Ironbuilders Tourney at the Lair: CXI represent, yo.

Remember when we showed up to build terrain and got paid on blisters? No, the good kind. Right.

Well, we got to play on that terrain Saturday when Kurt at the Lair ran the overdue but welcome Ironbuilders Tourney, wherein you bring any unassembled 40K models you want, build them, and then play with what you built. Poney and I arrived a little before noon, and Mike was already there building Ravenwing. She set to work on Sisters and Bugs, I on Captain Stern, a Kroot Shaper, and Khorne Berzerkers. After lunch, I shifted to doing Kroot and she set to work on a Carnifex.

At 5, time was called. First, "Best Conversion" was judged. Mike's Master of the Ravenwing, a cusomtbuilt Tau Crisis Suit, and my Skull Champion were the entrants. I'm glad to say the incredibly annoying work of cutting the ring on the melta-grenade and gluing it with Poney's liquid glue so that it appeared to be looped around one fang paid off well (in addition to the custom weapon swaps and hand rotations), because I got a Tau Skyray tank out of it! The "Most Built" went to Joe, whose part count (the criterion used) beat my 140-something at well over 200! (damn new chaos marines with their trillion little parts! ;-) Mike got a Rhino for his beautiful Master of the Ravenwing on Landspeeder, as Best Vehicle (indeed, the ONLY vehicle!), which was a special category seeing as this Tourney was supposed to help kick off Apocalypse.

Then the game. Remember the buildings? Yep. The terrain board that was in progress the night we showed up to build buildings was finished, a really nice cityscape board with a nasty crater at one end and a broken highway at the other. And our buildings, now painted, were lovingly arranged along it. Marcellus' Basilica pieces were done especially beautifully. The game itself was a grueling "Last Man Standing" slugfest, which saw the single Tau suit eliminated early on and the next player's scouts and chaplain taken out by Joe's Chaos/Eldar/Grey Knight coalition. Poney and I began our slog across the board, having formed an alliance with Mike to take out Joe first then duke it out amongst ourselves, figuring that it would come down to the Carnifex, the Master of the Wing on his Flying Landraider (an AV14 Landspeeder--- WTF?), and Brother Captain Stern of the Grey Knights. Unfortunately, Poney blew a target priority check and targetted my Kroot with a single shot that was saved. I would have let that pass, if she hadn't taken the next turn to run a brood of spinegaunts over to my kroot and then deliberately opened fire on them, and at that point the alliance fell apart.

In the end, only Stern and the Wing made it over to the over side of the board, with Stern wiping out most of the chaos troops before going down in a hail of blows, and the Wingmaster having eliminated every other model that could actually damage him-- so Joe conceded, ending a four hour game, a nine hour (for us) tourney, and winning Mike anohter Rhino, bringing him ever closer to his company Apocalypse formation goal (only four more to go, Mike!).

Good times, and CXI gave 'em what for.