It’s been an age since I’ve written anything here and that’s not because I’ve taken a giant break from the hobby; quite the opposite in fact!
Since I last wrote I’ve played a bunch of games online against my pal Ben, had a couple of real life friendly games, done a load of assembly and painting, and even played a tournament!
I was politely asked at the tournament by one of my opponents not to include their name and so I’ll just skip out on everyone’s name this time. It really shouldn’t detract anything from the recount because if you want to know who they are, you probably already do!
The tournament was up in Devonport which is a reasonably long drive from Hobart where I live at the moment. I ended up staying in Launceston with family which meant that I had a 1hr15min drive at the beginnning and end of each day but that was just an opportunity to catch up on the latest episode of the HeelanHammer about tournament etiquette. Perfectly timed!
Tournament Introduction
The tournament was a five game, two day, 2,500 point event with just shy of 20 players. This was also the first “comped” tournament that I’d played before. That is, there was a superset of restrictions placed upon army composition. We played with the Swedish Comp System v1.10.0. The tournament organiser was very receptive to people’s opinions on how the comp. might affect the tournament and how best to implement it. In practice, it was interesting and I don’t feel like many players had to drastically alter their lists to get them to fit into the comp. To briefly explain the composition system, once you’ve got a list you start with 300 points. From there you subtract points based on every character, unit, item or combination of those things as laid out in the rules. You then divide that number by 10 and that gives you a “comp. score”. For this tournament you just had to have a positive score. I.e. you couldn’t submit a list where your “comp score” was below zero. I’ll discuss my opinion on this a bit later.
After that brief, and likely confusing, introduction. Here was the High Elf list that I took:
Barglecon II – High Elves (2500 points):
Archmage: Book of Hoeth; Obsidian Lodestone; Level 4 Wizard; Lore of Shadow. 320
Loremaster of Hoeth: General; Armour of Caledor; Dispel Scroll. 305
Noble: Dawnstone; Shield of the Merwyrm; Dragon armour; Battle Standard. 145
Noble: The Reaver Bow; Potion of Strength; Charmed Shield; Dragon armour. 130
18 Archers: musician; standard bearer; light armour. 218
18 Archers: musician; standard bearer; light armour. 218
6 Ellyrian Reavers 96
6 Ellyrian Reavers 96
29 Swordmasters of Hoeth: Bladelord; musician; standard bearer (Razor Standard). 452
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Frostheart Phoenix 240
I’ll explain some of the finer decision points in list creation later but the primary reason for taking a list like this was looking at what I had painted or that I already owned. I spent the several weeks beforehand painting a batch of another 10 or so Swordmasters for the big horde, getting most of the archers up to snuff and the reavers needed a lot of work (and still do). I also had to do some simple conversions and paint up two old metal bolt throwers I had acquired through various trades and purchases. In the rules pack there were a possible 25 points for painting and I felt like I hit 16 of them. In actuality I was marked as a 15 because my very few and very simple conversions were overlooked, but I wasn’t upset about that. If I hope to max out the painting points next time, I will need to get an interesting conversion centre piece and likely a display board happening but to be honest, I was happy just to not get a 0 this time!
Round 1
List
Summary
In the first round, I played a “grudge match” against a friend and his Ogre Kingdoms Army. Grudging is a funny thing in Warhammer tournaments where you can agree with an opponent to be paired against them in the first round. In larger tournaments it can be used to ensure you get an enjoyable first game or can settle a score from a previous tournament. I really like it, actually. For me, it’s just another little thing that highlights the difference between Warhammer and other competitive games like Magic: the Gathering. It’s just that little bit more relaxed and friendly.
We played the scenario that has diagonal deployment and a chance for your troops not to turn up on the first turn. I had my second unit of archers with the Noble and one bolt thrower miss the first turn and my opponent lost one unit of two Mournfang.
The game was interesting. I’d played his list before; albeit with some changes to fit into Swedish comp. The main change really being that instead of one giant Irongut Deathstar, he had two mini ones. My army was designed to shoot the opponent down and blast them with magic as they walked towards me then charge them with the Swordmaster block and that’s basically how I played this game. I deployed in a corner and tried to shoot things. I shot off one small unit of Mounfangs and put some heavy casualties onto both his units of Ogres. Then, I (foolishly) charged my archers into the flank of his second unit of Mounrfang who had overrun some Reavers, thinking I would be able to kill them through sheer volume of attacks. Especially if I successfully cast Occam’s Mindrazor. In actuality, his 2+ armour save was impossible to break through without the spell. Charging with the archers was a bit too risky because the Archmage was with them. I had to commit over five hundred points to try and kill only a couple of hundred and while I was able to force a couple of Break Tests, they weren’t by enough to make failing them a likely outcome. I should have spent another turn trying to blast them with magic and shoot them and then brace for the charge.
Luckily, I blocked the effectiveness of his Leadbelchers for the entire game by keeping things in combat or out of the way but his Ironblasters made it around the flank and eventually started popping my Bolt Throwers which had been absolutely invaluable until then. One of the units of Ironguts got near enough to my Swordmasters for me to rip them to pieces. After that though, he was able to charge block me with Sabretusks for the last couple of turns of the game, preventing me from getting to the next big group. We were running short of time before lunch so we just agreed that the likely situation was that I would charge and kill both Sabretusks and he would be able to pepper me with a bit of shooting but wouldn’t do enough to kill the unit. I really should have spent that little bit more time shooting the Sabretusks so that they couldn’t get in the way at the end there. When all was said and done, I lost 8-12.
Round 2
List
Summary
In round 2 I played against Lizardmen. I had played this player a few times before, both in friendly games and in tournaments and he’s a good player and a nice guy. He played a list with Tetto’Eko in some Skinks, a Slann in some Temple Guard, an Ancient Stegadon with an Engine of the Gods, a big block of Saurus with a couple of Scar Veterans and a bunch of Skinks and Chameleon Skinks. We were playing Blood and Glory with points bonus for breaking fortitude.
My bolt throwers again stole the spotlight as two of them combined with single bolts on the first turn to deal more than enough wounds to kill the Ancient Stegadon. I pretty much continued to shoot things off while he rolled abysmally for his poisoned shooting. Eventually, I got my Phoenix and Swordmasters into the Slann’s unit with Tetto’Eko’s unit and the unit of Saurus joining in on either side over several turns. In the final turn of the game, I had killed all of the Temple Guard and so he challenged with his Slann hoping to deny me some attacks and some combat resolution. He had two wounds left on his Slann and failed both 4+ ward saves when my Noble with the Battle Standard attacked him.
I asked if breaking fortitude required lowering the fortitude to 3 or below 3 and he believed that it was below 3. I didn’t look it up until later and as it turned out, I should’ve actually got the bonus points here but I noticed too late and it wasn’t worth the hassle. I won 13-7 but I think it would have been 15-5. I think I played this game pretty well. I left open one sketchy charge by overrunning with my Swordmasters but it turned out ok. I felt like my opponent got quite unlucky with the dice but overall I believe that the better players become, the more lucky they seem because they give themselves the opportunities to get lucky and are able to capitalise on the situation when they do get good luck. That isn’t meant as a slight to my opponent, just a general observation. I actually think he is a more skilled and experienced player than I.
Round 3
List
Summary
I then played Dwarfs. This was an enjoyable game as my opponent was a 15 odd year veteran of the game and had a great looking Dwarf army with some really cool choices. We were playing the Watchtower and my opponent started with a unit of Thunderers in there. Happily, I was able to charge them on the first turn with my Swordmasters and just camp in there for the entire game. It’s one of the oddities of the building rules that nothing counts except wounds dealt. You each pick parties of ten models to attack and then get no bonuses for charging, nor banners, nor ranks and unlike regular combat if your party is slain there are no opportunities for your back ranks to step up. Elven Swordmasters turn Dwarfs into mince meat before they get to attack in this sort of scenario and there was really no way they were getting knocked out of the building. I felt a little bad because it really didn’t feel like my opponent was in with a shot at all but he seemed to be enjoying himself despite all that.
While my big unit camped in the building the rest of my army tried to shoot or magic the rest of his army off. One of the downsides of the players that have played for a long time is that they’ve often seen so many iterations of the rules and often across multiple game systems that they can become confused whilst remaining confident. I decided to just ignore these issues because they weren’t going to affect the results and I didn’t want to be that guy. It’s tricky though, in general I think it’s best to encourage the rules be played correctly but communicating that someone has made a mistake delicately is a skill in itself.
Two things we played very wrongly were the shooting modifiers and assaulting war machines. We were counting modifiers for shooting at single models which is no longer a rule. We were also counting being in a marsh as soft cover which is not how terrain is played out of the book. Terrain is played such that if the majority of the unit is obscured, there is a modifier and what that obstruction is will determine if it is soft or hard cover. As for war machines, we were playing as though the attackers and defenders ranked up and then could only attack models in base to base whereas in practice the way models fight is similar to assaulting buildings where you pick a group of up to some number (seven I believe) of attackers.
Another notable thing in this game was that the Master Rune of Grungni standard (5+ wards against magic and shooting for all units within 6″) is bonkers against my list. I also forgot my Frostheart’s Terror rule for the entire game. Not that it likely would have mattered against Ld. 10 Dwarfs but I do need to try and get in the habit of remembering. I think I won this game 16-4.
Round 4
List
Summary
On to Vampire Counts and the most one-sided game I played all tournament. My opponent was playing a big unit of Vampire Knights full of very choppy characters and lots and lots of “chaff” or units that are solely there to get in the way and keep things out of your way.
He was able to set up what would have been a second turn charge on my big unit of Swordmasters and I chose to get the jump on him, getting the charge bonus to combat resolution. I had also planned a second overrunning charge with my Frostheart Phoenix which didn’t quite work because my unit was slightly wider than I’d realised so I had blocked myself off. That unit proceeded to get utterly demolished.
The only real chance I had this game was to reform my unit to be deep instead of wide and hope to hold against his charge the next turn though that would have likely only delayed the inevitable. This seemed like a game I probably lose 9 times out of 10, if not more. I’m not sure how exactly I could have prevented his vampires from getting into me and tearing me to shreds. My army was effectively destroyed within 2 turns and completely destroyed within 4. I lost this game 0-20.
Round 5
List
Summary
In the final round I played a guy who I’d seen at a few tournaments and had always chatted to. He’s a really nice guy and has a similar approach to the game to me which is really refreshing. He even started off by buying me a drink which seems like an obvious thing to do but I’d never done it nor had it done for me before.
He played a High Elf army also but one very different to mine. We both had lots of magic and shooting but his combat punch was a medium unit of White Lions and reasonably large unit of Phoenix Guard up against my big block of Swordmasters and my Phoenix.
Target prioritisation early was interesting. I tried to shoot at his shooting units while he shot at my Reavers. He managed to kill them all but by the time he switched his attention to my shooting, I had too many more shots than him and he was unable to deal with it effectively. I was able to get my Frostheart Phoenix into his Archmage’s unit of Seaguard incredibly quickly and start causing problems. The Phoenix eventually took out that unit of Seaguard, the Archmage and the White Lions.
The game really hinged on the combat between the Phoenix Guard and the Swrdmasters in the end. The battle lasted quite a few turns and because I’d killed his Archmage, I really had my way with the magic. The turns I was able to get Melkoth’s Mistifying Miasma (lowering their initiative and/or weapon skill) or The Withering (lowering their Strength) off, I was really able to compete but without it, I was hosed. The Phoenix Guard’s 4+ ward save made them so resilient. The fact that they also were able to reroll their misses due having the Always Strikes first rule but not having Great Weapons to negate it was devastating. On a lucky turn, I was able to break them and they ran 10″. I chased 2″. He then rallied and I charged in again so I didn’t just get shot to pieces by his remaining bolt throwers. This time he killed the remaining Swordmasters and routed my Loremaster who ran 10″ to his pursuit of 2″. A neat and amusing little symmetry.
I was also able to make good use of the Lore of Shadow’s Lore Attribute this game by running my Archmage into the middle of the field to cast a spell towards his Phoenix Guard who were too far away and then pop myself back into the unit, displacing the poor Noble with the reaver bow who quickly got riddled with arrows. It felt pretty cool to take advantage of something that is so often not relevant. I won this game with a score of, I believe, 14-6.
Thoughts on My List
Now for some finer comments on my list. I’ll step down through it and comment on each. Firstly, the Archmage on Shadow with the Book of Hoeth was about as great as you’d expect but I found that the Magic Resistance (3) trinket didn’t really do anything. It was rare that that unit was targeted with Magic and a ward save could have helped in miscast situations or in the event that that unit made it into combat. Shadow was good too but using Swordmasters as my main attacking unit, Occam’s Mindrazor loses a lot of its effectiveness due to the lack of rerolls.
Another unfortunate change to the 8th edition High Elves book is the inability to include the Standard of Discipline (or any banner for that matter…) on a core unit other than Spearmen this edition. It really makes Death magic less appealing with the models that I own currently.
The Loremaster was brilliant and a reasonable place to pop my dispel scroll but I think perhaps a Talisman of Preservation (4+ ward save) and some other armour would have been better, though the 2+ save was very nice.
The Noble with the Battle Standard did well and the Shield of the Merwym was quite good because he was in combat a lot and a 4+ parry is quite strong. It’s unfortunate that you only reach a 4+ regular save with that particular item though, because he is still a bit squishy and a very important model to the army’s success.
The second noble with the Reaver Bow was basically a big waste of points. I had convinced myself that the Reaver Bow was basically a bolt thrower when you use the potion of strength and it’s far from it because it’s still only a single wound.
I completely forgot that the archers had armour and think those points would likely have been better spent giving the Ellyrian Reavers bows in the off chance that they can put a few shots into other light “chaff”.
The Swordmaster block performed better than I anticipated in the 8th edition book. Losing the ability to re-roll misses was hard but the fact that they’re a bit cheaper let me take tonnes of them and rolling 40 S5 I5 attacks against most things did the trick. The Razor Standard was great here too.
The four Eagle Claw Bolt Throwers were absolutely amazing and an auto-include in my list at the moment. Being able to switch so seamlessly from volleying chaff or infantry to harpooning monstrous infantry and monsters was amazing.
The Frostheart Phoenix is another incredible model and is nigh unkillable by most infantry and he can just sit there Thunderstomping for ages.
Thoughts on the Tournament
Composition
It might also be worth commenting on the composition system and overall scoring for the tournament. The Swedish system is more often used to have a score range between, say, 8 and a 16 or an even narrower band. This discourages the really “hard” lists and you can even do things like adjusting Victory Points based on comp score differences to encourage taking a softer list.
In our case I felt that the Swedish composition system as we used it was not really a great addition. I didn’t feel like it really restricted many armies in the ways that mattered and if people wanted to take softer lists, they continued to do so. In discussing with some of the other players, many felt that their lists were scored much more highly or lower than they felt it should have been. For instance I could tweak a few numbers in the units and raise my score from a 1.X to a 4 or 5.
The winning list was a Warriors of Chaos list that looked positively destructive and I felt that the Vampire Counts list I played against was equally as devastating. It’s also an interesting function of the environment that we are playing in (so few players on this little island of ours) that the idea of the “top tables”, “middle tables” and “bottom tables” really loses meaning. In listening to podcasts and such from the UK, and even just thinking about it from an analytical standpoint, you can tell that if there are more players there will be less deviation between each of them so that when ranked roughly according to skill and performance, you will be less likely to be “paired up” so to speak. I think wholly removing composition restrictions here is the best solution. If you’re going to change things to even it up, you may as well go the whole hog and actually make it restrictive.
I noticed as well that the tournament organiser had a few problems with pairings because the simple Swiss Pairing methodology didn’t work because there were too few people and avoiding pairing the same people multiple times was difficult. I had actually written a program to solve this problem years ago and might look at transcribing that into something I can share through the web to alleviate this concern next time.
Painting
I felt that the painting scores were done well. It was communicated clearly what was to be marked and it was set at a level where you didn’t need to be “Golden Daemon” standard to score the points but if you were at that level, you could be duly rewarded.
Best Sports
One aspect that didn’t quite feel right to me is in the “Best Sports” area. In each game you were asked to give your opponent a score out of 5 where 3 is an average, friendly game, 1 is an outright horrible experience and 5 is the best game of your life. That might sound like hyperbole but that’s actually what’s written on the cards. It practice though, it seemed that people were giving out 5s willy-nilly just for having a normal game without incident. These scores are then directly the “Best Sports” scores meaning that the top few players will have full points. These points also count towards the “Best Overall” score meaning that at some level you are disincentivised to give good scores to your opponents lest you end up close to them in the rankings. Even if the majority of players wouldn’t do this, the fact that it is even possible is unfortunate. The other issue that comes up is that if you play someone who’s grumpier than most, you may get a 3 for a perfectly reasonable game and you could have exactly the same experience against someone who got up on the right side of bed and get a 5. I’m not sure how to fix this problem but I feel it would be nice to introduce a qualititative element into the award. Describing situations in which the “Best Sport” was actually a good sport. Whether it be letting people take back a mistake or offering friendly advice or even buying their opponent a drink before the game. I think that any result that’s not a 3 on the cards should warrant at least a sentence explaining why if you really want it to be meaningful.
Lastly another big thanks to Jay for running another tournament for charity and putting on a great show!