This Sunday saw us return to the lovely chaps at the South Oxfordshire Wargames club who where running their Armada event for the second year. I've had a look back and don't seem to have done a post about our previous visit, presumably because I forgot to take any photos and didn't win a prize! Whilst it is officially a competition as scores are kept and prizes handed out it really has the feel of a club day as many of the participants are local and the general vibe is relaxed with people looking to have some fun rather than crush their opponent.
This year was a little different as I both managed to snag a couple of pictures and actually won something. As I've been playing a lot of Twilight Kin I took my Orcs along as it gave me a chance to play something different and get an XL onto the table. In the end the XL was the only ship not to get sunk at least once across the three games we played.
I kept the list simple as by the time you hit the third game of the day you don't want to be thinking about complicated synergies or trying to recall special rules which inevitably you forget. So I went with two big hitters who wanted to shoot a bit at close range and then board and kick the hell out of the opposition. The Bloodrunners generally ran interference and tried to block clear shots on my big ships and otherwise disrupt the enemy fleet.
My first game was against Todd who I first met several years ago when I went up to my first ever event in Nottingham. He was my last game in a two day Deadzone event and a thoroughly nice chap, so I took the chance to challenge him to a first round game. Todd also brough along Orcs, in fact four of the twelve lists turned out to be Orcs.
The first game was essentially kill but considering the fighty nature of both fleets we didn't actually do much boarding. I did however manage to isolate his Smasher and pick off two other ships for the loss of just one of my Bloodrunners so came out on top.
The second game I of course forget to get a picture of, but it was against some Dwarfs pretending to be Abyssal Dwarfs and a really interesting list. The main punch was provided by four Katsuchan with and extra front IDW. This meant 12 shots flying at you every turn with a range of 22", potentially very nasty. I feared the worst when I lost one of my Bloodrunners. However I did manage to fight back and sink both the Infernox's and one Katsuchan. The scenario involved carrying some tokens across the table and my XL managed to carry 3 points worth with Mike managing just 2 so I had another win.
The third game saw me up against Alan and his normal Dwarfs and we had to pick up loot tokens floating in the ocean. I managed to grab enough loot tokens in the start to take the lead and then we had a proper scrum on one edge of the board. At one point we had four ships lashed to each other with my Orcs only just coming out on top in the tussle. In the end I actually managed to clear up Alan's entire fleet with all his ships either sunk or surrendered. It was a brutal encounter in which I somehow managed to not loose a single ship. So a third win!
So in the end I came out on top and won my first general/admiral prize, having won a few best sports in the past. The prize support was excellent and I got a book, voucher and nifty statue to commemorate my maiden tournament victory. Our little group had a good day in all with Stu coming in fourth in his first ever competitive outing and Mr T coming in sixth (though he did place third last year).
The Winning Fleet and my prizes.
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