By Stefano
Prequel:
Last tournament of the year, hence last chance to improve on the “Ranking der Nederlanden”. Last year in Roermond, I ended 33th out of 36 contestants, let’s hope I do better this year ! I fine-tuned my undead army around my newly converted strigoï regeneration model, just to see how good he might be. I playtested it against Bart Goris’s Bretonnian warhost, to find out my army did remarkably well. So far, so good …
The tables:
As usual in Roermond, the playing tables were a bit narrower then standard, which makes flanking a bit more tricky. I mostly rely on flank attacks to break the enemy, so I had to take all opportunities to disrupt the enemy’s army line. The battlefields were sprinkled here and there with scenery, enough to use tactically, but not enough to dominate the battles. And that’s the way I like it !
The draw of battles:
All battles were according to the pitched battle scenario. My first opponent turned out to be female and in possession of a Bretonnian force. Recalling my play test, I was confident I could beat her horde of knights. But then again, no battles are equal …
Round 1:
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Opponent:
Vera Saes. Army: Bretonnians. About the opponent: It’s always nice to play a battle against a woman in this men-dominated game, and on top of that Vera’s a fun player as well! About the battle: Vera deployed an army with 4 blocks of knights with the usual yeomen and peasant bowmen, respectively in the centre and on the flanks. I figured I could handle the knights with my infantry, meanwhile manoeuvring my own knights into a flanking position. During my second turn, I gambled on getting the vanhell’s dance macabre coming through, smashing my strigoï general with accompanying skeletons head-on into the knights containing her general. Alas, even with only one damsel en two scrolls, she managed to block my movement spells twice, leaving my general in a nice position to be charged by two bretonnian knightly units, and so she did.  My
general survived the bashing, but wasn’t even able to make a dent into a
single knight. As a result of combat, my general vanished in smoke, leaving
me with crumble tests for the remainder of the battle. I tried to make the
best of it, and despite the clever manoeuvres of Vera, I even managed to
take down one hero, an entire unit of knights of the realm, and the peasant
bowmen. Unsurprisingly, it all ended for me with a massacre loss … but
after a fun battle!Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 2:
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Opponent:
Seppe Canaerts (De Witte Ridder). Army: Skaven. About the opponent: Seppe is fun to play against, there were no rules-discussions, and whether things went right or wrong for him, he kept smiling and joking. Keep that up! About the battle: I was facing again a skaven army with three spellcasters packed with magic missiles, combined with the apparently necessary load of shooting devices. To complete the picture apart from the clanrats, there was a unit of plague monks and those pesky skaven wielding a ball on chain with warpstone in it. If there is something an undead army is quite afraid of, it’s loads of magical ranged attacks … Fortunately for me, there was a big piece of masonry in the centre of the battlefield, forcing my opponent to split his vast army into to pieces. I approached one side with most of my units, leaving my skirmishers and a block of zombies to stall the other side. I tried to get the upper hand in the former area, but again all my movement spells felt short, leaving my black knights ready to be charged in the flank. No wonder they didn’t survive such an attack … On the other hand, I managed to get rid of most of the ratling guns by a single dire wolf attack (first one too short to shoot, second one missed his fear test) and disposing a warplock engineer on the charge. On the other side, my zombies magically flew to pieces, being invoked in the same way in the following turn, keeping my general and wizards out of harm’s way. On the far right, I kept the frenzied plague monks busy by feeding them my bats and ghouls in such a way they regularly had to pursue off the table, never able to get into the thick of the fight. Speaking about the latter, I managed to break an overwhelming skaven unit by chargin  g
it myself with only 10 skeletons left including my strigoï general with a
little help from my former female units. The banshees managed to kill more
then half the unit, and my general took out another big part. My first big
success this tournament, yeah ! However, the loss of my black knights made
the battle end in a draw.Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 3:
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Opponent:
Tom Degendt (Tin Soldiers of Antwerp). Army: Ogre Kingdoms. About the opponent: Tom is really a warm and friendly person, even in battle. He didn’t even complain when I was called for personal family matters, taking away quite some battle time. About the battle: I faced a single ogre battle line for the entire deployment zone. I tried to tear that line apart with magical blasts and bats positioned in the rear, only to find out my movement spells were once again blocked every single time. Fortunately for me, this time it was the unit containing the wight lord that received the incoming charges from a slave giant and a unit ogres. Both contributing to the funny side of the game as well as my dismay, the giant opted to jump up and down, crushing 10 skeletons under his massive feet. Together with the ogre impact hits and fist fighting, and despite the wound my wight inflicted on one of them, my unit completely vanished. In response, I charged the giant with some ghouls and my general with skeletons, seeing him flee off the table after battle. Due to some twist in my mind, I restrained the skeleton unit with general, only to find myself flanked in the next round. After combat, the only survivors were a wizard and the general, making him touch the ogre foe. In the subsequent round, my general caused four wounds, winning the combat, falling one inch short to capture them (I always fall one inch short in crucial phases !!!), giving them the opportunity to rally just in time.  On
the other side of the battlefield I managed to get rid of one unit and a
half of ogres by combining a banshee’s howl with a black knights charge.
Alas, his general stood fast and didn’t want to die. I also managed to
bring the single Rhinox rider in a nice position to get him flanked, but the
behemoth swung half his attacks against the flanking wolves so I could not
claim a flank- and outnumbering bonus. As a result, I had to accept the
fact that Tom won the battle by a solid victory.Most valuable unit(s):
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Aftermath:
About
the opponents, I was delighted. Not only did I play my first tournament battle
against a female opponent, she and the other two fellows turned out to be fun to
play against. All battles were sprinkled with laughter and positive emotions,
leaving me with a happy feeling although I didn’t fare well battlewise. All
three, I hope to encounter you soon during a tournament in 2007!
Then
about my gaming, I lost my first game by taking a gamble too early in the
battle. It was my own damn mistake, and Vera was right to rip my army apart by
starting with my general. Secondly, against the skaven army I could have made a
bigger difference if only I thought twice in bringing in the cavalry on the
wrong place at the wrong time. On the other hand, I did have some luck in the
skaven’s magic and shooting phase, wounding and killing some of their own
troopers and heroes. Finally, I played tactically very well on one side of the
field, but gambled again on the other side, seeing the same result as in battle
one. In the end, I had no choice but to see very little tournament pounts on my
account.
Regarding my score, I did most of the failing myself, so I cannot complain. Another battle in another place would have given me a massacre in the first battle, but it was neither the time nor the place for it. I ended up with 19 points out of 75 for gaming, and thank god 24 out of 25 for painting and army presentation. These points granted me a 27th place out of 30 contestants, which is actually very close to my score last year. And to make it very close to “History repeating”, the judges declared my army as “best painted tournament army”. Together with the remembrance of three nice opponents and ditto battles, I left Roermond with a smile on my face…
So, let’s get ready for the 2007 tournaments, hopefully seeing in action for the first time a fully painted 1500 points lizardmen army. So let’s dig up my brushes, paint, a knife and some green stuff…
