18 Jul 2006
Well the Necronomicon has come and gone and now it is time to pleasantly recount the woe and weal of a great weekend of games.
Game 1: Dave P's Beasts of Chaos.
Dave's army was an indimidating mix of several minotaur units, four chariots, and shadow magic. We ended up playing on a table completely dominated by forests, so I was concerned that I wouldn't have the maneuverability to set up some good traps. Luckily my opponent was just as cautious as I was; maybe even a little too much so.
His hesitation to choke up the narrow through-ways between the trees allowed me the leisure to flee and flank pretty easily. He'd test the waters with some chariot and hound charges and I'd retailate with a countercharge. In the end, he conceded in turn four after losing a decent chunk of his army and with my army without a single casualty. It was a bummer that I didn't get to see the big showdown in the middle between his big unit of eight minotaurs and my tyrant's unit of ironguts, but them's the breaks. Win
Game 2: Judith S' Hordes of Chaos
Judith's army was a mix of ultra hard-hitting and ultra fast Slaanesh units. She had some rapturous standard toting chosen knights, as well as a nasty regenerating lord. Since this table was wide open, I was going to enjoy the opportunity to really get creative with my maneuvering.
Unlike my previous opponent, Judith was much more agressive with her movement. She rushed her knights and furies to my lines, and her fiends zipped along briskly. Because she misjudged the charge distance of my units, I was able to pin her furies down and kill them off and overrun into her mounted daemonettes. Of course those monsters were surprisingly nasty, and with a backup charge from her lone-ranging lord, she was able to beat me off.
Elsewhere on the board, her crazy unit of chosen was flanked and destroyed by a giant and gnoblar unit, and her exalted daemon was finally grounded down into gnoblar feed. After that, it was just cleanup work; I sent a couple units to run off the board edge and killed off the spawn. Win
Game 3: Stan Reed's Dwarves
Stan had an unusual dwarf army; the hairy fellows were paired with both a big unit of ogres as well as a unit of pikemen. Unfortunately, he had no runesmiths, so there was no way I could achieve this game's objective.
Wisely, Stan was able to read my refused flank deployment, and boldly marched his block units up to counter it. He positioned himself next to a forest with a unit of march blocking rangers, which meant I was either going to have to take a four round treck around the forest, or charge those fear immune dudes in the front. Sensibly I chose to go around.
Because this manever left one flank of support shooting isolated, I was able to blow by that flank with ease. The other flank was able to repell my ogres nicely with volley after volley of handgun and bolt fire. In the center, I merely tried to force him to declare as many failed charges as possible. Because there was no way for me to march block him, it was the only way to make him move three inches a turn and leave me enough time to flank him. And it worked too, I was finally able to take out his oathstone toting BSB's unit in turn five. Win
Game 4: Alan D's Wood Elves
Dang, assigned to playing a wood elf opponent on a wood elf table. To make up for it, we both poked some fun at his hastily built free forest. That made me feel better. Alan's army was a reasonable mix of stuff one normally sees in a wood elf army. It had wardancers, dryads, waywatchers, glade guard, and a treeman.
Initially, things seemed to be going well for me. I didn't let him get a single spell off, and he positioned his sniper noble in a place where I could charge him. I was also able to garner a huge free pursuit move when one of his glade rider units bounced off a unit of ironguts and ran. I also had a similar position set up with a giant, prepared to run down some dryads. Unfortunately, that's when Alan's secret pact with the devil kicked in. :-P
My ironguts barrelled into a unit of glade guard and did absolutely nothing. Likewise, my giant took an insane number of wounds from a little unit of dryads and was run down. Additionally, a further charge by my tyrant's ironguts resulted in another thrashing on my part. Oh that ached! With my spearhead completely colapsed, I was only delaying the inevitable. Loss
Game 5: Randy A's Empire
Randy's army was a finely tuned empire army replete with cannons, hellblaster, steamtank, and some hard infantry units. The terrain was sparse but had just enough cover to protect my butchers from the occasional cannonball and they both proudly dodged the warmachines all game.
During his deployment, he split his forces into roughly two blocks. One side had two units of swordsmen and some tertiary units. The other was dominated by a big unit of greatswords and the infamous steam tank. I focused mainly on the greatsword/tank flank and let other smaller units try to soften and delay his other blocks, and it worked pretty well. The flank I attacked didn't have the benefit of a general's leadership, so panic spread pretty rapidly among his troops and warmachines. I was able to autobreak his greatswords and claim the BSB as my own.
The martyr award goes to my general this game. He bravely stood by himself in the way of a careening steamtank. And when it hit, it damn near did him in. He had only one wound left. I thought I was in the clear, but two horse attacks resulted in two more wounds on the big guy, penetrating both his hefty toughness and armor. Luckily, I made both wardsaves and did 29 wounds to the steamtank. He then went off to run a knight unit and a wizard off the board, only to be blown to bits by a shockingly accurate volley of grapeshot. Win
Overall, I had a great time. All five games were fun and I had five cordial opponents. I did pretty well too. I walked away with fifth place overall, a perfect painting score, and damn near perfect sports and comp. I didn't do as well as last year, but everyone knows that ogres are a crappy army that just can't win. :-P
Game 1: Dave P's Beasts of Chaos.
Dave's army was an indimidating mix of several minotaur units, four chariots, and shadow magic. We ended up playing on a table completely dominated by forests, so I was concerned that I wouldn't have the maneuverability to set up some good traps. Luckily my opponent was just as cautious as I was; maybe even a little too much so.
His hesitation to choke up the narrow through-ways between the trees allowed me the leisure to flee and flank pretty easily. He'd test the waters with some chariot and hound charges and I'd retailate with a countercharge. In the end, he conceded in turn four after losing a decent chunk of his army and with my army without a single casualty. It was a bummer that I didn't get to see the big showdown in the middle between his big unit of eight minotaurs and my tyrant's unit of ironguts, but them's the breaks. Win
Game 2: Judith S' Hordes of Chaos
Judith's army was a mix of ultra hard-hitting and ultra fast Slaanesh units. She had some rapturous standard toting chosen knights, as well as a nasty regenerating lord. Since this table was wide open, I was going to enjoy the opportunity to really get creative with my maneuvering.
Unlike my previous opponent, Judith was much more agressive with her movement. She rushed her knights and furies to my lines, and her fiends zipped along briskly. Because she misjudged the charge distance of my units, I was able to pin her furies down and kill them off and overrun into her mounted daemonettes. Of course those monsters were surprisingly nasty, and with a backup charge from her lone-ranging lord, she was able to beat me off.
Elsewhere on the board, her crazy unit of chosen was flanked and destroyed by a giant and gnoblar unit, and her exalted daemon was finally grounded down into gnoblar feed. After that, it was just cleanup work; I sent a couple units to run off the board edge and killed off the spawn. Win
Game 3: Stan Reed's Dwarves
Stan had an unusual dwarf army; the hairy fellows were paired with both a big unit of ogres as well as a unit of pikemen. Unfortunately, he had no runesmiths, so there was no way I could achieve this game's objective.
Wisely, Stan was able to read my refused flank deployment, and boldly marched his block units up to counter it. He positioned himself next to a forest with a unit of march blocking rangers, which meant I was either going to have to take a four round treck around the forest, or charge those fear immune dudes in the front. Sensibly I chose to go around.
Because this manever left one flank of support shooting isolated, I was able to blow by that flank with ease. The other flank was able to repell my ogres nicely with volley after volley of handgun and bolt fire. In the center, I merely tried to force him to declare as many failed charges as possible. Because there was no way for me to march block him, it was the only way to make him move three inches a turn and leave me enough time to flank him. And it worked too, I was finally able to take out his oathstone toting BSB's unit in turn five. Win
Game 4: Alan D's Wood Elves
Dang, assigned to playing a wood elf opponent on a wood elf table. To make up for it, we both poked some fun at his hastily built free forest. That made me feel better. Alan's army was a reasonable mix of stuff one normally sees in a wood elf army. It had wardancers, dryads, waywatchers, glade guard, and a treeman.
Initially, things seemed to be going well for me. I didn't let him get a single spell off, and he positioned his sniper noble in a place where I could charge him. I was also able to garner a huge free pursuit move when one of his glade rider units bounced off a unit of ironguts and ran. I also had a similar position set up with a giant, prepared to run down some dryads. Unfortunately, that's when Alan's secret pact with the devil kicked in. :-P
My ironguts barrelled into a unit of glade guard and did absolutely nothing. Likewise, my giant took an insane number of wounds from a little unit of dryads and was run down. Additionally, a further charge by my tyrant's ironguts resulted in another thrashing on my part. Oh that ached! With my spearhead completely colapsed, I was only delaying the inevitable. Loss
Game 5: Randy A's Empire
Randy's army was a finely tuned empire army replete with cannons, hellblaster, steamtank, and some hard infantry units. The terrain was sparse but had just enough cover to protect my butchers from the occasional cannonball and they both proudly dodged the warmachines all game.
During his deployment, he split his forces into roughly two blocks. One side had two units of swordsmen and some tertiary units. The other was dominated by a big unit of greatswords and the infamous steam tank. I focused mainly on the greatsword/tank flank and let other smaller units try to soften and delay his other blocks, and it worked pretty well. The flank I attacked didn't have the benefit of a general's leadership, so panic spread pretty rapidly among his troops and warmachines. I was able to autobreak his greatswords and claim the BSB as my own.
The martyr award goes to my general this game. He bravely stood by himself in the way of a careening steamtank. And when it hit, it damn near did him in. He had only one wound left. I thought I was in the clear, but two horse attacks resulted in two more wounds on the big guy, penetrating both his hefty toughness and armor. Luckily, I made both wardsaves and did 29 wounds to the steamtank. He then went off to run a knight unit and a wizard off the board, only to be blown to bits by a shockingly accurate volley of grapeshot. Win
Overall, I had a great time. All five games were fun and I had five cordial opponents. I did pretty well too. I walked away with fifth place overall, a perfect painting score, and damn near perfect sports and comp. I didn't do as well as last year, but everyone knows that ogres are a crappy army that just can't win. :-P
