The day was upon me, and usually on the day of a tournament, I like to arrive a little bit early, enjoy a coffee and settle into the gaming mindset. Today would not be quite so peaceful.After spending the previous evening madly putting final touches on the basing of the army, I raced to the venue and arrived with literally a minute to spare. Great start!
My first game was against (ironically enough) against Clan Pestilens, although it was fairly different to what I had in mind.
Plague Priest
Plague Priest
40 Plague Monks
40 Plague Monks
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
The scenario was Battle for the Pass, which I knew was gonna be an uphill battle, as my opponent had two huge units that would prove to be hard to whittle down. My opponent snagged first turn and his two catapults went to work, killing four skinks out of one unit, and obliterating the other off the board. Not the start I had planned.
I then teleported up with Kroak, got ready to get on a Balewind, then managed a total of two mortal wounds on a Priest with three spells... Not exactly the start I had planned. I did manage to back it up with a double turn, which proved far more successful, slaughtering both Priests, and belting around the catapults to imminent destruction.
I'll be honest, I was pretty scattered in this game, as I got the objective scoring conditions mixed up with the Knife to the Heart conditions, and so I was playing to a completely different set of rules than I needed to, none of which favoured me! I am glad that it was to my disadvantage, because if I got it wrong and just ran away with a tainted victory, I probably would have conceded.
As it was, I managed to survive the initial onslaught, then kill of key pieces and spend the rest of the of the game managing the hordes and capping objectives. The superior movement and teleport capabilities of Seraphon allowed me to be in the right place at the right time, denying my opponent the opportunity to score, and claiming objectives that were left open to capture. In the end, the scoreline displayed a convincing win to Seraphon, despite taking horrific losses. This landed me a hard-fought Major Win, and a great result leading forward, pushing me into the top bracket going into round two.
Round two was where things began to go down hill on the ol' game department. My round two match up was against a bit of an uncommon faction that turned out to be the worst possible match up leading forward. A Phoenix Court!
Annointed on Frostheart Phoenix
10 Phoenix Guard (battleline)
20 Phoenix Guard (battleline)
Loremaster (Allies)
3 Longstrike Raptors (Allies)
The scenario was Duality of Death; it was just the perfect storm. He won priority, moved the Phoenix onto one objective, and just flooded the other with Phoenix Guard. This first turn pretty much zoned me out of both objectives, and Kroak's formidable arcane arsenal was stifled by the mortal wound save on the Phoenix units. I did manage to put a few points on the board late game with my Priest, but it didn't take long for the Longstrikes to punch enough holes in him and put an end to that.
This ended up being a sound defeat, and a very deflating game. I just didn't have an answer for a lot of the elements in his list, and every one of my Insights yielded better results for my opponent. Luck, the scenario, and the opposing list took its toll, and I just couldn't claw it back.
With a win and a loss under my belt, I knew that I'd be sitting in the middle of the pack, so my next opponent could literally be anything. The names and tables were called, and I ended up getting matched up against Tzeentch. Here we go. Even within the Disciples of Tzeentch book, there are several different builds commonly seen, but what was deployed against me was entirely different.
Tzaangor Shaman
3 Enlightened
20 Acolytes
20 Acolytes
Witchfyre Coven
I looked at the list, and at first glance, it didn't appear to really do anything. Three Enlightened was manageable, I was only facing a single spell from the Shaman that should be easy enough to shut down, and Acolytes were great for holding objectives, but would likely suffer heavy losses to Kroak and the Salamanders. As it turns out, however, this army had a surprising amount of shooting. The battalion allows the acolytes to shoot in both the hero and the shooting phase with an 18' range, thanks to the unit champ. That's a lot of shooting coming my way! The scenario was Starstrike, so I had a turn or two to blitz units off the table before the rubber hit the road. My opponent, having a two-drop army, gave me first turn, as there was nothing in range and no objectives to cap.
I wasted no time in rolling no Insights, and failed Summon Starlight with the Priest on Kroak to make him -1 To Hit with combat and shooting. At that point in the game, I should have stepped back and said to myself 'there's no pressure, your opponent can't touch you this turn. Play it cool'. That's what I should have said. Instead, I launched up the table, cast Mystic Shield upon myself, then failed Summon Balewind, Comet's Call and Celestial Deliverance. Zero damage was caused, and I was sitting on the ground a mere 9.5" away from a shooting list with only Mystic Shield to protect me. Oh dear...
My opponent's first turn consisted of firing eighty shots into Kroak, before charging the Enlightened in to make sure there was no possible way that he could survive his Battleshock mechanic. Just like that, before any objectives had even landed, half my army was gone! OUCH! It was a pretty unfortunate hero phase on my part, getting a single spell off, and not reaping any Insights. But them's the breaks!
It was at this point of the day that I received a pretty distressing phone call and had to leave the event to attend to an urgent matter. It wasn't how I wanted to finish the day, but it was necessary. I felt pretty bad for my round three opponent, as I didn't really give him much of a game, but he was very understanding and accepted my surrender to give him a major victory.
For that reason, I didn't play the fourth game, which counted as a forfeit.
With the huge focus on painting in final scores, I finished 18th out of 38 players, which I was over the moon about! I managed to get an 18/20 for painting, which catapulted me out of the bottom bracket, and was also a pretty satisfying milestone for an army that I'd managed to punch out in a week. Painting was based off a checklist, which helped me work out what was needed for a decent score.
All in all, and having to leave early aside, I think what really cost me a decent showing at the tournament was my selection of list. I'd only played two practice games, and I think I took it with the focus of "doing well" rather than "doing well with my army". I think if I'd taken my Pestilens, which I think I would have enjoyed more, then sure, I might lose a game or four but I'd be using my army. My goal is to do well with Pestilens this year at tournaments, and that's tricky to do if I don't take them.
The tournament as a whole was well run; there were no incorrect match-ups that I was made aware of, and it stuck to schedule, which are both easier said than done. If I were to raise one piece of constructive criticism, it would be that I think the event would have benefited from submitting lists, and those lists being checked before the event itself. It's a quick and easy process these days with tools like Warscroll Builder, but as it happened, there were two illegal lists there that could have been handled before the event. Did they have an impact on the overall standings? It's hard to tell, but it's also an issue that you hope, as a player at an event, is not going to be a question in the first place.
It was a great turnout! Thirty-eight players to a 1000pt Tournament is nothing to sneeze at. There were even a couple of players who made the drive down from Toowoomba (around two hours, depending on how slow or fast you drive), and it was a pleasure to meet them! There were probably only about fifteen armies that were fully painted, but of those fifteen, there were some exceptionally painted miniatures on display.
It was somewhat of a bittersweet event, all things considered, and not the way I wanted to kick my tournament season off, but it's one under the belt, and I learnt from my mistakes and incorrect decisions.
Now, to focus back on the Chaos Grand Alliance... Oh, look! Maggotkin!
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
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