Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 5

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

At the start of the second day, I was somehow undefeated after 4 games. However, I now finally ran into AG, who I don't believe I have ever beaten at Kings of War. Perhaps my reign of terror was finally at an end...

We were up to the largest army size for the remaining 3 games. My list didn't change a whole lot from the previous one; I added another Beast of War and a couple of magic items on my Winged Beasts.

Game 5: Kill (2250pts)
Andrew Goodman - Abyssal Dwarfs

• Abyssal Grotesque Horde with Potion of the Caterpillar
• Abyssal Grotesque Horde
• Abyssal Grotesque Horde
• Gargoyle Troop
• Gargoyle Troop
• Gargoyle Troop
• Ba'su'su the Vile
• Dravak Dalken
• Infernok
• Greater Obsidian Golem
• Abyssal Grotesque Champion with Inspiring Talisman
• Angkor Heavy Mortar
• Angkor Heavy Mortar
• Angkor Heavy Mortar

For once I think I might have the list exactly right. Helps when there are so few items. Ba'su'su again... I do dislike him.

AG's deployment was pretty compact. An advantage he would have in this game was that he had fewer unwieldy units. I had plenty of compact elements in my many many monsters, but the size of the Pole-arm hordes makes it harder to concentrate force where you need it.

I tried to put a birdie into a position to flank, but given AG had 4 flying units, I was always going to run into interference.

The Grotesque horde paddling in the pool is obviously the unit with Pathfinder. A carefully placed wall made deploying models in the correct place suitably awkward.

Seeing my birdie go down on the flank, Ba'su'su and some Gargoyles set up to protect the Mortar over on that side and the flank in general.

I got the first turn and advanced relatively hard. I wanted to trigger some stuff to commit sooner rather than later. As always, get him to charge when he can't bring too many elements to bear. I figured the Giant could take a charge from a Grotesque horde for the greater good.

In keeping with the whole "make him commit now" policy, I flew the birdie up pretty hard. This was a statement of "commit Ba'su'su right now, or I charge either the flank of the Grotesques or your Mortar". If Ba'su'su responded, the Giant was in range. Not necessarily a great plan, but a plan it still was.

My Giant proved a sufficiently tempting target, however the Grotesques did manage to find some friends so that they didn't have to charge alone. The nearest Gargoyle joined the party.

I landed a freak waver on the centre Grotesque unit with my shooting in the first turn, so they were being sort of... left behind. Everyone else was heading off to the party without them. Poor guys. Their time would come.

My Giant copped 10 wounds, which was pretty solid. I think a couple of those came from the Gargoyles, so their involvement was probably justified.

Over on the left, Ba'su'su landed 4 wounds on my birdie whilst the Gargoyles moved into position hard on the flank. It was at about this point that I realised the slight flaw in how I had set things up. The Giant could charge Ba'su'su, but only if the birdie cleared out of the way. I couldn't combine the charge because the Giant couldn't see the target. Slightly lazy positioning. I'm sure I could have done it better.

On the right, I responded to the charge on the Giant. He and the nearby Beast of War counter-charged the Grotesques, whilst the Pole-arm regiment took the opportunity to charge the Gargoyles - a fight they could win all by themselves! The Gargoyle charge went as planned, with them immediately routing. The Grotesque charge was a lot more disappointing. I had hoped for more than 6 wounds. With that effort I didn't even waver them, which would have been a decent consolation. I hadn't committed the birdie, at least. But the Giant was sure in for it now.

The left flank wasn't going a lot better. My birdie took one for the team by reversing to clear a path for the Giant, but when the Giant went in he did only a single wound to Ba'su'su! My rolling was bad enough that I had almost failed to disorder him. It least it didn't come to that, but it was not good. The Grotesques were about to arrive, I had elements out of position, and I had nothing much to show for it.

 How the lines looked before AG's second turn.

Gargoyles into the flank of the birdie (this was expected), Gargoyles into the path of the Pole-arms (this was annoying), and Ba'su'su and his Grotesque buddies having a go at my Giant.

 All in! The Grotesques on the flank counter-charged the wounded Giant. The Golem and Grotesque Champion attacked the Pole-arm regiment. And on the hill, the previously wavered Grotesques joined Infernox in attacking my nearest Pole-arm horde.

You can tell that Infernox is all about the party. Looks like he is about to party at my expense here... The previous turn none of the Mortars had landed a hit, but this turn one of them hit the Beast of War and landed 7 wounds. That made me quite nervous. Not a lot I could really do about it, though. As soon as I got a clear line I started firing at them, but it was mainly in the hope of wavering them to silence them for a turn.

The left flank didn't go especially well. The birdie wavered, and the Giant got squished in a single round.

The right flank went better, considering. The Pole-arm horde on the hill took some serious hits, but managed to avoid wavering. The regiment didn't make it, but the Giant... Look at those wounds! Double 1s, baby! What great tactics by me!

In same ways it felt like a bit of compensation from the dice gods for how feebly I had attacked the previous round, where I could easily have wavered the Grotesques. Regardless, it was rude. Now I had a chance to finish the job. I basically had to send both the Giant and Beast of War into the same target again. The birdie on that flank went over the lines, looking for a better target. I was in danger of the Golem spinning and surging into me, but that was a risk I just had to accept.

The Pole-arm horde counter-charged the Grotesques, aided by the nearest Beast of War. The other one lacked a decent target, so took shots at the Mortars instead. I did actually kill one, but I don't think it was this turn.

Having wavered, about the best the birdie could do was back up and force a hindered charge in the front if anything bigger than Ba'su'su came after him. The Pole-arms had little choice but to engage the blocking Gargoyles, whilst the other unit tried to position itself to respond to whatever came next.

Look, no Grotesques! Both of my charges on the right flank were successful. Wounded as my forces were, I was obviously going to cop it now but there wasn't much I could do about it. We realised there was no way I could protect the flank of the Beast of War from a surge charge from the Golem, but at least that meant the birdie wasn't suffering a similar fate, right?

 That's a lot of units in a relatively small area. So many monsters.

Gargoyles dealt with, I reformed the line. Things looked marginally better over on the left now.

In AG's turn, the Beast of War paid the price for being on a longer base and thus being unable to turn or hide when the Golem successfully flanked him with Surge. It did mean the Flying Beast avoided a similar fate, so I guess that's something. Taking one for the team and all that. The Grotesque Champion went in to finish off the Giant, where a single wound would surely see him gone. 

Infernox decided not to try to finish off the wounded Pole-arm horde, instead spinning and charging the regiment in the flank. Probably figured he had the horde trapped anyway, and could afford to absorb one charge if it meant killing off both units.

Over on the left, Ba'su'su charged my birdie again whilst the Grotesques went after one horde and the Gargoyles tangled up the other.

On the right, the Giant finally perished and the fresh Beast of War vanished under the flank assault of the Golem. One of the Heavy Mortars also managed to land a shot on my Winged Beast and wavered it. But things took an unexpected turn when Infernox only managed to waver the regiment instead of routing it. That meant he was facing completely the wrong direction for my turn. This flank had been shaping as a disaster, but maybe things were looking interesting after all...

I was running out of units over on the right, but I still had options in the centre.

On the left, Ba'su'su finished off my poor birdie (he'd had a torrid game), whilst the Pole-arm hordes repelled their assailants at some cost.

Once again I have failed at photography. In my turn I discovered that Infernox's ill-timed wavering of my regiment actually put my horde in his rear arc. So unsurprisingly they went in, with 75 attacks proving enough to remove him in a single attempt. I then reformed to try to prepare for the remaining threats. Unfortunately there were a lot of damage and waver counters floating around over here by this point.

It was difficult to know where to look with the Beasts of War and wavered birdie. I think this was the point where I shot off one of the Mortars, but that still left 2. I obviously elected not to go after them with the birdie, thinking I'd be better off with a unit in the flank of AG's remaining forces on my right. Support what I had left. Honestly I think I was more than half expecting him to wear another Mortar shot and vanish anyway.

So my counter-charges on the left had met with mixed success. Thankfully a horde of Pole-arms proved too much for the Gargoyles, but it seems the other unit only managed 4 wounds on the Grotesques. That was not nearly enough, really. Especially when you factored in Regeneration.

In AG's turn, I had to face the indignity of the remaining Golem charging-butt first into my lines. I'm sure he had some excuse involving the pose of the model, but let's be honest here. He was sending a message. Dravak continued to hide from my forces behind the Golem, which was sensible. Given how few units AG had left over here now, the possibility of Surge was concerning. The regiment found itself under attack again, this time by the Grotesque Champion. That seemed like a fight I might survive, and then a birdie in the flank...

On the left, Ba'su'su continued to make a nuisance of himself by charging the fresher horde of Pole-arms in order to ensure the Grotesques would have time to dispose of the other unit.

Any hopes I had of a flank charge on the right evaporated when both the horde (which was expected) and the regiment (which was more questionable) both perished that turn, leaving AG's units free to reform.

The left was also a bit frustrating. Ba'su'su ploughed into the Pole-arms and did another 5 wounds, then rolled an 11 and wavered them! So I couldn't even have a crack back at him. That was very annoying. The other unit crumbled before the Grotesques, but that at least was expected. In my turn I did about the only thing I could and went after them with the Beast of War. I don't remember exactly how that went down, to be honest. The pictures are not helping me. I obviously did some extra wounds to them, either via a charge or with shooting (it might have been shooting. Not sure I could see for the charge). And I then routed them the following turn with a charge, without taking any damage in return. So I assume they wavered this turn.

On this flank, I was trying and failing to do things. I couldn't see a charge where I could bring enough force to bear to give me a chance of routing (or even really wavering) anything. So I decided to try a different approach - one where the Wizard could get involved. I moved everything up and threw the breath weapon from the birdie, Lightning Bolt from the Wizard and the Ballista of the Beast of War, all at the same target - the Grotesque Champion. I had also moved the Beast of War out of the arc of the Golem, but of course Surge was still there. Couldn't do a thing about it really - the shooting would have been ineffective against the Individual. Not that it did much anyway. 3 wounds was disappointing.

As I say, the Beast of War eventually cleaned up the Grotesques on the left, but Ba'su'su was able to have another go at the Pole-arm horde and this time it was too much for them entirely and they routed. I hate you Ba'su'su...

With my shooting gambit having failed, AG set about dismantling what was left of my right flank. The Golem used Surge to flank and pummel my Beast of War, and the Grotesque landed a few punches on my birdie and wavered him again. So he was toast too.

The closing moments saw Ba'su'su attempt a last minute murder of my remaining Beast of War and a Fireball from Dravak set my Wizard's skirts on fire, but that was about it. Between us we only had 8 models left on the field, but 6 of them belonged to AG. The field was his.

That had been an interesting and savage game, but apart from a couple of surprising nerve rolls, it hadn't really gone my way. Too many things I tried didn't work out. I think I made a mistake turning the last birdie back toward the remaining combats, when he could have carried on and taken out a Mortar. He probably would have preserved his own points, and those Mortars are expensive. But then if one of my units had held and opened a flank charge, I probably would have felt I had made the right decision. You can't win, eh?

Oh, and I still hate Ba'su'su...

Result: Loss
Tournament Points: 6-15