A few weeks ago, I played in a tournament called Clash of Swords in Cardiff. It's an event that's been going quite a few years and was run by Mo who is the fellow behind MoComp. It's an fantastic event with lots of drinking, dressing up and hanging out with your mates all weekend. The event used the Generals Handbook for working out lists as Mo has retired MoComp, but all games had scenarios that Mo had come up with. The only difference from the Generals Handbook was that you could ignore the Battleline restrictions but that didn't bother me.
My list for all my games was...
Leaders
Frostlord on Stonehorn (460) - General with Battlebrew and Ravager Command Trait
Frostlord on Stonehorn (460)
Huskard on Thundertusk (340) - with Blood Vulture
Units
Ogors x 6 (240) - with Crusher, Bellower & Icon Bearer with Tribal Banner
Ogors x 6 (240) - with Crusher, Bellower & Icon Bearer with Tribal Banner
Ogors x 6 (240) - with Crusher, Bellower & Icon Bearer with Tribal Banner
FRIDAY
I had Friday off with the intention of spending a bit of time with my family in the morning and then setting off midday to hopefully get a game in and then enjoy the nightlife of Cardiff city centre. The reality was lots of rushing around doing Dad and Husband stuff and I didn't set off until 15.30! I managed to get to Firestorm games for around 18.00, which was a relief after taking a wrong turn and ending up on an industrial estate which looked very "unsafe" (there are other terms I would use, but I want to stay sort of family friendly!).
The venue is fantastic and is well worth going to if you have chance to. Loads of tables with great terrain, and it ticks all boxes (clean, has food and beer, and lots and lots of toys!). I quickly popped out to check into my hotel (do not book the Travelodge in Cardiff Central if you want to sleep) and then went back to the venue to play a game against Helen and her High Elves. We've know each other for years but not played a game as Helen has just gotten into
AOS and I've not had much time to play many games this year, so this was very much to a refresher for both of us!
Game 0 - Helen with Order
Helen took an Order Allegiance force composed of High Elves - Teclis, Alarielle, 2 Flamespire Phoenix, 30 Shadow Warriors, and 15 Silver Helms. I think we played the Clash scenario with an objective in each quarter.
This was a fairly quick game, partially down to the brutal nature of my army and also down to Helen's inexperience. Turn one was me killing Teclis with the Thundertusk's snowball attack and got my General into the Silver Helms, which pushed Helen onto the backfoot. She then tried to retaliate, but the monsters just smashed everything up and at end of turn three, Helen conceded so we could go drinking.
Friday ended with me meeting up with some of the people at the event and enjoying a few drinks in Cardiff.
SATURDAY
Game 1 - Jon with Death
Jon had an Death Allegiance mostly composed of Flesh Eater Courts - 2 Varghulf Courtiers, Crypt Haunter Courtier, Ghoul King (Jon couldn't decide between the King or Necromancer so rolled off and the King won), 2 x 9 Crypt Horrors, 30 Crypt Ghouls, 3 Fell Bats, 2 x Dire Wolves and Attendants at Court Battalion. We played the scenario with three objectives running across the middle of the board where the left or right one disappears around turn four.
I'll be honest, I was worried about this game. Jon is a good player and this is quite a nasty list. Then my Frostlords killed stuff and basically killed most of Jon's army (it seriously was insane how quickly my general went through the Crypt Horrors). Jon was able to get some of the secondarys but the game ended with a 16-4 win to me. We both agreed, what really won the game for me was failing a charge with the other Frostlord against his other unit of Crypt horrors, as this allowed Jon to move them away and freed up the Frostlord to go off on a rampage.
Game 2 - Ben with Death
Another Death army but not just any Death army or player. I got to play the other Ben (he used to be on Bad Dice) with his rather scary army. It was Abhorrant Ghoul King on Terrorgheist (General, Ruler of the Night, Cloak of Mists and Shadows), Abhorrant Ghoul King on Terrorgheist, Abhorrant Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon (Cloak of Mists and Shadows), Abhorrant Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon, Terrorgheist, and Royal Menagerie Battalion.
Ben is a fantastic guy to chat to and play against and he is a fantastic painter. But this army is just plain horrible!
Due to the Battalion and the Cloaks, this army gets first turn most of the time and is in your face turn one. Then it rips your face off and laps up your blood and tears. This is pretty much what happened and by Turn two I had no army left. I think we were both surprised as we were expecting the Frostlords to put up a fight but I kept on rolling ones and twos. Because Ben has an army of monsters, he couldn't get any of the primary objectives so I was able to get some points and the result was 12-8 to Ben (I think!).
This was a fun game and I would be interested in comparing how other player may have handled this. I was chatting with Joe later on and he suggested castling up in a corner, using the Ogors as buffers so the Thundertusk and Frostlords kills something. I was sceptical of this as I just saw it as delaying things by a turn.
Game three - Declan and Destruction
I was looking forwards to this game for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it wasn't a Death army and secondly, it gave me chance to see up and close how the Moonclan work as I'm interested in an army of them. Declan's army was - 2 Moonclan Grot Warbosses, 3 Moonclan Grot Shamans, 120 Moonclan Grots, 8 Grot Fanatics, 20 Cave Squigs, 8 Grot Squig Herders, 2 Grot Spear Chukkas, Orruk Boar Chariot, and Great Moonclan Battallion.
Thats a lot of stuff! Scenario here was an objective six objectives on the board, with one in each foot square area (I think!). I knew Declan's army was quite squishy but I was scared of the big Moonclan units and all the crazy beefed up stuff the army can do. This game went in a simlar vein as game one against Jon, where the Frostlords just killed stuff. It didn't help that Declan had horrible luck and couldn't make average rolls for his attacks. It was looking like it would be a 16-4 to me but I got greedy and wanted to kill a Moonclan unit just to make sure which resulted in my General tripping over a log and impaling himself on his Frostspear (I rolled a one in a Deadly wood). This swung the game around and allowed Declan to grab another couple of objectives to get a 18-2 win!
That was the end of the first day, and a few of us went out for food and then I was quite good and got lots of brownie points by having an early night and facetiming my wife and son!
SUNDAY
Game Four - Ben Diesel and Death
I knew I was either going to have a good game or be grumpy in game four. Ben has a reputation for overdoing his drinking which can result in him missing games. I was hoping he would turn up as I knew this would be fun if he did. And he did! He had the following - Vampire Lord on zombie dragon, 30 zombies, 10 blood Knights, 12 spirt hosts and Mournghoul.
This game can be summed up by me being far too aggressive and getting sending the Frostlords off to kill stuff. I was able to kill the Mournghoul and nearly destroy a Blood Knight unit but this ended up with them being eventually killed and then Ben's army was able to kill everything to beat me 19-1. He was able to do his trademarked Diesel dice rolls but even without that magic power, he would have beat me due to me being aggressive.
Game Five - Richard with Chaos
Last game of the event and I was in chill out mode. I was hoping for some fun down on the bottom tables and faced Richard with his Chaos. Richard was local to Firestorm and had the following - Archaon, Valkia, Chaos Sorcerer, Blood Secrator, Mounted lord of Slaanesh, 3 Varanguard, 3 Bloodcrushers, 10 Bloodletters, and 5 Blood Warriors. I knew if I could take Archaon out I would win this game but also would have fun trying to kill the big bad guy of
AOS. The scenario was to place objectives and I was a bit too aggressive with my placement and battleplan (again). The plan was to kill Archaon with the Frostlords and Thundertusk and use the Ogres to take objectives (one unit to sit back while the others rush forwards). So I rushed forwards, caused lots of damage to Archaon, killed Valkia and nearly all the Varanguard but due to the combo magic Richards army can do, I nearly got tabled. This was a fun game and nice to experience how this army works. The result was 18-2 to Richard.
END
So we got all packed up and waited for the awards and clapped away, but during the names being called off, my name was mentioned! I was in complete shock to find out I had got 2nd place for Best Sportsman! I'm really pleased with this as I see this as a really difficult thing to get when you are play games against your mates and a load of really nice people! Especially when I rolled the dreaded Stonehorn list!
I just want to thank everybody I played and everybody who voted for me. I had a great time, especially as I've not played Warhammer at an event for ages!
FUTURE
I'm not going to add any more to the army as I want to do something new, but one build I'm itching to try out is the following -
Leaders
Frostlord on Stonehorn - General with Bellowing Tyrant
Frostlord on Stonehorn - with Battlebrew
Huskard on Thundertusk - with Blood Vulture
Units
Ogors x 9 - with Crusher, Bellower & Icon Bearer with Tribal Banner
Ogors x 6 - with Crusher, Bellower & Icon Bearer with Tribal Banner
Ogors x 3 - with Crusher, Bellower & Icon Bearer with Tribal Banner
It's the same but means I have another unit for fighting with (the big unit of 9 Ogors), as I have found that they can fight and are quite tanky. Backed up with the General, they can either be buffed up or the General can buff himself and then go and double team with the other Frostlord. The unit of 9 Ogors can also protect the Thundertusk or go off on it's own and beat stuff up.
