Another tournament has been run and won, and as usual I'm here to provide my rundown of how things went for me. No, you can't stop me. And no, you don't have to read it...
Big Old Grudges took the place of what would usually have been the Old World tournament at Cancon. The organisers decided to run it away from the larger convention, at Jolt Games (a nearby game store with the capacity to host the tournament). As someone who travelled up in a group of 10 people to "attend Cancon", only for 2 of us to split off and spend the weekend somewhere... Well, I am opposed to tournament splitting off and running elsewhere. It's been done with other games before (Kings of War has been running offsite for a number of years now, and seems to be doing OK), but realistically those of us who travel to Canberra are often looking to be part of the convention, rather than only being able to drop in for brief appearances.
Having said all that, the venue was large and comfortable, the prize support was significant (one of the benefits of not having to fit under Cancon's umbrella, I think), and everything ran very smoothly. It was surely cooler at Jolt than it was in the big sheds at Cancon, with the weather maxing out at nearly 40 degrees Celsius on the second day.
The tournament was for 2500pt armies, with 6 games over 3 days. It allowed the Renegade rules for Legacy armies, and that (combined with the fact that I'd been meaning to give them some love for a long time) resulted in me deciding to take an Ogre Kingdoms army. Did I give great thought to what I wanted to use in the list? Well no, not really... But this is what I ended up with:
- Tyrant on Stonehorn with Tenderiser, Talisman of Protection
- Slaughtermaster (Level 4, Illusion) with Butcher's Cauldron, Skullplucker, Spangleshard
- Bruiser Battle Standard Bearer with Armour of Meteoric Iron, Great Weapon
- Hunter with Sword of Might, Longstrider, Scout
- 8 Ironguts with Heavy Armour, Great Weapons, Full Command, Look-out Gnoblar
- 8 Ogre Bulls with Light Armour, Ironfists, Full Command, Cannibal Totem
- 4 Sabretusk Pack with Scouts
- 4 Mournfang Cavalry with Heavy Armour, Ironfists, Full Command, Totem of Wrath
- 3 Mournfang Cavalry with Heavy Armour, Ironfists, Full Command
It was not a lot of units, but at least having a couple of large Core units gave me a chance of contesting objectives. I had high hopes for the Tyrant with his Tenderiser catching up to something horrible at some point in the tournament, and also had the potential giggles of the Slaughtermaster always striking first with killing blow, possibly enhanced by Spectral Doppleganger...
Also full disclosure here, when I made the list I had failed to realise that Scouts can't charge in the first turn. I knew that they couldn't do it if they got the first turn in 8th edition, but they took that rule off Vanguard in The Old World (though apparently they added a similar rule back later). I think I just got confused. Consequently I did charge a couple of times in the first turn before someone queried it at dinner that night, and I realised I had been cheating. I can't say massive things came of it, but I apologise to my opponents anyway. Funny that my failure to apply the rules wasn't spotted by anyone until I was discussing my games with someone who wasn't even playing... We're all so clever. Anyway, I definitely won't be making that particular mistake again. I can find a new one. Gotta keep it fresh, you know?
Round 1: King of the Hill (Baggage Train)
Dylan Martin - Dwarf Expeditionary Force
- Burlok Damminson (General)
- Thane on Shieldbearers with Great weapon, Full plate armour, Shield, Master Rune of Smiting
- Thane with Battle Standard (Master Rune of Grungni, Rune of Battle), Great weapon, Full plate armour, Shield, Rune of Fortitude, Rune of Passage
- Runesmith with Great weapon, Full plate armour, Shield, Master Rune of Calm, Rune of Passage
- Runesmith with Great weapon, Full plate armour, Shield
- 16 Rangers with Crossbows, Throwing axes, Heavy armour, Great weapons, Shields, Champion, Standard bearer (Rune of Battle)
- 18 Thunderers with Handguns, Heavy armour, Shields, Expeditionary Marksmen, Champion, Standard bearer
- 18 Dwarf Warriors with Heavy armour, Great weapons, Shields, Drilled, Champion, Standard bearer (Master Rune of Hesitation), Musician
- 16 Rangers with Crossbows, Throwing axes, Heavy armour, Great weapons, Shields, Champion, Standard bearer
- Dwarf Cart (Bugman's Cart)
- Bolt Thrower
- Bolt Thrower
- 1 Gyrocopters (Steam gun)
- 1 Gyrocopters (Steam gun)
- 16 Miners with Great weapons, Heavy armour, Champion, Standard bearer
- 12 Miners with Great weapons, Heavy armour, Champion, Standard bearer
- Doomseeker with Master Rune of Alaric the Mad, Rune of Wrath
This was one of those weird armies where Dylan only setup a fraction of his models before Scouts were placed, and all the Miners were hanging back until later in the game.
Being King of the Hill, that hill in the centre was important - control was worth 100 victory points at the end of each player's turn.
Having lost the roll-off for Scouts, but Hunter and Sabretusks ended up well within my deployment zone. But I was fully intending to charge the Rangers, having not realised I was not allowed to.
Dylan's army was very nicely painted - I think it came close to winning the players' choice. Also that unit was Warriors (and the Thunderers next to them) were absolutely loaded with characters. I think both of the Thanes and a Runesmith were in this unit.
I believe the Thunderers contained Burlok and the other Runesmith.
I won the roll-off for first turn, helped by the Dwarfs having more Scouts than me. I proceeded to cheat as much as possible, by charging the Hunter and his pets into the Rangers. But before that, lacking anything good to do with my magic, I had cast Miasmic Mirage on the unit. This seemed low impact until Dylan realised that the Skirmisher rules meant I'd killed most of the unit - with a reduced Movement of 1, most of the models were well out of double their Movement to rank up into formation. 10 of them were removed for the crime of being such a vast Skirmisher unit with no Movement, and suddenly I was only fighting 6 Rangers... Unfortunately we took 3 wounds from Stand and Shoot (there were more of them shooting than there were once we'd arrived and ranked up)...
My Slaughtermaster was a clown in the first turn. He failed his Cauldron roll and took a wound, then miscast when trying to protect the unit, and hurt one of them instead. I was very hesitant to advance the unit into the teeth of the enemy shooting under those circumstances, so kept them back in some cover. But the Bulls in the middle happily waddled up to control the hill.
The Gyrocopter on the flank had used Vanguard to get a bit close to my lines, and lost his enthusiasm for advancing when the Mournfangs charged him. He fled.
So yeah, that cunning cheating combat... I didn't do any wounds whatsoever. But one of the Sabertusks took a wound, we'd already taken 3 from shooting, the enemy had a banner with a Rune of Battle... It was all bad. We lost by miles, fell back in good order and were permitted to escape. It was all most inspiring.
I had decided that there was little the Stonehorn needed to fear in the area, so he had advanced pretty aggressively. The Dwarfs shifted around in response.
At this point I'm not sure who was closer to the centre of the hill to claim the points, but I think it might have been me (or we got it on unit strength).
We wore the enemy shooting relatively well in the first turn, and then in my second turn we set about righting the wrongs of the previous one... By charging those stupid Rangers again with the Hunter and his furry friends. This time vengeance would be mine!
In the centre I had a lot of things looking at Dylan's key unit, but it wasn't a completely straightforward decision. The unit negated charging bonuses from the front, which meant the Stonehorn lost his impact hits, and the Mournfangs would be the same. There was a Thane there with a great weapon that did D6 wounds... Anyway, this was the outcome of my deliberations. The Mournfangs stayed out of it, making room for the Bulls to charge over the hill and into the unit's flank.
This left the main Mournfang unit a bit stuck, but because I realised they wouldn't get past the butt of the Stonehorn, they sat back and let the smaller unit get stuck into the Rangers in the forest.
I'd love to tell you this combat went well, but it would be a terrible lie. The Ogres did literally no wounds from the flank. The Tyrant fought the Thane on Shieldbearers, and despite all the numbers looking ominous for the Dwarf, I only managed to inflict 2 wounds with the Tenderiser. I then somehow took 7 wounds in return, despite reducing multiple wound rolls by 1... It was appalling. The Ogres fell back in good order, and the Stonehorn managed to give ground (I may even have rolled a double 1, which was not dissimilar to how he fought).
The Mournfangs at least, well... Well crap. They also did no wounds somehow. Then took a wound to add insult to injury, and they gave ground. By this point I was quite confident that Dylan was in awe of the might combat prowess of my Ogres, because he very kindly didn't say anything bad about them...
On Dylan's turn the Miners appeared and started walloping the Rhinox pulling my baggage train with pointy picks. Not very nice, really.
Ah yes, this combat. You can see it went well. Actually, we drew in the round when I charged. I actually killed 2 Rangers, which was more than the rest of my army had managed. But that wasn't enough, and in the next round I stopped doing damage and started running away. Like, actually fleeing. Because even with Ld9, an Ogre's ego can only take so much.
Having followed up when my Stonehorn fell back, the combat with the Warriors continued. The Gyrocopter (which had earlier rallied and recovered) charged into my flank, and I had terrible visions of the thing taking off my last wound with its silly impact hits before I could finish off the Thane. I needn't have worried, though. The impact hits didn't kill me - the Shieldbearers did. The Stonehorn actually did a couple of wounds in the challenge at the same time, but the Thane was still alive (on 1 wound) and my Tyrant was dead.
Ach no, the shame! Stupid Tyrant! Oh well, he was gone now. From this point you'll be pleased to know that things didn't get any better... The Mournfangs in the forest had no choice but to have another go at the Rangers, despite them being too close for us to get impact hits. I believe the bigger unit of Mournfangs still couldn't manage a charge because their idiot cousins hadn't managed to clear out of the way. The Bulls dared not charge the Warriors, especially after copping a ridiculous couple of bolt thrower shots down their line that had me taking something like 12 regeneration saves. They did have control of the hill... For now.
So the second attempt by the Mournfangs was better, but still not good enough to really beat them back much. Then we got flank charged by the Gyrocopter (which didn't much matter) and the Doomseeker (which was the worstest thing ever). The Doomseeker basically carved up my whole unit. I think he killed 2 of them by himself, and the unit was gone.
I feel like I missed a key photo here. The Warriors charged my Bulls, who decided they could safely get away if they fled. But then the Warriors rolled really far and made it into the flank of my Ironguts instead. Obviously that was all my fault; I think I was really focused on how to survive trying to advance on the line of shooting. The combat didn't go very well, although it could have been worse. We managed to bop the last wound off the Thane, but being flanked is bad and with the BSB already running, we broke rather than falling back.
Having failed to deal with the handful of Rangers twice, my Hunter had also decided he had no interest in rallying, and kept running for the table edge.
In keeping with how the rest of the game went, we ran out of time at the worst possible time for me. Most of my army was fleeing, and I didn't get a chance to rally any of it. We had only made it through 3 turns, which is really not great. All in all, not an auspicious start for the tournament for my well dressed (but incompetent) Ogres.
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