Three Little Batreps from January 9th

Like I mentioned, this past Saturday was an open tournament in Charlotte, NC.  There was a comp system in place, which used a checklist of "bad things" you could take in your army, each one giving a point.  The only limitation was that you couldn't go over twelve of these points.  In general, there were some pretty hard armies there, including mine.  Considering I was playing slower, softer Dark Elves on Sunday, I took a variation on one of my old favorite speed lists.

My list was (approximately):

Dreadlord on Black Dragon with Pendant and Crimson Death
BSB on foot in Black Guard with Regen Armor and Soulpiercer
Death Hag with Cauldron
Three Dark Rider groups of five with Crossbows
Twenty Black Guard with ASF, Ring of Hotek
Cold One Knights with Standard of Slaughter
Cold One Chariot
Reaper Bolt Thrower
Hydra

Game One

My first game was against Eric and his Tomb Kings.  He had (very approximately):

A Casket of Souls
A Hierophant on Foot
A Prince on Chariot
A King on foot with Destroyer of Eternities with Tomb Guard
Tomb Guard
Two Blocks of Skeleton Archers
Two units of 3-4 chariots.
Two Scorpions
Screaming Skull Catapult

There wasn't a ton of cover options, and he went first. He didn't move much, and his catapult missed twice.  It was, in his own words, a very windy board.  I had to let most of his magic go, but it didn't cost me too much at that range.  I failed to dispel the Casket, and it killed a few Dark Riders. 

In my turn, I moved up, and more or less grabbed my ankles in preparation for his next round of magic and shooting.  I just had to take it, since there was no cover and no chance of him coming to me, so I put everything out there to give him too many targets. 

Luckily, his Catapult refused to play ball again.  He did have a Scorpion pop up and charge my Dragon, but he went for my Lord and his attack bounced off my pendant.  His Archers shot repeatedly into my Hydra, but couldn't do much of anything to it.  I dispelled his Casket. 

I then flew my Dragon to where his Prince and Chariots were hanging near his board edge and breathed on them.  I positioned the Black Guard so that he'd charge them with his Chariots in order to get away from the Dragon. 

He shot at my Dragon with his Catapult, but failed to wound.  His other Scorpion misfired and died before it came on the table.  He did manage to get his second group of Chariots into my Chariot in the side, which caused my Chariot to flee into the woods.  Unfortunately, he failed to restrain and chased me into the woods as well, which destroyed his Chariot group.  My Black Guard ate his Chariots. 

I charged my Dragon into his Catapult and smashed it.  At this point, he had some skeletons, his Casket, and Tomb Guard with King.  I brought the Dragon back on the board behind his Casket.  Unfortunately for me, he had Banner of the Sands, and reformed his Tomb Guard and charged the Dragon.  With the Destroyer of Eternities (or whatever it's called), he beat up on the Dragon and Rider, who fled off the table.  Whoops!

The game ended with a Solid Victory for me.  I didn't pick up any of the bonus points though, so I wasn't at the top for round two. 

Round Two

In the second round, I played Dan R. from Charlotte and his Empire.  He had (Dan, correct me where I screw this up): 

Arch Lector on War Alter
Two Priests
A Wizard
Lots of Cannons and Hellblaster Volley Guns
Small Groups of Shooty Troops
Three Units of Knights

Once again, there wasn't a lot of cover, and I opted to just throw everything out there.  His cannons killed my Hydra immediately and put some wounds on the Dragon.  It was exceptional aim and rolling.  He also managed to use the Orb of Thunder to stop my Dragon from flying.  My dragon hobbled around killing some small troups, and eventually came into contact with his Alter.  It beat the Alter to death slowly, barely surviving with one wound, which I eventually lost to small arms.  The Lord survived, but on foot. 

In the meantime, the middle of the board had remained kind of blah, with not a whole lot of killing going on anywhere. Small points were exchanged, but the game ended in a draw.  Oddly, the scenario extra points were worth almost as much as the regular game, and I ended up with as many points as someone who won big.  This put me in fourth place for the final round.  First and second place were well ahead, though. 

Round Three

In the third round, I drew Jon from West Virginia.  He was a great guy, and a lot of fun to play against.  Unfortunately, everything that went poorly for him did.  He had an Empire Army, but was not gun heavy and had no Alter. It did have a Steam Tank, but he deployed it pretty far over on one flank.  My Dragon went on the opposite flank.  It's a pretty easy sum up:

My Dragon advanced up his flank.  He couldn't see it with his big guns.  Then the Dragon his a unit on one flank of his line, which fled through the rest of his army.  This more or less paralyzed the army, and the dragon continued down the line, eating and making happy dragon gurgles. 

I should stop here and mention that my Dragon's name is Steve.  Jesus is his copilot and he enjoys fly fishing.

I got him to charge my Cauldron with his Steam Tank...and the Cauldron beat his Steam Tank to death over eight rounds of Combat.  The Cauldron can manage some impact hits, and I had plenty of Strength Six attacks going back.  Thanks Manbane!  I'm buying an Engineer hat for my Death Hag. 

Halfway up the field, I stopped moving my Black Guard.  There was simply nothing to do, as Steve had chomped his way completely through Jon's army.  I've never seen a Dragon get that excited. 

Because the game was over so very quickly, I had time to make sure and score every possible bonus point.  The guys at the top table drew, and this vaulted me to first place.  It was unexpected, but a lot of fun.   I had a blast, and went out for proper libations in order to prepare for the next tournament on Sunday.