alright, so back from axemaster this weekend out at hampton gaming club. good times. thanks to lachie for running it, was 40ish players using a modified scgt comp pack where the soft and power pool choices were the same i think, but instead of the comp differential being applied to scores, it resulted in a +1 or 2 on the dice roll for first turn, deployment types, sides and etc.
as mentioned earlier, i took a rather salty comp 2 woc list, and my first round match up was against lachie the gumby and his comp 9 dark elves. he picked meeting engagement, and from top to bottom has got a master on manticore, 7 dark riders, small unit of shades, 15 sisters, big unit of flaming xbows with a l4 on heavens i think, and l1 on metal, big unit of cold ones with bsb, bloodwrack shrine in a big unit of spears, and a hydra at the bottom. my stuff is pretty clear, warriors into the building, the t5 gang in the centre pawing at the starting line, and giant ben heading towards the hydra.
he goes first and hydra sends my hounds fleeing off the board and missing the redirect. on the other flank his manticore and driders pounce on a poor chariot and smash it. in return, and as you can see here, my general flies right in front of the cold ones and torches the back end of his spear unit, killing 15. giant ben makes it into the hydra, thumping his club for 4 wounds, but rolling double 2's. fortunately that was enough to send it off the board, while the chims and bsb square off against the remainder of the unit.
in return his cold ones obviously take the charge, i dont do a lot of overkill in the challenge and lose, and fail my stubborn test. i had gambled or neglected to keep the bsb in range, in order to keep him away from a potential counter charge from the spears, and he was run down. the spears turn to face giant ben as much as they can, and below the manticore goes into the building and eats a champ.
i struggle with magic all game, but get a hellcannon shot onto his wizard bunker, not panicking it, but killing a good amount. both chims go into the cold ones, kill the entire unit and pop the bsb, but not before taking a wound here or there. bsb charges a blocking unit of harpies and doesnt make the overrun into the unit. giant ben meanwhile side steps the front arc of his spears
his next turn the manticore goes in again, and the question comes up if i dont choose to put my wizards in the ten models that i put up to attack, then i wouldnt have to challenge, and that would supercede that rule. in the end we went that way, and manticore is critically wounded, later to die to a searing doom, but leaving his rider alive. in hindsight i could have popped my wizzies out that back in my turn anyway. but his unit of driders does manage to take the last wound off the green chim, panicking the other one back towards my board edge. curses!
he does reform the spears to face my bsb tho, allowing giant ben a much safer combat in the flank, both go in and chim fails to rally. it takes a turn or two, but i get through both the spears and the shrine
once out of combat though, hes able to kill both giant ben and the fleeing chim with shooting. sisters go into my bsb, dismounted master runs away from a rampaging hellcannon, and this is how it ends
in the end it was a draw, and a hell of a blood bath. great game and opponent, albeit obvisouly disappointing for me given what a swell match up it was
onto game 2 and im playing steve and his lizo. although a frequent face at the hq, its been ages since i actually played him.
hes got a life toad and the pair of priests with a scroll apiece. old blood cowboy, ancient steg and engine, 3 units of skimies, 3 terradons, a chief with the egg on a ripper, 5 cold ones, and a giant skrox unit in the centre with 5 or 6 of the big guys and a couple min sized cammies.
he chooses battleline and goes first. i wear some terradon rocks on the hounds near the hellcannon alongside a few wounds here and there from other shooting, and a dwellers gets scrolled
i move up fairly cautiously in the centre, and send a chim to deal with the two cammie units that had run up alongside it. hellcannon fails a rampage and runs into the nearby terras, leaving one alive
he picks up a few more wounds here and there, and i run all the stuff on the left out of los of old blood next to the steg, with the disclord right in front of it. giant ben however, cannot finish off a unit of skinks in one turn and is stuck, and i reform to give him the flank and stay out of los of the old blood. looked fine, but an untimely knock to the old blood moved him, and he wasnt anymore. we 4+ to see which way it went, and unfortunately he could see. hellcannon gets a couple wounds on the top steg
this positioned proved crucial, as that old blood went on to kill not only giant ben, a chariot sent in to try salvage the situation, and a chimera. flesh to stone on the steg and disclord cant kill it. yep, sharpened horns on the steg, yep failed a ward on the impact, but only did two wounds. phew.
were about to run out of time, and the blue chim makes an 11" charge into the other steg and kills it, then turns around and makes it into the slanns unit, who is accompanied by a handful of skirmies in a forest. i manage to kill every last skink on the thunderstomp and break the slann on the last turn
ends up a 12-8 for me, thanks to that. a closely fought game against another great opponent. all the best on your travels steve
last game of the day was against bretts. hes got 3 lil lances, 2 big ones with the usual smattering of rerollable as character walls, hkb, falconhorn, beasts and heavens, and two trebs. he prays and i move up, putting hounds in front of the big left lance, and the other unit up near the left treb. flying friends move forward, and like most of this weekend, magic and shooting do nothing.
here, hes gone after the hounds and restrained, but still close, allowing a chariot and chim into the non hkb lance. i opted not to try get the bsb in there also, instead this time moving him close enough to the combat, and the disclord who was as usual, parked in front of unit with his bollocks out. giant ben fails a charge on a small knight unit. i win the combat and he holds
here the other lance has gone in, disclord in challenge with hkb lord, rolls a 6 and i make ward and stubborn rolls. other combat i kill a character, get into the fleshy bits, and start to win the grind. in my turn the other chim charges a wee lance, who fail terror and flee off the board. bsb makes it into the bottom combat, after a bit of deliberation. i figured although the disclord could use a hand, there was less risk of losing him to combat res in the bottom combat, plus there was a chance the disclord would be hkb'd.
well wouldnt you know it, he rolls another 6, and this time i roll a 2. in his turn that lance goes into the flank of the bsb, who is in a challenge currently. the chim and chariot lose to combat res and flee, although the bsb holds. the chim runs dies somehow, but the chariot rallies. unfortunately hes got the unit champ of that lance and a character left on one wound. giant ben wins his combat, but is badly injured, while the other small lance charges the blue chim and lose half their number, but kill it eventually.
and then he hkb's my bsb, and its time to stop taking photos while he cleans up. ends up a 16-4 against. not a great game overall, lots of rules debates during tense key moments, but yeah, two heroic killing blows really pissed in my paddling pool there. what can you do?
first game sunday was against ogres. he has a cat on each flank, 4 mournfang, two stonehorn, gutstar with bsb and maw l4, 8 bulls, and 5 leadbelchers with a firebelly l2. i think i actually go first here
yeah, i do go first. put hounds in front of mournfang, move up the flying stuff to 12.5" behind em. giant and chariot back off for the time being, while the dummy drops on the right moved towards the leadbelchers. he takes the bait and sends the mournfangs in, and shoots unsuccesfully at the incoming chariot
and of course, i fail to take photos of a number of key things. first, mournfang hold, and i charge both chims and 3++ characters in, but the bsb fails. manages to kill one chim and wound another, but i kill 3/4 in return and run em down, out of los of stonehorns.
in his turn the stonehorn goes into my bsb, does no damage, and i kill it. i had if'd gateway twice at it, both times s3, but did a couple wounds + a failed t test from warpflame. he kills both my chariots, and giant ben fails a charge into the other stornhorn, but ends up with a toe in the forest.
in his turn the stonehorn and gutstar charge giant ben and do 5 wounds from impact hits. i go first, and my opponent calls it - i roll a yell and bawl and hold!
i go into the flank and rear of stonehorn with both characters, and giant ben eadbutts it before dying. i dont kill it, win the combat by a bit, but ironguts hold. stonehorn flees and trips on a rock on his way, taking his last wound. characters reform
he goes for the hellcannon and takes it in a round. both characters go in the rear of the gutstar. chim hides from fireballs and leadbelchers. i get treason on the gutstar
and run em down for a giant swing. we continued to play the full 6 turns, packed up, and were talking about the game, when he remembers he has sodiscpline on the unit, and should have made his breaktest. we talk about treason and look through the faqs, then talk to the to about it, who says its up to me, but in his opinion, waaaaay too late. i agreed, but felt bad, so offered to 4+ it
rolled a 5 and i won 13-7 i think. we talked about it tho, i had another turn of combat with treason up, and i had got through the front rank into rank and file, so it might have been irrelevant either way. in anycase i felt better, i think that was the right thing to do
next up im on the same table, playing against another familiar face, norto and his air cav brett list. full credit to the man for bringing this instead of a dual seer folding fortress skaven gunline. hes got 3x5 pegs, a peg bsb, peg hkb lord, and spare peg hero, 1 big lance with a pair of beasts damsels, and maybe a paladin or two. 2x15 flaming peasants and a smaller non flaming unit, and ofc two trebs.
cant remember if he prayed or not, i know he wasnt a lot that weekend on account of icons and vows etc, but heres a photo before we go to t2. he throws an amber spear at my bsb t1 and i roll a 2 and he dies. i feel tears welling up, but everything passes panic. there is a sound of a turtlehead retracting.
then in t2 he blows the falconhorn and does the same thing. if amber spear, i fail the ward on my lord. he rolls 1 wound. i change undies after uncurling from the foetal position. i get a wound through his hkb lord with a chariot, who gets hkb'd. lord goes into hellcannon, who had already seen off a peg unit from a failed terror test, but cant do it, and another chariot comes into support.
i kill him, but chariot cops a charge from a peg unit, runs, and pegs go into hellcannon. in the centre the disclord and one chim get into lance, second chim fails charge on peg bsb hidden behind forest, and winds up in a stupid forest.
pegs are stuck on hellcannon, giant ben comes in to support. breaks em in his turn, and i charge them and a unit of archers off the table with giant ben in my turn.
ive got a peg paladin joining me after being charged by woc and fleeing, but rallying
in the disclord combat, the bsb comes into the flank of the chim, he ifs savage beasts, and hes got the flaming lance, so kills it and overruns. disclord fails his stubborn test, but gets away and rallies. other chim is stupid tho and stumbles forward - id switched chims here as the green one had snapped his flying stand
bsb charges chim and i kill him, disclord kills both damsels in challenges. chim goes into unit and thats the last photo. i end up clearing up the rest of his stuff after a treb blows up
ends up a 17-3 i think? well stoked to swing that back round after failing wards early on, and nortos a solid dude, so off we went to get beers
last game and im playing non other than greg johnsons empire! stoked. im a fan of his blog, and just in case you're not yet, or want a more in depth report: http://hoodlinghole.blogspot.com.au/
hadnt had the chance to run across him on the battlefield yet, so needless to say i was giddy with excitement. not to mention there was no karl franz or double steam tank. from top to bottom he had 5 demis, stank, knight block with luther huss, general on griffon with white cloak and gw, big block of halberds with two archer detachments, with all three his wizards in the mix, bsb on peg, then another general on a griffon down the bottom, and he goes first
now, lets start by saying that greg had the worst dice luck id seen all weekend. here i am complaining when a 3++ fails sometimes, but this was something else. his stank did very little except lose wounds and steam points until the last turn. he moves up a bit in his turn, and i repond. demis get chaffed by hounds, while other hounds flee off the board from a failed terror test. i biff a chimera right up at the halberds and pop the bad breath, killing enough to force a panic test which they fail. i move the disclord up with the chim an inch behind
he goes for it, everywhere. i miss crucial photos. knights go into disclord, i take a wound but start killing knights and hold, giant ben comes in to support and starts swinging his club. green chimera charges the halberds who fail a terror test and run off the board. i charge a chariot into the rear of the demis when they fail a long charge into warriors, and hold them up for a couple rounds. blue chim tries to deal with stank but is crushed
at the bottom his general on griffon and bsb on peg both charge my bsb. i get into combat with general, and kill him in one round, but the griffon becomes unbreakable and i hold. i then but a chariot into flank of griffon for the res, but he holds
hellcannon gets a couple wounds on stank. knights die to disclord and giant ben but hold. demis break chariot but dont pursue and l1 goes out to buy time. get a gateway, do a wound or two, give him regen.
he also puts the other general on griffon into the rear of the chariot, but kills that and my bsb holds, about to kill the original griffon hes still stuck in a challenge with, and i fly the last chim out of harms way, considering going for the stank
disclord kills huss in a challenge, giant ben finishes off the unit. chariot rallies. i bail last wizard out and take a demi charge but hold. bsb kills griffon in his turn, sending his bsb fleeing to his death, and i reform to face the other griffon and charge it in my turn.
stanks still misfiring and doing nothing on 7 wounds. i send giant ben in, on one wound. does thump with club, stank makes it. engineer puts the last wound on giant ben who topples sideways. bearing that in mind i only commit the disclord to save the warriors, with the injured chariot and chim watching from the sidelines. my disclord is now s8 thanks to an eotg roll, and puts the hurt on the demis, who hold. bsb manages to kill other griffon, and stomps the last wound off his other general, and for his 4th eotg roll gets stupidity.
so we end there as time as called, but we didnt have long to go anyway. ended up a big 19-1 i think, and another great game and opponent.
so in the end it went to high elves, along with 2nd and 3rd spots - which were both botwd wlion teclis deathstars. well done to rhys and nick at 4th and 5th respectively, and i was pretty stoked to come in 9th. so good times, thanks to lachie, skilto and the hampton guys for putting it up, and plenty of food for thought for me.
i was extremely fortunate, and it was extremely unusual, for there not to be any dwarf players, skull cannons, and little to no death magic. was super worried about those chimeras going in, but as a wise jabe told me, 'dont take two, take three'. we'll see about that, but plenty of other ideas going down.
so thats it for now, stay tuned for more painting and list progress probably next, and as always;
take your shirt off
