WARNING! WALL OF TEXT!
Sorry for any mistakes, English isn't my native language.
Just sharing my expierence after playing in the Dutch Grand Tournament last weekend where I placed 12th (3 wins, 2 losses) with my Sylvaneth. I had a great weekend and all five of my opponents where great guys. We had a total of 40 players, including some known names like Ben Savva attending from the UK (with a few others from SLL) and Philipp Kartaev from Russia (I didn't face them tho). Full placement and all list here: CLICK.
My list performed above avarage, and better then I anticipated beforehand! I was aiming to reach at least place 20 or higher. I was running the following list:
Spirith of Durthu (General – Command Trait: My Hearth is Ice)
Arch-Revenant (Artefact: Frozen Kernel)
Drycha Hamadreth (Regrowth)
Branchwych (Verdurous Harmony)
Branchwraith (Throne of Vines)
20 Dryads
20 Spite-Revenants
5 Tree-Revenants
6 Kurnoth Hunters with Scythes
3 Kurnoth Hunters with Greatswords
Balewind Vortex
I played Durthu and the Kurnoth units for the main damage output, the Dryads and Spites where bubblewrap/objective holders and I kept the unit of Tree-Revenants in the back to teleport on objectives in the opponents zone.
I choose the Branchwych over a second Wraith, because she moved up with the Kurnoths to summon them back after dying and her mortal wound spell is more usefull on the frontline instead of summoning IMO.
Drycha was my one-trick-pony, because we played Hidden Agenda's as secondaries. I choose Sacrifice (4 victory points) every game if my opponent had strong heroes or a lot of monsters and made sure my opponent could only charge Drycha turn 1 with them. As I had 10 drops, I never got to choose for first turn, which made it harder for my opponent to make a descision. Either let Drycha shoot and melee his hero/monster and let me summon woods and get good placement, or only kill Drycha and block some placement for me but give me a free 4 victory points. This worked really well!
Game 1 - My first game I played against Ogor Mawtribes (LIST), 3 stonehorns and 10 Mournfangs. I studied his list and the scenario (Battle for the Pass) before the tournament. His lack of models (even though they count as 2 or 10) and my screening capabilities, as well as the far edge territory, should have made this a relative easy match-up for me. I practiced a few games against my friends Ogors and played the scenario a few times as well and it was in my favor most of the times. But unfortunatly, the worst thing ever happened...
He gave me first turn. In my hero phase, none of my spells went of. In my movement phase, I only added 1 or 2 inch to all my run rolls, and I didn't make it to any of the middle objectives. Shooting phase, no damage at all (not even Mortal Wounds from Drycha). Charge phase, I failed all the remaining charges I had. I only scored 1 point for Defend and 1 point for my own objective...
His first turn, he easily took the centre objectives and also charged my units which where now set up nicely to get wrecked. His Stonehorns crippled my units with their Mortal Wounds on the charge, and finished them off in the combat phase. I only managed to do 1 single wound on a Mournfang, that's it. He did kill Drycha with one of his big guys tho, which gave me 4 Victory Points.
Of course, he won the roll-off for turn 2 and took the double turn. At this point it was pretty much game, and I tried to salvage as many Victory Points as I could for my tournament ranking. I eventually got wiped bottom turn 3 (after going first), scoring 9 against 52.
Game 2 - Because I lost so insanely hard because I was unlucky the first round (I can say that, right?), I got matched with a player that was way below my level. Not to talk down on him, it was a great guy and we had a lot of fun. I even thought him a few tricks and tactics and we had a coffee afterwards to talk about the game because we finished pretty quickly.
He played a Maggotkin army (LIST) and the scenario was Total Commitment, which didn't bother both of us because we didn't have anything in reserve. Both armies formed a classic battleline and clashed in the middle of the battlefield. I got first turn and teleported the Tree-Revenants on his back objective, because he misplaced his Sorcerer by 1 or 2 inches. He also took the risk of not putting models on his other objective, thinking he could easily block me from getting there. I charged my Drycha into his Great Unclean One, hoping to score Sacrifice again, but he only managed to do 3 wounds to her. On the other side of the board my Spite-Revenants blocked two of his Blightking units by charging them and Durthu and the Scythe Hunters (with Frozen Kernel) got a charge of and murdered the third unit of Blightkings, the Blightlords and the Nurglings in one go.
In his first turn he kept the Blightkings in combat, so he didn't manage to grab his other objective or take back the one I allready had. The Great Unclean one did 4 wounds to Drycha, still not killing her. Durthu took a few wounds from piling Blightkings, but the Scythe Hunters striked back and killed them all. My Spites got murdered tho, because he rolled a few exploding sixes, granting him D6 hits. That ability is insane!
I won roll-off for turn two, teleported my Tree-Revenants to the other objective. I let Drycha fight last, but his GUO didn't do ANY damage to her, and then when she attacked him he died... No Sacrifice for me this game. All the remaining Blightkings and the unit of Plaguebearers got killed in combat, and it was basicly game because he didn't have many models left. We counted the points and I won the game scoring 47 against 0.
Game 3 - I got matched against one of the TO's on stand-by because apperently we started out with 41 players on Saturday (One of my friends had to drop out on Sunday unfortunatly because his little kid got ill). He played a nasty FEC army (LIST) with two kings on Terrorgheist and 12 Crypt Flayers. We were playing Scorched Earth.
He gave me first turn which I played very defensively. It gave me the opportunity to block the entire mid-field and hold on to the objectives on my side of the middle. During this match I was really happy I had the two big units of chaff. I ran both units on the objectives and placed them in a giant spiral shape, leaving no room inside the spiral to end his moves outside 3" and also no place for the giant Therrorgheist bases in case of charges. I kept the Tree-Revenants and heroes in the back to block his summoning, and Drycha was of course running up to the middle of the board, trying to score Sacrifice.
During his first turn my spirals blocked his entire army from moving up and the only viable target to charge was Drycha. He went in with both of his Terrorgheists and rolled really, really bad, leaving her alive with only 3 wounds left... Drycha attacked one of them and rolled insanly well, doing lot's of Mortal Wounds. His general was left with only 5 wounds! Insane! He didn't do any summons, because I left no gaps for him to position them well.
I won the roll-off for turn 2, and prepared a counter attack. Both Scythe and Sword Hunters teleported to a newly formed Wyldwood, ready to charge some Flayer units and Durthu set himself up for an 8" charge towards both Terrorgheists. Unfortunatly both Kurnoth units failed their charge, but Durthu rolled a massive 12" on his charge and went in running. He stomped the general Terrorgheist, making him strike last, and then eviscerated the non-general Terrorgheist, doing and amazing 24 wounds on him. I didn't declare the Impaling Tallon, so it was Drycha's turn to strike! She almost killed the general, leaving him with 2 wounds left barely alive, but it was his turn to strike now. He choose the easy target, Drycha, killing her easily this time even though he was wounded badly, also gifting my 4 Victory Points and an unwounded Durthu. Thanks! I burned one of the middle objectives on my side, just in case.
In his turn 2 he fell back with his general, and quickly used all the summons he had remaining putting another unit of Flayers and a unit of 20 Ghouls on the board. Lucky for me, I killed the other Terrorgheist before he could get his summon off. The Flayer units now screamed and then charged my Dryads, Spites and the unit of Scythe hunters, doing massive damage. I lost all the Spites, 12 Dryads and 2 Scythe Hunters. He burned the two middle objectives on his side, and also one on my side for double points.
Turn 3 and 4 I won both roll-offs and went first. We both had or backfields locked up thight and where fighting in the middle of the board. Untill the end of turn 4 it remained a tie, but bottom turn 4 he did a movement trick with his Flayers. He moved 20" up the board and seized one of my backfield objectives, immediately burning it. I didn't see it comming, and now my opponent took the lead. I needed to grab one of his backfield objectives and burn it as well, to tie on objective points again and win the game on secondary objectives.
Final turn, I won the roll-off again! I moved up with my remaining Scythe hunters and teleported my Tree-revenants towards one of his backfield objectives. Only one of them had to make the charge and kill his hero on that objective to deny Ancient Heirlooms for 4 extra points. Unfortunatly, the Tree-revs failed the charge and the Kurnoths had a really low charge roll, even after re-roll, and I didn't grab the objective and didn't kill the hero with the artefact. His general (now with only 1 wound remaining) was trying to hide, but my Arch-Revenant charged him head on and managed to do exactly 1 wound!
Eventually, he barely won the game (because I failed both charges and didn't grab the final objective and kill his hero) and I scored 26 against 33. Super exciting game, but to bad I lost in the end.
Game 4 - On Sunday for my first game I got matched against the wierdest Cities of Sigmar army I have ever seen (LIST). Living City with Durthu & Drycha, some Duardin, some Aelves and some Stormcast. We played Focal Points, and I tried a tricky set-up with a Wyldwood in the far left corner of my deployment zone with Durthu inside.
He took first turn and lucky for me, my opponent fell for it! He walked up to board edge near my Wyldwood with both his Durthu and Drycha against my Durthu. I placed the model in a way that he couldn't shoot and due to the limitations of the Wyldwood (I use the old Citadel Wood plates with impassible terrain) there was no room for them to charge me straight through. He had to walk around for a 12" charge. Unfortunatly he still managed to charge his Drycha into my Durthu, but didn't get the second charge off. Durthu stood his ground and managed to leave Drycha with only 4 wounds remaining while he still had 9. On the other side of the board a massive unit of Aelven archers walked up to board, and shot 41 arrows into my Sword Hunters, which died a horrible dead. His Gyrocopter was the only model left on the objective and he scored bonus points for holding both side objectives, as well as the center objective and the one in his deployment zone, gaining a major advantage on me.
My first turn didn't go well. I failed all my spells and missed a charge against the Sisters of the Watch. I retook two objectives tho and Durthu absolutley nailed it. He stomped the enemy Drycha and then killed her. The opponent also left me a nice empty place all the way in the corner of his territory for my Tree-Revenants to teleport to, scoring me Overrun (a unit wholly within each table quarter). He didn't bother to move up and charge them the entire game, because I could just teleport away if he got to close, so I scored Overrun for free every turn during this game.
The opponent won the rol-off for second turn as well, and charged his Evocators in my Dryads (they got deleted...) and his Durthu in my Durthu. I managed to get a stomp on Durthu, and struck first almost killing him instantly! Unfortunatly his sword only did D6 damage because he was damaged, doing 10 wounds on the enemy Durthu. I got really lucky when he struck me, because he did zero damage on my Durthu! In my turn 2 I moved some units up the board, but didn't make any charges.
I won the roll-off for turn 3 and took the double turn. Game changer! I managed to get Regrowth of on Durthu healing him back up to full, the Scythe hunters charged and murdered the Evocators on the central objective and I even got a charge of on a freshly summoned unit of Dryads. I now had control over 3 of the 5 objectives. In his turn 3 he tried to move up with both his units of Ironbreakers and the Sisters of the Watch. He didn't charge me but took the objectives with numbers.
Turn 4 I won the roll-off again an oblitered most of his forces. He only had half a unit of Dwarfs left and a Knight-Incantor. He still managed to deny me control over 2 objectives, scoring him some more points.
Turn 5 I went first again, and took control over all 5 objectives. In his turn he managed to kill my Tree-revenants, reclaiming 1 objective. He also had Retake as Hidden Agenda, which scored him 4 bonus Victory Points throughout the match, which made it a close call in the end.
I ended up winning 30 against 27.
Game 5 - I got matched against another Ogor army (LIST), piloted by one of my friends and club mate. The one winning this match would end up getting the highest score of our club (we attended with 5 people). For this final round we had to play the challenging Better Part of Valour battleplan.
We might be good friends, but that didn't make use soft for this match. It was a heated battle from the roll-off for deployment to the final battleround. We know eachothers armies well and even practiced for the GT against eachother, which actually made this battle one of the hardest and most challanging for us both!
He had to choose who got first turn, and he knew my Sacrifice Drycha trick. But I made the most tight deployment I ever did in a game of Age of Sigmar. My entire backfield was blocked for his Huntmaster and Frost Sabres, all my objectives where blocked and the ONLY model in range for him to get a charge on was Drycha, the rest of my army was just .5" from his maximum threat range. He had to choose, killing only Drycha and don't do anything else turn 1, or let Drycha shoot up one of his Stonehorns with Mortal Wounds and give me the space for Wyldwoods and good counter-movements against him.
He still decided to go first, and killed Drycha before she could do anything. But 4 Victory Points for me before doing anything! He moved up his entire army, except two small units of Frost Sabres and his Slaugthermaster who defended his objectives gainst my teleporting Tree-revs.
In my turn one, I had perfect positioning to charge his stonehorns. I charged the unit of Scythes in one of them and a teleported Durthu in the other. I also ran a unit of 20 Dryads across the other side of the board, trying to grab one of his objectives to burn in the second battleround if I went first. Unfortunatly Durthu didn't get his stomp, so I had to choose which stonehorn I would fight first. I went with Durthu to go first and activated my Frozen Kernel on the Scythe Hunters in case I lost a few of them. Durthu massacred the Stonehorn doing a massive 30 wounds (Max output... Damn) which he couldn't save. But his other Stonehorn was mad for revenge, and did 26 damage back to my unit of Kurtnoths, killing all but the Huntmaster. This was a blow to the face for me, but the lonely Huntermaster with double attacks still managed to do 5 (!!!) wounds against the Stonehorn. The enemy survived tho, and had one little toe on the objective in case he won the roll-off for turn 2...
My opponent won the roll-off for turn 2, and counter charged with a big unit of Gluttons against my Durthu. I couldn't get a stomp of and he easily killed Durthu. The Huntermaster made a noble attempt to kill the giant Stonehorn, but didn't do any wounds this time. He then got stomped to dead by the beast. My opponent burned the objective in my zone, as well as his own objective which my Dryads tried to reach.
In my second turn I started building a castle on my two remaining objectives. I didn't get my spells of and ran the unit of Dryads back to my own territory. Not much else I could do, ending my turn.
Fortunatly, I won the roll-off for turn 3. This time I got my spells off and made a Wyldwood for the Sword Hunters to teleport to his central objective. The Tree-revs also teleported, to his top objective. I backed up a little more onto my own bottom objective (burning the middle one) so he could never reach it with his Stonehorn and Gluttons. I killed the models on his objectives and immidiatly burned them. There was now only 1 objective remaining, guarded by three ranks of Dryads/Spites (each 3,5" apart) where he could never crunch through within the remaining two turns (even if he did, I would burn the objective for 4 Victory Points in round 4 instead of 8 Victory Points in round 5).
We calculated the scores and shook hands. I won the game scoring 19 against 13, giving him 4 extra Victory Points for Ancient Heirlooms because we didn't play it out.
Some pictures attached! With myself on the left during Game 4 where my opponent found out he couldn't charge through my forest, lol.