The Tournament
So it’s been far too long since I last wrote a post. I had intended to do a post-tournament wrap up of Cancon but frankly I was exhausted, couldn’t remember the details of all 8 games and didn’t do or play particularly well in many of my games.
Luckily, the same can’t be said for Gobbocon. A local South Australian tournament at which I had a great time. Here’s the rundown of the tournament particulars:
- 1750 Points
- 50% Lords/Heroes
- Lore of Undeath allowed
- No End Times characters/armies
- No comp
- 16 players
- Some simple, but enjoyable, scenarios
The List
Alarielle the Radiant
Game 1 – Slaanesh Daemons
Against Daemons, Banner of the World Dragon is pretty insane. Alarielle is also very handy, though I did forget one of her rules (Chaos Bane) for the duration of the tournament. The scenario for this game was a 300 VP bonus if you ended the game with a unit with full command in your opponent’s deployment zone. Here is a picture of the deployment. My opponent brought something like the following (there were various gifts but I don’t remember exactly):
Keeper of Secrets
Herald of Slaanesh
Herald of Slaanesh
25 Daemonettes of Slaanesh; Full Command
10 Daemonettes of Slaanesh; Full Command
5 Seekers of Slaanesh
3 Fiends of Slaanesh
Soul Grinder
My opponent played this game very well and I played quite badly, I think. I needed to be more aggressive with my Banner of the World Dragon unit. I got quite unlucky in my attempts to shoot the Seekers, only doing maybe 1 wound, and then he used them to kill all my shooting. I had rolled all four spells on the Lore of Light and I tried to focus my magic efforts at his Keeper. This meant that my unit facing was often poor as I had to swivel around to shoot at it. He survived 20+ S3/4 hits throughout the first several turns without a wound which felt unlucky. I’d expect to chip a few off. When I did kill it though, it was with a single S6 Shem’s Burning Gaze from Alarielle. I was certainly favoured to kill it over the game but I really needed the points at that stage to keep myself in the game. I should’ve been boosting Shem’s instead of focusing on banishment because the higher strength is so important. He killed everything in my army except my White Lion unit and characters.
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| My army facing a strange direction to challenge the Keeper of Secrets as my left flank fell apart |
In the last few turns, he was running his Soul Grinder away from my White Lion unit and I needed to roll an 8 then an 11 to catch it with charges. In hindsight, I should have marched the first time and charged the second. I would’ve almost certainly caught it, probably killed it then overrun into the deployment zone. I didn’t do anything to either of his Daemonette block. The game ended with a 25 VP difference so it was 10-10 and he got bonus 300. Again, my opponent played very well, I should have been chasing the big stuff instead of trying to castle up. I certainly felt out of practice at this stage. I think him killing everything is probably unavoidable but I should’ve been able to get points out of the big Daemonette block also, I think.
Game 2 – High Elves
The second game I was paired against one of the other High Elf players. The field was 25% High Elves which is not uncommon. They are a popular army and an easy starting army for many players owing to the 8th edition starter set. The deployment style was Battle for the Pass. The scenario was that after deployment you elect a unit with full command and >=10 models and if you kill that unit, you get 300VPs. Here is a photo of the deployment and his was something like this:
Archmage; level 4, Lore of Shadow, Book of Hoeth
Caradryan;
Noble; Battle Standard Bearer, Elven Steed, Star Lance, Dragon Armour, Enchanted Shield, Great Weapon
Mage; level 2
34 Lothern Seaguard; Full Command
21 White Lions; Full Command, Banner of the World Dragon
6 Dragon Princes; Full Command
With so few drops, I let him deploy first so I knew where to put my stuff. He was getting +1 to go first either way. I deployed everything out of his 24” shooting range but within 29″ so he could move and shoot me but if I got lucky and went first, I could move and cast magic at him and my archers could shoot without moving. He rolled a 1 to go first. My 3 was good. I moved Alarielle and the White Lions up and cast The Dwellers Below. The game was basically over at this point. I killed 24/34 Seaguard and both Mages. My archers shot off a few more Seagard and they failed their panic test with the BSB too far away. They were <25% and were on snake eyes to rally so I just let them continue running. They took a while to make it to the end of the board but that was effectively well over 1000 points in the first turn with the bonus.
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| The end of the game on my turn 3 |
My bolt throwers did a number on his Dragon Princes, killing all of them in two turns (I believe he failed almost every 4+ save) before my Phoenix swooped in and ate his Noble who was forced to fight with the Great Weapon and eschew his shield, meaning no save. His White Lions eventually made it into mine which was annoying because Alarielle gives my whole unit Magical Attacks. A bit of liability against Banner of the World Dragon but no matter. I charged my archers and Silverhelms in also, expecting to grind them out over several turns but he failed his Ld 10 stubborn test and I had three units that could chase him. One of the fastest games I’ve ever played and a 20-0 to me with the
bonus.
A Brief Interlude
At this point, I had to rush off and rescue my wife. She had been running to get the bus which had driven past her. She had also dropped her phone while running and smashed the screen. She had been trying to make it into the city to meet a friend and it was all a bit too much and she was quite upset. Pregnancy hormones playing a part, I think. I checked with the TO and asked if I might be late to the next round. Being such a small tournament and a nice group of guys, it was all was fine. So I disappeared for just over an hour to pick her up and take her into town then made it back for game 3 about 15 mins, which is why I forgot to take photos.
Game 3 – Slaanesh Daemons
Another game against Slaanesh Daemons. Quite the favourable draw, to be honest. In this game there was a bonus 300VPs for ending the game with your BSB in the middle of the board. Here’s (roughly) my opponents’ list:
Daemon Prince of Slaanesh
Herald of Slaanesh
Herald of Slaanesh
40 Daemoneetes of Slaanesh; Full Command
10 Seekers of Slaanesh
5 Seekers of Slaanesh
This list was a bit more focused on combat than the other Daemons list which made it even harder for my opponent. What also wasn’t great for him was that I had just had practice against them and knew just how resilient my unit was. I played this game almost perfectly, I think, and got a bit lucky to boot. I protected my shooting better and used it to demolish his Seekers before they could reach me. I pushed with the White Lions towards the middle, forcing the fight with his hoard. I failed a charge and he got me with a combo charge the next turn of the Daemon Prince and the Daemonettes. He won the combat but stubborn Ld 10 with a re-roll is hard to break. He probably shouldn’t have charged in at this point but I guess he figured there’s not much fun trying to only go down small in the final game and pushed for the low percent high reward play. I charged back with the Phoenix in my turn and won the combat. To add insult to injury, he rolled double 6s and was gone. One of the sillier rules in the Daemon book. Another 20-0 with the bonus points.
Final Thoughts
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| The overall and best painted winner’s Beastmen |
At this point I was pretty excited because I thought I had a decent shot to win the tournament. It turned out that I had come second. There was a 20-0 on table 1 also. Pushing him to 53 battle points to my 50. He beat me on painting too, winning best painted in addition. His army looked fantastic.
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| The infamous Folding Fortress list |
He was playing Beastmen too. Even in a 16 player local tournament, winning an uncomped event with Beastmen is pretty godlike. He even took down the list that seemed like it might be the terror of the tournament – Teclis and friends in a Folding Fortress – inspired by Hristo from the UK Masters. I picked up an $80 voucher to the local hobby shop Military Hobbies and had a blast. Really solid day.