Warhammer 40k Conquest LCG and gaming catch up.

It's been a while since I posted, not because I haven't been gaming, rather the opposite. One of the main aims of my move back home to Stockton on Tees was the prolific local gaming scene and I have been taking full advantage.

Beanie Games my FLGS is open Monday & Tuesday afternoons for gaming, 11am till 10pm Weds, Thurs & Fri and 10 til 5 Sat & Sun. Plus Middlesbrough Games Club is open Tues and Thurs nights and has an all day meeting on the first Saturday of every month. In addition Beanie regularly run tournaments for lots of games. And then there's clubs in Hartlepool and Darlington and a couple of other local FLGS's. So I'm spoilt for choice!

I've played a few board games like Zombiecide and Snowdonia, Battlore 2nd edition, which I love, and a couple of games of Golem Arcana which is great fun although it's been hard to find people who want to play; lots of X-wing; won a Star Wars Attack Wing tournament (I've no idea how); entered a Heroclix tournament (I have no idea why as I'd never played before); played a few games of Crescent & Cross which I like even though I hated Saga; played lots of the new version of Dust tabletop (which I love); a few games of Black Powder Napoleonics which much to my surprise I now quite like after years of hating it; I've played a few games of the new Infinity rules but there's lots to learn yet; I've got back into D&D with a great local group (every other Wednesday); bought yet more sets of rules which I haven't got round to playing yet. Thursday nights are for Android Netrunner, which I've been playing a lot; I've also played lots of other LCGs like Game of Thrones, Star Wars and most recently 40K Conquest.

So on to 40K Conquest. Beanie ran their first monthly store tournament on Friday night. There were 12 of us taking part which was a pretty good turnout. I'd had just two practice games beforehand but the friendly folks at the 40K Conquest Facebook page had helped me with my build. I'd decided to go with Dark Eldar with Eldar allies as shown below:

Warlord:
1x Packmaster Kith (Core Set)

Army Unit: (32)
4x Kith’s Khymeramasters (Core Set)
2x Altansar Rangers (Core Set)
2x Baleful Mandrake (Core Set)
1x Beasthunter Wyches (Core Set)
2x Biel-Tan Warp Spiders (Core Set)
2x Coliseum Fighters (Core Set)
3x Eldar Survivalist (Core Set)
2x Hellion Gang (Core Set)
2x Incubus Warrior (Core Set)
2x Kabalite Strike Force (Core Set)
1x Klaivex Warleader (The Scourge)
2x Murder of Razorwings (Core Set)
3x Shrouded Harlequin (Core Set)
1x Soaring Falcon (Core Set)
2x Sybarite Marksman (Core Set)
1x Syren Zythlex (Core Set)

Attachment: (5)
1x Agonizer of Bren (Core Set)
2x Bladed Lotus Rifle (The Scourge)
2x Suffering (Core Set)

Event: (9)
2x Pact of the Haemonculi (Core Set)
2x Archon’s Terror (Core Set)
3x Power from Pain (Core Set)
2x Raid (Core Set)

Support: (4)
1x Khymera Den (Core Set)
2x Altar of Torment (Core Set)
1x Archon’s Palace (The Howl of Blackmane)

I had no particular plan, I just hoped I wouldn't get my ass handed to me in every game! My first game was with another player new to the game who was using an Eldar deck with Dark Eldar allies. I managed to build up a decent force in my HQ while closing down his resources so had a fairly easy win.
My second game was very different. I played the eventual winner of the tournament who was also using DE/E. I got my ass handed to me! I could see I was going to lose after the first planet. He shut down my resources while completely outplaying me. Thankfully the game was over at the third planet to put an end to my misery.
The third game was also against DE/E but was much closer. My opponent was more experienced than me but I managed to keep things close until he played 'Calamity' and then capped the first planet with 'Syren Zythlex' which meant all the cards I could bring to the planet would be exhausted and he easily won the battle there to get the last planet he needed.
The last round was against Space Marines led by Cato Sicarius, I'm not sure if he had any allies. The planets fell in a weird order which meant we would have to go to the fifth planet for a win. This was a fairly close game with his big units against my more numerous small units. Judicious use of 'Archon's Terror' to rout key units plus 'Power from Pain' and 'Raid' gave me the edge for a win.

Overall I was pretty happy I went 2-0 and came 8th plus I learnt a lot. The Dark Eldar played like the fluff, causing opponents to groan in pain when I stole resources or routed units. There were a few Ragnar Blackmane builds going after warlord kills, as well as Chaos and Imperial Guard decks. So a good mix of decks. I'm looking forward to the next tournament.