Ogres......

nice reports

but if your have full command then your characters had to go to the second rank, won't it limits their attack to 3??

so if you want your double tyrants to fight you need to run it 5 wide??

Characters can make way and replace command models... if they want. Gives HUGE flexibility to how the characters fight.

Cheers... after Maul I'll be at 'No Holes Barred' and 'Winter Incursion' at Maelstrom... Ogres should be going to all of them (just finished assembling the Mournfangs and Thundertusk).

and I'll be seeing you at both with my own ogres!

are you finding writing 2000 points of filth difficult?  (I am).

Characters can make way and replace command models... if they want. Gives HUGE flexibility to how the characters fight.

mind telling me which page in the rulebook/army book said that you can? I can't find it.

Characters can make way and replace command models... if they want. Gives HUGE flexibility to how the characters fight.

mind telling me which page in the rulebook/army book said that you can? I can't find it.

It's in the BRB p.100 make way!

What he said...

now No Holes list...

Slaughtermaster: Level 4 (Maw), Hellheart, Sword of Anti Heros, Other Tricksters Shard, Ironfist, Dragonbane Gem
Bruiser: BSB, Crown of Command, Great Weapon
Bruiser: Heavy Armour, Rock Eye, Dragonhelm, Fencers Blades
Bruiser: Talisman of Preservation, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon
10 Ironguts: Dragonhide Banner, FC - Look Out
10 Gnoblars   
10 Gnoblars   
2 Mournfang: Heavy Armour, Ironfist
Sabretusk   
Sabretusk   
Sabretusk   
Ironblaster   
Ironblaster   

To be 'origonal', it's all about the deathstar... + chaf and guns to ensure the star gets where it wants to be. Characters all in Guts - which will be 3-4 wide usually and who will 'make-way' will often depend if Regen is in play or not.

Not the same level of 'filth' some of the other books can achieve (I'm thinking of you Skaven), but not bad. Ld 8 and magic defense are a worry, but I'm hoping the hellheart should take the 'edge' off.

OK I started a report for no holes, but it was really dull. Deathstar worked, or Deathstar died... either way not very tactical. I won't be using 'proper' deathstars again.


Anyway. I did go to another event:


Winter Incursion

My next event is Winter Incursion, this weekend. Pretty standard comp at 2,400.

My List is as below:

Tyrant: (General), Heavy Armour, Tricksters Helm, Talisman of Protection (4+), Great Weapon
Bruiser: BSB - Look out, Armour of Destiny, Great Weapon
Butcher: Level 2, Fencers Blades, Staff of Solidarity
Firebelly: Level 2, Extra Weapon, Dragonbane Gem, Potion of Strength, Dispel scroll
8 Ironguts: Dragonhide Banner, FC
6 Ogres: Ironfist, Std, Musc, Look Out
2 Mournfang: Heavy Armour, Ironfist
2 Mournfang: Heavy Armour, Ironfist
3 Maneaters: 1 x Great Weapon, 2 x Hand Weapon, Scout, Stubborn
Sabretusk
Sabretusk
Sabretusk
Ironblaster
Ironblaster

Bit of everything really, small Deathstar + support units and twin-cannons.

Winter Incursion – Day 1


Game 1
Beasts
The event was open list, and the draw made a few days before the event, so I had time to review what I would be facing… Beasts. I was feeling confident until I looked at his magic. The list was:

Level 4 – Death, 4+ ward, Crown of Command
Beast Lord – Fencers Blades, 4+ ward
Wargor BSB – Beast Banner
Level 2 – Beast, Herdstone
Level 1 – Shadow, Scroll
Level 1 - Shadow
39 Gor – ehw, FC
39 Gor – ehw, FC
20 Gor – musc
3 x Razorgor chariot
2 x 5 Harpies

As I thought, he had level 4, lord and BSB in one unit, the 2 shadow hiding around the herdstone (comp meant it was capped at +2 extra dice), and Best in other gor.

For spells it was double miasma, wildform and transformation (he had a mountain chimera model – just in case), the level 4 got purple sun and some other stuff… none of the other spells mattered really it was double miasma and purple sun that had my full attention.

The game was set to be very interesting… I felt I clearly outmatched him, (although the prospect of str 5 gor was ‘concerning’) but purple sun could win him the game.

In deployment we generally faced off central/to my left. He had however left a gap on the extreme left corner that my Maneaters could squeeze into…. I knew this meant he was in a lot of trouble. He had to turn to face them with one of the gor units, meaning all my Ogres would be against 1 horde, and not 2.

He went first and moved up a bit… and as expected turned the gor around. I think he was ‘inexperienced’ as he had his 3 chariots 1” apart coming together on my right…. So my Ironblasters (deployed at each side of the board) could move to the side shoot through all 3.

Before that at over 20 inches he cast purple sun towards my Bulls/Ironblaster. He 6-6 it, but only rolled a 2 so the purple sun sat in the middle of the table. The miscast meant he forgot the spell – at that point I was extremely confident of a win.

Ironblasters fired… and 1 misfired, the other ‘only’ hit 1 of the 3 chariots. But it still died J.

The game continued with my firebellies ‘Flame Cage’ meaning the gor horde couldn’t move whilst the Maneaters hid in the corner…. The gor eventually charged and killed them (not before the maneaters exacted a ‘toll’ on the unit), but the delays meant they were out of the game until turn 5/6.

My Ironblastes spent a few turns shooting chariots… they died… Mournfang chased harpies. After dealing with the chariots, I had an amazing infilading shot on the Gor horde. The mage bunker was under pressure so the brays had bailed, meaning 5 characters were in the front rank.. a big bounce so 5 look-out sirs from the cannon. The BSB failed and died. Str 3 gor were not so scary.

Meanwhile the purple sun kept moving towards my Ogres, meaning they couldn’t get in the game (I never had spare dice to get rid of it), and eventually it killed a few bulls before moving off.

While all that was happening the ‘Deathstar’ ran at his, and then failed to charge – twice (needing a 6 – rolled 2, needing a 4, rolled 3 (Sabres had stopped him backing off or charging me in return – nice kitty).

Running out of time I finally charged turn 5 and the world ended – for him.

The final action was my ironblaster charging the flank of the other horde to stop them getting my guts turn 6. He won, they held. He then cast Transformation…. A double 6 meant the ironblaster was dead – until he exploded on the miscast (aw shame!!!) – there were visions of the Shaman getting bigger, and bigger until he popped.

So what could have been a very tricky game, was a bit of a stroll in the end (despite some stupid failed charges).



Game 2
High Elves

So after facing the Purple sun I got the other ‘nemisis of the Ogres’… shadow magic (and a book of Hoeth – just for fun).

My opponents army was:

Level 4 – Shadow, Bk of Hoeth
Level 2 – High, Seer (Curse of Arrows + Shield)
BSB – Armour of Caledor, Guardian Pheonix, Gt Weapon
20 Spears: FC
20 Spears: FC
18 Archers: Flaming Banner
14 Archers
20 Pheonix Guard: FC, Banner of Sorcery
3 x 5 Ellyrion Reavers
3 x RBT

So.. I was going to be Miasma’d/Pitted and withered and shot – before finally being mindrazored to death. I was not confident (although if by some miracle the magic failed I would smash him up without really trying).

To minimise the pit, and as he had no ‘real’ combat threats I deployed in ‘lines’. He then went first.

My left was Ironblaster, Mournfang and 2 Sabres vs 2x Reavers, RBT and 14 Archers. He vanguarded and then ran past me with the reavers. I had a ‘comedy charge with a Sabre vs some reavers, but he failed… but the Cats and Blaster ignored them to advance to the squishy Elves (with the Blaster putting 1 wound on a RBT).

The Reavers then had to sacrifice themselves to stop the Mournfang charging turn 2, whilst the others were charged by the blaster… they fled but a cunningly positioned Sabre charged from the opposite direction meaning they were easily caught.


On the right I had 2 mournfang vs 2 Spears and 5 Reavers. The Mournfang ran up and were blocked by Reavers who had to die. I was then charged by 20 Spears… and the Mournfang (just 2 remember) chewed them up and spat them out over a few rounds.

So in the Centre I had Guts with Characters deployed 12 wide, and Bulls 6 wide with Blaster, Sabre and Maneaters behind. They were against 18 archers + lvl 4, 2 RBTs, 20 Pheonix guard+BSB and 20 spears.

I was taking a lot of damage from shooting, but he failed to concentrate properly and the magic failed him a bit (he cast withering, but ‘only’ knocked my Toughness down by 1, and miasma dropped my movement by 1 as well)… and the pit missed.

Turn 2 he did something very unexpected… he pushed up with the Pheonix Guard. He comfortably had another round of shooting to ‘thin me down’ before I charged (giving him 3 rounds total), but by pushing up he had limited himself to just 2. I think he was conscious that I was still in a line, and fancied his chanes better than if I formed up before charging… I think he was very wrong – especially when he didn’t even attempt to mindrazor them up.

He did shoot me some more, but the magic wasn’t great. So I charged the Pheonix Guard. The charge was underwhelming, with some poor rolls and good wards. I won, but he easily held on steadfast. I did a combat reform with the Tyrant on the corner with WS10 butcher behind (ready for spears in the flank). The firebelly was stuck fighting the BSB (due to the nicer standard I assumed was the BSB being a unit standard I had got my positioning wrong).

The Spears charged (only 14 though as they had ran through a venom thicket), and were irresistibly mindrazored .

10 str 8 attacks onto the tyrant. 8 hits… with 2 1’s to wound. 2 more 1’s to wound so only 4 stuck. A couple of wards and the Tyrant only lost 2 wounds… what a guy.

The 4 attacks onto the WS 10 butcher did 2 wounds as well. I smacked them back leaving only 7 spears for the next round (and killed a few more phoenix guard… but he won the round by 1, and I held.

My turn the Mournfang on my left who had a charge onto the archers+level 2 changed direction and charged the rear of the spears instead, with the maneaters into the side. The Impacts left him with just 2 spears who didn’t do much – the Pheonix guard (only 3 left) then broke and died.

Meanwhile the Ogres (Bulls) had been getting shot… a lot. Ironblasters had killed 2 of the RBTS and the Sabre ran through and killed the last. My remaining bull champion had a charge on the level 4, but didn’t fancy the stand and fire + asf attacks, so hid behind a hill.

After the combat reforms from the loss of the Pheonix guard my tried an irristable pit on the Guts (3 characters -pheonix guard had killed the firebelly, and the standard was all that was left on the unit), and missed.

He conceded turn 4.


So, 2 very bad match ups for the Ogres (well, potentially bad magic phases anyway) and 2 massive wins for the fat lads. Last game of day 1 was vs ‘the real’ Ben Diesel – see internet for lots of ‘chuck-norris’ style comments.




Game 3
Ogres

So Ogre on Ogre action on table 1… lets roll.

My opponent had:

Slaughtermaster: Scroll, 4+ Ward, Magic sword (can’t remember which one)
Bruiser: BSB, Biting Blade, Enchanted Shield, Crown of Command
Firebelly : Level 1, Hellheart
9 Ironguts, Std of discipline
3 x 12 Gnoblar Trappers
5 Mournfang – Std, Musc, Dragonhide
4 Mournfang – Std, Musc
2 x Ironblaster

I was confident. He had more magic, but my characters were MUCH better in combat… and the Tyrant = win vs mournfang. Most importantly he was lacking in sabretusks.

That said I thought the key would be the ‘Ironblaster-off’.

Ben had deployed with 2 units of Gnoblars on the left along with an Ironblaster around a building/wall. Opposite this I had 2 Mournfang, and the Maneaters were as close as possible to the Ironblaster.

On the right side were the third Gnoblars, other Ironblaster and 5 Mournfang. Opposite these were 2 Sabres and 2 Ironblasters… In this way I felt I had definitely outdeployed him. My Ironblasters were out of ‘maximum range’ (ie 62”) from his Ironblaster on the left – meaning I could go 2-1 on his Ironblaster and then shoot the Mournfang – who would be delayed by the Sabres.

In the Middle It was Deathstar on Deathstar with him having Mourngfang vs my Bulls and Sabre.


I got first turn and shot and killed his Ironblaster on the right side. They they missed, misfired, failed to wound and generally didn’t kill the mournfang. They did kill 4-5 guts though. The Mounrnfang ‘caught’ one of the Ironblasters right in the corner (after eating a sabre - the other had ran into the middle to block the Guts), but the other got away.


On the left the Maneaters ran behind the wall near the other Ironblaster. He shot and missed them. They charged and he stood and fired. My initial reaction was WTF!! Whilst I agree it is ‘legal’ I am sure it is going to FAQ’d as not allowed, and thought it was for this event. Apparently not. Anyway, the stand and fire killed the wall. The Ogres killed the Ironblaster (and Gnoblars ran away in panic).


In the Middle he ran at me, with the guts slightly ahead. They got a Sabre, and the Tyrant left the star and stood in front of the 4 mournfang. The BSB joined him and stood behind. They charged, they did nothing, but held due to some poor attacks from the Tyrant… My Mournfang came in the flank and the remaning one ran away. I failed to catch him and when he rallied the single mournfang killed my mournfang (who charged him) and then combat reformed and killed the maneaters…. Damn!! (he died turn 6 though vs my Ogre Bulls).

After breaking the Mournfang the Tyrant/BSB combat reformed and (along with the Guts) charged his Ironguts (wary of the Hellheart the Bruiser had bailed). I smashed them up in 2 rounds and then want for the 5 MOurnfang who were in the corned behind a building.

Tyrant+Firebelly went one way, The Ogres and BSB went the Other (I only had 4 wounds left on the guts so they hid) whilst the Ironblaster acted as charge bait. They didn’t take it, but marched along the backline… the Tyrant charged their flank and broke them… what a guy.



So 3 games, 3 BIG wins, and I was the overnight leader. The draw showed I was playing Jack Armstrong with Lizards first thing on Sunday… another ‘easy’ game then.

Awesome! Tell Ben Diesel to get off our bandwagon and go back to playing with his druchii dollies ...

Loved your bat reps, I have a question tho. I have yet to play my first game with ogres this ED so im pretty new, still learning the rules. Your the first person who I have seen win with a Tyrant, what makes him so impressive  that you take him and a lvl 4 in the same list?

Ok, finally got around to writing the rest....

Winter Incursion – Day 2


Game 4
Lizards

Jack is one of the best Lizardman players in the world… and had a very good list (for Ogre killing anyway). He had also brought along his missus to act as mascot… can’t believe she watched him play warhammer all day – could NEVER imagine my missus doing that. Anyway, he had:

Slann (General) – Fire, Focussed Rumination, Dispel Scroll
Slann – Metal, Soul of Stone, BSB
Skink Priest – Level 1, Cube of Darkness
Scar Vet: Cold One, Light Armour, Charmed Shield, Dawnstone, Sword of Might
Scar Vet: cold One, Light armour, Great Weapon, Dragonhelm, Amulet of Itzl
7 (yes 7) x 10 Skink Cohort – Musc
3 x 10 Blowpipe skirmishers
9 Chemelons
2 x 3 Terradons
2 Salamanders
1 Salamander
2 Razordons
1 Razordon

That is a ‘whole lotta shit’. I figured my best/only chance to get points would be to cannon the Slann… they would sit in cohorts so I would be requiring a big fireball, or failed look-out to get them.

Meanwhile the #1 rule is don’t let them get behind you. Vs this kind of army if it gets to your side/rear you’re dead. As such the ‘only’ way to beat it is to play “on the arc. This means I would deploy on one half of the table and on the edge run up whilst turning in the middle… you (hopefully) end up shepherding his units across the table and into a corner, and possibly trapping some units.

The board had 1 buildings in his corner on the left (I had one in mine on the right). I didn’t want him hiding behind it at the end of the game so I deployed on the left side of the board:
Mournfang, Mournfang, Guts in line (12-wide), Bulls Angled at a diagonal. The Mournfang went behind the Bulls and the Ironblasters and Sabres ‘behind the line’.

The ‘behind the line’ units are VERY important… even played perfectly gaps always appear in the line. Behind these gaps these units waited to kill anything that ran through to try and get behind me.

He had the Metal-Slann behind the Building on my left along with the 2 Scar Vets. The Priest and 4 units (2 skirmish) were also on this side (slann used the priest to target his missiles).

The General Slann was on the right side/Centre with all the other stuff.

Turn 1
He went first, and Irresistibly Searing Doomed one of the Mournfang units… my chance of victory greatly decreased with this (the Mournfang was the only thing I had that can run ‘amonst’ the skinks and take ‘limited’ damage). Fortunately the miscast meant the Slann lost 3 levels (he chose not to reroll this – scared of a cascade I think), meaning he only had the Golden hounds left…

His army generally spread over the table with units flee lines and distances between units very precisely set out (fortunately Jack is good enough to do this, and do it right very quickly)… I couldn’t imagine how long it would have taken a less experienced general to get this right.

My turn I declined the offered charge into a Salamander with the Guts and Instead wheeled/advanced 12”, The Mournfang ran down the flank and Ironblasters started to spread (to allow them to get an angle behind the building later on).

I did a BIG irresistible fireball into the Fire-Slanns cohort… and 3d6 str 4, vs T 2 killed 4… gutted. Misfire put a wound on Firebelly. I shot 2 skinks with the first Ironblaster – leaving 4 and no look out sir for the Slann….the second Ironblaster misfired.

My Bulls charged the Chameleons who only fled 4”… Jacks units were 5” away (to allow the Chameleons to ‘pop through’), meaning when they rallied they were blocking his other units.

Turn 2
Skinks blocked me off and a number of units moved up and shot me… again in quite precise lines. He could have got one unit through the line but the 3 sabres would have taken them out, so they hid in a building instead. I used my scroll and stopped the magic phase, and took a little damage from shooting.

My turn and the remaining Mournfang killed a cohort and after smashing them up combat reformed to face the Slann behind the building. I made a few charges with the Ogres/Guts and lizards fled (again into perfect positions). The maneaters stayed just over 19” from the Terradons to stop any rock-dropping-shenannigans.

I (again) irresistibly cast a Fireball and this time killed enough skinks to leave the Slann vulnerable - the Slann (surprisingly) failed a panic check meaning he was stuck with 3 skinks and I would get 2 rounds of shooting, with no look out sir available vs the Slann.

I eagerly double shot the Slann… Cannon 1 – misfire, Cannon 2 Jack passed the Slanns 4+ ward… next time, next time.

Turn 3
I was again blocked off, shot whilst those units that fled last time rallied…. But I was (slowly) advancing across the table on the ‘arc’.

The Mournfang pointing at the metal Slann were blocked by scar Vets, but when he killed one with (another) irrisistable golden hounds (miscast meant he was now lvl 0) the remaining cat could ‘just’ charge through to the Slann.

A cohort moved behind the guts, facing 3 sabres. They shot 1, and in my turn when

His other Slann rallied, and I got shot again – with all 3 Ogre units going down by about 2 models by this point (Maneater was going solo).

In my turn I charged the Slann, who fled, with the single Mournfang with 1 wheel, and the angle of the flee I was unable to catch the fat frog, so redirected into a Scar Veteren. I moved most of my characters out of the Guts to try and put pressure on the fleeing Slann, although there were easy enough Skinks around to block up any charges, and shoot any vulnerable characters (ie the firebelly).

I did some more charges, resulting in more flees (and 1-2 failed panics as the skinks fled though with no General or BSB bubble)

My shooting had 2 Ironblasters, and 2 Slann. I could get both… Cannon 1 – misfire (again), meaning no dead Slann and the spin meant it left a large hole in the ‘arc’. Cannon 2 hit, no look out-sir still, wound… failed ward = 1 wound. Doh!!! 4 cannons into a Slann with no look out sir for a single wound. I always said Warhammer was a game of skill.

I felt my chance had gone, but the BSB Slann was still under a lot of pressure.

Turn 4
BSB Slann and some other units rallied, I got shot a bit… Mournfang vs Scar Vet was a bit of a dud, with both being a bit rubbish at killing…. Although both had 1 wound.

His second Scar Vet ran past the Tyrant to go get an Ironblaster.

With my characters putting pressure of the Slann the BSB got shot… 10 skinks = Dead BSB… I was gutted – T5, 5+ save, 4+ ward!! Also meant there was a gap in the net of units trying to trap the Slann.

The Tyrant moved around to threaten the Slann, and Ironguts and Bulls chased away a few skinks (again)… although Jacks cleaver fleeing channels meant I never got any points for all these flee-ers… by this point almost every model in Jacks army had fled at some point… but I had virtually no VPs.

The Maneater moved 12” away to try and save himself… on reflection a fruitless task.

The Ironblaster under threat from Scar Vet fired grape shot (he still had Itzl ward to remove). 2 shots, 1 Itzl ward = no wounds. But after game 3 I knew I had stand and fire… I did, and the Vet died. Shortly after the event the Ogre FaQ came out and this was indeed stopped… it really was very filthy doing a stand and shoot with a cannon-ball.

My single wound mournfang killed the Scar vet… and faced some skinks.

Turn 5
Fleeing skinks rallied, the Bulls were picked on some more, and died as did the last maneater and mournfang. Skinks blocked up the Tyrant and Guts… it wasn’t looking good.

I still had a chance to get the BSB Slann… Tyrant charged the skinks blocking him. A combat reform would mean the Slann had little chance of escape… he won, skinks fled – trying to restrain persuit I rolled 11… with the BSB dead the Tyrant ran past the Slann. Doh!!!! (again).

My Ironguts (now only 4 with Firebelly) tried to chase away some more skinks, but caught them… leaving the guts in the middle of 7-8 units – oh bugger. It did put pressure on the ‘general’ Slann… but I wasn’t that hopeful of surviving.

My Ironblaster tried again to shoot a Slann… look out sir meant a couple of dead skinks though.


Turn 6
Ironguts got shot… a lot. If the Firebelly died he would get the Slanns unit though (4 str 7 attacks, impact, stomp… I was hopeful)…. But they all died… (thanks largely to 14 wounds… no saves) and 2 units didn’t even get to fire.

My Tyrant looked silly as the Slann stood behind him (joining the last skink unit on my left).

My turn I shot the general Slann… who failed a look out sir, but passed his ward.



So…

A very tight game, and one I had the opportunities to win but, as expected, Jack played it very well and ended up with a convincing win. In case it wasn’t obvious I actually ended up killing more units than Jack did (despite only having 2 Ironblasters and the Butcher and Tyrant left), but his units I killed were only worth about 600 pts.



Game 5
Daemons

Despite losing the last game I was still on table 3… and got to play Nick Pym and his Daemons. I was a little apprehensive as last time we played I felt he had some ‘timekeeping’ issues, and had told him exactly how I felt during and after the game (one of my rules in life is to try and never say things behind peoples back – or on the net, you wouldn’t say to their face).

Nick is playing for England in ETC 2012, and told me he had been told to sort out his time management… and generally the game went smoothly (despite the weirdness of turn 5… read on for details).


Anyway, Nick had a Bloodthirster… as a unit filler. His list was:


Nurgle Herald – General, Staff of Nurgle
Tz Herald – Loremaster (shadow), Spellbreaker
Khorne Herald – armour
Khorne Herlald – armour
28 Bloodletters – Std, Musc, +d6 charge
28 Bloodletters – Std, Musc
28 Plaguebeaerers – Std, Musc, reroll wounds
5 Furies
5 Furies
3 Screamers
Fiend
Fiend
Jugger Champ
Jugger Champ
6 Flamers

So, no Greater Deamon, no Siren song… I was confident of a good result.

Nick had his 3 units slightly to the right of centre, with some chaff either side. I had deployed slightly to the right, looking to smash one end of the blocks, limiting his support available.

On the right I had mournfang, Bulls and Scouting Manteaters vs fiend, furies, screamers and a Jugger.

I went first and advanced, with all the charcters in the guts heading for the +d6 charge. My sabres and Mournfang to the left of the Guts dropped back, whilst my right side rushed up.

As with the lizards, Nick had his wizard hidden in a small (flamer) unit. So a 6 dice fireball into the flamers (nick tried to dice it – with 4 dice – he had a scroll but said he didn’t see the danger until my shooting phase… oh dear), meant there were only 4 left. 2 Ironblasters into the Herald without a Look-out-sir. First one – Misfire, explode and killed a sabre as well…. bugger. A feeling of de-ja-vu was creeping over me, the second hit, failed ward and dead herald.

With no shadow to worry about I was feeling very confident of a victory.

Nick backed off, almost to the baseline. After he had moved I said “right shooting”… Nick reminded me of the staff of nurgle… Ok 1 bound spell = no problem. Nick got 6,6… so d6 str 5 rerolling wounds (reroll due to dodgy banner of awesomeness)… 2 failed toughness tests meant I took 3d6 hits and lost 4 models. OW!!!!! Combined with withering that spell is ‘evil’.

I advanced and my Maneaters charged a fiend blocking me at the back of the board and over-ran off table.

In Nicks turn 2 he tried a long-ish charge into the Ogres from the letters with +d6 charge, but failed – meaning my Ogres were only a bit away. Despite the losses from the staff of nurgle my Ogres charged the letters, with some supporting mournfang. The Mournfang fluffed the charge roll, so Guts went in solo.

The Ogre charge was more challenging than I expected. The bloodletters attacks were ‘BRUTAL’, and Nicks good ward saves meant I only won the fight by 1-2 points. I now had a few wounds on the Guts, and had lost my impetuous.

Nicks turn the Guts were flanked by the other letter horde… and the other units were blocked, annoyed etc.

The fight in the middle went on for a while, but the Tyrant on the corner absorbing a lot of attacks (2 letters to the front, and 2 to the side + all the supports), and having few wounds to lose on the unit meant the flank charge was achieving little. I lost the guts but easily won the combat (Nicks wards were not as good now), and when the Maneaters charged the rear and Mournfang into the 2nd horde I quickly started taking them out.

The rest of my army was making hard work of getting Nicks ‘chaff’, fluffing attacks, failing charges and generally failing to help as required.

In Nicks 4th turn the plague bearers joined the ‘maul’ in the middle (fighting a single mournfang that was haning over the edge from the Bloodletetrs (now in a 5 wide block). I ‘only’ had my characters and a single mournfang, but the fight was going well. I had wiped out my initial charge and in a 2x2 block (after a combat reform) was quickly taking out the second letter unit.

In my 5th turn the remaining maneater (fiend, flamers, letters had taken their toll) got ready to charge the flamers if they failed to shoot him. I wiped out the 2nd letter unit, with the characters ready to charge the plaguebearers flank. Nick then did a combat reform in front of the chargers. The put them within 1” of my unit and I said he couldn’t… he said he could… etc. In the end I let him do the reform (front or flank my characters would wreck the plaguebearers so wasn’t that bothered).

In his turn he shot the last maneater… the 4 characters failed their panic test (ld 9 reroll…. Bugger!!!!). We checked the angle range etc, I thought we agreed 6,6 they are off table, else fine. I rolled 11 and Nick wanted to check the measurements again (this is why I tried to agree before I rolled). In the end the characters were just on, and rallied. I almost lost the game with that, but it did still cost me a massacre.

The plaguebearers combat reformed into a line to stop the flamers being charged.

With nothing else to do single mournfang charged the front of the plaguebearers, and the Ironblaster went into the rear… with impacts etc I won on the charge by 4-5, but steadfast deamons are a bugger.

So in the end Nick had the plaquebearers + general left… I had lost some units (including the bulls to a single bloodcrusher champ… idiots) and had a reasonable win… which would have easily been a massacre without that failed test.

After the game Nick game to me and agreed that the plaqubearers couldn’t have done a combat reform within 1” of my characters… and that would have changed the centre of his unit meaning my 4 characters would have fled off the table. My response “Kama’s a bitch!”


Game 6
Brettonians

So I was on table 1, last game. I had a shot of winning, and was confident the Ogres would do bad things to Brettonians.

The list I was facing was ‘unusual’… (mostly re character items) with a few choices that made me wonder.

He had (from fuzzy memory):

Brett Lord: HKB, Sword of ASF, Gromril Helm
Brett Lord: Barded Steed, Shield (no lance, weapon or anything else.. weird!!!)
Prophetess: Level 4, Life, Scroll
Paladin: BSB Barded Steed, Sword of Anti Heros, Enchanted Shield
Paladin: Barded Steed, Shield, Lance, Crown of Command (crown not on prophetess – weird)
Paladin: Pegasus: Dragon helm, shield, lance
Paladin: Pegasus: Charmed shield, lance
15 KoTR – FC, Std Discipline : 4 characters in her
6 KoTR – FC : 2nd lord in here
14 Archers – Musc
14 Archers – Musc
3 Peg Knights
8 Grail Knights - FC
Trebuchet
Trebuchet

I think the ‘odd’ Options were to get points for him to have the 3 lord choices, but my thought was ‘why bother’…. anyway.

In deployment he put both trebs (scratch built, very tall, but nice, models…so they could see over lots - hmmm) behind a pyramid-thingy I thought we agreed it would be a hill… later around turn 3, when I went to run over it was impassable – it wasn’t a bit issue at all, but a bit frustrating.

All the knights went in the middle with archers either side, and a peg on each flank.

The game was quite tactical, but difficult to describe… due to many overlapping charge arcs etc essentially I used the sabres to block his lances and isolate them. I couldn’t afford his lances to charge me.

Meanwhile he made some ‘interesting’ decisions allowing the mournfang to charge the peg knights, and the maneaters a peg hero.

At one point it looked a bit ‘dicey’, but the maneaters charging the rear of the character bus, pinning it for a turn, meant none of his lances ever got to charge.

Eventually I ground him out (although it was closer than I would have liked due to HKB – dead BSB, and Anti-heros sword – I can’t complain I used it before but 7 str 8 attacks chafes’). With the Bulls finishing the Grail knights (after turns, and turns of ineptitude by both sides) at the bottom of the 6th.

So a Massacre on table 2… I was in for a shout of a win.


Unfortunately “personal stuff” meant I couldn’t wait around for trophies etc, but I came 2nd.


A good result and my 3rd podium in my 3 events of the year worth 100 ranking points. The result meant I came 17th in rankings for the year, and due to a drop-out I will be going to the UK Masters. As I said my 17th was of off 3 main events… as such a good result at the Sheffield Slaughter could/should mean I get to #1 in the UK rankings – how cool am I!!!!

Loved your bat reps, I have a question tho. I have yet to play my first game with ogres this ED so im pretty new, still learning the rules. Your the first person who I have seen win with a Tyrant, what makes him so impressive  that you take him and a lvl 4 in the same list?

Hmm Tryant vs level 4...

I like the Tyrant. Although I have yet to use a lvl 4 with armour... who I suspect could be good.

The Tyrant is generally a 'blocker' - there to absorb damage, and give a bit back. He does that much better than a Lvl 4 could. I have found Ogre magic to be a bit 'meh'... it can swing 50/50 combats, but most of the time I'm not in 50/50 combats (if I am I made a mistake), and essentially the boost becomes overkill. Also you cannot rely on getting the spells you want off before you commit to the combat - with the Tyrant you generally know what he's going to do, so less contingency planning is required.

So.... My Ogres will be going to the UK masters.

Can anyone guess what will be in the list (it goes public next week, so will post then)????

Ok - no updates for a REALLY long time (sorry), but army is off to ETC this week.


[size=200]'"CHAOS OGRES OF FIRE AND ICE"[/size]

- it's hard sticking to a theme

Army


Maneaters


















Ironguts




Mournfang






Bulls


Sabres


Ironblaster


Slaughtermaster


Firebelly




BSB

Great work Dave! +1

ETC 2012 REPORT



Prep and Planning:

More than any other event the ETC involves a LOT of preparation and planning. Team NZ preparations started Sept/Oct 2011. The distance involved, coupled with most of the team wanting to tag on a 2-5 week holiday whilst in Europe means team selection has to be done VERY early.

This year team NZ had 17 applicants, and a few “maybe’s”. Unfortunately due to the logistical issues of changing team members late on “maybe’s” immediately become “No’s”. The previous team decided that I should be Captain (again), and we split the applicants for the remaining 7 spots into 3 Groups. NZ-based, from which 3 would be selected by Mal Patel (2011 attendee, and at the time ranked #1 in NZ), Oz-based, from which 2 would be selected by Chris Wilcox, and ‘Rest of world-based’, from which 2 would be selected by me.

Selections were made (and adjusted following 1 person selected becoming a “maybe” due to change in circumstance/plans and being ‘dropped’).

Team was:

NZ-based
Mal Patel (2011 cap)
Thomas Van Roekel
Dan Butler

Oz-based
Chris Wilcox (he originally selected someone else, but they chose to play for Oz instead) (2010 and 2011 cap)
Rowan Keating

RoW-based
Me (2011 and 2011 cap)
John Matthews (2011 and 2011 cap)
David Meachen (2011 cap)

This year we were also fortunate that 1 applicant was willing to come from Oz and not play. So we had a non-playing coach / reserve player in the form of Mark ‘Monty’ Skilton



Army Selection:
Planning and preparation, including selection of which armies to take is all done on forums. Logistical issues mean we have never got together as a team prior to the event. That said the players in the 3 different Groups do tend to discuss with each other (I spoke with Dave M and John ‘a lot’ about army/lists selections).

Armies we ended up with were:
Mal – Lizards (Metal+skink spam)
TVR - Dwarf (Gunline)
Dan – Skaven (Gunline, incl Jezzails)
Chris – Wood Elf (avoidance)
Rowan – Empire (Knights+cannons…like everyone else)
Me – Ogres
JM – Daemons (Pappa, but this is the army that caused us most difficulty to settle on, with VC’s, Orcs, High elf all discussed)
Dave M – Dark Elf (avoidance, shooty with 3 pegs)
We wanted armies that could always pick up points, and so most lists eneded up being ‘shooty’ in nature. On reflection I think we would have been better with VC’s rather than Wood Elfs (although we hadn’t really got to grips with the new book when finalising lists).

A number of lists (Lizards, Dark Elf, Wood Elf) were ‘shooty+avoidance’ and 3 others (Skaven, Dwarf, Empire) were ‘gun-line’. This meant the Ogres had the best chance to go for big wins… and the army was designed as ‘all or nothing’ accordingly - it was also designed to have no (or very few) “bad” match-ups (at the expense of getting less “good” ones).


My Army:
I have played Ogres a lot, indeed I very nearly took them to ETC 2011 with the old book. I generally prefer Tyrant builds, but these are more prone to getting a bad match-up due to lack of magic (but can be better at getting ‘BIG’ wins).

My final list was:

Slaughtermaster (level 4 Maw): Great Weapon; Tricksters Helm, Talisman of Preservation (4+), Ironcurse Icon
Bruiser BSB: LoG, Great weapon, Crown of Command
Firebelly: Dispel Scroll, Warrior Bane
8 Ironguts: FC, LoG, Standard of Discipline
6 Ogres: Ironfist, Std, Musc
7 Maneaters: FC, LoG, Dragonhide Banner, 1x Great weapon, 2xehw. Stubborn, ItP
3 x 1 Sabretusk
3 Mournfang: Heavy Armour, Ironfist, Std, Musc, Flaming Banner
2 Mournfang: Heavy Armour, Ironfist, Musc
Ironblaster

So, the real driver of the list are the stubborn Maneaters, and another stubborn unit (often Guts, but sometimes Ogres). A very important part of the way I play Ogres is to have character a (Tyrant or SM) that is very tough to kill (hopefully… see games 2 & 3).

I tend to play “Tetris-hammer” where my unit formations are very fluid, with units 1 deep, 1 wide and in blocks – often in the same game. The 2 stubborn units mean this can be used to great effect (pinning units in a column, before reforming to smash-face).

Flaming Banner on Mournfang was mostly for Crypt Horrors and Aboms (as well as mirror matches), which can be tricky to deal with.

ITP on Maneaters means characters, and most of my points, can be protected vs ‘Leadership Bomb’ armies, which Ogres can be susceptible to.

6 Ogres vs 4-5 Ironguts was a difficult decision, but in the end settled for more bodies on the table.




Travel

So, after quite a few games with Ogres ‘in general’ but only 2 with my final ETC list (that’s just how I roll – call me the ‘tinkerman’), I set off for Poland. When booking flights I hadn’t appreciated 08:30 from Heathrow meant waking up at 03:00… so a very tired me made my way to Heathrow to meet up with John Matthews (Daemon player).

John works for Battlefront (Flames, GF9… etc) and travels ‘a lot’, as such he has a lovely silver card, so when we checked in at the airport we went to a special ‘recession proof’ lounge were free breakfast, cakes and drinks awaited. This set the tone for the weekend where not much (or no) money = LOTS of lovely food.
We met up with some of the Kiwi travellers in Berlin (Dan, Tom and Chris), jumped in our Hire Car (new Audi A6… no cheap crap for us Kiwi’s)… and drove to Gorzow. Due to some navigational / satnav issues, and some Slooooooowwwww traffic the drive took a little longer than expected…. although we did see some ‘sights’….

Near the German border, whilst driving through a wood we saw a girl sitting on the side of the road. No cars were around, but she was rather ‘scantily-clad’… one of the guys joked “She won’t get much business there”.

A few hundred metres further another scantily clad young lady was sat by the side of the road…. Questions started to be raised in our minds. These questions were soon answered when a 3rd girl, who was wearing some lovely pink/purple lingerie with black lace was very actively touting for business.

I have never seen ‘rural prostitutes’ before, but if you go down to the woods today, you’ll never believe your eyes!!

As I said the drive took longer than expected (I swear it was noting to do with those girls), but we arrived in time to see some of the ashes, and have a practice game to get our ‘game-faces’ on (or remember the rules after not playing for a while  ).

We had dinner at our hotel (4*, but still pretty cheap – this was Poland) and went to bed. When unpacking I realised the superglue I had brought with me for repairs had ‘leaked’ on the flight, and my underwear was covered in sticky white stuff (again nothing to do with those girls) and I had to go buy some more.


Game 1 – Serbia

I like to think of myself as pretty clued up when it comes to Geography. Unfortunately my brain has a complete blind spot when it comes to Siberia vs Serbia. I know where they both are, but I often get the names the wrong way around. No idea why but I do. This evidenced itself when the draw came up and my Geography was corrected by an American <shudder>….

Anyway, Serbia came last in 2011, and we had a lot of ‘Greens’ on the match ups (we had a Green, Yellow, Red match up system with Greens been a favourable result expected). My general approach to match-ups is trying to avoid reds, rather than get Greens (although I try and get those if I can).

I was matched vs their 3 Herald Daemons – a ‘green’ for me, so I was hoping for a good win. He had:

Herald Tz: General, Lvl 2 (Light), Winged Horror
Herald Tz: Lvl 2 (Light), Spell breaker
Herald Kh: BSB, Icon of Despair
30 Bloodletters: std, musc, Icon of endless war
30 Bloodletters: std, musc
29 Bloodletters: std, musc
5 Furies
5 Furies
5 Furies
6 Fiends
3 Flamers
3 Flamers

I was pretty confident in getting a good result, but I couldn’t fight combats on his terms… also the Icon of Despair (-2 Ld) worried me a little regarding using columns (stubborn ld 6 isn’t too hot, even with a reroll).

The game started a bit cagey, with him taking a few wounds off, and me trying to snipe the wizards.

On the right I used the sabres to block a 30 (in a block formation, I think to reduce double charges), and advance with the Guts (+BSB and Firebelly). I was then able to charge. Dice didn’t seem ridiculous, but after the dust had settled (impacts+attacks+breath+stomp really hurts) I had won by about 12 (and broken steadfast). Box cars with no reroll (BSB was on left) meant he only had 2 models left 

On the left I was trying to avoid a letter+ flanking fiends combo charge. I got an advantage when a sabretusk was allowed a flank charge into some furies. A short overrun took him into the side of the fiends… this would pin the fiends in his turn. So trusting the sabretusk to pop the fiends (he did) I was able to advance to the letters on the left with maneaters, with Ogres in front.

The Ogres were able to charge through a gap into flamers (he shouldn’t have let me do this), and they then over-ran into a herald (he DEFINTIELY shouldn’t have let this happen).

My sniping had been unsuccessful to date (4+ LoS and 4+ ward), but… I have no idea why… my opponent moved the general into a unit of 3 flamers. With no look out sir he died.

Meanwhile the Guts had finished off the last 2 letters, and with some Mournfang combo charged the letters in middle…. they died.

The Fiends had dealt with the sabre, and herald of Khorne had sacrificed himself vs the Maneaters to slow me down. I had (stupidly) not blocked a charge from Fiends to 2 Mournfang. Fortunately their trusty armour saved me for long enough to get them with Ironbalster and then maneaters.

So… by now mow opponent had 1 letter block and 2 furies (models, not units) left. I had lost 2 sabres and small Mournfang unit only (and a few models from all other units). With the letters surrounded I added up the points and already had a 20-0. So I left them alone (not risking the 1% chance I would have messed up the ridiculous combo charge I had set up: Maneaters + Guts + Mournfang).

I won 20-0.

After I had finished I had a query from our Dwarf player. As Captain I could give ‘general’ advice, without specific advice on their game. This can get a bit ‘gray’… but he asked me if he should take a ‘”moderate risk to get a 20-0… he was currently on an 13-7”. I said the team had enough for 100 points (max for a round), so don’t take the risk (just after this advice my Skaven player lost his grey seer… so I wished I had said go for 20-0… but it was OK, because the nest turn he took his opponents seer. Warhammer – tsshhessh!).

After the game my opponent explained the situation he was in and I said knowing that I definitely would have charged for the 20-0… as I would have deemed it very low risk. This is something you get at ETC due to the nature of it being a team event… playing for the team rather than yourself ‘can’ lead to more conservative play. My team played a number of games with 1 side (or both) hiding in a corner (an Empire player managed to squeeze his entire army behind a house vs our lizard player) – but I can honestly say in 18 ETC games (lizards, dark elf and Ogres) I have never played a game of ‘corner-hammer’, maybe I am lucky, maybe I don’t notice as however people deploy I tend to run at them.

After the game we had a long break to went to a nice (air-conditioned) shopping centre near the hotel. In the foodcourt I got an 18” pizza, with 2 drinks for 40 Zloty (£8). You have to love Poland.




Game 2 – England

Round 2 we were drawn against England. For those that don’t know me I should explain. I am English, I live in England. However I lived in New Zealand for 3 years, and the year after I got back from NZ (2010) they planned to attend the ETC. They were short 1 player, so asked me to play for them (I had actually applied for team England and they had said “no thanks”). I said Yes… after which the Team asked me to be Captain… I said yes.

I have now been Captain for the NZ ETC team for 3 years, and must say I am glad I play for them rather than England. I should explain that. I love England, and am proud to be English, however they seem take the ETC a bit ‘more seriously’ than Team NZ… with lots of practice days/events, meetings, discussions etc. I feel playing for NZ leads to a more relaxed experience. In some ways I think we would like to do more preparation, but Geography is a bitch. Anyway… I am very busy, and not attending a load of practice sessions suits me better (in fact between Call to War first weekend in May and ETC I was only able to play 3 games of Warhammer… and 2 of those were the week before vs John our Daemon player).

So England… we had done our match ups prior to the event and across the team the English showed more reds than any other country (5 of our team had 4 reds vs the English lists). This is a bit of a nightmare when trying to do the match ups and I got some wrong (Double light lizards vs our wood elves was not pretty), but overall thought the match-ups weren’t too bad.

I got Russ Veal, and his Tomb Kings. I had played Russ (with his Ogres) twice already in 2012 (a 20-0 win and 10-10 draw), and new him to be quite a ‘conservative’ risk averse player. He obviously knew me to be a arrogant prick who would run straight into him.

He had:

Liche High Priest: General, Hiero, Level 4 (Nekharia), Earthing Rod, Draginbane Gem
Liche High Priest: Lvl 4 (Light), Scroll
10 Archers: Musc
10 Archers: Musc
10 Archers: Musc
5 Horse Archers
5 Horse Archers
5 Chariots: Std, Musc, Flaming Banner
5 Necro Knights: Musc
5 Necro Knights: Musc
Scorpion
Scorpion
SSC
SSC
Necrosphinx
Necrosphinx


From Comp this is 2,600 pts (vs my 2,400) with aq 10% VP adjustment. Due to the way the lists were formatted the Necrosphinxes were on a different page, and I think I missed them when initially reviewing the 248 ETC lists. It was a Green… with them more a Yellow.

Anyway. Both armies were in the middle of table, with Russ being very symmetrical: Middle had 2 Necro Knights, with archers with chars and SSC behind. Knights Flanked by Sphinxes, with archers on far flanks. Chariots went on the left.

The width of his deployment, and speed of his units meant approaching without getting gang banged in the flank was quite tricky.

My plan was to advance cautiously, whilst Ironblastering a Necrosphinx then charge everyone at the same time around turn 3. The plan was going OK. I went first, and offered Russ some long charges (he declined – as I said cautious), and was blocking up charge lanes etc. The Ogres were flanking on my right, and a single sabretusk charged the chariots in the side turn 3. He had 4 str 3 attacks, and had to kill the sabre or I would pin him. So again, trusting the sabre I advanced. The sabre did me proud 3 hits (on 3’s) 3 wounds (on 4’s) meant 1 dead chariot. He took 1 back and I won by 3 (another dead chariot).

Unfortunately my Ironblaster had failed miserably. During the game it had 5 shots. 1 misfire, with next turn missed as well. The other 4 were at necrosphinxes. 4 hits (as expected… it’s a big base), 4 wounds… 4 1’s. Bloody cannons.

In Turn 3 I charged mournfang (2 into a Sphinx, 3 into Knights). The Guts charged scorp and overran in front of the other knights.

He had some buffs, so did I (I think), and I rolled well for 2 fang (putting 4 wounds on Sphinx) and bashing up the knights (who died my turn 4). In his turn 3 my 2 fangs needed 1 wound on the Necro to kill it, reform and charge the chariots… for a very likely big win. After the good dice of last round they failed, miserably, and the sphinx was healed (so 2 wounds left) killed the fangs and in my last turn shot by ironblaster only for me to do ‘1’ wound (see above).

The Guts, after killing the knights, were faced with archers sacrificing themselves 1 at a time, saving the TK characters.

On the right the 3 charging fangs forgot their armour and was butchered by the Necro’s… who then reformed and smashed the flanking Ogres.

The Maneaters took most of the shooting and after despatching a wounded Necrosphinx were looking tasty for getting into the back-line. A SSC targeted the Slaughtmaster (first 1 of the game). I said “anything but a 1”…. Stupid, stupid thing to say. I rolled a 1. he then wounded twice (tricksters helm) I failed a ward… and the 5 wound Slaughtermaster died. CRAP!!!

Despite the Mournfang failing on both flanks I was still expecting a 11-9 win… but the loss of the Slaughtermaster, with 2 turns to go, really hurt. I was looking at a smallish loss, with Russ sacrificing archers and SSC very well to save the chacters (and my Ironblaster failing to pick up any points) I was looking at a small loss, until his turn 6 the 4 Necro Knights charged the remaining 4 maneaters... He had 20 attacks, to do 12 wounds (needing 3’s and 3’s average is 9). The maneaters died (with SM he wouldn’t have been able to put enough attacks into them to kill them). Interestingly I had 2 chances to save them. In my go 6 they charged and killed ‘siomething’ I think it was an SSC that had moved to block the charge into the wizard unit, and I could overrun or reform. I could have reformed into column to reduce the incoming attacks, so I couldn’t be wiped out, but would need to pass a stubborn 8 test (BSB was too far away). I opted to overrun to try and get 1) off board, or 2) out of charge range. I rolled 4, and wonder if I would have been better taking the stubborn 8 test.

I lost 16-4.

The Team had not fared much better and we had lost the round badly (England beat the Italians next as well… they did pretty good this year).

That night we found our way to ‘the waterfront’ area where most bars seemed to be. Apparently service is not high on priorities in Poland (at least not when 700 gamers descend on their town), and it took 2 hours of sitting before our order was taken (we had chosen where we went as it was once of the least busy). But good times none-the-less.









Game 3 – Russia

So Round 3, Russia. They have done pretty well in previous years. I was warned before the round (by an anonymous party) that whilst their Captain and Dark Elf player, Nickolay was one of the nicest blokes ever, the rest of the team could get a bit ‘gamey’. I warned my players to watch out, and I must say I think this warning was probably fair – with 2 or 3 of the games having a more than average number of rules discussions.

I think the whole team had good games, but some of our guys did have to ‘watch-out’. For example in my game we had a number (about 10) of rules disputes… every one was finally agreed in my favour (usually after the Russian player asked their Captain). Some of which were as basic as not knowing/forgetting the stat lines of his own models. I must say, given the nature of the game I do not believe any of this was ‘intentional’, but someone who did not know the rules as well, or was not willing to challenge them, could have been at a strong disadvantage.

Anyway… I played vs Dwarves, he had:

Dwarf Lord: Shieldbearers, Great Weapon, Gromril + Preservation, Resistance, Stone
Runelord: Anvil, 2 x Spellbreaking
BSB: Great Weapon, MR of Gromril+ resistance
Dragon Slayer: Rune of Fire
Dragon Slayer: Rune of Speed
30 Longbeards: FC, Great Weapon, Ancestor Rune, Rune of Determination
10 Thunderers: Musc, Shield
30 Hammerers: FC, MR of Grungi
Grudge Thrower: Engineer, Accuracy, Penetrating, Penetrating
Grudge thrower: Engineer, Burning, Accuracy, Penetrating
Cannon: Engineer, Forging
5 Miners: Musc

He deployed 2 Hordes with Guns behind. Left flank anchored by a building (which thunderers went in), Right by impassable.

I went first (yeh) and ran at him. I sent 2 Mournfang down left flank, around the building… turn 3 they were able to charge the anvil (but lost 1 to shooting).

I put guts into Column and the longbeards charged (turn 2), and reformed into a block. My turn 3 my 3 Mournfang flanked them. Hoping to destroy them before the Hammeres charged the flank of the fangs. I left 2 Longbeards alive who got the 4+ for stubborn and held. My mournfang then died.

So end of turn 3 I had anvil (lost 3 wounds) in combat with a Mournfang (on 1 wound by now). Cannon with 1 wound (Ironblaster again failing to kill things it shot) fighting a wounded sabretusk.

I had some fleeing Ogres and an Ironblaster that had just killed miners in combat.

I then had 4 Maneaters (+SM and Firebelly) about 12” from Hammerers and 5 Guts + BSB just in front of them.

I was Very confident of getting a 20-0 at this point.

What to do…. My instincts screamed CHARGE!!! But with 3 turns left I thought I could clean up the backline first, and charge them later. STUPID, stupid, stupid thing to do. I still had double breath, and the charge should have destroyed the Hammerers… the problem was I was very aware that I needed a 6 on 2d6 or the guts would go in alone – and lose, leaving the Maneaters 1-1 vs the Hammerers.

So I reformed the guts into a line, to get as close the guns as possible, and turn 4 charged around the hammerers.
Turn 4 went so very, very, very wrong!!!!

1)   Magic did nothing (again… in fact my magic was so bad this game my opponent didn’t use either scroll)
2)   Firebelly left unit to breath and Hammerers (to thin them for latter) and did feck all.
3)   Runesmith (str 4) killed the Mournfang. This was bad very bad – very, very, very, very bad.
4)   Sabre failed, and was killed by remaining cannon crewman.
5)   Ironguts failed to kill the grudgethrower… and I still don’t know why, forgot to reform ( I should have gone into a block around the BSB – see Dwarf turn 4.

So Dwarf turn 4… hammereres turn to face guts, and anvil charged them in the side of their coloumn…. Allowing him to kill the bsb and break the unit.

AAAAgggghhhh

My turn 5 I now had Maneaters + Ironblaster vs an Anvil, Cannon, 2 Grudge Throwers, Thunderers and about 20 Hammerers + chars.

CRAP!!!

I couldn’t take on the Hammerers, so tried to get points by killing Thunderers in the building. I killed them, and Ironblaster shot the cannon (yeh), only for a Grudgethrower to land on my Slaughtermaster. (no Look out as only 2 r&f left) Wound (even after reroll), failed ward = 6 wounds and dead Slaughtermaster (again).

I lost 18-2.

I cannot believe that game ended so badly. I had some bad luck with SM, but it was ALL my fault. I had ‘forgotten’ how vulnerable the Mournfang in combat with the Anvil was when I decided not to charge them.

I was REALLY cross with myself for doing something so stupid, and more-so, for letting the team down (who had generally done very well in the other games). The team got 71… but we should have had 99 if I hadn’t been such a Muppet!

Sorry guys!!

The game did bring out a few interesting points about gaming etiquette. For the first 3 turns (when I was so clearly on top), my opponent seemed very grumpy, cursing the dice… etc. In addition one of his team mates (I guess the coach) was permanently around my table querying rules (which he was always wrong) and emphasising the ‘drama’ when things didn’t go well.

My opponent needed several breaks (I think to calm down). During one of which, keen to ensure we got finished, I measured a few charges to work out what to do next. This coach said I wasn’t allowed as my opponent wasn’t there… I don’t know if he thought I would move things, but surely he could stop me doing that. Either way I did nothing instead and measured when my opponent returned.

From turn 4 my opponent was much cheerier, and the coach double so… laughing and cheering pretty much in my face when a 6 came up to kill the Slaughtermaster. Now this didn’t bother me (I am a big boy), but I did suggest to the Russian captain after the game that I did not think this behaviour (especially by someone not playing) was appropriate.

My opponent seemed very happy not to have been bashed, so much that he gave me his lovely Russian hat. He said I was the best Ogre player he had every played against (apart from that 1 mistake that cost me 18 tournament points). Which was nice.
Game 4 – Australia

After my supreme display of crapness we were low enough in the tables to play Australia… again. 3 ETC’s the Kiwis have played the Aussies every year. We were 1-1 before this (lost in 2010 when Aussies came 4th, won last year).

I got over my grump from being stupid, and soon returned to arrogant prick supreme. I was matched against their Ogre player. A green for me.

I should say, in the match ups I gave (almost) all the Ogre lists a Green. My reasoning was that:
1) I tried to come up with the best Ogre list I could… if they have a better one I have already failed.
2) I am better than everyone in the world at using Ogres (seriously I am)… and should therefore win

Slightly arrogant perhaps, but that didn’t stop me sharing this logic with my opponent before our game… followed by “and therefore I am going to f*@k you up... bitch”. Possibly a tad much, but I thought it was funny.

Roy (the aussie bloke) has a LOVELY Ogre army, with all models converted to be like warriors (including some lovely Juggernaught-esque Mournfang). I think my army (see above) is pretty good also, therefore the game should have looked spectacular.

The problem was, despite being the premier Warhammer event in Europe (I can’t say world, because people tell me Adepticon in US is bigger – although I suspect not better) the terrain at ETC was really, really crap.

‘Woods’ were represented by a cut up bit of carpet..., it was cheap, and it was nasty, and meant part of the spectacle of a game of Warhammer (especially when nicely painted armies are involved) was lost. This (and connected issues) was the source of much discussion over the weekend. Specifically when for €35 entry (with no food or anything else included) for 700 games (so about €25,000 income) there seemed to be VERY little spent on anything.

This really rankled. I have no problem with the entry fee (compared to the cost of going it is bugger all), and no problem with organisers making a “bit”, but the impression was very much that EVERYTHING was done to make costs as low as possible, to make as much money as possible. I do not think this was good… and put a really negative aspect on an otherwise very good event.

(Other issues discussed were the food, being more than restaurant prices, and not enough staff/food to cope with all the hungry gamers, organised transport having income that significant exceeded costs…etc, 40kers having to play outside…etc)

I don’t remember cheap/crap scenery playing outside etc being mentioned when Poland bidded for ETC – and I think someone, somewhere has made a lot of money from a not-for profit organisation. If that was in UK I suspect someone would be arrested, but I’m not a lawyer and I don’t suppose any international crime organisations are that interested in the ETC???

Anyway… back to the game.

Roy had:

Slaughtermaster: Level 4(maw), Fencers Blades, Glittering Scales, Crown of Command
Bruiser: BSB, Ironfist, Runemaw
Firebelly: Level 2 (fire), ehw, Scroll, Ruby ring
9 Guts: FC, Std Discipline
5 Ogres: Ironfist: Musc
1 Sabre x 3
4 Mournfang : Std, Musc, H armour, Ironfist, Flaming Std
4 Mournfang: Musc, H armour, Ironfist
Gorger
Gorger
Ironblaster

I spoke with Roy about his list after our game, and I ‘really’ don’t like the character set up. My problem is they all go in the second rank of the gutstar (so shouldn’t be getting hit), but only support with str 4/5. This is not enough, as having the characters in there effectively reduces the fighting capability of the unit.

Anyway… I was confident of a win.

Roy deployed his wizards, and rolled for spells, first – he rolled Maw. Every Ogre player will tell you that Maw sucks… if you get a mis-fire it typically kills 2/3 of your best unit. So after some deliberation he swapped it for stubborn.

I rolled Maw and kept it. I (like most Ogres) have never, ever cast it… however sitting from the other side of the table I would be thinking (like vs pit) I need to stop that or it could kill 2/3 of my unit. I would not be thinking my opponent might misfire.

So I went first and turn 1 I cast Maw… he used a scroll to stop 4 Mournfang (he passed his 2+ from runemaw – same odds of failing that as rolling a misfire) falling down a big hole.

I used my Sabres to block charges, put Maneaters into a column and got into combat quickly (the Ironblasters shot each other and after 3 turns of the most incompetent shooting ever he finally killed mine – in fact my Ironblaster was truly crap all weekend. I’m pretty sure it killed more in combat than from shooting).

His gut star charged my Maneaters. With SM at the front he did nothing (although I lost some wounds to the firebelly). My large Mournfang arrived and I ground him out (having “made” him use his scroll, I could out-magic him during these crucial combat rounds).

On my left sabres blocked up the non-flaming Mournfang (and his blocked me up), until he eventually charged me (but I had regen on by this point) and the guts killed them.

My 2 Mournfang charged his 4 Mournfang – both of us were a bit crap at rolling (except for saves), and he held on steadfast. He then ground me out.

There was a Ogre vs Ogre fight which I won (BSB helped)… I was 2 wide to get more attacks, but so BSB could still hide in middle.

Around turn 4-5 I turned and finished off the last Mounfang (and blaster and gorgers, who had arrived for little impact). He had no more toys to kill.


I must admit, that my dice were much better than his… but I also believe I played better, and had a better list. Afterwards roy asked me if he did anything ‘wrong’. “No” I said “the problem was you didn’t do anything good either. I had the initiative all game, and he just reacted – predictably, to what I did”. That is a good lesson to learn to be good at Warhammer (in my view).

So after the disappointment of my Round 3 performance I was dead chuffed to have tabled an Aussie (again) and helped the Team to a 85-75 win (and 2-1 in the ‘series’).

The Aussie team actually finished 2-3 spots ahead of us in final standings… claiming “lost the battle, won the war” (our round 5-6 match ups were much harder than theirs), but we “smashed ‘em bro!!!”

 


Games 5 & 6 to follow...