Axemaster 2014 – Part 3

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Axemaster 2014. You can find the previous part of the report here.

Game 3

Steve Tuck, Ogre Kingdoms

• Tyrant with Armour of Protection, Great Weapon
• Slaughtermaster (Level 4, Lore of the Great Maw) with Talisman of Preservation, Dispel Scroll
• Bruiser BSB with Armour of Silvered Steel, Great Weapon
• Butcher (Level 1, Lore of Beasts) with Hellheart
• 8 Ironguts with Full Command
• 9 Ogres with Full Command, Light Armour, Ironfists
• 10 Leadbelchers with Musician, Champion
• 10 Gnoblars
• 10 Gnoblars
• 1 Sabretusk
• 1 Sabretusk
• Ironblaster
• Ironblaster

Comp Score: 2

From an Ogre army with no Ironblasters to one with a pair of them, Steve's list represented much of what my Griffons had been hoping (admittedly optimistically) to avoid. This game was particularly notable as I think it contained the only roll-off I lost for the tournament (Steve won the roll-off to choose the deployment rules despite my +2 modifier, and went for Battle for the Pass).

So I'm completely done deploying, and he's put down what? Anything..?

Axemaster 2014 – Part 2

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Axemaster 2014. You can find the previous part of the report here.

Game 2

Josh Tucker, Ogre Kingdoms

• Slaughtermaster (Level 4, Lore of the Great Maw) with Talisman of Preservation, Great Weapon
• Bruiser BSB with Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon
• Firebelly (Level 2, Lore of Fire) with 2 Hand Weapons, Dispel Scroll?
• 9 Ironguts with Full Command, Standard of Discipline
• 8 Ogres with Full Command, Light Armour, Ironfists
• 6 Leadbelchers
• 4 Mournfangs with Ironfists, Standard, Musician, Dragonhide Banner
• 1 Sabretusk
• 1 Sabretusk
• Stonehorn
• Stonehorn

Comp Score: 5

Yup, 2 Stonehorns. Now that is classy.

Axemaster 2014 – Part 1

Well Axemaster is done and dusted, so it's time for another tournament report!

This time around the event was something a bit unusual in the local scene. It was run based on the SCGT pack, which allocates comp scores using "hard" and "soft" selections. The comp scores have no impact on overall score, but are instead used to modify roll-offs to determine what deployment rules will be used, table sides, and the first turn. That being the case, there was a good argument for fielding a pretty hard list, provided that you didn't care much about going first. Naturally I ignored this perfectly sound reasoning and entered a comp 9 out of 10 list.

2 Griffons, 3 little Wizards, 9 comp and 0 chance of doing really well in an event like this...

I've put my list up before, but here it is again:

• General of the Empire
  • General; Great Weapon; Full Plate Armor; Shield
  • White Cloak of Ulric
  • Imperial Griffon
• General of the Empire
  • Great Weapon; Full Plate Armor; Shield
  • Ironcurse Icon
  • Dragonhelm
  • Imperial Griffon
• Captain of the Empire
  • Lance; Full Plate Armor; Battle Standard
  • Enchanted Shield
  • Talisman of Preservation
  • Imperial Pegasus
  • Swift as the Winds
• Luthor Huss
  • Barding; Great Weapon; Heavy Armour; Warhorse
• Battle Wizard (Level 2, Lore of Light)
• Battle Wizard (Level 2, Lore of Metal)
• Battle Wizard (Level 1, Lore of Beasts)
  • Dispel Scroll
• 14 Knights of the Inner Circle
  • Barding; Lance; Full Plate Armor; Shield; Standard; Musician; Preceptor
  • The Steel Standard
• 40 Halberdiers
  • Halberd; Light Armour; Standard; Musician
  • 5 Detachment - Archers
  • 5 Detachment - Archers
• 5 Demigryph Knights
  • Barding; Lance; Shield; Standard; Musician
  • Banner of Swiftness
• Steam Tank

Comp score: 9

Anyway, that's what I had to work with. On with the show!

Lores of Magic: The Lore of Undeath

Well, this is something a little different. The new Warhammer: Nagash book contains a lot of rules for special characters, new units and combining the Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings armies into a single more powerful army called the Undead Legions. It also includes a new Lore of Magic - the Lore of Undeath.

As usual, I thought I would go through this new Lore and see what it has to offer. It's worth noting that, as with everything in the Warhammer: Nagash book, there is likely to be some debate as to whether these spells (and the Undead Legions) are going to be permitted in tournaments. The content of the book is intended to represent a particular time period and set of events, and so many people may feel it's not appropriate for them to be used in what might otherwise be considered "normal" games. Anyway, I'm not going to get into that here. Let's focus on the new Lore of Magic.

Before we begin, there is something else unusual about this Lore that I should mention - all wizards in all armies can use it. So there could be Orcs, Elves, Daemons, Skaven, and all manner of other spellcasters running around, using the Lore of Undeath. So unless you're a Dwarf player, this Lore applies to you!

One other note is that the summoning spells in the Lore of Undeath work differently from any we've seen before in the various Undead Lores of Magic. Instead of creating a specific type of unit (such as Zombies) and a particular number of models or wounds, the spells here work on points values. It's an elegant way to broaden the scope of different units you can create, as well as giving you the option to give them the sort of equipment such a regiment could normally buy (like command models or weapons). The only restriction is that the unit still has to meet the normal minimum size, so you can't go around raising 3 Grave Guard or something silly like that. Other than that, you could see all manner of new units appearing on the table (provided that you have suitable models on hand).

Birdy, birdy, birdy (AKA my Axemaster list)

My, how time flies. I still hadn't finished writing up my report of Rumble in the Bronx when I realised that I had to submit a list for Axemaster. The tournaments are only 3 weeks apart this year, which is a very short turn-around. I was a bit burnt out after my mad rush to prepare for Rumble, and I came faily close to deciding that I wasn't going to enter Axemaster at all.

It didn't help that I'm not at all convinced by the player pack being used this time around. It's using the SCGT pack, which doesn't include comp to directly affect scores per se. Instead a higher comp score gives a player a better chance to win roll-offs to determine deployment, first turn, etc. It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it will make enough of a difference, and I'm also not convinced by the "hard" and "soft" choices identified for each army.

Anyway, in the end I decided that I could handle what might turn out to be a flawed pack, and that I really should enter what is basically our main local tournament (given it's run by Hampton). So I sat down and started making a sensible list that exploited the player pack the way most of the competitive sorts will be doing. Then I got bored, scrapped it all, and started making a list packed with Griffons instead. The flying Tyrant at Rumble had gotten me hooked on flying models, and I wanted some in my list - despite knowing what would likely happen to them.

Like the old saying goes, 2 wrongs make a right. I'm sure that's how it went...

Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 6

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Rumble in the Bronx. You can find the previous game here.

Game 6: Battleline

Nathan Goodchild, Daemons of Chaos

My Boast: Hold Out (keep enemy units out of my deployment zone)

• Demon Prince of Nurgle (Level 3, Lore of Nurgle) with Flight, Chaos Armour, Exalted Gift (chose something that lets him re-roll Winds of Magic)
• Herald of Tzeentch (Level 2, Lore of Tzeentch)
• Herald of Nurgle BSB (Level 1, Lore of Nurgle) with Greater Locus of Fecundity, Greater Gift (chose Fencer's Blades)
• 10 Horrors with Standard
• 25 Plaguebearers with Full Command, Banner of Swiftness
• 3 Screamers of Tzeentch
• 3 Screamers of Tzeentch
• 1 Beast of Nurgle
• 1 Beast of Nurgle
• Soulgrinder of Nurgle with Daemonbone Claw, Harvester Cannon

Comp score: 5

After the debacle of the game against Chris, I figured I would drop back into the pack a bit. Apparently this wasn't really the case as there were a group of us milling about on very similar scores, with just Chris running off with things courtesy of the springboard I had provided. My final opponent was to be Nathan Goodchild, who had travelled all the way down from Queensland for the event. I had never played him before, so was looking forward to it. I could only lament how much tougher my draw had gotten in the latter stages of the event, however. My final 4 opponents had all either been ranked no 1 in the country or won the Masters in relatively recent memory. No wailing upon inexperienced tournament players for me, it seemed.

Nathan was running a borrowed Daemon army for the event, as his Skaven had been unable to make the trip with him. The borrowed army was not really holding him back, however. If his dice had been a little better in the previous game, he would have been well ahead of me instead of barely in front.

I confess I was slightly concerned about the match-up. The big block of Plaguebearers looked nigh-on impregnable for my army, and the Soulgrinder was not exactly a push-over. I was at a big disadvantage in the magic phase, and then there was the Nurgle Daemon Prince. Oh well, at least he wasn't the 1+ armour save, unbreakable, self-healing Warriors of Chaos version. Still, I would need a good contribution from my Ironblaster to help soften the big stuff.

During the Ogres' first turn, because once again I got distracted and missed the deployment photos. That big rock thing adds +1 to any attempts to wound things within 6". Same thing as was on the table in game 3.

Rumble in the Bronx 2014 - Part 5

This post is a continuation of my account of the recent tournament, Rumble in the Bronx. You can find the previous game here.

Game 5: Watchtower

Chris Cousens, Lizardmen

My Boast: Contain Power (kill the most expensive non-character unit, in this case the Saurus block)

• Oldblood on Arabyan Carpet with Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon, Shield
• Oldblood on Cold One with Dragonhelm, Talisman of Preservation, Great Weapon
• Tetto-Ekko
• Scar Veteran BSB on Cold One with Charmed Shield, Dawnstone, Sword of Might, Light Armour
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 10 Skink Skirmishers
• 10 Skinks with Musician
• 10 Skinks with Musician
• 23 Saurus with Full Command
• 5 Cold One Riders with Musician, Spears
• 5 Chameleon Skinks
• Salamander
• Ancient Stegadon with Engine of the Gods

Comp score: 5

I had emerged from my game with Dave with my score more or less intact, and now I found myself playing the old Egg himself, Chris Cousens. This was the man responsible for my Tyrant flying about on a magic carpet, having issued a challenge to all and sundry before the event to include a model on a flying rug (only a couple of us were silly enough to accept). He was also leading the tournament. Apparently I really was at the pointy end of things.

Watchtower deployment, after Chris has moved his Vanguard forces up between the building and the magical rock that lets things within 6" re-roll failed charges.