Contained below are FIVE battle reports which should have been posted earlier…I blame the lack of pigeons…or maybe I just need to check my inbox more carefully…!

Thanks to Tony for the reports

Neil H

Space Marines v Grey Knights

League one has seen one battle between Harry and Graham. This was space marines against Grey Knights. Neither Harry nor Graham are the most experienced of players, and Grahams army, lovingly collected and beautifully painted, is definitely not optimised for the current codex. I didn't get to see this battle in detail, but from the result, Harry and Graham settled down to long range fire. Now guys, this is 40K… after the next 38000 years, surely you should realise that what works best is running up to someone and beating them over the head with a rock. Because of this failure to grasp the subleties of the 40k system, the long range firepower was, in the vast majority, negated by power armour, and although some casualties were taken, it didnt translate into killpoints. So it ended up a draw with the grey knights and Graham having a slight lead in victory points.

Dark Eldar v Imperial Guard

League two has seen two games, with Steve L applying himself to get his games played. The first was against Nick and his Imperial Guard. The game was objectives based, and Steve won the dice roll to go first. He deployed, and was so keen to be able to move and open fire that he adopted a formation that, like the Dark Eldar themselves, could best be described as peverse. To fit all the skimmers in, they were (literally) nose to tail and jammed in like a tin full of sardines. Of course, in the first turn they would shake out of this formation and release a barrage of dark lance and splinter death and destruction. Except Nick stole the initiative…. And the Imperial Guard are blessed in the amounts of firepower they have… So Steve lost about half his vehicles, including one immobilised facing away from the guard lines. Need less to say, that one sat there and did nothing all game. To his credit, Steve fought on. Nick was cautious about pushing forward too fast, and gradually Steve built up an offensive line and with the limited resources he had left, took the fight to Nick and cleared him off the objectives to grab a win.

Imperial Guard v Orks

This report was posted earlier!

Dark Eldar V Grey Knights

At the same time, Steve was giving battle to Max, Dark Eldar against Grey Knights. The game was anihaltation. Steve won the dice roll to go first and deployed. After last time, he was slightly more cautious and deployed his forces in a block in themiddle of his baseline, ready to react to Max's deployment and use his superior speed to concentrate on a portion of Max's army. Except, Max stole the initiative. Max's army is well equipped with lots of medium strength firepower. Once again, about half of Steve's army crashed and burnt on the opening salvo. Despite his desperate reaction, he had been disabled too much by the opening barrage. In successive turns, Max was able to mass firepowwer and blow what was left of Steve's army into ever smaller pieces, resulting in a big win for Max. Never mind Steve, I am sure you cant lose the initiative again…

Tau V Orks

The other league that has seen a battle is league 4, where Ed and Mike Y clashed. Both Ed and Mike are very experienced 40K players, with very well sorted armies. (I know, people think you can't make a well sorted army out of Tau, but trust me, Ed's is good) Mike was using his Ork battlewagon list. It was a spearhead deployment, so Mike had his heavy armour facing Ed's army. Ed lit Mike's army up with markerlights, and unleashed a barrage of railgun fire. Unfortunately, Ed couldn't roll well on the damage table and Mike survived the onslaught. He closed in on Ed, and adopted the favourite Ork tactic of ramming with deffrollas. He managed to roll the 1s and 2s necessary to hit Ed's skimmers, and needless to say, the result wasnt pretty for Ed. Once again, 40K showed that when things start going wrong for you, they normally get much, much worse… Ed was wiped out, giving Mike a big win.