Jack of Herts III

Pre-(R)amble

Ashamedly the first post in a while and it's a Tournament report rather than a hobby update. I've been painting and hobbying a fair amount but just not got round to write them all down. So it's back with Paul and Mat running a casual doubles tournament but this time at the Darksphere Shop in West London(ish) at Mantic Franticon 2019. 

An impressive 18 teams were taking part from several countries including a large Spanish Armada. Some usual suspects were present but this one was different as I was bringing my brother with me for his foray into toy soldiers since we were kids. We'd had a quick 1000pt battle where I worked him through the mechanics and I bought him a rule book. I gave him some pointers and left him write a list cobbled together out of the 20+year old monopose plastic elves and some recent things like a Forest Dragon I had been painting. 

The lists!

I decided to try and take the least amount of stuff I could and the stuff I felt was the best painted. To make it easier to transport mine and my Brother's army. Two hordes of Gigas providing the unlocks and then two Monsters and Nak-Ushi (who pretty much counts as a monster). This left me 55 points to spend on items so I chucked Iron Resolve on one Giga unit and Phalanx on the other to try and give them some longevity. 

The Elves were a pretty standard Horde of Archers, Horde of Drakons, Dragon, Dragon Breath and BSB with Breath 10. On reflection the archers would have benefited from the piercing rather than giving the BSB breath but hey ho. The elves were thrown together so I don't have a nice pic of them, so here's a pic of Nak-Ushi.

Game 1 - Invade

A great game to kick off as we faced Jude and Carlos and their KoM joint forces of a barbarian horde and Ottomans. Big blocks of spearmen and hordes of fearless berserkers meant we were out dropped and massively out Unit strengthed. The only way we really stood a chance was to just stick everything on one side and try to face off against the larger width units as they came towards us with our narrower frontage and hide in the woods. 

The KoM deployed with big blocks on either flank and it was clear their plan was just to march forward and get over halfway swamping us. Our fliers and knucker tried to keep the left flank tied up and dealt with the cannon and musket block while the infantry slowly advanced into the woods and the elves kept shooting. Finally the chariots let fly along with the Knights and charged into the coral giant. but with the ensnare and some poor rolling the towering monstrosity survived. This allowed the combined missile and flame power of the elves to eradicate the Knights and the Coral Giant to gently tickle the chariots. 

Spying a cheeky pivot and charge the chariots then ploughed into the elves while the berzerkers struck the beleaguered giant. The chariots, hindered by the woods bounced and allowed a brutal combined charge to the flank by the gigas. Nak had been healing the giant so again it stood firm against the onslaught and the knucker having dealt with the ranged units sped round and assaulted the rear of the Celts. One final charge by the berzerkers dealt with the Giant but again the gigas struck leaving the Celtic Warlord alone as the lone band of tattooed warriors were shot to pieces.  

The spearmen on the opposite flank continued to march unopposed into the opposite half while the cavalry general and Beast of War played out a merry dance with the dragon and Drakons and despite chipping away at each other it was a stalemate. We did manage to time out in our T7 but thankfully it didn't cost us as all our stuff was out of charges and missile range.  

A pair of great opponents and Jude deservedly placed in the best painted army award of his lovely massed ranks. 

Result - TR/Elves 11 - 6 KoM

Game 2 - Plunder

Two more friendly faces greeted us for Game 2. Danny had brought his Lycan Hordes and Martin had Shocktroops, Nightmares, Slaves and a Swarm Crier. Deployment ended up with all the fast flankers facing off on the right side and the big hitters on the other. We planned to try and chew through the tough enemies and steal their loot while flying interference on the hordes of lycans. They got the first turn and beautifully baited our Drakons into charging the flank of some slaves which then left them exposed to being charged in return. The two Lycans and Lycan Alpha then spent a lengthy session of cat and mouse for the rest of the game ending up with just a knucker and the Lycan Alpha remaining, crucially in having the loot the Alpha lost the ability to be maneuverable enough to sneak round the knucker and claim the last token. 

On the other side the Coral giant had a slap fest with a Horde of Lycans wavering them twice up against the wall of a house while they merrily regened their wounds. Nak-Ushi finally positioned for a flank against the stricken She-wolves and they were done for. Meanwhile the Gigas and Nightmares began a game of Tetris in the centre with the hindered Nightmares not breaking through the gigas despite a flank and front assault. This offered up their flank in return and they were swiftly dispatched. 

The Shock troops threw caution to the wind and advanced straight down the centre grabbing the loot and running the gauntlet of flame and arrows only to fall short at the last hurdle as the last rat fell pin cushioned and roasted. The ranged units then headed off to try and deal with the Alpha. 

Despite all the chaos surrounding them the remaining unit of slaves had sneakily grabbed some loot and run off to a place that they were safe from Drakon Assault and promptly hid. Realising they were all that was left of the vermin they leapt on the coral giant to try and achieve a miracle waver before they went down. The giant calmly counter charged and enjoyed a game of whack-a-rat. 

When the dust settled the loan Lycan Alpha stood wavered amidst shredded fur and dragon scales with a horde of pointy eared arrows nocked and leveled at it. 

A couple of very lucky wavers and some unlucky roles on flanks from Martin meant we were able to counter where we needed to and take units apart one by one. If the shock troops had survived to charge the horde of archers it may well have been a different story! 

Result TR/Elves 6 - 1 Ratkin/Herd 

Game 3 - Control 

Amazingly the results from Games 1 & 2 put us on the top table playing a Spanish pairing of Abyssal Dwarves and Nightstalkers. I had heard horror stories of mutated mastifs and three artillery pieces backed up by fliers and hordes of killer cav. I think this massively affected who I advised we deploy & approached the game and it may have been our downfall...

We set up again with the flankers on each side but the right hand were accompanied by a horde of gigas and the elves had the other horde as babysitters in the centre. The plan was for the right flank to try and punch through, the left to keep the stalkers busy and the centre to move up and try to help out where they can using the hill to their advantage. The coral giant merrily hid behind a rock outcrop......for the whole game. We were out-dropped and the nightstalkers consisting of a dread fiend, terror, and two hordes of fiends were on our left. The rocket launcher, light & heavy bombards and blocks of abyssal guard filled out the centre and right accompanied by the Jar of Winds equipped Specters. Much of the first few turns was spent with us trying to remind ourselves of the stats of various nightstalker armies and figure out what decisions to make. 

Both armies advanced apart from (for some unknown reason) our elves who bravely stood behind the hill scared of the chaos dwarf guns. The dragon and Drakons took an early charge into the fiends hoping to pop them but failing which left them horribly exposed and after a couple of turns of the dragon hiding they were swiftly finished off. This left the nighstalkers free to nicely occupy the left two segments unchallenged. 

The battle fared better on the right and despite the hail of dog fire being leveled at them the fishmen stoutly advanced. They saw off two regiments of pale skinned dwarves and a lucky kill and overrun allowed the specters and stunty character to be defeated but at the cost of an unforeseen flank charge by a horde of black hearted midgets. With unit strength low the best we could do was hold on to minimise the loss as best as possible. In the end we held the centre with out impotent archers and the near right with the coral giant. They held both the left segments and their centre, with the far left contested by two hordes. 

After the game our opponents reckoned we gave their guns far too much respect and were probably right as cowering really didn't achieve anything for us. It was a competitive but very fair game with no contentious moments to talk of. The only one where there was a mix up with which throwing mastif had been used was resolved in our favour which was a great gesture. Feeling suitably drained we retired to the gaggle of onlookers attending the presentations. 

Result  TR/Elves 2 - 3 Abyssal Dwarves/Nightstakers

Conclusions

We far exceeded expectations and ended up coming 3rd! It was a great day if not a little stressful with the clocks running pretty tight. I think we got a couple of lucky breaks in the first couple of games and were out played and out thought in the third. Dan Read's lovely GW Elf army with its beautiful bright highlights won best army and the team we played in Game 3 took home the 1st place generals. Lunch was also provided which I hadn't banked on so the whole weekend was insanely good value. Combine this with the freebies for the tournament and the net result was a lot of happy gamers. See below for Swag...(there is also a selection of Vanguard minis for me and my brother for him being a noob in the post from Mantic!). Cheers to Mat and Paul for a great day. 

I took a brief look over at ther Deadzone games that were going on and they looked intriguing. I hadn't appreciated the size the board was or the cubic nature. It looked like an extension of chess with moves by squares and it's something that I may read up on.