New Year, Old Friends: Lessons Learned by Patrick Eibel
After the trial run, I made some changes to the army for the actual tournament. I upgraded one of the Blood Claw packs to Gray Hunters (the Gray Hunters were better painted), I dropped the Land Speeders in favor of a second Predator, and I gave my leaders some wargear with the spare points. There are so many variables that go into winning a game of 40K that even subtle changes can have an effect on whether you win or lose. The most important thing you can do for your army is to play it frequently with different combinations of wargear and upgrades to see what works. 

Ironically, after playing the practice session to tweak our armies, we would have to face the revised lists in the actual tournament as we were randomly paired. Sometimes, too much preparation is a good thing.

New Year, Old Friends: Lessons Learned by Kenton Kilgore
Well, it was another close game between Pat and I. We’ve been playing against each other for so many years that almost all of our games are nail-biters. The “play of the game” (that is, the event that determined the winner) was, I think, the resilience of Hodur and his Blood Claws in Turn 3, when they fought two of my Tactical Squads to a standstill. Had I been able to break them or wipe them out, my Tigers would have swept up the field and won the day. Holding out let Wolf Guard Battle Leader Hafdan get into the fight, which tipped the balance firmly in Pat’s favor and allowed his guys to rampage at will through my deployment zone. 

Do not think it was pure luck that allowed Pat to win. He knows and respects the Tigers’ firepower and cunningly, patiently, used cover to maximum advantage, willing to take the cautious (and smart) route towards my guys. Just as a pack of real wolves will slink through the high grass, biding their time until they’ve trapped their prey, so too did his Wolves slink through cover until they could pounce and deliver the killing blow. Though my Predator and Devastators had good firing positions, by the end of the game, they had no targets—Pat’s Wolves were either in hand-to-hand combat or were out of sight entirely. Congratulations to him on a well-played game and a well-deserved victory.

After the game, I decided that this list was okay, but would need a little more ummph for the Rogue Trader Tournament. I stripped the pintle-mounted storm bolters from the Rhinos and took out the Devastators. In their place, I gave Veteran Sergeant Abhayankar and his squad a Razorback with twin-linked lascannons and added two more Land Speeders with heavy bolters. This extra mobility and anti-tank weaponry was invaluable in the RTT. 
 
 

Previous page: Battle Report, Turns 4-6

Related Pages
Rogue Trader Tournament (01/12/2002)
 

Like what you've seen? Then vote for the Jungle in the "Top 100 40K Sites"

© Copyright Kenton Kilgore February 2002
 

Top