Just before Christmas I partook in a club tournament at my new gaming center in Stockholm, in order to determine the Club Champion of 2012. Having been part of their scene for about a month leading up to it I felt a bit strange competing against people who had been there for most (if not all) of the year leading up to it, but the people there are friendly and welcoming so I quickly got over it.
What was (and still is) a bit weird to me, however, is that this particular club (called Rogue Traders) tends to play using the Swedish Comp System for army building rather than the ETC rules I'm used to. This essentially means that instead of having a unit point cap or army restrictions, all units and many options and items will subtract points from an army point pool, with the final score determining how 'ard your army is, which later rewards the player whose army is the "weakest" by additional bonus points when calculating the victor. It's a bit complicated and I'm not a huge fan of the system, but those were the rules and I was fine with them. The tournament was to be played with 2000 point armies with a hard comp cap of 18 (pretty soft lists in general). This is the army I brought:
Orc Warboss
Silversteel Armor, Dawnstone, Additional handweapon
Orc Big Boss BSB
Armor of Destiny, Great Weapon
Night Goblin Shaman, level 2
Power Stone
Night Goblin Shaman, level 2
Scepter of Stability, Dragonbane Gem
40 Night Goblins
Nets, Shields, Full Command
20 Night Goblins
Short Bows, Musician, 2 Fanatics
20 Goblins
Short Bows, Shields, Musician, Standard Bearer, 3 Nasty Skulkers
5 Goblin Wolf Riders
Short Bows, Shields
3 Goblin Wolf Chariots
40 Night Goblin Squig Herd
30 Squigs, 10 Herders
7 Troll
2 Snotlings
Spear Chukka
Giant
As you can probably tell, my army consisted of a few choices that I rarely bring, as these came in at a lesser comp score and allowed me to bring some nasty stuff alongside it. I seldom bring 20 Goblins to a fray, but as they comped lightly and filled up my core points, I thought I'd give them a go. Even the Snotlings were brought along for some fun, in favor of a single troll walking around being stupid (at a much higher comp score). I was happy to find that the Giant had a very friendly comp score, as I absolutely love the big fellow and am always looking for an excuse to bring him along to the fight.
The theme of the army is a mixed Gobbo tribe that is being bullied around by two Orc bosses that have taken up the leadership. I wanted plenty of bodies to throw around, hopefully outnumbering many of my opponents, allowing me to march quickly across the field without fear of magic or shooting. My Orcs would march with the Shieldgobbos who would protect them with their nets, taking aim at the 'ardest enemy unit and tying them up with a mass of bodies while the Orcs do the killing. They have both been kitted for defense, as together with the gobbo nets they are effectively sporting T6 alongside a ward save and re-rollable armor save. If need be, the Giant will join the same battle as the gobbos as the nets help him out as well.
On each side of the gobbos, the Trolls and the Squig Herd would make up two nasty flankers, each one of them hopefully deployed against a disfavored enemy unit. If not, then the Wolf Chariots would deploy to quickly charge into the powerful enemy so that the Trolls or the Squigs can clean them up afterwards. Finally, protecting my far-out flanks are each of the bowgobbos, and the Spear Chukka would deploy somewhere in the back to shoot down my one big fear for this army - Dragons.
Battle reports will follow!
Sunday, December 30, 2012
