OTT 2012 Part 3

Game 4 Vs Andy Wood Elves

This was the fourth game of the day and with the air-con on notgoingCon we were treated to a hella oven experience. Great thing that my opponent was patient and a good fella or other wise we would have folded to the heat. First time game ever against Andy this one and also found out that he's the cousin of the infamous Philthy of Auckland fame so he'd fo sho have some pretty slick tactics. So sure enough his list focused on a Life Archie, lots of msu with a Treeman and 4 Treekin with no deep striking tricks. The game was fantastic and Andy knew how to use his disrupting and great shooting troops alongside some very powerful magic offense as I was made to fend for my armys life. With my minimal magic defense He was bound to get throne of vines off coupled with dwellers to kill me Archie so sure enough 2nd turn My Archie takes da Test... he stands strong and rolls the 2 for strength test straight up pheewww. I played a soft flank then after initially going for the pincher double flank push with the Archmage and swordmasters retreating back into cover one flank and at extreme range of dwellers. The prince in the Dragon Princes unit and the whitelions pushed on up the left flank avoiding the warhawks and scouts zipping around trying to tie them up. A good charge with the Whitelions (MVP) scored me the Treekin with Elf hero and a pit on the Treeman gave me some solid points. My lord and Dragon Princes fought the deciding battle and I learnt Branch Wraith with netlings at i8 is obscene. Luck he managed to finally clip her two wounds to save face last turn. Challenging and thought provoking excellent game and thanks to my opponent for teaching me how to in future play Wood Elves.
15-5 Win.

2nd day and only 2 games today and a chance to check out the Tron on a Sunday arvo.

Game 5 vs Casey Ogres.

Ogres are a bad matchup for Elves in 8th edition with their new book. With too many high strength attacks and a stomp, combat is less than ideal for my infantry. Looking at Casey's list he had Slaughtermaster, Bruiser BSB leading two solid blocks of ogres, a big unit of mournfangs, Maneaters, Ironblaster and two units of Lead Belchers. With the the scenario being meeting engagement it meant that there was going to be a mad dash for me to get into combat and avoid getting shot too heavy by his Lead Belchers almost certain I'd get the first turn I risked it and deployed all my units right up at the starting line with Archers supporting in the rear flanks. Starting whistle blew and everything moved up 10" except shooting. I miasma'd one unit of Leady's and the other fled due to some really pointy stick shooting (reroll on an 8). Casey didn't think I was silly enough to charge so just buff'd his unit with regen and stubborn (oh to have a scroll again). This meant that Swordmasters was in the flank of his Slaughtermasters unit of Iron guts and the Dragon Princes was into the flank of his Bulls with Firebelly attached. Combat was brutal but everything held as the spells Casey chose reduced the casaulties and stopped him running 1st round and he knew Elves just don't grind well. 3rd turn could have been all over for the Ogres but for my Whitelions failing a 3 to charge his Maneaters in the flank, which in turn really put the game on a knife edge as the units I had in combat were getting reduced quite drastically and the unit of Dragon Prices were bashed and knocked out leaving the lord needing to make his break test. Dice swing my way and Caseys' bad dice saw that a Elven Prince is choppy. To the point the Prince solo charged into a block of four mournfangs and rang them down like a pack of scoundrels, MVP I say. My opponent had some major bad dice and proved how resilient Ogres are as he was in a precarious position Turn 2 but fought on till Turn 6 and could have turned this result if not for a few bad pieces of luck. Great game and my warhammer relearn and tuition is making me really want to get more games in future.
20-0 Win

Game 6 Vs NiKola 'Gateway FTW'. He'd be a pox if he wasn't such a nice guy :)

Nikola is a great guy but suffers from I need gateway ftw syndrome and who could blame him it's so good. He's also running the 40K competition for me at Equinox next month so I can't be too critical. So having his mates come up to me saying nah "he's got nothing, just stop gateway." and having no scroll meant I was going oh dear how good is this gateway?! I bet I get smashed and this flower covered trellis (gateway) is gonna fall on my troops like da apocalypse...

The Warriors had two horde formation of Tzeentch Marauders suitably armed with great weapons, Big unit of Knights, a smaller unit of knights, 2 units of Marauder horse, Hell Cannon, 2 Lord mages and BSB. A rather in your face list that looked like a pretty good match up for my combat units so here's for getting the first turn. Nope he got first turn and advanced 2 and unleashed the magic which didn't actually do too much 1st turn. To make up for it the Hell Cannon drops a bomb onto the Spearmen killing 20 oophhss, I thought everyone used them for combat, guess not. Meat shields go splat so it's not too bad with Whitelions looking at a charge into his big block of knights and positioning both my chariot and Dragon Princes with Lord to take the right flank.

This is where not having magic defense could be a telling factor I feel as 6 dice against 11 is not gonna save too much bacon cue da violins. Gateway goes off and the shout of 'Take it OFF' erupts as my Swormasters disappear from gateway. If only it was a Swedish BBQ next to a pool. The next spell is treason of Tzeentch which is perfect against Str6 Whitelions esp if your opponent doesn't have any DD left cos they just chop each other to scraps. So Army almost half gone and time to actually get a single point from this game and how to. Lucky it's the sixth Game of the tournament and the juices are flowing to prevent getting 20-nil'd.

My mind says that this still could be a go and if the Dragon Princes do their job it might even be a slight win. Cue feeding two Eagles (gift Turkeys) to prevent total annihilation of Elven army. Everything was going perfect as this stopped his units from cleaning up the centre and gave me the opportunity to pick up all the spare points I could with a fortuitous charge from archers into his horde of marauders in the flank cleaning them up and the BSB finally chopping his Solo Lord charge. Unfotunately the Arch mage didn't fair so well against a single dice fireball to the face causing 2 wounds and not making a single ward.

Final Turn Lord zigs and zags and gets into position to take a reaver bow to his 2nd lord in the forest. but gets shown up by 12 archers who pop him from the forest first. The BSB stands against the second Marauder block and needs all three wounds to get a decent modifier to his bound to be high modifier of three ranks and banner plus attacks to his break test. Sure enough he only does 1 wound and what could have been a draw or slight win to me disappears on rerolls of a 7.

This was the perfect game for the 6th game of the tournament and it made me play warhammer. Big ups to my opponent for such a competitve game and the comedy in all the key moments. Makes the tournament so much more memorable for the awesome dramatic things during this important battle.
8-12 Loss.

Really enjoyed the tournament and for all you guys and gal's wanting to fit one in you totally should!

Results for the Weekend.

1.  John W Brets.
2.  Nikola Warriors
3.  Me   High Elves.

Many thanks for a top weekend to all my 6 opponents. All the guys behind the scenes need to get heaps of congrats on such a smooth show as it's not an easy job. Good on ya fells's, I'm defo back next year!