On the morning of the second day of the tournament I was talking to my friend on the way there. My friend, whom I've faced in some of the previous battle reports I've hosted here, was playing 40k this time around and had gathered up an impressive 2-1 record the first day. Together we set the goal that we'd both get a winning record and finish in the upper half of our respective fields, meaning I'd have to win both of my remaining games to begin with.
Game 4: Lizardmen
For my first game of the second day I came upon a second Lizardmen player. In total, about 15 of the 65 participants were running Lizards, and the general consensus was that people were sick of that blue color schemes and those unbreakable units! At least my second opponent had a different list than my first, running an Old Blood on Carnosaur alongside an Engine of the Gods, two saurus blocks, two skink+Kroxigor blocks, Terradons with a Skink Chief(!) as a hero choice, your usual skirmishers and some Razordons.
The scenarios were Take and Hold as the primary, with Witchhunt as the secondary. On turns 4 and 6, we were supposed to hold two objectives on each side of the map for 2 VP's for each, while the two first magic users killed each awarded 2 VP's. Naturally, that meant he'd have to kill my BSB (with the Spirit totem) and my Goblin Shaman on his chariot, while I had to shoot down his Priest on the Engine.
I deployed my units of boyz close to each objective, with my Black Orcs and the Night Goblins with short bows in the middle. My Warboss' unit were joined by the Giant, Chariot and Hopper Boss, while my BSB had backups of Savage Orc Boar Boyz and the Squig Herd. He deployed in the center, as expected, with the Engine flanked by each of the Saurus units and the Kroxigor units further out with Razordons taking up a flank.
Animosity actually helped me a lot this game, as I kept rolling "We'll show 'em!" and surged forward, which caught the Razordons unable to avoid my BSB and the SOBB who completely destroyed them and pinned them against impassable terrain. Meanwhile the Squig Herd moved forward and claimed the objective. Things didn't go so well on the other side though, where my Warboss' and his boyz marched into the mid-field, wanting the Saurus and the Stegadon to charge them through the Snotlings, allowing my Black Orcs to counter-charge. He wouldn't move though, and my artillery provided the usual (for this tourny against lizards) array of 2's and misfires that failed to motivate the enemy. Instead I forced Waaagh! charge of the Black Orcs into the Old Blood, and the Boyz into the Saurus. I broke the warriors and ran them down (avoiding a flank charge by the Stegadon in the next turn), while my BO's used their Banner of Butchery and went GW swinging against the Carnosaur. 8 attacks on +3 to hit and 2+ to wound amounted to... 3 wounds, and the Carnosaur and his Old Blood retaliated for 7 Black Orcs hitting the ground, struck before me the next round and wiped out the unit. Unfortunately, that meant I was out of position to claim the second objective, resulting in a tie for the VPs.
I made a costly mistake when I didn't reign in my BSB and his boyz from pursuing the Razordons, which ended in a flank charge by the Kroxigor-lead Skink unit, and while I manage to pass my break test on Insane Courage, I then forgot to move my BSB in my turn to get him into combat, and I failed my next test and was eventually chased off the board. The Squig Herd still held on to the objective, though. On the other side, my Warboss' unit turned around to get back to the objective, only to watch my giant charge into the Oldblood and his wounded pet, roll up "Thump with Club!" for 9 S6 attacks, killing the beast, receiving a few wounds back from the Old Blood to tie the combat, and in the next turn pick up the Lizardmen General and hurl him right into the Engine of the Gods, hitting and then killing the Skink Priest by the impact! A classic moment provided by the big fella. Unfortunately, it happened right after his two units of Kroxigors and skinks had run down my BSB and my chariot shaman, so I didn't receive any VPs for it (I should have, though!).
My Warboss and his boyz took care of the left objective for the final round, but by throwing the Old Blood halfway across the field of battle I allowed him to combo charge my Squig Herd alongside the Stegadon, which naturally broke and went wild, while his second saurus block swooped up and claimed the objective for his final turn 6. I definitely could have played this match better, a couple of key mistakes on my part allowed him to reclaim some of the momentum my animosity gave me. Also, what's up with my artillery against lizards?
Result: WIN 12-8
Game 5: Dwarfs
During intermission I spoke to a fellow O&G player who'd just faced off against some stunties. He was complaining that the Hatred rule really benefits the dwarfs over us, since their entire army will be hating us while only our night goblins will hate them back. "Well", said I, "squigs hate dwarfs too..." I heard my opponent talk to a friend, without knowing I was standing by the nearby table, and cheered that he was up against O&G when the objectives were Killing Fields (normal VP count) and Messengers (bring two messenger models off the opponent's side of the table), thinking he'd be able to rack up a solid victory.
He deployed in a refused flank, with Quarrelers, Longbeards, Hammerers and Warriors from the flank and in, while his Organ Gun and the Grudge Thrower took up position in between the blocks and his Anvil went in the back. His Bolt Thrower and the Gyrocopter went on the opposite flank. A large ruin of very difficult terrain blocked the Quarreler's flank on my side, so naturally I put all my Squig Hoppers, Hopper Big Boss and Spiders there while my Squig Herd went around. Against his blocks, I placed my two Orc Boyz units, while the rest of my hard hitters went right against his Gyro and BT. His messengers went in his units (not sure if he even wanted them across the field) while mine went on the weak flank where the Gyro was the only threat to them.
The match was really about his mistakes (provided by my strategy in part) and me capitalizing on them. He immediately flew up close with his Gyro and showered my Messengers in steam, which failed to wound them. The Gyro was then chased down by 18" charge chariot and the SOBB, which had my cavalry far across the field and close to his BT by turn two. With the thrower out, there was nothing threatening my messengers at all, aside from his miners who came out in the third turn but was redirected by wolf riders. 4 quick VPs my way when they reached safety.
On the other side, his Grudge Thrower and the Organ Gun was racking up Orc bodies as they marched across the field. It certainly didn't look promising for the battle to come, with less than 15 orcs in each unit closing in on three solid blocks of hating dwarfs. Unfortunately for my opponent, I had no intention of ever getting into combat, knowing that my orcs wouldn't hate the dwarfs back (and thus not getting to re-roll their to hit rolls) and by the 4th turn, about 8" away from his lines, my orcs stopped and watched as the Squig Hopper Big Boss reached the Quarrelers, ate them up and then overran together with the Herd and the rest of the Hoppers into the flank of the Longbeards. 20 brave dwarfs went up against 30 S5 Squig attacks with hatred, and when it was all said and done, only 4 dwarfs were left standing. Along with their BSB, they broke, and my army of Squigs continued to roll up their flank, taking out warmachines and making their way to the Hammerers. Meanwhile, my giant hit the Warriors, lead by a Thane, on the other side out in the middle, and the big guy started jumping up and down for two rounds, delivering 2D6 of S6 attacks that eventually broke the spirit of the dwarfs and sent them running. By the time the Squig units reached the Hammerers, I joined the fray with one of my orc units (who was now being lead by both the Warboss and the BSB) and even though about 10-15 Hammerers bravely stood their ground, after the attacks of three characters (one of them still filled with hatred) none of the dwarfs were left standing.
So with about 80+80 points of orc boyz killed by his artillery (not even getting them their points back in 4 rounds of shooting), along with a shaman beaten up by his Runelord in a challenge for about 100 points, my opponent looked around the table and saw about 2000 points of dwarfs dead, 4 banners lost, 3/4 table quarters in my favour (with the miners not getting rid of the snotlings contesting the 4th one) and about 5 units of Greenskins now fixed upon his Anvil, he simply suggested a 0-20 report in my favour, and I agreed.
Result: WIN 20-0
In the end, I went 3-2 and finished 22nd of 66 contestants, which was better than I expected. I said before the tourny that as long as I finished in the upper 50% I would be pleased. The point totals between the 15th and 25th place were really close, only separated by about 10, so had I only performed better in my first game and not made as many mistakes against the Daemons and the second Lizards, I could have placed even higher. Of course, I'm sure a bunch of other players could be saying the same. Overall, I had a great time playing and meeting so many people. The list I brought performed alright, with a few disappointments and quite a bit of potential improvements to be made. But I'll deal with that in another post.
Oh, and if anyone cares about that other silly game, my 40k-playing friend went 1-1 on the second day and finished 3-2 as well, so we both reached the goals we set up on the way over there.
Monday, May 3, 2010
