07-20-2009, 06:15 PM
This is a copy of a post made a ordofanaticus.com, my local gaming club. I thought it might be of interest here.
This past weekend was another excellent WCP GT in Vancouver, BC. I hadn't made the trip up for this tourney lately, and I was really happy at the chance to head up and play. So much so that I even painted up a few new models for my Dogs of War.
My list was:
Truthsayer
Paymaster - Heavy Armor, Shield, Pistol
Hireling Wizard - Level 2
Mercenary Captain - Blind-Cockatrice, Heavy Armor, Enchanted Shield
Sword of Might, Brace of Pistols
19 Alcatani Fellowship
18 Leopard Company
10 Crossbows
10 Crossbows
8 Duelists Pistols
5 Light Cavalry
2 Leadbelchers
2 Leadbelchers
2 Maneaters - Heavy Armor, Great Weapon, Cathayan Longsword
3 Maneaters - 2 Brace of Handguns, 1 Great Weapon, Heavy Armor
Giant
The tourney was using a matching system that figured comp in with battle points to find your matchup. My Dogs had one of the higher comp scores so I figured to be playing other soft armies for the tourney.
Game 1 - Michael Mcavee - Ogre Kingdoms
I hadn't met Mike before the tourney. Playing new players is one of the bonuses of the 6 hour drive to the venue. He had a fairly typical Ogre list with most of the units you would expect. What stood out was the Scraplauncha and Bull Rhinox. 2 big, imposing models. I was able to use my shooting advantage to do some damage over the fist couple of turns and we pretty much kept each others magic in check. The game was a good one though and really boiled down to a few key moments/dice rolls.
Game 2 - Shane Campbell - Orcs and Gobs
This matchup was really in my favor. Shane had a nice O&G horde which outnumbered me pretty severely. However, the table we were assigned featured 3 very large terrain features which really bottled him up. My army is very well setup to hold gaps and cover flanks, so it played in my favor big time. I was able to use the terrain to out maneuver the greenskins and had charged his Black Orcs with a giant and duelists in the flank and another unit with some ogres. In the Magic Phase I then miscast and gave him a free casting of Waagh! Allowing him to charge me in my turn and allowing his units I had charged to strike first and re-roll their misses! All of my plans/machinations totally fell apart. The Giant was brutalized, but put in one of his best efforts when he fell over dead and killed 5 orcs!
It took me a bit to recover from the game swing mentally and the couple of spectators we had at that point felt the game was over. However, the resulting flee/pursuits left his Black Orcs out of position and stranded in difficult terrain. The terrain totally saved my bacon and allowed me to slowly recover until I could finally flank charge his general's unit with Leopold's Leopards and force them to flee in the 6th turn, giving me the game. It was a good game where I felt in control, then lost it, only to come back for the win. Lots of fun and Shane was a great opponent.
Game 3 - Jim Graham - Warriors of Chaos
Jim was using the list voted for in this post. Although I knew of Jim from the forums, this was our first chance to get in a game together. I was extremely intimidated by his army as we set-up. He outnumbered me almost 2-1 in units and 3-1 in model count. Which seems a little backwards for Chaos vs a Human army. The terrain/deployment was on my side again as a large impassable feature dominated the middle of the board and the corner deployment really kept him from outflanking me.
I played it conservatively and tried to use my shooting advantage to blunt his attack while my Giant and a pair of Maneaters closed on his weaker flank.
This one of the most interesting, tactical games I have played in a very long time. There were repeated agonizing choices for charges/flees etc. Jim was a great sport about my indecision though. At one point I was trying to decide the fate of some Leadbelchers being charged by a chariot and after a few minutes of angst we realized he hadn't taken his fear test. Jim proceeded to let me off the hook by failing. That is the definition of a good sportsmen.
Late in the game 3 Maneaters charged his Chaos Knights and he was able to prevent my buff magics. I whiffed badly (12 misses on 14 attacks) and he even made one save on a 6, while then proceeding to tear me up in turn. That was a huge moment and I thought might have lost me the game. At least the lone survivor held a turn or two and tied up his cav.
While this was happening I managed to blast the back rank off of his Chosen, the Giant whiffed and was slaughtered by his Chaos Warriors, my Captain on Pegasus lost a combat to 8 naked duelists and fled the table, and 2 Maneaters flanked some Chaos Warriors killed a bunch and ran them down.
I was able to charge his Chosen with the Leopards and win the combat despite needing 5's to hit and 6's to wound. Not only did his Chosen Champ of Nurgle whiff in the challenge with my Level 2 Wizard, she nearly offed him in return! Jim then held on 5 heading into the bottom of the 5th. His flying hero was set to charge into the rear of that combat and slaughter more pikes and I only had 4 duelists to put in his way. Once again Jim proved his good sportsmanship by whiffing pretty badly and only killing 2 guys. This kept them from autobreaking and they managed to stay on a 5 themselves. That was a huge hold as it ket him from pursuing into the combat between the Pikes and Chosen. Since he had Great Weapons the Pikes went first and dropped a few warriors despite the long odds. He couldn't hold on a 5 again and I was able to chase the unit down and break it. A huge points swing right at the end of the game. A hard earned victory for the Dogs of War that involved a little luck for me too.
That was one of the best games I had played in a long time and we both enjoyed it immensely. Theoryhammer was flying around as well as plenty of humor. Even the small crowd that had gathered seemed to enjoy themselves.
Aside from the great Warhammer going on at the tourney there was plenty of board game action as well. I brought up galaxy Trucker, Space Alert, and Small World as well and was pleased to get in games of each over the weekend.
Game 4 - Michael Adams (Nit-Nit) - Orcs and Gobs
So Michael and I have been seeing each other at tourneys for close to ten years now, but this was actually our first game against each other. He had a good sized mixed horde of Orcs and Gobs with some beautiful conversions in it. For the first time the table was relatively open with a small hill on my center-left we would be fighting over for the scenario bonus. He had the first turn and it proceeded pretty normal failing 1 animosity test. This would end up being his only animosity failure the entire game! Early in the game I got a little too aggressive I think, with it paying off in some cases and not in others. I really did not manage his fanatics well and they did serious damage to my Maneaters and killed the poor captain off of the chicken. The birdie bravely continued on and held up an orc chariot for several rounds of combat all by itself (ok, with a little help from the Truthsayer making it unbreakable). The absolute highlight of the game and likely the most EPIC clash of the tourney came between our two giants. Let me see if I can do this justice:
In my first turn I shot his giant up placing 4 wounds on it. He moved his giant up and then was able to charge it into my giant using magic on the second turn. So began the confrontation of these Epic Titans of Battle. His Giant reared back and prepared to Thump With Club my Giant. Well, I promptly failed my initiative check and prepared to take on the 2D6 wounds and remove my Giant from the table. That is right until he rolled Snake-Eyes! Obviously a friendly tap rather than a true Thump! Surprised to still be alive, my Giant went in for the Headbutt, stunning his counterpart and doing 1 wound. Well, I did the math and my Giant had lost, so I proceeded to roll a 1 and fall over. On top of his Giant. Which is good for a strength 6 hit and d6 wounds. I failed to wound. No, really I did. I did manage to pass my break test at least. After laughing for quite awhile, the battle continued. With Nit-Nit's Giant being stunned only mine was able to attack. It stood up and Yelled at the other Giant which didn't seem to notice. Finally in the third turn my Giant remembered he had a club and used it to Thump the other Giant, which apparently dazed from all the yelling didn't get out of the way and took 10 wounds.
This clash finally over, we got back to the rest of the game, which saw him use his Waagh to charge into my lines and get us all locked up. It was a big grind-fest for the most part, with each os winning one battle on the end of the line leaving a clash between some Pikes and his Big-unz. Well, he was tearing me up and I kept losing the combats only to have the Paymaster encourage the Leopards to keep on fighting. We had been laughing and talking so much the game had to be called at the bottom of the fourth. I had two chances to make a break test on a 6 to pull out a draw, but the Paymaster was apparently out of money at this point and they broke, handing Michael a hard-earned win.
Great game, great fun and I'll be wanting a rematch some day!!!
Game 5 - Robert Metzner - Dark Elves
This would be my first game against the new Dark Elf book, although against a fairly tame list. We were once again on a crowded table, which I knew would help out my army. It would also be the first Toughness 3 army I would be facing. I was able to use my shooting and magic to soften his units up and setup the rest of my army for combats. For the most part my units were enjoying the low toughness targets and was able to lay a pretty big hurt on him. The Giant managed to pick up a hero, but merely put him in a sack only to be released the next turn when the Giant finally died.
I did learn a few things about the Dark Elves though. I charged his Black Guard in the rear with some Pikes and I got nuked. I only stuck around as I had the magic to give them a 5+ ward and make them Unbreakable. In the end both units only had 2 models left, although mine entered the combat fresh and his had been shot up AND had his own chariot crash through them!
Otherwise I managed favorable matchups and did well in the game. Rob was a good opponent and we had a fun game. I called my shot and blew up a Leadbelcher on the last turn with a misfire just cause I knew it would be funny. Had I played a bit more conservatively, I probably could have gotten the scenario bonus, but I was quite happy with a fun game of charging in against my better judgement and pulled out a nice win.
So, my overall record was 3-1-1. Not too shabby for Dogs of War I think. I always enjoy the army and my opponents seem to as well. Many of the other players in the tourney came by and checked them out just for the novelty of the army and were rooting for them as underdogs. Some seemed surprised I was doing well at all with the army, which I will take as a compliment to my play.
A real highlight was to play 5 opponents I had not played before and a couple of new army books as well.
The tournament was fantastic and well run. Great opponents and I would say even the players I didn't play all seemed like great guys as well. I got a peak at the scoresheet and think I took 5th Overall out of 40, which again is not too shabby. Thanks to all of the WCP folks I can't wait to make the trip up there again.
This past weekend was another excellent WCP GT in Vancouver, BC. I hadn't made the trip up for this tourney lately, and I was really happy at the chance to head up and play. So much so that I even painted up a few new models for my Dogs of War.
My list was:
Truthsayer
Paymaster - Heavy Armor, Shield, Pistol
Hireling Wizard - Level 2
Mercenary Captain - Blind-Cockatrice, Heavy Armor, Enchanted Shield
Sword of Might, Brace of Pistols
19 Alcatani Fellowship
18 Leopard Company
10 Crossbows
10 Crossbows
8 Duelists Pistols
5 Light Cavalry
2 Leadbelchers
2 Leadbelchers
2 Maneaters - Heavy Armor, Great Weapon, Cathayan Longsword
3 Maneaters - 2 Brace of Handguns, 1 Great Weapon, Heavy Armor
Giant
The tourney was using a matching system that figured comp in with battle points to find your matchup. My Dogs had one of the higher comp scores so I figured to be playing other soft armies for the tourney.
Game 1 - Michael Mcavee - Ogre Kingdoms
I hadn't met Mike before the tourney. Playing new players is one of the bonuses of the 6 hour drive to the venue. He had a fairly typical Ogre list with most of the units you would expect. What stood out was the Scraplauncha and Bull Rhinox. 2 big, imposing models. I was able to use my shooting advantage to do some damage over the fist couple of turns and we pretty much kept each others magic in check. The game was a good one though and really boiled down to a few key moments/dice rolls.
- My giant largely whiffed against some bulls, broke (yay stubborn 10) and was ran down.
After getting his Bull Rhinox down to 1 wound with shooting, 2 Leadbelchers were lined up for the kill in the 5th turn. Double Misfire and 9 wounds against me made for about a 400 point swing as it also gave him a table quarter.
My duelists sacrificed themselves to speedbump his Tyrant/Ironguts. His overrun left him just short of a combo charge on my pikes that left one of his Butcher/Bull units against 2 pike blocks by themselves leading to his demise.
Then in turn I was able to charge his Tyrant block and do enough wounds to kill 2 Ironguts (shooting had softened them up). Leading to his Tyrant breaking and being run down by Leopold's Leopards.
The Fellowship fought hard against his Maneater/BruiserBSB unit (who had fluffed at least one set of attacks), and had been holding on. I needed just one wound to drop a Maneater and only got 1 with 12 attacks, which he saved. The resulting casualties led to an auto-break from fear/outnumber and a big points swing for him.
Game 2 - Shane Campbell - Orcs and Gobs
This matchup was really in my favor. Shane had a nice O&G horde which outnumbered me pretty severely. However, the table we were assigned featured 3 very large terrain features which really bottled him up. My army is very well setup to hold gaps and cover flanks, so it played in my favor big time. I was able to use the terrain to out maneuver the greenskins and had charged his Black Orcs with a giant and duelists in the flank and another unit with some ogres. In the Magic Phase I then miscast and gave him a free casting of Waagh! Allowing him to charge me in my turn and allowing his units I had charged to strike first and re-roll their misses! All of my plans/machinations totally fell apart. The Giant was brutalized, but put in one of his best efforts when he fell over dead and killed 5 orcs!
It took me a bit to recover from the game swing mentally and the couple of spectators we had at that point felt the game was over. However, the resulting flee/pursuits left his Black Orcs out of position and stranded in difficult terrain. The terrain totally saved my bacon and allowed me to slowly recover until I could finally flank charge his general's unit with Leopold's Leopards and force them to flee in the 6th turn, giving me the game. It was a good game where I felt in control, then lost it, only to come back for the win. Lots of fun and Shane was a great opponent.
Game 3 - Jim Graham - Warriors of Chaos
Jim was using the list voted for in this post. Although I knew of Jim from the forums, this was our first chance to get in a game together. I was extremely intimidated by his army as we set-up. He outnumbered me almost 2-1 in units and 3-1 in model count. Which seems a little backwards for Chaos vs a Human army. The terrain/deployment was on my side again as a large impassable feature dominated the middle of the board and the corner deployment really kept him from outflanking me.
I played it conservatively and tried to use my shooting advantage to blunt his attack while my Giant and a pair of Maneaters closed on his weaker flank.
This one of the most interesting, tactical games I have played in a very long time. There were repeated agonizing choices for charges/flees etc. Jim was a great sport about my indecision though. At one point I was trying to decide the fate of some Leadbelchers being charged by a chariot and after a few minutes of angst we realized he hadn't taken his fear test. Jim proceeded to let me off the hook by failing. That is the definition of a good sportsmen.
Late in the game 3 Maneaters charged his Chaos Knights and he was able to prevent my buff magics. I whiffed badly (12 misses on 14 attacks) and he even made one save on a 6, while then proceeding to tear me up in turn. That was a huge moment and I thought might have lost me the game. At least the lone survivor held a turn or two and tied up his cav.
While this was happening I managed to blast the back rank off of his Chosen, the Giant whiffed and was slaughtered by his Chaos Warriors, my Captain on Pegasus lost a combat to 8 naked duelists and fled the table, and 2 Maneaters flanked some Chaos Warriors killed a bunch and ran them down.
I was able to charge his Chosen with the Leopards and win the combat despite needing 5's to hit and 6's to wound. Not only did his Chosen Champ of Nurgle whiff in the challenge with my Level 2 Wizard, she nearly offed him in return! Jim then held on 5 heading into the bottom of the 5th. His flying hero was set to charge into the rear of that combat and slaughter more pikes and I only had 4 duelists to put in his way. Once again Jim proved his good sportsmanship by whiffing pretty badly and only killing 2 guys. This kept them from autobreaking and they managed to stay on a 5 themselves. That was a huge hold as it ket him from pursuing into the combat between the Pikes and Chosen. Since he had Great Weapons the Pikes went first and dropped a few warriors despite the long odds. He couldn't hold on a 5 again and I was able to chase the unit down and break it. A huge points swing right at the end of the game. A hard earned victory for the Dogs of War that involved a little luck for me too.
That was one of the best games I had played in a long time and we both enjoyed it immensely. Theoryhammer was flying around as well as plenty of humor. Even the small crowd that had gathered seemed to enjoy themselves.
Aside from the great Warhammer going on at the tourney there was plenty of board game action as well. I brought up galaxy Trucker, Space Alert, and Small World as well and was pleased to get in games of each over the weekend.
Game 4 - Michael Adams (Nit-Nit) - Orcs and Gobs
So Michael and I have been seeing each other at tourneys for close to ten years now, but this was actually our first game against each other. He had a good sized mixed horde of Orcs and Gobs with some beautiful conversions in it. For the first time the table was relatively open with a small hill on my center-left we would be fighting over for the scenario bonus. He had the first turn and it proceeded pretty normal failing 1 animosity test. This would end up being his only animosity failure the entire game! Early in the game I got a little too aggressive I think, with it paying off in some cases and not in others. I really did not manage his fanatics well and they did serious damage to my Maneaters and killed the poor captain off of the chicken. The birdie bravely continued on and held up an orc chariot for several rounds of combat all by itself (ok, with a little help from the Truthsayer making it unbreakable). The absolute highlight of the game and likely the most EPIC clash of the tourney came between our two giants. Let me see if I can do this justice:
In my first turn I shot his giant up placing 4 wounds on it. He moved his giant up and then was able to charge it into my giant using magic on the second turn. So began the confrontation of these Epic Titans of Battle. His Giant reared back and prepared to Thump With Club my Giant. Well, I promptly failed my initiative check and prepared to take on the 2D6 wounds and remove my Giant from the table. That is right until he rolled Snake-Eyes! Obviously a friendly tap rather than a true Thump! Surprised to still be alive, my Giant went in for the Headbutt, stunning his counterpart and doing 1 wound. Well, I did the math and my Giant had lost, so I proceeded to roll a 1 and fall over. On top of his Giant. Which is good for a strength 6 hit and d6 wounds. I failed to wound. No, really I did. I did manage to pass my break test at least. After laughing for quite awhile, the battle continued. With Nit-Nit's Giant being stunned only mine was able to attack. It stood up and Yelled at the other Giant which didn't seem to notice. Finally in the third turn my Giant remembered he had a club and used it to Thump the other Giant, which apparently dazed from all the yelling didn't get out of the way and took 10 wounds.
This clash finally over, we got back to the rest of the game, which saw him use his Waagh to charge into my lines and get us all locked up. It was a big grind-fest for the most part, with each os winning one battle on the end of the line leaving a clash between some Pikes and his Big-unz. Well, he was tearing me up and I kept losing the combats only to have the Paymaster encourage the Leopards to keep on fighting. We had been laughing and talking so much the game had to be called at the bottom of the fourth. I had two chances to make a break test on a 6 to pull out a draw, but the Paymaster was apparently out of money at this point and they broke, handing Michael a hard-earned win.
Great game, great fun and I'll be wanting a rematch some day!!!
Game 5 - Robert Metzner - Dark Elves
This would be my first game against the new Dark Elf book, although against a fairly tame list. We were once again on a crowded table, which I knew would help out my army. It would also be the first Toughness 3 army I would be facing. I was able to use my shooting and magic to soften his units up and setup the rest of my army for combats. For the most part my units were enjoying the low toughness targets and was able to lay a pretty big hurt on him. The Giant managed to pick up a hero, but merely put him in a sack only to be released the next turn when the Giant finally died.
I did learn a few things about the Dark Elves though. I charged his Black Guard in the rear with some Pikes and I got nuked. I only stuck around as I had the magic to give them a 5+ ward and make them Unbreakable. In the end both units only had 2 models left, although mine entered the combat fresh and his had been shot up AND had his own chariot crash through them!
Otherwise I managed favorable matchups and did well in the game. Rob was a good opponent and we had a fun game. I called my shot and blew up a Leadbelcher on the last turn with a misfire just cause I knew it would be funny. Had I played a bit more conservatively, I probably could have gotten the scenario bonus, but I was quite happy with a fun game of charging in against my better judgement and pulled out a nice win.
So, my overall record was 3-1-1. Not too shabby for Dogs of War I think. I always enjoy the army and my opponents seem to as well. Many of the other players in the tourney came by and checked them out just for the novelty of the army and were rooting for them as underdogs. Some seemed surprised I was doing well at all with the army, which I will take as a compliment to my play.
A real highlight was to play 5 opponents I had not played before and a couple of new army books as well.
The tournament was fantastic and well run. Great opponents and I would say even the players I didn't play all seemed like great guys as well. I got a peak at the scoresheet and think I took 5th Overall out of 40, which again is not too shabby. Thanks to all of the WCP folks I can't wait to make the trip up there again.