I was expecting a quiet night so prepared a team in advance for myself to meet the entry criteria as I planned to play if there was an odd number. However Carl Sidgwick, who had not played the game since his brief introduction at NGN2 wanted to have a go, so I surrendered my team to him and carried out a Judging only role as has become my regular way. As it happened this was about ideal as it made up eight players and gave a nice managable number to try to empart some snippets of my knowledge to some of the newer players.

Tasky and his City of Villains colleagues eventually find a dice roll above six and pick up a win against the luckless Hal 'not going to the casino tonight then' Jordan and company

On the next table I had paired up Jimmy (James Cook) and his "Alpha Team" with his friend Peter Davies' "Silent Death" so I could sit by the table and give both players some tips and advice because other than Carl they were the least experienced. James was using Northstar, Shaman, Captain America and Snowbird (all Alpha Flighted) whilst Peter used Green Lantern (Trick Shot) with Elektra (Ambush), Daredevil (Ambush) and two Hand Ninjas (Ambush each). Peter's opening strike hit Captain America but his Impervious saved him from taking any damage and he soon led Snowbird and Northstar into the attack. The Hal Jordan support crew fell quickly and Hal missing his next attack didn't help matters. When he finally did hit something it gave Snowbird Blades/Claws/Fangs and she then struck him for 6 damage, so that didn't really help much either. James scored a mighty 501 points with his win but the bad dice of Peter had ensured a low total and defeat once more, but at least his team died quietly!

The criteria used for the other two tables was simply keeping the twins apart for a change as their playing each other is becoming as common as the 'Battle of the Stes'. So Parry was on the next table with his "Hit Me If You Can" (not only a team name that is becoming annoyingly repetitive, but also one that was highly inappropriate looking at Ste D's team) fighting the challenge of Paul Crosby's "T.M.O.T.F.C.R.B.T.T.H.B.F" (or to give it it's full title ... "The Man On The Flimsy Chair Has Returned But This Time He Has Brought Friends" ... now THAT'S what I call a team name!!!). Paul, as hinted by his team name, had given another call-up th Armor Wars© Magneto (Protected) and this time round he was flanked by Plastic Man in his mail box form (Running Start) and Silver Sable (Running Start). Parry's snoozy-named collective consisted of Captain Atom (Protected) Owlman (Protected) and Speedy (Protected), showing as much variety in Feats as it did in name selection NOT! Well originality may not be Parry's strong point but he is picking up the game of Heroclix well enough. Some well placed running shot's and CSA Team Ability Probability Control allowed him to take out the supporting actress, Silver Sable. But Magneto proved way too strong for Parry's boys and the magnetic one showed that he could indeed 'hit them' as he frustrated Parry and took Paul to a points victory by disposing of Owlman before the final credits rolled.

The last game of round one saw Parry's twin, Liam who's complete lack of a team name made his brother look thoroughly imaginative, use Batman (Life Model Decoy and Ambush), Katana (Life Model Decoy and Ambush), Spoiler (Ambush), Ragman (Ambush), Huntress (Ambush) and Oberon (Homing Device), yes that's right a pog with a Feat! Later inspection of this team shows it has characters with inelligable feats, so naughty, naughty boy Liam READ THE CARDS next time, lucky for you I hadn't checked your team on the day and noone else noticed or you would have had to be my first ever DQ. Liam's opponent was Alec Barrett looking to go one better than his runners-up spot at the weekend. Alec's team was as original as Parry's team name as he showed off Hector Hall (Extended Range), Cheetah (Protected) and Quicksilver (Armor Piercing). Ahhh, perhaps I am being more than a little harsh on Alec here as he only used one Quicksilver rather than the usual three. The combination and tweak of the team Alec had put into them to evolve into "The 3" was certainly effective as he scored a whitewash against the luckless Liam to move into top spot after round one, certainly a big improvement has been shown over the last couple of events from Alec.

We like our green rubber rings don't we? Maybe some of the new metallic coloured ones would be good to get, anyone interested in supporting a bulk purchase?

Ste Date seems to be getting very excited and animated about something here. I have absolutely NO IDEA what it actually is though. If someone could tell me what has got his juices flowing here I would be very grateful

Jimmy adopts a very relexed approach to the game as he tries to plot magneto's downfall

The second table of first round winners saw Paul Crosby take on James Cook, Magneto versus the Avengers. Jimmy didn't look amused when he saw Magneto's stats and powers but he gave it his best shot with Captain America leading the charge (taking time off from his rebellious plotting in Civil War). Unfortunately Magneto, under the cunning command of Crosby proved to be too much for James to cope with and he survived to the end. James managed to get KO blows on Plastic Man and Silver Sable so he at least took 100 points and as Snowbird was still standing when time was called he say he aquitted himself quite well in this match up despite losing on points.

The better losers table was inhabited by Parry and Peter for their second round game. Green Lantern appeared to have got in a very early destruction of Speedy to help Peter's cause, but then Parry remembered to use Protected and the nuclear missile of an attack was all for nought. Once again the Lantern support crew proved to be too easy to take out with such a limited amount of hindering terrain and spread out object tokens (maybe it would have been worth clustering your object tokens in the place you wanted to strike from Peter?) and they were soon falling like skittles. It wasn't quite a white wash, but it was a wipe out and a convincing victory to Parry, but there does appear to be a mathmatical error on the sheet ... you really need to check these as it could end up leading to a DQ if there is a complaint later in the tournament. As it happens the error made no technical difference to the outcome or placings in this event, but you need to be more careful and double check the points.

The fourth game of round two was competed between new guy on the block Carl and Liam who's no pointer in the first round had left him propping up the others at the bottom of the table. I spent most of the second round watching this game and giving Carl hints and tips, with Liam's permission of course, and it wasn't a pretty sight. Carl's dice of death were obviously working overtime tonight as they struck again, and again, and again this round! I have never seen such bad rolls and coming from me that really is saying something. Again and again he rolled five when he needed six and eight when he needed nine. Worst of all he failed two consecutive Support rolls on Lord Recluse needing only a five for success and to put Liam into a spot of bother. Well thanks to the cuboids of calamity Carl managed to lose this game and hand Liam his first win tonight and moreover his first points tonight. Carl tells me bad dice rolls are what lead to him abandoning Warhammer some years ago, I can understand that as had I not witnessed this game I would not have believed it could get that bad. Surely the luck must change sometime soon?

Alec's 'reward' for being on top of the pile after game one is to see how Ant Man sharing a Thunderbolted Defenders Team Ability works in play ... horribly

Carl's McDonald munchies can't help his dice to stop taking the p**s out of him and rolling one less than he needs on almost every attack. He even missed two Support rolls when he only needed five to suceed. Now that SUCKS!

Table two had Alec, trying to recover from his earlier hammering, playing against Parry who seemed to be pacing himself nicely after his first round loss to Paul (pacing as in avoiding Ste Date that is). Recovery really wasn't what happened for Alec as he managed to do a bit of a Martin Teece tonight. Having scored big in his first game Alec managed to end the tournament on exactly the same number of points he ended round one with, suffering second and third round whitewashes to first Ste and then Parry. I imagine his nerves were jagged after the game with Ste as Parry's force didn't look that much better on paper but Captain Atom, Owlman and Speedy certainly came through for Parry here. By avoiding the Date Steamroller in the Swiss Rounds Parry managed to keep his points total moving and progressed into the final. All bets were off on him losing the final to Ste D again though as it seemed pretty inevitable, the only bet that might have been on was whether or not he would actually hit one of Ste's figures, but to be fair even that was looking a bit of a long shot.

Table three saw Jimmy take on Liam in something of a mid-table tussle with both players just looking to nudge themselves up the standings by getting that second win in. Liam's force struck effectively and Jimmy's crew needed to base them and try hand to hand thanks to their stealth-like abilities. This gave Liam the edge he needed and he managed to chip away from range whilst also handling himself well in hand to hand combat thanks to Batman and his Outwit and the Charging Katana. Liam won the match and finished with a very respectable 988 points, but then again he hadn't had to face the Ste D Steamtrain on its relentless journey to victory either.

The final Swiss Round match was fought between Carl 'Dice, Don't Talk To Me About Dice" Sidgwick and Peter "My Dice Rolls Are WORSE Than Yours" Davies. One of two things HAD to happen in this game. Either the luck with dice of one of the combatants had to improve OR the game would be decided on a dice roll, eventually after a lot of tied rolls. As it happened Carl actually managed a very impressive series of dice rolls and if memory serves me correctly he only missed one attack roll this game. Peter's luck on the other hand stood firm and wretched and this enabled him to seal a hat-trick of hard fought defeats! Bad luck Peter and I really do mean bad luck. Burn those dice before the next event and get some new ones for gooness sake. On the plus side Carl managed to go away with a win under his belt before scuttling off to play Magic the Gathering with some of the other non-finalists.

Carl Sidgwick starts to get to grips with his team and most importantly his dice as he picks up a win in the third Swiss Round

Parry (looking suitably perplexed) is just coming to terms with the fact he isnt going to hit Ste in the final AT ALL. If only this were the first time!

A round of voting gave a close contest for Fellowship, but just coming out on top was newbie Carl. Well done sir, a win and a prize. Not a bad night's work eh?

Vs

WELL ... Who would you have put your money on then?

The final placings after the Three Swiss Rounds were ...