This weekend the Vancouver Conquest GT tournament played out in Surrey.

I fielded a themed Blood Angels army - the Baal Light Infantry Company - an elite strike force that is very easily transportable..

Commander Dante with an honour guard with jump packs, melta guns and storm shields.
Mephiston
Sanguinary Priest
Sanguinary Guard with banner, infernus pistol and power fist
Assault squad with 2x Melta guns and Sarge with power fist and melta bombs
Assault squad with 2x Flamers and Sarge with power fist and melta bombs
Devestator squad with 4x Las Cannons
Devestator squad with 4x Plasma Cannons

GAME 1.

My first game was against Adam Sarophim (12th of 18 generalship) whom I've ran into on many occasions in tournies. He was fielding his beautifully painted tau force.

Commander Shas'el
Crisis suit team (3) with Plasma Rifles, Missile pods and Multi tracker
Crisis suit team (2) with Twin linked missile pods and Targeting array
Pathfinder team
Firewarrior team with team leader
Firewarrior team with team leader
Firewarrior team with team leader
Firewarrior team with team leader
Broadside battlesuit team with team leader, stabilization systems, hw drone controller, 2 shield drones and hw target lock
Devilfish with disruption pods
Devilfish with disruption pods
Devilfish with disruption pods and smart missile system
Pirhana squadron
Hammerhead gunship with railgun, disruption pods, multi tracker, 2 burst cannons
Hammerhead gunship with railgun, disruption pods, multi tracker, smart missile system

The mission: Sieze ground with Spearhead - objectives in each quarter and one in the centre.

Adam wins the dice roll and deployed first, fairly much filling his quarter of the table. He placed his broadsides into a building which gave him some issues later.

I deployed in my 'phalanx' formation, deciding not to deep strike against such a shooty army. At this point I made the mistake of forgetting to split my assault squads into combat squads - my normal for missions with more than 2 objectives. I was pretty excited for the first game of the tournie!

How the game ran:

I steal the initiative.

I moved my phalanx up. My lascannon devs opened up on the closest devilfish transport and blow it up, with the plasma devs vaporising the survivors.

The Tau move up and open fire on the honor guard squad wiping it out but using most of the army to do it. Dante now stripped of his guard takes a wound and Mephistion also takes a wound.

The Sanguinary guard with Mephison assault a squad of fire warriors, Mephiston does nothing but the SG wipes out the squad. Mephiston consolidates into cover while the SG moves closer to the tau. Dante gets into hand to hand with Commander Shas'el and chops him down with his power axe. My assault squads positioned themselves behind buildings, ready to pounce on anyone that got near. My Las devs immobilise a nearby devilfish.

The Tau poured fire into the Sanguinary Guard and wiped it out. Mephiston shrugged off the remaining firepower. In melee Dante whiffed and did nothing. A pathfinder unit was sneaking forward to one of the objectives.

The Blood Angels melta assault squad jumped up to the top of a building and lost one melta gun to dangerous terrain test. Mephistion used wings of sanguinius to jump out of the ruins - failed his dangerous terrain test and took a wound - then mauled a squad of fire warriors, wiping it out before consolidating back into the ruins. The Las cannon devs attack the building containing the Broadsides - shaking them. Dante whiffed AGAIN! The Plasma devs wiped out the sneaky pathfinder squad. My flamer assault squad moved up into a nearby ruin.

The Tau focus their fire on Mephiston and cut him down. A submunitions round hits my flamer assault squad and kill 4 in their ruin. Dante finally wins his combat by breaking and running down the crisis suit team that were accompanying Commander Shas'el. The building with my melta assault squad is attacked and shakes the building.

Dante moves up to a devil fish and fails to crack it open - denying him the juicy contents. My flamer assault squad climbs up a level in the ruins. Las cannon devs fail to damage the building containing the Broadsides, but the plasma devs attack the Pirhana squad and destroy one, immobilising the other. My melta assault squad races towards the central objective (bonus points awarded for capture of the centre objective).

The Tau shoot Dante down., the tau scout drones move forward. Fire is poured into my melta assault squad and two marines are killed.

My flamer marines jump down to their closest objective. The melta marines rush forward to the centre objective. The Plasma devs wipe out one set of four drones while the melta marines take out the rest.

The Tau move up a hammerhead gunship to attack the melta assault survivors. With its shooting and that of the rest of the Tau army the squad is wiped out.

Game ends with one objective held a piece and no-one holding the central. Game is a draw.

GAME 2:

My second game was against Andrew Lawrence's (=16th of 18 generalship) Vulcan Marines. It had three land raiders and I knew i was going to have a very difficult time dealing with them. The thunder hammer terminators were also a large threat.

Vulkan Hel'stan
Tactical Squad with flamer, lascannon and sarge with power fist and combi flamer, Razoback with TL Assault Cannons.
Tactical Squad with flamer, lascannon and sarge with power fist and combi flamer, Razoback with TL Las Cannons.
Terminator Assault Squad with thunder hammer and storm shields
Land Raider with extra armour and multi melta
Land Raider with extra armour and multi melta
Land Raider Redeemer with extra armour and multi melta

The mission: Take and hold with dawn of war- objectives in deploying corners.

Andrew wins the deployment roll and deploys two combat squads from his tactical squads into a building overlooking his objective. I deployed mephiston as close as I could to his units on top of a building near the centre.

How the game ran:

I steal the initiative for the second time.

Mephiston uses wings of sanguinius and leaps towards the building occupied by the enemy, rolls 6 for run and rolls 6 for the difficult terrain assault - making it into combat with one of the combat squads, that he rapidly tears apart. My devestator marines march onto the table with the Sanguinary priest.

The other combat squad fires all it has at mephiston and does nothing. The rest of the marine army arrives and demolishes the building, turning it into a ruin. Assault cannon rounds find their mark and wound Mephiston.

Mephiston assaults the other combat squad and tears them to bits. The Sanguinary guard drop onto the central building's roof and lose one man from the Dangerous Terrain test. The melta assault squad drops onto another rooftop and lose two from DT tests. Another assault squad drops by my objective. My lascannon devs shoot and hit a landraider three times, penetrate twice and shake it.

The marines throw everything they can at Mephiston and kill him.

Dante and honour guard arrive and deep strike beside the land raider, opening up with melta guns and destroying it, blocking the closest approach. The Sanguinary guard move up to support. The las cannon devs do nothing.

The marines re-reroute the redeemer and razorbacks around the central building and pop smoke. The other landraider opens up with las cannons on the Sanguinary Guard and kill two.

The blood angels reposition to deal with this threat, dante and squad rushing back. Las cannon fire fails to inflict damage on the land raider.

The Marine redeemer moves up and disgorges the thunder hammer squad into Dante's honor guard, with Vulkan staying in the vehicle. The terminators kill Dante and break the squad, the lone survivor flees but not before striking one of the Terminators down. The two razorbacks move up and shoot up the devestator squads, causing some casualties. The other land raider shoots at the Sanguinary guard again, reducing them to one model.

The blood angel assault squad charges into the terminator squad and kill one, losing three in return but they hold. The land raider shrugs off all the fire directed its way.

The Marines move the redeemer up and Vulkan makes an appearance. He uses his flamer and doesn't do much. The thunder hammer terminators lose another man but kill two assault marines in return. They still hold.

The game ends - with the Blood Angels holding one objective and the Marines holding none.

More to come.