Coppa Boyz: Round One Summary!

Welcome to our first tournament review! We have been trying to get together for a while, and one of our friends, Shade, had recently started playing Necrons. We thought this would be a good way to teach him the rules and get some games in. Sadly, Blabbadon wasn’t able to attend. Perhaps next time he can and we’ll have more games to play.

Army Lists:

Tau:
Our Tau player, Pano, brought three squads of Fire Warriors, two 6-mans and one ten man. He also brought a Crisis Team and a Crisis Suit Commander.

Nercons:
The newest player, Shade, wasn’t able to bring much. Two 11-man squads of Necron Warriors and two units of Scarab Swarms.

Chaos Space Marines:
Remi brought a small force this time around, 9-man Khorne Berserker squad, a 5-man Chaos Marine squad and a Chaos Lord.

Imperial Guard:
I’ve been trying to work on a horde list for my Guard, this is what I ended up with. An Infantry Platoon with five squads, with a commissar, plus command squad, and an armored Sentinel.

GAME ONE: TAU VERSUS IMPERIAL GUARD
I admit I was worried to take on Panoption’s blue little bastards. He’s a good player, and I have terrible luck. This time, it appears the tables were turned. I deployed a blob with my commissar, and put the Autocannon squads in cover. The command squad was tucked behind the blob, ready to issue orders. The Tau only deployed the two small Fire Warrior squads and hid them in some ruins. As the game progressed, the blob slowly moved forward with assistance in the form of ‘Move! Move! Move!’ from the command squad. The blob ended up on the Tau end of the board, and engaged the larger Fire Warrior squad once it had arrived from reserves. The Crisis Team ended up deep striking in the middle of the table and was fired upon by just about everything that could get line-of-sight. It didn’t last long. The Crisis Commander ended up scattering off the table, to die from deep strike mishap. The blob was eventually brought down to just the commissar, who ended up running away. (He was later executed for this cowardly act.) The command squad ended up taking a few hits as well. After the dust cleared, the Imperial Guard controlled two objectives, while the Tau only had one. Win to the Guard.

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GAME TWO: CHAOS SPACE MARINES VERSUS NECRONS
Both players of this game didn’t have a lot of experience, so this game was one of the longest. Remigious’ Chaos forces tried to charge Shade’s Necrons, who had deployed in a bubble. The Scarab Swarms ended up engaging the Chaos Marines and the Berserkers in close combat, tying up both squads. One unit of Warriors ended up trapped in close combat with the Berserkers, making a headache of multi unit assault for all involved. The rhino, after dropping off the Berserkers, moved up to the second squad of Warriors, plinking away with its Havoc Launcher, its only surviving weapon. With the game deadlocked, the Chaos commander was given a flash of insight, and ended up Tank Shocking the unengaged Warriors. They passed their leadership, but choose not to try shooting the tank. It ended up behind them, and almost on top of the objective they were holding. What would have been a tie was now a victory for Chaos.

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GAME THREE: IMPERIAL GUARD VERSUS NECRONS
I have to admit, I was curious to see what would happen when I faced Necrons, having never had this chance before. It was interesting, to say the least. The Necrons deployed in their bubbles, to discourage use to the Plasma Cannon the armored Sentinel was lugging around. This tactic worked, to a degree. The blob once again ran out into the fray, after deploying in the back. They managed to slag one Warrior with a melta gun, before being counter-assaulted by one of the Scarab units. This speed bump slowed them down, but not for long. Meanwhile, the other Scarabs had locked the Sentinel in close combat, denying the Plasma Cannon a chance to fire. By the end of the game, the little robot beetles had torn the thing off, making the combat pointless for them. The blob engaged one of the Warrior units, where they remained until the end of the game. During all this, the Guard squads traded fire with the unengaged unit of Warriors, with neither side gaining an edge. But, in the end, the Guard controlled two objectives, the Necrons one, and another contested by the bloody hand-to-hand fighting. The Guard were on a roll.

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GAME FOUR: TAU VERSUS CHAOS SPACE MARINES
Panoption learned his lesson about deep striking from his earlier game with me, and deployed his forces in a firing line. Remigious’ troops had no choice but to duck for cover or rush him. They did both. The rhino charged forward, while the smaller squad hung back in cover, hoping the Tau wouldn’t notice them. This didn’t work. The Tau put out a withering amount of fire, from pulse rifles and plasma weapons. The forces of Chaos put up a brave fight, but in the end, couldn’t tolerate that much fire power. They lost both squads and all of the objectives. The Tau had avenged their earlier defeat.

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There was a week break between the first four games and the last ones. The first four had taken so long, we ended up having to wait until we could get back together to finish off the round. But now, there was a lot riding on the final two games of the round. Remi and Pano were tied, one win and one loss apiece. If Shade’s Necrons could pull of a win, there would have to be one last battle, to see who went home. It was also during this week that I realized my army list was 520 points, not 500… Oops.
(Of course, I had my own worries. I had easily taken my first two challengers, but that only made my last one try all the harder. Remi needed a win badly, to have a chance to advance.)

GAME FIVE: IMPERIAL GUARD VERSUS CHAOS SPACE MARINES
This was a game that would shape the next round, so I made sure to give it my all. As did Remi. The Chaos forces deployed in their usual fashion, with a unit of Berzerkers in the rhino with the Lord and the smaller unit of Chaos Marines set up a distance away. On the first turn, the rhino met a firery end, forcing the Khorne-lovers to hoof it across the board. The unit of Chaos Marines also made their way towards the gunline. The Guard had been set up with the 30-man unit to one side, and the Autocannon units on another, with the command squad lurking behind them. As the Chaos forces advanced, they shrugged off a huge amount of fire. They also took out the Sentinel and the Autocannon units. The smaller unit of Chaos Marines assaulted the larger unit of Guardsmen, during which another sarge met the business end of the Commissar’s bolt pistol. The Marines were eventually put down, and along with the command squad, brought down the last few Berzerkers in a hail of plasma and melta shots at the top of turn six. Victory for the Imperium, having tabled the dread forces of Chaos.

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GAME SIX: NECRONS VERUS TAU
Meanwhile, the Tau had another shooting battle going on. The Necrons stood up to the Tau’s fire, getting up time after time to continue the battle. The Tau were able to eliminate a unit of Scarabs, which ended up being a major error later on. The battle raged, with both sides exchanging fire from across the board. The Shade was able to out-fox Pano, and with the help of ending the game at the end of turn five, held two objectives to Pano’s one. Victory to the Necrons.

GAME SEVEN: NERCONS VERSUS CHAOS SPACE MARINES
Well, as I feared, the games weren’t over yet. With Shade’s win, he had tied with Remigious, and we had to have one last battle to see who would advance to the next round. Chaos played it smart, and hid the rhino when she could. The Necrons poured out fire whenever they could get line-of-sight. For some reason, the Berzerkers ditched their ride early on, and had to rush the Necron gunline. They finally got place, and ended up taking down a unit of Warriors in a vicious brawl. The rhino managed to make it to one of the objectives, to contest it. The unit of Chaos Marines held their ground, and objective through out the battle, and the Berzerkers, after wiping the Warriors, held another. The surviving unit of Warriors held an objective, but it just wasn’t enough. Chaos carried the battle and made it into round two.

Well, since I had made a mistake in the scoring, it turned out Shade, Remigious and Panoption were all tied for 2nd place. There was a final battle between Pano and Shade...

GAME EIGHT: NECRONS VERSUS TAU
(to be filled it later)

I was sad to Shade go. He just started playing, but he was hampered by his older codex. He did put up quite a fight and our game was a close one. I think he’ll be ready to win during the next tournament we run. Call it a hunch…

Well, there you have it folks. Necrons placed fourth and were out of the running. Remigious’ Chaos Space Marines managed to get in enough wins to squeak on in. Panopticon’s Tau suffered from some bad luck, but did fairly well. As for me, well, I got a clean sweep. I don’t know how I managed to do it, but I cleaned everyone’s clocks. I have a hunch I may not make it to the finals, but I’m just happy to make it this far.

Scoring:
Imperial Guard: 3 wins
Tau: 2 wins, 1 loss
Chaos Space Marines: 2 wins, 2 losses (including final game)
Necrons: 1 win, 3 losses (including final game)

Until time, readers. Round Two: CITIES OF DEATH!