UK 40k GT Heat 2 - Report: Game 6

So, going into the last game, here is how it stands. I'm currently sitting just above mid table with 2 wins, 2 losses, a draw and a strong victory points count back due to smash victories against my first 2 opponents and picking up some points against Rob. So now it comes down to one game. If I win, I qualify comfortably, if I draw, I just scrape in, I lose and I'm probably out. And to be honest, it doesn't get much harder than this.


I'm playing against James 'the Master/Disaster' Taylor, the reason for his former name being that he is the current UK Masters champion, aka, the winner of a tournament comprising of the top 16 players in the UK according to RankingsHQ, and although I'm tired and was sick in a gutter that morning, I had to be on top of my game.

My objective however was to scrounge as many points from this round as I could, hoping I could just squeeze in. In the room there were 2 players running FMC Daemons, my 5th round opponent was one, James was the other. In a randomly selected tournament, where pairings are random, the odds of me playing both of them in 2 games are something like 1/1,700. But it wasn't random, curses.

So, I castle up again, but shove my Spawn out on the far side for Linebreaker. I hope to get lucky against the Daemon Princes again however because it's night fight and he's rammed them in some trees I give him first turn so I have more time to kill the DPs if I am so fortunate.

So essentially, I get that Linebreaker, I charge up in the corner of the board with the Spawn as far away from the Daemon Princes as I can. The plan starts well, I brutalise one Daemon Prince with fire and knock it down to a position that should my Lord survive the combat, I am confident that I can take him down, especially with the re-roll from the clapping buddies. However I've split him from the squad for an extra shooting unit to down creatures.

However, the Lord fails a 4" charge so the Marines go in alone and the Champion dies.

I can't take this through stage by stage so I'll just describe the carnage. The Daemon Prince goes through the Marines while another picks on the Lord. The Cultists get the one that's been knocked down whilst the Warlord hits the Screamers, killing them and a Lord of Change. The Heldrake kills a porta-potty but at the end of the game all I have left is the stripped Heldrake and the Spawn.

I get Linebreaker, and 1pt for killing a Daemon Prince while he has 2 objectives, 2 for killing Heavy Supports and full for secondaries.

Now the final results:

I actually come away with my first prize at a non-GW tournament, taking best Chaos Space Marine player. In addition, I finish 23rd, with 50 tickets sold. However, only 44 people turned up for day 2. So the top 22 players qualify. So I am one place off qualifying, which I was really disappointed with as that was my goal but then there wasn't really much I could have done in my last 2 games, the only thing I could have really done much about was the 4th game as I see it as I made a couple of sloppy plays there looking back.

But best Chaos Player, and one place off qualifying, plus I played some heavyweights of the scene like Rob, Tom and James. So I learnt a lot, plus it saved my wallet so now I'm going to Death or Glory instead. Score.

To be honest though it really was a great event and I really really enjoyed this one. I feel far more confident in my play. In the past my struggle has been to get running. I've spoken to quite a few people who've played me in the past and one theme is that I roll with momentum. Apparently when I get running in a game it's very difficult to bring it back, however the opposite also applies, and when a game starts to get away I struggle, although I am capable of bringing it back around against some opponents.

And realistically, I think the same applies in tournaments, I've struggled to get going in day one and generally start and finish in mid-table obscurity, at least this time I had a whiff of the top tables. And I liked it.