By Kaio and
Stefano
Prequel:
(By Kaïo)
It's been some years now that I've been willing to play this tournament. Not only because of it's exceptions on the normal army compositions but also because I dare to say I can count some friends amongst the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp, the organizing club. In the past, bad placement of my free weekends had been the reason I didn't participate but this year my calendar was open on War of the Beard. Yeeha!
The tables:
(By Kaïo)
The tables were all 48' by 48' which is just enough for some armies but with some scenery on it there are lots of players with large armies that really must stack their troops to get them all on the table. But: that's Warhammer! The tactics begin at deployment, not in turn 1.
The draw of battles:
(By Kaïo)
After checking out some tables and already unpacking my troops I heard who I would be playing in the first round: Laurent Mariën. I immediately uttered that he was a member of the same club as I was and as it is custom I got another opponent: Bart Goris. Me and my big mouth...
Round 1:
| Kaïo's Opponent:
Bart Goris (Connect'r). Army: Bretonnia. About the opponent: I consider Bart a friend amongst fine Warhammer buddies. He's won several tournaments in the past. His 2000 points flying circus is feared and respected within the Ranking and now I had to face it for the first time. Was my list of 'The Chariots of Sigmar' up for this? Bring it on! I knew one thing for sure: with Bart no rule discussions or boring conversations but fun, fun, fun... About the battle: From his deployment I gathered quickly that his (flying) general had the virtue of Heroism and was aiming for my Steam Tank. Driving backwards and firing my hull canon I was able to shoot his Royal Pegasus from beneath him in two rounds, eventually enabling me to charge with my Steam Tank on his general in stead of vice versa: Splat! My Arch Lector on War Altar got in stuck in the fighting with the larger unit of Pegasi Knights while the 2 smaller units and a large block of Knights of the Realm led  by his Battle Standard Bearer terrorized
my infantry and artillery. A unit of my pistoliers got rid of two archer
units and three Pegasi Knights. The battle turned in each players turn
eventually ending in a minor victory for Bart. Just 42 points short after a
very nice battle... Damn!Most valuable unit(s):
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Stefano's Opponent:
Dieter Parmentier. Army: Orcs & Goblins. About the opponent: Apart from a fully and nicely painted army, Dieter came with loads of fun and jokes. No wonder I had a great time ! About the battle: I was faced by a massive all-goblin army apart from two trolls. The 4 blocks of night goblins with units of bowmen in front were deployed in the centre and one flank, while the trolls guarded the other. I countered this deployment with my main troops in the centre, a fast task force of spirit hosts, black knights and bats on the troll-side, and only a diversion with one unit of wolves on the other. Looking at the terrain setup, some woods and a building should give me the advantage of a bottle neck for the goblin advance. Things went harmless on both sides, seeing some 1’s and 6’s for Dieters units, until my units came close to the main units. Over a dozen of these fellows emerged, and I thanked myself for putting my bats behind his units. The bats were killed in a split second, but at least some fanatics were in his back instead of in my front. Mainly due to the fanatics, there wasn’t a lot of close combat. In the centre, the ghouls were butchered after they first took out a goblin hero with their poisoned attacks.  The zombies
managed to get a unit bowmen fleeing, nearly taking with them the larger
block behind, but were in the end killed by that same big unit. On one
flank the spirit hosts took care of the trolls, but only after my black
knights saw their ending. The banshees again performed well, but the
goblins didn’t care less for they were large in numbers. After four turns,
time was up with the main troops still standing. Body count resulted in a
draw in my favor with only a 20 point difference.
Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 2: Pitched Battle...
| Kaïo's Opponent:
Kris Jans. Army: Daemonic Legion. About the opponent: Another guy who has won some tournaments in the past. Kris is a fine opponent. Never gets stressed and is there for the game. Either it goes well or all goes wrong. It doesn't mention on his attitude to the game or the opponent: in this case me. I'd played Kris once before and again I really enjoyed myself. I'm looking forward to a next encounter! About the battle: A Tzeentch Daemonic Legion hurts! I had to scrap all my dispel dice together and still let some spells through to get all the magic absorbed in the first rounds. With his flyers outmaneuvering me (I had only pistoliers to counter this) and Kris getting ALL his ward saves in my turn it seemed that I was going to go down hard but luckily the luck changed. His Daemon Prince charged my Arch Lector on his carriage and although he had casted green fire on himself I succeeded saving enough of his attacks and get passed the4+ ward save with my Mace of Helstrum. When the numb  er of wounds caused turned
on a 6 the largest danger was gone. On the following turn his Exalted Daemon
charged a fleeing unit but in doing so he overran into the rear of my Steam
Tank that had just destroyed a complete unit of horrors. In my combat phase
my steel Behemoth caused enough wounds to destroy the Daemon. Eventually I
succeeded in destroying most of the Daemonic host granting me a solid
victory.Most valuable unit(s):
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Stefano's Opponent:
Tom Janssens. Army: Orcs and Goblins. About the opponent: Tom borrowed an army from Dirk Bruylandts, so he needed his time to think about his moves, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time! About the battle: I again saw myself faced with the same army, but with a totally different composition. My opponent fielded a giant, savage orc boar boyz, spider riders, a pump wagon and units of orcs. Again the scenery played in my favor, forcing my opponent to pass some bottleneck points. I countered the giant with my zombies and ghouls, his main forces with my infantry blocks, and a trap with wolves and black knights to deal with the boar boyz. Tom took the bait (actually having no choice for his boar boyz had to charge my wolves due to frenzy), but the countercharge with my black knights in his open flank didn’t work out the way it should have. Instead of beating him in combat, I lost it, seeing my knights disappear in the next turns partly due to a flank charge by squig hoppers. Instead of seeing the boar boyz running, they ended up butchering a unit of skeletons, my wight battle standard bearer and a necromancer. Lucky for me, he ended on top of his own fanatic in the process, killing half the unit. Apart from this main frey, I succeeded in keeping his giant busy with my zombies for the entire battle, reraising the ones I lost. On the other flank, the spirit  hosts succeeded
in sending a unit of spider riders running through a block of goblins, who
in turn joined the flee move, ending up on top of my wolves which were
stationed in their back. The same fate was shared by his chariot, just
before time was up after round 4. In the end, the loss of two characters, a
unit skeletons and the black knights tipped the balance in favor of my
opponent : minor loss was my share …Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 3:
| Kaïo's Opponent:
Leo van Groot Battave. Army: Ogre Kingdoms. About the opponent: The Dutch Big Guy. The stories I've heard of this guy: he stalls a game, he's rather rude in his humor and some even claim they would forfeit if they have to play him. I only know this: I had a great game against him. We had a few rule arguments but all was nicely resolved. In fact if I had to list it, it comes in my top 5 of all Ranking Tournament Games. As for his humor: right back at him. I just love the direct talk and wordplay but that's probably because I used to date a Dutch girl and am quite accustomed to it. Leo, I just loved the game and hope to meet you again... About the battle: It was great and in fact closer than the result shows. There was one crucial phase and that was his slave giant falling over only one flagellant after which they start overrunning into his unit with general and after that into a unit gnobblars. I'm a sucker for the martyr rule if I can charge my flagellants. If you can throw 2 or 3 on a D3 then you know you're going to hurt even Ironguts with 10 strength 5 attacks where you can re-roll to hit and to wound. Having a fully ranked unit and the Arch Lector occupying himself with the general gives a your opponent only  one chance to keep from
breaking: Insane courage which he did not make. Another important combat was
that between the steam tank and his Bull Rhinox Riders. The steam tank went
down after quite a couple of rounds but it were the only points that he
could keep on the table with the exception of a unit gnoblars. The battle
was won solid. No argument there.Most valuable unit(s):
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Stefano's Opponent:
Angelo Verplancke. Army: Vampire Counts. About the opponent: Playing against Angelo felt more like having a good time then battling on the edge of a knife. Angelo, if you want a rematch, then anytime! About the battle: Our armies were quite similar, with the exception of a different bloodline and a fourth wizard instead of my battle standard bearer. Scenery was quite neutral this time, so deployment basically boiled down to the big blocks in the centre, and the fast moving and skirmishing units on the flanks. The first two turns saw quite some unfruitful magical spells, apart from a few magical blasts that took down half my spirit host wounds. The first charge took place on my right flank, where I lured his wolves and bats to charge mine. I tipped the balance in my favor in my turn by throwing the rank-and-file zombies into the fray, immediately clearing this flank. Meanwhile in the centre, I wasn’t able to dispel his “Book of Arkhan”, seeing a big block of skeletons containing his blood dragon vampire charge a skeleton unit of my own including my battle standard bearer. On top of that, he charged a unit dire wolves in the flank. My first impression was “ok, that’s it for me, I’m done”, but my troops performed exceptionally well. So together with the battle standard (being a warbanner) I still kept half my unit after combat resolution. If I wanted to keep it this way, I had to act quickly, so I charged my zombies and my second skeleton unit with strigoï vampire general in both his flanks. The resulting combat now saw his unit halved. Due to his magical upper hand, Angelo managed to reraise quite a lot of his fallen soldiers, and charged in turn his black knights and two units of ghouls in my flanks. Still, all units survived with at least one model standing. Having no auxiliaries in charge range, I couldn’t bring in more power, but fortunately the troops already in combat again performed well, even wounding his vampire. In the mean time, his spirit hosts ran down a unit of my wolves, only to find themselves charged by my black knights. Thanks to their magical wight blades, the spirit hosts were no match. Neither were mine for the repeated magical missiles. And even though my adversary’s 
army was immune to psychology, I used my banshees tactically. Just put two
of them in combat with a unit of wolves, and close to one’s own battle
standard, and they are pinned for the remainder of the game. Going back to
the central fight, Angelo managed to throw in yet another unit of skeletons
in the rear of one of my units, but this wasn’t enough to regain the upper
hand. My last effort by charging my black knights in his rear finally
ripped him off most of his troops due to combat resolution.In the end, almost 75% of our troops were engaged in tis central fight. I’ve never seen such a dense mass of dead and destruction ;o) Counting the points, I won with a massacre. Most valuable unit(s):
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Aftermath by Stefano :
I
went to the tournament with the idea of having a good time and get some precious
ranking points. All my dreams came through for I ended 10th, and I
enjoyed every single battle thanks to my opponents. On top of that my army
ended second for “best painted”, so I left with a smile from ear to ear, driving
to my wife and son to enjoy a nice barbecue with friends. No way a weekend
could start better !
To Kaïo : you owe me Big Time for using my painted and based flagellants and
pistoleers ! I would have been 9th ! … ;o)
To the tournament organizers : it all went smoothly, I hope to come back next year!
Aftermath by Kaïo:
8th place and price! After a great day with three of the best opponents in the Ranking I dare to say I really felt great. And if it hadn't for that minor victory it might even been a place or two higher. Bart, Kris,Leo and of course the Tin Soldiers: thanks guys for a great day of Warhammer! I especially wanna thank Stefano for specially basing and lending me his Flagellants and pistoliers on the last tournaments. I owe you at least 2 points that I will be repaying in 2 beers a point. ;-)
