By Stefano
Prequel:
The last tournament of the year, and my last chance to play a fifth tournament this year (and my first ever in The Netherlands). Just in time to comply with the rules of the “Ranking der Nederlanden” ! After upgrading my 1500 points winning army from the Knights of Bayard tournament to a 2000 points army with the same tactics in mind, I took off for Roermond together with Bart Goris (who is actually becoming my regular taxi driver to tournaments …).
The tables:
I
was a little surprised when we arrived at the given address, only to walk into a
flower shop to find out the Drakenrijders have their play room in the back.
Lots of nice and varied scenery on the tables, just enough to have an impact on
tactics and strategy. Regrettably, the play tables were not the full 48” wide,
which limited a little the use of flanking tactics.
The draw of battles:
For the first time in my tournament history, I ended up with a lizardmen adversary. Having this army myself, I was pretty confident to predict the nasty surprises in time …
Round 1:
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Opponent:
Geert Geurts Army: Lizardmen About the opponent: Nice Dutch guy, quite some experience in gaming, but no arguing about rules and their interpretation. I’m looking forward to play him again. About the battle: Geert deployed a quite conventional army, consisting of an old blood general, a scar veteran, two skink priests, some blocks of sauri, a bundle of skinks and some additional kroxigors, terradons and salamanders. I tried to deploy in such a way I could play the tactic of “overrun through dire wolves into block of skeletons in his turn, charge black knights into flank in my turn and have them all attack first”. Alas, his skinks prevented this tactic, quickly disposing my dire wolves. So I had to improvise, still keeping in mind to let my general picknick in the central wood in order to stay out of trouble. All went well for me (disposing a swarm, all skink units, the salamanders and a unit kroxigors) until his sauri entered the frey.  They
quickly disposed my skeletons and a unit of black knights. If only I
remembered in time to move my remaining black knights some inches to claim a
table quarter, it would have been a minor loss instead of a solid loss …Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 2:
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Opponent:
Tom Starren. Army: Dwarfs. About the opponent: A quite experienced lad, who really went for the fun of gaming. Again, a rematch will suit me ! About the battle: As for most dwarf armies, I faced lots of shooting with a number of large well-armoured units. Since they move quite slowly, I should be able to play the intended strategy on them. After having survived the first rounds of artillery without much damage - thanks to the 5+ ward save for my black knight unit and some invocations of Nehek – I actually succeeded in luring one unit into combat with a skeleton unit in the front, one in the flank, and a unit black knights in the other flank. All went well until I figured out the unit of Ironbreakers was stubborn, immune to fear, could test on the unmodified leadership of the general,  and was equipped with a battle
standard bearer. Battle plan down the drain with most of my units locked up
in this titanic fight. On top of that, I forgot to get my general out of
the skeleton unit, so after his quick disposal, my army started to crumble
like hell. Finally, I managed to put to their end a unit of miners, half
the unit of Ironbreakers and two warmachines, but in return my entire army
was gone. No surprise this was a massacre loss …Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 3:
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Opponent:
Steven Frencken Army: Dark Elves. About the opponent: Steven gave me the impression he was quite new to warhammer, but I soon discovered this was only a façade. Next time he will not fool me again ! :o) About the battle: Steven’s army contained a dragon with lord, a war hydra, lots of shooting and nearly no magic. I figured I could try my “winning tactics” once more, so I deployed my troops in this way. I started well by getting rid of his dark riders and furies, and even got lucky with a black knight swinging the lord off the dragon with a killing blow. I even got rid of the war hydra and the cold one knights without much of a loss. Alas, the turning point eventually came along with his dragon deciding to continue the fight instead of running off the board after being “freed” from his rider. With the beast running freely up and down my base line, and due to the lack of nearby woods, I was unable to secure my general. So once the monster used my necromancer lord for l  unch, the army again faded away in no time.Despite the decapitation of the general lord, war hydra, furies, dark riders, a bolt thrower crew and half a unit of crossbow shooters, I faced a massacre loss … Most valuable unit(s):
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Aftermath:
In the end I faced three defeats, but had loads of suspense and great fun against opponents I am willing to play again any time. My “winning tactics” didn’t seem to work against the combination of scenery and armies I encountered, despite the upper hand in all magic phases. I really should consider going back to a vampire count for a general instead of a necromancer lord, unless I start making less capital mistakes. I guess I need some serious thinking before I enter my next tournament …
On the other hand, I saw quite a few nicely painted armies. So when I was asked by the organiser of the tournament to nicely display my army on one of the tables, I couldn’t resist asking why. I was really flattered when the answer came : “That’s because our judges can’t decide whether your army or the one of Niek Vogels is the best painted. So we decided to let all participants decide”. Wow!
Everyone (except me and Niek of course) received a candy they could dispose in the beer glass next to the army of their choice. After quite some time of miniature staring, the votes were counted. Greatly to my surprise, I won with a difference of two votes! (note to the organisers: I this situation happens again, consider giving a price to the second one also)
Yeehah,
third time best painted army in five tournaments!
- Can somebody by me some bigger shirts? My collar is choking me … - As a sign
of sportmanship I included two pictures of Niek's Ogres...
