Right, Phil has asked for a Batrep, so a Batrep he shall receive...
I was on a bit of a rebound after playing a fast cav list for the entire year, so my list for Masters was a bit less dancy and a bit more I'llpunchyourfacein-y:
Lord - Tali of Pres, MoT, Disc, Crown, Charmed Sh
Sorc Lord - Heavens, Steed, Spell Familiar
Exalted - BSB, Ench Sh, Dawnstone, Steed
Sorc - Fire, Puppet
25 Warriors - MoTz, FC, Sh
5 Marauder Horse - MoS
5 Marauder Horse - MoS
10 Knights - MoTz, FC
10 Knights - MoTz, FC
Mmmhmm.
I was a bit scared of vamps, what with Grave Guard being all regenerating and killing blowing. Especially when my only combat flaming attacks come from a Disc, who is a bit late to the party with his initiative 3...
So the plan was just to magic off the wraiths and scoop as many ghouls as I could while trying to avoid the Gravies. The plan was made a lot easier in turn 1, when the Vamp Lord miscast and Mr Puppet told him that Danse was a rubbish spell and he should forget it. So now I was pretty free to exploit the slow clunkyness of VC, and picked off a ghoul unit, some dogs, the wriaths and the varghulf, in return for some Marauder Horsemen. Not much Jeremy could have done about it.
15-5 win.
Game 2 (or 3?) vs Tim
Empire! I've always struggled against Empire because I have nothing to hurt the Stank (does anyone?). This means I can't really cross the road to the lovely, squishy T3 chaps on the other side, because I'll get run over. So I came up with a plan...
I would out-shoot the Empire.
Now I didn't pack any throwing spears for masters so really that should read "I would drop comets on the Empire". I noted he'd taken Shadow magic, which is a useless lore at dealing damage at range, and with nowhere to cannon off points in my army, I thought I could manage it.
The Knights deployed 10 wide, so only 1 would die from a cannon shot. The Lord went off hunting, catching the Captisus, pistoliers and a cannon. The rest of my stuff growled angrily to try and convince the steam tank it did not want to come forward. And all in all it kinda worked... 2 monster comets hit home and cleaned out enough chaf and artillery (and the Lector, somehow) to give me a nice, safe little win. Again, the Marauder horse died. They are sacrifice units. If they are not sacrificed by the end of the game you have done something wrong... Err...
14-6 win (I think... man, how have I forgotten this already??).
Game 3 (or 2?) vs Antony
Ogs! Didn't really have a plan against this lot. I just deployed standardly-ish and "winged it".
As expected, the sabertusks were a big problem for me. My magic didn't blast them quick enough, so they got their divert and made things a bit more tricky. I found an opening though - a flank charge on Ant's Ironguts with my Lord. He'd pin them there while a unit of knights moved around their unsupported flank. Meanwhile, everything else would execute "Operation: Don't Die" - a very Joe Dixon strategy. Sadly,the Lord was a bit worn out after chasing cannons last game and missed the mighty 5 inch charge he needed...
and this kinda stuffed me up. I tried to type it out for you but it became long-winded and boring, so you'll just have to trust that it stuffed me up. There were ironguts up in my face and sabertusks all over my lawn. Wasn't good. So I scrambled a bit of defense and ran the Knights to temporary safety, using the great bravery only years of playing High Elves can grant.
So Ant hurled the Mournfang and Bulls into the Lord, who proceeded to pass "several" ward saves. Thankfully he did this for long enough that Knight unit 2 (having had their Sabertusk chased away by an angry Sorcerer - this actually happened. Yeah, he got Leadbelched the next turn) got a flank on the bulls and chopped them into tiny buddah pieces. Elsewhere the Guts caught up with Knight unit 1, who nobly ran off the board before giving up their 25-victory-point standard. My Sorc Lord died heroicly to a fireball, so the points ended up pretty tight.
11-9 win.
Empire! I've always struggled against Empire because I have nothing to hurt the Stank (does anyone?). This means I can't really cross the road to the lovely, squishy T3 chaps on the other side, because I'll get run over. So I came up with a plan...
I would out-shoot the Empire.
Now I didn't pack any throwing spears for masters so really that should read "I would drop comets on the Empire". I noted he'd taken Shadow magic, which is a useless lore at dealing damage at range, and with nowhere to cannon off points in my army, I thought I could manage it.
The Knights deployed 10 wide, so only 1 would die from a cannon shot. The Lord went off hunting, catching the Captisus, pistoliers and a cannon. The rest of my stuff growled angrily to try and convince the steam tank it did not want to come forward. And all in all it kinda worked... 2 monster comets hit home and cleaned out enough chaf and artillery (and the Lector, somehow) to give me a nice, safe little win. Again, the Marauder horse died. They are sacrifice units. If they are not sacrificed by the end of the game you have done something wrong... Err...
14-6 win (I think... man, how have I forgotten this already??).
Game 3 (or 2?) vs Antony
Ogs! Didn't really have a plan against this lot. I just deployed standardly-ish and "winged it".
As expected, the sabertusks were a big problem for me. My magic didn't blast them quick enough, so they got their divert and made things a bit more tricky. I found an opening though - a flank charge on Ant's Ironguts with my Lord. He'd pin them there while a unit of knights moved around their unsupported flank. Meanwhile, everything else would execute "Operation: Don't Die" - a very Joe Dixon strategy. Sadly,the Lord was a bit worn out after chasing cannons last game and missed the mighty 5 inch charge he needed...
and this kinda stuffed me up. I tried to type it out for you but it became long-winded and boring, so you'll just have to trust that it stuffed me up. There were ironguts up in my face and sabertusks all over my lawn. Wasn't good. So I scrambled a bit of defense and ran the Knights to temporary safety, using the great bravery only years of playing High Elves can grant.
So Ant hurled the Mournfang and Bulls into the Lord, who proceeded to pass "several" ward saves. Thankfully he did this for long enough that Knight unit 2 (having had their Sabertusk chased away by an angry Sorcerer - this actually happened. Yeah, he got Leadbelched the next turn) got a flank on the bulls and chopped them into tiny buddah pieces. Elsewhere the Guts caught up with Knight unit 1, who nobly ran off the board before giving up their 25-victory-point standard. My Sorc Lord died heroicly to a fireball, so the points ended up pretty tight.
11-9 win.
Game 4 vs Basil
More Vamps... Same plan as last time, but this wasn't going to be as easy... Basil had a Danse on his Necro as well as on a Vampire.
As things turned out, it was just as easy. In fact, it was easier.
The necro blew up on the first turn. And the Vampire Lord blew up on the second turn. Mr Puppet busy at work once again. From there on in Basil did what he could but it wasn't to be. The Grave Guard survived due to having a Ld8 character and one unit of knights failing their last-turn charge. The second unit of knights - who did make the charge - nearly died because of it once the Gravies reformed to face front on in the last turn. I had debuffed them with Curse of The Midnight Re-rollyoursixes, but they ended up winning the combat by 1. The Knights failed their break test (BSB was earlier KBed while hacking the Black Coach to pieces) and were cut down as the last action of the game...
12-8 wi..
... Basil! Basil I didn't roll for my horses! Luckily Basil's a super nice guy and let me go back to roll the horses' attacks.
16-4 win.
As things turned out, it was just as easy. In fact, it was easier.
The necro blew up on the first turn. And the Vampire Lord blew up on the second turn. Mr Puppet busy at work once again. From there on in Basil did what he could but it wasn't to be. The Grave Guard survived due to having a Ld8 character and one unit of knights failing their last-turn charge. The second unit of knights - who did make the charge - nearly died because of it once the Gravies reformed to face front on in the last turn. I had debuffed them with Curse of The Midnight Re-rollyoursixes, but they ended up winning the combat by 1. The Knights failed their break test (BSB was earlier KBed while hacking the Black Coach to pieces) and were cut down as the last action of the game...
12-8 wi..
... Basil! Basil I didn't roll for my horses! Luckily Basil's a super nice guy and let me go back to roll the horses' attacks.
16-4 win.
Game 5 vs Pete
Should I bother telling about the game or can we just leave it at "10-10"? Me and Pete must have gone 10-10 in our last four or so games, so we almost didn't bother playing it.
But we did. I've always found it a really tight matchup, with my lists not anything that could stand the Furnace or HPA in combat, and the WLC is another acronym my Knights aren't pleased to see across the table. I decided to go into shooting-mode, like in the Empire game, and try and magic off the HPA and WLC. Depending on how early this happened and how many Knights had been blasted, I could then try and engage.
I rolled up first turn and my 10-wide lines of Knights shuffled awkwardly like no Knights should. Magic saw a Chain Lighting zap 2 wounds off the HPA, and kill the WLC outright. Nearby some slaves felt liberated by the removal of such an oppressive symbol, and ran off. Awesome start.
The game went on with me and Pete hurling magicks at each other, coming to a bit of a stand-off. Pete Plauged a unit of Knights down to 3 models, who decided it was time to see a doctor and "pulled back". Meanwhile, I got a huge Fireball off on his HPA and the oil-covered bait Marauder Horsemen (ooohhh... that's why they're black...) it had just eaten caught fire, obliterating it. Pete's alphabet now only had 18 letters, and I was feeling cosy for the win. But he had a plan and the gods of "10-10" were watching...
With balls of steel in the face of an Infernal Puppet with some impressive scalps, Pete unleashed a Thirteenth against the Warriors, melting half of them. And then did it again the next turn, melting the rest.
10-10.
Game 6 vs Dan
I'm not going to lie. This list scared me shitless. With so few units it was going to be hard to scare off the Bloodthirster and deny Siren Song a big hit. Sadly, I needed a 15-5 win to jump Dan in the standings, so I was going to grit my teeth and go for it...
I set up around the terrain that would restrict Siren Song the most, but Dan was keen to play on the side of the board that suited his army the most. Which happened to be the other corner.
Hmm. So I threw some magic missiles around, and trapped a single Fiend who tried to sneak behind my lines by surrounding it inside a triangle of 2 lines of 10 Knights and a Chaos Lord. Because you can do that when your opponent's army is 50" away.
The Lord nearly died to a Flamers' volley and "retired" for the game, and I think I needed to do likewise. Instead, I got all cocky and maybe-I-can-make-something-happen-y and nearly lost my Sorc Lord to 3 Fiends, and nearly got a unit of Knights Siren Songed. But none of that ended up happening, and the assassination attempt by the Fiends ended up giving me enough points for the win. We'll call it a tactical bait, shall we?
11-9 crushing victory.
Conclusion
Going in to the results, even though I hadn't lost a game I felt my wins were way too small to get a podium. I'll be interested to see just how close the 3rd/4th/5th/6th(/7th) places are when the results come out, because it must have been incredibly tight.
All I can say is, "don't forget your horses' attacks", I suppose.
Huge thanks to Phil for being a great TO (and giving me a wildcard!), and to all the players for a great weekend. It's good to be back.
Should I bother telling about the game or can we just leave it at "10-10"? Me and Pete must have gone 10-10 in our last four or so games, so we almost didn't bother playing it.
But we did. I've always found it a really tight matchup, with my lists not anything that could stand the Furnace or HPA in combat, and the WLC is another acronym my Knights aren't pleased to see across the table. I decided to go into shooting-mode, like in the Empire game, and try and magic off the HPA and WLC. Depending on how early this happened and how many Knights had been blasted, I could then try and engage.
I rolled up first turn and my 10-wide lines of Knights shuffled awkwardly like no Knights should. Magic saw a Chain Lighting zap 2 wounds off the HPA, and kill the WLC outright. Nearby some slaves felt liberated by the removal of such an oppressive symbol, and ran off. Awesome start.
The game went on with me and Pete hurling magicks at each other, coming to a bit of a stand-off. Pete Plauged a unit of Knights down to 3 models, who decided it was time to see a doctor and "pulled back". Meanwhile, I got a huge Fireball off on his HPA and the oil-covered bait Marauder Horsemen (ooohhh... that's why they're black...) it had just eaten caught fire, obliterating it. Pete's alphabet now only had 18 letters, and I was feeling cosy for the win. But he had a plan and the gods of "10-10" were watching...
With balls of steel in the face of an Infernal Puppet with some impressive scalps, Pete unleashed a Thirteenth against the Warriors, melting half of them. And then did it again the next turn, melting the rest.
10-10.
Game 6 vs Dan
I'm not going to lie. This list scared me shitless. With so few units it was going to be hard to scare off the Bloodthirster and deny Siren Song a big hit. Sadly, I needed a 15-5 win to jump Dan in the standings, so I was going to grit my teeth and go for it...
I set up around the terrain that would restrict Siren Song the most, but Dan was keen to play on the side of the board that suited his army the most. Which happened to be the other corner.
Hmm. So I threw some magic missiles around, and trapped a single Fiend who tried to sneak behind my lines by surrounding it inside a triangle of 2 lines of 10 Knights and a Chaos Lord. Because you can do that when your opponent's army is 50" away.
The Lord nearly died to a Flamers' volley and "retired" for the game, and I think I needed to do likewise. Instead, I got all cocky and maybe-I-can-make-something-happen-y and nearly lost my Sorc Lord to 3 Fiends, and nearly got a unit of Knights Siren Songed. But none of that ended up happening, and the assassination attempt by the Fiends ended up giving me enough points for the win. We'll call it a tactical bait, shall we?
11-9 crushing victory.
Conclusion
Going in to the results, even though I hadn't lost a game I felt my wins were way too small to get a podium. I'll be interested to see just how close the 3rd/4th/5th/6th(/7th) places are when the results come out, because it must have been incredibly tight.
All I can say is, "don't forget your horses' attacks", I suppose.
Huge thanks to Phil for being a great TO (and giving me a wildcard!), and to all the players for a great weekend. It's good to be back.
Heh, ah you got 6 wins mate? Didn't realise that, great effort! Yeah, I can what-if over game 6 "nearly's" till I'm blue but I was the architect of my own failure there. That and the Dixon-curse, a very real and debilitating syndrome. Great to meet you, and look forward to more games in future.
ReplyDeleteDidn't loss a game?
ReplyDeleteWhat rot! I crushed you by 3VP and now you dare parading it around as a deaw