Had a hilarious game against Derick's Orcs and Goblins "Spider Rider Army" last night. Games against Derick are always entertaining (even when he's using Kitson's Brets) - he's a great sport (as you shortly see), takes risks and most importantly is focused on getting a positive gaming experience happening for both players as opposed to winning at all costs. This is really important because I find that the attitude of the other player has a substantial effect on my attitude towards the game.
Derick's a top bloke for sure and I always look forward to our games.
I've played his O&Gs a couple of times with Dwarfs and smashed them up twice so was fairly confident going into this one. I'm still using my Tin Soldiers list (but starting to eye up a unit of Ironbreakers... would that I had them for this game). Derick simply grabbed a list at random from a selection he's created - turns out this particular list was the one he took down to Runefang in Wellington earlier in the year. This was something like - 3 x 7 spider riders, 3(?) x 6 spider riders, 2 x SO Boar Boyz, 1 x SO Boar Boy Big 'Uns, L4 SO Shaman on boar, gobbo boss on giant spider, couple of SO bosses on boars, 2 x 2 snotling bases, giant. It's a lot to face down but most of it (the spider riders for example) are soft targets and a bit hopeless in combat (especially against Dwarfs - even if you remember Hatred - we forgot it most rounds :p). In the past I've been able to wittle down the boar boyz (who are all Immune to Psych so have to be killed off completely) and take down the giant, meaning that the spiders riders are bereft of the hard hitters required to cause the wounds that might capitalise on them getting a flank charge. Even with a flank charge the spider riders bounce off pretty much everything bigger than a warmachine crew (certainly against the big blocks it's a fruitless task).
Anyway...
The BIG hindrance when playing with O&Gs is the ridiculously crippling effect of Animosity. That said, if you have good rolls with this (i.e. no 1s or a lot of 6s for the extra movement) they can actually be quite dangerous. Case in point, Derick deployed with a refused center (strong flanks, nothing in the middle) and his right flank force (which was virtually unopposed once my Organ Gun misfired at just the wrong time and couldn't fire for a couple of turns) only failed ONE animosity test in the whole game and by that time it was far too late to save my poor stunties from being overwhelmed.
Instead of doing a turn by turn I'll highlight a few of the many amusing episodes that occured:
Turn 1 O&G magic phase. L4 gets a Dwarf Warrior with Gaze. Then his head "disintegrates in an explosive flash of green Waagh energy" attempting to cast Gork's Warpath. Scratch 330 points right there.
Fortunately Karma balanced out when my Hammerers were charged in the flank by SO Boar Boyz in turn 6. Two contacted (blocked by spiders, long story...), killed the 2 they could hit, Hammerers lost by 1. "Stubborn on 9", I say. Famous last words - double 6. "Not to worry, reroll from the BSB", I say confidently. Famous last words - 5 and 6=11. Hammerers cut down giving Derick 335 points and the banner. Fortunately the BSB had solo charged some nearby Spiders in the previous turn and wasn't cut down two. Bizarrely my Dwarf Lord had also abandoned the Hammerers early to solo charge the Orc General (smashed him) and then later joined the Longebeards. So I guess it could have been a LOT worse. My how we laughed though when the Hammerers twice failed their break check. Not the first time I've lost them but certainly proving stubborn on a 9 isn't the be all and end all. Might be time to buy some Slayers :)
Warmachine fire. Sigh... TWICE the cannon overhot one unit but stopped short of a second (short bounce). One shot misfired and stuck in the ground. The highlights of the warmachine shooting was being bang on in turn 3 against the giant (3 wounds from the cannon, 5 wounds from the grudgethower) who promptly died and fell on some nearby Spider Riders (killing 3), and vaping a unit of SO Boar Boyz with the Organ Gun (although the accompanying Boss survived and went on to smash up the Gyro - poor placement, my fault).
The end result? A draw 110pts in Derick's favour. Had the Shaman not self-immolated it would have been a minor victory. Had the hammerers not chickened out it would have been 300 in my favour. So, can't really complain about the result and, as I've found with all my Fantasy games, I much prefer a close game or a draw that is hard-fought as opposed to a massacre to either opponent. So so unlike 40k.
I love it!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Bunny Hunting Dark Elves (Antony) and thoughts on my Dwarfs at this time
I had some spare time today and chose to go bunny-hunting. That's what it's called right Antony? :)
Anyway, finally got a win against Old Man Kitson and the president of the next generation triumphs over the old, tired, grumpy Warhammer has-beens champion. Jokes. Mostly.
The Darkies had a tough match-up against solid Dwarf toughness and armour and some fairly incredible luck on my part meant shooting had a siginificant impact on the game or was just plain amusing in it's ridiculousness (e.g. Thunderers kill both Bolt Thrower crew and for the hits on the actual Bolt Thrower itself I roll three 6s to wound ). One chariot was lucky to make combat after an overshot from the cannon (which destroyed the second chariot); it made it in to combat with 1 wound remaining after the stand-and-shoot reaction of the Thunderers. Still managed to do for the Thunderers however. As expected the Dragon made it into combat unscathed (misfire and self-immolation from the Organ Gun at just the wrong time! Would have been awesome to get 10 hits at that point!) but against artillery and support units struggled to make it's points back. Ld10 would really have helped those poor Cold One Knights and Chariots with their stupidity (CoKs failed 2 turns in a row which pinned a unit of Dark Riders for two turns - very helpful for me!). A lower leadership army might have run off from all the Terror - 4 tests one turn - but the Dwarfs soldiered on.
I'll be curious to see how Antony's DEs go against a magic-heavy army (4DD and 2 scrolls) or something with serious combat potential. The one spell that had any real effect was Dominion against the Warriors on the last turn which I failed to dispel on 5 dice (needing 12!) meaning they couldn't charge the Elf mage.
So, a win by exactly 500VPs - a 12-8 win by Fields scoring. I'll take it!
...
My guessing has started to hit consistent form - I think largely thanks to the solid weekend of gaming at Tin Soldiers. I find I'm combining rough 12" sets to gauge distance and confirming this by looking at positions relative to the table edges and doing some quick math in my head. In tha game against the DEs the cannon nabbed a bolt thrower (another D3 wounds roll of a 3! Ye-ah!) and a chariot and kept the Dragon honest. The grudegthrower misfired twice (killing a crew member each time) but managed some reasonable guesses when it was able to fire.
The Thunderers are a force to be feared - +1 to hit and -2 to save makes them a scary prospect. They are no slouches with stand-and-shoot either. By comparison the Quarrellers are somewhat disappointing although they did a sterling job of annihilating the Repeater XBow DE Warriors in today's game (due to fantastic long-range rolling on my part).
Shooting is just integral to the Dwarfs. I feel I have just enough to make my opponent seriously consider how much pain they are willing to take at range before they make it into combat.
...
Of course, all going to plan, when they make combat they are facing down 3 20-strong Dwarf blocks. Despite being the weakest link in the army the Warriors are no pushover. The Longbeards are HARD. The Hammerers are of course INSANE. I'm rapidly discovering that each game basically becomes the challenge of 'how I get the Hammerers into the think of the action' vs my opponent thinking 'how the hell do I avoid that lot!'. Rune of Challenge helps in this regard, but more often than not I just delpoy the Hammerers at the point of maximum disruption and major impact. They may only be movement 3 but they are still remarkably difficult to avoid.
...
I crossed-over from 40k with something of a mindset that characters should be minimal so one could invest more in basic troops. I grudgingly accepted that I would need to invest more in characters to provide killy res to help swing combat in my favour. The Dwarf Lord, weighing in at a not insignificant 281 points, helps a lot and is a good case-in-point. The fighty BSB (165) and Runesmith (147) means I've spent 593 points on characters. Antony's dragon boss costs him 537 and he discovered today that taking that Ld10 away from the rest of his army isn't necessarily the best idea. It's much more the done thing in Fantasy and frowned upon a whole lot less.
...
Starting to think about another army (don't tell my wife PLEASE). Might ask to borrow Ant's Lizards at some point in the future and see how magic works for me...
Anyway, finally got a win against Old Man Kitson and the president of the next generation triumphs over the old, tired, grumpy Warhammer has-beens champion. Jokes. Mostly.
The Darkies had a tough match-up against solid Dwarf toughness and armour and some fairly incredible luck on my part meant shooting had a siginificant impact on the game or was just plain amusing in it's ridiculousness (e.g. Thunderers kill both Bolt Thrower crew and for the hits on the actual Bolt Thrower itself I roll three 6s to wound ). One chariot was lucky to make combat after an overshot from the cannon (which destroyed the second chariot); it made it in to combat with 1 wound remaining after the stand-and-shoot reaction of the Thunderers. Still managed to do for the Thunderers however. As expected the Dragon made it into combat unscathed (misfire and self-immolation from the Organ Gun at just the wrong time! Would have been awesome to get 10 hits at that point!) but against artillery and support units struggled to make it's points back. Ld10 would really have helped those poor Cold One Knights and Chariots with their stupidity (CoKs failed 2 turns in a row which pinned a unit of Dark Riders for two turns - very helpful for me!). A lower leadership army might have run off from all the Terror - 4 tests one turn - but the Dwarfs soldiered on.
I'll be curious to see how Antony's DEs go against a magic-heavy army (4DD and 2 scrolls) or something with serious combat potential. The one spell that had any real effect was Dominion against the Warriors on the last turn which I failed to dispel on 5 dice (needing 12!) meaning they couldn't charge the Elf mage.
So, a win by exactly 500VPs - a 12-8 win by Fields scoring. I'll take it!
...
My guessing has started to hit consistent form - I think largely thanks to the solid weekend of gaming at Tin Soldiers. I find I'm combining rough 12" sets to gauge distance and confirming this by looking at positions relative to the table edges and doing some quick math in my head. In tha game against the DEs the cannon nabbed a bolt thrower (another D3 wounds roll of a 3! Ye-ah!) and a chariot and kept the Dragon honest. The grudegthrower misfired twice (killing a crew member each time) but managed some reasonable guesses when it was able to fire.
The Thunderers are a force to be feared - +1 to hit and -2 to save makes them a scary prospect. They are no slouches with stand-and-shoot either. By comparison the Quarrellers are somewhat disappointing although they did a sterling job of annihilating the Repeater XBow DE Warriors in today's game (due to fantastic long-range rolling on my part).
Shooting is just integral to the Dwarfs. I feel I have just enough to make my opponent seriously consider how much pain they are willing to take at range before they make it into combat.
...
Of course, all going to plan, when they make combat they are facing down 3 20-strong Dwarf blocks. Despite being the weakest link in the army the Warriors are no pushover. The Longbeards are HARD. The Hammerers are of course INSANE. I'm rapidly discovering that each game basically becomes the challenge of 'how I get the Hammerers into the think of the action' vs my opponent thinking 'how the hell do I avoid that lot!'. Rune of Challenge helps in this regard, but more often than not I just delpoy the Hammerers at the point of maximum disruption and major impact. They may only be movement 3 but they are still remarkably difficult to avoid.
...
I crossed-over from 40k with something of a mindset that characters should be minimal so one could invest more in basic troops. I grudgingly accepted that I would need to invest more in characters to provide killy res to help swing combat in my favour. The Dwarf Lord, weighing in at a not insignificant 281 points, helps a lot and is a good case-in-point. The fighty BSB (165) and Runesmith (147) means I've spent 593 points on characters. Antony's dragon boss costs him 537 and he discovered today that taking that Ld10 away from the rest of his army isn't necessarily the best idea. It's much more the done thing in Fantasy and frowned upon a whole lot less.
...
Starting to think about another army (don't tell my wife PLEASE). Might ask to borrow Ant's Lizards at some point in the future and see how magic works for me...
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Game vs Empire (Carl)
I got home on Tuesday night and my wife reminded me she was having her 'art friends' around at our place. They turn up ostensibly to create artwork but in reality they just get plastered and talk... and talk... and talk... Facing banishment to the bedroom and an early night I opted to cast around for a game of Fantasy. Carl was happy oblige so I popped over to give old Johnny Empire what-for with the stunted ones.
Carl hasn't played a lot of Warhammer yet and is still learning the rules. Having just finished my first tournament I felt like quite the professional Warhammer master - even so, between us we still managed to forget several crucial things.
The Empire army I was facing deployed my left to right: great cannon (in hard cover - ugh...), 20 greatswords, HUGE spear block accompanied by warrior priest AND mounted arch-lector and flanked by 5 handguns and 5 crossbows, 5 knights with muso and great weapons, HUGE swordsmen block accomopanied by another priest and a mounted BSB and flanked by 5 handguns and 5 crossbows, 10 crossbows and a great cannon on a hill, HUGE spear block with 9 Free company in 3x3 formation (?!) and 5 pistoliers with champ (repeater pistol). HUGE=more than 25; probably closer to 40-strong.
The army was MASSIVE and stretched across the board edge. With a couple of fairly central forests that would funnel those massive blocks I did the only thing that was sensible - refuse the flank. I basically set my whole army up to fight the greatswords and spearblock with arch-lector with the Hammerers to hold the pass between 2 forests. The cannon went on my right sheltered by another forest to have a go at the flanks of whatever went for my Hammerers (hoping to enfilade the knights). The Miners were in reserve ready to either come on and bash up the crossbows or get in the way of the damned Pistoliers who I could see eliminating the cannon quick sharp and playing havoc behind my lines. My aces were (or so I thought) the gyro and the organ gun. The Gyro would be super at steaming those enormous blocks with their mighty 6+ save and toughness of 3. The organ gun would just be super unless it misfired and destroyed itself.
Not much for a turn by turn analysis at this time but here are the highlights...
- grudgethrower missing or failing to wound a great cannon (and crew) for 5 turns before finally taking it out. GT had only one wound (and 2 crew) left after taking cannon fire itself.
- Gyro dying before it had moved to cannon fire. D6 wounds indeed!
- Hammerers taking out 20 flagellents and losing 3 dwarfs, then taking on one of those super-sized spear blocks. Flagellents are not as awesome as I first thought - str3, T3 even with 2 attacks and martyring to get rerolls still bites against T4 3+ save dwarfs.
- Dwarf Lord dying to arch-lector's Mace of Cheese. D6 wounds indeed! (trend appearing)
- Longbeards holding in combat against mad spear block with characters, even after the BSB bit the dust, until the warriors got into the flank. Winning by 5 saw the spears break, run 5 inches, get smashed by the Longbeards who pursuit of 9" put them into the flank of the sword block!
- 18 Greatswords dying to Thunderer and Quarreller fire and a grudgethrower shot that scattered 8" off a nearby cannon and onto their heads (killing 8). The remaining 2 failed panic and fled the board.
- the organ gun owning ALL: 2 5-man detachments, 9 free company, 5 knights (in one shot) AND surviving the game. Maybe Josh's fear is justified? Probably not as I'm sure in my next game the OG will self-destruct with it's first shot :p
- the cannon misfiring twice including the second time where it misfired shooting grapeshot at the 9-man free company (which would have nuked them had it gone off) - thank goodness that organ gun was nearby!
- the Miners charging the pistoliers, killing 3 and breaking the remainder off the board (although this wouldn't have happened if Carl had understood better how fleeing works).
End result was 2440VPs (including general, 3 standards, 2 quarters) plays 681VPs (including general) which is about as solid a massacre as I could ever get. 20-0 win by Fields of Blood scoring standards.
Carl was quite convinced however that he didn't lose because I outplayed him, but because my army is just so much tougher than his. He did of course make some serious mistakes (like... erm... forgetting the magic phase almost every turn, the pistoliers incident, forgetting his BSB had a banner making the unit he was with stubborn (when they lost a combat by 5 or 6, fled and were run down) an so on.
Hrm...
So I'm sure we'll be up for a rematch at some point in the future at which time he can prove his tactical superiority against my clearly broken Dwarfs :)
With show rehearsals every Sunday for the rest of this term (yay) I won't be able to go into the club to play, so I'll have to look around for local games. I dodged Mark McCall's Brets at Tin Soldiers and wouldn't mind giving them a go. Aaron (Nurgle daemons) also lives on the Shore and expressed interest at coming round for a game sometime. That could be interesting - I'm guessing the Nurgle lads would win the 'toughness race'...
Having mentioned Fields of Blood, here's the plug:
Fields of Blood (Fantasy) 2008
13th and 14th September
Freeman's Bay Community Centre
Email me (David Stent) for a player's pack - fieldsofblood2008@gmail.com
Now get off your butt and enter!
Carl hasn't played a lot of Warhammer yet and is still learning the rules. Having just finished my first tournament I felt like quite the professional Warhammer master - even so, between us we still managed to forget several crucial things.
The Empire army I was facing deployed my left to right: great cannon (in hard cover - ugh...), 20 greatswords, HUGE spear block accompanied by warrior priest AND mounted arch-lector and flanked by 5 handguns and 5 crossbows, 5 knights with muso and great weapons, HUGE swordsmen block accomopanied by another priest and a mounted BSB and flanked by 5 handguns and 5 crossbows, 10 crossbows and a great cannon on a hill, HUGE spear block with 9 Free company in 3x3 formation (?!) and 5 pistoliers with champ (repeater pistol). HUGE=more than 25; probably closer to 40-strong.
The army was MASSIVE and stretched across the board edge. With a couple of fairly central forests that would funnel those massive blocks I did the only thing that was sensible - refuse the flank. I basically set my whole army up to fight the greatswords and spearblock with arch-lector with the Hammerers to hold the pass between 2 forests. The cannon went on my right sheltered by another forest to have a go at the flanks of whatever went for my Hammerers (hoping to enfilade the knights). The Miners were in reserve ready to either come on and bash up the crossbows or get in the way of the damned Pistoliers who I could see eliminating the cannon quick sharp and playing havoc behind my lines. My aces were (or so I thought) the gyro and the organ gun. The Gyro would be super at steaming those enormous blocks with their mighty 6+ save and toughness of 3. The organ gun would just be super unless it misfired and destroyed itself.
Not much for a turn by turn analysis at this time but here are the highlights...
- grudgethrower missing or failing to wound a great cannon (and crew) for 5 turns before finally taking it out. GT had only one wound (and 2 crew) left after taking cannon fire itself.
- Gyro dying before it had moved to cannon fire. D6 wounds indeed!
- Hammerers taking out 20 flagellents and losing 3 dwarfs, then taking on one of those super-sized spear blocks. Flagellents are not as awesome as I first thought - str3, T3 even with 2 attacks and martyring to get rerolls still bites against T4 3+ save dwarfs.
- Dwarf Lord dying to arch-lector's Mace of Cheese. D6 wounds indeed! (trend appearing)
- Longbeards holding in combat against mad spear block with characters, even after the BSB bit the dust, until the warriors got into the flank. Winning by 5 saw the spears break, run 5 inches, get smashed by the Longbeards who pursuit of 9" put them into the flank of the sword block!
- 18 Greatswords dying to Thunderer and Quarreller fire and a grudgethrower shot that scattered 8" off a nearby cannon and onto their heads (killing 8). The remaining 2 failed panic and fled the board.
- the organ gun owning ALL: 2 5-man detachments, 9 free company, 5 knights (in one shot) AND surviving the game. Maybe Josh's fear is justified? Probably not as I'm sure in my next game the OG will self-destruct with it's first shot :p
- the cannon misfiring twice including the second time where it misfired shooting grapeshot at the 9-man free company (which would have nuked them had it gone off) - thank goodness that organ gun was nearby!
- the Miners charging the pistoliers, killing 3 and breaking the remainder off the board (although this wouldn't have happened if Carl had understood better how fleeing works).
End result was 2440VPs (including general, 3 standards, 2 quarters) plays 681VPs (including general) which is about as solid a massacre as I could ever get. 20-0 win by Fields of Blood scoring standards.
Carl was quite convinced however that he didn't lose because I outplayed him, but because my army is just so much tougher than his. He did of course make some serious mistakes (like... erm... forgetting the magic phase almost every turn, the pistoliers incident, forgetting his BSB had a banner making the unit he was with stubborn (when they lost a combat by 5 or 6, fled and were run down) an so on.
Hrm...
So I'm sure we'll be up for a rematch at some point in the future at which time he can prove his tactical superiority against my clearly broken Dwarfs :)
With show rehearsals every Sunday for the rest of this term (yay) I won't be able to go into the club to play, so I'll have to look around for local games. I dodged Mark McCall's Brets at Tin Soldiers and wouldn't mind giving them a go. Aaron (Nurgle daemons) also lives on the Shore and expressed interest at coming round for a game sometime. That could be interesting - I'm guessing the Nurgle lads would win the 'toughness race'...
Having mentioned Fields of Blood, here's the plug:
Fields of Blood (Fantasy) 2008
13th and 14th September
Freeman's Bay Community Centre
Email me (David Stent) for a player's pack - fieldsofblood2008@gmail.com
Now get off your butt and enter!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Tin Soldiers - in conclusion...
Awesome. Best. Tournament. Ever.
I enjoyed the experience FAR more than any 40k tourney I've played in. It was relaxed but still competitive. I played 5 different armies in 5 games! 5! That just doesn't happen in 40k! It's always "Oh... neat... Eldar, Space Marines, Eldar, Space Marines..." etc. Maybe that's changing with the release of Orks, but the imminent release of 5th Ed 40k and the release of a new Space Marines Codex (lol, almost wrote Army Book there... hehe) I'm not willing to find out.
I am officially converted to this fantastic game.
Being involved in the event gave me a subjective view about how a Fantasy tournament should be run (that'll come in handy around mid-September...), the mechanics of scoring, some of the intricacies of Overlord (although I'll probably still need Pete's help with it at Fields :p).
The atmosphere is... difficult to describe, because it's something I've not experienced at a 40k event. As someone said to me over the weekend, "You've got to be grown up to play Warhammer". I dunno about that - but it certainly felt more grown up! It felt way less "hard out", less sulky, less pedantic and picky (could have been my opponents but there didn't appear to be any serious rules issues or even a dice-off to decide an argument). And that's just so great!
The venue was tops. I didn't personally drink (my focus and ability is hindered enough as it is) but I could have and that's nice. Dinner on Saturday night and the trash-talk and conversation was cool. I can at least envisage what it would be like to travel to a tournament to play (Call to Arms in August for example...) and will looking into this much more seriously in future. It's a fantastic social experience, which is exactly what I was looking for.
I met new people (including some of the big boys!), made new friends, strengthened the friendships I currently have, learnt HEAPS about my new favourite game.
In fact I would have to say I can't think of a single negative of the whole experience. I;m not burnt out, not sick of playing.
I just want to play MORE Warhammer!
Excellent.
I enjoyed the experience FAR more than any 40k tourney I've played in. It was relaxed but still competitive. I played 5 different armies in 5 games! 5! That just doesn't happen in 40k! It's always "Oh... neat... Eldar, Space Marines, Eldar, Space Marines..." etc. Maybe that's changing with the release of Orks, but the imminent release of 5th Ed 40k and the release of a new Space Marines Codex (lol, almost wrote Army Book there... hehe) I'm not willing to find out.
I am officially converted to this fantastic game.
Being involved in the event gave me a subjective view about how a Fantasy tournament should be run (that'll come in handy around mid-September...), the mechanics of scoring, some of the intricacies of Overlord (although I'll probably still need Pete's help with it at Fields :p).
The atmosphere is... difficult to describe, because it's something I've not experienced at a 40k event. As someone said to me over the weekend, "You've got to be grown up to play Warhammer". I dunno about that - but it certainly felt more grown up! It felt way less "hard out", less sulky, less pedantic and picky (could have been my opponents but there didn't appear to be any serious rules issues or even a dice-off to decide an argument). And that's just so great!
The venue was tops. I didn't personally drink (my focus and ability is hindered enough as it is) but I could have and that's nice. Dinner on Saturday night and the trash-talk and conversation was cool. I can at least envisage what it would be like to travel to a tournament to play (Call to Arms in August for example...) and will looking into this much more seriously in future. It's a fantastic social experience, which is exactly what I was looking for.
I met new people (including some of the big boys!), made new friends, strengthened the friendships I currently have, learnt HEAPS about my new favourite game.
In fact I would have to say I can't think of a single negative of the whole experience. I;m not burnt out, not sick of playing.
I just want to play MORE Warhammer!
Excellent.
Tin Soldiers - Round Five vs Lizards (Glenn)
Round Five vs Lizards (Glenn)
By my reckoning I figured to be up against Chris with TKs, Glenn's Lizard's or Kitson's Empire (not my preferred choice - I'm sick to death of getting smashed by Antony :p). I was VERY pleased to draw Glenn in the last round because I was out for vengeance and reckoned I had a good shot at it. I've played Glenn twice and lost both times: once against Brettonians (don't get me started on that army), and once vs this exact same Lizard list about 3 weeks previous. I had a sneaky chat to Dave about what to do and his answer confirmed my highly unoriginal (but surprisingly effective) plan - just shoot him to death. More precisely, shoot the Slann.
Now, even without a 2+ ward that's a tricky proposition. He's still toughness 5 with a 4+ ward, 8 wounds. Yes I know... Large Target blah blah blah, but I didn't expect my artillery to survive for long. Having played me before I also couldn't expect to sucker Glenn into the hammerers (he is ULTRA wary of them now).
Ok, so on with the report.
I basically castled in the corner with warmachines mostly behind my blocks to shoot the frog, Quarrellers and Thunderers up front (to shoot the frog), and everything else positioned ready to move forward at the best opportunity (to kill the frog if at all possible). Best of all was that the Things I feared the most (which would distract me from killing the frog) - the Steg, Krox unit and Cold Ones, were far enough away that they could be ignored for the time being (the Steg was on it's lonesome on the other side of the battlefield - not sure what that was all about). My big stuff-up was placing the Gyro opposite the Steg but no actually forcing it to charge and redirect. I should have put it right at the corner but for some stupid reason (ok, I can't actually think of a reason) but put it behind the Steg and tried flame-grilling 2+ save skinks. Groan!
Glenn took first turn, moved up, shot at me with some scouting Chameleons and skinks, ended his turn. Then he realised he's completely forgotten his magic phase. Ace.
The absolute highlight og my turn was landing a rock square on the frog, Glenn failing his ward save, and me doing 5 wounds. Then I found out he had 8 wounds all up. Still, half-way there and half points already. 5 down, 3 to go. Unfortunately the cannon disn't quite have LOS so had to content itself with pulping a Kroxigor (D3 wounds=another 3 wounds - cannon has been in good form this weekend... almost makes me wish I'd been able to play Tony... almost :p). A skirmishing screen of skinks evaporated from Thunderer and Organ Gun fire. They're accompanying Priest passed his panic check though.
Glenn moved some things around with a general advance, getting the Priest into a position to use his LOS for the Slann's spells. Glenn was fortunate the roll up Pit of Shades adn the magic phases for the rest of the game revolved around this spell going off. he got it off on the Hammerers twice and I scrolled both times. The last time he got it off on the Warriors with irresistable force, nuking 8. Horrible spell for Dwarfs.
My manoeuvring was all about trying to get the Hammerers into combat with the Frog with Saurus block and Glen was trying his utmost to stop this from happening (until he chose the right time). The Hammerers ended up charging the Skink screen which fled, enemy in the way into the frog and Saurus which fled (he was that keen to avoid them!) so failed charge. Fortunately the Gyro was redirecting Kroxigor at that point to stop them from getting into the Hammerers flank.
Eventually the Hammerers Master Rune of Challenged the other Saurus block into combat to tempt the Slann's unit in. It worked... a little too well unfortunately and I thought the Hammerers might have bitten off more than they could chew when they ended up with Saurus to the front, Saurus and frog to the back (thank-you Unseen Lurker, oh how I loathe thee) and skinks in the flank. The Dwarf Lord went mental looking for challenges and overkill, driven to frustration by not being able to get into contact with the cowardly bloody toad. I managed to get Warriors into the flank of the non-frog Saurus block eventually and in the last round of combat Glenn was testing at -2 or -3 to leadership but of course with that 3-dice business and a BSB reroll (and general's leadership!) they were never in serious jeopardy.
Same could not be said for my poor Longbeards who sucked down Scar-Vet attacks and the Stegadon (wondering where he'd gotten to hadn't you?). Luckily the Cold Ones suffered stupidity at the perfect moment and were unable to cancel the Longbeards ranks. Again in the last round the Steg and Scar-vet were testing to break and again they were fine.
I was a bit gutted to lose the game (had the Steg broken... had a Saurus block broken... you know, the "whatif" scenarios) but it was fairly close, better than our last meeting.
Loss 12-8
By my reckoning I figured to be up against Chris with TKs, Glenn's Lizard's or Kitson's Empire (not my preferred choice - I'm sick to death of getting smashed by Antony :p). I was VERY pleased to draw Glenn in the last round because I was out for vengeance and reckoned I had a good shot at it. I've played Glenn twice and lost both times: once against Brettonians (don't get me started on that army), and once vs this exact same Lizard list about 3 weeks previous. I had a sneaky chat to Dave about what to do and his answer confirmed my highly unoriginal (but surprisingly effective) plan - just shoot him to death. More precisely, shoot the Slann.
Now, even without a 2+ ward that's a tricky proposition. He's still toughness 5 with a 4+ ward, 8 wounds. Yes I know... Large Target blah blah blah, but I didn't expect my artillery to survive for long. Having played me before I also couldn't expect to sucker Glenn into the hammerers (he is ULTRA wary of them now).
Ok, so on with the report.
I basically castled in the corner with warmachines mostly behind my blocks to shoot the frog, Quarrellers and Thunderers up front (to shoot the frog), and everything else positioned ready to move forward at the best opportunity (to kill the frog if at all possible). Best of all was that the Things I feared the most (which would distract me from killing the frog) - the Steg, Krox unit and Cold Ones, were far enough away that they could be ignored for the time being (the Steg was on it's lonesome on the other side of the battlefield - not sure what that was all about). My big stuff-up was placing the Gyro opposite the Steg but no actually forcing it to charge and redirect. I should have put it right at the corner but for some stupid reason (ok, I can't actually think of a reason) but put it behind the Steg and tried flame-grilling 2+ save skinks. Groan!
Glenn took first turn, moved up, shot at me with some scouting Chameleons and skinks, ended his turn. Then he realised he's completely forgotten his magic phase. Ace.
The absolute highlight og my turn was landing a rock square on the frog, Glenn failing his ward save, and me doing 5 wounds. Then I found out he had 8 wounds all up. Still, half-way there and half points already. 5 down, 3 to go. Unfortunately the cannon disn't quite have LOS so had to content itself with pulping a Kroxigor (D3 wounds=another 3 wounds - cannon has been in good form this weekend... almost makes me wish I'd been able to play Tony... almost :p). A skirmishing screen of skinks evaporated from Thunderer and Organ Gun fire. They're accompanying Priest passed his panic check though.
Glenn moved some things around with a general advance, getting the Priest into a position to use his LOS for the Slann's spells. Glenn was fortunate the roll up Pit of Shades adn the magic phases for the rest of the game revolved around this spell going off. he got it off on the Hammerers twice and I scrolled both times. The last time he got it off on the Warriors with irresistable force, nuking 8. Horrible spell for Dwarfs.
My manoeuvring was all about trying to get the Hammerers into combat with the Frog with Saurus block and Glen was trying his utmost to stop this from happening (until he chose the right time). The Hammerers ended up charging the Skink screen which fled, enemy in the way into the frog and Saurus which fled (he was that keen to avoid them!) so failed charge. Fortunately the Gyro was redirecting Kroxigor at that point to stop them from getting into the Hammerers flank.
Eventually the Hammerers Master Rune of Challenged the other Saurus block into combat to tempt the Slann's unit in. It worked... a little too well unfortunately and I thought the Hammerers might have bitten off more than they could chew when they ended up with Saurus to the front, Saurus and frog to the back (thank-you Unseen Lurker, oh how I loathe thee) and skinks in the flank. The Dwarf Lord went mental looking for challenges and overkill, driven to frustration by not being able to get into contact with the cowardly bloody toad. I managed to get Warriors into the flank of the non-frog Saurus block eventually and in the last round of combat Glenn was testing at -2 or -3 to leadership but of course with that 3-dice business and a BSB reroll (and general's leadership!) they were never in serious jeopardy.
Same could not be said for my poor Longbeards who sucked down Scar-Vet attacks and the Stegadon (wondering where he'd gotten to hadn't you?). Luckily the Cold Ones suffered stupidity at the perfect moment and were unable to cancel the Longbeards ranks. Again in the last round the Steg and Scar-vet were testing to break and again they were fine.
I was a bit gutted to lose the game (had the Steg broken... had a Saurus block broken... you know, the "whatif" scenarios) but it was fairly close, better than our last meeting.
Loss 12-8
Tin Soldiers - Round Four vs Michael (Beasts)
Round Four vs Michael (Beasts)
Michael's army was one of the armies that everyone was talking about. Not because it was the latest and greatest and all get out marvellous new wonderbook of the Warhammer world. But because it was just friggin hilarious to look at. Words simply cannot do it justice.
Please check it out:
http://www.chchwargaming.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3325&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
Suffice to say it's completely off-the-wall.
I won the dice for board edge and chose the edge with a good view of the centre and some open space on the right. Michael had a lot of units and I hoped to encourage them into a traffic jam while trying to get at my big blocks.
Mike had - 3 x 5 warhounds, 3 x 3 Khorne Minos, Khorne-marked Doombull, 3 Undivided chariots, 2 beast herds, big Khorngor block, 6 furies, giant, Khorne-spawn.
2 units of hounds ended up running down my left flank, the other on the extreme right (I guess going for quarters). As planned, LOTS of stuff was going down the middle but with a forest just outside of his deployment zone and 2 forests just outside of mine left and right of centre, it was cosy going for 2 of the 3 Mino units (the other one was on his extreme and ended up causing me a headache later on... more on that shortly), 3 chariots, 2 beastherds, the Khorngor AND the giant!
I tried something I've been looking into - long lines of Thunderers and Quarrellers screening Hammerers and Longbeards. Screen flees the charge, enemy in the way means chargers end up in the big blocks and get mashed, fleeing troops rally on a 10 from the general's leadership and align to shoot up units on the flank, and the Longbeards either ignore the panic from units fleeing through them or confer a reroll on the Hammerers (all on ld10 of course). Mike got first turn which was sad because I had the best cannon shot at his giant with a bounce into 2 chariots waiting to happen. Oh well. Everything rushed foward. My turn.
This was a Round Two-flashback! Except these guys were more numerous, had less armour and had sucktastic leadership away from the general. I'd spoke to Real Nick at some length about this army and his advice was, given that the Minotaurs practically had no armour and that all hits were randomised to hit the general, that I should go for broke. Unfortunately my shooting was less than totally awesome and the general's unit had a couple of minos (one wounded) and the general on one wound left after the first turn. The cannon had a peach of a shot lined up against the giant and as I write this I realise I could have in fact targetted the giant and bounced into the chariots (!!!) but I forgot the giant was a large target (remembered next turn) and as there were furies sitting in from of him I fired at those instead. Sadly the cannonball stopped short of hitting any! The gyro flamed 3 and we were on to turn 2.
Turn 2 was much of the same... everything ran forward. The furies charged the crew, auto-broke and caught them. Most significantly the giant moved up and everything was practically on top of me! Something needed to be taken out of the equation!
My turn 2. I've had quite bad luck with giants in the past (in terms of the huge grief they have caused me) so I resolved to take out the Giant Sheep that was in the midst of my army. A combination of thunderers, grudgethrower, organ gun and quarrellers managed to take it down (just!) but meant I couldn't put the shooting into the general's unit that I had wanted so whichever way it worked the pain was coming right at my this turn.
Charges from Khorngor into the Quarrellers (fled - failed charge from Khorngor) and the Beast herd into Thunderers (fled - enemy in the way so Beastherd goes into Hammerers). Chariots have LOS now to Warriors (after the giant went down) so both chariots into the front. Chariots took down a good number of Warriors but failed to break them. Beastherds were brutalised by the hammerers who overran (failed to restrain - bugger!), failed to catch (but got the banner) and clipped the general's mino unit. Uh oh... flank charge from Khorngor into the Hammerers next turn if I can't smash the minotaur general's unit.
Longbeards go into the general's unit too for kicks (and to get out of the way of the last 3 minotaurs who are coming around my right flank. Miners come on to absorb the hounds on the left and beat them down (or so I thought). Shooting - the GT min guesses 12" at the Beastherd in the forest and it scatters 10" right onto the head of the mino in the middle of the last unit of 3 coming around my right flank! I partial both other minos and then roll triple ones to wound! Gutted! Combat - long story short I smash the general in combat in a challenge but 1 minotaur survives and gets double ones for the break test! No!!! Hammerers and Longbeards stuck in combat with a minotaur on one wound! Thus begins the rest of what becomes a truly surreal game... The chariots in combat with the Warriors fluff and break, both run through the 3 minotaurs following the first mino unit, impact hits kill one mino, self-inflicted damage from running into a forest kills one chariot. The warriors pursue a mighty 3" leaving their flank open for the other Beastherd.
Mike's positively drooling - in go the Khorngor (with accompanying Wargor), into the flank of the hammerers. In go the Minos into the GT - they eventually take out the GT, Organ gun, Thunderers, and then overrun off the table coming back in the last turn but being just too far away to charge. Despite shooting at the Khorngor I've been totally unable to even kill one and remove a point of rank bonus so this fight's going to be a tough one. Worse, the following Mino unit gets into the Longbeards. I lose a smattering of Hammerers and lose from combat res (Runesmith in the Longbeard unit also takes a wound from the newly charging minos) but everyone holds. The Warriors take a charge from the Beastherd and hold too. Meanwhile the Miners are charged by Chaos hounds, lose by one, fail needing 8, and flee off the board. The hounds overrun into the Quarrellers who are royally screwed because they've just been charged by the last chariot! Somehow, MIRACULOUSLY, the hold against both units!!! Mike's fleeing Beastherd fail to rally and decide to flee towards the nearest table edge, taking them through the Hammerers and out of the game (which cleared up the centre of the board nicely, so I guess it all worked out).
Turn 4 and I need to turn the big central combat around somehow and figure out how to rescue my Quarrellers. My general moves to engage the Khorngor and in a brave move the Wargor leading them accepts the Dwarf Lord's challenge, causing a wound before getting smashed with maximum overkill. The minos break! The Longbeards cut them down and hit the spawn behind who is trying to find a way into the combat. More importantly the Khorngor break (yes!!!) and the hammerers pursue, cutting them down and gaining their second banner. Again the hounds and chariot cannot dent the mighty Quarrellers - could they possibly survive the game?
Mike's 5th and the last mino unit is steadily chewing through my artillery. The Quarrellers fight like daemons and refuse to break! Better yet help is at hand in the form of a bloodthirsty Dwarf Lord! Unfortunately the Warriors break, are pursued and cut down (and banner captured), and the Beastherds end up in the flank of the Longbeards engaged with the spawn. The spawn takes 2 wounds in combat.
My fifth - the Boss jumps out of the Hammerer unit into the back of the chariot engaged against the Quarrellers. He cuts the chariot to kindling and the hounds leg it, the Quarrellers not quite catching them. The Quarrellers will be taking ANOTHER charge from yet another unit of warhounds next turn! the spawn goes down, the Beastherd breaks and are cut down by the Dwarfs who recover the Warrior's banner and claim the Beastherds too!
Mike's last remaining Khorne minotaurs having gone through the Thunderers like a large axe though a Dwarf's head and overrun off the table come back on and sit still hoping the Hammerers (or lone Dwarf Lord) are out of charge range. Stand-and shoot against the charging warhounds drops one and the Quarrellers win the combat by one but the hounds stick it out.
The Longbeards claim a quarter and the mighty, undefeatable Quarrellers smash the hounds and break them off the board. Woo-ha!
Win! 17-3
Wow. So that's what a 17-3 feels like. How the hell can I do that in all my games? Mike had it all to do to beat me - with no magic or shooting he was up against it from the start. Some truly weird rolling meant that by the end of the game we were just boggling at the table not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Mike was a(nother) fantastic opponent and I gave him my Best Sports vote.
Michael's army was one of the armies that everyone was talking about. Not because it was the latest and greatest and all get out marvellous new wonderbook of the Warhammer world. But because it was just friggin hilarious to look at. Words simply cannot do it justice.
Please check it out:
http://www.chchwargaming.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3325&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
Suffice to say it's completely off-the-wall.
I won the dice for board edge and chose the edge with a good view of the centre and some open space on the right. Michael had a lot of units and I hoped to encourage them into a traffic jam while trying to get at my big blocks.
Mike had - 3 x 5 warhounds, 3 x 3 Khorne Minos, Khorne-marked Doombull, 3 Undivided chariots, 2 beast herds, big Khorngor block, 6 furies, giant, Khorne-spawn.
2 units of hounds ended up running down my left flank, the other on the extreme right (I guess going for quarters). As planned, LOTS of stuff was going down the middle but with a forest just outside of his deployment zone and 2 forests just outside of mine left and right of centre, it was cosy going for 2 of the 3 Mino units (the other one was on his extreme and ended up causing me a headache later on... more on that shortly), 3 chariots, 2 beastherds, the Khorngor AND the giant!
I tried something I've been looking into - long lines of Thunderers and Quarrellers screening Hammerers and Longbeards. Screen flees the charge, enemy in the way means chargers end up in the big blocks and get mashed, fleeing troops rally on a 10 from the general's leadership and align to shoot up units on the flank, and the Longbeards either ignore the panic from units fleeing through them or confer a reroll on the Hammerers (all on ld10 of course). Mike got first turn which was sad because I had the best cannon shot at his giant with a bounce into 2 chariots waiting to happen. Oh well. Everything rushed foward. My turn.
This was a Round Two-flashback! Except these guys were more numerous, had less armour and had sucktastic leadership away from the general. I'd spoke to Real Nick at some length about this army and his advice was, given that the Minotaurs practically had no armour and that all hits were randomised to hit the general, that I should go for broke. Unfortunately my shooting was less than totally awesome and the general's unit had a couple of minos (one wounded) and the general on one wound left after the first turn. The cannon had a peach of a shot lined up against the giant and as I write this I realise I could have in fact targetted the giant and bounced into the chariots (!!!) but I forgot the giant was a large target (remembered next turn) and as there were furies sitting in from of him I fired at those instead. Sadly the cannonball stopped short of hitting any! The gyro flamed 3 and we were on to turn 2.
Turn 2 was much of the same... everything ran forward. The furies charged the crew, auto-broke and caught them. Most significantly the giant moved up and everything was practically on top of me! Something needed to be taken out of the equation!
My turn 2. I've had quite bad luck with giants in the past (in terms of the huge grief they have caused me) so I resolved to take out the Giant Sheep that was in the midst of my army. A combination of thunderers, grudgethrower, organ gun and quarrellers managed to take it down (just!) but meant I couldn't put the shooting into the general's unit that I had wanted so whichever way it worked the pain was coming right at my this turn.
Charges from Khorngor into the Quarrellers (fled - failed charge from Khorngor) and the Beast herd into Thunderers (fled - enemy in the way so Beastherd goes into Hammerers). Chariots have LOS now to Warriors (after the giant went down) so both chariots into the front. Chariots took down a good number of Warriors but failed to break them. Beastherds were brutalised by the hammerers who overran (failed to restrain - bugger!), failed to catch (but got the banner) and clipped the general's mino unit. Uh oh... flank charge from Khorngor into the Hammerers next turn if I can't smash the minotaur general's unit.
Longbeards go into the general's unit too for kicks (and to get out of the way of the last 3 minotaurs who are coming around my right flank. Miners come on to absorb the hounds on the left and beat them down (or so I thought). Shooting - the GT min guesses 12" at the Beastherd in the forest and it scatters 10" right onto the head of the mino in the middle of the last unit of 3 coming around my right flank! I partial both other minos and then roll triple ones to wound! Gutted! Combat - long story short I smash the general in combat in a challenge but 1 minotaur survives and gets double ones for the break test! No!!! Hammerers and Longbeards stuck in combat with a minotaur on one wound! Thus begins the rest of what becomes a truly surreal game... The chariots in combat with the Warriors fluff and break, both run through the 3 minotaurs following the first mino unit, impact hits kill one mino, self-inflicted damage from running into a forest kills one chariot. The warriors pursue a mighty 3" leaving their flank open for the other Beastherd.
Mike's positively drooling - in go the Khorngor (with accompanying Wargor), into the flank of the hammerers. In go the Minos into the GT - they eventually take out the GT, Organ gun, Thunderers, and then overrun off the table coming back in the last turn but being just too far away to charge. Despite shooting at the Khorngor I've been totally unable to even kill one and remove a point of rank bonus so this fight's going to be a tough one. Worse, the following Mino unit gets into the Longbeards. I lose a smattering of Hammerers and lose from combat res (Runesmith in the Longbeard unit also takes a wound from the newly charging minos) but everyone holds. The Warriors take a charge from the Beastherd and hold too. Meanwhile the Miners are charged by Chaos hounds, lose by one, fail needing 8, and flee off the board. The hounds overrun into the Quarrellers who are royally screwed because they've just been charged by the last chariot! Somehow, MIRACULOUSLY, the hold against both units!!! Mike's fleeing Beastherd fail to rally and decide to flee towards the nearest table edge, taking them through the Hammerers and out of the game (which cleared up the centre of the board nicely, so I guess it all worked out).
Turn 4 and I need to turn the big central combat around somehow and figure out how to rescue my Quarrellers. My general moves to engage the Khorngor and in a brave move the Wargor leading them accepts the Dwarf Lord's challenge, causing a wound before getting smashed with maximum overkill. The minos break! The Longbeards cut them down and hit the spawn behind who is trying to find a way into the combat. More importantly the Khorngor break (yes!!!) and the hammerers pursue, cutting them down and gaining their second banner. Again the hounds and chariot cannot dent the mighty Quarrellers - could they possibly survive the game?
Mike's 5th and the last mino unit is steadily chewing through my artillery. The Quarrellers fight like daemons and refuse to break! Better yet help is at hand in the form of a bloodthirsty Dwarf Lord! Unfortunately the Warriors break, are pursued and cut down (and banner captured), and the Beastherds end up in the flank of the Longbeards engaged with the spawn. The spawn takes 2 wounds in combat.
My fifth - the Boss jumps out of the Hammerer unit into the back of the chariot engaged against the Quarrellers. He cuts the chariot to kindling and the hounds leg it, the Quarrellers not quite catching them. The Quarrellers will be taking ANOTHER charge from yet another unit of warhounds next turn! the spawn goes down, the Beastherd breaks and are cut down by the Dwarfs who recover the Warrior's banner and claim the Beastherds too!
Mike's last remaining Khorne minotaurs having gone through the Thunderers like a large axe though a Dwarf's head and overrun off the table come back on and sit still hoping the Hammerers (or lone Dwarf Lord) are out of charge range. Stand-and shoot against the charging warhounds drops one and the Quarrellers win the combat by one but the hounds stick it out.
The Longbeards claim a quarter and the mighty, undefeatable Quarrellers smash the hounds and break them off the board. Woo-ha!
Win! 17-3
Wow. So that's what a 17-3 feels like. How the hell can I do that in all my games? Mike had it all to do to beat me - with no magic or shooting he was up against it from the start. Some truly weird rolling meant that by the end of the game we were just boggling at the table not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Mike was a(nother) fantastic opponent and I gave him my Best Sports vote.
Tin Soldiers - Round Three vs High Elves (Chris) and post-Day One discussion
Round Three vs High Elves (Chris)
Heading into Round Three having suffered 2 losses I was quite determined to actually secure a win. Experienced players have told me time and again that non-anvil Dwarfs struggle to get decent wins due to the lack of impetus and ability to enforce a game plan on the enemy that deals the decessary damage. Getting a 19-1 or 20-0 win means you are looking at more than just smashing most of the other guy's army. It's the realm of killing generals, capturing huge amounts of standards, claiming lots of quarters. Needless to say I wasn't aiming for huge wins at this stage in my career, but I was aiming to win at least one game this weekend!
My round three draw turned out to be quite a blessing in this regard. I drew Chris who was up from Wellington with the Warlords chaps. Nice guy, a bit quiet so not a lot of chatter throughout the game (this doesn't unduly worry beyond thinking I might have truly pissed my opponent off). Turns out Chris' partner had come up with him and spent the day at Dressmart spending up large. She returned to offer moral support but was weighed down with such a large 'product of retail therapy' that I'm sure what kind of a morale boost Chris actually received :p
I was able to determine board side choices in this game and was very happy with my deployment. It was a refused flank on sorts - Organ Gun and Gyro slightly left of centre and then from the centre: hammerers (all characters in the bunker), Warriors, Longbeards, cannon, Quarrellers on hill next to Grudgethrower and on the other side of the hill thunderers in a ling line. Chris had a hill in his zone diagonally opposite to my hill but 90 degree of LOS from that hill was blocked by a forest a little further forward of the hill itself (but out of his deployment zone). My left to right he deployed: 5 dragon princes with warbanner, 5 dragon princes with banner of move through terrain like it's not there, Lion chariot, White Lions, 2 bolt throwers on the hill with 10 archers (joined by mage), big gap, 10 archers in the middle, 2 eagles behind small ruin features (although one was in plain LOS to the Quarrellers) and on my right/his extreme left flank, LOTS of Phoenix Guard with BSB on horse (reaver bow) and an exceedingly annoying etheral mage lord chick. Between the two casters he got every HE spell available although they had very little effect during the game (lack of targets for the Mage boss as the good stuff was behind a hill and therefore unseeable and mistcast in turn 5 which caused her to lose the spell and a level and take a str8 hit... or something like that). I was boggling at the tiny size of the army, wagering that the Phoenix Guard were not to be trifled with and that the Dragon princes really were all that.
I won first turn and made good use of it quickly taking 2 wounds of an Eagle with the Quarrellers. Better still, a good guess from the cannon and a fortuitous D3 wounds roll of '3' destroyed a bolt thrower. Sadly I was an inch shy of hitting the Lion chariot too (which would bug me later in the game). The Gyro moved up behind the forest block much LOS for the remaining boltie and hill archers and that was me.
Chris was not best pleased at losing a bolt thrower so quickly and advanced with the princes and chariot on my left, both units of princes coming into range of the organ gun. The Phoenix guard marched up and the eagles flew up and landed in front of some stuff. I was a bit confused about his intentions with the eagles as Dwarfs can't be march blocked but figured he hoped one or both would survive and go for artillery crews. Fortunately the eagles were so keen to get in they landed in perfect LOS for the Thunderers and Quarrellers to give them what for. The mage boss got busy with Flames of the Phoenix, BBQing a couple of Thunderers. We both quickly realised that, with Chris stealing one of my power dice in my magic phase, I would be unable to dispel the Flames. Not good. I was VERY fortunate with his rolls to wound with the spell - the Thunderers eventually survived the game, albeit below half. The remaining bolt thrower threw some shots into the cannon and nailed a crewman and it was back to me.
Looking carefully at the dragon princes I decided that one of the units was probably out of charge range of the Organ Gun so I let rip into the closer unit. With memories of Round Two's first-turn misfire explosion catastrophy fresh in my mind you can imagine my pleasure at rolling a timely '10' for the number of hit. A fine red mist was all that remained of those dragon princes (that being the ignore terrain unit) and I moved on. The Thunderers did for the already wounded eagle and the Quarrellers put a wound on the other one, failing to save the cannon crew who would be charged in Chris' next turn. The cannon tried for the other bolt thrower but no luck this time. Ditto the grudgethrower. However the Gyro was now positioned to give the hill arhcers and attending mage what-for with it's steam gun and proceeded to do just that. A failed panic check and they were off, stopping 4" or so short of the board edge. Excellent - now the Gyro just needs to survive a shot from the boltthrower 5" away... Oh... and the Miners turned up behind the central archers...
In went the eagle into the cannon crew but fluffed rolls all round meant a drawn combat - the Longbeards would see to the eagle in my turn! The Phoenix guard continued their trek forward with shooting and magic going into the grudgethrower but poor luck and rolling allowing the GT to survive. I was gutted to discover the surviving dragon prince unit was into the organ gun by less than 1/2 an inch - they died a horrible death as the noble princes exacted a grisly revenge for the deaths of their kinsmen and the princes overran off the table (excellent). The white lions had edged foward and the lion chariot rounded the forests. Combined with the return of the dragon princes shortly I was looking at a three-way combined charge against the Hammerers. Hrm... The bolt thrower lined up against the Gyro, unleashing a powerful and beautifully crafted projectile that managed to miss completely. Excellent. The archers turned around to have at the miners, killing one and removing their rank bonus. Nix to that. The archers and mage, fleeing from the steam-gun of the Gyro last turn decided enough was enough and sadly for Chris they fled the battlefield!
Turn three and with the short return of the dragon princes I was looking at a potentially very ugly turn 4. The Hammerers moved up aggressively towards the White Lions tempting them (and the chariot) to charge without the support of the Princes (confidence inspired by the fact that the chariot wouldn't cancel my ranks - static res=7). The Warriors moved to their flank. The Longbeards smushed the eagle. The Miners went into the archers and lost by one! Luckily they held. The Gyro charged the bolt thrower crew and snuffed them out. The Quarrellers left their hill to move out of LOS of the Phoenix guard. Fortunately I had just the thing to deal with those dragon princes.
The White Lions and chariot didn't take the bait (can't blame Chris, would've ended badly) and mucked around waiting for their horsey mates who moved on behind the Hammerers ready for that lovely combined charge I was trying to avoid. The Phoenix guard charged the GT crew and mushed them, overruning but not reaching the Longbeards. The archer/miner duel continued with a draw.
Turn 4 for me. The Gyro swooped in to flame-grill those cheeky White Lions (killing a couple and removing a rank bonus (there were 12 in the unit, 6 wide - adding a rank next turn would mean not charging with the princes and chariot). The Hammerers continued to bait and wait for the charge (either way the Elves would strike first right?) but the Runesmith moved out of the unit by himself and went for a wander. Chris looked confused but figured something tricksy was up. He was right. My BIG mistake was not turning the warriors to face the Runesmith. You'll see why shortly. The Longbeards faced the Phoenix guard and the Quarrellers turned to face the flank of where the Phoenix guard would be when they charged the Longbeards. Cannon took a shot at the now exposed Lion chariot and blew itself up. Sigh... guess it can't all go my way huh?
Bottom of the 4th and Chris looking for that combined charge against the Hammerers when I say "Rune of Challenge from the Runesmith on those Dragon Princes - charge or flee". Fleeing would almost certainly mean running off the table so in they went against the Runesmith! The White Lions and chariot decided (again) to not charge. The Phoenix guard went into the Longbeards who (being immune to fear and terror) couldn't have cared less. Appalling rolls from everyone meant something like a draw or I lost by one and held. The Miners beat up the archers and made them run but failed to catch, ending up about 4" behind. In the other combat with the princes and Runesmith I challenge and the prince champion has to accept. Champion causes a wound (calculated gamble as the 'Smith has a 1+ save) and in return the Runesmith kills him!!! Woo! Runesmith loses by 3 (standard/warbanner, kill and outnumber vs kill) but with the general adn BSB nearby has no problem passing. Bugger - if only I'd remembered to turn those Warriors around!!! Gah. Still a newbie.
Top of 5 and in go the Quarrellers into the flank of the Phoenix guard, passng their fear test with flying colours and removing their rank bonus. Doesn't end up mattering too much as no one in the combat is able to hit anything. Phoenix guard lose fractionally and pass easily. The Runesmith goes down to the dragon princes but I'm a real idiot - I turned the Warriors and moved to charge the princes next turn (?) but got too close in their charge arc - now they can charge me in his turn 5! Argh!
In go the Princes but the Warriors hold. Lion chariot and White lions are still pansying around. Somehow the archers end up in combat with the miners and get creamed. In the Phoenix guard fight we're all still using pillows and it's a standstill.
Top of 6 the Miners claim a quarter, the gyro buzzes around ineffectually trying to flame the lion chariot (yeah right...), the Hammerers are STILL waiting to be charged (incidentally they have't charged the White Lions because if the White Lions flee I'll be stuck in a wood and the Lion chariot will get into the flank of the warriors and cane them - the White Lions can't chare the Warriors themselves because they can't wheel past the Hammerers). The pillow fight continues and everyone whiffs, but the Dragon Princes break (!) and flee, the warriors capturing the banner.
Bottom of 6, last turn of the game. Chris deliberates and says what the hell - in goes the chariot and white lions into the hammerers. The dragon princes fail to rally! Unbelievable! Off they go, leaving the board in a real hurry. As expected the chariot and lions bounce. The lions hold (stubborn fortunately) but the chariot breaks and flees.
And that's the game.
Amusingly, looking at what was left I thought I had a big win on my hands but with the points tied up in the Phoenix guard (with general and BSB) I had just managed a 15-5 win! Just like my previous two games but this time I was on the other side!
Win 15-5
A great day one and my first tournament win - and my first games against Chaos and High Elves! We grabbed some dinner at the RSA (steak, eggs, chips, salad - $15; bloody brilliant) and I shouted Dave being such a great guy and putting the tournament on in the first place. Post-Day One discussion highlighted many of the hysterical turns that a game of dice will inevitably bring. We had a bizarre discussion about the historical precendent of Warhammer, starting with ranked units of spearmen and how that would have worked in real life... conversation quickly degraded to the historical precedent of Stegadons and Dragons. Much bullshit, theoryhammer and talk but great social time. Ended up talking about 40k too at one point which was weird as it's been so long since I've played (comparitively). Dropped the lads off home and crashed around 11pm into a solid sleep, really keen to see what day two would bring... of course, having checked the Round Four draw I already know what I would be facing the next day!
The Black Sheep army of DOOM!
Heading into Round Three having suffered 2 losses I was quite determined to actually secure a win. Experienced players have told me time and again that non-anvil Dwarfs struggle to get decent wins due to the lack of impetus and ability to enforce a game plan on the enemy that deals the decessary damage. Getting a 19-1 or 20-0 win means you are looking at more than just smashing most of the other guy's army. It's the realm of killing generals, capturing huge amounts of standards, claiming lots of quarters. Needless to say I wasn't aiming for huge wins at this stage in my career, but I was aiming to win at least one game this weekend!
My round three draw turned out to be quite a blessing in this regard. I drew Chris who was up from Wellington with the Warlords chaps. Nice guy, a bit quiet so not a lot of chatter throughout the game (this doesn't unduly worry beyond thinking I might have truly pissed my opponent off). Turns out Chris' partner had come up with him and spent the day at Dressmart spending up large. She returned to offer moral support but was weighed down with such a large 'product of retail therapy' that I'm sure what kind of a morale boost Chris actually received :p
I was able to determine board side choices in this game and was very happy with my deployment. It was a refused flank on sorts - Organ Gun and Gyro slightly left of centre and then from the centre: hammerers (all characters in the bunker), Warriors, Longbeards, cannon, Quarrellers on hill next to Grudgethrower and on the other side of the hill thunderers in a ling line. Chris had a hill in his zone diagonally opposite to my hill but 90 degree of LOS from that hill was blocked by a forest a little further forward of the hill itself (but out of his deployment zone). My left to right he deployed: 5 dragon princes with warbanner, 5 dragon princes with banner of move through terrain like it's not there, Lion chariot, White Lions, 2 bolt throwers on the hill with 10 archers (joined by mage), big gap, 10 archers in the middle, 2 eagles behind small ruin features (although one was in plain LOS to the Quarrellers) and on my right/his extreme left flank, LOTS of Phoenix Guard with BSB on horse (reaver bow) and an exceedingly annoying etheral mage lord chick. Between the two casters he got every HE spell available although they had very little effect during the game (lack of targets for the Mage boss as the good stuff was behind a hill and therefore unseeable and mistcast in turn 5 which caused her to lose the spell and a level and take a str8 hit... or something like that). I was boggling at the tiny size of the army, wagering that the Phoenix Guard were not to be trifled with and that the Dragon princes really were all that.
I won first turn and made good use of it quickly taking 2 wounds of an Eagle with the Quarrellers. Better still, a good guess from the cannon and a fortuitous D3 wounds roll of '3' destroyed a bolt thrower. Sadly I was an inch shy of hitting the Lion chariot too (which would bug me later in the game). The Gyro moved up behind the forest block much LOS for the remaining boltie and hill archers and that was me.
Chris was not best pleased at losing a bolt thrower so quickly and advanced with the princes and chariot on my left, both units of princes coming into range of the organ gun. The Phoenix guard marched up and the eagles flew up and landed in front of some stuff. I was a bit confused about his intentions with the eagles as Dwarfs can't be march blocked but figured he hoped one or both would survive and go for artillery crews. Fortunately the eagles were so keen to get in they landed in perfect LOS for the Thunderers and Quarrellers to give them what for. The mage boss got busy with Flames of the Phoenix, BBQing a couple of Thunderers. We both quickly realised that, with Chris stealing one of my power dice in my magic phase, I would be unable to dispel the Flames. Not good. I was VERY fortunate with his rolls to wound with the spell - the Thunderers eventually survived the game, albeit below half. The remaining bolt thrower threw some shots into the cannon and nailed a crewman and it was back to me.
Looking carefully at the dragon princes I decided that one of the units was probably out of charge range of the Organ Gun so I let rip into the closer unit. With memories of Round Two's first-turn misfire explosion catastrophy fresh in my mind you can imagine my pleasure at rolling a timely '10' for the number of hit. A fine red mist was all that remained of those dragon princes (that being the ignore terrain unit) and I moved on. The Thunderers did for the already wounded eagle and the Quarrellers put a wound on the other one, failing to save the cannon crew who would be charged in Chris' next turn. The cannon tried for the other bolt thrower but no luck this time. Ditto the grudgethrower. However the Gyro was now positioned to give the hill arhcers and attending mage what-for with it's steam gun and proceeded to do just that. A failed panic check and they were off, stopping 4" or so short of the board edge. Excellent - now the Gyro just needs to survive a shot from the boltthrower 5" away... Oh... and the Miners turned up behind the central archers...
In went the eagle into the cannon crew but fluffed rolls all round meant a drawn combat - the Longbeards would see to the eagle in my turn! The Phoenix guard continued their trek forward with shooting and magic going into the grudgethrower but poor luck and rolling allowing the GT to survive. I was gutted to discover the surviving dragon prince unit was into the organ gun by less than 1/2 an inch - they died a horrible death as the noble princes exacted a grisly revenge for the deaths of their kinsmen and the princes overran off the table (excellent). The white lions had edged foward and the lion chariot rounded the forests. Combined with the return of the dragon princes shortly I was looking at a three-way combined charge against the Hammerers. Hrm... The bolt thrower lined up against the Gyro, unleashing a powerful and beautifully crafted projectile that managed to miss completely. Excellent. The archers turned around to have at the miners, killing one and removing their rank bonus. Nix to that. The archers and mage, fleeing from the steam-gun of the Gyro last turn decided enough was enough and sadly for Chris they fled the battlefield!
Turn three and with the short return of the dragon princes I was looking at a potentially very ugly turn 4. The Hammerers moved up aggressively towards the White Lions tempting them (and the chariot) to charge without the support of the Princes (confidence inspired by the fact that the chariot wouldn't cancel my ranks - static res=7). The Warriors moved to their flank. The Longbeards smushed the eagle. The Miners went into the archers and lost by one! Luckily they held. The Gyro charged the bolt thrower crew and snuffed them out. The Quarrellers left their hill to move out of LOS of the Phoenix guard. Fortunately I had just the thing to deal with those dragon princes.
The White Lions and chariot didn't take the bait (can't blame Chris, would've ended badly) and mucked around waiting for their horsey mates who moved on behind the Hammerers ready for that lovely combined charge I was trying to avoid. The Phoenix guard charged the GT crew and mushed them, overruning but not reaching the Longbeards. The archer/miner duel continued with a draw.
Turn 4 for me. The Gyro swooped in to flame-grill those cheeky White Lions (killing a couple and removing a rank bonus (there were 12 in the unit, 6 wide - adding a rank next turn would mean not charging with the princes and chariot). The Hammerers continued to bait and wait for the charge (either way the Elves would strike first right?) but the Runesmith moved out of the unit by himself and went for a wander. Chris looked confused but figured something tricksy was up. He was right. My BIG mistake was not turning the warriors to face the Runesmith. You'll see why shortly. The Longbeards faced the Phoenix guard and the Quarrellers turned to face the flank of where the Phoenix guard would be when they charged the Longbeards. Cannon took a shot at the now exposed Lion chariot and blew itself up. Sigh... guess it can't all go my way huh?
Bottom of the 4th and Chris looking for that combined charge against the Hammerers when I say "Rune of Challenge from the Runesmith on those Dragon Princes - charge or flee". Fleeing would almost certainly mean running off the table so in they went against the Runesmith! The White Lions and chariot decided (again) to not charge. The Phoenix guard went into the Longbeards who (being immune to fear and terror) couldn't have cared less. Appalling rolls from everyone meant something like a draw or I lost by one and held. The Miners beat up the archers and made them run but failed to catch, ending up about 4" behind. In the other combat with the princes and Runesmith I challenge and the prince champion has to accept. Champion causes a wound (calculated gamble as the 'Smith has a 1+ save) and in return the Runesmith kills him!!! Woo! Runesmith loses by 3 (standard/warbanner, kill and outnumber vs kill) but with the general adn BSB nearby has no problem passing. Bugger - if only I'd remembered to turn those Warriors around!!! Gah. Still a newbie.
Top of 5 and in go the Quarrellers into the flank of the Phoenix guard, passng their fear test with flying colours and removing their rank bonus. Doesn't end up mattering too much as no one in the combat is able to hit anything. Phoenix guard lose fractionally and pass easily. The Runesmith goes down to the dragon princes but I'm a real idiot - I turned the Warriors and moved to charge the princes next turn (?) but got too close in their charge arc - now they can charge me in his turn 5! Argh!
In go the Princes but the Warriors hold. Lion chariot and White lions are still pansying around. Somehow the archers end up in combat with the miners and get creamed. In the Phoenix guard fight we're all still using pillows and it's a standstill.
Top of 6 the Miners claim a quarter, the gyro buzzes around ineffectually trying to flame the lion chariot (yeah right...), the Hammerers are STILL waiting to be charged (incidentally they have't charged the White Lions because if the White Lions flee I'll be stuck in a wood and the Lion chariot will get into the flank of the warriors and cane them - the White Lions can't chare the Warriors themselves because they can't wheel past the Hammerers). The pillow fight continues and everyone whiffs, but the Dragon Princes break (!) and flee, the warriors capturing the banner.
Bottom of 6, last turn of the game. Chris deliberates and says what the hell - in goes the chariot and white lions into the hammerers. The dragon princes fail to rally! Unbelievable! Off they go, leaving the board in a real hurry. As expected the chariot and lions bounce. The lions hold (stubborn fortunately) but the chariot breaks and flees.
And that's the game.
Amusingly, looking at what was left I thought I had a big win on my hands but with the points tied up in the Phoenix guard (with general and BSB) I had just managed a 15-5 win! Just like my previous two games but this time I was on the other side!
Win 15-5
A great day one and my first tournament win - and my first games against Chaos and High Elves! We grabbed some dinner at the RSA (steak, eggs, chips, salad - $15; bloody brilliant) and I shouted Dave being such a great guy and putting the tournament on in the first place. Post-Day One discussion highlighted many of the hysterical turns that a game of dice will inevitably bring. We had a bizarre discussion about the historical precendent of Warhammer, starting with ranked units of spearmen and how that would have worked in real life... conversation quickly degraded to the historical precedent of Stegadons and Dragons. Much bullshit, theoryhammer and talk but great social time. Ended up talking about 40k too at one point which was weird as it's been so long since I've played (comparitively). Dropped the lads off home and crashed around 11pm into a solid sleep, really keen to see what day two would bring... of course, having checked the Round Four draw I already know what I would be facing the next day!
The Black Sheep army of DOOM!
Tin Soldiers - Round Two vs Chaos (Ray)
Round Two vs Chaos (Ray)
Part of the deal with being a newbie (this is just me of course, not necessarily a universal claim) is that you can look at a list, see what things are worth, read the names of the flash magic items, ask lots of questions and after all that still not not understand what you are really seeing. Ray's Chaos army is a good example of this.
Having never played Chaos before I was entirely optimistic about this game - even a smashing loss can be enjoyable against an unknown enemy... sorry, getting ahead of myself here...
Ray had (and deployed my left to right) Chaos Knights with mark of Khorne (with BSB), 2 Slannesh Spawn (3D6" random movement instead of 2D6"), Giant, Slanneshi Chosen Knights with Rapturous Standard (1/2 opponent WS - the full implications of this didn't strike me until I was dead), Khorne chariot, boss on DRAGON (never faced one of these, very exciting!) centigor and some furies. Ray had a tough first round and explained that the army was win-big/lose-big (i.e. it worked or it didn't). I must admit I was hoping for the latter.
Having never faced anything as monumentally hard as Chosen Knights my deployment was rather blase and quite frankly ruled by ignorance. Practically everything that charges Dwarf blocks just bounces right off and I stupidly saw no reason why this army should be any different. Even the dragon and Lord would be in for a tough time going against the front of a ranked unit right? Sigh...
Left to right (and with practically little thought and the more I do think about it the more I wish I'd given Ray a better game...) was the cannon, line of Thunderers (so they'll be facing off against the Khorne knights and BSB then... nice), Quarrellers (facing the Giant and 2 spawn... good matchup there... for the bad guys), Longbeards and Hammerers facing Slaanesh knights and chariots (I ALMOST got that one right...) and the grudgethrower and gyro) behind a building against... well, the dragon, furies and centigor.
So, in summary, I had managed to match up poorly against the Chaos army practically across the whole battleline. But wait... the hard lessons are still coming.
I lost first turn and Ray moved most of his army (everything except the chariot which can't march) over half way across the board. Ace. My turn.
Cannon overshoots the Khorne knights. Thunderers kill one. Organ Gun misfires and explodes. There goes my big plan against the Chosen... Quarrellers take 2 wounds off a Spawn (so close!!!) and finally something went right and the grudgethrower landed one on the head of the chariot driver and pulverised the machine.
And that was almost the game. Khorne knights went in a duffed up the Thunderers and cannon, and the Miners who later came on to "help" (idiots). Dragon went into Hammerers. I should have accepted with my champion - Hammerers static res 7 (7!!!! 3 ranks, outnumber, banner, warbanner, and the BSB was in there too), max overkill on champion 5, dragon loses by 2. Instead I plumped for the brave and stupid option and challenged with my Lord. He took 2 wounds and was lucky to survive but disappointingly only inflicted on wound back on the Chaos Lord (would that I had taken the Rune of Might against the Dragon and been attacking it hitting and wounding on 2s with -7 to save... ah wonderful hindsight...). Anyway, the Lord lost by 1 and held on and the next turn by boss was dead, the dragon broke and fled and I failed to catch it. WORSE - he failed to rally and fled again out of my charge range!!! Then he rallied!!! Sob!
While this was all going on the Chosen were finding out just how squishy Longbeards are, breaking them after 2 rounds of combat and clipping the stupidly positioned Quarrellers. The Quarrellers were shortly engaged against the Chosen, 2 Spawn AND the Giant. They lost. They died.
MEANWHILE, the most epic combat ever was on against the centigor and the gyro (the gyro losing for 4 or 5 turns in a row and passing break tests at -2). Fate eventually caught up with the flying contraption and it broke off the table in the last turn.
The Furies killed and chased down the grudgethrower crew.
The Warriors... ah the Warriors. They had somehow (?!) ended up in the middle of the field after fleeing numerous charges from spawn and about-faced Chosen. They eventually managed to rally and claim a quarter which was nice (after losng over half their number to the dragon's TWO breath attacks). Their most glorious moment however was what gave me the few points I was able to claw back. They fled from yet another charge of the Chosen which put the Hammerers on the flank of the Chosen for one final glorous charge. in went the Hammerers, down went the Chosen, they broke and fled, I captured the accursed banner of 1/2 weapon skill and netter a tasty 490VPs just like that. Suddenly I could see the win-big/lose-big potential of the Chaos army and realised how I should have played the game. Again... wonderful hindsight...
Learning points - lots.
- don't deploy like a moron
- when in doubt, castle up and reduce frontage (the terrain would have allowed me to funnel his through terrain - deploy the blocks in front, line up the missile troops behind, take the charge with 3 blocks with insane static res, shoot the 2 large targets with everything...)
- don't rely on the Organ Gun (actually this wasn't a learning point because I did just that in the very next round proving I really am a VERY slow learner!)
- try thinking when you play. I don't know - I must have dropped my brain when I moved my army over from the last table. I just... wasn't... thinking. What a waste...
- another 5 points despite the caning I had received. The epiphany here is, putting the BSB in the hammerers means he's safe as houses. I actually had ALL the characters in the hammerers in my last game - the hammerer bunker is born!
Great opponent though - a really really nice guy who felt for me and my noobness. Top bloke who I hope to play again in the future.
Loss 15-5
Part of the deal with being a newbie (this is just me of course, not necessarily a universal claim) is that you can look at a list, see what things are worth, read the names of the flash magic items, ask lots of questions and after all that still not not understand what you are really seeing. Ray's Chaos army is a good example of this.
Having never played Chaos before I was entirely optimistic about this game - even a smashing loss can be enjoyable against an unknown enemy... sorry, getting ahead of myself here...
Ray had (and deployed my left to right) Chaos Knights with mark of Khorne (with BSB), 2 Slannesh Spawn (3D6" random movement instead of 2D6"), Giant, Slanneshi Chosen Knights with Rapturous Standard (1/2 opponent WS - the full implications of this didn't strike me until I was dead), Khorne chariot, boss on DRAGON (never faced one of these, very exciting!) centigor and some furies. Ray had a tough first round and explained that the army was win-big/lose-big (i.e. it worked or it didn't). I must admit I was hoping for the latter.
Having never faced anything as monumentally hard as Chosen Knights my deployment was rather blase and quite frankly ruled by ignorance. Practically everything that charges Dwarf blocks just bounces right off and I stupidly saw no reason why this army should be any different. Even the dragon and Lord would be in for a tough time going against the front of a ranked unit right? Sigh...
Left to right (and with practically little thought and the more I do think about it the more I wish I'd given Ray a better game...) was the cannon, line of Thunderers (so they'll be facing off against the Khorne knights and BSB then... nice), Quarrellers (facing the Giant and 2 spawn... good matchup there... for the bad guys), Longbeards and Hammerers facing Slaanesh knights and chariots (I ALMOST got that one right...) and the grudgethrower and gyro) behind a building against... well, the dragon, furies and centigor.
So, in summary, I had managed to match up poorly against the Chaos army practically across the whole battleline. But wait... the hard lessons are still coming.
I lost first turn and Ray moved most of his army (everything except the chariot which can't march) over half way across the board. Ace. My turn.
Cannon overshoots the Khorne knights. Thunderers kill one. Organ Gun misfires and explodes. There goes my big plan against the Chosen... Quarrellers take 2 wounds off a Spawn (so close!!!) and finally something went right and the grudgethrower landed one on the head of the chariot driver and pulverised the machine.
And that was almost the game. Khorne knights went in a duffed up the Thunderers and cannon, and the Miners who later came on to "help" (idiots). Dragon went into Hammerers. I should have accepted with my champion - Hammerers static res 7 (7!!!! 3 ranks, outnumber, banner, warbanner, and the BSB was in there too), max overkill on champion 5, dragon loses by 2. Instead I plumped for the brave and stupid option and challenged with my Lord. He took 2 wounds and was lucky to survive but disappointingly only inflicted on wound back on the Chaos Lord (would that I had taken the Rune of Might against the Dragon and been attacking it hitting and wounding on 2s with -7 to save... ah wonderful hindsight...). Anyway, the Lord lost by 1 and held on and the next turn by boss was dead, the dragon broke and fled and I failed to catch it. WORSE - he failed to rally and fled again out of my charge range!!! Then he rallied!!! Sob!
While this was all going on the Chosen were finding out just how squishy Longbeards are, breaking them after 2 rounds of combat and clipping the stupidly positioned Quarrellers. The Quarrellers were shortly engaged against the Chosen, 2 Spawn AND the Giant. They lost. They died.
MEANWHILE, the most epic combat ever was on against the centigor and the gyro (the gyro losing for 4 or 5 turns in a row and passing break tests at -2). Fate eventually caught up with the flying contraption and it broke off the table in the last turn.
The Furies killed and chased down the grudgethrower crew.
The Warriors... ah the Warriors. They had somehow (?!) ended up in the middle of the field after fleeing numerous charges from spawn and about-faced Chosen. They eventually managed to rally and claim a quarter which was nice (after losng over half their number to the dragon's TWO breath attacks). Their most glorious moment however was what gave me the few points I was able to claw back. They fled from yet another charge of the Chosen which put the Hammerers on the flank of the Chosen for one final glorous charge. in went the Hammerers, down went the Chosen, they broke and fled, I captured the accursed banner of 1/2 weapon skill and netter a tasty 490VPs just like that. Suddenly I could see the win-big/lose-big potential of the Chaos army and realised how I should have played the game. Again... wonderful hindsight...
Learning points - lots.
- don't deploy like a moron
- when in doubt, castle up and reduce frontage (the terrain would have allowed me to funnel his through terrain - deploy the blocks in front, line up the missile troops behind, take the charge with 3 blocks with insane static res, shoot the 2 large targets with everything...)
- don't rely on the Organ Gun (actually this wasn't a learning point because I did just that in the very next round proving I really am a VERY slow learner!)
- try thinking when you play. I don't know - I must have dropped my brain when I moved my army over from the last table. I just... wasn't... thinking. What a waste...
- another 5 points despite the caning I had received. The epiphany here is, putting the BSB in the hammerers means he's safe as houses. I actually had ALL the characters in the hammerers in my last game - the hammerer bunker is born!
Great opponent though - a really really nice guy who felt for me and my noobness. Top bloke who I hope to play again in the future.
Loss 15-5
Tin Soldiers! Introduction and Round One vs TKs (Josh)
Intro
Monday morning sees me sick as a dog (thanks for passing that on Dave; this is how civilsations crumble) and, with no wife and kids at home, in the perfect place (emotionally) to start blogging my experiences at the fanatastic Tin Soldiers tournament held at the Onehunga RSA (is there any better?!) over the weekend.
I spent Friday enduring 6 hours of barbershop music, better than actually working, but some of it was a real horror show - good barbershop is AWESOME, bad barbershop is musical butchery - seriously not cool. So not only did I have a cranking headache on Friday night, but the damn music had ingrained itself so thoroughly in my subconscious mind that I couldn't stop singing those ridiculously catchy tunes. Argh! Got to sleep around 11pm, woke up at 1am and every hour on the hour after that until the kids really woke me up at 5:30am. Not the ideal start...
Had organised to play taxi for some friends so picked up Chris (ringer for the tourney using Dave's Tomb Kings - good on ya for playing Chris!), (real) Nick aka Nick "No.1" aka "Wood Elf" Nick (Nick Irvine - famously placing second on national rankings by virtue of awesome sports scores and dodging all the dangerous players - the King of Inconsistent Battle Points), and (other) Nick aka "The Lone Asian" using Carl's entirely unoptimised Empire army. Despite forgetting to put Real Nick's mobile number on my cellphone everyone was picked up on time and we arrived at the venue at around 8:20am with plenty of time to catch up with other players, meet the Wellington crowd (and good on them for coming up!), and make sure we had the right army with us and all of our models (eh Pete? how do you pack but forget 4 Dryads?).
Dave rather smartly used a projector to do all the shouting of draws (and Derick and I are definitely nicking this idea for Fields) and I was pleased to see I had drawn Josh and his Tomb Kings.
Round One - Josh - Tomb Kings
Josh is a mate from the City Guard; helluva nice guy, very calm, somewhat relentless (suits the army really) and a great first draw for me because I'd played his list a while back (see previous posts and my disappointment vis a vis Warriors and failed Terror needing 10).
Josh had 3 naked chariots, 10 bows, skelly block, tomb guard, SSC, 2 Scorps, bone giant, 2 priests (one a heirophant with standard kit, the other mounted with Staff of Ravening), princess on foot and king on foot with Destroyer of Eternities. Oh, and the Ushabti. Mustn't forget those!
I was faced with the immediate issue of a forest in the middle of my deployment zone and a hill and impassable feature in the centre left and right respectively. I chose the right (wrong choice in retrospect), placing the artillery on the left to hopefully lure scorps away from the rest of the army, the Hammerers on the left but as close to the centre as possible to get into the action (mistake), the Organ Gun (which gives Josh "the fear") in the forest itself and then left to right Thunderers, Lonmgbeards, Warriors, Gyro and Quarrellers (Quarrellers ending up in a line on the right flank). My left to right Josh placed Chariots, giant (behind a forest), heirophant by itself, guard with king, SSC, Ushabti, skellies with Princess, and light cav (with priest) and bows on the right (facing off against Quarrellers). I was NOT happy with my deployment and retrospectively would have gone for a castle on the left but either way LOS was compromised. Josh placed both scorp markers next to the Organ Gun. I won first turn and took it.
Cannon at the King, perfect guess and bounce took out a couple of guard (king made Look Out Sir! roll) and right into the SSC. Wounded, D3 wounds for 3 wounds = dead SSC. Great start! Grudgethrower into the guard took down 3 or 4 more. Quarrellers nabbed a light cav horseman. The Hammerers moved forward and angled to look at covering both scorp markers (the plan being that, of they hit, they would be automatically in combat with the Hammerers - static res of 6 - 3 ranks, outnumber, warbanner (2) and kills from the boss and I could pop them both straight away). Everything else (including Thunderers) moved up tentatively. Gyro moved up to hide behind a forest just outside his deployment zone.
Josh was less than pleased with the shooting. He shuffled a bit and started his magic phase.
I hate Tomb Kings magic. I just don't feel I can manage in well enough and can never hang onto my scrolls until I really need them (this battle being a case in point). Josh's focus this turn was on reviving the SSC (cheesey TKs can resurrect their damn warmachine!) and I went all out to stop that at the cost of a scroll and all my dice. A waste of a scroll really - should've sucked down what the SSC chucked at me (possibly famous last words...) and just tapped it with the Miners when they came on (ah, wonderful hindsight). Anyway, fairly painless although I would REALLY regret burning the scroll so early. Chariots were out of range for shooting, Quarrellers took some hits, no biggie.
My turn two and some shuffling forward. Cannon nabbed a chariot and grudgethrower went long at the skellies but overshot. Organ Gun opened up on skellies and bagged 4-5 and Josh grumbled something about cheesey Dwarfs (jokes). Gyro steamed cav and skellies and got a light horse and I suddenly realised I was an idiot and REALLY shouldn't have done that (you'll see why shortly). Thunderers took out a couple of guard. Hammerers made their position next to the scorp markers and I crossed my fingers.
Josh's turn two. Both scorps came up and both SCATTERED! Nooooo! Worse - they were both able to see the Organ Gun! Nooooooo! They charged immediately and I knew I was in trouble. The giant moved up, and there was a general advance from the TKs except for the archers who turned to face the Gyro beind them. The sinking feeling really set in as the archers were magicked into the Gyro, won but outnumber, auto-broke it, and it fled off the board. Stupid stupid stupid! Josh spent the turn setting up some charges for turn 4 (that's how far ahead you need to think in this game and I am definitely not there yet!). The chariots snuck up some more and took a model from the Hammerers, reducing them by a rank. The Quarrellers were smashed by the Ravening staff after Josh rolled 5 6s to wound, leaving 2 Quarrellers who didn't panic. The Ushabti also moved up (this ended up causing something of a traffic jam in the next turn). The Organ Gun got rightly pasted, both scorps overrunning, one of them having LOS to the cannon in the next turn.
Damage control. I moved the Hammerers to get them into the fight that was about to happen and suddenly seemed so very far away. The Longbeards and Warriors (who by this time were almost halfway across the board) decided to force the hand ofthe Tomb Kings and advanced in their faces aligning to take frontal charges from the Ushabti and the Skellies if they both went in, the the BSB and Runesmith and a stack of static res I was iffy about what might happen here but keen(ish) to find out. Shooting went into the Bone Giant for all that it was worth - I needed to start taking units out of the fast developing equation in the centre and he was high on the list. I think he took a couple of wounds (i.e. not nearly enough at this point). That was that and I cried inside as I saw what was going to happen next.
Unshabti into the Longbeards (with Runesmith)... Skellies into the Warriors (led by BSB), light horse into their flank! and the Warriors fail their Fear test! NO0000! Hitting on 6s!!!! The guard and giant advanced, the scorp ate the cannon, the chariots parked in front of the grudgethrower and the writing was on the wall. In combat the Longbeards held after taking some damage and dishing out a little too, but the Warriors got smashed, fled from fear-causers and ran into the impassable terrain and died! Goodbye BSB! The only good thing to come out of this was that Josh chose not to pursue with either unit and so didn't capture the 2 banners that the unit was carrying. Unfortunately the Skellies were now in primo position to flank the Longbeards in his next turn.
Starting to scratch for options now... the Hammerers vainly moved up, too little too late. Shooting into the giant somehow managed to kill it off (which really surprised us both I think!). In combat the Longbeards held but it was all over rover. Oh, and the Miners decide to show up and come on next to the remaining crew of the SSC.
Bam! Skellies into the flank of the Longbeards, they get caned and flee but manage to escape and subsequently rally. Chariots smash the grudgethrower. Ushabti and Skellies (who both pursued and failed to catch the Longbeards) are almost in range of the Hammerers so I've at least got options to attack now. The last Quarrellers die at some point... hardly matters now. Thunderers are rear-charged by a wandering scorpion and they go down.
Getting on towards the end game now and time to give Josh a bloody nose before I have nothing left. Hammerers annilihate the Ushabti and overrun into the Skelly block - here comes the real fight.
Guard magic charge into the rear of the Hammerers and start to do their thing. I lose by a trillion but the Hammerers fight on. The chariots align to charge the depleted Longbeards next turn and the scorps look to take a shot at the Miners (who have since duffed up the remaining SSC crew so at least it can't be resurrected now!
Turn 5 is the Hammerers losing (again) and holding, the chariots charging the Longbeards, fluffing and that combat continuing
Turn 6 is the same except a scorpion manages a charge against the Miners, fluffs and pops (any win in a combat at this point has me much happier than I have any right to be).
End result is a convincing (and well-deserved) win to Josh by about 950VPs. Would have been much worse had the giant got in amongst the Hammerers as the Ushabti would have survived. Josh is a great player and I took heart in the fact that, having lost my first game by a decent margin, I would immediately be fighting people who (hopefully) were on the same gaming wavelength as myself. Josh went on to face some VERY tough opposition (including a tough lesson against Dave's Lizards where Josh lost 20-0!!!!) but that's what you get for being so good in the first place. As I discussed with someone over the weekend - lose your first couple of games and make headway in the 3rd-5th and you can actually get a decent placing (I was never looking at a podium finish anyway).
Lessons learnt against TKs? I just can't hold my scrolls back for that crucial turn, despite having been told several times to do so by very knowledgable players. Another hard lesson against Tomb Kings...
I was however quite surprised that I got 5 points out of the game and this gave me an important insight into the mechanics of tournament scoring that I was able to work into some of my future games in the weekend.
Loss 15-5
Monday morning sees me sick as a dog (thanks for passing that on Dave; this is how civilsations crumble) and, with no wife and kids at home, in the perfect place (emotionally) to start blogging my experiences at the fanatastic Tin Soldiers tournament held at the Onehunga RSA (is there any better?!) over the weekend.
I spent Friday enduring 6 hours of barbershop music, better than actually working, but some of it was a real horror show - good barbershop is AWESOME, bad barbershop is musical butchery - seriously not cool. So not only did I have a cranking headache on Friday night, but the damn music had ingrained itself so thoroughly in my subconscious mind that I couldn't stop singing those ridiculously catchy tunes. Argh! Got to sleep around 11pm, woke up at 1am and every hour on the hour after that until the kids really woke me up at 5:30am. Not the ideal start...
Had organised to play taxi for some friends so picked up Chris (ringer for the tourney using Dave's Tomb Kings - good on ya for playing Chris!), (real) Nick aka Nick "No.1" aka "Wood Elf" Nick (Nick Irvine - famously placing second on national rankings by virtue of awesome sports scores and dodging all the dangerous players - the King of Inconsistent Battle Points), and (other) Nick aka "The Lone Asian" using Carl's entirely unoptimised Empire army. Despite forgetting to put Real Nick's mobile number on my cellphone everyone was picked up on time and we arrived at the venue at around 8:20am with plenty of time to catch up with other players, meet the Wellington crowd (and good on them for coming up!), and make sure we had the right army with us and all of our models (eh Pete? how do you pack but forget 4 Dryads?).
Dave rather smartly used a projector to do all the shouting of draws (and Derick and I are definitely nicking this idea for Fields) and I was pleased to see I had drawn Josh and his Tomb Kings.
Round One - Josh - Tomb Kings
Josh is a mate from the City Guard; helluva nice guy, very calm, somewhat relentless (suits the army really) and a great first draw for me because I'd played his list a while back (see previous posts and my disappointment vis a vis Warriors and failed Terror needing 10).
Josh had 3 naked chariots, 10 bows, skelly block, tomb guard, SSC, 2 Scorps, bone giant, 2 priests (one a heirophant with standard kit, the other mounted with Staff of Ravening), princess on foot and king on foot with Destroyer of Eternities. Oh, and the Ushabti. Mustn't forget those!
I was faced with the immediate issue of a forest in the middle of my deployment zone and a hill and impassable feature in the centre left and right respectively. I chose the right (wrong choice in retrospect), placing the artillery on the left to hopefully lure scorps away from the rest of the army, the Hammerers on the left but as close to the centre as possible to get into the action (mistake), the Organ Gun (which gives Josh "the fear") in the forest itself and then left to right Thunderers, Lonmgbeards, Warriors, Gyro and Quarrellers (Quarrellers ending up in a line on the right flank). My left to right Josh placed Chariots, giant (behind a forest), heirophant by itself, guard with king, SSC, Ushabti, skellies with Princess, and light cav (with priest) and bows on the right (facing off against Quarrellers). I was NOT happy with my deployment and retrospectively would have gone for a castle on the left but either way LOS was compromised. Josh placed both scorp markers next to the Organ Gun. I won first turn and took it.
Cannon at the King, perfect guess and bounce took out a couple of guard (king made Look Out Sir! roll) and right into the SSC. Wounded, D3 wounds for 3 wounds = dead SSC. Great start! Grudgethrower into the guard took down 3 or 4 more. Quarrellers nabbed a light cav horseman. The Hammerers moved forward and angled to look at covering both scorp markers (the plan being that, of they hit, they would be automatically in combat with the Hammerers - static res of 6 - 3 ranks, outnumber, warbanner (2) and kills from the boss and I could pop them both straight away). Everything else (including Thunderers) moved up tentatively. Gyro moved up to hide behind a forest just outside his deployment zone.
Josh was less than pleased with the shooting. He shuffled a bit and started his magic phase.
I hate Tomb Kings magic. I just don't feel I can manage in well enough and can never hang onto my scrolls until I really need them (this battle being a case in point). Josh's focus this turn was on reviving the SSC (cheesey TKs can resurrect their damn warmachine!) and I went all out to stop that at the cost of a scroll and all my dice. A waste of a scroll really - should've sucked down what the SSC chucked at me (possibly famous last words...) and just tapped it with the Miners when they came on (ah, wonderful hindsight). Anyway, fairly painless although I would REALLY regret burning the scroll so early. Chariots were out of range for shooting, Quarrellers took some hits, no biggie.
My turn two and some shuffling forward. Cannon nabbed a chariot and grudgethrower went long at the skellies but overshot. Organ Gun opened up on skellies and bagged 4-5 and Josh grumbled something about cheesey Dwarfs (jokes). Gyro steamed cav and skellies and got a light horse and I suddenly realised I was an idiot and REALLY shouldn't have done that (you'll see why shortly). Thunderers took out a couple of guard. Hammerers made their position next to the scorp markers and I crossed my fingers.
Josh's turn two. Both scorps came up and both SCATTERED! Nooooo! Worse - they were both able to see the Organ Gun! Nooooooo! They charged immediately and I knew I was in trouble. The giant moved up, and there was a general advance from the TKs except for the archers who turned to face the Gyro beind them. The sinking feeling really set in as the archers were magicked into the Gyro, won but outnumber, auto-broke it, and it fled off the board. Stupid stupid stupid! Josh spent the turn setting up some charges for turn 4 (that's how far ahead you need to think in this game and I am definitely not there yet!). The chariots snuck up some more and took a model from the Hammerers, reducing them by a rank. The Quarrellers were smashed by the Ravening staff after Josh rolled 5 6s to wound, leaving 2 Quarrellers who didn't panic. The Ushabti also moved up (this ended up causing something of a traffic jam in the next turn). The Organ Gun got rightly pasted, both scorps overrunning, one of them having LOS to the cannon in the next turn.
Damage control. I moved the Hammerers to get them into the fight that was about to happen and suddenly seemed so very far away. The Longbeards and Warriors (who by this time were almost halfway across the board) decided to force the hand ofthe Tomb Kings and advanced in their faces aligning to take frontal charges from the Ushabti and the Skellies if they both went in, the the BSB and Runesmith and a stack of static res I was iffy about what might happen here but keen(ish) to find out. Shooting went into the Bone Giant for all that it was worth - I needed to start taking units out of the fast developing equation in the centre and he was high on the list. I think he took a couple of wounds (i.e. not nearly enough at this point). That was that and I cried inside as I saw what was going to happen next.
Unshabti into the Longbeards (with Runesmith)... Skellies into the Warriors (led by BSB), light horse into their flank! and the Warriors fail their Fear test! NO0000! Hitting on 6s!!!! The guard and giant advanced, the scorp ate the cannon, the chariots parked in front of the grudgethrower and the writing was on the wall. In combat the Longbeards held after taking some damage and dishing out a little too, but the Warriors got smashed, fled from fear-causers and ran into the impassable terrain and died! Goodbye BSB! The only good thing to come out of this was that Josh chose not to pursue with either unit and so didn't capture the 2 banners that the unit was carrying. Unfortunately the Skellies were now in primo position to flank the Longbeards in his next turn.
Starting to scratch for options now... the Hammerers vainly moved up, too little too late. Shooting into the giant somehow managed to kill it off (which really surprised us both I think!). In combat the Longbeards held but it was all over rover. Oh, and the Miners decide to show up and come on next to the remaining crew of the SSC.
Bam! Skellies into the flank of the Longbeards, they get caned and flee but manage to escape and subsequently rally. Chariots smash the grudgethrower. Ushabti and Skellies (who both pursued and failed to catch the Longbeards) are almost in range of the Hammerers so I've at least got options to attack now. The last Quarrellers die at some point... hardly matters now. Thunderers are rear-charged by a wandering scorpion and they go down.
Getting on towards the end game now and time to give Josh a bloody nose before I have nothing left. Hammerers annilihate the Ushabti and overrun into the Skelly block - here comes the real fight.
Guard magic charge into the rear of the Hammerers and start to do their thing. I lose by a trillion but the Hammerers fight on. The chariots align to charge the depleted Longbeards next turn and the scorps look to take a shot at the Miners (who have since duffed up the remaining SSC crew so at least it can't be resurrected now!
Turn 5 is the Hammerers losing (again) and holding, the chariots charging the Longbeards, fluffing and that combat continuing
Turn 6 is the same except a scorpion manages a charge against the Miners, fluffs and pops (any win in a combat at this point has me much happier than I have any right to be).
End result is a convincing (and well-deserved) win to Josh by about 950VPs. Would have been much worse had the giant got in amongst the Hammerers as the Ushabti would have survived. Josh is a great player and I took heart in the fact that, having lost my first game by a decent margin, I would immediately be fighting people who (hopefully) were on the same gaming wavelength as myself. Josh went on to face some VERY tough opposition (including a tough lesson against Dave's Lizards where Josh lost 20-0!!!!) but that's what you get for being so good in the first place. As I discussed with someone over the weekend - lose your first couple of games and make headway in the 3rd-5th and you can actually get a decent placing (I was never looking at a podium finish anyway).
Lessons learnt against TKs? I just can't hold my scrolls back for that crucial turn, despite having been told several times to do so by very knowledgable players. Another hard lesson against Tomb Kings...
I was however quite surprised that I got 5 points out of the game and this gave me an important insight into the mechanics of tournament scoring that I was able to work into some of my future games in the weekend.
Loss 15-5
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Game vs Tomb Kings
Warhammer is such a bizarre game. I believe the phrase 'turn on a dime' would apply best to my game tonight.
I was in the red for 4 turns. Seriously - I was getting seriously spanked and was not happy about it. Suddenly, miraculously, my badass Hammerers make it into the flank of the Tomb Guard and whammo - game on baby!
I'm struck right at this moment by the realisation that the scenario that quickly played out was just as I described for my game vs Josh except this time the Dwarfs made good.
Hammerers into flank of 20 Tomb Guard with King and Champion. No TK characters on the flank. Dwarfs win by 10 (including 5 casualties) - 5 Guard left. Next turn Prince on chariot and Bone Giant magic charge flank of Hammerers. Fluff big time. In challenge with the Guard Champion Dwarf Lord overkills with 4 wounds. TK lose by 4 - Prince dead, Giant on one wound, Guard on their last legs. Next turn Lord challenges Tomb King - inflicts 4 wounds (3 shifted onto Guard unit with Collar of Shapesh). Giant pops, Guard pop, King pops. All leadership checks for 'the curse' passed with flying colours. Meanwhile, Gyrocopter NUKES the skelly bunker protecting the Heirophant and another Liche Priest. They just manage to survive.
End result - 12-8 win to me. 395VP difference.
Madness.
...
MADNESS!
...
What made the game so very interesting was that Dave managed to make it over to instruct Chris in the wise ways of the Tomb Kings (and Warhammer in general). Dave is a legend player. The legend player even. So it was almost like I was playing Dave and Chris (almost, not quite). Chris and I couldn't quite believe the end result... the significance of the turn-around just boggled (and continues to boggle!) the mind.
Learning points?
- Don't give up. This is really hard to do because I honestly felt like the game was a lost cause in turn 4. Pants dispel rolls, cannon blows up turn one, fluffed dice, pathetic shooting. Not much to write home (or blog) about. When you get into that deep blue funk of depression where nothing seems to be working (other gamers must surely know the feeling I am talking about) you just HAVE to be able to pull yourself out of it. So difficult to do but it has to be done.
- Don't sulk like a girl. Man up, take your medicine, put on a brave face, get a grip. As I heard recently (and I love this saying now), "Get in, the chilly bin". Chill out.
- You can suffer a world of hurt by being out 1/2 an inch. Case in point - thought I had blocked a charge from the Prince on chariot into the Organ Gun with Longbeards (on left) and Warriors (on right). Nopes. Dead Organ Gun.
- Practice guessing ranges and pay attention to all measuring. I'm so inconsistent with my guessing from game to game. One day I'm on fire and can't get it wrong. The next I can't guess the broad side of a barn.
- Dave Grant is awesome at Warhammer. I simultaneously to never play him and yet to play him. I'll get smashed (NO doubt about that) but I'm sure I'll learn heaps from the experience.
...
Anyway, a surreal experience. Chris is a champion and took it all in his stride. Still looking forward to next weekend :)
I was in the red for 4 turns. Seriously - I was getting seriously spanked and was not happy about it. Suddenly, miraculously, my badass Hammerers make it into the flank of the Tomb Guard and whammo - game on baby!
I'm struck right at this moment by the realisation that the scenario that quickly played out was just as I described for my game vs Josh except this time the Dwarfs made good.
Hammerers into flank of 20 Tomb Guard with King and Champion. No TK characters on the flank. Dwarfs win by 10 (including 5 casualties) - 5 Guard left. Next turn Prince on chariot and Bone Giant magic charge flank of Hammerers. Fluff big time. In challenge with the Guard Champion Dwarf Lord overkills with 4 wounds. TK lose by 4 - Prince dead, Giant on one wound, Guard on their last legs. Next turn Lord challenges Tomb King - inflicts 4 wounds (3 shifted onto Guard unit with Collar of Shapesh). Giant pops, Guard pop, King pops. All leadership checks for 'the curse' passed with flying colours. Meanwhile, Gyrocopter NUKES the skelly bunker protecting the Heirophant and another Liche Priest. They just manage to survive.
End result - 12-8 win to me. 395VP difference.
Madness.
...
MADNESS!
...
What made the game so very interesting was that Dave managed to make it over to instruct Chris in the wise ways of the Tomb Kings (and Warhammer in general). Dave is a legend player. The legend player even. So it was almost like I was playing Dave and Chris (almost, not quite). Chris and I couldn't quite believe the end result... the significance of the turn-around just boggled (and continues to boggle!) the mind.
Learning points?
- Don't give up. This is really hard to do because I honestly felt like the game was a lost cause in turn 4. Pants dispel rolls, cannon blows up turn one, fluffed dice, pathetic shooting. Not much to write home (or blog) about. When you get into that deep blue funk of depression where nothing seems to be working (other gamers must surely know the feeling I am talking about) you just HAVE to be able to pull yourself out of it. So difficult to do but it has to be done.
- Don't sulk like a girl. Man up, take your medicine, put on a brave face, get a grip. As I heard recently (and I love this saying now), "Get in, the chilly bin". Chill out.
- You can suffer a world of hurt by being out 1/2 an inch. Case in point - thought I had blocked a charge from the Prince on chariot into the Organ Gun with Longbeards (on left) and Warriors (on right). Nopes. Dead Organ Gun.
- Practice guessing ranges and pay attention to all measuring. I'm so inconsistent with my guessing from game to game. One day I'm on fire and can't get it wrong. The next I can't guess the broad side of a barn.
- Dave Grant is awesome at Warhammer. I simultaneously to never play him and yet to play him. I'll get smashed (NO doubt about that) but I'm sure I'll learn heaps from the experience.
...
Anyway, a surreal experience. Chris is a champion and took it all in his stride. Still looking forward to next weekend :)
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