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 :)

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.

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.

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.

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...

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 :)

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).

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.

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!

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 :-)

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!