By Iano, Kaio and
Stefano
Prequel:
(By Iano)
Oh yeah, my fellow Money Wolves Stefano and Kaïo, were finally able to convince me to participate in a ranking tournament. So on Sunday 11th of February 2007 I would head direction Leopoldsburg for the Full Tilt Tournament of 'De Witte Ridder'. As I hadn't participated in a ranking tournament before I didn't know what to expect. Luckily I was supported by my Wolf Brothers.
So after a taking the night shift it went from Brussels to Leopoldsburg without a single minute of sleep. After gathering my approved army list and admiring the playing tables, I sat down in a corner waiting for my brothers-in-arms.
I hadn't been able to test my army of Chaos Undivided so I could only make the best of it and hope that I didn't fall asleep.
The tables:
(By Iano)
As mentioned I was really impressed of the tables present. Not only were they composed according a certain theme but it was also clear that tactics was certainly an important aspect when playing on them.
The draw of battles:
(By Iano)
Knowing the scenario's to be played, I was rather confident that everything would run smoothly... until I saw my first opponent had entered a Beast of Chaos army...
Round 1: Capture...
For round one a 'Capture'- scenario was played. Objective of the game was to hold 3 objective markers by having the biggest combined unit strength within 6" of the markers. Each marker counts for 200 victory points whereas table quarters are not accounted for.
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Iano's Opponent:
Thomas Grooten. Army: Beasts of Chaos. About the opponent: It was fun playing my first battle against Thomas. I found this very important because it could change my point of view about tournaments and the rest of the day… Thomas thought me some tricks to use my beast herds in the future. About the battle: The battle begun very good for me. I captured two of the three objectives quite fast due to my fast moving troops. But then, my mage failed to cast a quite important spell and to add injury to insult was struck by a rather painful miscast. From that point on everything went downhill. (I Think that I was on the slope of the hill, because every time my chariots came back to my side of the table, right trough my own troops, ouch!!!!) So a massacre it was. I had not a single objective captured and more than half of my units were gone. Nice start… Most valuable unit(s): I was a bit mad at my minions so I can’t really say that I had a valuable unit at that time. |
| Kaïo's Opponent:
Dave De Crop. Army: Empire. About the opponent: I know Dave from the Green Knights. He is a good Empire player and a fine bloke to game with. I really enjoyed this game although his last round tactics made me loose the game heavily. I think he must have enjoyed it also because he asked to play again soon on the club. About the battle: A civil war. It's a chance to get to know your army from the opposite site but if I can avoid to play one I will. With two markers close to each other I decided to go for it. The game started pretty good for me when I sniped the Arch Lector of my opponent with my great canon in the first turn. Dave however did exactly the same with mine. At the other side my flagellants got in hand to hand with a unit White Wolves and they stayed that way for almost the entire game. I counted on the helblaster volley gun on the  opposite
side to misfire but it didn't. That resulted in quite some casualties on my
side but still my men remained near
the markers. Dave brought in his troops only in the last turns and
eventually took the three markers. A lost with
a crushing victory although I didn't
have bad thoughts about my game... Most valuable unit(s):
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| Stefano's Opponent:
Bart Saes. Army: Dark Elves. About the opponent: Truly a very nice adversary ! See also my “aftermath”. About the battle: We had to start with the “capture”-scenario, resulting in one objective very close to his deployment zone on his right flank, and two objectives in the middle of the battlefield. Bart deployed his shooting units (4 bolt throwers and 2 units of repeater crossbow shooters) on top of and around the hill on the right flank close to the objective, together with the support of two cold one chariots, a unit cold one knights and the general on Pegasus. On the left flank, he positioned his fast cavalry and another two heroes on Pegasus. I positioned my big infantry units in the centre, with the fast units on both flanks and the banshees and ghouls in reserve. The overall battle unfolded itself as follows : The elves kept the hill and pin cushioned all my units that dare to approach the hill and the objective. In the centre, my infantry took possession of both objectives and kept it until the end. Apart from these quite static strategies, the elves attempted to destroy most of my faster units with the characters on Pegasus and the dark riders, but I either defeated them in combat or screamed them to damnation with the banshees. I managed to raise a new unit of zombies next to one of his crossbow units, and they eventually won the battle, only to overrun straight into a cold one chariot where they almost saw their own end. My biggest losses came from the cold one knights unit, decapitating half a unit of skeletons together with one of my necromancers. Fortunately, one of my banshees withered down their numbers with a well placed scream, otherwise the entire unit would have been defeated. And last but not least, my other banshe  e
managed to kill the Pegasus of the general and even wounding the latter,
before she was shot down herself by the magical arrows of the elves
general. After 5 turns and counting the losses and objectives, we came to a
draw in my favor.Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 2: Pitched Battle...
| Iano's Opponent:
Sjoerd Vermue. Army: Chaos Undivided. About the opponent: Sjoerd is the Dutch version of... me. He came to enjoy himself and if he won a few battles, well so be it. Sjoerd is very social and likes to make fun. He never complai  ned
even when I forgot to do my magic or unruly tests…
About the battle: The battle was a nice one. It went even for both sides and neither one could gain the upper hand. Luckily that I had captured quite a few standards and that in the end a few table quarters were mine. The battle ended in a draw in my favor. My luck was beginning to turn. Most valuable unit(s):
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| Kaïo's Opponent:
Klaas Harm. Army: Lizardmen. About the opponent: To be honest, it looked as if Klaas wasn't in the mood for gaming anymore. Nevertheless he was a kind guy and was very correct while playing. The game went smoothly from both sides and that's how it should be. About the battle: I was facing a large block of Saurus Warriors, several blocks of Kroxigors and a Stegadon as hard hitting enemies. The unit of Terradons didn't worry me too much but when in the third round I failed to declare a charge they kept me going for the rest of the game. My Mortar had a real nice time shooting at the Sauri and hit on target a couple of times. The fact that this block of 24 was largely reduced to far below half strength was mainly thanks to them. My great canon was also able to kill 3 Kroxigors with its se  cond
shot after which it was butchered in the next turn by the terradons. My
flagellants were butchered to the man by the
Stegadon. After having run off a unit of Kroxigors, some skinks and the unit
of Sauri (D6 wounds on the champion in a challenge became 6 wounds which
largely compensated the flank attack of the former fleeing Kroxi's) my Arch
Lector and his swordsmen were butchered to the man by those Kroxigors and
his Oldblood-general. A draw was the result.Most valuable unit(s):
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Stefano's Opponent: Rick Smeets. Army: Wood Elves. About the opponent: Nice patient lad, for he stayed calm even after I asked him for the third time about a particular wood elves army rule, and still making jokes afterwards! About the battle: Unfortunately for me, this pitched scenario was to be played on a table with a long river, lots of rocks and ditto woods. There was only one approach possible to the elves, and that was straight in the middle with space for about two infantry regiments to pass at the time. I saw half his army being forest spirits, and the other half he kept in reserve, so my banshees were useless and quickly dispatched in a magical way. I tried to get at least one flank cleared of elves, but failed on both sides. On my left flank, the wardancers kept my wolves and bats busy, while on my right flank the dryads and the elves on eagles swiftly ended the lives (so to speak) of the combined strength of wolves, bats, ghouls and zombies. In the centre, my black knights thundered into his treeman in an attempt to make some splinters, but after the first round of slashing, the behemoth suffered only one wound. No need to say my knights ended up smashed in the ground in the subsequent combat turn. In the magic phase, I managed blast away a tree kin model, and that is about it. All other spells didn’t succeed, were dispelled or ended in a miscast (twice !). Once my skeleton infantry got in close combat I managed to get some points after all, for my Wight lord battle standard bearer killed a treekin model and his battle standard bearer, and my Strigoï general did another 3 wounds on the treeman. I even felt lucky when the treeman missed three subsequent rolls to hit on one of my necromancers !  But
in the final rounds, Rick finished me off. I had nothing left to protect
the flanks of my skeleton blocks, so I got charged in the flanks by a
combined force of a great eagle, the wardancers and the dryads. In the last
round of combat, the last standing unit of skeletons including a wizard and
my general were destroyed for Rick managed to score a combat result
difference exactly equal to the number of wounds available in the unit.
Final verdict : massacre loss.Most valuable unit(s):
One question to Rick : what is the magic item that made you ignore your miscast in turn 1? I cannot find it within the wood elves magic items list … |
Round 3:Assassinate...
In the Assassinate-scenario both players have to write down before the battle which character they are going to kill. If they succeed they will get double victory points for this character.
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Iano's Opponent:
Yves Lanckriet. Army: Vampire Counts. About the opponent: Yves explained me that he was playing for only a year and that he liked playing tournaments. I don’t know if it was the fatigue or the fact that it was the last battle, but Yves seemed to be very closed, nervous and unsure. Albeit it was fun after all and Yves wasn’t the type of guy that complained (in fact he didn’t say much). About the battle: It was a quick battle. I moved all my troops forward as quickly as possible. I had already learned that maneuvering my troops, so that a maximum of them could charge at same time, was more valuable than charge directly into his units. Because of the scenario I had chosen his necromancer as target. I thought that since it wasn’t a powerful character, it would be easy to kill. I managed to kill all but one unit on the battlefield. The only one that stayed “alive” was Yves’ banshee. The reason for this was that Yves had placed her in a terrain feature that was painted almost exactly as his banshee. Therefore we’d both forgotten about her( luckily for me). The game ended in a crushing victory for me. Most valuable unit(s):
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| Kaïo's Opponent:
Alexander Kösters. Army: Empire. About the opponent: I've seen Alexander before on previous tournaments but never had the pleasure of playing him. And I mean pleasure. Alexander appeared to be a warm personality with a nice sense of humor too. As all Empire players by the way ;-). As he also shot some pictures of my recently re-finished Luthor Huss model, this guy can't do anything wrong for me. About the battle: A hard fought draw where I had real difficulties with an Elector Count on Griffon playing in my back yard. As my pistoleers started to target him and his mount he decided it was time to search other environments. Eventually they did kill the Griffon. Alexander won most of his victory points in the first 4 rounds but I managed to get a draw in the end by sending of his big unit of Knights containing 
2 warrior priests (of which one was my target). Special note: Alexander has
trained his artillery crews in aiming over and in between enemy units rather
than on them. One exception: the shot that butchered my knights. Most valuable unit(s):
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| Stefano's Opponent:
Stijn Aerts. Army: Lizardmen. About the opponent: Also member of the Conect’r club, I know him for quite some years. When I found out he was my opponent for the last battle of the day, I knew I would end it with a smile, no matter the outcome of the game. About the battle: I wanted to go for the “all or nothing”-approach, so I selected his saurus oldblood on cold one. Stijn then fielded lots of skirmishers, including skinks, swarms and salamanders, together with a stegadon, a unit of kroxigors and a unit of saurus cold one riders. I figured my wolves, bats and ghouls could cope with the skinks, while my infantry blocks and the banshees should try to overcome the rest of the army. Great was the surprise and fun to find out Stijn brought along a bunch of überskinks. They managed to shoot poisoned arrows as if it were a machinegun-unit, and even in combat and after failing their fear tests, they rolled quite some 6’s. In total, two units of skinks were responsible for taking out two units of wolves, two units of bats, half a unit of zombies and a unit of ghouls. It didn’t start the way I planned … In the centre, things didn’t start prosperous as well, for the swarm took out one of my necromancers, and the salamanders machinegunned half a unit of skeletons, but then things turned my way. The skeletons with battle standard got rid of the swarms (thanks to the new swarm-rule if they loose the combat), and my strigoï general shish-kebab’ed the stegadon in only one round of combat. In the mean time, the kroxigors were held up behind the combat with his überskinks, whereas his cold one riders didn’t come in time because they failed a stupidity test. And to really finish the lizardmen off, one of my banshees charged the skink priest, who fled off the table, and the other banshee screamed in one go the total of five cold one knights into damnation, leaving him all by himself with a unit of skeletons and a Strigoï count in his flank. He held it out for two rounds of combat and even inflicted a wound on my general, but in the end he lost the fight. The only green things left on the board were the kroxigors and one unit of überskinks with a chief in it, the latter being way to far behind a hill to be threatened. With a brave flank charge, the kroxigors managed to squash my battle standard bearer and nearly the entire u  nit
of skeletons, but with the combined strength of another banshee howl and
dire wolves in their rear, they didn’t see the end of the battle alive.Final verdict : crushing victory in my favor. Due to the extremely effective salamanders, skinks and kroxigors, Stijn avoided a massacre. Most valuable unit(s):
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Aftermath by Stefano :
On arrival in Leopoldsburg, I realised my army case with infantry models was still at home. I drove all the way back home to get them, hurried back and was able to still play the first battle albeit with some delay. Thanks Bart Goris for letting me borrow your car! Thanks to Bart Saes for patiently waiting for your opponent, playing only 5 rounds instead of the regular 6 and still not press charges against me for being late! Also thanks to the tournament organizers for granting us a little more time for our first battle!!!
This being said, let’s talk about the battles. If I look from a distance, I notice that if my banshees cannot do their job, I’m doomed. But if they can, then my opponent is! However, there is more to it than banshees alone. In all battles, the scenery had a large impact on the battles. In the first, the hill on one flank made it easy for my opponent to secure one objective and nail down all my approaching units. Hence a draw. Without breaking down Rick’s tactical skills, the terrain in the second battle left me no choice but to choose for the straight forward approach, and in the third a large chunk of rocks protected the flank of my skeleton units for being charged by cold ones.
Anyway, I met three jolly good adversaries, who I definitely want to encounter again in one of the following tournaments! And Rick, still thanks for the beer, it helped drowning the defeat ;o)
Finally my score. Apart from the battle points, I got 18 painting points and 5 presentation points, granting me a 45th place. Not bad on 108 contestants! And the fact that all armies were painted, and only 4 were awarded more painting points did boost my ego … Let’s hope I can take part of this event again in 2008!
Aftermath by Kaïo:
2 Civil Wars on one tournament: what are the odds. On top of that I had to start against a fellow club member of The Green Knight but as I represent three clubs those odds are better than facing another Empire army twice ;-).
Nevertheless I had fun in playing all of my battles. Although having lost only once I only finished 75th on 108 participants. Hmmm, I still believe I could have done better. I apparently keep making tactical errors in each battle which often costs me a unit and too much turns to straighten them. Well, better luck next time. My day will come!
Aftermath by Iano :
Well honestly, I’ve enjoyed playing the tournament. Before I was a little skeptic about tournaments. I thought that it was all about winning and although I think that everyone wants to win, this day has showed me that first of all everyone wants to have a good time.
I did anyway. Although retuning home was quite painful. Having not slept the last 36 hours made it hard to drive all the way back to Dendermonde. I was a very happy man when I arrived home safely but also because I finished 54th. Not bad for my first tournament. I’ve enjoyed my battles and learned quite a lot tactical-wise and about my army.
