Longtime Dakkanaut
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Note: This is the cursed battle report. This is literally the 5th time I've begun this post. It's surreal. If I drop dead of a heart attack before finishing this post then whoever is reading this, I beseech you, click submit!
Ahem.
Venue: Adepticon 2009
Rules: The devastation tournament is played with an intriguing rules set. You begin with a 3000 point game. After the game, if you lose, you go to a 2000 point consolation bracket. If you win (or lose small), you get to do battle with the survivors of your list against the enemy list with the most similar size surviving force. This is called "Devastating". The goal is to devastate 3 times.
My thoughts: This is a tournament tailor made for gunlines and heavy magic lists. Anything that damages the enemy while remaining undamaged itself is a superior choice for this tourney, as a small win is just as much a devastation as a big one, and leaves you in better position for the next round. Tzeentch Daemons seems like the winning list.
My list:
Throg Clog!
Kholek Sun Eater
Galrauch the First of the Chaos Dragons
Throgg, the Troll King
3 Trolls
4 Trolls
4 Trolls
4 Trolls
5 Warhounds
5 Warhounds
4 Ogres w/Great Weapons, Mark of Khorne
3 Dragon Ogres w/extra hand weapons
Giant w/Mark of Slaanesh
Chaos Spawn w/Mark of Tzeentch
Scylla Arnfingrim
My assessment:
This is a fluffy monster mash list. It's got a big tough guy, but he doesn't fly. It's got a caster, but there's no backup to pull scrolls and dice. It's got Throg, but no other heroes. The trolls are stupid, the Ogres frenzied, and Galrauch has an emo test. If I was trying to optimize this list a bit I'd drop the warhounds for marauder horsemen with the mark of slaanesh (much better redirectors), and Galruach would become a Sorcerer Lord on Chaos Dragon. Further, I'd use up the extra character slots. I wanted to play no humans allowed though, so this is what I've got.
The Field:
A quick looksee through the field is demoralizing. There are many lists here (including Player D's Tzeentch Daemons, hiss!) that'll step all over Throgg. I beseech the Troll Gods for a good matchup.
Game #1:
The Opponent: Warriors of Chaos Death Star!
Kholek Sun Eater
Chaos Lord on Juggernaught
Chaos Hero on Juggernaught, BSB
Chaos Hero on Juggernaught
Chaos Hero on Juggernaught
15 Ogres w/great weapons, Mark of Khorne
5 Marauder Horsemen w/javelins
5 Marauder Horsemen w/javelins
5 Marauder Horsemen w/javelins
5 Marauder Horsemen w/javelins
My assessment:
Wow, somebody actually did it. It's a deathstar. Fortunately, I recently wrote an extremely long post on deathstars, and have a theoretical knowledge on how to combat one. This one is also somewhat imperfect, and I can see a thermal exhaust port...
I need to be careful though, that his Kholek doesn't freny mine and suck it into the DS. He probably has the flame blade on his lord, and that might beat the big guy. Whatever goes down he won't be able to duel 4 chaos charaters in a row unscathed.
Deployment:
I put my monsters in the middle, and my army on the flanks. I want to draw the DS into the middle, the hope is that my army can scuttle around it and avoid getting crunched by it. The DS can't actually catch my monsters (Galrauch flies and Kholek and poppa smurf (my giant) will just walk around to their flanks).
He puts his DS in the front and his redirectors on the flank.
His Turn #1: He goes first, and just moves his army south. His Kholek shoots lightning after marching (I'm not sure it can do that, but w/ever), it hits itself and goes frenzy.
My Turn #1: I realize, suddenly, that I have magic superiority! Hilarious. Further, his Kholek is frenzied, I've got an opportunity here.
I set most of my army to chasing down his horsemen. Mostly I just want to get into other quarters and away from the DS, but killing enemy units is never bad. I put a unit of hounds in front of the DS, and position Poppa Smurf to take the charge from his Kholek, drawing it away from his DS. I also to send his DS through the gate, but only get 2 Ogres. He's got MR, but I use 5 dice + 1 for the casting, so its not meaningfull.
His turn 2: He takes his mandatory charges, and the giant and Kholek end up fighting, while the warhounds reveal his magic item loadout to me.
I'm disapointed when my giant only bites a hunk out of Kholek for 2 wounds. 2d6 or winning the combat would have been much better. Still, it's something.
My turn 2: I shuffle around him with Kholek + Galrauch, and move other stuff away from the center. There's a problem here, as I can't get into position to be out of Kholek's move + get in my front + bolt me and simultaneously look away from the DS, and I don't want to fight Kholek to Kholek if I can avoid it. Galrauch miscasts and ends the magic phase trying to gate the center unit again.
His turn 3: He turns about and moves after my Kholek, not sure what he thinks that'll accomplish, but I'll dance around all day.
My turn 3: I suddenly get hit with a bolt of sense and simply start gating Kholek. He takes 4 wounds. I make a mistake though, and move my Frenzied Ogres too close.
His turn 4: He moves his Kholek to suck the frenzied ogres into his flank. It's a good move. He also tries to shoot again, but zaps himself again. My heart goes out to the Kholek impostor. He's also able to pin my Kholek in a swamp, in range of his Death Star.
My turn 4: I save my Kholek by moving away and charging both his flanks with spawn (one scylla, one plain). They'll hold for at least a round, so he can't charge me next roudn. The ogres also run in on his Kholek, but fail to put even one wound on it (Boo, hiss!). He crushes 3 and chases the last one (due to frenzy he can't avoid this)
His turn 5: Galrauch blows away his Kholek with the Gate, Kholek lines up near his unit, my army circles around and finishes chasing off his stuff. I strike for the thermal exhaust port, putting the dragon ogres almost precisely 14" out from his unit, at a slight angle, aiming to draw out the BSB. He finishes the spawn off.
His turn 6: His BSB goes soaring out of the unit at the dragon ogres, who wisely flee. His DS (minus BSB) moves into a quarter
My turn 6: My Kholek charges his BSB in the flank. I fluff my rolls, and only do one wound. He does nothing back.
It's a grim moment, but at least he's outnumbered by a terror causer...oh wait, he's got the banner that makes him a terror causer.
Well, I'm still the winner by mass, wound, flank...oh wait, that banner makes him stubborn too.
So he gets a break test w/reroll on his unmodified...and fails it! Kholek runs him down and grabs the banner.
So at game's end we stand as follows.
I've got the BSB's banner
I've got 3 quarters
I've killed Kholek + 2 horsemen units (others eluded me)
I've killed his BSB
He's killed a Slaaneshi giant
He's killed a warhound unit
He's killed an Ogre unit
He's killed both my spawn
He put down 2 dogs from my other warhound unit
I'm able to devastate! He almost is as well, but the static points put him too far down. It all came down to that BSB.
It was a fun game. We talk Deathstar theory after. I ask him to keep me updated on how he does in the rest of the tournament.
Game #2:
The Field. Looks like I'm midway down the field of Devastators. I've got roughly 2k points, which seems to be the usual. Player D has basically all his points left (he lost 12 pink horrors and created a new pink horror), and will be playing on Table One.
The opponent:
Dwarfs Thorek Gunline!
Thorek
BSB
Block of Hammerers
Runesmith
Runesmith
Master Engineer
Dakkagun thingy w/1 crew
Dakkagun thingy w/1 crew
Cannon w/d6 wounds, flaming, 1 crew
Cannon w/d3 wounds, 1 crew
10 Thunderers
10 Thunderers
My assessment: We talk, and it transpires that he previously faced a Khalida list that killed a lot of his guys with poison arrow fire. I play TK myself sometimes, so I decided that my allies were clearly hard at work. He lamented that my previous foe hadn't killed my trolls or Lord monsters, but he still had a bunch of guns, so he could make me pay dearly for crossing the field. He puts his Master Engineer with the good cannon.
Deployment: He hid Thorek behind a woods, with his other RUnesmiths standing around him. Other than that he puts his army right out there, guns ready to blaze.
I made a line with my trolls, with Kholek on one flank and Galrauch behind a hill on the other.
Go time! I get the first move, and troop everyone forward...except Galrauch, who decides to gnaw on himself. Ah well, I was overdue. Kholek shoots as bolt (he just walks, not marching), and kills the last crewmen aside from the master engineer.
On his turn he lights me up, just absolutely blasts me. He kills a whole unit of trolls, and puts some wounds on Throgg. Kholek takes a cannonball for two wounds. He moves his hammerers up. I get a stroke of luck when Thorke takes himself out of action for this and the next round.
On my turn the trolls move closer, ominously (except for one unit, which is stupid and falls behind the march). We set up the charge on his unit. Galrauch decides to be emo again, and does 2 wounds to himself...sob.
On his turn there's a deadly silence. My Tomb King allies have done their work well, and his guns cannot fire due to lack of crew. Thorke is also busy berating Kraggi, so he is almost entirely shootingless. The only exception is a unit of thunderers that do unkind things to my dragon ogres.
On my turn the charge finally occurs, with me getting a unit of trolls into the front and the flank, with Kholek on the corner between them.
The rest of the game is as you'd expect, save that Galrauch gnaws on himself a third time, doing a third wound, and Thorek makes up for his previous inactivity by smashing 3 units a round for the rest of the game.
Ultimately I've killed him down to Thorek, and he's got me down to:
Kholek (2 wounds taken)
Galrauch (3 wounds taken)
Throgg (3 wounds taken)
2 Trolls (1 wound taken)
3 Trolls (2 wounds taken)
4 Trolls, intact
I'm able to devastate again.
Elsewhere, Player D has a mistake that's too hilarious not to point out. He was using that singleton Pink Horror as a measuring device, marching him around to help estimate spell ranges. His opponent promptly charged him with a dragon and overran into D's caster lord. D forgot his charging countermoves (was going to flank with horrors, jumped straight to magic phase), and was in trouble. His opponent never let up, and exerted himself strenuously to prevent the Tzeentchian devastation. Hah!
The Deathstar was conclusively crushed in the second round. Somebody drove a popemobile into it, and took the challenges from each character in turn. Brutal. The Daemon version doesn't have that weakness, and isn't frenzied.
I think there's 4 tables of Devastation left, and I'm on the second to lowest points-wise. I guess I could still win the tourney if both the top tables engaged in mutual destruction (not too likely). Ah well, the goal has always been to get shepherd my guys safely through this madness. They are limping, but still game. Bring on the last table!
Final Round: Dark Elves!
He has:
Lord w/reverse ward save on Dragon
Sorceress Lord on foot
5 Dark Riders
5 Dark Riders
Hydra w/2 wounds
1 Blackguard standard bearer w/ASF banner
Repeater Bolt Thrower
Repeater Bolt Thrower
My assessment:
Tough game here. Those bolt throwers should make mincemeat of my Lord Monsters, while he's got redirectors to keep his machines and sorceress safe from my trolls. Above all, he's got the Dragon, who will likely lose to Kholek, but kick Galrauch's trash, and who just has to wait for the bolt throwers to do their work to clean up.
Deployment:
Not much to this, we both line up, though he puts his hydra way out on one flank, and, I think, out of the game.
He goes first:
He moves south, sending the dragon east and the hydra west. His redirectors move south. His bolt throwers put a few more wounds on Kholek.
I go next, K move my trolls up into a line between the dragon and Kholek, Galrauch flies out and tries to gate his dragon, but he scrolls it. I think I've got this. If he charges the trolls I'll flee and leave him staring down Kholek. If he doesn't I'll have Galrauch jump the Lord caster.
He charges, I flee, all is going well, then after he moves his chargers he marches down his cav into a perfect redirect! Doh!!
I charge Kholek at the Cav, and run them down on the flee, but now I'm in a rotten predicament. Throgg and the trolls rallied, but they are directly in front of that hungry hungry hydra, with the dragon on the other side! What a spot!
Galrauch comes to the rescue. I fly down and Gate the Dragon, doing 4 wounds to the mount and none to the rider, then use Breathe of Chaos on it, which redirects to the Lord, who fails his toughness test! Hah! Take that Sorcerer Lord on Chaos Dragon! Some fight left in the ole emo dragon after all. Meanwhile, Kholek homes in on the Sorceress/Bolt Thrower.
The Hydra snipse Throg with its breathe weapon, and crushes the trolls unit shortly thereafter, before falling to Galrauch's gate, and Kholek runs over a bolt thrower crewmen to enter the most ridiculously epic battle ever.
He crashes into the Lord caster on an overrun, and the other play sends the banner bearing blackguard into his rear. No problem, right? I've got 7 attacks that hit on 3's and crush on 2's vs. 2 singletons that can't hurt me, and d3 wounds means I probably only need 2 wounds on the caster? Should be one combat phase, right?
It takes 5, and Kholek gets down to one wound left!! I simply can't hit/wound them. The sorceress keeps casting flaming sword of Rhuin and getting it off. They wear Kholek from 5 wounds to 7 before I finally kill the sorceress on the bottom of 6, and chase down the banner bearer. Craziness.
So, at the end of the day, limping away from the tournament go:
Kholek (one wound left)
Galrauch (one wound left)
2 Trolls
I think there are 2 others who devastate out with more points than me, so I figure I'm top 3 at least. Not a bad showing for a bunch of trolls.
The next day though, I'm shocked when I'm called as overall winner! It turns out BPs are just calculated by winning, and rather than VPs left as the tiebreaker it goes to soft scores. I had one more sporstmanship/painting point than the other devastator. Wow. I won a tournament at Adepticon! (Pride goeth though...I was dead last in the Invitational that Sunday)
That tournament was a hoot. The mechanic of trying to keep your guys alive from round to round prompts a very different playstyle from normal games. It's a unique and entertaining experience, and I recommend it to any fantasy player.
EDIT: Forgot to mention that Centurian99 built + painted this army, and it came out great! Count me as a satisfied customer.
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