Rumble
in the Bronx is over, and despite being exhausted for the entire
weekend (too much late night painting and modelling will do that to
you), I had a great time. Despite my doubts, I did manage to get my
entire army ready in time for the tournament, so apart from not
getting anywhere near enough sleep, I was all prepared for the event.
I've
shown my list before, but here it is again for convenience:
Tyrant
Bruiser
Firebelly
Hunter
6
Ironguts
6
Ogres
3
Mournfang Cavalry
4
Sabretusk Pack
4
Leadbelchers
1
Ironblaster
Total
Army Cost: 1999pts
I ended
up getting a 7 out of 10 for composition, meaning the panel had
deemed my list to be pretty rubbish. The reasons for this were that I
wasn't really using any of the generally acknowledged strengths of
the Ogre list, apart from an Ironblaster. My flying Tyrant and Hunter
meant I couldn't pour all my characters into a single “Gutstar”
unit. I had little magic and no dispel scroll. All my Sabretusks were
in a single unit rather than running around separately as dirt cheap
annoyances. And my Mournfangs had great weapons, meaning they were
not very well protected. All good reasons to doubt my army could do
the business, but I was pretty happy with the high comp score anyway.
 |
| My 2000 point empire-themed Ogre army. |
Rumble
used an unusual scoring system. Instead of the 20-0 system which is
most common in this part of the world, the score range was 16-0 (with
8-8 being a draw). In addition to this however, both players had to
choose a “boast” at the start of each game. Achieving your stated
boast got you an additional 2 battle points, whilst denying your
opponent their boast got you another 2. You couldn't use the same
boast twice in the event – you had to use all 6 once. So the total
possible score was still 20, before comp. Unusually, comp modifiers
could push you above 20 points for the round, although you couldn't
get less than 0.
Here is
my account of the event. As usual, most army lists will be from
memory, so forgive me if they're not entirely correct. I've got 130 photos to post all told, so I'll be splitting the games up into separate posts to help make the pages load OK. The venue was quite dark, so you'll have to forgive my amateurish efforts to take photos under the conditions.
Game
1: Dawn Attack
Damien
Cooper, Warriors of Chaos
My
Boast: Assassinate (kill the enemy general)
Exalted
Hero of Nurgle with Dragonhelm, Dawn Stone, Scaly Skin, Great Weapon
Sorcerer
of Nurgle (Level 2, Lore of Nurgle) with Hideous Visage, Nurgle's
Rot, Enchanted Shield, Sword of Battle
20
Warriors of Nurgle with Shields, Full Command
Nurgle
Chariot
Nurgle
Gorebeast Chariot
6
Nurgle Ogres with Great Weapons
3
Dragon Ogres with Great Weapons
Mutalith
Vortex Beast
Nurgle
Giant
Comp
score: 7.5 (yep, even softer than me)
First
up, I was playing Damien Cooper with his very nice Nurgle Warriors of
Chaos. Rather heroically (and perhaps ill-advisedly) his list
included a Mutalith Vortex Beast, a Giant, an Exalted Hero as a
general (so Ld 8) and no BSB. At least there was plenty of Nurgle
across the board (including the Giant), so things were resilient.
Somehow Damien finished 9th overall, which I would say was
an excellent result given the limitations of his list.
 |
| Random deployment didn't really cause either of us a lot of grief. |
 |
| Look, a Mutalith Vortex Beast! It's an actual thing! |
 |
| Damien's army was very nicely presented. The Exalted Hero and Sorcerer are both in this unit. |
 |
| My left flank, with the Firebelly and BSB in the Ironguts whilst the Tyrant hovers around nearby. |
Damien
won the roll-off to choose table sides and proceeded to roll for his
deployment. He ended up with his forces heavily to my left, with only
the Giant being forced onto the other flank. I wound up with most of
my characters and Ironguts over on my left, with the Ironblaster,
Mournfangs and Bulls supporting them from the centre. The
Leadbelchers went on my right flank, and were kept company by my
Sabretusks until they Vanguarded. I failed to steal the first turn,
and Damien went first.
 |
| The Chaos forces advance warily. |
Most of
the Chaos forces were wary of the charge distance of the Ogres, with
only the Mutalith and Gorebeast Chariot scooting around hard on my
left flank, next to the building. The Giant decided to swing around
to my right of the big rock on that flank, and seemed more concerned
by my Leadbelchers than he probably should have been.
 |
| The Mutalith Vortex Beast knows no wariness. It barrels forward enthusiastically, waggling its mouth tentacle things in salutation. |
In my
turn I decided to charge the Mutalith with my flying Tyrant, and did
a couple of wounds. I took one in return, but won combat and broke
the beastie. Unfortunately he somehow eluded my pursuit, fleeing
through the Gorebeast Chariot. I chased abysmally, and stopped right
in front of the Chariot. Bummer.
 |
| The Vortex Beast gets away, and my Tyrant pulls up short of the Gorebeast Chariot, which was an embarrassingly small distance behind. |
 |
| My centre hangs back a little, cagey like Damien's was. |
My magic was exciting, with a boosted Fireball going off irresistibly. I killed 2 of the Nurgle Ogres, but my Firebelly was wounded and did 5 wounds to my own unit – so the net result of the spell was even on each side. The Leadbelchers did 2 wounds to the Giant after the Ironblaster failed to wound it.
 |
| The Leadbelchers knock a couple of wounds off the advancing Nurgle Giant. That extra point of toughness changes his durability so much. |
 |
| My Firebelly gets a little excited and blows a hole in his own unit. |
The
Giant was apparently upset about being shot by the Leadbelchers, and
decided to charge them. Unfortunately he found his path blocked when
my Sabretusks suddenly got in the way, having fled a charge from the
Dragon Ogres in the centre. The Nurgle Ogres decided to gamble on a
long charge into my Ironguts and failed, leaving them slightly
exposed to the counter-charge. The Gorebeast Chariot predictably
charged into my Tyrant and did 2 wounds, leaving him with 2 more. He
did 3 wounds in return and the combat was a draw. The Mutalith failed
to rally and kept running, but didn't quite make it to Damien's table
edge.
 |
| The Gorebeast crashes into the Tyrant as the Vortex Beast keeps running. |
 |
| The Sabretusks flee from the Dragon Ogres, safe in the knowledge that the Giant has already declared his charge. Now they're just in the way! |
 |
| The Chaos centre advances a little more. |
In my
third turn, things really started to happen. The Ogre Bulls went into
the front of the Dragon Ogres, whilst the Mournfangs managed to swing
around and get one of their number into the flank. This went
predictably poorly for the Dragon Ogres, and though they killed one
of my Ogres, they were broken and destroyed. My Sabretusks rallied in
front of my Leadbelchers, who stepped across and fired again at the
Giant to little effect. The Ironblaster continued to do no damage as
well.
 |
| The Dragon Ogres are besieged. |
 |
| There is an enthusiastic stampede as the remaining Dragon Ogre flees and is cut down. |
 |
| You're going the wrong way! |
 |
| The Sabretusks rally under the guidance of the Hunter, but they're kind of in harm's way. |
On the
other flank, my Tyrant managed to survived another round of attacks
on a single wound before finishing off the Gorebeast Chariot. My
Ironguts succeeded in charging their overly enthusiastic Nurgle
counterparts, and obliterated them in a single round of combat before
reforming to face toward the centre of the Chaos lines.
 |
| The Nurgle Ogres get themselves dead, but take some of my Ironguts with them. |
 |
| My left flank is starting to look secure. |
Things
were going pretty well, but they were about to get a bit dicey. The
Giant decided to swing past the Sabretusks and charge the
Leadbelchers. He mashed one of them into the ground with his club,
took no real damage in return, and they failed their Steadfast test
before being run down. The Sabretusks and Hunter saw this apparently,
and promptly rolled five 6s – 2 for the panic test, and then 3 for
how far they fled, taking them the 12” they needed to reach the
right edge of the table. Curses.
 |
| Run, he's too ugly! |
 |
| If you're going to panic, do it properly. The Sabretusks of Courage show how it's done. |
 |
| Oh sure, rally waaay back there. Very helpful. |
On the
other side of the field, the Mutalith decided to stop running right on the edge
of the table before turning around and casting its spell at my
mostly-dead Tyrant. I failed to stop it, and found myself taking 5
Toughness tests. I failed one, but to my amazement I passed my 4+
ward saves and lived to fight another turn. I lost an Attack due to
the after-effects of the spell, but gained an Initiative in exchange.
Great deal, eh? In the centre the Chaos Chariot moved to block my
Ironguts, whilst the Chaos Warriors containing Damien's characters
hurried across the table toward my Ironblaster.
 |
| The Chaos Chariot moves to intercept my Ironguts. That forest was to be the bane of their existence. It was a Wild Wood and it accounted for at least 2 Ironguts in its own right over a couple of rolls. |
My right
flank was gone and my centre was a bit confused, with my Mournfangs
and Bulls being behind the Chaos Warriors and facing the wrong
direction. This was made no better when the Bulls failed to reform
swiftly, getting them in the way of the Mournfangs as they all tried
to turn about and move to engage. The Ironblaster realised it wasn't
quick enough to escape the advancing Warriors, and actually moved
into their path a bit whilst firing once more at the Giant. This time
the shot was true and the brute was removed, but alas it was too late
for my forces on that side of the table.
 |
| Let's finish this! |
My
Tyrant was on a single wound and I agonised briefly over how brave I
felt. In the end I decided to take the entertaining route and charged
into the Mutalith, even though it would attack before I did. The
gamble paid off when Damien rolled very few attacks and I didn't have
to take a save. In return the Tyrant cut the beast down and reformed
to face back toward the rest of the table. The Ironguts charged the
Chariot and destroyed it in short order, overrunning across a bit
further than I might have liked behind the Chaos Warriors.
In
Damien's turn he didn't really have a whole lot left. He decided to
charge the Ironblaster with the Chaos Warriors and I fled, taking me
off the board and leaving his unit with its rear to my lines.
 |
| I just remembered, I left the stove on at home... |
In my
turn I think I tried to charge the Ogre Bulls into the rear of the
Warriors, but they didn't make the distance because it was a pretty
long way. The Mournfangs and Ironguts both advanced and tried to
swing wide of each other to make it harder for the Warriors to keep
them out of their flanks. The flying Tyrant shot back towards my
other units, looking to get involved.
 |
| The remaining Chaos worshippers can feel someone following them. |
 |
| Surfing back across the table, like a boss! |
The
Chaos Warriors turned around and managed to pass a Swift Reform test
to back off, keeping all my units to their front (it had been a Ld 7
test without a reroll because of the Charnel Pit sitting nearby in my
deployment zone). The Sorcerer gave the unit Regeneration in an
attempt to prop them up in the combat ahead.
 |
| Turning to face the music. |
It was
my fifth turn when I charged. I considered holding off another turn,
but was running out of time and it was possible I would somehow mess
up and let them get away if I wasted another turn ensuring I had a
flank charge. The Mournfangs and Ironguts both went in, whilst the
Tyrant moved around to look at their flank the Ogre Bulls moved up
behind the chargers.
 |
| Bring it on! The combat starts well, but things rapidly go downhill. |
The
combat was ugly for the Chaos unit. They failed their Fear test (Ld 7
again) and found themselves flailing about uselessly with WS 1. My
forces killed 7 of them, but it was not enough to knock off their
Steadfast and they held their ground. In Damien's final turn they
fared better, and passed their Fear test. They then set about them
rather brutally, culling the numbers of both my units. I did very
little in return (stupid Mark of Nurgle) and found myself on the
losing side of the combat. The remaining Mournfangs held, but the
Ironguts turned and fled. This meant my BSB keeled over along with
the unit standard, and suddenly things were looking less rosy.
 |
| Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The almost-dead Tyrant goes looking for the almost-dead Exalted Hero. |
It was
my final turn and I still wanted the points from the now rather
depleted Chaos Warrior unit. I also wanted the 2 bonus points for
assassinating the enemy general (my boast for the round), who was now
on a single wound. I decided to gamble. I sent in the crippled Tyrant
and the 2 generals faced off in an epic duel of Always Strikes Last.
I fully expected us both to die, and the Chaos leader did indeed keel
over and left me needing a 4+ ward save to survive. Once again to my
amazement, I passed the test! The Mournfangs were reduced to a single
model on one wound, but thanks to the duel I won the round of combat
and the Warriors broke and were run down. The Chaos army had been
wiped out in the very last phase of turn 6.
I felt
like I had held the upper hand for most of the game, however the
toughness of the Nurgle troops had nearly seen me throw away my
advantage in the end. I had to gamble to capitalise on my early lead,
and the game could have fallen apart. But I had been rewarded for my
courage/foolishness. I had achieved my boast and prevented Damien
from getting his, so I got the maximum 4 point bonus for that on top
of my 12-4 win.
Result:
16-4 (15.5-4.5 after comp)
You can find the next game here
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