Saturday, February 14, 2009

I smashed 'em Bro!

The army, painted is below. I found that stringing bows is a really good idea. Makes the models look much a cooler. Note, this is the full army and includes models not in the OTT list (Warhawks, Alter Noble...)


First up, all comments are from my memory, and my opinion. If any opponents read this and I got things wrong, or you disagree... well, suck it up princess. ;-)


I had to get up at 05:30 to get to the event on time. Unfortunately I tweaked my calf the night before, and the pain stopped me getting to sleep until 03:00. When I awoke my calf was fine.... weird. I got a lift with Josh Warne, and Nick Irvine. Trips were pleasant with discussions of new lizards, the tournament field, Josh's painting (and the lovely moonlight effect on the back ranks of his orcs).


Game 1 : John Matthews

John is a great guy that works at Battlefront (Flames of War) here in NZ. He has lots of interesting stories about his time at GW as well. During the game, at one point, we stopped for about half an hour, just chatting. Fortunately it was a quick game otherwise.

He had a mounted VC army, as below:
  • VC Lord: Lvl 3, Mounted, Walarks Hauberc, Gem of Blood, Sword of Might, Master of Black Arts, Knows all spells, Reroll misses (forgot the names).
  • Wight Lord: BSB, Sword of Battle, Barded steed
  • Necormancer: Vanhels + Raise, Scroll
  • 2 x 10 Ghouls + Ghast
  • 20 Skeletons, Shield, Spear, FC + Necro
  • 8 Black Knights: Barding, FC, Barrows + Lord, BSB
  • 7 Black Knights: Barding, FC
  • 2x 3 Bats
  • 7 Bloodknights: Std, Musc, Hatred banner
  • Vargulf

I wasn't really sure what my Str 3 elves where going to do to all that heavy armour, VERY fast heavy armour, half of which ignored terrain penalties, he also had a "healthy" magic phase. Overall though, not a bad list. Plan was piss around, use glade riders to divert the cav around, shoot him up and eventually use the dancers/dragon to smash the survivors.

Set up is below: As can be seen, ready for plan piss around.

What 'Actually' happened was this:
  1. John got turn 1.
  2. Cav advanced a lot, and a couple of Venhals later John has about 6" away with some of his cav - he thought he could get a charge, before I pointed out you could only move a unit once a turn (despite being able to cast VDM on the unit multiple times).
  3. Having let Vanhels go, I had my 3 dice (and magic resistance) to stop a gaze. I rolled 1,1 to dispel, and 11 hits on 5 dancers in the middle of the table meant..... no more dancers.
  4. The Eternal Gaurd, and 12 archers, having seen this thought "How rude" and buggered off. The EG in turn paniced the 20 archers + mage and 5 glade riders.
  5. BUGGER, so much for the shooting plan.

Fortunately nobody fled (most fleeing was sideways - hence all the panic) and the EG, Riders 20 archers ended up rallying in the right corner (behind a hill and wood - the archers loved that), 12 archers rallied on board edge. This "tactical redepolyment meant the big BK unit didn't have much to do, small BK where against the small archers.

My Turn 1 I saw John had made a mistake, and a tactical charge on fell bats meant the dragon went straight through and into the flank of the Blood knights.

Back to the right side and the small BK unit moved onto the hill to get the 12 archers. My turn 32 close range shots came their way, killed 3 (respectable) but the archers then got charged. The archers actually held for a turn, before being crushed horribly. The archers then shot the Ghouls turn 3.

Meanwhile the glade riders where closing in on the skels+necro. A 5 in front, 5 in side charge became a 5 in side charge with a failed fear test. The riders kept winning until the other guys came in and a few rounds later the unit disappeared.

The Eternal Gaurd, where joined by the BSB, who decided they didn't like been in the corner. Nobody puts baby in the corner, and so teleported near the dragon on the other side of the table. turn 2. A raised spirt host, and lone fell bat meant they never did anything exciting, but the BSB near the general was a huge Boost.

Meanwhile the Dragon..... He was counter charged by 10 Ghouls, the challenge was declined, and the lord killed a couple of wounds, and the dragon a couple of knights. A cheeky Ghoul did a wound to my lord though, and more importantly lost my ward save. The 9 dancers had a lovely charge on the black knights (incl VC lord) who had turned to face the Dragon, but ignored them (not good odds at all, and a gem of blood meant a lucky KB on the lord was HIGHLY unlikely) and charged the side of the ghouls, around the Bloodknights - very sneaky.

With the dancers help, and the Dragon eating a few knights both the Ghouls and Bloodknights disappeared in a whiff of combat res.

Johns turn 3 and the Black Knights and Vargulf charged the Dragon. Vargulf mostly went in to stop me fleeing - as when I challenged the VC lord accepted. Accepting the challenge was not the decision I would have made, as without the ward the general was VERY vulnerable, but John couldn't be comfortable with his VC Lord 'hiding'. The lords slapped each other a bit (4 attacks reroll misses = no hits, love those nettlings), and I did a wound (we forgot about gem of blood).

Combat looked like this.

End result I lost by 3 and rolled a 9. "Fortunately" the BSB had just appeared nearby, and the reroll say the big boy hang around.
For the second time the dancers charged to save the Dragon. It failed. Many str 4 attacks killed a single knight (vs heavy cavalry, and protracted combats - ALWAYS go +1 str on charge, KB second round, to maximise the Str 4). My Dragon meanwhile ate the VC lordee after he had given up on the lord and smacked the dragon, 2 wounds + 2 failed wards on the wounded big boy - DEAD. I then remembered Johns Gem, and let him roll one of the wards again on a 2+ (I do this kind of thing - I hate winning cos my opponent forgot something important - I forget things all the time as well). He passed, knocking the lord to 1 wound for his trouble.
In Johns Turn 4 the dancers started by dropping 4 knights, incl 3 KB. The dragon took another wound, before the VC lord was eaten. Crumble tests elimiated the Ghouls who had been shot, and not a lot else. Static res killed the Gulf and more knights, so next round the BSB and remaining Knight (singular) where soon polished off. I also finished the Skels + necro soon after leaving just 3 knights who had returned from killing the 12 archers. When the 20 archers and Hail of Doom turned to face them on my turn 5 John conceeded.
So 21-0 (20-0 + 1 TP bouns for killing the general) first round, with "the plan" being non-existant the victory went to the Lord+9 dancers combo who between them (with a little help from the teleporting BSB) carved through:
3 Bats
7 Bloodknights
10 Ghouls
8 Black Knights + BSB + VC LORD
Vargulf
Not bad

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I call bullsh!t Pom. All Asrai, no spirits but you've got the cheese Annoyance! :)

That little snide remark aside...


JI-DAVE! Looking forward to reading this, especially the game against Phil. Awesome.