Urban War Events 2009

Hi folks!

I've decided to drop the "Other Projects" prefix on my, er... other projects posts since I seem to be posting as much about them as 40k.

Anyway, today's post is another focusing on Urban War, in particular the events I've attended this year.

The first was Urbanisation. This event took place in February, hosted by [elg] (Edinburgh League of Gamers) and was to be a sort of "Urban War Convention" with a tournament, retail stand, demo games, tables for non-competition games and a seminar with the Urban War developers - they succeeded with all but the last due to time constraints.

I signed up for the tournament as early as I could, as did my brother and one of our friends. I brought along my Viridians, and my chosen strike-team was as follows:

Colonial Marine (CAL 0) x5
Colonial Marine Sergeant (CAL 2)
Sniper (CAL 1)
Shock Marine (CAL 1) x2
Special Forces (CAL 1)
Colonial Marine HMG Team (CAL 0, 1 gunner, 1 loader)
Total: 298pts

I decided to go slightly in favour of numbers, so that my team can take a few more hits before reaching breaking point, as well as put out a good amount of firepower. The Sniper and HMG Team would be placed under Lock-Fire orders during most turns and would set up the best firing lanes I can find, in order to funnel the enemy forces into close combat with my heavy hitters - the Shock Marines (or kill anyone who decides not to go along with this little plan). The Shock Marines tore through all opposition in the testing games, and I never leave home without them. I would assign one Colonial Marine to both the Sniper and the HMG Team on Overwatch to try and interrupt anyone who takes a shot at them, hopefully killing the attacker but suppressing them to deal with later would be acceptable. The Sergeant, Special Forces and remaining Marines would either offer close-ranged support to the Shock Marines, or take the fight to another area of the field, depending on how things went.

The scenarios were all the standard "Scuffle" scenario in the book. Teams deploy 24" apart and fight until one side fails their withdrawal check (starting at 50% casualties) or is wiped out.

My first opponent was Martin, who had VASA. His team consisted of a solid base of Suppressors, with a couple of the fast-moving Archangels and Black Legion in support. Both sides advanced towards the centre steadily, with sporadic fire claiming the occasional casualty, including one of the Black Legion taking a nasty headshot from my sniper.

My main cluster of marines suffered a moment of panic when one of their number was picked off, as the Shock Marines closed into close combat. However, the VASA team's resolve broke as they reached the 50% casualty mark, netting me a Minor Victory.

My second opponent is known as "wodger the wobot" on the Urban Mammoth forums, and he'd travelled a long way to take part. He brought a brutal Syntha team, smaller on numbers but featuring a few large 'bots with an ungodly variety of templates.
As expected, he stayed back and bombarded me with all kinds of horrible blast weaponry, giving me no choice but to advance through a hail of missiles and plasma blasts. The Shock Marines made good progress, but the ordinary marines supporting them were less fortunate, getting a little shaken when their Sergeant was picked off by a stray shot.

My HMG consistently failed to do damage to anything on the right flank, a performance matched only by my sniper out on the left.

The Shock Marines eventually hit his lines, charging through a hail of firepower. One of them managed to deal a wound to one of the Macrosynths, before my team failed their withdrawal test. A Minor Defeat for me.


Game three saw me face up to Grant's Triads. He brought quite an elite force with a couple of Hatamotos and an Oni Class Shogun Battlesuit backing up his Retainers.

Both sides advanced - his were the more cautious and because of that I struggled to draw a bead on his forces with my HMG and sniper to give supporting fire. Both sides managed to pick off the occasional unit.

After suffering losses in the advance, I tried to consolidate my position behind what little cover was available. I thought it was all going to end badly as his Triad Boss sneaked round the forest and charged the HMG team, but the loader managed to fend him off until the end of the time limit. Both sides suffered moderate casualties, resulting in a draw.




In the fourth and final round, I battled against Craig's Koralon. He had a mix of nasty, hard-hitting close-combat critters, small in numbers but tough to kill. I took advantage of the buildings and placed my HMG and Sniper on higher ground to maximise their LOS. As always, the Shock Marines were poised to advance supported by the main body of marines.
Straight off the bat, the advancement of my Sergeant caused his Hydra to emerge from it's vent close to my lines, right in front of my main marine cluster, who proceeded to open fire.

It took a wound, and as my Shock Marines advanced, the Koralon opened a portal nearby and brought in reinforcements that had been hiding away behind the buildings. A few were picked off in the ensuing fight, thanks in no small part to the sniper's deadly accurate fire.



The Shock Marines were eventually overwhelmed by a second wave coming from another portal, and the Koralon went on to cut a swathe through the marines supporting them.

Once again, the Viridians withdrew at 50% casualties, resulting in another Minor Defeat.

So overall, I achieved a Minor Victory, a Draw, and two Minor Defeats. This placed me eleventh, which I'm pretty happy with bearing in mind the quality of players that were present on the day. First place went to Wodger, and I think we all agree that is was well-earned. The guy knows his stuff!
I've heard horror stories about the types of players and behaviour that tournaments can bring out. However, everyone was in good spirits and it was a relaxed, friendly atmosphere. We were all playing to win, but not at the expense of having fun and we all enjoyed it immensely.

There was also a painting competition on the day, with categories for Strike-team and Individual Models. I placed second in the Strike-team category with my Syntha team. The prize for that was a silver Urban Mammoth medal, and a couple of 50mm resin scenic bases. I've already put them to use on some of the new stuff I bought on the day.

So big thanks to Andy, the rest of [elg], Urban Mammoth, and everyone who turned up for making the event as great as it was. Here's hoping Urbanisation will continue in future years!


The second event of the year took place just a couple of days ago, when I ran another tournament. Many of those who took part in Urbanisation were there, but we had a couple of new faces as well. Rather than post the full rundown here, I'll post this link to my writeup on the Urban Mammoth forums.
Overall, the event went off very well. Everyone was on good form and had fun, and we have a host of players eager to come back next year for another shot!


From my experiences so far, the Urban War community is one I'm proud to be a part of. Everyone I've met has been an excellent sportsman and very friendly, both in their online community and the local(ish) tournament scene.

In my next post I'll show some of my Urban War collection, which includes strike-teams from about half of the available factions.