03-22-2010, 12:22 AM
So, I just attended a tournament last Sunday. Gobbocon 2010. A chance for people to get together and have a bunch of fun, some interesting scenarios and not have to worry too much about lords and the like.
My list looked like this
Hireling Wizard, 2 dispel scrolls
Paymaster, Enchanted Shield, Heavy Armour, Pistol
Asarnil the Dragonlord
8 Duellists, Pistols
5 Fast Cavalry, Spears
10 Crossbowmen
10 Marksmen of Miragliano
5 Volands Venators
20 Bearmen of Urslo
6 Lumpin Croops Fighting Cocks
1 Man-Eater, Great Weapon
First Game : Skaven
First game was up against my mate's Skaven Army. He was the TO, and had to play due to odd numbers. The list is supposed to be a bit easier, but... I think that's kinda hard to do in the Skaven book with so much good stuff.
The mission scenario was. If more of your troops died via wounds than fled, you gained an extra 100 VP. If more of your troops fled rather than killed by wounds, you gave 100 VP to your opponent.
Unfortunately due to mistakes, Asarnil got charged by Rat Ogres after I landed him in difficult terrain (Really only just in). A bad turn of combat saw Asarnil stuck for a second round, and then got mobbed by Censor Bearers. Gutter Runners had scouted near my Marksmen on the Hill, so it was a pain in the ass dealing with them and eventually they swept around to combo charge my Bearmen in the rear and flank. Without ranks the Bearmen were mobbed.
Can't really remember too much else that happened. The Man-Eater rolled down one side, ignoring the rat pack and charging the Warp Lightning Cannon to chase it off the board.
Volands Venators did... something. I think they ended up killing off all the Censor Bearers and causing the Plague Priest to flee.
Overall at the end of the game, I managed to get the bonus victory points for both me and my opponent, reeling it back into a 13-7 loss.
Second Game : Brettonians
2nd Game saw me face Brettonians. It wasn't pretty to be honest. Scenario was pick one magic item from your opponent, and give it to one of your characters. He took my +1 to hit banner from the Bearmen, I took a Gromril Helmet to give Asarnil more armour.
Crossbows bounced off armour. Asarnil flew in and flamed some Men-At-Arms. Pistols couldn't find their mark. 2 big units of Knights charged the Bearmen, Asarnil flew into the flank. Knights wiped out all the Bearmen except for the Standard Bearer. Beorg failed big time in a challenge against a Knight Champion, taking 2 wounds and not doing a single one in return. Asarnil failed big time as well, both fled, both caught. Volands did alright, they flew down the left flanks and chased off Knights Errant and the Trebuchet, but at the end of the day, everything got absolutely mauled. Only the Fighting Cocks and Volands Venators were left for a 20-0 loss.
Third Match : Empire
Going into the 3rd match, I was on the bottom table against an Empire Knights army. Basically, 2 units of Pistoliers, 1 unit of White Wolf, 2 units of Knights, Steam Tank, Mage on Horse, Captain on Horse, BSB on Horse (The Knight units were 10 strong). The mission never came into effect (If Generals in combat, no challenges except between generals can be made. If generals challenge, both units are unbreakable. If already unbreakable undead/daemons dont crumble) - since my General was a Wizard well out of harms way.
First turn he gallops forward. Asarnil flies up into a large footprint, near the 2 units of Pistoliers and a White Wolf unit. Flamining the white wolves, plus crossbow fire from the Marksmen of Miragliano saw the White wolve's lose 3 models and panic. Lumpin Croops and my other Crossbows killed one or two knights.
In his turn, White Wolves continue to flee, both units of Pistoliers flee from terror, one running off the edge of the board. One of his Knight units charges my Pistoliers shielding my Bearmen, and I stand and shoot, toppling 2. In combat, he kills 3 Duellists, and a duellist manages to take down a Knight, but promptly flee through the Bearmen.
My turn, my Man-Eater charges his Steam Tank. Asarnil flies behind his main block of Knights that holds his general and BSB and torches them. I think through weight of fire I pop 2 knights. Marksmen of Miragliano make a pin cushion out of his mage who had been left out alone. Beorg and Paymaster kill a couple of Knights, beating them back.
His turn, White Wolves continue to flee but still stick on the board. His other unit of Knights rallies. His main block edges forward away from Asarnil. Steam Tank almost kills the Man-Eater, but with one wound left the Man-Eater puts a dent in the Steam Tank dealing 2 wounds.
My turn, Beorg charges his Knights again who hold. Volands crash into his main Knights with Asarnil from behind. Asarnil and Deathfang go pretty crazy, shredding the unit leaving Voland for mop up duty. His Captain and BSB kill a Venator, but they turn tail and are chased down. Beorg and the Bearmen kill another knight or two, and keep chasing them. Steam Tank finishes off the Man-Eater.
In his turn, his White Wolves and Knights rally, but the Steam-Tank screws up and generates no steam points.
My turn, Volands and Beorg charge into the Knights, while Asarnil goes after the White Wolves. Shreds both units, Volands and Bearmen go far enough so that they're safe from the Steam Tank.
His next few turns were obviously short. I in the end turned Asarnil around and in the spirit of good fun, charged him into the tank to see what I could do. Deathfang took a wound from the Steam Tank, but managed to bring it to half wounds, but that was it. A 20-0 win in my favour. Needless to say, my opponent had some pretty terrible luck.
Fourth Match : High Elves
Last game, against High Elves. The opponents list was a Noble on Horse with his Dragon Princes, 2 High Elf Mages, one that lets him pick spells (He chose Beast Cowers and Hunters Spear), unit of archers, unit of spearmen, 6 Swordmasters, about 14 or so White Lions, 5 Dragon Princes, a Tiranoc Chariot and 2 Bolt Throwers. The scenario was, you rolled the dice for your opponent (Which obviously led to more than a few - roll the dice, awesome... oh wait, you need to roll the dice for me, darnit!)
I got first turn, and sent my Light Cavalry blazing down the flank to deter the Chariot and or Dragon Princes for a turn. I probably should've held them back a bit instead, and rather harassed from behind. Volands moved up the other flank. Asarnil flew behind other tree's, while the Duellists ran into the open. The Man-eater may a sprint to see if he could make it into the Archers.
My shooting killed a Swordmaster and a white lion or two.
Swordmasters and Dragon Princes moved up, the Chariot charged my light cavalry who fled off the board. Reavers maneuvre into a gap between woods basically in front of my Venators, and the White Lions move that way to hopefully capitalize on it. Shooting he makes a pincushion of the man-eater, oh well - in hindsight I should've held him back to take care of the Chariot.
My turn, pistol duellists move up. Asarnil flies by to where the reavers are. My shooting phase see's the Duellists fail to do anything to the Swordmasters. Marksmen of Miragliano take a shot at the Dragon Princes but can't beat their armour. Crossbowmen shoot at the White Lions, taking off another. I think Lumpin shot down a swordmaster. Asarnil flamed the Ellyrion Reavers, killing 2 and causing them to panic.
His turn, he combo charges the Swordmasters and Dragon Princes into the Duellists, I stand and shoot against the Swordmasters, killing them all! Reavers rally I believe. Shooting didn't do to much. Duellists obviously got mauled and the Dragon Princes pursue in front of my Bearmen.
Bearmen have to charge the Dragon Princes who flee. Asarnil takes a chance and flies out into the open behind his White Lions and Spearmen. The Venators maneuvre through the gap to charge the Bolt Throwers. Asarnil spews flamey death onto the spearmen, killing 8 of them. Crossbowmen fire on the White Lions, doing nothing. Marksmen fire on the Princes, no luck either.
His turn, the princes rally, but the Spearmen flee from terror. His Chariot finally comes back into play, setting up for a combo charge on my bearmen with his princes. His archers turn to face Asarnil, while his Reavers rally. He manages to shoot Asarnil off the top of Deathfang, and Deathfang fails his monster reaction test, and manages to get the worst result for me - 'whimper'. So he's stuck in the same spot for the rest of the game now - wishing that +1 was optional
.
My turn, Venators charge the Bolt Thrower which holds. Bearmen wheel so they'll be hit on the front from both the Chariot and the Princes. Marksmen open fire on the Chariot, taking it down to 1 wound left. Lumpins try to take it down, but fail. The Crossbowmen put more firepower into the White Lions, but only take down 1. Combat see's the Venators smash through the Bolt Thrower, and unfortunately had to keep on going into the White Lions (Either that, or be charged myself. I think I'll take my strength 6).
His turn, obvious combo charge from the Chariot and Dragon Princes. I stand and shoot with the Paymaster against the Chariot, but miss. Really wish I had more Duellists. The Reavers move up towards the Crossbowmen. Crossbowmen get crushed by shooting by a volley shot bolt thrower and the reavers, only 3 remain. In combat, the Princes kill a lot. Beorg manages to bounce off Knights yet again. The Paymaster finishes off the chariot, but the damage is done. I need a 3 to keep myself in the game, but roll a 4 and flee (Re-roll was even worse) and get run down. The Venators get mobbed by teh White Lions. Voland kills one and stays in the fight.
My turn, not much I can do. Focus fire with Lumpins, Marksmen and the 3 Crossbows at the Spearmen. I was hoping the Marksmen would wipe them out so Lumpins had a shot at his mage (who was hiding behind) but no dice. Voland unfortunately doesn't make it through the fight (Couldn't save a single 5+ on my Venators).
It's a little hazy after that. I know that at some point, the 3 Crossbowmen were charged by the Reavers. He killed 1 each round, I held the first and then fled on the second. Lumpins then jumped out one side of the forest to kill the reavers. When the Dragon Princes turned around and marched up to the woods in front of lumpin... well... they just jumped on the other side, and helped the Marksmen finish off the Spearmen.
Deathfang gets shot up, and survives on 1 wound to deny full points.
At some stage after the Bearmen died, he miscast with his mage allowing me to cast Bears Anger on Lumpin - yay. It was a 14-6 loss in the end, as I killed cheap stuff, while his Dragon Princes and expensive characters were unharmed.
Conclusions
So yeah, I ended up getting 8th of 12 players. I did get best painting though! That was good. There were definately some better painted models or armies there, just none of them were finished! So I got all the bonus points for having every model painted, all models based, etc (Not to say my army is painted bad or anything, just there were some quite excellent models there). I had some people comment on my conversions, impressed with how I did them, so was definately great.
So what have I learnt, and what would I change. It's hard to say. I think my list is pretty solid, but there's definately a few problems.
-I think the Marksmen of Miragliano did fine. However, they are an extra banner when caught off guard, and I really could use those extra 100 points. But BS 4 does help, especially when you need stuff dead.
-Man-Eater could probably afford to use Brace of Handguns instead. He did take out a couple of Knights Errant with the Great Weapon (before failing his break test when flanked by Yeomen), but overall he didn't need it that much.
-Lumpins are ok. They're certainly not bad, but I probably need more or none at all. 6 Strength 3 shots doesn't go very far.
-Bearmen don't like any Cavalry that has multiple attacks. Unfortunately in the current game, that's basically every army (Even Brettonians due to lance formation). Which leads onto...
-I need more pistol duellists. Could really help against enemy cavalry. Who knows what would've happened against High Elves if I had another unit to shoot up the Dragon Princes.
Overall. With rumours of 8th edition changing things up a lot, I'd expect my army to be pretty different next year. And probably room for all those options given Asarnil is most likely going to be unavailable. But does give me some indication of what I need to do when increasing the size of my army.
My list looked like this
Hireling Wizard, 2 dispel scrolls
Paymaster, Enchanted Shield, Heavy Armour, Pistol
Asarnil the Dragonlord
8 Duellists, Pistols
5 Fast Cavalry, Spears
10 Crossbowmen
10 Marksmen of Miragliano
5 Volands Venators
20 Bearmen of Urslo
6 Lumpin Croops Fighting Cocks
1 Man-Eater, Great Weapon
First Game : Skaven
First game was up against my mate's Skaven Army. He was the TO, and had to play due to odd numbers. The list is supposed to be a bit easier, but... I think that's kinda hard to do in the Skaven book with so much good stuff.
The mission scenario was. If more of your troops died via wounds than fled, you gained an extra 100 VP. If more of your troops fled rather than killed by wounds, you gave 100 VP to your opponent.
Unfortunately due to mistakes, Asarnil got charged by Rat Ogres after I landed him in difficult terrain (Really only just in). A bad turn of combat saw Asarnil stuck for a second round, and then got mobbed by Censor Bearers. Gutter Runners had scouted near my Marksmen on the Hill, so it was a pain in the ass dealing with them and eventually they swept around to combo charge my Bearmen in the rear and flank. Without ranks the Bearmen were mobbed.
Can't really remember too much else that happened. The Man-Eater rolled down one side, ignoring the rat pack and charging the Warp Lightning Cannon to chase it off the board.
Volands Venators did... something. I think they ended up killing off all the Censor Bearers and causing the Plague Priest to flee.
Overall at the end of the game, I managed to get the bonus victory points for both me and my opponent, reeling it back into a 13-7 loss.
Second Game : Brettonians
2nd Game saw me face Brettonians. It wasn't pretty to be honest. Scenario was pick one magic item from your opponent, and give it to one of your characters. He took my +1 to hit banner from the Bearmen, I took a Gromril Helmet to give Asarnil more armour.
Crossbows bounced off armour. Asarnil flew in and flamed some Men-At-Arms. Pistols couldn't find their mark. 2 big units of Knights charged the Bearmen, Asarnil flew into the flank. Knights wiped out all the Bearmen except for the Standard Bearer. Beorg failed big time in a challenge against a Knight Champion, taking 2 wounds and not doing a single one in return. Asarnil failed big time as well, both fled, both caught. Volands did alright, they flew down the left flanks and chased off Knights Errant and the Trebuchet, but at the end of the day, everything got absolutely mauled. Only the Fighting Cocks and Volands Venators were left for a 20-0 loss.
Third Match : Empire
Going into the 3rd match, I was on the bottom table against an Empire Knights army. Basically, 2 units of Pistoliers, 1 unit of White Wolf, 2 units of Knights, Steam Tank, Mage on Horse, Captain on Horse, BSB on Horse (The Knight units were 10 strong). The mission never came into effect (If Generals in combat, no challenges except between generals can be made. If generals challenge, both units are unbreakable. If already unbreakable undead/daemons dont crumble) - since my General was a Wizard well out of harms way.
First turn he gallops forward. Asarnil flies up into a large footprint, near the 2 units of Pistoliers and a White Wolf unit. Flamining the white wolves, plus crossbow fire from the Marksmen of Miragliano saw the White wolve's lose 3 models and panic. Lumpin Croops and my other Crossbows killed one or two knights.
In his turn, White Wolves continue to flee, both units of Pistoliers flee from terror, one running off the edge of the board. One of his Knight units charges my Pistoliers shielding my Bearmen, and I stand and shoot, toppling 2. In combat, he kills 3 Duellists, and a duellist manages to take down a Knight, but promptly flee through the Bearmen.
My turn, my Man-Eater charges his Steam Tank. Asarnil flies behind his main block of Knights that holds his general and BSB and torches them. I think through weight of fire I pop 2 knights. Marksmen of Miragliano make a pin cushion out of his mage who had been left out alone. Beorg and Paymaster kill a couple of Knights, beating them back.
His turn, White Wolves continue to flee but still stick on the board. His other unit of Knights rallies. His main block edges forward away from Asarnil. Steam Tank almost kills the Man-Eater, but with one wound left the Man-Eater puts a dent in the Steam Tank dealing 2 wounds.
My turn, Beorg charges his Knights again who hold. Volands crash into his main Knights with Asarnil from behind. Asarnil and Deathfang go pretty crazy, shredding the unit leaving Voland for mop up duty. His Captain and BSB kill a Venator, but they turn tail and are chased down. Beorg and the Bearmen kill another knight or two, and keep chasing them. Steam Tank finishes off the Man-Eater.
In his turn, his White Wolves and Knights rally, but the Steam-Tank screws up and generates no steam points.
My turn, Volands and Beorg charge into the Knights, while Asarnil goes after the White Wolves. Shreds both units, Volands and Bearmen go far enough so that they're safe from the Steam Tank.
His next few turns were obviously short. I in the end turned Asarnil around and in the spirit of good fun, charged him into the tank to see what I could do. Deathfang took a wound from the Steam Tank, but managed to bring it to half wounds, but that was it. A 20-0 win in my favour. Needless to say, my opponent had some pretty terrible luck.
Fourth Match : High Elves
Last game, against High Elves. The opponents list was a Noble on Horse with his Dragon Princes, 2 High Elf Mages, one that lets him pick spells (He chose Beast Cowers and Hunters Spear), unit of archers, unit of spearmen, 6 Swordmasters, about 14 or so White Lions, 5 Dragon Princes, a Tiranoc Chariot and 2 Bolt Throwers. The scenario was, you rolled the dice for your opponent (Which obviously led to more than a few - roll the dice, awesome... oh wait, you need to roll the dice for me, darnit!)
I got first turn, and sent my Light Cavalry blazing down the flank to deter the Chariot and or Dragon Princes for a turn. I probably should've held them back a bit instead, and rather harassed from behind. Volands moved up the other flank. Asarnil flew behind other tree's, while the Duellists ran into the open. The Man-eater may a sprint to see if he could make it into the Archers.
My shooting killed a Swordmaster and a white lion or two.
Swordmasters and Dragon Princes moved up, the Chariot charged my light cavalry who fled off the board. Reavers maneuvre into a gap between woods basically in front of my Venators, and the White Lions move that way to hopefully capitalize on it. Shooting he makes a pincushion of the man-eater, oh well - in hindsight I should've held him back to take care of the Chariot.
My turn, pistol duellists move up. Asarnil flies by to where the reavers are. My shooting phase see's the Duellists fail to do anything to the Swordmasters. Marksmen of Miragliano take a shot at the Dragon Princes but can't beat their armour. Crossbowmen shoot at the White Lions, taking off another. I think Lumpin shot down a swordmaster. Asarnil flamed the Ellyrion Reavers, killing 2 and causing them to panic.
His turn, he combo charges the Swordmasters and Dragon Princes into the Duellists, I stand and shoot against the Swordmasters, killing them all! Reavers rally I believe. Shooting didn't do to much. Duellists obviously got mauled and the Dragon Princes pursue in front of my Bearmen.
Bearmen have to charge the Dragon Princes who flee. Asarnil takes a chance and flies out into the open behind his White Lions and Spearmen. The Venators maneuvre through the gap to charge the Bolt Throwers. Asarnil spews flamey death onto the spearmen, killing 8 of them. Crossbowmen fire on the White Lions, doing nothing. Marksmen fire on the Princes, no luck either.
His turn, the princes rally, but the Spearmen flee from terror. His Chariot finally comes back into play, setting up for a combo charge on my bearmen with his princes. His archers turn to face Asarnil, while his Reavers rally. He manages to shoot Asarnil off the top of Deathfang, and Deathfang fails his monster reaction test, and manages to get the worst result for me - 'whimper'. So he's stuck in the same spot for the rest of the game now - wishing that +1 was optional
.My turn, Venators charge the Bolt Thrower which holds. Bearmen wheel so they'll be hit on the front from both the Chariot and the Princes. Marksmen open fire on the Chariot, taking it down to 1 wound left. Lumpins try to take it down, but fail. The Crossbowmen put more firepower into the White Lions, but only take down 1. Combat see's the Venators smash through the Bolt Thrower, and unfortunately had to keep on going into the White Lions (Either that, or be charged myself. I think I'll take my strength 6).
His turn, obvious combo charge from the Chariot and Dragon Princes. I stand and shoot with the Paymaster against the Chariot, but miss. Really wish I had more Duellists
. The Reavers move up towards the Crossbowmen. Crossbowmen get crushed by shooting by a volley shot bolt thrower and the reavers, only 3 remain. In combat, the Princes kill a lot. Beorg manages to bounce off Knights yet again. The Paymaster finishes off the chariot, but the damage is done. I need a 3 to keep myself in the game, but roll a 4 and flee (Re-roll was even worse) and get run down. The Venators get mobbed by teh White Lions. Voland kills one and stays in the fight.My turn, not much I can do. Focus fire with Lumpins, Marksmen and the 3 Crossbows at the Spearmen. I was hoping the Marksmen would wipe them out so Lumpins had a shot at his mage (who was hiding behind) but no dice. Voland unfortunately doesn't make it through the fight (Couldn't save a single 5+ on my Venators).
It's a little hazy after that. I know that at some point, the 3 Crossbowmen were charged by the Reavers. He killed 1 each round, I held the first and then fled on the second. Lumpins then jumped out one side of the forest to kill the reavers. When the Dragon Princes turned around and marched up to the woods in front of lumpin... well... they just jumped on the other side, and helped the Marksmen finish off the Spearmen.
Deathfang gets shot up, and survives on 1 wound to deny full points.
At some stage after the Bearmen died, he miscast with his mage allowing me to cast Bears Anger on Lumpin - yay. It was a 14-6 loss in the end, as I killed cheap stuff, while his Dragon Princes and expensive characters were unharmed.
Conclusions
So yeah, I ended up getting 8th of 12 players. I did get best painting though! That was good. There were definately some better painted models or armies there, just none of them were finished! So I got all the bonus points for having every model painted, all models based, etc (Not to say my army is painted bad or anything, just there were some quite excellent models there). I had some people comment on my conversions, impressed with how I did them, so was definately great.
So what have I learnt, and what would I change. It's hard to say. I think my list is pretty solid, but there's definately a few problems.
-I think the Marksmen of Miragliano did fine. However, they are an extra banner when caught off guard, and I really could use those extra 100 points. But BS 4 does help, especially when you need stuff dead.
-Man-Eater could probably afford to use Brace of Handguns instead. He did take out a couple of Knights Errant with the Great Weapon (before failing his break test when flanked by Yeomen
), but overall he didn't need it that much.-Lumpins are ok. They're certainly not bad, but I probably need more or none at all. 6 Strength 3 shots doesn't go very far.
-Bearmen don't like any Cavalry that has multiple attacks. Unfortunately in the current game, that's basically every army (Even Brettonians due to lance formation). Which leads onto...
-I need more pistol duellists. Could really help against enemy cavalry. Who knows what would've happened against High Elves if I had another unit to shoot up the Dragon Princes.
Overall. With rumours of 8th edition changing things up a lot, I'd expect my army to be pretty different next year. And probably room for all those options given Asarnil is most likely going to be unavailable. But does give me some indication of what I need to do when increasing the size of my army.