G-Day 2006

Prequel:

I’ve never been to the tournament of the Golden Goblin club in Hasselt, so I figured why not go this year ? Since my lizard army is still under preparation, I again saved my 1500 points necromancer army from getting dusty, and converted specially for this occasion a wight lord on foot with great weapon. Transport was provided by Bart Goris, also known as “mister cab driver”, so the five of us already started the fun in the car on the way to the tournament hall.

Round 1:

Opponent: Denian Sykora
Army: Tomb Kings
About the opponent: He loves to take some risks during the game, and that’s what gave the game an interesting twist. I’d love to do a rematch !
About the battle: I was facing a mainly foot trooper army including ushabti, a skull catapult, a swarm and a tomb scorpion. I am quite afraid of catapults, for they can have a devastating effect on massed infantry units, so I quickly disposed it with my bats. The swarms were countered with the ghouls, and they fought a few rounds before the ghouls ended victoriously. The ushabti were drawn into a unit of skeletons with my wight lord, and after a flank attack by the black knights they went down quickly. In the centre, the second unit of black knights was easily ran down by the scorpion, which overran into my hinterland, posing a threat to my lonely necromancers. Fortunately for me, Denian flew his hierophant with cloak of dunes right next to my necromancer general in an attempt to magically zap him out of the game. I quickly used my dispel scroll, and countered it by charging my banshee into the hierophant. Much to our surprise, she even inflicted a wound, won the combat and as a result disposed the hierophant. In the same turn, I charged his other liche priest with the remnants of my dire wolv

es and also won the combat. The crumble tests got rid of the scorpion in my back, but the skeletons with tomb prince and the tomb guard stood firm. However, both units vanished after some combined front-flank-rear-charges. His tomb prince finally got decapitated in a challenge with a killing blow from my wight lord. There was still turn 6 to come, but no enemy troopers left. Massacre it was …
Most valuable unit(s):

Banshee, for killing the hierophant in combat in turn 3, causing numerous crumbling test
Dire wolves, for killing the other liche priest in the same turn
Wight Lord, for his killing blow on the tomb prince during a challenge

Round 2:

Opponent: Alexander Gonnissen
Army: Savage Orcs and Goblins
About the opponent: although a bit slow in unpacking his army, I’d like to play Alexander again in a rematch !
About the battle: I was facing an army with three large blocks of savage orcs, all immune to psychology, and some goblin units in the shape of wolf riders, 2 blocks of night goblins, 2 spear chucka’s and a shaman. On top of that, he fielded a large unit of snotlings. I deployed my skeletons in the centre and the faster units on either side, hoping to have the opportunity for a flank attack. All went well until I made the mistake to charge both my ghouls and a unit of black knights into the snotlings on my left. I surely won the combat, but my knights were sticking out a bit, and got charged by a unit of savage orcs. Ranks and numbers got rid of my knights, and my ghouls were overran by the snotlings, giving free way to the savage orc unit. On the other flank, I triggered the fanatics with my wolves and my black knights were held up by the wolf riders. In the centre, my necromancer general irresistibly cast “curse of years” on the savage orcs containing his general, taking down the unit below half numbers. The banshee on the other hand was chasing the goblin shaman, but apparently she didn’t practise her voice enough, for the lad survived scream after scream. Finally, the orcs got stuck into my skeletons, loosing most of the times, only to be raised again. However, in one combat I gained the upper hand for my wight lord killed the unit champion in a challenge. Alas, both units had equal unit strength and the orcs passed their breaktest. I also managed to miscast with my general, luckily this ended in him needing a 6 to be able to cast. The battle ended here at the end of turn 4, for the time was up. The aftermath gave 365 points in favour of my opponent, resulting in a solid loss.
Most valuable unit(s):

My necromancer general for irresistibly casting “curse of years” on the savage orcs containing his general, taking down the unit below half strength
Wight Lord, for his killing blow on the champion of a unit of savage orcs during a challenge

Round 3:

Opponent: Peter Lodewyckx
Army: Bretonnia
About the opponent: I know Peter already for some time. One needs to be clever to outclass him, for he’s in the military …
About the battle: I was facing a Bretonnian army with no less then three damsels. The scenery consisted of plenty of rocks and wood, so this would be a though game for me considering he got the spells “master of stone” and “master of wood” with several of his damsels. My biggest hopes were set on Jacqueline, my lovely banshee, for she can badly wreak havoc amongst armoured knights. Alas, Peter disposed here rapidly. I didn’t succeed to use my magic properly, apart from an irresistible curse of years on a unit of realm knights, killing one knight. All in all, I had to watch my army being beaten badly. His Pegasus knights and his grail knights disposed my flanking knights, and the flying unit ended up in the flanks of a unit skeletons. My bats were shot down by arrow fire, and my other troopers were quickly decimated by magic trickery. To rescue me from a complete defeat, my wight lord with accompanying skeletons broke down a unit of realm knights in a combined killing blow – sheer number – tactic. I ran them down, captured the flag and held it for the rest of the game.
Aftermath : I killed a damsel and a unit knights, held a banner and denied a table quarter, but was completely wiped out apart from the skeletons and the wight lord.
Most valuable unit(s):

Wight Lord and his retinue. They gained my only victory points by breaking and running down a unit realm knights with damsel, keeping their banner until the end of the game, and denying a table quarter.
Infantry didn't see any battle...

Aftermath:

About the opponents, I have no complaints. Everything went joyful and no big discussions took place apart from a grail knights move in the last battle.

Then about my gaming, I was facing three armies that are rather difficult to counter with undead. Tomb kings and savage orcs are immune to psychology, so I couldn’t do much with the fear-causing aspect of my army. And against the magic-heavy bretonnian army, it was difficult to cast the necessary magic spells. Nevertheless, I didn’t fare all too bad.
With my current army, I will always have a hard time against heavy-magic armies, but I am sure I can do better against frenzied units ! Let this be a lesson …

Regarding my score, I am quite happy. I ended 22th on a total of 48. I ended this high partly due to my score on the fluff quiz. I really didn’t expect to get 8 out of 10 questions right, granting me a bonus of 4 tournament points !
I thing this tournament saw a lot of massacres, mainly due to the tournament points system. One did not need to get a big difference in victory points. But this was greatly compensated by the number of points outside the battles, namely army list, army story, painting and quiz. This only gives more credit to the tournament organizers. Thanks lads !

So, let’s get ready for the next tournament in Dendermonde !

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