Fields of Blood - Round Three vs Nick Buckby

A previous GT winner, Masters player, Wood Elf Expert Extraordinaire (or "WEEE" for short), Nick is a great guy and I have been on the hunt to play him for a while but every time he turns up to the club I have something else arranged and it has never quite worked out.

Nick had his fantastic Wood Elves (the only Wood Elves I've seen that have teeny-weeny tiny flowers on the bases):

Spellweaver - L4, Ranu's Heartstone, Moonstone of the Hidden Ways, Scroll
Spellsinger - L2, Calaingor's Stave, Scroll
Noble - BSB, Hail of Doom Arrow, Asyendil's Bane
8 Dryads8 Dryads
8 Dryads
10 Gladeguard - Musician
10 Gladeguard - Musician
4 Treekin
7 Wardancers - Musician
5 Wildriders - full command, Warbanner
5 Wildriders - Musician
Treeman
Great Eagle

A nice army - nothing obnoxious and certainly none of the usual things that make one roll eyes at Wood Elves (ok, he had HoDA and Moonstone - those were the only tricks). I have the absolute minimum of experience playing Wood Elves - I think I played Nick Irvine once with my Dwarfs and got my beard handed to me. However, having my brain switch off in the previous round it now switched back on to remember some of the things I've read about. Things like flammable and Immune to Psychology (and hence unable to flee) sprang nimbly to mind.


My memory is fading so here are the interesting details of this highly entertaining game:


Jag-Vet strolls up looking for a Steed of Shadows from the Slann to get into the action quickish on turn 2. Fails to cast. Gets shot by Gladeguard block on hill. Survives. Normal charge next turn into Wildriders (without banner). Kills champ. Holds. Next turn kills 2 more, breaks them and runs them down and goes off the board. Survives the game.

Shooting and HoDA killing Saurus by the dozen. Surviving Saurus charged by Treeman and Eagle. Smashed in combat - both overrun into Salamanders behind. By this time the Tree has one wound left from flamey shooty death and magic. Fluffs attacks against Sallies. Sallies eat Treeman. Sallies eat Eagle.

Slann, who has abandoned Saurus block is sitting by himself. Charged by 2 surviving Dryads. Dryads fluff. Slann wins by outnumber and battle standard. Dryads break. Fail to rally over the next two turns and flee the board. Slann then charged by 3 Wildriders in the flank. Wildriders fluff. Slann turns around and drop the elbow on one - killing him. Wildriders pass but are then rear-charged by Krox. Much Wildrider death and Slann takes Warbanner.

Big fat Steg charges Gladeguard who flee and escape. Slann then uses Unseen Lurker (spell of the game if ever there was one) to charge Steg again into fleeing Gladeguard running them off the board. Next turn Steg does an about face, shoots some more Gladeguard. Next turn charges and breaks them but fails to catch and only pursues 3 inches.

Nick's magic phase a miscast allows me a free spell. Oooh, get in there with Unseen Lurker! Steg into Wardancers who are providing a bunker for the L4, the L2 AND the BSB. 4+ ward girly dance fails to save 6 Wardancers who break, taking the characters with them and flee off the board.

Nick had the Treekin (hardly touched them) and 1/2 a Dryad unit left. I had 3 quarters and one contested by the Treekin, general, couple of banners. Still, came out to a 19-1 win... Treekin are costly buggers - should have tried harder to take them down I guess but instead tried to get rid of annoying Dryads.

Pretty brutal game for the Woodies - the first where magic seriously had a big part to play, the Salamanders had proved their worth and the Steg+Krox+Unseen Lurker were absolutely devastating.


39/60 battle points for day one. Couldn't help wonder about the difference Round Two might have made but it really worked out for the best playing Nick who is a great guy with a neat army (one that I don't get to play often enough). The win also helped :)

I entered the results and completed the draw for Sunday and to my delight I drew Scott's Dark Elves. Yay! My third Dragon in four games!

Fields of Blood - Round Two vs John Matthews

The problem with winning in Round One is that you immediately go on to face all the other hardasses who mashed their first opponents. I had horrible visions of facing Tony or Kitson in round two (both of whom have crushed me before) but managed to bullet-dodge both (as I did all tournament) and ended up drawing John Matthews. I had not met John previous to this. He is ex-GW in a VERY high up sort of way (previously overseeing the management of 26 stores; casually name dropped throughout the game and in a previous phone conversation we had about his army "When I had lunch with Gav [Thorpe] 3 months ago" and "When I played Rick Priestly" and so on) which impressed me greatly. He clearly had years and years of experience under his belt so I immediately felt I was on the back foot playing against someone who is almost a professional (John now works for Battlefront) - certainly he knows the game better than I do!

John's army was one of the ones that as TO I had requested he resubmit but due to some time issues and a points miscalculation with his version 2 list I wasn't able to get it rescored in time for the event so he just went with the first list.

From his 12,000+ points of Vampire Counts army he chose to take the following:

Vampire Lord - goddam kitchen worth of appliances (Dread Lance, Red Fury, Zombie Dragon, Dark Acolyte, Summon Ghouls, Night Shroud)
Vampire - Nightmare, Summon Ghouls, Dark Acolyte, Balefire Spike, Cadaverous Cuirass, Dispel Scroll
Vampire - Nightmare, Arkhan, Sword of Might, Dark Acolyte
12 Ghouls - Ghast
12 Ghouls - Ghast
10 Ghouls - Ghast
10 Ghouls - Ghast
Corpsecart - Balefire
5 Blood Knights - hatred banner
5 Blood Knights

It did not take a professional player to figure out that his characters and Knights were worth the majority of the points in his army.

I won't go into the details of this game because we had an unfortunate incident in the third turn that really changed the game. Basically John got the Lord into the flank of the Saurus block with Slann BSB. I challenged with the Cold One Scar-Vet and he saved EVERYTHING that the dragon and auto-hitting str7 Vampire general could throw at him. John lost the combat by 5 after I charged some Skinks into his rear and then the game-changing error was made. John declared 1 of the 5 wounds he was taking from combat resolution was going on the general and 4 wounds were going on the dragon.

Now, straight away this didn't seem right to me. I don't know - it was a gut reaction I guess but it just felt dodgy. I asked him if he was able to split wounds between the mount and the rider and he assured me it was legit. I'm not a Vampire player, I don't know the army but I sure as hell expect my opponent to know their rules so I took his word and we moved on. The Dragon took 4 wounds (1 wound remaining) and the general took 1 wound.

Next turn the Blood Knights charged some Krox who were JUST in front of the Zombie Dragon - fleeing would mean autokilled running through the Dragon (this is what I should have done). Instead they stupidly took the charge, got minced, Blood Knights overran into the Skinks, smashed them, Scar-Vet Cold One dude took a wound and I was suddenly testing at minus heaps. I held but eventually died/was run down. The Slann ended up in combat with the general and the DRAGON killed the Slann. Unit auto-broke and was cut down. DRAGON moved around and charged the Steg in the flank. The DRAGON's wounds were restored over the course of the rest of the game and the rest of my army was completely destroyed. Game.

Here's the problem: AFTER the game we read the rule and discovered that ALL combat res wounds go on the mount first. The Dragon should have died. Had the Dragon died the Krox would have fled (I wouldn't have given it a second thought). The Vampire general would have died from combat res in the next round (in a challenge and facting static res of 8 even 4 wounds against the SCar-Vet wouldn't have saved him). Then all the Ghouls are testing every turn. The Dragon dead means the Slann would have survived. The Steg would have survived. I dare say I would have come away with a pretty awesome win.

Instead I lost 20-0 which after discovering the rule oversight John changed to 19-1.

Hmm...I was pretty gutted about that. Well, if nothing else, lesson learnt. Make them show you the rule next time. Don't assume they know their army. John was pretty upset too (no one like making those kinds of errors) - he's been playing so long that the various army book editions have begun to merge together and admittedly that rule is one of the subtle changes from the previous VC book and I guess easy to overlook.

I'd like to emphasise that the reason behind highlighting this error (and going on and on about it) isn't to demean John as a player - he's a bloody great guy who played a good tight game with a fast, hard list. The incident is highlighted for my sake; to reference the things I need to get right in future games and the lesson(s) I need to learn. Players make mistakes and it's not a lack of trust but rather a complacency on my part that I need to take another look at.


Anyway it worked out well because my next game was against someone I've always wanted to play... (and John took two bullets on my behalf - Antony's Dark Elves and Reid's Daemons)

Fields of Blood - Round One vs Phil Comins (High Elves)

The great thing about being the TO is none of my opponent's lists are from memory. Behold! Phil had:

Elf Prince - Sword of Might, Armour of Caledor, Vambraces of Defence, Crutch (Star Dragon)

Mage - L2, Seerstaff of Saphery, Scroll

Mage - L2, Silver Wand, Ring of Fury

15 Spearmen - muso, standard, Warbanner

10 Archers

10 Archers

6 Dragon Princes - full command, Banner of Sorcery

5 Swordmasters

5 Swordmasters

Tiranoc Chariot

Tiranoc Chariot

Repeater Bolt Thrower

Repeater Bolt Thrower

It's a visually stunning army - a real treat to see on the battlefield.

Having played High Elves only twice previously (once with Dwarfs and somewhat fortuitously the weekend before with Lizards ) I figured I might be up against it. Wasn't hard to seperate the chaff from the dangerous stuff.

The table had a forest in the middle on my left, a small forest in the middle (just enough room for the scouting Skinks), a big impassable piece on my right towards the centre, big hill to me left in my zone, little hill on Phil's leftin his zone and a hedgerow in the centre of his zone. I placed the Saurus block in the centre with the Frog, surrounded him with Skinks, and towards the left placed the Steg, both Krox units and a trail of Skinks. The Sallies snuck in a gap right in the middle ready to scurry ASAP into the central forest. The scouts went into said forest as previously mentioned.Phil's Dragon Princes went on my far right (hidden behind the large forest and clearly aiming to sweep into my flank in turn 2), they were joined by 5 Swordmasters (I know enough about these guys to really respect what a mere 5 models could do to me), two chariots and the eagle (just in front of both), archers in the centre with a mage, boltie and the spear block with the other mage, more archers and then on the little hill to Phil's left the last boltie and the other 5 Swordmasters next to them on his extreme right. The Dragon (which I almost forgot to mention!) was right in the centre.

The Priest rolled Portent and Forked Lightning. The Slann rolled Doom and Darkness (and there was much rejoicing), Dark Hand, Wind of Death, Drain Life and Steed. Phil went for Beasts with the Seerstaff mage taking Beast Cowers (to stop the Steg) and Wolf Hunts (to move his Dragon - erk!). The other chap took something that ended up being of little consequence.I won the roll for first turn and took it.

LUCKY DAVE - TURN 1

Much shuffling around from all and sundry except the Sallies who legged it into the forest and and scouting Skinks who flew out into Jav range of the Archers with Mage buddy. Magic Steed of Shadowed the Jag into the Great Eagle (praying for one turn kill and overrun into a chariot - wishful thinking I know but at least it pinned the flying turkey in place - I hate Great Eagles). Magic missiles nabbed a few Archers (no panic) and Skink shooting got a few more (no panic - curses). The Priest stored two dice in the Diadem in preparation for the HE magic phase. In combat the Eagle took a wound.

PHILFY TURN 1

Phil moved the Princes up, turned the Swordmasters on his right towards the Jag-Vet, scooted the chariots around the Eagle/Jag combat (which was a draw - wound on the eagle, eagle outnumbers). The Dragon leapt towards the Krox and Skinks on my left. The Spear block charged the scouting Skinks and much to Phil's surprise they decided to hold. Shooting went into the Slann (no wounds) as the Steg was hiding behind the central forest and the remaining Archers with Mage shot at some Skinks killing one. In the magic phase Phil tried to Wolf Hunts the Dragon into some Skinks but failed to cast and there was no other magic of great effect. In combat the Skinks were smashed, fled and were run down, taking a couple of Spearmen with them. The overrun took the Spears up to the Salamanders but unfortunately for Phil not quite into them. The Lizard vs Budgie fight continued.

LUCKY DAVE TURN 2

Passing all my Terror checks with flying colours I struggled with what I could do to stop the damned Star Dragon. Not only that but the Dragon Princes and chariots were going to join the fun next turn too. Pain time. Hopelessly optimistic I moved 2 units of Skinks towards the Dragon to poison it to death (I know I know... statistical improbability yadda yadda yadda) but in doing so the Skinks also go right in the way of a chariot and the Dragon Princes for some sacrificial action. the Steg and block manouevered to bring the Dragon to their front. The Salamanders licked their chops and got ready to fry the Spears and a unit of Skinks leapt to the flank of the Spear block to throw some poisoned nastiness their way too. In the magic phase the Slann Doom and Darknessed the Spears (excellent). All the shooting at the Dragon did jack squat but the Salamanders char-grilled a bunch of Spearmen who decided they couldn't care less. In another show of hopeless optimism the Steg missed the Dragon completely with it's bow. The Jag-vet killed the Eagle and stood there stupidly as the Swordmasters prepared to charge him.

PHILFY TURN 2

The Dragon, clearly shaken by the ineptitude of the Steg crew charged into the front of the Steg. One of the chariots charged some Skinks (fled) and redirected into some Krox and the Dragon Princes charged the other Skinks (who took the charge - again much to Phil's surprise). The Swordmasters on Phil's right Charged the now unengaged Jag-Vet who fled but stopped in front of the Elf mage (it turns out shortly this was a VERY bad place to stop). The remaining Spearmen tried to charged the Salamanders but after failing to shake Doom and Darkness they then fluffed their Fear check, obviously preferring to take a charge or get shot by them again in the next turn. Shooting once again went into the Slann (no wounds) and magic was stopped dead. In combat the Princes annihilated the Skinks and overran into the unengaged Krox. The chariot got bashed by the Krox who suddenly had a next turn option of charging the other chariot which Phil had lined up to try and Wolf Hunts into the same combat in his magic phase. In the combat that really mattered the Elf General and Dragon fluffed BIG TIME against the Steg who took a measly two wounds and laughed hard as he passed a break check on 7s with the Slann's leadership and BSB reroll. With the Saurus block on the Dragon's flank it was going to get VERY nasty VERY shortly.

LUCKY DAVE TURN 3

This was it - either everything worked brilliantly this turn or it was all over bar the stabbing. The Sallies and Skinks went into the Spear block who held. The Saurus block passed their Fear check to charge the Dragon (not Terror - sorry, forgot to mention the Cold One was in here too - very useful for mitigating Terror/Fear) and went into it's flank. The Jag-Vet rallied just in time to get run down by the remaining Tiranoc chariot who fled the charge of the Kroxigor. Before the chariot could clean bits of Lizard from it's wheels they also ran over the remaining archers who all died a messy death. The chariot then hit the hedge (missing the Mage by less than an inch) and exploded from the self-inflicted impact hits that Phil rather impressively managed to roll up (having rolled 1 against the Krox he now rolled 5 to kill his own chariot). In the magic phase Phil stopped Doom and Darkness on the Elf General (curses!) and there was no other magic of interest. In combat the Sallies and Skinks beat the crap out of the Spears, breaking them but virtue of outnumber with Fear-causers (the Salamanders). The Skinks chased them down and netted the Warbanner they were ineffectually waving around. the Sallies pursued about 3 inches which was quite frankly not great. The Dragon Princes hitting the Krox from the overrun in the previous turn managed to dispatch one but they struck back ferociously and slew 2 of the brave Elves. The Krox lost but held. In the decisive combat Phil quickly called a challenge. "Mr -1 save Cold One Scar-Vet" was happy to oblige. The Scar-vet missed with eveything but Phil practically did too (again!) and the Vet saved what wounds were dished out (3+ save vs str7 being FRIGGIN AWESOME!!!!) or might have taken one, not quite sure. Testing at something huge (hang on - flank, 3 ranks, banner, BSB, outnumber... must have been 6 and he must have wounded the Scar-Vet) the Prince failed. He fled just to precisely where the now rallied Skinks (who had earlier fled the charge of the Chariot) had rallied and just like that.

Bam. Splat. No more Dragon.Wow. Nice. We both sat there looking a little stunned. Madness.

PHILFY TURN 3

Phil was understandably a little miffed at the sudden turn of events. I mean, you just can't plan for the loss of something like the Dragon from not one but TWO consecutive rounds of absolutely appalling dice rolls. Nevertheless he set about avenging the death of the general with the resources he had remaining. The surviving Mage (one was run down with the Spear block) joined the 5 Swordmasters on Phil's right and the other 5 Swordmasters (on his left) moved around to get at the Salamanders. The Archers also wheeled to have a crack at the Sallies next turn. The Mage Beast Cowered the Salamanders so they couldn't move (or shoot! Argh!). All the shooting he could must went into the Salamanders too but they shrugged most of it off. In combat the unfortunate Dragon Princes struck out agains the Krox (being pretty crap when they aren't charging), the survivor of the Krox's return attacks auto-broke from the Fear-causing badasses and was run down, the Krox capturing the accursed Banner of Sorcery and getting themselves a bit closer to the Swordmasters and their new Mage mate.

LUCKY DAVE TURN 4

The Skinks with the captured Warbanner charged a bolt thrower and the Krox with the Banner of Sorcery charged but failed abysmally to reach the Swordmasters. The Krox in the middle got the hell away from the other bolt thrower, hiding behind the forest in the centre of the board. The Steg moved around to charge the other Swordmasters next turn and the Saurus reformed and took a coffee break. The Slann then went to work on the Swordmasters on my left with magic missiles, leaving none alive. In combat the Skinks drew against the bolt thrower crew and the Salamanders whimpered about the imminent charge of the other Swordmaster unit.

PHILFY TURN 4

The Swordmasters passed their Fear check to charge the Sallies but the clever Lizards fled the charge. Shooting however once again went into the much hated (and already fleeing) Salamanders, picking off a couple more) and the weakened Krox unit, taking them to half strength. The damned Mage Beast Cowered the Steg (noooo!). The Skink in combat with the bolt thrower crew beat their opponents and ran them down.

LUCKY DAVE TURN 5

The Salamanders rallied within range of the Slann. The Krox charged the Mage who took the charge (would have fled off the board regardless) and also repeatedly took a Great Weapon to the head. The Krox overran off the board to safety. In the magicfest phase the Slann vapourised the remaining Swordmaster unit and started on the Archers.

PHILFY TURN 5

With 4 Archers and a bolt thrower remaining Phil called the game.

With all of Phil's army except a boltie and some Archers, 4 quarters, the Elf general and 2 standards I ended up with something in the vicinity on 2850VPs.

Phil had taken care of:

1/2 unit of Krox (116)

Scouting Skinks (70)

1 unit of standard Skinks (60)

The Jag-Vet thanks to that Chariot - call it a fair trade (113)

1/2 the Cold One Vet - 1/2 wounds (83)

Result?A 20-0 win to Lucky Dave and the end of the ADC and Dave-had Scalp Hunt before it had even really begun.

Phil went on to win Best Sports and Best Presentation, both of which I feel he fully deserved. He had a hell of a tournament (as his battle reports will attest) with another rough game in the next round. His dice in this game were absolutely bloody awful. I don't think the Dragon was used paticularly well - not sure why he didn't go for the Krox with that charge as they were an option - but with the Slann/BSB near most of the army who can say if it would have been any easier. If he'd gone into the Krox and they had held he would have taken the Steg in the flank in the next round anyway. In the end, being in a position to get charged by the only unit I had that had any static res, worse - in the flank, was really most unfortunate. It as the only way I could take the Dragon out barring requiring ridiculous luck (which admittedly I had a lot of anyway vis a vis the Dragon not killing the Steg - it probably should have).

Hey - I'm not called Lucky Dave for nothing.

Fields of Blood report - Introductory Comments

After the catastrophe that was Call to Arms (by all accounts a FANTASTIC tournament, would that Pacific Blue had allowed me to get there... yes, still very bitter) I was absolutely convinced that I had to play at Fields of Blood. The issue unfortunately was that I was also the one running the event so major preparation and organisation would be key. Luckily almost everything went off without a hitch. I learnt a bunch about being a TO (primarily don't play in a big tournament when you are also the TO - hmm...) and felt thoroughly supported by the players and wider community the whole way through the process. I got to talk (via email) to some of the giants of the community and was never in any doubt that the players were on my side and had the best interests of the tournament in mind. I would definitely put my hand up to run the event again so maybe someone will let me TO Fields in 2009. Guess we'll deal with that next year.

So...

I started Warhammer (about 8 months ago) playing Dwarfs. The primary reason for this is that, with four 40k armies, my darling wife (understanding as she is) couldn't see any good reason for me to start another army in a different system. Could I not just use my Space Marines? Or the Eldar? Ah the dear, sweet, ignorant woman. How I love her. Careful and considered explanation and phrasing convinced her to let me collect the cheapest possible force I could (some of you know the deal - mortgage, 2 kids, alcohol... priority spending etc) and because a mate was offloading his Skull Pass stuff (as you do) I offered to take it of his hands, along with a Dwarf Army book, for a bargain basement price. Bingo - the start of a Dwarf army. I few more purchases and I had something to start playing Fantasy. It wasn't/isn't an entirely optimised force but it helped me find my feet. I took it to Tin Soldiers (report on that elsewhere on this blog) and did ok; placed 10th. In playing a fair few games however I realised I was really missing out on two of the most important (and exciting) aspects of the game. It won't surprise you to know these were: movement and magic.

I needed something fast. And I needed something zappy.

Enter Pommy Dave's Lizards.

I'd watched Dave play a fair few games with the Lizzies and had been on the receiving end of the army a couple of times - enough to know they were pretty damn cool. And they had what I wanted - good leadership, fantastic movement, magic, variety. What the Dwarves lacked, the Lizards had in spades - and just like that, I was hooked. Dave offered me their use for CtA and after that fell through generously carried the offer on to Fields of Blood so Lizards it was. I had a stack of practice games to help me find my way around the list, sought opinions on builds, designed something that looked very middle of the road and I was on my way.

The list I took to Fields was thusly:
4th gen Slann - 2+ ward vs shooting/magic missiles, extra spell, BSB, Banehead
Scar-Vet - GW, Jag Charm, you know the drill
Scar-Vet - the "Pommy Dave Special", Cold One, LA, Burning Blade, Questzl, Enchanted Shield for a -1 armour save
Priest - L2 with Diadem
16 Saurus w/full command10 Skinks
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
10 Skinks - Scouts (all Skinks have Javelins)
3 Salamanders
Big fat Steg
4 Krox
4 Krox

Not real subtle but suited me and my noobness just fine.

The list scored 15/30 for Army Selection (comp). Bang on half way and just under the tournament average of 17.5/30. Interesting to see it got just a little more than some of the Daemon armies at the event but that (and the comp of other armies - including those that got the same as some of the Daemon armies) is discussion for another thread. I was happy with 15 and certainly didn't (and still don't really) know any better. What mattered was that I found it exciting to use and it offered me a perspective on the game I was not previously able to engage with successfully. The list didn't seem to overtly annoy my opponents - most shrugged their shoulder or rolled their eyes. Most have said it's middle of the road for Lizards. I don't know - ignorance is bliss I guess.

So...

In the lead up to the event one Phil Comins started this ridiculous ADC nonsense which came about because he thought it would be entertaining for him to start the tournament by bunny-hunting the new TO. Much fun was had on these forums (I know some people find this whole Ji-Dave/Dave-had thing utterly stupid and a waste of time and posting - I find it incredibly amusing) over the last couple of weeks. Phil was making some pretty bold statements about Dave scalps and I replied with something about giant-killing and crushing egos and learning him a lesson and noob-schooling him and that Star Dragons were a crutch and that I was going to kick his silly a$$ and so on. And on it went. You can see that thread here:

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58794

And so the day of the tournament arrived. Co-incidentally I was tabled next to Pommy Dave (aka TOP Dave) in his Ji-Dave grudge against the Interloper, Marcelo. Truly coincidental because although I entered us onto the tables I had no idea how they were numbered (delegated task - key to surviving TOing AND playing in a tournament). Somehow Dave and I also ended up on the same table side. Maybe fate was against the ADC right from the start.

I was thoroughly briefed beforehand and the briefing went like this:

Top Dave - "You cannot lose this game".
Me - "I see... but, Phil's really good, and he knows his army, and this isn't my army it's just an experiment in learning about the game, and he has a Star Dragon...".
Top Dave - "If you lose this game I will disown you and the Birthmother will send Swearing Dave and Super Dave after you and they will beat your face in and chew your hands off and you'll never play the piano again".
Me - "I see..."

High pressure stuff.

Sportsmanship scoring

This post:

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=59243


got me thinking. How does one define good sportsmanship in Warhammer?

I've had plenty of great games of Fantasy - in fact very rarely would I say I've felt cheated of a win and, heaven forbid, that my opponent was a bad sport. Having said that, if I was to score the people I've played (say, 1-5 with 5 being the best) not everyone would get full marks.

My confidence in scoring the other guy has increased with my confidence of my own ability and understanding of the game. Early on I would naively just smile and nod when someone claimed a rule to be right or just straight up told me that was what 'that unit' could do. I was blissfully happy in my ignorance and would say most of the time it wouldn't have made much of a difference to the outcome of the game. Nowadays I'm (somewhat) more inclined to challenge what I believe to be dodgy player.

Sometimes I can put my finger on something my opponent has done in the game to warrant lowering (hitting) their score but sometimes it's just a feeling I get from the game. The vibe. Marbo. Etc.

The reason this thread got me thinking was the vibe hit. Dropping someone's score because you just felt something was off, not quite right. I'm not talking dropping a 5 down to a 4. More like a 4 down to a 2 - a big drop, where the game was never going to be one of the best you've ever had against one of the best people you've ever played (those are usually obvious). Not being inappropriately generous is important because not every game you play will be amongst the best - something a '5' should really be reserved for.


The more I understand the game, the less outwardly dodgy play happens, and the more I feel my scoring of an opponent is intrinsically motivated.


Well, that was a rambling mess of nonsense...

Vs Phil's High Elves (but not that Phil)

I was pleasantly surprised to catch a game against a High Elf army at the club today - fortuitous given my arranged grudge match against them for Round One at FoB. Even better there was a Phil at the helm - not the Phil I would actually be facing but surely this was fate! I'd not played Phil before though he's been appearing at the club infrequently for the last 6 months or more.

Having only played High Elves once before (and with Dwarfs no less) I was very keen to see how the Lizards would fare. Phil is a cagey chap and wasn't too keen to divulge exactly what his Elfy lads were actually equipped with. This made is difficult to gauge how I should deploy to the best effect. As far as High Elves go the army also looked HUGE - big Spear block, big Lothern Seaguard block, big Swordmasters block, Dragon Princes, Silver Helms, Lion Chariot, 2 bolties, 2 mages, character on horse with Dragon Princes and sneaky boss hidden (in plain sight) in Swordmasters. A nasty magic phase including the Rings of Fury and Corin, a mage with Seer choosing Shades of Death and Pit of Shades and the boss had a book that stole one of my pool dice. Grrr!

Phil went first and prompty very nearly wiped my Saurus block off the face of the board with Pit of Shades and the bolt throwers. Damn but I hate Pit of Shades. The Dragon Princes were up in my face and it was all on straight away!

Skinks bravely threw themselves into the path of the oncoming Dragon Princes as a Lion Chariot slammed into the remainder of the Saurus who took the charge and beat the chariot by 1 (it held). Magic was a damp squib barring Doom and Darkness on the Spear block who subsequently failed a Terror test thanks to Mr Stegadon and fled across the board, taking their Mage with them. These were later charged by the Salamanders and Jag-Vet from opposition sides, the Jag-Vet cutting them down in front of the Seaguard on a hill in Phil's deployment zone.

On the other flank the Silver Helms were carefully escorted towards my board edge by two Skink units, unable to march or charge they were kept out of the battle in the centre. They survived by were unable to lend a hand to their comrades.

With the Spears taken care of Phil's magic phase was starting to show holes and mine was coming into its own. The Steg charged into a bolt thrower crew who elected to flee allowing him to hit the Seaguard in the flank. Winning by 5 he broke them and ran them down. The Sallies set to on the Swordmasters leaving 9 alive. These charged into some Krox, killing 1 and taking 2 wounds from another (from 9 attacks in total - damn!) but they killed 3 Swordmasters in return and held with the Slann nearby.

At that point Phil called the game.

The continuing saga of comp scoring and political activism in tournament gaming

I had arranged a game with Dave last night but he called and was forced to cancel after his wife cracked the whip (far enough too - he's been working his butt off for the last couple of weeks and with an intensive tournament coming up next weekend and Father's Day on Sunday, family time is at a premium). This was unfortunate as I'd been looking forward to the game all week... oh well. Hopefully we can catch up later this week before FoB.

This left me with time to twiddle my thumbs and it got me back to thinking about comp scoring - particularly as it relates to FoB as this clearly involves me directly.

Having the scores back from our (frighteningly) efficient judges so early has given me time to analyse the data. I've calculated the comp average and the average for each army involved. I can't divulge that information yet of course (will post a debrief in a couple of weeks adn on WAU) but it has rather importantly allowed me to go back to several players and offer them the chance to reconsider their lists.

Before your hackles rise onthe back of your neck at the injustice of only asking someof the players to revise their armies, let me explain:

* Having the comp average gives me an idea of where each player's score falls in relation to the bigger picture of what we have at the tournament. Exactly 4 of those players were deemed to have presented lists that fell well below the comp average. Now, well below is a very subjective term of course but suffice to say it was by more than 4 points (ok, quite a bit more). Certainly enough by comparison to the comp average the average of the other armies of their race to warrant a revisit.

* The idea behind a tournament with comp scoring is that it is there to moderate what people are taking. One of the issues I have realised in running this process is the extreme influence that Vampire Counts and Daemons (especially) have had on the individual players perception of what their list will be required to cope with. In essence I found that quite a few players were literally expecting the worst. Unfortunately, despite the fact that there are quite a few Daemon/VC lists in attendance there is still no guarantee that you will be facing either for more than a few rounds. This means your army is really overpowered by comparison to something that isn't Daemons/VCs. Ok, this is a generalisation and not EVERYONE tooled their army up but, following the response from the judging panel, the MAJORITY of the armies were VERY hard and I think this at least partially reflects the paranoia associated with the possibility of facing these two armies.

* Ulimately (and somewhat naively) it is hoped that most of the scores received will be a '3' - according to the player's pack this would "place (the list) with the majority of the other lists and/or normal tournament armies". Clearly some lists place higher or lower but the intent is to aim towards the middle ground. Some players are happy to sacrifice battlefields effectiveness for higher 'soft' scores (comp/sports/painting) and these armies tend to score higher (4s and the occasional 5). Some will sacrifice comp for battlefield effectiveness but really, as with the previous comment, comp scoring encourages most players to aim to the middle ground, satisfying the comp expectation (this really what it is - it's not a requirement as such). The 4 lists that I asked to be revised most definitely erred towards battlefield effectiveness. The issue here is that players should not reasonably expect to face such extreme armies (which go a way towards defeating the impact and purpose of composition scoring). I'm happy to say that one of the lists has already been revised and 5 of the 6 new scores have already been returned - this resubmission has earned the player a substantially higher comp score and will also earn him more respect (and enjoyment) from his opponents in his games at the tournament.

My understanding is that Marcelo (TO for The Pilgrimage) was hoping to receive lists and judges scoring back early enough to follow this mode of thinking through (resubmission the more... extreme lists) but with over 100 entries (having expected around 50) this was just too difficult to achieve. With only 38 players involved it's something we've been able to accomplish and I'm increasingly happy with the result.

***** ***** *****

A good friend of mine has also opened my eyes as to the highly political "gamey" side of tournaments - not least of all FoB. I had somehow overlooked the fact that the highest ranked player in NZ would get paid entry (flights etc) into the Oz Masters this year! With 3 players in close contention this is an exciting opportunity for sure but it also means that the organisation of the tournament has to be done particularly carefully. Paint scoring, entry of comp scores, rules "disputes" (however unlikely), the round draws - all of this and more MUST be done with absolute transparency of process and clarity so no one feels there is any bias involved. Clearly we are all great guys but as great guys we are also highly competitive and don't want to feel we've been ripped off. All I'm really saying here is I appreciate how important it is that the organisation and systems at the tournament are clear and unbiased and that everyone has a fair shot; that all external scoring is truly objective; and that no one (that being me) makes any dumb mistakes that inadvertently screws anyone over.

No pressure... :)