arc left) and as the game ended had the G'vahn with power fluctuations and 4 pts of damage left. A lone Narn fighter pilot was the hero of the regime as he absorbed fire for the remaining G'Qoun for the whole game! A win but it was closer than I had anticpated!

So the tournament had ended and I had had immense fun with three great opponents - courtoeus and helpful to a fault - thanks guys

The awards began and to my surprise I came third - 8)

It was a great day with many highlights including:
Good sized tables with plenty of very well made terrain,
we played people not form home in every round
a very good format that worked very very well

I have much to try and emulate in our own tournament! 8)

 

[Grunvald]

Heh!

Think my 2nd game against you was the most inrteresting of the day!

My 1st game was great facing off against ISA!
But i think my Vorlons where charging up there beam cannons for your game because due to a lack of consecutive hitting i did very little all game!! (it didnt help that the white stars and blue stars kept running away!!)

And my final game agains tthe Brakiri was fun but very short lived!!!
I shot! i hit! it went BANG!!!

Sorry Funbeast!!

Great day overall!

Lets hopoe i do better next time!!

PS Pics to follow within a day or two!!

 

[KennyBoy]

I second Da Boss' comments, an excellently put together tourney!

My Fleet consisted of a White Star Carrier, 2 White Star, 2 White Star II, 4 Blue Star and 2 Dag'Kar from my Narn allies.

Game 1 vs Darren's (AKA:Grunvald) Vorlons.
5pt Skirmish RESCUE

I took the 2 White Star II thinking to use their carried Nials to good effect against the 6 Vorlon fighters that accompanied Grunvald's 4 transports. This was, of course, a mistake as the Vorlon fighters have the Advanced Anti-Fighter Trait, and so would likely kill any foolish Nial that tried to get close...
Having only played the ISA once before, I was still a little too cagey with them and, as Grunvald pointed out, I did indeed run away after the 1st Turn of firing!
However, lesson learned that you DO NOT go head-to-head with Vorlon beamy goodness, I rallied my troops and re-engaged. I have to say that, despite Grunvald's Init mod being 2 points higher than mine, the latter stage of the battle saw me win initiative for about three consecutive turns, which is always a good thing (well, for me anyway )!
Unlucky dice rolls on his beam attacks, compounded with my good fortune with Dodge rolls meant that, after the pesky fighters had been seen off by the Accurate guns of the Blue and White Stars, the Transports were summarily picked off... I have to apologise to Grunvald for my poor sportsmanship near the end of the game; I was a little TOO gleeful about killing his ships (Sorry chap) ! It's just that I was SO relieved to have survived my earlier error, which coulkd have seen a very early win for the Ancient ones.
Result = 20-0 to the ISA

Game 2 vs Shane's (AKA Star-Lynx) ISA.
5pt Raid ASSASSINATION

Shane and I had almost identical fleets, but with one difference. Whereas I had 4 Blue Stars to back-up my 2 WS & 2 WSII's, Shane had a Dag'Kar!
The board was setup with a small planet in the middle, which turned out to be the difference maker in the battle...
Shane had his White Stars grouped into 2 X 2 squadrons, I decided to put all mine into one big group (I'm subtle like that :twisted: )
With the Dag'Kar sitting ominously at the back, I decided to throw a Blue Star to the dogs and dangled it provocatively within range of the E-Mine of doom, and Shane obliged by nuking the annoying little Blue ship into its component pieces!
Right, I thought, I've got one turn to get that Dag'Kar before it could fire it's ISA killer again...
Shane only really made one error that I could see, and that was to not use the planet's gravity well to good effect. The extra turn (like WS's need any more turning power!) and the additional 3" move meant that I got three of my WS's past one of his squadrons and within beam range of the Dag'Kar (again, it didn't hurt that I'd be firing first this turn 8) )
The Triple Damage beams ripped the Narn ship apart, and the redirected fire from the four lots of Pulsars meant that one of his WS dis-appeared and another was in serious trouble...
After that, with three Blue Stars as Init sinks and winning initiative again (just to rub salt into the wounds) the squadron chased down their opponents and sent them to the One...
Result 20-0 to the ISA

Game 3 vs Andy's (AKA: Shut up hippie) Shadows.
5pt Battle SPACE SUPERIORITY

To say that I was not looking forward to tackling the Shadows would be an understatement! However, it turned out that lady luck was on my side (as she had been all day, truth be told) and it all worked out to the good.
Basically, I had the same fleet as the previous battle, but added a Dag'Kar of my own, and the rather groovy White Star Carrier. Andy had a Young ship, a Stalker and four scouts.
Andy arrayed his scouts inti 2 x 2 squadrons behind a dust cloud on his side of the board, and kept his "big guns" in hyperspace. I had my WS squadron, the Dag'Kar and WS Carrier setup on my side and the four Blue Stars, in a squadron, in hyperspace.
Andy started out in good Shadow fashion and remained hidden behind the dust cloud, waiting to see what I did, he announced that the big boys would appear next turn, but, of course, didn't have to say where. The ISA crews started looking around nervously...
Announcing that the four BS' would open Jump Points, I cheesily placed all four around Andy's best scout (2 self-repair and 5+ Dodge) and hoped to get one, maybe two successes... The ISA's CQ of +1, added to typically jammy rolling meant that three out of four ships managed to catch the scout within their jump point shock waves and 24 dice of Triple Damage ensued, resulting in 8 hits :twisted: that should do it, I thought...
However, rolling the 8 hits saw 5 dinks and no criticals, so the ship, though badly damaged, survived to fight another day.
It was the next turn where things started going wrong for Andy, the Ship and stalker turned up off the starboard side of the WS squadron only to see all of their beam hits get Dodged, the wounded Scout was further assaulted by the newly appeared Blue Stars, though still not enough to kill it (bloody shields) and the White Star fighters were starting to make a nuisance of themselves.
After that, as Andy himself realised later on, he made the mistake of splitting his forces to such a degree that no ship had any cover from its fellows, and allowed me to focus on one ship at a time... The high point for the Shadows was the beam attack on the Dag'Kar that I removed before Andy had finished rolling, it had got to 12 or 13 hits and he still had a couple of dice left :shock:
The high point for the ISA was the beam attack from the WS Carrier on the Shadow ship a couple of turns later... also 12 hits, but 6 of those were criticals! Combined with the re-rolled Pulsars, the Shadow ship took 74 points of damage (a few WS fighters had already removed its Shields) leaving it on 1 point left :twisted:
Though Andy had a fully functioning Scout remaining, we called it there, as the ISA had only lost 2 White Stars and a single Blue Star
Result 20-0 to the ISA

Three great games (the first one being a bit touch and go) against three good opponents. Luck, as in all things, played a big part in the games, staying by my side all day, and abandoning my opponents at just the wrong time.
After this, I may have to change my signature... though i'm sure robbage will ensue the next time :wink:
Look forward to the next one Warlords, well done fellas! 8)

 

[Digger]

An excellent day - Looking forward to the next one!

Cheers Guys!

Digger.

 

[KennyBoy]

If one of you talented Walsall chaps could put up how you organized your excellent tourney, us boys dahrn sarf would love to emulate your formula... a couple of the Sentient Rabbits would also be interested. 8)

 

[TGT]

we were told to move along quickly from the church
not sure if that was a threat from the tourney chaps or a genuine problem with the youths
but anyway we chatted in the car park...always known for their safety!!
about setting our tourneys up to your high standard so yes please tourney points and finer details would be most appreciated!

 

[Star-Lynx]

TGT sorry we only had the church booked till 17.30 and it was coming towards that time for lock up , so quick exit stage left for all of us.

Anyway has the first wooden whitestar winner :roll: , even if I put on a good face, I was gutted at my luck and my dice (several comments at those dice going back of the cupboard and not seeing the light of day for two years)

My rangers at the weapon consoles must have come from BRA (Blind Ranger Association), my Improved Neutron Lasers kept on missing or caused three points of damage. :x

but I did enjoy playing against Digger, Trigg and that annoying big guy called Ken! (dam copycat stole my idea for fleet selection), the only problem with the games were of cause lady luck patting the backs on my opponents while she was giving me the middle finger. :evil:

looking interested for the next tournaments (darkness rising and the coriana one) where hopefully I come back with a vengence.

 

[Clanger]

I loved it a lot even though I got my butt handed to me by those pesky Shadowy things. Took ages to kill that bloody Corumi and got spanked by the 2 squadrons of 2 Teshlan, 2 Tigara) x 2. My Earth Force Crusade did not stand a chance. (Should have stuck with Drakh mutter mutter).

I found it was a well organised and friendly tourney. Speaking in the safety of the ncp carpark the way the tourney ran we would like to get a standard for scoring system for fan tourneys. With the Pesky Wabbits, Greg Crew and the Warlords in a nice triangle we can all come up with a set of tourney rules for us all.

Also we discussed maybe each group running a tourney or 2 every year as I think we have a good core of players in these regions.

So to all the Warlords THANK YOU for a great memorable tourney. (Well the first where Ken was NOT robbed)

 

[Funbeast]

First things first, A big thank you to the guys who turned up on the day.
It was nice to meet all of you finally.
The guys from the Warlords all had a great day and hope you all did too.
We enjoyed ourselves so much we are definitely going to be putting on more events, hopefully two a year from now on and hope to see you again.
On a personal note I’d like to say thank you to Jim and Paul for two great games and beating me soundly…..I let you win…..honest…..(sulks quietly). :roll: :wink:

1st = KennyBoy :shock:
2nd = TGT
3rd = Da Boss
Sportsmanship award = Cuthalion
Best painted fleet = Digger
Wooden whitestar award = Starlynx


The basic format was worked out along these lines.
Players for the first game were drawn randomly.
At the end of each game each players Admiralship score (from the VP+/- table below from the tourney pack) was added to their ships lost/destroyed +/_ score and their Sportsmanship score to give a final total for that game.
All these scores were then totalled for final positions for each player.
In the case of an overall tie for either 1st,2nd and 3rd it went to ships lost/destroyed then ships destroyed then sportsmanship, if the position was still tied we would have had to think up a way around it on the spot.
In the case of a tie for the sportsman ship award if one player in the tie had already won one of the other trophies the person they were tied with would get the sportsmanship award, this may seem a little unfair but we generally like to see as many people go away with a trophy as possible.


Game result Victor Vanquished
Draw 10 10
Win by less than 10 VP’s 13 7
Win by 10 or more VP’s 17 3
Win by 25 or more VP’s 20 0

The way players were assigned opponents for the second and third games is a version of the standard cross reference of points….so I’m told.
The clerical work on the lap top was Martins job on the day as he’s run many different tournaments and I’m not really sure how it was worked out but it probably involved magic or some kind of satanic ritual best left in his hands. 8)


And so it begins

[/img]

Centauri supremacy......Apparently

[/img]

Jim using ISA yet moving like a Drakh

[/img]

Last minute planning for Andy

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

Minbari and Brakiri play follow the leader

[/img]

[/img]

[/img]

Shane wishes

[/img]

TGT stares down the enemy

[/img]

[/img]

Martin bloke behind the scenes

[/img]

Liati's out manouvered

[/img]

Corumai chase cam

[/img]

Stressed gamers

[/img]

Triggy in action

[/img]

Sportsmanship award- Dean Mellors

[/img]

Best painted fleet award - Andrew Gardner

[/img]

3rd Place - Charles Lister

[/img]

2nd place - Neil Hopkins

[/img]

1st place - Ken Chambers

[/img]




[/img]

 

[M1ndr1d3rs]

@ Da Boss:
your Centauri definitely looks orange this time :lol:
Congratz though :wink:

 

[TGT]

great we have a winning format the bunnies aka SR all signed up to have this as their standard from next year

The basic format was worked out along these lines.
Players for the first game were drawn randomly.
At the end of each game each players Admiralship score (from the VP+/- table below from the tourney pack) was added to their ships lost/destroyed +/_ score and their Sportsmanship score to give a final total for that game.
All these scores were then totalled for final positions for each player.
In the case of an overall tie for either 1st,2nd and 3rd it went to ships lost/destroyed then ships destroyed then sportsmanship, if the position was still tied we would have had to think up a way around it on the spot.
In the case of a tie for the sportsman ship award if one player in the tie had already won one of the other trophies the person they were tied with would get the sportsmanship award, this may seem a little unfair but we generally like to see as many people go away with a trophy as possible.


Game result Victor Vanquished
Draw 10 10
Win by less than 10 VP’s 13 7
Win by 10 or more VP’s 17 3
Win by 25 or more VP’s 20 0

 

[Funbeast]

Whoops, Can't beleive i didn't post this pick :lol:

Wooden Whitestar award - Shane Tarbuck, looking major league CAMP :shock: :lol: :roll: :wink:

[/img]

 

[Delthos]

What were the requirements for receiving the coveted "Wooden Whitestar Award"!?

I gotta agree, those ships definitely look orange in these pics.

 

[captainsmirk]

Some nice looking fleets there, although someone seems to have stolen the Minbari's fighters...

Arrrgggghhhh!!!!!! Nial thieves!!!! There everywhere!!!!

:lol:


Nick

 

[M1ndr1d3rs]

And are there pics of the "wood-star"? :lol:

 

[Da Boss]

red red red red red red red (it says so on the pot!)

A Brakiri merchant is talking to the Centauri Lord

Wistles through teath "Well My Lord, it did say red on the pots, and now its on it's going to cost a packet to repaint it Boss...........tell you what, cos I am a generous man I'll throw in some genunine red Narn skin sofas, can't say fairer than that.............."

 

[Star-Lynx]

well mr dale, major camp or major break down in disgust! (it was my happy face)

wooden whitestar = wooden spoon, enough said

but I did enjoy the day thank you.

 

[Funbeast]

Don't worry Shane we still love you........camp....i mean happy face and all 8) :lol:


And in Da Boss' favour they do look more red in the flesh. 8)

 

[Triggy]

Some nice looking fleets there, although someone seems to have stolen the Minbari's fighters...

Arrrgggghhhh!!!!!! Nial thieves!!!! There everywhere!!!!

:lol:


Nick

LOL, they were actually my Falkiosi - I didn't have enough time to assemble them and paint my fleet, so the incredible cloaked Brakiri fighters came out instead.

BTW, I did manage to steal the Tigara (well, captured it anyway)

 

[Centauri_Admiral]

I'm pretty pleased that none of us Warlords came in the top three, as daft as that may sound, but believe you me it was NOT for the want of trying.

There was one award that was mine right from the start of the day, a special award really, somewhat the opposite of the Best Sportsman . . . . . Best National Socialist . . . . I really was quite touched actually . . . . but then me dale get up to allsorts! :twisted:

On a serious note, it was good to see some familiar faces . . . . and some I've not seen before [TGT], and all round the quality of play was very high. Our club, the Warlords of Walsall, is by nature a VERY competitive environment . . . reflected I think in our fleet choices and tactics, which are normally always geared up towards all out attack. It was nice to see some more "inspired" choices, which managed to take the wind out of my Liati based sails on two occasions. Also some interesting methods were witnessed, mainly mapping out, which none of us have used before . . . . myself and a couple of other from the Warlords were remarking how we have a somewhat lax approach to positioning . . . which when we thought about it, contributed to our downfall. Lessons learned all round I think.

I still can't reconcile whether I should have taken a fourth Liati though . . . . . . . . . . .