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
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