By Kaio and
Stefano
Prequel:
(By Stefano)
Being
the very first Ranking tournament of the year, and by far the largest of the Low
Lands (Flanders and the Netherlands), and always well organized by the Witte
Ridders, it’s becoming a must for Kaïo and me to take part of Full Tilt in
Leopoldsburg. So no exception in 2008!
I opted to use again my 2000 points strigoï army I used in the last tournament
(December 2007) for two reasons: I felt this list did not get a chance to prove
what it’s worth, and I didn’t finish any additional models for I am focusing my
paining and converting on my lizardmen army.
The tables:
(By Stefano)
As always, the large amount of gaming tables were again covered with a large variety of themed scenery, going from deserts to woodlands, from ogre villages to graveyards. Looking at these settings, all battles would take place in a nice environment…
The draw of battles:
(By Stefano)
I experienced in the past that the first tournaments after a remake of an army, this army is chosen statistically higher then the others. In this context, I was expecting to encounter high elves. The mathematical part of my brain received a large boost when I saw the army of my first opponent was indeed high elves, but the gaming part moaned in despair for I always get beaten when encountering fairly new armies…
Round 1:
| Kaïo's Opponent:
Tom Steylaerts (Tin Soldiers of Antwerp). Army: Ogre Kingdoms. About the opponent: I knew at a really early stage that I would be facing Tom in my first battle and I was really looking forward to it. In the past I've already had lots of fun at the cost of/with Tom and this would be the first time we would be facing each other. I was in for a treat, both in fun and good gaming. Tom, I hope we'll meet again soon... About the battle: As thought it became a tactical battle with Tom trying me to charge a small unit of leadbelchers so I had to overrun and get a solid unit of ironguts in my flank. I didn't take the bait and instead tried to magic and shoot the bait away. On my other flank I tried to get my arch lector in fighting position and my small unit of White Wolves lead by a Warrior Priest charged another unit of Ironguts (he had 4). They lost combat in first round but in the next phase they broke and overran the outnubering Ogres. On my left flank a unit pistoliers had succeeded in running a unit of bulls of the table and turned against one of the gorgers that had been attacking my war machines. In the centre a brave Tyrant decided to charge the Arch Lector only to find himself killed by him.  On the right I used my large unit of
knights as bait and fled with them so a unit of swordsmen could take the
flank of the Ironguts. At the end it was a very tactical an fun battle with
me getting a solid victory.Most valuable unit(s):
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| Stefano's Opponent:
Lars Meeussen. Army: High Elves. About the opponent: Lots of fun and laughter during the battle, so I am really looking forward to encounter Lars again! About the battle: So high elves it were. I spotted only one hero-level wizard and not that much troopers, mostly meaning the fielded troopers are difficult to defeat… I opted to deploy my fast and skirmishing units to counter Lars’ bolt throwers and archers, concentrating the other units to counter his infantry and cavalry. I figured if I could bring down the shooters on his flanks, he had to come to me and I had him encircled. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t counter his cavalry on the flanks, so they took out half my faster units before they could get to their targets. Close combat started in round 2 when one of his cavalry troops revealed a banner for no movement penalty over difficult terrain, and charged my black knights through an interposing fence. On top of that, one of his infantry units proved to be just into charge range, so the black knights didn’t have a chance, leaving my left flank unprotected. On the other flank, his cavalry didn’t go for my nearest zombie unit, but instead went for the main forces in the centre. Sensing a large cenral trap by being attacked in front and two flanks, I fell back with my centre infantry forces. Lars tried to pin me down, but I managed to stay out of flank charges and combat. I know this makes me loo  k like a cowardly chicken, but this was my only hope in cutting
losses for his shooting units started to perform quite well in the last
turns, and bad dice rolls granted only three successful spells in the entire
game. So I didn’t have anything else but to put my hopes again on my
lady-killers. With their screams they managed to get a cavalry unit fleeing
below half points (only to see them rally a few inches from the table edge),
and one infantry unit below half points. After the math, the damage turned
out to be a solid loss. I didn’t care less, for I had a very amusing battle
full of fun and laughter.Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 2: Capture...
For round two 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:
Lars Meeussen (Black Dragons). Army: High Elves. About the opponent: Well, I had talked to Lars before and he seemed a nice and challenging opponent but as Stefano in the first turn, we had our laughs with unusual events and remarks. Truly a pleasure to play against. About the battle: TheHigh Elves Cavalry took the flanks while the infantry surged forward. I made the mistake of moving my War Altar to close to the White Wolves who charged me at an early stage. My Arch lector needed some rounds to get them all out of the way but eventually did it. On my left flank my Knights with great weapons performed excellent against the charging Dragon Princes and eventually got the better of them. The result was that my flagellants got the objective in the deployment zone of the Hgh Elves on the left. On the right I gout beaten the crap out of me as alone the mortar crew was able to hold of an eagle for some round  s in turn not allowing the other
unit of dragon princes to march. At the end Lars captured two objectives and
won solid.Most valuable unit(s):
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| Stefano's Opponent:
Joost van Mill. Army: Vampire counts. About the opponent: Joost is a pleasant adversary who can ask me anytime for a rematch. If I may give him a hint : just take the time to read your unit statistics. About the battle: Undead versus undead is always fun! Once an undead unit gets stuck in combat, there is only one way to get them out again: complete destruction of the opposing unit. To make things even more exciting, it was time to play the “capture”-scenario: three objectives were placed on the table (one central, and one by each player). For undead, this mostly means “get a big unit of infantry on top of an objective, and stay there”. I tried to counter his big hard hitting black knights including a mounted vampire with zombies in the front and dire wolves in the flank, just to keep them busy. On the other flank I countered the spirit hosts with my bats for the same reason. On both sides, the infantry was positioned in the centre, along with most of the characters. A first wave of activities included my bats and a unit of dire wolves being destroyed by the spirit host, leaving my right flank completely defenseless. However, it bought me enough time to bring my black knights from a reserve position into charge range. Having wight blades (and therefore magical weapons), they cut through the spirit host like a knife through butter. Only looking at the casualties, the balance tips in my favor. On the other hand, it kept my black knights out of the big central infantry combats. However, the trick to keep his black knights busy with my other fast, cheap or skirmishing units paid off, for it kept his black knights out of the fray as well. In fact, I had the feeling Joost concentrated more on not loosing them then have them inflict casualties. Once his cavalry stampeded my zombies to pulp, the other units managed to sneak behind them, bringing aid to the central fight. The first infantry fight starred his vampire with skeleton retinue versus my battle standard bearer with retinue. Having the gem of blood and killing blow, my hero accepted the blood dragon vampire. Alas, this was a mistake, leaving my skeletons all by themselves. Fortunately for me, his invocation spells failed, while mine came through. In turn five, I managed to get my dire wolves charge his rear, taking away his rank bonuses and giving me a rear bonus. I quickly got the upper hand, and after turn six only his general was still alive. The second infantry fight took place between his grave guards and my strigoï general with skeleton retinue. I was lucky to get the charge (thank you Book of Arkhan!), and I was even more lucky when my skeleton captain slayed his grave guard captain in a duel… including an extra overkill! (It crossed my mind to promote him to the status of wight lord…) Furthermore, the dice gods were in favor of my strigoï general, and the bonuses for casualties and outnumbering saw the last survivors crumble before   the end of turn six. On the magical front, I must offer to the dice
gods as well, for quite a lot of Joosts spell attempts fell one or two short
from being cast. Final countdown: With the aid of occupying all three
objectives, I scored a solid victory. Most valuable unit(s):
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Round 3:
| Kaïo's Opponent:
Steven Beerten a.k.a. Stefano. Army: Vampire Counts. About the opponent: Never had a more boring opponent in my career as Ranking player. And now serious: I just love playing Stefano and this was the first time we encountered each other on a Ranking tournament. Alas, the first time points were to be earned in a battle between us, Stefano got the better of me. Steven, I definitely want the premiere of your new undead! About the battle: The scenery made me struggle while his flyers and skirmishers just moved through it. My White Wolves made short work of a unit zombies and some dire wolves and earned themselves the name of unit of the tournament. Stefano, the good tactician he is, went for my very bad defended left flank and in doing so avoided my Arch Lector and the knights. I failed to dispel to many spells and him outnumbering and outmanoeuvring me made it impossible to turn the tide, as you can read below in Stefano's part of the ba  ttle.
The result was he broke through and could roll up my rear line earning him
the necessary points to take a minor victory. OK, if I had to loose then it
was better to loose from a nice friend. But I will take my revenge, that's a
promise...Most valuable unit(s):
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| Stefano's Opponent:
Kaj Geenen a.k.a. Kaïo
(Green Knights, Knights of Bayard, The Money Wolves). Army: Empire. About the opponent: Kaj and I already have a long warhammer history together, both being money wolves and regular tournament players. However, this was our first encounter in a Ranking tournament. Furthermore, I was sure to have an amount of fun during the game (Kaj being our webmaster, I have no choice but to make this statement, or he will not publish my contribution to the tournament report … ;o) About the battle: To be honest, I never won with my vampire counts army against his empire for the last few years, so Kaj had the psychological advantage. However, the scenery gave me some hopes again: a big chunk of swamp in the centre of the table, with on both sides a smaller one. Together with me having more units, this was the perfect setup for a refused flank to avoid his hard hitting troops ! I positioned all my skeleton infantry, general, battle standard bearer and black knights in the centre and right flank, only leaving a unit of dire wolves, the zombies and the fell bats as decoy on my left flank. This was my response to his cavalry all being positioned on his right flank, and his infantry troopers in the centre and on his left. The first two turns of movement came down to a merry-go-round between my infantry and his knights and war altar with the big central swamp between them. I just had to make sure his cavalry did not get a chance to charge into my skeletons for that would be the end of my army. This movement brought me closer to his artillery and infantry troops. Kaj’s shooting brought down some models, but not enough to bother me much (I was glad his mortar didn’t do as well as it used to do). In my magic phase, I managed to perform an irresistible “curse of years” on his swordsmen, and in two turns it brought down enough models to get them running off the table, only leaving the detachment on this side of the table. Kaj moved his wizard out of the swordsmen in time so he was not part of the running away, but he did came to his end by a single banshee scream. In the centre, my ghouls plunged into the swamp to threaten Kaj’s centre, and the bats were relocated to attack the cannon. In the next two rounds, the knights of the inner circle smashed my dire wolves and zombies to pulp, leaving my right flank completely undefended. In the centre, his flagellants countered a freshly raised unit of zombies. They nearly broke through, but I was just in time to raise some extra, and to throw the zombies in the flank of the zealots. Being unbreakable, it took me three rounds of combat to slaughter them to the man. This definitely bought Kaj some time to keep my forces at bay, for the flagellants occupied the only passable entry between two swamps. In the vicinity, the bats took care of the cannon, and went straight for the detachment. They proved tougher then expected, so I had to send the nearby banshee to try to scream some of them to oblivion (which she did perfectly). In the meantime, the mortar improved his killing rate on my unit of skeletons containing the general, but due to the absence of his wizard I was able to reraise most of the lost models. I also managed to block most of his prayers and bound spells, although I had to use my only dispel scroll to prevent a magic blast on a banshee. In the final rounds I felt the hot breath of his cavalry nearing on my rear, but I managed ultimately to avoid a charge. In order to do that, I had to sacrifice a banshee and the second unit of dire wolves, leaving his heavy cavalry and war altar unscratched. To scrape as much points as possible, I charged his pistoleers with my black knights. The fast cavalry fled but didn’t rally so ran off the table in the last round. The next target were the handgunners and mortar crew, but the former shot down the incoming bats while the latter turned out to be out of reach. The remaining banshee came to aid, but didn’t succeed in killing the mortar crew. The end result after a battle full of emotions, tension and fun turned out to be a minor victory in my favor. As I promised before the battle in case I managed to s  core a victory, I ran screaming up and down the
hallway. So in case somebody wondered what the hell went into this guy in
red T-shirt screaming and running, well now you know…Most valuable unit(s):
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Aftermath by Stefano :
I had the honor and pleasure to encounter three nice opponents, thanks to them I went home with a smile regardless the outcome of the battle. My smile grew bigger as I found out I ended 40th, again an improvement of the last Full Tilt result. But the real cherry on the cake was the look on Kaj’s face when discovering I actually beat him. This is a rare occasion, so I will cherish the moment forever ! (now let’s hope Kaj is willing to post this report…)
I cannot end this report without thanking the tournament organizers. It went as smoothly and well organized as we expect from a Full Tilt Tournament, but few know the efforts and time one has to put in it to keep it this way. Therefore, thanks to everybody that makes such a day possible!
Aftermath by Kaïo:
Right! Again a fantastic tournament in Leopoldsburg so I can only thank the organisation and my opponents for a fantastic day. I hope to meet all 3 of them again on the battle field soon and am telling the people of 'De Witte Rdder' this: please put me on the player list for next year!
