This is the third part of my report of the recent Old World tournament, Snake Eyes. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.
Game 3 - Optimised Jank
Ben Hannan - Beastmen Brayherds
Upon the Field of Glory
- Great Bray-Shaman (General, Level 3, Elementalism) with Braystaff
- Great Bray-Shaman (Level 3, Elementalism) with Braystaff, Hagtree Fetish
- Bray-Shaman (Level 1, Dark Magic) with Braystaff
- Bray-Shaman (Level 1, Dark Magic) with Braystaff
- Bray-Shaman (Level 1, Dark Magic) with Braystaff
- Wargor (BSB) with Great weapon, Heavy armour, Shield, Slug-skin
- 33 Gor Herd with Hand weapons, Shields, True-horn (Great weapon), Standard bearer (Banner of Swirling Wind), Musician
- Tuskgor Chariot
- Tuskgor Chariot
- 13 Ungor Herd with Hand weapons, Shields, Half-horn, Musician
- 3 Dragon Ogres with Great weapons, Heavy armour
- Herdstone
- 5 Harpies
- Gigantic Spawn of Nurgle
- Dragon Ogre Shaggoth with Great weapon, Heavy armour, Chalice of Dark Rain
We had played Optimised Jank at last year's Snake Eyes, and they had made the trek down from NSW again. I had also ended up playing Ben's Beastmen last time, but the addition of the Herdstone and the loss of magic restrictions seemed to have taken over his mind and that of his list. 5 copies of Viletide, hey? Well... What could go wrong?
I deployed wide, including the unusual (foolish?) move of putting my Glade Guard over on the flank with a wall of terrain cutting them off from the rest of the field. I might have done this after the Dragon Ogres were deployed. I know the big Gor Herd unit went down afterward. I think I had decided I wasn't going to get clear shots on that key unit, so would concentrate on controlling a flank instead. I probably made life hard for myself by putting my forest where I did - just gave Ben more places to hide things.
I admit, I kind of assumed that all of the Shamans would end up in the Gor unit cuddling the Herdstone, but the Great Bray-Shaman with the Fetish and another of the small Shamans ended up joining the Ungor over here. They were still (just) in range of the Herdstone, but it was still not what I had expected. The big guy on the end was the Shaggoth. He was the main target for my Glade Lord.
The Gigantic Spawn was over next to the Gor Herd. I think the other 2 little Shamans were actually lurking behind, rather than in the unit.
I got the first turn, and rushed where I could. The force on my right flank looked vulnerable, so I pushed hard at it.
The things that I felt couldn't afford to be hit by a single copy of Viletide went into hiding, but putting my Spellweaver as centrally as possible for her dispel bubble.
Again, trying to take cover from the enemy magic. The Glade Guard started firing at the Dragon Ogres, with relatively limited impact.
So this. I'm not sure what I was hoping for with how close I went with the Wild Riders. Realistically I should have stayed out of range, or at least only been within range of the Shaggoth. It was clumsy. Both could have failed the charge, but by the time they were both declaring it, I figured I might as well counter-charge (thus ensuring they both made it).
In the end, we didn't lose combat by that much. I think if I'd kept one more alive, I would have been OK. We nearly killed the Chariot. Anyway, the surviving champion gave ground...
...which set up the Glade Lord to get involved. He actually copped a hit (I think it was Wind Blast), but was only half dead. The Shamans had left the Ungor, who were now screening them.
The Dragon Ogres advanced, but only far enough that they'd be out of range of my Glade Guard thanks to the Shaggoth using his Chalice of Dark Rain. One of the little Shamans poked out from behind the Spawn and tried to Viletide the Warhawks, but couldn't get it through.
Things were edging toward me, knowing all those magic missiles didn't have infinite range (or targets).
In my turn the Glade Lord charged the damaged Chariot, on a path toward the Shaggoth.
The Sisters of the Thorn engaged the Ungor, hoping to push through to the Shamans.
My Glade Guard stepped forward to get into range, and despite the penalties they managed to finish off an already-wounded Dragon Ogre. The Warhawks ummed and ahhed for a bit, then charged the exposed Shaman. He fled quickly (maybe 1" from leaving the field). This completely exposed the Warhawks to the Spawn, so I stepped the Dryads into the forest in the hope of presenting more than one target.
So this worked OK. The Ungor fell back in good order (though they could easily have broken), and we carried on into the Great Bray-Shaman.
The Chariot died, as did the last Wild Rider. But my Lord carried on into the Shaggoth. Honestly not sure we did this right. 4 units in a combat, but 2 of the units linking it all died. We treated it as one result, but that might not be right.
Having exposed the Dryads and Warhawks, it seemed the right time to step up with the Treeman too. He was vulnerable to Viletide, but otherwise a real threat.
Clearly we angered the Beastmen on the right, because everyone (including the little Shaman) wanted in on the action.
The Spawn accepted my invitation to charge the Dryads, with Ben trusting in his ability to kill the Warhawks with magic (the fleeing Shaman rallied on the table edge). The Dragon Ogres turned and started heading for the forest, apparently not enjoying the rain of arrows.
Honestly, this combat went far better than expected. Sure, we got our butts kicked and were fleeing, but we got away, more than half of us were still alive, and we took multiple wounds off the Spawn.
Not a great photo with all the stuff lying around, but you can see that the Glade Lord successfully dealt with the Shaggoth before overrunning. The Sisters (I think thanks to Hammerhand) pummelled the Ungor, breaking the little Shaman, but losing a couple of their own number and remaining locked with the Great Bray-Shaman.
The Tuskgor Chariot attempted to charge my Spellweaver, but failed to make the distance because of the forest.
Lacking a proper target, the Spellweaver knocked a strength off the offending Chariot before the Treeman decided to handle the problem. It effectively meant giving up on pushing toward the main Gor herd, but I couldn't leave the Chariot free to cause trouble.
The Glade Lord moved back to support what was increasingly feeling like a clean up over on the flank, despite the fact that I hadn't actually removed any units there yet.
My Warhawks were living a charmed life. Having avoided being charged by the Spawn, they then weathered a 22 hit casting of Viletide for the loss of only a single wound. This was especially fortunate when you consider that Ben had almost certainly charged off with the Spawn because he figured that the magic could deal with the threat posed by the Warhawks. Anyway, having survived something that could have erased them, they then charged one of the little Shamans with the other lurking nearby.
The Sisters finally broke the Great Bray-Shaman, but pursued into what was left of the Ungor. The Treeman punched through the Chariot and overran over here too.
My Spellweaver had decided to return to lurking behind the forest rather than exposing herself to the other Shamans.She was largely doing a good job of shutting down the enemy magic, as per the plan.
The Glade Guard continued to hammer the Dragon Ogres, who were looking a little thin on the ground now.
In Ben's turn, the Great Bray-Shaman rallied but his little friend wasn't interested and kept running from the field. Somehow the 3 Ungor managed to kill one of the two remaining Sisters, ensuring they failed to break through. Note that my Glade Lord is gone, vaporised by one of the Shaman's spells after he rallied. In my following turn, the Treeman retaliated by standing still and killing him with strangleroot. The Ungor also perished in the next round of combat.
I don't think the Warhawks actually managed to kill the Shaman they had charged. I know they did no wounds on the charge. I think they broke him on the second attempt, but restrained their pursuit and instead decided to charge into the rear of the Dragon Ogre (who had gone into hiding in the forest). It had been a difficult choice in terms of how to use them. The Shamans were all using the Gor as a hiding place, and the unit was beyond the Warhawks. One Dragon Ogre would also prove to be so...
I'm missing a photo again. The Gigantic Spawn continued to head for my back lines, where my Dryads had rallied. The Scouts fired into the Spawn, assisted by some fire from the Glade Guard, who had reformed and were trying to fire around the rock. We wounded it a couple of times, but then it charged into the Dryads a second time. Amazingly they fired up and fought well again, killing it before it could stomp all over them. It even declined to land on them as it fell. I had been pretty lucky in dealing with him - he could easily have done more damage and passed more saves than he did.
... but Ben rolled poorly and we got the job done. Didn't kill him, mind. And didn't catch him because we rolled all 1s or something for the pursuit. We then copped a second Viletide, which really highlighted the wild variability of the spell. This time it was only 14 hits, but it knocked off 5 of their remaining 6 wounds! That caused the survivor to panic out my side of the forest, which helpfully hid him from any further targeting.
The late stages of the game saw me doing my best to conserve points. The sole surviving Warhawk and Sister of the Thorn were hiding, as were the Treeman and Spellweaver.
In the end I had never threatened Ben's main unit, and he still had 3 of his 5 Shamans. The Harpies were still around somewhere, and obviously I didn't have control of the Herdstone. But I had cleaned up the rest, and had managed to keep a fair amount of my own stuff alive. I had lost the Wild Riders and Glade Lord, and my Warhawks and Sisters of the Thorn were crippled. It was a win, but not a big one.
Result: 12-8 Win
In the other games, Pete's reign of terror came to a halt as his Chaos Warriors lost 20-0 to Ogre Kingdoms. But Nick's Beastmen beat a Dwarf Expeditionary Force 16-4, and Ben's Vampires beat Chaos Warriors 13-7. That all added up to a narrow 41-39 win for the match. Basically a draw overall.
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