Battles unfold

With 34 players, Event Horizon ran with 6 rounds to ensure there was only one Knights Champion.

There are three rotating missions in Event Horizon – 5 Objectives (fixed location), Table Quarters (Scoring worth full VP), and KP by 3 or more. The final decider is VP.

At the end of Day 1 the top 8 players were,

1. Jason Collin – IG – 3/0 (46)

2. Matt Tolcher – Chaos – 3/0 (46)

3. Michael Cruise – Eldar – 3/0 (44)

4. Stuart Lord – SW – 3/0 (41)

5. Brendan Hunt – SW – 2/1 (36)

6. Will Wykoff (Kirby) – GK -2/1 (34)

7. Wayne Lauter – IG -2/1 (34)

8. Simon Rainbow – Daemons – 2/1 (33)

Although I had expected 5 players to be in the 3-0 bracket, Kirby’s (2-0) epic fail in his third game against Wayne Lauter (1-1) resulted in only 4 players with a 3-0 record. This also meant that both Kirby and Wayne managed to qualify for Day 2.

In the first round of Day 2, the mission was 

Spearhead setup – Objectives/Quarters/KP

• Jason Collins(1) vs. Simon Rainbow(8)

Simon is a long time daemon player, and although we told him that his Slaanesh daemons are dead in 5th Ed, he continues to play in the hope that GK does not show up on the other side. Jason is a long time IG player and had strong showings with his mechanised guard in other events in Australia.

Unfortunately, Jason was placed into the left corner where Simon took full advantage of a hill at the centre left that blocked LOS. This allow Simon’s daemon to drop into cover and engage Jason’s army with minimal damage. The result was a one side slaughter and 16-0 to Simon.

• Matt Tolcher(2) vs. Wayne Lauter(7)

Matt (from Canberra) with his Chaos – 2 Prince, 7 obliterators, auto-cannon dreadnoughts and marines in rhino, played Wayne and his mechanised guard. Again, this is a game where good use of cover and long range fire power from obliterators helped Matt closed in for the kill. It was another one side slaughter and 16-0 to Matt.

• Michael Cruise(3) vs. Kirby(6)

Footdar vs GK. Michael (from Canberra) has played elder for a very long time and with Eldred and Yriel, his army did what most people did not think possible – “win” games. But this proofs that the player is more important then the list. Having a good list is important, but it can only get you so far without learning to play better. I am sure Kirby will have a good run down of the game on his blog. The game was very close and it came down to VP where Michael won by 100vp.

• Stuart Lord(4) vs. Brendan Hunt(5)

Two new players in the tournament scene, both of them with a very similar semi mechanised SW. It was nearly a mirror match and it showed in the final score where Stuart won on the Tertiary mission by one objective. Two strong up and coming players that I hope to see more in the future.

Semi Finals - Pitch battle setup – KP/Objectives/Quarters

• Michael Cruise(3) vs. Simon Rainbow(8)

This was a game where I though Simon had a real chance to win. Michael went first and spread his army across the table, and I saw that as a fatal mistake. Unfortunately for Simon, he did not get his first wave to take advantage of the error. What made it worst was that Simon held back and did not engage Michael’s army while Eldred was out of position. This gave Michael one turn to recover and from there it was all one way. Final result was 16-0 to Michael.

• Matt Tolcher(2) vs. Stuart Lord(4)

Although this should have been an even match, the approach taken by both players were very conservative with both players deciding to sit back and shoot through cover. If statistic was average, Stuart would have won with his extra missiles and vehicles. But as luck has it Matt destroyed vehicles while Stuart was only able to immobilise or destroy weapons. Matt also got his dreadnought to roll the crucial 6s to hit and destroy a rhino to get enough KP for him to take out the match.

Finals - DoW setup – Quarters/KP/Objectives

• Matt Tolcher(2) vs. Michael Cruise(3)

It is always good to see a tight finals and this proof to be the tightest of games. A report can be found in WAU - http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=118078 but the game result was draw on primary 2 quarters each, draw in KP, Michael had 3 objectives (which won him the game), and Matt had higher VP. Matt could have won but could not draw the tertiary mission to push it down to VP.

Knights Champion 2011 - Michael Cruise