Winter Incursion - Day 2

Winter Incursion – Day 2


Game 4
Lizards

Jack is one of the best Lizardman players in the world… and had a very good list (for Ogre killing anyway). He had also brought along his missus to act as mascot… can’t believe she watched him play warhammer all day – could NEVER imagine my missus doing that. Anyway, he had:

Slann (General) – Fire, Focussed Rumination, Dispel Scroll
Slann – Metal, Soul of Stone, BSB
Skink Priest – Level 1, Cube of Darkness
Scar Vet: Cold One, Light Armour, Charmed Shield, Dawnstone, Sword of Might
Scar Vet: cold One, Light armour, Great Weapon, Dragonhelm, Amulet of Itzl
7 (yes 7) x 10 Skink Cohort – Musc
3 x 10 Blowpipe skirmishers
9 Chemelons
2 x 3 Terradons
2 Salamanders
1 Salamander
2 Razordons
1 Razordon

That is a ‘whole lotta shit’. I figured my best/only chance to get points would be to cannon the Slann… they would sit in cohorts so I would be requiring a big fireball, or failed look-out to get them.

Meanwhile the #1 rule is don’t let them get behind you. Vs this kind of army if it gets to your side/rear you’re dead. As such the ‘only’ way to beat it is to play “on the arc. This means I would deploy on one half of the table and on the edge run up whilst turning in the middle… you (hopefully) end up shepherding his units across the table and into a corner, and possibly trapping some units.

The board had 1 buildings in his corner on the left (I had one in mine on the right). I didn’t want him hiding behind it at the end of the game so I deployed on the left side of the board:
Mournfang, Mournfang, Guts in line (12-wide), Bulls Angled at a diagonal. The Mournfang went behind the Bulls and the Ironblasters and Sabres ‘behind the line’.

The ‘behind the line’ units are VERY important… even played perfectly gaps always appear in the line. Behind these gaps these units waited to kill anything that ran through to try and get behind me.

He had the Metal-Slann behind the Building on my left along with the 2 Scar Vets. The Priest and 4 units (2 skirmish) were also on this side (slann used the priest to target his missiles).

The General Slann was on the right side/Centre with all the other stuff.

Turn 1
He went first, and Irresistibly Searing Doomed one of the Mournfang units… my chance of victory greatly decreased with this (the Mournfang was the only thing I had that can run ‘amonst’ the skinks and take ‘limited’ damage). Fortunately the miscast meant the Slann lost 3 levels (he chose not to reroll this – scared of a cascade I think), meaning he only had the Golden hounds left…

His army generally spread over the table with units flee lines and distances between units very precisely set out (fortunately Jack is good enough to do this, and do it right very quickly)… I couldn’t imagine how long it would have taken a less experienced general to get this right.

My turn I declined the offered charge into a Salamander with the Guts and Instead wheeled/advanced 12”, The Mournfang ran down the flank and Ironblasters started to spread (to allow them to get an angle behind the building later on).

I did a BIG irresistible fireball into the Fire-Slanns cohort… and 3d6 str 4, vs T 2 killed 4… gutted. Misfire put a wound on Firebelly. I shot 2 skinks with the first Ironblaster – leaving 4 and no look out sir for the Slann….the second Ironblaster misfired.

My Bulls charged the Chameleons who only fled 4”… Jacks units were 5” away (to allow the Chameleons to ‘pop through’), meaning when they rallied they were blocking his other units.

Turn 2
Skinks blocked me off and a number of units moved up and shot me… again in quite precise lines. He could have got one unit through the line but the 3 sabres would have taken them out, so they hid in a building instead. I used my scroll and stopped the magic phase, and took a little damage from shooting.

My turn and the remaining Mournfang killed a cohort and after smashing them up combat reformed to face the Slann behind the building. I made a few charges with the Ogres/Guts and lizards fled (again into perfect positions). The maneaters stayed just over 19” from the Terradons to stop any rock-dropping-shenannigans.

I (again) irresistibly cast a Fireball and this time killed enough skinks to leave the Slann vulnerable - the Slann (surprisingly) failed a panic check meaning he was stuck with 3 skinks and I would get 2 rounds of shooting, with no look out sir available vs the Slann.

I eagerly double shot the Slann… Cannon 1 – misfire, Cannon 2 Jack passed the Slanns 4+ ward… next time, next time.

Turn 3
I was again blocked off, shot whilst those units that fled last time rallied…. But I was (slowly) advancing across the table on the ‘arc’.

The Mournfang pointing at the metal Slann were blocked by scar Vets, but when he killed one with (another) irrisistable golden hounds (miscast meant he was now lvl 0) the remaining cat could ‘just’ charge through to the Slann.

A cohort moved behind the guts, facing 3 sabres. They shot 1, and in my turn when

His other Slann rallied, and I got shot again – with all 3 Ogre units going down by about 2 models by this point (Maneater was going solo).

In my turn I charged the Slann, who fled, with the single Mournfang with 1 wheel, and the angle of the flee I was unable to catch the fat frog, so redirected into a Scar Veteren. I moved most of my characters out of the Guts to try and put pressure on the fleeing Slann, although there were easy enough Skinks around to block up any charges, and shoot any vulnerable characters (ie the firebelly).

I did some more charges, resulting in more flees (and 1-2 failed panics as the skinks fled though with no General or BSB bubble)

My shooting had 2 Ironblasters, and 2 Slann. I could get both… Cannon 1 – misfire (again), meaning no dead Slann and the spin meant it left a large hole in the ‘arc’. Cannon 2 hit, no look out-sir still, wound… failed ward = 1 wound. Doh!!! 4 cannons into a Slann with no look out sir for a single wound. I always said Warhammer was a game of skill.

I felt my chance had gone, but the BSB Slann was still under a lot of pressure.

Turn 4
BSB Slann and some other units rallied, I got shot a bit… Mournfang vs Scar Vet was a bit of a dud, with both being a bit rubbish at killing…. Although both had 1 wound.

His second Scar Vet ran past the Tyrant to go get an Ironblaster.

With my characters putting pressure of the Slann the BSB got shot… 10 skinks = Dead BSB… I was gutted – T5, 5+ save, 4+ ward!! Also meant there was a gap in the net of units trying to trap the Slann.

The Tyrant moved around to threaten the Slann, and Ironguts and Bulls chased away a few skinks (again)… although Jacks cleaver fleeing channels meant I never got any points for all these flee-ers… by this point almost every model in Jacks army had fled at some point… but I had virtually no VPs.

The Maneater moved 12” away to try and save himself… on reflection a fruitless task.

The Ironblaster under threat from Scar Vet fired grape shot (he still had Itzl ward to remove). 2 shots, 1 Itzl ward = no wounds. But after game 3 I knew I had stand and fire… I did, and the Vet died. Shortly after the event the Ogre FaQ came out and this was indeed stopped… it really was very filthy doing a stand and shoot with a cannon-ball.

My single wound mournfang killed the Scar vet… and faced some skinks.

Turn 5
Fleeing skinks rallied, the Bulls were picked on some more, and died as did the last maneater and mournfang. Skinks blocked up the Tyrant and Guts… it wasn’t looking good.

I still had a chance to get the BSB Slann… Tyrant charged the skinks blocking him. A combat reform would mean the Slann had little chance of escape… he won, skinks fled – trying to restrain persuit I rolled 11… with the BSB dead the Tyrant ran past the Slann. Doh!!!! (again).

My Ironguts (now only 4 with Firebelly) tried to chase away some more skinks, but caught them… leaving the guts in the middle of 7-8 units – oh bugger. It did put pressure on the ‘general’ Slann… but I wasn’t that hopeful of surviving.

My Ironblaster tried again to shoot a Slann… look out sir meant a couple of dead skinks though.


Turn 6
Ironguts got shot… a lot. If the Firebelly died he would get the Slanns unit though (4 str 7 attacks, impact, stomp… I was hopeful)…. But they all died… (thanks largely to 14 wounds… no saves) and 2 units didn’t even get to fire.

My Tyrant looked silly as the Slann stood behind him (joining the last skink unit on my left).

My turn I shot the general Slann… who failed a look out sir, but passed his ward.



So…

A very tight game, and one I had the opportunities to win but, as expected, Jack played it very well and ended up with a convincing win. In case it wasn’t obvious I actually ended up killing more units than Jack did (despite only having 2 Ironblasters and the Butcher and Tyrant left), but his units I killed were only worth about 600 pts.



Game 5
Daemons

Despite losing the last game I was still on table 3… and got to play Nick Pym and his Daemons. I was a little apprehensive as last time we played I felt he had some ‘timekeeping’ issues, and had told him exactly how I felt during and after the game (one of my rules in life is to try and never say things behind peoples back – or on the net, you wouldn’t say to their face).

Nick is playing for England in ETC 2012, and told me he had been told to sort out his time management… and generally the game went smoothly (despite the weirdness of turn 5… read on for details).


Anyway, Nick had a Bloodthirster… as a unit filler. His list was:


Nurgle Herald – General, Staff of Nurgle
Tz Herald – Loremaster (shadow), Spellbreaker
Khorne Herald – armour
Khorne Herlald – armour
28 Bloodletters – Std, Musc, +d6 charge
28 Bloodletters – Std, Musc
28 Plaguebeaerers – Std, Musc, reroll wounds
5 Furies
5 Furies
3 Screamers
Fiend
Fiend
Jugger Champ
Jugger Champ
6 Flamers

So, no Greater Deamon, no Siren song… I was confident of a good result.

Nick had his 3 units slightly to the right of centre, with some chaff either side. I had deployed slightly to the right, looking to smash one end of the blocks, limiting his support available.

On the right I had mournfang, Bulls and Scouting Manteaters vs fiend, furies, screamers and a Jugger.

I went first and advanced, with all the charcters in the guts heading for the +d6 charge. My sabres and Mournfang to the left of the Guts dropped back, whilst my right side rushed up.

As with the lizards, Nick had his wizard hidden in a small (flamer) unit. So a 6 dice fireball into the flamers (nick tried to dice it – with 4 dice – he had a scroll but said he didn’t see the danger until my shooting phase… oh dear), meant there were only 4 left. 2 Ironblasters into the Herald without a Look-out-sir. First one – Misfire, explode and killed a sabre as well…. bugger. A feeling of de-ja-vu was creeping over me, the second hit, failed ward and dead herald.

With no shadow to worry about I was feeling very confident of a victory.

Nick backed off, almost to the baseline. After he had moved I said “right shooting”… Nick reminded me of the staff of nurgle… Ok 1 bound spell = no problem. Nick got 6,6… so d6 str 5 rerolling wounds (reroll due to dodgy banner of awesomeness)… 2 failed toughness tests meant I took 3d6 hits and lost 4 models. OW!!!!! Combined with withering that spell is ‘evil’.

I advanced and my Maneaters charged a fiend blocking me at the back of the board and over-ran off table.

In Nicks turn 2 he tried a long-ish charge into the Ogres from the letters with +d6 charge, but failed – meaning my Ogres were only a bit away. Despite the losses from the staff of nurgle my Ogres charged the letters, with some supporting mournfang. The Mournfang fluffed the charge roll, so Guts went in solo.

The Ogre charge was more challenging than I expected. The bloodletters attacks were ‘BRUTAL’, and Nicks good ward saves meant I only won the fight by 1-2 points. I now had a few wounds on the Guts, and had lost my impetuous.

Nicks turn the Guts were flanked by the other letter horde… and the other units were blocked, annoyed etc.

The fight in the middle went on for a while, but the Tyrant on the corner absorbing a lot of attacks (2 letters to the front, and 2 to the side + all the supports), and having few wounds to lose on the unit meant the flank charge was achieving little. I lost the guts but easily won the combat (Nicks wards were not as good now), and when the Maneaters charged the rear and Mournfang into the 2nd horde I quickly started taking them out.

The rest of my army was making hard work of getting Nicks ‘chaff’, fluffing attacks, failing charges and generally failing to help as required.

In Nicks 4th turn the plague bearers joined the ‘maul’ in the middle (fighting a single mournfang that was haning over the edge from the Bloodletetrs (now in a 5 wide block). I ‘only’ had my characters and a single mournfang, but the fight was going well. I had wiped out my initial charge and in a 2x2 block (after a combat reform) was quickly taking out the second letter unit.

In my 5th turn the remaining maneater (fiend, flamers, letters had taken their toll) got ready to charge the flamers if they failed to shoot him. I wiped out the 2nd letter unit, with the characters ready to charge the plaguebearers flank. Nick then did a combat reform in front of the chargers. The put them within 1” of my unit and I said he couldn’t… he said he could… etc. In the end I let him do the reform (front or flank my characters would wreck the plaguebearers so wasn’t that bothered).

In his turn he shot the last maneater… the 4 characters failed their panic test (ld 9 reroll…. Bugger!!!!). We checked the angle range etc, I thought we agreed 6,6 they are off table, else fine. I rolled 11 and Nick wanted to check the measurements again (this is why I tried to agree before I rolled). In the end the characters were just on, and rallied. I almost lost the game with that, but it did still cost me a massacre.

The plaguebearers combat reformed into a line to stop the flamers being charged.

With nothing else to do single mournfang charged the front of the plaguebearers, and the Ironblaster went into the rear… with impacts etc I won on the charge by 4-5, but steadfast deamons are a bugger.

So in the end Nick had the plaquebearers + general left… I had lost some units (including the bulls to a single bloodcrusher champ… idiots) and had a reasonable win… which would have easily been a massacre without that failed test.

After the game Nick game to me and agreed that the plaqubearers couldn’t have done a combat reform within 1” of my characters… and that would have changed the centre of his unit meaning my 4 characters would have fled off the table. My response “Kama’s a bitch!”


Game 6
Brettonians

So I was on table 1, last game. I had a shot of winning, and was confident the Ogres would do bad things to Brettonians.

The list I was facing was ‘unusual’… (mostly re character items) with a few choices that made me wonder.

He had (from fuzzy memory):

Brett Lord: HKB, Sword of ASF, Gromril Helm
Brett Lord: Barded Steed, Shield (no lance, weapon or anything else.. weird!!!)
Prophetess: Level 4, Life, Scroll
Paladin: BSB Barded Steed, Sword of Anti Heros, Enchanted Shield
Paladin: Barded Steed, Shield, Lance, Crown of Command (crown not on prophetess – weird)
Paladin: Pegasus: Dragon helm, shield, lance
Paladin: Pegasus: Charmed shield, lance
15 KoTR – FC, Std Discipline : 4 characters in her
6 KoTR – FC : 2nd lord in here
14 Archers – Musc
14 Archers – Musc
3 Peg Knights
8 Grail Knights - FC
Trebuchet
Trebuchet

I think the ‘odd’ Options were to get points for him to have the 3 lord choices, but my thought was ‘why bother’…. anyway.

In deployment he put both trebs (scratch built, very tall, but nice, models…so they could see over lots - hmmm) behind a pyramid-thingy I thought we agreed it would be a hill… later around turn 3, when I went to run over it was impassable – it wasn’t a bit issue at all, but a bit frustrating.

All the knights went in the middle with archers either side, and a peg on each flank.

The game was quite tactical, but difficult to describe… due to many overlapping charge arcs etc essentially I used the sabres to block his lances and isolate them. I couldn’t afford his lances to charge me.

Meanwhile he made some ‘interesting’ decisions allowing the mournfang to charge the peg knights, and the maneaters a peg hero.

At one point it looked a bit ‘dicey’, but the maneaters charging the rear of the character bus, pinning it for a turn, meant none of his lances ever got to charge.

Eventually I ground him out (although it was closer than I would have liked due to HKB – dead BSB, and Anti-heros sword – I can’t complain I used it before but 7 str 8 attacks chafes’). With the Bulls finishing the Grail knights (after turns, and turns of ineptitude by both sides) at the bottom of the 6th.

So a Massacre on table 2… I was in for a shout of a win.


Unfortunately “personal stuff” meant I couldn’t wait around for trophies etc, but I came 2nd.


A good result and my 3rd podium in my 3 events of the year worth 100 ranking points. The result meant I came 17th in rankings for the year, and due to a drop-out I will be going to the UK Masters. As I said my 17th was of off 3 main events… as such a good result at the Sheffield Slaughter could/should mean I get to #1 in the UK rankings – how cool am I!!!!