Cancon 2015 Report - Part 6

This is a continuation of my Cancon report. You can find the previous game here.

Game 7 - Battle for the Pass
Dustin Flack, Dark Elves

• Dreadlord on Black Dragon with Armour of Destiny, Other Trickster's Shard, Seadragon Cloak, Shield, Lance
• Master on Dark Steed with Black Dragon Egg, Heavy Armour, Seadragon Cloak, Shield, Lance, Brace of Repeater Handbows
• Master on Cold One with Potion of Strength, Luck Stone, Heavy Armour, Seadragon Cloak, Halberd
• Sorceress (Level 2, Lore of Metal) on Dark Steed
• Assassin with Sword of Anti-Heroes, Charmed Shield, Dark Venom
• 5 Dark Riders with Repeater Crossbows, Shields
• 9 Dark Riders with Repeater Crossbows, Shields, Full Command
• 28 Dreadspears with Full Command, Banner of Swiftness
• 6 Cold One Knights with standard, Musician, Gleaming Pendant
• Hydra with Fiery Breath
• Reaper Bolt Thrower
• Reaper Bolt Thrower
• Reaper Bolt Thrower
• 5 Warlocks

Swedish Comp: 13.5

It’s a brave man that will go into a tournament without a BSB (unless you’re talking undead or something). In Dustin’s case I gather this was largely a comp-driven decision, but an army with little magic and no battle standard is likely to have a hard time of things.

This game felt like one I should be able to win, provided I could keep the keeper from dying. Thus far this had proven difficult, but I needed to preserve the points if possible.

Deployment and vanguards. There is a hydra there somewhere. See if you can spot him...

Ah, there he is. There is also a hero in each of the larger cavalry units.

I got the first turn and moved up pretty aggressively, looking to force things into combats early with the fiends. I kept the keeper in cover by moving behind other regiments. I figured this would be enough to keep me safe from the shooting, and then I just had to worry about a boosted Doombolt from the warlocks.

The fiends get all "in yo face!" Idea was to take advantage of the slight traffic jam with the dark riders in the way.

Seekers are bit worried about the warlocks. Sure, they don't get saves against us. But they'll kill us before we can swing. Also, note the missing hydra...

For the first (and only) time in the tournament, the soul grinder managed to kill something with its stone thrower. The hydra died to a single shot in the first turn, which was obviously a positive start. I hadn’t been too worried about the thing (I had expected the soul grinder to engage it in combat), but its absence would make things easier.

The dark elves throw everything they can at the fiends, but they're still there.

Dustin’s units did a good job of getting out of each other’s way. The dark riders up front managed a long charge into the daemonettes, which got them killed in a single round. Unfortunately I wiped them out, which meant I didn’t get to pursue to drag me closer to the other combats. The successful charge of the dark riders meant both of the bigger cavalry units had a clear path to charge my fiends, and my unit found itself fighting more muscle than expected. The heroes in the units used their Potion of Strength and Black Dragon Egg, and they did their best to wipe my unit off the table. I actually only lost 2 fiends, but did very little in return. I did roll well enough for the break test however, and held both units well in place.

Bring it! Ooh, an assassin. Hiding in the only eligible unit. Not really a master of surprise, this one.

The dreadspears had also charged into my bloodletters, and the assassin appeared in the front rank as they did their best to punch through. Dustin also cast Glittering Robe and Enchanted Blades on the unit, although I think one of those spells cost him his sorceress due to a miscast. Despite all his best efforts, the bloodletters held relatively firm, losing a rank and killing a few of the spearmen.

Do we like dreadspears? No, we don't!

I had a few options in terms of my counter charges, and in the end I went for overwhelming force against the dreadspears, hitting them in either flank with the beasts of nurgle and the daemonettes. I think I tried to charge the soul grinder into the dreadspears and the keeper into a bolt thrower too, but they failed.

In my head I saw the daemonettes pursuing into the flank of the cold one knights, thereby rescuing the fiends as well. It didn’t really work out that way, as I underestimated how hard I was going to hit the dreadspears. I dropped their strength with Enfeebling Foe, and savaged them pretty badly for little harm in return. There was so few of them left that the daemonettes were not pursuing in the right line, and so they decided to reform rather than running past the enemy and exposing their flank. The fiends had to fight on alone, and barely made it with a single wounded model left after the round of combat.

My units end up all over the place after breaking the dreadspears. Note the fiend on a single wound...

Look, a birdie!

The daemonettes may have decided not to plant their flank in front of the cavalry, but the dragon could still see it and charged in alone. Naturally my unit champion took one for the team, then I reformed to face the lord before hitting it with The Withering, dropping 3 toughness off the dragon. This was exciting, and the daemonettes set about half-killing it. Unfortunately the soul grinder had failed to charge the dragon in the flank, and with its breath weapon still available, the dragon took a lot of daemonettes off.

The daemonettes turn to face and open up on the weakened dragon, but take significant damage (maybe 9 models) in return.

By this point the last fiend had died, and Dustin charged the master out of the cold one unit and into the daemonettes. Between him and the dragon, my unit died the death. The other master moved up by himself to buy time for his friends by blocking my beasts of Nurgle.

One of the dark elf heroes joins the fray, whilst the other heads off on a quest of annoyance in the background.

Nooo, my beautiful daemonettes!

Having dawdled long enough for the daemonettes to get cleaned up, the soul grinder decided it was time to charge into the flank of the dragon. I dropped its strength by 2 in case it took a while to grind through, but I need not have worried. The soul grinder snipped the dragon to death, stomped on the lord a little, and then ran him down as he fled. The pursuit took the soul grinder into the cold one knights, alongside the keeper who had already charged. It was a bit of a slaughter.

The dragon, cold one knights and hero up top are all not long for this world.

The beasts killed the hero in front of them, whilst elsewhere my seekers pulled something a little surprising. The bolt throwers had whittled them down to a single model, which went through one of the bolt throwers before running into the flank of the warlocks. Rather hilariously, this one model then broke the 5 warlocks and ran them down. I think she was still celebrating when the other bolt throwers mowed her down. Oh well.

Single seekers FTW! Boo yeah!

There was a little bit more mopping up to do, but I managed it without losing anything else. It was a strong result, and amazingly the keeper had lived through a second game!

Result: 17-3