The GT

So, this weekend is the 40kuk GT. Probably the biggest 40k tournament in the UK. I have been looking forward to this since warp storm last year when I heard about it and the time is finally come. I went to Caledonian Uprising in January and came a respectable 7th, so I have set my sights extremely high and decided to aim to beat that result. A forlorn hope? almost certainly, but it can't hurt to make the attempt (except for the disappointment of failure and abandonment of 40k for the randomness and absurdness of warhammer fantasy).

So here is the list:

1750 points of ... Grey Knights (I know, I'm Sorry)

HQ:

100 - Coteaz

165 - Librarian, Warp Rift, Shrouding, Might of Titans

TROOPS:

62 - 3x Acolytes, Razorback, Psybolt Ammunition

62 - 3x Acolytes, Razorback, Psybolt Ammunition 

102 - 3x Acolytes, 6x Death Cult Assassins

107 - 3x Acolytes, 6x Death Cult Assassins, Meltabomb

ELITES:

129 - 5x Purifiers, 2x Incinerators, 2x Halberds, 1x Hammer

FAST ATTACK:

206 - Storm Raven, Search Light

206 - Storm Raven, Search Light 

206 - Storm Raven, Search Light 

HEAVY SUPPORT:

135 - Dreadnought, 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition

135 - Dreadnought, 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition 

135 - Dreadnought, 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolt Ammunition 

So you can now see how the blog got it's name, and no I did not steal this idea from Gareth Donnelly, (except the librarian).

I have done pretty well with my three storm raven list at caledonian, jolly toys and rolling thunder, but with the arrival of new shiny necrons I have made a few tweaks. Firstly I have dropped a squad of 5 assassins as they weren't really durable enough without a character and the meltaguns from the acolytes in the other assassin units as I almost never used them. I kept the bare acolytes as I have found having the extra bodies to take wounds from explosions and small arms fire really helps keep the assassins alive long enough to do their job. This has given me enough points to add a small unit of purifiers with 2 incinerators to help deal with hordes and scarabs. 

The last tweak is the addition of warp rift on the librarian. It is a one stop shop for dealing with necrons. It can autopen command barges with no save allowing the dreadnoughts to finish them. It can murder whole squads of wraiths, scarabs or warriors and put down (even if temporarily) annoyingly tough characters like the traveller or stormlord. Put that in a storm raven and that's a 23.5" threat range. 

The down sides are that I now only have 4 troops, this isn't so bad at the GT as there is no bonus to winning by more than one objective and there are no secondaries to worry about. I still am going to have to reserve if I'm forced to go second against most armies. 

Apparently the draw goes up tonight so I'll do some guesswork about what my first opponent will be taking and see how it goes.

Intro

I've been playing 40k pretty solidly for 16 years, I played at my local GW and thought I was a good player because I could beat the regulars. Then I moved up to York and met the likes of Neil Kerr and Steve Revis and found that actually I was a "baby seal". 

So last summer, somehow I ended up tagging along with Neil to my first proper tournament, a little tournament in Mansfield called Warpstorm. 47 players that just happened to include most of the best players in the country.  I took my brand spanking new dark eldar. The Baron, 34 Hellions, 18 Reaver jet bikes, 2 Void ravens and a Razorwing jetfighter. Needless to say, I didn't do very well 41st out of 47 with 3 losses 1 win and 2 draws. I did however catch the tournament bug. 

Since then I have been to 8 tournaments in 8 months. I have improved gradually but steadily from one to the next. I'm aiming to go to about one tournament a month this year so this blog is going to mostly be tournament reports hopefully documenting my rise to the top tables.