Friday 6th February 2009
On Friday 6th February two friends and I departed London for Brussels. A two day EPIC tournament using the French rules system; having not read the French rules (and I only read the updated French army book the night before) I was looking forward to getting beaten but having some brilliant games. The objectives of the weekend were to have fun, make some friends and build international relations with other European countries (Gordon Brown would have been happy).
Arriving in London St Pancras I was the first at the Euro star terminal, joined shortly after by Joe. Matt, who lived in London, still hadn’t arrived with 5 minutes left of check-in. Joe and I therefore left his ticket with the information box and checked in. Luckily Matt arrived 1 minute before check-in and we all made it through. The first comedy moment of the trip: scanning machines at security. As our bags went through the scanning machines there was a look of confusion on the airport security personnel, so much so that three security members were trying to work out what these big bits of metal were. Our response was simple ‘toy soldiers’ to which they asked if they had there passports with them.
The second comedy moment of the trip wasn’t far behind: boarding the train. After … umm 30 seconds of meeting up we were fully engaged in ‘EPIC talk’; what we’ve got in our armies etc. So much ‘EPIC talk’ was occurring that Matt and Joe walked past our Euro star carriage (I, on the other hand, was paranoid that I’ll miss the train therefore I was fully focused on getting onboard). Wondering where Joe and Matt were I looked out of my window to see them, on the platform, looking straight back at me; a quick wave and they boarded the train.
Travelling by Euro star is fantastic; it’s nothing special but very fast and reliable (2hrs to Brussels). Again we were so engaged in ‘EPIC talk’ that the two hours flew by and apart from my phone updating me when I was in France / Belgium we arrived in Brussels before we knew it. Next stage was a taxi to our hotel and it’s nice to see the European taxi drivers are just as surprising as ours (at one point driving on the left hand side of the road).
Our hotel was okay; it was a 3-star hotel located in the ‘European region’ of Brussels. The lift was the size of a broom cupboard that, according to Matt, was illegal and had killed or ripped limbs off many people … which was nice to know as we were travelling in it at the time.
Unpacking our stuff and getting ready for our first night in Brussels we decided to look-up to see where the venue was, all we needed was the address and we could find it on the map no problem……
Okay so we all forgot to print off the address of the venue; a quick call back to blightly and we were fine. Mental note: print off address of venue next year.
All three of us were quite tired from a day of travelling so we found a fantastic Italian (the restaurant that is) had something to eat and a couple of drinks and then headed back to the hotel.
Saturday 7th February 2009
The venue was a hexagonal shape with lines of tables feeding from the outside towards the centre. Three game systems were being played;
EPIC,
Flames of War,
Field of Glory,
It seems that the EPIC culture of ‘not really taking tournaments seriously’ was also apparent in Europe … however they are a lot better at it. At 11am the other two game systems were about half way through their first game; we were just about to do the first round draw.
My Army:
Tactical formation 300pts
Supreme Commander 100pts
Hunter 50pts
Dreadnought 0pts (dreadnoughts are also fearless)
Total 450pts
Devastator formation 250pts
Dreadnought 0pts
Dreadnought 50pts
Total 300pts
Bike formation 200pts
Chaplain 50pts
Total 250pts
Terminator formation 325pts
Predator formation – annihilators 275pts
Thunderhawk 200pts
Thunderhawk 200pts
Thunderhawk 200pts
Thunderbolt formation 150pts
Thunderbolt formation 150pts
Warhound 250pts
Warhound 250pts
Total 3000pts
Activation count 12
My battle plan was simple … deploy using corners and target weak activations turn 1 and 2. Then win by breaking key enemy units, simple……
So they don’t play corners … odear, odear, odear … straight deployment it will be then.
Game 1 – Black Legion
Obviously European tournament players had heard of me and word had spread; my actual opponent never made it to the event and so I played against the tournament organiser. He had a heavy concentration of titans with 1x feral, 1x ravenger and 2 single death wheels. Infantry wise he had 2x chosen, 1x forlorn hope, 1x retinue and a raptor unit loaded with daemons.
Deployment: my blitz was deployed about 12” in from one of the edges and my other two objectives were deployed 25” in and right on the table edge; with my high mobility I could cover the whole board so I decided to spread the objectives … this was done in every game I played. My opponent deployed his two objectives 30cm away from my blitz in a triangle (ummm … wonder where the ravenger is going?)
I deployed my most expensive (BTS) on overwatch, on my blitz, behind a hill; the other stuff was either being teleported, in thunderhawks or hidden behind terrain. With both chosen formations off the board teleporting, there was only one obliterator … my air force controlled the skies and went about there bloody task of identifying small units and destroying them. At the end of the first turn 1 had destroyed or broken 3 activations. Next turn his chosen came down opposite sides of my most expensive (trying to crossfire); my terminators were waiting for turn 3. I won the initiative and my most expensive fire-fighted a formation of chosen with a blast marker (BM) destroying the formation … however I still had the problem of the other formation. A Warhound moved over and shot at them but didn’t cause any wounds. In response his chosen summoned daemons and charged my BTS … I lost the combat and became broken. My Air force came to rescue my BTS and made ground attacks on the chosen however they didn’t make any impact; his ravenger was getting closer. On the other parts of the battlefield I was hold the chaos in their own half and things were going well. Turn 3 my terminators teleported on my own blitz to confront the chosen (and more importantly protecting my BTS) … I lost the initiative and the ravenger came into firing range of my terminators (but not 15cm of my blitz). The ravenger destroyed my terminators. He then activated the chosen and killed my BTS.
It was now down to my air force; they hit the chosen and broken them in an amazing style… the blitz was safe … now let’s win the game. My devastators moved onto my opponent’s unoccupied blitz and shot the nearest formation killing it. My opponent needed to pull his retinue back but failed the activation I then claimed another objective in his half winning 2-1 (3pts). It was a close run game and I really enjoyed it.
Game 2 – Orks
A comedy game because my opponent didn’t speak any English and me little French; we resorted to the ‘language of EPIC’ which evolved hand signals and lots of shooting noises.
I was on the same table as my first game and so my deployment was the same; my opponent had 2 stompa mobs with big-stompas in with macro-weapon (MW) barrage, 2 big blitz brigades with soopa guns, 2 fighta bombers, 1 landa with bikes and some warbands. The way the French play EPIC is very much shooting orientated and so the Ork army was different to UK ones but still effective.
Again the same tactics of ‘kill small formations’ took hold but this time my opponent had fighta bombers; one unit intercepted my Thunderhawk with bikes in and shot it down. I can’t remember much of this game but I do remember it was a hard fight. At the end of turn three I had all my objectives in my half and to win I had to cause 2 BM’s on an enemy unit of stompas in my half to break them … I only had one thunderhawk. The Thunderhawk pilot swooped in low to give the gunner better aim … he hit and with his one shot and killed the stompa breaking the unit. 2-0 win to me! (3pts = 6pts)
Game 3 – Eldar
I played a new player who had only used Eldar in this tournament and never played against Space Marines before (In Europe, Space Marines are considered not very powerful … that will change).
The enemy deployment was surprising; he placed his blitz opposite mine behind a hill (on one side of the board) then placed his whole army on the other side of the board (facing ‘two objectives in my half’). He was very scared of my Thunderhawks and so moved his whole army as one. I put two warhounds and a formation of predators to confront him and keep him busy … The idea was to lure his whole army across my side of the board (two claim ‘ two objectives in my half’) leaving his blitz miles away. It worked; his army came forward and my sacrificial warhounds targeted his AA and fast moving units. Turn three my terminators deployed on his blitz and bikes on another objective in his half; 2-1 to me (3pts = 9ts).
End of day one I was in 1st place by 2pts and I was told ‘I was the one to kill’ … ummm hope they don’t mean literally.
Saturday night out
The other players and organisers were fantastic and offered to give us a lift to our hotel so we could change, get something to eat and then meet them in town. Sounded great to us all we had to do was give him the address of our hotel, simple…
… okay so we all forgot to write down the address of our hotel. Another call to blighty sorted that one out: Mental note – write hotel address down AND take to event. We got back and went to a Spanish restaurant. The restaurant was great (however it was a bit concerning because we were the only ones in the restaurant) and even though I’d never had Spanish food before it was okay; I’m not a big seafood fan but I did like the crab.
We then got a taxi to town and met the others in an old part of Brussels. We visited a couple of pubs and had a quick tour though the market square (which was fantastic). We talked a lot about EPIC (naturally) and the differences between UK and France. Joe and Matt tried some local beverages while I was making sure that Belgium Coke tasted the same as UK Coke (it did!). It was very hard to buy a round for the French / Belgium’s as they saw us as guests and were delighted to have UK players at their tournaments… there hospitality was incredible and it was a great night. One pub we went into had a mild ‘gothic’ theme with coffins as tables and beer in skulls … it was ace!
We finally made it back at 2am ready for an 8:30am start (we were assured by the organisers).
Sunday 8th February 2009
Okay so the event didn’t start until 10:00am and we were really worried about being able to make it to the end of the event (we had to leave at 4:45pm to catch the Euro star).
Game 4 – Titan Legion
Christophe was a really nice guy; he’s from France and spoke perfect English … he was with the group of us that went out for a drink the night before and we got on well, so I was looking forward to playing him.
Titan legions aren’t allowed in the UK tournaments so I knew that this would be hard:
a) Because I have never played titan legions and
b) My army can’t kill titans very well.
Titan Legions do have two problems:
Activations: Christophe had 10 in 4,000pts (we played 4,000pts day two) compared to my 14
AA: only one unit of Thunderbolts.
Again I spread my objectives wide and targeted the small infantry units and warhounds (I left the warlord and 3x reaver titans alone). It was a brilliant game and I was luckily to remove all of his small formations (leaving him 5 activations) by turn two. End of turn four was similar to the Ork ending; Christophe had a reaver (needing two BM’s to break) on his blitz. I had terminators, devastators and a landed thunderhawk surrounding him but they had all activated … I only had one Thunderhawk and the reaver had void shields. Only one option… ENGAGE with the thunderhawk. Luckily my thunderhawk didn’t take any damage to the FF of the reaver and therefore I could support fire with my terminators / devastator and Thunderhawk. Three points of damage later and he was broken, giving me blitz and two objectives in his half: 2-0 (3pts = 12pts).
If there was a ‘most sporting vote’ I would have given it to Christophe, great game.
Game 5 – Titan Legion
Titan legion again!
Titan Legion are very good in France because the shooting abilities suite their style of play. Having just played them I knew how to beat them so I incorporated the same tactics as I did before.
Again this player knew what he was doing and it was very tough. I was luckily to annihilate his only AA early on so I had full control of the skies. Again by turn three he had no small activations (activation count of 4) and I managed to block him getting back to his Blitz. I won the game 2-0 (3pts = 15pts).
I had won the tournament … however was their enough time for me to get the prize before our taxi?
Prize Giving
Yes there was!
What a prize giving it was; Games Workshop Brussels had donated €500 worth of stuff and every tournament player got something. Also it’s worth mentioning that their was a news paper at the event, apparently the Mayor (though I didn’t see him/her) and the Games Workshop manager (who wasn’t quite what you would of expected. Change the assumption of a large bloke manager into a slim, slightly young looking, very fit female and you will know why GW Belgium is now my local Games Workshop).
Because I won I got:
2x Revenants £30
1x formation of fighta bombers £10 (which I gave to Matt as I didn’t need them)
Also ‘Team England’ won the team event (and I was the highest England player) so I got an Imperial Guard Company £12.
Joe 8th and Matt a 10th.
Also our objectives were met; EPIC UK website URL was dished out to lots of people and hopefully, later on in the year, we will have the French and Belgium’s over for one of our events.
Summary
It was a brilliant, brilliant event and I can’t wait until next year. If other EPIC gamers want to come along please do (there is no elitist views here … all are welcome).
However some points:
1. Read the French rules and army books; they have translated them into English.
2. Book a hotel; DON’T stay in the hostel recommended. Its doors shut at 11pm
3. Print off address of venue and hotel (and keep on person at all times).
4. Stay an additional day. Firstly the tournament was only going to be a ‘one day’ event so we were doing to look around Belgium on the Sunday. 3 weeks before the event it became a 2 day event so we didn’t see much of Belgium.
5. Travel by Euro star, it’s a lot easier.
6. Don’t buy loads of Dutch shortcake before you go.
7. Make sure you go!
Euro GT
Talking to the organisers, they are in contact with Spanish, Italian, German, French, Belgium and now UK EPIC players (plus UK has a Finland contact) so there is a real possibility of a Euro EPIC GT. Again it won’t be elites and anyone can enter (it’s a game of toy soldiers after all).
Cost
Total cost of the weekend:
1) Train Derby – London and Vice versa = £55
2) Euro star = £89
3) Tournament ticket = £26
4) Hotel 2 nights = £50
5) Spending money = £120
Total = £340
Next year will be three days so I reckon around £400 / £450 … bargain!
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