Bendigo Besieged Aftermath - Part 5

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

Game 5 - Battleline
Tim Jarman - Empire

• Marius Leitdorf, Elector Count of Averland with Full Plate Armour, Barded Steed, The Averland Runefang
• Battle Wizard (Level 2, Lore of Fire) with Dispel Scroll
• Warrior Priest with Additional Hand Weapon, Light Armour
• 20 Free Company Militia with Additional Hand Weapons, Champion
• 10 Handgunners
• 8 Inner Circle Knights with Full Plate Armour, Barding, Lance, Shield, Full Command
• 28 Spearmen with Light Armour, Spears, Shields, Full Command
• 3 Demigryph Knights with Full Plate Armour, Barding, Shields, Halberds
• 25 Flagellants with Flails, Champion
• Great Cannon
• 24 Greatswords with Great Weapons, Full Plate Armour, Full Command
• Mortar
• Helblaster Volley Gun
• Steam Tank

My final game would be against an Empire army that had managed a comp score of 10, so it should suggest a relatively even fight. Much of the threat from the list came from the Steam Tank and artillery, but I was sure it would be just fine...

Marius Leitdorf! He must be one of my favourite characters in Warhammer. A lunatic with a deadly blade who can receive tactical instructions from his horse...

Ah yes, a Steam Tank. I definitely had plans to be able to kill it. Not even a problem. Actually, if my Treeman didn't manage to pound it with a Tree Whack attack, I had no idea how I could possibly get it off the table. Most of the army looked pretty manageable to me. The Steam Tank and maybe the Demigryphs were the main concerns.

With Demigryphs on the flank, my Vanguard move was a little cautious.

A look across the field before we begin. This game was actually the first where I would be facing cavalry of any kind, and the first where I'd need to address 1+ armour saves. The Waywatchers were getting ready to do something they had not had to do before - fire single shots in "ignore armour" mode.

I won the roll-off for the first turn, which was helpful. I didn't want Tim going first with that artillery. I still couldn't advance too aggressively, though.

The Glade Guard managed to remove the Helblaster Volley Gun before it could fire, which was good. The Cannon was going to be harder to deal with, however. It was much further back.

This was all very strange and dramatic. I didn't want the Knights charging the Treeman, as they hit too hard (especially with Marius at their head). So I made sure I sat 18" away from them, so they'd need an 11 on the dice if they charged. I didn't think Tim would try it. But not only did he try it, he succeeded! The Treeman did what he could in the face of this disaster, standing and shooting with Strangleroots. Rather incredibly, he did 5 wounds and Tim failed all the 3+ saves! At least he passed his panic test, but it did mean that the Treeman might actually survive the charge now. He took 3 wounds, mostly from Marius. In return he did 2 wounds to the Elector Count, meaning we were both looking a bit shaky. The Treeman lost, but held his ground stubbornly.

So you know how I was leaving Tim charges where he'd need an 11 on the dice? Yeah, he pulled it off on the other flank too. It was slightly outrageous. The Warhawks might have had a chance in this fight if they'd been charging (maybe). As it was, this was bad.

Meanwhile the Eagle was fleeing, because the Greatswords had also decided to try a long charge, and this one was (if anything) more achievable. I figured the Eagle could regroup and make himself useful somewhere else.

The Warhawks lost one of their number and fled, but the Demigryphs decided not to pursue them, instead reforming to face down my lines. I probably would have chased them, honestly. Note that the Eagle is gone. I don't recall what happened to him. It wasn't the Cannon - that was busy shooting Treekin.

In my turn, the Treekin stepped forward far enough to disappear in the forest they had been heading toward, and reappear in the middle of Tim's lines. The Volley Gun behind them is dead - don't worry about that.

The Treekin had effectively abandoned the Treeman to his fate when they teleported away. Not that they were in a position to help immediately. Nor were the Wardancers - the Knights were just out of arc.

The Dryads turned to face the threat off the Demigryphs and the Warhawks rallied.

The Waywatchers decided they could handle the danger of the Handgunners firing at them, and focused on trying to bring down one of the Demigryphs. They did so, but the rest stood their ground.

With the Knights having lost their lance bonuses, the only real threat to the Treeman was Marius. The threat was very real, however. Marius landed 2 hits (which means 2 automatic wounds with no armour saves), and only me passing one of my 6+ ward saves kept the Treeman alive. In return, the Treeman managed to land 3 wounds on his opponent, but he unsportingly passed all of his 4+ armour saves and survived. It was a decidedly uncomfortable struggle for both of them.

The Glade Guard had taken a heavy toll on the Greatswords in my turn, and now they declared a long-range charge on the Dryads - not because they thought they would make it, so much as to get out of the way of the Steam Tank so they it could spin and charge the Treekin. I actually thought we might be OK when it rolled a misfire, but that just turned into extra steam points for the turn. It made the distance easily.

The Empire infantry were gradually making their way across the field whilst I was focused on the more immediate problems. I had fired my Hail of Doom Arrow at the Cannon, but only managed a single wound.

The Treekin combat did not go well. It did an absolute mountain of impact hits, sprayed with a full strength steam turret, and generally made life hard for them. They did nothing in return and fled the combat. So much for my cunning teleportation - it couldn't have gone much worse.

Marius has fallen, and the tree is still there! Given the Treeman was on one wound, I was decidedly nervous when Marius went to attack. Thankfully he missed with all of his attacks, allowing the Treeman to finish him off in return. Phew.

In his turn, Tim had declined to charge the Dryads in the front. Instead he had fired up his Battle Wizard who unleashed a mid-level Fireball that somehow killed 7 Dryads. Oh well, it's not like they could panic. In my turn we decided to try our luck on the Demigryphs whilst the Waywatchers shifted their focus to the Handgunners.

I finally sent someone in to help the Treeman, with the Spellweaver and BSB leading from the front in the Wardancer unit.

The Glade Guard continued to fire on the Greatswords, who were quickly running out of models.

The arrival of the Wardancers proved the end of the Knights, but now my units were left to reform as the Empire reinforcements drew closer. This was delayed a little as the Militia had approached too close to the combat and immediately panicked and fled back toward their comfort hedge. 

The Demigryphs struggled in their combat, losing another of their number and breaking. The survivor managed to outrun the Warhawks. In the background you can see that the Treekin rallied after their encounter with the Steam Tank.

I appear to be missing some photos here. The Demigryph and Militia both halted their "tactical withdrawals", turning back to face my lines once more. The Steam Tank lined up my Lord, and though it didn't make the distance this time, its cannon did just fine and blew him out of the unit. Apparently my Lord doesn't believe in passing ward saves against cannonballs. My Treeman likewise perished, felled by the Great Cannon. Sad. He didn't even have time to celebrate his perilous victory over the Knights. The Wizard fired up again, blasting another chunk out of my Dryads. I should probably have been able to stop that guy from doing this, but I think my dispel power was no match for his lunatic pyromaniacal enthusiasm.

I wasn't convinced that the Warhawks could actually take the sole Demigryph, but I had to try to get rid of him somehow. So in we went. I shouldn't have doubted them. They broke him and chased him off the table, ignoring my instructions to hold their position.

I know how Steam Tanks work. They do nothing much in combat in the opponent's turn, and are far less effective if they're pinned in place. That being the case, I charged it with the Treekin. This plan ended up working perfectly. We never really wounded it, but it couldn't make enough progress against us. The Steam Tank did end up killing one of the Treekin, but shortly after I managed to cast Regrowth from the Branchwraith, and brought it back. At the end of the game, we were both still there. The Steam Tank with about 7 wounds remaining, and the Treekin had a single model with a single wound left.

The Dryads ended up charging the Greatswords and wasted the impetus of the charge by killing no models (Tim passed several armour saves). Then in the second round, when Hatred was gone and I figured we were doomed, my unit fired up and thrashed them. It was really weird. Anyway, the Greatswords died over a couple more rounds of combat.

The Flagellants were making a bee line for the Glade Guard rather than worrying about the Wardancers. The Battle Wizard had left the Spearmen, deciding his need to find and burn targets far outweighed the protection of his unit.

I have no photos, but it was at this point that the Glade Guard decided the Flagellants had come close enough. The Spellweaver cast Hand of Glory on them, boosting them to BS7 again. Then they opened up, dropping 15 of the Flagellants in a single volley. It was gruesome. Incredibly, in his turn Tim was still going to declare a charge. I pointed out that this would result in another volley exactly like the first one (BS7 cares not for charging target penalties). Basically, don't do it. I persuaded him, but... Not so much the Flagellants. They tested to restrain Frenzy, rolled double 6s, and died on a hail of arrows, shrieking Sigmar's name and about how great the pain felt or something. Lunatics.

Perhaps having finally tired of just incinerating Dryads with Fireballs, the Battle Wizard revealed his other party trick - Fulminating Flame Cage on my Wardancers. If they moved, every one of them would cop a Strength 4 hit. That was not at all ideal. I would have liked to move them out of the path of the oncoming Empire infantry, but I couldn't really afford to. I needed a Plan B.

Look at this Battle Wizard. The man is crazy. He somehow spent all battle forcing spells past my higher level defences, incinerating implausible numbers of Dryads, and runs out into the middle of the field in front of my entire army. I love this guy. Self preservation is for the weak, and those who lack commitment to setting people on fire. Maybe Tim was trying to get me to shoot him with 40 shots from my Glade Guard, so they wouldn't fire at a more worthy target. I'm not sure. Anyway, I didn't do that. The Waywatchers finally shot him off the table.

So you know how my Wardancers and characters needed a Plan B? Well, this was Plan B. Having been trapped in a cage of flames, my Spellweaver decided to fight fire with fire. I had spent all tournament trying to cast Fiery Convocation, and not once had I managed to get it off. I had failed the casting roll an improbable number of times. People had also rolled much better to dispel it, or saved their scrolls for that spell in particular. Well, I showed them all. This time I cast it irresistibly, burning 3 quarters of the Free Company to a crisp. I also then immediately lost the spell and Hand of Glory due to the miscast. Oh well, I had already cast Hand of Glory that turn, pushing the BS of the Glade Guard up again, so they could pour fire into the Spearmen who had the cover of the forest. They killed maybe half of them - at least a good number. But they didn't run away, and were still headed for my Wardancers.

Much of the damage of the charge was absorbed by the Wardancers boosting their ward saves, and the counters the Spellweaver had accumulated up until that point. They gave better than they got, despite the Warrior Priest having given them a 5+ ward save before the combat.

The game was reaching its closing stages, and the Glade Guard finally found a situation where they would be of more use in combat than shooting. Their arrival guaranteed the Spearmen wouldn't be Steadfast, and gave me an extra pursuit roll. The Spearmen broke and were run down.

This game highlighted some of the weaknesses in scoring victory points in 8th edition. The Dryads, Wardancers and Treekin were all below half strength (way below half in the case of the Treekin), but Tim got no points for them. For my part, the Free Company had continued to burn as they fled, and were reduced to maybe 3 models. But they didn't make it off the table, so I got nothing for that. It's a part of the game and there's a certain mentality or justification behind it, but it can be frustrating when it comes time to work out the scores. In the scheme of things I'd managed a better job of mopping up the units I engaged (Tim had only the Steam Tank, Cannon, Mortar and fleeing Free Company left, whereas I only gave up points for the Treeman, Lord and Eagle). The field was mine.

Result: 16-4 Win

When the dust settled at the end of the event, I had only won 3 of my 5 games, but I had accumulated the 3rd most battle points in the event. When other things like comp scores were added, somehow I had managed to make it into 2nd overall. This was a surprisingly good effort, but I think I had a bit of luck on my side. There were several armies in the field that my list probably could not have beaten, but the use of a simple win-loss matching system meant I'd ducked under them before jumping them at the end with solid wins. These things can happen anyway, and the win-loss matching is not a disaster when you have 5 rounds with 18 players - sooner or later it should work out. 

Somehow the Ungrim list I played in the first round ended up in 3rd. I have no idea how, with that list. I'm very impressed.

Winning was not really what the event was about for most of us anyway - the place had a relaxed atmosphere and great community vibe to it, and I think everyone had a pretty good time. It was fun to play another 8th edition tournament after all those years, and it felt well worth the trip up to Bendigo to take part.

Thanks to all of my opponents, and to CJ for making it all happen. Hope we can do it all again next year!