By The Chosen of Sigmar and
Stefano
Prequel:
(By Stefano)
I
really needed to go to this tournament, simply and solely to defend my 2nd
place I achieved there in 2005. Looking at the list of participating armies, I
figured there weren’t much “immune to psychology”, so I opted for the same army
used in the previous tournament in Hasselt.
All together, it would be great fun anyway, seeing lots of friends in the
participants list (including Chosen of Sigmar himself, Bart Goris and Niels
Aernouts)
The tables:
(By Stefano)
There wasn’t that much scenery on the tables, but enough to have an impact on tactics. And I like it that way !
The draw of battles:
(By Stefano)
All battles were according to the pitched battle scenario. My first opponent turned out to be the number 2 of the tournament in Hasselt, fielding a skaven army with loads of shooting and magic. I could not resist making a prayer of five, for this would be a nasty first game …
Round 1:
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The Chosen of Sigmar's Opponent: Rik
Janssen (De Witte Ridder) Army: Ogre Kingdoms. About the opponent: As always this 'white knight' (Witte Ridder) was a pleasure to play against. So are all his collegues of his club. The fact that he hadn't slept last night din't bother me at all. I hope we'll meet again!  About the battle:
As my opponent had a butcher with him my plan was to eliminate him as soon
as possible. Furthermore I was going to use my hunters as slow-down unit for
the unit of his general. My Captain on pegasus would do the same with the
Ironguts. Shooting made casualties rather fast as 2 ironguts were killed by
my great canon. My unit handgunners kept firing at the unit of the butcher
regurarly wounding him because of randomizing. The fact that my mage had two
unusable spells really helped in nullifying the guts magic. All spells that
were casted on Ogre units and which caused wounds or hits on the butcher
himself I let gladly pass, only to dispel them in my own magic phase. As he
wanted to cast bloodgruel or a nasty spell on my troops I gladly dispelled,
even not have to use a single dispel scroll until round 6. This magic-tactic
in combination with the handgunners eventually got rid of the butcher and
his unit by round 3.
 In the mean time my captain had destroyed the iron guts
by challenging the Gutlord of the Iron Guts and killing him outright. In the
mean time my General had been slain by the Ogre general and my 2 remaining
knights fled. They rallied the next round and got charged by the Bruiser
leaving his unit. The unit itself turned. I challenged with my first knight,
saved the one wound that he caused and was victorious. The foul lord tested
twice, but had to run and was captured. The knights overran in the rear of
the bulls. Next round my captain, again challenging the unit champion, and a
unit of free companies in the flank charged the large unit of bulls. The
result was an overwhelming victory for the Empire. In return my opponent had
been rampaging my right flank with yhetees, killing pistoliers and a canon
crew and spearmen. They were stopped by the hadgunners which caused them to
panic on the turn they charged them. At the end only a gorger and one yhetee
formed the Ogre Army ... Crushing victory!
Most valuable unit(s):
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Stefano's
Opponent:
Felix Brenninkmeyer. Army: Skaven. About the opponent: This dutch fellow ended 2nd at Golden Goblin, and solely because he forgot to bring along his army story. He’s a fun player, and a damn good one too. About the battle: : So far, I always lost my battles against skaven. This fact combined with his latter tournament result, made my knees already tremble. Anyway, the game needs to be played ! I spotted loads of shooty units such as jezzails, three engineers and all the rest clanrats and slaves. The scenery forced the game in four different approach routes (2 central and one at each side), which largely influenced the game. I deployed my infantry in the centre, and the cavalry on both sides. On the left, the black knights and wolves got stuck into respectively the jezzail teams and the warplichtning canon, dispatching both enemy units. In further turns, both got magically blasted into oblivion. In the centre, the unit skeletons containing my wight lord and general necromancer stayed a bit behind, were charged by his gutter runners, pursued them into a swamp, were targeted by a warlock engineer, who in his turn was charged and overrun by the skeleton unit after a well placed book of Arkhan spell. Also in the centre, the ghouls charged a ratling gun, overran into a unit of clanrats, and were forced to flee after combat. My black knights charged the overrunning clanrats, but were shot to pieces by ratling fire and a flank attack. Lucky for me, my opponent rolled a lot of shooting and magic “mishaps”. In the meantime, the rallied ghouls got the opportunity to charge the stromvermin or a ratling gun (which could not stand and shoot because only a mere inch away), and I chose the wrong unit to go for. The stormvermin kicked some ghouly ass, and overran them. I was facing a small defeat, when in the last turn I managed to magically destroy both other  warlock engineers, of which one was his general.Final score : a draw in my favour (107 points difference … close !!!) Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 2:
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The Chosen of Sigmar's Opponent: David
Schraepen (De Witte Ridder) Army: Bretonnia. About the opponent: I've met and seen David on several tournament occassions before but had never played him. He was a fine adversary and I really hope I can have my revanche someday. About the battle: All started well. I was able to charge several of his units in turn two with my Pegasus Captain, my knights and my pistoliers but failed to break them all. And that was something I hadn't taken into account. Damn the blessing! The Bretonni train got rolling and so I was on the receiving end  of a lot of
charges. A lance formation is hard to withstand when it can charge so I
didn't really find any answer for it. Only my helblaster succeeded in doing
enough wounds on pegasi knights to have them fleeing of the table. A
crushing victory for my opponent. I was back with my feet on the ground.Most valuable unit(s):
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Stefano's
Opponent:
Ben Segers (Knights of Bayard) Army: Ogre Kingdoms About the opponent: Ben kept a smile on his face for the entire game, even when things got messy for him. Ben, thanks for the fun game ! About the battle: I ended up against Ben’s ogres on the same gaming table as round 1, so I already got the advantage of how to cope with the four approach routes. I was quite happy with my result in round 1, so I opted for a similar deployment : infantry in the middle, cavalry at both sides. Ben deployed two gnoblar units in front of the central passages, and his ogres on all four pathways. So my plan was quickly made : stalk the gnoblars in the centre, and try to force a way through at least one flank. Then most ogres would be trapped and no manoeuvring space, leaving me the initiative to strike the ogres when and how I liked it. So my infantry units stayed put, while the black knights and wolves charged the leadbelchers on the left flank, and ogres with great weapons on the right flank. A little to my surprise, I succeeded in both, finding my black knights and wolves in his hinterland. On top of this, the gnolbars failed some fear tests when they wanted to charge, causing an enormous “ogre traffic jam” behind them. On the left, his Gorger appeared, charging straight into my black knights. But with a little help from my bats, he was dispatched after three turns of bloody fighting. In the meantime, my banshee paid off, killing 4 ogres including the butcher, giving me even more the upper hand in the magical department. In the centre, my ghouls got the chance to demonstrate the devastating work of poisoned attacks on an ogre, but were mercilessly beaten and overrun. This unit of ogres passed by the gnoblars, and ended up in the flank of one of my skeleton units.  Lucky
for me, I can reraise my casualties, giving me plenty of time to bring in
the cavalry to destroy this ogre unit by a flank attack. Finally, I managed
to overrun the gnoblar trappers with my last unit of dire wolves.End score : a crushing victory for me, only having lost 1 unit of wolves, half a unit of black knights, and the ghouls. Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 3:
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The Chosen of Sigmar's Opponent: Bart
Goris (Conect'r/De Witte Ridder) Army: Lizardmen.  About the opponent: As soon as I knew who my opponent was going to be I was certain I was going to have had 3 fine batles this day. Bart has featured in a Siege Battle on the Money Wolf-site before so I knew him rather well. I was surprised however that he had come with his Lizardmen and not his regular Bretonni Army. About the battle: Except for one fault we made (Stupid troops cannot flee a charge because Immune to Psychology) it was the perfect battle. Although I was running mostly behind impossible troops to catch and failing one charge after another because of the hit and run tactics of my opponent, I enjoyed myself. Two uncareful moves of my part resulted in some extra victory points for my opponent making it an solid victory for Bart. Till we meet again. Most valuable unit(s):
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Stefano's
Opponent:
Nick Kuijsten. Army: Skaven. About the opponent: Again a top player of the Golden Goblin tournament (4h place), again a skaven army with three warlock engineers and a lot of shooting, and again an experienced dutch chap ! Lucky me … About the battle: I was facing about the same skaven army as in round 1, apart from less jezzail teams and an extra swarm unit instead. Even though it was on a different table, the scenery again had a large impact on the game. This time, the centre was open, but both flanks were limited in manoeuvre space. One of my skeleton units was nearly zapped and shot to its final end, and one necromancer was killed after a charge of emerging tunnelling skaven. I found this all too risky for my necromancer general, so I hid him behind a huge rock, in safety for all skaven magic and shooting. Things were not going my way, until I overran the second tunnelling team with the skeletons including my wight lord (who saved himself after numerous hits using his flayed hauberk), for they overran quite some distance, ready to charge in my turn. I picked his warpfire thrower as target, and although the unit failed its fear test, Nick claimed it had the right to do a “stand and shoot” anyway. Despite my effords, he refused to give in, so I let him do its thing, costing me two ranks of skeletons. Anyway, his warpfire thrower ran and kept running. On the right, the swarm killed my dire wolves and then received the incoming ghouls. The skaven tackled this by opening ratling fire into that fray, causing my ghouls to flee and being overrun. On the left, my black knights got stuck into a unit of clanrats, and I had to watch a series of combats all ending in a draw. If only my banshee was still alive … Meanwhile, the skeleton unit with wight lord got charged in the flank by some stormvermin, but when my dire wolves counter charged in their flank, the ran. My skeletons were forced to pursue, ending straight in the middle of the battlefield. It was like there was a sign attached to their banner stating “we like being shot at by all means”, for they were targeted by all shooting and magic the skaven still had left. In the end, only Jacques  was
still standing …The running stormvermin caused the skaven general and his retinue to flee, but unfortunately for me, they rallied in their last turn. End result : although I lost my hopes, I still managed to grab enough points for a minor loss. Most valuable unit(s):
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Aftermath by Stefano :
About the opponents, I had the privilege to fight two dutch blokes, which is not that frequent on Belgian tournaments. Anyway, I enjoyed all three battles. The first and last learned me one actually does have a chance with undead against lots of skaven magic and shooting, although their “shoot into combat”-rule is very hard and painful, especially for black knights !
Just
one thing I want to rectify :
Nick, you
CANNOT
stand and shoot if you are outnumbered by a charging fear causing enemy and you
fail your fear test. And if you want proof, just look at page 113 on the
official GW Q&A-pages.
Then about my gaming, I was surprised both times against skaven. I didn’t expect to end with a draw and minor victory respectively, and it was the first time I played against ogres with my undead forces. So in the end, I was quite happy with the result. I think in average, I am doing better than last year. Maybe that’s because I’ve learned to think a move ahead, rather then charge in on the very first occasion.
Regarding my score, I was quite happy. 65/100 is the best score so far this year, and I ended 8th with it. Wehey !
Nice tournament year so far ! In comparison with last year, I am doing really great ! I still have two tournaments left, so let’s see in Goes whether this trend continues …
Aftermath by The Chosen of Sigmar:
Three great games against three great opponents. What could a man more ask for? 2 Victories instead of one? OK, but I had enjoyed myself and that was the most important about this day for me. But then it occured to me: I might even be able to play enough tournaments to finish the ranking. Let's check the calendar as soon as I get home...
Some of the pictures are referenced to the Galleries-page on the site of the Knights of Bayard
