Another Iron Hands victory - tournament report from Target Sighted

Hi folks,

Yes, I'm afraid the title is misleading once again. In fact, I came perhaps last place in this tournament. However, the Iron Hands did manage to score me a second best painted win on their second tournament appearance. The army was as follows:

I admit to some degree of laziness on the painting side as this is mostly the same list I took to Blog Wars 3 last year, save for one new member: Marneus Calgar (or a counts as anyway):

Overall Impression

So, a very brief appraisal of the venue: The Outpost, Sheffield. Friendly, approachable staff. Nice venue with good tables and scenery. Lunch was at one of my favourite eateries, a mexican place around the corner, which was a great added bonus. Plus the guys did us 20% off stock/preorders on the day, including sign-ups for future tournaments. Overall, very impressed. A special congrats to Matt, one of our gaming group, for winning all 3 of his games and taking 1st place as well as bloodiest general. He beat off some stiff competition (GKs/Daemons/Necrons) and so it was well deserved. Now for the missions:

Game 1 

Very briefly, I ended up drawing the tournament winner from previous day who had a daemon flamer/screamer/plaguebearer/fateweaver spam list. I stood no chance at all but took it on the chin. The result was a turn 5 tabling. To rub salt in, Calgar got spawned in turn 5. Not a great start and as a result I got relegated to last place out of the 17 and played my second game on the downstairs table. Scott was a great chap though and I voted his army as best painted. 

Game 2

I ended up playing one of the staff, Gaz, as there were an odd number of tournament players. Gaz had a funky Tyranid army which was big beasties and little gribblies. A self-confessed competitive list, I didn't fare well against this either - another tabling. Was great chatting to Gaz though and enjoyable nonetheless. At least I learned a few things from this game rather than being up against a complete no-win scenario as I was in the first round. 

Game 3

For this game I played against someone nearer my own ability and approach to lists. Chris had brought Space Wolves and built them around a thunder/fenrisian wolf theme, which was nice to play against. This was the most fun game of the day I think and resulted in a draw, although had we not run out of time I think Chris would have taken the title. 

Painting Contest

Now, I never go to tournaments intending to win games as frankly, I'm not that experienced or good a player. However, I can paint and model to a good standard and enjoy building themed armies, all of which I put a fair few hours into. I was thrilled therefore that the guys voted for my army as best painted - thank you all. It really makes it worth the effort to hear some of the positive comments people make (and the prize was great too) and to receive the prestige. Alex at From the Fang has put up some lovely shots of the army here.

The future

Thanks to all the players and people who made the day an enjoyable one. I think I will attend another tournament at the Outpost later this year perhaps. The Iron Hands stand out as my most painted army and now they have won 2/2 best painteds I'm happy to retire them to their box. I felt a bit of a cop out taking them as they'd already won before, but didn't have the time to get anything else up to scratch in time. Next time I'll try to paint something nicely and build a decent list too!