NWG 2010 - A time of Chaos - Game 5 + Conclave short report + The Road Ahead

Right I really need to get back and wrap this up so I'm gonna make this quick; I've also forgotten some of the finer details so cannot produce accurate maps. Anyway, game 5 was against Brian McKenzie and his throng of Dwarfs. It was a pretty tough list, boasting a scout Lord with a big unit of Rangers, a BSB and Runesmith in a large unit of Ironbreakers, a big unit of Warriors, unit of Quarellers, two Cannons, two Grudge Throwers, an Organ Gun, and a Master Engineer. This was a pitched battle and he deployed heavily to his left flank. I put most of my guys opposite so as to hit combat ASAP with a unit each of Knights and Horsemen out to the opposite flank to sweep around.

Got a lucky first turn with minimal damage from war machines and despite him charging the Horsemen with the Rangers and Lord one survived and held for two rounds. I surged forward to get in quickly with the Horde angling to charge the Rangers next turn. Unfortunately the horde lost 30 men to Grudge Throwers before they got the charge and were easy prey then in combat for the Lord's unit. The Knights fought a double combat against the Ironbreakers and Quarellers which after about 4 rounds resulted in the Ironbreakers and Quarellers being wiped out along with the Nurgle Knights while the Khorne Knights held and the BSB and Runesmith fled the table.

The Warriors were in the building at this point and were suffering a lot of war machine fire, but at the same time were deterring it from my other units while not taking much damage due to the Ironcurse Icon. Elsewhere a stalwart Cannon was holding up both the Horsemen and the Hounds for most of the game before falling. The Hellcannon got two shots only during the game, but they killed the Organ Gun and a Grudge Thrower respectively.

By the end of the game, the last of the Khorne Knights were trying to mop up the last two machines and the Engineer while the remnants of the Warriors and Lord were hiding behind a building while using magic to try and smash his Lord's unit. At this point the Exalted has also ran the length of the board and not left yet. An unlucky last turn say the Knights bounce off a Cannon and bad Strength rolls on FF and Gateway leave the Lord's unit with a few men left; a 12-8 win for Chaos.

With this finish I ended the tournament of 34 players in 14th place, which I was happy with. I had 5 good games and was fortunate not to lose to a single spell as other were unlucky to suffer. I learned a lot about my list and have since changed it accordingly as can be seen in my Conclave report below. It was top notch event and I look forward to next year. Again sorry about the rushed ending but I've been very busy as of late and didn't want to leave yet another report unfinished.

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Right so since I finished my NWG report really late I didn't get a chance to do a full on report of this one so I'll be doing a shorter style report. Decided since my Empire was still bare plastic and had a few models that wer only legs I'd stick to Chaos for one more run and try out some rulebook lores and more infantry. After some shuffling with Shadow I opted for Death and a Chosen fun-bus. Was running Level 4 Death with various items of protection, Tzeentch BSB with protection (no condoms were used in the making of this report thank you very much), 10 Nurgle Knights, 14 Tzeentch Chosen, 14 Tzeentch Warriors, 40 Khorne Marauders, 2x5 Horsemen, 5 Hounds, Shrine and Hellcannon.

Game 1 - Fergus Byrne - Dwarfs

Got paired with Fergus first turn. He had a solid list with Anvil, BSB, Runesmith, a billion and one scrolls, 2x25 Hammerers, 20 Warriors, 3x10 Thunderers, 2 Grudge Throwers, and Organ Gun. This was watchtower and since he had an Anvil of Vaul (magical flaming attacks) in his deployment zone he bunkered his war machines and guns around that with the Anvil hiding behind it. The rest of his big blocks and one thrower went in the centre then to take on the building. I got the tower starting my Warriors in it and weighing heavily on the right flank to stay as far away from his shooting as possible while using the tower as cover. If I could sweep through the right flank across his lines far back I would get the war machines anyway, but put some Horsemen and the Hellcannon on the left for good measure.

The first 3 turns involved Fergus defending his position with two of the infantry blocks while the third would stand on front of the tower and be Anvil'ed into it after rounds of shooting weakened the Warriors. This failed in turn 2 and come turn 3 the Knight had worn through the 2nd Hammerer unit to hit the main one in the flank. The Anvil had also been caught by the Horsemen by this stage, who held it up for two rounds before dying. The Marauders and the Runesmiths Warriors got in a tussle that lasted the game around this point and with only one Chaos Warriors left in the tower he evacuated and hid behind it and the Chosen with Level 4 and BSB moved in instead. This pretty much sealed the game as in the following turn the Anvil blew up and the Shrine bestowed 4+ ward and stubborn on them, making them near impossible to shift. The game ended in turn 5 a 17-3 to me.

Game 2 - Nigel Kavangh - High Elves

Teclis! One character I didn't wanna face. Nigel got a nice deployment zone with two large building to hide behind. His list had Life Teclis, Level 2 Death, 2x20 Sea Guard, 20x White Lions, 15~ Phoenix Guard, RBT, Eagle, 10 Archers, and 5 Dragon Princes. He played pretty defensively as I made a swift advance to try and get into combat. This advance was slowed down when I declared a load of charges and nearly all of them failed. I managed to catch some Sea Guard in a building though two managed to survive the game thanks to a timely Regrowth, and I hit the Lions with the Hounds and Shrine who were beat. The Shrine got away and the Lions hit the Chosen, killing the BSB and butchering the remaining Chosen bar the musician who got away, keeping the victory points secure. The Knights managed to hit Teclis' building bunker but didn't kill enough Phoenix Guard before the last turn to be able to attack Teclis. In the end the only casualties of the game were the Horsemen, the Hounds and the BSB vs the Dragon Princes and the Eagle, and since this was Blood and Glory I sneaked away with only an 11-9 loss. Teclis was luckily not very effective in this game as Dwellers doesn't hurt Chaos so much.

Game 3 - Kevin Rynne - High Elves

More knife-ears! Kev's list was Prince, Level 4 Life, Level 1 Beasts, BSB, 15~ PHoenix Guard, 13 Swordsmasters, 5 Dragon Princes 30 Sea Guard, 20 Archers, and 2 RBTs. This game was meeting engagement, a scenario that suited me greatly so as long as I could get rid of the Swordsmasters early. Kev set-up first and the bad luck began as he started the game with only an RBT, the Dragon Princes, the PGs, and the characters on the board. To make matters worse I stole the first turn and sniped his Level 4 and half the PG immediately. After that it just went downhill for the elves, with the Sea Guard running from the field after a Doom and Darkness/Hellcannon combo, and the SM and DP double charge bouncing off the Chosen and getting counter-charged by the Knights and Marauder horde. By turn 4 only the Archers remained so Kev called it 20-0. All I can say is I've never seen one person get that much bad luck all at once before and I really don't think I deserved such a win at all considering how it went down.

Game 4 - Gerry Nolan - Skaven

The only list over Teclis I really didn't wanna play. Skaven have always been a weak point for me over the years and in 8th edition I have been unable to beat them. Gerry had a Grey Seer, Warlord on litter, BSB, 3 Wizard Engineers, 2 Engineers with fun exploding stuff, 24 Stormvermin, 3x25 Clanrats, 2x25 Slaves, Poison Wind Mortar, Warpfire Thrower, 10 Gutter Runners, Doomwheel, 2 WLCs, and a Plague Claw Catapult. It was Dawn Attack, and Gerry got his 3 war machines bunkered on the hill to his left with the Doomwheel to his right. Everything else went down the centre. I too got a lot to my left with the Horde, Level 4, BSB, Knights, and Horsemen all going there, while the Hounds and Horsemen took the other flank with the rest in the middle.

Starting off the Skaven army trundled forward, and then the Doomwheel misfired while shooting and went diagonally toward my Warriors leaving its flank open to my Knights and saving my Horsemen from being deep fried and crispified. He Scorch'ed some Horsemen and shot up the Hellcannon (killing it) and 2 Knights. From there the Knights and Warriors double charged the Doomwhell who fled and was caught, though this reaction surprised me and left my Warriors' flank open. Horsemen went around flanks on both sides with one charging a the Fire Thrower (which fled). The Chosen and Shrine were left in the centre alone to trudge on as the Horde on the left flank had to stay within the building to avoid too many casualties from the war machines (they would be vital in the late game).

Most of the rest of the game involved a mass melee on the left flank as the Stormvermin with Lord charged the Horsemen and overran into the Knights while the Slaves flanked my Warriors and overran into the Knights' flank. The Knights held up combat long enough for the horde to come safely down and flank the Slaves. In the middle the Shrine used its T6 and saves along with its 5A to hold up Clanrats, losing combats only marginally and holding on long enough to keep two units busy. An Engineers killed 11 Chosen with the Brass Orb with the remaining 3 being forced to charge Clanrats and being flanked by the Grey Seer and his Clanrats. However the Shrine managed to get them the ward and stubborn just on time and the two pronged assualt failed to either kill them or break them until finally they won a combat by killing the BSB in a challenge and the Grey Seer rolled a 12 to break, panicking 3 other units as it ran. A timely Doom and Darkness saw that the Grey Seer did not rally and fled the board and that was pretty much game as the rest of the board was just mop-up sessions; 16-4 to Chaos. For the record, this was the most fun game of the tourney with a lot of really interesting situations and outcomes and a lot of back and forward motions vying for power.

Game 5 - Nigel Kavanagh - High Elves

So for the last game I was facing Nigel again. I was in the lead by a solid 10 points which meant Nigel needed a 16-4 win (1500pts+ difference) to win the tournament. We had the same table as last time however I got the side he had last time so he had less places to hide. He deployed mostly around a little watchtower on the left flank in which Teclis' unit sat with a few straggling units off toward the middle. I put some Horsemen, the Hellcannon, and the Warriors with Level 4 nearby in a building of my own opposite, with the rest of the force out of magic range ready to take off stragglers. I didn't want to just run away the whole game to force a draw as I wanted to have a bit of fun, so I decided that I would take the fight to him as long as I could but in a controlled manner. With us weighing heavily on opposite sides my plan was to pick off the stragglers and try work my way in from the side while staying out of Dwellers range with almost everything as long as possible (as my Lord is immune to it).

The first 2 turns were fairly static with no VPs taken from either side, though the Warriors were getting whittled away as were the White Lions. In turn 3 he got a lucky break as just at the point that his shooting and magic brought the mage unit below 25% they panicked (failing a re-rollable 8) and would only rally on double 1; naturally they left the board in the next turn. However in the east I had picked off the Archers with the Knights and the Dragon Princes had bounced off the Chosen who promptly killed them all. By turn 4 I had little hope of winning and so sounded the retreat as my chance was gone now and it was all about survival. Nigel still needed another two units so he pumped magic and shooting into the Chosen and Knights but the Chaos hardiness prevailed and the game ended only a 13-7 to Nigel, me sneaking away with only a minor loss yet again. The game was extremely tense throughout with every detail, move and point mattering. Next to us Gerry needed a 19-1 win to pass me out but Gag managed to steal back the win in the last few turns securing me the top spot.

Was a great tourney and had some great games; cheers to Fergus, Nigel, Kev and Gerry.

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Right so the tourney season is almost ready to start up again. With no events confirmed (though speculated) between now and the end of January, Warpcon in 10wks will be the start of it all. I've decided to really have a shot at finishing my Empire to at least tabletop standard by then and so have begun so serious work on them. After trying out a previous two lists I've come to really appreciate Mortars and have now taken a second one in my list over the second unit of Crossbows that I used to have. Below is the list I plan on taking at this moment.

Arch Lector
War Altar, Dawn Armour, Sword of Anti-Heroes, Van Horstmann's Speculum

Wizard Lord [ Level 4 ]
Talisman of Preservation, Seal of Destruction


Captain
BSB, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Sword of Might, Ironcurse Icon


Great Cannon
Great Cannon

Mortar
Mortar

27x Greatswords
Full Command

5x Pistoliers


24x Swordsmen [ 12x Crossbowmen ]
Full Command

18x Flagellants

10x Knights of the Empire
Standard Bearer, Musician, Steel Standard


Steam Tank

NWG 2010 - A time of Chaos - Game 4

Bright and way too early Sunday morning we arrive in to the surprise that most of the gamers are actually on time. Strange occurance by anyone's watch on the second day.

So as I said previously, my win over Jarvis put me up to table 5 I think to face the forces of the Empire led by my old arch-nemesis Rob Gleasure. I had very little confidence going into this game to tell the truth; not only did Rob have a hard as nails list which he knew how to use but the eternal balance of victories between us was currently in my favour thus I owed him a win. Together these things were surely going to make me slip up.

Arch Lector
War Altar, Great Weapon, Van Horstmann's Speculum, Armour of Meteoric Iron

Wizard Lord [ Level 4 ]
Lore of Heavens, Talisman of Preservation, Seal of Destruction, Barded Warhorse


Captain
BSB, Barded Warhorse, Sword of Might, Talisman of Endurance, Full Plate Armour

Warrior Priest
Barded Warhorse + ???

Master Engineer
Pigeon Bombs


8x Knights of the Inner Circle
Full Command

Great Cannon
Great Cannon

5x Outriders


30x Halberdiers
Full Command

30x Halberdiers
Full Command

10x Crossbowmen
10x Crossbowmen

5x Empire Knights
Standard Bearer, Musician


Steam Tank

Rob rolled up Harmonic Convergence, Wind Blast, Urannon's Lightning(Thunder)bolt, and Comet of Cassandora while I rolled Flickering Fire, Pandaemonium, Call to Glory, and Gateway (taking Fireball on the Level 1 again). Deployment plus vanguards can be seen below. Note this was a Dawn Attack scenario and I set-up first as well as getting the first turn.




Turn 1

The turn began awry as the Hellcannon rampaged toward the Outriders. The eastern Maruaders moved to take the flank of the Outriders while their western counterparts made a bee-line for the Cannon. The Nurgle Knights and Hounds on the same flank moved up to try and bait charges and the Marauder horde moved up just enough to stay out of charge range of the Steam Tank. The other Hounds moved within the Tank's range hoping to tempt it to come at them where the Knights were waiting; this was also an attempt to tempt Rob into using 5 Steam Points and hope for a lucky 6. Finally the Warriors moved up to take the building next turn.

Magic managed to do nothing and in shooting only a Halberdier and an Outrider were taken down by respective axes of the Horsemen units.



The Halberdiers in the west charged the Horsemen who stood and shot taking down another one. No other charges were declared as the Tank didn't take the bait; it instead moved up 12" on 4 steam points. The Outriders moved to block the charge path of the Horsemen while the Knights shuffled by a better charge path.

Magic was largely uneventful with only Birona's Timewarp going off on the ICK. Shooting was a little move successful with three Hounds shot down by some crossbows, a huge amount of Marauders killed by an exloding pigeon and 3 Khorne Knights killed by a cannonball. In combat two more Halberdiers were cut down as were 3 Horsemen, with the remaining 2 breaking but outrunning the chasing enemy.




Turn 2

Not so eager to sacrifice so many points by sending the two remaining Khorne Knights into the Steam Tank, the horde went in instead with the Hounds and Knights running around the back of the combat. This was my first huge mistake as I backed up my lines in one fell swoop. The Warriors moved into the building as the other Hounds failed a charge on the smaller Knight unit. The Nurgle Knights swept down the flank to sweep across the Emprie lines next turn, careful to keep at an angle so as not to be totally wiped out by the Cannon. Elsewhere the eastern Horsemen moved around the threaten the Engineer as the western ones kept fleeing.

Yet again the Empire easily dispelled the Chaos magic with their extra 3 dispel dice and the Hellcannon missed. The Horsemen had more luck, killing the Engineer with their axes. In combat the horde did one wound to the Tank and that was that.



The Empire turn put a huge turn around early on in the game with some key charges being made. The Halberderies started with a mammoth charge into the two Hounds while next to them the Timewarped Knights easily hit the Marauders. Elsewhere the smaller Knight unit charged the Hounds who fled; however they were cut down allowing the Knights to reform toward the Horsemen. Strangly the western Halberdiers stayed put with their flank exposed while the two lone characters moved in position. The movement phase rounded out with the Outriders yet again blocking the charge path of the Horsemen though they knew this time was likely their last.

In what would become a trend for the Empire magic phase the Arch Lector got off Timewarp on the ICK but that was all. Shooting hurt the Chaos forces yet again, with a Warrior killed by a bolt and a cannonball smashed the Hellcannon to little daemonic bits. The second cannon only managed to kill two Nurgle Knights thanks to their positioning and them being partly within the 12" + bounce threshold.

In an unlikely turn of events the Exalted Champion fluffed all his attacks in his challenge with the Empire BSB and was killed by the lowly hero of man. The Marauders managed to fell two Knights but suffered several casualties in return, losing the combat and their frenzy. The Halberdiers easily chewed up the Hounds and hit the Khorne Knights head on.




Turn 3

The Nurgle Knights did not hesitate the hit the side of the Halberdiers who fled. Because of their positioning they landed in impassable terrain, thus bouncing out the other side where they were inside a friendly unit, thus bouncing out the other side, and then yet again landing in another friendly unit meaning they were well out of the Knights' reach who had to stop at the impassable terrain. On the other flank the Horsemen charged the helpless Outriders; their brethren rallied.

In magic a Flickering Fire took down 4 Crossbowmen and Pandaemonium went up like a charm. In combat the grind continued with two more ICK going down and the BSB getting wounded however the Marauders numbers were depleting much faster. In another surprising turn of event the Khorne Knights fluffed only killing 2 Halberdiers who in turn killed one Knight and broke the other, opting to restrain test so as the reform and flank the Marauders. Elsewhere the Horsemen easily beat and broke the Halberdiers and reformed to face the Cannon and Wizard Lord.



In turn 3 the Empire's fortunes did not waver. The Arch Lector made a massive 18" charge to hit the Nurgle Knights while the Halberdiers hit the horde's flank. The other Hlaberdiers rallied while the Wizard Lord managed to march past the Marauders. The smaller Knight unit charged the Horsemen in the west also.

In magic no spells got off however the Wizard Lord still rolled no doubles despite Pandaemonium being up. In shooting the Crossbows shot all their bolts at the building but failed to wound the Warriors. The eastern cannon fired grapeshot killing 3 Horsemen while the wetsern Cannon misfired, stopping it from shooting next turn.

In combat the Marauders nerve finally failed and they broke from combat though they managed to escape capture. Elsewhere the War Altar's impact hit killed off all but the Nurgle Champion who was subsequently challenged and locked in a stalemate with the Arch Lector. Things were looking dire for Chaos.




Turn 4

There was little the Chaos forces could do at this point however the Dark Gods' followers never give up. The now lone Horseman charged the Great Cannon in the east as the lone Khorne Knight fled the table and the Maruaders fled past the building unable to rally. The Sorcerer Lord desparatly tried to take some points back with magic but only managed to kill a single Knight. Elsewhere the Nurgle Knight Champion was slain by the Arch Lector leaving the magistrar alone with the Exalted Hero. The lone Horseman faired better, killing two crew and pursuing the last off the board.



The Empire generals called for the army to begin cleaning up the stragglers and so the ICK and Halberdiers began to move toward to North-Eastern corner. The small Knight unit hit the BSB in the flank with a long charge as the Steam Tank stayed static and the Wiazrd Lord continued to move out of harm's way.

The assault on the survivors began as the Crossbows and the Steam Tank's cannon collectively fired at the building slaying 4 Warriors. In combat the Chaos BSB was finally borken and cut down as he defended his banner, leaving the Knights free to reform to face the fleeing Marauder survivors.




Turn 5

The lone Horseman returned to the battle to see the might of the Empire bearing down on him. He opted to stay in the corner as far away from them as possible. Meanwhile the Marauder continued to flee and I continued to keep making my usual mistake of playing my Warriors too passively. The Sorcerer Lord made a pass at sucking the Steam Tank into the Warp but failed.

In the Empire turn the warriors continued toward the Maruaders on both flanks as the cannons and crosswbows continued to bare down on the Warriors garrisoning the building; another 5 were killed.




Turn 6

The Chaos turn was quick consisting of the Marauders continuing to flee and the Lord continuing to fail at casting magic. To round out the game the Maruader horde stragglers were caught and killed by the Knights as the rest of the Warriors were killed. The lone Horseman and the Lord managed to survive.




Conclusions

Some good luck on Rob's part, some really bad play on my part, and some well deserved carma and this game was a well earned 18-2 to Rob. What can I say, I sucked! Risking bearing my flank to a Cannon just for a flank charge, backing up my lines with the horde, and passively playing my Warriors were my greatest faults. There's not much else to say, fair play Rob.

This loss saw me go down to table 8 to face Dwarfs and their not so bearded general Brian McKenzie. Stay tuned.