Convic 2019 Aftermath - Part 7

This is the final part of my tournament report of Convic. You can find the previous part here. You can find the first part here.

One game to go, and I was still leading the field with AG nipping at my heels. I guess that made it my tournament to lose...

Game 7: Push
Geoff Holland - Dwarfs

• Golloch's Thunder (formation)
• Golloch's Fury (Legendary Steel Behemoth)
• Steel Behemoth
• Steel Behemoth
• Earth Elemental Horde
• Earth Elemental Horde
• Greater Earth Elemental
• Berserker Brock Rider Regiment
• Sharpshooter Troop
• Ranger Regiment
• Berserker Lord on Brock
• Stone Priest with Martyr's Prayer

That's about 50 points short, so I've missed something again. But the important stuff is there, right? 3 Steel Behemoths, and a total of 6 units with Defence 6! It was a wall of steel and stone. I had seen this army sitting on a table and the thought of facing it had worried me a bit. Now we would get to see if those concerns were warranted.

At the start of the game we had to select a single enemy unit to be worth double attrition points. I chose the Brock Riders, and Geoff picked the Winged Beast over on my right.

I was on the same table as before, and Geoff put me on the same side as well. And I was playing Dwarfs again. So there was an element of deja vu here. But Geoff's list was very different from John's, and seemed a whole lot more likely to be pushing at me. He also stacked a lot of weight on my left flank.

There was a lot of space over on the right, albeit with the Sharpshooters covering some of it. It made sense to put a birdie over there, with a view to threatening flank charges.

Geoff got the first turn and rolled forward a bit. He was being less aggressive than I had expected, really. Putting the Greater Elemental so far from the Stone Priest (who was hiding behind the Elemental hordes) seemed an interesting choice. He was going to be a bit slow on his own with no prospect of Surge.

For this scenario, both sides had 2 tokens we were trying to force into the opponent's half, and there was another on the ground in the centre. One of the Earth Elemental hordes had a token. I'm pretty sure Golloch's Fury was carrying the other.

Geoff had shown a lack of intent in his movement. I tried to do a little better. The Giant strode up on the left, with support waiting not far behind. He and the Pole-arm horde were now clearly in range of the Brock Riders, But they'd be going in alone.

The units carrying my 2 tokens were the Pole-arm hordes queueing up patiently in the centre. They also moved up, but were not yet in danger of being engaged (unless the Berserker Lord over by the tower got ideas). The birdie moved into a potential flanking position, using the wall as cover from a charge from the Berserker. Importantly, the tower was offering me protection from the Sharpshooters... But I could still see them.

It was at this point that I discovered I had misinterpreted Geoff's intentions with the Steel Behemoths. They shuffled around until they were just within 12" of targets, but outside the charge range of my infantry. And then they opened up with their breath weapons. It stung a bit, but not too badly. Golloch's Fury has a more fearsome weapon, which it turned on my birdie. He took 5 wounds and wavered, as all good brave leaders do.

Something similar was occurring on the right, with wounds slowly accumulating on my from Pole-arm horde and birdie. Geoff's main line did actually move within range here, although he was careful to ensure I couldn't stack too much stuff into any given target. The Berserker Lord was clearly intent on making a nuisance of himself. I had to be a bit careful there, as I figured he was heading for my Wizard (whose Inspiring was covering several units, and whose Bane-chant was likely to be important).

In my turn, I decided to accept the invitation to charge, rather than continuing to be shot. The Pole-arm horde hit one Elemental horde, whilst a Beast of War and Giant went into the other. The Pole-arm regiment engaged the Steel Behemoth, and the birdie decided he wasn't needed right now and instead went over and engaged the Sharpshooters. I figured he'd get some good angles once they were gone.

On the left, Geoff had deliberately given me fewer options. I didn't want to invite combo charges, so I wasn't ready to close to within 10". The exception was the Giant, who was within range of the Rangers and would be safe from any counter-charges except from the Rangers themselves.

The Pole-arm units dented their opponents a bit, but the Beast of War and Giant did better, crushing one of the Elemental hordes with a single charge (with some solid rolling). I was then left trying to work out how to avoid a tricksy spinning charge from the other horde, as they could see and were square enough to pull it off. I did not want a horde flanking either of my monsters. In the end both units backed up to protect their flanks. Up the back, the birdie made a start on the Sharpshooters but was going to need more time.

The Giant did OK. The main thing was that he was there, and he was safe. He had a bit of time.

Geoff surveys his options, particularly with regard to the Berserker Lord.

One issue with what had occurres in the centre was that the Beast of War had backed up so far that the Brock Riders could now see its flank. But there was a speed bump on the way, so maybe they wouldn't go for it.

No, they went for it. Sorry Beastie, hold in there! Conter-charges were the order of the day on this side of the field, with the Berserker Lord electing to help the Steel Behemoth with the Pole-arm regiment.

Geoff continued to hose me with shots on the left, but he gave up on avoiding charge ranges and closed the gap a bit.

On the right, my Pole-arm regiment perished and the horde took a fair whack of damage from the Earth Elementals. At the same time, the Stone Priest up the back was busily using Martyr's Prayer to transfer wounds from the Elementals onto himself. They were practically good as new! That didn't bode well for my chances of bringing them down in the near future. In my turn, I charged the Berserker Lord with the fresh Pole-arm horde, whilst the other horde counter-charged the Elementals. Up the back, the birdie had a second crack at the Sharpshooters.

The efforts of the Brock Riders had been underwhelming. Given they were hindered, they struggled to land much damage despite rolling a ton of dice. Then they braced themselves for the inevitable counter-charge, with another Beast of War arriving in their flank.

On the left, I engaged heavily. The Pole-arm horde had taken significant damage from Geoff's shooting on the way in, but now they had a chance to vent their frustration against the nearest Steel Behemoth. The birdie had also suffered, but decided he would rather die to a counter-charge from Golloch's Fury than sit around and get shot again. The Giant charged again into the Rangers, and the Greater Elemental found itself fighting a Beast of War and a regiment of Pole-arms, for good measure. So... it was an aggressive turn.

I admit, I did think I might be able to break the Brock Riders. Instead they endured 16 wounds, and kept on fighting. The Pole-arms did their best against the Elementals, but I was now preparing myself for the prospect of them healing a ton of it back as I had been unable to reach the Stone Priest.

On the left, I got pretty lucky. I did a bit of damage everywhere, but the Giant routed the Rangers and was free to spin and look at flanks and rears, whilst the Pole-arms managed to waver the Steel Behemoth with a huge nerve roll. It would most likely have accounted for the Pole-arms the following turn, and now it was doomed...

Back on the right flank, the Pole-arm horde had proven too much for the relatively lightly armoured Berserker Lord (I believe that was another good nerve roll on my part), and the birdie mopped up the Sharpshooters before spinning to face back toward the enemy lines.

That Stone Priest was probably in trouble now...

Things were not going well for Geoff, but he did his best to improve matters. The Steel Behemoth bounced relatively harmlessly off the fresh Pole-arms, but the Elementals waded through the other unit and routed them, before turning to face the threat of the birdie. The Brock Riders had a second attempt at the wounded Beast of War, and this time they fared a little better and removed it from the equation.

Golloch's Fury counter-charged my birdie and routed it, but the only other combat was between the Greater Elemental and the Pole-arm regiment, and I took modest damage. Worse, the Beast of War ended up in its flank arc because of the way it stepped across to engage the Pole-arms.

In my turn, the Greater Elemental failed to withstand the flank assault of the Beast of War (with help from the Pole-arms, of course). The wavered Steel Behemoth had elected to face the Giant in Geoff's turn, which of course meant the Pole-arms had a rear charge. They gleefully accepted, whilst Golloch's Fury ended up in a Giant sandwich. 42 Giant attacks later, it was not there anymore...

On the right, the Pole-arms counter-charged the Steel Behemoth, with the birdie electing to charge in from behind. The Wizard stepped up on the hill and zapped the Stone Priest with Lightning, removing him. It was a gamble because it meant I wasn't Bane-chanting the Pole-arms against the Defence 6 Behemoth...

It didn't really matter, though. My dice were hot in this game. Just about any time a question was asked, my rolling came up trumps. It was a little ridiculous. So the Steel Behemoth fell apart without the help of Bane-chant, the Brock Riders were unable to resist the Beast of War anymore, and the Earth Elementals were now looking very alone.

Actually, they were looking very, very alone. Everything else vanished that turn. At this point it was just a question of ensuring I both killed the Elementals and grabbed the central loot counter, both of which I did.

In the end that one felt a bit one-sided. I had a lot of tools at my disposal, and they never really let me down with the dice. Geoff confessed that he wasn't liking the look of my army as we set up, and I can now see why. The strength of his list was its toughness, but I had enough heavy hitters that Defence 6 wasn't enough to protect him. I would have played it differently, but I'm not sure it would have gone any better.

Result: Win
Tournament Points: 20-1

So by the end of the tournament, I had somehow racked up 6 wins in 7 games, and it was enough to get me over the line and win the event. As someone who generally only ever finished in the lower half of Kings of War tournaments before, it was rather surprising. My list had turned out more effective than I had anticipated, although monsters being effective was not that surprising to me. From my perspective, I think a couple of keys had held it together:

1. The Pole-arm units are a really practical building block. They can't be ignored (even the regiments), and they cost very little (leaving so many points for the monsters)
2. The Winged Beasts played their role perfectly. They are underwhelming fighters, but they're still dangerous on the flanks, and the range of their Very Inspiring meant I still had enough coverage.
3. Beasts of War are very solid. I love having something that can't waver at all. Both those and the Giants always being able to counter-charge, and also carrying Strider, was really helpful.
4. I also didn't roll like poop. Like, basically at all. It was a novel experience. I recommend it.

Overall I had a great time at Convic, and I would recommend the event to anyone. Thanks to AG and Geoff for making it happen, and to everyone who came along.