The Oppressors Of Burningham

Yeehaw!

I'm getting that feeling again. That anticipatory feeling that makes the hair on the back of your next stick up. That uncomfortable feeling that makes your feet sweat unnaturally, and causes you to change your socks multiple times throughout a day. The unerring feeling that forms a pit at the bottom of your stomach, and seems to turn and twist uncomfortably. It’s that all too familiar feeling of an incoming tournament! Although that last feeling could well be an embryonic chestburster… I best get that checked out...

The UK Games Expo is almost upon us, and the gang and I will be heading up to Burningham (Birmingham using the proper Englishness) on Friday morning. Cue a day and night of board gaming and general shenanigans, followed up on the Saturday with Hawk’s DzC tourney, and then another days worth of board gaming on the Sunday. Quite frankly, I’m more excited than the ambassador is when the Ferrero Rocher is handed out. I’m going to get my board game on hard, with some Shogun, Dead Of Winter, and Blood Bowl Team Manager to name but a few on my list.

But on to the subject you guys are reading for: The tournament. Hawk are putting on the 1500 point clash, three-game-one-day event and it’s shaping up to be a blast. The torso count is at about 23 so far, meaning Hawk Simon may even get a game in as odd-man with his Fury Road, 24 technical Resistance list. What A Lovey Day it could be.

As for myself, I will once again be using the predatory invaders, the Scourge. I have been rocking the same list for the last couple of months and it is a blast. Literally, it blasts everything in its way! Here, have a sneaky peak:

The Minders can provide a no-go area for enemy aircraft, but more commonly I will dump a squad on a troop transport or gunship after it has activated (as with a CV5, I will get the initiative a lot). The Reapers serve a similar purpose but for larger aircraft or hardier gunships (like Cyclones or Firedrakes) which I need a guaranteed kill on. On top of all of this super aggressive AA, I have two sneaky Mini Arc-Casters on my Harbingers which have snipped more than a couple of fast movers!

As for troops it’s a pretty standard affair. The Destroyers do the dirty work, and the Warriors nip in and out with objectives. I still have a lone squad of warriors in a BG which I'm not particularly keen on, but they can be useful for a dead activation in games like Ground Control.

The truly eye opening part of the list however is the Command squad. True, three Stalkers is not to be sniffed at or underappreciated, but an Oppressor and 4 Reavers who will get the jump on you more than you will on them (again thanks to CV5 for initiative and card drawing, meaning I can get those Quick Reaction cards sometimes when I need them) is a terrifying prospect! I often don’t run them down the same channel, but instead use them on opposite flanks to split an opponent’s army. The Oppressor can be vulnerable on its own, but if it has already annihilated its prey, then well, there is nothing left to exploit that vulnerability.

This isn’t the perfect list, not by a long shot, but it is great fun to play with (I’m not so sure against though…). If I lose my Oppressor or a couple of Reavers early without them having made an impact I’m sure to have a hard game, but on the other hand if I can coax out the enemy AA and get rid of it before it has an impact on the game, the army will get it’s sharp little claws into the game which are hard to dislodge. Come Invasion I’ll have something slightly different, probably with six Reapers, but with the new infantry, Screamer and Vampires coming out soon who knows how things will change!

See you at Burningham!