Captain Soft Scores lined me up last night to be his first victim on his newly created table and I was happy to oblige. Nick (this is Nick Irvine from the City Guard) has earned the title "Captain Soft Scores" for a good reason - his composition, sportsmanship and painting are frequently exeedingly high. He's a fantastic opponent and great fun to play.
Nick's been playing Wood Elves since... forever, and has started to get quite experimental with his lists. The current incarnation is focused around trying to solve the immense problem Wood Elves have facing down big scary beasties like Dragons, Greater Daemons and so on. The foundation principal here is a L4 mage with Lore of Beasts (trying for Beasts Cowers and/or Wolf hunts) accompanied by 6 Wild Riders with Warbanner. The Mage Cowers the badness and/or propels the Cavalry into combat with Wolf Hunts, accepts challenge and deflects hits with the Annoyance (hit on a '6' in challenges), saving them with the Crystal Mere (3+ ward save until the save is failed). The static 3 Wild Riders shout encouragment of get stuck into any rank and file that are handy and in spear range. It's definitely an interesting combination!
For this game I tried a slightly different and more concise thought process of categorising enemy units into various groups. This leads quickly to a plan of attack for the game. I've read a bit about this online but really tried hard to put it into practice in this game. I've always had trouble with Wood Elves (elusive little buggers that they are) - the key is always to pin them in the right and most favourable combat. So for this game I identified:
- the Hammer unit (Wild Riders)
- the Anvil (Treeman)
- the Redirectors (Glade Riders)
- the Ranged threat (2 units fo Glade Guard)
- the Assassins (2 units of Wardancers)
- the Magic threat (L4 Mage with Hunters Spear - a magical bolt thrower! - and Wolf Hunts - 2D6" move towards an enemy unit; can be used on monsters and cav - and the L2 Mage with Treesinging and Fury of the Forest - D6 str 4 or str5 if within 6" of a forest magical attacks!)
I think subconsciously all (or most) players do this in a game. I felt that actively identifying these threats and units and keeping this description in mind was extremely helpful.
Previous experience against Wood Elves tells me that their shooting can melt a unit per turn if you aren't careful, that the Tree is difficult to deal with for Vampires without flaming attacks, that Wardancers have a silly number of attacks, that the whole army is VERY mobile, and that there is a LOT of magical attacks in the army. Running forward and trying to get into combat just doesn't work - you've got to give the Elf player a reason to advance. Of course with a poorer comp score the pressure is really always on me (playing Vampires) to hunt the points.
Nick spread his force across the board with 2 units of Glade Guard holding the centre, the Wild Riders on his left and everything else spread across the right. I deployed with a strong left hook, the centre held by the Grave Guard (who would cope best with the ranged threat - high toughness and armour - and also any flank charge trickiness from the Wild Riders) a Skellies block accompanied by the VC general. I knew Nick could easily redeploy his army but with a forest blocking shooting to almost everything except the Grave Guard (who could obviously be raised back as easily as everything else) he would have to move to find the points.
I held in the centre and pushed up on the left but the Tree was giving me a headache. I couldn't roll it in one turn (unless the banshee got really lucky and screamed 3 or 4 wounds off it) so I spent some time getting the Zombies into position to tie it down. A lucky Book of Arkhan casting propelled them into combat and while I didn't break the damn thing he was at least tied down by 33 Zombies. Next turn some Wardancers charged in - leaving me with 3 Zombies after that round of combat! Fortunately this left room for some Knights and by General to combo charge the Wardancers. The general was in turn counter-charged by the second unit of Wardancers. This went on for quite a while but eventually the Tree was left unengaged and at the end of the game with no good charging options (and misfired trying to Strangleroot some Knights in the last turn) and Wardancer units both broke and were run down. Next to this combat the Varghulf was epic failing to wound some Dryads so the Wraiths charged in (not ideal as Dryads have magical attacks). It took some time (and cost me the Banshee) but I eventually got through them. On this flank Nick was left with the Treeman and his BSB in a forest against 5 Unbarded Knights, a Skellies block, the Varghulf, and 5 Wolves. In the centre the other Skellie block charged a unit fo Glade Guard (with a banner). The Skellies were getting dealt to until the Knights that had run down the Wardancers hit the Glade Guard in the flank and auto-broke them with outnumber by fear-causers.
The Wild Riders glorious sweep around my flank looking for a magical rear-charge on the Grave Guard in turn 4 or 5 was rudely interrupted by 5 Dire Wolves. The Wolves were quickly dealt with but Nick tired of this little game when a second unit of Wolves got in their way again. The potential of an 80pt return for a 600pt unit didn't thrill Nick so he backed off and looked for another option. Unfortunately he found it the wrong way. Instead of using a Scroll to stop a Book of Arkhan charge he gambled a one dice roll supported by a one-use reroll for a dispel attempt granted by some of his General's kit. The gamble failed and the Grave Guard charged the Wild Riders! Being Immune to Psychology the Elves had to hold. In a show of ineptitude the Grave Guard only killed the Wild Rider Champion and lost one in return. They broke the Wild Riders who of course escaped.
I should mention Nick's Alter Noble at this point. This clever little git earlier charged the flank of the Skellie unit with the VC general in it. He was never going to hold but with Hatred on the VC general I had to pursue. The Alter escaped and now pulled the same trick on the Grave Guard, rear-charging them, breaking and I failed to restrain pursuit on Ld7 so instead of charging the Wild Riders again I was now facing the wrong way!
Nevertheless I reformed to face the Wild Riders. Nick rallied the unit and moved as far away as possible but it turned out he couln't get far enough away to avoid a solo charge from my BSB in the last turn. Deftly avoiding the damned Mage with her Annoyance the BSB skewered a Wild Rider and with his standard and Walking Death won combat by 2! (the Wild Riders had lost their banner/Warbanner when they were broken by the Grave Guard earlier in the game). Incredibly the Wild Riders broke - a 600pt unit and a now uncontested table quarter! Surely a big swing at the end of the game.
So in the end Nick had the Treeman, BSB, Alter Noble (grrr!) and a unit of Glade Guard. I'd lost 1/2 a Skellie block, 1/2 the barded Knights, a unit of Wolves and the Zombies. I had two banners (Glade Guard and Wild Riders), the Wood Elf General (the L4 Mage) and a two quarters. Nick had one quarter and the last one (with the Treeman) was contested.
This was a win to me by just over 1400VPs. Gut feel was a 15-5 win after the comp kicked in which I was very pleased with.
Cheers for the game Nick - a little bit of vengeance for that 20-0 thrashing you gave me at FluffyCon this year :)
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Asian Nick's New Skaven - Version... 6?
My good mate Nick Ng (Master Enginner Extraordinaire) was busy not working on completing a Skaven army for the last army book and with the newest iteration of Those Dirty Rats has continued to present totally bizarre and highly experimental list for our fairly regular games. Skaven can present something of a problem for Vampires - they are now an awesome leadership army, they have stacks of magical attacks, their focused shooting combined with magic and dodgy template rules (I hear this will be the norm for 8th edition Warhammer) can vapourise a unit in the space of one turn.
Nick's latest list - seemingly vomited forth from a random list generator:
Seer - 2 Scrolls, Skalm (restore all lost wounds once per game)
Cheiftain with Battle Standard and reflecting saved wounds armour
Plague Priest - level 2 on Furnace with various kit including Pipes of Piebald (leadership test for enemy wishing to charge his unit)
39 Feckin Plaguemonks who, when joined by the Priest (or rather, his Furnace) become Unbreakable. The newly dubbed "Plaguetrain from Hell" as it were
11 Censer Bearers (an unusual number)
2 units of 3 Jezzails (again HIGHLY unusual)
Doomwheel
Plague Claw Catapult
3 units of Slaves
1 unit of Clanrats (Mortar)
1 unit of Stormvermin (Mortar)
A really tiny Skaven list. I waved the frenzied Plaguetrain through with some Wolves and set to against the rest of the list. Poor deployment of the Wraiths (which is becoming disturbingly habitual) saw them survive the battle but cause practically no discernable damage). I lost 14 Grave Guard in the first turn to a casting of Scorch and 2 Plague Mortars which was pretty frightening from a psychological perspective. Any other army losing their elite tough-guy unit in one turn would have been in a heck of a position but I got an Invocation past Nick's defense and 6 of the previously fried Grave Guard sprang back to unlife.
I took the Varghulf in this game. Yes I know I know - it's mentally hard. To compensate I took out the Lynci Vamp. Putting a lot of thought into this at the moment - is taking the two rares balanced out by taking 2 characters and having less offensive and defensive magic ability. Potentially for Vampires less magic is a "bad thing" so I'm unsure at this stage.
In this particular game the Varghulf went nuts - blasted through the Censer Bearers in a turn, got stuck into the Clanrats bunkering the Seer forcing him to expend an entire magic phase escaping or risk getting eaten (5 str5 attacks with Hatred from the Varghulf will munch any magic user) - Nick cou't chance losing the PD/DD and scrolls so chucked 5 dice at Skitterleapand bailed. Curses! Old Vargy was joined by my boss 2 turns later and they cleaned up the Clanrats before turning their attention to the Stormvermin now hiding not only the Seer but also the Skaven BSB. With Dire Wolves in their flank and Grave Guard in the front (along with the VC general and Varghulf in the back) the Stormvermin auto-broke and were run down.
The Plaguetrain managed to trample a unit of Skellies, claiming their banner and holding a quarter and this was the only Skaven unit to survive the game. There was absolutely no way I could tackle the Plaguemonks so it was always going to be 600pts I couldn't touch and how much of my stuff I could stop them from killing.
A win to the Vampires by maybe 500pts? (sorry Nick I've forgotten the details).
Nick's latest list - seemingly vomited forth from a random list generator:
Seer - 2 Scrolls, Skalm (restore all lost wounds once per game)
Cheiftain with Battle Standard and reflecting saved wounds armour
Plague Priest - level 2 on Furnace with various kit including Pipes of Piebald (leadership test for enemy wishing to charge his unit)
39 Feckin Plaguemonks who, when joined by the Priest (or rather, his Furnace) become Unbreakable. The newly dubbed "Plaguetrain from Hell" as it were
11 Censer Bearers (an unusual number)
2 units of 3 Jezzails (again HIGHLY unusual)
Doomwheel
Plague Claw Catapult
3 units of Slaves
1 unit of Clanrats (Mortar)
1 unit of Stormvermin (Mortar)
A really tiny Skaven list. I waved the frenzied Plaguetrain through with some Wolves and set to against the rest of the list. Poor deployment of the Wraiths (which is becoming disturbingly habitual) saw them survive the battle but cause practically no discernable damage). I lost 14 Grave Guard in the first turn to a casting of Scorch and 2 Plague Mortars which was pretty frightening from a psychological perspective. Any other army losing their elite tough-guy unit in one turn would have been in a heck of a position but I got an Invocation past Nick's defense and 6 of the previously fried Grave Guard sprang back to unlife.
I took the Varghulf in this game. Yes I know I know - it's mentally hard. To compensate I took out the Lynci Vamp. Putting a lot of thought into this at the moment - is taking the two rares balanced out by taking 2 characters and having less offensive and defensive magic ability. Potentially for Vampires less magic is a "bad thing" so I'm unsure at this stage.
In this particular game the Varghulf went nuts - blasted through the Censer Bearers in a turn, got stuck into the Clanrats bunkering the Seer forcing him to expend an entire magic phase escaping or risk getting eaten (5 str5 attacks with Hatred from the Varghulf will munch any magic user) - Nick cou't chance losing the PD/DD and scrolls so chucked 5 dice at Skitterleapand bailed. Curses! Old Vargy was joined by my boss 2 turns later and they cleaned up the Clanrats before turning their attention to the Stormvermin now hiding not only the Seer but also the Skaven BSB. With Dire Wolves in their flank and Grave Guard in the front (along with the VC general and Varghulf in the back) the Stormvermin auto-broke and were run down.
The Plaguetrain managed to trample a unit of Skellies, claiming their banner and holding a quarter and this was the only Skaven unit to survive the game. There was absolutely no way I could tackle the Plaguemonks so it was always going to be 600pts I couldn't touch and how much of my stuff I could stop them from killing.
A win to the Vampires by maybe 500pts? (sorry Nick I've forgotten the details).
Monday, December 14, 2009
Just for Mike
Hi Mike :)
This is for you...
DogCon approaches. This will be my first Australian tournament (I hope the first of many) so I am super-excited - not just about the travel and playing new opponents but also hanging out for the weekend with mates and smashing the Aussies.
DogCon has a repuation for being a hard mans event. FluffyCon this is not. Soften up at your peril. To emphasise this point the composition scoring for the event has no bonuses for soft armies. You are either (in the judges opinion) on-target or hard. This has led to a "-1" kind of thinking; go hard enough to get a -1, make sure taking the negative comp score is worth it in terms of your choices, and be prepared to face opponents who have taken a similar attitude.
DogCon is big. More than 120 players? That's an enormous event by anyone's standards (and can only add to my childish excitement). This opens up the interesting and unusual possibility of getting a run of opponents where you might play well, win all your games, and still not see the best players because of the large numbers. Quite a few people could in fact win all their games at this event! I'm not under any illusions - barring sheer dumb luck of the draw I don't expect (or hope) to face any "named" players. I'm just keen to face 6 unfamiliar opponents and have us both do our best to beat the stuffing out of each others armies.
So what's the plan? Vampires.
Having done Dwarfs, lingered on Lizards, dabbled with Dark Elves, busted out Brettonians and exasperated myself with Empire I've finally succumbed to the dark (darker than Dark Elves dark!) side and gone undead.
I'm enjoying the army immensely but am still finding my feet and as a result haven't been demolishing my opponents like I've been led to believe VCs do without breaking a sweat, lifting a finger or using any brain power whatsoever.
The list I'm taking (or at least version 5; the current version which I might take) looks hard to me (certainly compared to Empire!) but I'm told by more experienced and well-travelled players is likely to be spot on (in a "-1" kind of way) for DogCon.
Looks like this (at the moment) with notes for Mike to understand what the heck I'm talking about:
Lord - Lord of the Dead (raise Skellies above starting strength and +1 to cast), Sword of Might (for a total of 4 str6 attacks), Infinite Hatred (rerolling misses in every round of combat), Dread Knight (mounted on a barded steed with heavy armour and a shield (for a 2+ save), Cadaverous Cuirass (not affected by Poison attacks or Killing Blow), Dispel Scroll, Book of Arkhan (bound 3 Van Hel's Danse which lets a unit get a free 8" move - gold)
Hero - BSB, Dread Knight, Black Periapt (lets the BSB store his power dice and use it as dispel dice in the enemy magic phase, or store a dispel dice and use it as a power dice - handy), Walking Death (an extra point of combat res), Helm of Commandment (gives his weapon skill to a unit within 12")
Hero - Talisman of the Lynci (9" move), Great Weapon, Hatred, 2+ save
20 Skeletons - full command
20 Skeletons - full command
21 Zombies
5 Wolves
5 Wolves
5 Wolves
20 Grave Guard (uber-Skeletons of dooooom!) - Full Command, Warbanner
6 Black Knights with a banner giving them Hatred
5 Black Knights with nothing
4 Wraiths and a Banshee (an awful unit really... very nasty)
So the army/list is FAR from soft and should go 6 rounds and give me a good result and some enjoyable games. I'm under no illusions at all for this event - I haven't a hope in placing or even making the top 10. I just want a really good time and 6 opponents who give me a challenging game.
I've had a fair bit of playtesting so far and now that I'm on holiday hope to do a lot more. The games have all been fun (had a cracker of a game against Orcs and Goblins recently - a real blast) and I've learnt more about the army and what it can do (and what I shouldn't do!) in every game so no complaints there.
Still thinking about making changes. Had a moral dilemma and moment of weakness where I put a Varghulf in there too (sort of a monster Vampire thing - can go a bit nuts and combined with the Wraiths is a bit silly) but was talked out of it thank goodness. Have some other options including some Spirit Hosts (ethereal ghosties - not as deadly as the Wraiths but can be a good matchup against some armies).
Hopefully now that I'm under some pressure I'll post up some more detailed reports of the practice games and a solid report on the tournament itself. We're really spoiled for events right now - I get back from Oz, wait three weeks for the next tournament (FluffyCon) then another three weeks before another event here in Auckland (Equinox) which is being run by the City Guard.
Life is good :)
This is for you...
DogCon approaches. This will be my first Australian tournament (I hope the first of many) so I am super-excited - not just about the travel and playing new opponents but also hanging out for the weekend with mates and smashing the Aussies.
DogCon has a repuation for being a hard mans event. FluffyCon this is not. Soften up at your peril. To emphasise this point the composition scoring for the event has no bonuses for soft armies. You are either (in the judges opinion) on-target or hard. This has led to a "-1" kind of thinking; go hard enough to get a -1, make sure taking the negative comp score is worth it in terms of your choices, and be prepared to face opponents who have taken a similar attitude.
DogCon is big. More than 120 players? That's an enormous event by anyone's standards (and can only add to my childish excitement). This opens up the interesting and unusual possibility of getting a run of opponents where you might play well, win all your games, and still not see the best players because of the large numbers. Quite a few people could in fact win all their games at this event! I'm not under any illusions - barring sheer dumb luck of the draw I don't expect (or hope) to face any "named" players. I'm just keen to face 6 unfamiliar opponents and have us both do our best to beat the stuffing out of each others armies.
So what's the plan? Vampires.
Having done Dwarfs, lingered on Lizards, dabbled with Dark Elves, busted out Brettonians and exasperated myself with Empire I've finally succumbed to the dark (darker than Dark Elves dark!) side and gone undead.
I'm enjoying the army immensely but am still finding my feet and as a result haven't been demolishing my opponents like I've been led to believe VCs do without breaking a sweat, lifting a finger or using any brain power whatsoever.
The list I'm taking (or at least version 5; the current version which I might take) looks hard to me (certainly compared to Empire!) but I'm told by more experienced and well-travelled players is likely to be spot on (in a "-1" kind of way) for DogCon.
Looks like this (at the moment) with notes for Mike to understand what the heck I'm talking about:
Lord - Lord of the Dead (raise Skellies above starting strength and +1 to cast), Sword of Might (for a total of 4 str6 attacks), Infinite Hatred (rerolling misses in every round of combat), Dread Knight (mounted on a barded steed with heavy armour and a shield (for a 2+ save), Cadaverous Cuirass (not affected by Poison attacks or Killing Blow), Dispel Scroll, Book of Arkhan (bound 3 Van Hel's Danse which lets a unit get a free 8" move - gold)
Hero - BSB, Dread Knight, Black Periapt (lets the BSB store his power dice and use it as dispel dice in the enemy magic phase, or store a dispel dice and use it as a power dice - handy), Walking Death (an extra point of combat res), Helm of Commandment (gives his weapon skill to a unit within 12")
Hero - Talisman of the Lynci (9" move), Great Weapon, Hatred, 2+ save
20 Skeletons - full command
20 Skeletons - full command
21 Zombies
5 Wolves
5 Wolves
5 Wolves
20 Grave Guard (uber-Skeletons of dooooom!) - Full Command, Warbanner
6 Black Knights with a banner giving them Hatred
5 Black Knights with nothing
4 Wraiths and a Banshee (an awful unit really... very nasty)
So the army/list is FAR from soft and should go 6 rounds and give me a good result and some enjoyable games. I'm under no illusions at all for this event - I haven't a hope in placing or even making the top 10. I just want a really good time and 6 opponents who give me a challenging game.
I've had a fair bit of playtesting so far and now that I'm on holiday hope to do a lot more. The games have all been fun (had a cracker of a game against Orcs and Goblins recently - a real blast) and I've learnt more about the army and what it can do (and what I shouldn't do!) in every game so no complaints there.
Still thinking about making changes. Had a moral dilemma and moment of weakness where I put a Varghulf in there too (sort of a monster Vampire thing - can go a bit nuts and combined with the Wraiths is a bit silly) but was talked out of it thank goodness. Have some other options including some Spirit Hosts (ethereal ghosties - not as deadly as the Wraiths but can be a good matchup against some armies).
Hopefully now that I'm under some pressure I'll post up some more detailed reports of the practice games and a solid report on the tournament itself. We're really spoiled for events right now - I get back from Oz, wait three weeks for the next tournament (FluffyCon) then another three weeks before another event here in Auckland (Equinox) which is being run by the City Guard.
Life is good :)
Saturday, June 6, 2009
The Fields of Blood - bwahahahahahahaha...
Auckland will be awash with gore and spare body parts come late-September!
I'm running a Fantasy tournament as part of the annual City Guard "GuardCon" gaming convention called Fields of Blood. Looks like it's going to be a real ripper of an event with substantial player attendance forecast - looks to not only be the biggest Fantasy event on the gaming calendar but also potentially the biggest Fantasy tournament that NZ has ever had!
26th and 27th September at Takapuna Grammar School here in Auckland. If you haven't requested a registration and player's pack let me know. Flick an email through to:
fieldsofblood2009@gmail.com
2250pts, 6 rounds, fully painted armies only, tiered 8-judge panel composition system.
Check out http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=73641 for updates.
I'm running a Fantasy tournament as part of the annual City Guard "GuardCon" gaming convention called Fields of Blood. Looks like it's going to be a real ripper of an event with substantial player attendance forecast - looks to not only be the biggest Fantasy event on the gaming calendar but also potentially the biggest Fantasy tournament that NZ has ever had!
26th and 27th September at Takapuna Grammar School here in Auckland. If you haven't requested a registration and player's pack let me know. Flick an email through to:
fieldsofblood2009@gmail.com
2250pts, 6 rounds, fully painted armies only, tiered 8-judge panel composition system.
Check out http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=73641 for updates.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Experiences using Daemons and VCs
Continuing with my habit of "borrowing" other people's armies I caught up with NZs own Skeletor - Glen Tibbles - for a couple of games using one of Reid's Daemons lists. Despite losing a big unit of Plaguebearers and Nurgle Herald to an horrific charge by a unit of Blood Knights with Hellfire Banner I came away with a comfortable win with just the VC General surviving the engagement. The night was young so Skellie cranked out more Skellies - this time the accursed Tomb Kings. Was sweating it as usual against TKs, losing a unit of Fiends to a chariot charge before a unit of Flesh Hounds at some Skeleton Archers and the Tomb King himself thank to some impressive ward-saving (and some poor luck on Glen's part). A short while later they were munching through the rest of the army and he had no answer to that or the Plaguebearers regenning the Chariot's attacks, or the Flamers barbecuing whatever they touched. Or the Bloodletters tearing the Bone Giant a new one. Brutal game.
Then I grabbed Ray's Daemons that he's using for Tin Soldiers. Ray and I had a already had a couple of games - one where he'd massacred a Warriors of Chaos list I'd thrown together (now there's an army book you need to practice with!) and one where I'd beaten him down with the dirty Runefang Dark Elf list. Thought I fancied my chances using the Daemons against Pommy Dave's Tin Soldier list (the High Elves masquerading as Wood Elves thing). Boy how wrong was I! Butchered pretty badly, only the Plaguebearers surived that little encounter! What really caught me was the lack of cheap redirectors and chasing units in Ray's list. I'd be a fan of having a couple of solo Fiends for those two jobs.
Next on the list of things to do was play Ray's Tin Soldier 2 Daemons using Reid's TS2 VCs - not a good matchup for the Vampires in this particular instance. Despite the bad matchup the Vampires walked away with a solid victory - the Daemons being left with 1 and 1/2 Flesh Hound (that's models, not units) in the end. What really made the game was a fresh and rather enormous unit of Zombies springing up which not only trapped some Flesh Hounds in combat but got right in the way of the Nurgle block who couldn't get into the action quick enough. By the time they touched something (Grave Guard) they were surrounded and the combat ended with Hellfire Banner Black Knights in the side, Ghouls in the rear and Grave Guard (and VC General in the front). Plaguebearers lost by 9 or so at one point and poof! Gone burger.
Last night it was decided Reid had better get a least one game in with his army before TS2 so he threw down against those damn dirty Dark Elves again. The Darkies put in a sterling effort and considerable overtime and the VCs were left with the Grave Guard and annoyingly unkillable Black Knights (and a BIG unit of raised Zombies). I'd lost the Black Guard and some Crossbowmen but looked on the board like a 15-5 win or thereabouts. This is all excellent stuff as I move closer to building/having/fielding my ownVC army later this year in preparation for DogCon 2010. Beating Reid is always pretty sweet too - once in a blue moon type stuff for me and a victory to savour :) I think he's got me 3-2 at the moment and one of those wins to me was sheer dumb luck (Empire vs Orcs - an unrecorded FluffyCon practice game where he failed a ld9 test in the last turn and a bunch of stuff ran off; basically I was on the ropes big time and the dice turned it around).
Then I grabbed Ray's Daemons that he's using for Tin Soldiers. Ray and I had a already had a couple of games - one where he'd massacred a Warriors of Chaos list I'd thrown together (now there's an army book you need to practice with!) and one where I'd beaten him down with the dirty Runefang Dark Elf list. Thought I fancied my chances using the Daemons against Pommy Dave's Tin Soldier list (the High Elves masquerading as Wood Elves thing). Boy how wrong was I! Butchered pretty badly, only the Plaguebearers surived that little encounter! What really caught me was the lack of cheap redirectors and chasing units in Ray's list. I'd be a fan of having a couple of solo Fiends for those two jobs.
Next on the list of things to do was play Ray's Tin Soldier 2 Daemons using Reid's TS2 VCs - not a good matchup for the Vampires in this particular instance. Despite the bad matchup the Vampires walked away with a solid victory - the Daemons being left with 1 and 1/2 Flesh Hound (that's models, not units) in the end. What really made the game was a fresh and rather enormous unit of Zombies springing up which not only trapped some Flesh Hounds in combat but got right in the way of the Nurgle block who couldn't get into the action quick enough. By the time they touched something (Grave Guard) they were surrounded and the combat ended with Hellfire Banner Black Knights in the side, Ghouls in the rear and Grave Guard (and VC General in the front). Plaguebearers lost by 9 or so at one point and poof! Gone burger.
Last night it was decided Reid had better get a least one game in with his army before TS2 so he threw down against those damn dirty Dark Elves again. The Darkies put in a sterling effort and considerable overtime and the VCs were left with the Grave Guard and annoyingly unkillable Black Knights (and a BIG unit of raised Zombies). I'd lost the Black Guard and some Crossbowmen but looked on the board like a 15-5 win or thereabouts. This is all excellent stuff as I move closer to building/having/fielding my ownVC army later this year in preparation for DogCon 2010. Beating Reid is always pretty sweet too - once in a blue moon type stuff for me and a victory to savour :) I think he's got me 3-2 at the moment and one of those wins to me was sheer dumb luck (Empire vs Orcs - an unrecorded FluffyCon practice game where he failed a ld9 test in the last turn and a bunch of stuff ran off; basically I was on the ropes big time and the dice turned it around).
The Runefang Files - Blogspot ate my Fecking Posts!!!
So I haven't been back for a while but had posted up reports of my games at Runefang 2. Thought I'd see if anyone's been reading the blog and left any comments. Lo and behold my posts for the other 4 games (!) have disappeared! What the hell?!
Had a little cry and decided I couldn't be assed rewriting the uber-essays that were the round 2-5 reports so here are the summaries (which hopefully stick to the site and don't randomly wander off into internetial oblivion).
Round 2 - Vampire Counts
Tough list with 2 Skellies block, big Grave Guard unit, 2 units of Zombies, 2 Corpse Carts, Wraiths with Banshee, big unit of Wolves. Drakenhof on BSB meant Grave Guard weren't going anywhere, Forbidden Lore on Vamp General meant magical fun times and an ethereal Vamp in the Wraith unit meant they had the potential to be quite a handful.
Cleaned up the Wolves first. Shot down one Zombie unit before charging it with Dark Riders and finishing it off easily (they had a banner so it was quite the bargain). Shot a Skellie unit to pieces and managed to shoot down a Corpse Cart. Manticore spent the game chasing around the Wraiths who feared the 5 str7 attacks I'd be inflicting in a challenge with either the Vamp or the Banshee. Black Guard discovered how hard the glass ceiling is - taking on the regenning Grave Guard was only going to end one way. Was a bit hacked off at my stupidity in this regard - should have bailed the BSB from the unit and hidden in a nearby forest or just led the Grave Guard around by the nose. Hydra and Spear block did for the other Zombie unit (and another banner). Last turn lost the Hydra to a barrage of fire magic from the VC General which was highly annoying (he just managed to kill it) but not before it had eaten the other Corpse Cart. Vampires were left with the unkillable Grave Guard bunkering the Lord and BSB and a unit of Skeletons. 12-8 win to me.
Round 3 - Anvil Dwarfs
2 units of Quarellers, Organ Gun, Rune of Forging Cannon, big Hammerers, little Hammerers, big Longbeards and a couple of small Warrior units and of course the fecking Anvil or Stupid Doom. Blew through some Warriors and the little Hammerer unit and the Back Guard buried themselves in the big Hammerer unit for most of the game, eventually killing them all off and chasing down the Dwarf BSB. Hyrda Terrored off the Longbeards and ended up eating them in a later combat. Useless DE General got stuck into the Runelord and after 4 rounds of combat managed not only to NOT kill him but also lose the Manticore and break. My last turn he fails to rally. Dwarf's last turn the powered up Anvil kills the remaining Black Guard (BSB left alive on one wound!), the Hydra (gah!) and a unit of Dark Riders. Ass. 12-8 win which could (should) have been a sweet sweet victory (had the Runelord died when he was supposed to it would have been in the bag I reckon... probably looking at an 18-2 win).
Round 4 - Lizards
Very nice and well-balanced Lizardmen list from Greg Rae who is just getting into Fantasy - good player and a very enjoyable game. Engine, Slann, 2 units of Terradons, lots of skirmishing Skinks, two one-Salamander units, 2 Krox units, 2 Saurus Spear units, Jag Charm Scar-Vet. Nice list but didn't help convince me Lizards should be in tier 4 :) Close game with some cagey play from Greg, lots of fleeing from charges. Good ol' three-dice leadership tests were awesome - reminded me why I enjoyed playing with Lizards so much. Made a big mistake with the Cow, charging the Engine (trying to kill the Priest). Fluffed big time and was fortunate to hold for ages after Saurus charged me in the flank but eventually broke and run down. Game kinda petered out a little in the end but otherwise very very good fun and probably the most enjoyable game of the weekend. 11-9 loss.
Round 5 - Dwarfs
Fast becoming NOT a fan of playing Dwarfs. This one had a Flame Cannon and Organ Gun, 2 units of Quarrellers, big blocks of Slayers, Hammerers and Ironbreakers, Shieldbearer Lord, BSB, Runesmith in a block of Warriors, Miners. Felt a bit sorry for my opponent as a dismembered a unit in each turn. Highlight was a combo charge against the Ironbreakers - Spearmen in the front, Black Guard in the flank, Cow in the rear. Won by 11 and ran them down with Black Guard hitting 5 surviving Slayers (after shooting casualties), Cow flew off the table, and Spears pursued ready to come around and hit Quarrellers later in the flank. Only thing left in the end was the Hammerers and Lord (was never going to try that one on) and 2 Miners. If the Miners had broken to the last charge it would have been 20-0. As it was happy to finish with a 19-1 win.
30% + tier 2 + hardass army meant I got absolutely comp-hammered out of any kind of contention. Maths was right though - a 15-5 win average would have seen me just about podium. As it was placed 24th out of 32 (?) players.
Was VERY flattered to receive Best Sportsmanship with 4 of my 5 opponents voting me their favourite player. This is an amazing award to get in a tournament as it is essentially the only element of the event judged by the participants themselves. Very very cool and very pleased to receive it. Nice to see an example of a bastard army not spoiling sports scores which is a theory put out by some people after recent events.
Overall had a helluva good time. Met some wonderful people down in Wellington and even the skin-heads (Hagen et al) managed to impress. HUGE thanks to Pete Dunn who put myself, Nick Irvine and Neil Williamson up in the palatial mansion that is Che Pete - very cool place. Kudos to the winners of the event - a great bunch of guys and I'd very much like to get down that way again in the future.
Had a little cry and decided I couldn't be assed rewriting the uber-essays that were the round 2-5 reports so here are the summaries (which hopefully stick to the site and don't randomly wander off into internetial oblivion).
Round 2 - Vampire Counts
Tough list with 2 Skellies block, big Grave Guard unit, 2 units of Zombies, 2 Corpse Carts, Wraiths with Banshee, big unit of Wolves. Drakenhof on BSB meant Grave Guard weren't going anywhere, Forbidden Lore on Vamp General meant magical fun times and an ethereal Vamp in the Wraith unit meant they had the potential to be quite a handful.
Cleaned up the Wolves first. Shot down one Zombie unit before charging it with Dark Riders and finishing it off easily (they had a banner so it was quite the bargain). Shot a Skellie unit to pieces and managed to shoot down a Corpse Cart. Manticore spent the game chasing around the Wraiths who feared the 5 str7 attacks I'd be inflicting in a challenge with either the Vamp or the Banshee. Black Guard discovered how hard the glass ceiling is - taking on the regenning Grave Guard was only going to end one way. Was a bit hacked off at my stupidity in this regard - should have bailed the BSB from the unit and hidden in a nearby forest or just led the Grave Guard around by the nose. Hydra and Spear block did for the other Zombie unit (and another banner). Last turn lost the Hydra to a barrage of fire magic from the VC General which was highly annoying (he just managed to kill it) but not before it had eaten the other Corpse Cart. Vampires were left with the unkillable Grave Guard bunkering the Lord and BSB and a unit of Skeletons. 12-8 win to me.
Round 3 - Anvil Dwarfs
2 units of Quarellers, Organ Gun, Rune of Forging Cannon, big Hammerers, little Hammerers, big Longbeards and a couple of small Warrior units and of course the fecking Anvil or Stupid Doom. Blew through some Warriors and the little Hammerer unit and the Back Guard buried themselves in the big Hammerer unit for most of the game, eventually killing them all off and chasing down the Dwarf BSB. Hyrda Terrored off the Longbeards and ended up eating them in a later combat. Useless DE General got stuck into the Runelord and after 4 rounds of combat managed not only to NOT kill him but also lose the Manticore and break. My last turn he fails to rally. Dwarf's last turn the powered up Anvil kills the remaining Black Guard (BSB left alive on one wound!), the Hydra (gah!) and a unit of Dark Riders. Ass. 12-8 win which could (should) have been a sweet sweet victory (had the Runelord died when he was supposed to it would have been in the bag I reckon... probably looking at an 18-2 win).
Round 4 - Lizards
Very nice and well-balanced Lizardmen list from Greg Rae who is just getting into Fantasy - good player and a very enjoyable game. Engine, Slann, 2 units of Terradons, lots of skirmishing Skinks, two one-Salamander units, 2 Krox units, 2 Saurus Spear units, Jag Charm Scar-Vet. Nice list but didn't help convince me Lizards should be in tier 4 :) Close game with some cagey play from Greg, lots of fleeing from charges. Good ol' three-dice leadership tests were awesome - reminded me why I enjoyed playing with Lizards so much. Made a big mistake with the Cow, charging the Engine (trying to kill the Priest). Fluffed big time and was fortunate to hold for ages after Saurus charged me in the flank but eventually broke and run down. Game kinda petered out a little in the end but otherwise very very good fun and probably the most enjoyable game of the weekend. 11-9 loss.
Round 5 - Dwarfs
Fast becoming NOT a fan of playing Dwarfs. This one had a Flame Cannon and Organ Gun, 2 units of Quarrellers, big blocks of Slayers, Hammerers and Ironbreakers, Shieldbearer Lord, BSB, Runesmith in a block of Warriors, Miners. Felt a bit sorry for my opponent as a dismembered a unit in each turn. Highlight was a combo charge against the Ironbreakers - Spearmen in the front, Black Guard in the flank, Cow in the rear. Won by 11 and ran them down with Black Guard hitting 5 surviving Slayers (after shooting casualties), Cow flew off the table, and Spears pursued ready to come around and hit Quarrellers later in the flank. Only thing left in the end was the Hammerers and Lord (was never going to try that one on) and 2 Miners. If the Miners had broken to the last charge it would have been 20-0. As it was happy to finish with a 19-1 win.
30% + tier 2 + hardass army meant I got absolutely comp-hammered out of any kind of contention. Maths was right though - a 15-5 win average would have seen me just about podium. As it was placed 24th out of 32 (?) players.
Was VERY flattered to receive Best Sportsmanship with 4 of my 5 opponents voting me their favourite player. This is an amazing award to get in a tournament as it is essentially the only element of the event judged by the participants themselves. Very very cool and very pleased to receive it. Nice to see an example of a bastard army not spoiling sports scores which is a theory put out by some people after recent events.
Overall had a helluva good time. Met some wonderful people down in Wellington and even the skin-heads (Hagen et al) managed to impress. HUGE thanks to Pete Dunn who put myself, Nick Irvine and Neil Williamson up in the palatial mansion that is Che Pete - very cool place. Kudos to the winners of the event - a great bunch of guys and I'd very much like to get down that way again in the future.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
The Runefang Files – Round One GRUDGE vs Skaven (Pete Dunn)
Well I was most surprised and a little flattered to find that Pete Dunn was keen to grudge me, ensuring that we finally met on the battlefield and wouldn't be dodging each other thanks to ill-luck with the draw in this tournament. Some serious research (reading his blog) and asking around (Reid) led me to predict what he was taking (for all the good it did me) with a high degree of accuracy. Outside of the absence of the ubiquitous Ratling Guns it was a fairly standard go at the Skaven horde concept replete with acres of crap to wade through (Slaves), ridiculous throwaway deployments (2 units of 2 Globadiers), the twins (2 Warlocks with kit including Storm Daemon and Dispel Scroll), and the Skaven Deathstar (term used lightly) – fully ranked Stormvermin with Warbanner and BSB with banner of +2 for outnumber (total of static 8). With a cowering Warlord reluctantly radiating ld7 (boosted via ranks to ld10) I wasn’t expecting much from Terror and Fear checks in this game and I think all up Pete failed just one Panic check in the whole game! Psychology schmychology!
Realising I would be finished deploying long before Pete had put anything worthwhile down I went for a central deployment, placing the blocks behind a hill and some light stuff and hitty monsters more towards the right. Pete practically castled his entire army in his left hand corner (barring a unit of Clanrats on the other flank who spent the game sneaking forward through a forest to contest a quarter), behind and around a couple of hills, one of which rather handily included a patch of forest for his Warp Lightning Cannon to hide in. I wasn’t exactly within striking distance of anything but was reasonably happy with how things looked. Tunneller markers went in front of the Reapers and to the right of a forest in my zone next to some Harpies and Dark Riders. On reflection I should have put the Hydra on the left flank and wandered through the forest but at least where it was he had to make a choice about what to shoot - the Hydra or the Cow.
I came forward like a bat (Harpy?) out of hell and motored straight up the guts with practically everything. Harpies flew to get in the way of Jezzail fire to save some Dark Riders while everything else pushed up the middle towards a hill behind which was lurking the aforementioned Jezzails, a BIG block of Plaguemonks and accompanying Censer Bearers, and of course some chaff (Slaves). A pittance of shooting culled a few Clanrats from the abundantly fleshed out hill-fortress on Pete’s left which he happily removed, safe in the knowledge there was plenty more where they came from. My Crossbow shooting was neutralized by several small hills on the left and a massive forest on the far left. In fact my shooting had (unsurprisingly) very little effect on the game but the Reapers and Crossbowmen did all survive so at least I wasn’t bleeding points (in that area at least!).
Pete hung back behind the hill and started to position Slave units for maximum annoyance value. Warp Lightning magic drew dice and probably a scroll while the Warp Lightning Cannon did what it said on the box – a tremendous str10 blast carving 4 wounds off the Hydra (feck! Ouch!).
Suddenly not rating my chances of the Hydra surviving beyond a few more seconds I chucked it forward and crossed my fingers. The Cow maneuvered to get a sneaky charge angle on some Clanrats and everything else hoofed it forward fast. A unit of Harpies and some Dark Riders whacked into the front of some Slaves who held and to my great dismay actually saw the Dark Elf forces off in the following turn ☹ I made quite an error at this point with the facing of a unit of Crossbowmen who were charged by some Slaves. With the Elf General and BSB nearby I had no problem at all holding and was able to counter-charge the Slaves with the other Crossbow unit and get rid of them but this cost the Black Guard a vital turn of movement.
In Pete’s turn the Slaves hit the Crossbows, stalling my advance which would cost me later. A mighty str2 shot from the Warp Lightning Cannon was enough to take down the Hydra (groan) leaving one Handler alive to play the diverting game. A unit of Tunnelling Gutter Runners came up and decided to play with the Shades, killing two before being butchered in return, the surviving rat forcing the Shades to pursue back towards my deployment zone. The other unit decided discretion was the better part of valour (or cowardice) and widely kept their heads below ground (Pete rolled a misfire – the rats didn’t come on and I didn’t get any VPs for them either. Kind of win-win). I managed to contain the Warp Lightning one last time at the cost of my second scroll.
Having suffered the attentions of the Reaper Bolt Throwers a reduced strength Clanrat unit took a giant Cow in the front. The Elf General laid about himself with wanton abandon but with the Skaven General and BSB literally an inch away the Clanrats didn’t budge. Bugger. With a unit of Censer Bearers looking to be in range (nevermind the Jezzails who were all too willing to shoot into the combat!) my General looked to be in a spot of trouble. A unit of Crossbows hit the Slaves that were tying up the other unit in the flank and broke them easily but in a quirk of fate the Slaves, fleeing from the highest unit strength, unit actually ran sideways along the length of the board, escaping the frustrated Dark Elves.
In went the Censer Bearers, only one having the range to actually make contact. The awkward conga line of lunatic flail-wavers hemmed in the Stormvermin who, as a further contingency to Skaven ineptitude, reformed to face the Cow should the Censer Bearers stuff things up. Shooting into combat Pete managed to take a wound from the Cow before the Bearer in combat whiffed. Both units took a beating from the Cow and Elf General but while the Bearers broke the accursed Clanrats held again. I had one more turn to make the magic happen and save my boss from a static 9 flank charge.
Sighting Slaves (both fleeing and non-fleeing) all over the place I declared a flurry of charges – Black Guard into one unit feeing from the previous combat who scarpered through their mates and of the board, Spearmen and Harpies into another who also scarpered off the board. By great good fortune this allowed the Harpies to hit the fleeing Censer Bearers who buggered off too before they could rally and cause me more grief. The sorely tested Dark Elf General finally broke the Clanrats (who needed 5s with a reroll – not a sure thing by any means) and pursued them off the board). Yay! This panicked the Warp Lightning Cannon which spent several turns fleeing in different directions before rallying itself in Pete’s last turn. The only serious concern I had now was that when he returned to the board my General had to choose between facing the twins and their warp lightning spells, or the Jezzails and their shooty death. Dang.
With the Harpies bearing down on them the decision of what to shoot was an easy one for the Jezzails and the flying harridans were annihilated in short order. Pete finally began pushing forward on the left with confidence in numbers canceling out his fear of my shooting the left flank. The rats milled around waiting for the Cow to make it’s grand entrance and face shooty/magic death.
I started my turning by sportingly asking Pete if I could just leave the Cow off the table. He declined ☺ and I decided to move it behind a hill so it was “only” facing a couple of Warp Lightning spells. The Black Guard crested the hill in Pete’s deployment zone ready to mess something up good in the next turn (we were at turn 5 by this point). I made my second really big mistake here and again it was to do with the facing of a unit. The Plaguemonks, being Frenzied, would be forced to charge the Black Guard on their hill. Likely to lose they would flee and I would have to pursue but unfortunately, while I was likely chase them off the board the pursuit wasn’t going to take me into the Stormvermin who I DESPERATELY wanted to get my hands on.
Pete’s turn and he was somewhat surprised (and disappointed) to realise the Plaguemonks had to go in. Taking 9 casualties on the charge they lost combat by something hideous (I think 14 - 3 ranks, standard, BSB, hill, outumber, kills vs 3 ranks and a standard or something like that) and broke. The Black Guard pursued and forced the Jezzails to flee the table too but the writing was on the wall at this point. The Stormvermin were not tempted in the slightest to try it on with the Black Guard and they finished the game a few inches away facing each other and hurling childish insults. On the flank my worst fears were realized and the Cow was gunned down by 12 (that’s a double 6 for hits people!) hits from Warp Lightning. The boss held the banner he’d captured and survived the game by skirting around the edges of a Clanrat unit.
In the end the battle kind of petered out and much jeering was made by onlookers of Pete’s decision not to fire the Warp Lightning Cannon in the last turn (sorry, it must have rallied in turn 5 – hazy memory) and by me because he wouldn’t charge the Black Guard with the Stormvermin (Pete’s not an idiot ☺). He’d dealt out a fair bit of damage and when the dust settled and the calculations were complete I’d snatchd up a 12-8 win (Pete's only loss of the weekend). Given the differences in our armies I’d say Pete did bloody well out of that little encounter! I enjoyed the game immensely – the army, the player, the mad dice – great Warhammer and an outstanding first game for the tournament!
I had the funny feeling I might have come off better in this encounter if I'd had my Empire lads with me. Sure did miss that Mortar!
Realising I would be finished deploying long before Pete had put anything worthwhile down I went for a central deployment, placing the blocks behind a hill and some light stuff and hitty monsters more towards the right. Pete practically castled his entire army in his left hand corner (barring a unit of Clanrats on the other flank who spent the game sneaking forward through a forest to contest a quarter), behind and around a couple of hills, one of which rather handily included a patch of forest for his Warp Lightning Cannon to hide in. I wasn’t exactly within striking distance of anything but was reasonably happy with how things looked. Tunneller markers went in front of the Reapers and to the right of a forest in my zone next to some Harpies and Dark Riders. On reflection I should have put the Hydra on the left flank and wandered through the forest but at least where it was he had to make a choice about what to shoot - the Hydra or the Cow.
I came forward like a bat (Harpy?) out of hell and motored straight up the guts with practically everything. Harpies flew to get in the way of Jezzail fire to save some Dark Riders while everything else pushed up the middle towards a hill behind which was lurking the aforementioned Jezzails, a BIG block of Plaguemonks and accompanying Censer Bearers, and of course some chaff (Slaves). A pittance of shooting culled a few Clanrats from the abundantly fleshed out hill-fortress on Pete’s left which he happily removed, safe in the knowledge there was plenty more where they came from. My Crossbow shooting was neutralized by several small hills on the left and a massive forest on the far left. In fact my shooting had (unsurprisingly) very little effect on the game but the Reapers and Crossbowmen did all survive so at least I wasn’t bleeding points (in that area at least!).
Pete hung back behind the hill and started to position Slave units for maximum annoyance value. Warp Lightning magic drew dice and probably a scroll while the Warp Lightning Cannon did what it said on the box – a tremendous str10 blast carving 4 wounds off the Hydra (feck! Ouch!).
Suddenly not rating my chances of the Hydra surviving beyond a few more seconds I chucked it forward and crossed my fingers. The Cow maneuvered to get a sneaky charge angle on some Clanrats and everything else hoofed it forward fast. A unit of Harpies and some Dark Riders whacked into the front of some Slaves who held and to my great dismay actually saw the Dark Elf forces off in the following turn ☹ I made quite an error at this point with the facing of a unit of Crossbowmen who were charged by some Slaves. With the Elf General and BSB nearby I had no problem at all holding and was able to counter-charge the Slaves with the other Crossbow unit and get rid of them but this cost the Black Guard a vital turn of movement.
In Pete’s turn the Slaves hit the Crossbows, stalling my advance which would cost me later. A mighty str2 shot from the Warp Lightning Cannon was enough to take down the Hydra (groan) leaving one Handler alive to play the diverting game. A unit of Tunnelling Gutter Runners came up and decided to play with the Shades, killing two before being butchered in return, the surviving rat forcing the Shades to pursue back towards my deployment zone. The other unit decided discretion was the better part of valour (or cowardice) and widely kept their heads below ground (Pete rolled a misfire – the rats didn’t come on and I didn’t get any VPs for them either. Kind of win-win). I managed to contain the Warp Lightning one last time at the cost of my second scroll.
Having suffered the attentions of the Reaper Bolt Throwers a reduced strength Clanrat unit took a giant Cow in the front. The Elf General laid about himself with wanton abandon but with the Skaven General and BSB literally an inch away the Clanrats didn’t budge. Bugger. With a unit of Censer Bearers looking to be in range (nevermind the Jezzails who were all too willing to shoot into the combat!) my General looked to be in a spot of trouble. A unit of Crossbows hit the Slaves that were tying up the other unit in the flank and broke them easily but in a quirk of fate the Slaves, fleeing from the highest unit strength, unit actually ran sideways along the length of the board, escaping the frustrated Dark Elves.
In went the Censer Bearers, only one having the range to actually make contact. The awkward conga line of lunatic flail-wavers hemmed in the Stormvermin who, as a further contingency to Skaven ineptitude, reformed to face the Cow should the Censer Bearers stuff things up. Shooting into combat Pete managed to take a wound from the Cow before the Bearer in combat whiffed. Both units took a beating from the Cow and Elf General but while the Bearers broke the accursed Clanrats held again. I had one more turn to make the magic happen and save my boss from a static 9 flank charge.
Sighting Slaves (both fleeing and non-fleeing) all over the place I declared a flurry of charges – Black Guard into one unit feeing from the previous combat who scarpered through their mates and of the board, Spearmen and Harpies into another who also scarpered off the board. By great good fortune this allowed the Harpies to hit the fleeing Censer Bearers who buggered off too before they could rally and cause me more grief. The sorely tested Dark Elf General finally broke the Clanrats (who needed 5s with a reroll – not a sure thing by any means) and pursued them off the board). Yay! This panicked the Warp Lightning Cannon which spent several turns fleeing in different directions before rallying itself in Pete’s last turn. The only serious concern I had now was that when he returned to the board my General had to choose between facing the twins and their warp lightning spells, or the Jezzails and their shooty death. Dang.
With the Harpies bearing down on them the decision of what to shoot was an easy one for the Jezzails and the flying harridans were annihilated in short order. Pete finally began pushing forward on the left with confidence in numbers canceling out his fear of my shooting the left flank. The rats milled around waiting for the Cow to make it’s grand entrance and face shooty/magic death.
I started my turning by sportingly asking Pete if I could just leave the Cow off the table. He declined ☺ and I decided to move it behind a hill so it was “only” facing a couple of Warp Lightning spells. The Black Guard crested the hill in Pete’s deployment zone ready to mess something up good in the next turn (we were at turn 5 by this point). I made my second really big mistake here and again it was to do with the facing of a unit. The Plaguemonks, being Frenzied, would be forced to charge the Black Guard on their hill. Likely to lose they would flee and I would have to pursue but unfortunately, while I was likely chase them off the board the pursuit wasn’t going to take me into the Stormvermin who I DESPERATELY wanted to get my hands on.
Pete’s turn and he was somewhat surprised (and disappointed) to realise the Plaguemonks had to go in. Taking 9 casualties on the charge they lost combat by something hideous (I think 14 - 3 ranks, standard, BSB, hill, outumber, kills vs 3 ranks and a standard or something like that) and broke. The Black Guard pursued and forced the Jezzails to flee the table too but the writing was on the wall at this point. The Stormvermin were not tempted in the slightest to try it on with the Black Guard and they finished the game a few inches away facing each other and hurling childish insults. On the flank my worst fears were realized and the Cow was gunned down by 12 (that’s a double 6 for hits people!) hits from Warp Lightning. The boss held the banner he’d captured and survived the game by skirting around the edges of a Clanrat unit.
In the end the battle kind of petered out and much jeering was made by onlookers of Pete’s decision not to fire the Warp Lightning Cannon in the last turn (sorry, it must have rallied in turn 5 – hazy memory) and by me because he wouldn’t charge the Black Guard with the Stormvermin (Pete’s not an idiot ☺). He’d dealt out a fair bit of damage and when the dust settled and the calculations were complete I’d snatchd up a 12-8 win (Pete's only loss of the weekend). Given the differences in our armies I’d say Pete did bloody well out of that little encounter! I enjoyed the game immensely – the army, the player, the mad dice – great Warhammer and an outstanding first game for the tournament!
I had the funny feeling I might have come off better in this encounter if I'd had my Empire lads with me. Sure did miss that Mortar!
The Runefang Files - Introduction
Long-term readers of this less than esteemed and august blog will recall the disastrous non-trip to Wellington last year that “Pommy” Dave Grant and myself unwillingly endured. After we were done with catastrophic mechanical malfunctions (both auto and aero), postponed by inevitably misbooked flights, and I suffered a last minute lost (but not actually lost) wallet that pushed me to the brink of the limits of human endurance and sanity I was left with a credit with my favourite airline (not) for a flight that I had to book within a year of the biggest cockup in recent airline history.
I spent some time casting around for a decent event to attend while simultaneously fending off my wife who was quite keen to get her hands on a plane ticket for whatever heinous shopping exploration she had planned. Fortunately for me the Wellington lads felt it necessary to run a tournament at zero hour and I was able to book in at a reasonable cost a tenuously reliable flight to Wellywood to take part in Runefang II (there’s not a few sequels scheduled to come out this year including Tin Soldier 2, Horned Rat 2 and Skitterleap 2 – lets hope the traditional shoddy byproduct of an excellent original is not a trend set in concrete as established by Hollywood moguls interested only in making a quick buck with a poorly thought-out, ill-conceived epilogue to the real story that is any first movie… sorry… disgressus maximus…). Having also found a willing and gullible travel buddy in one Nick Irvine (aka Always Wood Elves Nick aka Captain Soft Scores) the weekend was shaping up to be quite the adventure.
4:30 bloody AM saw me up and at ‘em, pick up Nick on the way through to the airport. With Welly airport closed the previous day due to typically inviting weather and my previous experiences with Pacific Blue weighing heavily on my mind I was most surprised to actually make it to Wellington not only in one piece but only 15 minutes late. Nice! Half a paycheck worth of taxi ride through the mental rabbit warren that is the Wellington CBD and hill suburb of Khandallah later and we arrived at the obscurely placed Khandallah Scout Hall, filled to overflowing with keen gamers and as diverse a range of armies as you could hope to encounter. Feeling I was obviously at an advantage for already being awake for 4 hours (unlike the luckless locals who probably woke up 15 minutes before they needed to be at the venue – poor bastards) I set about conquering the Wellington upstarts, ready and willing to demolish anything that crossed my path with by far and away the dirtiest list I have ever (maybe will ever) take to a Warhammer Fantasy tournament.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the army:
As mentioned previously (and as evidenced by previous posts - take some time to have a read and wander through the archives if you’re new to all this) I’m quite the army whore. Don’t tell my wife (please PLEASE don’t tell her!) but I’m finding it extraordinarily difficult to stick to using one army (I recently tried a couple of games using Daemons – oh… my…goodness!). The upshot of having great friends who don’t mind (much) that you’re pilfering their prized plastic is that you get to experience the spice of life by playin a range of armies. Pete made the comment that (one) reason he quite liked Fantasy (compared to say… 40k) is that the armies really are VERY diverse and quite unique. It’s not just the fact that you don’t face Space Marines every other round – rather, between (and even within) army books you can encounter and experience startling differences resulting in innumerable subtle strategic and tactical distinctions. For this reason (and because Ray opened a cupboard at exactly the wrong moment, allowing me to see a choppy little chap sitting on a Manticore) I felt obliged to give Dark Elves a shot.
Having used Lizards, Dwarfs, Empire and Brettonians previously in both friendly and competitive games I found myself utterly compelled to have a hit out with something Elven in nature. Dark Elves naturally are one of the more recent flavours of the month and my good mate Ray happened to have a painted army on hand and was generous enough to allow me to use it. Sold.
I spent a week putting some list options together and playing a few games. Whether by universal design or newness to the list I found myself always drawn back to a couple of things:
- Hydras are absolutely f**king brokenly awesome. For 175pts you’re either mad or stubbornly fluff-driven not to take one. They should be coming in at 210pts plus (much better than a Giant in my opinion).
- Reaper Bolt Throwers are stupidly good. 4s to hit at long range? Str4 Armour Piercing? Ho-ly crap.
- Are Black Guard really that good? Yes, I’m afraid so (if they don’t get shot to pieces before they hit in combat). I had to take them. In fact I had to give them the ASF banner too. Oh, and a Crimson Death for the Champion. Oh and better put the BSB in this unit with a Great Weapon. Madness (I’d fallen right off the wagon by this point).
- Harpies are just about the best thing ever. 55pts for 5 flying, baiting and fleeing, two attack, march-blocking pains in the ass? Big yes. Two units please. Chuck in a couple of units of Dark Riders too while you’re at it.
- Failing 3 Stupidity checks in one game gave me reason enough to drop all the Cold One elements from the list.
- I’ve really taken a big flying Terror causer before. Ok yes I mucked around with a Hippogryph for a while when I was using Bretts but Hippos are shite. To be honest the Manticore wasn’t too much better but the Dreadlord on top with Pendant (broken) and Sword of Battle + Potion of Strength (to bust out 5 str attacks with Hatred when I feel the need) was/is the business and kinda sealed the deal. I ALMOST went with a Black Dragon. Almost. Damn but I was close to taking a Dragon. Scary how easy it is to compromise your morals with Dark Elves. Maybe I was just playing in character?
So what did I end up with? An army that pretty much ticked every red light box you possibly can if you’re taking Dark Elves! I felt a bit guilty using such a nasty list but given the 30% comp weighting at Runefang II also felt I’d have my work cut out for me needing to overcome the train wreck that would doubtless be my comp score with smooth moves, mad skills and a consistent performance on the battlefield. I’ve never been put in this position before as my comp score inevitably compensates for my shoddy generalship. Usually.
Here’s what I took:
Dreadlord – Pendant, Sword of Battle, Potion of Strength, Sea Dragon Cloak, mundane armour (enough to get a 2+ save vs shooting), Cow (Manticore)
BSB – 1+ save armour, Ring of Hotek (wait till you read about the game I had vs a Slann and Priest on Engine… at once awesome and hideously disappointing)
Sorceress with 2 Scrolls (caddy. Might have cast one spell over the 5 games)
2 x 5 Dark Riders – Spears, Uzis, Muso
2 x 5 Harpies
20 Spears with full command and Warbanner
2 x 10 Crossbowmen
15 Black Guard – Hag Graef (ASF), Crimson Death on Champion, no musician
6 Shades
2 Reaper Bolt Throwers
Hydra
Geez that was it. Damn it looks small now but there’s a hard core of badness in there ☺
On reflection I would have changed some stuff (I won’t be taking them to a tournament again so this is just wishful thinking and wistful musing):
- drop the Ring and try some more magic; it’s a fun Lore and I didn’t get to flex Power of Darkness at all
- put the boss on a Dark Steed – the Cow was dead weight and though it sounds naff I just found it to be too soft (looks good though!)
- take an Assassin. They look like wicked fun!
Other than that the list was great, I mean come on – I took all the best stuff right?
Next up... Round One GRUDGE vs Pete Dunn!
I spent some time casting around for a decent event to attend while simultaneously fending off my wife who was quite keen to get her hands on a plane ticket for whatever heinous shopping exploration she had planned. Fortunately for me the Wellington lads felt it necessary to run a tournament at zero hour and I was able to book in at a reasonable cost a tenuously reliable flight to Wellywood to take part in Runefang II (there’s not a few sequels scheduled to come out this year including Tin Soldier 2, Horned Rat 2 and Skitterleap 2 – lets hope the traditional shoddy byproduct of an excellent original is not a trend set in concrete as established by Hollywood moguls interested only in making a quick buck with a poorly thought-out, ill-conceived epilogue to the real story that is any first movie… sorry… disgressus maximus…). Having also found a willing and gullible travel buddy in one Nick Irvine (aka Always Wood Elves Nick aka Captain Soft Scores) the weekend was shaping up to be quite the adventure.
4:30 bloody AM saw me up and at ‘em, pick up Nick on the way through to the airport. With Welly airport closed the previous day due to typically inviting weather and my previous experiences with Pacific Blue weighing heavily on my mind I was most surprised to actually make it to Wellington not only in one piece but only 15 minutes late. Nice! Half a paycheck worth of taxi ride through the mental rabbit warren that is the Wellington CBD and hill suburb of Khandallah later and we arrived at the obscurely placed Khandallah Scout Hall, filled to overflowing with keen gamers and as diverse a range of armies as you could hope to encounter. Feeling I was obviously at an advantage for already being awake for 4 hours (unlike the luckless locals who probably woke up 15 minutes before they needed to be at the venue – poor bastards) I set about conquering the Wellington upstarts, ready and willing to demolish anything that crossed my path with by far and away the dirtiest list I have ever (maybe will ever) take to a Warhammer Fantasy tournament.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, the army:
As mentioned previously (and as evidenced by previous posts - take some time to have a read and wander through the archives if you’re new to all this) I’m quite the army whore. Don’t tell my wife (please PLEASE don’t tell her!) but I’m finding it extraordinarily difficult to stick to using one army (I recently tried a couple of games using Daemons – oh… my…goodness!). The upshot of having great friends who don’t mind (much) that you’re pilfering their prized plastic is that you get to experience the spice of life by playin a range of armies. Pete made the comment that (one) reason he quite liked Fantasy (compared to say… 40k) is that the armies really are VERY diverse and quite unique. It’s not just the fact that you don’t face Space Marines every other round – rather, between (and even within) army books you can encounter and experience startling differences resulting in innumerable subtle strategic and tactical distinctions. For this reason (and because Ray opened a cupboard at exactly the wrong moment, allowing me to see a choppy little chap sitting on a Manticore) I felt obliged to give Dark Elves a shot.
Having used Lizards, Dwarfs, Empire and Brettonians previously in both friendly and competitive games I found myself utterly compelled to have a hit out with something Elven in nature. Dark Elves naturally are one of the more recent flavours of the month and my good mate Ray happened to have a painted army on hand and was generous enough to allow me to use it. Sold.
I spent a week putting some list options together and playing a few games. Whether by universal design or newness to the list I found myself always drawn back to a couple of things:
- Hydras are absolutely f**king brokenly awesome. For 175pts you’re either mad or stubbornly fluff-driven not to take one. They should be coming in at 210pts plus (much better than a Giant in my opinion).
- Reaper Bolt Throwers are stupidly good. 4s to hit at long range? Str4 Armour Piercing? Ho-ly crap.
- Are Black Guard really that good? Yes, I’m afraid so (if they don’t get shot to pieces before they hit in combat). I had to take them. In fact I had to give them the ASF banner too. Oh, and a Crimson Death for the Champion. Oh and better put the BSB in this unit with a Great Weapon. Madness (I’d fallen right off the wagon by this point).
- Harpies are just about the best thing ever. 55pts for 5 flying, baiting and fleeing, two attack, march-blocking pains in the ass? Big yes. Two units please. Chuck in a couple of units of Dark Riders too while you’re at it.
- Failing 3 Stupidity checks in one game gave me reason enough to drop all the Cold One elements from the list.
- I’ve really taken a big flying Terror causer before. Ok yes I mucked around with a Hippogryph for a while when I was using Bretts but Hippos are shite. To be honest the Manticore wasn’t too much better but the Dreadlord on top with Pendant (broken) and Sword of Battle + Potion of Strength (to bust out 5 str attacks with Hatred when I feel the need) was/is the business and kinda sealed the deal. I ALMOST went with a Black Dragon. Almost. Damn but I was close to taking a Dragon. Scary how easy it is to compromise your morals with Dark Elves. Maybe I was just playing in character?
So what did I end up with? An army that pretty much ticked every red light box you possibly can if you’re taking Dark Elves! I felt a bit guilty using such a nasty list but given the 30% comp weighting at Runefang II also felt I’d have my work cut out for me needing to overcome the train wreck that would doubtless be my comp score with smooth moves, mad skills and a consistent performance on the battlefield. I’ve never been put in this position before as my comp score inevitably compensates for my shoddy generalship. Usually.
Here’s what I took:
Dreadlord – Pendant, Sword of Battle, Potion of Strength, Sea Dragon Cloak, mundane armour (enough to get a 2+ save vs shooting), Cow (Manticore)
BSB – 1+ save armour, Ring of Hotek (wait till you read about the game I had vs a Slann and Priest on Engine… at once awesome and hideously disappointing)
Sorceress with 2 Scrolls (caddy. Might have cast one spell over the 5 games)
2 x 5 Dark Riders – Spears, Uzis, Muso
2 x 5 Harpies
20 Spears with full command and Warbanner
2 x 10 Crossbowmen
15 Black Guard – Hag Graef (ASF), Crimson Death on Champion, no musician
6 Shades
2 Reaper Bolt Throwers
Hydra
Geez that was it. Damn it looks small now but there’s a hard core of badness in there ☺
On reflection I would have changed some stuff (I won’t be taking them to a tournament again so this is just wishful thinking and wistful musing):
- drop the Ring and try some more magic; it’s a fun Lore and I didn’t get to flex Power of Darkness at all
- put the boss on a Dark Steed – the Cow was dead weight and though it sounds naff I just found it to be too soft (looks good though!)
- take an Assassin. They look like wicked fun!
Other than that the list was great, I mean come on – I took all the best stuff right?
Next up... Round One GRUDGE vs Pete Dunn!
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Where to from here?
Time for something different I reckon. The Empire are still a strong option for me and I'm still having great fun with the list but for Runefang II it's going to have to be something really different.
Maybe... Dark Elves?
Of course it has to be Dark Elves! Reckoning that the bandwagon is still running hot and fast I've jumped on-board, borrowed Ray's sneering pointy-ears, bashed together a dirty list and sought as many play-testing games as I can before Runefang happens and my plans for world/Wellington domination blow up in my face like a shoddy and unreliable Great Cannon.
The list is certainly very different to what I would normally be using with the Empire (or indeed any army with which I've had previous experience). The Hydra is incredible (and great fun to use!), Reaper Bolt Throwers are almost unbelievable, Shades can be good value (not that I've discovered so far but I'm hoping I can figure out how to use them), and the characters have really supplied me with something quite beyond what I'm used to fielding. Harpies are a hoot - highly highly annoying Flyers that, combined with Dark Riders, give the army some much needed "chaff" (although it's hard to think of the excellent Dark Riders in such derogatory and expendable terms) that is not only incredible fast but also remarkably punchy.
I've managed a few test games - against my own Empire list (Cannons are good aren't they?!), Daemons (Banner of Hellfire - OW!), High Elves (3 units of Dragon Princes and a Star Dragon being an entertaining feature of that particular list), Chaos Mortals (losing just one Bolt Thrower while simultaneously annihilating the enemy army bar one cowering Knight in a forest), and a very solid win over another Dark Elf army that left just 3 Witch Elves and a 1/2-wounds Hag BSB alive at the end for my opponent.
Once I'd gotten my act together and had a rethink about the army and list I was intending to use I then sought out a game against Philfy's High Elf test list for Tin Soldier 2. Alas Philfy, fearing the wrath of Ji-Dave and another 20-0 thrash-annihilation, failed to show for our game (wuss!!!) but by great good fortune I was able to get a game against Capt Soft Score instead. Nick decimated my Empire in our last encounter so I was highly motivated to get some stabby Hatey revenge. The game went VERY well except for two things:
- poor placement of the Manticore led to it almost being magically charged by Wardancers (I was lucky Nick rolled low for the charge distance) but then the Manticore was shot out from underneath the boss by 7 Glade Guard (hitting on 2s, all randomised onto the Cow, wounding on 5s = dead Cow). With the boss now on foot and in charge range of the Wardancers I had to get stuck in. Their annoying 4+ ward saved them and he eventually lost by 1 in some later round of combat and I fluffed the break test. Worse I fled a subsequent charge and was but down by some handy Glade Riders.
- The Black Guard were happily eating into the flank of a big unit of Eternal Guard until a bad round of wounding rolls saw me lose combat by 1, fail the Stubborn and of course fail the reroll. Worse Nick caught them in the pursuit and cut them down. This panicked the Hydra (who was about 2" short of an overrun into the front of the Enternal Guard from a previous combat) which fortunately managed to rally in my last turn. Sheesh.
The first incident was bad play; the second dumb luck. It happens of course but otherwise I was very happy with how the game went (won by about 550VPs - would have been by over 1000VPs if the Black Guard hadn't broken) so no hard feelings there. Still struggling to use the Cow very well. Lost the Boss/Cow, a unit of Crossbows, a unit of Dark Riders and all the Harpies. Oh yeah, and the stupid Black Guard and BSB!
MVPs would probably be the Hydra (practically untouchable - didn't take any wounds and dealt out plenty of breath-weapony goodness; also crushed 3 units in combat) or the Harpies who march-blocked, ran down a big unit of fleeing Glade Guard, and stopped the Eternal Guard from fleeing from the Black Guard. Fantastic unit - incredibly versatile, lots of fun to use. It was also nice to face a somewhat more magic-intensive list - Nick was waving around 8PD so with 3DD and 2 scrolls (and due to placement the Ring never came into play) holding him off was never a sure thing (killing off the L4 helped a lot though!!).
The army overall has provided a useful gaming experience - if nothing else I feel I have a better chance against Dark Elves should I face them in the future - knowing what they are capable of is a big advantage (and the dangerous units are not always the most obvious ones). It's also a heck of a different army to what I would normally take - I dare say quite a bit harder than my usual choices but it's nice to mix things up in this regard too.
So... Runfang 2 this weekend and an exciting tournament right from round one as I've been grudged by the number 3 player in NZ - Pete Dunn! I've never played Pete before but based on reputation alone this is going to be a great game! I understand Pete is taking Skaven so it's great to know my experience having played Asian Nick's ratties is going to pay off and I've also sought advice from other players about what to expect and possible counter-measures. It's an interesting matchup for the Dark Elves, potentially a very good one, but Pete will be flooding the board with models and it will be a struggle to get through the chaff to the good stuff and the point sinks... Hang on... Do Skaven actually have any point sink units?...
Reports to follow next week :)
The list is certainly very different to what I would normally be using with the Empire (or indeed any army with which I've had previous experience). The Hydra is incredible (and great fun to use!), Reaper Bolt Throwers are almost unbelievable, Shades can be good value (not that I've discovered so far but I'm hoping I can figure out how to use them), and the characters have really supplied me with something quite beyond what I'm used to fielding. Harpies are a hoot - highly highly annoying Flyers that, combined with Dark Riders, give the army some much needed "chaff" (although it's hard to think of the excellent Dark Riders in such derogatory and expendable terms) that is not only incredible fast but also remarkably punchy.
I've managed a few test games - against my own Empire list (Cannons are good aren't they?!), Daemons (Banner of Hellfire - OW!), High Elves (3 units of Dragon Princes and a Star Dragon being an entertaining feature of that particular list), Chaos Mortals (losing just one Bolt Thrower while simultaneously annihilating the enemy army bar one cowering Knight in a forest), and a very solid win over another Dark Elf army that left just 3 Witch Elves and a 1/2-wounds Hag BSB alive at the end for my opponent.
Once I'd gotten my act together and had a rethink about the army and list I was intending to use I then sought out a game against Philfy's High Elf test list for Tin Soldier 2. Alas Philfy, fearing the wrath of Ji-Dave and another 20-0 thrash-annihilation, failed to show for our game (wuss!!!) but by great good fortune I was able to get a game against Capt Soft Score instead. Nick decimated my Empire in our last encounter so I was highly motivated to get some stabby Hatey revenge. The game went VERY well except for two things:
- poor placement of the Manticore led to it almost being magically charged by Wardancers (I was lucky Nick rolled low for the charge distance) but then the Manticore was shot out from underneath the boss by 7 Glade Guard (hitting on 2s, all randomised onto the Cow, wounding on 5s = dead Cow). With the boss now on foot and in charge range of the Wardancers I had to get stuck in. Their annoying 4+ ward saved them and he eventually lost by 1 in some later round of combat and I fluffed the break test. Worse I fled a subsequent charge and was but down by some handy Glade Riders.
- The Black Guard were happily eating into the flank of a big unit of Eternal Guard until a bad round of wounding rolls saw me lose combat by 1, fail the Stubborn and of course fail the reroll. Worse Nick caught them in the pursuit and cut them down. This panicked the Hydra (who was about 2" short of an overrun into the front of the Enternal Guard from a previous combat) which fortunately managed to rally in my last turn. Sheesh.
The first incident was bad play; the second dumb luck. It happens of course but otherwise I was very happy with how the game went (won by about 550VPs - would have been by over 1000VPs if the Black Guard hadn't broken) so no hard feelings there. Still struggling to use the Cow very well. Lost the Boss/Cow, a unit of Crossbows, a unit of Dark Riders and all the Harpies. Oh yeah, and the stupid Black Guard and BSB!
MVPs would probably be the Hydra (practically untouchable - didn't take any wounds and dealt out plenty of breath-weapony goodness; also crushed 3 units in combat) or the Harpies who march-blocked, ran down a big unit of fleeing Glade Guard, and stopped the Eternal Guard from fleeing from the Black Guard. Fantastic unit - incredibly versatile, lots of fun to use. It was also nice to face a somewhat more magic-intensive list - Nick was waving around 8PD so with 3DD and 2 scrolls (and due to placement the Ring never came into play) holding him off was never a sure thing (killing off the L4 helped a lot though!!).
The army overall has provided a useful gaming experience - if nothing else I feel I have a better chance against Dark Elves should I face them in the future - knowing what they are capable of is a big advantage (and the dangerous units are not always the most obvious ones). It's also a heck of a different army to what I would normally take - I dare say quite a bit harder than my usual choices but it's nice to mix things up in this regard too.
So... Runfang 2 this weekend and an exciting tournament right from round one as I've been grudged by the number 3 player in NZ - Pete Dunn! I've never played Pete before but based on reputation alone this is going to be a great game! I understand Pete is taking Skaven so it's great to know my experience having played Asian Nick's ratties is going to pay off and I've also sought advice from other players about what to expect and possible counter-measures. It's an interesting matchup for the Dark Elves, potentially a very good one, but Pete will be flooding the board with models and it will be a struggle to get through the chaff to the good stuff and the point sinks... Hang on... Do Skaven actually have any point sink units?...
Reports to follow next week :)
NatCon Summary
Overall I would have to say I enjoyed NatCon more than any previous tournament I’ve attended. There’s a couple of good reasons for this – not least of all the fact that this was also my best performance in a tournament so far!
I played 8 excellent opponents, only one of which is a regular opponent (Mark). Despite the fact I played all three Brettonian armies (thanks again for that Philfy…) and two Dwarf armies I found every game enjoyable and challenging in its own unique way. The two Dwarf armies had some similarities in terms of army composition but the generals behind the army were VERY different players. Ken and Darren were both an absolute blast to play and I really hope to face them again at future events. The Brettonians, an army I have previously had enormous trouble dealing with, were all managed quite brilliantly (how’s that for modesty?).
Against Mark I suffered from a bout of karmic realignment with that blasted Paladin – if it weren’t for that I would have had him sown up nicely (sigh... more battle points go wanting).
Against Harry I was toast and the question was only by how much – beyond a shadow of a doubt Tomb Kings are my nemesis army, good general or not (Harry is, unsurprisingly, an EXCELLENT general!). Retrospectively I should have played cagey, denied points, sacrificed crap all over the place and eked out a minor loss if at all possible.
Against Joe I shouldn’t have obsessed so much over the bloody dragon and taken shots at his bolt throwers instead which more than earned their points back by eliminating my diverting options in the middle game (turns 3 and 4). I was unlucky to not killing the Dragon (one wound left… come on!!!) but it’s hard to blame the dice when you aren’t really thinking strategically (although I did roll up that ‘1’ for number of wounds on the first shot…). In fact I’m really disappointed about that last game – I should have known the placings would come down to a couple of points between 7th and 4th – the Flagellents died cheap and nasty and that was very poor play on my part. I’m also disappointed that I didn’t play Reid – obviously one of us needs to work a little harder to create that kind of matchup! I had a good run early on and got my wish – to play good players and to face off against challenging armies.
I very much liked that Phil gave everyone a copy of all the army lists in play. Made for some entertaining theoryhammer at the end of the day as we contemplated our matchups for the next round and also circumvented a lot of questions during the games. Damn good idea and something I’ll be stealing later in the year. The tournament overall was well-organised and ran smoothly (one misdrawn round aside – and that was quickly fixed before any damage was done). Congrats and cheers to Phil for his hard work and to the comp judges. No thanks for to Phil for drawing me against three Brettonians and two Dwarfs but that’s as much my fault as anyone elses :)
Having mentioned the comp judges I found the army composition scoring to be (as always) a focal point for further discussion. Having all the army lists available means you can actually try and make some sense of the comp scores people received. On the whole I’d have to say I like what I see but there were a few things that stood out that, while I wouldn’t directly question (far be it for me to question the judgement of a panel of vastly more experienced players!) and would like to gain a better understanding of for future events.
First, that Vampire Counts army. Harry made the comment in a discussion midway through the event that the Dixon clan had pretty much got together and created the hardest army they felt they could get away with. Ok, fine. Thing is though – they actually did get away with it! It received 25/60 for composition. It was not vetoed. This really drew significant attention from me because I am currently working on a VC army for the 2010 tournament season (starting with DogCon – fingers crossed!) so any comp dialogue or VC army lists gain my immediate notice. I couldn’t help but compare this to my Empire list (41/60 comp score). A 16 point differential could easily have been made up by a good player – I’m confident I could have done better with that VC list than I did with my Empire. Was it hit hard enough? Was it hard enough to warrant a veto? Rumour had it that only one list was vetoed and resubmitted (a magic heavy Daemon list) but I wonder how this list dodged the veto bullet or how close it came to missing.
The Star Dragon High Elf list – 34/60. Joe wasn’t pulling too many punches here.
Flying uber-boss, ItP (Standard of Balance – also cancels Hatred/Frenzy; useful against Dark Elves!) Dragon Prince bus, 2 bolties, mini-Swordmasters. Reminded me a lot of Philfy’s Fields list actually J The only thing he was light on was magic offense and defense and given the highly aggressive focus of the list this wasn’t likely to make much of a difference in most of his games if he had blasted through his opponent’s two major units by the end of the second turn. The list undoubtedly took a hit but with a differential between our lists of 7 points I guess I feel less bad (he was only 5 battle points ahead of me in the end). I suppose the lack of a magic phase from High Elves is a concession but this appeared to me to be somewhat counteracted by the ItP Dragon Prince unit from hell.
*****
Before I’d put some more serious and considered thought into how my own army went I was initially strongly considering taking a Steam Tank to my next tournament (Runefang II – one month away), however the more I thought about it the more I have become convinced that I don’t need to have a Stank to make the army work better and there were multiple opportunities and moments where I made poor in-game decisions or failed to take advantage of opportunities that my opponent presented that would have netted me a substantial points gain. The Rune of Challenge incident against the Dwarfs for instance – I should have fled the Rune-encouraged charge against the Ironbreakers (a guaranteed loss) and fled. Average dice may or may not have put me off the table (was probably about 12-13” away) but more importantly would have not only prevented the Dwarfs from gaining my Knight’s banner but also allowed the Flagellents to get a charge off on the Ironbreakers. While the Flagellents would never have broken the unit (or indeed caused much in the way of casualties) it would have meant gaining the initiative over the Dwarfs and possibly allowing the Flagellents to survive the game with a couple of models left. In real terms this is a points gain to me of 100 points at the very least (the captured banner), maybe as much as 205 points (banner + surviving ½-strength Flagellents). Had the Knights and Priest actually not fled the board then the points differential would have been even greater (potentially a 500+ points difference overall!!!). This sort of margin of difference would have changed my overall placing enough to move me to the podium! So, no Steam Tank for now and I just need to play better J My initial plan Empire was to become a much better player by utilising clever strategy and cagey decision-making, not by taking uber-units of doom and destruction (which is what, in Empire terms at least, classify the Steam Tank). I’ve included my original thoughts below for the sake of amusement and to illustrate the change in direction of my thinking on the army’s effectiveness over the last couple of days.
DELETED BUT INCLUDED FOR AMUSEMENT - My own comp score of 41/60 is probably spot on. I can see how I could have gone softer but I’m not a good enough general to not have the Arch-Lector’s magic defense and survivability as an asset and the Flagellents as a block of reliable and guaranteed Unbreakable troops. Of everything else in the list the only hindrance to a more decent comp score is probably the two Cannons but quite frankly, Empire have to have something to deal with the various monstrousities that are out there! My strongest consideration at this point is whether I should lose the Flagellents and the Knights with Great Weapons (no comp bonus for that unit and definitely not worth taking in game terms) and get a Steam Tank. Gives me some more points to play around with too (33pts – 48 if I lose the Sigil of Sigmar on the Priest which never came into play). I know Steam Tanks are hideously vulnerable in the current game but the Flagellents guarantee the opponent such a vast amount of points so easily (anything that charges them, shooting, magic… you name, it kills them) that I really struggle to think of a game where they worked really effectively AND survived the game (I’m not talking ½ points – I mean at all!). With a plastic kit coming out, the Steam Tank is looking more tempting than ever! Taking a -1 comp hit for including it is easily worth not giving up points to my opponent AND the strategic value I get out of the model itself.
Other than that the army worked fairly well. The detachment system is great when it works but the army book has been around for so long that people are either wise to the counter-charge tactics or you are facing something so hideously brutal that the loss of ranks doesn’t hurt at all and you end up giving up combat res getting your detachments killed off. Three or four years ago detachments would have been awesome. They can still be very useful but you have to resign yourself to giving up a lot of points using them to divert and bait so to me it just reinforces the fact that a detachment-based Empire force bleeds points like there’s no tomorrow. However, given the models I’m using are the models I have available and the army wasn’t constructed and theoryhammered from the get go to be a killing machine I fell I did well. Part of that was luck of the draw in terms of matchups, part of it was down to some lucky artillery rolls, and part of it was down to my opponents (particularly the Dwarf and Brettonian players) getting frustrated to heck by all those little guys running around and getting in the way :)
Haven’t heard where NatCon is next year but based on my most recent experience I’d like to think I’d be in there again. Once again, congratulations to the prizewinners and place-getters and to Philfy for doing such a standup job of running the whole show.
NatCon Round Eight - Joe Dixon (High Elves)
On the home stretch after a marathon 7 games (and very little sleep) and I drew that list. Dang.
Star Dragon with armoured up boss
9 Dragon Princes with ItP 'enemy no longer have Frenzy/Hatred' banner
BSB on Steed
2 bolties
10 Archers
Lots of Spears with Warbanner
2 x 5 or 6 Swordmasters
Tiranoc Chariot
2 Eagles
Like the battle against his brother I don't have too much to say about this game. The Dragon should have died - 4 consecutive Cannon shots yielded 4 consecutive misfires that stopped me from taking it's last wound. Or maybe I should have ignored (???) the Dragon and Cannoned the bolt throwers instead? The big lizard flapped around, roasted some Spearmen and beat up the Swordsmen. My Arch-Lector solo-charged the Dragon Princes and began steadily hewing his way through them but I was so tired I forgot to move the BSB in range to pass the break checks - got lucky for a couple of turns but broke eventually and was run down. Reckoned I could have taken them if I'd stayed in the fight! Shooting annilhated the detachments one at a time. The Flagellents hit the Spearmen in a compulsory overrun and I was obliterated by a ridiculous number of ASF attacks. The Knights fled from Panic before they could move... bah.
I felt I played this game really badly and was very disappointed - not the end to the tournament I had hoped for! The more I think about it the more the Cannons should have gone for the Bolt Throwers... sigh.
Looked to me like I'd peaked far too early in the tournament (end of day one, lol) and this in itself - my inability to play the long game - was probably the biggest learning experience of this game. Yeah, a little more luck (like, not getting 4 stupid misfires) would probably have sorted the Dragon meaning the Swordsmen would have survived and charged the Dragon Princes which might have sorted them out but then Warhammer is full of "what-ifs" :) Joe was a polite enough opponent but I think at this stage we were both feeling pretty tired and his army was a little more reliable than mine and maybe (maybe mind you!) he didn't have to think quite as hard about his play to make the magic happen. Actually this is an army I would quite like another game against (possibly will catch Joe at Runefang in a couple of weeks) as with a bit more (ok, a lot more) clear thinking I reckon I could take him.
Star Dragon with armoured up boss
9 Dragon Princes with ItP 'enemy no longer have Frenzy/Hatred' banner
BSB on Steed
2 bolties
10 Archers
Lots of Spears with Warbanner
2 x 5 or 6 Swordmasters
Tiranoc Chariot
2 Eagles
Like the battle against his brother I don't have too much to say about this game. The Dragon should have died - 4 consecutive Cannon shots yielded 4 consecutive misfires that stopped me from taking it's last wound. Or maybe I should have ignored (???) the Dragon and Cannoned the bolt throwers instead? The big lizard flapped around, roasted some Spearmen and beat up the Swordsmen. My Arch-Lector solo-charged the Dragon Princes and began steadily hewing his way through them but I was so tired I forgot to move the BSB in range to pass the break checks - got lucky for a couple of turns but broke eventually and was run down. Reckoned I could have taken them if I'd stayed in the fight! Shooting annilhated the detachments one at a time. The Flagellents hit the Spearmen in a compulsory overrun and I was obliterated by a ridiculous number of ASF attacks. The Knights fled from Panic before they could move... bah.
I felt I played this game really badly and was very disappointed - not the end to the tournament I had hoped for! The more I think about it the more the Cannons should have gone for the Bolt Throwers... sigh.
Looked to me like I'd peaked far too early in the tournament (end of day one, lol) and this in itself - my inability to play the long game - was probably the biggest learning experience of this game. Yeah, a little more luck (like, not getting 4 stupid misfires) would probably have sorted the Dragon meaning the Swordsmen would have survived and charged the Dragon Princes which might have sorted them out but then Warhammer is full of "what-ifs" :) Joe was a polite enough opponent but I think at this stage we were both feeling pretty tired and his army was a little more reliable than mine and maybe (maybe mind you!) he didn't have to think quite as hard about his play to make the magic happen. Actually this is an army I would quite like another game against (possibly will catch Joe at Runefang in a couple of weeks) as with a bit more (ok, a lot more) clear thinking I reckon I could take him.
NatCon Round Seven - Ken Hays (Dwarfs)
The lads had talked up Ken as being one of the nicest guys to play and that I was lucky to be getting a game against him - and I wasn't disappointed! Ken lived up to all the hype and received my Best Sports vote (Mark the very close second option). This was another cracker game that was hard-fought all the way.
Thanks once again to the TO for the draw - my second Strollaz Dwarf army :)
Ken played a very sharp game - in fact he was simultaneously running a tournament using a different gaming system (!) - and made a couple of sterling decisions that kept the margin of victory very small for the Empire (in fact, victory was never definite). I on the other hand made a couple of really stupid decisions:
- leaping the Dwarf Lord from the Hammerers to the Ironbreakers Ken cranked up the Master Rune of Challenge on my Knights. Like an idiot I charged (definitely should have fled!). Charging a static 6 Dwarf block with 2+ saves that is housing a Dwarf Lord is nothing short of complete idiocy. Fleeing might still have kept me on the table and would not only have denied Ken the Knight's banner but also allowed the Flagellents to charge the Ironbreakers and pin them (and the killy Dwarf boss) down for the rest of the game. Instead the Knights charged, were beaten to a pulp, fled, lost their banner, couldn't rally, and the Ironbreakers overran into the Flagellents!! Bugger.
- not breaking the Hammerers. This seems fairly obvious up to the point where the Swordsmen who hit them in the flank caused Fear thanks to Shades of Death! Needing to take two wounds off the BSB in a challenge with the Arch-Lector I fluffed spectacularly and the bugger survived. Thanks to the Rune of flippin Stoicism I turned out to have the same unit strength as the Dwarfs so they weren't autobroken!!! The Swordsmen took a unit of Dwarf Warriors in the flank for their troubles and although they hung around for another turn (and I evetually managed to take out the Dwarf BSB) the writing was on the wall and the Swordsmen (and Lector) were broken. The only saving grace of this fiasco was an heroic charge into the newly turned flank of the Hammerers by the Spearmen detachment who not only managed to kill 4 Dwarfs in their second round of combat (taking them below 1/2 strength) but also held against the return attacks and survived the game.
In contrast to this I managed to take out a unit of Longbeards, some Quarrellers and a couple of bolt throwers which gave me a reasonable 13-7 win in the end. Tough game against the Stunties but a surprisingly exciting matchup.
Thanks once again to the TO for the draw - my second Strollaz Dwarf army :)
Ken played a very sharp game - in fact he was simultaneously running a tournament using a different gaming system (!) - and made a couple of sterling decisions that kept the margin of victory very small for the Empire (in fact, victory was never definite). I on the other hand made a couple of really stupid decisions:
- leaping the Dwarf Lord from the Hammerers to the Ironbreakers Ken cranked up the Master Rune of Challenge on my Knights. Like an idiot I charged (definitely should have fled!). Charging a static 6 Dwarf block with 2+ saves that is housing a Dwarf Lord is nothing short of complete idiocy. Fleeing might still have kept me on the table and would not only have denied Ken the Knight's banner but also allowed the Flagellents to charge the Ironbreakers and pin them (and the killy Dwarf boss) down for the rest of the game. Instead the Knights charged, were beaten to a pulp, fled, lost their banner, couldn't rally, and the Ironbreakers overran into the Flagellents!! Bugger.
- not breaking the Hammerers. This seems fairly obvious up to the point where the Swordsmen who hit them in the flank caused Fear thanks to Shades of Death! Needing to take two wounds off the BSB in a challenge with the Arch-Lector I fluffed spectacularly and the bugger survived. Thanks to the Rune of flippin Stoicism I turned out to have the same unit strength as the Dwarfs so they weren't autobroken!!! The Swordsmen took a unit of Dwarf Warriors in the flank for their troubles and although they hung around for another turn (and I evetually managed to take out the Dwarf BSB) the writing was on the wall and the Swordsmen (and Lector) were broken. The only saving grace of this fiasco was an heroic charge into the newly turned flank of the Hammerers by the Spearmen detachment who not only managed to kill 4 Dwarfs in their second round of combat (taking them below 1/2 strength) but also held against the return attacks and survived the game.
In contrast to this I managed to take out a unit of Longbeards, some Quarrellers and a couple of bolt throwers which gave me a reasonable 13-7 win in the end. Tough game against the Stunties but a surprisingly exciting matchup.
NatCon Round Six - Mark McCall (Brettonians! Rargh!!!)
WTF Philfy - why do you hate me so?
Oh well...
Mark and I are good mates and have played a couple of times but I'd not yet managed to best his Bretts. In our last game I had him lined up (and he was taking much stick from the onlookers for his "refused centre" strategy) but the blasted Hippogryph (and some handy lance action from 3 Pegasus Knights who really should have died a lot earlier) did for my BSB and Spears which of course triggered the traditional last turn tactical retreat costing me the Wizard and some other stuff. I was determined to make a good game of this and give Mark a real challenge. He's an excellent opponent and the game was played in great spirit despite the friendly competitive tension of the matchup.
Without going into massive detail after 3 turns I had Mark on the ropes. The Pegs were gone, a unit of Errants had buggered off before they had moved (Cannon), one of his big buses was under enormous shooting pressure and had been severely reduced.
Then, as does happen in some of my games it seems, the whole battle did a stunning 180. Three things turned the game:
- a suicidal solo charging Paladin hit the Flagellents in the front and took a wound for his troubles, losing combat by 5! Needing a 4 or less Mark fluffed the roll. He was about to run the Knight away when I realised his BSB was just in range (by mere millimetres). Of course he passed the reroll. Had the Paladin fled the persuing Flagellents would have hit his General on Hippogryph (2 wounds left on the Hippo after taking some shooting). They might have managed to actually kill the giant budgie but whether they had or not he would at least have been pinned down for the rest of the game. Instead the Hippo boss charged my General (who was wandering over to wave pom-poms and shout encouragement). In the inevitable challenge the Brett Lord was Van Horstmanns'd but the luckless Lector needing only to save a wound (failed) and dish out two in return (only managed one) to win the combat couldn't make the dice play. One auto-broken General later and I was a broken man!
- on the right we were giving each other hell thanks to a unit each of Fast Cav. Having gambled some shooting to reduce the BSBs bus unit (and failed) the Pistoliers fled and crucially failed to rally. This left his Yeoman to keep the Reiksguard contained well enough that they took a nasty charge from the hitty Knights in the last turn. The Reiksguard died horribly.
- having foreseen the death of the Reiksguard the Priest had bailed. Fancying their chances the same unit of Yeonman charged in and had the temerity to put a wound on him! They remained in combat right up to the end of the game. Crucially the single wound they managed to inflict meant Mark recieved 1/2 points for the Priest... this was just enough to give him a win by 3VPs. According to the (DogCon-inspired and frankly annoying) VP table that was an 11-9 win to my opponent!
Tiny VP-difference = 11-9 loss aside this was a fantastic game and I really can't begrudge Mark the fortune of that rerolled Break Check (damn!!!). This was as close to a draw as one could realistically hope to achieve and it certainly felt that way at the end of the game.
Oh well...
Mark and I are good mates and have played a couple of times but I'd not yet managed to best his Bretts. In our last game I had him lined up (and he was taking much stick from the onlookers for his "refused centre" strategy) but the blasted Hippogryph (and some handy lance action from 3 Pegasus Knights who really should have died a lot earlier) did for my BSB and Spears which of course triggered the traditional last turn tactical retreat costing me the Wizard and some other stuff. I was determined to make a good game of this and give Mark a real challenge. He's an excellent opponent and the game was played in great spirit despite the friendly competitive tension of the matchup.
Without going into massive detail after 3 turns I had Mark on the ropes. The Pegs were gone, a unit of Errants had buggered off before they had moved (Cannon), one of his big buses was under enormous shooting pressure and had been severely reduced.
Then, as does happen in some of my games it seems, the whole battle did a stunning 180. Three things turned the game:
- a suicidal solo charging Paladin hit the Flagellents in the front and took a wound for his troubles, losing combat by 5! Needing a 4 or less Mark fluffed the roll. He was about to run the Knight away when I realised his BSB was just in range (by mere millimetres). Of course he passed the reroll. Had the Paladin fled the persuing Flagellents would have hit his General on Hippogryph (2 wounds left on the Hippo after taking some shooting). They might have managed to actually kill the giant budgie but whether they had or not he would at least have been pinned down for the rest of the game. Instead the Hippo boss charged my General (who was wandering over to wave pom-poms and shout encouragement). In the inevitable challenge the Brett Lord was Van Horstmanns'd but the luckless Lector needing only to save a wound (failed) and dish out two in return (only managed one) to win the combat couldn't make the dice play. One auto-broken General later and I was a broken man!
- on the right we were giving each other hell thanks to a unit each of Fast Cav. Having gambled some shooting to reduce the BSBs bus unit (and failed) the Pistoliers fled and crucially failed to rally. This left his Yeoman to keep the Reiksguard contained well enough that they took a nasty charge from the hitty Knights in the last turn. The Reiksguard died horribly.
- having foreseen the death of the Reiksguard the Priest had bailed. Fancying their chances the same unit of Yeonman charged in and had the temerity to put a wound on him! They remained in combat right up to the end of the game. Crucially the single wound they managed to inflict meant Mark recieved 1/2 points for the Priest... this was just enough to give him a win by 3VPs. According to the (DogCon-inspired and frankly annoying) VP table that was an 11-9 win to my opponent!
Tiny VP-difference = 11-9 loss aside this was a fantastic game and I really can't begrudge Mark the fortune of that rerolled Break Check (damn!!!). This was as close to a draw as one could realistically hope to achieve and it certainly felt that way at the end of the game.
NatCon Round Five - Neil Williamson (Brettonians)
It was with much amusement that I faced the father of my Round Two opponent. Having done for the younger Williamson and also dealt harshly to a Brettonian army the previous day I very much hoped to give Neil a good hard game. I also made a mental note to provide the TO with a 'coincidental' funtimes draw should he play in a tournament that I'm running in the future :)
Neil's Bretts were VERY different to Henry's. Peasant units to the max - I think I'd finished deploying my entire army before a single unit of Knights had been placed!
This game developed on three fronts. On my left flank Neil had rather curiously deployed a large Realm bus with BSB (the good old static 7 one with Virtue of Duty and Warbanner) against all my cavalry, the Crossbows and a Cannon. With good diverting and bait/flee options the Knights were outmanouevred, shot to bits and pieces and eventually pounced upon by the Reiksguard who ate them for breakfast (or at least a late lunch).
In the centre my infantry blocks were facing a two-pronged attack coming around a large forest in the middle of the table. A small Realm unit came around the left and hit the Spears. They were chased off by static res (7 from my guys including a detachment flank charge) and the Spearmen also dealt with a second mini-Realm bus, capturing their second banner of the game (but failing to catch either unit in pursuit).
On the right of the forest Neil was discovering how incredibly annoying Empire detachments are. With a combination of redirecting and fleeing his General's unit hit the Swordsmen and were smashed and fled (failed to catch them too though - bugger!). An extremely unfortunate unit of Mounted Yeoman hit the Flagellents (still can't figure out why) and were beaten to a bloody pulp. The Flagellents were then charged in the rear by a unit of three Grail Knights (three!) which kept them occupied for the rest of the game.
That left Neil's Pegasus Knights who took two cannonballs to the face. The suriving Knight charged at my suicide Wizard but the cowardly (and wise) sorcerer narrowly escaped and managed to rally.
Unfortunately, poised to decimate Neil's units with fresh charges from my blocks (into his Knights) and the Knights (into Peasants and the Treb) we ran out of time. Somehow we'd only managed to get through 4 turns! I found this very frustrating and realised immediately that I'd missed out on another couple of battle points (at least!) and that this would cost me in the washup. The next turn would have seen be grab another 300-900 victory points with the odds very firmly on my side (Brettonians REALLY don't like getting charged by static res 5-6 units!). A 14-6 win z9that could have easily been an 18-2) and ultimately a disappointing game despite the entertaining detachment heroics in the centre.
Having faced two Brettonian armies I had a little joke with my mate Mark McCall that I might as well face the third one at the tournament. Funny... the joke wasn't nearly as funny in reality...
Neil's Bretts were VERY different to Henry's. Peasant units to the max - I think I'd finished deploying my entire army before a single unit of Knights had been placed!
This game developed on three fronts. On my left flank Neil had rather curiously deployed a large Realm bus with BSB (the good old static 7 one with Virtue of Duty and Warbanner) against all my cavalry, the Crossbows and a Cannon. With good diverting and bait/flee options the Knights were outmanouevred, shot to bits and pieces and eventually pounced upon by the Reiksguard who ate them for breakfast (or at least a late lunch).
In the centre my infantry blocks were facing a two-pronged attack coming around a large forest in the middle of the table. A small Realm unit came around the left and hit the Spears. They were chased off by static res (7 from my guys including a detachment flank charge) and the Spearmen also dealt with a second mini-Realm bus, capturing their second banner of the game (but failing to catch either unit in pursuit).
On the right of the forest Neil was discovering how incredibly annoying Empire detachments are. With a combination of redirecting and fleeing his General's unit hit the Swordsmen and were smashed and fled (failed to catch them too though - bugger!). An extremely unfortunate unit of Mounted Yeoman hit the Flagellents (still can't figure out why) and were beaten to a bloody pulp. The Flagellents were then charged in the rear by a unit of three Grail Knights (three!) which kept them occupied for the rest of the game.
That left Neil's Pegasus Knights who took two cannonballs to the face. The suriving Knight charged at my suicide Wizard but the cowardly (and wise) sorcerer narrowly escaped and managed to rally.
Unfortunately, poised to decimate Neil's units with fresh charges from my blocks (into his Knights) and the Knights (into Peasants and the Treb) we ran out of time. Somehow we'd only managed to get through 4 turns! I found this very frustrating and realised immediately that I'd missed out on another couple of battle points (at least!) and that this would cost me in the washup. The next turn would have seen be grab another 300-900 victory points with the odds very firmly on my side (Brettonians REALLY don't like getting charged by static res 5-6 units!). A 14-6 win z9that could have easily been an 18-2) and ultimately a disappointing game despite the entertaining detachment heroics in the centre.
Having faced two Brettonian armies I had a little joke with my mate Mark McCall that I might as well face the third one at the tournament. Funny... the joke wasn't nearly as funny in reality...
Monday, April 27, 2009
NatCon Round Four - Bloody Tomb Kings (Harry Dixon)
The reason I've been stalling on this report is for much the same reasons as I stalled on the 20-0 loss to Capt Nick at FluffyCon report. Turns out I didn't lose quite as badly in this game but the issue I have with the game and recounting it is that I'm really struggling to see how the outcome could have been that different. Tomb Kings are without a doubt my absolute nemisis army. Doesn't matter what I'm using, if I'm facing Tomb Kings the sharp money is on the other guy to beat the snot out of whatever I'm pushing around. Not just beat the snot out of my guys though - do it in style by losing bugger all of his own army.
Which is not to say I played extremely well. In fact I deployed poorly - the Knights and Pistoliers were almost out of the game and the Flagellents were perfectly lined up to get machine-gunned to death by Archers and Cav before being magically charged and smashed by Ushabti. If I were to have a go at this game again I honestly reckon I'd castle up to the max with a long line of Flagellents out front to take all the heat, and just hug the board edge in the vain hope that I might keep my rear/flanks safe from magical charges. I really should have done this. Really.
As it was I lost first turn in this game and the Crossbowmen were immediately vapourised by a large unit of Skeleton Archers hanging out on a hill. The Cannons had one turn to make a good impact so naturally they either misfired (against the sweet sweet flank of a unit of chariots and Tomb Prince) or overshot (against the Catapult).
The battle progressed largely exactly how Harry wanted it too. The Knights were kept well out of the game, the detachments were smashed, Scorpions ate the artillery, the Flagellents... died. The Spearmen and BSB ended up fleeing a charge and fleeing the board just to deny Harry the inevitable 200 bonus points to be gained from capturing their banners.
All in all it was a dark day for the Empire; an 18-2 loss and the harsh reality of aiming beyond the scope of my ability as a player (damn those three wins on day 1). Harry went on to smash everyone else - no joke, he didn't drop a game. His hardest matchup might have been against Reid (16-4?). Harry is probably the best Tomb Kings player in the country - he's been using the army for years and at the end of this event he was the clear winner; ahead of the rest of the pack by around 20 tournament points. No great shame in losing to him (although one was perhaps hoping not to lose quite so badly) and this defeat had the fortunate side-effect of sending me back down the rankings to play someone more on my level which was probably for the better :)
Which is not to say I played extremely well. In fact I deployed poorly - the Knights and Pistoliers were almost out of the game and the Flagellents were perfectly lined up to get machine-gunned to death by Archers and Cav before being magically charged and smashed by Ushabti. If I were to have a go at this game again I honestly reckon I'd castle up to the max with a long line of Flagellents out front to take all the heat, and just hug the board edge in the vain hope that I might keep my rear/flanks safe from magical charges. I really should have done this. Really.
As it was I lost first turn in this game and the Crossbowmen were immediately vapourised by a large unit of Skeleton Archers hanging out on a hill. The Cannons had one turn to make a good impact so naturally they either misfired (against the sweet sweet flank of a unit of chariots and Tomb Prince) or overshot (against the Catapult).
The battle progressed largely exactly how Harry wanted it too. The Knights were kept well out of the game, the detachments were smashed, Scorpions ate the artillery, the Flagellents... died. The Spearmen and BSB ended up fleeing a charge and fleeing the board just to deny Harry the inevitable 200 bonus points to be gained from capturing their banners.
All in all it was a dark day for the Empire; an 18-2 loss and the harsh reality of aiming beyond the scope of my ability as a player (damn those three wins on day 1). Harry went on to smash everyone else - no joke, he didn't drop a game. His hardest matchup might have been against Reid (16-4?). Harry is probably the best Tomb Kings player in the country - he's been using the army for years and at the end of this event he was the clear winner; ahead of the rest of the pack by around 20 tournament points. No great shame in losing to him (although one was perhaps hoping not to lose quite so badly) and this defeat had the fortunate side-effect of sending me back down the rankings to play someone more on my level which was probably for the better :)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
NatCon Round Three – Brettonians (Henry Poor)
Prior to using Empire I had had enormous trouble dealing with Brettonians. Meaning I always lost. Always. While I still found them a challenge to face (frankly, everything is a bit of a challenge to face when you’re an Empire player ☺) the highly annoying and immediately abundant suicide-squad detachments make the job much more fun for me (and I suppose much more frustrating for my opponent). Although I’d been struggling against Bretts in some practice games leading up to NatCon I felt I was getting a better handle on how to deal with them.
Enter Henry Poor. I thought the name sounded familiar and it flippin was – Henry is an ex-student of the school I teach at! Small world stuff – time to see if the student has now become the master!
Henry had also just recently stumbled upon the fantastic WargamerAU forums, having posted his tournament list (already submitted) and keen to seek feedback about ‘where to from here’. By further coincidence I contributed to his thread (being a long-time sufferer of Brettonian lance-induced death I felt somewhat qualified to offer an opinion) so it was time for reintroductions with forum names ☺ I was very confident going into this game – the Empire really had the tools to deal with this one!
Brettonian Lord (General) – Barded Warhorse, Shield, Virtue of Confidence, Birth Sword of Carcassone, Gromril Great Helm, Gauntlet of the Duel (the reroll King!... or Duke…)
Paladin (BSB) – Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Duty, Banner of the Lady (big block death)
Paladin – Virtue of Empathy, Morning Star, Shield, Tress of Isoulde, Cuirass of Fortune
Damsel – Warhorse, 2 x Dispel Scrolls
Damsel – L2, Prayer Icon of Quenelles, Power Stone
Field Trebuchet
10 Peasant Bowmen – Skirmishers, Brazier
10 Peasant Bowmen – Brazier
10 Peasant Bowmen – Brazier
24 Men-At-Arms – Full Command
24 Men-At-Arms – Full Command
12 Knights of the Realm – Full Command, Warbanner
9 Knights of the Realm – Full Command, Banner of Twilight
9 Knights Errant – Full Command, Errantry Banner
Holy Brett-Bus Batman!
Well, seldom does a plan go as perfectly as it did in this game. The Reiksguard Knights and Pisoliers held the advance of the Lord’s Realm bus in check until I was ready for them to hit my Spearmen and BSB head-on (having ploughed through a detachment first) at which point the evil Brettonians were smashed in the flank. Hard.
The BSB's bus of doom was baited, redirected and harassed by the GW-Knights until they were charged (!) by the Flagellents. The good old Flaggies died to a man just at the point where the Swordsmen and Arch-Lector (having already seen off the Errants) got into one flank while the rallied GW-Knights hit the other. The evil Brettonians took another solid beating and buggered off.
After that the Pistoliers cleaned up some Peasants (those busy Spearmen and the detachments having taken care of the rest… ok, the Mortar might have helped with an awesome direct hit that killed 13 in one shot) and that was the game.
With the entire enemy army, the enemy general, 5 standards, and all 4 quarters held by the Empire it was probably the most brutal defeat I’ve ever inflicted upon anyone. Ever. I’d lost the Flagellents (which was an annoyingly recurring theme throughout the weekend and one of the reasons I make those rash suggestions in my summary in a later post) and not a few detachments.
To his absolute credit Henry took the loss well and was keen to learn what he could from the game. We had a good talk about deployment and army selection (a couple of small lances would be handy for sorting out those redirectors for example) and he's definitely someone I look forward to playing in the future (especially if he's not using Brettonians any more).
Enter Henry Poor. I thought the name sounded familiar and it flippin was – Henry is an ex-student of the school I teach at! Small world stuff – time to see if the student has now become the master!
Henry had also just recently stumbled upon the fantastic WargamerAU forums, having posted his tournament list (already submitted) and keen to seek feedback about ‘where to from here’. By further coincidence I contributed to his thread (being a long-time sufferer of Brettonian lance-induced death I felt somewhat qualified to offer an opinion) so it was time for reintroductions with forum names ☺ I was very confident going into this game – the Empire really had the tools to deal with this one!
Brettonian Lord (General) – Barded Warhorse, Shield, Virtue of Confidence, Birth Sword of Carcassone, Gromril Great Helm, Gauntlet of the Duel (the reroll King!... or Duke…)
Paladin (BSB) – Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Duty, Banner of the Lady (big block death)
Paladin – Virtue of Empathy, Morning Star, Shield, Tress of Isoulde, Cuirass of Fortune
Damsel – Warhorse, 2 x Dispel Scrolls
Damsel – L2, Prayer Icon of Quenelles, Power Stone
Field Trebuchet
10 Peasant Bowmen – Skirmishers, Brazier
10 Peasant Bowmen – Brazier
10 Peasant Bowmen – Brazier
24 Men-At-Arms – Full Command
24 Men-At-Arms – Full Command
12 Knights of the Realm – Full Command, Warbanner
9 Knights of the Realm – Full Command, Banner of Twilight
9 Knights Errant – Full Command, Errantry Banner
Holy Brett-Bus Batman!
Well, seldom does a plan go as perfectly as it did in this game. The Reiksguard Knights and Pisoliers held the advance of the Lord’s Realm bus in check until I was ready for them to hit my Spearmen and BSB head-on (having ploughed through a detachment first) at which point the evil Brettonians were smashed in the flank. Hard.
The BSB's bus of doom was baited, redirected and harassed by the GW-Knights until they were charged (!) by the Flagellents. The good old Flaggies died to a man just at the point where the Swordsmen and Arch-Lector (having already seen off the Errants) got into one flank while the rallied GW-Knights hit the other. The evil Brettonians took another solid beating and buggered off.
After that the Pistoliers cleaned up some Peasants (those busy Spearmen and the detachments having taken care of the rest… ok, the Mortar might have helped with an awesome direct hit that killed 13 in one shot) and that was the game.
With the entire enemy army, the enemy general, 5 standards, and all 4 quarters held by the Empire it was probably the most brutal defeat I’ve ever inflicted upon anyone. Ever. I’d lost the Flagellents (which was an annoyingly recurring theme throughout the weekend and one of the reasons I make those rash suggestions in my summary in a later post) and not a few detachments.
To his absolute credit Henry took the loss well and was keen to learn what he could from the game. We had a good talk about deployment and army selection (a couple of small lances would be handy for sorting out those redirectors for example) and he's definitely someone I look forward to playing in the future (especially if he's not using Brettonians any more).
NatCon Round Two – Dwarfs (Peter Williamson)
Someone, somewhere must have something against me because this is the first of two Strollaz Dwarf armies that I fought over the course of the tournament. One is unusual; two is downright disturbing. There were in fact FIVE Dwarf armies at NatCon which I think had everyone pretty much freaked out. W-e-i-r-d!
Peter is a young chap who came up from Masterton with his Dad (who was playing Brettonians for future reference). He was quite amusingly a typical Dwarf player – muttered under his breath a lot, grumbled about inadequate shooting/dice etc. His rather unique list was very light on killy stuff but rather abundant in terms of warm bodies.
Thane (General!) – Great Weapon, Gromril Armour (Rune of Stone), Shield
Thane (BSB) – Strollaz Rune
Thane – Great Weapon, Gromril Armour (Rune of Stone), Shield
Dragonslayer
10 Quarrellers – Great Weapons
10 Thunderers – Shields
16 Warriors – Full command, Shields
16 Warriors – Full command, Shields
16 Warriors – Full command, Shields
11 Warriors – Champion, Musician, Great Weapons
11 Warriors – Champion, Musician, Great Weapons
11 Rangers – Champion, Great Weapons
18 Hammerers – Full command, Rune of Stoicism, Shields
7 Miners – Champion, Musician
7 Miners – Champion, Musician
Bolt Thrower – Engineer
Bolt Thrower – Engineer
Gyrocopter
No. I’m not missing any runic items – that was it. I could see the list semi-working as a concept but in the grim reality of the Warhammer world where there is only war (wait a sec… that sounds familiar) I could also see him getting scuppered by heavy magic, shooting, hard combat troops, fear-causers and hordes of Gnoblars. Hrm.
My spell selection was really the biggest influence on this game – the Wizard managed to get Shades of Death (cast on friendly unit, unit causes fear, remains-in-play) and I immediately determined that the Flagellents would be the beneficiaries of this highly useful spell. Given the lack of anti-fear pokery-jiggery they would be having a field day.
My plans only slightly went south when, after getting the first turn, Peter’s Dwarfs were a mighty 12” away from my lines. I promised myself if I played another Strollaz Dwarf army in this event (yeah right! What are the chances of that happening?!) I would pay more attention to my needlessly aggressive depoyment. So Pete’s lads crashed forward and my detachments crashed forwards and got right in the way of everything. Having neatly put the kibosh on any hope he might have had to maintain a cohesive battleline I then added further misery by getting Shades of Death off on the Flagellents who proceeded to enact a grisly reenactment of Texas Flail Massacre 2. What was left of the Dwarf BSB and another nearby Thane was trampled underfoot by the Flagellents in their eagerness to get at the Bolt Throwers in Pete’s deployment zone. The massive beatdown the administered in combat was not the only benefit they garnered however. Poised to launch themselves into my harmless Spearmen block and cause all sorts of senseless atrocities, the Hammerers and Pete’s last surviving Warrior block (the other having some up short – haha – against my Swordsmen and Arch-Lector) both thought better of it and panicked sideways, tactically redeploying and saving my Spearmen the trouble of actually having to die in this game.
The Flagellents caught up with both Bolt Throwers and the Dwarf artillery met a messy (still Fear-causing) end.
I lost my Reiksguard Knights after I was forced into striking out at the Hammerers or being shot to ribbons by Thunderers (having inflicted Thunderer shooting on Knights myself I knew how that one would end) and the Crossbows also died having given their lives reducing the small Warrior units just in case Peter thought he might later be using them to flank charge my blocks. The Cannons also bit the dust having failed to make any impact on the game. The Mortar spent its time cowering behind a hill ☺
The end result of this fiasco was a 16-4 win to the Empire with bonus point claimed for nobbling Peter’s mostly harmless General who was no doubt left wondering why he’d neglected to arm himself with something from the Runic Weapons catalogue or indeed upgrade himself to a Lord and bump one of his mates up to Runesmith.
Pete wasn’t in the best of spirits for most of this game and unfortunately I couldn’t see his prospects improving massively for the next 6 games. He went on to place 21st out of 38 players with a most deserved comp score of 48/60 and 72/168 battle points.
Peter is a young chap who came up from Masterton with his Dad (who was playing Brettonians for future reference). He was quite amusingly a typical Dwarf player – muttered under his breath a lot, grumbled about inadequate shooting/dice etc. His rather unique list was very light on killy stuff but rather abundant in terms of warm bodies.
Thane (General!) – Great Weapon, Gromril Armour (Rune of Stone), Shield
Thane (BSB) – Strollaz Rune
Thane – Great Weapon, Gromril Armour (Rune of Stone), Shield
Dragonslayer
10 Quarrellers – Great Weapons
10 Thunderers – Shields
16 Warriors – Full command, Shields
16 Warriors – Full command, Shields
16 Warriors – Full command, Shields
11 Warriors – Champion, Musician, Great Weapons
11 Warriors – Champion, Musician, Great Weapons
11 Rangers – Champion, Great Weapons
18 Hammerers – Full command, Rune of Stoicism, Shields
7 Miners – Champion, Musician
7 Miners – Champion, Musician
Bolt Thrower – Engineer
Bolt Thrower – Engineer
Gyrocopter
No. I’m not missing any runic items – that was it. I could see the list semi-working as a concept but in the grim reality of the Warhammer world where there is only war (wait a sec… that sounds familiar) I could also see him getting scuppered by heavy magic, shooting, hard combat troops, fear-causers and hordes of Gnoblars. Hrm.
My spell selection was really the biggest influence on this game – the Wizard managed to get Shades of Death (cast on friendly unit, unit causes fear, remains-in-play) and I immediately determined that the Flagellents would be the beneficiaries of this highly useful spell. Given the lack of anti-fear pokery-jiggery they would be having a field day.
My plans only slightly went south when, after getting the first turn, Peter’s Dwarfs were a mighty 12” away from my lines. I promised myself if I played another Strollaz Dwarf army in this event (yeah right! What are the chances of that happening?!) I would pay more attention to my needlessly aggressive depoyment. So Pete’s lads crashed forward and my detachments crashed forwards and got right in the way of everything. Having neatly put the kibosh on any hope he might have had to maintain a cohesive battleline I then added further misery by getting Shades of Death off on the Flagellents who proceeded to enact a grisly reenactment of Texas Flail Massacre 2. What was left of the Dwarf BSB and another nearby Thane was trampled underfoot by the Flagellents in their eagerness to get at the Bolt Throwers in Pete’s deployment zone. The massive beatdown the administered in combat was not the only benefit they garnered however. Poised to launch themselves into my harmless Spearmen block and cause all sorts of senseless atrocities, the Hammerers and Pete’s last surviving Warrior block (the other having some up short – haha – against my Swordsmen and Arch-Lector) both thought better of it and panicked sideways, tactically redeploying and saving my Spearmen the trouble of actually having to die in this game.
The Flagellents caught up with both Bolt Throwers and the Dwarf artillery met a messy (still Fear-causing) end.
I lost my Reiksguard Knights after I was forced into striking out at the Hammerers or being shot to ribbons by Thunderers (having inflicted Thunderer shooting on Knights myself I knew how that one would end) and the Crossbows also died having given their lives reducing the small Warrior units just in case Peter thought he might later be using them to flank charge my blocks. The Cannons also bit the dust having failed to make any impact on the game. The Mortar spent its time cowering behind a hill ☺
The end result of this fiasco was a 16-4 win to the Empire with bonus point claimed for nobbling Peter’s mostly harmless General who was no doubt left wondering why he’d neglected to arm himself with something from the Runic Weapons catalogue or indeed upgrade himself to a Lord and bump one of his mates up to Runesmith.
Pete wasn’t in the best of spirits for most of this game and unfortunately I couldn’t see his prospects improving massively for the next 6 games. He went on to place 21st out of 38 players with a most deserved comp score of 48/60 and 72/168 battle points.
NatCon Round One – Dark Elves (Darren Urquart)
Ok, I've been out of blogging for a wee while - just been struggling along with being on holiday. Tough life ain't it? :)
Anyways, finally got around to writing up a few reports from NatCon at Easter - superb tournament; great time. Only managed to finish 3 of the 8 rounds so far as I left my army list handout with my own army list/book/stuff in Reid's car and haven't managed to get it off him yet so the first 3 I've done from (hazy) memory. Hopefully the remaining 5 battles (all of them great) will be up over the next couple of weeks. Thanks to those who have been patiently waiting for an update and not kicked my ass over the lack of activity :)
On with the show...
Darren had a beautifully modeled and painted Dark Elf army and it was a real treat to face not only a fantastic battlefield force but also a wonderful guy and solid player – what great start to the tournament! A couple of models really stood out – the “Lolth-esque” Cauldron of Blood (giant spider-chick spewing blood – lovely) drew a huge number of positive comments throughout the weekend and I thought his General on Dark Steed (with converted antlers/horns) was brilliant. A superb aqua poppin-fresh paint job set the whole army off nicely and I have no doubt the force gained him not a few "Best Presentation" votes in the beauty pageant.
The list itself was by degrees both standard fare for Darkies and a little different. Hydra – tick. Two bolt throwers – tick. Black Guard – tick. Spearmen – tick. Dark Riders – tick. Two unit of Harpies – tick. There were however some interesting absences.
Master (General) – Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Dark Steed, Shield, Sword of Might, Ring of Hotek
Sorceress – 2 x Dispel Scrolls
Death Hag (BSB) – Standard of Hag Graef, Cauldron of Blood, Hand of Khaine
Assassin – Extra hand weapon, Hand of Khaine
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Reaper Bolt Thrower
War Hydra
17 Black Guard – Full command, Crimson Death (champion), Banner of Murder
5 Shades – Great weapons
6 Cold One Knights
5 Harpies
5 Harpies
5 Dark Riders – Musician
10 RXB Warriors – Musician, Shields
10 RXB Warriors – Musician, Shields
21 Warriors – Full command, Shields, Warbanner
This game and my 7th round against Ken Hays were the two best games of the tournament – it was a close battle from the word go and more than on stalemate situation developed. On my right 10 RXB Warriors held the Knights with Great Weapons in check (win for me keeping that amount of shooting out of the game). The ninjas-in-training (Archers) were far and away the men of the match – a heroic charge through difficult terrain saw them beat Harpies in combat (which surprised both of us!). Now deep in Dark Elf territory they did a sterling job of march-blocking the Spearmen, chipping away at them with bow shots. When the Dark Riders finally showed their noses the Archers were there again eventually helping to route them with the help of the Wizard and his magic missiles. The DE Spearmen were eventually tagged in combat by the Swordsmen and Arch-Lector and soundly beaten but managed to escape and rally on their board edge (curses!).
On the much more dubious left flank the Reiksguard Knights wondered why I had singled them out for guaranteed destruction at the hands of the Hydra and his Shade buddies. The wuss Knights put up a hopeless fight trying to stall the big beastie’s advance and were cut down in short order. Fortunately they died slowly enough to keep the Hydra out of the game for a crucial extra turn and incredibly it was eventually broken in a later combat in Darren’s last turn – unable to rally I secured myself a relatively painful 175VPs.
In the centre, with the realization that Darren’s General had neglected to take advantage of the 2-for-1 Pendant sales that Dark Elf Lords so often frequent the Cannons were having a field day trying to pin him down. His last mistake was to join an under-strength unit of Cold One Kngihts. Bereft of a “Look Out, Sir!” roll he found himself on the wrong end of a cannonball. 6 wounds later he found his last employ as battlefield decoration, strewn liberally across the field. Having received a firsthand demonstration of the dangers of running around in a unit with worrying lack of rank-and-file models the Hag BSB manning the Cauldron caught a cannonball in the chops in the next turn.
With Darren’s Sorceress clocking up the dreaded ‘double one’ on the miscast table he managed to finish the game without allowing any of his characters to survive.
The clever play of the game however belonged to Darren in the centre. I was largely miffed about the presence of the Cauldron but somewhat confused that it had been taken in an army bereft of Khainite troops to take advantage of it’s Stubborn-causing abilities. I needn’t have worried because at the most inopportune moment as Assassin popped out of the Black Guard unit in a head.ong charge towards the Flagellens. He missed by an inch but the Frenzied twits were forced to charge him in the next turn. Not only did he strike first with a bazillion attacks (7) but the little sod, being Khainite and all, was of course Stubborn thanks to the Cauldron (one accursed crew-member left at this point). Stubborn on 10, BSB or not, is one annoying pain in the ass. It did however mean that the exceedingly keen Hydra who got stuck into the Flagellents was pinned in place so that the Spearmen, having smacked through the last two Cold One Knights were there to watch it run off in the last turn.
The result of this tight little scuffle was a 12-8 win to me with a bonus pont gained for nabbing the enemy general.
The Cannons had a ripper game (they eventually both went down to the same Harpy unit – the surviving two Harpies doing for the second Cannon) and I knew I’d pay for their accuracy with some serious karma in a later game in the weekend.
Darren was an excellent opponent – looking forward to this game was well-justified and I hope we are lucky enough to draw each other for a rematch at another tournament this year. A worthy recipient of a grudge match if ever there was one!
Anyways, finally got around to writing up a few reports from NatCon at Easter - superb tournament; great time. Only managed to finish 3 of the 8 rounds so far as I left my army list handout with my own army list/book/stuff in Reid's car and haven't managed to get it off him yet so the first 3 I've done from (hazy) memory. Hopefully the remaining 5 battles (all of them great) will be up over the next couple of weeks. Thanks to those who have been patiently waiting for an update and not kicked my ass over the lack of activity :)
On with the show...
Darren had a beautifully modeled and painted Dark Elf army and it was a real treat to face not only a fantastic battlefield force but also a wonderful guy and solid player – what great start to the tournament! A couple of models really stood out – the “Lolth-esque” Cauldron of Blood (giant spider-chick spewing blood – lovely) drew a huge number of positive comments throughout the weekend and I thought his General on Dark Steed (with converted antlers/horns) was brilliant. A superb aqua poppin-fresh paint job set the whole army off nicely and I have no doubt the force gained him not a few "Best Presentation" votes in the beauty pageant.
The list itself was by degrees both standard fare for Darkies and a little different. Hydra – tick. Two bolt throwers – tick. Black Guard – tick. Spearmen – tick. Dark Riders – tick. Two unit of Harpies – tick. There were however some interesting absences.
Master (General) – Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Dark Steed, Shield, Sword of Might, Ring of Hotek
Sorceress – 2 x Dispel Scrolls
Death Hag (BSB) – Standard of Hag Graef, Cauldron of Blood, Hand of Khaine
Assassin – Extra hand weapon, Hand of Khaine
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Reaper Bolt Thrower
War Hydra
17 Black Guard – Full command, Crimson Death (champion), Banner of Murder
5 Shades – Great weapons
6 Cold One Knights
5 Harpies
5 Harpies
5 Dark Riders – Musician
10 RXB Warriors – Musician, Shields
10 RXB Warriors – Musician, Shields
21 Warriors – Full command, Shields, Warbanner
This game and my 7th round against Ken Hays were the two best games of the tournament – it was a close battle from the word go and more than on stalemate situation developed. On my right 10 RXB Warriors held the Knights with Great Weapons in check (win for me keeping that amount of shooting out of the game). The ninjas-in-training (Archers) were far and away the men of the match – a heroic charge through difficult terrain saw them beat Harpies in combat (which surprised both of us!). Now deep in Dark Elf territory they did a sterling job of march-blocking the Spearmen, chipping away at them with bow shots. When the Dark Riders finally showed their noses the Archers were there again eventually helping to route them with the help of the Wizard and his magic missiles. The DE Spearmen were eventually tagged in combat by the Swordsmen and Arch-Lector and soundly beaten but managed to escape and rally on their board edge (curses!).
On the much more dubious left flank the Reiksguard Knights wondered why I had singled them out for guaranteed destruction at the hands of the Hydra and his Shade buddies. The wuss Knights put up a hopeless fight trying to stall the big beastie’s advance and were cut down in short order. Fortunately they died slowly enough to keep the Hydra out of the game for a crucial extra turn and incredibly it was eventually broken in a later combat in Darren’s last turn – unable to rally I secured myself a relatively painful 175VPs.
In the centre, with the realization that Darren’s General had neglected to take advantage of the 2-for-1 Pendant sales that Dark Elf Lords so often frequent the Cannons were having a field day trying to pin him down. His last mistake was to join an under-strength unit of Cold One Kngihts. Bereft of a “Look Out, Sir!” roll he found himself on the wrong end of a cannonball. 6 wounds later he found his last employ as battlefield decoration, strewn liberally across the field. Having received a firsthand demonstration of the dangers of running around in a unit with worrying lack of rank-and-file models the Hag BSB manning the Cauldron caught a cannonball in the chops in the next turn.
With Darren’s Sorceress clocking up the dreaded ‘double one’ on the miscast table he managed to finish the game without allowing any of his characters to survive.
The clever play of the game however belonged to Darren in the centre. I was largely miffed about the presence of the Cauldron but somewhat confused that it had been taken in an army bereft of Khainite troops to take advantage of it’s Stubborn-causing abilities. I needn’t have worried because at the most inopportune moment as Assassin popped out of the Black Guard unit in a head.ong charge towards the Flagellens. He missed by an inch but the Frenzied twits were forced to charge him in the next turn. Not only did he strike first with a bazillion attacks (7) but the little sod, being Khainite and all, was of course Stubborn thanks to the Cauldron (one accursed crew-member left at this point). Stubborn on 10, BSB or not, is one annoying pain in the ass. It did however mean that the exceedingly keen Hydra who got stuck into the Flagellents was pinned in place so that the Spearmen, having smacked through the last two Cold One Knights were there to watch it run off in the last turn.
The result of this tight little scuffle was a 12-8 win to me with a bonus pont gained for nabbing the enemy general.
The Cannons had a ripper game (they eventually both went down to the same Harpy unit – the surviving two Harpies doing for the second Cannon) and I knew I’d pay for their accuracy with some serious karma in a later game in the weekend.
Darren was an excellent opponent – looking forward to this game was well-justified and I hope we are lucky enough to draw each other for a rematch at another tournament this year. A worthy recipient of a grudge match if ever there was one!
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Champagne Warhammer
More than one spectator to this game made the comment that this battle looked like "classic Warhammer" - "champagne Warhammer" if I may use the term.
No "everyone has a 5+ ward nonsense". No "everyone causes Fear and is ItP" shennanigans. No "everyone has Hatred, Regen, 1+ armour saves, BS5, ASF, move through forests without penalty...". No "insert favourite recent army book buff that irritates the heck out of you".
Classic Warhammer - two good, honest armies beating the snot out of each other with sharp tactics and witty commentary the only cards held in the hand.
Well, except for Lezle's army... hehehe. Ok, no not really by he did have a Steam Tank and a War Altar. Those two things put the fear in me a little.
The end result of the game was around 900VPs in my favour.
- The Steam Tank took 4 wounds before it could move and was taken out in the last turn by a final cannon shot having dealt itself another couple of wounds through over-enthusiastic steam point generation. The Pistoliers also managed a wound before they were gunned down by the Steam Tank's engineer driver's repeater pistol (which really surprised me!).
- My cannons were on fire but the Mortar scattered with every shot (bah).
- Lezle received a firsthand demonstration of the awesomeness of Crossbows, losing two units of Handgunners without being able to effectively return fire. I received a firsthand demonstration of the stickability of a unit of Greatswords with BSB. Eventually my General got in on the act and his Hammer of Killy successfully bypassed the BSBs Meteoric Armour (failed toughness test = autowound with no save) and the Greatswords fled.
- The Flagellents died (slowly). The Reiksguard Knights (hoping to make up for their callow performance against Derick earlier in the week) leapt to their rescue, flank charging their opposite numbers who had hit the Flaggies in the flank the turn before. The Reiksguard fluffed tremendously and ran off but were able to rally and survive the game relatively intact (useless gits...).
- The War Altar took a cannon to the face and exploded. The Arch Lector - now on foot - was assaulted by my 3x3 Free Company detachment. Get this - play of the game - the bloody Free Company killed him! Brilliant stuff - might have to promote them to Swordsmen one of these days!
- Lezle's uber-Ritters (7 Pistoliers with Champ) did for my GW-Knights and also passed 2 panic checks after taking casualties from the Wizard (magic missile) and Cannon grapeshot. They went on to successfully panic my Handgunner detachment who rallied in the last turn so not much harm done there. Much.
This was a good fun game and I was thrilled to break a long losing streak - cheers Lezle. Yay! Now if only I face lots of "normal" Warhammer armies at NatCon :-)
No "everyone has a 5+ ward nonsense". No "everyone causes Fear and is ItP" shennanigans. No "everyone has Hatred, Regen, 1+ armour saves, BS5, ASF, move through forests without penalty...". No "insert favourite recent army book buff that irritates the heck out of you".
Classic Warhammer - two good, honest armies beating the snot out of each other with sharp tactics and witty commentary the only cards held in the hand.
Well, except for Lezle's army... hehehe. Ok, no not really by he did have a Steam Tank and a War Altar. Those two things put the fear in me a little.
The end result of the game was around 900VPs in my favour.
- The Steam Tank took 4 wounds before it could move and was taken out in the last turn by a final cannon shot having dealt itself another couple of wounds through over-enthusiastic steam point generation. The Pistoliers also managed a wound before they were gunned down by the Steam Tank's engineer driver's repeater pistol (which really surprised me!).
- My cannons were on fire but the Mortar scattered with every shot (bah).
- Lezle received a firsthand demonstration of the awesomeness of Crossbows, losing two units of Handgunners without being able to effectively return fire. I received a firsthand demonstration of the stickability of a unit of Greatswords with BSB. Eventually my General got in on the act and his Hammer of Killy successfully bypassed the BSBs Meteoric Armour (failed toughness test = autowound with no save) and the Greatswords fled.
- The Flagellents died (slowly). The Reiksguard Knights (hoping to make up for their callow performance against Derick earlier in the week) leapt to their rescue, flank charging their opposite numbers who had hit the Flaggies in the flank the turn before. The Reiksguard fluffed tremendously and ran off but were able to rally and survive the game relatively intact (useless gits...).
- The War Altar took a cannon to the face and exploded. The Arch Lector - now on foot - was assaulted by my 3x3 Free Company detachment. Get this - play of the game - the bloody Free Company killed him! Brilliant stuff - might have to promote them to Swordsmen one of these days!
- Lezle's uber-Ritters (7 Pistoliers with Champ) did for my GW-Knights and also passed 2 panic checks after taking casualties from the Wizard (magic missile) and Cannon grapeshot. They went on to successfully panic my Handgunner detachment who rallied in the last turn so not much harm done there. Much.
This was a good fun game and I was thrilled to break a long losing streak - cheers Lezle. Yay! Now if only I face lots of "normal" Warhammer armies at NatCon :-)
The Best Laid Plans...
Managed a couple of games this week, first one against me old mate Derick and his Warriors of Chaos army that he's taking down to NatCon. The army is a decent mix of a variety of marked units, most notably three L2 Sorcerers marked Slannesh (General), Nurgle and Tzeentch respectively.
A couple of things really stood out in this game and they were by degrees incredibly amusing and enormously frustrating:
- Hellcannon misfired the first TWO times it fired. BOTH misfires resulted in all Wizards on the table rolling on the miscast table. My own L2 deftly dodged a strength 8 hit (!) while Derick managed a series of fateful rolls that saw the Slannesh Sorcerer/General take a wound and deal one to all his mates in base-to-base (str6, no armour save - ouch!), then get killed off by a Burning Iron from my Wizard (enemy wizard gets a free cast); his Tzeentch Sorcerer eventually suffering the same fate. The Nurgle Sorcerer survived the game with one wound.
- Having done a superb job of baiting Frenzied Khorne Knights and with a fantastic rear-charge opportunity the Reikguard Knights and Priest predictably failed their Fear check to charge! With but one shooting phase to take a Knight or two out I managed to kill NONE. The last straw was Derick letting Soulfire from the Lector go off on the Knights, rolling up a '1' for the number of hits and of course failing to wound. The Khorne Knights quickly ate through detachments galore and both the Spear and Sword blocks (and Lector... and BSB... and Wizard). Vicious bastards - those flippin Reiksguard have a lot to answer for!!!
- The GW-Knights on the other hand... well, those bad boys busted through both Spawn and survived with a high enough unit strength to contest a table quarter.
- Having already failed me once the soon-to-be redundant (and now somewhat reduced from Hellcannon fire) Reiksguard Knights hit the Tzeentch Warriors in the flank. Incredibly they somehow won two turns in a row but sadly failed to break the Chaos toughies.
- Great Cannon fire hit the Hellcannon 3 times. All three hits turned up a '1' to wound.
Ended up with a loss by... geez I don't know... it was a while ago. Might have been something like 1000VPs - Derick can you remember? Felt like a 15-5 loss.
Bit hacked off that victory had been scuppered by one failed Fear check (hrm... that does sound familiar though) as I felt I had Derick on the ropes (both Spawn dead, Slanneshi block dead, dogs all dead, 2 characters dead... it was all looking so promising!) but it did remind me that Warhammer is, for some armies at least, inevitably a game of chance and risk - if the dice don't play ball then you're buggered (almost) regardless of clever strategy.
The last series of games have seen a completely sub-par performance from my artillery and I felt I was due for a turnaround in this department at some point. Lucky for me I was popping by City Guard today to drop off some Spearmen shields for Lezle and he invited me to stay for a game. Empire vs Empire bloodbath? Bring it on!
A couple of things really stood out in this game and they were by degrees incredibly amusing and enormously frustrating:
- Hellcannon misfired the first TWO times it fired. BOTH misfires resulted in all Wizards on the table rolling on the miscast table. My own L2 deftly dodged a strength 8 hit (!) while Derick managed a series of fateful rolls that saw the Slannesh Sorcerer/General take a wound and deal one to all his mates in base-to-base (str6, no armour save - ouch!), then get killed off by a Burning Iron from my Wizard (enemy wizard gets a free cast); his Tzeentch Sorcerer eventually suffering the same fate. The Nurgle Sorcerer survived the game with one wound.
- Having done a superb job of baiting Frenzied Khorne Knights and with a fantastic rear-charge opportunity the Reikguard Knights and Priest predictably failed their Fear check to charge! With but one shooting phase to take a Knight or two out I managed to kill NONE. The last straw was Derick letting Soulfire from the Lector go off on the Knights, rolling up a '1' for the number of hits and of course failing to wound. The Khorne Knights quickly ate through detachments galore and both the Spear and Sword blocks (and Lector... and BSB... and Wizard). Vicious bastards - those flippin Reiksguard have a lot to answer for!!!
- The GW-Knights on the other hand... well, those bad boys busted through both Spawn and survived with a high enough unit strength to contest a table quarter.
- Having already failed me once the soon-to-be redundant (and now somewhat reduced from Hellcannon fire) Reiksguard Knights hit the Tzeentch Warriors in the flank. Incredibly they somehow won two turns in a row but sadly failed to break the Chaos toughies.
- Great Cannon fire hit the Hellcannon 3 times. All three hits turned up a '1' to wound.
Ended up with a loss by... geez I don't know... it was a while ago. Might have been something like 1000VPs - Derick can you remember? Felt like a 15-5 loss.
Bit hacked off that victory had been scuppered by one failed Fear check (hrm... that does sound familiar though) as I felt I had Derick on the ropes (both Spawn dead, Slanneshi block dead, dogs all dead, 2 characters dead... it was all looking so promising!) but it did remind me that Warhammer is, for some armies at least, inevitably a game of chance and risk - if the dice don't play ball then you're buggered (almost) regardless of clever strategy.
The last series of games have seen a completely sub-par performance from my artillery and I felt I was due for a turnaround in this department at some point. Lucky for me I was popping by City Guard today to drop off some Spearmen shields for Lezle and he invited me to stay for a game. Empire vs Empire bloodbath? Bring it on!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Watch out for those Flesh Hounds lads!... argh!...splatter!!!...dismemberment galore!!!!
Hrm.
So that game against Reid was a quick one. Losing first turn gave me ONE shooting phase to make some sort of an impact. I think I managed to kill one Flesh Hound... Then he was all over me like drunk pub-crawling Uni student in a toga at orientation. Only in a much more unsubtly violent and clinically vicious way.
Not much to say about this game. Reid is a GREAT player. Seriously. The Daemons are of course a GREAT army (and his list was perhaps not particularly harsh for Daemons either). Combine those two together and poor old Fujin and his poor old Empire lads were in for an uber-ass-kicking.
Having said all of that, the game was a blessing in terms of learning experience and post-game conversation. Eventually I am likely to face a fast Daemon army and I need a stronger strategic paradigm than just looking sad and taking models off the pitch. Reid gave me heaps of advice afterwords about what I might have done to mitigate the absolute disaster I'd just experienced:
- Don't deploy the shooty stuff on the edge of your depoyment zone.
- Use the detachments better. "Skirmish" lines to disrupt the Daemon advance, force them to spend time getting into early combat, redirect units and/or pull them out of the battle line.
- Focus my shooting better - the Juggers are a lot less scary when they've lost even one model.
- Pick on one block and kick it's ass. Stop the others from getting into combat.
- Deploy better - don't just clump everything together so the Daemon player doesn't have to maneouver at all is able to concentrate his whole army on where ALL the points are on the table.
- Be prepared to lose stuff even if it means losing so that you won't lose as badly! (this is an excellent point that can apply to facing more armies than just Daemons!). Think about how you can turn a 2000pt loss into a 500pt loss by sacrificing units in clever places to survive the game.
Requires a different kind of thinking. I think.
So that game against Reid was a quick one. Losing first turn gave me ONE shooting phase to make some sort of an impact. I think I managed to kill one Flesh Hound... Then he was all over me like drunk pub-crawling Uni student in a toga at orientation. Only in a much more unsubtly violent and clinically vicious way.
Not much to say about this game. Reid is a GREAT player. Seriously. The Daemons are of course a GREAT army (and his list was perhaps not particularly harsh for Daemons either). Combine those two together and poor old Fujin and his poor old Empire lads were in for an uber-ass-kicking.
Having said all of that, the game was a blessing in terms of learning experience and post-game conversation. Eventually I am likely to face a fast Daemon army and I need a stronger strategic paradigm than just looking sad and taking models off the pitch. Reid gave me heaps of advice afterwords about what I might have done to mitigate the absolute disaster I'd just experienced:
- Don't deploy the shooty stuff on the edge of your depoyment zone.
- Use the detachments better. "Skirmish" lines to disrupt the Daemon advance, force them to spend time getting into early combat, redirect units and/or pull them out of the battle line.
- Focus my shooting better - the Juggers are a lot less scary when they've lost even one model.
- Pick on one block and kick it's ass. Stop the others from getting into combat.
- Deploy better - don't just clump everything together so the Daemon player doesn't have to maneouver at all is able to concentrate his whole army on where ALL the points are on the table.
- Be prepared to lose stuff even if it means losing so that you won't lose as badly! (this is an excellent point that can apply to facing more armies than just Daemons!). Think about how you can turn a 2000pt loss into a 500pt loss by sacrificing units in clever places to survive the game.
Requires a different kind of thinking. I think.
Friday, March 27, 2009
We're back! And we have the princess!*
* Spaceballs quote, accordingly Facebooked as one of the five movies I grew up with.
Crikey but it's been a while. Taken a bit of stick for my lack of blog activity recently but I have my life back (mostly) after a spate of Shakespeare performances and some temporary insanity (work-related).
Update time!
I was intending last night to make the journey to the AWC (Auckland Wargames Club) for a game or two but traffic conspired mightily against me (accident on the motorway, cars backed up for Africa). Fortunately I was stuck in traffic next to an offramp leading to Ray's place (which isn't too far from home). A quick bit of mobile/cellular action later and I was at Ray's house getting ready for a game. Reid turned up 1/2 an hour later and quite by chance I managed to get two games in against two fantastic opponents.
Ray is a champion bloke - gentlemen Warhammer player who's been pushing the toy soldiers around for years and loves the game. He's currently enjoying the Dark Elf bandwagon but has started shifting his lists around looking for something different from the standard stuff that's out there. I thought this list was great fun to play against:
Boss on Dark Steed with thrice-damned Pendant and probably some other toys (don't know... he only ended up in combat finishing off some Flagellents so it was a moot point) - oh yeah, the little bastard had his own bow too... that was really irritating!
2 Level 2s; one with Tome of Furion (extra spell), one with Darkstar Cloak (extra PD for that chick)
Bloody (literally!) Cauldron
2 x 10 RXBs
5 Dark Riders with Spears and Uzis
12 Black Guard
Biiiig block of Witch Elves
Block of Spears
Block of Executioners (!)
2 x 5 Harpies
Hydra
I had the upper hand (at least I thought I did) for the first couple of turns but throughout the game I had AWFUL luck with my artillery - might have killed a couple of Harpies in total with 2 Cannons and a Mortar. Shocking - we were so used to seeing misfires we were all really surprised when they actually didn't! Shooting went into the Witchies and Executioners to remove rank bonuses mostly. The Reiksguard Knights were fortunate - busting through the Spears and running them down on the right flank with a frontal charge (down by 3 at the start of combat from static res, Hatred made the difference) but then spent a couple of turns enduring 30 RXB shots reforming themselves for another fight (losing only one Knight from something like 70ish shots much to my amusement and Ray's - and Reid's - frustration). They managed to wipe out 10 RXBs and the Cauldron crew (who had earlier fled a quick scuffle) but not before magic (Doombolt) and combat (Hag Champ from Cauldron crew) had wiped out all (including the Priest) but the unit standard bearer. He hid in a forest and survived the game still holding the DE Spear banner.
The detachment chaff rampaged forward to divert the Executioners and bait the Witch Elves. After the fortuitous despatching of some Enemy-in-the-Waying Harpies the Spears hit the front of the Witch Elves and the Swordsmen (and Arch-Lector) hit their flank. Carnage ensued as the Witch Elves were butchered without mercy. Of course it was only as I was completing my charge moves (with the Executioners sitting on the flank of the Swordsmen ready to charge in should the Witch Elves hold) did realise that the Cauldron made the flippin Witch Elves Stubborn! Incredibly they still broke and were caught and chopped up. The Spears hit the Cauldron crew sitting behind, the Swords turned and smashed into the front of the Executioners! Result!
Ironically this is the point where I lost the game.
The Executioner Champion declined the Arch-Lector's challenge. Predictably the Lector could only kill off one Executioner. And of course the only one that could attack (with 2 attacks courtesy of the nearby Cauldron) only hit once. And of course Ray dialled up the necessary '6' on that one dice to killing blow my General.
F***.
The Swords broke in the next turn and were run down. The Spears hit the 3 Cauldron crew and may as well have hit a brick wall. The Empire BSB and the Wizard took a wound for their troubles and the Witch Elf crew passed their Stubborn break check easily. Next turn the Spears broke the crew but failed to catch them - this is around the time the surviving Reiksguard intervened and dealt to them.
An interesting point of discussion that arose during all of this was the removal (or not retrospectively) of the Cauldron model itself. The rules indicate that it is a warmachine with the exception that it cannot ever be hurt. So should we have removed it? DE units within 12" of the Cauldron are Stubborn so it could have stayed and later had an impact on the game.
While all this drama was going on the Black Guard and DE General along with their Hydra mate were taking a leisurely stroll down my left flank. The Hyrda was hit in the flank by the Flagellents after some clever (I thought) baiting and march-blocking (and a lucky passed Terror check) by the GW-Knights and Pistoliers. After their sterling performance against Phil's Hyrda in a previous game I had high hopes but the useless gits fluffed their martyr roll (gaining Hatred when I really needed at least a reroll for wounds too) and only managed a to kill off one of the handlers! In return 8+ Flagellents bit the dust. Next turn they were hit by the Black Guard and DE General = one surviving Flagellent (!). The rallied GW-Knights were all ready to charge the Hydra to remove the last crew member (to at least force a monster reaction test - could have made it wander off or go unbreakable and not move for the rest of the game) but an intervening Crossbow detachment that had failed to rally neatly moved right in the way (argh!). Bugger.
A unit of RXBs claimed a tower in the middle of the field. This little machine-gun nest smashed the Handgunners and a good number of Spearmen (and a Spear detachment) before the 5 Dark Riders (who I just could not kill!) made a daring last turn charge into the front of the depleted Spear block. They fluffed (kind of) but held in return (draw - we both had musicians) and that was the game.
Washup:
I had: 1/2 Crossbow unit, a cannon, 1/2 Reiksguard Knights, Spears block (just above half), and the Free Company detachment.
Ray had: Hydra, 1/2 Black Guard, General, both Sorceresses (one on half wounds), 1/2 Executioners (which if I'd killed 3 with my last turn of shooting would have been below 25% and unable to rally), Dark Riders, an RXB unit.
A clear and deserved win to the big guy and some hard questions being asked of the highly inaccurate artillery crew (awesome range-guessing, CRAP bounces and scatters).
Second game against Reid's Daemons coming shortly. And by shortly I mean the writing was on the wall at the end of turn one...
Crikey but it's been a while. Taken a bit of stick for my lack of blog activity recently but I have my life back (mostly) after a spate of Shakespeare performances and some temporary insanity (work-related).
Update time!
I was intending last night to make the journey to the AWC (Auckland Wargames Club) for a game or two but traffic conspired mightily against me (accident on the motorway, cars backed up for Africa). Fortunately I was stuck in traffic next to an offramp leading to Ray's place (which isn't too far from home). A quick bit of mobile/cellular action later and I was at Ray's house getting ready for a game. Reid turned up 1/2 an hour later and quite by chance I managed to get two games in against two fantastic opponents.
Ray is a champion bloke - gentlemen Warhammer player who's been pushing the toy soldiers around for years and loves the game. He's currently enjoying the Dark Elf bandwagon but has started shifting his lists around looking for something different from the standard stuff that's out there. I thought this list was great fun to play against:
Boss on Dark Steed with thrice-damned Pendant and probably some other toys (don't know... he only ended up in combat finishing off some Flagellents so it was a moot point) - oh yeah, the little bastard had his own bow too... that was really irritating!
2 Level 2s; one with Tome of Furion (extra spell), one with Darkstar Cloak (extra PD for that chick)
Bloody (literally!) Cauldron
2 x 10 RXBs
5 Dark Riders with Spears and Uzis
12 Black Guard
Biiiig block of Witch Elves
Block of Spears
Block of Executioners (!)
2 x 5 Harpies
Hydra
I had the upper hand (at least I thought I did) for the first couple of turns but throughout the game I had AWFUL luck with my artillery - might have killed a couple of Harpies in total with 2 Cannons and a Mortar. Shocking - we were so used to seeing misfires we were all really surprised when they actually didn't! Shooting went into the Witchies and Executioners to remove rank bonuses mostly. The Reiksguard Knights were fortunate - busting through the Spears and running them down on the right flank with a frontal charge (down by 3 at the start of combat from static res, Hatred made the difference) but then spent a couple of turns enduring 30 RXB shots reforming themselves for another fight (losing only one Knight from something like 70ish shots much to my amusement and Ray's - and Reid's - frustration). They managed to wipe out 10 RXBs and the Cauldron crew (who had earlier fled a quick scuffle) but not before magic (Doombolt) and combat (Hag Champ from Cauldron crew) had wiped out all (including the Priest) but the unit standard bearer. He hid in a forest and survived the game still holding the DE Spear banner.
The detachment chaff rampaged forward to divert the Executioners and bait the Witch Elves. After the fortuitous despatching of some Enemy-in-the-Waying Harpies the Spears hit the front of the Witch Elves and the Swordsmen (and Arch-Lector) hit their flank. Carnage ensued as the Witch Elves were butchered without mercy. Of course it was only as I was completing my charge moves (with the Executioners sitting on the flank of the Swordsmen ready to charge in should the Witch Elves hold) did realise that the Cauldron made the flippin Witch Elves Stubborn! Incredibly they still broke and were caught and chopped up. The Spears hit the Cauldron crew sitting behind, the Swords turned and smashed into the front of the Executioners! Result!
Ironically this is the point where I lost the game.
The Executioner Champion declined the Arch-Lector's challenge. Predictably the Lector could only kill off one Executioner. And of course the only one that could attack (with 2 attacks courtesy of the nearby Cauldron) only hit once. And of course Ray dialled up the necessary '6' on that one dice to killing blow my General.
F***.
The Swords broke in the next turn and were run down. The Spears hit the 3 Cauldron crew and may as well have hit a brick wall. The Empire BSB and the Wizard took a wound for their troubles and the Witch Elf crew passed their Stubborn break check easily. Next turn the Spears broke the crew but failed to catch them - this is around the time the surviving Reiksguard intervened and dealt to them.
An interesting point of discussion that arose during all of this was the removal (or not retrospectively) of the Cauldron model itself. The rules indicate that it is a warmachine with the exception that it cannot ever be hurt. So should we have removed it? DE units within 12" of the Cauldron are Stubborn so it could have stayed and later had an impact on the game.
While all this drama was going on the Black Guard and DE General along with their Hydra mate were taking a leisurely stroll down my left flank. The Hyrda was hit in the flank by the Flagellents after some clever (I thought) baiting and march-blocking (and a lucky passed Terror check) by the GW-Knights and Pistoliers. After their sterling performance against Phil's Hyrda in a previous game I had high hopes but the useless gits fluffed their martyr roll (gaining Hatred when I really needed at least a reroll for wounds too) and only managed a to kill off one of the handlers! In return 8+ Flagellents bit the dust. Next turn they were hit by the Black Guard and DE General = one surviving Flagellent (!). The rallied GW-Knights were all ready to charge the Hydra to remove the last crew member (to at least force a monster reaction test - could have made it wander off or go unbreakable and not move for the rest of the game) but an intervening Crossbow detachment that had failed to rally neatly moved right in the way (argh!). Bugger.
A unit of RXBs claimed a tower in the middle of the field. This little machine-gun nest smashed the Handgunners and a good number of Spearmen (and a Spear detachment) before the 5 Dark Riders (who I just could not kill!) made a daring last turn charge into the front of the depleted Spear block. They fluffed (kind of) but held in return (draw - we both had musicians) and that was the game.
Washup:
I had: 1/2 Crossbow unit, a cannon, 1/2 Reiksguard Knights, Spears block (just above half), and the Free Company detachment.
Ray had: Hydra, 1/2 Black Guard, General, both Sorceresses (one on half wounds), 1/2 Executioners (which if I'd killed 3 with my last turn of shooting would have been below 25% and unable to rally), Dark Riders, an RXB unit.
A clear and deserved win to the big guy and some hard questions being asked of the highly inaccurate artillery crew (awesome range-guessing, CRAP bounces and scatters).
Second game against Reid's Daemons coming shortly. And by shortly I mean the writing was on the wall at the end of turn one...
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