40KUKGT Team Challenge: The Good, The Bad, The Dudley's Army Lists

The Good, The Bad, The Dudley - Aint They 'Speshul'

The end of March sees the second ever 40KUKGT. I helped organise and run the inaugural event last year and it was a massive success. This year I am too busy with finishing my degree and so passed on the torch to the 40KUK lads to continue the GT for years to come. In fact I am so busy I can't even attend as a player. A fact I am utterly gutted about but my degree has to come first. Maybe next year I can convince the lads to put a ticket to one side or something and fly back over for it.

Anyways less about me and more about what is going on. Amongst various other things the young pretenders in green; The Good, The Bad, The Dudley, have laid down an ETC style Team Challenge to the all conquering juggernaut that is Flame On! 

If you don't know I am one of the 4 original founding members of Flame On and over the past 8 years (yes gentlemen it has been 8 years since myself, Hogan, Lefteris and Duane started the greatest 40k team on the planet) Flame On has grown into the biggest and best gaming group in the country, both socially and in terms of gaming. It's members are widespread and diverse in terms of gaming and what they look to get out of the hobby. But one aspect for which we are probably most publicly known for is the fact that, apart from wearing red tee-shirts, we count amongst our numbers the best 40k players in the whole of the UK. The amount of tournament trophies residing in the Flame On 'cabinet' is ludicrous, in fact if we actually collected everyone's trophies together we would need our own exhibition centre to display them all.

Suffice to say Flame On are the best when it comes to competitive 40k in the UK.

Flame On Accepts The Challenge!

Which brings us to the young pretenders; The The Good, The Bad, The Dudley. Unsurprisingly they hail from Dudley, just outside of Birmingham for those who don't know. And apart from having accents that make them sound very simple and speshul, they have been attempting to make some waves over the past few years and their green tops have become a regular sight at tournaments across the UK. Rob Madeley is the leader of this band of miscreants and has laid down a challenge to Flame On at this months GT: Using the ETC rules, pairing format and scoring system, both teams will put forward 8 players to face each other off in a single ETC style round of games. The winners, which will assuredly be Flame On, take the glory. The loosers have to spend the rest of the GT weekend wearing the victors team shirts to show who is really king.

So in a similar ilk to my review of the UK Masters army lists in January I will be doing a tongue in cheek Stato type review of both teams army lists and the players themselves.

So to start off with I present the foolish challengers: The Good, The Bad, The Dudley, you can review their army lists by CLICKING HERE

Such a pretty boy...

BRAD "CEASER" ZALAD - SPACE WOLVES

Brad is a mate of mine from Doncaster.... errr I thought this was Team Dudley..... Ignoring that fact Brad is a Space Wolf player through and through. I don't think he has EVER played with anything else, and if he could he would grow himself a big bushy beard and spend all day drinking ale and getting in fights.... actually he wouldn't as his job is stop morons from doing just that. Looking at his list it is fairly standard Mechanised Space Wolves. He has recently being playing around with a Logan Foot Horde force of late but for the Team Challenge he looks like he is going for the safer route and playing it by the numbers. Personally I would have sacked off that last walking Grey Hunter Squad, as outside of Home & Away, which is not guaranteed to be the mission played, it is a waste of points. Instead I would have plumped up the Long Fangs with an extra Marine and more heavy weapons just to give that boost to the armies shooting.  Otherwise we all know lots of Grey Hunters in Rhino's is a solid choice for any mission.

Stato fact: Be Warned! Brad has being known to pull out his dirty trick card and haul his opponent off to the dungeon in chains if they threaten to table him.

PRINCESS ADAM "TWO GAMERS, ONE CUP..." RYLAND - CHAOS SPACE MARINES

Adam is the 'better half' of fellow team mate Gareth Donnelly (see below). Honestly you never see the two of them apart and after stories about the pair of them partaking in 'Two Gamers, One Cup....' in a hotel room in Mansfield their reputation as one of the UK's happiest gaming couple's was cemented. Adam is bringing his tried and trusted Chaos Space Marine build; Abbaddon with some Zerkers or some Slaaneshy Lightning Claw Terminators in Land Raiders, backed up by Obliterators and Plague Marines. It isn't big (30 models) or clever (well he does come from Dudely) but he has being running this list for years now and as a result he can be VERY effective with it. As a result Adam is always a bit of a Dark Horse when it comes to tournaments, that many points in so few models always is a gamble, but if the dice favour him and get can get close there is a lot of pain coming the enemies way in assault.

Stato fact: Adam is known as the 'princess' due to his passion for wearing tiaras to tournaments and that he likes to parade around in a pink dress back in the privacy of him and Gareth's boudoir.

Errr yeah....

GARETH "DEVIANT" DONNELLY - GREY KNIGHTS

 The second half of Dudley's happiest couple and a man you better be careful around if he offers you a cup to share...... I MEAN JUST LOOK AT THE PHOTO OF HIM! I talked about Gareth and his Storm Raven Grey Knights when I reviewed the Masters. Predictably he has stuck to his guns and brought them out to play once again. It is a real 'balls out' list, and Gareth always plays it that way. Going second outside of Dawn of War can be a game breaker. But given that there is plenty of tall terrain in Maelstrom that can grant cover to Storm Ravens, even going second does not mean Gareth is scuppered. And with all those Multi-Meltas in your face popping armour, then Death Cults ripping face on anything that spills out, it can be a VERY painful experience to face Gareth if you don't deal with him quickly enough.

Stato fact: eerrrrrrr I think the picture on the left speaks volumes about Gareth.... the less said the better I think.

Some of Tim's awesome 'Blood Angels'

 TIM "NICE BUT...." SMITH - BLOOD ANGELS

Another Team Dudley member that doesn't live in Dudley. Tim lives up in Sheffield and is a regular gaming buddy of Brad's. Apart from that Tim is well known for 3 things; wonderfully painted armies, nice guy demur, and a love of Land Raiders. What ever Codex Tim uses, you can put money on the fact that it will allow him access to Land Raiders. For once he is not rocking multiple Land Raiders, only one this time. But lots of Predators and Multi-Melta Attack bikes is going to cause any heavy armour he faces some real problems. Back that up with the obligatory Space Vampire that is Mephiston and some scoring Razorbacks and we have a fairly standard Mech Blood Angels army. Obviously being Blood Angles it is fast. But at the same time with the continued rise of Grey Knights meaning players are packing Psychic defence as standard it can be easy to shut down Mephiston's powers and once that happens his reliability and effectiveness drops off rapidly. I have being considering Blood Angels for the ETC and as a result i am wondering more and more if it would not be better to run a Librarian to boost the Terminators and use those excess points elsewhere on something more reliable.

Stato fact: Tim is the founding member of LRA - Land Raiders Anonymous. A group who counts many of the Dudley boys amongst their numbers. Clearly the chavvyness of Dudley permeates even to 40k and they just can't help themselves when it comes to pimping their rides and taking Land Raiders whenever they can.

BEN "DOVER" EVANS - DARK ELDAR

Ben is the new kid on the block as far as Team Dudley is concerned and is the only member I don't know. Hopefully that fact will change some time soon... though when I don't know as I am not at any tournaments for a good while now. Unfortunately that doesn't help me banter wise, so onto the Army List. Ben's Dark Eldar look VERY familiar..... in fact it is near carbon copy of the army list Nathan "The Fat Angry Geek" Roberts has been running for the past 6 or so months. The list is undoubtedly effective, and will certainly be run as Team Dudley's 'Prey' army. The question therefore is going to is Ben just jumping on the band wagon and will fall into the classic net-list trap. Or will he be the surprise package and catch someone by surprise with this tactical acumen.

Stato fact: sorry boys but apart from the lame and predictable poke at his name I have nothing.

beware of ginger people

CAPTAIN ROB "SOFT SCORES" MADELEY - NECRONS

After his rage regarding soft scoring at Caledonian Uprising the bald ginger one is back (I'm sure he isn't bald and just shaves his head to hide the fact he is a day walker). Unsurprisingly for someone who has no soul Rob has always had a soft spot for Necrons. In fact it was only during 5th edition that he moved away from the tin-men and dabbled with Daemons and Dark Eldar for a while. But sure enough the minute the new Necron book finally arrived he was back to his first 40k love. The list is pretty much what is starting to become the standard in the UK tournament scene. The fact that Gary "The Voice" Percival is running a near identical list for Flame On shows that it is pretty much as solid as it gets. Command Barge Lords to get in and cause havoc amongst the enemy, with Annihilation Barges and Lance Crypteks to lend fire support, all backed up by Wraiths for the assault. I have been saying since the codex came out that the Necrons are a force to be reckoned with, and if it wasn't for the fact that Leon was running them for Team Scotland at the ETC I would also be on this latest bandwagon.

Stato fact: Rob founded team Dudley in jealousy of Flame On and the fact we wouldn't let him in as we had already fulfilled our quota on Ginger people....

Hitmen don't show their faces

BRETT "THE HITMAN" ARMITAGE - SPACE MARINES

Brett is another 40k nice guy. An absolute pleasure to play against. Though it has to be said that his luck with the old 6 sided cubes of fate is often less than good.  Brett has being playing around with Grey Knights of late, but with that Codex going to Mr Donnelly he has switched back to Space Marines. Now i have a little confession to make at this point; Brett texted me a few weeks ago asking for advice or even a copy of a 'defensive' Space Marine army list. I have to say that my reply was that he can jog on if he thinks I am going to give advice just for him to use it against Flame On in the Team Challenge. I mean come on Team Dudley, you have to be a bit more subtle if you want to sneak inside information out of me. So sorry dude.... but I will send you a copy of my list over now for future reference. All said and done he it is pretty damn close to what I would have ran at 1850, though I think it would have been better maybe to move some points from Land Speeders into the troop choices so they can do something other than just score. In fact I think I may discuss 'balanced' marine lists in a future blog post.

Stato fact: Brett is a Michelin star chef... No shit. From what I hear he is a dab hand at beans on toast though you might have to take a second mortgage out to pay for them in his restaurant.

"I wonder what Josh is doing...."

HARRY "HAIRY" ALLEN - IMPERIAL GUARD

Harry's Imperial Guard are quite unique, I posted pictures of them up with the other Caledonian Uprising Best Army nominees.... yes they are the very cool Squat Guard. Though it must be said that it has being asked if Harry didn't just model them on his own short and hairy self. Joking aside Harry is a very solid player and his Guard list is exactly what has come to be expected on the tournament scene over the past 2 years. Not belittling Harry but there isn't much else I can really say I am afraid. For me this fact, and that so many other army lists in this challenge are so similar, just shows that the shake up of the game 6th Ed will bring couldn't come sooner.

Stato fact: Harry is the chairman of the Josh Roberts fan club; Josh used to play Battle Wagon Orks, so did Harry, Josh switched to Imperial Guard, so did Harry, with Josh now playing Grey Knights but Harry is not.... we can only assume that the restraining order has had an effect.

Ok so that is all the Dudley army lists and players covered. I will go over the superhuman 40k playing godlike beings who make up the Flame On team and what their amazing army lists are later this week (honestly I am totally impartial....). Until then let me know what you think of their lists, or my banter about them, and if you guys have an predictions regarding the Team Challenge.

Until next time....

Neil