#185: War in the West Game 2 - Legion of Azgorh Vs Beasts of Chaos

Well, after the unbridled butchery at the hands of the Fyreslayers in game one, I'd finally made landfall after my meteoric descent to the bottom tables. I was aiming for 3-2 as my final result, and it just so happened one of those losses has hit me earlier than I would have liked but the dream was still well and truly alive!

In Game 2, I found myself playing an absolute gentleman by the name of Chris. He was running a beautiful Beasts of Chaos army that, if you can believe it, had an even higher deployment drop count than my army! What a treat to be able to choose first turn.

Here's what I was facing.

There were a lot of bodies and a lot of drops in this list!

The scenario for round two was the new Scorched Earth with the eight objectives, and playing longways down the table. This was a big advantage to me, as Chris didn't have the usual board space to stretch his army's legs and really utilise all the mobility the Beasts possess.

That said, there was a lot of board space behind my front line for some cheeky goat-men to ambush on and start burning objectives!

I was going to finish deploying first no matter what, and so I formulated a game plan that would hopefully be able to handle whatever was thrown at it. Making full use of the sizeable footprints from the Warhounds, I managed to zone out my back table edges, leaving no areas for a whole Beast unit to fit while remaining more than 9" away. 

My frontline would split into two. The K'Daai and Epitome would aim to push down the left side of the tower and claim an objective or two, while the three Taur'ruks and Skullcracker would try and chew through enough bodies on the right side to gain the numerical advantage and burn objectives. The Fireglaives were going to be a bit of a second wave if needed, and denial units on my own objectives to prevent any sneaky Beast shenanigans. 

I gave Chris the first turn, knowing that the handful of units he'd put in Ambush would have to come on, and didn't have any windows on my half of the board to come in. There was some shuffling and some boulder-throwing by the Cygors, but I managed to come out of it relatively unscathed. 

With several targets moving closer, I wasted no time in launching what I hoped would be a devastating assault. The K'Daai rolled high on their run roll, and went for the big charge on the Cygor... And failed a 6" charge. No fear, I had a Command Point in the bank for a re-roll. Nope, failed the second attempt too. Good start, Fireborn!

The Taur'ruks and Skullcracker had cleared some Ungor in my first turn, but Chris had won priority, and with his Bestigor coming in behind his front lines, they were itching to fight. Thanks to a few handy buffs, the Bestigor launched at the War Engine and hacked it to pieces in a combat that surprised both of us. And it's not like the Skullcracker was taken out early. He actually hit first and rolled three 1's and a 2 for his 4D6 attacks. 

The Cygor, however, was not so lucky. Having dragged two of the murder-cows into combat, he may have bitten off a little more than he could chew, and was clobbered to death in a single combat phase! 

Finally, my K'Daai were able to get into combat, and they tagged as many units as humanly possible. With fairly low saves across the board, Beasts of Chaos infantry units are a K'Daai's dream opponent, and while I dedicated a ton of attacks to the Cygor to make sure it went down, I was able to dish out plenty of damage on all the infantry units surrounding me. The Riflemen helped out, but the Fireborn were ready to prove their worth! 

With the demise of my Skullcracker on the other side of the board, the Taur'ruk goon squad went their seperate ways, confident that they could hold their own in search of individual glory! Two moved around the right hand objective to clear the Bestigor and Ungor respectively, which they did with relative ease, while the third barrelled straight toward the Herdstone, trying to get his meaty hands on the Shaman, who was knee deep in sacrificed Ungor. 

Chris wasted no time in sending all available troops into the fray, while tactically retreating with his Shamans to maintain the magic support. The K'Daai were quite happy to sit tight and brawl, and slowly tipped the war of attrition in their favour. 

Now, I was very aware of just how many Primordial Call points Chris had racked up by this point in the game, and so had been making sure that my Warhounds and Fireglaives had my back and side board edges locked down. I was fully expecting mass bodies to appear on a flank and start stacking objectives, but what I was not expecting was a Chimera to burst onto Chris' back board edge, make an 11" charge and mash my General into the ground like a particularly crunchy-looking leaf. Even the Armour of Bazerak was not enough to save him against the full might of a Chimera! Coincidentally, this also gave Chris his secondary objective for killing my general! 

The carnage didn't stop there, however, because as soon as he was finished with my general, he double turned and avenged the Dragon Ogors who had been unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of the Taur'ruk's axe. Thankfully I'd managed to burn the objective before the Chimera joined the party, so it all fell under acceptable losses.

Having slayed their way through everything that was thrown at them, the K'Daai had successfully burned both enemy objectives on the left side of the board, and had a single task before them. Kill the only surviving Shaman to claim my secondary objectives (Kill all Leader models). However, I'm pretty sure Chris had worked out what I was up to, and the Shaman made a mad dash for the back right corner of the board, behind the intimidating shadow of the still-unwounded and still-very-angry Chimera. As it stood, I just ran out of time to get over there and punch him. All of my ranged units were out of range, and my combat units were either dead, too far away or being actively chomped in half by a wild monster! 

In the end, I claimed a Major Victory, but missed out on the secondary. I was able to contain the conflict to my opponent's half of the board and fight a war of attrition that Beasts do not enjoy. 

Chris was an absolute delight to play, and his army was beautiful! It was using a lot of the old classic Beastmen models like the metal Dragon Ogors from yesteryear, and the paint job was immaculate! 

Chris easily won my vote for Best Sport/Opponent, and ended up taking out that prize at the end of the event, so his other opponents clearly felt the same way! 

This win left me on 1-1, so I felt like I was back in the mix going into the last game of Day 1, which ended up being my first game against the new Death kids on the block; the Legion of Grief! 

Check back in soon for that battle!

Thanks for reading,

Gabe

#172: Championship Heat 1 Battle Report - Game 3: Legion of Azgorh Vs. Sylvaneth

After two big wins, it looked like I was going to be facing one of three players. Mick with his Flesh Eater Courts, James with his Khorne, or Hayden with his Sylvaneth. Of all three, I was hoping to avoid Sylvaneth as the line-of-sight blocking Sylvaneth Wyldwoods have such a brutal impact on my army, and how much damage it can do.

So, when I got matched up with Sylvaneth, I was spewing. But, the match up was what it was, and I had to try and make the best attempt at it that I could.

Here's what I was facing.

Allegiance: Sylvaneth
Mortal Realm: Ghyran

Leaders:
Spirit of Durthu (General, Gnarled Warrior, Ghyrstrike)
Treelord Ancient
Branchwraith (Acorn of Ages)
Branchwraith (Ranu's Lamentiri)
Branchwych

Units:
30 Dryads (Battleline)
20 Dryads (Battleline)
5 Tree-Revenants (Battleline)
3 Kurnoth Hunters (Swords)

Warscroll Battalions:
Gnarlroot Wargrove
Household

Endless Spells:
Geminids of Uhl-Gysh
Prismatic Pallisade
Soulsnare Shackles

I knew that this game was going to be an uphill battle, mostly because all of my mortal wound output (Sylvaneth's Achilles Heel) is in my shooting phase, which can't see through Sylvaneth Wyldwoods. I was going to have to play my ass off to compete. The scenario was Scorched Earth, which is one that I'm very unfamiliar with, as I haven't played it in about a year and a half.

My deployment was pretty practical, leaving my fighting elements front and centre to have as much impact on the game as possible, where my forty Fireglaives and two Magma Cannons were given the task of zoning out my territory, to avoid having any unwanted visitors show up to burn an objective.

As Sylvaneth often need to do, my opponent chose the table side with two Arcane pieces of terrain, took first turn, and broke out from his castle on his middle objective, dropping five Citadel Woods across the middle of the board. He plugged up the few open lanes of fire with the Prismatic Pallisade. Soulsnare Shackles and Geminids made their presence known, locking up my Skullcracker and Taur-ruk, and chipping away a couple of mortal wounds. A few teleports through the woods put him on all three of his objectives and safe behind the woods. 

Now.

I got the double turn from First into Second turn, and never have I played a worse two consecutive phases in my life. I got tunnel vision on the Wyldwoods, and got a bit frustrated at not being able to bring a huge chunk of my army's damage output down on my opponent. This led to some of the dumbest decisions I've ever made. And I'm not even talking foolish mistakes. I'm talking skipping over my movement phase almost completely, moving a single unit of dogs and going straight to the shooting phase. I left my two hammer bros, the Dairy Queen and Skullcracker squarely in the danger zone of endless spells instead of moving away from them. It was like an out of body experience and I felt awful for both myself and my opponent. And every time I missed something, I'd scatter myself even more!

Pretty sure, at one point, I was just staring at the table trying to work out how to even compete. I don't know if it was top-table nerves, fatigue at the end of a long day or the game itself, but I potatoed pretty hard.

The one thing I did right, was capitalise on a mistake my opponent had made. In his efforts to build a solid wall down the middle of the table to block my shooting (which he did very successfully), he'd left a gap down each flank where I'd very intentionally deployed my Warhounds.

In turn one, I lauched up each flank with the dogs, while at the start of turn two, the dogs on the right flank sprinted across what open ground there was to outnumber Durthu on his objective and burn it for two points. The dogs on the left flank were among the units that I forgot to move, leaving my opponent's left hand objective intact. 

In my opponent's Turn 2, he unsurprisingly butchered the Warhounds with Durthu, while the whole rest of his army teleported around to stack his two remaining objectives. 

At the end of turn two, I kind of caught myself and had to force myself into a bit of a hard reset. I was very aware that I wasn't playing my style of warhammer or enjoying the game, which more often than not means my opponent is not enjoying the game either. I had to kind of shake myself out of the funk, and give my opponent a game. 

After clearing my head and actually focussing on what I could do, compared to what I couldn't, I started making some decisive moves. My hounds on the left flank finally decided to contest the objecitve behind the ruins. But with ten Dryads, five Tree-Revenants and a Branchwraith lurking, they were going to need some help. By weaving their way over the the central ruins between the Wyldwoods, the K'Daai (followed by the Sorcerer Lord) were finally able to reach combat, and slaughtered their way through the Dryads and Tree-Revenants to claim the objective and burn it for more points. 

Realising that he no longer had control of the battlefield, and needing to make some bold moves of his own, my opponent came swinging out of the gates in mid-late game. With the Dryad's being able to make some pretty crazy daisy chains out of the forests, my Fireglaives were in for a fight, but after saves, and Blackshard Armour had done it's work, we were left with exactly the same number of models on the objective, meaning I still controlled it. To counter this, in the following turn, I retreated out of combat with the Fireglaives, to avoid any unwanted casualties (while staying within 6" of the objective), while the Cannon and Daemonsmith moved in to add to the numbers advantage. 

The Taur-ruk was damaged, but still standing, while the Skullcracker had taken simply too much damage from spells and endless spells, dying before having any real impact. He was another unit I completely wasted, passing up the opportunity to move and charge the thirty Dryads that now threatened my objective. This was another example of a moment that just compounded my problems, as it was such a nonsensical mistake. 

The big Dryad unit burnt my right hand objective in the following turn, while my centre was now under immense pressure. 

The Treelord Ancient and Spirit of Durthu both teleported to threaten my middle objective, with twenty Riflemen and a Taur'ruk standing in their way. I knew that if the Treeman Ancient failed his charge, that Durthu was probably going to paste the twenty riflemen unless he rolled like trash, which would leave my Taur'ruk alive and holding the objective. Fingers crossed... His shooting attacks killed a couple of Fireglaives, but it was all for nought as he failed two re-rollable 9" charges with his two towering tree-people. 

We started turn five, where my K'Daai turned their attention to the 20 Dryads on my opponent's centre objective, but time was called, and as we were only starting the top of turn five, we agreed to revert to the end of turn four to determine kill points and final results, as it meant that we'd then had an equal number of turns. 

Having held two of my objectives and burning two of my opponent's, I claimed a major victory. 

I was a bit disappointed with how I played in this game, on a skill level. It's easy to point at the end result, and question that statement, but those first two turns of the game were just bizarre. It's like I'd completely forgotten how to play. During deployment, we'd made a gentleman's agreement to play a tight game of Warhammer; I knew how tricksy Sylvaneth can be, and how games against them are often decided by millimeters. That ended up biting me in the ass in a big way, as I had to live with every error, regardless of severity or intent. If I forgot to move models, that was that. I was pretty upset with myself, because it wasn't like I was missing an intricate piece to a complex combo. I just forgot to move stuff... pretty basic mechanics of the game.   

There's no denying that it was a  pretty rough match-up. I fired a single missile weapon in the first three turns of the game, and I think I let that get inside my head a bit. There was also a degree of inexperience on my part playing against Sylvaneth. We don't really have many Sylvaneth players in Queensland, so seeing and playing them on the table is rare in the local scene.

In the end, it came down to those two lanes on each table edge being left wide open, and giving me a window to burn objectives with the dogs. Kill Points for both of us were very low in this game, just by nature of the match up. I came away from Game Three completely exhausted, but on three major wins.  

Check in soon for a bloody Game Four against the new Khorne heat! 

Thanks for reading, 

Gabe

#139: Toowoomba Remote League 1000pt Tournament - Game 3 - Maggotkin Vs. Daughters of Khaine

With two big wins so far, I was in the top bracket of the ladder, and I knew game three was going to be a tough match. In the last round, I ended up being matched against Daughters of Khaine. This was one army that I was fully expecting to face, and there were two in the top bracket.

Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (General)
Death Hag
30 Witch Aelves
30 Witch Aelves
2 Additional Command Points

This was going to be a tight game. My opponent, a gentleman named Cameron, had tabled his first two opponents by the end of turn two, so I knew I was going to be up against it. But I had a trick up my sleeve...

The scenario was Scorched Earth, so I knew that I needed to hold my opponent on his half of the board to stop him just swamping my objectives with superior numbers and burning my objectives. And with both of us sitting on four drops, that all-important first roll was going to be crucial, and would heavily influence how I was going to have to play the match. Thankfully for me, I won the roll off, deploying first and guaranteeing myself first turn.

I followed the tried and true deployment of a strong offensive centre and then Plaguebearers on each of my flank objectives. The table had some pretty serious terrain, which allowed me to obscure most of them, not that it would have mattered in this match up, as my opponent had zero shooting and a whole lot of angry ladies. 

Cameron dropped his Slaughter Queen on Cauldron on his centre objective, and a horde one each of his flanks. The Hag deployed on my right hand side, but was hanging off the side of the unit, unprotected by her kin. I think he may have spread out a little too far, as he found his units not "wholly within" the Cauldron's Bloodshield by only a handful of bodies. 

This game was going to either be a big win or a big loss, but I had a plan. The Great Unclean One successfully cast Glorious Afflictions on the left horde of Witches, while also dropping Soulsnare Shackles right in their face, so that the minute they stepped off their line, they'd be contending with the Shackles' movement cripple as well. This was something that I'd factored into the list well before the event, because while my list was strong, there were a few things that I simply couldn't deal with in 1000 points. Namely, Witch Aelf hordes and massive damage dealers like Skarbrand and the Stardrake. With the combination of Shackles and Afflictions, it gave me a way to essentially nullify a threat, not by killing it or injuring it, but by stripping its speed down to the point where even in a five-turn game, it would have no impact. 

With one unit of Witch Aelves put into a painfully debilitating position, and the Death Hag left very exposed, I knew I had to deliver the first punch and make it count. With a successful hero phase, I committed to a heavy first punch. Run rolls and charge rolls were on the very high side, allowing the Great Unclean One to slam into the Cauldron, and the Drones into the Hag and Witches. I managed to get two Drones into the Hag and delete her before she could have any significant impact on the game. I was stoked about this, as I managed to remove the source for Witchbrew, which would give me major headaches. I did only manage to kill a handful of Witches though, and was really concerned that I hadn't done enough. The Great Unclean One also managed to throw his considerable weight around, dropping the Cauldron down to six wounds. It was a start, but now it was the Daughters' turn...

In a stroke of not amazing luck, my opponent not only got the double turn on me, but dropped both additional command points on giving his Witches two Hero Phase pile in and attacks. This was the day before the FAQ dropped, and there was no limit on being able to stack command abilities. To counter my bad luck, my Drones survived four consecutive pile ins from the Witch Aelves, and rolled ridiculously on my saves. I still lost several bodies, but avoided completely losing the unit.

Utilising the new pile in rules, I slid my GUO 3" around the Cauldron to bring him back into range of the Locus for the Drones.

The the bottom of turn two, I managed to summon a Poxbringer, behind the front line (shown in the photo above), while the Drones finally started to put work in and cut through the crowd of berserker women! The GUO also managed to roll alright, suffering two wounds and inflicting another five, leaving the Cauldron on a single wound. Once again, he cast Glorious Afflictions on the other horde of Witch Aelves, who had only managed to move 8" total in turns one and two. 

My opponent once again won priority, and chose to spend his Command Point to let the Cauldron pile in and attack in the hero phase. Being turn three, the Avatar atop the Cauldron was automatically animated, and so the damage potential was much higher. He chose to do this, knowing full well, that the Cauldron was on borrowed time and a single wound, so I can't fault his decision. It was, however, his undoing. He did inflict a bunch of damage, but in return, Blubber and Bile inflicted three mortal wounds, and his Hag Narr save could only stop two. The Cauldron died, and with it, all the support for the nearby Witches. The remaining Aelves did what they could, but without buffs and nearby heroes, they simply couldn't drag down the surviving Drones. In return, the unit was mopped up, and I claimed a major win for my third game in turn three.

This was exactly the game I was planning for when I chose endless spells and spells for my GUO. I can say with complete confidence that it would have been a different game if I had to deal with all 60 Witch Aelves. As it were, I managed to stun-lock one unit into irrelevance, preventing it from having any impact on the game. This meant that I could focus wholly on the right side of the board. I was lucky to have gotten first turn, as it allowed me to pin my opponent on the back foot, and force the Daughters into a war of attrition, which is well and truly Nurgle's strength. That, and lightning fast speed, for reasons...

The Endless Gift once again saved my GUO from imminent death, as Slaughter Queens and Avatars are actually really stabby (who would have thought, from such a wholesome group of psychotic worshippers of the god of murder).

With that win, I was sitting on three major wins, which was podium territory, and it ended up coming down the Kill Points. Despite only losing one unit of Plaguebearers all day, it was all about what I killed. And game two against Nurgle, where I got zero kill points, cost me dearly. I ended up landing in third place, which I was stoked with.

The tournament itself was fantastic, as the Failed Charge crew ran their first big event. It was open to walk ins, and where they were expecting 14-18 players, thirty people ended up showing up and competing.

Thanks for reading,
Gabe

#133: Age of Sigmar Battle Report - BrisVegas Open Game Five - Skaven Pestilens Vs. Maggotkin of Nurgle

After two big wins and two big losses, I found myself facing one of the five Maggotkin players!

Lord of Plagues (General)
Rotbringer Sorcerer
Gutrot Spume
Verminlord Corruptor
Plague Priest
Rotigus
20 Marauders of Nurgle
5 Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)
5 Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)
5 Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)
5 Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)
Blight Guard (Warscroll Battalion)

At first glance, I was pretty stoked. Thanks to the Nurgle keyword, I could make use of her Feculent Gnarlmaws to run and charge with my Monks, as well as benefit from certain results on the wheel. Then I looked a little closer and realised what a rough stretch of road this was going to be. The Blight Guard meant that I was at -1 to Hit against all of the Blight Kings, which completely blunted the Monks' melee triggers. The scenario was Scorched Earth, so I had the numbers advantage, but whether I could capitalise on that was yet to be seen.

I deployed pretty across a pretty wide frontage, being well aware of the threat posed by Gutrot and his goons. I left a Catapult in each corner to zone out my back field, made sure to park my Arch-Warlock next to Arcane Terrain. 

 My opponent built her offence using Rotigus as the anchor. The Sorcerer and Lord of Plagues protected him, along with five Kings. On the left, the Marauders were left relatively unprotected on the objective, while the right flank was held down by two units of Kings, the Corruptor and the Priest. Gutrot and a unit of Kings were waiting off the board.

My opponent gave me first turn, and I was determined to stop her from ruining my back field with Spume. Luckily for me, I had enough bodies in the list to do that effectively. 

My first turn was very conservative. I knew that, especially in Scorched Earth, if I gave Spume & Friends an opportunity, they'd run on, burn an objective and get ahead on the scoreboard. If that happened, I was going to be in serious strife. So, I chose to sit back and force Spume to commit, and then react from there. Usually, I hate playing a reactive play style, but in this situation, I felt I had to. The Warlock jumped up on his Balewind and started chipping wounds off characters that didn't have a built in ability to heal (like Rotigus) but it was to no avail, as in the following turn, the King's Discharge rolled perfectly and healed the nearby heroes back up to almost full wounds. The gutter runners popped up in the right-back corner, in hopes of running along the back board edge, and burning a cheeky objective. Only wounding Nurgle on 6's, my Plagueclaws were pretty much just paperweights this game.

Realising that there wasn't much point in waiting, my opponent made the choice to bring Spume & Friends on the right flank, to strengthen the weaker side. I was confident that the Bale-Chimes would protect me from a long-bomb charge. 

Fortunately for me, Mystical terrain was not kind to my opponent. A unit of Kings, the Plague Priest and the Marauders were all befuddled, but fortunately, they were on objectives and had no urgent need to move. 

Nurgle got the double turn, and wasted no time in hitting the gas. Spume and his friends had a tree pop up behind them, and got ready for a charge on the Priest and Monks, while on the other flank...

...a unit of Blight Kings butchered their way through twenty Monks to leave an objective dangerously exposed! Oh dear.

Spume and the Kings made it into combat, and began punching things to death. The Priest was no match for the grizzled sea-captain's onslaught, and the Monks and Catapult took a punishing amount of damage from the Kings. It was at this point that I realised how badly the game was going for me, primarily because of Blight Guard. -1 to hit on all the Blight Kings meant that all of my monks were hitting like wet noodles, as none of their triggers were able to go off. 

In my following turn, realising that I had nothing to lost, and everything to gain, my Corruptor sprinted forward, running and charging thanks to the nearby Gnarlmaw, and launched into the Marauders, hoping to slice and dice his way through the unit and maybe even get a sneaky burn!

On the other side of the board, I was celebrating the little wins. After my opponent's Corruptor got befuddled by the same Mystical Terrain that had basically derped out that whole flank, my monks made full use of the opportunity, running and charging to punch on with both the Corruptor and the Priest. Thankfully, they had no negative hit modifiers, so my attacks actually put a great deal of pain on them! 

Not content with murdering my Priest and Plagueclaw on my right-hand objective, the Blight Kings chose not to burn the objective, as there was no real threat to it, and instead, tag the tail end on ym unit of Monks, stringing them out and mitigating the volume of attacks.

The Blight Kings accompanying Gutrot were losing models one by one, but were able to kill plenty of rats in return. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to put Inspiring Presence on them, which meant that they weren't going to be going anywhere in a hurry. Through sheer numbers, they managed to hold that objective all game! 

The Corruptor had also charged in and done significantly less that I would have hoped! Instead of leaping into the horde and decimating them with his scythed blades, he killed three... three marauders. Cool. 

The right hand combat fortunately did not result in complete carnage, but it did end with both right hand objectives firmly in my opponent's control. Game ended with a decisive victory for my opponent. 

You may have noticed that my Arch-Warlock, Plague Furnace and Gutter Runners had very little to do with this game. This was thanks to Rotigus and some truly masterful Wheel manipulation! The sheer mortal wound output of this army at long range is terrifying. In the end, the game ended up going about as well as I expected. I knew that even with some luck, I was going to have to fight tooth and nail to gain the upper hand. As it turned out, my opponent outplayed me and managed to catch my army in an awkward spot and hold them there. 

\

This was probably my most relaxed game of the weekend, as both of us knew we were nowhere near the podium, and therefore weren't playing for sheep stations. 

The event as a whole was fantastic, and I actually managed to hit some (but definitely not all) of the goals that I had going into it. To claim the Best Pestilens badge on the Australian Matched Play rankings, I needed to finish 26th out of 48 players or better. 

I came 27th...

I missed it by one spot. Spewing. That said, I can't complain too much. I managed to place higher than a lot of scary lists. With two wins and three losses, what really boosted me up was the painting scores. I managed to score maximum painting points, which was a real bonus; the painting journey for this army has been a hard road, and it was paying off! This was a goal that I really wanted to nail for the event, and I did just that.

I also wanted to get a "Best Game" vote from one of my opponents, and while I didn't actually end up seeing if I got anyone else's, I did get one from my opponent in Game Three with his Greenskins. I also gave him my "Best Game" vote, and it was well earned. That was probably the funniest game of Age of Sigmar I have ever played. So.. many... things... died.   

The BrisVegas Open was run seamlessly by the Tournament Organisers, had a fantastic pool of players, and ended up being a really enjoyable weekend! I will definitely be going again next year, and if you have the opportunity to, by all means, buy a ticket and get along to it. 

Thanks for reading, 

Gabe :)

#124: Festering of February Game 3 - Skaven Pestilens vs. Slaves to Darkness

After my absolute rinsing in Game Two, I was sitting level in the middle of the pack with a major win and a major loss. It was honestly anybody's guess who I would be facing, and there were a few other armies on a win and a loss that would have been very brutal matches. As fate would have it, I was drawn to face a Wildling-themed Fatesworn Warband from Slaves to Darkness.

Darkoath Warqueen (General)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (Chaos Talisman)
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount
Slaughterpriest (Allies)
Slaughterpriest (Allies)
1 Chaos Chariot (Battleline)
1 Chaos Chariot (Battleline)
1 Chaos Chariot (Battleline)
1 Gorebeast Chariot
1 Gorebeast Chariot
1 Gorebeast Chariot
1 Gorebeast Chariot
Chaos War Mammoth
5 Wrathmongers (Allies)
Fatesworn Warband

With enough chariots to make Boudica green with envy, my opponent had an very low-drop army of single models, almost completely negating the effects of Battleshock. While I was confident that I could kill just about everything in his army on its own (there was obviously a slight degree of concern about the Mammoth), I knew that if he hit my lines too hard with the Gorebeasts and Mammoth, he was going to mash my rats with impunity. I was also acutely aware of the mortal wound potential of the Slaughterpriests.

The scenario was Scorched Earth, which was great for me! I had the bodies to hold down my objectives, and if I could just hold the line, and break the wall of chariots, perhaps I could push for my opponent's objective and flood it with bodies to burn it. On the downside, there was an absolute ton of Mystical Terrain throughout the battlefield, so it was inevitable that someone's unit was going to start drooling. 

I decided to deploy my Arch Warlock on the left flank, as I knew he was probably my best shot at putting some hurt on the Mammoth. I couldn't let that thing hit my lines at full health! He was also close enough to the objective that his Balewind would zone out half of its control area. Even though he couldn't hold it, he could close off a large area near it, making it harder to grab. 

My opponent deployed his army in two main battle groups. The Warqueen and Wrathmongers offered support to the Mammoth and three chariots...

...while the Sorcerer on Manticore (converted to be riding a big ol' grizzly bear!) commanded the right side of the board. 

My opponent, knowing that he needed the charge, and potentially the double turn, gave me priority. My centre pushed forward, tripping over itself a little but also very aware of how close it was coming to the very long threat range of the chariots. The Furnace got Rabid Fever off on both 40-man units, and the catapult managed to plink a couple of wounds off the Manticore, but little else occurred on the right flank. 

 On the left flank, it was all business. I managed to pop a super-prayer with the decrepit Priest lurking in the woods, and with no enemies in range, I was content to take the bonus to prayers. The Catapult and Arch-Warlock put in work, though, taking 8 wounds off the mammoth! An excellent start.

In a terrifying burst of speed, the Mammoth slammed into my army and went to work on the Monks. Despite having a still-terrifying damage output potential, my opponent rolled the single worst round of attacks I have witnessed and killed a total of six Monks... Who then piled in and attacked before exploding, chipping yet more wounds off the towering behemoth. 

In an equally disastrous spate of bad luck (with a little help from my Bale-Chimes), several of my opponent's charges failed, leaving two of his chariots unsupported and in a real spot of bother. Aware that this was their moment for glory in the eyes of Chaos, the two chariots went to work. One managed to bump off a few monks, while the other fell painfully short of trampling a Priest. 

While the Verminlord and his underlings managed to dispatch of the chariot in their face, the double turn was upon me! Single models began to slam into my lines, dishing out damage left, right and centre, but my line held. 

The central conflict quickly turned into a wild brawl, with both sides taking a horrific amount of punishment. I was extremely lucky to have been out of range of both Slaughterpriests, and my opponent had, thanks to his low model count, left his objectives wide open, ripe for the claiming...

Retribution was swift from the Skaven horde. All three units of Monks popped their Books of Woes, with each unit having at least four enemy units in range. Mortal wounds were handed out in volume, chipping wounds off just about every chariot and character on the board. The Priest on the right hand side of the board, quietly underachieving until now, launched a Pestilent Breath at the trio of characters to the rear and rolled some of the hottest dice of his miserable life. The Sorcerer suffered yet another two mortal wounds, while both Slaughterpriests took three wounds each! 

The left flank was fairing no better for my opponent. Having suffered terrible losses, the Monks showed signs of crumbling, but the minions of Khorne fell first. The Wrathmongers had buffed not only the Mammoth, but the Monks as well, and were punished for it under a flurry of blades. The Warlock added his considerable weight to the conflict, dishing out yet more damage, as well as finally being able to use his shooting attack to melt a Wrathmonger's face off. Even with the hardest work, and best laid plans, my opponent couldn't outnumber me to control the objective.

I managed to double turn my opponent back, and this allowed me to completely swing the flow of battle to my advantage. His main charge had shattered against my army (in reality, I assume many of the chariots simply got too many monks jammed in the wheels and broke down), and my counter-offensive was brutal. Another barrage of prayers, spells and catapult fire allowed me to start removing key models from my opponent's army, and clearing whole areas of the board. 

In easily one of the most memorable moments I have been lucky enough to have in gaming, the monks finally managed to slay the Mammoth. I won the roll off to decide which way he fell, and chose to suffer more casualties by hitting my own unit. This was completely worth it, however, as the Mammoth also came crashing down on the wounded Warqueen, smashing her into oblivion in a moment of cinematic tragedy. 

With the core of my opponent's army broken, I went on to push forward, slay all in my path, and burn one of his objectives to claim the major win. 

This was a great game to finish the tournament on. I think even if I'd been bulldozed, it still would have been a great game. With the mindset that neither of us were in the running for winning the event, it allowed us to relax, have a laugh and enjoy the game in all of its comedic calamity. 

The event as a whole was a really fun, well run day, and all the armies were painted, which is always lovely. There were a few real stand outs as well, that just shone on the table.

Results wise, I came in 4th place, having landed two major wins and several Sports votes. I managed to win Best Sports, which is always a real privilege to win. Sportsmanship, I think is something that I always aspire to compete for, as I think everyone should, but to win it is a bonus! I was also in a three way tie for Coolest Army, but was beaten to the punch by a very cool Squig-heavy Moonclan Grot army (which got my vote). I cast a vote for a Stardrake in the Coolest Model category, and it cleaned up the prize; deservedly so, as it was gorgeous! 

All in all a great event, even considering the absolute massacre of Game Two. 

Next time, I'll be throwing up my review of the Daughters of Khaine Battletome. Keep an eye out.

Thanks for reading, 

Gabe