Round three saw me striving mightily (and it turns out somewhat brainlessly) against the prophetically afore-mentioned Carl Templeton (see "FluffyCon Predictions" in a previous post). Turns out Carl was not Charles Black in masterful disguise (thank goodness!). Also turns out he wasn't using Dwarfs...
Carl had:
Scar-Vet with Nikes and a big stick
Scar-Vet BSB
Priest - Level 2
Priest - Level 2
2 units of Skinks
1 unit of Scouts
5 Chamelon Skinks
Big Fat Steg
3 Terradons
1 Salamander
2 blocks of Saurus
1 block of mini-tanks (Quetzl Saurus)
My most immediate thought was - "If I kill ALL of the chaff and am left with the Steg and 3 blocks I'm still likely to be royally screwed in points. This game will be a draw if I don't stuff things up too much".
And that's EXACTLY what happened (except I stuffed things up and it was still a draw - haha).
Highlights:
- Sighting a nearby and incredibly comfortable-looking tarvern my Crossbowmen staked their claim, holding the bastion for the Empire for the whole game and raining death on the stinky Lizards. Unfortunately it must have been happy hour as they could barely hit the side of a barn-sized Steg.
- The Cannon ineptly missed the Steg for three turns before fleeing from Mr Big Boots.
- Stranded for lack of a unit that would take his charge the Nike-wearing Scar-Vet General took a wound from a magic missile before making over 16 armour saves from shooting (including several armour-piercing handgunner shots). He survived the game, not only chasing off the Cannon and Wizard but also doing for the GW-Knights who managed to NOT hit him in a cunning overrun by 2 inches (having obliterated 3 Skinks that rather foolishly stood in their way). Bugger. I thought that was some decent luck on Carl's part :) (saving on 3s or 4s 16+ consecutive rolls)
- The Terradons were the first (and only) ones to eat hot crossbow death after their Skink screen vanished in a puff of Mortar-induced smoke and ash. The survivors fled through a Skink Priest who hitched up his skirts, failed to rally, and fled the board. The Terradons promptly failed their panic check for casualties and buggered off. Yay - the Mortar is safe for a few more turns! Karma realigned later in the game when the surivivors of this initial barrage exacted a gruesome and terribly unfriendly revenge on the Mortar crew - three Skinks more than enough to take out the wussy crewmen in the last turn.
- Having cleared the chaff I should have called it quits and organised a steady retreat. But of course I didn't do that did I? Instead I decided to try my luck with the Saurus. Like a proper idiot I charged all three blocks (W!T!F!!!???) - the most tragic decision of all was front-charging the Quetzl Saurus with the Reiksguard Knights. I don't know what I was thinking either!!! If I'd just backed off I could have kept them out of the game. Instead the Knights were very lucky to survive with a model remaining (and the Priest). Dumb dumb DUMB! Must repeat to myself next time: you are not a Brettonian. You are NOT a Brettonian!
- The Flagellents died a slow, painful and depressingly hopeless death to another block while my Swordsmen stupidly stood by and watched them die. Totally misused both units.
- A last turn charge by the Swordsmen and Empire General into the front of the Steg saw me win the combat by 2 but of course with the BSB right next to it the Steg passed it's Stubborn break check. Oh yeah, I remember now. Stegs are awesome.
In the end the difference in victory points was 136VPS - very nearly an 11-9 loss* I was a point-blank idiot charging with the Knights, allowing the Spearmen and BSB to get into combat with the Lizard BSB's Saurus block (broke and escaped but lost 2 banners... sigh), and almost completely wasting the Swordsmen. Oh man!!!
The Saurus were FRIGGIN HARD! Like Dwarfs on crack. Goodness knows what will happen in the new book when they have two attacks each with spears, a better armour save, and all this for less points!!! I feel ill just thinking about 12 Saurus running 6 wide with spears putting out 24 attacks. Yuck. Quetzl Saurus are doubly hard and given their slightly off-centre placement I was a twit for even trying it on with them. Bah. Wonderful hindsight.
So the end of day one saw me riding the crest of half battle points - 35/60. At this point I felt I would be very fortunate to maintain this record in day two. Post-tournament this is one of the big learning points for me (excuse my preempting of the outcome of my tournament experience) - if I'd managed to get 1/2 battle points (say 60-62/120) I would have finished in the top 10! Something to think about for next time, especially given the results of the next couple of games.
Next up: round four and... Lizards? Whoa... deja vu! Oi! TO! Is that right!?
* Forgot to mention - round one against Daemons I was 3VPs away from a 10-10 draw. Rargh!
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