Summer Conclave

With Eoin giving out to me about how he has been writing all of the blog posts of late, I thought it only fair to contribute by posting about the most recent event that I attended.

Conclave is an annual event run by Gary and the lads from The Gathering in Limerick. The event took place in Thomond Park of Munster Rugby fame and it was probably one of the best venues for an event I have been lucky enough to attend.

A large spacious room was provided with generous amounts of room and terrain on each of the tables, upon which games of Warhammer 40K were to be played on the Saturday, with Warhammer Fantasy being provided on the Sunday.

Awesome Prizes including art by Ken Coleman

I went up early Sat morning with Richard Flood driving the pimp-wagon and Daire O Mahony and Hugh Murphy in the back. The trip went nice and quickly as we were all in the mood to discuss our armies for the day, some ETC stuff for Richard and of course 6^th Ed in all of its imminent glory!

This place is grand, but it's not Cork, like

The event was scheduled to begin registration from 9 to 10, with the event due to kick off at half 10. We arrived at 5 past 9 to learn that we were the first there and had to wait until nearly half 11 before the games got underway. While deploying we were then told to rush it since we had little time.

I am a real ball buster about punctuality so this really stuck in my craw, as did the very long breaks in between rounds and being informed that I was not allowed sit at the event, since it was a safety hazard. These issues were all sorted out mainly thanks to Kevin’s Rynn and Stronach, and to be fair to Ryan the event organiser, it was his first time.

Nevertheless an event that I was supposed to be home from for half 8 or 9 ended up with my getting home closer to half 10. This was a long old day and this could have been helped.

The rules pack for the day called for a 2250 list using Imperial Armour rules. No super-heavies but everything else goes: Awesome. I was looking forward to this as I am a poor man and have no Forge World stuff, so the chance to see some in the flesh was great. There were a few bits and pieces around the place but nothing major. Luke did have pretty much a whole IAA force of Eldar but unfortunately I did not get to play him.

How Floody's might look if he had painted it.

My list was:

Mephiston

The Sanguinor

JP Priest

5 Terminators, 3 TH/SS, Claws, Srg (who gets the Sanguinors Blessing) Claws

Furioso dread, Blood Fists, Extra Armour

10 Death Company, BP/CCW, 2 Bolter Fist, Lemartes

2 x Snippy DC Dreads

3 x Storm Ravens, all Extra Armour, all MM, 2 have TLC, other has AssCannon

It is hilarious and a version of a list I had brought to Itzacon, though this time I had no scoring units at a tourney with 2/3 missions involving objectives!

Game one I was drawn against young Eoin and his Ork Horde, and I mean horde.

A Whole lot of Orks

He had:

Ghazghkull and some Nobs in a Truck

Snikrot and some Kommandos

Mega-Nobs in a Truck

Deff Dred

3 Killa Kans

Gretchin

Mob of Boyz (100 boyz)

I later discovered that this is an Apoc formation so was technically illegal, but I had a laugh and was suitably scared looking at this wall of boys across the table. Eoin was a lovely young man and has a good head on his shoulders. He played well and made me work for the first few turns but I eventually got the charge on Gaz and his Nob squad with Sanguinor and Meph, the latter taking Gaz apart and the former inflicting some wounds on the Nobs. They took a few slaps of Power Fists back but still won combat, get surrounded in the process meaning they could not be charged by the approaching Green Tide.

Most of the Armour had been taken down by my Ravens taking turns to move 6” and unload their Blood Strikes, normally bagging a few Orks in the explosion thanks to AP1 and the sheer amount of boys on the table!

I was now able to make the assault on my terms and as Mephi and Sang finished off the Nob squad in his turn, Mephi, his job done jumped back into a Raven to lick his remaining 2 Wounds while the unscathed Sang stood in the middle of the table to ensure everyone got +1A.

The Death Company, Sang, a DC Dread and the Furioso charged the Boys and killed the Warboss and caused 50 Wounds, to none back, with him inflicting 8 Wounds back, I failed 3 and FnP’d them (Including one on Lemartes)

This left him to take 50 fearless Saves, wiping the unit. I next got to run in and kill his Mega Nobs and then had a Raven parked on each objective as we waited for Snickrot and the Gretchen to turn up, at which point I killed them.

20-0 to me as the only damage taken was a Wounded Mephi.

So after a pretty good round I went up against Hugh. I had played him the Thursday prior to the event and was fairly confident that I could take him, but I hadn’t counted on my inability to roll above a 3+ until turn 4!

Pictured: What Hugh Sees in the Mirror

He was running his usual Templars list with a few extra toys.

Marshal, TDA, Claws

Terminator Command Squad, Tank Hunters, 2 x Cyclone

Emperors Champ, AAC

2 x 5 Terminators, Tanks Hunter, 2 Cyclone

5 TH/SS Terminators

3 x 5 Marines, Bolters

3 x 2 Typhoon

3 x Auto Las Preds

He got first turn, forcing me to reserve. My toys turned up one at a time and he easily dispatched them killing the occupants with ease. The Sanguinor managed to get into combat with the TH/SS Termies, where he stayed continuing to roll all 1’s to hit for 3 turns. I eventually managed to do some damage with my Termies joining the Sanguinor to take out the TH/SS Termies and a Squad of Cyclones.

Mephi took out two Preds, the Champ and all of the Troops, the Speeders and Cyclones managed to slag all of my DC with the exception of Lemartes who in turn 6, due to being the only model left was able to use his JP to get into combat with the closest Unit of Speeders, who had closed in on my DC. He managed to kill them both, claiming what I thought was a draw on KP’s.

A hard fought game that I thought I had pulled back, only for Hugh to realise that we had miscounted the KP’s forgetting the Sanguinary Priest.

17-3 to Hugh.

Game 3 was against Kevin Stronach and his Eldar. He had some scary stuff for me to contend with.

Kevin realises that Phil Mitchel has really let himself go

Wraithseer

Farseer, Doom, Guide, Spear, RoW, RoWit

Banshees in a Serpent

Dragons in a Serpent

Pathfinders

10 Wraithguard with Warlock

5 Avengers

5 Warp Spiders

Falcon

2 x Wraithlord

Mission is Dawn of War and I go first, setting up the Sanguinor out of sight in the middle of the board with the rest rolling on in the first turn.

I was cagey with my forces as I was scared he might roll a 6 with any one of his Wraithcannon on my transports removing the Model, and thus the occupants from play!

I turbo on and take some long shots at his Wraithseer who shrugs off all of the Wounds. The Sanguinor moves forward still hiding.

His turn one and his forces arrive but fail to see anything, with my raven all having moved about 20” instead on their full move just in case.

Turn 2 and I used the Gunships to Kill the Wraithseer and the Falcon  pinning the Avengers and the Farseer on that side of the board. Sanguinor moved forward and charged the Wraitguard, dispatching a few with the third Raven containing the Termies Parked on his lines after Turbo Boosting to get into position to rear shot his Dragons, only for him to pass his Boost save.

This left his Dragons free to move over and wreck my DC Raven in the centre of the board, which he did thanks to Crack Shot ignoring my boost, his other shooting bounced off with his Banshees getting into a position to counter charge any further offensive.

Mephi debussed and moved to help out the Sanguinor dispatch the Wraithguard while the Termies moved back to charge the Pathfinders and the Banshee Tank, the Furioso moved to cover them, hoping to kill the Banshee transport and hold up the occupants. The DC and their Dread made light work of the Dragons and their Serpent with the Dread blowing it up with a rear armour shot, killing a few Dragons in the process. This wreck provided a huge piece of dangerous terrain however that my DC would be forced to charge into and having dispatched the Dragons, they were forced to go through and remain in due to them raging at the closest enemy, who was the hapless Farseer and his Avengers bodyguard, who were now the only part of his army left. The Termies and Dread made combat Blowing up the Serpent and a few of the Banshees in it and easily dispatching the Pathfinders.

So began the slow march at the Avengers and Seer.

Kevin unloaded the Avengers with Blade-storm into the DC only for FnP to ruin his day, his Farseer moved bravely forward throwing his Spear and then Charging a DC Dread only to roll 1’s and 2’s on the Chart, both of which are ignored thanks to one of my favourite Special Rule titles “None Shall Stay My Wrath”.

Seriously, none can stay it.

The clean-up was straightforward here and gave me my second 20-0 for the day. It wasn’t until I got home and began preparing this blog entry that I realised we had forgotten the Warp Spiders, which totally gives Kev the moral victory. Great game.

A successful day at the office gave me a respectable 43 points giving me third spot and most importantly finishing above Hugh who finished fourth. Suck it Hugh.

Though I did have some issues with aspect of the organisation as I have already stated, I must say that I had a great day out with some fun and challenging games. My thanks to the organisers and I look forward to returning to the event, especially if it is likely to be in the same venue.

I totally played in Thomond Park!!

I have played here, honest.