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For Glory, not Honour


Hampshire Hammerers

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For Glory, not Honour 

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Saturday 8th of November was the first official group event attendance for the Hammerers. Solent wargamers club were the hosts for Honour & Glory, held at the Royal British Legion South in Portsmouth. We would play three randomly determined games all from the matched play section of the generals handbook.
Including the four attending Hammerers, the event had a total of 12 gamers. Our armies were:
James - Flesh Eater Courts
Chris - Devoted / Stormcast
Jack - Sylvaneth
David - Sylvaneth

My army was:

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Ghoul King on Terrorgheist

Ghoul King

Crypt Haunter Courtier

Crypt Ghast Courtier

Varghulf Courtier

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20x Ghouls

20x Ghouls

20x Ghouls

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3x Crypt Flayers

6x Crypt Horrors

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Ghoul Patrol
After a quick brief, we had the opportunity to choose our first opponent & table before finding out game 1 would be Escalation. - possibly the worst possible battleplan for me to start with as I've never even played it! I know, I know, the HeelanHammer boys would be shaking their heads at my poor tourney prep, but I did my best to brush up pre-game! My opponent Benjamin was a really great guy, with a fantastic Sylvaneth army in some really unique colours. He also had a celestial hurricanium which I had yet to come up against in AoS, a Treelord Ancient, Treelord, 10x tree revenants, 6x Kurnoth hunters with bows, 2x branchwyches and of course, plenty of Dryads! ( Apologies if I've missed anything! )
GAME 1 vs. SYLVANETH
Escalation requires you to split your units into 3 parts that arrive over three turns, attempting to hold objectives that are spread diagonally across the board, one next to your territories, and one in the centre of the board. Each of your turns after the first that you have more models within 6" of an objective than the enemy, you score a point per objective held.
I had 10 drops - so had to deploy 4-4-2 units over the three turns. Benjamin had 9 drops and therefore deployed 3-3-3.

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Having bought the Ghoul Patrol formation, my interpretation of the battleplan was that I wouldn't be able to use my movement shenanigans as the scenario states that battleline units have to be deployed first. Also, in a game where points are scored for having objectives held in your turn, I ran the risk of conceding points early as I would've only had one unit on the table if I had employed the ghoul Patrol formation, compared to Ben's 3 starting units.
I deployed my first ghoul unit as close to the objective nearest my territory as possible, a second unit dead centre and a third way off on my right flank to threaten the far objective. I then deployed my Ghoul king on terrorgheist ( general ) in the centre of my territory behind a building out of range and view of the soon to arrive Kurnoth Hunters.

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Tactically, I had no intention of attempting to take on the far objective and figured this battle was either lost or won in the centre of the field. I had a strong foothold on one objective, my enemy the other, so the third objective would be the one to tip the balance.

I planned on using my characters to sit back and buff my ghouls, helping to keep enough of them around to outnumber the Sylvaneth and keep scoring. The only hero I would use aggressively would be my Ghoul King on Terrorgheist- who loses very little momentum when wounded, and comes back to life anyway!
I will also mention at this point, that I lost every turn roll in this game!
First, a Sylvaneth wildwood grew from nowhere all around the central objective, telling me the enemy had a similar understanding of where the fight would be won. Mirroring my deployment, units appeared turn one facing off against each objective. Buffs were applied to the Sylvaneth, and each unit ran up towards each objective early.
My first turn began much the same way, with my Ghouls holding the objective nearest my territory, ready to start earning points next turn. The now sacrificial flanking unit ran towards the far objective, and the central ghoul horde leapt forward with my ghoul king a safe distance behind them, securing deathless minions range without exposing himself to the inevitable arrival of the Kurnoth Hunters.

I had also summoned my crypt Flayers using the General's 'summon royal guard' command ability and deployed the unit on my near objective to protect and/or replace my camping ghoul unit. With a regular wood near my home objective, I was certain something would be appearing from amongst the boughs to attack my troops, and the crypt Flayers scream would help against the low bravery foe.

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Seeing as Benjamin had deployed the smallest of his dryad units on his home objective, I figured my flanking ghoul unit might just destroy or at least outnumber them to gain me a cheeky extra point on an objective I hadn't hoped to control, and made sure they remained well within a tempting charge distance of his troops.

On the nearest objective to my territory, I'd be facing off against the tree revenants with the Treelord close behind. I hadn't faced revenants before, but with one wound and a poor save, not to mention outnumbered 2-1, they should have been easy to whittle down to make sure I would be able to secure the objective and hold out against the angered Treelord!

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The Sylvaneth went on to create another wildwood close to the objective in their territory and the treelord ancient burst from the copse nearest my general. The battle for the central objective was in full swing.

Having killed half of the revenants in close combat already, way-pipes were used to relocate the unit to the far end of the table to support the smaller unit of dryads, who were embattled & surrounded next to another newly sprouted wild wood! Thought I had that objective in the bag!

Mixed shooting from Kurnoth Hunters & the treelord ancient, as well as a barrage of arcane bolts & comets reduced my Ghoul King to a single wound, stranded and severely beaten in the centre of the board. After explaining the rules for the ring of immortality to Benjamin, he opted to leave the Vampire limping through the woods surrounding the central objective.

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Having butchered a large number of dryads on the central objective, my Ghouls retreated to reduce their chances of being counter-charged while still remaining within range to collect my much needed battle plan points. The crypt Ghast courtier and second ghoul king arrived, skulking in a nearby building to heal and buff my central units, while my large unit of crypt horrors entered the fray racing towards their masters' side ready to weigh in against the hurricanium and Kurnoth hunters.

The combined efforts of my newly arrived Varghulf and my remaining Ghouls eventually finished off the treelord, before the bestial vampire was pin-cushioned with Hunter arrows. With the central ghoul unit still holding onto the contested objective, I manoeuvred my crypt horrors around an intervening building to take on the treelord ancient that had decimated my General.

Despite making a massive charge distance the horrors were bottle-necked between the terrain and slowly slaughtered by the treelord. My crypt Haunter Courtier had also been assassinated attempting to replenish my horrors by the hunters' bows, one trio of which were scarily accurate thanks to the buffs bestowed by the hurricanum.

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My General was finally brought down late game and reappeared due to my invaluable artefact behind my ghoul hordes, keeping them in the fight with that 5+ deathless minions save. The game went right to the wire, to the last minute of our allotted time, with the the last of the remaining dryads needing to kill enough of my Ghouls in the centre of the field to have the majority of models on the objective at the end of the final turn. Though the Sylvaneth failed on their mission drawing on points, I lost the game on VPs by 720-500.
A really awesome first game against a great opponent, and a really tense fight to the death!

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