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Made in us
[DCM]
Tilter at Windmills






Manchester, NH


Background:

The Colonial was my first Warhammer GT. I?ve done okay in two previous 40k GTs (middle of the pack and 9th overall at Baltimore 2001 and Boston 2004, respectively), and have previously won a Warhammer Rogue Trader and gotten a few Best Army awards with my Slaaneshi Chaos Warriors, but this was my first GT. I decided to bring my Wood Elves, as they were the first army I bought and built way back in 1999 when I first got into the game, and the new army book and models are pretty sweet.


Preparation:

I started to get psyched for this a couple of months ago. My local Warhammer league (The Dakka Dakka league, out of the store Dakka Dakka, in Manchester, NH) folded over a year ago, and I?d only gotten in a couple of games of WH since the army book came out. My Wood Elves used to be the terror of the league. I won four out of five leagues I entered them in (in a three month league with tournament format finals for the top finishers) and their consistent record of over 90% wins in close to a hundred games made them a terror. The book has changed things a bit, though, and that league was a non-Comp scored environment. I would have to adjust my old lists and work on making the elves more comp-friendly.

I hooked up with the Lost Legion club based out of Danger Planet in Waltham, MA. These guys have an awesome club and DP is a really great store. Only a shame that it?s an hour?s drive away from me. I played at a 2000pt tournament there in March for practice, run by Silas7, who posts on these forums. The DP guys do tend to play ?compier? lists, with more than 8-9 power dice often frowned upon, so I thought this would be especially good practice. I did pretty well. (list and after-action report here):

http://dakkadakka.com/Default.aspx?tabid=93&forumid=19&postid=45765&view=topic

I also played six practice games using the Colonial scenarios. Two against Dark Elves, one against Skaven, one against Lizards, one Von Carstein VC, and one Dwarves with anvil. Results described here:

http://warhammer.org.uk/PhP/viewtopic.php?t=14688

Overall the army did very well, with losses only when I played badly or my opponent misplayed his rules. I decided to tweak the list a bit to make it a little nicer and slightly less MSU.

Army List:
Here?s what I finally went with, divided up into three forces in keeping with the fluff and in readiness for the fourth scenario.

Three Kindreds Warhost

The forest was awakening from winter, and Llira, Spellweaver of the Shadow Oaks Kindred, sensed danger. Most of the forces of the kindred were arrayed to the south, and so as she called together their remaining strength, and the few dryads she could muster, she also sent for aid to their neighbors. Green Yew Kindred responded, and with them came Skarloc?s famed band of archers, who were wintering in the Green Yew hold after returning from the human lands. And so it was that three small bands of elves came together in the wintry beginnings of Spring, to fight off whatever evil encroached upon the ancient Forest of Loren.

Llira, Spellweaver (215), L4 (35), Hail of Doom (30), Dispel Scroll (25), Ranu's Heartstone (20): 325 (General)
10 Shadow Oaks Glade Guard: 120
8 Children of Oak, Dryads: 96
7 Troupe of Shadow, Wardancers: 126
3 Heralds of Kernous, Warhawk Riders: 120

Skarloc, Noble (75) w/Scout kindred (15) Hunter's Talon (25), Pageant of Shrikes (25): 140
12 Skarloc?s Glade Guard: 144
10 Children of Thorn, Dryads: 120
5 Hunters of the Shadow Glen, Wild Riders w/Musician (130), Standard (18 ), War Banner (25): 173
6 Wardens of the Shadow Glen, Waywatchers: 144

Kaia Stormwitch, Spellsinger (90), L2 (35), Dispel Scroll (25), Calaingor?s Staff (25): 175
12 Green Yew Glade Guard with Standard: 156
8 Children of Ash, Dryads: 96
5 Green Yew Glade Riders (120) w/Standard (18 ), Musician (9): 147
6 Troupe of Yew, Wardancers: 108
1 Kieark, Great Eagle: 50

Character total: 648 (three choices used out of four)
Core total: 877 (seven choices taken)
Special total: 527 (four choices taken out of four)
Rare total: 194 (two choices taken out of two).

Grand total 2248
8 Casting dice, 5 Dispel, 96 models


There were lots of Wood Elves at this tournament, but most of them were all or mostly Forest Spirit armies. I think there were maybe three of us with more traditional mixed forces, not coincidentally we all also had lots of old models, clearly being folks who had been playing the army for a while. I think I was the only WE army without a Treeman, however, which I hoped would lead to good comp scoring from my opponents. A lot of players are also very down on the effectiveness of Glade Riders, Warhawks and Waywatchers, so again I was trying to go the compy route.


Getting to the event:

I flew down with Silas7, and CutTheMullet and Zombie. All proudly wore their Lost Legion t-gaks and I (a newly-inducted member with no shirt) wore a custom shirt with Mannahnin over the breast and Dakka Dakka across the front.

We flew from Boston to Dulles and rented a car for the drive down to Charlottesville. We were very glad we flew in early (arrived around 2:30), because it took a half hour or so of standing in line to pick up the car, and the first twenty miles of driving out of Dulles were a nightmare. It?s a 90 mile total drive and it took us a total of four hours including a half hour lunch stop after we got out of the traffic. We all flew with our stuff in carry on luggage, which worked out well except that we didn?t have space for stuff like army display boards.

The lunch break was the high point of the drive. This place called Five Guys Burgers and Fries we stopped at right along the highway. Four something for a hamburger, but what they mean by a hamburger is two big patties smothered with mushrooms, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, mustard, ketchup, mayo, and optionally a list of about eight or ten other things you can get for no extra charge. I did pay a little extra for bacon on mine, because anything worth doing is worth overdoing. Combine this with them dumping a giant scoop of peanut-oil cooked fries in your bag, more than you can possibly eat, and you have a meal fit for a king or a wargamer. I didn't even eat dinner that night. Beer held me fine.

Friday night:

We got to the hotel around 7pm, which was when the hall was opened and the GF9 folks were setting up. We walked across the street to the Kroger?s to buy beer (I picked up a 12 of Sam Adams to share with my opponents, since I was coming down from Boston), got checked in, and did a little repair and touch-up work on our armies. I had painted the ten-model unit of Dryads, the war hawks and the Glade Riders on Thursday.
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The hall was great, and the tables were gorgeous. Great designs, with the template terrain all having removable trees/spikes/rocks so you could get units in and out easily. The terrain I think was a little heavier than some people are used to. To them I say, play with more terrain! The game is more interesting that way! Of course, I?m a Wood Elf player, so obviously I?m biased.
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We each got in a pickup game for the North vs. South challenge (http://colonialgt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=28&start=45), Silas7 winning his and I think the rest of us losing.

I played Steve McNamara from Raleigh, NC with his Lizards. His list was similar to Matt Perry?s: 4th gen L4 Slann, one skink shaman, Jaguar Saurus, a couple of Saurus blocks, three or four units of skinks running around, two packs of two sallies, cold one rider cav with a Scar Vet, three Kroxies.

Steve and I played Holy Grail and had a very good fight. The turning point was on turn 2 when he marched his cold one riders up the center, into the flank of my war dancer unit containing my general, who had started out of LOS. He then used the Standard of Huanchi to charge into my flank in the magic phase. With my general gone I was basically screwed, but I made a fight of it and kept it from becoming a massacre, partly because having the grail impaired his magic. It wasn?t until after the game that I realized he couldn?t have marched- I had my sniper noble within 8? at the start of the turn. Steve had charged my noble with another unit to make him flee and get him out of the area, but didn?t realize that march blocking is determined at the start of the turn. I just didn?t notice, as I was already three beers in.
<v:shape id=_x0000_i1027 style="WIDTH: 11.25pt; HEIGHT: 11.25pt" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="Wink"><v:imagedata src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/COORDI~1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" o:href="http://warhammer.org.uk/PhP/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif"></v:imagedata></v:shape>Steve was a great opponent, however, and it was very clearly an honest mistake. We still had a great game. Seeing as challenges were allowed for the first round, I issued a challenge to him to a rematch in round one in the morning, which he graciously accepted.

Some more light drinking was done and we went to bed.


Saturday:


Round 1:
First round I played Steve in Through the Snow on one of the forest tables. We had an excellent, tight game. Once more I failed to properly account for the Huanchi standard, and this time on turn two it cost me my Waywatchers and the sniper noble. Thankfully I had already killed about half his unit with shooting. The cold one riders and scar vet wound up in the flank of one of my archer blocks(!), but I had a unit of war dancers in position for the rear charge. In went the dancers. I lost three archers but the war dancers killed all the lizards. There. That?s a better start to the game! His other Scar vet was also exciting. In turn one he moved him 18? forward but into a wood for cover from my shooting. This guy also had a great armor save backed up by a ward save, so he was scary. He was in threat range of most of the center of my army. I moved my eagle an inch in front of him, cutting off most of his LOS, and he charged, dealing only one wound! I flanked him with seven Dryads, but over five or six consecutive rounds of HtH it was always a draw or a win for him. I just couldn?t get through the armor and ward saves! He gradually chewed down my Dryads to a single model, and finally in turn three or four my eagle and the lone remaining Dryad finished him off. Amazing.

Visibility was a trick, and my archers were really screwed by the shooting penalty. I think his Sallies failed to fire once during the whole game, thanks to Matt changing it to non-BS shooting only failed on a 5+. I managed to kill most of his stuff, including both saurus blocks, all the skinks, all the characters except the Slann, the cavalry and one Sallie pack. I held the two flank objectives and he held the center. It was a nice tight game, and if my archer unit holding the left objective had failed its panic test from Sallie fire (killed seven out of nine remaining models) in the last turn we would have had a draw. On the other hand, if visibility hadn?t dropped down to 16? on the last turn, I probably would have been able to take out the Kroxies in the center with shooting (including the Hail of Doom) and secure the massacre. As it was I got an 18pt win.


Lunch:
For lunch we walked next door for Indian buffet. Damon?s in the hotel was pretty good and had very cheap booze, but the service was very slow unless you were at the bar. The Indian food was decent, cheap, and very quick.


Round 2 (Magic Flux):
Round two I?m paired up with Jakob (Burket?), a very nice Dwarf player from the D.C. area. We were on a chaos wastes table. The rules for this were odd- Matt said it was difficult terrain for movement, but the big spikes on it blocked LOS as their actual profile. This would be okay, but leave very little cover on the table and we weren?t sure how ranked units would move through it. Presumably you would just move the spikes like you did with the trees on the forest templates on other boards, but who decides where the spikes go? Do you get to move them in front of you for cover? These could be insanely good for my archers if we could just sit behind them and shoot the enemy across them. Jacob and I agreed to play them as working exactly like woods, except they did not count as woods for the purposes of any of my special rules or spells.

Jacob had a very unusual Dwarven elite infantry assault army. One unit of warriors, two of Longbeards, one of Hammerers, one of Ironbreakers, one of Slayers (which moved up using the iron breakers and warriors as shields from my shooting), two Bolt Throwers, King with shieldbearers, BSB, another Thane and a Runesmith with the master rune of Balance. The BSB had the rune that gave every unit within 12? a free move before turn one. He got first turn and before I got to move six elite Dwarven infantry blocks were 24? away from MY TABLE EDGE. Yowch!

In my first three turns, my dice were godawful. Magic Flux made his magic defense close to impenetrable, and my shooting was having virtually no effect. By the beginning of turn four all I had killed were 5-6 assorted dwarves and one bolt thrower. five out of his six blocks were WS5 S4, so I knew I had no prayer in HtH until I had cut down the rank bonus a bit. With my shooting and magic unable to accomplish this, I was reduced to playing VP denial and avoiding him with most of my stuff. Unfortunately for him, with no anvil and almost no shooting (the second BT was dead on turn four- same unit of Dryads), he didn?t have the tools to catch and hurt anything except my poor archers. My big unit with the standard fled off the table to escape his king?s unit. My other 12-model unit was charged by the Ironbreakers on turn four or five, and the Ironbreakers pursued off my table edge. There?s a first!

My shooting did pick up a little in the second half, and my sniper noble combined with the war hawk riders to kill his BsB. I gradually got into position for combined charges on his Hammerers and Longbeard units with the Runesmith and formerly the BsB, and the remaining rank and a half of slayers. My Dryads (from the front) and Warhawks killed the Slayers, and good rear and flank work from the Wild Riders, Dryads, and Wardancers (and a timely rear charge with archers at one point!) took the bigger blocks down after a couple of rounds of combat. At the end of the game he had taken out my eagle, my Glade Riders (which ran off the board after failing to Rally from a bait & flee move on turn two), one of my assault units, and two of the archer units. He had left his king in a block and his thane in the iron breakers. Win for me, but only 17 battle points. Jacob was a very nice and fun guy to play against. He had never faced Wood Elves before and just didn?t have the tools to do more damage to me (crossbows, stone thrower, anvil).


Round 3 (Holy GGGrail):
I?m on the wasteland table- rocky terrain templates, a couple of cool scenic hills. My opponent is Dave Hohmann, one of the Warmongers from NYC. Posts as djhohmann on their forum at warmongerclub.com. Very pleasant guy to play against. Relaxed and calm. Almost restful after the long day.
<v:shape id=_x0000_i1028 style="WIDTH: 11.25pt; HEIGHT: 11.25pt" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="Wink"><v:imagedata src="file:///C:/DOCUME~1/COORDI~1/LOCALS~1/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" o:href="http://warhammer.org.uk/PhP/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif"></v:imagedata></v:shape>Dave has Khorne DL. Bloodthirster, Herald on a Jugger, Jugger chariot, three units of three Bloodcrushers, three units of ten Bloodletters, two of five Fleshhounds. He has a massacre and a draw (against a Slaaneshi DL that just avoided him). David suggests for simplicity the same terrain rules Jacob and I used on the chaos table- play the rock templates as if they were woods, just not counting as woods for purposes of my spells and special rules. I happily agree. I only have my one wood and no Master of Stone, but I?m still happy about the matchup. I have never lost to an army with a Bloodthirster. I have enough stuff that can flee to lead his army around, and my shooting and HtH will own his Fleshhounds and Blood letters. He deploys weighted to my left flank, so I have a rock template and my woods to maneuver around in the center. My wood is placed a few inches to the right of the grail.

On turn one David moves up, a unit of crushers with herald seizing the Grail, with the BT facing away from my left flank, kind of across my battle line. I am thus able to move my way watchers and sniper noble forward to the edge of a rocky template on the left flank, out of his LOS but in position to bait the flesh hounds. I move my Wild Riders to counter-charge the flesh hounds which are up against the table edge, facing the narrow corridor between the table edge and the rocky terrain template. I have a unit of wardancers and one of dryads there as well, just waiting for the fleshhounds to be out of the way so we can move up the flank towards those tasty blood letters. I erase the other unit of flesh hounds with shooting and kill a couple of blood letters. I smack his blood crushers in the middle with master of wood to little or no effect.

On turn two, the flesh hounds charge my waywatchers, who flee and easily escape. The BT flies forward, right in front of my lines to cause terror tests, facing my 12 man archer unit without standard on the hill, in the right flank of my 10 model archer unit. My ten man archer unit flees in terror, parallel to my table edge, behind the dancers and dryads. My Wildriders charge the flesh hounds, and WHIFF COMPLETELY. The flesh hounds kill a couple, chase them and run them down. They are now facing my poor archer block which is a couple of inches from my edge. My waywatchers fail to rally and run off the table. Doh! I don?t want to write off the archers completely, but they are likely to die and I don?t want those flesh hounds running around my back corner with that banner. I move the sniper noble and wardancers up the flank and move the dryads back , 1? behind the hounds. I rally the archers in the corner, and maneuver my warhawks and the archer block facing down the BT to get some shots on the hounds, but only drop them to two models. Meanwhile in the center of the table I am taking potshots and throwing spells at his bloodcrushers, maneuvering around the rocks and tree singing the woods to obstruct him and let me move up under cover.

Turn three his BT takes out my 12 man archer unit on the hill and goes off the table. No biggie. The fleshhounds charge my archers, who are doomed anyway, so I flee to leave the hounds stranded in front of my dryads. And I roll snake eyes. I needed three inches to get off the table and leave the hounds with a failed charge. The fleshhounds catch me, and are now right at my table edge and OUTSIDE the Dryads? charge range. Absolutely worst possible scenario for me. The dryads now have to waste another turn going after the hounds, away from the bloodletters they?d rather be off fighting. My sniper noble and wardancers start to circle the bloodletters, using a pond for movement cover, and two units of letters turn to face them. My spells and shooting in the middle are doing jack to the bloodcrushers thanks to great ward saves by David. I start work on using the Glade Riders and Eagle to bait the third unit of blood letters closer so I can kill it without exposing myself to the blood crushers. My shooting and magic is doing almost nothing to the crushers. Even the Hail of Doom bounces with no effect. David?s ward saves are out of control.

Turn four the BT comes back on, I pass some terror tests (though the warhawks blow theirs and run in front of his units on my left flank) and dodge behind terrain to avoid combat, though my archers with standard don?t really have any place to hide. His chariot and two units of bloodcrushers are not doing much in the center, mostly maneuvering to cover each other?s flanks and rears so I can?t encircle them, and holding onto the grail. His third unit of juggers is moving up my left flank, moving towards the dryads which dealt with the fleshhounds. He moves his Herald on a jugger out of the unit holding the grail, starting to work his way around the forest to deal with my dryads over there. My dryads finally clean up the hounds. My sniper has killed a couple of blood letters off one of the units, taking away their rank bonus. He moves into the front arc of one which is facing the left table edge. He can flee at least eight or nine inches and stay on the board, and the war dancers will get the flank charge. I let the blood letters charge my eagle and pursue into my wood template, where my L2 mage is happily sitting. They stop a couple of inches in front of her. I have tree singing, the staff of Calaingor, and Master of Wood. That unit is going to be DEAD, and I probably won?t even need to fight them in HtH. I smack the bloodletters in the wood with some spells this turn, but good dice and MR keep almost half of them alive. I maneuver my other dancers and lord to be mostly in a rocky template, out of LOS of the 'thirster and the crushers.

Turn five- his BT takes out my remaining archers. The ?letters in the wood turn out to be exactly 2? away from my mage. I had forgotten to move her, but it shouldn?t be a problem. They charge. I flee. No biggie. I ROLL SNAKE EYES AGAIN and am caught. Argh. He turns out to have LOS from the crushers with the grail to one of my wardancers around the edge of the rock template. He charges, and has the distance. ARGH. My Lord is in that unit. She dies. The dancers put up a brave fight but die. Both of my mages are dead, through slight carelessness in positioning and snake eyes to flee. I don?t remember until the next day that the crushers with the grail were limited to an 8? move, and thus could not have reached me. He used most of his regular 12? charge distance to do it. I think I had remembered this the turn before when positioning the dancers, but through weariness and distraction at the fate of my L2 mage, forgotten it on his turn. In the one piece of expected good news, the bloodletters on the far left flank are forced to take the bait and fail to catch my sniper. Unfortunately he gets his chariot positioned to support them if they hold from the dancers, or even if they pop from the dancers, unless I get a good overrun roll. In mixed news, the bloodcrushers on my left flank catch my poor warhawks, but are left with their flank exposed to my dryads in that corner.

I rally my sniper noble. I charge the left crushers in the flank with my dryads. Its desperate, but I?m out of options with my magic gone, general dead, and him holding the grail. I move my dryads in the center (who have been waiting for a good opening and the letters and crushers to be weakened with shooting and magic) to the rear of the crushers with the grail, and the unit of dryads on the right flank in front of the remaining blood letters. I stay out of LOS of the BT. I may have gotten a little confused about the turn order, but somewhere in here I think the Glade Riders may have been available, because I reduced the blood letters down to one model, who will now be forced to charge a basically untouched unit of dryads. I charge the thinned-out blood letters on the left flank in the flank with my Wardancers and destroy them, taking their standard and overrunning straight back towards my table edge to try to get out of charge range of the chariot. They don?t roll high enough and are going to be in reach. The dryads deal sufficient wounds to the blood crushers to kill the model on the flank, but once more David?s ward saves cannot be stopped. The model survives, beats down a few dryads, and they break. The crushers must pursue, succeed in running the dryads down, but through sheer luck wind up blocking the chariot?s LOS to my dancers completely.

Turn six. His crushers with grail move out of the rocks towards my table edge. His lone bloodletter charges my dryads on the right. His herald moves toward the dryads. His BT does nothing important. His units on the left flank (chariot, crushers, one remaining unit of letters) have no targets in LOS. My dryads destroy his bloodletter and overrun in position to flank the herald. On my half they charge him in the flank while my unit in the center rear-charges the crushers with the grail. I do a couple of wounds to the herald and jugger but they stick and kill a few back. My dryads do a few more wounds and I think manage to finish one of the crushers in the unit holding the grail. He fights back and I hold.

--------

Looking back I definitely have part of the turn order messed up. I think the business with my L2 mage actually happened on turn four, because I am fairly certain my right flank archers are the ones who reduced the blood letters in the woods to one model, on the turn before they died to the BT. I know I fought at least two rounds of HtH with the dryads against the unit of crushers with the grail, which must mean I charged on the second half of turn five. This sounds right. We spent three rounds in HtH, I killed one of the crushers in the grail-holding unit before losing, and killed the herald and put a wound on the jugger with my right-flank dryads. The jugger actually lost by two in the final round but passed his instability test.

Anyway, sorry about the order confusion. It was the end of a long day and I was very tired.

At game?s end he held the grail. He still had the BT, the herald?s jugger, one unit of blood letters, the chariot, and all three units of blood crushers over half, mostly thanks to his ward saves almost never failing him. I had Skarloc the sniper, the smaller unit of war dancers with a banner, and the few remaining dryads which were beating the jugger. I think I might have had my Glade Riders somewhere as well. Massacre for David, and a 5pt loss for me.


Saturday night:
We went to eat and commiserate at Damon?s, eating at the bar. I had butterflied shrimp and ribs, which were quite tasty. I also had a couple of 22oz Yuenglings. This is a beer not sold up in the NE, though I remember my grandfather drinking it when I was a kid and we lived in PA. Perhaps not the best beer, it was still very refreshing after a long day of Warhammer. And $4.50 is a nice price compared to what we pay up in this neck of the woods for a beer.

One of my compatriots had had an absolutely awful day in his games, so much drinking and drunken poker was the order of the rest of the evening, as we needed to get his spirits up, and he didn't want to think about Warhammer. I was hoping to get a pickup game with Ed Maule (posts as Mauleed on TWF, the warmonger board, and Dakkadakka.com), which we were supposed to have on Friday night, but he wasn?t in the hall before we retired to the hotel room for poker. We played fairly late and went to bed.


Sunday:


Round four (Fog of War):
This is a much maligned scenario, which I actually think is a great concept. Your army is divided into three sections, one of which starts on the table and the other two come on at random and in random table edges on turns two and three. Many players complained. I honestly think all it needs are a couple of slight tweaks to make it a classic. If you could choose which group started on the table it would help a lot, and if you changed the chart a little, for example- 1-2, your left edge up to the halfway mark, 3-4 your own table edge, 5-6, your own right edge up to the halfway mark, it?d be I think a bit more reasonable. Right now with only a 1 in 6 chance of coming on your own edge, and a 1 in 6 chance to come on behind the enemy, it can be a bit crazy.

I was on a forest table again (thankfully) against Lance LaGrou, another Warmonger (Llagrou on their board, and I think maybe on TWF too). Lance had brought his savage orks and night goblins in the desert army. Atchman also played against it, and gave the list here:
http://warhammer.org.uk/PhP/viewtopic.php?t=15553

Lance was not too psyched about the scenario, but was game to play and a very nice guy. We took a long time setting up, discussing our armies, and beginning the game, so unfortunately we had to hurry a lot to finish at the end. He was a good sport and let me finish, however, which I desperately needed.

He started with a unit of NG, the big ?unz with L2 shaman tagging along, the giant, and the wolf riders. I started with my own L2, my Glade Riders, my Eagle, my unit of 12 archers with standard, a unit of dryads, and a unit of war dancers. There were four woods on the table, more or less even distributed, around 12? in from each corner of the table, more or less. There is a pond right in front of the wood on my left near side, in the space between that wood and the wood on Lance?s side, leaving a fairly narrow area (only 6?, maybe) for regular units to freely move through between the woods. His two table corners were hills, and the center of mine was a big hill area. I got mostly magic damage spells, including all three from Life and Fury of the Forest for my L2. Good stuff.

He won the roll and told me to go first. I was happy to do so. My skirmishers ran straight at his army, up the center-left, with my L2 attached to the dancers. My eagle soared up, hidden by the dryads. My archers were in the wood on my left flank, and moved forward to get some LOS. I deliberately deployed them only ten wide so they could all fit in the wood. My Glade riders advanced and shot at his wolf riders, but did nothing. He advanced cautiously, keeping the giant hidden behind the wood on his right flank (left from my perspective), the NG moving around the side of the wood, and the big ?unz pretty much in the center. The Wolf riders hid around the other side of the other wood.

Turn two, my general?s warband came on. Excellent. Her dryads moved up behind the woods with the archers. Her dancers ran forward to the right of the dryads. She ran forward and attached to them. Her archers marched forward from the center of my table edge, getting position for some shooting later. The Warhawks soared forwards to join the glade riders in shooting at the wolf riders. My glade riders marched around to get LOS on the wolf riders again. My eagle soared up behind the wood next to the NG to make the fanatics come out. They came out in front of his NG block a good distance. My L2 and her dancers moved up towards the wood the NG were next to and the giant was hiding behind. I tree sang the wood to block the NG a bit, but carelessly blocked my archers? LOS to the giant. I smacked the giant with some spells but good dispel rolls and use of a scroll kept me from dealing any wounds. I shot the fanatic which was closer to my eagle. My hawk and riders shot the wolf riders down to one model, who panicked and ran off the board.

His turn two his savage orcs with BsB came on from MY table edge. Along with the other two units of NG with fanatics! And the bolt throwers and duelists! One unit of NG came on behind by dryads and dancers. The other just behind and to the left of my archers. The savage orcs with BSB came on behind and to the right of the archers- both of his units angled somewhat towards the center. The bolt throwers moved on just to the left and about 10? to the right of his savage orc block. The duelists just to the right of the savage orks. All of his units except the leftmost NG block were on my hill. His original force continued forward a bit. The big ?unz a little, the NG shimmying 2? to my right to get around the wood. His giant kept hiding behind the wood, clearly waiting for reinforcements before exposing himself to my shooting. The NG popped out of the units, but rolled TERRIBLY. One went through my dryads, two through the wardancers (but collided with one another and both died), and one through my archers. Net loss to me: one dryad. Just terrible rolls for him.

My turn three, and Skarloc?s group comes on from my right table edge, well away from the action. The waywatchers run into the wood in the right corner. The wild riders march in off the edge, moving closely parallel to my table edge, lining up next to and facing the bolt thrower to the right of his savage orcs. The ten-model dryads run from the forward edge of my right edge towards his original units in the center, angling to come in from the flank. The archers (actually Skarloc?s Wood Elf Archers) just walk on from the edge, forward again, angled to get a shot on the big ?unz. Skarloc moseys onto the table and joins them. My warhawks charge his NG shaman in his face. My eagle soars over both of his original blocks to march block them. I move my general out of the dancers to join the archers in the woods, then move my dryads and war dancers from her group to flank the NG and savage orc blocks, respectively (the dryads to the left of the NG, the dancers to the left of the savages). My archers on the hill move forward 3.75? and about-face to shoot at the stuff behind them. My general and archers on the left flank are happy in their wood, deep enough to not be seen from behind by the goblins. My L2 mage and her dancers make it up to the edge of the wood the giant is hiding behind. My glade riders move back, facing the right BT, the duelists, and the savage orks but out of charge range and in the right flank of the savage orks. In magic I throw some damage here and there, wasting a Thorn Father with bad rolls on the bolt thrower to the left of the savages in my DZ, but he prevents anything really bad with his dice and remaining scroll. My archers on the hill right in front of his units also try to take that bolt thrower out of commission, to prevent him from moving it to block the dancers? charge into the left flank of the savage orcs. They suck and kill one goblin. My glade riders kill one duelist. Skarloc?s archers nail a couple of big ?unz. My left side archers in the wood kill a few night goblins across the table. In HtH my warhawks kill the shaman and champion of the Big Unz but Hit and Run only 4?, ending up right in front of them.

His turn three, and his general and L4 in a unit of savages, as well as the savage boar boyz and four chariots come in on his right edge! To my left! Mostly blocked by the terrain of wood/pond/wood from getting into the center! He two chariots as close as he can to me, pointing towards my dryads who are playing with the NG in my back left corner. Those NG turn to face the dryads. He puts the other two chariots facing more central, threatening a charge if I come out of the woods or put anything in the narrow corridor between his side wood and the pond (where my L2 and her dancers presently are partially, having not all made it into the woods). The boar boyz are behind them, facing the wood and my general?s unit of archers, who are only about 1? deep in the woods and maybe 8? away. The general?s unit just kind of moves towards the wood with my general in it. Meanwhile, elsewhere on the table, his big ?unz are forced to charge my hawks, who easily escape. His savages in my DZ are forced to charge my archers, who flee about 7? and escape. Lance get a bit depressed about their position and frenzy forcing them to leave their flanks exposed to my units (their rear is presently towards my wild riders and around 12? or 13? away), but makes the best of it and moves his NG to face my wardancers who are near the savages? side. If his savages hold for at least a turn he will be able to rear charge the dancers in their flank with the NG. The duelists spread out a bit to cover both the flank and rear of the savages. If I charge the glade riders or wild riders in, they will have to spend a round dealing with the duelists before they can join the dancers against the savages. He does not think, however, to move his bolt thrower and crew to be a shield to the left side of the savages. His NG across the table move forward a bit. His giant shuffles up behind them a little. Both are march blocked by my eagle or L2 and dancers. He throws Mork Save Us on two dice, getting a nine and burning three of my dispel dice, and rolling a 16 or so for Waaagh. He uses a mushroom to jack up the result and try to get IF, but without success. I scroll that sucker faster than you can say Jack Robinson. His bolt throwers kill a wild rider.

My turn four. My glade riders charge the duelists first, to force them to form up against me in the savages? right flank, leaving the rear exposed for the wild riders. My archers rally. My warhawks fail to rally and ALMOST get in the way. The wild riders declare their charge against the bolt thrower right in front of them, hoping they will blow their Fear test and run straight towards the savages, allowing me to wipe them out and rear charge the savages at the same time. The wardancers charge the savages in the left side. My dryads on the left flank move into the woods, out of the charge arc of the NG in their corner and out of LOS of the chariots threatening them. My general?s unit of archers shuffles 2.5? to their right, depriving the Boar Boyz of LOS. My L2 mage leaves her unit of dancers, because I want them to charge the giant next turn. She runs back towards the general?s unit of archers but cannot make it, and just stops in the pond about five inches in front of them. Her erstwhile unit of dancers moves through the woods and behind the giant and the unit of NG, into the right flank (my left) of the big ?unz as well. The bolt thrower to my right PASSES the Fear test and holds. The duelists hold and receive the GG charge. The war dancers wind up going into the savage orcs alone, on the left side, where the BSB is, wearing his best ?at. One of them cannot make base to base because the bolt thrower is partially in the way. My waywatchers move a bit closer, looking for a shot. Skarloc and his archers move a bit closer to the big ?uns while the ten dryads near them sprint ever closer to the big ?unz but still not in charge range. In magic I get off a nasty Stone Master on the NG unit in my center rear, who are threatening the rear of my wardancers. 3d6 S4 hits later, the NG panic and run off the table. I throw three wounds from magic onto the giant, and shoot a bit more at the NG and big ?unz across the way, thinning them out a little more. In combat the glade riders lose one but kill the duelists and will get into the flank of the savages if that combat is still there. The wild riders whack the bolt thrower crew, but do not overrun far enough to get into the rear of the savages. The wardancers kill a BUNCH of savages and do a wound to the BSB. I lose a dancer or two and break them, running them down. The Glade Riders wind up running down the duelists, though they only go 6? or 8? forward, winding up with their flank to the remaining bolt thrower, which did not panic when the savages were killed.

Lance?s four. He has no charges. The NG and big ?unz press forward, getting close to my archers who fled into the middle of the table. The giant, with three wounds on him, turns to face the dancers. One of the chariots on my left flank moves around to try and keep the dryads in the woods from doing anything. His boar boys also march around that way, winding up with LOS to the farthest dryads, although several are quite close but too deep in the woods for LOS. He turns the NG in that corner to face said dryads. His general?s unit presses forward a bit, closer to the wood with my general in it, kind of following the course of the boar boys. The two chariots which were facing the open space between the wood and the pond, joined by the third chariot which was initially pointed into my left rear corner, all move 9? towards the pond and my L2. Lance initially thought that he could charge her in it, but I reminded him that chariots cannot enter any form of difficult terrain by choice. So instead he moved closer and shot at her! I had not realized that they each had four crew with shortbows! Thankfully between moving, long range, and single model he only got two hits from eight shots, both of which failed to wound. The third chariot wound up being closer to my general?s unit in the woods, and so had to shoot at them, to no effect as well. The surviving bolt thrower did much better from the few inches away from my glade riders? flank. Hit, wound, wound, wound, wound. All four dead. Once more in magic he rolled great for Mork Save Us, burning most of my dice, and got a big roll for Waaagh with the help of a mushroom, forcing me to burn my second scroll. He also got Foot of Gork off somewhere but I managed to dispel it. No combat.

My turn five. My hawks rally. My archers turn and move away from the big? unz and NG. My wardancers who just killed the BSB?s unit charge the bolt thrower to avenge the glade riders. The wild riders move across my DZ to try and help out the dryads on the far left. Those same dryads charge the boar boys in the front, getting maximum contact. My wardancers on the far side of the table charge the giant. My ten model dryads finally get into charge range of the big ?unz? flank. Skarloc and his boys again move 5? towards the big ?unz and shoot a few more. My waywatchers do the same. My L2 joins the general?s unit of archers. In magic we kill a chariot in front of my general?s unit and a few NG, I think. In shooting my archers and general with the Hail of Doom whack the two remaining chariots near the pond. Wardancers kill the giant and the bolt thrower crew. Dryads kill over half of the boar boyz, winning combat and auto-breaking them due to fear. We pursue, they go off the table, and we wind up within 8?-10? of the front of the general?s unit.

Lance?s five. His NG and chariot in my left corner couldn?t do anything. I think the chariot either was out of range for the charge on the Dryads or was angled wrong. They moved a bit towards the rear of the dryads. The general?s unit Squabbled! As did the big ?unz and NG in the center! Worst possible time for Lance. He once more threw two dice at Mork Save Us, got it on a big roll, and this time I had to let it go. He threw Foot of Gork on my general?s unit to try and draw dice but I didn?t bite. He only killed one or two. He then threw the big dice at Waaagh again. With mushroom (I think) and re-rolls he got something like a 16 or 18. I hate throwing four or more dice at a dispel. I always seem to roll two ones. This time I just said to hell with it and rolled all five dice, getting two sixes, I think, to dispel.

My six. My dryads on the left charged the general?s unit in the face. My dancers who just killed the giant combine with the ten dryads to make a big ?unz sandwich on both flanks. I position to hold quadrants. In magic I did a bunch of wounds to the NG block remaining in my DZ, panicking them and causing them to run off the board. My dryads only manage one wound on the L4 shaman, who for some reason I was also thinking was the general (no idea why), and a couple of dead savages. The general and remaining savages kick the crap out of my dryads and run them down. My dryads and dancers annihilate the big ?unz. I can?t even remember how many wounds they did. It was bad. I don?t think the NG block panicked, however.

Lance?s six. His general?s unit and chariot were all he had left, and even with Waaagh would not see combat. All he had left was Mork Save Us (which I dispelled) and try for a big foot of Gork on my general?s unit. If he could panic them the general and L2 would also be fleeing at the end of the game, a total swing of 656 points. Alas he only rolled two hits, and he conceded there. We had hit the end of the time allowance, and he needed to check out of his hotel room. We looked across the board quickly and decided that not only had I massacred him, but I had likely won by more than 1200pts as well. 24pt victory to me. I got a copy of his army list as well and added up the points over lunch to make sure I wasn?t cheating for that extra battle point. From memory I think I had in the high 1800s for points, and had lost only the glade riders and a unit of dryads.

So I got my first massacre, against a good guy and a good sport. I was now 1 massacre up and 1 massacre down against Warmongers. The scenario and his dice definitely hurt him in this one, though. I expect that if we get a rematch at some point it will be a much closer thing. My head and stomach were feeling a bit better, and I was happy that I had been able to focus on this game.


Lunch:

I ran over to the Indian place again to catch up with the other Legion guys and wolf down some food. No beer for me this time, however. Ice water was the order of the day, and plenty of Naan, rice, and chicken to soak up the stomach acid.

 

 

Round five (Pitched Battle)

 

In round five I was matched up with my third consecutive Warmonger. Rob Kopp (posts as robk) and his Dark Elves. He has a really great looking army, and took second place for Best Army. A list themed around speed, he had four units of Dark Riders, a Highborn on a dragon, a noble on a dark pegasus, a scroll caddy on a dark steed, a hydra, a small unit of shades, three cold one chariots, and a unit of seven cold one knights with full command. We played on one of the woods tables, and I was hurrying to start, having to haul some of my stuff that I hadn?t yet gotten moved from the room to the car. We were 3-4 units into deployment before I remembered we had to roll for spells, and I had to put my wood down. I started to put my wood in the middle and Rob expressed shock. He didn?t realize I got a free wood in Pitched Battle. Since he had already started deploying I felt like a bit of a jerk and didn?t want to waste time, so I asked if it was okay to put it on the far right flank, away from anything he had deployed. He said that was fine.  When we discussed army rules he also was surprised that almost my whole army had longbows, and no bows.  I had to explain my spells to him, but that?s not uncommon since few non-WE players seem to have read the army book yet.  Rob seemed to be a super nice guy.  Patient when I was rushing around at the beginning, and later he confirmed it by conceding the point easily when I had a question about the legality of something he did.

 

This table had one forest towards his right (My left- all directions from here from my perspective) corner at the forward edge of his zone, one in around the same area on my side, with a pond between them but a bit to the right.  One wood was just to the right of the table center, running from the front of my DZ almost to the middle of the table, and another on his side slightly to my right from the previous wood, but up against his table edge.  There was a hill in front and to the right of that last wood.  I put my free wood off to the right, just short of the center line, almost to the right edge of the board.

 

He deployed his scroll caddy behind the wood on the far left flank, accompanied by a unit of dark riders, the noble on pegasus, and the hydra- the hydra right up at the forward edge of his zone next to the wood.  His cold one knights were in the center front with the dragon right behind them.  The chariots were arrayed two to the left of the dragon and one to the right, not packed together but all kept within the general?s LD bubble.  Another dark riders unit was behind the dragon, one just next to the woods, and the last one was about evenly placed between the formation in the center and the group off behind the wood to the left.  His shades were just off in the far right corner.  He got Chill Wind for his spell and cast it only once during the game.

 

On my left side I had two units of dryads and ten archers in the wood.  Then to their right, on my side of the pond, the warhawks and eagle, with Skarloc?s archers behind them, and my smaller unit of wardancers to the right and forward of Skarloc?s archers.  My larger unit of wardancers and one unit of dryads were in/behind the big wood which ran up to the center, with my lord hanging out with them.  My wild riders, glade riders, and unit of 12 archers with standard were to the right of the wood, mostly out of LOS except for the shades. My waywatchers went in the wood just to the right of his dark riders and the bulk of his formation.  I was close enough to march block the unit of riders next to the wood. Skarloc went forward in the wood on my side, in front of where my lord was hanging out.  My L2 went over to the right by the expensive archer unit and the cavalry.  I had Treesinging and Hidden Path for my L2, and Marsh Mistress, Thorn Father, Howler Wind and Stone Master for my lord.  Two games on the stony tables without Stone Master yesterday, and now no wood master on the woods.  Sigh. 

 

Rob won the roll and elected to go first.  His hydra headed straight for my archers/dryads.  His dark riders on that side also moved forward to shoot.  His flying noble moved forward and against the table edge, facing inwards to my right.  His caddy stayed back.  His cold one knights moved up the center at full speed, with the forest to their left (my right) and the pond on their right (my left).  The dragon lord flew up to the edge of the pond, angled to face the units on my center-right, such as my lord, but still out of charge range except for the smaller wardancers and Skarloc?s archers. His middle-left dark riders and chariots headed forward, with the right end chariot faced towards the gap between the small hill and the middle wood, where my cavalry would be most likely to emerge.  His two units of dark riders near the wood with my waywatchers turned to face the wood, the closer unit a few inches away, and the farther unit about a foot away.  His shades moved up 10? towards my cavalry to get closer to shooting range, but still far off to the right.  After moving his rightmost chariots forward, he measured the distance from the hill to his chariots, and shimmied the rightmost sideways to be outside 12?.  I expressed some disbelief.  I have never before seen anyone try to premeasure distance to a terrain feature to make sure they are safe from a spell.  He apologized and moved the rightmost chariot back within a foot, which was its original path before he thought better of it and pulled the premeasuring business.  His shooting did nothing.

 

On the left I moved my dryads up, one unit to each side of the wood, but out of hydra charge range.  My archers wheeled forward to get within 2? of the left forward edge of their wood so they could see the dark riders and hydra, but were still more than 12? away.   I flew my warhawks over to the left into hydra reach to bait him and shoot at the dark riders.  The warhawks would also be in good position to leapfrog both those units and go after the mage if he ignored them.  My eagle faded back and left, out of the dragon?s LOS.  Skarloc?s archers shimmied backwards.  If the dragon wanted them he?d be committed to facing my table edge and nothing else or going off it.  My wardancers who were also within reach faded back 10? diagonally away from the dragon, well out of charge range.  My lord tucked around the back of the wood but not all the way to the opposite side.  Skarloc moved up to the forward edge of the middle wood, ready to take a pot shot at the dark riders or cold one knights.  The chariots were the only things facing him. My dryads and wardancers in that wood moved up behind him.  My wild riders and archers on the right flank started forward towards the chariots.  My glade riders moved up to get LOS on the dark riders and get closer to the shades.  My L2 started to move behind them and Rob very nicely volunteered that the shades would be able to target her, as the glade riders are not of a similar base size.  With her remaining movement, she tucks in to the side of the glade riders instead, out of LOS of the shades.  My waywatchers went ahead and moved up to the edge of the wood facing off with the two units of dark riders.  In magic I put a couple of wounds on the rightmost chariot using stone master.  I also sang the middle wood a bit to adjust its position.  In shooting my glade riders and waywatchers killed four of the five dark riders directly in front of the ?watchers (but they did not run), Skarloc?s archers put a wound on the dragon and almost hurt the lord (he passed two saves), and my left side archers and warhawks did no appreciable damage to the far left dark riders.  My rightmost archers did nothing much to the rightmost chariot. 

 

Rob?s turn two.  His dragon flew straight for my lord.  His hydra charged my hawks, which fled, leaving him in easy reach of the two dryad units.  His noble on pegasus charged my farther dryad unit- the one to the right of my leftmost archers.  His two units of dark riders charged my waywatchers.  I elected to stand and shoot at the full strength unit a foot away.  Rob stated that I could not because the single dark rider was within half distance.  I agreed that I could not shoot him, but asked why I could not shoot the unit, which was over half distance away.  Rob said that I could not stand and shoot if any of the charging units were within half.  I went ahead and broke out the rulebook and we went over the relevant rules.  It seemed very clear to me that I could stand and shoot if the unit I was shooting at was sufficiently far away.  I asked Rob if he had a FAQ or something which stated differently.  He said he did not, and I shot the larger unit of dark riders, killing four and panicking the survivor, who would be unable to rally.  The lone dark rider charged the waywatchers, only contacting two models, so the other four lined up behind.  The left side dark riders considered charging my leftmost dryads- Rob asks- ?They?re WS 4, right??  I affirm that is the case, and he seems to be considering it.  I am practically salivating at the idea that he will charge me, but volunteer ?WS4, I6?.  He says ?I6? To heck with that!? and doesn?t charge.  I mentally kick myself.  He just adjusts a bit to shoot at my archers in the wood again.  The chariot on the left rumbles forward a bit, moving to come around the pond.  The two on the right guard the rear of the knights and the approach around the central wood.  The dragon lord breathes fire on my lord, dealing a wound.  He then shoots her with Lifetaker, fortunately missing once and failing to wound with the second shot, despite the re-roll.  Yowch!  That?s a problem.  His shades shoot at my glade riders, killing one.  My waywatchers lose two guys but pass their break test.  The noble rolls like crap with his magic sword on my Dryads, they deal a wound or two back to his pegasus and auto-break him with Fear.  He runs only a few inches and they run him down, moving easily into the Hydra?s flank.  Rob realizes around the end of the combat phase that he forgot to move the cold one knights, but recognizes that we?ve moved on two phases and doesn?t ask to go back.  They?re still covering the center pretty well. 

 

My two.  My smaller unit of wardancers charges the dragon lord in his right flank (today I remembered that the dragon should have turned to face me and been left facing my table edge.  Rob didn?t say anything and let me have the flank bonus, leaving his dragon facing my rightmost archer unit).  My hawks rally.  My glade riders go after the shades, getting into charge range.  My lord legs it and jumps into the large archer unit. In retrospect this was a big mistake and she should have just hidden in the center of the wood.  I just didn?t want her getting shot on her own.  My initial plan was to move the archer unit out of LOS around the wood, but somehow I failed to follow through.  My eagle moves up into the face of the cold one knights, angled to force them to align facing to my left and the pond if they charge him.  My larger wardancer unit and my dryads come out of the woods, in the dragon?s left flank out of his charge arc (should have been his rear, in retrospect).  My wild riders move up a bit more, getting a good position for a charge on the leading chariot, trying to get someplace where with a failed charge they would not be exposed to a charge from the other chariot. 

 

My dryads charge the front and flank of the hydra, and here we had another rules discussion.   Rob advises me that the hydra and handlers will form up to face whatever unit charges first, like skirmishers.  This makes sense, and matches what I remember about monsters, so I charge with the far left dryads first, forcing the hydra to present its nice long 100mm flank even more cleanly to the other unit of dryads when they come in.  Rob forms up with the handlers on either side of the hydra, and I line up my second unit of dryads in a neat row starting at the end where they are blocked by the unit of dryads in the front, and continuing for a total of five models in the flank- as many as could contact the hydra?s base length, but 20mm out, lined up in contact with the handler.  Rob tells me that because the hydra and handlers count as a unit of skirmishers, I can only, in fact, contact one handler.  I will have to line up my eight dryads in a long column, since only one can actually contact the handler.  At this point I have lost patience (my bad) and state that this seems to make no sense.  I advise that the hydra and handlers seem to be a monster with extra models, not a unit of skirmishers, and that there seems to be a rule on place for dealing with incomplete ranks- just like fighting the rear of a unit with incomplete ranks, you just line up the models and project the bases forward as if the rank (or in this case the file) were complete.  I ask him if the rules for the hydra actually say the way he is presenting it is how you do it.  He says no.  I ask if he has a FAQ saying to do it that way.  He says no.  I advise him that I am less than psyched about his suggestion on how to play it, and reiterate that the system for incomplete ranks/files seems consistent and logical.  He cedes the point and lets me do it.  Here, in retrospect once more, I feel like I was probably in the wrong.  I should have asked him to let me see the rules entry for the hydra, seen if it actually said Skirmishers, and tried to figure it out from the text.  I should have had more patience and more faith, but I?m afraid that after our previous small rules issues that I was not inclined to take Rob?s word for it.  I feel like kind a jerk about that, and I want to apologize to him.  I should have done it right, looked at the books, and asked a judge if it was not clear.  I feel like I pressured him a little and he ceded because he was a nice guy.

 

In magic I do very little, but in shooting I knock the cold one knights down to three models.  Rob carefully removes models in such a way that the majority of the unit is now in the FLANK of the eagle instead of the front, and will be able to pursue or overrun towards and possibly into my noble in the woods.  And of course the knights do not panic.  Argh.  My glade riders kill a shade or two, but no panic there either. In combat my dryads hammer the hydra, break him and run him down.  One unit pursues near the dark riders, the other restrains to threaten a wider area in case his dark riders try and end run at my archers in the wood.  My waywatchers and his dark rider whiff, but he holds.  My wardancers a normal wound through and get a killing blow on the dragon lord!  But he rolls the 5+ ward.  Damn ward saves.  My bane all weekend.   He only kills a couple of dancers in return and they hold, needing a 6. 

 

Rob?s turn three.  His knights charge the flank of my eagle, which holds.  His dark riders on the left flank try a desperate charge at the closer dryads.  They pass their Fear test and charge.  His leftmost chariot rumbles towards them to support.  His two chariots on the right both go stupid!  They move 3.5? towards my wild riders, who lick their chops as the wounded chariot comes ever closer like bleeding prey.  His shades don?t do anything significant to my glade riders.  Did they actually shoot at my wild riders?  I can?t recall.  The dragon and lord beat down my wardancers.  The knights do two wounds and break my eagle, which flies 13? over the wood and the cold one knights do indeed pursue into Skarloc.  Damn.  My waywatchers finally kill the lone dark rider.  The poor dark riders which charged my dryads on the far left die badly, my dryads overrunning/pursuing towards the mage who is still sitting on her dark steed on the back corner.

 

My three.  My dryads in the middle charge the dragon lord in his other flank.  My bigger unit of wardancers charges the cold one knights in the flank, and they pass their panic.  My wild riders charge the wounded stupid chariot in the front, which is incidentally not far away from the CoK/dancers/Skarloc fight.  My glade riders charge the shades, losing one model to stand and shoot but passing their panic test.  My general and her unit of archers shuffle sideways toward my free wood in the far corner, she adjusting to be in the far end.  I had put her in a bad spot and was somewhat compounding my error.  I just didn?t want to expose her to the dragon lord?s shooting once he got free, but she was still not far from her and her unit being charged.  I should have just moved them 10? forward and around the opposite side of the wood from the dragon.  But I did not, possibly worried that the CoKs might win and pursue Skarloc out that end of the wood.  My L2 sprinted forward onto the hill, now no longer threatened by the shades.  The two archer units in the center and left move forward to have the chariot on the left in short range. My dryads and warhawks on the far left flank start working their way around the left side of the forest after the mage, giving a wide berth to the chariot which is getting close to charge range.  My waywatchers run out of their woods (on his table edge, if you?ll recall) toward the left as well, ready to head off and shoot the mage if she makes a run in their direction.  In magic and shooting I destroy the leftmost chariot and I think the center one as well.  I should have put up the damn Howler Wind a long time ago, but I had some sort of brain cramp about his dragon lord, expecting that eventually I?d be able to get the wounds through and kill him.  In combat my wild riders crush the wounded chariot, the glade riders kill the shades, the CoKs do only one wound to Skarloc, and the dancers wipe them out.  My dryads try valiantly to put the wounds on the dragon rider, but his save is now something like a 1+ or 0+ thanks to the blood armor, and backed up by a 5+ ward he?s just too tough.  My dryads get chewed up, break, and he restrains.  His sights are set on my general?s unit, which I have stupidly offered him.

 

Rob?s four.  The Dragon charges the archer unit with my general.  Flee!  I roll 7? and move the unit.  Then We measure his charge.  He is in range by an inch or so.  I needed to roll an 8 or 9.  I lose the archer unit with the standard and my general.  Argh.  At this point basically all Rob has are the dragon lord and his mage in the corner, however, so things are still looking very good for me if I don?t make any more bonehead errors.  The mage on the dark steed moves around the opposite side of her wood from the dryads and warhawks coming to get her.  She casts Chill Wind and gets IF on my waywatchers, killing two, leaving them under half and unable to shoot.  Damn. 

 

My four.  My broken unit of dryads rallies. I move my wardancers across/around the wood in the middle, close to the hill, to threaten the dragon if he comes back.  I want that lord dead.  I want the Killing Blow.  I haven?t killed anyone?s general all weekend and am missing those battle points.  My glade riders, L2 mage, and waywatchers hide in the wood on his table edge, near the hill.  But the L2 can only barely make it in, and is still visible, albeit behind the hill.  I move the archers in the middle a little to have good firing lines if the dragon comes over the wood towards them.  I move my dryads into and around the wood the mage is hiding behind, and the warhawks over it, mostly surrounding her.  My eagle just heads for the far table edge, preserving his 25 points.  My noble hides as well.  I shoot the mage and do a wound.

Rob?s five.  His dragon flies over onto the hill, with his flank to my dancers, and breathes fire on my mage.  Combined with Lifetaker, she takes two wounds and dies.  Damn.  His mage runs out of the semicircle of death, but can only go 9? and is still easily in reach of the hawks.

 

My five.  The hawks charge the mage, who flees and is caught.  My dancers charge the dragon lord and again try for the killing blow.  For some reason unbeknownst to man I move my three surviving Wild Riders behind the dancers, into position to charge if they go away.  Am I just a glutton for punishment?  Was I trying to make the game more fun for Rob by feeding units to his dragon like candy?  I don?t think so.  I think it was just the end of a long weekend and my brain was shutting down.  Everything else pretty much hides and gets ready to grab table quarters.  I whiff the KB on the General, and he kills the dancers to the man, overrunning into the front of my wild riders. 

 

Rob?s six.  He kicks the crap out of my wild riders, gaining the bonus point for most expensive unit, and racking up another 273vps with their standard.

 

My six.  I grab quadrants, and take two last Lethal Shots at the lord with my surviving waywartchers, which hit the dragon and fail to wound. 

 

We total up the points, and with my mages, the archers, and the combat units I fed him, the dragonlord has prevented the massacre all on his lonesome.  At the time I blamed a 5+ ward save on turn two, but now I realize that I just should have played better.  I thanked Rob for a genuinely fun game and gave my hopes that it was still enjoyable him.  He indicated that it was- he definitely seemed to enjoy watching that damn dragonrider take everything I could dish out and eat it like pizza. 

 

 

Aftermath:

 

After the game I got packed up, moved stuff to my car, and shot the breeze with people for a bit.  I talked briefly with Mauleed, who had also gone 4/1, and Bored1, from dakkadakka.com, who had done pretty well with his Slaaneshi mortals list.  I also met Scadgrad, from TWF and the Battle Glade.  When I told him I brought the WE he at first asked if I had another all-tree list.  When I told him I didn?t even bring a Treeman he was stunned.  Alas, my opponents, not being particularly familiar with WE, apparently had very little basis for comparison, and thus my comp scores were not what I might have hoped.  Despite their sudden popularity in tournaments, it seems very clear that most players out there are still pretty ignorant about what the army has and does, and used to have and do. 

 

We stuck around for closing ceremonies and awards presentation, but the math too a bit too long.  I hate to miss the awards presentation because the event will feel unfinished, so we stuck around.  We really should have left at 4:00pm but didn't get out until 5:00, just before the table raffle drawing. 

 

Our flight was at 7:45 and we got to the airport right around 7:00.  We were hurrying so couldn't stop at Five Guys for the awesome burgers we had on the way down.  At the airport, the electronic self check-in machines which were so nice on the way down gave us a very unwelcome "flight not available for check-in" message.  We thought we had a half hour deadline for check-in, and so we got in line behind about 50 other people and I called the United number given by the machine.  The girl there had no clue why the machine wouldn't let us check in, but did helpfully confirm that the flight was fine and on time, and that we could check in online or at the counter.  With no internet in my back pocket and 50 people ahead of me in line, it became abundantly clear that we would miss our flight.  Which we did. 

 

The lady at the counter explained that there was a 45min deadline and we must have just missed it.  She put us on standbv for the last flight to Boston (9:36pm) and rebooked us for certain on an 8am flight.  If we couldn't get on the 9:36 she said our best bet would be to stay overnight in the terminal (they would give us blankets and pillows) so we wouldn't have to return at 5:30 in the morning and go through security again.  We were not pleased.

 

So we go through security and lo and behold, are all selected for extra screening. 

 

On the good news side, however, at least three or four of the security guys knew what Warhammer was or played themselves.  The guy behind one of the x-ray machines was looking at Zombie's army in the machine and asked "That's a Stegadon, isn't it?".    I was checked out by a big friendly dude with dreadlocks originally from Chicago who told me a bit about his Tau army and his brother's 10,000pts of Chaos.  He admired my wooden spell cards and I plugged Gale Force Nine to him, and he said he'd check them out online. 

 

Overall we were a bit cheered up by the process.  As we rode the shuttle to terminal C I commented to the other guys that I never thought being selected for extra screening would be the highlight of my airport experience.

 

When we got to the gate we were told that there were 13 people on the standby list, and there were no guarantees about order, as the list is adjusted based on your Mileage Plus status (none of us are members) and the price you paid for your ticket.  I bought my ticket separately and after the other guys, so I think mine was a little more expensive.  They called my name first, and when I went up the guy at the counter told me I was on, but that the flight was officially full and it didn't look very good for my friends.  He said they could definitely wait and see if there were no-shows. 

 

I wished the guys luck and thanked them for inviting me along, and got on the place.  Seated in the very back row, and literally praying that the guys would get on the flight too, I finally saw two of them let on and seated shortly before takeoff.  When I got off the plane there were all three.  We had all made it on. 

 

We were out after the commuter rail was done, so when my wife picked me up we dropped Silas7 off at his place in Cambridge, and headed home.

 

That is the story of my GT adventure.

 

-----------------

 

< 0pt[ LETTER-SPACING: Verdana; FONT-FAMILY: 13.5pt; FONT-SIZE:>Mucho props and thanks to Matt York and the GF9 crew.  It was a great event.  While I think there could be some refinements made to the scenarios and event rules, their service and work ethic for making this thing fun were top-notch.  I had barely met Matt before this event, but when I talked to him he made me feel like he was genuinely glad that I personally was there and having a good time, and when I had a question or complaint he always had time and attention to spare.  Those are no small things, and he deserves all the credit in the world for how this event has grown and flourished.


Adepticon 2015: Team Tourney Best Imperial Team- Team Ironguts, Adepticon 2014: Team Tourney 6th/120, Best Imperial Team- Cold Steel Mercs 2, 40k Championship Qualifier ~25/226
More 2010-2014 GT/Major RTT Record (W/L/D) -- CSM: 78-20-9 // SW: 8-1-2 (Golden Ticket with SW), BA: 29-9-4 6th Ed GT & RTT Record (W/L/D) -- CSM: 36-12-2 // BA: 11-4-1 // SW: 1-1-1
DT:70S++++G(FAQ)M++B++I+Pw40k99#+D+++A+++/sWD105R+++T(T)DM+++++
A better way to score Sportsmanship in tournaments
The 40K Rulebook & Codex FAQs. You should have these bookmarked if you play this game.
The Dakka Dakka Forum Rules You agreed to abide by these when you signed up.

Maelstrom's Edge! 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut






First and foremost, if there was a 5 guys burger joint near me, I'd weigh 500 pounds. That place is awesome! And they let you throw peanut shells on the floor!!!!!

I also played Steve McNamara. He was a great opponent, but it was the detachments mission which had him coming in behind me, then me behind that. When your Slaan is fleeing on turn 3, you know you're going to have a bad day.

I showed back up at the hall at around 10pm (after a lovely Sushi dinner) Saturday to take over night watchman duties from York. I must have just missed you. Make sure next time we're at a tourament we exchange cell numbers so we get a game in. We ended up playing until around 1pm. Well I didn't play. I just watched everyone else play until I was too drunk to watch. Then I locked the hall (I think...)

And you've got wooden GF9 spell cards too? How did you get those suckers? ( I had to know a guy...)


"I've still got a job, so the rules must be good enough" - Design team motto.  
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




South Shore, MA

Great report! Glad you got to head down with the LL guys. I'm definately going to plan on attending next year, sounds like the event was alot of fun.

Good to see you represented well with a 4-1 record too, very nice. Hopefully I'll see you at another tourny in Waltham not too long from now.
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User




Howdy, it's Dave of game 3 and Bauhaus the Bloodthirster fame.

Very nice report and a very good game indeed.  Congratulations on your victories!

First off, I'm well known for my ability to roll 50% of my ward saves.  It's due to my rigid worship of the Bloodgod! 

I don't think I can remember the order of play as well as you already have.  I can clear up a few things though:

First, your die rolling really did cost you dearly.  Who wouldn't assume that a lone character in the woods that only needs a 3 or more to escape a charge would roll snake eyes?  Who wouldn't assume that your wild riders, some of the best cavalry in the game, wouldn't dispatch a unit of flesh hounds on the charge?  Bad luck is the only explanation. 

The loss of the general though, was just a simple error on your part that I was able to exploit. 

The situation in that piece of terrain was that most of the wardancers were in the terrain except a couple were hanging out the back in the open.  Your unit was spread out at roughly a 45 degree angle to my Crushers.  I think because I had reformed to face the unit of dryads behind me (at the same tiime I moved the herald out to the unit) you might have forgotten that the dryads were shielding your skirmishers from view.  Anyway, you moved the dryads out of charge arc of my bloodcrushers and left your wardancers exposed (but not realizing it I think). 

What happened next was that I could draw line of sight to a wardancer outside the terrain piece.  Because it was close, I left it to Frenzy.  With Frenzy I got to measure to see if I had to charge (of course I wanted to). 

Again, bad luck would have that the closest wardancer to the Bloodcrushers, was only around 3" straight in front of my unit in the difficult terrain.  I couldn't see it, but only had to move strait forward to make contact.  I only had to move/charge around 7" straight forward to connect with this model.  The rest of your unit had to then form up to the Bloodcrushers. 

It was bad luck for sure but we did measure correctly.  The unit of Bloodcrushers carrying the Grail was limited to an 8" move.  (In fact, I think once they picked up the grail, they didn't move more than a few inches from the middle of the board - you kept surrounding them with those dryads of yours!)

Besides our game you did very well against the Warmongers.  Rob and Lance are both better players than I.  While you had never lost before to a BT, I rarely lose against elves of any type (except for fellow Warmonger Andy Small!)  Your toughness against my strength being their downfall. 

 

   
Made in us
[DCM]
Tilter at Windmills






Manchester, NH

Thanks Dave. For some reason I was thinking that they were 2" or so outside the terrain, and that the closest dancer was more like 4" deep into the terrain. But obviously my memory of the game is pretty shakey.

It was a great game, and you were a very pleasant opponent. I hope we can meet at another tourney. I'd love to challenge you to a rematch!

Adepticon 2015: Team Tourney Best Imperial Team- Team Ironguts, Adepticon 2014: Team Tourney 6th/120, Best Imperial Team- Cold Steel Mercs 2, 40k Championship Qualifier ~25/226
More 2010-2014 GT/Major RTT Record (W/L/D) -- CSM: 78-20-9 // SW: 8-1-2 (Golden Ticket with SW), BA: 29-9-4 6th Ed GT & RTT Record (W/L/D) -- CSM: 36-12-2 // BA: 11-4-1 // SW: 1-1-1
DT:70S++++G(FAQ)M++B++I+Pw40k99#+D+++A+++/sWD105R+++T(T)DM+++++
A better way to score Sportsmanship in tournaments
The 40K Rulebook & Codex FAQs. You should have these bookmarked if you play this game.
The Dakka Dakka Forum Rules You agreed to abide by these when you signed up.

Maelstrom's Edge! 
   
Made in us
Omnipotent Lord of Change





Albany, NY

Thanks for the great report Mannahnin.  Pity I didn't recognize any dakka folks when I was there for about 3 hours on Saturday - I was the tall guy in boots, cut-off camo, Godzilla shirt and blue jacket with all the patches and 1 spiky shoulder , stalking about and spectating. 

I only have about 1k of my ogres painted, so I wasn't able to compete, but it was awesome to see so many fantastic armies and just feel the excitement in the air!  I got to watch one game, the grail scenario between one of the forest spirit hordes - waywatcher lord, 2 mages, wardancer unit, 2 treemen and loads of dryads - and one of the nurgle daemon legions - GUO, herald, 2 pbearer blocks, 2x 3 priders, 2x 4 nurglings.  The game was fast, and came down to the WE player throwing everything against the daemons with almost no effect.  The nurgle player, who works for GW's accounting department!, was letting him reroll most all of his combat toward the end, but his dice were still amazingly bad ...

I picked up some GF9 aids on my way out, and managed to be late meeting the girlfriend for dinner, but was generally really psyched about painting more and attending my own tournie at some point.  Even if I didn't play, my thanks to GF9 and all for putting on such a great event!

- Boss Salvage


KOW BATREPS: BLOODFIRE
INSTAGRAM: @boss_salvage 
   
Made in us
Confident Marauder Chieftain





Insane report Manny, sounds like you had a blast.

I think you've got Round 5 in your report twice, the second one being the full text (the first one cuts off about two paragraphs shy of the end) - danged cut & paste...

Dremel off some of that rust and get back out there man, this is one of the most comprehensive tournament reports I've read in awhile!

Kev

   
Made in us
[DCM]
Tilter at Windmills






Manchester, NH

Thanks Kevin. Edited.

Boss Salvage, unfortunately I wore my "Dakka Dakka - Mannahnin" shirt Friday night, and my Conflict 2004 shirt on Saturday. I should have done it the other way round.

Adepticon 2015: Team Tourney Best Imperial Team- Team Ironguts, Adepticon 2014: Team Tourney 6th/120, Best Imperial Team- Cold Steel Mercs 2, 40k Championship Qualifier ~25/226
More 2010-2014 GT/Major RTT Record (W/L/D) -- CSM: 78-20-9 // SW: 8-1-2 (Golden Ticket with SW), BA: 29-9-4 6th Ed GT & RTT Record (W/L/D) -- CSM: 36-12-2 // BA: 11-4-1 // SW: 1-1-1
DT:70S++++G(FAQ)M++B++I+Pw40k99#+D+++A+++/sWD105R+++T(T)DM+++++
A better way to score Sportsmanship in tournaments
The 40K Rulebook & Codex FAQs. You should have these bookmarked if you play this game.
The Dakka Dakka Forum Rules You agreed to abide by these when you signed up.

Maelstrom's Edge! 
   
Made in us
[DCM]
Tilter at Windmills






Manchester, NH

Ed- Sushi!?! Where?! That would have been awesome. My friend who had the rough day Saturday is a big sushi fan, and that would have helped a lot. Damn missed opportunities. We so should have swapped cell #s. I think the Colonial should be held close-by next year purely so I can hit Five Guys again and not miss the sushi next time. Food is clearly the most important factor.

My spell cards (Heavens with comet counter, Life, and I think I have Metal somewhere) were bought and resold with permission by Russ and Dakka Dakka the store when they were originally sold back in 2001 or 2002. Obviously the rules on my Life and Heavens cards are now out of date, but they still serve the main functions.

Adepticon 2015: Team Tourney Best Imperial Team- Team Ironguts, Adepticon 2014: Team Tourney 6th/120, Best Imperial Team- Cold Steel Mercs 2, 40k Championship Qualifier ~25/226
More 2010-2014 GT/Major RTT Record (W/L/D) -- CSM: 78-20-9 // SW: 8-1-2 (Golden Ticket with SW), BA: 29-9-4 6th Ed GT & RTT Record (W/L/D) -- CSM: 36-12-2 // BA: 11-4-1 // SW: 1-1-1
DT:70S++++G(FAQ)M++B++I+Pw40k99#+D+++A+++/sWD105R+++T(T)DM+++++
A better way to score Sportsmanship in tournaments
The 40K Rulebook & Codex FAQs. You should have these bookmarked if you play this game.
The Dakka Dakka Forum Rules You agreed to abide by these when you signed up.

Maelstrom's Edge! 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





First and foremost, if there was a 5 guys burger joint near me, I'd weigh 500 pounds. That place is awesome! And they let you throw peanut shells on the floor!!!!!

OT - Five Guys has announced plans to expand to 100(!) restaurants in the DC area, which seems a little insane. But maybe they'll start crawling up the eastern seaboard...

I am 50 Jesus bears. 
   
 
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