Knights of Bayard 3rd Ed.

Prequel:

This year, I want to go for the “Ranking der Nederlanden”, which is a ranking list of warhammer players from The Netherlands and Flanders, made up with the best generals, taking into account their best results during tournaments. One of the criteria to get into this list, is to have played at least 5 tournaments. Having my counter on 3, the Knights of Bayard tournament came in handy.
Secondly, there might be another painting price in the closet …(yes Kaj, I also came because it’s your home base tournament ;o) )
So equipped with a blood dragon army and some new tricks, I joined the delegation of the Conect’r gaming club, heading for another day of adventure …

The draw of battles:

The organisation was so kind to send everyone a list with all other participants and their armies. Going through the list, I selected Ogre Kingdoms, Dwarfs or Dark Elves as my favourites to play against. Due to previous tournament results, I was praying to all living and unliving gods NOT to end up with Beastmen or Bretonnians. My spirits sank to my shoes when my first opponent started unpacking …

Round 1:

Opponent:.Thomas Caudron (Knights of Bayard)
Army:.Bretonnia
About the opponent: This young lad was eager to play, didn’t get upset about rules, but lacked a bit of courage and bravery. When playing with bretonnia, you need to go for it and make your charges hurt by charging multiple units at the same time.
About the battle: So Bretonnia it was. Living on earlier experiences, I decided to play “sit and wait”,

seeing no heavy shooting or magic at the other side of the table. First of all, I send my banshee on wizard-hunt, which see did perfectly, giving me the upper hand in the magic phase. Simultaneously, I opted for my dire wolves to act as bait, some mere inches in front of my larger blocks of skeletons. As for my black knights, I stationed them in the vicinity of the skeletons rather then charging in straight away.

So when it came to close combat, I managed to make some knightly units run away by a combination of frontal and flank attacks, plus the use of the Staff of Damnation. In the meantime, I kept his hard-hitting Grail knights pinned down and busy with getting fresh raised zombies out of their flank.

So when it came to calculating points, I saw my wolves and bats fallen as casualty. On the other hand, I found myself rewarded with a load of characters, units and banners from the other side. My first battle ended in a solid victory. So far, so good !
Most valuable unit(s):

The banshee for quickly eliminating the only wizard.
The combination of wolf-bait, skeletons as anvil and black knights as hammer.
The magic phase, especially the Staff of Damnation.

Round 2:

Opponent: Sara Van de Velde (Knights of Bayard)
Army:.Orcs & Goblins
About the opponent: The only female participant, and I had the privilege to “fight” her (although her boyfriend constantly kept me in eye-sight. I wonder why …). Mucho simpatico and lots of fun, she really played as if her Orcs and Goblins army was made for her ! Sara, I’m always in for a rematch !
About the battle: In most cases, I outnumber my foes, but not this time ! Three large blocks of orcs, a mega-block of goblins, a chariot, a pumpwagon, some spearchucka’s , two units of wolf riders and two goblin shamans.
Fortunately for me, the scenery made it difficult for Sara to leave her deployment zone, which gave me more time to manoeuvre my troops into the same tactical setup as in game 1. I figured that would to the trick again, only seeing two spearchucka’s and some wolf riders with ballistic powers.
First two rounds did not see much animosity or casualties, although it needs to be said the goblin spearchucka crew happened to be disguised and upgraded high elves, scoring rank-piercing hits time after time. Fortunately for me, they never had a clear shot at my knights !

Magic went equally good (or bad) for the first rounds, until one shaman magically exploded his own head, and the other one’s virtually did the same after a well placed banshee howl. From that moment on, I took advantage of all spells and magic items available to me, squashing the night goblins, the pump wagon, all wolf riders, a unit of orcs and a spear chucka. On my side, I saw the end of nearly all wolves, the bats and the banshee.
Final countdown : solid victory ! If only I remembered in time the value of table quarters … . Anyway, from this moment on, I felt like living in a dream. It never ever happened I scored two solid victories in a row on the same tournament !
Most valuable unit(s):

The banshee for quickly eliminating the only surviving wizard.
The combination of wolf-bait, skeletons as anvil and black knights as hammer.
The magic phase, especially the Staff of Damnation.

Round 3:

Opponent: Koen T’Jaeckx (Knights of Bayard)
Army: Bretonnia
About the opponent: Koen really is the type of opponent I really like ! When things aren’t going your way, give a loud scream, regain your senses and strike back ! Hope to see you soon again on a next tournament !

About the battle: Again bretonnia, and this time somebody who played it cunningly and with wit ! He deployed several times two units of knights close to each other to make combined attacks. This would be a hard nut to crack ! But again, not much shooting and only one female wizard, so for the third time I played “scared turkey” and waited for his charges in the bait-anvil-hammer-configuration.
Sending in my banshee again did the trick, howling the frail damsel into smithereens, but then seeing her own end by the overwhelming forces of a stampeding unit of grail knights. But hey, my only female unit (although ethereal) did her job, for now the magic phase was all mine.
When it came to charges (i.e. heavy-armoured knights versus brittle skeleton foot troopers), my army started to pay off the fear-causing aspect of it. Seeing only few knights make it to my troops, I lived long enough to get the black knights in the flank, and the fallen skeletons raised once again. It even let my general live another round. He found himself all alone with no unit to hide in, when he became the target of three pegasus knights, only to find out that the flyers actually were a bit too scared (anyone need a scare-crow for pegasi ? No ?). This in fact kept me in the battle, for a dead undead general causes the army to crumble away swiftly !
I kept on pinning his grail knights with raised flanking zombies, while my black knights kept charging in time and time again, driving several knightly units on the run. And then carelessness got grip on me. Instead of forcing his grail knights away from my general containing unit of skeletons with well-raised fresh (ahum !) zombies, I positioned them somewhere completely useless. So in the last turn, a rock-hard multi-attack freight of grail knights stampeded over my little fragile skeletons with the triumphant synchronisation of a parading brass band. The few surviving skeletons couldn’t prevent my general to die due to combat result …
After some conjuring tricks with calculators, the battle ended in a minor victory. Table quarters and captured banners, my dear … and the fact my opponent missed at least 6 fear tests on a leadership of 8. Poor fellow …
Most valuable unit(s):

Apart from a very very very very scary necromantic general, the same things as for the former two games.

Aftermath:

Three victories in a row in one and the same tournament ! That never ever happened before ! So to all folks collecting massacre or solid defeats, keep hoping, for miracles truly do exist !

But best of all, I had fun opponents all the way ! And I say this by having a nice time and loads of fun, not because I defeated them. The pleasure of gaming with you was all mine !

Walking around and taking a look at all armies during lunch break, I already realised I was not going for the painting price. I still need a lot of experience and practice (and good ideas !) to beat those TSoA-guys … as one of them carried away the painting trophy, due to his nicely converted, painted and completely hilarious goblin army.

Finally, there were quite some participants with a history of frequently ending up very high in the tournament ranking, so I didn’t hope for much more then a place in the top-5. Little did I know, for I ended second ! With shaking knees and sweaty hands, I collected my prices : a casket of souls, a unit of tomb king chariots and an official Lustria-campaign amulet.

Ps : long will my wife remember this day, as for the first time I came home with a smile from ear to ear, and prices from elbow to elbow …

Vote for us at:

This website is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited.
For more information read our Disclaimer.
Site can be best viewed using Old English Text MT and Lucida Calligraphy Font