Invasion 2016

The weekend of 30th/31st of January was my first Invasion: A Dropzone Commander Tournament.
It felt like quite a build up what with buying new minis, painting them and trialling my list over the course of several months...and it was over in the blink of an eye; Okay maybe not that quick.

It was an absolutely awesome weekend! As well as utterly tiring!

The atmosphere at the venue was electric, with pictures and models of upcoming releases fuelling it (not to mention Dropfleet commander models on display). The Hawk team were on hand to talk through the new releases and the potential rules: Unfortunately non of the new models are released yet with the first due in March, but it's safe to say if any were available for sale at invasion they would have quickly sold out.

Here is my list:

Invasion List
Clash: 1499/1500 points
Standard Army
Standard Roster [1499/1500 pts]
Oppressors [505 pts]
Oppressor: Oppressor(Master), Harbinger(+Mini Arc Caster) [300 pts]
Ravagers: 3x Ravager, Harbinger(+Mini Arc Caster) [205 pts]
Vanguard [429 pts]
Reaper Squad: 3x Reaper, Despoiler(+Twin Plasma Cannons) [219 pts]
^ Sharing ^ Hunter Squad: 6x Hunter [210 pts]
Warriors [305 pts]
Warrior Horde: 2x Warriors, Intruder Alpha [94 pts]
Warrior Horde: 2x Warriors, Intruder Alpha [94 pts]
Reaper Squad: 3x Reaper [117 pts]
Occupation Patrol [260 pts]
Prowlers: 8x Prowler, 2x Intruder Beta [120 pts]
Destroyers: 2x Destroyers, Intruder Alpha [140 pts]

Now on with the games:

Table: 2. Game 1: Military Complex. Opponent: Stephen. Force: UCM. Result: 3-17

My first game of the tournament and I score 3, although a defeat I still scored something, which I was pleased about that. The dice did torment me though providing 1's when 2's were required.

Table: 24. Game 2: Survey and Control. Opponent: Mark. Force: Resistance. Result: 0 - 20.

Utterly spanked! I couldn't do a thing right. His freeriders ran rings around me and a face off between my Oppressor and his Alexander went spectacularly wrong, resulting in my Oppressor being blow apart. I could not roll to save my life. Mark even quipped about buying new dice: "These are new dice!" I sobbed. nothing could consul me after that other than several chocolate biscuits.

Table: 25. Game 3: Ground Control. Opponent: Paul. Force: Scourge. Result: 6 - 14.

This game was frustrating because my luck was changing; I swept across the battlefield destroying everything in my path! Paul couldn't stop me. Then he played the "Quick thinking" card and stole initiative , I forgot to play my Espionage card, which allowed him to activate his Desolator, NEVER have I seen a Desolator used so effectively. It moved over my hunters and unleashed hell! Within seconds he had destroyed 5 Hunters, 2 Reapers and 3 Ravagers. I had pretty much lost everything!
I went home that day a broken man.

Table: 25. Game 4: Bunker Assault. Opponent: Alex. Force: Scourge. Result: 20-0

New day, table 25 start. Who knows what will happen here. Unfortunately for Alex I utterly destroyed him. Not because I was in any way a better tactician than him or anything like that it was just that the dice gods favoured me and punished him. He had absolutely no luck; rolling 1's when 2's were needed, an experience I was all too familiar with. Whereas I couldn't seem to put a foot wrong, rolling with devastating effect. A win but I felt terrible after.

Here's is a link to Alex's blog and his version of events: http://epituderusk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/invasion-2016-dzc-tournament.html

Table: 20. Game 5: Secure the Flanks. Opponent: Guy. Force: PHR. Result: 7-13

PHR was one of the armies I was least looking forward to playing against; so having my last game against them wasn't a nice prospect. However Guy didn't have a Nemesis, or a Hades but he did have two Medusa! So I knew I wasn't going to win. I hadn't ever played against Medusa and having heard so much about them I was a little apprehensive. However - thanks to Guy - I quickly learnt that they aren't as bad as I imagined and that they can be killed (eventually).

With the results in and a total number of tournament points of 36 (3401 kill points) I came 43rd, which I don't think is too bad for my first tournament. I had an absolute blast and will definitely be going again, armed with the lesson learnt, one of which is that 4 battlegroups is a bad idea!