Tanks, it was fun.

Hi all,

The Cub and I got down to the local GW yesterday for their Tank Battle event.  Basically, a set of rolling scenarios over the course of the day, which involved only armoured units (and Monstrous Creatures, because Tyranids).  You could bring as many tanks as you wanted, but Cub and I stuck to one apiece for simplicity's sake; he took his Redeemer "The Wrath of War", and I took my Battlewagon "Binky's Pride".

We arrived part-way through an earlier session.

The scenario rules were fairly straightforward, with points gained for controlling objectives and killing stuff.  Neither Cub nor I did especially well on points (we both were running what amounted to anti-infantry platforms), but we both got to do some fun stuff, and got to see what other factions' armour could pull off.

Lots and lots of Landraiders

Game one saw the Cub and I teamed up with a young fellow running three Land Raiders, and facing down a table full of Tyranid Monstrous creatures.  I've been consistently surprised by the quality of the new kits GW turns out.  There's no arguing it's expensive stuff, but the do make some pretty intensely detailed plastic.

Cub was impressed by the servo-skull tape-measure

You can see Cub's LR at the end.

On the left, CubRaider and the other three worked together to try and take down an encroaching wave of Carnifexes plus, I think, a Tervigon..  On the right, my battlewagon faced down a Flying Hive Tyrant, Old One Eye, and some kind of super-Ravener.

LR's concentrate fire, hoping to bring down the bugs.

But those are some BIG bugs.

The kids did pretty well, but came up short, bringing the Carnifexes down to a wound apiece, but the weren't able to stop them getting in to close combat.  Land Raiders quickly began popping across the table.

Cub's Redeemer takes the brunt of the Carnifex charge.

Super-Ravener and Old One-Eye were doing something similar to the battle-wagon, but not before I managed to not only use my wrecking ball, but actually wound Old One-Eye with it ;)

The Wreckin' Ball, wreckin'.

Game Two saw Cub and I teamed up with Tau vs a combined Imperial force.  He and I deployed centre-left, while the Tau spread across the table (there were lots of them).  Across the table, my opponents decided that the Battlewagon was looking a tad threatening (Binky's Pride is a mighty beast), and I ended up staring across the table at a Lascannon Randraider, a Lascannon Predetor, and a Lascannon Razorback.  I'd be trusting to Orky luck in this game ;)

Game 2, turn 1.  That's a lot of lascannons.

On the upside, that's a really BIG railgun.

As it worked out, Cub and I spent the game soaking fire while the Tau zipped about blowing stuff up.  I fully expected my battlewagon to get wiped off the table, but it soaked three full turns of concentrated twin-linked lascannon fire from three vehicles without dying.  Grot riggers helped keep it on the table, but at the end of the day, armour 14, plus the new damage table, just meant that it was a tough vehicle.  Cub's landraider prowled around, pinging things with it's multi-melta, and more or less ignoring return fire.

Cub's Redeemer, "The Wrath of War" shrugs off Leman Russ fire.  Only down one hull point.

The Tau, for the record, have some seriously scary vehicles.  I'm already familiar with what their bit railguns can do, but their new (to me) super-dread, the Riptide, just blew up everything at which it shot, including a couple of Leman Russ, which are fairly tough in their own right.  Not sure how good the Riptide is at soaking fire, but man, they're nasty on offence.

Riptide drops in.  The lamentation of the women soon to follow.

Note to our opponents;  you should have shot the Tau first.

On the left, "Binky's Pride", still not dead

Still not dead some more.

It was a fun day.  While the event was part of a store campaign, it had a very casual feel.  The Halifax GW is remarkably kid-friendly, patrons included, and the staff are fantastic (Big thanks to Dave, Chris and Dan).  Cub's still talking about how  game 2 is the first game his Redeemer didn't get blown up (probably 'cause it wasn't up against his dad's Orky power-klaws ;).  He's at his mom's next weekend, but we've joined the campaign, and are planning to be in two weeks from now for a game.

FMB