A coincidental meeting with Nick on Gmail (god bless live chat) yielded a game on Sunday night (Nick having use of the car unexpectedly and determined to good on our last game - a close draw). Another chance for me to have at those dastardly Skaven; taking them on with the shining virtue and sharp lances of the Brettonian nobility is a most worthy pasttime.
I made no changes from my previous list (which is basically Dave's list without Large Target Killing blow but with Dispel Scroll) but was happy to enter the game with a much better idea of what the toys do (i.e. remembering Virtue of Discipline). Nick had made several changes including reducing the gear on the Warlord (so that he's basically a living leadership buff and not much else), removing the Warpfire Thrower, and putting in some Poison Rat Swarms. The issue he really encountered in this game was that the Warlord simply couldn't be everywhere at once to provide leadership support. This is the problem with Skaven - at the core they could have excellent leadership, but without the general they suffer enormously. The plan is to attack where the General isn't if you can't attack him directly and take him out of the equation (difficult to do when he's sitting in the back rank of his unit and that unit is covered by 2 or 3 others).
This idea somewhat came to fruition and over the course of the game I lost half the Grail Knights (Censer Bearers... ugh); the Peg hero (useless git he is too - won't be taking him when I get Ant's knights); and the Peg Knights to an irresistable Warp Lightning and failed panic check on the surviving Knight in turn 4 (curses! - after they forced a Clanrat block to flee a flank charge and had seen off the Warp Lightning Cannon - sweet revenge having some trees beat the Warlock to death thanks to Master of Wood). Nick also had one quarter and the Men-at-Arms' standard (after they charged a Clanrat block and fluffed/broke... losers). In the end, Nick had left: a clanrat block, a 1/2 strength Clanrat block, full strength Plaguemonk block, General, BSB, 1 Globadier.
Shooting from the Skaven was particularly poor and magic not much better - the Blessing of the Lady really is quite awesome when it works! Quite a different situation from the last game where magic and shooting smashed me good.
The highlight of the game was the surviving 1/2 strength Clanrat block containing the Skaven BSB and a captured standard - they rolled Insane Courage for three consecutive combat rounds. Argh! So many points just out of reach (the unit itself, the BSB, 2 banners, reclaiming the captured banner, contesting a table quarter!)!
In the end it was a win to the noble sons of pseudo-France by just over 1300VPs :-)
Magic was great in this game - one Damsel cast Howler Wind which Nick let through - stopped the Ratling Guns from killing anything (remains in play for the win! Nick forgot to dispell it in his magic phases) including by shooting into combat once I'd engaged so they were effectively neutered. The same Damsel took a wound in combat and later managed to heal herself (Gift of Life). Master of Wood on the other Damsel sucked up Skaven dispel dice as Nick managed for 4 turns to save his wood-lurking Jezzails but eventually got through 3 times - once taking out a nearby Warlock-Engineer and twice to kill off 5 Jezzails. Excellent. Magic is good when you know you've used all of your spells to good effect.
Characters - the big change I reckon (once I get hold of Ant's knights) will be taking out the Peg Paladin - probably for another small Realm block. Would also lose the Treb, Reliquae and some Skirmishing Archers for another Realm block if I had the models available. The Damsels are excellent - I can see why Marcello runs three. Magic resistance is great but they also get some useful casting off at times.
Looking forward to getting into the club on Sunday and hopefully out to the Garage Irregulars on Friday night to try the Horse-boys out on some different opponents and armies.
In terms of Nick's play - in the post-game discussion I was most adamant that the success of the army largely depended on the use of the 4 Slave blocks to divert/flee/bait/get in the damn way and set-up the best counter-charge options with massive static res Clanrat blocks. The Questor bus went into the Insane Courage Legends (Clanrat block) who held - they were subsequently flanked by a full strength Slave block (flank and 3 ranks to res) but the Slaves were beaten down by the Knights on the flank and fled. Virtue of Disclipine is GREAT! Thanks for the inspiration Antony :) Nick's BSB with Warbanner adds a lot to his combat troops - a very good choice.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Dead tangent
I've had a bunch of bits and pieces sitting in a cupboard at home and a nagging (in a positive kind of way) wife at my throat trying to have me get rid of them so on Sunday I finally got it together to drop it all into the club and our Bitz Collective - a massive collection of Fantasy/40k/some indescribable bitz. It's freakin huge. In the lead up to this offloading of miscellany I was thinking about what I might take in return.
By sheer coincidence I met Justin in the carpark before the club started and was able to look over some stuff he had been trying to sell earlier at the AWC bring-and-buy without success. These were Rackham miniature, something I have little experience with, but I was most taken with several minis and before I knew it I had the makings of a Vampire Counts army! A fortuitous rummage through the Collective yielded a stack more awesome old stuff and I am now well on my way to having some serious Dead Toy Soldiers action happening.
I picked up from Justin the following:
An Elemental of Darkness to use as a wicked counts-as Varghulf:
http://www.rackham-store.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=366&ref=FRELTN01&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=13
4 Ira Tenebrae to use as Cairn Wraiths:
http://www.rackham-store.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=420&ref=FRELTN02&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=13
An Earth Elemental to use as a Skellie block filler:
http://www.rackham-store.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=222&ref=FRELTR01&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=13
And this scary bugger to use as a Banshee or possibly a Wight King:
http://www.rackham-store.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=28&ref=FRMVSP03&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=3
Filched enough from the Collective to make 10+ Black Knights and the start of a Skellie block.
Excellent.
By sheer coincidence I met Justin in the carpark before the club started and was able to look over some stuff he had been trying to sell earlier at the AWC bring-and-buy without success. These were Rackham miniature, something I have little experience with, but I was most taken with several minis and before I knew it I had the makings of a Vampire Counts army! A fortuitous rummage through the Collective yielded a stack more awesome old stuff and I am now well on my way to having some serious Dead Toy Soldiers action happening.
I picked up from Justin the following:
An Elemental of Darkness to use as a wicked counts-as Varghulf:
http://www.rackham-store.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=366&ref=FRELTN01&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=13
4 Ira Tenebrae to use as Cairn Wraiths:
http://www.rackham-store.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=420&ref=FRELTN02&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=13
An Earth Elemental to use as a Skellie block filler:
http://www.rackham-store.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=222&ref=FRELTR01&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=13
And this scary bugger to use as a Banshee or possibly a Wight King:
http://www.rackham-store.com/boutique_us/fiche_produit.cfm?type=28&ref=FRMVSP03&code_lg=lg_us&pag=1&num=3
Filched enough from the Collective to make 10+ Black Knights and the start of a Skellie block.
Excellent.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Brettonians 1 (Scourge of the Skaven)
Nick came round for a game tonight - back to Skaven after having a muck around with Dwarfs at Fields. Nick's list is MUCH nastier now with a few important changes - this is no bad thing; I found his preious list simply too easy to overcome.
Warlord - Weeping Blade, Enchanted Shield
BSB - Warbanner
Warlock - standard kit
Warlock - standard kit
3 units of Clanrats - full command, 2 with Ratling Guns, 1 Warpfire Thrower
3 units of Slaves
Big Plaguemonk block - Banner of burning Hatred
Bunch of (7?) Plague Censer Bearers
2 Globadiers
2 Globadiers
5 Jezzails
5 Jezzails
5 Tunnellers - poisoned hand weapons
Warp Lightning Cannon
The majority of the discussion after the game focussed on the equipment carried by the Warlord. Nick is going to try Languisher Sword, Enchanted Shield and Bands of Power for a while and see how that works out.
Meanwhile I was struggling along with Dave's bizarre Brettonian list which is just so foreign to me - I might as well have been playing a different game! The one change I made (was able to make with the models I have) was swap out Virtue of Killing Blow on Large Targets for the ignore outnumbering one (Discipline) and give one of the Damsels a scroll.
So it looked like this:
Lord - Barded Steed, Virtue of Discipline, Grail Vow, Lance, Shield, Gromril Great Helm, Mantle of the Damsel
Paladin - Pegasus, Grail Vow, Enchanted Shield, Wyrmlance
Paladin - Barded Steed, Questing Vow, Insignia of the Quest, Sword of Might, Battle Standard
Damsel - Steed, Silver Mirror
Damsel - Level 2, Prayer Icon of Quennelles, Dispel Scroll
6 x Knights of the Realm - Full command
20 x Skirmishing Archers - Full command, Braziers
7 x Questing Knights - Full command, Warbanner
3 x Pegasus Knights
5 x Mounted Yeoman - Shields, Musician
Grail Relique - 6 Battle Pilgrims
6 x Grail Knights - Full command, Banner of Chalons
Trebuchet
25 x Men-at-Arms, Standard, Musician
What weirded me out was:
Minimum Relique of stubborn guys - just no idea how to use them. Charged a SLAVE block, fluffed, broke (BSB busy elsewhere - I guess this is the problem), run down.
How flippin expensive 6 Grail Knights are, especially when you are facing a Warp Lightning Cannon, 10 Jezzails and 4 Poison Globes.
20 Skirmishing Archers - seriously, wtf? I just don't get this.
Questing Knights - str5 mounted great weapons.
The army wasn't nearly as monumentally hard as I thought Brettonians to be - in fact it seemed incredibly fragile. The Blessing of the Lady was pants and just wouldn't work for me (funny, it always seems to work for my opponents when I'm the one playing against Brettonians!).
I managed to weather a couple of turns of shooting (painful turns they were too!) before getting off a raft of charges. Pegs (Censer Bearers), Grails and Mounted Yeoman and Questors (those three all into the Plaguemonks; Questors in their flank), Realms (Tunnellers), Peg hero (Globadiers), Relique into Slave block. Everything except the Relique caused immense casualties which was satisfying (something like 18 dead Plaguemonks on the charge, 4 Censer Bearers (1 self-inflicted), 2 Globes, 5 Tunnellers - panicked Slaves near to them). Realms got an overrun into a Clanrat block but in my eagerness to run down the Plaguemonks the Grails and Yeoman trapped themselves facing a forest and the reforming was painfully slow. The Questors eventually held back to get the charge against some poorly aligned Slaves, managed to restrain pursuing them, and got a vicious last turn charge into the Skaven General's Clanrat block (without the BSB being nearby). Skaven General (3 wounds) and 3 rats were blitzed and combined with static res of 3 (rank, standard, battle standard) and ignoring the Skaven outnumbering they botched the break test and were run down.
We totally up and it was a draw (179VP difference) which I suppose given my ineptitude was quite pleasing. I think I'll ask Antony if I can borrow his Brettonians - I can make Dave's work for me (they obviously work for him so it can't be a bad army - just a bad player!) but what I really want (and haven't used in Fantasy yet) is a nice big flying Terror-causing beastie. Antony has just the thing (boss on Hippo). Having had a taste of the flying charge (Pegs and Peg-mounted hero) I'd be keen to explore this area further. My one remaining Peg Knight (after the somewhat disastrous charge into the Censer Bearers which killed off two) went on to charge and run down the Warp Lightning Cannon and Warpfire Thrower - ended up overrunning into the flank of a Slave block and bit off more static res than he could chew).
Anyway, despite my initial misgivings I think I'll be sticking with the horsey-lads for a while yet. They are clearly an army to be feared and respected - if they can get the charge :)
Warlord - Weeping Blade, Enchanted Shield
BSB - Warbanner
Warlock - standard kit
Warlock - standard kit
3 units of Clanrats - full command, 2 with Ratling Guns, 1 Warpfire Thrower
3 units of Slaves
Big Plaguemonk block - Banner of burning Hatred
Bunch of (7?) Plague Censer Bearers
2 Globadiers
2 Globadiers
5 Jezzails
5 Jezzails
5 Tunnellers - poisoned hand weapons
Warp Lightning Cannon
The majority of the discussion after the game focussed on the equipment carried by the Warlord. Nick is going to try Languisher Sword, Enchanted Shield and Bands of Power for a while and see how that works out.
Meanwhile I was struggling along with Dave's bizarre Brettonian list which is just so foreign to me - I might as well have been playing a different game! The one change I made (was able to make with the models I have) was swap out Virtue of Killing Blow on Large Targets for the ignore outnumbering one (Discipline) and give one of the Damsels a scroll.
So it looked like this:
Lord - Barded Steed, Virtue of Discipline, Grail Vow, Lance, Shield, Gromril Great Helm, Mantle of the Damsel
Paladin - Pegasus, Grail Vow, Enchanted Shield, Wyrmlance
Paladin - Barded Steed, Questing Vow, Insignia of the Quest, Sword of Might, Battle Standard
Damsel - Steed, Silver Mirror
Damsel - Level 2, Prayer Icon of Quennelles, Dispel Scroll
6 x Knights of the Realm - Full command
20 x Skirmishing Archers - Full command, Braziers
7 x Questing Knights - Full command, Warbanner
3 x Pegasus Knights
5 x Mounted Yeoman - Shields, Musician
Grail Relique - 6 Battle Pilgrims
6 x Grail Knights - Full command, Banner of Chalons
Trebuchet
25 x Men-at-Arms, Standard, Musician
What weirded me out was:
Minimum Relique of stubborn guys - just no idea how to use them. Charged a SLAVE block, fluffed, broke (BSB busy elsewhere - I guess this is the problem), run down.
How flippin expensive 6 Grail Knights are, especially when you are facing a Warp Lightning Cannon, 10 Jezzails and 4 Poison Globes.
20 Skirmishing Archers - seriously, wtf? I just don't get this.
Questing Knights - str5 mounted great weapons.
The army wasn't nearly as monumentally hard as I thought Brettonians to be - in fact it seemed incredibly fragile. The Blessing of the Lady was pants and just wouldn't work for me (funny, it always seems to work for my opponents when I'm the one playing against Brettonians!).
I managed to weather a couple of turns of shooting (painful turns they were too!) before getting off a raft of charges. Pegs (Censer Bearers), Grails and Mounted Yeoman and Questors (those three all into the Plaguemonks; Questors in their flank), Realms (Tunnellers), Peg hero (Globadiers), Relique into Slave block. Everything except the Relique caused immense casualties which was satisfying (something like 18 dead Plaguemonks on the charge, 4 Censer Bearers (1 self-inflicted), 2 Globes, 5 Tunnellers - panicked Slaves near to them). Realms got an overrun into a Clanrat block but in my eagerness to run down the Plaguemonks the Grails and Yeoman trapped themselves facing a forest and the reforming was painfully slow. The Questors eventually held back to get the charge against some poorly aligned Slaves, managed to restrain pursuing them, and got a vicious last turn charge into the Skaven General's Clanrat block (without the BSB being nearby). Skaven General (3 wounds) and 3 rats were blitzed and combined with static res of 3 (rank, standard, battle standard) and ignoring the Skaven outnumbering they botched the break test and were run down.
We totally up and it was a draw (179VP difference) which I suppose given my ineptitude was quite pleasing. I think I'll ask Antony if I can borrow his Brettonians - I can make Dave's work for me (they obviously work for him so it can't be a bad army - just a bad player!) but what I really want (and haven't used in Fantasy yet) is a nice big flying Terror-causing beastie. Antony has just the thing (boss on Hippo). Having had a taste of the flying charge (Pegs and Peg-mounted hero) I'd be keen to explore this area further. My one remaining Peg Knight (after the somewhat disastrous charge into the Censer Bearers which killed off two) went on to charge and run down the Warp Lightning Cannon and Warpfire Thrower - ended up overrunning into the flank of a Slave block and bit off more static res than he could chew).
Anyway, despite my initial misgivings I think I'll be sticking with the horsey-lads for a while yet. They are clearly an army to be feared and respected - if they can get the charge :)
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Fields of Blood - Wrap-up
It was definitely good fun. It was definitely a learning experience. There is no damn way I'll simultaneously play and run the event again (never say never...) if indeed I am the one running it on 2009.
The Lizards were a blast to play - thanks enormously to Pommy Dave for allowing me to Skink-nap his army, forcing him to use TKs and Bretts! They taught me A LOT about Warhammer (more than the Dwarfs have but that's not too surprising) - the experience was very valuable. Movement and magic are just awesome. Poison is great fun. Having a -1 armour save is a hoot. Flying the Jag-Vet around the table was also amusing (at least for me). I feel like I'm playing catchup.
As I've said previously, so miffed am I about getting creamed every time I face bloody Brettonians I am now going to run with them for the next 1/2 year or so. Pommy Dave has lent me his for practice (the JiDave is strong here) and Marcelo has very kindly offered my the use of his Bretts at DogCon which I may be able to go to in January. If not there's Battlecry in Feb and OTT down in Hamiton a week later (nice to be in a position with so many tournaments on offer).
I'm dragging years worth of unused 40k stuff and the leftovers from the Dwarfs into the club on Sunday for the bitz collective so will scout through there and see if I can find the start of another army. VCs are still the rage and I haven't played "the bad guys" yet so might look into that - something that offers off-the-wall modelling opportunities sounds very attractive.
Running the event was, in the end, a real pleasure which surprised me. I had HEAPS of support from the players both before and during the event. The judges were extremely helpful with their suggestions during the comp scoring process and also advice on the rest of the tournament. Post-tourney comments have been largely positive and areas have been identified that need to be tidied up. I'm making great friends with the "big boys" of the scene and am always reading about and seeing great stuff happen both here in little ol' Shebangabang and is the mighty Oz.
I'm still absolutely totally in love with this fantastic game - got home on Sunday night quite exhausted. Got up the next morning thinking about when I can next get a game.
If I can walk away with this kind of positive and encouraging experience - well... how could I not come back for more?
The Lizards were a blast to play - thanks enormously to Pommy Dave for allowing me to Skink-nap his army, forcing him to use TKs and Bretts! They taught me A LOT about Warhammer (more than the Dwarfs have but that's not too surprising) - the experience was very valuable. Movement and magic are just awesome. Poison is great fun. Having a -1 armour save is a hoot. Flying the Jag-Vet around the table was also amusing (at least for me). I feel like I'm playing catchup.
As I've said previously, so miffed am I about getting creamed every time I face bloody Brettonians I am now going to run with them for the next 1/2 year or so. Pommy Dave has lent me his for practice (the JiDave is strong here) and Marcelo has very kindly offered my the use of his Bretts at DogCon which I may be able to go to in January. If not there's Battlecry in Feb and OTT down in Hamiton a week later (nice to be in a position with so many tournaments on offer).
I'm dragging years worth of unused 40k stuff and the leftovers from the Dwarfs into the club on Sunday for the bitz collective so will scout through there and see if I can find the start of another army. VCs are still the rage and I haven't played "the bad guys" yet so might look into that - something that offers off-the-wall modelling opportunities sounds very attractive.
Running the event was, in the end, a real pleasure which surprised me. I had HEAPS of support from the players both before and during the event. The judges were extremely helpful with their suggestions during the comp scoring process and also advice on the rest of the tournament. Post-tourney comments have been largely positive and areas have been identified that need to be tidied up. I'm making great friends with the "big boys" of the scene and am always reading about and seeing great stuff happen both here in little ol' Shebangabang and is the mighty Oz.
I'm still absolutely totally in love with this fantastic game - got home on Sunday night quite exhausted. Got up the next morning thinking about when I can next get a game.
If I can walk away with this kind of positive and encouraging experience - well... how could I not come back for more?
Fields of Blood Round Six vs Chris Townley
Ah the stunties. Near and dear to my heart they are. Having started Fantasy almost 9 months ago with the little lads I have quite the soft spot for their antics and (I thought) a reasonable shot at taking them apart. Unfortunately a series of rather annoying brain implosions stymied my chance at a big win in this game, denying me the chance of a higher placing. Returned to me my respect for Dwarfs and their ability to screw over the other guy. This was also an interesting game because, despite the fact it was open lists, I didn't manage to actually sight Chris' list which led to a rather surprising (but ultimately quite amsuing) episode part-way through the game.
Anyway, Chris had:
Lord - Shieldbearers, Rune of Cleaving, Rune of Fury, Rune of Snorri Spangelhelm, Shield, Master Rune of Spite
Thane - BSB, Master Rune of Gromril, Rune of Resistance, Rune of Might (this one was the oversight - can you guess what happened?)
Runesmith - 2 x Spellbreaking
10 Thunderers - Shield
10 Thunderers - Shields
10 Quarrellers - Shields
18 Longbeards - Courage and Determination, full command
18 Longbeards - Courage, full command
10 Warriors - full command
Boltie - str7, +1 to hit fliers, engineer
Boltie - str7, engineer
Organ Gun
4 Ironguts - Warbanner
A pretty straight-forward game and nothing much to speak of.
Misadventures:
Steg rear-charged Ironguts, auto-broke the survivor. Failed to catch but would have connected with some Longbeards if I'd lined him up better (brain implosion #1). He was solo charged by the Dwarf Lord who Chris was using as bait for the Krox. Lord fluffed and autobroke, escaped (curses!). Steg hit flank of Longbeards around the time my fully ranked Saurus (minus Slann who was wondering around aimlessly) hit their front. Steg caused HUGE casualties but the Thane on the flank turned around and SMASHED him (brain implosion #2). Ouch - Rune of Might hurts big stuff. Ran down Longbeards but losing the Steg hurt.
Mounted Scar-Vet took 4 turns to get through a unit of Quarrellers and ended up stuck in combat with a bolt thrower crew. Didn't die though.
Being on the receiving end of 10 hits from an Organ Gun really sucks. More sympathy for my opponents when I do this in the future Sallies took a pounding and fell back, panicking some Skinks who fled the table. Funnily enough a unit of Skink on the exact opposite flank also fled the board in the same turn. Wonderful symmetry but entirely unhelpful for my game.
Magic was a damp squib all way through. Burning Iron up the wazoo (Thane BSB didn't have Rune of the Furnace) - nadda. Managed to get a Pit of Shades off on some Longbeards and kill off a rank. Meh.
Got the Organ Gun down to one crewman then promptly forgot that after he's shot he has to wait a turn to reload. Meanwhile I'm hiding in the forest from the damn thing (brain implosion #3). Ugh.
In the end I beat down both Longbeard units, a Boltie, the BSB and a unit of Quarrellers and lost enough stuff to get a 14-6 win which wasn't enough to get me past 8th. Dwarfs can be difficult to get points off when you're a noob Lizardmen player with a pants magic phase and only half a brain in the 6th round.
Gosh but it would have been sweet to get a 20-0 at the last moment and edge past Kitson. That would have been FREAKIN SWEET. Oh well, maybe next time
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Fields of Blood - Round Five - Marcelo's Brettonians
Hmm... ok, this was going to be a big ask. One of the top players in Australasia. The top Brettonian player. I played Marcelo on Friday night - a pickup game for fun and excitement - and got lucky panicking his General off the table at the top of turn one. Didn't see that happening again (in fact somewhat amusingly in our rematch he deployed with the Grail Knights).
I didn't rate my chances here and sighting the table almost put the nail in the coffin before I had begun - it was practically devoid of terrain. No forests! Oi! TO! That can't be right. Oh bugger, yes it was... I was screwed.
Marcelo brought his beautifully painted (courtesy of Gav and Glenn) Brettonians. Oh man! I was up against the pros in every aspect in this game!
He took:
Lord - Virtue of Audacity, Sword of the Lady's Champion, Gromril Great Helm, Grail Vow, Lance, Shield, barded Warhorse
Paladin - BSB, Sword of Might, Virtue of Duty
Damsel - Scroll, horse
Damsel - Scroll, horse
Damsel - horse
5 Grails - full command, Warbanner
7 Realms
8 Errants - Errantry Banner
6 Errants
4 Peg Knights
5 Mounted Yeoman
5 Mounted Yeoman
23 Men-at-Arms - musician, standard
23 Men-at-Arms - musician, standard
11 Skirmishing Bowmen
10 ranked Bowmen - braziers
Here are the highlights of the my low point for the tournament:
Delaying action from the Cold One Vet blew up in my face when, after charging the Grails and General and taking no wounds he fled from their static res of 4 was cut down. This had the flow on effect of the Grails overrunning into the Skinks who were trying to redirect the Realm bus.
While that was going on my Jag-Vet's Steed of Shadows was stopped time and again. Eventually the small Errants formation charged them - I fled, needing a four to bounce through the Saurus block which would not only save the Skink and Scar-Vet but also cause they Errants to fail their charge, opening up their flank to the Steg who was waiting behind the kill next to the Skinks. Rolled a 3 to flee. Scar-Vet/Skinks run down, Errants go too far to be charged by Steg. The result of all this was the Saurus block getting charged by the Errants in the flank and the Realm bus in the front (Marcelo stopped every attempt to assassinate the BSB). Saurus block broke and was cut down. Marcelo kindly asked if I would like to concede. I decided to painfully drag the game out to it's conclusion.
Steg bravely took on a Men-at-Arms block, beat them silly but failed to catch them and had to have another go. Managed to eventually kill them off and panic off some nearby bowmen (yay the Steg - way to kill chaff). Turned around just in time to get charged by the Brett General who is tooled to kill big stuff. Steg killed off the last Grail Knight but failed to hold on stubborn 5 on the last turn of the game.
On my left a unit of Skinks, the Sallies and and some Krox were busy with the Errant block and Pegs. Dumb luck saw the Krox hold both after the Skinks were dealt to and after the first round of combat from the Pegs/Errant overrun into them. Massed fluffed attacks left the Pegs over half strength, the Errants fine and the Krox run off the table.
9 misfires saw the Salamanders eat all their Skink handlers but pass their Monster Reaction test. They char-grilled all but one of the passing Grail Knights and survived to contest a table quarter. This gave me much more satisfaction than it really should have.
In the dying moments Skink shooting killed a Knight Errant from the four remaining of the small unit. The final insult was them passing their panic test and charging and wiping out the Skinks.
4 miscasts. Did I mention that? Also failed to cast a couple of 5+ or 6+ to cast spells. Slann - master of all magic my a$$!
Around the time where I rolled by third triple one (none of those being for break or leadership tests unfortunately) I realised I'd forgotten to turn on the Ji-Dave shirt. Ah... so THAT was the problem all along! Or maybe all my luck had inadvertently been transferred temporarily into my other glasses (which Marcelo had borrowed and wore thoughout the game).
End result a crushing and humiliating 0-20 loss. Marcelo really is a great guy though.
That had done for me and I knew without a doubt I was out of the podium by a country mile. We had theorised before the game that whoever won would either be facing Tony or another Daemon army - not exactly the motivation I was looking for in order to win As it happened Marcelo did go on to face Tony in the last round, clawing an 11-9 loss which is a much better result than I was likely to get.
In a way I was fortunate to lose so badly - I was still dodging the Kitson bullet and Reid/Simon/Pete/Mark McCool et al...
Looking for a nice relaxing end to the tournament I once again drew a player I've never encountered but amusingly an army I am most familiar with...
I didn't rate my chances here and sighting the table almost put the nail in the coffin before I had begun - it was practically devoid of terrain. No forests! Oi! TO! That can't be right. Oh bugger, yes it was... I was screwed.
Marcelo brought his beautifully painted (courtesy of Gav and Glenn) Brettonians. Oh man! I was up against the pros in every aspect in this game!
He took:
Lord - Virtue of Audacity, Sword of the Lady's Champion, Gromril Great Helm, Grail Vow, Lance, Shield, barded Warhorse
Paladin - BSB, Sword of Might, Virtue of Duty
Damsel - Scroll, horse
Damsel - Scroll, horse
Damsel - horse
5 Grails - full command, Warbanner
7 Realms
8 Errants - Errantry Banner
6 Errants
4 Peg Knights
5 Mounted Yeoman
5 Mounted Yeoman
23 Men-at-Arms - musician, standard
23 Men-at-Arms - musician, standard
11 Skirmishing Bowmen
10 ranked Bowmen - braziers
Here are the highlights of the my low point for the tournament:
Delaying action from the Cold One Vet blew up in my face when, after charging the Grails and General and taking no wounds he fled from their static res of 4 was cut down. This had the flow on effect of the Grails overrunning into the Skinks who were trying to redirect the Realm bus.
While that was going on my Jag-Vet's Steed of Shadows was stopped time and again. Eventually the small Errants formation charged them - I fled, needing a four to bounce through the Saurus block which would not only save the Skink and Scar-Vet but also cause they Errants to fail their charge, opening up their flank to the Steg who was waiting behind the kill next to the Skinks. Rolled a 3 to flee. Scar-Vet/Skinks run down, Errants go too far to be charged by Steg. The result of all this was the Saurus block getting charged by the Errants in the flank and the Realm bus in the front (Marcelo stopped every attempt to assassinate the BSB). Saurus block broke and was cut down. Marcelo kindly asked if I would like to concede. I decided to painfully drag the game out to it's conclusion.
Steg bravely took on a Men-at-Arms block, beat them silly but failed to catch them and had to have another go. Managed to eventually kill them off and panic off some nearby bowmen (yay the Steg - way to kill chaff). Turned around just in time to get charged by the Brett General who is tooled to kill big stuff. Steg killed off the last Grail Knight but failed to hold on stubborn 5 on the last turn of the game.
On my left a unit of Skinks, the Sallies and and some Krox were busy with the Errant block and Pegs. Dumb luck saw the Krox hold both after the Skinks were dealt to and after the first round of combat from the Pegs/Errant overrun into them. Massed fluffed attacks left the Pegs over half strength, the Errants fine and the Krox run off the table.
9 misfires saw the Salamanders eat all their Skink handlers but pass their Monster Reaction test. They char-grilled all but one of the passing Grail Knights and survived to contest a table quarter. This gave me much more satisfaction than it really should have.
In the dying moments Skink shooting killed a Knight Errant from the four remaining of the small unit. The final insult was them passing their panic test and charging and wiping out the Skinks.
4 miscasts. Did I mention that? Also failed to cast a couple of 5+ or 6+ to cast spells. Slann - master of all magic my a$$!
Around the time where I rolled by third triple one (none of those being for break or leadership tests unfortunately) I realised I'd forgotten to turn on the Ji-Dave shirt. Ah... so THAT was the problem all along! Or maybe all my luck had inadvertently been transferred temporarily into my other glasses (which Marcelo had borrowed and wore thoughout the game).
End result a crushing and humiliating 0-20 loss. Marcelo really is a great guy though.
That had done for me and I knew without a doubt I was out of the podium by a country mile. We had theorised before the game that whoever won would either be facing Tony or another Daemon army - not exactly the motivation I was looking for in order to win As it happened Marcelo did go on to face Tony in the last round, clawing an 11-9 loss which is a much better result than I was likely to get.
In a way I was fortunate to lose so badly - I was still dodging the Kitson bullet and Reid/Simon/Pete/Mark McCool et al...
Looking for a nice relaxing end to the tournament I once again drew a player I've never encountered but amusingly an army I am most familiar with...
Monday, September 15, 2008
Fields of Blood - Round Four vs Scott Robinson
Woopah - my third Elven army and my third Dragon. How lucky is that?!
Scott and I had played quite recently at KnockOut tournament at CityGuard where I walloped this same army (a win by just over 1000VPs) with the Lizards so it was rematch time and Scott was out for vengeance. In that game his general had survived and I determined that come hell or high water, that be-yatch was going to die this time.
Scott had:
Supreme Sorceress - L4, Focus Familiar, Pendant, Black Dragon
Sorceress - L2, Tome of Furion
Master - BSB, Hydra Banner, Cold One, HA, Shield, Sea Dragon Cloak, Lance
10 RXB Warriors
10 RXB Warriors
10 RXB Warriors
7 Cold One Knights with banner of ASF and full command
7 Cold One Knights - full command
Hydra
6 Shades - additional hand weapons
Bsneaky Assassin - Touch of Death, Rune of Khaine, additonal hand weapon
Scott was wise to my character assassination (Burning Iron and Steal Soul + Banehead) techniques that in our previous game had taken out his Master so he was ultra-cagey in hiding him behind big stuff and trying to dispel Burning Iron.
The Priest rolled up Comet and Portent, the Slann rolled up Burning Iron, Creeping Death (excellent), Steed of Shadows, Steal Soul (excellent) and Unseen Lurker (out-friggin-standing). Looking at my spell selection and all the str3 shooting I would muster I figured what the hell, I'll try and shoot the Super-Sorceress to pieces if the opportunity arises. Anything that randomised onto her would wound on a 4+ and Scott would be saving on a 1 or a 2 so it was worth a go.
Game highlights were:
Black Horror eating 9 Saurus before I'd had a turn (sucks to have no dispel scrolls sometimes).20 poisoned shots, 14 Salamander hits and 14 Creeping Death hits failing to either randomise onto, wound or kill the Supreme Sorceress. Ended up with one wound left. Got her a couple of turns later (ha! yes!), Dragon failed leadership for monster reaction and was subject to Stupidity which it failed twice it turns 5 and 6 saving my bacon and a heap of points.
Steg (after failing to cast Unseen Lurker) being charged by one unit of Cold Ones to the front and the other to the flank. Steg died a horrible death. Cold Ones in the front overran just in time to hit the front of...
A unit of Krox who were hit in one flank by the Dragon and the other by the Hydra. Once the big lads had a shot the Cold Ones had minimal cleaning up to do before overrunning (again) and hitting the Cold One Scar-Vet who took them apart over the next couple of turns (-4 to their armour save being somewhat detrimental).
Salamanders vapourising the Hydra wth 5 wounds, Scott failing all his saves, and the flaming nature of the attacks (after checking the Lizard FAQ) preventing it from regenerating.
The other four Krox charging 10 RXB Warriors revealing that damned Assassin (who gave me considerable grief in the last game, dismantling the Sallies single-handedly). The Krox went up to 10, RXB Warriors (what was left anyway) auto-broke and fled, failed to rally and carried the nasty Assassin off the board. The same unit of Krox then charged, beat and failed to catch another unit of RXB Warriors for 3 turns (they rallied each turn, were recharged, did their stand-and-shoot - yes my pursuit rolls were that bad! - lost, auto-broke, fled, rallied. Rinse and repeat). The thrice-damned (literally) RXB Warriors survived the game (albeit under half strength).
The other unit of RXB Warriors were busy being a somewhat flimsy bunker for the L2 Sorceress. A Salamander volley and the ninja Skinks of doom put paid to that idea - the last RXB Warrior and accompanying Sorceress spent the rest of the game running away, unable to rally.
Scott's last chance to take out the Krox chasing RXB Warriors in his deployment zone with his Cold One Knights (BSB dead to Burning Iron - hehehe) but they are redirected by 4 Skinks. Skinks are run down but Cold One Knights miss the Krox. Last turn of the game the Slann, who has been hiding from the Hyrda in a forest Unseen Lurkers himself into the open, casts Creeping Death, kills 2 and panics them off the board.
17-3 win. Scott is left with the stupid riderless Dragon (contesting a quarter) and 4 RXB Warriors but I've taken a bit of a hiding myself losing one Krox unit and half of another, the Steg, shedloads of Skinks and 1/2 of the Saurus. All the heroes survived - the only game I managed this. A win to me by something like 1400+VPs, an improvment on my last game against him and YES - I managed to kill the flying witch.
I'm on the comeback trail now but I know the next opponent is going to be a tough one. Looked like it might be Reid, Tony, Antony or would I possibly draw...
Scott and I had played quite recently at KnockOut tournament at CityGuard where I walloped this same army (a win by just over 1000VPs) with the Lizards so it was rematch time and Scott was out for vengeance. In that game his general had survived and I determined that come hell or high water, that be-yatch was going to die this time.
Scott had:
Supreme Sorceress - L4, Focus Familiar, Pendant, Black Dragon
Sorceress - L2, Tome of Furion
Master - BSB, Hydra Banner, Cold One, HA, Shield, Sea Dragon Cloak, Lance
10 RXB Warriors
10 RXB Warriors
10 RXB Warriors
7 Cold One Knights with banner of ASF and full command
7 Cold One Knights - full command
Hydra
6 Shades - additional hand weapons
Bsneaky Assassin - Touch of Death, Rune of Khaine, additonal hand weapon
Scott was wise to my character assassination (Burning Iron and Steal Soul + Banehead) techniques that in our previous game had taken out his Master so he was ultra-cagey in hiding him behind big stuff and trying to dispel Burning Iron.
The Priest rolled up Comet and Portent, the Slann rolled up Burning Iron, Creeping Death (excellent), Steed of Shadows, Steal Soul (excellent) and Unseen Lurker (out-friggin-standing). Looking at my spell selection and all the str3 shooting I would muster I figured what the hell, I'll try and shoot the Super-Sorceress to pieces if the opportunity arises. Anything that randomised onto her would wound on a 4+ and Scott would be saving on a 1 or a 2 so it was worth a go.
Game highlights were:
Black Horror eating 9 Saurus before I'd had a turn (sucks to have no dispel scrolls sometimes).20 poisoned shots, 14 Salamander hits and 14 Creeping Death hits failing to either randomise onto, wound or kill the Supreme Sorceress. Ended up with one wound left. Got her a couple of turns later (ha! yes!), Dragon failed leadership for monster reaction and was subject to Stupidity which it failed twice it turns 5 and 6 saving my bacon and a heap of points.
Steg (after failing to cast Unseen Lurker) being charged by one unit of Cold Ones to the front and the other to the flank. Steg died a horrible death. Cold Ones in the front overran just in time to hit the front of...
A unit of Krox who were hit in one flank by the Dragon and the other by the Hydra. Once the big lads had a shot the Cold Ones had minimal cleaning up to do before overrunning (again) and hitting the Cold One Scar-Vet who took them apart over the next couple of turns (-4 to their armour save being somewhat detrimental).
Salamanders vapourising the Hydra wth 5 wounds, Scott failing all his saves, and the flaming nature of the attacks (after checking the Lizard FAQ) preventing it from regenerating.
The other four Krox charging 10 RXB Warriors revealing that damned Assassin (who gave me considerable grief in the last game, dismantling the Sallies single-handedly). The Krox went up to 10, RXB Warriors (what was left anyway) auto-broke and fled, failed to rally and carried the nasty Assassin off the board. The same unit of Krox then charged, beat and failed to catch another unit of RXB Warriors for 3 turns (they rallied each turn, were recharged, did their stand-and-shoot - yes my pursuit rolls were that bad! - lost, auto-broke, fled, rallied. Rinse and repeat). The thrice-damned (literally) RXB Warriors survived the game (albeit under half strength).
The other unit of RXB Warriors were busy being a somewhat flimsy bunker for the L2 Sorceress. A Salamander volley and the ninja Skinks of doom put paid to that idea - the last RXB Warrior and accompanying Sorceress spent the rest of the game running away, unable to rally.
Scott's last chance to take out the Krox chasing RXB Warriors in his deployment zone with his Cold One Knights (BSB dead to Burning Iron - hehehe) but they are redirected by 4 Skinks. Skinks are run down but Cold One Knights miss the Krox. Last turn of the game the Slann, who has been hiding from the Hyrda in a forest Unseen Lurkers himself into the open, casts Creeping Death, kills 2 and panics them off the board.
17-3 win. Scott is left with the stupid riderless Dragon (contesting a quarter) and 4 RXB Warriors but I've taken a bit of a hiding myself losing one Krox unit and half of another, the Steg, shedloads of Skinks and 1/2 of the Saurus. All the heroes survived - the only game I managed this. A win to me by something like 1400+VPs, an improvment on my last game against him and YES - I managed to kill the flying witch.
I'm on the comeback trail now but I know the next opponent is going to be a tough one. Looked like it might be Reid, Tony, Antony or would I possibly draw...
Fields of Blood - Round Three vs Nick Buckby
A previous GT winner, Masters player, Wood Elf Expert Extraordinaire (or "WEEE" for short), Nick is a great guy and I have been on the hunt to play him for a while but every time he turns up to the club I have something else arranged and it has never quite worked out.
Nick had his fantastic Wood Elves (the only Wood Elves I've seen that have teeny-weeny tiny flowers on the bases):
Spellweaver - L4, Ranu's Heartstone, Moonstone of the Hidden Ways, Scroll
Spellsinger - L2, Calaingor's Stave, Scroll
Noble - BSB, Hail of Doom Arrow, Asyendil's Bane
8 Dryads8 Dryads
8 Dryads
10 Gladeguard - Musician
10 Gladeguard - Musician
4 Treekin
7 Wardancers - Musician
5 Wildriders - full command, Warbanner
5 Wildriders - Musician
Treeman
Great Eagle
A nice army - nothing obnoxious and certainly none of the usual things that make one roll eyes at Wood Elves (ok, he had HoDA and Moonstone - those were the only tricks). I have the absolute minimum of experience playing Wood Elves - I think I played Nick Irvine once with my Dwarfs and got my beard handed to me. However, having my brain switch off in the previous round it now switched back on to remember some of the things I've read about. Things like flammable and Immune to Psychology (and hence unable to flee) sprang nimbly to mind.
My memory is fading so here are the interesting details of this highly entertaining game:
Jag-Vet strolls up looking for a Steed of Shadows from the Slann to get into the action quickish on turn 2. Fails to cast. Gets shot by Gladeguard block on hill. Survives. Normal charge next turn into Wildriders (without banner). Kills champ. Holds. Next turn kills 2 more, breaks them and runs them down and goes off the board. Survives the game.
Shooting and HoDA killing Saurus by the dozen. Surviving Saurus charged by Treeman and Eagle. Smashed in combat - both overrun into Salamanders behind. By this time the Tree has one wound left from flamey shooty death and magic. Fluffs attacks against Sallies. Sallies eat Treeman. Sallies eat Eagle.
Slann, who has abandoned Saurus block is sitting by himself. Charged by 2 surviving Dryads. Dryads fluff. Slann wins by outnumber and battle standard. Dryads break. Fail to rally over the next two turns and flee the board. Slann then charged by 3 Wildriders in the flank. Wildriders fluff. Slann turns around and drop the elbow on one - killing him. Wildriders pass but are then rear-charged by Krox. Much Wildrider death and Slann takes Warbanner.
Big fat Steg charges Gladeguard who flee and escape. Slann then uses Unseen Lurker (spell of the game if ever there was one) to charge Steg again into fleeing Gladeguard running them off the board. Next turn Steg does an about face, shoots some more Gladeguard. Next turn charges and breaks them but fails to catch and only pursues 3 inches.
Nick's magic phase a miscast allows me a free spell. Oooh, get in there with Unseen Lurker! Steg into Wardancers who are providing a bunker for the L4, the L2 AND the BSB. 4+ ward girly dance fails to save 6 Wardancers who break, taking the characters with them and flee off the board.
Nick had the Treekin (hardly touched them) and 1/2 a Dryad unit left. I had 3 quarters and one contested by the Treekin, general, couple of banners. Still, came out to a 19-1 win... Treekin are costly buggers - should have tried harder to take them down I guess but instead tried to get rid of annoying Dryads.
Pretty brutal game for the Woodies - the first where magic seriously had a big part to play, the Salamanders had proved their worth and the Steg+Krox+Unseen Lurker were absolutely devastating.
39/60 battle points for day one. Couldn't help wonder about the difference Round Two might have made but it really worked out for the best playing Nick who is a great guy with a neat army (one that I don't get to play often enough). The win also helped :)
I entered the results and completed the draw for Sunday and to my delight I drew Scott's Dark Elves. Yay! My third Dragon in four games!
Nick had his fantastic Wood Elves (the only Wood Elves I've seen that have teeny-weeny tiny flowers on the bases):
Spellweaver - L4, Ranu's Heartstone, Moonstone of the Hidden Ways, Scroll
Spellsinger - L2, Calaingor's Stave, Scroll
Noble - BSB, Hail of Doom Arrow, Asyendil's Bane
8 Dryads8 Dryads
8 Dryads
10 Gladeguard - Musician
10 Gladeguard - Musician
4 Treekin
7 Wardancers - Musician
5 Wildriders - full command, Warbanner
5 Wildriders - Musician
Treeman
Great Eagle
A nice army - nothing obnoxious and certainly none of the usual things that make one roll eyes at Wood Elves (ok, he had HoDA and Moonstone - those were the only tricks). I have the absolute minimum of experience playing Wood Elves - I think I played Nick Irvine once with my Dwarfs and got my beard handed to me. However, having my brain switch off in the previous round it now switched back on to remember some of the things I've read about. Things like flammable and Immune to Psychology (and hence unable to flee) sprang nimbly to mind.
My memory is fading so here are the interesting details of this highly entertaining game:
Jag-Vet strolls up looking for a Steed of Shadows from the Slann to get into the action quickish on turn 2. Fails to cast. Gets shot by Gladeguard block on hill. Survives. Normal charge next turn into Wildriders (without banner). Kills champ. Holds. Next turn kills 2 more, breaks them and runs them down and goes off the board. Survives the game.
Shooting and HoDA killing Saurus by the dozen. Surviving Saurus charged by Treeman and Eagle. Smashed in combat - both overrun into Salamanders behind. By this time the Tree has one wound left from flamey shooty death and magic. Fluffs attacks against Sallies. Sallies eat Treeman. Sallies eat Eagle.
Slann, who has abandoned Saurus block is sitting by himself. Charged by 2 surviving Dryads. Dryads fluff. Slann wins by outnumber and battle standard. Dryads break. Fail to rally over the next two turns and flee the board. Slann then charged by 3 Wildriders in the flank. Wildriders fluff. Slann turns around and drop the elbow on one - killing him. Wildriders pass but are then rear-charged by Krox. Much Wildrider death and Slann takes Warbanner.
Big fat Steg charges Gladeguard who flee and escape. Slann then uses Unseen Lurker (spell of the game if ever there was one) to charge Steg again into fleeing Gladeguard running them off the board. Next turn Steg does an about face, shoots some more Gladeguard. Next turn charges and breaks them but fails to catch and only pursues 3 inches.
Nick's magic phase a miscast allows me a free spell. Oooh, get in there with Unseen Lurker! Steg into Wardancers who are providing a bunker for the L4, the L2 AND the BSB. 4+ ward girly dance fails to save 6 Wardancers who break, taking the characters with them and flee off the board.
Nick had the Treekin (hardly touched them) and 1/2 a Dryad unit left. I had 3 quarters and one contested by the Treekin, general, couple of banners. Still, came out to a 19-1 win... Treekin are costly buggers - should have tried harder to take them down I guess but instead tried to get rid of annoying Dryads.
Pretty brutal game for the Woodies - the first where magic seriously had a big part to play, the Salamanders had proved their worth and the Steg+Krox+Unseen Lurker were absolutely devastating.
39/60 battle points for day one. Couldn't help wonder about the difference Round Two might have made but it really worked out for the best playing Nick who is a great guy with a neat army (one that I don't get to play often enough). The win also helped :)
I entered the results and completed the draw for Sunday and to my delight I drew Scott's Dark Elves. Yay! My third Dragon in four games!
Fields of Blood - Round Two vs John Matthews
The problem with winning in Round One is that you immediately go on to face all the other hardasses who mashed their first opponents. I had horrible visions of facing Tony or Kitson in round two (both of whom have crushed me before) but managed to bullet-dodge both (as I did all tournament) and ended up drawing John Matthews. I had not met John previous to this. He is ex-GW in a VERY high up sort of way (previously overseeing the management of 26 stores; casually name dropped throughout the game and in a previous phone conversation we had about his army "When I had lunch with Gav [Thorpe] 3 months ago" and "When I played Rick Priestly" and so on) which impressed me greatly. He clearly had years and years of experience under his belt so I immediately felt I was on the back foot playing against someone who is almost a professional (John now works for Battlefront) - certainly he knows the game better than I do!
John's army was one of the ones that as TO I had requested he resubmit but due to some time issues and a points miscalculation with his version 2 list I wasn't able to get it rescored in time for the event so he just went with the first list.
From his 12,000+ points of Vampire Counts army he chose to take the following:
Vampire Lord - goddam kitchen worth of appliances (Dread Lance, Red Fury, Zombie Dragon, Dark Acolyte, Summon Ghouls, Night Shroud)
Vampire - Nightmare, Summon Ghouls, Dark Acolyte, Balefire Spike, Cadaverous Cuirass, Dispel Scroll
Vampire - Nightmare, Arkhan, Sword of Might, Dark Acolyte
12 Ghouls - Ghast
12 Ghouls - Ghast
10 Ghouls - Ghast
10 Ghouls - Ghast
Corpsecart - Balefire
5 Blood Knights - hatred banner
5 Blood Knights
It did not take a professional player to figure out that his characters and Knights were worth the majority of the points in his army.
I won't go into the details of this game because we had an unfortunate incident in the third turn that really changed the game. Basically John got the Lord into the flank of the Saurus block with Slann BSB. I challenged with the Cold One Scar-Vet and he saved EVERYTHING that the dragon and auto-hitting str7 Vampire general could throw at him. John lost the combat by 5 after I charged some Skinks into his rear and then the game-changing error was made. John declared 1 of the 5 wounds he was taking from combat resolution was going on the general and 4 wounds were going on the dragon.
Now, straight away this didn't seem right to me. I don't know - it was a gut reaction I guess but it just felt dodgy. I asked him if he was able to split wounds between the mount and the rider and he assured me it was legit. I'm not a Vampire player, I don't know the army but I sure as hell expect my opponent to know their rules so I took his word and we moved on. The Dragon took 4 wounds (1 wound remaining) and the general took 1 wound.
Next turn the Blood Knights charged some Krox who were JUST in front of the Zombie Dragon - fleeing would mean autokilled running through the Dragon (this is what I should have done). Instead they stupidly took the charge, got minced, Blood Knights overran into the Skinks, smashed them, Scar-Vet Cold One dude took a wound and I was suddenly testing at minus heaps. I held but eventually died/was run down. The Slann ended up in combat with the general and the DRAGON killed the Slann. Unit auto-broke and was cut down. DRAGON moved around and charged the Steg in the flank. The DRAGON's wounds were restored over the course of the rest of the game and the rest of my army was completely destroyed. Game.
Here's the problem: AFTER the game we read the rule and discovered that ALL combat res wounds go on the mount first. The Dragon should have died. Had the Dragon died the Krox would have fled (I wouldn't have given it a second thought). The Vampire general would have died from combat res in the next round (in a challenge and facting static res of 8 even 4 wounds against the SCar-Vet wouldn't have saved him). Then all the Ghouls are testing every turn. The Dragon dead means the Slann would have survived. The Steg would have survived. I dare say I would have come away with a pretty awesome win.
Instead I lost 20-0 which after discovering the rule oversight John changed to 19-1.
Hmm...I was pretty gutted about that. Well, if nothing else, lesson learnt. Make them show you the rule next time. Don't assume they know their army. John was pretty upset too (no one like making those kinds of errors) - he's been playing so long that the various army book editions have begun to merge together and admittedly that rule is one of the subtle changes from the previous VC book and I guess easy to overlook.
I'd like to emphasise that the reason behind highlighting this error (and going on and on about it) isn't to demean John as a player - he's a bloody great guy who played a good tight game with a fast, hard list. The incident is highlighted for my sake; to reference the things I need to get right in future games and the lesson(s) I need to learn. Players make mistakes and it's not a lack of trust but rather a complacency on my part that I need to take another look at.
Anyway it worked out well because my next game was against someone I've always wanted to play... (and John took two bullets on my behalf - Antony's Dark Elves and Reid's Daemons)
John's army was one of the ones that as TO I had requested he resubmit but due to some time issues and a points miscalculation with his version 2 list I wasn't able to get it rescored in time for the event so he just went with the first list.
From his 12,000+ points of Vampire Counts army he chose to take the following:
Vampire Lord - goddam kitchen worth of appliances (Dread Lance, Red Fury, Zombie Dragon, Dark Acolyte, Summon Ghouls, Night Shroud)
Vampire - Nightmare, Summon Ghouls, Dark Acolyte, Balefire Spike, Cadaverous Cuirass, Dispel Scroll
Vampire - Nightmare, Arkhan, Sword of Might, Dark Acolyte
12 Ghouls - Ghast
12 Ghouls - Ghast
10 Ghouls - Ghast
10 Ghouls - Ghast
Corpsecart - Balefire
5 Blood Knights - hatred banner
5 Blood Knights
It did not take a professional player to figure out that his characters and Knights were worth the majority of the points in his army.
I won't go into the details of this game because we had an unfortunate incident in the third turn that really changed the game. Basically John got the Lord into the flank of the Saurus block with Slann BSB. I challenged with the Cold One Scar-Vet and he saved EVERYTHING that the dragon and auto-hitting str7 Vampire general could throw at him. John lost the combat by 5 after I charged some Skinks into his rear and then the game-changing error was made. John declared 1 of the 5 wounds he was taking from combat resolution was going on the general and 4 wounds were going on the dragon.
Now, straight away this didn't seem right to me. I don't know - it was a gut reaction I guess but it just felt dodgy. I asked him if he was able to split wounds between the mount and the rider and he assured me it was legit. I'm not a Vampire player, I don't know the army but I sure as hell expect my opponent to know their rules so I took his word and we moved on. The Dragon took 4 wounds (1 wound remaining) and the general took 1 wound.
Next turn the Blood Knights charged some Krox who were JUST in front of the Zombie Dragon - fleeing would mean autokilled running through the Dragon (this is what I should have done). Instead they stupidly took the charge, got minced, Blood Knights overran into the Skinks, smashed them, Scar-Vet Cold One dude took a wound and I was suddenly testing at minus heaps. I held but eventually died/was run down. The Slann ended up in combat with the general and the DRAGON killed the Slann. Unit auto-broke and was cut down. DRAGON moved around and charged the Steg in the flank. The DRAGON's wounds were restored over the course of the rest of the game and the rest of my army was completely destroyed. Game.
Here's the problem: AFTER the game we read the rule and discovered that ALL combat res wounds go on the mount first. The Dragon should have died. Had the Dragon died the Krox would have fled (I wouldn't have given it a second thought). The Vampire general would have died from combat res in the next round (in a challenge and facting static res of 8 even 4 wounds against the SCar-Vet wouldn't have saved him). Then all the Ghouls are testing every turn. The Dragon dead means the Slann would have survived. The Steg would have survived. I dare say I would have come away with a pretty awesome win.
Instead I lost 20-0 which after discovering the rule oversight John changed to 19-1.
Hmm...I was pretty gutted about that. Well, if nothing else, lesson learnt. Make them show you the rule next time. Don't assume they know their army. John was pretty upset too (no one like making those kinds of errors) - he's been playing so long that the various army book editions have begun to merge together and admittedly that rule is one of the subtle changes from the previous VC book and I guess easy to overlook.
I'd like to emphasise that the reason behind highlighting this error (and going on and on about it) isn't to demean John as a player - he's a bloody great guy who played a good tight game with a fast, hard list. The incident is highlighted for my sake; to reference the things I need to get right in future games and the lesson(s) I need to learn. Players make mistakes and it's not a lack of trust but rather a complacency on my part that I need to take another look at.
Anyway it worked out well because my next game was against someone I've always wanted to play... (and John took two bullets on my behalf - Antony's Dark Elves and Reid's Daemons)
Fields of Blood - Round One vs Phil Comins (High Elves)
The great thing about being the TO is none of my opponent's lists are from memory. Behold! Phil had:
Elf Prince - Sword of Might, Armour of Caledor, Vambraces of Defence, Crutch (Star Dragon)
Mage - L2, Seerstaff of Saphery, Scroll
Mage - L2, Silver Wand, Ring of Fury
15 Spearmen - muso, standard, Warbanner
10 Archers
10 Archers
6 Dragon Princes - full command, Banner of Sorcery
5 Swordmasters
5 Swordmasters
Tiranoc Chariot
Tiranoc Chariot
Repeater Bolt Thrower
Repeater Bolt Thrower
It's a visually stunning army - a real treat to see on the battlefield.
Having played High Elves only twice previously (once with Dwarfs and somewhat fortuitously the weekend before with Lizards ) I figured I might be up against it. Wasn't hard to seperate the chaff from the dangerous stuff.
The table had a forest in the middle on my left, a small forest in the middle (just enough room for the scouting Skinks), a big impassable piece on my right towards the centre, big hill to me left in my zone, little hill on Phil's leftin his zone and a hedgerow in the centre of his zone. I placed the Saurus block in the centre with the Frog, surrounded him with Skinks, and towards the left placed the Steg, both Krox units and a trail of Skinks. The Sallies snuck in a gap right in the middle ready to scurry ASAP into the central forest. The scouts went into said forest as previously mentioned.Phil's Dragon Princes went on my far right (hidden behind the large forest and clearly aiming to sweep into my flank in turn 2), they were joined by 5 Swordmasters (I know enough about these guys to really respect what a mere 5 models could do to me), two chariots and the eagle (just in front of both), archers in the centre with a mage, boltie and the spear block with the other mage, more archers and then on the little hill to Phil's left the last boltie and the other 5 Swordmasters next to them on his extreme right. The Dragon (which I almost forgot to mention!) was right in the centre.
The Priest rolled Portent and Forked Lightning. The Slann rolled Doom and Darkness (and there was much rejoicing), Dark Hand, Wind of Death, Drain Life and Steed. Phil went for Beasts with the Seerstaff mage taking Beast Cowers (to stop the Steg) and Wolf Hunts (to move his Dragon - erk!). The other chap took something that ended up being of little consequence.I won the roll for first turn and took it.
LUCKY DAVE - TURN 1
Much shuffling around from all and sundry except the Sallies who legged it into the forest and and scouting Skinks who flew out into Jav range of the Archers with Mage buddy. Magic Steed of Shadowed the Jag into the Great Eagle (praying for one turn kill and overrun into a chariot - wishful thinking I know but at least it pinned the flying turkey in place - I hate Great Eagles). Magic missiles nabbed a few Archers (no panic) and Skink shooting got a few more (no panic - curses). The Priest stored two dice in the Diadem in preparation for the HE magic phase. In combat the Eagle took a wound.
PHILFY TURN 1
Phil moved the Princes up, turned the Swordmasters on his right towards the Jag-Vet, scooted the chariots around the Eagle/Jag combat (which was a draw - wound on the eagle, eagle outnumbers). The Dragon leapt towards the Krox and Skinks on my left. The Spear block charged the scouting Skinks and much to Phil's surprise they decided to hold. Shooting went into the Slann (no wounds) as the Steg was hiding behind the central forest and the remaining Archers with Mage shot at some Skinks killing one. In the magic phase Phil tried to Wolf Hunts the Dragon into some Skinks but failed to cast and there was no other magic of great effect. In combat the Skinks were smashed, fled and were run down, taking a couple of Spearmen with them. The overrun took the Spears up to the Salamanders but unfortunately for Phil not quite into them. The Lizard vs Budgie fight continued.
LUCKY DAVE TURN 2
Passing all my Terror checks with flying colours I struggled with what I could do to stop the damned Star Dragon. Not only that but the Dragon Princes and chariots were going to join the fun next turn too. Pain time. Hopelessly optimistic I moved 2 units of Skinks towards the Dragon to poison it to death (I know I know... statistical improbability yadda yadda yadda) but in doing so the Skinks also go right in the way of a chariot and the Dragon Princes for some sacrificial action. the Steg and block manouevered to bring the Dragon to their front. The Salamanders licked their chops and got ready to fry the Spears and a unit of Skinks leapt to the flank of the Spear block to throw some poisoned nastiness their way too. In the magic phase the Slann Doom and Darknessed the Spears (excellent). All the shooting at the Dragon did jack squat but the Salamanders char-grilled a bunch of Spearmen who decided they couldn't care less. In another show of hopeless optimism the Steg missed the Dragon completely with it's bow. The Jag-vet killed the Eagle and stood there stupidly as the Swordmasters prepared to charge him.
PHILFY TURN 2
The Dragon, clearly shaken by the ineptitude of the Steg crew charged into the front of the Steg. One of the chariots charged some Skinks (fled) and redirected into some Krox and the Dragon Princes charged the other Skinks (who took the charge - again much to Phil's surprise). The Swordmasters on Phil's right Charged the now unengaged Jag-Vet who fled but stopped in front of the Elf mage (it turns out shortly this was a VERY bad place to stop). The remaining Spearmen tried to charged the Salamanders but after failing to shake Doom and Darkness they then fluffed their Fear check, obviously preferring to take a charge or get shot by them again in the next turn. Shooting once again went into the Slann (no wounds) and magic was stopped dead. In combat the Princes annihilated the Skinks and overran into the unengaged Krox. The chariot got bashed by the Krox who suddenly had a next turn option of charging the other chariot which Phil had lined up to try and Wolf Hunts into the same combat in his magic phase. In the combat that really mattered the Elf General and Dragon fluffed BIG TIME against the Steg who took a measly two wounds and laughed hard as he passed a break check on 7s with the Slann's leadership and BSB reroll. With the Saurus block on the Dragon's flank it was going to get VERY nasty VERY shortly.
LUCKY DAVE TURN 3
This was it - either everything worked brilliantly this turn or it was all over bar the stabbing. The Sallies and Skinks went into the Spear block who held. The Saurus block passed their Fear check to charge the Dragon (not Terror - sorry, forgot to mention the Cold One was in here too - very useful for mitigating Terror/Fear) and went into it's flank. The Jag-Vet rallied just in time to get run down by the remaining Tiranoc chariot who fled the charge of the Kroxigor. Before the chariot could clean bits of Lizard from it's wheels they also ran over the remaining archers who all died a messy death. The chariot then hit the hedge (missing the Mage by less than an inch) and exploded from the self-inflicted impact hits that Phil rather impressively managed to roll up (having rolled 1 against the Krox he now rolled 5 to kill his own chariot). In the magic phase Phil stopped Doom and Darkness on the Elf General (curses!) and there was no other magic of interest. In combat the Sallies and Skinks beat the crap out of the Spears, breaking them but virtue of outnumber with Fear-causers (the Salamanders). The Skinks chased them down and netted the Warbanner they were ineffectually waving around. the Sallies pursued about 3 inches which was quite frankly not great. The Dragon Princes hitting the Krox from the overrun in the previous turn managed to dispatch one but they struck back ferociously and slew 2 of the brave Elves. The Krox lost but held. In the decisive combat Phil quickly called a challenge. "Mr -1 save Cold One Scar-Vet" was happy to oblige. The Scar-vet missed with eveything but Phil practically did too (again!) and the Vet saved what wounds were dished out (3+ save vs str7 being FRIGGIN AWESOME!!!!) or might have taken one, not quite sure. Testing at something huge (hang on - flank, 3 ranks, banner, BSB, outnumber... must have been 6 and he must have wounded the Scar-Vet) the Prince failed. He fled just to precisely where the now rallied Skinks (who had earlier fled the charge of the Chariot) had rallied and just like that.
Bam. Splat. No more Dragon.Wow. Nice. We both sat there looking a little stunned. Madness.
PHILFY TURN 3
Phil was understandably a little miffed at the sudden turn of events. I mean, you just can't plan for the loss of something like the Dragon from not one but TWO consecutive rounds of absolutely appalling dice rolls. Nevertheless he set about avenging the death of the general with the resources he had remaining. The surviving Mage (one was run down with the Spear block) joined the 5 Swordmasters on Phil's right and the other 5 Swordmasters (on his left) moved around to get at the Salamanders. The Archers also wheeled to have a crack at the Sallies next turn. The Mage Beast Cowered the Salamanders so they couldn't move (or shoot! Argh!). All the shooting he could must went into the Salamanders too but they shrugged most of it off. In combat the unfortunate Dragon Princes struck out agains the Krox (being pretty crap when they aren't charging), the survivor of the Krox's return attacks auto-broke from the Fear-causing badasses and was run down, the Krox capturing the accursed Banner of Sorcery and getting themselves a bit closer to the Swordmasters and their new Mage mate.
LUCKY DAVE TURN 4
The Skinks with the captured Warbanner charged a bolt thrower and the Krox with the Banner of Sorcery charged but failed abysmally to reach the Swordmasters. The Krox in the middle got the hell away from the other bolt thrower, hiding behind the forest in the centre of the board. The Steg moved around to charge the other Swordmasters next turn and the Saurus reformed and took a coffee break. The Slann then went to work on the Swordmasters on my left with magic missiles, leaving none alive. In combat the Skinks drew against the bolt thrower crew and the Salamanders whimpered about the imminent charge of the other Swordmaster unit.
PHILFY TURN 4
The Swordmasters passed their Fear check to charge the Sallies but the clever Lizards fled the charge. Shooting however once again went into the much hated (and already fleeing) Salamanders, picking off a couple more) and the weakened Krox unit, taking them to half strength. The damned Mage Beast Cowered the Steg (noooo!). The Skink in combat with the bolt thrower crew beat their opponents and ran them down.
LUCKY DAVE TURN 5
The Salamanders rallied within range of the Slann. The Krox charged the Mage who took the charge (would have fled off the board regardless) and also repeatedly took a Great Weapon to the head. The Krox overran off the board to safety. In the magicfest phase the Slann vapourised the remaining Swordmaster unit and started on the Archers.
PHILFY TURN 5
With 4 Archers and a bolt thrower remaining Phil called the game.
With all of Phil's army except a boltie and some Archers, 4 quarters, the Elf general and 2 standards I ended up with something in the vicinity on 2850VPs.
Phil had taken care of:
1/2 unit of Krox (116)
Scouting Skinks (70)
1 unit of standard Skinks (60)
The Jag-Vet thanks to that Chariot - call it a fair trade (113)
1/2 the Cold One Vet - 1/2 wounds (83)
Result?A 20-0 win to Lucky Dave and the end of the ADC and Dave-had Scalp Hunt before it had even really begun.
Phil went on to win Best Sports and Best Presentation, both of which I feel he fully deserved. He had a hell of a tournament (as his battle reports will attest) with another rough game in the next round. His dice in this game were absolutely bloody awful. I don't think the Dragon was used paticularly well - not sure why he didn't go for the Krox with that charge as they were an option - but with the Slann/BSB near most of the army who can say if it would have been any easier. If he'd gone into the Krox and they had held he would have taken the Steg in the flank in the next round anyway. In the end, being in a position to get charged by the only unit I had that had any static res, worse - in the flank, was really most unfortunate. It as the only way I could take the Dragon out barring requiring ridiculous luck (which admittedly I had a lot of anyway vis a vis the Dragon not killing the Steg - it probably should have).
Hey - I'm not called Lucky Dave for nothing.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Fields of Blood report - Introductory Comments
After the catastrophe that was Call to Arms (by all accounts a FANTASTIC tournament, would that Pacific Blue had allowed me to get there... yes, still very bitter) I was absolutely convinced that I had to play at Fields of Blood. The issue unfortunately was that I was also the one running the event so major preparation and organisation would be key. Luckily almost everything went off without a hitch. I learnt a bunch about being a TO (primarily don't play in a big tournament when you are also the TO - hmm...) and felt thoroughly supported by the players and wider community the whole way through the process. I got to talk (via email) to some of the giants of the community and was never in any doubt that the players were on my side and had the best interests of the tournament in mind. I would definitely put my hand up to run the event again so maybe someone will let me TO Fields in 2009. Guess we'll deal with that next year.
So...
I started Warhammer (about 8 months ago) playing Dwarfs. The primary reason for this is that, with four 40k armies, my darling wife (understanding as she is) couldn't see any good reason for me to start another army in a different system. Could I not just use my Space Marines? Or the Eldar? Ah the dear, sweet, ignorant woman. How I love her. Careful and considered explanation and phrasing convinced her to let me collect the cheapest possible force I could (some of you know the deal - mortgage, 2 kids, alcohol... priority spending etc) and because a mate was offloading his Skull Pass stuff (as you do) I offered to take it of his hands, along with a Dwarf Army book, for a bargain basement price. Bingo - the start of a Dwarf army. I few more purchases and I had something to start playing Fantasy. It wasn't/isn't an entirely optimised force but it helped me find my feet. I took it to Tin Soldiers (report on that elsewhere on this blog) and did ok; placed 10th. In playing a fair few games however I realised I was really missing out on two of the most important (and exciting) aspects of the game. It won't surprise you to know these were: movement and magic.
I needed something fast. And I needed something zappy.
Enter Pommy Dave's Lizards.
I'd watched Dave play a fair few games with the Lizzies and had been on the receiving end of the army a couple of times - enough to know they were pretty damn cool. And they had what I wanted - good leadership, fantastic movement, magic, variety. What the Dwarves lacked, the Lizards had in spades - and just like that, I was hooked. Dave offered me their use for CtA and after that fell through generously carried the offer on to Fields of Blood so Lizards it was. I had a stack of practice games to help me find my way around the list, sought opinions on builds, designed something that looked very middle of the road and I was on my way.
The list I took to Fields was thusly:
4th gen Slann - 2+ ward vs shooting/magic missiles, extra spell, BSB, Banehead
Scar-Vet - GW, Jag Charm, you know the drill
Scar-Vet - the "Pommy Dave Special", Cold One, LA, Burning Blade, Questzl, Enchanted Shield for a -1 armour save
Priest - L2 with Diadem
16 Saurus w/full command10 Skinks
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
10 Skinks - Scouts (all Skinks have Javelins)
3 Salamanders
Big fat Steg
4 Krox
4 Krox
Not real subtle but suited me and my noobness just fine.
The list scored 15/30 for Army Selection (comp). Bang on half way and just under the tournament average of 17.5/30. Interesting to see it got just a little more than some of the Daemon armies at the event but that (and the comp of other armies - including those that got the same as some of the Daemon armies) is discussion for another thread. I was happy with 15 and certainly didn't (and still don't really) know any better. What mattered was that I found it exciting to use and it offered me a perspective on the game I was not previously able to engage with successfully. The list didn't seem to overtly annoy my opponents - most shrugged their shoulder or rolled their eyes. Most have said it's middle of the road for Lizards. I don't know - ignorance is bliss I guess.
So...
In the lead up to the event one Phil Comins started this ridiculous ADC nonsense which came about because he thought it would be entertaining for him to start the tournament by bunny-hunting the new TO. Much fun was had on these forums (I know some people find this whole Ji-Dave/Dave-had thing utterly stupid and a waste of time and posting - I find it incredibly amusing) over the last couple of weeks. Phil was making some pretty bold statements about Dave scalps and I replied with something about giant-killing and crushing egos and learning him a lesson and noob-schooling him and that Star Dragons were a crutch and that I was going to kick his silly a$$ and so on. And on it went. You can see that thread here:
http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58794
And so the day of the tournament arrived. Co-incidentally I was tabled next to Pommy Dave (aka TOP Dave) in his Ji-Dave grudge against the Interloper, Marcelo. Truly coincidental because although I entered us onto the tables I had no idea how they were numbered (delegated task - key to surviving TOing AND playing in a tournament). Somehow Dave and I also ended up on the same table side. Maybe fate was against the ADC right from the start.
I was thoroughly briefed beforehand and the briefing went like this:
Top Dave - "You cannot lose this game".
Me - "I see... but, Phil's really good, and he knows his army, and this isn't my army it's just an experiment in learning about the game, and he has a Star Dragon...".
Top Dave - "If you lose this game I will disown you and the Birthmother will send Swearing Dave and Super Dave after you and they will beat your face in and chew your hands off and you'll never play the piano again".
Me - "I see..."
High pressure stuff.
So...
I started Warhammer (about 8 months ago) playing Dwarfs. The primary reason for this is that, with four 40k armies, my darling wife (understanding as she is) couldn't see any good reason for me to start another army in a different system. Could I not just use my Space Marines? Or the Eldar? Ah the dear, sweet, ignorant woman. How I love her. Careful and considered explanation and phrasing convinced her to let me collect the cheapest possible force I could (some of you know the deal - mortgage, 2 kids, alcohol... priority spending etc) and because a mate was offloading his Skull Pass stuff (as you do) I offered to take it of his hands, along with a Dwarf Army book, for a bargain basement price. Bingo - the start of a Dwarf army. I few more purchases and I had something to start playing Fantasy. It wasn't/isn't an entirely optimised force but it helped me find my feet. I took it to Tin Soldiers (report on that elsewhere on this blog) and did ok; placed 10th. In playing a fair few games however I realised I was really missing out on two of the most important (and exciting) aspects of the game. It won't surprise you to know these were: movement and magic.
I needed something fast. And I needed something zappy.
Enter Pommy Dave's Lizards.
I'd watched Dave play a fair few games with the Lizzies and had been on the receiving end of the army a couple of times - enough to know they were pretty damn cool. And they had what I wanted - good leadership, fantastic movement, magic, variety. What the Dwarves lacked, the Lizards had in spades - and just like that, I was hooked. Dave offered me their use for CtA and after that fell through generously carried the offer on to Fields of Blood so Lizards it was. I had a stack of practice games to help me find my way around the list, sought opinions on builds, designed something that looked very middle of the road and I was on my way.
The list I took to Fields was thusly:
4th gen Slann - 2+ ward vs shooting/magic missiles, extra spell, BSB, Banehead
Scar-Vet - GW, Jag Charm, you know the drill
Scar-Vet - the "Pommy Dave Special", Cold One, LA, Burning Blade, Questzl, Enchanted Shield for a -1 armour save
Priest - L2 with Diadem
16 Saurus w/full command10 Skinks
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
10 Skinks - Scouts (all Skinks have Javelins)
3 Salamanders
Big fat Steg
4 Krox
4 Krox
Not real subtle but suited me and my noobness just fine.
The list scored 15/30 for Army Selection (comp). Bang on half way and just under the tournament average of 17.5/30. Interesting to see it got just a little more than some of the Daemon armies at the event but that (and the comp of other armies - including those that got the same as some of the Daemon armies) is discussion for another thread. I was happy with 15 and certainly didn't (and still don't really) know any better. What mattered was that I found it exciting to use and it offered me a perspective on the game I was not previously able to engage with successfully. The list didn't seem to overtly annoy my opponents - most shrugged their shoulder or rolled their eyes. Most have said it's middle of the road for Lizards. I don't know - ignorance is bliss I guess.
So...
In the lead up to the event one Phil Comins started this ridiculous ADC nonsense which came about because he thought it would be entertaining for him to start the tournament by bunny-hunting the new TO. Much fun was had on these forums (I know some people find this whole Ji-Dave/Dave-had thing utterly stupid and a waste of time and posting - I find it incredibly amusing) over the last couple of weeks. Phil was making some pretty bold statements about Dave scalps and I replied with something about giant-killing and crushing egos and learning him a lesson and noob-schooling him and that Star Dragons were a crutch and that I was going to kick his silly a$$ and so on. And on it went. You can see that thread here:
http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58794
And so the day of the tournament arrived. Co-incidentally I was tabled next to Pommy Dave (aka TOP Dave) in his Ji-Dave grudge against the Interloper, Marcelo. Truly coincidental because although I entered us onto the tables I had no idea how they were numbered (delegated task - key to surviving TOing AND playing in a tournament). Somehow Dave and I also ended up on the same table side. Maybe fate was against the ADC right from the start.
I was thoroughly briefed beforehand and the briefing went like this:
Top Dave - "You cannot lose this game".
Me - "I see... but, Phil's really good, and he knows his army, and this isn't my army it's just an experiment in learning about the game, and he has a Star Dragon...".
Top Dave - "If you lose this game I will disown you and the Birthmother will send Swearing Dave and Super Dave after you and they will beat your face in and chew your hands off and you'll never play the piano again".
Me - "I see..."
High pressure stuff.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sportsmanship scoring
This post:
http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=59243
got me thinking. How does one define good sportsmanship in Warhammer?
I've had plenty of great games of Fantasy - in fact very rarely would I say I've felt cheated of a win and, heaven forbid, that my opponent was a bad sport. Having said that, if I was to score the people I've played (say, 1-5 with 5 being the best) not everyone would get full marks.
My confidence in scoring the other guy has increased with my confidence of my own ability and understanding of the game. Early on I would naively just smile and nod when someone claimed a rule to be right or just straight up told me that was what 'that unit' could do. I was blissfully happy in my ignorance and would say most of the time it wouldn't have made much of a difference to the outcome of the game. Nowadays I'm (somewhat) more inclined to challenge what I believe to be dodgy player.
Sometimes I can put my finger on something my opponent has done in the game to warrant lowering (hitting) their score but sometimes it's just a feeling I get from the game. The vibe. Marbo. Etc.
The reason this thread got me thinking was the vibe hit. Dropping someone's score because you just felt something was off, not quite right. I'm not talking dropping a 5 down to a 4. More like a 4 down to a 2 - a big drop, where the game was never going to be one of the best you've ever had against one of the best people you've ever played (those are usually obvious). Not being inappropriately generous is important because not every game you play will be amongst the best - something a '5' should really be reserved for.
The more I understand the game, the less outwardly dodgy play happens, and the more I feel my scoring of an opponent is intrinsically motivated.
Well, that was a rambling mess of nonsense...
http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=59243
got me thinking. How does one define good sportsmanship in Warhammer?
I've had plenty of great games of Fantasy - in fact very rarely would I say I've felt cheated of a win and, heaven forbid, that my opponent was a bad sport. Having said that, if I was to score the people I've played (say, 1-5 with 5 being the best) not everyone would get full marks.
My confidence in scoring the other guy has increased with my confidence of my own ability and understanding of the game. Early on I would naively just smile and nod when someone claimed a rule to be right or just straight up told me that was what 'that unit' could do. I was blissfully happy in my ignorance and would say most of the time it wouldn't have made much of a difference to the outcome of the game. Nowadays I'm (somewhat) more inclined to challenge what I believe to be dodgy player.
Sometimes I can put my finger on something my opponent has done in the game to warrant lowering (hitting) their score but sometimes it's just a feeling I get from the game. The vibe. Marbo. Etc.
The reason this thread got me thinking was the vibe hit. Dropping someone's score because you just felt something was off, not quite right. I'm not talking dropping a 5 down to a 4. More like a 4 down to a 2 - a big drop, where the game was never going to be one of the best you've ever had against one of the best people you've ever played (those are usually obvious). Not being inappropriately generous is important because not every game you play will be amongst the best - something a '5' should really be reserved for.
The more I understand the game, the less outwardly dodgy play happens, and the more I feel my scoring of an opponent is intrinsically motivated.
Well, that was a rambling mess of nonsense...
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Vs Phil's High Elves (but not that Phil)
I was pleasantly surprised to catch a game against a High Elf army at the club today - fortuitous given my arranged grudge match against them for Round One at FoB. Even better there was a Phil at the helm - not the Phil I would actually be facing but surely this was fate! I'd not played Phil before though he's been appearing at the club infrequently for the last 6 months or more.
Having only played High Elves once before (and with Dwarfs no less) I was very keen to see how the Lizards would fare. Phil is a cagey chap and wasn't too keen to divulge exactly what his Elfy lads were actually equipped with. This made is difficult to gauge how I should deploy to the best effect. As far as High Elves go the army also looked HUGE - big Spear block, big Lothern Seaguard block, big Swordmasters block, Dragon Princes, Silver Helms, Lion Chariot, 2 bolties, 2 mages, character on horse with Dragon Princes and sneaky boss hidden (in plain sight) in Swordmasters. A nasty magic phase including the Rings of Fury and Corin, a mage with Seer choosing Shades of Death and Pit of Shades and the boss had a book that stole one of my pool dice. Grrr!
Phil went first and prompty very nearly wiped my Saurus block off the face of the board with Pit of Shades and the bolt throwers. Damn but I hate Pit of Shades. The Dragon Princes were up in my face and it was all on straight away!
Skinks bravely threw themselves into the path of the oncoming Dragon Princes as a Lion Chariot slammed into the remainder of the Saurus who took the charge and beat the chariot by 1 (it held). Magic was a damp squib barring Doom and Darkness on the Spear block who subsequently failed a Terror test thanks to Mr Stegadon and fled across the board, taking their Mage with them. These were later charged by the Salamanders and Jag-Vet from opposition sides, the Jag-Vet cutting them down in front of the Seaguard on a hill in Phil's deployment zone.
On the other flank the Silver Helms were carefully escorted towards my board edge by two Skink units, unable to march or charge they were kept out of the battle in the centre. They survived by were unable to lend a hand to their comrades.
With the Spears taken care of Phil's magic phase was starting to show holes and mine was coming into its own. The Steg charged into a bolt thrower crew who elected to flee allowing him to hit the Seaguard in the flank. Winning by 5 he broke them and ran them down. The Sallies set to on the Swordmasters leaving 9 alive. These charged into some Krox, killing 1 and taking 2 wounds from another (from 9 attacks in total - damn!) but they killed 3 Swordmasters in return and held with the Slann nearby.
At that point Phil called the game.
Having only played High Elves once before (and with Dwarfs no less) I was very keen to see how the Lizards would fare. Phil is a cagey chap and wasn't too keen to divulge exactly what his Elfy lads were actually equipped with. This made is difficult to gauge how I should deploy to the best effect. As far as High Elves go the army also looked HUGE - big Spear block, big Lothern Seaguard block, big Swordmasters block, Dragon Princes, Silver Helms, Lion Chariot, 2 bolties, 2 mages, character on horse with Dragon Princes and sneaky boss hidden (in plain sight) in Swordmasters. A nasty magic phase including the Rings of Fury and Corin, a mage with Seer choosing Shades of Death and Pit of Shades and the boss had a book that stole one of my pool dice. Grrr!
Phil went first and prompty very nearly wiped my Saurus block off the face of the board with Pit of Shades and the bolt throwers. Damn but I hate Pit of Shades. The Dragon Princes were up in my face and it was all on straight away!
Skinks bravely threw themselves into the path of the oncoming Dragon Princes as a Lion Chariot slammed into the remainder of the Saurus who took the charge and beat the chariot by 1 (it held). Magic was a damp squib barring Doom and Darkness on the Spear block who subsequently failed a Terror test thanks to Mr Stegadon and fled across the board, taking their Mage with them. These were later charged by the Salamanders and Jag-Vet from opposition sides, the Jag-Vet cutting them down in front of the Seaguard on a hill in Phil's deployment zone.
On the other flank the Silver Helms were carefully escorted towards my board edge by two Skink units, unable to march or charge they were kept out of the battle in the centre. They survived by were unable to lend a hand to their comrades.
With the Spears taken care of Phil's magic phase was starting to show holes and mine was coming into its own. The Steg charged into a bolt thrower crew who elected to flee allowing him to hit the Seaguard in the flank. Winning by 5 he broke them and ran them down. The Sallies set to on the Swordmasters leaving 9 alive. These charged into some Krox, killing 1 and taking 2 wounds from another (from 9 attacks in total - damn!) but they killed 3 Swordmasters in return and held with the Slann nearby.
At that point Phil called the game.
Friday, September 5, 2008
The continuing saga of comp scoring and political activism in tournament gaming
I had arranged a game with Dave last night but he called and was forced to cancel after his wife cracked the whip (far enough too - he's been working his butt off for the last couple of weeks and with an intensive tournament coming up next weekend and Father's Day on Sunday, family time is at a premium). This was unfortunate as I'd been looking forward to the game all week... oh well. Hopefully we can catch up later this week before FoB.
This left me with time to twiddle my thumbs and it got me back to thinking about comp scoring - particularly as it relates to FoB as this clearly involves me directly.
Having the scores back from our (frighteningly) efficient judges so early has given me time to analyse the data. I've calculated the comp average and the average for each army involved. I can't divulge that information yet of course (will post a debrief in a couple of weeks adn on WAU) but it has rather importantly allowed me to go back to several players and offer them the chance to reconsider their lists.
Before your hackles rise onthe back of your neck at the injustice of only asking someof the players to revise their armies, let me explain:
This left me with time to twiddle my thumbs and it got me back to thinking about comp scoring - particularly as it relates to FoB as this clearly involves me directly.
Having the scores back from our (frighteningly) efficient judges so early has given me time to analyse the data. I've calculated the comp average and the average for each army involved. I can't divulge that information yet of course (will post a debrief in a couple of weeks adn on WAU) but it has rather importantly allowed me to go back to several players and offer them the chance to reconsider their lists.
Before your hackles rise onthe back of your neck at the injustice of only asking someof the players to revise their armies, let me explain:
* Having the comp average gives me an idea of where each player's score falls in relation to the bigger picture of what we have at the tournament. Exactly 4 of those players were deemed to have presented lists that fell well below the comp average. Now, well below is a very subjective term of course but suffice to say it was by more than 4 points (ok, quite a bit more). Certainly enough by comparison to the comp average the average of the other armies of their race to warrant a revisit.
* The idea behind a tournament with comp scoring is that it is there to moderate what people are taking. One of the issues I have realised in running this process is the extreme influence that Vampire Counts and Daemons (especially) have had on the individual players perception of what their list will be required to cope with. In essence I found that quite a few players were literally expecting the worst. Unfortunately, despite the fact that there are quite a few Daemon/VC lists in attendance there is still no guarantee that you will be facing either for more than a few rounds. This means your army is really overpowered by comparison to something that isn't Daemons/VCs. Ok, this is a generalisation and not EVERYONE tooled their army up but, following the response from the judging panel, the MAJORITY of the armies were VERY hard and I think this at least partially reflects the paranoia associated with the possibility of facing these two armies.
* Ulimately (and somewhat naively) it is hoped that most of the scores received will be a '3' - according to the player's pack this would "place (the list) with the majority of the other lists and/or normal tournament armies". Clearly some lists place higher or lower but the intent is to aim towards the middle ground. Some players are happy to sacrifice battlefields effectiveness for higher 'soft' scores (comp/sports/painting) and these armies tend to score higher (4s and the occasional 5). Some will sacrifice comp for battlefield effectiveness but really, as with the previous comment, comp scoring encourages most players to aim to the middle ground, satisfying the comp expectation (this really what it is - it's not a requirement as such). The 4 lists that I asked to be revised most definitely erred towards battlefield effectiveness. The issue here is that players should not reasonably expect to face such extreme armies (which go a way towards defeating the impact and purpose of composition scoring). I'm happy to say that one of the lists has already been revised and 5 of the 6 new scores have already been returned - this resubmission has earned the player a substantially higher comp score and will also earn him more respect (and enjoyment) from his opponents in his games at the tournament.
My understanding is that Marcelo (TO for The Pilgrimage) was hoping to receive lists and judges scoring back early enough to follow this mode of thinking through (resubmission the more... extreme lists) but with over 100 entries (having expected around 50) this was just too difficult to achieve. With only 38 players involved it's something we've been able to accomplish and I'm increasingly happy with the result.
***** ***** *****
A good friend of mine has also opened my eyes as to the highly political "gamey" side of tournaments - not least of all FoB. I had somehow overlooked the fact that the highest ranked player in NZ would get paid entry (flights etc) into the Oz Masters this year! With 3 players in close contention this is an exciting opportunity for sure but it also means that the organisation of the tournament has to be done particularly carefully. Paint scoring, entry of comp scores, rules "disputes" (however unlikely), the round draws - all of this and more MUST be done with absolute transparency of process and clarity so no one feels there is any bias involved. Clearly we are all great guys but as great guys we are also highly competitive and don't want to feel we've been ripped off. All I'm really saying here is I appreciate how important it is that the organisation and systems at the tournament are clear and unbiased and that everyone has a fair shot; that all external scoring is truly objective; and that no one (that being me) makes any dumb mistakes that inadvertently screws anyone over.
No pressure... :)
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