15/10/2023
Today, I had the pleasure of organising the third 'Betrayal at Crawley'
We had three people who, for various reasons, weren't able to make it today, so to avoid anyone having to sit out of a game, I quickly made an army from whatever was in my case. To avoid any hard feelings, everyone I played got at least a minor win, unless they scored higher, and I did not claim any points. That being said, I think it’s a bit of an insult to play to lose, so while my army was a bit of a mix of whatever was still in my case, I still played to win.
I had an archmagos, a magos dominus, a pair of domitars, three units of 6 thallax, a decimator and a thanatar. I was representing for the traitors.
My first game was against a guy called Dan. He had salamanders. We were playing on the woodland table with the webway portal in the middle. He had some very bad luck with the decimator, which chased off his terminators and praetor and then went on to kill a contemptor, a tactical squad and a volkite heavy support squad. Turns out the malefic artifice rule on a t7 2+ save model makes it almost immune to volkite squads. The game ended with a 3-1 win for me.
My second game was against a proper arse called Tom. He had imperial fists. We were playing on the trench board and I had a very lucky time in the first turn. I seized the initiative and my first shot had the thanatar blow up a land raider. The Templar brethren inside lost one model.
My thallax killed a second templat brethren and he then made the mistake of saying something along the lines of “this has been a bad turn for me. You’ll probably kill one more and make them run off the board now”.
I had my domitars left to fire who took a pair of bs3 krak missile pot shots at the Templars, killing one. Tom then promptly rolled an 11 on his leadership test and they ran off the board.
That meant he had to hold his own objective with his second Templar brethren squad.
By the end I had 3 vps and attrition and he had 4 vps. Making it a 4-4 draw.
My third game was against Blake, who had come all the way from Scarborough. He had a loyalist iron warriors/mechanicum combo.
We were on the bastion board with extremely varied objectives (between 0-4 vps and possibly exploding).
He had first turn and instantly removed my thanatar with tyrant of the lysatra iron havocs. He actually killed all my heavy hitters in the first couple of turns, leaving me with just thallax.
In the end, I’d scored 2vps from claiming an objective. He scored no victory points from objectives, but he did kill my warlord, kill a unit in the first turn and had attrition for 3 vps, making it a 2-3 win to him.
It was a bit stressful playing and running an event with eight bespoke missions, there were definitely more rules questions than normal, but all the players were great. Even Tom.
All three of my opponents were very patient with me half speed playing to make sure the game finishes and half running away to take photos, record scores and answer rules queries.
It was really nice to play on tables I own but barely get to play on, particularly the woodland board which I’m really happy with.
Still, I think for my own sanity, I’d rather just organise things.
