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.