Full Tilt VII

Prequel:

The first tournament in the Ranking season 2009 was of course a must for me. Little time for new models, so the only addition was one vampire pirate captain as one of my messengers. I was aiming for a top-40 place in over 120 contestants, for this tournament is really tough. However, the main objective stays to have a good time!

The draw of battles:

Looking at the list of participating armies, I expected daemons, undead and dark elves. Not for my first battle, for it was obvious I had to play Maarten, who is not only also a member of the same Conectr-club, but also carpooled with me to this tournament. One thing was for sure: he was going for a revenge, but fun would be there no matter what!

Round 1:

Stefano's Opponent: Maarten Vanwesemael (Conectr).
Army: Warriors of Chaos.
About the opponent: I know Maarten for a long time now, and so far it was always fun. I once beat him in a tournament, so I knew he would try to get back at me.
About the battle: Being a recently renewed army, it was the first time I encountered Chaos. I wasn’t able to get into the changes, but Maarten took the time to explain them to me. It really helps to get the fun in the game! Nevertheless, I tend to loose every first time I play a new army.
There was a large grave yard in the centre of the battle field, and we agreed it was difficult terrain. Maarten having mainly cavalry, I deployed my infantry in the vicinity of this yard, hoping it would help me to protect my flanks: in the centre the unit with my general and battle standard bearer, on the left the skeletons with the second vampire, and on the right the zombies. Furthermore, I deployed my black knights in a small wood on my left flank, together with my bats, Varghulf and a unit of wolves. The other wolves took the right flank, just to have something to throw in a flank or keep his fast cavalry at bay. Maarten positioned his two big blocks of chaos knights in the centre, a unit of fast cavalry on each flank, and in the rear a unit of marauders on foot. As characters I saw a tzeench wizard lord, two extra hero wizards and a battle standard.
I went forward with the zombies, mainly to try to lure a unit of knights to charge them. In that vision, the zombie unit swell in numbers in my first two rounds of magic. The skeletons with general and battle standard followed close to them. I tried to occupy the grave yard with the other unit of skeletons, but had to abandon that plan when the tzeench wizard lord on disc appeared on my left flank. This flying blaster proved nigh impossible to charge, sending blast after blast into my Varghulf and black knights, so in order to try to force the flyer into a corner, the skeletons turned to the left. In the end, I was able to charge the wizard with my bats, but alas, they proved too weak to even make a dent.
In the meantime on my right, the wolves took a chance and charged the flanks of his fast cavalry. The cowards opted to run, only to find them fleeing through the unit of marauders on foot, who lost their nerves and ran along. I continued the charge right into the flank of a unit of chaos knights, well in position to launch four attacks onto a wizard. I made one wound, but was then butchered. First points earned! However, the fast cavalry and the marauders rallied, so no more extra points.
The knights eventually picked the bait, and proved to be very efficient in reducing zombies to pulp, for even the swollen ranks were all gone after the first round of combat. I tried to get my general together with his retinue in combat, but it was too late. In the end, Maarten butchered all but the general, the battle standard (who lost his regeneration banner in the first round of enemy magic!), and two units of skeletons. In return, I did not earn much points for destroyed units, but managed to get away with half-points of all three heroes (of which two lost a wound in an irresistible force curse of years, both rolling a six and so one wound!). End verdict: loads of fun with Maarten having his revenge: solid loss for me.
Most valuable unit(s):

Dire wolves for taking a wound from a wizard.
General for getting away with an irresistible curse of years in the last round of magic, wounding two heroes.

Round 2:

Stefano's Opponent: Sebastiaan Follens (Conectr).
Army: Orcs and Goblins.
About the opponent: Sebastiaan is fairly new to the warhammer tournament scene. If it runs in the family, he’ll grow to be tough to play against, just like his brother Alex. I surely enjoyed the game, and I always tend to give newbies the benefit of the doubt …
About the battle: I was facing a massive orcs and goblin army, with several orc infantry and night goblin units, all along with spider riders, a doom diver, some spear chucka’z and a rock lobber. But the orc and two goblin shamans bothered me most.
This time, we had to play the “messenger”-scenario: extra points if messengers could exit the table at the other side. I figured I used two messengers as speed bumps (they are stubborn, have a 4+ ward save and magic resistance 1), and try to score some extra points by running the other two up the flanks. In that respect, I deployed my infantry in a central position, dire wolves and bats on my left and black knights and wolves with the Varghulf on the right. The scenery was a bit in my advantage, for a couple of houses could serve as hiding places or flank protectors.
In the first round of magic, my battle standard bearer was killed right away by some fluffy greenskin magic (I could not block all the spells), so byebye regeneration. However, the first rounds of combat were promising, for I destroyed his spider riders and wolf riders both on the left and right flank. So far so good, for the messengers on the flank were given “the messenger highway 69, a way to get quickly to the other side”. On the left, I managed to increase damage by taking out the rock lobba and the spear chucka with a combined attack from wolves and bats. The latter were now nicely positioned in the greenskin’s rear.
However, in the centre my general missed a crucial stupidity test (I was hoping for a frontal charge to take out his general and orc shaman, but alas …), leaving the accompanying skeleton unit vulnerable to an orc flank charge. I managed to stay alive for three rounds of combat by throwing the zombies in the orc’s flank, but in the end all skeletons were killed. The general disappeared due to combat result (and there I made the crucial mistake to forget the 4+ ward save!!! Really stupid!!! Just like my general by the way …) and the use of a greenskin magic item giving their units a +1 leadership and mine a -1. Result: all units were forced to take 3 crumble tests before the game was over. The death (so to speak) of my general took a great toll, for all wolves, bats and zombies disappeared. Byebye rear-threats …
There was still some positive news from the central right, for one messenger kept a massive unit of orc shoppa’z at bay for about 4 rounds of combat: saving all the wounds, killing some orcs himself, and always passing his breaktests! I think I will take that model as my general next time … The remaining vampire kept his skeleton unit alive and even managed to get rid of a unit of night goblins including a shaman. And both messengers got to the finish, yeehah!
Alas, the last rounds of combat again caused me some serious head ache, for the Varghulf wasn’t even able to make a dent in a unit of spider riders, and in return was butchered by them (where are the successful regeneration rolls when you really really need them ???)
Finally, the extra points for getting messengers across didn’t buy me enough points, so I was facing my second defeat, and this time it was even a crushing …
Most valuable unit(s):

Wolves and bats for creating the “messenger highway 69, the fast track to get across the field”

Round 3:

Stefano's Opponent: Dieter Geboers.
Army: High Elves.
About the opponent: Dieter is an enthusiastic player whose mood follows the ups and downs of the game. I have no problems with that, cause I’m no better ;o). Dieter, always in for a rematch!
About the battle: Inspecting the content of the high elves army, I noticed 1x level 4 wizard and 2x level 2 wizards. Being an undead player counting on some magic, I slightly began to despair. In addition, there were two bolt throwers and two units of bowmen, so I figured I would be blasted and shot to pieces in no time. Fortunately, the unit of silver helms, fast cavalry, dragon princes, a single eagle and a small unit of phoenix guards were less of a threat.
All shooters were placed on top or close to the hill in the opponent’s deployment zone, with the phoenix guard in the centre and the cavalry on both flanks, ending in a refused flank position (no units on my right). I countered with my infantry in the centre, and all faster units on my left flank in opposition to the hill (with the exception of one unit of wolves to threaten the open right flank)
The first round of enemy magic saw quite some infantry models disappear, and my black knights being pinned down (as in fact was the case for 4 turns in a row …). I knew I had to get in combat as soon as possible, so all units advanced forwards. My reraise activities were countered straight away, so I opted to end with a Gaze of Nagash on the silverhelms in an attempt to get rid of the level 4 wizard. To both our surprise, both dices ended with a 6 on top, resulting in a bloody pulp of silverhelms, the only survivor being the wizard himself. Even for an elf this is psychologically too much to cope with, so he took off and ran, ending a few inches from the edge. So far, so good!
Alas, the wizard came to his senses, and more infantry, dire wolves and bats were shot and blasted to oblivion. In the meantime, my Varghulf tried to scare off the fast cavalry, but they must have eaten quite some spicy garlic, for terror test was passed and they stayed nicely out of grip of the behemoth. Leaving them as they were, I ran through some difficult terrain to try to tackle the dragon princes in the rear. Alas, it took me 4 turns to get there … big mistake! I also had to switch position of my two skeleton units, for the unit carrying the flaming banner has no chance whatsoever to beat the dragon princes due to their immunity to flaming attacks. This cost me an extra turn, but in the end my general and retinue clashed into the front of the princes, killing them all in two rounds of combat (and the help of the Varghulf in the last round of combat).
It was when the level 4 wizard joined a bolt thrower crew that my vampire with Talisman of Lycni began to pay off. After an impressive sprint, he clashed into the crew. Slaying them both and taking no casualties in return, the wizard again lost his nerves, running off the board this time. This loss of high elf magical defense resulted in a new unit of zombies to cope with the fast cavalry, and a nice reraise of the fallen comrades.
After a small dispute (where Dieter was right and I was wrong … mea culpa!) I saw my second unit of skeletons charged by the phoenix guard in the front and the fast cavalry in the flank (after they smashed through the zombies like a knife though an overripe banana … ).
The multitude of hard hitting attacks made my skeletons loose the combat, but not hard enough to completely disappear.
In the last rounds, the bats took care of a wizard containing unit of bowmen, while the skeletons were replenished. I was not able to take down the eagle, who bothered me the entire game by denying several march moves. And the remaining bolt thrower eventually took care of the fast running vampire with a single bolt.
Final result: solid win for me.
Most valuable unit(s):

General for casting irresistible Gaze of Nagash, replenishing a lot of undead infantry, and for taking down two dragon princes.
Vampire with Talisman of Lycni for taking down the level 4 wizard and a bolt thrower.

Aftermath by Stefano:

As usual, the Full Tilt tournaments are the starting highlight of the tournament season. Taking part of a tournament of over 120 players not only makes the gamer field quite diverse, it is also a good opportunity make new friends or meet comrades from long ago. Again a big applause to the organizers to keep on going in making Full Tilt such a charismatic tournament!!!

I never have the ambition to end very high up the final ladder, but I was secretly hoping to beat my former Full Tilt results. Alas, with 2 losses in a row, that proved to be too much, ending 76^th. Better luck next year ;o)

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