Murder in the Midlands

Sunday saw the very first Across the Dead Earth tournament. (I apologize straight away I forgot my note pad so am writing this mainly from memory) Held in Stourbridge in the West Midlands it saw the intrepid entrants do battle. Six battle fields were available to fight on and four games each. Loot and kill points up for grabs, highest points wins. There were also prizes for best gang back story (the concrete jungle savages back story is here ) best painted etc.
My gang of savages was all set and on the day Rich from Dead Earth games lent me this model for SNAFU my deranged spear wielding scrapper

This is Azael, he is a miniature from Dead Earth newest offering the Shattered Crown. Which isn't even out yet so it was very cool of the guys to lend me the model his savage look certainly fits him into the gang.
There were some cracking game boards set up here is a few (including mine)

My board was a bunker in the woods type battlefield

Official Across the Dead Earth Table

As you can see great boards and all different ideas. We had a more forest type one, an airfield, a ruined city, some Industrial type gantrys etc.

The tournament was 4 games each points for loot and kills though different points for shooting and melee kills.
So the tables and opponents were drawn out of a hat.

Game One.

I drew Jon. Now I was warned about Jon and his solid gang especially his leader with riot shield 😃 but never one to be deterred we started the battle. We drew the Industrial type gantry table so lots of high open gantrys not great for my melee orientated gang.
There was an initial rush for loot then one side of the board Jon's heavy and sniper pinned down my medic and scrapper. On the other side of the board my melee specialists went at it with the opposing leader and scout. The leader was packing a riot shield but I had the event card "that's not a knife" so his leader was disarmed and took down but he healed himself!!.  
Unfortunately he then sent his scout into action who had rage so got an extra dice in melee after a brutal fight my fighters were down.  On the other side my scrapper rushed the sniper and heavy  He eventually took them both down but the game ended before I could take them out.  I lost that game (you'll see a pattern forming lol)

The sniper has my medic and leader pinned

The opposing leader took down only to heal himself 😢

My scrapper downs two in melee but game ends before I could finish them off

Game Two

Next up my opponent was Rich the creator of Across the Dead Earth! We were playing on the bunker board which was made up of my terrain. Our gangs set up  and faced off the bunker in between us . Both gangs advanced, Rich got his two snipers either side of the bunker where there was quite open terrain. This forced the most of my gang up the middle of the board towards the front of the bunker.  A couple of loot counters were swiped from either side of the board but there were two counters in the bunker. The house rules allowed my gang to climb through the front Windows of the bunker as there was only one door in and out at the rear. Rich got a gang member in the rear door I got my leader through the window blocked by a wall the two watched and waited (means you can shoot during an opponents movement) my leader next turn scarpered back out the bunker with the loot. More of my gang got in the bunker (soon to be named the bunker of death). Once again melee fighters failed to make an impact after a brutal fight. We each had a couple of models down inside. Once I got reinforcements into the bunker Rich moved his last model that wasn't down off the board ending the game before I could capitalise and start taking out his downed fighters. I lost this game by only 5 points.

The gangs advance

The 2 fighters stand off in the bunker

Carnage in the bunker. My reinforcements arrived to late

Game Three

Next up was Tom on the Across the Dead Earth demo board. This board was bigger than all the others so the battle felt much larger. We set up in opposite corners and from the start I made a dash for loot (I slowly learned to get the loot fast and secured before game is over). With the larger board and my lack of guns resulted in not many shots from me till the gangs were closer. A ruined bendy bus saw most of the action and some absolutely shocking dice rolls went my scrapper couldn't hit anything with his SMG. Once again my melee fighters were hit by close range fire. Tom had snipers (I managed to make one fall down a hole in the first floor with an event card but he was ok) in the buildings covering the open ground. My leader managed to get round the side of one building and take one sniper out but was then took out. I was losing gang members fast. One of my remaining gang members made it back with some more loot and we called the game. I got a good amount of loot but Tom had good points from taking out my gang members.

My gang ready to grab loot

The crashed bus saw the hardest fight

Game Four

The last game saw me so battle with Carl (author of Hitting on a Double 1 blog) and his Wonderland gang inspired by characters from Alice in Wonderland. The game board was the airfield which was an awesome board.
Both gangs set up near the airplane  and quickly started grabbing loot. There were two loot counters on top of the plane so several gang members headed that way. My leader using his 3 actions went up grabbed a loot and ran back to the start zone. My spear wielding dude heading up on the plane to fight an enemy who had took position in the plane. They charged into combat both me and Carl then played the event card "That's not a Knife" !! So fisticuffs it was then! My fighter was holding his own till he was shot from below. Meanwhile the Wonderland Gang leader the Mad Hatter had came round near my start zone and shot my scrapper river before she could use her axe. The leaders of both gangs then faced off with close range shotgun blasts. My leader lost. He was avenged by another gang member shooting from the planes wing who as he was out in the open was then gunned down. I had one member left who had grabbed some loot away from the main fight. My start area was surrounded by the Wonderland Gang but I managed to get the final loot counter back and end the game. This game was a massacre to be honest!

I had a cracking afternoon regardless of the results as every opponent and all the other competitors were great and we all had a laugh. I even got to meet Simon (author of Brummies wargaming blog ) who i have been chatting to a lot in the  Across the Dead Earth  group and lives about 5 mins from my house (it's a small world!) But sadly we never got to do battle at the tournament.
Things I learned were take more guns!! My melee fighters were exposed each time and had nothing to return fire. Melee has to be timed so well before you commit so making sure they at least have a pistol as back up.
Once all the games were finished and the results added up the prize a were given out. Carl took the tournament win by a large stretch  (I think the massacre from our battle certainly helped!). I won an award for the best gang back story ☺ I got a new Across the Dead Earth gang called the Sisters of Acquistion. I also won the best painted gang! (A few gangs were commission painted and one gangs owner was the judge) I picked up another Across the Dead Earth gang and some extra minis. I got the State and some Spectre CIA agents  (photos up soon).
Loved the tournament and had a good solid few hours wargaming!


Below are links to a few more (and more detailed as they remembered to take proper notes) blogs.
Brummies blog and  Carls blog.   

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