RUMBLE AT RAINIER

This weekend Olympic Cards and Comics celebrated its 8th birthday and hosted the "Rumble at Rainier"! No, no, no, silly. Not the recent rash of earthquakes we've been having round here, but the 40K tournament on Saturday July 14th. It was an exciting, if not exhausting day of great gaming and fun hosted by Art Wagner. We had 12 participants enter with a good variety of players of all skill levels, beginners to old timers. Dan- Space Marines Scott- Blood Angels Avid- Imperial Guard Tamlin- Chaos Matt- Orks Louis- Tyranids James- Imperial Guard Bjorn- Space Wolves Art- Mantis Warriors Marines Blake- 141st Cadian Panzer Corps Adam- Space Marines Justin- Dark Angels Eight tables were set up in the store with a different mission at each station. Blitz, Bunker Assault, Ambush, Strongpoint Attack, Patrol, were just some of the missions run. Each player took turns being the attacker and defender in every other scenario. So those players used to sitting back and pummeling the heck out of their opponent now had to use a little strategy and mobility to win the objective.

Kudos go to Scott and Louis for providing some wonderful looking terrain. They obviously have way too much time on their hands :) Good Job guys. Also, some great looking armies showed up on Sat. in the form of Scott's Blood Angels and Matt's Orks.

Uh, oh, here they come! Tamlin's Chaos Termies

Chaargge!! BA's assault Dan's marines

Dis umie tank trap ain't nuthin!! Matt's Ork horde

Scott's Blood Angels

We also saw the emergence of James' Lightning strike fighter for the first time. His scratchbuilt fighter is a sight to be seen and is a very imposing model to stare down the barrels at. His luck with it wasn't too good and as he was about to fire his pilot, the Lightning came through in glorious fashion, destroying Dan's Predator Annihilator and showing up on every single turn after that.  Poor Guardsman...They just keep blowing themselves up with their plasma rifles. One of the highlights for me was overheating PR's in every game and melting myself into slag for 6 games straight. Sheesh. Not only did three IG armies show up, But my first two opponents were IG. I just laughed and shook my head. Now I was staring down the barrel of an ordinance template. Yikes! Well, here's the army I took for the tourney. Imperial Guard- 1000 pts. HQ- Captain w/ plasma pistol and power wpn        command section with missle launcher Platoon HQ- Lt. with Lasgun and command section with Lascannon and flamer Inf Sqd. 1- Heavy bolter and Meltagun Inf Sqd. 2- Autocannon and Plasma rifle Inf Sqd. 3- Lascannon and flamer Platoon HQ- Lt. with Bolt pistol and command section with Lascannon and grenade launcher Inf. Sqd 4- Missle Launcher and Grenade Launcher Inf Sqd 5- Heavy Bolter and Plasma Rifle Sentinels- x2 with Hunter Killers Leman Russ Battle Tank- Hull lascannon and heavy bolter sponsons Basilik I faired pretty well throughout the tourn. and I felt that I had chosen a pretty well balanced force that would be able to attack as well as defend. I wanted to go infantry heavy but should have taken an armored fist for faster mobility on the flanks. Both the Leman Russ and Basilik performed well in their heavy support duties, with the exception of the bunker assault mission (curse you Dan and your predator!!)

on to Page 2!