This is the final part of my report from the recent Snake Eyes Warhammer: The Old World tournament. You can find the previous part of the report here, or go back to the start here.
We were now coming into the final round, and finally ran into people we knew. Well, we knew most of them. I've never met Randy before, and he was the one I ended up playing.
Round 5: The Dwellers Below ft. Randy
Sam
Daemons of Chaos
- Lord of Change (440)
- General
- Twin Heads
- Iridescent Corona*
- Level 4 Wizard
- Battle Magic
- Tzeentchian wand
- Herald of Nurgle (150)
- Winged Horror
- death’s heads
- 8 Chaos Furies (112)
- Daemons of Khorne
- 8 Chaos Furies (112)
- Daemons of Khorne
- 8 Chaos Furies (112)
- Daemons of Khorne
- 6 Chaos Furies (84)
- Daemons of Slaanesh
- 6 Chaos Furies (84)
- Daemons of Slaanesh
- 4 Flamers of Tzeentch (167)
- Champion
- 4 Flamers of Tzeentch (167)
- Champion
- 3 Flamers of Tzeentch (127)
- Champion
- 6 Plague Drones of Nurgle (439)
- Champion
- Standard Bearer
- Standard of Seeping Decay Plague Proboscis
Randy (C)
Empire Knightly Order
- Chapter Master (172)
- Battle Standard Bearer
- Demigryph
- Full Plate Armour
- Wolf Hammer
- Order of the White Wolf
- Grand Master (294)
- Shield,
- General
- Pegasus
- Full Plate Armour
- Dragon Slaying Sword
- Ring of Fortune
- Paymaster's Coin
- Wolf Hammer
- Order of the White Wolf
- High Priest of Ulric (133)
- Barded Warhorse
- Heavy Armour
- Great Weapon
- 4 Empire Knights (96)
- Order of the White Wolf
- 4 Empire Knights (96)
- Order of the White Wolf
- 8 Inner Circle Knights (353 pts)
- Order of the White Wolf
- Stubborn
- Full Command
- Witch Hunter's Ward
- Tapestry of Sigmar's Triumph
- 4 Demigryph Knights (285)
- Order of the White Wolf
- Full Plate Armour
- Wolf Hammer
- Full Command
- 4 Demigryph Knights (285)
- Order of the White Wolf
- Full Plate Armour
- Wolf Hammer
- Full Command
- 4 Demigryph Knights (285)
- Order of the White Wolf
- Full Plate Armour
- Wolf Hammer
- Full Command
Jabe
Orcs and Goblins
- Black Orc Warboss (341)
- Great weapon
- Full plate armour
- Shield
- General
- Wyvern
- Talisman of Protection
- Trollhide Trousers
- Night Goblin Oddnob (200)
- Level 4 Wizard
- Idol of Gork
- Waaagh! Magic
- Night Goblin Bigboss (55)
- Battle Standard Bearer
- 16 Black Orc Mob (282)
- Full plate armour
- 10x Shields
- 6x Great weapons
- Full Command
- The Big Red Raggedy Flag
- 30 Night Goblin Mob (182)
- Full Command
- 3x Fanatics
- 30 Night Goblin Mob (182)
- Full Command
- 3x Fanatics
- 8 Orc Boar Boy Mob (205)
- Full Command
- Cavalry spears
- Heavy armour
- Shields
- Big 'Uns
- Da Thinkin' Orc's 'At
- 5 Night Goblin Squig Hopper Mob (60)
- 5 Night Goblin Squig Hopper Mob (60)
- Goblin Bolt Throwa (45 pts)
- Doom Diver Catapult (95)
- Doom Diver Catapult (95)
- Mangler Squigs (95)
I struggled a bit during the game to remember that this entire army was White Wolf knights with hammers. There were a lot of lances around, and it caught me out a couple of times because I got caught making assessments based on what I was seeing, rather than what I knew they were.
I didn't have a great plan for how I was going to deal with all those Demigryphs. Even if I managed to find a way to charge these units, basically the whole army had Counter Charge. So it was going to hurt regardless...
The wall of Demigryphs advanced somewhat cautiously, and the Grand Master on his Pegasus lurked behind one of the pillars. This was a guy with Monster Slayer and the ability to generate rerolls, so I really didn't want him heading for my Warboss.
Closer, but not close enough to get charged.
At least this flank was only facing Knights, rather than Demigryphs.
My movement was a little bit cautious. The exception was on the right flank, where I assessed that a Giant could easily wear the charge of 8 Knights. Had I forgotten that they were White Wolves, with Furious Charge? Yes, I had...
I was trying to set the Inner Circle Knights up - drag them within range of something that could really hurt them. I was a bit undecided about how to commit the Wyvern, though. I couldn't charge him anywhere that the Grand Master would be able to reach him.
I allowed the Squig Hoppers to bounce forward a little bit into the forest. I figured needing to take the penalty for charging into the forest would ensure Randy wouldn't even try to get to them at this range.
Exactly what I had played for... It was just going to hurt a lot more than I had anticipated.
The Inner Circle Knights took the bait and charged at the Squig Herd, which fled. I realise now on reflection that I couldn't do this - they're Immune to Psychology. I have no idea how I didn't spot that at the time. The irony of it being that I think he would have been an inch short anyway, and the Squigs never rallied and eventually fled the field...
So you know how I decided that Randy would never charge the Squig Hoppers because of the forest penalties? Well yeah, I was wrong. He did charge them, rolled very well and got there, and after wiping them out, carried on into the Night Goblins. I'm pretty sure the other unit tried to charge the Giant, but didn't roll anything like the distance they needed.
The centre was a bit of a stand-off, but the Grand Master had at least moved across to support the flank.
There he is, trying to camouflage with the bones. And you can see that, just as I planned, the Giant did survive being charged by the Knights... Just. That's 5 wounds taken, not 5 wounds remaining. He was nearly dead, and had only killed 3 Knights by way of compensation.
In my turn, the "cavalry" arrived in the shape of a Night Goblin Big Boss on Giant Cave Squig. He did a good job - I think the Squig even chomped a couple of Knights with killing blow... Unfortunately it wasn't enough to save the Giant.
With the threat of the Grand Master gone, the Warboss decided to charge into the Demigryphs in the centre. The idea was that he might actually get help from the Mangler Squig, who was primarily looking at the flank of the Inner Circle Knights, but was even closer to these Demigryphs. So of course he rolled terribly and made it to neither. So my plan of punishing the Inner Circle Knights came to nothing, and the Wyvern would be fighting alone. Honestly when the Demigryphs counter-charged the Wyvern, I was a bit worried about how much damage they were going to do in the combat. Thankfully Randy was worried about the damage I would do, and challenged with the unit champion (who died).
I feel like this picture doesn't fully convey what was going on... With the Demigryphs about to attack them, the Night Goblins released their Fanatics. One of them flailed about and perished immediately, but the other one flew through the Demigryphs and did something amazing like 5 wounds. The Boar Boyz had also been able to see the enemy's flank, so swung around and hit them. I think we actually still lost the combat and the Night Goblins broke from the field, although the Boar Boyz held. Nearby, the Giant ran forward and parked himself right in front of the other Demigryph Knights - I figured this was better than charging them and risking the counter-charge giving them Furious Charge.
At this point the Mangler Squig paid the price for flopping around aimlessly instead of making himself useful by biting huge chunks out of Randy's army. Happily the prospect of the Squig firing up and eating the Grand Master with Killing Blow was enough to convince him to use all of his one-off re-rolls to ensure that he actually killed it before it could bite back.
I think I'm missing some relevant photos here, so I'll just fill in the gaps. The Squig died. The Warboss on his Wyvern, who had looked so assured in the first round of combat, proceeded to have a terrible round where I don't think he even landed a wound. He lost combat and broke, fleeing through the Wolf Riders (who I think panicked and fled the field). The Black Orcs watched all of this with bemusement, and then received the charge of the pursuing Demigryphs. Thankfully it was my turn next, so the Warboss was able to rally near the table edge and try to salvage some of his dignity. My Shaman realised he no longer had any sort of escort, and did his best to scurry away from the line of sight of the Grand Master.
Over on the left flank, the Demigryphs charged the Giant immediately in front of them, and had little success. I don't think the Giant did much either, but that Fanatic who had maimed the other unit of Demigryphs had developed a taste for them, and sailed over to pulverise this unit too. It was amazing.
The Black Orcs weathered the initial charge of the Demigryphs very well, but didn't do much in return. Unfortunately they then found themselves flanked by the Inner Circle Knights. That hardly seemed sporting.
And nearby, my rallied Warboss had not managed to avoid the attentions of the Grand Master. They clashed, but with the Grand Master having already used all his re-rolls, he couldn't land a telling blow on the Wyvern. The fight lasted a couple of rounds with the Pegasus falling back in between, and then it was over and I still had my general, but Randy no longer had his.
The Black Orcs broke and fled from the combined assault of the Demigryphs and Inner Circle Knights, but somehow they far outpaced their pursuit, nearly making it clear of the forest and out of sight. Over on the flank, the Giant broke the lone remaining Demigryph and was unable to chase him down. That guy would rally and then float around in the relative safety of Randy's backlines. The Demigryphs that had been fighting the Boar Boyz were no more - the flank was mine.
Having tried valiantly to rescue the Giant on my right flank, the Night Goblin Big Boss had been bounding back toward the fight in the centre, each turn with me making dire predictions of how he was going to tear Randy's army apart when he got there, and getting excited when he rolled high and hurried up. Given his arrival had been long (and loudly) heralded, I was surprised when he actually managed to catch up with someone, in the shape of Randy's battle standard bearer. Realistically at that point the goblin should have been doomed, but I think he survived a round of combat and then the Squig managed to eat his opponent!
Once again I'm missing a couple of important photos. Having failed to catch the fleeing Black Orcs, the Inner Circle Knights then found themselves being charged in the rear by my Warboss. They decided this was bad and fled through the forest and my units (losing some models in the process), to end up near the side of the table. The Wyvern redirected onto the Demigryph unit and carved a hole through it.
Having made it to "safety", the fleeing Inner Circle Knights rallied to find themselves without an escape route.
And then bad things happened to them. They did not survive.
The game had gone quite well for me. It could easily have been different, had the Grand Master beheaded my Warboss. Maybe Randy should have held his nerve and not used all the rerolls against the Mangler Squig. But then, there's no point saving your abilities if you suddenly find yourself inside a Squig's belly. So I guess that's fair enough.
Result: 16-4 Win
And in the other games...
Tim: Ah, game 5.. Well, at least this write-up might be longer than the game went, so .. positives right? Oh, and the fact that Greg gets to farm us for that sweet, sweet content!
This game was up against orcs and goblins, and while there was no dragon, there was at least a wyvern, so that counts, right? He took time debating his spells, and he decided to keep Hand of Mork, which proved very fortuitous.
He debated this for a long time and finally settled on charging the wyvern into the knights, the hoppers made a 14” random move into my marauders on the left and a mangler and a Night goblin unit into the chaff on the left… then he made the fateful choice to cast Hand of Mork, removing his wyvern out of the knight combat and he rolled an 11 for distance… just enough to get it out of the dragon's line of sight.. Welp, there went that trap.
It unfortunately got worse: the night goblins overran a huge distance and without the wyvern to stop them, ended up just enough in front of the knights to prevent them from charging past into the mage and/or the war machines and his mangler failed to kill the horsemen which meant my cunning trap 2.0 also was thwarted. And lastly, the other night goblin unit moved right up to my lines.. I'm sure some people can see what is coming.
So it comes to my turn two, and many fanatics were released in front of charging units, after impressive rolling on distances, the knights, the three dragon ogres, and the spawn were dead, and the unit of four dragon ogres were halved. After the resulting combat, I only had my dragon and shaggoth left. We basically ended the game there, I “got” the war machines with my dragon and the shaggoth was doom-dived to death, all over in just over an hour.
Not much to add other than I underestimated how fanatics worked and how bad that match-up actually was. In sad news, this was the only game where the spawn ended on less than full wounds! They are fair and balanced units! Jabe was very apologetic, but sometimes these games just happen. at least I got to go watch our brave captain’s game (see still a lot of bravery).
Result: 4-16 loss
Pete: This was a shooty-avoidance Daemon army, consisting of a Lord of Change, a big unit of Plague Drones and then tons of Furies and Flamers.
I figured my Grand Master was largely immune to the army (2+ armour save and a 3+ ward vs flaming), and so he ran around as a skirmisher. The big Plague Drone blob flew 40” or so in one turn thanks to a spell, threw yucky plague bombs at some Demigryphs and then got charged by the Grand Master (who they’d forgotten was a skirmisher). Everything without a 2+ save got largely shot to bits by Flamers and magic. The Wizard Lord angled for a shot on the Lord of Change while it was pinned down by some Demigryphs, but gave up and used Spectral Doppelganger to kill some Furies.
The Grand Master then failed miserably to hold up the Plague Drones, despite being kitted out pretty well for killing them. He broke, ran away and got the Wizard Lord killed by the Drones. He did rally and finish off the Plague Drones, but too little too late. Most of the rest of the army was dead, though the Steam Tank lived on a couple of wounds.
Result: 7-13 Loss
Wizard Lord kill count: Necrosphinx, Bastiladon, Carnosaur, Warpfire Dragon
Total Match Result: 27-33
In the final standings we finished 7th or 8th in terms of battle points (in the field of 14 teams). This was hardly exceptional, however when they tallied up the other points in terms of painting etc, we actually came 2nd overall (and very narrowly missed stealing the whole thing - the eventual overall winners were Horus, His Bestie & The Doctor, who beat us in the 1st round). This felt like a pretty funny result, but they were intentionally emphasising other aspects of the hobby, rather than just focusing on battle points.
Overall, the event was good fun. The tournament was run well, the venue was great and the trivia evening was an amusing addition. I'd happily attend another team event like this, and hopefully next time we wouldn't all be half dead from being ill beforehand!
Here endeth our account of Snake Eyes. Hope you've enjoyed trying to make sense of our ramblings. Until next time!
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