Back from Double Trouble

Hey folks. Last Saturday I attended the Double trouble tournament run by Alex at From the fang. Alex always runs a fantastic event, as I know from multiple attendances at his previous ones, Blog wars. This one was no different. Although the format may have put people off (it was a doubles tournament but with random pairings in each round) I actually found it very fun. I met some really cool people and all my games were full of laughter and fun moments.

My first game I was paired with Alex himself, a true dark eldar double team, and we faced iff against a brutal Eldar list with some nasty forgeworld units, and a cool heresy style Soace Wolves army. Both Alex and I looked at the lists and table set up and thought we were about to get slaughtered in short order. Fortunately some good dice rolling and excellent tactical skill :D meant that the game went the full 6 rounds and we lost by one victory point only. Unfortunately the Space Wolf army bore the brunt of our combined might and he had very little left by the end, whereas the Eldar army stayed behind a building most the time, peppering us with shots froma distance, as we had very little that could do him much harm from range. It was a surprisingly close game in kill points too, and a good blast as well. Alex and I talked shop thoroughout and had a great time, and both opponents were fun guys too.

For my second game I was paired up with my friend Mart (Xacherial from the blog) and his fluffy Space Wolves arm. His force had very little shooting but was packed to the brim with close combat units, while mine was more of an all rounder. Our opponents (both great guys again) were running an mechanicus force with lots of nasty shoots tough roboty thingsm and a aspect host formation consisting of two units of 10 dark reapers (yikes!) and 10 Swooping Hawks. When I saw those Dark Reapers my flimsy vehicles shivered in abject horror, as they absolutely annihilate my skimmers, ignoring their only form of defence, jink. Luckily we got first turn and some very aggressive play and unlucky dice rolling from my opponents meant my grotesques wiped out a Reaper unit by turn two and they were on the backfoot with ascattering of casualties meaning their attacking power was dented somewhat. However the counter attack came and the gane devolved into a brutal affair with many casualties on both sides. It ended however in a victory for us, with a whopping 18 objective points and 1500 blood points. Both guys were really pleasant to play against and we all had a laugh at each of our appaling dice rolling throughout the game (all four of us suffered some pretty horrific luck at different points in the game. Mine was where my beast pack lost combat to 3 mechanicus shooting robots with 1 attack each, and prompty failed morale and got run down as they fled).

My final game I was paired with an Iron Hands contingent, and we faced off against Mike (Cormm from St Andrews Wargaming) with bis Orcs and Alex's pal Matt who was running A Daemon list. This was to turn out to be a cracker of a game, which ended up being right down to the wire. My beast pack and grotesques charged into Mike's horde of Orcs with his painboy and Boss, and a massive ruck ebsued, with some absolutely amazing armout and FNP rolls by Mike ensuring that he eventually came out on top, wiping out all of my close combat stuff. Part of that was my fault as poor model placement in the charge phase meant my grotesques were getting doubled out by his warboss while my Kymerae were left fighting normal boys, who did not care about their invulnerable save. Meanwhile on the other flank anothe massive ruck was ensuing between Matts daemons, Mikes orcs and the Iron hands. Somehow my partner managed to survive (Matt was extremely unlucky as his Lord of change was tied up by a tac squad and termis for 7 rounds of combat, due to some appaling rolls to hit and wound) and we scored some big objectives to win by 1 point. It was such a close game and just filled with some pretty epic battles and unforgettable moments!

All in all I had an absolute blast at the event. The people I met were lovely, it was great to catch up with people I had not seen since last year such as Rob, Mike and Luke, and the format was just alot of fun to play.

The venue (pic borrowed from Alex)

Now my only negative with the event was the venue. Element games had double booked us with a massive privateer press weekender tournament, so we were relegated to a dingy basement with poor lighting (seriously only about two fluerescent rubes were working in the whole room, and the curtains were stapled shut so we could not get any natural light in) and left the dodgy cast off chipboard boards and terrain from the refurb they had just done. Not even the tables were set up for the event so Luke, Mike and a couple of the guys had to set it all up in the morning, and scrounge as much stuff as they could. Seriously it was so shoddy and they had the cheek to try and charge Alex more for the privilege of using that room! Seriously! Honestly I feel pretty angry (can you tell) on Alex's behalf, as this treatment was just unprofessional and rude. Not even an apology, and I did not see one person from the element team, apart from the occasional barman, who Alex had to fight to get down to take a few drinks orders. To top it all the food was over 40 mins late, and although it was very nice, it meant everyonewas having to pop up, get their food and eat it during their games, instead of being able to chat and mingle during the lunch break. I hope Alex seriously considers changing venues after this treatment for his future events as this was just a disgrace from element. I am more than happy to travel if this is the case, as his events are worth it, and I have alot of fun.

I dont want to end on a negative so I will say I did have an absolutely fantastic time overall. The prize support and raffle were as usual excellent, and it is always a great finish to the day when people win some fantastic prizes. I managed to win best converted army which was great ( I was a good boy and bought some paints with the prize voucher) and seeing all the other armies and models entered was a real joy as usual (although the lighting was so poor I had to use the torch in my phone to see them all properly). I am planning on going to Fluffageddon this year in November, which will be run by Matt, and I will most certainly be going back for Double Trouble Mk2 next year (wherever it is held).

Tata for now.

NafNaf