By Kaio and
Stefano
Prequel:
(By Kaïo)
Two years ago I'd played this tournament also but this year I didn't want to miss it for anything. Not only because it was Stefano's club organizing it but also because of the size of the tournament and the rather unusual points value of the tournament: 1750 points.
The tables:
(By Kaïo)
As always the tables had enough terrain to create tactical (dis-)avantages. They were certainly large enough but the cloth underground was a little negative point.
The draw of battles:
(By Kaïo)
Knowing the scenario's to be played and having seen the other participants I was hoping not to face a top ranking player for the first round. To my relief I heard I had to face Seppe Cannaerts. Yes, fun garanteed...
(By Stefano)
For this tournament I fine-tuned my army around terror and ethereals. During the club tournament of March, it proved successful for I won the tournament. I was hoping to repeat this winning tactics, until I found myself playing against Patrick Cannaerts with his vampire counts army. Bye bye terror-effect, but hello fun !
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.
| Kaïo's Opponent:
Seppe Cannaerts (De Witte Ridder). Army: Skaven. About the opponent: I have faced Seppe once before... on the 4th Conflict. OK, the youngster has gotten 2 years older but still has the same game approach: having fun is the most important thing. And yes, we both enjoyed ourselves. Seppe, I play you anytime. You certainly have the spirit of a true Fantasy player... About the battle: I wanted to get the Steam Tank into the heat of battle as soon as possible. His larger blocks wouldn't have that much problems in taking terror tests but his smaller skirmishing units would certainly have problems succeeding their tests. My canons sniped two of the  ratling
guns and the 5 knights did what they had too: attract the jezzail fire. A
small sacrifice! At my left flank the doomfire ring made Seppe take several
panic tests of which he was soon to fail some. My infantry blocks kept
advancing and in doing so captured two of the three objectives. The Steam
Tank kept two units from doing anything else but the unit of my general
didn't succeed in taking the last objective. A draw was a fair result of a
game that was all about fun...Most valuable unit(s):
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| Stefano's Opponent:
Patrick Cannaerts (De Witte Ridder). Army: Vampire Counts. About the opponent: I hadn’t played against Patrick before, but I knew his reputation of fairness and fun. And every inch of it came true ! Patrick, revenge anytime ! About the battle: It promised to be a quick battle, for vampire counts skip all shooting and most of the psychology, especially when playing each other, but this wasn’t true at all. Loads of tactical moves were required from both sides to get or keep the upper hand. From the start, my biggest worries were how to tackle Patrick’s black coach, take out his general and keep mine alive. So I provoked the black coach with a unit of dire wolves in the centre to take the coach in the flank in a subsequent turn, but that turned out to be a mistake for every wound the coach causes, it gets an extra wound itself. On my right flank, my dire wolves, black knights and spirithost tried to simultaneously charge a unit of skeletons, but Patrick countered well by smashing my flanking dire wolves with his vampire thrall, and after that taking out the black knights champion. Even with a charge of my formerly necromancer chasing bats in the rear of the skeleton unit didn’t bring enough wounds to disturb Patrick. On the left flank, my ghouls and zombies faced his black knights and eventually the black coach, and were butchered to the man (so to speak …). Lucky for me, my wraith and his skeletal retinue kept the flank until the end of the battle. In the centre, nothing really happened, for both generals wanted to stay out of combat. So finally, I was faced with a solid loss, for he had one marker more than me, and killed a few units more. Some memorable events : my irresistible “curse of years” took the live of only one (!!!) grave guard out of 25 models, and I made a very big mistake with my black knights not to charge his trhall and instead charge his skeletons. Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 2: Pitched Battle...
| Kaïo's Opponent:
Thomas Lodewijckx. Army: Lizardmen. About the opponent: Son of another player who asked me to be gentle? Yeah right. Blood on my hands, that's what I wanted. No, seriously. Thomas was a nice bloke and was fun to play against. Only 15 and as I had already faced Seppe I can truly say that a nice generation of pleasant Fantasy Players is on it's way... About the battle: Two flanks with Cold One Riders, a unit of Terradons, a center with 3 Salamanders and lots of skinks were the catch of the day. The Scar Veteran in the center was probably a 'Jaguar'-adept but I didn't care. What I did care about is that my Steam Tank refused to function three turns out of six. Luckily my flagellants (helped once by the swordsmen) tore the center of the Lizardmen apart after a lucky 'Frenzy' charge on the salamanders. And then they kept on rolling... On unit of pis  toliers
was very successful in killing some Cold One Riders but on the other flank
the Terradons and the other Cold Ones got rid of a unit pistoliers and my
knights. These Lizards charged in on the unit Spearmen with my general which
held their own against the odds. The Warrior Priest succeeded in killing 2
terradons and 6 Cold One Riders using his Hammer of Judgement and Soulfire
over 3 rounds of combat and magic. I scored a Solid Victory. Sorry, Thomas.Most valuable unit(s):
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Stefano's Opponent:
Maarten Vanwesemael (Conect’r) Army: Dark Elves. About the opponent: I didn’t know Maarten in person, but it turned out I already knew him as “Druchi” on the Conectr website. I had a nice time playing him, and although we had some differences about the rules, we settled them with a judge, a dice roll and a smile. I hope I see him around again soon! About the battle: Maarten deployed an army mainly consisting out of shooting units in the centre, and fast units as centre support and on my left flank. The executioners were the only rank-and-file unit, and worried me most for their killing blow rule. His army contained one level 1 mage, so as long as I could prevent miscasts, I had the advantage of directing my troops the right way in the magic phase, and have them hit first in combat. On the left flank, Maarten managed to inflict a rear charge on my skeletons with hand weapon including one necromancer. By the time my banshee came at aid, there were no troopers left. Due to two miscasts in the same magic turn, I wasn’t able to reraise enough models to save the unit. Nevertheless, in the centre everything went according to plan. My flyers managed to keep his repeater bolt throwers several turns from shooting, keeping my black knights and rank-and-file troopers out of harm. His executioners including the general went full-speed to get in combat as soon as possible, but his support chariots managed to fail their stupidity test several times in a row. This made my life easier of course, for I could tackle these units one at a time. After sacrificing a unit of dire wolves, I moved my spirit hosts in the front, and the other skeleton unit (including general and wraith) in the flank. His general fell by the combination of talon of death and great weapon attacks from the wraith, but the most exciting and stressy moment of the entire battle took place when the only executioner that still could strike back, scored a killing blow on my general. “Dead meat” he thought, but alas for Maarten, my general pulled the “Gem of Blood” out of his sleeve. We both watched the D6 rolling on the table : on all numbers but a 1, the wound was rebounded on the executioner himself. Lucky for me, it wasn’t a 1! The executioners didn’t score snake-eyes on their break test, ran and were caught. In the mean time, my banshee scored another big moment : with a whopping score of 2x6 on her scream, she reduced the dark elf cold one knights to a single model. Being in combat with a fully ranked zombie unit, this last survivor failed his break test, and ran never to rally again. In the centre, the cold one chariots  finally found their mark, together with his hero on dark pegasus,
and decimated half a unit of skeletons before the wraith and some remaining
dire wolves respectively took out the chariot and dark pegasus. Finally,
the spirit hosts and the remaining bats managed to get rid of his repeater
crossbow unit (including mage) by a combined front-rear-attack.Final score : a solid victory for me. Due to Maarten’s tactic with the dark riders in the rear of my skeletons, and due to two miscasts in the same magical phase, it wasn’t a massacre. Most valuable unit(s):
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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.
| Kaïo's Opponent:
Dieter Geboers (De Witte Ridder). Army: High Elves. About the opponent: Sorry, to say this but I didn't have any fun of this battle. It's not because I was butchered to the man but because I thought I was listening to my old history teacher: the monotone voice which you play with makes a game boooooooooring. Tip: You're young, try to enjoy yourself... About the battle: A steamtank that doesn't do a thing the first two turns and a misfiring Canon makes an magic and speedy arrmy as High Elves win the game before you can do a thing. I tried to minimize the casualties but it was of no use. I was massacred to the last man... Most valuable unit(s):
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| Stefano's Opponent:
Jef Verhaert (De Witte Ridder) Army: Dwarfs (the drunken kind if I may believe Jef …) About the opponent: The same situation as in round one occurred : no previous battle, but a hell of a reputation on fairness and fun, again proven correct ! We even stopped the battle half way to go for a hamburger and a beer ! Jef, a rematch any time ! About the battle: First of all, looking at Jef’s army I decided to go for his general. Apart from lots of shooting, Jef had three ranked regiments. One would probably contain the general, so I had to go for that unit. Fortunately for me, Jef didn’t have much luck with his dice when it came to hitting and wounding in his first two rounds, so after sacrificing my bats in a screen in front of the bigger units, I was marching full speed ahead. On my left flank, I managed to get rid of a bolt thrower with my wolves, who then saw the chance to pass behind the dwarf army battle line. My black knights were less fortunate, for most of them fell to the one bolt that actually hit target. However, in a desperate attempt, the surviving knight champion took a wound in a challenge with his general. On the right flank, my ghouls, spirit hosts and zombies tried to stop a unit of warriors including his battle standard bearer, but the shorties managed to wipe them all out. Fortunately for me, my necromancer irresistibly casted curse of years on them, taking the unit below half strength. In the centre, things went equally wrong, for the unit with wraith was charged by his unit iron breakers. Although hitting with strength 5, the wraith didn’t manage to make enough kills to keep himself and his skeletal retinue alive, even after several invocations of Nehek by both necromancers (which in turn I safely hid behind a building in the centre of the battlefield to keep them out of shooting arc and close combat) Finally, my other skeletal was more then halved by all missiles Jef could lay hands on, bringing them down to 25% of the initial strength. However, they managed together with the wolves in the back to chase down his quarellers. Both units bumped into the entrenched canon with engineer, and 
were kept busy for the rest of the game. I didn’t pay enough attention to
his moves, so as a final act, Jef took down my non-general wizard, and
announced this was his target to assassinate. Verdict : crushing loss. I
think I have to revise my tactics when it comes to attacking dwarfs with
vampire counts…Most valuable unit(s):
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Aftermath by Stefano :
I composed my army around outnumbering, terror-causing and the magical upper hand, but against my first and last opponent, both strong points turned out to be ineffective (hence my results). My second battle proved that this composition actually can make a difference against low toughness armies that are not immune to psychology. I think in future tournaments with < 2000 pts, I will try a similar approach.
Furthermore, a big Thanks to the organisers, everything went smoothly, from gaming, judging up to catering. ‘Till next year!
Aftermath by Kaïo:
3 battles versus youngsters. Overall I had enjoyed myself and I wasn't going to let anything ruin that. My ranking wasn't marvelous but hey, those things happen and better luck next time. I want to thank Conect'R for another great tournament and you can rest assured: next year I'll participate again...
