Last weekend I entered the German GT Heat 1: 1750 pts, gamma missions, no composition scores.
This year I played mech Eldar:
Doomseer on jetbike
2 squads of Fire Dragons
1 squad of Harlies
2 squads of Dire Avengers in Serpents
2 Vypers
3 Falcons.
First game (Cleanse) vs. Thousand Sons:
A very experienced WH Fantasy player. He had Chaos General with 4 Chosen Termies, 1 Sorcerer, 1 Tactical squad with MoT, 1 TS squad, 1 LR, 1 Havocs squad, 3 Obliterators.
There was a large building in the center, this was definitely advantageous for me. He quickly entered the building with his standard troops and Obliterators. The LR with the Termie payload was held back entering one round later. My two Fire Dragon squads took down the Obliterators and the LR, the Harlies killed the standard squad with MoT, and the TS were under half-strength at the end, while the Havocs (7 out of 10) and the Termies plus the HQs were still alive. I lost the Dragons, Harlies, and one Serpent.
So I claimed victory: 17:3.
Second Game (hold with 3 markers) vs. Space Marines:
My opponent fielded 2 Termie squad squads led by Epistolaries, 2 Termie squads, 2 las/plas squads, 3 Tornados, and 1 Predator Annihilator, i.e., 11 assault cannons. All Termies were deployed, no deep strikers. There was a large piece of height 3 terrain in the centre. His Termies, all at one flank, marched forward to get into range, while I moved away from them towards the centre targeting Termie after Termie squad. All Termies got destroyed by the Falcons, Dragons, and Harlies, while the DAs took on the shooty tacticals and the Serpents and Vypers targeted the Tornados. At the end, he had lost all but one Tornado (scoring) while most of my army was intact.
I claimed Victory again: 20:0.
Third game (seek and destroy) vs. Death Guard.
My opponent, a moderator of FanWorld, had 2 Lash Princes, 1 Greater Daemon, 1 Chosen squad, 2 Plague Marine squads in Rhinos, 2x2 Obliterators, 1 Predator Destructor.
Well, I took out the Rhinos in first turn, and killed the Obliterators early in the game. His Chosen delivered the GD in the centre and got supported by the PM squads. Frankly, he put a lot of pressure on my army. He rolled really good so that all Falcons got immobilized. My only chance was an immediate counter-strike. And this counter-strike was really deadly. One of his DPs survived with 3 wounds, while I had still the standard troops incl Serpents, Doomseer, and the Vypers.
I claimed victory again: 13:7, but it was really a tough game.
Fourth game (recon) vs. Death Guard.
My opponent, a nice guy, had 1 Nurgle DP, 1 Tzeentch DP, 1 Greater Daemon, 2x14 Plague Marines, 5 Bikers, and 3x10 Daemons. This army was easy to outmaneuver. The Bikers delivered 10 Daemons and the GD early in the game into my deployment zone, while my army moved towards one flank. The DP with MoT targeted one of my Serpents but failed in cc. In return, I shot down this DP, the GD, and the delivered 10 Daemons. The Harlies killed the Bikers. I also managed to shoot down 10 PM from one squad so that this unit was no longer scoring. This PM squad took down one Serpent and the Daemons killed the entangled DAs. At the end he moved his units as far away as possible from my units, possibly to enter a draw. But for him this was out of reach.
I claimed victory: 13:7.
NB: He summoned the Daemons after the squad with the Icon Bearer moved. In this way, he was able to charge the Doomseer with Daemons summoned from the PMs. I was told later that this is wrong. The Daemons should be summoned before the squad with the Icon Bearer can move. Right?
Fifth game (hold the centre) vs. Death Guard.
This guy was very young but he knew what to do. He had 1 Lash DP, 1 winged Lash Sorcerer, 2 Plague Marine squads in Rhinos, 2 small Daemon packs, and 3x3 Obliterators.
This game was a nightmare. I had only one smaller piece of height 3 terrain in my deployment zone, sparse terrain on the board, and he started the game.
He was able to immobilize one Falcon (Harlies mounted), and my army headed towards one flank to approach his front ranks. My rolling was rather bad (12 shots by the Dragons, 4 hits). The Harlies took on one PM squad decimating them below half strength (with some help from shooting). At the end he had one scoring Obliterator squad and the DP in the center, while my two remaining Falcons scored. But I suffered from more losses.
So I lost (but not as horrible as I thought): 7:13.
Well, up to the last game, this guy was nervous and unfriendly, the games were really fun, my army performed very well.
I ended up 6th ranked, 48 players. The best 15 plus best-painted are qualified the finals in October.
The Heat winner played Orks, fully footslogging, 184 models. Three other Eldar armies, all with Eldrad, performed well, too. The rest was a bit unspecific, the rankings from position 8 on changed heavily from game to game.
Cheers!