Tasmanian
State Championships 2013 was my second ever Warhammer tournament. It was a
2,500 point, 5 round, basically no comp. event. To put that into context for
the non-playing readers, it was a fairly large army event with no
restrictions on what models people could bring and very few rules alterations
or clarifications. This opened up the field for “filth” or “cheese”, as
particularly competitive lists get known, but for my games and it seemed for
most of the event, no one particularly abused this and I believe there were
only a couple of disputes throughout the day; likely more due to personality
clashes.
Before I get on to a summary and some highlights from each
game, I’ll just put a note in here to explain the scoring. Each person has a
2500 point army and at the end of the game you add up how many points each
player has destroyed of their opponent’s. In this tournament, units below 25%
of their starting model-count or fleeing at the end of the game counted for
full victory points. Then players would add in a few bonuses; 100 for killing
the general, 100 for killing the battle standard and 25 for killing regular
standard bearers and a little clause about champions killing characters which
has literally never come up in a game I’ve played. Then you compare each player’s
victory points and look up that difference is on a chart that converts it to a
sum of 20 points across the players. ie. 20-0 is getting wrecked, 15-5 is being
beaten solidly, 10-10 is a draw. From here on in, things can get pretty dense
so if you get confused, feel free to post questions or comments.
I’ll touch on my list to begin with as it will help bring
context. I had a lot of shooting and magic, some really good defensive combat
units in the Phoenixes and then my unit of Swordmasters as something really killy. The seasoned players will
probably question my choice of Swordmasters over Phoenix Guard or White Lions
of Chrace and you are right to do so. It came down to model availability. This
is what I owned and was painted. Swordmasters are particularly weak to shooting
and magic, though the Banner of the World Dragon sorted out the magic problem.
Archmage:
Book of Hoeth; Talisman of Endurance; Level 4 Wizard; Lore of Shadow. 305
Loremaster of Hoeth: Talisman of Preservation; Dispel Scroll. 300
Noble: Shield of the Merwym; Dawnstone; Dragon Armour; Battle Standard. 145
Noble: The Reaver Bow; Potion of Strength; Enchanted Shield; Heavy Armour. 124
28 Archers: Hawkeye; musician; standard bearer. 310
5 Ellyrian Reavers: musician; Bow. 105
5 Ellyrian Reavers: musician; Bow. 105
5 Ellyrian Reavers: musician; Bow. 105
23 Swordmasters of Hoeth: Bladelord; musician; standard bearer (Banner of
The World Dragon). 379
Frostheart Phoenix 240
Frostheart Phoenix 240
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower 70
2498 points.
First round I played against Damien Harper and his Skaven; a
self-confessed hobby gamer with a great looking army focused on magic and
shooting. I managed to roll up first turn and I think I out-deployed him in
this game, managing to get my Ellyrian Reavers (Fast Cavalry) around his flank
to take out his Warplock Jezzails (light artillery troops). We each had one
scary unit this game, for me it was, rather obviously, my Loremaster of Hoeth
in the unit of Swordmasters of Hoeth and for him, it was his Grey Seer atop a
Screaming Bell pushed by Clanrats. The Banner of the World Dragon worked
overtime this game; all Skaven shooting counts as Magical Attacks meaning that I would have a 2+ ward save against
any of his shooting or magic so was effectively guaranteed to get this unit
into combat unscathed where they could cause some real problems. The first turn
of combat when I charged his bell, I managed to Cast Occam’s Mindrazor allowing
my Elves to use their Leadership statistic as their Strength so suddenly
instead of being Strength 3 with +2 for Great Weapons, I was Strength 9 with +2
for Great Weapons, capped at Strength 10. Hitting with my attacks on 3s and
wounding on 2s with no armour save, I killed his caster and mowed through a
tonne of rats. I was unable to kill the bell that turn and so the rats still
had the Unbreakable special rule which meant, despite killing a bunch of them,
they didn’t run away. In hindsight, perhaps killing the bell before the Seer
would have made more sense.
On his following turn, he shot his Warp Lightning Cannon into
my Archers and sconed them. He killed 11 of them, more than 25% and enough to
take a panic check. I had to roll on or below a 9 on two dice and rolled a 10
so they ran away 2D6 inches. On or below a 6 would’ve been ok but they ran 8
and ran off the back of the table. The problem was that my Archmage and second
Noble were also in that unit. 739 points gone with one cannon shot. Later that
turn, we continued the combat with my Swordmasters and I had to take a fear
check because the bell is big and scary and again had to roll on or below a 9
on two dice. This time though, I got to reroll a failed attempt. I Failed
twice. That meant that instead of hitting him with my attacks of rolls of 3 or
higher, I was hitting on 5 or higher and he was hitting me on 3s. I missed a
bunch, lost the combat, ran away and got chased down and killed; another 679
points down. So in one turn I lost more than half of my army in points value. I
ended up losing 18-2. Damien still had a couple of other problem units but I
felt that if I’d not been so unlucky with those rolls, it would have been a
much closer game. He went on to come second overall, shooting down High Elves
all day.
The second game I played against Chris Paine and his Empire. He brought two
Steam Tanks, a big block of Heavy Cavalry with his General, Battle Standard and
a Warrior Priest, some Demigryph Knights, a Level 4 Light Wizard, a Hellbaster
Volley Cannon and a few other bits and pieces. I knew that on the charge his
calvary were particularly scary, so I tried to take the fight to him. This was
probably my downfall as his Hellbaster Volley Cannon rolled up 28 shots and
killed more than half of my unit of Swordmasters in one hit. I think I forgot
my 6+ chance to parry this shooting but it wouldn’t have made the difference. I
got to charge his Cavalry the next turn and still got chopped to pieces in
combat. I did hold on a roll of a double 1 though which was pretty incredibly. He
then proceeded to run over everything and I lost 16-4 or 17-3. I managed to
kill a couple of his things and keep a couple of mine alive but I think I
probably lose this match up 99 times out of a 100. His heavy cavalry are just
too hard for my army to deal with. I did have a funny situation where my
Phoenix was in combat with his Steam Tank and Demigryph Knights and failing to
do any wounds. I charged him in the flank of the Demigryphs with my Ellyrian
Reavers and dealt a wound which was enough to win the combat and he broke
unluckily. It’s one of the times where I laugh at how Warhammer plays out. Five
Elves on Horses chased down four battle-hardened humans on the back of
Gryphons.
On the last game on Saturday, I played against
his High Elves. His list was quite different to mine, running a group of
Phoenix Guard instead of the Swordmasters, a huge block of Lothern Seaguard
instead of the Archers and Reavers. I tried to flank him with one of my
Phoenixes and the Reavers but they all just got shot down which was
disappointing. I managed to hold back enough of my points to keep it at a 14-6.
Closer but still a loss. When we came to the end of the game, we weren’t sure
if it had been five or six turns but it didn’t matter that much. I might have
killed more of his stuff but he’d have killed just as much, if not more, of
mine. He was coming off a frustrating game the round earlier but was a good
opponent. We got into a couple of rules discussions but nothing too animated. I’m
the sort of player who, if I don’t know a rule, would like it to be shown to me
rather than just told that that’s how it is and I can imagine it would be
frustrating to play against in a tournament due to the time constraints.
All the games were fun but the first was the best. I’d played
Chris before in a tournament and enjoyed that game and played my High Elf opponent a couple times
in just a friendly practice game and they’re each a bit more competitive than I
and so there were a few rules “debates”. Nothing bad, just some discussions
needing clarification but it always raises the tension a little bit.
The first game on the second day, I brought Polly, my fiancée
in with me to show her some of the impressive armies I’d seen before as I knew
she’d appreciate the painting. We had to start quite soon after as we’d been
running a bit late though and so Polly sat and watched what was one of the most
enjoyable games of Warhammer I’ve ever played. I played against Mark Richardson
and his Ogre Kingdoms army. To begin with, his army looked incredible. He had
obviously spent dozens of hours (and hundreds of dollars!) converting his Ogres
to be Lustrian themed with his Mournfang mounted on Carnosaurs, his
Ironblasters on Stegadons, his Sabretusks painted as Jaguars and his
Leadbelchers holding Salamanders and Lizardmen-esque iconography throughout.
That’s not to mention his high standard of painting or the fact that he was a
really nice guy. This game come down to the wire and the ending victory point
difference was a mere 53 with over 1800 points dead on each side. We had an
epic combat with his huge unit of Ogres against my Phoenixes and Swordmasters, my
Archers chasing down a dinosaur, a bolt thrower wounding and killing an
Ironblaster on the final turn. Right at the end my Phoenix failed a break test
and, as was the theme for the tournament, only needing to roll on or below a 9 on two dice, fled giving him the slight
edge but the game was still a 10-10 and we’d each had our fair share of luck,
though probably more on my side! Mark got both my choice for best opponent and
best army.
At this point, I was either at the bottom of the standings or
the lowest player that hadn’t yet played the Bye-Buster which was basically one
of the judges who stepped in in the case of an odd number of players. The
tournament uses the swiss pairing system. I played against Sarah Matthews’ Orc
and Goblins (but most Orc) army, wielded by someone whose name I didn’t catch
(apologies if you’re reading!). He was pretty new to the 8th edition
and I got quite lucky. My archers beat down on his Savage Orcs (with the help
from the Phoenix’s Blizzard Aura) and later in the game I finally got what was
left of my Swordmasters (after a Mangler Squig killed 11 of them!) into combat
with his Savage Orc Big’uns. I successfully cast The Withering and he threw all
his dice to dispel but managed a measly 15 on 5 dice. This reduced the Orcs’
Strength to 1! I then had free reign with the rest of my magic phase and cast
Iceshard Blizzard so that he was hitting me on 5s and, hilariously, miscast
Earthblood on two dice giving me a 5+ ward and blowing a huge hole in both
units. The Banner of the World Dragon doing some serious work here, I lost only
1 Swordmasters to his 7 Orcs. I won the game pretty convincingly despite not
getting points for killing that larger unit as we ran out of time. When all was
done and dusted, it was 13-7. If we’d kept going, it probably would have been
more like a 16-4 for me as he still had a few scary things but I don’t think he’d
have killed much more of my stuff. This guy was really friendly too.
Overall I had an awesome weekend and look forward to playing
again next year! I also met a load of new people who I hope to have some
friendly games with in the future. Stay tuned for an update with some photos and standings! My goal for next year is to bring a fully
painted army and get at least two wins. Baby steps. Baby steps.