Duelling Paintbrushes 2 - the violent finale

When we commenced Duelling Paintbrushes last month, it was suggested that at the end, participants would bring their painted 1000 point armies along and use them against each other in a game. This idea was not abandoned, and on the weekend we got the chance to follow through on that plan. Thus was born Duelcon, which would consist of a round-robin event between Owen (of Terrain for Hippos), Drew (of Back in Drew's Day) and me - the only people that successfully painted at least 1000 points of Warhammer Fantasy during the challenge.

Owen got a little carried away and even devised a player pack of sorts for our little event, which you can see here (spoiler alert: it also contains the results). Note that the points limit was increased to 1150 points at Drew's request, because true to form he only read half of the original Duelling Paintbrushes terms and it didn't occur to him at the time that he might want magic items and the like for when he played with the finished 1000 point force.

Epic contest that this promised to be, we figured we would take some photos. I'm not going to go into a proper battle report for the games, but I'll let you know what was going on in the captions.

Here are the final lists:

Me: Empire Stirland

• Wizard Lord (Level 4, Lore of Fire) with Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll
• Warrior Priest with Great Weapon, Armour of Meteoric Iron
• Captain with Great Weapon, Full Plate Armour, Dragonhelm, Obsidian Trinket
• 41 Halberdiers with Standard, Musician (the Champion got sucked off to act as a Captain to help fill out the extra 150 points)
• 16 Crossbowmen with Standard
• 5 Pistoliers with Champion with Repeater Pistol
• Great Cannon

Drew: Orcs and Goblins (who fancy themselves as Wood Elves)

• Goblin Great Shaman (Level 3) with Dispel Scroll
• Black Orc BSB on Boar with Shield
• 30 Orc Arrer Boyz with Standard, Musician
• 20 Night Goblin Archers with Full Command, 3 Fanatics, Nets
• 6 Trolls
• Giant

Owen: Skaven of Clan Skitterclaw

• Warlord on Great Pox Rat with Talisman of Preservation, Weeping Blade
• Warlock Engineer (Level 1)
• 25 Clanrats with Spears, Shields, Full Command, Warpfire Thrower
• 25 Clanrats with Shields, Full Command, Poisoned Wind Mortar
• 20 Stormvermin with Shields, Full Command
• 3 Rat Ogres with 1 Packmaster
• Doomwheel

Game 1: Empire vs Orcs and Goblins

Game 1 deployment. The Pistoliers used Vanguard to move past the forest before the game commenced

The Empire lines, with all the characters in the Halberdiers. I ended up with the 1150pt army equivalent of a death star, I'm afraid...

The Orc Arrer Boyz on the right, with the Night Goblins walking straight through the forest.

My left flank was the business end for the Orcs, with the BSB leading the Trolls in the hope of helping them pass some Stupidity tests. The Giant was happy to sit back and hope the Trolls caught the cannonballs.

The players: Drew (seated), me (with the grey shirt) and Ben (who was just there to laugh at our puny armies).

I discovered that I had lots of spells to choose from. Took me a while to decide what to cast.

The Pistoliers used their speed to sling around the side of the enemy lines, then used their nasty pistols to shoot 3 wounds off the Giant.

The Cannon didn't do much in the first round

Trollcam

Drew retaliates by moving Night Goblins forward - despite me having cast Fulminating Flame Cage on them. The Great Shaman took a wound, and about a dozen of his mates exploded in flames.

The Trolls moved up too, glad it wasn't them that was on fire. Note that this picture includes the Giant.

The the Cannon lined him up...

... and no more Mr Giant.

The Pistoliers had advanced carefully to ensure they didn't trigger Fanatics, but did little damage with their pistols

The Halberdiers watch the enemy advance

How things looked after my second turn

The Night Goblins shuffled across and released the Fanatics, killing 3 Pistoliers. The remaining 2 panicked, then one rode into a tree, meaning the remaining model didn't want to rally and left the field.

Unleash the FURY!!

Meanwhile Drew was charging the Trolls into the Halberdiers

The decisive clash of the battle

My Wizard Lord watched the Black Orc riding toward him, but he wasn't about to take him in single combat...

Instead the Warrior Priest stepped forth and beat down the brute, although she was wounded in the process

It was a bloody combat. 10 Halberdiers died, but 8 wounds on the Trolls plus the loss of the BSB was too much and  they turned and ran.

The Halberdiers surged forward and cut the Trolls down as they fled, screeching to a halt right in front of a Fanatic

Very scientific!

In my turn the Halberdiers charged through the Fanatic anyway, taking minimal damage. The Night Goblins elected to flee back into the forest, despite being below quarter strength. Their numbers were further depleted when the Cannon shot the Great Shaman squarely between the shoulder blades. Ouch.

In a final act of defiance, the Arrer Boyz piled into the Halberdiers, despite them having rerolls to wound thanks to the Warrior Priest prayer, Hammer of Sigmar.

The Fanatic added insult to injury by plowing through the Arrer Boyz, but leaving the Halberdiers unscathed.

The Orcs were thrashed in combat and duly run down. The game was over.

Result: Empire win

The Empire cleared out and it was time for Game 2.

Game 2: Orcs and Goblins vs Skaven

The Orcs line up once more.

This time the Arrer Boyz took the other flank.

The Night Goblins took the centre, with the Giant next door.

And both the characters joined the Trolls. All his eggs in one Stupid basket.

The Skaven hordes arrayed across the table

They took the first turn and advanced

Drew patiently waits his turn

The Rat Tank (Doomwheel) lines up the Arrer Boyz

In his turn, drew wisely removed the Great Shaman from the Trolls. He decided to roam free instead.

The Trolls are coming!

Unleash the Fanatics! The Stormvermin make the charge whilst the Clanrats fail, meaning the Stormvermin cop the full fury of the whirling Goblins.

The other Clanrats bravely (foolishly?) engage the Trolls

The much-depleted Stormvermin arrive in combat with the Night Goblins, led by their fearsome Warlord on his festy Pox Rat.

The Rat Tank crashes into the Arrer Boyz, having made good time across the field

The Skaven turn in progress

Arrer Boyz? What Arrer Boyz? Turns out Steadfast is not enough to save everyone...

The central combat, where the Skaven find themselves convincingly outnumbered. Not their favourite odds.

But then, they are only Goblins. They broken and fled, eluding the pursuing Skaven

The Clanrats discover why charging the Trolls might have been considered ill-advised. They lost enough models to lose their Steadfast, and turned and fled.

Of course, fleeing is their specialty, and they put some good distance (and some Rat Ogres) between themselves and the nasty Trolls.

The Trolls shamble forward, watching the skittery rats go. How can something so small move so fast?

The Stormvermin pursuit was not enough to catch the Night Goblins, but it was just enough to elude the Giant.

The Trolls decided to bravely charge through their own Fanatic on the way toward the Rat Ogres. Maybe they knew that Drew would only roll 3 hits on 2D6.

Clash of the big boys. The Rat Ogres swing first, but they're outnumbered.

The valuable stuff distances itself from the Night Goblins, who rally despite the  rapidly approaching Skaven.

Boosted Curse of da Bad Moon! The Great Shaman vents his little green fury on the already battered Stormvermin.

Half of them die, and they panic away from the Shaman, straight through the same vortex template.

4 rats enter, 1 rat (and his rat mount) leaves. Oh well, at least he can rally now...

The Rat Ogres wound the BSB and kill a Troll, but are overwhelmed. Their demise triggers some panic tests, which Owen decides to fail... comprehensively.

The Trolls continue to rampage across the table, chasing the remnants from the field.

The Great Rat Rout: the various fleeing elements head for the table edge. Only the Mortar eventually rallied.

The Rat Tank fights on, spinning and driving towards the enemy.

It is promptly assaulted from 2 sides at once.

Rat Tank undone: with the Gift of the Spider God, the Night Goblins manage to bring down the machine without the help of the Giant. The Warlord has seen enough and heads for the hills (panic again). Game over.

Result: Orcs and Goblins win

So Drew's greenskins had redeemed themselves after a poor first showing. Time for the final game.

Game 3: Skaven vs Empire

During deployment

The Skaven line up

The Rat Ogres shamble forward on the flank

The Rat Tank swings around the house once more.

The Empire lines await

The Warlock Engineer manages to get Warp Lightning through, but only ends up wounding himself.

The Poisoned Wind Mortar landed directly on the Pistoliers, killing 3. The remaining 2 were unmoved, however.

The Halberdiers back up, putting more distance between themselves and the advancing rat menace.

The Pistoliers swing around the flank and begin to harass the Rat Ogres. The Packmaster falls in the first volley, leaving the unit subject to Stupidity.

The firepower of the Empire focused on the Rat Tank, however it survived on 2 wounds.

And then it got closer...

The Skaven advance continues

Oops. The Mortar detonates and kills one of Clanrats nearby.

The Rat Ogres failed stupidity and continued to be harassed by the Pistoliers.

Drew found the funky filters on my phone camera and started taking liberties.

There he goes again.

The Skaven units fail their attempted (rather long) charges and stop short. The Stormvermin took a lot of damage for their efforts: Flame Cage was in play and burnt half the unit. In return, the Warpfire Thrower fired at me and killed a few models. I passed my Leadership 8 panic test (no rerolls). Failure would have seen all 3 characters and my main regiment leave the table, and I would have lost. That was lucky.

However, the Rat Tank shrugged off a second volley (despite Flaming Sword of Rhuin being on the Crossbowmen) and charged in, mauling the unit. They held however, thanks to Steadfast.

The Halberdiers took their chance and charged the Clanrat unit, killing the Warlock Engineer and a goodly number of his friends.

The Rat Ogres were having a very bad day.

The Rat Tank killed all but 2 Crossbowmen. They roll to strike back: 2 6s! They roll to wound: 2 6s! Owen rolls to save: both failed! The thing was dead! It was a miracle! And lo, there was much rejoicing. Well, a little bit of rejoicing. There weren't many guys left to do the partying.

It was a turn of 6s. The Clanrats rolled a disproportionate number of 6s to hit and wound, and then I took my saves for light armour. (Almost) inviiincible!!

The Clanrats were thrashed in combat and fled, outrunning the pursuing Halberdiers. 

Then something weird happened. The Clanrats nearby panicked when they saw what had happened, but due to the proximity of the Pistoliers, fled straight into the path of the Halberdiers. Silly dead ratties. :(

All alone: the last Rat Ogre holds his 2 wound tokens aloft as the Pistoliers (out of shot) take aim with their pistols one last time...

The Cannon had finally contributed the previous turn when it helped the Pistoliers by killing one of the Rat Ogres outright, but now its time had come. Its demise was too much for the 2 partying Crossbowmen, who decided to move their celebrations elsewhere. Somewhere off the table.

The Clanrats rallied, bravely turning to face their pursuers.

The Stormvermin had left a couple of their members behind in the Venom Thicket. Seems they got stuck in the trees.

The Halberdiers charged the Clanrats again to finish the job. They left the unit below quarter strength and reformed to face my table edge rather than pursuing.

Here is why they turned around. There were Stormvermin sneaking up from behind.

The Warpfire Thrower had one last crack at panicking the Halberdiers. They held, but lost a lot of their members to the flames.

Despite their losses, the Halberdiers still fancied their chances. They charged the Stormvermin and cut down everyone by the lord himself.

Run-run! The Warlord makes his escape. Game over.

Result: Empire win

The battles were over, and the Empire had emerged victorious. My army build perhaps gave me the advantage (through no particular planning), however my lack of a BSB meant I was riding my luck a bit (whilst Owen was soundly punished by the dice for the same omission). Ah well, a solid result for the brave men of Stirland!