Southern Assault Tournament Report: Rounds 1-3

Saturday started at 5:30 a.m. and getting up to travel down to Charlotte, NC.  The Fancy Lads were represented by myself (Beastmen), Tom (Ogres), Lance (Dwarfs), Collins (High Elves), and Ian (Vampire Counts).

My army, in short:

Doombull with 1+ armor save giving more attacks
Level 4 Shadow General
BSB
Level 1 Beasts
44 Gor
10 Gor
10 Ungor
10 Ungor
5 Ungor Raiders
5 Ungor Raiders
5 Minotaurs
24 Bestigors
Razorgor
Ghorgon

Games One vs. Tomb Kings

This was my first game versus the new Tomb Kings.  Matt was my opponent.  He had a 1,300+ point unit with his King, Hierophant, Tomb Guard, and some other characters.  My opening game went well, and I destroyed his Catapult and Snake Riders with ease, and set up for a combo charge on his main unit from the front and flanks.  Unfortunately, Matt had the mask that causes Terror, and I had terrible leadership roles, so he made my Gors and Bestigors flee in his turn. 

Sometimes, this is how the Beastman game goes.

With my army now grossly out of position and trying to rally, he cleaned things up fairly easily.  I failed SIX more terror tests over the course of the game, constantly fleeing (but getting all the bad leadership rolls out of the way for the tournament).  I did manage to save my General and Bestigors through constant running away, and salvaged a major loss instead of a massacre.  I lost 14-6.

The Fancy Lads finished 0-5 in the first round...not too great and our worst start since, well, ever.

Beastmen Tournament Short Battle Reports from the July 9th Sci Fi Genre Warhammer Fantasy Tournament

Wow, work really threw me for a loop this week!

Last weekend, I got to participate in a 14 player Warhammer Fantasy Tournament at Sci Fi Genre in Durham, NC.  While it wasn't Blood in the Sun (which also happened that weekend, but I couldn't make the trip), it was a well run tournament and was a ton of fun.  And *spoilerth* my Beastmen ran away with the top prize.  While I didn't take notes or pictures for full battle reports, here's a quick rundown of my games.

I was especially pleased with my day as I had brought what I consider to be an extremely soft Beastman list, which consisted of:


Wooly Bull, a Doombull with Sword of Swift Slaying, Talisman of Preservation, Ramhorn Helm, Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armor and Shield

Shambo, a Level 4 Great Bray Shaman with a Talisman of Endurance and the Lore of Shadow

Hordor, a Wargor BSB with Armor of Destiny and a Great Weapon

Shamalama, a Level 2 Bray Shaman with Lore of Beasts and a Dispel Scroll

45 Gor with Full Command and Additional Hand Weapons

Two Units of Ten Ungor

Two Units of Five Ungor Raiders

Tuskgor Chariot

24 Bestigor with Full Command the Flaming Banner

5 Minotaur with Additional Hand Weapons

Ricky the Razorgor

Robby the Razorgor

Percival the Giant

Game One

In my first game, I drew Ben H., who has a very nicely painted Skaven army that is almost finished.  I've played him before and he is a great opponent who seems to really enjoy playing.  He had a Grey Seer, Level 2 Plague Priest, Two Warlock Engineers, a BSB, 4-5 big units of Clanrats/Slaves, 40+ Stormvermin, 40+ Plague Monks, 6 Rat Ogres, 2 Doomwheels, and a Hell Pit Abomination.

What he didn't have was any shooting.  Since my Minotaurs generally die to light shooting, they breathed a sigh of relief.  I was still worried about the combined power of the Plague Monks, who I guessed had the scary banner which allows them to reroll hits and wounds for one round, and the Stormvermin who had a Skavenbrew character to make them extra mean.  Fortunately, Ben H.'s dice helped me out.  The Skavenbrew rolled a 1, so it killed a few rats instead of helping them.

I managed to get a Pit of Shades off on the Plague Monks, and took off 15 or so of them.  In his first turn, Ben H. then miscast with his Plague Priest and ended up removing it from the game and having to place a large Blast Template over his Plague Monks.  In the end, eight of them remained.   Meanwhile, I had managed to ambush some Ungor, and was using them to steer his Hell Pit Abomination off in the opposite direction of his fighting.

This allowed me to concentrate my Bestigor and Minotaurs into his Stormvermin / Chaff, and in the first round of combat my Minotaurs rewarded me by doing twenty-one wounds all on their own to the Stormvermin. 

After that, it was a matter of mopping up.  Ben H.'s Grey Seer had been hiding in a unit behind the Plague Monks, and the Gor finished the Monks and then had the Seer for dessert.  The HPA was contained long enough so that when it got into the fight, it had to do so against flaming Bestigors.  A good game, and a massacre for the Beasts.

Game Two

My good friend Tom was my second round opponent, and was also rocking Skaven.  This one will be brief, as it really comes down to Tom's dice not working.  He fired Warp Lightning Cannons, nasty Skaven Spells, and general scariness at me, and everything either missed or didn't go off.  He did have a Plague Furnace, which I had to redirect using my Giant of all things in order to whittle down his other units first.  At the end of the day, Tom's dice handed me a massacre.

Game Three

At the top table, I drew Mark and his Chaos Warriors.  Mark had a roughly 1700 point unit consisting of 35+ Chaos Tzeentch Warriors, four mages (Level Four Death, Two Level One Shadows, and Level Two Tzeentch), his General and BSB).   He also had a unit of 20 Chaos Warriors, Two Warshrines, and Five Marauder Horsemen.   His general goal that day had been to give the big block of Tzeentch Warriors a 3++ Ward Save (I hear it's the new black) and mow down everything in the opposing army.  His first two opponents had obliged him in combat, and had been mowed down. 

Since Mark's army was so small, I held everything out of ambush and simply deployed my inexpensive junk units (Ungor, Razorgor, Chariot) while he had to deploy his whole army.  Once his giant block was down, I deployed my expensive stuff as far away as possible, on the same side of the board as the rest of his army.  Long story short, I then proceeded to put Ungor Raiders and Razorgors in the way of his giant unit while using my army to kill off the rest of his army.  At the end of the game, Mark had managed to kill 160 points, while I had 450 or so for the win, and I think he might have learned an important lesson about Death Stars.  Wait, not the one in the link, the one about eggs in baskets. 

So the Beastmen won first place, with second going to Rob's High Elves, third going to Mark's Chaos Warriors, and fourth going to Ben H.'s Skaven.  I had a bit of a lucky draw on my day, as there was very little shooting to really hurt me, and my army performed well against its opponents.  I'm comfortably achieving my goal of being the southeast United States Mark Wildman, striking fear into the hearts of my opponents with a subpar army book.

Last of the Trollbloods: Dire Troll Bomber Painted!

Like my Khador and Imperial Fists, who have all wrapped up in the last month or so, my Trollbloods are finished now with this fantastic model, who brings the entire collection up around 110 points.  concept and pose of the Bomber, and wanted to add him in.

Unlike my Khador, my Trolls aren't going up for sale.  For now, they'll sit in the cabinet while old projects (Dark Elves and Beastmen) get upgraded for Eighth Edition and new projects (Blood Angels, Space Wolves, High Elves and Skaven) get started.  In the long run, I think this fella has a great gaming future...as a Hellcannon in a Warriors of Chaos Troll army. 

Brawler Bash, Games 3-5

We better get through the rest of Brawler Bash before I forget what the heck happened!

Game Three

So I went into Game Three with one loss and one win.  I played Ray, who was a great opponent, in one of his first tournaments.  He had an Empire army with a couple warmachines, flagellants, a steam tank, and a lot of infantry.  There was one unit of Knights with a Priest.  Unfortunately, that unit got too close to my Chariot and got run down.  His infantry was no match for my infantry, and his big guns couldn't do enough for him.  His Steam Tank spent too much time on the flanks of the army, and didn't get around to doing much until late in the game.  I ended up killing everything else eventually, and took full points in a win.

Game Four

I went into Game Four feeling pretty good, with a chance to come back.  Alas, it was not to be.  I forgot my opponent's name here, but he was a nice guy with a nicely painted green Chaos army.  He used Kroot to convert a lot of the army, which gave it a nice unique feel (including Kroot Archaon!).  Near the beginning of the game, I thought I had him when I rolled over a good half of his army, but I then failed (lots and lots of) crucial fear and terror checks to hand him the game by self-destructing my Executioners and BSB.  Stupidity failures led to my Knights piddling around in the woods for a good part of the game as well.  Basically, my dice went to hell on me.  I picked up a couple bonus points, but ended up with a small loss.

Game Five

So I entered Game Five against Jerry and his Bretonnians.  Jerry was a great opponent and I look forward to possibly playing against him in the future.  He beat me pretty good, pulling his main units back again and again to force me slowly across the field, while feeding me garbage until a good opportunity presented itself.  He caught my Executioners in the flank due to a forced charge, and managed to run them down.  My Hydra also pulled the very excited "Duh" response and stood in the middle of the table all game.  I continued to roll poorly, and lost a few combats that I felt good about going into, but that's the game.  Jerry did have the Green Knight, which I had never seen fielded (but always wanted to).  That sucker cleans out warmachines and archers nicely!  It was a fun game, but I lost with only a couple bonus points.

Wrap Up

So yeah, I ended up with two wins and three losses, which was a little harsh on the pride, but I can't say I've had more fun at a tournament in a good while!  The location was great, my opponents were all awesome, and it was really smoothly run.  Having watched a few disasters at ten man tourneys, it was cool to see almost forty folks play together nicely for two days.  I can't wait to go again next year!

Enter the year of Beastmen!

What's Your Local Meta?

 

It's my belief (and a not too controversial one) that the way we play is shaped by the players around us.  While there are many aspects to this, one of the most basic things we can look at are the armies around us.  While planning for a local tournaments, many of us think about the armies we are most likely to face.  For Warhammer Fantasy, I know that the following armies are in the area and likely to appear.

One Bretonnian

Two Dark Elves

One Daemons

Two Vampire Counts

One Warriors of Chaos

Two Lizardmen

Two Skaven

One Dwarfs

One Empire

One Orcs and Goblins

One Ogres

It's a good mix.  I also know that magic is not super popular in the area, but that I have to be prepared for a decent chance of hitting either Vampires or Lizards, who can maul you with the magic phase.  I know that with my Dark Elves, I can usually get a speed advantage on many of the armies.  I'm lucky in that Daemons are relatively rare in the area.

So what's your local meta look like?