By Stefano
Prequel:
To prepare for this last ranking tournament of 2007, Kaj and I agreed to play a test match at my place the evening before, stay overnight and drive together to Roermond. Unfortunate for me, my army was completely and utterly massacred during the test match. Good thing was, it could only go uphill for me, and the company of Kaj made the trip to and from the tournament more then made up for this loss. I also managed to get one new model finished: a converted Wight lord battle standard bearer. I was anxious to get the opinion of other gamers about the conversion and paint job…
The tables:
Ttraditionally the tables are not as wide as a standard gaming table and this always has an impact on the battle, for it makes flanking tactics a little more difficult. Apart from this, the amount and sort of scenery was OK and looked as if it was put together around a theme.
The draw of battles:
The tournament right after the release of a new or renewed army frequently makes players opt for it, for it is full of new options and not known very well by opponents. So I was preparing myself for a high elves army, but it turned out I had to face their darker cousins…
Round 1:
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Opponent: Karel Godet. Army: Dark Elves. About the opponent: During the game there were loads of odd situations not described in the rules, but we always managed to find a way out. This makes already half the fun of the battle, so Karel, I’m in for a next encounter anytime! About the battle: I was facing a rather small army, consisting out of a dragon-mounted lord, a battle standard bearer on cold one in a large cold one unit, loads of shooting and one rank-and-file regiment. I had a lot more units to deploy, so I opted to drop my infantry in the centre first, and my cavalry once he had deployed all his troops including his characters. This paid off, for my black knights together with one unit of dire wolves swept away two units with repeater crossbows and a bolt thrower with frontal and flank charges, while my bats took care of the second bolt thrower. In the centre, his infantry regiment failed a fear test in a crucial phase, giving me the opportunity to charge in with my ghouls and slaying the wizard which hid in their ranks. Furthermore, I saw my skeleton regiments including my battle standard bearer and strigoï general charged in the front by the cold one unit and in the flank by the lord-on-dragon. I managed to stay in the game by slaying my opponent’s battle standard bearer and the dragon (the latter in a challenge with my strigoï general), but I had to focus my magic phases on re-raising the fallen skeletons to stay in the game. All went well and I was heading for a victory, until the dark  elf lord (already
without dragon) planted a killing blow struck into the heart of my general
with the last swing of the game. I could not fall back on “regeneration” in
this case, and I missed my ward save. Needless to say a lot of my troopers
fell apart in the ensuing “crumble tests”. This very last bit of the game
grabbed victory back out of my hands, and we ended in a draw. Altogether
a fair result for a nice game !Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 2:
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Opponent:
Jef Verhaert (De Witte Ridder). Army: Dwarfs. About the opponent: I encountered Jef for the second time this year, assuring me immediately a fun battle. It gave me also an opportunity to revenge my solid loss in Aarschot, but to get there I needed to crack a tough dwarf nut… About the battle: I faced three artillery pieces, a unit of quarrelers and three big infantry chunks. Recalling my former meetings with dwarfs, I decided to play a refused flank, hereby “abusing” the inherent slowness of the dwarfs. The terrain game me an advantage here, for there were two difficult ground hills in the centre of the battlefield. Furthermore, the artillery was my first objective in order to keep my units from being shot to smithereens. While keeping my black knights in reserve, I managed to get rid of two pieces of artillery with my bats (granting them the nickname of “dwarf crows”), and Jef was so kind to blow up the last one himself. Meanwhile, the dwarf army marched forward and I had to go in combat to avoid being charged. In the middle, I figured a large unit of zombies together with my black knights and a unit of ghouls could stop one advancing regiment, but I was mistaken big time. I managed to kill one hero and two or three dwarfs, and in return seeing my ghouls flee, and my black knights and zombies crumble in three close combat rounds. On my left flank, I was ready to charge the dwarf lord and his retinue with my general, my battle standard bearer and two units of skeletons, when the ghouls fled just in front of the target. Failed charge, and getting charged in the next turn. I was not worried for my general would make the difference, only  to find out his lord placed three hits, resulting
in three wounds, all passing the ward save, and all passing the
regeneration. General slain, so again game over for me. The battle standard
bearer managed to get rid of some dwarfs, still granting me the combat
result, but not enough to break the lord and his fellows. What was heading
for a draw, turned out to be a solid loss after the last combat phase of the
game.Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 3:
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Opponent:
Reinout Hubbens. Army: Wood Elves. About the opponent: Reinout is a nice guy without big discussions about the rules, and I still need him an apology for my silent behavior (which had nothing to do with him, but with a headache that cultivated through the day, climaxing during the last battle). About the battle: Reinout brought to the table a large number of forest spirits together with some shooty regiments. As my army has the fear-card as one of its aces, it is intrinsically difficult to fight armies with large numbers immune to psychology. Lucky for me, Reinout was as afraid of my army as I was of his, which reflected in a game of hide-and-seek around the forests, and probing the other ones intentions. In fact, I like this kind of tactical approach in a battle, rather then rushing forward and battering the hell out of your opponent (which tactic I never succeeded in with my undead). Back to the details now ! All the wood elf spell casters had “tree singing”, and no offensive spells, so there was a lot of forest-shuffling during Reinout’s magic phases. Most of them I allowed, for it brought parts of his army closer to me rather then a whole. As my banshees are quite useless against spirit hosts, I made a bat screen in front of my two banshees to absorb magical shooting and chargers, and sent them off for character hunting. I managed to kill a ridden hero and the spell caster in real kamikaze-style, for after accomplishing this task, they were battered down by an overload of tree kin and dryads, and the bats also saw an end at the receiving end of numerous pointy arrows. On my right, I tried to fend off the war dancers with a unit of dire wolves, but they turned out to be no match. I tried to bring in the ghouls, but Reinout countered them with an arrow volley from a unit of way watchers, and my poisonous troops decided to flee. So I had no other option left to secure my flank then to expand my regiment of zombies to over 40 models. Apparently that was enough for they resisted all attacks made on that flank. On my left, the black knights were playing hide-and-seek with Reinout’s regiment of forest spirit horsemen, and both units did it excellently, resulting in no combat at all. Finally in the centre his tree man general came threatening close. Looking at the description of the “drain life” spell for Rudolf (one of my necromancers), I noticed “no armor saves allowed”. Combined with “spirit forests no ward save against magical attacks”, 
I found this spell excellently suited to cope with this wooden monster. I
actually managed to cast the spell twice, and rolling two times a six to
wound, but unfortunately that was not enough to claim half the points. Due
to our chosen tactics, no big combats were fought, so adding up all the
points for units and table quarters, we ended in a draw, which represented
excellently well the way the battle was fought.Most valuable unit(s):
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Aftermath by Stefano:
I had fun for all three battles because of interesting and funny opponents, and plenty of unexpected events (like my general being slain twice). The only drawbacks were the mentioned head-ache, and the rather crowded gaming rooms. The latter also had a tactical result, for the gaming tables were smaller then usual. However, I want to thank the organizers for taking into account my request for a warm spot for the second battle, for otherwise I would have returned home even sicker. And last but not least, I experienced a nice ego-boost when people from other clubs grabbed for their cell phones with camera to take pictures of my Wight lord battle standard bearer…
Altogether, I was quite happy with my 20th place, reducing further my ranking points. Due to the excellent tournament results of the combined Saes-family, I ended up 15th on the ranking list of the “Nederlanden”. Not bad for a regularly-making-bad-decisions-amateur like me! I experienced a successful 2007 ranking year with meeting new gamers, and again winning some painting prices. I hope I can extend that to 2008! Let’s get ready for the next Full Tilt tournament!
Small note of Kaïo:
Right after battle one I received a phone call from the home front. I really got some bad news but due to the fact that I had taken a ride from Stefano, I decided to stay in the tournament. Otherwise I would have forfeited the games. Alas, my head was not really focused on the remaining games anymore and so I didn't remember much of the games anymore. I apologize to my two last opponents and our readers. At Full Tilt I'm hoping to play without worries and write an excellent report on the tournament!
