On the last entry I discussed the imminent tournament; Open
War 18, where I was taking my Menites to purge the unclean and baptise the
unfaithful in the holy fires of The Creator!
Below is a brief synopsis of each game and a run down on my thoughts of
the event.
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| Deneghra1 (taken from BattleCollege) |
Game 1
Adam Archer – Cryx (Deneghra1)
Scenario: Incursion
I faced Adam in the first round of Open War 17 earlier in
the year and he took a very similar list, the same Warcaster and at the same points
value. Since the last time we crossed
tape measures I’ve played a bit of Cryx and knew a bit more how to deal with
them and this really helped during the game.
Adam won the initial roll and chose his side giving me the first turn.
On both of our first turns we just ran towards the middle
ground and positioned.
On the second turn I had a good opportunity to hit the Cryx
front line and killed all of the Bile Thralls, Bloat Thrall and damaged a
pistol Wraith and did 6 wounds on Tartarus.
Adam responded by killing a couple of Errants and crippling my
Reckoner’s melee weapon. I also made an
error in judgement and wasn’t close enough to an objective to contest it giving
Adam an early control point.
On my third turn I felt that the Reckoner should slam the
Cryx chicken ‘jack that had taken the cheeky control point and needing a seven
on three dice failed miserably – boo!
The TFG did a couple of big CMA’s
on the other chicken bonejack which was contesting the other objective. Perhaps the rudest thing was the Vanquisher
neatly landing a 4” AOE on a Bane Thrall and clipping six more in the blast
killing all but one; the Errants mopping up Tartarus and most of the remaining
Bane infantry. Adam managed to kill a
couple more Errants, but was struggling with causing much damage where he
needed it. This turn saw a turn in the
tide towards the Menoth regarding attrition, but still Adam was 1-0 up on
control points.
On the fourth turn I managed to destroy the remaining Banes
and one chicken ‘jack with the TFG and
remaining Errants. The Vanquisher also
managed to set Deneghra on fire and cause a few wounds. Adam was loosing the attrition quite badly by
now and I was now equal on control points.
He used Deneghra’s feat defensively, which would slow my advance and
release some of the pressure, but the fire kept on burning and Deneghra was
getting low on health.
On the fifth turn I was able to clear out the two objectives
to secure a control point victory, however the Vanquisher was able to shoot
Deneghra twice more and sealed the game with a ‘caster-kill.
So a win to the Menites with a truck load of Army points
(the secondary sort) meant I was in the lead after game 1!
Result: WIN AP:58
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| Saeryn (taken from BattleCollege) |
Game 2
Andy McBirnie – Legion (Saeryn)
Scenario: Outfight, Outflank, Outlast (reserves artifice)
Andy is a close friend and regular gaming partner, but this
was inivetible considering four of the six players were from my local gaming
group! Andy is a skilled tactition and
we often have long drawn out attrition style games, this would be no
different!! We both took the opposite
list to what the other expected and we would effectively replay a practice game
from earlier in the week! I chose
Feora2.
Andy took the first turn and sent his army upfield at full
speed, I did similar, but held back a little so as not to enter his beasts
threat ranges and try and keep the Zealots somewhat safe from the Deathstalker
and mounted character solo.
On turn two Andy brought on his reinforcements and began the
tactical game with cunning manoeuvreing and positioning. He was planning on nibbling out my support
from range and I tried to defend. One
thing that did occur was that the Avatar left the centre ground and went far
left to take on Andy’s reinforcements and the left hand pit. He was just about immune to the warrior model
solos and was self generating in focus so wouldn’t need the ‘caster or support
as much. This effectively divided the
game between the two battlegroups facing off in one pit and the Avatar Vs the
rest in the other.
Turn three saw the Saeryn feat which makes the Legion
battlegroup untargetable by melee attacks and positioning the beasts in harms
way, but immune to retaliation. I used
my Zealots minifeat to make them immune to most damage and ran to engage the
beasts and clog them down, returning the iniative back to me, however I was
aware that Saeryn could use Blight Bringer
to clear out my Zealots, so I tried to spread them out to mitigate that
somewhat. The Errant reserves, which
entered the frey on turn two, also adding their ability to Self Sacrifice to add tar pit issues to the Legion beasts. The Avatar was able to destroy Andy’s Reak as
it was out of Saeryn’s control area as well as a few solos, his natural MAT
8 and my ability to roll high was keeping the left hand pit looking safe,
though Andy had numerous pieces to keep the Avatar from lending his weight
against Andy’s two Scythean’s in the right hand pit.
On turn four Andy saw an assassination angle and cleared out
some of the Zealots and Errants (with Blight
Bringer) and mused over a trample, crossing a couple of linear features and
wail on Feora with a Scythean. We both
discussed it and Andy decided not to do it as the linear feature would put the
Scythean’s base too far forwards and therefore out of melee with Feora. The pair of Scytheans went to town on the
Errants butchering them almost entirely.
The Avatar continued its rampage and smashed up another three solos,
almost clearing the pit. My plan for
this turn was to put some hurt on Saeryn and her beasts and set her on
fire. The Vanquisher took an almighty
freestrike off an Angel, but manoeuvred into a position where the blast would
catch Saeryn no matter how far it deviated (I was 2” away), unfortunately I
just wandered into the melee range of a Shepherd (2” reach) which I forgot
about. The Templar went mental on the
front Scythean and killed it, just to have it respawn 3” away! It was looking a bit iffy for Feora at this
point and she advanced and feated moving the fire to Saeryn, but doing nothing
damage-wise. I then moved the last
Zealot up to throw a bomb at Saeryn’s back and the question of the Shepherds
melee range came into question and Andy realised that he’d played it wrong
initially as his arcs were wrongly painted (front and back, instead of left and
right). At this point we realised that
the Vanquisher was indeed able to fire.
Andy was good natured in allowing me to do this, but I think it was fair
as I hadn’t actually made a mistake in entering the Shepherds melee range after
all and it was a really vital part of my turn.
The Vanquisher proceeded to roll box cars and obscenely high on the
boosted damage roll completely altering the game dynamics. We also re-set Feora’s feat as the Vanquisher
should have shot before that and therefore I didn’t need to move the fire, I
just left it on the respawned Scythean.
After the shenanigans at the end of turn four the game had
been totally shaken up and things were quite interesting, the fire killed the
respawned Scythean and Saeryn had to eat some fire damage. Both Andy and I had 7-8 mins remaining, but
dice-down was called. We weren’t
expecting that as we each had a fair bit on the clock, but there had been a few
pauses for rules queries and perhaps we started late, therefore it went down to
tertiary victory conditions and I had the most points in the two zones and took
a victory.
I would have liked to have played the game out as there was
still absolutely everything to play for, I was up a heavy, but Andy would have
got the alpha strike and changed that fact quite easily. I really don’t know who would have won, but
it would have been an epic struggle for certain!
Result: WIN AP:26
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| Kaya2 & Laris (taken from BattleCollege) |
Game 3
Luke Foster – Circle (Kaya2)
Scenario: Sacrifice
Another inevitable draw against a regular gaming buddy. I took Kreoss to this encounter as we weren’t
sure if you had to use both lists or not, but Kreoss would be strong which ever
list Luke chose I felt.
I took the first turn and sent everything towards the
centre, Luke did likewise.
On the second turn I made a similar mistake to the first
game and didn’t put anything into the pit to contest, but concentrated on
positioning for attrition and put some hurt on one of Luke’s beasts with a
Menoth Sighted Reckoner. Luke scored his
first control point and positioned to hold the pit ready for a second. I realised that I was going to loose if I
didn’t change my strategy and I decided to charge/run with the Errants and they
just managed to get a few bodies into the pit, but were so spread out several
were now out of command and would be able to do nothing next turn. Rhoven and Co. managed to get into the pit
and engage a few Druids, one Reckoner also got a toe in and the Choir sang the
hymn of anti-magic (I figured Luke might try and force bolt it out). I think a Vassal might have just got a toe in
too. I managed to kill off Luke’s
immediate forces around the scoring objective in the other side of the board
and reduced the chances of Luke scoring a second point and winning next turn.
On the third turn Luke quite rightly set to work clearing
the pit, but soon realised that his dice weren’t quite up to the task and I
still had a couple of infantry models left, blocking a path to the Reckoner, as
well as it being enlivened. On my third
turn I feated and killed two of Luke’s beasts and further added more bodies to
the pit and placed a ring of models around the objective making it very hard
for Luke to score his second vital point.
On Luke’s fourth turn the attrition had started to take its
toll and Luke was down to a couple of beasts and infantry models and the
pit/objective were too packed to clear with the forces he had remaining. Luke had lots of time on his clock and he
could have just let the time run down and won on secondary conditions, but Luke
is a sporting player and continued the game trying to get back into the fight.
On my next turn I set to work clearing the pit, killing last
remaining beasts and infantry to score a point myself and make the conditions
tertiary, which I would win on. Before I
scored my control point I assassinated Kaya2 with a few Reckoner shots. This however shouldn’t have happened as Luke
had cast Shadowpack, which gave Kaya
stealth, we both forgot about it so my apologies to Luke, however it would have
been 1-1 on control points and I hadmore points in the pit if dice down was
called. I could have run out of time I
guess, but my forces would have focussed on killing Kaya, who would have had to
be in multiple charge ranges.
Another great game against a cunning opponent, a few good
dice rolls early game would have seen Luke clear the pit and score his second
and final control point, or later game I might not have cleared the pit before
time expired etc meaning I could quite easily have lost this game, I guess the
Menoth luck was with me ;-)
Result: WIN AP:41
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| Soarscha2 (taken from BattleCollege) |
Game 4
Dave Forster – Khador (Sorscha2)
Scenario: Close
Quarters
The final game against another regular gaming buddy, ah well
might as well play all my mates in one tourney!
Dave and I had played a couple of practice matches and I had already
learned the hard way that big Konquest is a bit of a bad boy under Epic
Sorscha, kind of “Hulk SMASH” and my anti-armour list had been, well
Hulk-smashed! Therefore I chose my
Kreoss list for a different set of prospects.
I chose board edge, mainly to get my Errants behind a wall that was
centre field, though this was a double edged sword in the end.
Dave ran forwards on the first turn, as did I, just nibbling
a couple of Winterguard and IFP who had strayed too far into my threat range,
but I had made a big mistake…. a huge mistake....
On Dave’s turn two I realised my mistake, I hadn’t cast Defender’s Ward on the Errants and they
really needed that ARM bonus against the
Winter Guard sprays, sadly I had dropped a real clanger and Dave punished me
for my mistake big time leaving just two out of twelve alive – sad times! I was in a tough position here and decided to
use my knockdown feat to hurt the Winterguard killing most of them including
the officer, standard and racketeer. I
had to hunker down in my pit and both ‘jacks were enlivened and trying to
position for safety. Somehow I’d cleared
Dave’s pit and gotten a Reckoner’s toe into the pit to claim a control point.
On Dave’s next turn the IFP came in and did a few CMA’s,
killing a few bits and pieces, the Errants and some of Rhoven’s group died, the
odd support piece too, but I was still in it and somehow 1-0 up. Kreoss himself and the remnants of Rhoven’s
group attacked and killed several IFP, as did the Reckoners, just thinning out
the enemy infantry whilst trying to stay safe.
The wall was just enough to stop Konquest being in the thick of the
action.
On the following turn Dave was starting to get a bead on
Kreoss and he took a little damage, but Defender’s
Ward was helping preserve his life!
On my turn I just about cleared all the IFP and most of the Winterguard,
but Konquest and Sorscha2’s feat were looming…
Dave saw the opportunity and took it, giving Konquest four
and casting Boundless Charge the
great Khadoran Colossal charged Kreoss… Defender’s Ward meant Konquest needed
10’s to hit, so Dave boosted both initials to hit and missed, bought and
boosted a third…and missed. It was so
unlucky as Kreoss would have been a smear if one of those P&S 22 fists had
landed. I saw a cheeky opportunity and
did a cunning trample with a Reckoner and scored a second control point, Kreoss
did the honerable thing and ran to hide behind a piece of cover on the
backfield. I was about ¼” away from
destroying Kreoss as the kill-box artifice was in play for this scenario.
On Dave’s next turn his time was almost expired, but he
continued to press forwards, but luckily Kreoss was too high DEF and ARM
to be hurt by Konquests guns and Dave passed the turn. I saw the opportunity and killed Kovnik Joe,
the only model in Dave’s pit and scored a third point to win the match.
In hind sight Dave really did deserve to win, my forgetting
to cast Defender’s Ward set the pace
for Dave to pressure me attritionally and he should have landed one if not two
of those Konquest hits to kill Kreoss.
Another fantastic game, super hard fought, though Dave had realised that
both of our positions in the tournament could not have been affected by the
outcome of the game (the field was so small mathematics dictated the result
after three rounds)!
Result: WIN AP:17
So in the final standings I came first, Dave second and Luke
third.
I managed to get maximum 100 points (4x20
points for gaming and 20 points for painting), I also managed to get the
highest AP’s (142) and I was very chuffed to secure Best Painted too – so a clean
sweep! I guess with there only being six
players, four from Hull and my local gaming group of which only two were fully
painted meant competition was not as high as if there had been more players,
but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed it and all my opponents gave me a hard fought and tough game!
Many thanks to my four opponents who were all gents and could quite
easily have beaten me, just a few dice-rolls here and there could have easily changed
the results – cheers guys. :-)
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| My winning trophies! |
