NiCon Round Two - Reid's Dark Elves

Round Two saw me drawn against my good mate and traveling buddy Mr Reid Pittams. A previous tournament winner (from a number of different events), games against Reid are always tense (in a good way) and extremely enjoyable. In fact, I don't think I've ever won a game against Reid and often find I walk away with a raft of valuable lessons for 'the next time'.

We were actually not thrilled to be playing each other in the second round at NiCon. Despite approaching the TO and asking to be swapped in the draw, and despite the fact that it was confirmed that the draw was (at this point...?) random, we were still required to play each other. Apparently it was just too difficult for us to "randomly" swap with a couple of players on the neighbouring table.

This immediately put our game on the back foot and the decision was made to rush this one through and look for the early lunch. Reid was pretty miffed about the inflexibility of the (random) draw, and I'd already decided this tournament was (from a competitive point-of-view) a complete whitewash so with the pressure of having to check into the hotel at some point, needing to get some lunch, and needing to eat that lunch away from the convention venue we literally threw models at the table and piled things forward for a nice easy (and hopefully decisive) scrum.

Not much else to write about here. Dawn Attack forced me inadvertently into a refused centre with the Trolls failing Stupidity for the whole game on Ld4. On the left the combined might of all my blocks and magic did for the Black Guard, Harpies and a small unit of Crossbowmen. On the right an ambitious Mangler and Pump Wagon ate up a big unit of Crossbows and a lucky randomly moving Fanatic slapped some Cold One Knights good and proper. In the middle my cowering Spider Riders faced down a Hydra, Witch Elves, big Spear block with L4 (Shadows),Master on Pegasus, and some Shades.

Highlight of the game was 5 Spider Riders flank-charging the Spear bus, killing off the L4 and breaking the entire unit (won combat by one) even though they were Steadfast.


I came out of this with a solid win and a bitter taste in my mouth. Having played a regular opponent and having traveled a decent journey to attend the event, I hoped for the privelege of playing more Tron locals in the coming rounds.