UK Nationals Report

[tjpandv]

We held the UK Nats on Saturday with Richard Early (Rearly) ending up the winner and Wayne Mac coming second. A total of 18 players showed up which is well down on last year. That said, only a few players were new to the game and I would say that the standard was higher than normal as there were no easy games to be had.

I managed to get to the quarter finals but was undone by a dust storm. I'll put up my report in a while. Tom finished 9th (for the second tear runnning!). We both had a great time and it was good to see the UK's core MW players travelling and taking the time to make it such a good event.

In the meantime, I've put together a write up on the final which was a great game and went right down to the wire. Richard lost to Wayne in the 2005 final. Wayne was the winner in 2005 and runner-up in 2006. I couldn't think of 2 better players to face each other in the final.

Wayne Mac

Jack+LE Julz (recruit to HS)
2 HS Carnivores
2 x HS Bishops
4 x HS TTLs
HS Combat Techs
HS Minigun Cycle

Richard

2 x HL Hadurs
5 x ROTS Minigun Cycles
ROTS Angerona BA
ROTS Elite Inf
ROTS Malice/Niedermeyer/Coolant Pod.
ROTS Gun Nest
ROTS Combat Techs

DEPLOYMENT

Wayne won player 1 and the terrain layout ended up with 2 pieces of blocking on one side of the table and some water and hindering on the other. Wayne placed both blocking pieces and Richard laid out the others (using GF9 pieces).

Richard’s Malice was on his left flank with 2 lines of infantry flanking his 2 Hadurs. The Minigun Cycles were covering his right and the Shock Troopers were positioned supporting his Malice. Wayne’s 2 Bishops were placed to the rear of the blocking (1 containing a Carnivore, the other 3 x TTLs) with the second Carnivore and his remaining foot to their right. Jack infiltrated forward near to the blocking.

Richard played Caverns to Wayne’s Perfect Day, so the terrain remained untouched.

TURN 1

Wayne opened up with dropping the 3 TTLs behind the blocking and firing 2 of them at the Hadur formation. His Bishop/Carnivore and Jack moved up the side of the blocking.

Richard responded to the POGs by moving his Hadurs to the rear. The Shock Troopers moved to the edge of the water, the Minigun Cycles moved into the gap between the water and the blocking. The Malice ran up alongside the water and just short of the hindering terrain.

VC1 VC2 VC3
WAYNE 0 600 0
RICHARD 0 600 0

TURN 2

Wayne’s POGs all landed on target but miss their intended victims which had moved away. Wayne places more POGs under the Minigun Cycles and the Malice. Jack runs into the corner.

Richard continues to run his Malice and it ends up in Wayne’s endzone – the Coolant Pod is used to good effect and the heat problem goes away. Richard’s Hadurs open up their account by targeting Jack and the Carnivore.

VC1 VC2 VC3
WAYNE 0 600 0
RICHARD 0 600 0

TURN 3

Wayne’s POGs hit the Miniguns but their reactive armour protects them from any damage. The Mailce’s second run move had taken it well away from the other POGs. Wayne’s Bishop picks up the 3 TTLs. The lone Carnivore decides to avoid the artillery token and moves away to follow the Bishop. Jack then assaults one of the Hadurs but misses. Jack passes his heat rolls and is still within 6 inches of the nearby blocking terrain.

Richard’s Hadur misses the Carnivore (even with the IT re-roll). The Malice picks up 1 VC3 and kills the lone TTL. Richard repairs his pushed Hadur. Three of Richard’s infantry leave the Hadurs and make for Jack.

VC1 VC2 VC3
WAYNE 0 574 0
RICHARD 26 600 1


TURN 4

Wayne pushes one of his Bishops and drops the Carnivore. The range is too great to hit the Hadurs but the Elite infantry is hit for 4 damage. Jack vents and the Minigun Cycle bases the Malice.

Richard’s Malice scores a further VC3. His 3 ROTS inf fire at Jack but miss. The Malice melees the Minigun and it is destroyed. Richard’s miniguns move in and base the Bishop and the Carnivore. Finally, Richard fires one of his Hadurs at the Carnivore and Bishop – risking the lives of his Minigun Cycles.

VC1 VC2 VC3
WAYNE 0 563 0
RICHARD 37 600 2

TURN 5

Jack fires at the nearest Hadur and misses – one of the nearby infantry is hit instead as an alternative target. Wayne’s second Bishop drops the TTL formation and 3 TTLs fire at both Hadurs and the pushed ROTS infantry (NOTE – Wayne used 5 orders this turn and it was not picked up until next turn when one of the TTL strikes targeting the Inf formation was removed.).

One of the Hadur strikes drifts onto the Carnivore and deal 2 damage. Richard’s Malice continues to pick up VC3 points but chooses to cool on this occasion. The formation of Shock Troopers move towards the blocking terrain to threaten the Carnivore. Richard sees the amount of artillery that is targeted at his Hadurs and decides to move away from the firezone.

A great deal of pressure is being applied by Richard’s infantry. Although his Malice has accounted for the only kills at this stage, it is far away from the action. Similarly, Wayne’s mech is having little bearing on the battle.

VC1 VC2 VC3
WAYNE 0 563 0
RICHARD 37 600 3

TURN 6

The POGs fired at the Hadurs are accurate, but once again, the targets had shifted. Jack closes in with the Hadur and scores 3 damage in hand to hand. The Carnivore hits a Minigun Cycle for 4 damage. Two more TTLs fire at the pushed Hadur formation.

The Malice all but secures VC3 for Richard with its 4th point. It then assaults the Carnivore but misses – the Combat Techs are destroyed as the alternate target. A Minigun bases 2 of the TTLs and the Shock Troopers leap over the blocking to base the Carnivore.

VC1 VC2 VC3
WAYNE 0 552 0
RICHARD 51 600 4

TURN 7

Both TTL strikes hit, killing 1 and salvaging the second Hadur. Jack shoots and finishes this one off. The Carnivore fails to break and a TTL fails to hit a Minigun Cycle in hand to hand combat. The lone Carnivore attempts to move away from the Malice but remains in its assault range.

Richard’s 3 ROTS infantry take another shot at Jack and miss. The Malice vents but picks up another VC3.

During Turn 7, the BM gives the final warning over time remaining so the players realise they are within 5 minutes of the game finishing. For the first time, Richard is behind in the game and there is little time left.

VC1 VC2 VC3
WAYNE 96 563 0
RICHARD 37 504 5

TURN 8

The Carnivore fails to break a second time (I’m not sure if this is an error in my notes or whether the tank did in fact receive 3 orders over 3 turns). One of the TTLs hits a Minigun cycle but another one fails his HtH attack.

Richard’s miniguns deal out 2 damage to the Bishop but prior to this, his Shock Trooper formation had captured the Carnivore. A huge swing in VC2 and it was just then that the game ended.

VC1 VC2 VC3
WAYNE 96 480 0
RICHARD 37 504 5

The other semi final army (which defeated me in the quaters) was:

HK Scourges + Horiama
HK Scourge + Sutoku
CNC Bishop
SC Enyo
HK Raiden
DF Hadur
CNC Thunderbird BA
True Grit

I didn't list the 4th army but it was a pair of HL Hadurs and Tremor Thor (with streak missiles). I think it pushed Richard reallly close in the semi.

[tjpandv]

As for my own tale of woe, I went along with the following:

Jack/LE Julz
CW Thor/De Jesus/IT
3 x CW SRM Teams
3 x SW Undine BA
True Grit

Round 1 was against a new player who had been told the wrong format. He had scraped together a ROTS Malice and 4 ROTS tanks but had no PCCs or missions (or terrain!). He had a tough day but did pick up the fellowship along with another player from hi club. Anyway, newbie or not, I got a 4-0 win and went to table 1.

Round 2 was against Wayne Mac with his Steiner TTL and Carnivore drop army. He'd beaten Tom in Rd 1 so I had to try and even things out. He had the range on me with his drops and only the Thors first few clicks of blue armour would protect me from the TTLs. I decided to play Rocky Terrain - Wayne played a mission. I did have Caverns in my hand but thought that those drops really needed to be dealt with.

It was still an incredibly tight game. I had to keep my Thor's heat under control but did find 1 loose TTL which I dealt with. Everytime the Thor went looking for a target, it was met with a hail of POGs but Wayne wasn't getting any crit hits to deal damage. Eventually, Wayne scores a crit which primes the Thor but he then follows up by charging with a hot Jack Nighstalker. Jack hits the Thor which rips off his armour. The game is coming to an end and my Thor survives the POGs. Wayne gets VC3 and VC4 but I take VC1 and 2. I stay on table 1 and next up is...

Round 3 - Richard Early. Richard's army is posted on the finals review. I did consider playing Caverns but with so much artillery around, I went for Active Volcanoes (no one had brought an Ares, so it was a throw away card for me). Well, I thought I'd played Active Volcanoes until I turned the card over to find I'd put down Crags. No real drame (for now) but there was 4 mech HK swarm doing well and I wanted to keep this card. Never mind. Richard player Corrosive Atmosphere. Another tight game except this time my Thor's blue armour was no use against his Hadurs.

Our 2 mechs danced around a bit until his Malice tagged Jack for 2 Arm P. This brought it within range of the Thor who hit it for 3 (I kept the Arm P turned of). Richard hit the Thor with a POG and primed it. The Thor then hit the Maliace for 5 more. Although I'd hit the Malice, I was struggling to get close. I had no fast basers and Richard had plenty. I lost a coupld of my inf to his Malice but as happy as I was using them as targets to try and get my Thor into place. Richard then began to withdraw his Malice further behind his inf and closer to his Hadurs. Crags did stop his Malice fom running away but (crucially) it also stopped me from charging one of his Hadurs with Jack.

Never mind, my decision not to play Caverns made this a toughie so I dropped to table 5.

Round 4 against Sean with a SAD army but piloted by Vasquez under a BR contract. He had his own Jack in support together with an SM2 and a repair tech. I played Corrosive Atmosphere to his Perfect Day. SAD was equipped with ECCM and the build looks to have been put together to take on SAD herself or other RHDMs.

A real toughie for me - my first shot with the Thor missed and then I got it to prime. In order to improve my attack, I ran Jack up near to SAD in order to negate the Assault Modifier. The Thor missed and Jack got hit by SAD and the other Jack. My Jack failed his break away but my Thor hit SAD for 5. In the mean time, my inf were making their way up the board to get near SAD. The SM2 rained down random POGs and I can't remember it actually hitting anything of note.

Having lost Jack, I focused on SAD and the Thor tagged her again. SAD was in retreat mode and my Undines were keeping the Thor's base protected from any charges from Jack. With time moving on, I managed to salvage SAD and get an SRM Team into Sean's DZ. His Jack went into my DZ. I thought that it going for the the kill. I hadn't realised how repairable she was out of salvage (I was down on VC1 at this point). Sean has got SAD alongside his Combat Techs but rolled a crit miss on the repair attempt!

I get a VC3 and assault the SM2 and kill it. I'm now within range of for next turn. Sean takes his first VC3 and makes his second repair attempt but only rolls a 1 on the die.

I collect my second VC3. The game ends on my turn with me winning 3-0 but I was within a gnat's whisker of loosing that thanks to Sean's poor luck on the dice.

That brought me to the Quarter final against Wai. Wai used to play at our club but now works in London. He had the twin HK Scourge army I've posted above. Big problem for me was that he got to play dust storm. I was now faced with 2 heavies and a drop against my heavy and a medium. I know I'd get the first shot in but the blocking was to be of no real use. Problem is, once I'd shot, we'd both be within 8 inches of each other. Wai sent a Scourge to each end of my DZ. I got Jack to try and shoot one but he missed and the Thor also missed his shot. Jack got tagged by the Scourge and then missed his break away. The Thor missed (again). Jack gets dropped by the Enyo and is killed soon after. Wai has to do very little after that as my Thor fails to hit a thing. It eventually gets dropped by the Enyo and in the final few minutes I miss a desparation capture on a Scourge and its game over. The PCC really caught me out but then again, I was amazed that there weren't more dust storms played.

I'd faced the eventual runner-up and got a 2-2 win and then a tight game against Richard (if only I'd played Caverns...). A Hammerfall made the top 8 as did a 4x HK Soli swarm. Apart from that, Jack was the most common piece with the top 4 armies all having arty.

No real bearing on the meta game as it was FP but a great day out.

Now its planning for an event at Gencon UK which I hope can attract plenty of players.

[warlord1985]

Lots of Jacks running around. Looks like that would have been a job for Scrub!