Download the results for Heat 3: [Download PDF 21Kb]

Heat 3 of Warhammer 40,000 was a sell-out with 150 players competing for the final 50 final spots. It was a great weekend with a lot of new faces to the tournament scene and some great looking armies. The standard of painting in the best army competition was very high with some outstanding efforts.

The top places were a mix of armies in this heat with Max Barton's Eldar, Henry Chown's Tau and Marco Davide's Space Marines taking first second and third respectively.

So with the the last postitions filled, it's going to be a great end to the season with a final filled with all the best players from three hard-fought heats.

See you soon

Adam Hall

STANDINGS

Overall Winner Max Barton Eldar	2nd Place Henry Chown Tau	3rd Place Marco Davide Dark Angels Space Marines

	Best General Andy Talbot Chaos Space Marines	Best Army Nicola Taylor Tyranids

ULTHWÉ ELDAR ARMY LIST

You can download a copy of Max Barton's winning army list for use in your own games of Warhammer 40,000.

Max Barton's Ulthwé Eldar Army List: [Download PDF 9Kb]

BEST PAINTED ARMY

Nicola Taylor came away with the award for Best Painted Army, and we thought we'd show some of it here. Nicola's Tyranids will be showcased in full in a future issue of White Dwarf magazine – stay tuned.

Nicola's award-winning Tyranid swarm - click on the images below to see larger versions.

WARHAMMER 40,000 GRAND TOURNAMENT HEAT 3 REVIEW

Heat 3 of the Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournaments is always well-attended, with hobbyists and the staff of Games Workshop going head-to-head. This season, White Dwarf's very own Owen Rees and Christian Byrne both decided to enter in the hopes of making it to the Grand Final and to fortune & glory...

Owen Rees

Owen: Once again I entered the Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament to see if my skills in gaming and painting would be up to the mark. In this heat I was most interested in being nominated for the Best Painted Army and also qualifying to get through to the second round.

Last season I had managed to qualify for the Final, and tried to take an all-conquering pure Deep Striking Imperial Guard Drop Troopers army. While exceptionally powerful on paper with the amount of models and the new Rapid Fire rules (shoot twice at 12" even if moved) the reality turned out to be an inconsistent unreliable army which was often taken apart piecemeal and tended to kill itself by dropping off the board, on my own units (much to my opponents amusement) or on my enemy's units. It also didn't look too hot as a force to be judged for Best Painted Army.

ESCALATION New to this season, the Escalation rule makes for much more even games. On a role of a 4+ any non-infantry units start the game in reserve. This makes choosing your army list and balancing your force more important than ever.

This season I chose to take models I knew would make folk go 'wow' and which would be good in the game. A force which would start the game deployed and work to my advantage when the horde armies arrived and Escalation kicked in.

DAY 1

My first day at the GT saw me face the kind of opponents my Tahnelian Drop Troopers excel at taking apart. Mike Sampson and Lee Dowbeain with Space Wolves and 13th Company met the wrath of my first turn deployed force with a smattering of Veterans Deep Striking. Crushing 17-3 victories followed even though both games were knife edge until late on.

In my final game of the day, I faced one of those all or nothing armies – a pure Genestealer force led by a Broodlord. We had rending claws and extended carapace a-go-go. Paul Furminger had done really well earlier that day against Space Marines, earning him a place on table 5 with me. Top bloke, alas (for him) my heavy bolter, mortar and Hellhound-toting Guard army had a field day and a massacre ensued (20-0). End of Day 1, and I'd done rather well. Over an evening meal with friend Jonathan Carter I noted that surely this was the high water mark, and like Icarus, I would surely plummet on the morrow.

Owen's Tahnelian "Firebolts" 374th Airborne Imperial Guard army.

DAY 2

And plummet I did, though only slightly slower than a screaming comet! I played staff member Andy Smile first off with an all Wave Serpent force. Solid Victory to him and off table two (yes two!) I came. Alessandro Berbini gave me the same result again with the shootiest' Speed Freaks army I have ever played. Finally Peter Corps stopped the rot as I scrapped a Draw against a three-Defiler geared Iron Warriors army.

The result of this barbaric day, 16th overall! Yes thanks, I'll take that any day of the week. I'd got through to the Final. To top it all off I even managed to be nominated for the Best Painted Army. Now the only question is, how do I make my army better for the Grand Final...

TAHNELIAN "FIREBOLTS" 374th AIRBORNE

Download Owen's army list for use in your own games of Warhammer 40,000.

Owen Rees' Imperial Guard Army List: [Download PDF 21Kb]

Christian Byrne

Christian: When one of the guys at head office had to drop out and offered me his ticket to Heat 3 of this year's Grand Tournament, I was hesitant. Firstly, there were only two days to the event, so play testing was out, and secondly, I only play casually and not all that often, despite the fact that I have finished painting five armies.

I thought I would use a variant of my Black Legion Chaos Space Marines that had won my last few games. This variant has no vehicles or specialised troops, except for Daemons. It is designed to be unaffected by the Escalation special rule. Happy with my selection I set off on Saturday morning to meet my fate.

I didn't fare too well (nothing new there). I came up against armies that were either designed to rip you apart in close combat, like the two armies led by Broodlords I faced back-to-back (I have never witnessed such an efficient killing machine), or armies able to annihilate anything in power armour. Against one such army fielding three squads of Dark Reapers, I did manage a minor victory.

Nevertheless, the vibe was never short of great. All my opponents were friendly and sportsmanlike, and everyone I chatted to between games (many of mine were over quick so I nipped into Bugman's for a quick pint) were very friendly.

It was obvious, however, that my army was too reliant on one rule being in effect, but was unable to capitalise on much, even if the opponent started with half his army off the table. From my observation of the armies on the top table there appeared to be two ways to play, you either aimed to do one thing really well (such as unleashing hordes of Daemonettes on your opponent on turn 2), or you took a versatile list that could survive most armies and scenarios (Owen's army had this going for it). The second variation could potentially require a lot of play testing.

Despite my below average performance, I did get a taste for the event. Next year I want to take an army that takes the positive elements of my original list (surprisingly, it was the 6-man squads with 1 plasma gun, 1 meltagun and a power fist, that proved to be the most versatile and effective), and test out new styles of play. So far the starting line up is looking like this:

• 1 Lord of Change (very high Initiative, the Wind of Chaos, flies, and only 160 points)
• 6 Chaos Space Marines (1 meltagun, 1 plasma gun, 1 powerfist)
• 6 Chaos Space Marines (1 meltagun, 1 plasma gun, 1 powerfist)
• 7 Chosen Chaos Space Marines (with Daemonic icon, Daemon host, Infiltrate)
• 9 Daemonettes
• 5 Daemonettes on Steeds
• 1 Defiler
• 2 Predators with lascannon turret and heavy bolter sponsons
• As many Obliterators as I can manage

I have started to repaint my whole army in the hopes of being a contender for Best Army, fingers crossed. So, see you next October!

For further information about all the Events at Warhammer World check out the Events Diary.

Next: Warhammer 40,000 2005/06 Grand Final
Previous: Warhammer 40,000 2005/06 Heat Two