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Poor Facekikaa Fon Karsteen. For months now, he and his army have sat upon my shelf while I busied myself with school, 40k, and WarMachine. Last week, I heard that there was going to be a RTT at one of the best local shops in the city, and I got invited to participate. Sounded like fun, so I dusted off the old choppy boyz and headed on down.

The list I went with was:

Vampire Lord (441)
Level 3
Great Weapon
Summon Wolves
Black Periapt
Dispel Scroll
Aura of Dark Majesty
Earthbind

Vampire Thrall (166)
BSB
Heavy Armor
Summon Wolves
Sword of Might
Barded Nightmare

Vampire Thrall (135)
Heavy Armor
Great Weapon
Shield
Wolf Form
Summon Wolves

19 Zombie Levy (167)
Standard and Musician

3 Fell Bats (60)

3 Fell Bats (60)

5 Dire Wolves (50)

5 Dire Wolves (50)

5 Dire Wolves (50)

5 Dire Wolves (55)
Scout

Black Coach (175)

Black Coach (175)

9 Black Knights (315)
Full Command
Barding
Drakenhof Banner

Banshee (90)

Fun little list to play a tournament with. At least, I thought so. When I got to the tournament and walked around, I kind of felt maybe a little underpowered. Tzeentch dragons, Steam Tanks, Goblin Hordes... It was going to be an interesting day.

GAME 1: vs. Ed Cooler's Empire

Ed was a really nice guy who pretty much laughed his way through our whole game. His army was nothing to laugh at, though:

Pegasus Captain
BSB on foot
Amethyst Wizard
20 Swordsmen w/ 10 HG detachment
20 Halberdiers w/ 10 Swordsmen and 10 HG detachments
10 Huntsmen
5 Pistoliers
12 Knights
2 Cannons
Stank

The battlefield was pretty even, with a house in the center-ish, and a few scattered woods and hills. Typical tournament terrain. Ed castled up on a hill in the center of his deployment zone, putting the two cannons there, with the Peg Captain, the wizard, and the BSB. The Knights went center, while the pistoliers and huntsmen held the left flank, and the Stank held the right flank. The two infantry blocks and detachments were on either side of the Knights.

I did my standard deployment, with the Black Knights and Zombies center field, flanked on either side by two units of Dire Wolves and a unit of Bats. There was nowhere to scout my wolves, so they went in my deployment zone. For safety, I deployed both my Black Coaches behind terrain until I could deal with the cannons.

To be honest, I knew the game would be difficult for Ed from the word "go." He got first turn and deferred it to me. If he had known what I would do, he wouldn't have let that happen. Immediately, I summoned units of 2, 4, and 6 dire wolves into his backfield, which ran up and blocked the line of sight of both cannons, angled in to target his characters. With the cannons all but toast, I was free to move my Coaches into the open, and advanced my horde. I sent a unit of Dire Wolves off to tie up one of his detachments, and swung the other units wide to lock off the flanks.

Summonfest started with popping up a healthy number of crossbones, many of whom became bait for his Knights. A Vanhels sent the dire wolves into the Swords detachment, where they were promptly slaughtered.

Ed took the bait, and charged the Crossbones unit with his knights, while his Pistoliers were too afraid of my Black Knights to flank charge them. His huntsmen charged my Fell Bats, and the Stank barreled into a unit of Dire Wolves (again, taking bait that pulled him off in a bad direction).

A Doomfire ring from the wizard smoked one unit of summoned wolves.

Ed opened up both cannons with Grapeshot, but only could kill two wolves. The Handgunners dropped some zombies and took down a couple of wolves.

Ed's Knights did a number on my Crossbones, but four of them survived the crumble, and that was enough. The Stank did horrible things to my wolves that I shall not repeat here.

On my turn, I charged a bunch. Wolves went into his wizard, BSB, and cannons. My Wolf Form thrall went into the flank of the Knights. A Black Coach charged the Swordsmen detachment. The other Black Coach charged the Pistoliers.

Lots of summoning bulked up the Crossbones unit fighting the knights, to a nice, healthy 28. (Two Grave Markers in range, plus a 3d6 invokation from my Lord.)

It was the beginning of the end of the game. One cannon crew went down hard, the wizard took a wound, and the Pistoliers and Swordsmen were mulched by Coaches. My thrall killed two knights, and the knights were unable to deal with the combined weight of numbers, ranks, and fear. Nine Empire Knights cut and ran, and were slaughtered on the way out by one lone Vampire Thrall. Love that Wolf Form.

Ed's army never really recovered. At the end of the game, he was left with one fleeing wizard, a handful of Huntsmen, his two infantry blocks, and his Stank. I didn't lose much more than a few units of Wolves, the two Bat units, and my Wolf Form Thrall. That was my own fault, as curiosity definitely killed the cat. For the record, a lone Vampire Thrall with a great weapon cannot take out a fully healthy steam tank, even if he charges it in the rear.

Result: 17-5 Victory for the WAAGH!

GAME 2: vs. Phil Gates' Tomb Kings

At lunch, I was thinking to myself, I sure do hope I don't face that Tomb King army. Every store has its "local badasses," and word around the tourney was that Phil was one of them. His army was loaded up nicely, too:

Tomb King
2 Tomb Princes in chariots
Liche Priest with Casket of Souls
3 Chariots
3 Chariots with Banner
2 Units of 5 Light Cav
2 Scorpions
3 Ushabti
3 Carrion
SSC

A tightly built force, compact and built for speed. I could tell the game was going to be a corker from the get go. Phil got a nice hill to put his casket on, and he guarded it with a Scorpion. The SSC was back at the board edge (pretty much guaranteeing it wouldn't survive the game). Both Chariot units were at center, with the carrion and Light Horse out on the right flank. The Ushabti and Light Horse were the left flank guard.

I used my standard deployment, only I moved my Black Coaches onto either side of my Knights-and-Zombies block at center. I figured, they were a lot safer in this game.

I got first turn, and triple summoned wolves. They came on and blocked the SSC's line of sight, and two units of them angled at the Casket. Everyone else moved up.

I summoned a nice number of Crossbones, and tore up the Light Horse on the right flank. I also put a few wounds on a Chariot unit, and set a little trap with the way I had them angled.

To be honest, this was one of the toughest tournament games I've ever played, so I didn't take notes as well as I usually do because I was so focused. Let me just hit the highlights:

* Tomb King with Flail of Skulls and Cloak of Dunes makes a mockery of my Black Coach, smashing it to the ground immediately. Then, the King eats a Banshee scream that puts three wounds on it, and would have had to deal with a pissed off Vampire Lord if time hadn't expired. (A misplay we didn't catch until much later in the day.)

* It takes four units of Dire Wolves and a Black Coach to finally take out the Casket of Skulls. I don't let the Casket go off once in the entire game.

* A single unit of Dire Wolves held up his Carrion for the entire game.

* If Black Knights charge your Chariot unit, your Chariots will lose. Badly.

At the end of the game, we totalled up the points. With all of the summoned units that Phil happily destroyed, all of the points I built up were quickly whittled away. In the end, Phil had beaten me...by three points. The closest game I've ever played.

The head judge had sat by our table and watched the whole game, and at the end, he said, "That was a really clean game. Two Undead armies should never play as fast as you guys did."

Also, it may be the first game I ever played without a single rules discrepancy. (Although there was some confusion at the end as to whether you count a character and his chariot as separate units for Victory Points. Turns out, you do.)

RESULT: 10-10 DRAW.

GAME 3: vs. Jerry Amend's Chaos Undivided

Because of some interesting second round matches, turns out, I was playing on the #2 table in the finals. Only one player was still undefeated, and many of the people who had won their first game had draws in the second round. So I was still in it for Best Overall.

Jerry's army was very interesting to me. Check this out:

Hero-level Tzeentch Champion
4 units of 5 Warhounds
4 Undivided Chariots
4 Chosen Undivided knights
5 Centigors
5 Furies
3 Dragon Ogres
Giant
3 Screamers
5 Marauder Horsemen
11 Beastmen (4 Ungor/7 Gor)

The guy had more deployments than I did. :shock:

His units stretched from board edge to board edge, with a chariot, warhounds, and Beastmen holding the left flank, a couple of chariots, the Giant, a few Warhounds, the Centigors, and the Furies at center, and the Dragon Ogres, Knights, Screamers, and Horsemen to the right flank.

I standard deployed, although I put the Coaches way out on the flanks to maximize Terror coverage.

For the third game in a row, I got first turn. With no real juicy targets, my Summon Wolves triple trick just brought on 6, 6, and 4 wolves to march block most of his army. I started moving up, and summoned a couple of units of Crossbones in choice locations. They peppered a few units of Warhounds and panicked them off the table.

His screamers beat the pants off of one of my summoned wolves units and dusted them in one round. One unit of warhounds failed its fear test to charge a unit of my Dire Wolves, holding up a Chariot and the Giant. The Centigors went into the trees, where they would end up staying for four turns after four consecutive failed fear tests. Furies flew over to annoy my Black Coach. A Chariot charged a unit of my dire wolves, blew through them, and was tarpitted on a second unit of Dire Wolves.

On my turn, another unit of Dire Wolves charged that chariot in the flank, where it promptly failed a rerollable fear test, and fled. I charged my summoned dire wolves into the flank of the Giant (which turned out to be a bad idea, as he jumped up and down on the entire unit and mulched them). I tied up the Marauders with a unit of Dire Wolves, and set my Black Knights up for some countercharging.

More summoning. More arrows. More dead warhounds. The Banshee screamed and killed a Chosen Knight.

His Giant and a Chariot combined charged the Black Knights. (Actually, the Giant got off one of the worst Clippings...I was really irritated by it, but he won the dice off when we couldn't settle the dispute, so I had to allow it.) The Chosen Knights charged into the Black Coach. Some failed fear tests held up the other charges. Screamers charged some Dire Wolves.

Through some good luck and good rolls on my part, and some bad rolls on his part, the Giant tried to jump up and down and fell over, squashing two of my Knights. The Chariot didn't do any damage at all, and was crushed by my Thrall. I ended up winning the combat and had six Black Knights left to fight a giant who was laying on the ground.

The Chosen blew through the Black Coach due to a S7 Tzeentch Hero, and plowed into the flank of the Black Knights.

I charged my Vampire Lord and Zombies into the flank of the Chosen, who failed their fear test and ran. There were a few other charges, but nothing of consequence.

The game just kind of kept going like that. I ended up with the Banshee screaming a Dragon Ogre to death, my Wolf Form Thrall beat up two chariots on his own, and a Beast Herd utterly rampaged through my left flank.

At the end of the game, he had a dying Giant, his hero and three Chosen knights, four Marauder horse, one undamaged chariot, 2 Dragon Ogres, 4 Centigor, and his Beast Herd left. I had my Vampire Lord, his zombies, my BSB and three Black Knights, one Black Coach, my Wolf Form thrall, and my Banshee left.

With summoned units that died, table quarters, and such, I had won the game...by 26 points.

RESULT: 10-10 DRAW.

I filled out my score card, writing down Phil for my favorite opponent and best army, and giving Jerry the best themed army of the day.

When the results came out, they announced it was the closest tournament they had held in a long time. The winner hadn't won by much, and there was a three-way tie for second place.

Some cat named Ryan had won Best Overall with his Vampire Counts.
Phil (from my game 2) had won Best Army.
Jerry (from my game 3) had won Best Sportsman.
I won Best Appearance and got a nifty little plaque/trophy.

Phil, Jerry, and I had all tied for second place.

Really, a quality tournament experience against some great guys. Very well run. I felt good about my performance. Two of the closest games I've had, and against two absolutely gorgeous armies. Both Phil and Jerry were exquisite painters, and great guys, too. Ed was a good opponent as well, and we had a really fun game.

So that's it. Another tournament, another Best Appearance award...which is fantastic, because that's the award I go to tournaments to win anyway.

well done, a really fun read and good to see some WHFB battle reports finally.

Awesome battlereports, seems to me that it was a really nice tournament and makes me want to play some games of fantasy again (skaven and vampire counts, haven't seen much light in the last year).

Congrats to the good performance with the sylvania lis.
I've always thought that it wasn't that tournament friendly.
Maybe i should try the list out, as my vampires are von carstein anyways.

Thanks for the report.

Greets
Schepp himself

Xtapl, great bat reps. I'm thinking of building an AoS army myself, so it's good to read about how the AoS matches up against various enemies in a tournament. I had 2 questions: 1) How did you fare against any magic you faced? It seems that magic-heavy armies are one of the nemesis of the AoS army list. 2) How did you block LOS from the SSC? The Warhammer rule book says that a stone thrower's crew doesn't need to see the unit they're firing at. I'm new to Fantasy, so is there an FAQ or additional rule I'm missing? Thanks and great job.

I judged this event with two others.  It was a blast!  I set up the terrain and judged the painting, the other 2 blokes ran the tourney in all other respects (kudos to them BTW for the loadz of help)! Valhallas Game Center in Denver runs only one Fantasy and one 40K RT a year, they even post the winners name on the walls on etched brass on a plaque! it is a fairly big to do locally!  The owners are personal friends of mine and one of them has a done a lot of work to make custom sculpted, sanded boards and terrain for our tournaments, (in between having a baby, maintaining the store and rebuilding his house from almost the foundation up simultaneously).  You can see photos of one of the 8 sculpted sand boards he built (that one of these battles got played on) in the 40K Dark Eldar IG Batrep I played with Xtapl if you want too...

We judged the painting using the GW tick sheets to do our best to be objective and resolved only if there was a tie that we would each pick a favorite and decide it that way.  I gave 3 perfect scores for painting at the event, on the sheets, to Xtapl, Phill and Jerry.  All their armies were superb.  Had I to make a choice I would have picked Xtapl's army for painting overall, but I didn't have too because his opponents all agreed with me.

Xtapl is very modest.  Which I like especially becasue it gives me a chance to a blow a horn for him! His Night of the Living Waghh Army is featured in the most recent white dwarf for those who haven't seen it! It's nearly indescribeable it's so awesome and it was amazing to see a WD featured army at a local RT event! Anyone who hasn't seen it should definitely check it out in the magazine, it's an amazing ENTIRELY CONVERTED army of Zombie/Ork Goblin figs and Wolves and Ghost Charriots with figures flying around as if ethereal and others bursting from the ground, its really completely unique!  One of the most thematically powerful armies I have ever seen!  Hoozah! I'm glad you won painted Xtapl!

Thanks for writing a cool Batrep! I enjoyed it too! Gamer Nirvanna!

1. Congratulaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaations!

2. I really really really would like to see some pics of your army ... any on-line to be found?

3. Can a Banshee hurt a Tomb King with her wailing? He's immune to psychology isn't he?

4. There is no point four.

5. We need more batreps.

*ping*

1. Thanks.

2. http://gt.us.games-workshop.com/2005/Results_Coverage/Seattle/army_features.htm
Also coming soon to an eBay near you... this army is being prepped to move out.

3. No. Like I said, it was a misplay.

4. There is no spoon, either.

5. You can say that again.

I am an admirer of your army since I caught it in WD.

Squeeke and Buttapants are my favorite part.

Great work during the tourne.