|
|
By Kaïo and Stefano
Prequel:
(by Kaïo)
The Green Knight Tournament is always good for some extra in playing Warhammer. This year all battles would be fought according scenario's. Some of these clearly demanded another approach then kill everything you come across - a style which seem to be growing within the top of the ranking.
(by Stefano)
Being whipped big time during the Knights of Bayard tournament, I was eager to score some victories again. I always favor tournaments with scenarios, and this time there were four different ones. Keeping these in mind, I expanded my 1500pts army into the required 1999 points maximum, throwing in my grave guards for once (those blokes were collecting tons of dust in my cupboard)
The tables:
Every table had its own fixed scenario. The “fata morgana” scenario had no scenery at all, and the tables for the other three (fog, traitor and ambush) depended. So scenery could have a large impact on the tactics.
The draw of battles:
I was hoping for an easy win in the first round, just to make sure I would do better then on the last tournament. The odds were against me, for I had to play Wim Bergisch, numéro uno of the “Ranking der Nederlanden” at that time. With shaky hands, I started deploying …
Round 1:
|
Scenario:
Fog. All ranges are limited to 12 inch. Stefano's Opponent: Wim Bergisch Army: Vampire counts. About the opponent: Wim is a nice opponent to play against. He makes battles very tactically, which I like! About the battle: The scenario turned out to be “fog”, which limited visibility to 12”. Having no shooting on both sides, this boiled down to a decreased charge range for fast units, and limited range of the “gaze of Nagash”-spell. I opted to deploy my grave guards with general and battle standard on my right flank, with the zombies and skeletons close to the centre to protect its left flank. The bats and a unit of wolves came on the right, just to keep possible flankers away. The Varghulf & black knights team took position on my left, with a unit of wolves more to the centre. In response, Wim put his black knights and general right in front of my grave guard, with a unit of bats on his left. Some wolves and the vampire knights took the centre, with on their right a unit of zombies and grave guard. Two necromancers on horse ended up in the rear just behind some wood, way out of reach. It became quite clear that Wim’s strategy boiled down to “kill the Steven’s general as quickly as possible”. Wim tried to get rid of my faster units on my far right, but in doing so he created a combat that actually blocked his black knights from advancing towards my general with grave guard retinue. The dire wolves (with the help of some successful invocations of nehek) lasted 3 rounds of combat before being killed. In the meantime, my bats locked the black knights for another round by kicking their flank, killing one of the well armored undead. In return, my bats were shoved under the tree carpet in two rounds. By that time, my general and his armored guard charged the remaining bats, destroyed them completely and ended their overrun into the black knights (the best defense is the offense, so they say …) Meanwhile, Wim realized his plan to take my general out early in the game was not working, so he advanced with his blood knights and some wolf units from the centre in order to flank my zombies and skeletons in attempt to crack open my defensive position. Alas, I saw that one coming too, and threw in every unit I could spare to prevent march moves. When the blood knights came too close, I charged my zombies into their front, buying me some more time. All these moves created an opportunity for me, for Wim’s right flank now consisted only of the grave guard unit. Taking advantage of the Varghulf’s vampiric abilities, the behemoth and the black knights smashed into the great weapon wielding grave guards. The ensuing carnage saw the end of multiple enemy infantry models (what did my Varghulf have for breakfast???) both due to hand to hand fights and combat results. The enemy necromancers tried to regain the unit’s strength, but I managed to dispel most of them. The next turn, my Varghulf received an incoming unit of skeletons, and so I lost the combat (seeing the end of some black knights), but finally that could not help the grave guards from disappearing after two more rounds of combat. In the end, the Varghulf’s regeneration took him to the end of the game, but the black knights were killed. Now back to the main fight on my right involving both generals ! The assembled attacks of the grave guard (with hatred), the vampire battle standard (mounted so with lance) and my general (long live the cheep biting blade !) meant the end of several black knights. In return, the remaining armor saves and regeneration (expensive drakenhof banner but very useful indeed !) meant the end of all black knights, leaving Wim’s general all by himself. He tried to decapitate my general before being poofed by combat result, but again the regeneration saved me. The last combat involved the units in the centre, starring five blood knights in the blue corner and thirty zombies in the red corner … alas numbers could not save them. After two rounds of combat, all zombies were flattened. Even a skeleton flank charge could not save them … After the body count and table quarters, it became clear I had scored a nice victory ! Euphoria, euphoria ! (although I felt sorry for Wim, being the cause he could no longer hold on to the 1st place in the ranking). Most valuable unit(s):
|
|
Scenario:
Traitor. One of your own has joined the opponent. Kill him! Kaïo's Opponent: Leo Hertog. Army: Vampire Counts. About the opponent: What can I say. I appreciate Leo very much as a person but as a Warhammer player it seems like he's stalling the game. Probably he doesn't do this intentionally but in almost any tournament battle I've played I've been able to finish within the time foreseen by the organisation. About the battle: All I remember is that we stretched the time table a little so a really important combat could be finished. Minor Victory for me. Most valuable unit(s):
|
Round 2:
|
Scenario:
Ambush. The Defender starts in the middle of the board. The attacker's
unit come randomly onto the terrain. Stefano's Opponent: Alexander Kosters Army: Orcs and Goblins About the opponent: having Alexander as an adversary is always loads of fun ! In addition, every single battle against Alexander draws the attention of many fellow players, for it is hard to keep volumes down when one is having an exciting game … About the battle: The table was dotted with quite some woods, with here and there small impassable terrain and one single hill. The ambush scenario obliged the defender to deploy first in the centre of the battlefield, staying away at least 12” from the table edges. Then the attacker’s units would come randomly into play from the table edges. After the first dice rolls, Alexander ended up as the defender. Alexander opted for a hedgehog strategy : a night goblin unit in the centre of each table side, fast cavalry (wolf riders and spider riders) in the corners, the chariots and characters in the middle, the spear chucka’z on the hill, and all other units like a giant and squig hoppers were spread out evenly. In the end, it was hard to find an unoccupied square inch in the central region … After dice rolls for my units, I ended up with one unit of dire wolves on a short side of the table. All other units were able to enter the other short side, or the long sides. This made it easy to keep my army together. Having the first time to shuffle my army unit per unit onto the table, I opted to have the bats go first. As I expected, this triggered immediately three fanatics. Luckily, I could get the other units onto the table without these ball swingers tearing them down immediately. Finally, the lonely wolf unit did the same trigger action on the other side of the table, miraculously surviving a fanatic going straight through the unit. In fact, the remainder of the wolves kept the following units busy for all the turns we played : a goblin shaman (all spells dispelled), a unit of spider riders (missing their fear test on their charge), a unit of night goblins (rubber arrows), three fanatics (all directions but the wolves), and a unit of wolf riders (loosing on my charge). This helped quite a lot to keep the upper hand on the other side of the table! Meanwhile, Alexander’s giant hit my black knights, smashing some down but taking wounds in return. I tried to get my zombies in the giant’s flank, but I did not succeed in the 3 turns we played. So the ensuing carnage saw several black knights disappear (only to be magically reawakened, but in the end below half unit strength), and a tumbling dead giant. In one corner, the grave guard triggered another 3 fanatics, absorbing them for lunch by deliberately ending on top of them. Long live regeneration and invocation of Nehek, for the unit never went below half unit strength. In the other corner, the skeleton unit with vampiresse saw the last three of twelve fanatics being hurled into the frey. They survived (again with help of the invocation spell). The last two bats targeted a goblin character on chariot, only to find out it was a goblin terrorist in disguise : after some lucky dice rolls they removed all his wounds, at which point the goblin “magically” blew himself to pieces, taking down his own chariot and the remaining bats. I didn’t saw that one coming, but I should have, for this is right into Alexander’s character ;o) Another highlight consisted of my skeletons being charged by squig hoppers, brave enough to win the combat, but too lazy to catch them on the run. The hoppers triggered a panic test on a unit of spear chucka’z, but the latter rallied and took back their war machine. In the last turn we played, the hoppers rallied as well. But the biggest bang (apart from the goblin terrorist of course …) came from my Varghulf. Avoiding all fanatics, he send a unit of night goblins and wolves running due to failed terror tests, captured the former (the wolves ran off the table themselves), bumped into a chariot (which did not survive the rain of attacks), and finally overran 2” short of a spear chucka. In the meantime, he absorbed an immense load of arrows and spears from the chucka’z, so he must have been looking like a real hedgehog. Lucky for me, he still got one wound left thanks to his higher toughness and the regeneration ability. Due to the fact we only played 3 turns (what else to expect from a cargo load of goblin tests like animosity, fear and rally), both sides ended up with similar losses. A draw was a more then fair conclusion of this exciting and sometimes hilarious game. Most valuable unit(s):
|
|
Scenario:
Fog. All ranges are limited to 12 inch. Kaïo's Opponent: Wout Geboers (De Witte Ridder). Army: Vampire Counts. About the opponent: Wout is a young talent of the club in Leopoldsburg. He really knows his army very well but to me he's a little bit to focussed on winning prices. Furthermore he can be a little arrogant which doesn't always make him a nice adversary. A little suggestion from an old bloke: try to make the battle fun for both players! (I'm not saying this because I lost) About the battle: The fog robbed me from my strong points. The two Vampires that are able to charge over 18". A small miscalculation on my part made his blood knights overrun into my general's unit. A nice tactical maneuver on his part made me open the flank of my own blood knights for his black knights. Most valuable unit(s):
|
Round 3:
|
Scenario:
Traitor. One of your own has joined the opponent. Kill him! Stefano's Opponent: Alex Thouet. Army: Chaos Dwarves. About the opponent: First time I played against Alex, we both had a good time with all expected and unexpected events. I respect Alex a lot, for he is the only tournament player I know still playing chaos dwarves … About the battle: The scenery consisted of some woods in the centre. The scenario obliged both players to select one model and hand it over to his opponent. This model represented a traitor with well specified characteristics. One could earn extra points by slaying his traitor. I was facing two units of dwarfs with blunderbusses (which, I heard, could have devastating effects), a unit of minotaur bulls with his general, two wizards, a unit of sneaky gits, and several goblin archer units. Furthermore, there was a big solid unit of dwarf foot troopers with a hero inside. The wizards picked the lore of fire and the lore of metal, so I knew he was going after my heavily armoured troopers. I opted to advance steadily with my infantry in the centre, leaving my right flank only to one unit of wolves, and to position the Varghulf and black knights on my left flank to act as a hammer. The bats remained in reserve. Hoping to break through the sneaky gits and a unit of archers very quickly, my hammer combo advanced at full speed, and broke through the gits and archers to end up threatening the solid unit of chaos dwarfs.. However, Alex managed to inflate a wall of fire just in front of my black knights, and I was not very keen to sacrifice these units voluntarily. Meanwhile in the centre and the right, Alex moved his archers into range, starting to pick my skeleton flank unit as a target. I was glad my magic phases helped me to restore them. The minotaur bull unit charged the grave guard unit frontally, caused numerous high strength hits, but ended up heavily beaten, failed its break test and ran out of my pursuit range. Thank you regeneration on grave guards … and thank myself for putting the traitor in this unit for he regenerated two hits … In my turn, the bats captured the bulls, and landed just in front of an archer unit. They charged instead of shot, and butchered the flyers in two rounds of combat. A charge of my wolves ended in the same way. The grave guard now got in range of the first unit of blunderbuss dwarfs, but to my relief the combination of high toughness and the regeneration ability led to only a few casualties despite salvo after salvo. No worries there, for I was able to bring back to dead (so to speak) with a successful series of invocations of Nehek. Alas one unit of skeletons, the second blunderbuss unit blew them to smithereens. Somewhere halfway the battle, one of the dwarf wizards failed to save the consequences of a miscast. On the left flank, the black knights were still “hiding” behind the wall of fire, giving Alex enough time to reorganize his troopers. By now, the wall of fire was even protecting me from being charged myself ! The blunderbusses doing damage per model, I launched my Varghulf in the front of the second unit of blunderbusses. Again regeneration did its work, and four chaos dwarfs fell to the ground after the first round of combat. They stood their ground, but were slowly butchered in further rounds of combat. By now, my two remaining wolves had a clear charging view on the troops behind the forests in the centre, and bumped into the first wizard they encountered. At the end of combat, the wizard lost a wound, but I still had one wolf standing. At the end of the battle, both traitors were still standing, so no extra points there. I lost half my battle standard (the blunderbusses took their toll after all in the last turn of shooting), a unit of skeletons, one and a half unit of wolves and the bats. Looking at Alex’ losses, the battle ended in a solid victory for me. Most valuable unit(s):
|
|
Scenario:
Traitor. One of your own has joined the opponent. Kill him! Kaïo's Opponent: Wolf Dehulster. Army: Tomb Kings of Khemri. About the opponent: Wolf was a quiet player. I didn't say much but I think that this was one of his first tournaments ever so he might be a little impressed of the situation. Nice opponent though... About the battle: I took a fast start and went for the kill by sending my two hunters out. The flyer charged the casket of Souls with the hierophant while the runner charged 12 archers giving cover to the traitor. I made the error attacking the hierophant rather than the guards. The wounds caused were overturned on the nearby swarms (Collar of Shapesh) while the guards butchered my vampire. The other vampire made short work of the bowmen in a couple of rounds and slew the traitor to. Due my failure to raise new troops the battle ended in a complete butchery where eventually all the vampires died except for the Blood Knights and a Ghoul. On the other side only the Hierophant survived. A draw was a fair result. Most valuable unit(s):
|
Aftermath by Stefano:
Three nice opponents with fun and excitement in every game, what else to expect on a tournament? Oh yeah, victories! ;o)
And how this was mine, for I ended 6th in the tournament ranking. I came with cold hands hoping not to loose too much, and I left with the biggest smile.
I always like scenarios on a tournament, for everybody is good at playing pitched battles. But when I look back at the three battles, only the second was influenced by the scenario. Last but not least, thanks to the organizers. I hope to be back next year!
Aftermath by Kaïo:
Sorry for my opponents but I wasn't able to write this report before end november and I didn't recall very much of the games itself. By the way: should any opponent be offended of what I've written about them, they can always give their remarks to me about it.
