Protección de la Propiedad Intelectual: Acuerdos Internacionales que incluyen IGs

Tournament 2007

P

eter Sanlon & Franklin Ginn command ‘The Dark

Guard’ on doubles tournament weekend.

Azrael, supreme commander of the dark angels launched a mighty attack at Alexandria Palace, London Doubles Tournament, on the third of June 2007. His force was composed of space marines and imperial guard. The tactical reports on the following three engagements are recorded for your enjoyment.

az r a e l’s force: Th e da r K gua r d

The idea behind the force was to utilise Azrael’s skill of conferring an invulnerable 4+ save on any squad he leads, by letting him command a squad of 50 conscripts!

The full army list is as follows:

Type Squad Wargear

HQ Azrael See Dark Angels codex Fast Speeder Assault Cannon, H. Bolter Troops 10 Marines 1 Missile launcher

HQ Commissar

Troops Conscripts x50

Troops Command Junior Officer Infantry Missile launcher Infantry Missile launcher Infantry Plasma Gun

This army list aims to intimidate with the sheer weight of numbers in the army; 98 models in total, with a heavy bolter, assault cannon, plasma gun and 3 missile launchers. The huge block of conscripts with a 4+ invulnerable save would challenge opponents to make a difficult decision – ignore it or try and shoot up a hoard of models that cost

only 4 points each, but have a terrific save? The first person to set up his army looked nervous, and was greatly relieved to be told by staff to move to a different table. The psychology was working before the competition began, but could the army win on the table?

ga m e on e

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m

: s

d

This was a formidable opponent; a well-balanced army with two exorcist tanks which took commanding positions on each wing of the army. They then proceeded to roll excellently every turn. As a result each tank managed to pour five or six rounds of shooting per turn into our forces. The hail of bullets caused us to fear for the safety of our fragile speeder. We foolishly gave in to fear and kept the speeder hiding the whole game. The speeder survived but killed nothing. Lesson learned; have more faith and courage!

The conscripts and Azrael performed well for the first three turns. They did exactly what we hoped; caused confusion and fear. The opponent was unsure whether to waste shots on them. As the conscripts advanced closer, our opponent began to panic and turned guns on them. Frustration ensued as the 4+ saves reduced the effectiveness of the shooting dramatically.

Our opponents then staged an admirable ploy. A squad of five space marine scouts had deployed in the middle of the board, armed with a power fist. This squad engaged the conscripts in close combat and effectively delayed the conscripts from reaching other enemies. Meanwhile, seraphim sisters swooped in

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to launch hit and run attacks. The marine commander powered up his jump pack and in turn four engaged Azrael in close combat. A mighty battle between commanders followed – a few pathetic saving rolls later and Azrael was dead. Before fleeing off the board, a conscript avenged his leader by stabbing the weakened enemy commander through with a bayonet. With the centre-piece of our army dead, our plans were shattered and we accepted that the Dark Guard had been defeated in game one. We retired to lick our wounds and consider what we had learned from defeat.

The highlight of the first match was when an imperial guard missile launcher immobilised the enemy venerable dreadnought, tooled up with a twin-linked las-cannon and extra armour. Such an upgraded veteran was worth a good few points!

ga m e Two

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&

m

: r

The enemy space marine army consisted of several ten men squads and a chaplain on bike with cohort brandishing a power fist. Fast close combat attack death!

This opponent tried shooting the conscripts with as much arms as they could muster. As a result they finished the game just under half strength – giving away 100 victory points. From our point of view, an acceptable price to pay for absorbing a huge amount of firepower that could have been used to destroy our missile launcher squads.

The enemy made the error of lining their troops along one wing of the board. We ignored the guard and shot the more valuable marines to pieces with missile launchers and plasma gun. Meanwhile, our speeder used line of sight to ensure that when he shot his heavy bolter at the bike squad, the only model he could see was the chaplain. This resulted in one dead chaplain and a very unhappy opponent. The Emperor continued to bless our battle. When the bike squad attacked our guard squad, the guard fought first (due to being in cover). One guardsmen commander rolled sixes to hit and wound; the bike marine rolled double one to save! It was a great relief to see him removed from play; the event was so against the odds that it made us feel guilty. Only a small bit though!

As the previous battle raged on, the conscripts marched up the centre of the board in a huge block, absorbing fire and looking intimidating.

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Firebase • issue  • July 2007

The game ended in victory for us, and was a model of how we hoped the tournament games to go. The conscripts in the centre of the board causing confusion and intimidation; the rest of our forces advancing on the wings. We realised that the defeat of the bike squad was lucky, but they had been softened up through strategic use of line of sight by the speeder’s gunner.

ga m e Thr e e

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: T

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Our opponent fielded a beautifully painted imperial guard army with d a e m o n h u n t e r s . Unfortunately for them, they placed too much faith in their tanks. On the left flank they advanced a rhino with their d a e m o n h u n t e r command in it; in the centre a squad of storm troopers advanced in a chimera. By the end of the first turn both tanks were destroyed by our three missile launchers. The troops stumbled out to a harsh battlefield. Our speeder sat exactly 36 inches away from the storm troopers, and began to mow them down with the heavy bolter. Out of range, or hidden from the rest of the enemy weapons, the speeder had a good two rounds of shooting. The storm troopers fell to the withering hail of fire.

Our conscripts were advancing en masse to the objective in the table centre. Enemy troops were engulfed in close combat, overcome by weight of numbers. The game looked all but over – then in turn three a bound daemon screamed from the warp and began munching through our marines! Ten of The Emperor’s finest had fallen before the

speeder could move to draw line of sight with an assault cannon. Even then it took two rounds of shooting to send the warp entity back where it belongs. Thus the final game of the day ended in victory to the Dark Guard, but they resolved in their next outing to be wary of daemons!