Turragor Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 So the weekend just past was exciting. I travelled to Linköping to play a 1500 point AoS tournament at Defcon with a focus on good games and good experiences (a "soft" scoring tournament). Army composition: 1500 (1-4 Heroes, 2+ Battleline, 0-2 Artillery, 0-2 Behemoths, 300 p allies) My Army: I wanted to be friendly but I didn't take a list that wouldn't work out at all (so I knew it for sure wasn't 100% friendly) and I trimmed down my current 2,000 list to 1,460 and took away the Castellant so that I'd not have a stupid save on the SD and took a relictor instead (mainly for LC shenanigans and fun): LCoSD, Mirroshield, Staunch Defender, Didn't care about mount trait Lord Relictor, Lightning Chariot Lord Relictor, Lightning Chariot 5 Liberators 5 Judicators 20 Vulkite berserkers 2 Fulminators Match scoring: Open War Cards - 3 battle points for achieving the objective (both could unless it was exclusive) and 2 battle points for sudden death (both could claim this - even if the card said 'the match immediately ends and you win'). There was unique deployment conditions, and a twist for rounds 1-3 and a change in twist for the last 2 rounds. The organisers drew the cards for each of the 5 matches for the whole group. Then we had the scoring that decided the tournament winner which you awarded at the end by giving points (3, 2 and 1) to your top 3 opponents judged by their painting standard, sportsmanship, how cheesy their list was and how much fun you had in general during the game. Note - I liked this tournament format . Everyone played to win but it wasn't just about who had the best list and the most experience with the GHB scenarios. It was more who had the experience, know-how and list flexibility. And even if you had those things and won, if you weren't someone who stands out as extra, super nice sportsman 4 other really nice opponents (I mean, EVERYONE was awesome) you weren't going to win the tournament. You'd just know you played well and stretched your ability with the list or faction you took (which is a reward in itself). I'll include reports for each match. I have done a few of these here and the way I was doing them took so much time I couldn't get them all up. So now I'm going for the format - short description and highlights in text then a splurge of pics. I think that'll let me share more reports on the boards instead of dreading the idea of adding them (they were taking up to an hour before ha!). Match 1 - versus @Lysandestolpe and his sexy, sexy Khorne army (he already has his reports up here and they're also awesome). This was my match of the tournament. It had everything I wanted in the classic grudge match - the starter set taken to the next level - and ended dead even with literally nothing 'achieved' (oh how we tried) but our respective gods were drunk with satisfaction. Mayyybe mostly Khorne considering his aims and desires are sort of cheating in a wargame. The main objective was to kill a 'messenger' (in my case a relictor, in his case a model in one of his big troop blocks). The sudden death was to have no enemy in your deployment zone and to have some in your opponent's deployment zone end of game. Highlights include: My Stardrake just dying after charging (so no save bonus) alllll the reavers and taking 5 wounds and then getting blood boiled and finished by the reavers the next turn; Dwarves who would not die; A fulminator somehow managing to execute many khorgoraths; the epic "pray-off" of the priests (2 relictors and 3 slaughterpriests with a 90% prayer success rate or something); the full block of remaining reavers steaming into the messenger relictor and leaving him on 1 wound only to have me succeed with lightning chariot to escape and heal up with healing storm; experiencing blood bind for the first time; and finally the priest throwdown in the middle at the end where the relictor was blood bound, rolled a 1 for his run, didn't get blood boiled, took 3 slaughterpriest charges and fended them all off with the help of his converted pigeon (surely how it went down). Result - 0 - 0 Pic spam below: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 Match 2 was against a pretty interesting Seraphon list. 40 warriors with spears, bastiladon, 2 x 10 warriors, 10 skinks, slann, oldblood, seer. Something like that. Our objective was to do do more damage in wounds total to the enemy army. Nice and simple! Sudden death was more complicated - we each were to nominate a terrain piece after deployment in the enemy deployment zone and if we had a model within 3 inches of it at the end of the battle we got 3 points. This was tough. My opponent smartly gave me the side with lots of terrain! I had 2 to choose from and he could defend easily. So here I relied on relocating my vulkites as a shield that had to survive to the end of the game. Luckily I could choose who went first and had to take round 1 to redeploy my vulkites around the terrain piece he chose. I also reached his skinks with my fulminators and all but wiped them out (I reckoned they'd be guaranteed to win the game for him if I let them live. He started out strongly, teleporting his 40 saurus warrior block with a host of buffs with a 6 on the die (port, move, charge :S) and he promptly charged my vulkite line. As he rolled dice after dice I thought it was over but I had a lot of luck and the vulkites shield bonus (in melee) to save really makes a difference. So 100 odd spear and bite attacks later I'd lost only a handful and I reckoned I could do it. I believe he won initiative again and teleported his heroes near to his saurus to keep the buffs going and try to put more pressure on but my vulkites held. By never moving them at all (not even to pile in) and taking away casualties in a specific way (and lightning charioting more units or moving more units to my terrain piece) I made sure he wouldn't have 9 inches nearby for an easy teleport and (if lucky) move and then charge right into the 3" dangerzone. My judicators shot his slann up (my prime rolled 6s and 5s almost all tournament!). My stardrake reached them and started working away doing quite a bit of damage. He also ATE the skink seer (which made me laugh). After another turn I got my fulminators ready to charge the rear of his big block of warriors. At this point I think my opponent had calculated that if he was going to have a tough time claiming the main objective over me and if he let that big saurus block died (which was likely in the next turn) I'd lightning chariot to his terrain piece and get my sudden death too. So he teleported them back to defend. So with one round left we figured that I'd not be able to reach the rest of his warriors and punch a hole in them to reach the objective in one turn and shook hands on a good match. Result 3 - 0. Pics below: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 Match 3 was against a beautifully painted destruction list. 2x5 brutes a megaboss and a bunch of nightgoblins (6 fanatics!) with lots of SQUIGS! I was so happy to see them. Our objective was to place a central objective then one each in our own deployment zones. If we had more models within 3 inches of these we controlled them. If at any point we controlled all we won that objective and got 3 points. Our sudden death objective was assassinate - kill the enemy hero or monster with the highest wounds characteristic. So my Stardrake, his Megaboss. Now his list was fluffy but, as with most of the lists there, even the fluffiest had a very dangerous element to them. As we setup he was deploying in a line with the goblins hiding the fanatics in the centre of his non-ironjawz units. I reckoned if I tried charging anything that wasn't a deadly brute or megaboss I'd have 6 fanatics block all fulminator and stardrake charges. The brutes or megaboss that could get in after together with the fanatics had a good chance at destroying my toughest stuff. I also couldn't go too far out on the wings as I'd still need to move centrally to secure objectives and I'd be back near fanatics again. So, I came up with a cunning (but silly) plan. We could deploy all the way up to the half way line (into combat if we liked) and my opponent and I deployed more traditionally round each of our objectives to start with, but then I wanted to bait out something from him, commit something, so I setup my Drake and fulminators at the halfway point on the left - after his brutes and boss were down and on the opposite side from them. He then setup squigs about 12 inches away lined up with his gobbos facing my lizards. An epic battle. What I wanted to do was draw out the fanatics against my dwarves - at least 3 of them. I'd have to be very careful of getting 6 near my cavalry dudes. I took the first turn and retreated my drake and guard back in a ridiculous tactical move (given they were facing squigs) that had me in stitches. The first part of my grand plan that probably had him very confused! I also failed lightning chariot for the vulkites but advanced them towards the middle objective. I put a wound on a brute with shooting and some rain of stars here and there - mostly on his spear chukka crew which could make things unpleasant. I left it with 1 grot. My opponent took his turn and his dice showed their colours for the match - awful stuff! 1 brute unit was befuddled by mystical and his destruction move was nothing special. His squigs chased my lizards, one unit straying into deadly terrain! Classic squigs! I now figured I could reduce one squig unit substantially with fulminators and entice the other to come to them - just to remove them as potential numbers round objectives later. I moved the stardrake back towards the middle. My dwarves surrounded the objective in the middle and shielded / hindered the potential brutes and ironjawz from the drakes. They also got close enough to really tempt the first 3 fanatics out - would my opponent wait or not? My fulminators nobly slew a bunch of angry orange balls with old man faces and lots of teeth. He let his fanatics out and they slammed into the dwarves. Fortunately the damage was only enough to take me down a few (ward save now at 5+ though). End of turn. At this point I was looking at 3 fanatics, 10 brutes and a megaboss into my vulkites on his coming turn and I was not very sure they'd be okay enough for me to salvage the game but I figured it was my only chance. My opponent rolled for mystical and the OTHER brute unit AND his megaboss were both befuddled! Oh dear! He put some wounds on the drake with his shaman spell and then fired some gobbos at it but they didn't make an impact. The charge phase was tense as the brutes readied their 3 inch charge... snake eyes! Ahhhhhhh I really felt for him as luck was forbidding him from putting much pressure on my plan at the moment. He charged his other squig unit into my fulminators and 1 died to deadly terrain (comical mental image - after all if a squig falls it has only its face to break the fall). They did not do so well against the fulminators. I got the initiative and finished off the squigs, moved my stardrake in for a charge at the gobbo archers (with fanatics left) or gobbo spearmen (between my SD and the other fanatics and ironjawz). He chose to release his fanatics which I expected and they mostly bounced off the drake managing a few wounds - I may have overestimated them. My stardrake got a charge into the speargobbos and they basically all died as I ate the netters hidden at the back first, nom, nom, nom. They then fled to battleshock. In my opponents next turn he got more brutes ready for the charge but megaboss was once more befuddled (iirc) making it a very, very confusing piece of terrain there in the middle of the 'jawz. His shaman became completely infatuated with a mushroom and did nothing. He focused some ranged here and there and achieved little. The brutes hit the vulkite line and I rolled some brilliant saves and ward saves, losing a lot but keeping a screen between them and the objective. The battle was pretty much settled from here I think. I didn't have to figure out how to deal with the ironjawz as they'd have a turn to chew through the dwarves (with luck his megaboss might make it to the drake) and have to kill towards the objective, where I would chariot in a relictor. I would also move the liberators forward now to pin some brutes in combat. I could shoot the remaining fanatics away (unless rather unlucky) freeing my drake to charge the archer gobbos with the fulminators coming in behind to really take control of the objective there. I shot off the megaboss and took all objectives - not without more loss of life (the moon clan warboss killed a fulminator!) - by the battle's end. Result 5-0. Pics: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 Match 4 was versus a very sharp Kharadron Overlords list. The twist the organisers drew was -1 to shooting rounds 1 - 3 (4+ to take it away each round) so I felt like I could risk taking his round 1 barrage of fire. He had endrinriggers and an aetherkhemist and I'd heard word that combo had destroyed another big, tough model the game before. So I felt the melee risk to my stardrake was greater (until I locked them down). As it would turn out, I just made bad decisions the whole time which cost me quite dearly. But what a game! Attempting to take Kharadron firepower full on (with a -1) was surely an experience! The objective was to take and burn 3 objectives in the opponents deployment zone (we could both score this). We could place them in our own deployment zone at least 6 inches from each other and the table edge. Control was 'most models within 3"' Sudden death was to kill over half the models in your opponents army (we could both score this). As I read these two I realised he had an advantage for both - if I wasn't careful. I couldn't both have numbers on my objectives and take his. I had to choose. Given he was one drop how I deployed decided if he would go first. I feel like this game - the first on day 2 - was me versus me and my opponent. I did a classic 'start properly thinking round 2'. I should have chosen a different deployment zone, placed my objectives differently and deployed further back to make him ponder more. As it was I just gave him a nut on a plate to crack. So he came down and opened fire, ignoring his own objectives but making sure I had no chariot deployment range to them to sneakily burn one with a relictor. His first turn of shooting he, thankfully, whiffed. Killing 4 judicators and 1 vulkite. He also didn't connect his endrinrigger charge on my drake! I could now pin them with my fulminators (kill them I thought) and make some progress. Unfortunately my fulminators wiffed and I killed one. I didn't get much joy from my shooting and it was kind of a 'reset' for round 2. At least his riggers couldn't charge my drake (unless he shot my fulminators away but that realistically wasn't happening). He won initiative and changed focus, blasting my judicators, some vulkites and some liberators away which was very smart, it was easiest way to get his 2 points and make it nearly impossible for me to get my 3 (and stop him getting his 3). At this point I started counting the models he had left. It would be 5 - 0 or 5 - 2! The game then played out a bit predictably. I managed to clear the endrinriggers who had killed the fulminators with a stardrake charge leaving just one alive (pinning him). I then took initiative and, foolishly we both agreed later (at the same time I had few options left) took it when I could have had a stardrake free to move after and perhaps save my objectives. I thought I'd shoot off that one rigger and be free anyway before he could shoot more troops. As it was, I couldn't shoot the endrinrigger and just ate him and sat there. He removed all my troops in the end, leaving only a drake and 2 brave relictors standing, and burned all my objectives but the drake was now free and flew over to an arkanaut company to destroy it in short order. I just made my 2 point objective. What a game! Result 2 - 5 Pics: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 My final match was against a pretty tough Chaos Dwarf list. It certainly looked intimidating! 6 bull centaurs, their centaur hero as general, lots of glaive guys, skullcracker, standard and their main flying guy. As it was the final game and we had this cool 'prize' objective (take it with a model and hold it at the end of the game to score 3) combined with a great sudden death (general must get killing blow on general) and deployment (two arrow heads meeting where you could deploy right to the edge), I decided to just put all bodies forward. I figured to have a chance I needed to use the vulkites like a shield wall against the centaurs, then have the libs behind to step forward and maybe pin those centaurs in place. My opponent would probably take the objective with them and if I could bring the star drake (who would go through their general, weakened by shooting, on the way) and fulminators into the centaurs and that would be it. At the same time, playing this army was an unknown factor, I'd never met azgorh. So it was going to be awesome and I was ready for a surprise or trick from my opponent! I'll let the pics show what happened for this one, they tell a pretty good story. Basically it all went according to plan but my opponent had some bad luck with the skullcracker against the fulminators. He also absolutely destroyed the vulkites faster than I thought but luckily my liberators who charged in to pin after did not die immediately and the last - the heroic prime, held them in place so my drake didn't take a 6 bull charge after he bested his general. The final bonus for me was the star drake eating a bull centaur! That puts his (across all tournaments) "memorable meal list" at: Varanguard 5 Chaos Knights Skink hero Bull Centaur And he keeps thinking of new meals he'd like to try! Before the end, with a Stardrake that wouldn't likely die poised to take 'the prize' we shook and just had a chat*. Result 5 - 0 Pics: *My opponent and I had a talk after the match and he thought my Stardrake (with fulminators and relictors) was a bit cheesy and after a bit of a ponder - as I wasn't thinking it was cheesy more a bit of synergy for a cool model that is very strong at the moment, though you can control it - I took the feedback on board and will draw on it next time I go to a friendly tournament. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chord Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Great writeup!! thanks for sharing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 So it was a great tournament! My army won best in show for painting (that was close imo, the standard was stupidly high) which means my army (nominated in my other two big tourneys but no wins till now) must get a real kick or complementary flavour from the blue bearded pale vulkites. I was also ashamed (maybe not the exact feeling) that they won but were so old. I know at least 4 or 5 of those there had seen it before for example. Still, winning things is always a nice bonus at these weekends! The overall results were: Resulatet: Plac Namn Battle Total Votes Total 1 Albin 7 12 2 Oskar K 12 10 3 Alfred 9 10 4 Fredrik 7 8 5 Johan 18 7 6 Craig 15 7 7 Niklas 10 6 8 Jonas 17 4 9 Folke 10 4 10 Oskar C14 3 11 Andreas 18 1 12 Arr 7 0 Where: Battle total is total points from objectives and, Votes total is the total points granted by your opponents for sportsmanship (you only voted for 3 of your opponents - 1st, 2nd and 3rd giving 3, 2 and 1 points respectively). Arr is an abbreviation for the Swedish word for "organisers" (there were 2 taking it in turns to fill a gap - and you were not permitted to vote for them sportsmanship wise so it didn't end up with any weird results). So I'm sitting in the middle (joint) with sportsmanship points together with another lovely stormcast player and I think our lists may have been a little tough for opponents to agree 'not cheesy'. I'm quite happy that I got 7 of 15 whilst also getting 15 BP. I take that to mean I'm a swell guy but I should maybe think of my list next time. And I think, given everyone there was so nice, is exactly what the decider was for the sportsmanship points ppl gave out. The lists lower down were generally tougher - in defence (which isn't really needed imo!) of the fellow on 1, he has a painted army (Fyreslayers) and he made lots and lots of changes to make it much friendlier than it could have been haha! And that's my main takeaway from the tourney - and it was an interesting conversation over dinner and a beer on the Saturday night (I love tournament dinner hobby talk!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kramer Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Thanks for sharign! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erdemo86 Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Hey turragor, thanks for sharing. Very nice reports. You said you didnt wanted to be too cheesy with your list. What would you have changed if you wanted to be as cheesy as possible with your list? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 1 hour ago, Erdemo86 said: Hey turragor, thanks for sharing. Very nice reports. You said you didnt wanted to be too cheesy with your list. What would you have changed if you wanted to be as cheesy as possible with your list? Before the tournament I thought that 20 vulkites lose a lot of their lustre when compared to 30 and when the objectives are random cards. I had taken them to just show off their beards mainly. So I'd probably have dropped them and taken 2 x 5 liberators as battleline. I'm now not sure about this. They saved me in 2 games but were kind of good in 2 and died fast in 2 more. And my big concession was the Castellant. I thought 2 Relictors (who can pump out heals mind you) would be less cheese than 1 relictor and 1 Castellant. Or just Castellant with the points elsewhere. I feel with Castellant you are ultra safe v a few things when it's not your turn. And then I built but didn't paint 2 more Fulminators. I thought that was too much cheese! So probably LCoSD Castellant 2 x 5 liberators 4 Fulminators Then either heraldor or venator i think. That would have been unpleasant for some there. Lots of punch. Even so I felt my army was a bit stronger than a friendly list when it came to the objectives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredrik Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Thanks for a great game and writeup, next time I'll be sure to not deploy my brutes anywhere near mystical terrain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 9, 2018 Author Share Posted January 9, 2018 56 minutes ago, Fredrik said: Thanks for a great game and writeup, next time I'll be sure to not deploy my brutes anywhere near mystical terrain Thank you too! Your army played so thematically tbh it was (I think we talked about it) like an old 6th edition greenskins list, unruly and mad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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