GAME 1: I expected to play three new faces but the first round had me up against John with his Bretonnians a familiar club member and a good general. He had three blocks of Errants, Yeoman and a Paladin with a magic weapon. A lot of knights to deal with with minimal twangers at my disposal. We were on a table with a big hill on the 4x4 and including my free wood it was three forests for me to give it a good go. Not being a familiar with the WE I deployed a bit more aggressively with the Waywatchers on his right flank as he had his knights lined across his deployment with yeoman protecting his flank. Waywatchers went scouting on his deployment and was to tie up a couple of his units to let my Gladeguard and Dryads a chance to hold up the Bret Lance charge.
The 500 point format is excellent to develop your understanding of a new army and Wood Elves for me is still a bit of a mystery so thinking back it was good tatical knowledge learnt from the game. I knew that my Dryads would be important for their stubborn in forests and that short range shooting at str4 is insane so tried to marry these two factors... it didn't quite pay off. The Brets had to hang on the hill to get a decent charge off and that allowed me to charge his Paladin in Errant block with the Dryads, risky I know as if I didn't break them first round it would have been flank charge by the other block and oblivion. The Dryads won combat by 2 and testing on a 6 for the game the Brets rolled exactly 6. Great game and proving that at 500 pts it's still warhammer with all the tactical questions asked of your generalship, GG.
Loss 0-3
One more round of shooting and there would have been bleeding Bret hearts. Time was up turn 3.
GAME2. Nick.M Skaven
One scary list it had two big blocks of Clanrats, a big block of plague monks, Lightning Cannon and a Plague Casting Engineer. Nick is a great guy and with a fantastically well painted army. He was also genuinely (mistakenly) scared that his army was understrength for the tournament which was the only advantage I had going into the game. My plan here was to starfire his rats off the table and avoid the Plague block and minimise damage by the lightning cannon and his magic. My first turn, so it was the Starfire arrow into the Clanrats on his left deployment which was just out of the generals bubble. They ran but curiously for rats they only ran 4 inches and stayed on the board. The waywatchers that was placed to intercept and delay that flank ran towards his Lightning Cannon hoping to engage it in combat as T3 Elves don't like Str Lightning. This was the point in the game that Nick's Skaven came right as his Fleeing unit rallied and the lightning Cannon popped 2 archers and the plague cast on 5 dice ran rampant through my army. Plague basically is a Toughness test on everyone in your unit and then if you roll 5-6 it passes to a unit within 6 inches. This basically meant that almost half my army died to Toughness tests. Big odds for me from here with my units too small to do much in the battle. To rub salt into injury the funniest moment in the game was in the 2nd turn where his Lightning cannon misfired and rolling on the mishap table it spun around in a random direction with a large blast template landing a random 5D6 on the Board. Nick taking a punt said his bet would be on my Waywatchers as they were pesky and almost impossible for him to get otherwise. As the foreboding doom of ambushers was sounded the best Skirmishers in the game exploded in a ball of green ratty lightning, how Elf mothers cried that moment.
Highlight for me was the amazing effectiveness of the Str3 Starfire arrow as it picked up his other unit of Clanrats. Also Waywatchers won't play Russian roulette again.
Loss 3-0
Imagine Waywatchers in the middle of that cloud...
Continued
GAME3 Daves Goblins
Dave brought along a really themed army. I say themed as it was meant to be used, with Goblins abound, and not the internet usage which seems to have deteriorated to meaning filthy these days. As soon as he placed two units of Goblins, a Goblin warboss (ruby ring) on a wolf with Wolfrider escorts and a Doom diver it was going to be a hard ask against even my limited shooting Wood Elves. His first turn with the Ruby ring wiping out my Waywatcher unit did have me very concerned as my T3 elves weren't up to taking too much more of that punishment but with a irresistible and the lost of the ring the game evened up again . It's my pleasure to say that Dave is from good solid warhammer stock and is a hobbyist through and through with a superbly painted army and he decide to come up to Aucks for a few good games and get into the spirit of the hobby. Suffice it to say that my Str3 Starfire arrow and 11 bows decided to come good on the last game and with above average dice all the way T3 troops were not happy under that barrage and Goblins got pin cushioned.
Win 3-0
Fact: Goblins turn into pumpkins when pin cushioned.
Superb little 500pt tournament and with good solid interest we will likely have a few more of these throughout the year.
James Cardno 1
Henry P 2
Paul C 3
Logan Harris 4
Dan Bloomfield 5
Graeme F 6
Tom V R 7
Joel M8
Ryan H9
Paul 10
Aaron Cue 11
Phil W 12
Mike Youngs 13
Barry C 14
John W 15
Nick Munn 16
Ross Collet 17
Chris E 18
Derick W19
Aaron Peters 20
Glenn T 21
Hayden C 22
Nick I 23
Dave Hart 24
How the heck did you get a higher place than me???? I had 2 wins and a loss......curses! I will get you next time Wu!
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