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By Kaio and
Stefano
Prequel:
(By Kaïo)
After attending War of the Beard
I had promised myself that I would not easily miss this tournament again. The
exceptional atmosphere in the club house of the Tin Soliders of Antwerp is too
good not to go. And of course it is a returned favour to the Tin Soldiers who
always attend the Knights of Bayard tournament with several guys.
The tables:
(By Kaïo)
Playing
2000 points on tables of 48” by 48” is always different. You can concentrate
your troops but still easily cover all edges. You must also take into account
that you will find the scenery making it more difficult to easily move around it
as the gaps aren’t that bid. As on the previous occassions the tables proved to
be a challenge for every tactician…
The draw of battles:
(By Kaïo)
As
always I was curious what opponent I would have to face in the first round. For
other rounds you can imagine by just asking around. And then I saw my opponent
walking upon my table: Lizardmen… Yummie!
Round 1:
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Kaïo's
Opponent: Dies Van den Bosch.
Army:
Lizardmen Sacred host list.
About
the opponent: A nice Dutch bloke who definitely had come for the good
atmosphere on this tournament. No arguments, funny sayings at both sides. A
nice battle without discussion.
About
the battle: actually I ‘templated’ his Saurus blocks. A mortar, a rocket
battery and Pit of Shades made nice casualties in his blocks. My great canon
first shot the general of his Carnosaur and some turns later also killed the
beast itself. The Knights charged the remains of the block on the right and
eventually broke it while my Archlector and a unit flagellants had troubles
getting rid of the block in the middle. The Scar Veteran in the unit was no
problem in the challenge but due to their good armour save the sauri stayed
in the game. Eventually they broke and my Archlector was still able to
charge the last remains of the third block. The veteran in the unit was
chopped down and the combination of impact hits, overkill and rear charge
earned him another banner when also this block fled.
Most
valuable unit(s):
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Stephano's
Opponent:.Sjoerd Schouwstra
Army:
Vampire counts.
About
the opponent: Although Sjoerd being quite new to the warhammer tournament
scene, I had great fun during our battle ! I hope to see more newbies like
him soon.
About
the battle: Vampire counts versus vampire counts with a recent update of the
rules and Sjoerd being new made the both of us travel quite some time
through the new army book. We didn’t get far in turns (just 3), but still we
learned a lot.
But let’s start with the game itself. I tried to fit my old winning army
into the new rules as much as possible, whereas Sjoerd entered some of the
new units like a corpse cart and blood knights. For what I’ve read, the
latter are really a pain in the ass, so I figured the best way to counter
them is to keep them out of the central fray. So when Sjoerd deployed them
on my left flank, I countered them with bats and wolves. On the right flank,
there was a river flowing perpendicular to my deployment zone. Being
ethereal in movement, it was an ideal spot for my black knights. Together
with my varghulf (actually a rebased strigoï monstrosity vampire thanks to
Kaïo), they made an ideal flanking force. All others (infantry and heroes)
were deployed in the centre, trying to avoid as much as possible the swamp
areas that overcrowded my deployment zone. Sjoerd did the same in his
centre, with te corpse cart in reserve.
The first turn included movement and a hell of a magic phase (both having 10
casting dice, 7 dispel dice and some bound items), but no actual fighting
nor heavy losses. During the second and third turn, I managed to get my dire
wolves in the flank of the blood knights, keeping them out of the central
infantry fight for the remainder of the game. Furthermore, the plan to pin
the unit of skeletons with his general with freshly raised zombies in the
rear and two bat units in the flanks failed, resulting in the destruction of
most of the zombies and all the bats. In the centre, two opposing skeleton
units got stuck into combat, both with a vampire character. Not knowing what
to expect, I first sacrificed my skeleton captain to the challenge of his
vampire hero. In the second combat round, my vampire general slay the very
same hero in a second challenge.
A second clash took place again between two skeleton units, but this time my
battle standard bearer was included, and no character on the other side.
Most of the skeletons that fell casualty during combat, were brought back by
magic. In the last round, the black knights managed to get a flank charge on
the very same unit of skeletons, just to see one single tiny flag bearing
skeleton remaining after all combat results were worked out (adding a lot to
the degree of fun and laughter !)
In the end, the varghulf charged the corpse cart in its flank, but both
being experts in regeneration, no points were scored here.
After those three turns, the difference was 297 points in my advantage. And
yes, one single skeleton remaining can make the difference between a draw
and a victory …
Just one last remark to Sjoerd : try to throw less 1’s and 2’s on you
“invocation”-attempts, and you’ll see things will work out better ! ;o)
Most
valuable unit(s):
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Round 2:
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Kaïo's
Opponent: Niek Van de Molen.
Army:
Skaven.
About
the opponent: I can’t say I really enjoyed playing Niek. Not that he’s not
fair or so but if everything isn’t already going to plan for your opponent
you just don’t speak out the wish for a misfire out loud and certainly not
the wish for a one on the misfire table. Actually, it always bothers me when
an opponent does that. Myself I hope for it but you’ll never catch me
expressing ‘the hope’.
About
the battle: If you face 30 jezzails, 2 warplightning canons, 3 ratling guns,
3 warlock engineers and a grey seer you know you aren’t going to see lots of
combat. Actually my flagellants got to an inch of coming in combat. A succes
on itself. My War Altar was shot away at an early stage and all I could do
is try to survive as good as possible. My war machines misfired 9 times,
resulting in only one blowing up in the final round. So much bad luck and
enemy shooting and magic resulted in a massacre for my opponent.
Most
valuable unit(s):
- I earned
some points but I can’t really nominate a valuable unit. Maybe my
misfire result dice for only throwing a single 1 on nine throws…
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Stephano's
Opponent: Maarten Peeters (Conectr)
Army:
High Elves.
About
the opponent: Maarten is a member of the Conectr club, just like me.
However, I never had the opportunity to play against him. I have to make
sure I battle him some more in Aarschot !!!
About
the battle: I was facing high elves including a dragon but with only one
spell caster. The latter made me make my first mistake, thinking the
magical upper hand would ensure me a great victory …
I deployed a block of fast troopers on my left to counter his dragon
princes, and another block on my right to counter the bolt throwers. In the
centre, my infantry units faced the lord on dragon, a unit of seaguard, a
lion chariot and a normal chariot.
Gambling on my magical upper hand, I rushed forward to get into combat as
quick as possible, apart from the left where I tried to trap the dragon
princes with a unit of dire wolves as bait. Unfortunately, the dire wolves
were shot to the wolf, so no bait remained, and my black knights were
charged head-on by the dragon princes. After lances hit home and the
ensuing combat result, one sole black knight remained, but the ensuing
varghulf flank charge caused the elf cavalry to flee off the table (with a
bit of luck all hits were translated into unsaved wounds, and terror did the
rest). On the right flank, the hero on eagle refused to accept the flying
vampire charge, leaving the latter out in the open just in front of the bolt
throwers. In the elf shooting phase, the vampire saw 12 short range bolts
coming his way, but only one bolt passed his toughness and ward save. With
one wound left, he charged the most nearby bolt thrower, impaling both crew
and overrunning off the table.
So far so good ! But then I started to make ugly mistakes. I placed some
dire wolves and bats in charge range of the sea guard (I still don’t know
why I did that …), and the infantry went forward too rapidly, granting the
lord on dragon a free passage into my hinterland. Before I could react
properly with my infantry, the dragon was poking into the rear of my
skeleton infantry including my vampire general. On top of that, the regular
chariot charged the front, and my vampire general was not part of the close
combat models. Not surprisingly, more then half my unit was decimated, and
even with my overwhelming magical upper hand, I didn’t manage to reraise all
lost models. I tried to turn the tide by charging the second skeleton unit
including my battle standard bearer into the flank of the dragon, and
challenging him with my skeleton captain, but still the odds were against
me. Futhermore, I forgot to move my general into a fighting position, so he
was not able to slay the chariot. To add insult to injury, Maarten threw
the sea guard and the lion chariot in the flanks of respectively my first
and second skeleton unit, causing my entire army to vanish due to combat
result (the combination of number of attacks, weapon skill and strength of
the lord and dragon combined made them look like a farmer’s reaping machine
!!!). In the end, my flying vampire tried to score some extra points by
charging the hero on eagle, but that only resulted in the loss of his last
wound. Result : not a single undead trooper left after the 5th
turn. Not surprisingly, I lost with a massacre. If you ask me what went
wrong ? Well, I made an unforgivable mistake, and Maarten cleverly exploited
it to finish me off.
Most
valuable unit(s):
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Round 3:
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Kaïo's
Opponent: Tom ‘Oinky’ Janssens.
Army:
Orcs & Goblins.
About
the opponent: Tom is a nice opponent. One time we had need for a judge but
that was not because we couldn’t agree but rather because we found a gap in
the rules and we wanted an ‘honest opinion’ of a judge. (Note: calling Tom
Steylaerts honest is actually a big-a mistake-a to make-a ;-) ). A rematch
can be organized anytime…
About
the battle: I saw a nice big unit of Savage Orc Boar Boyz in the middle of
his deployment. He covered them from being charged by my War Altar with some
Forest Goblins on Spiders. As his Wolf riders accidentally charged my
flagellants when charging a unit of pistoliers they lost his little scheme
failed. My flagellants won the battle, overrunning the 3 wolfriders and
letting the forest goblins that were within 6” panic. The path was clear as
both my Archlector and the flagellants charged the boars unit with the
general in it. His general moved the challenge of my archlector on to the
champion of the unit which was cut down. Actually the only survivor of the
ensuing battle was the General which fled cowardly. My archlector overran in
a goblin big boss but also received a charge of an Orc unit in his flank
keeping him stuck for the remainder of the battle. My knights cleared out my
right flank destroying squig hoppers and a unit of night goblins and in the
end got stuck with the Orc general who succeeded in killing most of the unit
due to shagga’s screaming sword. On the left flank a unit of flagellants had
destroyed two pump wagons but eventually was destroyed by a chariot and a
unit of Night Goblins. But this speed bump had worked great and eventually I
took home the victory.
Most
valuable unit(s):
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Stephano's
Opponent: Seppe Cannaerts (Witte Ridder)
Army:
Beastmen.
About
the opponent: This was not the first time I encountered Seppe, and I sure
hope it will not be the last ! Always fun guaranteed with this Witte Ridder
!
About
the battle: The main block of Seppe’s army consisted of skirmishing units,
completed with some hounds, chariots and minotaurs. Always having problems
countering skirmishing armies, I deployed my infantry in the centre with the
varghulf in the rear (just to counter eventual herds coming up there), and
the faster units on both flanks. He positioned his minotaurs and chariots
in the centre, flanked by two herds and the hounds. The first kills were
caused by my wolves, eating enough hounds to make them break and being ran
over. The next kills were in great contrast to this : my black knights and
flying vampire weren’t able to make more then one small dent into a block of
four minotaurs, and in return all black knights were smashed to the ground.
As a result, the vampire vanished as well, leaving my right flank completely
undefended. Seeing all herds come up on Seppe’s side of the board, I
quickly maneuvered the varghulf to the flank.
In the centre, my general with skeletons managed to speed through Seppe’s
centre, pushing a beastmen herd in front of them. With all his magical
powers, the general succeeded in taking a wound from the general (and three
other units) with the “wind of undead”, creating a single spirit host one
inch away from the minotaurs on the right flank. The charge of one dire
wolf unit and two bat units into a herd with shaman backfired for the undead
weren’t able to slay more then one herd. Fortunately for me, the last dire
wolf unit charged one chariot in the flank, making the latter flee, straight
through another chariot. This second chariot was then again charged by the
wolves, also fled, and as a result took the general down below their wheels
before being destructed itself. In the last round of combat, the second
unit of skeletons with the battle standard bearer managed to magically
charge the second minotaur unit, and they greatly made up for the unlucky
dice rolls for my black knights, for the minotaur unit was nearly butchered
to the man (so to speak) and quickly overran.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get further then round 4, so that was it. After a
quick count, we ended up with a draw.
Most
valuable unit(s):
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Aftermath by Stefano :
I
had two nice games and still managed to get a 12th place. Not as good
as last year but we’ll have better luck next year.
Call
me a bad loser but a little question for one of my opponents: Niek, you earned
your victory but do you really have fun when playing like this? I really wonder…
Aftermath by Kaïo:
I
enjoyed three nice battles, and I was able to test the new vampire counts rules
and army against three completely different armies. Lot of things learned, and
lot of things to try in following tournaments!
Due
to my own big mistake in the second game, I didn’t get further then 28th
on the tournament ranking list, but this was overcompensated when the judges
called my army the best painted of the tournament!
Last
but not least : thanks to the organization for this nice event! Just one small
remark : the gaming time per round was a bit short to my opinion. I didn’t get
further then round 3 or 4 in two games.
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