Its day 2
and I arrive early (those that know me would realize what a feat this is) and
hang around talking till the round starts.
As
mentioned this is a custom scenario that the tournament organiser has
developed. I presume it has arisen from some sort of hate towards the
watchtower, and this has come to be some sort of intermediate. Seriously the
watchtower isn’t that bad guys. Can’t move the unit in the watchtower? Just
ignore it and apply your superior numbers to wipe out the rest of the
opposition!
Now the
basis of King of the Hill is there is a hill in the centre of the board, and
then it is basically like watchtower, ie you need to hold/capture the hill. It
is worth 400vp at the end of the game so significant enough to swing a game.
Now the problem comes is that the scenario favours a few armies far more than
others, and several problems came about such as charging off the hill first
turn, something you cannot do in watchtower. IMO this makes the scenario very
unbalanced and I don’t think it has any place in the tournament scene in its
current form. Just use the book scenarios guys. There not that bad! At least
everyone knows what to expect… /end rant =)
Game 4 –
Ogres – Simon Kwok
Scenario:
King of the Hill
Now, onto the
game… Simon’s Ogres consisted of a large unit of 9 Ironguts that get loaded
with characters, 6 bulls, an 8 man unit of Maneaters also with an assortment of
characters, 2 units of Mournfang, a single Ironblaster, and the standard 3x1 Sabretusk’s.
Now, Orges are a hard matchup at the best of times, and drawing the worst
scenario to face them against is pretty much icing on the cake. Having not
rolled Purple Sun on my death mage, I went into the game very conservatively,
and would be relying on the first few turns magic/ranged fire to decide the
outcome.
Simon won the roll
off and gained the hill. He deployed the 6 Bulls on the hill. He then deployed
the rest of his army single file, trying to mitigate any advantage I might gain
from my catapults. His Mournfang went to either flank and everything deployed
6” or more apart. I could see this was going to be a very ‘gamey’ game. I
deployed centre left with the Tomb Guard closest to the hill, and the rest of
my forces staggered and trailing of to a castled deployment. I refused the
right flank except for the chariots, which would provide a delaying action or
simply finish off any loose ends out on the flank, then support the TG with a
flank charge.
So I automatically
get first turn, and started by correcting some angles in my movement phase, and
positioning horse archers to be as annoying as possible. Having an inherently
defensive build my greatest chance would happen in the magic and shooting
phase. With low dice I pushed light of death, with one making it through,
however thanks to Ld 9 with rerolls it had little effect. My catapults also
missed the intended target of the Ironblaster, and my archers failed to make
much of an impact on the bulls on the hill. Not a good start. Simon moved all
his forces up including the bulls on the hill. He didn’t attempt a charge with
them however. The Maneaters made for the hill and the Mournfang ran up my right
flank. Simon attempted to fire his Ironblaster which justifiably misfired. The
cannon then blew it self up as a result! Huh! Take that most broken cannon in
the game. Except the only thing that happens is the thing cant fire for the
rest of the game…. Yeah. Broken…
So turn two is
more of the same. I get a unit of horse archers in the way of the Ironguts, and
that is about all the movement I make. I have another rather unsuccessful magic
phase, but manage a few wounds on a Mournfang unit near the centre this time.
Shooting is rubbish, however the great bows put a few more wounds on the same
Mounrfang the caskets targeted. The 6 man (now 5) Ogre Bulls are still pretty
much unscathed. Simon charges into the horse archers with the Ironguts wiping
them out, but thanks to some angling reforms instead of overrunning as
intended. The Maneaters are now firmly on the hill and almost still at full
strength. I’m gauging to see if I can tackle them in a heads up fight.
By the beginning
of turn three I’ve decided, mainly thanks to the advancing Ironguts and the
position of my army that I am heading towards a major loss, and need to try
something to bring the game back in my favour. I commit the Tomb Guard into the
Maneaters figuring I can grind them with some luck and magic. I have worked out
that a clever placement of horse archers will not only redirect the Ironguts,
it will also cause them to be unable to charge my Tomb Guard flank for another
turn, and help save my entire left flank from being wrecked. I make it in
comfortably and then move the chariots into position to give me a flank charge
on the Maneaters if required in turn 4. I manage a smiting on the Tomb Guard
but little else. Shooting sees one catapult manages a few wounds on the
Ironblaster, and I manage to finish off the Mournfang unit that was damaged
earlier with the Ushabti. Close combat was not as rewarding however. I manage
to kill a few and receive a lump of casualties back against the Maneaters. It
is enough to force a break test on them, but thanks to them being stubborn,
they don’t shift. In Simons turn he issues a charge on the Horse Archers with
the Ironguts. They get wiped out and he declares an overrun as I had
anticipated. As the flank of the Tomb Guard is in front it becomes a declared
charge. I then point out it is a failed charge, as Simon has his Ironguts 10
wide, they cannot fit through the gap as they will hit one of my casket of
Souls when trying to close the door on the Tomb Guard, or before he even makes
contact with them depending on how he try’s to move the Ironguts in. I had
pre-measured this in my turn as it is what I had planned. Simon however doesn’t
agree, and try’s to demon-straight that he can by repeatedly moving/wheeling
the unit. I can’t help but observe that each time he wheels the unit, it moves
a little further back and opens a gap to the casket… This may have not been
intentional on his behalf, but the result is same. Simon calls the TO over, and
he rules to ignore the casket and that Simon can charge. I’m not going to go
into this, but this is a very poor call! The resulting combat is decisive and I
loose a large proportion of the unit to crumble. It isn’t wiped out yet though.
So turn four
starts and I am none to happy. A bad call can ruin a weekend for anyone. I get
on with it and try salvage what I can. I try put as much firepower into the
Bulls to pick up some extra vp. Simon had gotten a Sbaretusk in the way of my
chariot charge into the flank of the Maneaters, essentially cornering them to
be wiped out by the Mournfang on the flank. Another disappointing magic phase
means I get shut down from regenerating the Tomb Guard unit. All the time I
have managed to run my Ushabti out wide on the left flank and they are now
hiding in a building. My Hierophant and his unit have moved up behind them in
an attempt to save giving away as much vp as I can. I target the Ironblaster
with the catapults and Ushabti but luck out. Combat sees the Tomb Guard wiped
out allowing reforms all around. The Maneaters remain on the hill with two
left, plus the army BSB. Simon charges his Bulls into a 10 man archer unit and
wipes them out, overrunning towards a catapult. The Ironguts cannot charge as
they are blocked by his own unit. At the end of the turn it looks like a big
victory to Simon unless I can finish a few things off…
So turn five
starts as the last turn of the game. With nothing on my right flank, the hill
firmly in Simons hands, and some Ogre Bulls running through my archery line,
things are grim indeed. Idrop out of the building with the Ushabti and move the
archers with my Hierophant in instead to safeguard them from any last turn
charge. With nothing else to move I try get some magic mojo happening. Light of
Death targets the Ironblaster with little success, however I manage to get
smiting off on the Ushabti. In my shooting phase I finally get a decent hit! I
have targeted the Maneaters and BSB as it’s the most vp that I can gain. The
hit kills the BSB outright and causes a further wound on the last two
Maneaters, not to mention stripping regeneration off the unit that Simon cast
last turn. The champion and standard are each left with one wound, which I
promptly strip off with the Ushabti. Success finally! This also has the effect
of freeing up the hill. Simon cannot get the Ironguts back onto the hill in his
last turn meaning nobody captures it. The final actions of the day are Simon
charging the Orge Bulls into a catapult collecting a few more vp for his tally.
Result 9-11 to
Simon
Well what can I
say? I didn’t enjoy this game from the get go. It was ‘gamey’ starting from
deployment, based on a modified scenario that IMO is not balanced, and to top
it off, a bad call at a critical moment in the game (IMO) pretty much ruined it for
me. Best to forget this one I think. It was always going to be an uphill battle
for me, so to come out with 9 points is a rather good result in the end.
Game 5 – Vampire
Counts – Russ
Scenario: Meeting
Engagement
Russ
turned up with what is looking like a typical VC list in these parts. A Black
Knight Bus filled with Vampires, some direwolves, spirit hosts and zombies for
chaff, a skittle bunker for a necromancer and a Terrorgiest. I was fairly
confident coming into this match. To win the game I knew I had to break the
back of the knight bus, but before I could do this I needed to kill the terrorgiest
before it rolled a flank. Having formed a rudimentary plan I figured the best
option for me would be to set up at maximum distance and let him come to me,
giving me the opportunity to manage the size of his army and channel the
combats into situations that advantaged me. The end goal being to get a combat
between his knight bus and my TG hoard.
Russ
deployed his army as far forward as possible but on his hard left. It looked to
me to be an attempt at a flanking move aiming to channel everything down my right
with the Knights/Terrorgiest leading the way. I deployed in my corner, using
some impassable terrain to my advantage to hold a flank. The Tomb Guard where
deployed in the centre of my castles front line with the intention of
redirecting the knight bus into the front of them. I had my chariots to the
north to protect the flank, and artillery in the back.
Turn one starts
with me pushing north with most of my horse archers and shooting Russ’s wolfs.
I hold most stuff back and target his high value units with my ranged
firepower. Caskets target the Knight bus, and catapults target the Terrorgiest
with little success. Russ moves his puppies about to try get some use out of
them before they die to my bow fire. His knights and terrorgiest move up
conservatively and he keeps them in formation with his infantry blocks. A very
quick first turn from both sides.
Turn to is more of
the same. I shoot stuff, caskets hit the knights and catapults target the
terrorgiest, this time casing a few wounds. Horse archers clean up the pups and
my chariots swing around to start threatening the flanks. Russ cautiously moves
up again. His spirit hosts hold his flank and threaten my horse archers, while
he moves forward. He uses his magic to restore some of the knights he has lost.
The Terrorgiest moves up and within strike distance next turn.
Turn three begins
with me moving a horse archer unit in the way of his knights, angled back
towards my Tomb Guard and potentiality setting up a nice flank. It is an
obvious trap, but I am playing off Russ being overconfident with them. Catapults
target the terrorgiest again, but the damn thing survives a direct hit that
causes 1 wound. It has one left now. Russ charges the horse archers with the
knights, and his Terrorgiest charges a 10 man archer unit that will redirect
off the board. A small error on my behalf, as it predictably cleans up and
overruns off the board, denying my catapults a target next turn. The Knights
wipe out the horse archers, but refrain from overrunning. This pretty much
leaves us in a stalemate centre board.
Turn four sees me
looking at alternatives. I figure that all my shooting will do squat to his
Ghoul or skeleton blocks, and this leaves his knights bus. Typically strength
3 shots into a 2+ armour save T4 unit isn’t the best option, however I decide
to add the firepower to the catapults and Bowshabti. The catapults fire first,
collecting 2 between them. Then I fire about 50 bows at the unit. As I fire
each unit, and pick up a wound here or there, Russ manages to find every single
1 he can on his dice, resulting in me practically wiping out the knights with
strength 3 shooting… I don’t think he is to impressed with his dice and predict
some fun with a sledge hammer later that night. There is a champion and standard
left in the unit plus a bunch of characters when my bowshabti let off their
double shots thanks to smiting. The -3 save has a good impact finishing off the
unit and spreading some wounds around the characters. Fun times. This sees Russ
split up the characters in his movement phase as they break for cover. Russ
chooses to start withdrawing his skeletons with his level 4 necromancer out of
harms way. The terrorgiest appears and moves straight towards my artillery, and
with a bunch of bravado it screams like the good wife and a catapult falls to
bits on me.
Now its turn five
and I’m hunting for VP’s. Most of the characters in the knight bus have found
cover behind some rocks, limiting my ranged fire. My chariots execute charge
into the Ghouls, cutting the numbers down. Movement is spent getting the
firing arcs for the death mage and bow fire, but first I need to take care of
some business. My remaining catapult hits the Terrorgiest finishing the last
wound and removing the threat. I had backed it up with plenty of bowfire as
there was nothing else they could shoot. Caskets failed to find their mark vs
the closely grouped characters as did my shooting, which only netted the low
level necromancer. Russ continues his flight with the skeletons and level 4
necro. I don’t remember exactly how but Russ manages to pick off my Death
Priest. The Ghouls crumble some more to the chariots.
Last turn and it
is clear I have a victory. It’s a fast turn for me as I only move what archers
can shoot at the characters. All my magic is pumped into the characters netting
me a few wounds off some, but no kills yet. Bowfire is pitiful and the catapult
is wide of the mark. The Chariots finish off the Ghouls however which pretty
much ends the game. Russ’s turn is also short as there is not a lot he can do.
The game ends with
a win for me.
14-6 to my legions
of the dead.
This was a good
game for me overall. Russ was a pleasure to play and had turned up with a tidy
VC list using the typical Deathstar/Knight bus. The highlights for me were
Russ’s Terrorgiest weathering a hell of a lot of firepower, and the strength 3
massacre of the Knight Bus. Once again I struggled to clean up at the end of
the game despite the ranged attacks I had. I have always found the new VC book
to be a good match for my army. The result puts me back on the top of the table
leading into the last game of the tourney.
Game 6 –
(Savage) Orcs & (Night) Goblins – Sam Whitt
Scenario:
Battleline
Once again we meet
in the top table. Sam had turned up with a list very similar to the one he had
at Call to Arms. When played right Orc’s and Goblins can be an extremely
competitive army, and Sam for certain knows how his works. With a build similar
to the one I ran last year I also knew its strengths and weaknesses. Night Goblins
with nets, Troll block and Savage Orc Hoard backed by characters, chariots and
plenty of war machines, not to mention the manglers. His list would always be a
hard match up for mine. I knew I needed to control the early game and remove as
many threats as possible. I did not want to get into combat with a full
strength Savage Orc bus, so I formed a battle plan around this. Destroy the
catapults, doom divers and chariots first, then weaken the Savage Orcs for a
late game combat. To do this I would need to isolate the trolls as I couldn’t
deal with both at the same time.
With this in mind
I deployed in the corner. In a castle. Behind a river. At max range. Heh. I was
playing to my strengths as I thought I could out shoot him, and play the late
game combat if possible. Ok so I really was reserved about fighting the Savage
Orc Hoard. Full strength it has over 50 strength 5 attacks! Sam deployed in a
broad battleline as I chose to deploy my horse archers normally, and combined
with the small archer units I had enough cheap drops to not give away my
deployment. His Savage Orcs took centre stage, flanked by Night Goblins and
trolls to either side. Chariots and mangles filled in the gaps with artillery
at the rear.
I started turn one
after winning the roll off. I spent the turn withdrawing the horse archers back
top my lines and nudging a few archers into range of threats like mangers and
chariots. My catapults targeted his artillery with mixed success, and both caskets
got dispelled. Sam responded with the anticipated forward thrust. I was almost
fully deployed on the right corner with a river in between myself and the Orc
hoard. The return fire from Sam’s artillery found its mark but failed to take
out my scatterpults, instead reducing the number of archers my Hierophant could
use as a dead shield. All in all an uneventful first turn all around.
Turn two was much
of the same for me. Perseverance is a trait needed with my Tomb King build. Whilst
consolidating behind my best friend the river, I edged forward my horse archers
and chariots to get some more bow fire in range. My magic phase seen me get
through a light of death taking out a doom diver and bouncing along Sam’s
battleline causing a few more wounds. Shooting resulted in some similar
success, with my archers finishing off a mangler in the centre, and one of my
catapults managed to take out one of Sam’s, the other preferring to misfire…
Under the hail of fire Sam continued to advance, although it did tend to be
conservative. With the banter going back and forth I figured Sam was not that
keen to find himself in a combat with my Tomb Guard. I had them deployed so
that Sam would have no ranks because of fighting in a river, although it was a
river of light! Return fire took two wounds of a catapult after a direct hit by
Sam. However a buffed Foot of Gork got through in his magic phase and managed
to stomp on my Hierophant. However my skittles had been train well in the arts
of protecting their masters and I was saved from the worst of it. Sam stomped
me twice before rolling a 1, allowing me to stomp him instead. I tried for a rock
lobber catching a wound.
Turn three turned
out to be an amusing one. I decided to try and push the limits and get some
mileage from my chariots. They where in the centre on my table side and there
was the threat of loosing them without contributing. I declared a charge on Sam’s
Night Goblins forgetting about the effects of nets. The rest of my army held
back as I launched a hail Mary. The charge was successful in making contact and
aligned to overrun into a pump wagon whilst avoiding a counter charge from Sam’s
Boar chariot. I had to clip a forest on the way in resulting in me loosing a
chariot, and Sams fanatic managed to account for another. One made contact but
if I was unlucky in my dangerous terrain, so was Sam in netting himself! The resulting
impacts killed a bunch of goblins and the charioteers managed to kill his shaman.
The horses even got in on the action. In return I lost nothing. Sam was still
steadfast but was out of BSB and General range. They fled and pursuit caught
the goblins then overran into the pump wagon which was cleaned up in the next
combat round. Chariots overran out of harms way but close to a mangler! This charge
overshadowed the rest of the turns shenanigans. More artillery exchanged fire,
and I believe I had to weather another foot of Gork!
So at the
beginning of turn four things are set up to maybe commit to a turn five
charge/combat. Taking stock I am down a horse archer unit and a catapult at
this point. My Hierophant has a wound from a miscast and a few units are below
strength. Sam’s missing most of his artillery, a chariot, a mangler, his night
goblins and a shaman. I move my Tomb Guard up to temp Sam to commit to a
charge. I have some horse archers on a flank to redirect if needed. I continue
to target the last remaining artillery of Sam’s with the caskets finally
starting to work their magic now that Sam’s general is to far away. Sam is
hesitant about committing to a combat with the Tomb Guard. Sam chases the last
chariot with his own, and the mangler randomly wandering about near it. The
board is set with my castle still pretty much intact and Sam poised to close in
with his trolls and Savage Orc Hoard, however the game is late.
Turn five rolls
around and I decide to not overextend. I start pulling back the Tomb Guard and
attempt to not give away any more vp’s. With this in mind I refrain from my
lone chariot charging as it only had one wound left, instead pushing it out to
max charge range of the boar chariot and equally as far away from the mangler.
I target the Board chariot with both light of death spells and get one through
picking up the kill. Sam’s last piece of artillery (a rock lobber) gets taken
out by my lone scatterpult. Sam’s army is moved poised to a last turn charge if
he wants. We are both in two minds about this, but I figure he cant wipe me out
in one round, but there is the opportunity to pick up some character kills with
killing blow.
So turn six is
rather uneventful. We both know the game has been won by me, as even if Sam
managed to clean up my Tomb Guard I was still largely ahead. With this in mind
the chariots continues to hide from the mangler, and I spend my magic phase
buffing the Tomb Guard with smiting and protection spells. Sam shuts down both
casket attempts on the lone mangler. Sam’s turn is equally quick with him
deciding on the more conservative route of not engaging the Tomb Guard, his
decision helped by the buffs active on them. We call the game and tally the
score
15-5 to my dusk
raiders…
An eventful game overall
for me. We played staring completions with our main combat blocks for the
entire game whilst our artillery and ranged forces exchanging blows. This phase
of the game was won by me pretty much deciding the match. Ultimately the casket
of souls tipped the scales in my favour getting some early kills here. Sam and
I talked about the potential outcome of his Savage Orcs vs my Tomb Guard. He
was not feeling confident in engaging them heads up and had hoped to bring them
down to a more manageable size before committing. I actually thought he had the
upper hand in the combat here but I think Sam was more worried about loosing 6
or 700 points of characters to killing blow attacks. Fair enough to, as a lucky
KB can swing the game in many ways. A good game for me, and I think we both
enjoyed the challenge, but ultimately the ranged factors swung in favour of me,
but not forgetting the chariots decisive charge!
With all results
in the Tournament was won by my Tomb Kings, with Simons Ogres coming in second
place, Russ taking the last podium with his VC, and Sam’s Orcs just getting piped from third place. Although the field
was a lot smaller than originally forecast, there was still a lot of stiff
competition about (apparently we had 40 signed up with another dozen or so on
the waiting list, but 24+ people pulled out last minute!). I get to take home the rather large shield to babysit for a year!
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