Chapter Two - Grand Tournament Heat 1, Part 1
Entry posted by The_Chin
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New year, new me, new attempt to keep updating this blog regularly!
Last weekend I attended Heat 1 in Warhammer World as part of the Grand Tournament for Age of Sigmar. I thought I'd note down a few observations from the weekend.
First off I'd like to compliment all 5 of my opponenets - Rob Symes, Sam Wilson, Matt Lyons, Simon Froley and Stu Orman. Each one was a pleasure to play against, and each game came right down to the wire. The game against Simon's Ironjawz was a real nailbiter, coming down to the final throw of the dice.
Secondly, it never ceases to amaze at the sheer breath of hobby and skill on show in the armies. I was pleasantly surprised to find such a wide field of armies at the event - everything from grots and a gutbuster gunline, to stormcast and tzeentch and everything in between! The difference in the level of hobby on show compared to that I'm usually exposed to was truly inspiring, and I came away from the event possessed of a drive to push my army painting skills, and try for something truly spectacular as my next army. As of now I have no idea what shape that will take but I'll keep you all updated (or at least I'll try to!)
The list I took was a Flesh Eater Court force I'd been working on since the book was released. I'd brought it to the 6 nations event last year and had some sucess with it. I had a fairly good idea of what the list could and couldn't do, but mostly I was happy with how it had turned out from a painting standpoint so I decided to bring it on that basis.
Allegiance: Flesh Eater Courts
- Delusion: The Grand Tournament
Leaders
Crypt Infernal Courtier (140)
- General
- Command Trait : Dark Wizardry
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Terrorgheist (400)
Abhorrant Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon (440)
Crypt Ghast Courtier (80)
Units
9 x Crypt Flayers (480)
10 x Crypt Ghouls (100)
30 x Crypt Ghouls (300)
Reinforcement Points (60)
The reinforcement points would be used to summon either 5 wolves or a cairn wraith to grab an objective late game (something I forgot in 4 of the 5 games!)
But enough of that, moving onto the meat of the event, the games themselves. I wont go through the games blow by blow, but here are a few highlights:
Game 1: Total conquest. Rob Symes and Seraphon
First game was against Mr Honest Wargamer himself, Rob Symes. Rob was bringing a seraphon army, revolving around an engine of the gods, two bastilodons and a large block of Kroxigor. Having never played against Seraphon, I was completely unprepared for the speed and sheer bonkers tricks they could pull out. I misdeployed leaving my terrorgheist exposed on one flank, with only a unit of horrors in support. As a result, he was promptly machine gunned off the board by a teleporting pack of razordons before he got to get his claws wet!
On the opposite flank, Rob's kroxigor exploded into my lines, wiping out my unit of 9 flayers and making short work of my zombie dragon. The army crumbled shortly after, and Rob walked away with a well deserved major win.
Highlight of the game: By the end of the game, Rob had managed to activate the engine of the gods in each of his 3 turns, giving him a total of 6 turns by the games end. Conversly, i'd only managed 3 
Game 2: Scorched Earth. Sam Wilson's Beastclaw Raiders
this game was another first, as I'd never actually fought a pure beastclaw raiders army. Sam's army was absolutely gorgeous to look at, and had all the big monsters you'd expect to see - a pair of thundertusks flanking a stonehorn. Straight away this put me at a disadvantage as my main source of damage for heavy armour - my flayers mortal wounds - was turned off by the thundertusk's cold aura effect. As a result I had to rely on my own monsters to take down his, while my flayers adopted the role of objective claimers.
I learned from the previous game, and carefully deployed my ghouls to screen my own objectives as best I could. Having my courtier hidden at the back allowed me to keep my lines intact, and as a result I was able to secure my objectives while attacking Sam's flank with the flayers. As a result they managed to punch through his lines while my terrorgheist and zombie dragon slugged it out with his larger beasts. My terrorgheist was probably the man of the match here, tanking the damage from two thundertusks and a unit of yhetees, before healing himself back up and charging the last corner of the board to secure the final objective. I managed to pull off a win at the end, but it was a great game against a gorgeous army and really nice guy.
H
ighlight of the game: The entire game was a feast for the eyes, but having Sam's hunter sprinting back and forth across his backline, javellining any beasts that came close enough, was particularly memorable
Game 3: Knife to the Heart. Matt Lyons with Stormcast Eternals
The final game was against Matt Lyons of Pro Painted Podcast and Black Sun fame. Matt was using a striking stormcast army in a gorgeous yellow and black colour scheme, with a unit of Kharadron endrinriggers as allies.
From the start I knew I was at a disadvantage, as one major weakness of my force is that it does not compete in the shooting phase. As a result i could either play for the minor, play defensively and hope to eke out a win. Or I could go agressive, throw everything I had at the opposing army and hope for a win. Given I wanted to give my opponent a game and I'm never one to play against theme, I went for the latter. My wave of screaming flesh eaters swarmed across the board, crashed into Matt's lines in the centre of the board, and subsequently was routed by the stormcast. The endrinriggers were particularly impressive, using the grapnel launcher to get to places I thought safe. Matt knew exactly how to counter my army, removing the courtiers to stop the army coming back, then whittling the remaining characters down until all that remained were a few lowly ghouls, who were no doubt left wondering where their bigger more imposing friends had gone to! Matt was a pleasure to play against, and we had a great chat about the projects we were working on and future projects we were planning. Matt took a well deserved major win from the game and the first day drew to a close with a Major Win and 2 Major losses under my belt.
I'll cover the second day and overall results in a subsequent post, along with my final thoughts on the event overall, as well as my plans for future events.
As always, any comments or observations are welcome and appreciated!
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