A couple of the older lads went last year, so knew their way around Warhammer World, but the younger ones were impressed with the rhino outside, the gaming hall and the display models upstairs.
Our team's 600 pt armies were inspected after we arrived. As we were all prepared with equipment and I had made enough objective markers for 6 each and also made sure all the figures had at least 3 colours, we got most of the army points. We lost a couple for the bases, as some were textured but not painted or were just painted. Apparently unpainted sand does not count. I think it is a ploy to sell more textured paint, so I duly obliged and told the kids to get started, just to scrape together another point or two.
We had a Tau player, who had 2 Riptides, a Cadre Fireblade and some Fire Warriors. Another was using Dark Angels from the starter box with a Land Raider. The third had added a Vindicator to his starter Chaos models and the last army was Grey Knights including Coteaz and Henchmen as troops. They played 4x40-minute games each.
Teachers were supposed to stand back and let the players play. This sounds straightforward, but I found it hard not to say anything if they were completely ignoring objectives and merrily blasting away! Some members of school staff got told off by the GW bods for interfering, including me when I was answering a rules question one of the other team had asked me. I was trying to be impartial and helpful... Honestly! One or two teachers were being a bit too competitive though.
As for the team, they did well in the first two games before lunch, with an even 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses. Most of them were playing with objectives in mind, or at least starting to.
The afternoon was not as pretty. Of the 30 teams there, they drew the eventual winners and the team that finished third, who were using some very good lists. The winning team for example had Eldar with 2 Wave Serpents, Necrons with a flyer, Tau with a single Riptide and a nasty Daemon list, including the Portalglyph. Although we lost every game in the afternoon, our Tau player was unlucky on the last game of Purge the Alien. He was one assault marine away from tabling his opponent in combat with his Riptide on 3 wounds when the game ended.
The obligatory quiz, before results were announced, was just for fun and was an enjoyable way to end the day especially the 'say what you see' round. The pictures of a neck and Rupert Grint were hilarious.
With our collapse in the second half we came 26th, so the boys were all disappointed with the overall results. It was a shame that only 3 teams progressed to the National Finals. It seems mainly the power-gamers will be there, but I hope my boys, some of whom are only really just starting the hobby, aren't put off and are inspired by this visit.
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