Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 5

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Rumble in the Bronx. You can find the previous game here.

Game 5: Watchtower

Chris Cousens, Lizardmen

My Boast: Contain Power (kill the most expensive non-character unit, in this case the Saurus block)

• Oldblood on Arabyan Carpet with Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon, Shield
• Oldblood on Cold One with Dragonhelm, Talisman of Preservation, Great Weapon
• Tetto-Ekko
• Scar Veteran BSB on Cold One with Charmed Shield, Dawnstone, Sword of Might, Light Armour
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 10 Skinks with Musician
• 10 Skinks with Musician
• 23 Saurus with Full Command
• 5 Cold One Riders with Musician, Spears
• 5 Chameleon Skinks
• Salamander
• Ancient Stegadon with Engine of the Gods

Comp score: 5

I had emerged from my game with Dave with my score more or less intact, and now I found myself playing the old Egg himself, Chris Cousens. This was the man responsible for my Tyrant flying about on a magic carpet, having issued a challenge to all and sundry before the event to include a model on a flying rug (only a couple of us were silly enough to accept). He was also leading the tournament. Apparently I really was at the pointy end of things.

Watchtower deployment, after Chris has moved his Vanguard forces up between the building and the magical rock that lets things within 6" re-roll failed charges.

I lost the roll-off to control the Watchtower, and Chris decided to put a unit of Skinks into it. He knew that I would need some good rolling if I was going to wipe them out with only 3 Ogres fighting at one time, so it would take me time to dislodge them. I decided I would have to try anyway, and put a unit right in front of the building including my BSB. The Hunter and his Sabretusks went on the right, with the Leadbelchers and Ironblaster going more centrally. The Mournfangs and Ironguts went on the left of the Watchtower, whilst my carpet Tyrant sat way out to the left to make sure Chameleon Skinks couldn't get any ideas and deploy behind my lines.

Chris' army actually contained 2 Old Bloods - the one on the carpet wasn't his army general. The other one rode a Cold One and went into the Cold One Knight unit over to my left, whilst the BSB decided he could take his chances with cannonballs in the Saurus unit near the centre because he had a Charmed Shield. Tetto-Ekko and his Skink entourage lurked behind the Saurus block. The forces to my right were dominated by the Stegadon Ancient.

Vanguard! They don't mess around, do they?

The flying Oldblood - the trend-setter who ultimately saw my Tyrant follow suit.

Having failed to get control of the tower, I would automatically have the first turn. But first came the Vanguard moves, and Tetto-Ekko decided that his side would get 2 of them. The Saurus block and flying Oldblood both moved up alongside the Watchtower, meaning that any effort to attack the building on my part would likely be charged if it didn't wipe the Skinks out.

My Sabretusks feast upon tasty, tasty Chameleon Skink flesh. They acquired the taste in Game 2.

I decided not to Vanguard, and instead charged and destroyed the Chameleon Skinks in front of my Sabretusks. My Ogre Bulls charged into the building as planned, after I decided that the counter-charge from the Saurus wouldn't be the worst thing ever. My unit killed quite a few Skinks, but didn't come close to wiping them out, so I was pushed back as expected.

Knock knock, Skinkies!

A general advance. The Tyrant is no longer way off to the side, thanks to the speedy wonders of his magical carpet.

With the Chameleons gone, the Sabretusks realise that they're a little exposed. I decided to reform them to face the centre as though they were not in peril and would actually still be around next turn.

Perhaps I should have been charging the building with the Ironguts and my Firebelly (whose breath weapon would have been my best chance of cleaning out the Skinks). However, they were busy contributing in other ways. A mid-level Fireball forced its way past Chris' defences, and a large number of the Skinks escoring Tetto Ekko were incinerated. Apparently this was a disturbing experience for the unit, as they turned and ran straight off the table. Chris had no magic, and it was only turn 1!

My shooting was less impressive, with the Ironblaster failing to hurt the Stegadon and the Leadbelchers firing off an uninspiring blast at the Saurus.

The Oldblood on Cold One (it's down there somewhere - there's a fat hairy Ogre in the way) goes in alone, apparently confident that he can face down 10 Strength 5 and 6 Strength 6 attacks that will most likely be coming back at him.

My Mournfangs had moved up aggressively on the left, figuring the Cold One Knights would be unable to charge them with the Skinks in the way. This wasn't going to stop the Oldblood, who had a clear path to go in by himself. I had decided that this would be fine - my great weapons might prove useful in such an engagement. As it happened I didn't manage to land a wound, but it was worth a try. The Oldblood didn't even kill one of my unit in return, so I was Steadfast Ld 9 with a re-roll. Naturally I broke, fled no distance (4 inches or something) and was run down. The Oldblood carried on and hit my Ironguts in the front. It was not at all how I thought things were going to go.

Apparently the Oldblood knew something I didn't, emerging unscathed through the Mournfangs and carrying on into half my army, still entirely on his own.

The Oldblood on the carpet had also spotted a target in my Leadbelchers. I could potentially have hidden them behind the rock formation between us, but had failed to pay attention to it when I started moving, meaning I couldn't be sure I could manage it once it occurred to me. So I just shrugged and let it happen. I decided to flee as a charge reaction, which in hindsight was a poor idea. I was 12" away, and promptly ran 2". I was caught easily, but was probably in danger even with a middling roll because the Oldblood would have been able to re-roll his result because of the fancy magical rocks. Given how close we were, I should probably have taken my chances and held to try to delay him.

OK, so maybe fleeing was not the right call. But they sure ballsed it up.

Bad as that one was, I got lucky nearby when the Stegadon failed to make a 13" charge into the flank of my Sabretusks. I had realised I couldn't flee without potentially panicking the Leadbelchers, so was left relying on a below-average roll. The Skinks took out their frustration by shooting some of my Sabretusks to death, but that was OK. The Hunter kept them in place and they weren't all dead yet.

The Sabretusks get lucky as the Stegadon fails to make the distance.

Then they get shot for their troubles.

In the centre, the Saurus block charged corner-to-corner into my Ogre Bulls, with only our respective BSBs in contact with each other due to the proximity of the terrain. A challenge commenced, and took some time to resolve itself. Both units were locked in place, and it took 4 rounds for the Scar Veteran to triumph and cut down my Bruiser. During that time I had managed to roll just a single hit with 12 attacks (on 4+). In Chris' defence, he did his best to help me enjoy that single hit by failing his Charmed Shield roll and taking the wound. But really, it was a fight that my Strength 7 Ogre should have been able to win. He was a real embarrassment.

The stupid-looking diagonal engagement brought about by my proximity to the building. My BSB is about to start embarrassing himself. Maybe I should have modelled him with an actual weapon.

If I had known my BSB would contribute so badly, I might have left him to his fate as punishment. As it was, in my second turn I sent the Hunter and the remainder of his unit into the flank of the Saurus whilst the Ironblaster charged into the front. It served to cull the Saurus a bit and give me the upper hand, but I didn't actually kill all that many of them for how much of my army I was throwing in there. It wasn't long before the Hunter had lost all of his Sabretusks and was fighting on the flank by himself. The up-side of this plan was that it took the Ironblaster out of the arc of the flying Oldblood, who had clearly thought he had it under control. After losing the combat when Chris charged and having to hold on about Ld 7, my counter-charge saw him lose repeatedly and have to test on around Ld 4 or 5. Unfortunately Cold-Blooded is a potent thing and his unit held its nerve.

I counter-charge with everything available. You can actually see in this shot that I should have been reforming the main unit across to get some more attacks in, but I kept forgetting as it was all a bit of a mess and I was busy being enraged at the BSB's antics. Seriously, he wasn't even close to hitting for the first 2 rounds!

As hard as I tried to hit them, my progress was slow.

My flying Tyrant made his presence known by charging into the Skinks who, having stopped the Ogres from occupying the Watchtower, had moved out in Chris' first turn. The Skinks fled, but I caught them with the Tyrant and he reformed on the far side of the tower. I had thought I was looking at the Cold One Knights as well as the Oldblood fighting my Ironguts, but apparently I had messed it up a little and they were narrowly in my flank. Carelessness, really. I figured it didn't matter much.

The Tyrant does his best to look nonchalant as the Saurus cavalry attack him.

Leadership, baby! The dice put the lie to his casual attitude. Apparently he was packing his dacks the whole time.

Apparently I was wrong. In his turn, Chris charged the Cold One Knights into the flank of the Tyrant. Somehow I found myself taking 4 ward saves, which seemed far more than I should have been. I passed 3 of them thankfully, and then killed 2 of the Saurus in return. This meant that I wound up losing combat by 1 - for the flank. I had a re-roll, but failed my break test and then fled about 3". Naturally I was caught, and another of the key tools in my army had vanished in an extremely disappointing fashion. I was really going to struggle now.

The flying Old Blood wastes a turn getting into position after Chris messed up his facing a bit. Could be worse. I did that and lost my carpet-rider...

By this point my turns were really just becoming a couple of combat grinds. The Oldblood fighting the Ironguts killed a few of the Ogres in my unit before eventually succumbing to their great weapon attacks. Then I found a unit of Skinks standing between the survivors of my unit and the Watchtower. I took damage from their shooting, then damage from their stand and shoot, then (stupidly) I lost 2 of them in combat to the Skinks' attacks. Somehow I went from a viable unit to a lone Firebelly, who failed to catch the Skinks when they broke and was then cut down by the Cold One riders as they rounded the building.

Crippled after their encounter with the Old Blood and a volley from the Skinks, my Ironguts charge them and continue to take a ridiculous amount of damage.

The Saurus cavalry mop up.

The Lizardman reinforcements arrive and bulldoze through my resistance.

I never did kill the Scar veteran BSB. I ground through the remains of his unit just as Lizardman reinforcements arrived in the shape of the Stegadon into the Ironblaster and the flying Oldblood into the rear of the Ogre Bulls. The Stegadon went straight through the Ironblaster like it wasn't even there, although at least my Ogre unit held its ground thanks to Steadfast for a round or two before they gave in and were destroyed. The Hunter killed the final 3 Saurus Warriors, then turned and fled thanks to the carnage elsewhere in the tangled combat. He rallied defiantly before being gunned down by the Engine of the Gods, as I failed to dispel it.

My lines fold as the Hunter flees, but not before he finished what he came there to do and wiped out the Saurus. Boast completed, man. Achievement unlocked and all that guff.

The closing stages. You will note the lack of Ogres.

A cheeky Salamander claims the house for his own.

The Hunter and the Firebelly were my last models. I had been wiped out, and obviously Chris held the Watchtower for the 800 bonus victory points it offered. That more or less cancelled out the points I had accumulated for killing the Saurus, Oldblood, Tetto-Ekko and some Skinks, so I had been thumped 16-0. On the bright side, I had 2 points for achieving my boast of removing Chris' most valuable unit, so it was 18-2 before comp.

Result: 2-18 (4-16 after comp)

Well my run had been good up until that game, but that loss had been comprehensive. Only one round to go now...

You can read the report of the final game here.