Power from Paint: First Founding Doubles Report

Welcome back to my dark corner of Commoragh, my fellow Archons! The Kabal of the Sand Viper went to war allied with the mysterious Ynari at the First Founding Doubles Tournament.  Whilst the dice of fate were somewhat cruel and fickle to us, my team mate and I both had a fun day at a well run event.

This was the first doubles event run by the club, and featured three unique missions (including one written by myself!).

Game 1: Break Through

This mission uses Hammer & Anvil (full table length) deployment, with a single objective in each deployment zone. Teams score progressive VP for each unit in the opposing deployment zone (i.e. Line Breaker), with the objectives scored at the end of the game.

My team mate is playing an elite but lethal Ynnari force:

(Yes we had Cosplay Elf Ears. These were donned during the Psychic Phase to help tune the warp energies :P )

We are pitted against an Imperial Force comprising Ultramarines and Imperial Knights:

Alas, I forgot to take pictures during the game itself, but my partner did grab a mid game shot:

We begin by picking apart the Ultramarine fire base, whilst advancing towards the Imperial deployment zone. The Imperial forces retaliate, dropping reinforcements into the Eldar deployment zone to put some pressure on us, whilst the Knights opened fire! The home zone is cleared and whilst the Knights take down Eldar units we quickly rack up VP and at the end claim both objectives.

Team Fluffy Space Pixies Win

Game 2: Give No Quarter

Game 2 finds the Fluffy Space Pixies facing off against another Craftworld/Dark Eldar Team; a great combination of Alatoic and Prophets of Flesh.  Give No Quarter is a quirky variation of Base Swap; each player deploys diagonally opposite their partner with an objective on the edge of each deployment zone. Each "home" objective at the beginning of the game is worth 3 VP whilst each "away" objective is worth 7 VP.

We win the first turn and pick on the weaker Craftworld corner.

Our opponents reciprocate and advance on the Ynnari corner:

The tougher Coven forces advance into the Ynnari quarter and towards the centre of the board. I make some poor target priority choices, throwing poison into Craftworld reinforcements and Dizzies into the Talos. 

With hindsight the targets should perhaps have been the other way around; the poison would have wounded the Talos more easily and the high AP of the Dizzies would not have been wasted.

As the game progresses the Talos turn towards my home DZ:

They easily dispose of the Ravagers, but cannot deal with all the units in the home corner by the end of the game; we hold the objective. (By the time this picture is taken we've been whittling down the Talos with splinter fire).

The other Talos unit advances on the Craftworld deployment zone which I try to reinforce.

On the last charge roll of the game the Talos make the long play, re-rolling a failed charge into a success where they clean house on the Kabalites:

The Talos take the objective from the Kabal; that single charge roll and fight causing a 10 VP swing to our opponents! A quick tally indicated that should we have held the objective we would have drawn. So close! This was a really tight and very fun game; our opponents would go on to win the overall event.

Team Fluffy Space Pixies Loss

Game 3: Touchdown

The final game finds the Space Pixies facing off against two of my regular opponents with their Space Wolves and Sisters of Battle combo! I'd played against them in a practice game the week before so was pretty familiar with their armies.

This mission has 2 Relics (mobile objectives) which score additional VP if you control them in your opponents deployment zone at the end of the game. There is also a central objective which HQ score extra VP for being near, and Slay the Warlord bags extra VP as well!

The game gets off to a very bloody start, with the Dark Eldar killing the Thunder Wolves and the Shining Spears soul bursting into the heart of the enemy lines destroying the Lone Wolves. A furious and complex retaliation ensues with multiple Imperial Characters engaging the Spears.

The Sisters claim one relic whilst the Kabal claim the other, both squirelling them away safely in their own deployment zones! Alas the game runs out of time, and we end holding the one relic a piece and the Imperials claiming the centre objective.

Team Fluffy Space Pixies Loss

So a great day of gaming came to an end. I really enjoyed the Doubles format and it has a lot to offer:

• Learning how your partner's army work; I really like the Ynnari army play style!
• Quirky missions
• Unusual army combinations
• An opportunity to meet and play more opponents than usual

The latter point is really important; a few years ago we were struggling to reach 16 players for an event; we had 52 for the Doubles! 

I've also took a number of pictures of some of the great armies present. My snaps are supplemented with a few taken by Kanan (Zero One Photography).

First up are some Nids; these won best painted.

Next are my favourite: Craftworld Eldar with some beautifully done hex camo:

And in no particular order; Ad Mech & Knights:

Various Marine Forces:

The Space Wolves packs answered the calls of their fellows:

I'd love to know how the Repulsor did. It looks so cool!

Various other Imperial Forces. The Custodes and Sisters were a team and and bloody gorgeous armies.

What's next? How about some Heresy which comes in many flavours. I liked the Death Guard/Night Lord combo from the local GW store staff, and the Nurgley coloured Traitor Guard.

Last but no means least are the Orks. The Flying Dakka Bomba Shoota Fighta is brill.

So that's it for today's post! I hope you've enjoyed the words and pictures as much as I enjoyed the day! If you haven't attended a tournament event I would highly recommend it. Bring along your toy soldiers and fake Elf Ears; Team Fluffy Space Pixies would love to play you!