Everything is Easier with Four Extra Limbs

As it happened, they didn't all return. One of them never made it to Nottingham. Like a moron, I managed to leave one of the Scouts at home 'guarding' the painting table, necessiating the borrowing of one of Jason's spare Mantis Warrior Scouts. Oops.

Anyway, we had a great time at the 40k Doubles tournament. We finished mid-table, with three wins, a draw and three losses. We also got nominated for best army, but as Willard Foxton correctly predicted, were beaten by Andrew and Nicola's Black Dragons and Witch Hunters. I'm forced to concede that their victory was entirely justified.

In gaming terms, I think we did pretty well given the entirely non-bent army that we took. A good mix of infantry, vehicles and characters. Unlike some armies that were there - common themes were dual Daemon Prince with Lash of Slaanesh, Tyranid monstrous creature armies, and Orks. Lots of Orks. Principally Ork Warbike bosses with nobz bikes that then become a Troops choice, aaargh! Fortunately we didn't meet those. As Jason pointed out, we didn't win enough games to face them (At this point may I apologise to the startled man in the lunch queue who looked somewhat shocked when a complete stranger berated him as 'a total bender' for taking said army). Our army was a lot of fun to use, with the stand out components being:

• Dr. Octavius, Forgemaster of the Imperial Fists. With his four extra robotic arms, mounting claws, flmaethrowers and plasma cutters, he's a whole unit in one model! His ability to build a base also helps.
• Librarian Shimio of the Mantis Warriors. Has the 'Gate of Infinity' power (or teleport to you and me) which he uses to drive what became known as 'The Fun-Vee' ("I'm sorry, this is the Fun-Vee. The Humdrum-Vee is back there"). This was himself, ten more Space Marines and later Dr. Octavius jumping around the board, setting fire to things and generally being rowdy. But with psychic powers.
• The Imperial Fists Whirlwind Artillery tank. No-one really expected this one. Certainly not Owen Rees and his Master of the Ravenwing Landspeeder, which we proceeded to fire missiles at the back of.

Here are some of the highlights of the weekend (I'll post a seperate article featuring the Fists, just for you Will!):

Paul McCabe desperately finishes his army in Bugman's bar on Saturday morning AGAIN. Despite being nominated for best army (along with GW Cribs' Johnny), some of his models were still on the sprue ten mintues before the first game.

The Imperial Fists bravely charge over the top towards the most powerful tank in the game, the Land Raider. Hmm, good luck with that.

In a fortunate bit of desperate rulebook flipping, we found that Jason's Dreadnought was able to clamber on top of the enemy's wrecked tanks, thus saving the Fun-Vee from the terrible Twin Chaos Lords, J'aake and El-Wood.

Andrew, Nicola, Jason and I celebrate after winning the Bugman's Pub Quiz. Hurrah for free drinks!

Our combined army having been nominated for best painted.

Andrew's Witch Hunters

Nicola's Black Dragons.

Will Hayes' and partner's Ork Band.

A very cool Ork Warboss on bike conversion, modelled in a General Grievous style rolling machine thing. Note the Squig being dragged after him.

Owen Rees' slightly bizarre Watcher in the Dark mounted on Cyber-Manticore.

A very cool Apocalypse board (12' x 6') with an Eldar artefact being excavated by gaint diggers and bulldozers behind an Imperial Fortress. The attackers go up hill through a ruined town, taking cover behind wrecked Titans and Baneblade.

A demonic red cow we spotted on our way back from Bugman's to the hotel on Saturday night. Despite being drunk, it turned out be real.

An only slightly less terrifying thought for many of you, I'm sure - Warhammer World's gaming hall, filled with over 250 gamers.

Finally, GW had a display of their old Warhammer sets in cabinets at the front. This one in particular caught our eye. Jason: "Hmmm... He is pretty tragic".