The Princes are in Town

Hi All,

A quick painting update.

My summer goal is to get my Dragon Princes painted and the new War Alter (+ the odd high elf archer/RBT/spearelf/mounted BSB and Prince).

First up I have the minimum tabletop requirement of 5 Dragon Princes with Musician.

Stuck to the usual High Elf paint scheme. I've got 5 more to paint (Santa gifted me a GW voucher) with 1 done up as a Standard and one as a unit champ.

War alter is on the table, painting in progress, so pics should be up early in the new year.

On the gaming front I had a game last night vs Ryan's vamps.  My list:

lvl4: high, ring of fury, scroll (shield, curse of arrow, stubborn, flames, drain magic)
Prince: GW, Armour of Caledor, Seafarer Bow, Talisman of Loec
BSB: Barded Steed, GW, Heavy armour, Dragonhelm, luckstone
10 Archers: M
25 Spears: M, SB
25 Spears: M, SB-gleaming pendant
15 Whitelions: FC-Banner of Sorcery, Iron curse (to prove I wasnt tailoring!)
5 Dragon Princes: M
4 Eagles
4 RBT's

So yeah-5 bolts/turn. And man were they effective. Turn 1 = 7 out of 13 Black Knights skewered with only 4 able to shoot (diagional deploy -1 in reserve), and 1 missing (curse of arrow was dispelled). Sneaky eagle schenanigans = Whitelions with Prince flank the remaining "bus" and crumble Vamp lord and supporting vamp turn 3. RBT's then wipe out 38 Ghouls (with help from flames of phoenix and an ill-fated spears sandwich), and strip a zombie unit down to 4. Very exciting game, and looking forward to see how this incarnation of the Highelves plays out.

Down and Dirty in the Maw pit

Hi all,

First day of the Summer break =  a chance to get in some Warhammer. Scouts had reported a marauding force of Ogres had made their way down from the Worlds Edge Mountains, so an expeditionary force from the local garrison was sent to intercept.

The force sent to intercept:

Art Collector: GW, Armour of Meteroic Iron, 4+ ward
lvl4: light, scroll
BSB: Full Plate Armour, Enchanted Shield, Warriorbane
lvl1: fire, rubyring
Engineer

48 Halberds: Full Command
2x5 Archer Detachment
10 Archers
10 Inner Circle Knights: Full Command-Gleaming Pendant

2 Cannons
2x4 Demigryph knights: Musician

Hurricanum
Hellblaster

The Scouts had managed to inflitrate the Ogre camp and managed to report back (alive) that their warband consisted of:

Ogre Warband:

Slaughtermaster: Glittering scales, WS10 sword, Crown of Command
BSB: (armour) GW...possibly other stuff but the scouts never managed to break into his tent
Firebelly: ASF sword, scroll
Firebelly: I10 sword, rubyring

7 Bulls: Full Command-Runemaw
8 IronGuts: Full Command-banner of swiftness

2x3 Mournfang: Musician
3x1 Sabretusks

2 Iron Blasters

The Empire marched out at day break hoping to catch the Ogre warband unawares, only to find them ready for battle...the armies lined up and an erie silence fell across the land between them.

TURN ONE
However, it was the Empire's finest that were first off the mark (taking advantage of Ogre cultral pre-battle taunting traditions to start the battle). A bit of a shuffle forward to get into a comfortable position for most of the army, while the archers eagerly marched forward. The light mage muttered under his breath and the Demigryphs to his left found themselves moving as if they were in a timewarp. The Bright wizard then yelled in fury to unleash the largest hail of fire he could muster on the Ironblaster (Empire right), however the Slaughtermaster ate a squirrel just in time (does Ogre magic still work like this?). The Light wizard then had a go, attempting to Banish it to another dimension, taking a single wound. This of course, just encouraged the "Gunshow" who, not to be out done by the posing mages in silly robes, promptly blew the Ironblaster up.

The Ogre General then found himself in an awkward position. The mournfang were eager to get into the fight, but the un-natural speed of the Demigryphs meant they had no way to safely move...so instead they shuffled forward a little confused. The Ironguts and Bulls however, were not restricted by such trival matters and marched foward in blood lust.

The Slaughtermaster then dug into his bag of treats and ate a rock...much counter yelling by the Empire mages stopped the Mournfang on the ground getting tougher, however while the Mages were yelling to stop that, the Slaughtermaster took a sip from his flask; the Mournfang were overtaken by aroma of the brew stolen from a Dwarven stronghold, and were filled with stubborn steadfastness. The Ironblaster took a shot at the Hellblaster...it can re-roll bounce, but it can't re-roll 1's to wound!

TURN TWO
The archers saw this as their moment. The centre detachment ran into the face of the Bulls and pulled funny faces and made rude comments about their mothers.The unit on the right (along with some Demigryphs!) charged a sabretusk. The timewarped Demigryphs smashed into the Stubbborn Mournfang, while the ICKs strategically moved up to tempt the 2nd unit away from a flank charge/provide a good incentive not to take the Demigryph flank!

Magic drew out a scroll, however the real phase was the Gunshow. 2 cannons = dead 2nd Iron Blaster, while the Hellblaster let rip on the Ironguts, stripping a rank.



In combat, the Demigryphs could hit the Mournfang, but only managed 4 wounds...thankfully all 4 went through the armour, for the loss of a single wound in return. The Dwarven brew was still floating around, and the Mournfang stood their ground.

 On the other flank...well archers + Demigryph (could only get a single 1 in base to base) = 2 dead archers, 1 wound on sabretusk = thank goodness I have a musician! Kitty runs, archers unsuccessfully chase, while the Demigryphs turn to face down the Iron Guts (and sit within the Hurricanum bubble...).

 The Demigryphs smelt them before they saw them; the Ironguts came smashing through the undergrowth into combat. The sabretusk thought they would have a go at the cannon, however it was a little too far to pounce on. Tossing up whether to hit the ICKs or the Demigryph flank, the Mournfang decided it was more fun to run at ICKs, and thundered off the hill at the Empire's finest.
The bulls, enraged by the unfounded comments about their mothers ran at the archers who fled...but not far enough. The Slaughtermaster went to cook them up, but the Empire Mages pulled out their recipe scroll and corrected their cooking techniques. In combat...12 Demigryph attacks hitting on 2's...especially when they had just been heated up by the Firebelly = some very, very, very dead, fleeing and run down Iron Guts. The Dwarven brew wore off and the last remaining Mournfang on 1 wound ran from the Demigryphs who decided it was better to turn around than chase. The ICK's didnt fair as well as hoped. 2 were squashed by the impact of the Mournfang. Their swords only managed a single wound before their armour failed them, 2 more dying to s4 attacks. Re-rolling ldship 4, the Standard bearer gets pulled down and the final 5 escape the over run.

TURN THREE
So what do you get when you have Halberds in the front, Demigryphs in the rear, and Demigryphs in the flank? Suspiciously woodelf-like tactics if I've ever seen them!

The ICK's rally and brace themselves for more Mournfang "fun".The Light mage after much "do I cast on single unit or bubble" thinking, decides to target just the Halberds with Timewarp only to IF it, wounding everyone that can generate dice (including hurricanum!)...however the Art Collector's ward proves true. The Gun show decided to light up the Mournfang. HellBlaster kills them down to a single wound. The cannon on Hill fails to finish it off (can't remember how), while the other one over hears the Slaughtmasters "hey wouldnt it be funny if the sabretusk got grapeshotted!"...and grape shots the sabretusk's last wound...thank you archers for your single wound contribution.

In the combat my Halberds rip into the bulls slaying many. The Slaughtermaster is taken down to a single fustrating wound and the BSB is wounded. All this slaughter is for naught as the Bulls hold on, due to the fancy headpiece the Slaughtmaster was wearing.

The remaining Mournfang thought he would try his luck and smashed into the ICKs. The fleeing Mournfang rallied, while the fleeing sabretusk ran off the board. However, the sneaky 3rd managed to make it to the the cannon on the hill. During the slaughter the flask containing the Dwarven brew's lid was knocked off and the remaining bulls found themselves not wanting the leave the presence of the wonderful drink. This of course was their downfall as all the bulls were pecked to death or pulled to their fate by the Halberds. All that remained was the Firebelly and the Slaughtermaster (protected by "hitting on 6's" and my inability to roll 4's to wound). The mournfang combat was lost by one, but the ICK's held true-encouraged by the action in the centre of the field.

TURN FOUR

The Empire went for the kill:

And kill they did. The Sabretusk wore a heap of arrows, The Light Mage IF'ed again (!) killing 4 archers, and everyone now with +1 to hit pulled apart the Slaughtermaster and Firebelly. The Mournfang vs ICK's was an awkward draw.







The Mournfang that relied hid behind the tower, hoping to sneak back to the Mountains to find another tribe to join, while the ICKs vs Mournfang combat continued as a draw for a few more rounds until the final wound was taken and the Empire were victorious!




END RESULT
The warband hadnt been routed, they had been cut down to literally an Ogre for the loss of 5 archers and 1 cannon. The valley had been saved from the marauding warband. Much celebrations and drinking ensued. 

The Hub Campaign and Painting update-new Empire BSB

Hi All,

So not this weekend just been, but the one before I had a fantastic nerd-tastic time up in Levin at Glen's. He has put together a really fun 40k campaign and on the Saturday was the first round of games to determine the story path.

My list was as per last post...however one thing I didnt take into consideration when writing the list was deployment.

All three games I deployed something like this:

That's 30 boyz and the warboss on the board with rokkitcopta outflanking and the "yoofs" in reserve (in later games I squeezed the deffcopta in as well and used its scout move to get up the board).

In comparison my opponent deployment tended to look something like this:

Yeah...

The games were simple 6 turn events with 2 objectives worth 2 VPs + VPs for first blood, general, and line breaker. Needless to say the games were very easy to draw (vs marines). We tended to hold our objective (game 1 I was 2 guardsmen short of shooting them off the objective and Conan was a "oh wait-cultist champs are ldship 8" successful breaktest away from taking me off mine), I tended to get first blood (thankyou warboss) and they tended to get general (no thanks warboss). However 30 boyz+ rokkitcopta = heaps and heaps of shooting that served me well-wiping out a combat sqaud in a single round of dakka is a very, very satisfying thing for us Ork players...so is dropping 3 terminators with shootas.

Game 3 was a bit different...my army vs Drago (who got scoring unit as his trait), a dreadknight (scoring thanks to Drago), and 10 Guardsmen with auto cannon and grenade launcher. I can comfortably say I was politely tabled by a dreadknight...who was on 1 wound costing me first blood before I was wiped out grrrrr

Anywho-the Badguys (Orks included here due to my Nurgle Cultist "yoofs") won the day (thank you Genestealer cult). Personally, my Orks are there to cause mayhem and spread the Waaagh! not pick sides in the struggle of "not Ork" vs "not Ork", so hopefully Glen can write that into the campaign somehow....


Can't wait for round 2.

PAINTING UPDATE

So on the painting front I have finished off another 12 High Elf archers (no pic as they look exactly like my other ones) and have moved the 5 plastic dragon princes to the painting tray...I have also assembled and sand based another 5 Reavors to grow my High Elf Cav. However I keep getting this feeling that I really should finish painting my Orks.

 I have also officially gotten annoyed enough with my old metal BSB to do something about it:

So meet Barry the BSB part 2. Straight from the plastic Gold Swords sprue, epic feather and free-hand comet + usual paint scheme (with a little bit more care taken on the beard-3 drybrushed coats) = sorted. I have yet to finish the basing, but it will be exactly like all my other Empire stuff. I decided not to kit bash it because the Gold Sword standard bearer looks cool enough and if I EVER wanted to field greatswords (fluffycon?) I have the metal standard bearer to do me right.

So that's all from me for now. Next post should be a battle report of my Empire getting stomped by Will's "no skills net listz FTW" Ogres (that counts as trash talk).

When the cat's away, the nerds will play

Hi all,

So the other half's work Christmas do is a weekend away in the Malborough Sounds meaning I get to Warhammer it up Friday night, all Saturday, and most of Sunday...epic. Last year I just sat at home painting warhammer watching American Dad. This year will be sooo much better.

FRIDAY:

Conan and Ryan are coming around for epic night of Warhammer assembling (Conan) and small skirmish 40k games (all of us...once Conan has assembled his stuff :P). I have my Bolt Thrower CD all ready to pump through the sound system NICE.

SATURDAY:

Conan and I drive up to Levin to visit Glen. Glen has written a very cool 40k campaign (the sort of 40k I like...small, fun, fluffy). The story can be found here.

My army:

In the depths of the Hub a community of orks has been growing from some spores that were accidently smuggled there by a a sushi chef. These "yoofs" are starting to shed their teef and become "da ladz" and the next generation is coming through. Meanwhile a Missionary warboss and his trusty copta buddy have found themselves on the planet having hijacked a transport ship. Working their way (read "speeding dangerously") through the lower levels causing havoc (humans are less tolerant of evangelical Gork followers than the average ork) they chanced across "da green gang" who became disciples of Gork and seek to spread the Waaagh whereever they go...once they figure out how to get out of the Hive.

Warboss: Warbike, Pklaw, Attack Squig, Cybork body 150

30 Shoota Boys: Nob-Pklaw, 'eavy armour, Bosspole,big shoota 230
10 Nurgle cultists "yoofs": flamer 75

RokkitCopta 45

500

Basically you had to take 1 squad of Cultists, or Guardsmen. Orks are more "bad guys" so cultists as yoofs works for me...good thing nurgle makes things green and t4! They count as battle brothers and will be represented by the BFBR slugga boyz with a burna boy filling in as the flamer model.

I'm not expecting to win anything given that my fluffy tactic is to run at stuff and hopefully cut it to pieces with volume of attacks (and loud noises shooting). That said, 30 shoota boyz and a warboss running at you is a scary prospect...

That night will be some epic D&D.

SUNDAY:

 Sam and James arrive for the official NZTC practice event...or playing games as it is also known. I'll be running my "post masters" list:

Alector: GW, AOMI, 4++            200
lvl4: light, scroll            225

BSB: FPA, Ench. sh, wbane        101
lvl1: fire, rubyring            90
engineer                65

48 Halberds: FC                318
5 archer detach                35
5 archer detach                35
10 archers                70
10 ICKS: FC-Gleaming Pendant        285

4 Demigriffs: M                242
4 Demigriffs: M                242
cannon                    120
cannon                    120

Hurricanum                130
Hellblaster                120

2398

Basically everything that worked for me at Vermintide + lore of light to give me combat advantage (EMPIRE NEED), the ever-so-felt-the-absence-of Hellblaster + engineer and some flanking knights, because it wouldnt be Empire without some knights.
Unlike my Masters list I can afford to sit back a bit with this one and wear down key units, board control, then pounce. Also my chaff can deploy IN FRONT of my army as its parent unit wants to be up front, not at the back.

Also waaaaaaaay more fluffy-got the Halberds back. Best case scenerio for them is 38 s4 hatred ws10/i10 hitting on 2's with re-roll to wound with opponent -1 to hit vs a 5++ AHHHHH sweet, sweet Empire love.

Anywho, I'm sure I will have plenty of stories to tell.

Yummy Rats and the curious case of the moustache

So Masters huh?

Well. First off on the day Warhammer was the winner as I had 6 very enjoyable games against some quality opponents.

I forgot to take pics 90% of the time, so I wont do "proper" battle reports sorry :(

SO my list was the list in the last post. It wasnt tested before submitting (time restraints), and after Vermintide I have a much clearer idea of how I like to operate Empire...and it wasnt what I submitted!

My first game was vs Locky's Skaven-random deployment. The game went as I expected it to. My cannons kill stuff, the Demigryphs destroy stuff in combat, and my knights pretty much avoid the action and look important. 15-5 to me.

Game 2 was also vs Skaven-though this time it was vs the rat master himself, Pete D. Now for all the crap he gives Dwarf players, I want to document on the internetz his deployment (please note this was blood and glory-hence the 9 inch gap to table edge)

Yes, you are correct, that is the very definition of castling in the corner-the Dwarf tactic of choice. And as soon as he could, the bell moved into the corner. This game was going to be a big challenge for me, however I had the Demigryph combat chomp, and a few lucky storm banner rolls. My first target was the doomwheel (Dead turn 1), then the HPA with wizards, while I worked my way through the rats. Turn 3 I managed to kill the Seer giving me a huge advantage (+ a couple of insane courage break tests...) allowed me to clean up what I could for a 16-4 win to me, and in the NZ world, an achievement unlocked.

 Game 3: So sitting nicely in 2nd place I came up vs Rory's Vamps, but more importantly, I came up against Rory's moustache.

With that staring at me from across the table, I was bound to find myself distracted! Rory pushed forward aggressively turn 1 (went first). I saw an opportunity in his chaffing for an overrun from Fell bats into flank of skele unit with wraiths with my ICKS. So naturally I also put the unit of 5 demigryphs in too...meaning my ICKS didnt get to align for my advantage....overrun was 1 inch short as a result, meaning my Captasus who had valiantly charged the front, found himself stranded with a Vamp lord, vamp hero and the last remaining black knight (searing doom kills 9...grr) staring at his flank. On the topic of Black Knights, you know a game isnt going well when you kill 23 in a game when the list only had 10....yeah. 0-20 to Rory...

Game 4: Vs Ant's Brets. Antony is a real great guy to play, and I love the fact that his banners are labels from cheese labels. We were playing watch tower, and this is the 2nd time I have lost it to Brets. I was always going to struggle in this game as I had no true anvil that could hold up his units, so it was a case of him grinding me down, and using his narrow units + terrain very well vs my considerably wider units. 0-20 to Ant.

Game 5: Vs Pete W's High Elves. So the internet thought the list was crap...all I saw was 3 bolt throwers + curse of arrow attraction + 2 decent magic missiles = I cant sit back and weather the storm = I have to move forward + my magic range threat is minimal vs his defence.  I deployed first (diagonal mission) and picked a corner that would give me a good central position to work from...so naturally my ICKS dont turn up = have to move my line to keep BSB/general bubble (vs all that ranged threat!) to not a desirable location. Despite losing both chariots turn 1, Pete held on, my lances were made of rubber, his shield of sapphery was borrowed from a demon player and my army disappeared. HOWEVER I would like to point out that Pete pulled a game winning move turn 1 so it was his tactics that beat me. I didnt see it due to calv + forest + range, but Pete took his changes, charged flank of some vanilla knights with reavers through a forest, broke them and they fled across my line and ruined my already sub optimal battle line. Fantastic move that made me re-assess how I interact with terrain. 0-20 to Pete (seeing a theme???)

Game 6: vs Sam W's OnG. Last game and I get Sam's can opener list. Well guess what? some cans got opened. However, I did manage to epic charge, break and run down his trolls (yeah!) and also killed both his wizards with a single Final Transmutation (first time in 13 games with lvl4 metal that I have killed a character). This game was the perfect representation of why my list was wrong. No steadfast, no anvil, no real ranged threat and of the spells my lvl4 had, literally the only one that was useful was final transmutation. This game swung from a 10-10 to a 4-16 to Sam in turn 6.

End result: So despite being 2nd on the table, three 0-20's really hurt me and I came last. Oh well, I had lots of fun and it was an event where submarining really wasnt an option! Congrats to Tom D for winning,  thanks to Pete for organising it,  and a big thanks to the refs for doing what refs do.

Thoughts on list:

Having seen what hurricanum + hatred/prayered up halberds can do, I have to say the Knight heavy Empire is a poor man's choice of list-especially when you have to play missions. I had no answer in the watch tower, and nothing that could happily grind away. Lore of metal was a poor choice given the lack of armour that was there, especially when Empire really need to be able to sit back for a bit and pick their battles. On sitting back-I now appreciate what a Hellblaster brings to the army-not killing power (though it has that), but board denial. My opponents were free to roam whereever they pleased because I had no way of dis-incentivising their movement. What worked? Demigryphs did when they a) had the space to play, and b) had the upper hand-something a hurricanum provides, and so does the lore of light.

I have been frantically drafting lists, and with a weekend of nerdom ahead, I'll post up my Post-Master's list thoughts, and also there is a 40k campaign that I will be taking part in.

Till next time...

NZ Masters 2012

Righty,

So next weekend is the NZ Masters 2012 for WHFB, 40K, and Flames of War. (exploding lvl4 Woodies at Horned Gobbo aside), I have performed well enough this year at the tournaments to get an invite to the WHFB Masters. VERY EXCITING...but also means I have no "easy" games = no submarining...oh well.

My list:

The Art Collector (General): BSteed, Armour of Destiny, shield, Crown of Command, Biting Blade
lvl4: (Metal), scroll
BSB: BSteed, Full Plate ,Shield, Talisman of Preservation
Captasus: Full Plate, Charmed Shield, DBGem, SoMight
lvl2: (light), scroll of shielding

13 Inner Circle Knights: FC-Banner of Discipline
5 Knights: M
5 Knights: M
10 Archers
5 Archers (Detachment)
5 Archers (Detachment)

Cannon
Cannon
5 Demigryphs: M, SB
4 Demigryphs: M
2400

The rest of the lists can be found here

My list has been described as "solid" and a "KFC family feast", but I just think it should be fun to use.

The event should be really fun...if not super tiring with 6 games instead of the usual 5 vs some very tight lists being handled by some top opposition.

As usual I will be annoying my opponents with lots of photos so I can do battle reports. 

Vermintide IV Tournment Report

Hi all,

So Vermintide IV was today. My usual super exciting, active social life means that I have a free Saturday night to write up the reports while watching Stargate Atlantis.

I submitted two lists to Vermintide. The first list was for me to use:

Empire:
Warrior Priest: HA, 2HW
BSB: FPA, Ench shield
lvl1: (fire), ruby ring
38 Halberds: FC
2x5 Archer detachments
2x4 Demigryphs: M
Hurricanum

So a very exciting Empire list with a suprisingly strong magic phase...however I spent a fair amount of the day defending the fact that I toom 8 Demigryphs "because I like the models"

The second list I submitted was for my friend Alex to use. He hasnt played much 8th, but I was secretly hoping he would do really well with the list.

Woodies:
Noble: Eagle, LA, sh, spear, stone of rebirth, dragonhelm, potion of foolishness
10 Glade Guard: M, SB
10 Glade Guard: M
4x8 Dryads
5 Wildriders:  (m)
3 Treekin
Eagle

A very fun MSU woodie list that didnt rely on shooting to do the damage. I picked this list to make the top 5 if Alex figured out how to use the list quickly.

Anywho- my battles...

GAME 1: Random Deployment vs Bo's Highelves

Very exciting first game. lvl3 with metal (didnt roll final transmute!), MSU elite, big block of Seaguard, eagles and a RBT...fun.

I deployed first

So pretty much exactly how I would have deployed anyway.

Bo deploys and doesnt have the same luck

Looks like I will have to do the walking across the board..

While he Searing Dooms me.

On my right flank the Demigryphs brushed off 5 Whitelions and an eagle before getting the RBT. My magic phase was all fireworks and display, failing to kill off 5 swordmasters over a couple of turns (got it down to 1 grr). My hurricanum decided to have a go at an eagle. Rolled a hit, did d6 s4 due to vs a flier, rolled a 6 (so s6 hit under hole)...and did a massive 1 wound.

In the centre, my Halberds decided to force the issue and found itself in this position

2 rounds of combat, some nervous armour saves on the BSB, and my Halberds were victorious...if not a little beat up! This left only the Seaguard to deal with...but not before the 2 remaining demigryphs of the left unit were searing doomed to oblivian.

(the solo swordmaster is fleeing with snakes eyes needed to rally-goes off the board through the demigryphs). Halberds and Demigryphs charge the front, kill the lvl3 and BSB...win the combat and run down the sea guard.

All the while my lvl1 and his posse had fled turn 4 due to panic and strolled towards my board edge, eventually waltzing off the edge turn 6. My excuse is that after turn 4 there was nothing to fireball...but it did mean that I won 14-6 instead of the max 15-5.

So a good solid win and enjoyable game that would allow me to submarine for the next 2 rounds as a few people won their first game with max points. Bo's army was very well presented and was awarded player's choice for best painted.

GAME 2: Diagional Deployment vs Aaron's Ogres.

Game 2 of Vermintide, and my 2nd game vs the new Ogres. Aaron's list consisted of 9 bulls with BSB and lvl2, 2x2 mournfang, 3 sabretusks, thundertusk (very excited to see one of these on the table!)

We both had everything arrive to the battle. I deployed first, but Aaron stole first turn.

Yay for defensive deployment! However, I was out done by Simon and his dwarfs who literally deployed his army hard up against the board edge in a corner in the face of Sam's advancing OnG.

So things started well. My left Demigryphs were "drawn left" killing chaff, I fire balled another sabre tusk and moved up to get involved...however killing the sabretusk = IF = big template = 2 wounds on right Demigryphs. Aaron decides to capitalise on this with his Thundertusk shooting, killing 1 = fail panic test.

I

 I'm then tricksy with my charge reactions completely collapsing my right flank while the first unit of mournfang hit my lines...sigh

 However, it all rallies, my Halberds pull down a mournfang, hold, and the demigryphs flank in as support.

With this combat finished, our lines, err, align and the Thundertusk takes out the hurricanum.

We were playing a little slow, so we were running out of time. Aaron went for it with lots of charges. Mournfang into Demigryphs, Thundertusk into Halberds, and the bull bus failed to make the supporting charge into the halberds.

With no bulls the combats were in my favour, with me running down the thundertusk and killing the mournfang, leaving only the bull bus. Due to running out of time we finished the game there with me winning 12-8 (back to 20-0 max score). My Submarining was going exactly as planned, however having only taken 574ish VP's, my stakes in the "Butcher Award" (most VP's taken during the tournament) were compromised.

GAME 3: Watchtower vs John's Ogres

YAY Ogre's again. Though no need to feel sorry for me, there were people at Vermintide who were stuck with multiple games vs Dwarfs.

Now, since John was also taking photos for his blog stumpyheaven.blogspot.co.nz we agreed to be completely one sided in our reports.

Anywho-John "won" the watchtower (giving me first turn!) and deployed a unit of 3 bulls in it.

This naturally meant that my halberds charged in first turn. I took the risk of nominating my BSB and Valten (unit champ) to the fight...re-roll to wound prayer was a nice addition along with +1 to hit = I take the tower.

So naturally the Ogres stumbled forward towards my line, keen for a fight. Their butcher eats something funny and a demigryth falls dead with the sound of snapping bones. However, with all their enthusasium, the Ogres stumble a little too close...

Giving my Demigryphs the jump on the mournfang. I win combat, they break (standard bearer dies), and the unit champ just gets away.

(7th ed. hangover habit of collecting standards in play here). On the other side of the board the gnoblar gets stuck in the Ironblaster barrel, meaning it cannot shoot the next turn = the other unit of Demigryphs move to force the Ironblaster into combat. Iron blaster charges while the main part of the Ogre army are threatening to walk of my table edge and miss out on all the fun.

My guys are a little be more savvy and move to avoid the ogres and draw them away from all the exciting stuff.

This naturally confused the Ogres, especially when the Demigryphs ran past them, and the bulls were BBQ'ed. In their confusion they decided that maybe the action was in the other direction.

However, the butcher was having none of that as he was enjoying this new found tasty treat that by-the-by killed demigrpyhs (never seen such consistent rolls of 6).

This was his down fall as the fire mage got his flame on and burnt him to a crisp, while 5 archers valantly died to stop the Ironguts getting to the Demigryphs. My first solution to the butcher was actually to run him over with the hurricanum to test the "chariot" part of its job description. However, it failed miserably on this front, failing what should have been a relatively easy charge.

And so the game ended with a comfortable 20-0 to me, bringing an end to my submarining. Once the Halberds were in the tower with BSB and Warrior Priest there was nothing in John's army that could dislodge them. I just got lucky and managed to pick his army apart piecemeal for the loss of a single archer detachment.

GAME 4: Blood and Glory vs James' High Elves

Another tournament, another NZTC team civil war, and another chance to take suggestive pics of James...

Possibly my best effort so far.

So we deployed and James went first

Basically he shuffled forward. I on the other hand marched on up confidently.

Now I didn't get pics of what happened next because it happened so quickly. Basically James did a textbook move by charging his Prince with re-roll 2+/5++ (who was also the lvl1) into the right demigryphs. I then forget how to pass armour saves and take 4 wounds from 4 attacks. However, this was clearly a bug going around as the Prince then failed 4x 2+, 2+, 5++ and died! The Demigryphs then had an easy charge on the Dragon Princes (who were not expecting to be charged). Dragon Princes flee the charge, and run crazy distance off the board. All of a sudden everything had swung in my favour.

So now my lvl1 decides that the whitelions were feeling a little cold and "heats" them up with fireballs while my army closes in. It's a little hard to see (next pic), but James charged his BSB into the Demigryphs (stubborn in forest due to single infantry model), while I had set up my archers to do the exact same thing...great minds huh? His rear archer unit wore a fireball and ran off the board with a failed panic test.

The BSB died under the weight of s5AP attacks, and my archer "trap" succeeded when the Whitelions only killed 4 and I passed my stubborn check. The Demigryphs then charged the archers
and flank the Whitelions.

My archer dies, and the Demigryphs do their thing and all the highelves die for the loss of my archer detachments. 20-0 to me...thank you Prince for forgetting how to pass re-rolling armoursaves and wards!

GAME 5: Battleline vs Pete W's Tombkings

So last game of the tournament and I find myself on the top table with Pete W, who I have never beaten before. We were both exhausted, so an interesting game was promised. We deployed.

Quick run down of Pete's list (left to right). Tomb Scorpion, 3 playdough necroknights (sculpted from liquid greenstuff...), Tomb Scorpion, Necrosphinx, 3 chariots, 10 archers with lvl3 heirophant with rubyring (march, -1s and -1t, killingblow), 3 chariots.

Pete moved his army up. His (my right) chariots came a little too close and my Demigryphs took their chance and charged in.

With the chariots crumbling, my reform instantly put me in the driver's seat.

Now there is a reason why Pete prefers the Necrosphinx to the warkitty-flying = can quickly move to cover these sorts of events. He also moves up a tomb scorpion to slow my demigryphs and give him some room. My Demigryphs charge the scropion and the necroknight.

I take out the scorpion and hold, while my other demigryphs are stuck in an awkward stalemate with the necrosphinx. Pete charges the chariots into my Halberds (who lost one to fireballs, only to regrow it,  then to lose it again to fireballs, then to get it back once in combat). The turn before the charge I successfully prayed the 5++ prayer meaning that the halberds shrugged off the chariot attacks (with a few nervous Armour saves on the BSB) and they crumbled. The Demigrifffs not in combat suffered -3s and -3t as a sneaky means of stopping them charging around. However, I picked up my dice, and rolled a jammy "heaps" to charge the necroknights with my halberds (with re-roll to wound prayer), while my Demigriffs went Hierophant hunting.

This naturally means it is time for my Demigriffs in combat with the necrosphinx to lose combat by 1, break and get run down, while there is a single necroknight left with a single wound after the combat.

Pete then flanks the Halberds with the Scropion. the heirphant abandons ship, runs (well, walks as can't march) and the archers move to block the demigryphs. To make life interesting the Halberds find themselves -1s and -1t. The demigryphs take out the archers, the necroknight dies while the scorpion is unharmed. The halberds then reform to face it head on.

Pete's Necrosphinx then bypasses the hurricanum and the demigryhs, and instead rear charges the Halberds.  Much death and destruction, but I kill the scorpion, hold on steadfast, and reform to face the necrosphinx.

At this stage the necrosphinx was starting to get a little slim on wounds, however my priority was 5++ on halberds not re-roll to wound (risk adverse).




Turn 6, Pete gets the Hierophant as far away from the Demigryphs as possible-meaning I needed a 9 to get the charge. I pick up the dice, pray to Sigmar for help cleansing the land of this evil, and roll a 9 = in combat with the hierophant!

Heirophant dies, I roll a single 6 to wound to kill the necrosphinx, and then Pete rolls a 5 to survive on a single wound. 






We tally points and I win 21-4 (max score was 25-0).





END RESULT

I end on 86 battlepoints out of a possible 100, giving me enough to win Vermintide! I also won the "orphan" award for highest ranked army that was only played by one person. For the Butcher award I had the 2nd most VPs taken (Sam W came first-always beats me at something :P), but the award went to Mike K as the it could not be won by someone in the top 3 (Sam coming 2nd, Pete 3rd).

As for my other army...as I predicted, Alex picked up its playstyle rather quickly and came 5th! Noice, very noice.

So a fantastic start to the Warhammer "year"...now to focus on Masters in a couple of weeks.