UK Games Expo - Burningham was so close yet so far

Well, it's been a couple of weeks now. I think I have finally fully recovered from Burningham.

A ham, that's burning..........get it?

I think it is as close to an American Con as you will get in the UK (or as close as I imagine, as I have never been across the pond........one day). 

The UK games expo was utterly mad, around 15,000 gamers attended over the course of the weekend. 
Team OB set off around 7am on Friday morning and after a stop-off for breakfast we arrived in a considerable downpour.......welcome to Birmingham. 

Skullsword (the Gimp) and I got straight in the queue for booking in 'bring-and-buy' - lucky we got there early, that queue got huge! 
We were both hoping to break even for the weekend, I managed to sell of some 40k, Warhammer, Warmaster and Aeronautica Imperialis stuff that was just gathering dust. 

We played some 'King of New York' which is very entertaining - basically you are a big monster, trying to kill all the other big monsters and smash a few buildings too, also got in some Bloodbowl team manager - the card game, it's great fun - I ended up buying it plus both the expansions! Another game played was Shogun, it's quite similar to Risk, but it has no dice, instead you have little wooden cubes, which represent your forces. You collect up your forces and your opponents and put them into a dice tower (which retains some of the blocks, whichever force comes out on top wins. It's ingenious.
On the Sunday a few of us tried Bushido, this is a small fantasy skirmish game set in Japan (think Samurai era). The models are lovely, and the gameplay was very enticing. Enticing enough for most of us to invest in the rules and some miniatures (I've also started making a Bushido board, I do have a thing about Samurai, and Japanese history). 

Joe and a Storm Trooper having 'a moment' while Lara and I ....... well you know

These little b**tads scared the living sh*t out of Joe, you should ask him about it one day

Anyway, enough of all that, Saturday was Dropzone day. 
Most of us went to bed around half 2 in the morning after some late night Bloodbowl action. Some (who will remain nameless), shamed themselves by retiring at 10.30!!!!!

So, little sleep was had. Still managed breakfast at a reasonable hour - then went back to bed - coz I can. We arrived in the packed hall/conference area nice and early, there was not a lot of table space. I lucked out and managed to play 2 out of my 3 games on the ends (bottom table game 1, top table game 2) which meant I had some room. 

My list hasn't changed much, minor tweek that I swapped the Ferrum and Falcons over

My game 1 was against a chap that I have completely forgotten his name (sorry) he had Shaltari and it was Targets for the first game. The whole game is a bit of a haze, due to lack of sleep. I won 4-0 in VP's managing to destroy his home objective and some of his Braves, then systematically took out gates and immediate threats. I got a 2 point kill point bonus making the final score 16-4 

Game 2 was on the top table against David Bonner. We played Ground Control+ (units in a quarter contested). You'd think my Air Supremacy list would be amazing for this mission, it possibly should be, but I don't find that it is - Archangels don't help, it puts me 134 points down already. 
David hadn't changed his list from Critical Engagement in early May, so I knew what to expect. He has 2 dedicated AA units which are tough to get rid of. I played it will, but ultimately it came down to 1 set of events. Firstly 4 Falcons couldn't take out 1 Kukri. The Kukri ran away and hid. The other squad of Kukri (2 left) shot my Phoenix over last activation on 1 turn and first activation on the next turn. The Phonenix survived with 1 dp left, I'm ready to move off somewhere else and David plays the card that forces me to activate something I don't want to, that last Kukri takes the last dp from my Phoenix, meaning I have slim to no chance in this game. I lost 7-5 in vps and David had a very minor kp bonus resulting in a 7-13 loss. 

Game 3 was against Adam Reeve, he was using his allied Resistance and the mission was Secure the Flanks (I think). I really shouldn't write too much here, it was utterly devastating for Adam. Absolutely nothing went right for him. It is the closest I have come to totally annihilating an opponent in DzC. It all started when I took 22 damage off of Adam's home objective building in turn 1. With 8 left he put 3 squads of Resistance Fighters in and hoped for the 1st activation on turn 2. It didn't happen, the building collapsed. My infantry found their objective straight away and it continued getting worse and worse for Adam. I think it finished 8-1 in vps and I killed over 1300 points worth so I won 20-0. 
Adam, I still owe you a pint...

That 20 points in game 3 meant I shot up the standings into 2nd place. Very happy with that and my list. 
I picked up a blister of Eviserators for my Scourgy-wourgy at the Hawk stand (they are fucking huge btw!!) and I will be using Scourge at my next tournament which will be Woking War on 8th August.

4th place for David Bonner

3rd for Joe

A sultry 2nd place (yes, again) for me

FIX, FIX, James strolls out as the chump Champ. Congrats Jimbo

Best army for TechBoy 2000's Tron scheme. 

I have decided that my Air Supremacy list is definitely a 2 day tournament list. It works better over the course of 5 games rather than 3. 

Sorry it's been a while. We have all had a bit of DzC overload. Tuesday will be my first DzC game since the expo. That's 3 weeks without playing!!!!! 
But I love it too much to let it slip.