Warhammer Tournament Bulgaria

Last Saturday (07.01.2017) I attended a small tournament in Bulgaria. We had loads of fun so I want to share my experience.

First of all I (Reepy von Awesome’sauce) was the winner. Contain your applause and congratulations. You can send me gifts of course. I am not sure I deserved to win but I was declared the winner, so… hurrah.

The main 40K gaming in Bulgaria happens in Sofia and mainly in the Level Up club. We were 12 guys and some came from other cities (Plovdiv, Stara Zagora).

We were playing 1000pts lists. The major difference between most tournaments was that winning games was just one third of your score. The second third was how good your army was painted and the last (but not least) third was sportsmanship. This seems to promote more of a hobby take on the whole list building than competition.

The lists were competitive enough but no one brought “the Cheeze”. Many non-optimal units were included – every body brought what they like. Another difference was that the games were played on a 4×4 tables (1000pts after all) with only 3 objectives each counting as two (1-2, 3-4 and 5-6) for Maelstrom of War missions.

A picture of the tables:

The tournament organizer was a fellow player who gave his heart and soul (and an arm and a leg) to organize a good tournament and it happened. I am very thankful to what Kaloyan did. I’ve organized tournaments before and know how tough it can be.

We had a great time. Each player played three games and that was enough since the sportsmanship and painting scores made sure there was no equal scores.

This was my list: The glorious Ultra Angels Strike Force Uriel (Dark Angels combined arms detachment). This is the first time I play so many transports but I had just painted all of them so I had to…

Having so many Objective Secured in a Maelstrom of War missions made a big difference. I played against Tau, Grey Knights and finally Necrons.

In all three games I played aggressively: pushing forward with the tanks to hold the objectives and disembarking on turn one or two. That usually gives more targets to your opponent and… having marines in tanks is no help at all. This payed off mostly. An objective secured transport and a unit of marines next to it usually means the opponent will not get that objective.

I lost against the Grey Knight however 15 to 14 points. Everybody had given me top scores for painting though, so that gave me an edge in the final score.

Here are some pictures of the ‘battles’:

I am a bit disappointed by the Predator (Words of Angels). It is very hard to get it to shoot with two lascannons (let alone three) at full BS. You have to think about how you position it at the start of the game.

The Interrogator Chaplain (Uriel) is very powerful and gives a good boost when assaulting. I prefer him to a Company Master. Having a zealot with a Powerfist is quite handy in the melee. Actually used the slingshot maneuver twice to put Uriel in close combat in this tournament. Won me one of the games.

The two Land Speeders (Wings of Fire and Lightning) can be a pain in the ass for many opponents. They are pretty survivable when they Jink (Ravenwing) and when alone seem like not that big of a threat (bad idea).

The heroes of my lists however were the lowly marines and their transports (squads Nuriel, Barachiel, Seraph and Raziel). Being in your opponent’s face when he or she doesn’t want that and redeploying fast is priceless. Disembark fast and keep the Rhinos/Razorbacks close to the marines. Next turn you might decide to embark and move 12″-18″.

Overall – more than happy with this tournament. Hope there will be more soon. Maybe some of you guys can come to Bulgaria and teach us how to play. 😉

Happy Wargaming,
Reepy