We had:
2 Empire
2 Warriors of Chaos
2 Skaven
2 Vampire Counts
1 High Elves
1 Lizardmen
1 Wood Elves (me!)
The tournament went very smoothly, we had a lot of strong players who seriously brought their A game. The 3 Scenarios were interesting. The first scenario just annoyed the every living hell out of me. The third scenario was just plain insane. I did not have high expectations of doing well in this tournament just due to the fact that some armies function a lot better at higher point levels - Vampire Counts and Skaven are prime examples. Even at 3000 points I still only had 113 models - a majority of them with T3 and S3. I hate to admit it but I did end up caving to the pull of the Wood Elf Deathstar. I fielded my 30 man unit of Eternal Guard w/ the Rhymer's harp, Spirit Sword, Razor Standard and Wraithstone. I fully came to terms with the fact that I had indeed brought the douche.
I'm going to only show a few rounds of each game in order to prevent this post from being too insanely long.
Preliminary Scenario 1 - EYZ DON'T SEE SO GOOD!
This scenario pissed me off so much - I hate having my functionality restricted especially when I roll a 2 for visibility 2 turns out of 4. I played Carl and his Empire this game, it was the Mission Engagement Deployment with 3 Battle Modifiers.
Empire Army List: VON RUGER'S 'ARD BOYZ EMPIRE!
Arch Lector w/ Sword of Sigismund, Van Horst Spec/ Charmed Shield
BSB - Armor of Meteoric Iron, Sword of Striking, Seed of Rebirth
Level 2 Wizard - Seal of Destruction, Iron Curse Icon
Master Engineer
Warrior Priest - Warhorse, Great Weapon, Shield
11 Knights of the White Wolf w/ mus/sb
11 Knights of the Blazing Sun w/ mus/sb
33 Halberdiers w/ full command
Detachment of 15 Halberds
Detachment of 12 handgunners
25 Swordsmen w/ full command
2 units of 5 Pistoleers
3 Mortars
1 Hellblaster volley gun
2 , yes 2 Steam Tanks
My list is in my previous post.
Empire took the first turn and started to lay into the Wood Elves. Mortars flying, Steam tanks shooting, and general mayhem ensued.
Alas you see the true devious mastermind behind the army, you think she's playing a DS but she's actually running extremely powerful algorithms to calculate the proper tactical decisions. Unfair imho.
Anyway - the game was a friggin blast. I had my Eternal Guard block charged by the Steam Tank and because I had Irresistible Force cast Savage Beast of Horos my characters were at +3 str and +3 attacks.
I suffered 15 impact hits from the Steam Tank, ward saving a ton of them and then just had the Highborn swing and literally one round the Steam Tank. I did 13 wounds to it as a result of 7 attacks at S7 and the Spirit Sword getting 6 additional wounds.
The game was pretty long but I will attempt to summarize it briefly:
Turn 1
Empire unloads mortars into archers, steam tank shoots at the 2 Glade Guard units. Waywatchers eat some hits from templates.
Wood Elves roll a 2 for visibility - sigh... and just spend the turn moving and buffing up.
Turn 2 - Steam tank charges Eternal guard and gets popped. More casualties to the archers as the Arch Lector charges the Glade Guard taking a few wounds but not dying. Treekin and Eternal Guard charge the KotWW and get stuck in combat for 3 turns - sigh...
Turn 3 - Empire brings on reinforcements and manuevers appropriately to bunker down.
Eternal Guard and Treekin and Eagles kill off the Knights, the Warrior Priest, hellblaster volley gun, and charge the Swordsmen with the Dryads.
Turn 4 - Empire charges Dryads with KotBS and backs up BSB and his unit to prevent being flank charged.
Wood Elves roll another god damn 2 for visibility which prevents the incoming death from Wood elven fury to the Halberdiers.
Time was called soon after.
Result: Wood Elves - Minor Victory. - I'll take it!
I absolutely had a blast playing against Carl and look forward to getting a few Sunday games in with him in both fantasy and 40k.
Preliminary Scenario 2 - DA BLOOD SOAKED CHOPPA!
This mission required you to give a single core unit a choppa that granted the unit +1 str and +1 attack. Deployment was Pitched Battle. This game also had 3 battle modifiers as well.
Nick's High Elven Army - 3000 POINT SAMURAI HIGH ELVES!
Teclis
BSB w/ Banner of Sorcery
20 Lothern Sea Guard w/ full command
20 Lothern Sea Guard w/ full command
20 Spearmen w/ full command
15 Archers w/ Hawkeye and Banner of Eternal Flame
10 Dragon Princes w/ full command and razor standard
20 White Lions of Chrace w/ full command
Korhil
Lion Chariot of Chrace
20 Swordmasters of Hoeth w/ full command and wailing banner
14 Archers w/ full command
This was a pretty solid list, there was a LOT of magic and dice generation in this army. Good tactic really.
Pictures of our deployment.
To summarize the game:
Turn 1 - High elves kill all but 2 Waywatchers and General with Flames of the Phoenix. John is quietly angered since that is his favorite unit.
Wood elves retaliate by shooting up 2 units and reducing them to half strength while advancing across the board.
Turn 2 - Teclis continues to attack the Waywatchers and fails to cast a spell ending his magic phase.
Turns 3-4 Wood Elves charge his line and the Eternal Guard and Treekin chew through several units. The White Lions and Swordsmen are shot to pieces by Glade Guard with Stand and Shoot reactions. Waywatcher general reduces Dragon Princes down from 10 to 5 with his arcane bodkins. Teclis is slain at the bottom of Turn 3.
Turn 5 - Dragon Princes, Korhil and the Lion Chariot finally are slain.
Result - Wood Elves- Massacre victory.
After the game I talked with Nick about using his units differently and deploying better. Giving his archers unrestricted line of sight was key. Also using his 4 main melee units as a single offensive wing and multicharging would yield a LOT better results. His next game against Skaven went spectacularly well.
Preliminary Scenario 3 - THE END TIMES!
The third and final scenario was pretty damn hard. I had a massive error in timekeeping this game which cost me a huge massacre victory. This mission required you to have a single piece of terrain serve as the chaos portal. You must have a character in base contact with the portal in order to win otherwise when the game ends on it's random game length - it's a draw. Not to mention there are also 6 different chaotic events that can happen during the round at the top of every game turn. Frenzy, D6 wounds that aren't saveable per unit, movement halved, auto-channeling for power/dispel dice, -1 to shoot or the gift of chaos boost to your general.
I played against Josh's Empire Gunline army which was comprised of the following:
Hanz Franz Shooter of the Goose (having to recall the army from memory since for some reason I can't find his list)
General w/ Stubborn crown and another item.
BSB
Level 4 Wizard
Level 2 Wizard
Arch Lector on Altar
50 swordsmen w/ full command and +1 LD banner
detatchment 20 halberdiers
detachment 20 handgunners
20 handgunners
detachment 10 handgunners
2 x 5 Empire Knights w/ full command
1 unit of pistoleers
1 hellblaster
2 great cannons
18 flaggellants
1 Steam Tank
Deployment was Meeting Engagement and unfortunately Josh ended up having half his army in reserves which left many of his units fair game for slaughter in the first turn.
Deployment:
Brief summary:
Turn 1 - Waywatchers kill his Level 4 Wizard, Glade Guard units kill his units of handgunners causing panic tests and making them flee. Level 2 Wizard also flees. Pistoleers shoot up the Wild Riders because Sylvos forgot about them, Arch Lector gets killed while attempting to charge glade guard, several knights get eaten due to a stand and shoot reaction with the other Glade Guard. Dryads hold against the Steam tank charging and inflict a wound. Flagellents charge Waywatcher and General and get slaughtered before they can swing back.
Turn 2 - Great Eagles charge Hellblaster and slay it. Treekin barrel forward along with Eternal Guard. Glade Guard flee from 2 charges. Eternal Guard gets charged by 30 Swordsmen and their detachment of halberdiers and slaughter the Empire scum. Halberdiers flee from the fight.
Turn 3 - Steam tank barrels forward and kills the newly rallied Dryads. Glade Guard manage to kill the last of the Empire Knights. Treekin charge a cannon after the cannon popped a great Eagle. Eternal Guard charge the General's unit of Swordsmen and their detachment and deal an insane amount of wounds but the Empire holds.
Turn 4 - This is where I made a critical error, still thinking it was turn 3 I did not move my General onto the damn terrain. Meanwhile the rest of my army is tied up all over the board chasing Empire around. I fail to slay his general or the rest of the unit by the end of the 4th turn and I roll a 5 which ends the game. Even though I had a full on Massacre victory... I got a draw.
Game 3 Result: Tie.
I managed to place 3rd over all and I would have placed higher if I hadn't severely screwed up in the last mission. I had a great time against Josh, Nick and Carl and it looks like I'm going to the next round in Salem.
It's like 10:30 and I'm beat so I'm going to wrap up this terrible Tournament report and post some images of some of the other battles I snapped pictures of while playing my own. I will be playing orcs again in 2 weeks and hopefully some Skaven as well. Full battle reports w/ battle maps will be inc.
Tournament Pics:
Near table: Empire vs. Skaven
Next tournament I'll actually get better pictures as well.
You can also look forward to me doing an Army Showcase once a week for one of my gaming groups armies. I'll start out with using Neil's Orks.
Thanks for the run down. Good luck with your Elves in the Semis!
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