Sunday 15 September 2013

Warpfire 2013 write up

Rightly all,

Yesterday was the first ever Warpfire hobby event in Wellington designed to celebrate all things hobby related...writing no comp or veto fun lists, different scenarios, strict painting scores, and a low stress environment.

Pre event there was a bit of controversy around what consisted a "fun" list with an example list containing 6-8 Beasts of Nurgle at 1000points  *queue internetz* Though after all that no one brought the Throgg list, and sure there were a couple of tough lists out there, but nothing too excessive...I think...well nothing that I played against (except Hugh's broken High Elves...).

Anywho - my list:

Warriorpriest "Acolyte Kristof": 2 hand weapons, heavy armour
BSB: Fullplate, Enchanted shield, warriorbane, crown of command (Super unnecessary)
38 Halberds: Full Command
6 Archer detach
4 Demigryphs: Musician (halberds)
4 Demigryphs: Musician, Standard bearer (halberds)

I basically took my Vermintide list from last year and dropped the lvl1 firemage and hurricanum and added the Crown of Command. That addition was a bit of a brain fart as my list come up with 35 spare points and I instantly went "sweet - crown of command" not "sweet - more archers" or something. I would apologise to my opponents, but the crown of command never came into play all event...so in the end it was wasted points and VPs due to less terrain captured throughout the event.

My list was definitely at the tougher end of the scale...however I had built in a couple of scenario weaknesses for savvy opponents to exploit: Easy to kill general (very important in 3 missions), few units for terrain capturing, only 2 core units that are squishy, and using Halberds on Demis is always a bad idea!

Game 1: vs John Taliby's Dark Elves

In this game the mission was to kill each other's core and keep your core alive.


A sneaky little list by John (to be expected). 2 units of Corsair core, 2 units of shades, some harpies, BSB, General with "gets better armour when kills stuff" set up and a Hydra

We deployed:

Basically the Hydra marched up and breathed all over my Halberds (22 killed) while the shades picked off the archers.
Undeterred like true men of the Empire (and Acolyte Kristof would never be able to look Arch Lector Otto in the eye if he didn't!) the Halberds charged in...helped by some Demis in the flank. Lots of combat later (and uber 5+ ward saves) the Hydra fled on 1 wound only to then get "Demi'ed".
However, the Mighty Halberds then got flanked by the BSB's Corsair retinue. Up steps unit champ Valten to valiantly die to a single mortal blow from the BSB and the Halberds (somehow) win the combat (thanks 5+ ward and static combat res) allowing Demi unit number 2 to come in and save the day!
But the Halberds, BSB, and Kristof didnt last too much longer with all the Shade shooting in the air. They slowly died in a hail of bolts while the Demis cleaned up the other Corsair unit and the Dark Elf General.
End Result: We both killed each other's core and I won the game.

Game 2 vs Will Hovard's Ogres

One of the "filth" lists of the event :P Firebelly with i10 and rubyring, block of bulls, block of stubborn maneaters, sabretusk and an Ironblaster. This mission was all about fortitude...keeping it and taking it with a breaking point of 1.

Will won the roll for table sides and we deployed:
Sorry I didn't take anymore pics of this game (and thereby depriving you all of game "visuals"). Will and I had already had this exact game a couple of weeks ago, and the 2nd Will picked the side with the building we both knew exactly how this would play out. Basically Ironblaster shoots demis, firebelly picks apart the halberds and that is that. The 1 major difference was when I pushed forward a little bit to try sneak the Ironblaster points I fled a charge on my Demis and due to the connected tables completely misjudged where the edge of our table was and the unit ran off! Oh well - that was where the loss came from as nothing else (except my archers) died. Exciting moment was when the firebelly cascaded...and then avoided the pit. 

 End Result: Loss with a few bonus points here and there. We both retained our fortitude but Will picked up 1 of mine.  

Game  vs Sam Whitt's Tomb Kings

Hobby Hero in his element - heirphant on foot with Dragonbane gem and Iron curse icon, 5 chariots, 2 warsphinx and a colossus BOOM! Mission was to kill casters and the general (in my case Acolyte Kristof's life had a high price tag on it!)

We deployed:
And for some reason the Chariots were not behind the warsphinx...also note the orange dice "board edge" markers that would be been SOOOOO handly last game!

Not much to say here...I goad the Chariots into demis...
who do 2 wounds from 5 d6 s4 impact hits (so I get a 3+ armoursave) and then crumble! Demis were then free to go kill the heirphant. Other demi unit takes out the colossus and then gets stuck on t8 - the last wound on that warsphinx been taken by failed crumble test. The other warsphinx crashes into the Halberds (who had failed a charge themselves...). Sam Aligns it to the BSB (not the mission points) and doesnt kill it - instead ploughs into the unit - who had reformed to horde. Halberds hold from steadfast (not crown), wear it down to 2 wounds left (with Demis in the back providing Static combat res support...). The last 2 wounds go from another failed crumble test for a funny - if not anti climatic - end to the game.

End result: win with heaps of bonus points 

Game 4 vs James Millington's Warriors of Chaos

This mission was all about getting fortitude and your general into an 18 inch square box in the middle of the table. James was rocking a 2+ armour, 3+ ward 3rd eye demonic mount hero (with soul feeder...), 15 Tzeench warriors with HW/SH, 2x5 doggies, 6 trolls and 3 skull crushers. 

After much singing and immature jokes (sorry Peter) I corner deployed the halberds and got a sneaky charge on some doggies with nasty 6 inch overrun into troll flank with my Demis...who butchered the doggies, then promptly rolled a 5 for overrun!
I hope you can all see the problem here! Trolls then failed stupidity (thank goodness!) and the skull crushers smashed into the flank...and I really missed my 1+ armour save! meanwhile the General charged into the other Demi unit hoping to tank them out with his s7, and "unkillableness". However I had planned for the skullcrusher counter charge and my Halberds had an easy charge on their flank to Static Combat Res them out for the run down and overrun into troll flank.
The Trolls then killed Acolyte Kristof (boo!) costing me some bonus points while the General was getting very good at rolling 2's for his ward save! Trolls flee (run off board over 2 turns) while the Halberds reform to set up this:

...End Result: Winning me the game and the basic mission objective. 

Game 5 vs Hugh Dixon's broken cheesy High Elves

Basically the same mission as before...expect all units in the box cause fear and suffer d6s1 magical hits with no armoursaves...also rolling to see when the game ends.

Hugh was packing a Loremaster. BSB on an Eagle with Starlance, block of spears, some archers, chariot, and 2 bolt throwers.

We deployed and I moved up having got first turn.
Then the broken cheese kicked in. Demis on the right lose a model to searing doom - flee, fail to rally and flee off board. Other unit next turn takes 2 bolts and flees off board. Halberds However march up undeterred!
Hiding in a building doesnt help as they get fireballed, Kristof and BSB both die to Spirit Leech and the arrows keep coming. They fail a panic test getting out...sigh. And are sot to pieces. All that remains are my Archers hiding by a hill to get me pity points.

End Result: big hilarious loss. Hugh got my best opponent vote cos we had a great time removing my models... I didnt land a single blow or cause a single wound (let alone a successful one) to his army!

Overall: The last game (and the odd mission point not collected) cost me as I came in 6th - once again disappointing Pete Dunn. I got 20 for painting which was really surprising given I think my Empire is my weakest painted army (due to the basing and the Halberds). Given to top score was 25 and only 10 people scored 20 or better I am rather pleased with that.

A fantastic little event that I look forward to attending next time. A little sad in that it is also my last event of 2013 as I will be out of the country for Skitterleap and Vermintide (so unable to defend my crown).

Thank's Pete for organising, Locky for TO'ing and everyone who attended for making it really fun.

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