This is the fourth 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.
The Saturday night saw a pizza dinner (with one of the largest piles of pizzas I've ever seen arriving on the tables), and Warhammer trivia. As per the previous year, there were some pretty silly questions, and it was fun. Unlike last year, we didn't win the trivia. Very sad. Oh well, next time.
Game 4 - Age of Sigmar Died For This? II
Ryan Kirby - Minotaur Blood Herd
Upon the Field of Glory
- Doombull (General) with Great weapon, Heavy armour, Shield, Bedazzling Helm, Talisman of Protection, Slug-skin
- Gorebull (BSB) with Full Plate Chaos Armour, Gnarled Hide, Shield, Enchanting Aura, The Soiled Tapestry
- 7 Minotaur Herd with Light armour, 3 Great weapons, 4 Shields, Full Command, Scimitar of Skultar, Manbane Standard
- 4 Minotaur Herd with Light armour, 3 Additional hand weapons, 1 Shield, Standard Bearer, Musician
- 10 Ungor Herd with Shortbows, Musician
- 1 Razorgor
- 1 Razorgor
- 1 Razorgor
- 4 Dragon Ogres with Great weapons, Heavy armour
- Dragon Ogre Shaggoth with Great weapon, Heavy armour, Chalice of Dark Rain
The Shaggoth went hard on my right flank. Accordingly, my Glade Lord was so far to the right that he didn't make it into the picture. He had no interest in any other targets. My Warhawks were way over to the left, also out of the shot.
A thin screen on Ungor sought to make it harder for me to fire at the main Minotaur bus behind them. Probably do a good job of shielding them from the knee down...
I got the first turn, and set about advancing on the right. We managed to shoot off one of the Razorgor on the other side of the forest.
My Spellweaver and Scouts combined fire into the Dragon Ogres, and managed to kill one.
Another Razorgor was lurking over behind the spiky rocks, and that's what my Warhawks were focused on for now.
Seeing my Lord advancing straight for him, the Shaggoth turned and ran around the other side of the forest. Probably makes sense, but also no fun. Come back! He more or less joined a solid line of Minotaurs spreading across most of the centre of the field.
The Dragon Ogres were closing on my Spellweaver, but I think it was apparent that they were unlikely to be in for a good time here.
The Razorgor mocked me by backing out of range of the Warhawks. Ryan had no way of knowing that at the rate things had been going, my unit probably couldn't actually handle his. I didn't tell him - he wouldn't have believed me anyway.
I suppose I could have avoided this by ensuring I had my nose in the forest, but then I would have opened myself to being baited by the Razorgor that was lurking over there. Frenzy is all too much trouble...
Speaking of frenzy, my Wild Riders decided that had an urgent engagement with the smaller Minotaur unit and in they went. I don't remember if I wanted to do this, or if I was not consulted. It's not important. My Glade Lord rode around the back of the forest, determined to whack something.
The Dryads were being careful to stay out of trouble, knowing that Shaggoths and units of Minotaurs were pretty much out of their weight class.
Turns out Minotaurs are too much for Wild Riders, too. We actually did 8 unsaved wounds on the charge. That wasn't terrible, and by far their best effort of the event so far. In return, the 2 remaining Minotaurs simply wiped them out. Smeared their remains all over the field. The Minotaurs weren't frenzied or anything - they just kind of vaguely waved their weapons near the Wild Riders, and they all fell over, screaming dramatically. It was pathetic. Anyway, the Minotaurs overran toward my lines.
My shooting and magic continued to take a terrible toll on the Dragon Ogres, although I was having trouble getting the Sisters of the Thorn into a good location without wrecking everything. I believe I used Hidden Pathways to get them into their final location, after the shooting had happened.
The remnants of the smaller Minotaur unit charged my big Glade Guard unit. Which seems like suicide, except that somehow I did no wounds with my stand and shoot reaction. That was impressive, in its own way.
The sole remaining Dragon Ogre made it into the Sisters, although his strength was crippled by Sapping Blight. The Ungor showed their feisty side and charged the Spellweaver, who had probably thought she was safe where she was sitting.
The Glade Guard managed to pull down the wounded Minotaur, but still lost combat and gave ground.
The Sisters of the Thorn killed the last of the Dragon Ogres, but my Spellweaver had a lucky escape against the Ungor, taking a wound and losing combat. She fell back in good order, and the Ungor failed to catch her.
The Warhawks and Razorgor got bored with staring at each other, so instead they agreed not to look anymore, and both turned to look back into the rest of the field.
The Shaggoth continued to hurry in the opposite direction to where my Glade Lord was, but the remaining Razorgor over on that flank bravely presented itself as a distraction.
The main Minotaur regiment had continued to press forward, so now the Treeman stepped up to 1" in front of them to block their path whilst various ranged attacks started to pick away at the unit.
Having no choice in the matter, I sensibly decided to allow my Glade Lord to charge the sacrificial Razorgor. It died, and I didn't overrun too far in the wrong direction.
The Sisters decided that the Ungor could not be allowed to roam around harassing innocent Spellweavers, so staged an intervention.
I think my Glade Guard might actually have won the round of combat against the last Minotaur, but he stepped straight back in again and was joined by the Shaggoth (who I still think was just trying to get further away from my Glade Lord).
This was unavoidable, but at least the Minotaurs were at -3 strength.
So yeah, the Treeman plan was flawed. He only took 1 wound, but failed to do much of substance in return. He lost combat, fell back, and did so far enough that he exposed the Glade Guard. The same Glade Guard who had not yet fought in that round of combat. That was very bad.
So yeah, now I had no Glade Guard. Some did survive to run away, but they left the field and were followed by the Shaggoth (who had now achieved maximum avoidance distance from my Lord). The Minotaurs reformed to face the Treeman, having already pursued once that turn.
My turn saw something of the walls closing in on the Minotaurs. And by walls, I really just mean my entire army. We shot them as much as possible, but there were still a lot of them there.
The Minotaurs again charged the Treeman, and this time they managed to kill him (I don't think I'd managed to slow them with magic this time). They overran a little, but were exposed to the surrounding units. I could easily get everything out of their path and offer them no charge, focus on shooting them to death... But my Glade Lord had caught up. And he was still frenzied. So...
In we go! Warhawks in the flank, Sisters, Glade Lord and Dryads (who barely fit) into the rear. Those dice all belong to the Minotaurs. The green ones were the characters racking up Eye of the Gods results as the Chaos Gods seemingly stared unblinkingly at them all game. The white ones were wounds the unit had been accumulating from shooting and the Treeman.
I don't recall how I killed him, but the last member of the smaller Minotaur unit was gone. My Spellweaver was mostly intent on throwing Fury of Athel Loren at the Shaggoth, who passed some saves to survive.
It was at this point of course that the Minotaurs finally passed a Primal Rage roll with a double and went crazy frenzied. Right as all my delicate units engaged them. The Doombull turned and absolutely wailed on the Dryads, pulling something like 9 attacks. Mercifully some of them passed regeneration, but the wounds still counted. I actually managed to kill all but the characters, but narrowly lost the combat overall. It was mainly my Warhawks' fault - they did no damage on the charge, and the Gorebull BSB harvested them.
I think the Dryads broke. Everyone else fell back. Nobody bothered to roll give ground. The BSB went after what was left of the Warhawks. The Doombull chased the Dryads, but very slowly (given he was most interested in splashing around in the puddles of blood left from the gruesome combat).
At this point Ryan was down to 4 models, but they were relevant ones. The Gorebull continued his work on the Warhawks, then caught up to the Scouts. It was bad. Importantly, he managed to avoid caring about the stupidity bestowed upon him by the harrowing scrutiny of the Chaos Gods by being constantly in combat. What a pro. The Doombull was less fortunate - as soon as he had to take a test by himself, he failed. Out in the middle of all my stuff. My Spellweaver put him out of his misery with another Fury of Athel Loren. Meanwhile the Shaggoth had made the fatal mistake of re-entering the battlefield, and my Glade Lord finally caught up with him. I'd already use Orion's Favour, but apparently didn't need it and cut him down anyway.
The game ended with me on top, but I had lost a lot of stuff. The Minotaurs luring me into their trap so that they could go full psycho mode and try to murder us all at once was very tricksy. They had shown no inclination to do that when chopping through the Treeman and Glade Guard. My frenzied Glade Lord forcing me to spring said trap was not ideal, but then it would have been pretty lame to just dance around the unit, shooting it. So this was probably better in the scheme of things.
Result: 14-6 Win
In the other matches, Pete's Chaos Warriors succumbed to Aaron's Warriors 3-17, but Ben's Vampires beat Huw's Empire 17-3 and Nick's Beastmen overcame Chris' Tomb Kings 14-6. Overall we won the match 48-32.
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