The Astronomican's 1st Birthday!

Well, the Astronomican is officially one!

A year of blogging has seen me write 50 posts and hopefully add some interesting stuff for the blogosphere to read. I had hoped to find time to do a round up of some of the first years highlights, but real life has defeated my urge to blog once again. Needless to say I want to thank all who have taken the time out to read my humble efforts, the 72 followers that I am amazed to have, and especially all those who take the time to leave comments! You guys make the whole process more than worthwhile.

Alas this Dark Angels cake is not mine, but dear God I wish it was!

Some of you might have realised that it's been a long time since my last posting, almost a month. Well I'm sad to say that since leaving university life has come exceptionally busy - to the extent that I barely have time to either paint or game, much less write blog posts.

Up to this point my aim has been to try to write around 4 blog posts a month, and leave as many comments on other blogs as I am able. I am now struggling to achieve even this, so I'm afraid you will all be hearing a lot less of The Astronomcian for the foreseeable future. Whilst this is no huge loss I'm sure, I do appreciate that some of you out there have taken a great interest in my corner of the hobby, and I wanted to explain why things will be getting quieter! I will still be putting updates when I can, but they will be fewer and further between.

Anyway, returning to the Astronomican's Birthday posting, I thought I would finally bring you the final installment in my WPS tournament report...

WPS Club Challenge: After Action Report (Part 4)

Game 3 - Eldar

Capture & Control - Spearhead

This was a game I was looking forward to as soon as I saw my opponent - Eldar. I was pleased not to be facing Marines, and I had never actually played against Eldar, despite having an army of my own.

My opponent had a fairly balanced force, with lots of elements that gave me pause for thought - namely the Fire Dragons, Dark Reapers and War Walkers with Star Cannons.

I, of course, was using my 1500pts Tourni List.

Launching an all out assault with my Crusader, Belial, Command Squad and Ravenwing, the game went well from the beginning. A crucial point was when his Fire Dragons and Wave Serpent only managed to knock a few guns off my Crusader, leaving it mobile and ready to deliver Beilal and co. into the fray; slaughtering several Eldar squads that were advancing towards my objective. Belial and his squad were even able to best a Wraithlord in combat and, when the second Terminator squad arrived to bolster the advance, victory seemed certain.

To add insult to my opponents injury, I was able to block an expensive unit of Pathfinders sniping my objective by using the Rhino to form a cheap roadblock. My opponent sent 4 turns trying to rend the Rhino, to no avail.

However despite the fact that my Deathwing reached the enemy's objective (right in his back corner) and contested it in turn 5, victory was not to be mine. In a move that would make Fritz of Way of Saim-Hann proud, the now badly damaged Wave Serpent swooped in to contest my objective on the 5th turn, just as the game promptly ended. Given more time my Deathwing would have been able to finish off the few remaining Eldar on their objective, sealing the game, but victory was stolen with the roll of a dice!

Draw!

Despite the draw on this game I did enough damage to earn 19 points out of 30. This left me on a tally of 62 out of a possible 90 for the first 3 games. Not bad I thought, as Saturday ended and we all went off to get trashed...

Game 4 - Daemon Hunters

Seize Ground - Spearhead

First game on Sunday morning and I was facing off against the Chairman of the Spiky Club of Reading (UK), a group I may be visiting soon now that I have left the Bristol Vanguard behind. A lovely guy with a pure Grey Knight army that gave me no end of trouble.

Have not played against GKs since 3rd Ed., I was swiftly reminded of the damage they can do - especially to marine armies. This is one of the forces that can beat me at my own game, with GK Terminators laughing in the face of Belial's charges.

I didn't take many notes in this game, mainly because I was focusing on damage limitation. A badly timed early combat saw most of my Deathwing being wiped out, and without my main assault force I was rapidly put on the defensive. Despite my best efforts Physcannons and Meltabombs took their toll and my forces simply couldn't fight back effectively.

By turn 6 I only had 3 Tactical marines remaining, huddled into cover, whilst the majority of the GK were swooping on objectives across the board. This was the closest I had ever come to being tabled in my gaming career, and I was not a fan of the feeling!

Grey Knight Victory

Despite my dramatic loss, I was able to pick up some bonus tournament points, for killing off HQ's and most expensive units etc. Because of this, game 4 rendered me with 14 points, A result I knew I was lucky to get! This was compared to my opponents score of 24.

Game 5 - Choas Space Marines

Annihilation - Dawn of War

Reaching the last game I was amused to see I was facing another Nurgle based army in a Kill Point game (rather like Game 2). This was the one mission where I should excel, and both times I had encountered armies just as hard as mine!

Again I didn't take as many photo's & notes as I would have liked, so I'll recall what I can from memory. Rather like the last game, this one started badly for me. My Ravenwing bikers were wiped out in the second turn, and the enemy managed to get a quick charge off with his Daemon Prince into my Tactical Marines. By turn 3 he was deep into my table half and I was on the ropes.

However, in a stunning display of just how resilient the Deathwing can be, I was able to pull off three Crusader/Deathwing charges in the game - saving my Tactical Marines and destroying the Daemon Prince, 2 Marine squads and the hated Obliterators. Meanwhile my Attack Bike and Landspeeder merrily sniped off Rhinos and the enemy Land Raider - with only the Attack bike going down in the process. The game went all the way to turn 7, by which time the tally was 7 kill points to 2 in my favour!

The Deathwing Advance Victorious

This was probably one of the most stunning comebacks I've had to date and, if memory serves, I scored something like 34 points in the game. This was however capped to 30 - but still, maximum points is maximum points! And great way to end an awesome weekend.

Dark Angels Victory

Unfortunately we had to leave the venue before the results were announced, so I had to wait until they were posted online before I could see how I did.

After a few days or so the WPS released the results and I was very surprised to find I had placed 8th out of 39. My final 30 point win, combined with full marks for sportsmanship and one off full marks for painting (woohoo!) had pulled me out of the middle ranks and placed me firmly in the top quarter. Not at all bad for my first tournament! I cant help but wish I had done better against those pesky Grey Knights...

So that finally wraps up my WPS report. I hope you had half as much fun reading my reports as I had playing the games! I will definitely be trying to get to more tournaments if time allows, and I will certainly go armed with my camera.

In other news...

I hope to be able to post a painting update soon. My last Deathwing squad is taking forever (as usual), but I am now on the last model. I'm also painting up my objective markers, and they are turning out very nicely indeed. So keep you eyes peeled for at least one update soon.

Anyway, thanks once again for reading The Astronomican - heres hopeing I am around this time next year!