I had a great time yesterday playing at the Fantasy Tournament at Brothers Grim!
Eric, Jason, and I met at Dunkins for morning fortification, I took my Dramamine, and off we went! A quick easy drive down, talking about new rules we keep finding and hope to not run in to (did you know you can only stomp Infantry, Swarms, and War Beasts?). We were supposed to be there at 11, but I made us late (I’m always late, if you hadn’t noticed), but everyone else was late too…only Sean and a handful of others were there before us. More and more folks kept showing up…apparently more than what was expected, I believe I heard there were 22 gamers there…11 tables of WFB fun! We wandered around getting the pre-tourney jitters, watching everyone else take out their armies…me worrying about the plethora of Hellcannons and High Elf Wizards. I was using my Blood, Skulls, and Fire army: Bloodthirster with Obsidian Armour, Firestorm Blade, and Immortal Fury; Khorne Herald BSB on Jugger with Armour of Khorne; another Khorne Herald on Jugger with Armour of Khorne; a Tzeentch Herald with Spellbreaker and Master of Sorcery (Life); 29 Horrors with Icon of Sorcery; 20 Bloodletters with Full Command; two units each of 5 Fleshhounds; 5 Furies; and 6 Flamers.
At about 12:15 they called out the initial pairings. I started out on table #1 (I’m guessing some kind of Composition system put me up there…my list wasn’t soft) versus Dennis and his Dwarfs. He had a Runelord with Anvil; a BSB with Strollaz; a Master Engineer; two stone throwers; a cannon; a big unit of about 20 quarrelers; a nice sized unit of about twenty Hammerers; and a giant unit of 40’ish Longbeard Rangers with Great Weapons and Throwing Axes (note: I didn’t think of it until just now, but I don’t think you’re allowed to have more Longbeards than Warriors unless you have a Lord…but I haven’t reviewed the FAQ/Errata for that). The mission was the diagonal one with very close deployment. He won roll for first, with one of his stone throwers being in reserve. My bloodletters were stuck in reserve, which I didn’t mind, let me respond to something unexpected. I deployed all up on the line as close as I could get, leaving him room to deploy the giant Ranger unit behind me. Bonus points were awarded for holding objectives (two of them), for having brought food for the BBQ, and for killing the General (or something like that…)
On his first turn he marched the Rangers close enough for the first rank to throw axes, doing a wound to the Bloodthirster. The rest of his shooting did a few wounds here and there, nothing significant. My turn one I charged furies and BT in to a close stone thrower, despite the BT having had Wrath and Ruin put on him so forced to use his walking M value. Of course the BT wrecked the stone thrower. The rest of my stuff moved to set up for turn 2 carnage. His turn 2 the cannon killed the BT (note that the Stone Thrower was the most points the BT gained for me in three games…), the Longbeards were left stranded behind my lines trying to keep up. His stone thrower from reserve had come on turn 1, it fired this turn, got misfire, couldn’t shoot this or next turn. Quarrelers did a few wounds. He used anvil to get hammerers in to the flank of a FH unit. My turn 2 the furies charged his ME, flamers charged cannon, FH with BSB charged quarrelers. Horrors turned to cast on the Rangers (though I think I should have just kept marching forward away from them…they would not have been able to catch me, though it all worked out anyway. I tried to get off Dwellers on them, but didn’t get the IF and it was scrolled. The Quarrelers and Cannon died. The Hammerers killed off the FH. His turn 3 and he tried a long charge with the Rangers to get in to the Horrors, and succeeded. Uhoh! The Hammerers turned to go grab some objectives that were on the other side of the table. The Horrors took some beatings, but the 4+ ward helped them stay around. My next turn I charged the last stone thrower with the BSB, while the FH turned to face the anvil. My Bloodletters with other Khorne herald charged the big Ranger unit, but couldn’t get flank, had to settle with just a few models in base to base. The Horrors and Bloodletters held their own against the horde, both side losing models by the handful. The BSB killed off the stone thrower, and reformed to face the anvil. The furies finally finished off the ME, the two survivors took off chasing the Hammerers to try to contest objectives (which were just bonus points, but we both wanted them!). The BSB and FH charged the Runelord and his Anvil…and here we had a rules dispute. There really are no rules for dealing with characters that are part of war machine crews, so we called Dave over to help us resolve. I challenged, and it was decided that the Runelord had no other ranks to hide in, so was obliged to accept. I killing-blowed, and this is the weirder part. While the Runelord himself is classed as Infantry, he’d become part of the War Machine crew, making him a War Machine too…KB doesn’t work vs. WM. The ruling was that the KB killed the Runelord, but the Guard stay to defend the anvil, still unbreakable. Without the bulk of his magic defense, the Tzeentch Herald was able to keep just enough Horrors alive and the Bloodletters finally did enough damage that the Rangers were beaten in combat, fled, and were caught. The final turn ended with the BSB and FH charging the rear of the Hammerers, and killing many but not enough to take away their steadfast, so they held one objective. Khorne was pleased.
Game two, and again I was put on table one, this time against Luke and his daemons! Daemon-fight! (Kind of like Timmy and Jimmy…). His army is led by a Keeper of Secrets with the Spirit Swallower; he has a herald of tzeentch with spellbreaker and master of sorcery (with Life…this sounds familiar!); a khorne herald bsb on jugger with armour of khorne and firestorm blade. He has all the food-groups represented with his troops: A big unit of Horrors (about three dozen or so, I think); a small unit of Daemonettes; a small unit of Plague-bearers; six Flesh-hounds; four Flamers; two Fiends of Slaanesh (separate units…I thought this a brilliant way to get some extra deploys!); and 4 bases of Nurglings…gross!
This mission was Blood and Glory, with bonus points for Painted Army, table quarters, and something else I can’t remember. He had a lot more deploys then I did, so I set up kind of central with the BT and Furies able to zip to either side, and my Flamers holding my right with a building for them to hide in (nothing I like better than having my Flamers in a building! Something noteworthy in this mission; we were supposed to use one piece of terrain as a random magical weird thing. We rolled one that damaged things that were near it, and we decided that was no fun so rerolled it, and got the Wyrding Well…I deployed on the table side it was near, hoping it would help me keep a firebase alive…it worked.
This game actually played very quickly. My BT had to be kept alive…if he died, I’d go below Breakpoint and lose…so I ran him away from scary things and he kept chasing it around with his Keeper. The Keeper did plow in to my dogs with BSB and destroy them, but that kept him away from other things for a bit. He charged flamers with a fiend right away, the fiend blew up. Then the flamers blew up the nurglings. The flamers killed 7 of the 10 Plague-bearers, and they kept walking backwards to try not to die. My Fleshhounds with BSB had killed off his Daemonettes before the Keeper killed them. The Flamers moved out of the building to both chase down the Plague-bearers, but also to encourage the Keeper to charge them…keeping him away from things with Standards! On the other side of the table, his Herald marched up and killed half my Horrors with Dwellers Below, but the Wyrding Well healed me right back up (it heals 2d6 wounds worth of models!). My opponent was not pleased. I engaged his fleshhounds with mine, but my Thirster had to go help out. His magic did 5 wounds total to my BT, but never at any one time. I was able to get Dwellers on his Horrors, which killed many as well as his Herald. More Life Magic spells allowed me to keep the BT alive with Lifebloom. The game effectively ended when the Keeper turned back to the side of the table all my Standards were, huddling around the Well, and left himself open to a powerful magic phase. Bolt of Change did 4 wounds to him, Flickering Fire did nothing, and gimpy Awakening of the Wood did one wound that he failed to save. He decided to let us finish things out to the real ending so we could get a good bonus point/victory point total. I think my magic finished off his Horrors and the Flamers finished off the PB, leaving him just the Bloodletters and BSB (who did nothing but back up the whole game…but that’s all my ‘Letters did too
). While it was a fun game, I understand my opponent’s frustration at the profound effect the terrain piece had.
Grabbed a bit to eat (burgers off the grill!) and called Mrs. Roda to say hi, and back in for the pairings…again I’m on table 1, this time with Jay and his High Elves playing for the top spot! I was worried I’d find some Teclis pain, but was very happy to see he’d brought a very competitive list that didn’t include anything even remotely cheesy! Very refreshing! He had a Noble with an item that made him a lvl 1 wizard (with Death); a Lvl 4 with Shadow; a BSB with beefy ward save; a nice sized unit of Phoenix Guard (about 20 I think) that the Noble and Wizard went in; 15 White Lions that the BSB went in; two big units (about 20) of Sea Guard; 3 Eagles; and a unit of 5 Dragon Knight guys.
This didn’t feel like a tough match-up for me, honestly. This felt like fighting Evan’s list without the dragon or mean CR banner, so perhaps I was over-confident…
He went first, moving up just enough to shoot me, which did few wounds. He tried to Miasma my Bloodletter unit, I dispelled. He tried to Pit my Horrors, I scrolled. He did a wound to my Tzeentch Herald with the Death signature spell. He drove his Knights forward through a forest, and lost 2 of 5 to Dangerous Terrain. On my turn I couldn’t resist charging those Knights with my FH…I felt even if they fled there was nothing that would really hurt my FH, so no biggie. He held, the FH killed the 3 Knights, and reformed to face down his flank. My Flamers moved to shoot at the Guard, my Horrors moved up just enough to get in range of the Guard, and my Letters charged (and killed) one of the Eagles. The Bloodthirster moved way off to a side, just barely in view of one of the Seaguard units…I felt confident that with them 10-wide 2-deep, I’d not have to endure too many attacks, with him wounding on 6s I felt pretty good about taking that charge. My magic phase and I had a chance to effectively win on turn 1 as I got an IF Dwellers Below on the Phoenix Guard! Sadly (for me), his Noble and Wizard both passed their S tests, and only a handful of Guard died. My Herald used lifebloom to heal himself when the spell was cast, then took another wound from the miscast. The flamers took off a few Phoenix guard, though, setting me up for my turn 2..
In turn 2 he did charge the Seaguard in to my Thirster, and I still felt confident. Then he started his magic, and got off a big Occam’s Mindrazor on the Seaguard…I failed to dispel. Now instead of wounding on 6s it’s on 2s! Yikes! My BT took 4 wounds, fluffed his rolls, lost combat by 1, but held…for another round, anyway.
In turn 1 I gave myself a chance for an early win with that Dweller’s…in turn 2 I gave myself a chance with what I thought was a wonderful combo-charge on his Guard unit…the Bloodletters with Herald hit the front, and the Flesh-hounds hit the side! Even better, the BSB with his FH charged another eagle, killed it, and overran so that the -2 Leadership would affect the Phoenix Guard! Sadly, Tzeentch frowned and what I’d hoped would be the decisive charge of the game was really kind of boring. I killed a few of them, including the Wizard Lord, he killed a few of me…I think I might have even lost combat. Sigh. And of course, the Seaguard finished off the Bloodthirster and reformed, facing the flank of the BSB’s Hounds! My flamers moved in to some woods and put some fire on his other unit of Seaguard, killing almost half.
Now in his turn 3 he got some wonderful countercharges in. The Seaguard that had killed the BT hit the flank of my BSB’s Hounds; the other Seaguard hit the flank of the Hounds trying to eat his Phoenix Guard, and his White Lions with BSB got in to the bloodletter’s front…just barely, but enough to get their ranks and the BSB’s flag in the fight. I was able to use Make Way to force his Seaguard to have to fight the BSB and his high I (took away their ASF rerolls) and his 1+ armour save; I only lost combat by one there, and took a wound on a dog, but failed to reform to face them (even with BSB RR!). I then proceeded to start on a roll of failed ward saves that was depressing and relentless. His countercharge in the big fight left all the FH dead, the Khorne Herald dead, and only a handful of bloodletters left! His Seaguard on that side reformed to face my Flamers.
Bottom of 3, and things are not going my way at all. I’ve got 4 Hounds with BSB with a big unit of Seaguard stuck on their flank. I’ve got about 10 Bloodletters stuck fighting a Lord, a Hero, a few surviving Guard, and a bunch of angry White Lions; Flamers facing his Seaguard; and, lucky for me, a full unit of Horrors and Herald…and Tzeentch was pleased. I debated what to do with the Flamers. I didn’t think their shooting would be decisive vs. the Seaguard, though in retrospect it probably would have been the wiser choice. So I charged the Seaguard with the 6 flamers. The Horrors moved up a bit to get as much within 12” as possible, and cast a big Gift of Chaos that took several models off the Phoenix Guard, White Lions, and a wound on the Eagle. I got Throne of Vines up with IF, and it protected me from the miscast. I tried to cast Toughness buff on the Bloodletters, but failed. In melee my BSB again lost by 1, took no more wounds, and managed to reform to get the dogs in the fight. The Flamers started grinding through the Seaguard, winning the fight but not able to break them (they still had the Lord’s LD10). The Bloodletters took off a few more PG, leaving him with just the Champ and Standard, as well as the Lord…but were themselves reduced to 3 models, and the White Lions were stranded out of the fight.
This allowed the White Lions to charge the Horrors in turn 4, as well as the last Eagle (note: we both forgot the eagle was there, it didn’t fight, and I didn’t attack it). The BSB and Dogs beat up the Seaguard and ran them down. The Flamers ate more of the other Seaguard, again winning but not breaking them. The last three Bloodletters were destroyed, and he turned his Lord to face towards my BSB (about 26-30” away). The BSB challenged in the Horror fight, I refused so my Herald was sent safely to the rear. The Lions killed Horrors by the handful, but they were steadfast and came out unscathed.
In the bottom of turn 4 Tzeentch again smiled and the Winds of Magic gave me 11 dice, and a channel gave me 12. This was the most decisive moment of the game. The Horrors cast Gift of Chaos again, using three dice getting a 19! He was desperate to keep the PG alive, I think (a ton of points there), so used all 6 of his dice to dispel, and succeeded. However, that left me unopposed with 9 dice to cast with! First I got the Toughness buff on the Horrors, making them T7. Then the Thorns spell that does damage in magic phase. Then Regrowth, healing back 7 horrors…almost back up to full! We then resolved the Thorns spell, it killed off then Eagle, and 9 White Lions! The Horrors then won combat, but the Lions were stubborn and held. The Flamers and Seaguard ground down a little more, with only a handful of Seaguard surviving, and 4 flamers left.
Top of 5, and things have turned around dramatically! He moves his Lord with their 2 PG up enough to get the Death Sig on my BSB, doing 1 wound. The White Lions are killed, the BSB survives but breaks from combat and is killed. The Flamers finish off the Seaguard.
In the final turn, I separate the BSB from the Hounds, maneuvered so that if he turned to cast that spell at the BSB again he’d take rear charge from the Hounds. The Flamers move to shoot at him, and the Horrors/Herald move to cast. Once again, Tzeentch blesses me with 10 Power Dice, and with a Bolt of Change and Awakening of the Wood (S6 with Throne up!), the Guard and Lord are killed.
Blood, Skulls, and Fire!!
Three of the most fun games of Warhammer I’ve played! I really had a good time…Good Folks, Good Food, and Good Gaming! I hope everyone else at the tournament had as much fun as I did!
It turns out I scraped out 1st place by just a few bonus points…if I hadn’t brought in food or worked to finish painting my army, I wouldn’t have won…but as it turns out, those little bonuses were enough to get the big prize! I got a fun Golden Skull trophy from the BG store, as well as enough Undead to finish off my Vampire Army I’m planning…also a bunch of Army Painter stuff to try out! Even better, Jason won Best Painted, so Ordo walked away with all the top prizes! Sean did very well (placing 5th...and considering he automatically lost the 2nd game, that's pretty damned good!), and Eric was playing for 1st place in round 3, and would have won if his opponent had not taken a few regens he shouldn't have, or if the dice gods had been a bit more forgiving!
Yeah Ordo!!