Convic 2013 Aftermath – Day 2

This is a continuation of my account of Convic 2013. If you want to read about Day 1, you will find it here.

So after Day 1 my army was going along pretty nicely with 2 wins and a loss. I would be hoping for something similar on Day 2.

Game 4: Dawn Attack

Nick Gentile, Short Shorts/High Elves

Nick Gentile. The Short Shorts are not really his army, but they're definitely some form of weapon and/or assault on the senses... Sadly the spiffy jacket was missing in this photo.

Archmage (Level 4, Lore of Heavens) with Book of Hoeth

Noble (Battle Standard) with Reaver Bow, Potion Of Strength

15 Archers with Musician

15 Archers with Musician, Standard

5 Silver Helms with Musician, Standard, Shields

5 Silver Helms with Musician, Standard, Shields

5 Dragon Princes of Caledor with Musician

5 Dragon Princes of Caledor with Musician

15 White Lions of Chrace with Musician

15 White Lions of Chrace with Musician, Standard

15 White Lions of Chrace with Musician

5 Shadow Warriors

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower

Great Eagle

Great Eagle

Ah, Mr Gentile. Could there be a more exciting way to start the day? As the resident excited man on the Dwellers Below, he had also arrived dressed to impress in a fancy jacket and short shorts, in a bid to win the Sexiest General title. Apparently he lacked follow-through however, and didn't get the gong. It has been well documented elsewhere who took the title, but I can't bring myself to repeat it here.

I confess, Glorious Birdie died a little inside at the sight of 4 Repeater Bolt Throwers, the Reaver Bow with Potion of Strength and 35 archer shots in the enemy army. He was displeased. But that would only make him more fearsome in the battle to come. Here was an army that Bloodroar would actually work against (maybe)...

Nick's deployment. No, he didn't stand like that all game. It was mainly a pre-game intimidation thing.

My Empire deployment

The scenario was Dawn Attack, which meant neither of us had complete control over our deployment. Having said that, I have never seen anyone roll as many 3-5s (centre zone) as Nick did, so his army was rather stacked in the middle of the line. My rolling was similar, although my line ended up slightly stacked to the left of centre. I got the first turn (which seemed to be a recurring theme, partly due to my pathetic number of drops during deployment) and moved forward aggressively. The Demigryphs lagged behind a bit because they tried to charge some brave Shadow Warriors who had scouted to well within their range, but they rolled abysmally and didn't come close. Pity. Those Shadow Warriors then spent the rest of the game in an epic duel of insignificant proportions against my detachment of 5 Archers, who fired the first shot and managed to somehow score a wound on 7+ to hit. The 2 units danced around each other and waved their bows in a quasi-menacing fashion, killing a model now and again and stubbornly refusing to panic or charge.

The Empire advance. Actually this looks like just after the start of Nick's turn, as those Shadow Warriors on the left started behind the forest.

My other units made better progress than the Demigryphs by virtue of not trying to charge something in the first turn. The Glorious Birdie made use of the building in the centre as hard cover and scored Pha's Protection as a bonus to ensure no enemies at all bothered trying to shoot him. The Steam Tank tried to shoot a Bolt Thrower, as it was in a position where I could have forced maybe 5 panic tests without the general or BSB being in range. Tragically the shot failed to bounce. It did it again the next turn. Eventually the Steam Tank cut its losses and ran over an Eagle instead. The cannon was a waste of time.

The High Elves respond. See, he sat down eventually.

Nick responded to my turn by blocking the advance of my Knights with some Silver Helms, whilst the other unit shot around to my right. Unfortunately for them they didn't go far enough. The Flagellants spotted a flank charge needing only a moderate roll, got it, and did bad things to the fancy Elf cavalry. The musician survived to flee the table. I had managed to cast Net of Amyntok on the Archmage's unit, however with the BSB sculling a Potion of Strength that turn (to power his preposterous bow), he passed every Strength test with ease. Ah well, it was a good plan. The mega-powered bow and the Bolt Throwers combined to do a few wounds to the Steam Tank in that first turn, but found other targets later. A Comet of Cassandora appeared between my Knights and Demigryphs and crashed down at the first opportunity. Fortunately the armour on my units largely preserved me, although I think I lost a Demigryph.

Flagellants to the flank. Not ideal for your health, no matter who you are.

Hey, at least there was a survivor...

Combo charge!

After the overruns. The Birdie feels a little exposed...

In my second turn I charged the Silver Helms in front of my Knights with everything that could reach. The Demigryphs swept around next to the Knights whilst the Glorious Birdie arrived in their flank. Unfortunately Nick made a mockery of the dangerous Terror test (passed on all 3 dice combined), so I didn't get to make lots of devious redirected charges as I had hoped. The Silver Helms were demolished as you would expect, especially with boosted Speed of Light affecting all my units. The Demigryphs managed to overrun into the leftmost unit of White Lions, whilst the Knights went into a waiting unit of Dragon Princes. The Glorious Birdie did his best to look inconspicuous, unengaged and unprotected as he was in front of the whole line of Bolt Throwers.

The counter-charge. It went poorly for my BSB in particular.

Nick responded to my Knights' overrun by charging them in the flank with a unit of White Lions. Whilst their kindred next door were getting spanked by the Demigryphs, these White Lions fared far better. Even with WS10 to protect him, 5 attacks were enough to bring down my BSB which was not good. Several Knights dropped as well, and I didn't even manage to wipe out the Dragon Princes because Nick had the temerity to pass 4 out of 5 6+ ward saves against my lances. I still won the combat that round (I think) but nobody fled.

We fight on! But where did all our friends go?

The epic duel continues on the left flank.

My Demigryphs thrashed their opponents in the first round of combat, but then had trouble finishing them off. It took them 3 rounds of combat to mop up the last model before they could finally reform to face the enemy artillery off the hill. Behind them the Glorious Birdie heroically survived a wave of fire from the Elf war machines, although he was looking a little the worse for wear. His Ironcurse Icon actually helped, which was awesome. Nick's rolling also helped here... With his new-found lease of life the Birdie found an enemy Eagle that had strayed too close (presumptuously assuming that I'd be dead, I guess) and dealt with it handily. This put him behind a hill, but it was not enough to save him from the wrath of the Archmage who zapped him with lightning and left the rider on foot (and represented by a spare Flagellant again. Oh, the indignity. One can only assume he was reduced to such a state in his grief over the unseemly demise of his magnificent mount, delicious as the scent of smouldering chicken probably was).

My Flagellants swept on after dealing with the Silver Helms and managed to wheel around and charge one of the Bolt Throwers, right next to the flank of an Archer unit. It was all looking excellent. They would be right in the heart of the enemy army. Then they failed to make the 3” overrun. Fell 1” short. You do the math. It was lame. Oh well, the Archers were not going to get away...

Gah! No! Stupid dice!

The Knights' combat became a grind-fest that my unit was ill-equipped to win, and in the end another unit of Dragon Princes charged in to replace the unit that I eventually cut down. With the White Lions still cutting away at the flank and my numbers dwindling my unit lost combat by 2 and broke, getting run down in the process.

Rather unfortunately, this was the last thing that happened. We had run out of time and the game ended. I have no idea what happened to the time, but somehow we had only gotten through 3 turns. We were both a bit shocked, and it was bad timing for my army. My Flagellants had missed their chance at the enemy backline, as had the Demigryphs, and I had just lost my most expensive unit. Ah well, these things happen I guess.

We stopped at this point. The Dragon Princes and White Lions were actually neat the building after their pursuit rolls. 

In the end I was up by a colossal 35 victory points or something comical like that. We assumed that made it a draw, until we realised that for some reason the scoring system only allowed a draw if you were on exactly the same number of points. Odd. Anyway, it meant I counted as “winning” that one...

Result: 11-9

Game 5: Meeting Engagement

Adrian Stakula, Ogre Kingdoms

Staks put more effort into trying to woo the "sexiest general" judge than he did into beating me. Which just makes this game even sadder, really.

Tyrant on Arabyan Carpet with Dragonbane Gem, Armour of Silvered Steel, Great Weapon

Bruiser (Battle Standard) with Lookout Gnoblar, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Dragonhide Banner

Bruiser with Wallcrusher, Opal Amulet, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour

Firebelly with Grut's Sickle, Great Weapon

4 Ironguts, with Full Command, Standard of Discipline

4 Ironguts, with Full Command, Lookout Gnoblar

4 Ironguts with Full Command

5 Ogres

5 Ogres

4 Leadbelchers with Musician

Gorger

Gorger

Sabretusk

Sabretusk

Sabretusk

Ironblaster

Staks had a bet at the Masters last year with Dave Duriesmith. The conditions of this bet had been that if Staks failed to actually win the Masters (a scenario unthinkable to Mr Stakula, who is severely lacking in things like modesty and common sense), he would enter a tournament this year with an army of Dave's making. Shocking as it must have been to Staks, he did not in fact win this bet. As a result, he had found himself entering Convic with this list. You might think it odd that the key characters in this list have no ward saves. Rest assured that if Staks had been making the army, this would not have been the case. Nor would you see that in a list Dave was making for himself...

Anyway, this is an army that mine should be able to handle. The characters are vulnerable, the units are small and the magic is almost non-existent. Leave it to me to make a simple proposition look harder than it really is. Especially where Staks is involved. It's been a long time since a tournament game against him went according to plan.

Most of the Ogres hide near the table edge, with only the intrepid Sabretusks venturing further forward.

My deployment, which was more aggressive but slightly messed up by needing to wait for the BSB once he'd finished his nap. Or whatever he was off doing.

The guys who didn't bother to join us for the start of the game.

The scenario was Meeting Engagement, and I won the roll-off to choose corners and deploy first. My BSB and Steam Tank started the game off the table, which meant the Tank would be wasting an entire turn just appearing on the edge (after the compulsory moves phase). Ah well. I did the usual thing of stacking fairly heavily toward the shallow end of my deployment zone to ensure I wouldn't leave the BSB behind when he arrived, but I did put the Demigryphs to the left of the building in the centre. Staks deployed far deeper, with only a couple of Sabretusks going anywhere near the front of his zone. He lost his flying Tyrant, Leadbelchers and a unit of Ogres as late arrivals, and had 2 Gorgers who would be biding their time already.

Staks failed to roll a 6 to seize the first turn, so I went first yet again. I decided that the Sabretusks up front were going to be exceptionally annoying, so figured I could clean them both off with a charge from the Demigryphs. One died and the other panicked as expected, and when he hit his table edge he panicked off a nearby unit of Ogres to boot. Not a bad effort for a single Sabretusk. It was a good start. I moved the rest of my line up a bit, although I managed to kill 3 of my Knights moving through the forest on the right. Good stuff. The Glorious Birdie moved up aggressively past the building to threaten a number of charges.

Staks opened by declaring a charge on the Glorious Birdie with a unit of Ironguts, who agonised for a while before deciding he needed to flee. The Ironguts managed to redirect onto the Demigryphs, going in alongside what passed for a “Gutstar” in Staks' list (the 3 non-flying characters were all stacked into another unit of Ironguts). I had decided to hold, as I had cast Birona's Timewarp on the Demigryphs the previous turn, so they were primed to do some serious damage. It was the aggressive play – I could have fled instead, but the BSB was a bit far away to help on the rally test and I didn't trust myself.

The Demigryphs are too busy doing the Timewarp again to bother fleeing as most of Staks' army charges them.

The combat was pretty brutal. Staks got lucky and killed a Demigryph outright with impact hits (yay, armour saves), which greatly reduced the damage I was looking at inflicting. I still killed the Champion from the Gutstar and 3 of the Ironguts from the smaller unit, and despite losing another model to great weapon attacks, I won combat by 2. Both units held (the Gutstar was admittedly steadfast), and I was bogged with only 2 Demigryphs remaining and time running out. Nobody would be there to rescue them that turn.

Well that hurt, but we're theoretically winning this fight. For now...

The rest of Staks' line moved up cautiously and the Ironblaster lined up the retreating form of the Glorious Birdie, but managed only a single wound on the beast and nothing on the rider. That was nice of him.

A glorious retreat: My general retires to the relative safety of his lines, but cops a glancing cannonball to the backside for his efforts.

In my second turn the Steam Tank moved to shoot the Ironblaster, misfired, and proceeded to his all of its steam points away for the rest of the game. Seriously, it never moved again. I even wounded myself once with the 2D6 Strength 2 hit misfire result once (it doesn't ignore armour) because I am a real pro and do these things properly. What an awesome piece of gear this Tank was proving to be.

The remaining Sabretusk had moved up to block the advance of my Flagellants and Knights, and got itself put down by the Flagellants for its trouble. It meant they had to overrun, although it was only a moderate roll that put them past the building. They could handle the Ogre units facing them. It would be fine. The Knights basically reformed and the BSB caught up to them as the Birdie rallied behind them. My lines were regrouping.

I needed a big magic phase to ensure the Demigryphs could survive. I also wanted to hit the Tyrant with Searing Doom, because it seems both Staks and I had completely forgotten that the guy had the Dragonbane Gem and would shrug it off. Either that, or the list Staks was using on the day is different from the one above, that I lifted from WargamerAU. Or maybe Staks was being exceedingly shifty by looking all worried as I contemplated it. I even tried a boosted version later and rolled too poorly on 6 dice to cast it.

Anyway, I rolled a useless magic phase and only had enough power for 1 spell. I cast Birona's Timewarp again rather than Speed of Light. It was the more aggressive choice, as it offered them no protection but ensured they would do maximum damage before they went. This translated to 3 dead Ironguts in total (including the remaining model from the smaller unit). Unfortunately Staks rolled many wounds with the combined great weapon attacks from his characters and this proved fatal for the remaining Demigryphs. That was not good. The surviving unit of Ogres reformed to face the flank of my overrunning Flagellants. That was very not good.

The Demigryphs, they are gone. Alas. They fought pretty well, really.

In Staks' turn, the Glorious Birdie got blown away by the Ironblaster. I think the rider was wounded, but survived and fled into my Swordsmen nearby. The crippled Gutstar charged the Flagellants and, combined with the efforts of the Tyrant, wiped them out in a single round.

The end is nigh, brother! Turns out they were quite right...

The game was in danger of slipping away from me, but I had a response. The Knights declared a charge on the Gutstar, intending to overrun into the Tyrant. It should have been enough, especially with hatred and Luthor Huss using his Chosen of Sigmar rule. Unfortunately I rolled poorly, and this combined with the whole “all my models are characters and your attacks will be wasted” Ogre gambit and a good break roll from Staks saw me fail to break through the line despite killing one of the Bruisers.

The Knights charge in a move that should really have salvaged the game.

After the round of combat things were looking pretty grim.

From this point things were really downhill. The Knights fought on for a very long time, with my horses finishing off 2 Ogres in challenges and spells like Speed of Light reinforcing the ever-decreasing line of humans as more Ogres including the Tyrant piled into the flanks. The Firebelly and the last Irongut perished, but in the end I lost the unit completely.

Surrounded: The Ogre army closes in.

My Swordsmen try to back away, but are pinned in place by a Gorger to the rear as the Ogres approach.

My most exciting moment was the glorious charge of the Archers into the flank of the Ironguts. I had it all worked out - I would roll surprisingly well and break them, and thus cheer myself up a bit. Didn't work. Admittedly they only barely died in the first round. Ah well, 35 points well spent.

This left me with both Wizards and my General hiding in the Swordsman regiment whilst Gorgers and Ogres circled them. My safety in numbers (feeble though this was) was negated when the Wizard Lord blew himself and many of his neighbours apart with a miscast, and the unit's fate was sealed. The General fell to a Gorger who had been reduced to 1 wound, and the remaining Wizard was run down as the unit shattered under the charge of the Ogre unit in their front. It was a disappointing end to a disappointing game. The complete failure of my Steam Tank combined with a series of events had prevented me from recovering after my aggressive use of the Demigyphs and I had been unable to capitalise on Staks' army's weaknesses in any meaningful way.

Result: 2-18

Game 6: Battleline

Jonathon Walker, Beastmen

Beastlord with Great Weapon, protective gear

Great Bray Shaman (Level 4, Lore of Beasts) with Jagged Dagger

Bray Shaman (Level 1, Lore of Shadow) with Dispel Scroll

Bray Shaman (Level 1, Lore of Shadow) with Chalice of Dark Rain?

Wargor (Battle Standard) with Beast Banner, Great Weapon

Wargor with Great Weapon

40 Gor with Full Command

25 Bestigor with Banner of Swiftness

Tuskgor Chariot

Tuskgor Chariot

Tuskgor Chariot

Razorgor Chariot

8 Ungor Raiders

5 Harpies

5 Harpies

Once again, I'm sorry for the vagueness with the list. In particular the characters. I know there were magic items in there that didn't really come into play, so by now (some 2 weeks later) they completely escape me. Pretty sure someone had the Gnarled Hide, and someone else had Uncanny Senses. Things like that. Ah well. As I say, most of these things played no part in the game, so I guess they're not important anyway.

The 2 armies deploy. Jonathon has a unit of Ungor with a Shaman behind the forest on the left - you can hardly see them here.

I deployed fairly centrally, with the Griffon on my right and the Flagellants on the left. Jonathon spread his chariots out across his left flank, which initially I thought would make good sport for the extra-terrifying Glorious Birdie, but somehow lost my confidence early on when I realised just how many of them there were, and what a pill it could be to ensure that I did the charging (messing that bit up could have been fatal). His Bestigor became a thing of terror when the Beastlord and BSB both joined the unit, which made the regular troops Strength 7 and the lord Strength 8. It meant the big Gor horde had only a few Shamans and a single Wargor to lead it, and it was therefore under-strength, but the Bestigor were such can-openers on legs that most of my units wanted nothing to do with them and they were likely to intercept anyone rushing for the Gors. In other words, Jonathon was doing a good job of making things tougher for me than I would have liked.

The Empire advances cautiously.

I got the first turn to round out an entire tournament of first turns, and moved forward relatively cautiously. The Flagellants were happy to run at best speed, but the Steam Tank was very slow and the rest of my forces held back a bit rather than setting themselves up as chariot roadkill or chopping practice for Bestigor. The Glorious Birdie decided the initial plan with the chariots was no good and moved across my line. Maybe there would be a more acceptable target over there.

The Beastmen respond.

The Beastmen responded relatively cautiously as well, however one of the Shamans had rolled Pit of Shades and was clearly excited about the prospect of trying it out on my Steam Tank. He rushed out of his unit over to my left to save his comrades from becoming collateral damage when he started throwing 6 dice at the spell. I used a Dispel Scroll on it that turn in response to a massive casting roll that thankfully was not irresistible.

In my turn the Flagellants got excited by the prospect of a Shaman by himself, and given the Gor were really too far away, they went for him instead. He very bravely held, choosing to believe that I would fail the charge (I needed maybe an 8). Unfortunately for him, the Flagellants made the distance, hacked him down, overran quickly and crashed into the Ungor unit behind him which contained the other lesser Shaman. They were quickly dealt with as well, however the Flagellants chose that moment to be inept, fail to sacrifice any of their own number, and therefore fail to finish the job properly. The remnant of the Ungor got away, which meant the Flagellants wasted another turn chasing them off the table and were effectively out of the game, on the wrong end of the board.

The Flagellants find some likely victims...

... and chase those victims way out of the central part of the table.

Come back! Let us tell you about the end! We have pamphlets!

The Knights deal with the first Tuskgor Chariot and turn to face the others. There were a few more of them (the Knights, not the Chariots) before the trees.

On the other side of the table, my Knights spotted a Tuskgor Chariot in range and went after it, despite having to charge through a forest to get there. I lost several Knights to the fearsome wrath of the trees (no, they were not fancy magical trees – they were actually just inanimate objects that my riders were too clumsy to avoid). The Chariot died and the unit reformed, looking at the other ones nearby. The Demigryphs declared a charge on the Razorgor Chariot which had been the most adventurous of the pack and moved closer to my lines, but it turned and fled. I redirected onto the Gor, but didn't make the distance (they were a fair way away). This left me a little close to the advancing Bestigor, so the Steam Tank rolled forward to buy them some time.

It should be noted that in the first turn the Steam Tank did 4 wounds to the Razorgor Chariot, and in the second turn it killed 3 Bestigor. This marked the only time in the tournament when it actually hurt any model other than itself with its cannon. The stuff of legend. Unfortunately this awesome display was about to come to an end...

Bummer. What Strength did you say they were, again?

It turned out the Steam Tank had not gotten far enough to properly protect the Demigryphs from the wrath of the Bestigor, so I had to flee the charge. They redirected onto the Tank, and then, with the additional enthusiasm granted them by Wyssan's Wildform, hacked 8 wounds from it with their great weapons. OK, so when I said I was hoping to buy some time, I was really looking for more time than this.

Ow, ow, ow...

The centre. Not going quite as we might have hoped.

A Tuskgor Chariot charged into my Knights on the right flank, looking to avenge its fallen comrade (I presume). It didn't do much damage, but I failed rather abysmally in fighting back and didn't manage to kill or break it. It would make me waste my next turn killing it off. Curses. The Razorgor Chariot rallied nearby to join in the mockery of my forces. Boo-urns.

In my turn the centre was starting to look pretty bad. Neither the Knights nor the Flagellants would be in a position to launch a rescue and the Demigryphs were busy rallying. The Glorious Birdie scared off another Tuskgor Chariot, but without any unit champions to accompany him, couldn't launch a lone assault on the Gor for fear of being challenged out. Thus it became a failed charge that went nowhere, and my centre barely shifted. The most rapid movement came from my little Metal Wizard, who had realised that things were looking pretty bad, and he wasn't making a real contribution. He cast Transmutation of Lead in a feeble attempt to slow the Bestigor, but his main efforts came as he rushed forward from his unit to stand alongside the doomed Steam Tank. He would buy my troops another turn to respond to the unstoppable bus of Beastmen.

You shall not pass! If this guy had been standing on a conveniently narrow and brittle bridge, he could have done the whole Gandalf thing admirably.

The Glorious Birdie's sensible decision not to charge the Gor paid off not a whit when the unit managed to charge him in the flank instead (needing only a middling roll of maybe a 7 or 8). That was bad. Jonathon didn't even challenge. Instead he cast Wyssan's Wildform and peppered the Griffon with Strength 4 attacks. He survived on a single wound, and laid into his assailants in return, winning the combat and turning to face them (although they held thanks to steadfast).

My ploy with the Wizard blocking the Bestigor nearly paid off pretty well. Buffed with Speed of Light, he issued a challenge and found himself facing down the Beastlord himself – and survived. As hilarious as this was, unfortunately he couldn't manage the double 1 break test he was faced with and was run down. But the Bestigor were stuck behind the side of the Gor unit engaged with the Glorious Birdie, and this traffic jam cost Jonathon a couple of rounds.

Serves him right for having so many Gor, eh? All they ever do is get in the way...

That combat with my General was to last the rest of the game. It was a berserk display of augment and hex spells, failed fear tests and hatred from primal fury. The Birdie himself took a fearful amount of killing. At the height of the contest, the Wargor stepped forward in a challenge with Wyssan's Wildform and Savage Beast of Horros in play. He faced a Griffon affected by Speed of Light, Pha's Protection and Curse of Anraheir. The Griffon landed 4 blows on the Wargor, but thanks to his boosted Toughness (and the dice) only did 1 wound. This meant the Wargor could strike back. Thanks to hatred he hit with 3 attacks, and was swinging at Strength 9... And rolled 3 1s. Boo yeah! Birdie was INVINCIBLE!! He then capered in celebration and accidentally thunderstomped the Wargor to death during his “I am a glorious and invincible birdie” dance. It was totally an accident.

As awesome as this was, eventually the Griffon did fall. The rider fought on until the last phase of the game, refusing to break as he persistently lost combat by 1 or 2. At the last he broke, and was run down. It was a sad end to his heroic defiance. By this point Jonathon was really just breathing a sigh of relief. I think we had both started to believe that my General might live out the game.

The Knights keep fighting Chariots, promising themselves each time that this one will be the last.

Elsewhere there was a bit of a swirl of charges and combats. My Knights charged at yet another Chariot and then failed their redirect check, and then Jonathon returned the favour by failing to redirect a Chariot's charge onto my fleeing Wizard Lord at point blank range (he was running around by himself, looking to boost units and throw magic missiles). It was just about the only test those damn Chariots failed all game – they were rallying in rather annoying fashion all over the place with their allegedly mediocre Leadership – but it was a let-off for me in terms of points.

The Bestigor did eventually find their way around the Gor unit and charged the Swordsmen, who had moved to ensure that my General wouldn't cop them in the flank. In order to do this, I had to reform 4 wide. Suffice to say that I didn't have high hopes for that combat. The Swordsmen were pounded and broke, but eluded their enemies. They then failed to rally on Leadership 10, but practically tripped on the spot and didn't make it off the table at the end.

The Demigryphs and swept up the right flank, charging alongside the Archer detachment into some Harpies that got too close before swinging around to face the central combats. They only charged in the last turn, but gave the Bestigor a major scare when they slammed into their rear with Speed of Light. The Beastlord shoved his way back through the ranks to meet the enemy, and his fearsome example was apparently enough to inspire the roll of double 1 on the unit's Primal Fury, giving them Frenzy on their Strength 7 attacks. Frigging yay. Anyway, the Demigryphs still hacked through about 2 ranks of the Bestigor and won combat handily, although they copped a bit of a hiding in return. Steadfast kept the combat in place, and it was still going at the end of the game.

How things looked at the end. The General standing on the card just got run down and there are a couple of casualties on the left. The units are all still there, though.

So, if you couldn't follow all that, by the end Jonathon had the Birdie-savaged Gor horde left (below half their starting number, I think), with the Great Bray-Shaman at their head. He also had the slightly brutalised Bestigor led by the Beastlord and BSB. I think I got everything else. For my part, I had lost my General and his Glorious Birdie, the Steam Tank, and the small Wizard. Points-wise it was pretty tight, but I was just ahead. It was an interesting game and I think we both came away feeling it could have gone better.

Result: 11-9

So at the end of the second day, I had actually emerged with the same basic result as Day 1 – 2 wins and a loss. That is simplistic, though. My wins were basically draws, and my loss was a big one. In the end I theoretically had 4 wins and 2 losses, but that translated to only 59/120 points – I had failed to break even. A bit of a strange set of results. I ended up in 35^th position, which was very mid-field and if I'm honest it's lower than I expected to be.

The Griffon was every bit the liability I had feared he would be, although his real issue was not being shot – it was that he couldn't be trusted to go into a middling combat because he was just too vulnerable. I did the right thing not loading the rider up with too much gear, as his mount was always going to be the focus. Unfortunately Bloodroar had largely been a waste of points as only 2 of my 6 opponents had to take Terror tests. I forced a couple of Fear tests with an extra dice, but it was probably not enough. At Strength 6, the Griffon's offensive potential is not that much worse than a basic Dragon's. Unfortunately Toughness 5 and no save is just too easy for decent troops to cut through, let alone characters. Maybe in an army with more units, so I would get a better chance of setting up flank charges. Or maybe with another Griffon...

Whatever happens, the Steam Tank will be sitting out the next event. It was an important inclusion in the army and it really failed me every time I looked to it for any real contribution. Performance like that must be punished – it will have to earn its way back into the starting line-up.

Till next time!