Axemaster 2023 Aftermath - Part 3

This is the final part of my report of a recent tournament. You can find the previous part here, or go back to the start here.

With one game to go, I was now sitting on a win and a loss. Coming away with more wins than losses would feel like a solid success for the event, so now I just had to win my final game.

Game 3 - Pitched Battle
Jonathan Harry - Vampire Counts

• Blood Dragon Vampire Lord on Barded Nightmare with Full Plate Armour, Shield, Great Weapon, Ring of the Night, Black Periapt, Red Fury, Heart Piercing
• Necromancer (Level 2) with Book of Arkhan, Dispel Scroll
• Necromancer (Level 2) with Spell Familiar, Dispel Scroll
• 20 Skeleton Warriors with Light Armour, Shields, Full Command
• 20 Zombies with Standard Bearer, Musician
• 9 Ghouls
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 5 Dire Wolves
• 25 Grave Guard with Heavy Armour, Shields, Full Command, War Banner
• 9 Black Knights with Heavy Armour, Shields, Barding, Full Command, Banner of the Barrows
• 4 Fell Bats
• 3 Spirit Hosts

A Blood Dragon Vampire and enough magic to pretty easily force some spells past my defences... This game could be a struggle. This time the scenario was a normal battle, so I didn't have to worry about controlling something in particular. I could focus on... Not dying.

Deployment was interesting. I decided to anchor my flank with the forest, and put the Republican Guard closest to it in the hope that it would keep any fighting to their front. I found Jono's placement of his Vampire lord unusual. Putting cavalry out on the flank is nothing really new, but when it's taking the main combat threat in your force and the ability to march within his leadership range over there, and there's a forest blocking you from the enemy's flank. In his defence, he hasn't played as much 6th edition as he has 8th edition Warhammer... He might have forgotten what a barrier that forest would likely be.

All lined up and ready to go.

Axemaster 2023 Aftermath - Part 2

This is the second part of my report of a recent tournament. You can find the first part here.

My first game had not gone particularly well, but there was still plenty of time to salvage some respectability for the mercenary Ogres.

Game 2 - Take and Hold
Orest Mikulin - Orcs and Goblins

• Orc Warboss on Wyvern with Light Armour, Fumpa's Club of Fumpin (+2 Strength), Ironskin Shield
• Orc Big Boss on Boar with Battle Standard, Drog's Dead Ard Armour (1+ save), Sword of Might
• Night Goblin Shaman (Level 2) with Mad Cap Mushrooms
• Night Goblin Shaman (Level 2) with Nibbla's Itty Ring
• 20 Night Goblins with Full Command, Spears, Shields, 3 Netters, 3 Fanatics
• 20 Night Goblins with Full Command, Spears, Shields, 2 Netters, 3 Fanatics
• 5 Wolf Riders with Musician, Spears, Short Bows, Shields
• 5 Wolf Riders with Musician, Spears, Short Bows, Shields
• 20 Black Orcs with Full Command, Great Weapons, War Banner
• Goblin Rock Lobber
• Goblin Spear Chukka
• Goblin Spear Chukka
• 6 Trolls
• Giant

Orest was running a very classic style of Orc and Goblin army. Wyvern, Giant, Trolls... All the "good" stuff (by which I mean, all the stuff you want, but which might not actually end up being any good). This felt like a list that lined up better with mine in terms of power level. The scenario offered 500 victory points at the end of the battle if you controlled the centre point of the table (that pile of sandbags in the picture below). 500 is a lot of points, so this was something you couldn't really afford to ignore entirely. I won the roll-off for table edge and actually bothered changing sides (I don't normally, because I'm very lazy). 2 hills seemed a little too convenient when he had 3 war machines...

Lining up my troops, looking at my units, wondering who is really disposable enough to "draw out" the Fanatics... Not really something I factored into my list building. Nobody wanted to volunteer, especially when one unit had Mad Cap Mushrooms (which doubles the Fanatic impact on the turn they're released).

Axemaster 2023 Aftermath - Part 1

Well, I have survived another 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy tournament. We decided to resurrect our local tournament Axemaster after maybe a 7 year gap, running it using 6th edition because that seems to be where most of the enthusiasm is at present. I've posted my slightly dubious list previously, but here it is again for reference:

• Tyrant with Heavy Armour, Luck Gnoblar, Tenderiser, Wyrdstone Necklace
• Bruiser with Battle Standard, Heavy Armour, Luck Gnoblar, Sword of Might, Talisman of Protection
• Butcher with 2 Dispel Scrolls
• 6 Ogre Bulls with Light Armour, Iron Fists, Standard Bearer, Crusher
• 3 Ironguts with Standard Bearer, Look-Out Gnoblar, Great Weapons, Heavy Armour
• 3 Ironguts with Great Weapons, Heavy Armour
• 2 Leadbelchers with Light Armour
• 20 Ricco's Republican Guard (Regiment of Renown)
• 10 Braganza's Besiegers (Regiment of Renown)
• 6 Voland's Venators (Regiment of Renown)
• 1 Bull Rhinox Rider with Heavy Armour, Iron Fist

I was focusing on it more as an opportunity to use stuff like Dogs of War, and trying not to think too hard about how my games would likely go... Well, now we can find out how big a mistake that was.

Braganza's Besiegers and Axemaster list

Axemaster is in 2 days, and I'm happy to say that I'm pretty well on track in terms of my preparations. My list is settled, painting is almost done, and I've already come to terms with how badly I might lose some of my games!

Braganza's Besiegers are now ready for the table, which means all I have left to paint now is a Lookout Gnoblar to put on one of my unit standards. In some ways this unit felt a bit like a salvage project. They were rummaging around in bags, missing bits, some with rough undercoat/removed paint on them. I obviously picked them up second-hand back in the day, when my Empire army was really just formed up as a way to use my Dogs of War.

10 Besiegers, painted up to go with the purple and white of my core Empire "mercenary" army. I stuck with the rough design of the shields used in the original GW studio photos, even though I changed the colours from red and green.

Mercenary Ogre Tyrant

Axemaster is in less than a week, and I've been making reasonable progress on my preparations.

I now have a new Ogre Tyrant model, made to try to tie in with the armoured aesthetic of Ricco's Republican Guard and Voland's Venators. This is important, because they will all be in my list, and it's important to focus on capturing the vibe when winning most of my games is probably off the table...

One heavily armoured Ogre with a very large hammer. I struggled to decide on colours for him, and in the end the hammer grip was kind of me not making a decision at all - there was room for both colours!