Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 2

This is a continuation of my tournament report of Convic. You can find the previous part here.

So I had narrowly escaped with a win in the first game. This was an unusually positive start for a KoW tournament by my standards. Probably meant I was heading for a fall...

Game 2: Loot (1495pts)

Yan Lai - Empire of Dust

• Revenant Horde
• Mummy Regiment
• Mummy Regiment
• Revenant Chariot Regiment
• Revenant Chariot Regiment
• Scavenger Regiment
• Scorpion Husk
• Bone Giant
• Cursed High Priest on Mount with Blizzard
• Revenant Champion on Mount

I really should take a photo of people's army lists before each game. I can never remember the details in terms of items. I'm missing 35 points here somewhere.
EDIT: Thanks to Yan's feedback we now know the Revenant Horde had Brew of Strength and the Revenant Champion had the Blade of Slashing. Thanks Yan!

During setup we established that the last time I had played Yan was at Axemaster. It was Warhammer 7th edition. So probably over 10 years ago. The people you run into...

There were more loot tokens over on the right, so I naturally loaded that flank a bit more. I might have underdone it on the left, really. Oh well, can't be everywhere. 2 tokens is enough for a win.

The sneaky Scorpion Husk has already Vanguarded up a bit here.

Notable for his absence is the Revenant Champion. Why, I hear you ask? Because he was doing the old tunneling beneath the sands thing and got lost, of course. Or perhaps it was because Yan left him in a box, and neither of us noticed his absence until Yan clicked as to what was missing. After like 3 turns... Wait and you'll see him.

Yan had made a point of keeping his central Chariots behind the cover of the Mummies, and the Bone Giant behind the building. So when I won the first turn, I naturally took perverse pleasure in making him go first and try to decide if he was going to keep hiding behind the scenery or make a move.

The only real thing of note in Yan's turn was the dropping of Blizzard onto my Wizard. I only took a couple of wounds, but it quickly became apparent that I wouldn't last long out in the open. So it was my turn to hide bravely behind the Arquebusiers and forest. This meant I couldn't throw Lightning Bolts around, so I optimistically went for Bane-chant on my missile troops instead, and it worked (despite needing hits on both dice)! That was unexpected.

With this magical assistance, the Arquebusiers managed a healthy amount of damage on the central Mummies, who were so keen to shield their Chariot buddies. 7 wounds or something. Not bad at all.

Any fears I had of being rushed on the left were dismissed when the Chariots started peppering my Pole-arm regiment over there with arrows. This was a disappointing state of affairs. I couldn't hope to get out of range or into effective cover, and was out of charge range.

The Bone Giant emerged from hiding at this point. His presence on that flank was a real concern. I had my own Giant as a counter, but positioning would become a major headache for me. Nearby, the Mummies advanced and showed off their Regeneration skills by healing most of the wounds my shooting had done.

The Scorpion Husk got flung into my Pole-Arms, presumably mainly interested in slowing me down. I was quite concerned that the Scavengers were going to sneak past my lines and into the Arquebusiers to silence their shooting, but thus far that didn't seem to be on the cards.

4 wounds is better than nothing, but the retaliation was likely to be more painful...

In my second turn, I identified a major blunder on Yan's part. He'd brought his Cursed High Priest within charge range of my Winged Beast, and left me room to land. At the very least, this would stop any threat of Surge. It also gave me a chance to knock out his Inspiring source. My Pole-Arm horde in the centre accepted the invitation to charge the advancing Mummies. Why not?

Further along the lines, something very unexpected had occurred. I spent ages trying to work out where to put my Giant so I could make use of him against the Bone Giant without exposing my flank to him or the Chariots over on the left. I eventually found a spot that would be just about good enough, and then my Arquebusiers had a crack at the Bone Giant to soften him up a bit (Bane-chant was being used more conventionally elsewhere). Against all expectation, the volley of fire tore a great hole in the Bone Giant, and he simply keeled over! It was good rolling both in terms of damage and for the nerve check. I could hardly believe it (and felt a bit bad for Yan). Imagine what a difference it might have made if he'd had a second Inspiring source on the field...

To add insult to injury, my Pole-arms set about carving a hole through Yan's forces. The ones on the right (with assistance from the Beast of War) made short work of the Scorpion Husk and overran onward. Very enthusiastically in the case of the Beast of War. Meanwhile, the other unit went berserk against the Mummies they had engaged, and obliterated them! My dice were on fire!

Things were rapidly looking up. Just to the right of picture, you can see Yan collapsing on the table in despair at my rolling. I think that's what it is.

I had set up the Pole-arms to counter-charge the Chariots if they went for the flank of the Giant. Unfortunately they declined my invitation to dance, and instead drove straight over the faces of my Pole-arms, before reforming even further in my flank, and on top of the loot counter. Bummer.

Over on the right, Yan did his best to salvage what was shaping as a disaster. The Scavengers played interference with my Pole-arm horde on the left, whilst the Chariots discovered they could just see my Winged Beast and charged in as the Priest made a hasty escape. The Mummies hard on the flank went after the fast approaching Beast of War, and the Revenants engaged my other Pole-arms. The damage I sustained in each combat was relatively modest, with each charge being repulsed.

Dang it, he got away. Next time...

Oh, look who decided to join us! Yan had at this point discovered that something important was missing from the field, and we immediately plonked the Revenant Champion smack in the centre of his deployment zone, ready for Turn 4 (well my Turn 3, but I ignored him). That seemed fair. Yan had already been penalised by his absence. I can only guess where he would have been, but within Inspiring range of that Bone Giant might have been a start.

Aggression was the name of the game at this point. I had an advantage and I did my best to press it home. I counter-charged everywhere, and the Giant managed to get around my Pole-arms and into the flank of the Chariots. That should handle them.

Meanwhile the other Pole-arms got the unenviable task of trying to avenge their comrades by turning to meet the threat of the Chariots on the left.

The Scavengers were no match for my Pole-arms, but the Revenants and Mummies got off relatively lightly as my troops suddenly became potatoes. Only the green and yellow chaps knew how to fight. Meanwhile the Giant and Winged Beast actually did pretty good damage against the Chariots, but I rolled a double 1 to grant them a reprieve. Dang it, my stuff was now facing the wrong way...

OK, so it was possible that a fresh Pole-arm regiment could have withstood a charge from a Chariot regiment. But the newly arrived Revenant Champion also got involved, and did maybe 4 wounds by himself. That tipped things, and my unit crumbled. Oh well, left flanks are overrated anyway.

So are right flanks, really. My Pole-arms on the right capitulated to the Revenant horde, who spun to face my remaining unit as the Mummies went to town on the hapless Beast of War.

At least my Winged Beast was able to shrug off the mostly-dead Chariots, whose threat was greatly diminished now they had lost Thunderous Charge. The Priest had further retreated to the cover of the forest, having been shot (through cover) for a couple more wounds in my previous turn.

Sorry, I'm not taking as many pics as I need to at this point. The Beast of War continued to flail helplessly at the Mummies, but those yellow and green guys... Man they were stars. They engaged the Revenant horde (who had taken all of about 2 wounds at this point), and with the aid of Bane-chant they scythed straight through them. Easy as you like. They were unstoppable! Oh, the Chariots and Priest are gone now too. The Arquebusiers were getting good at their trick shots through cover and cleaned up the Priest, whilst another charge from the Giant and Winged Beast was a bit much for what remained of the Chariots.

Turns out Mummies are a very effective tool to deal with Beasts of War. Yan had lined that fight up well. Unfortunately my Pole-arms had bigger (or more relevant in objective terms) fish to fry, and would not be coming to the rescue.

All eyes on the prize. I have one token, the Chariots have another, and there's one right in the middle...

The Revenant Champion goes and sits on the central token, hoping for a miracle, whilst the Chariots make their escape at best speed (which is greatly reduced with the loot token in hand).

At this point the Beast of War finally succumbed. Honestly, it had not fought well but it had done enough to keep the Mummies out of the rest of the game. In the remaining time I charged and routed the Revenant Champion and chased the Chariots, but only the Winged Beast was fast enough to catch them and lacked the minerals to do the needful on his own. They survived, as did the Mummies.

Hard to know what to think of a game like that. Yan was playing a man down for half the game, and I spiked some rolls pretty hard in those early phases. Even with a few of my other units fighting terribly, the continued valiance of the yellow and green men was enough to see me through, 2 tokens (both of which they carried) to 1.

Result: Win 

Tournament Points: 16-5