Broadside Bash 2010, 2250 5-game tournament

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Tethlis
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Joined: Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:54 am
Location: Santa Barbara, CA

Broadside Bash 2010, 2250 5-game tournament

Post by Tethlis »

The Broadside Bash was the first tournament of the year for me, and was hosted in Los Angeles by a gaming group out of San Diego. I'd been in past years with my Wood Elves, and was excited to bring my Dark Elves this year. I had been out of the tournament scene for a little while so wasn't sure what kind of lists to expect from the competition. In hindsight, my list was probably a bit too tough for the event, and my comp score suffered accordingly. In the 5-game tournament, the first three matchups were decided by the event organizers based on list comp, with the last two being decided by battle points. This ended up working pretty nicely in my favor, since I had ended a bit above mid-range on Day 1. Here's my list:


-Dreadlord with Caledor's Bane, Armour of Darkness, shield, Ring of Hotek, two repeater handbows, rides a Black Dragon.
-Scroll Caddy
-Master BSB with lance, Enchanted Shield, heavy armor, sea dragon cloak, Lifetaker, battle standard, rides a Dark Pegasus.
-Crossbowmen (10) with shields.
110 points.
-Dark Riders (5) with musician, crossbows.
-Dark Riders (5) with musician, crossbows.
-Harpies (5)
-Harpies (5)
-Assassin with two hand weapons, Manbane, Rending Stars.
-Shades (7) with great weapons.
-Cold One Knights (6) with Champion, musician, Banner of Cold Blood.
-Reaper Bolt Throwers (2)
-Hydra

Total: 2249 points.
Power Dice: 3
Dispel Dice: 3, two scrolls, Ring of Hotek.

Game 1:
Brad's Warriors of Chaos:

-Tzeentch Lord (Level 4) on disc with Golden Eye (4+ ward versus shooting, stacks with Mark of Tzeentch for a total 3+ save.)
-Tzeentch Sorcerer (Level 2) with Book of Secrets, chaos steed.
-Tzeentch Sorcerer (Level 1) with Infernal Puppet.
-Exalted Champion BSB on Juggernaut.
-Marauder Horsemen (5) with musician, flails, Mark of Slaanesh.
-Marauder Horsemen (5) with musician, flails, Mark of Slaanesh.
-Marauder Horsemen (5) with musician, flails, Mark of Slaanesh.
-Warhounds (5)
-Warhounds (5)
-Chaos Knights (6) with full command, Frenzy Banner, ensorcelled weapons.
-Chaos knights (5) with musician, standard, ensorcelled weapons.
-Chaos knights (5) with musician, standard, ensorcelled weapons.
-Hellcannon

Scenarios: Champions
Each side nominates a character who gains Hatred versus enemy characters. +1 Battle Point for killing the enemy champion with your champion, or +1 Battle Point for having your champion die in a challenge to the enemy (awesome!) Extra VP awarded if you kill the enemy champion too.

We set up our terrain, and I had a hill in my deployment zone which Brad blocked off a bit with ruins. A few assorted ruins and difficult terrain pieces focused the combat towards the middle. I deployed my assassin and shades forward outside Ring of Hotek range, which was probably a mistake. They were bombarded with magic missile spam, leaving just the assassin left alive after the first few turns. My shooting cleared the marauder horsemen and hounds quickly, leaving the Chaos Knights and Hellcannon rolling up the middle. Turn 2, a single bolt thrower shot hit the Chaos Lord, Wounded, Ward Save failed, 3 wounds rolled to drop him early in the game. Major advantage for me. Flickering Fire had done some excellent damage though, and miscasts modified by Infernal Puppet had forced further wounds off my dragon. The Hellcannon misfired Turn 2 and broke its bonds, and spend the rest of the game rampaging around the board without really hurting much. My Dreadlord front-charged a unit of 5 knights with Level 2 and killed the the Sorc in challenge, winning the combat but the knights held. The knights managed some wounds on the dragon next turn, I failed my attacks in return and the dragon broke and escaped. Frenzy baiting with Harpies drew the frenzied knights with Aspiring Champion away from my lines in the early turns, so the Aspiring champ broke off from them and charged my rallied dragon alongside a Knight unit. The Champion challenged and continued hacking up my dragon, aided tremendously by the Hatred from the scenario rules, while my Lord and dragon utterly failed to get through the 0+ save. My lord managed to hold, and the Hydra and crossbow warriors counter-charged to the front and flank. Brad had been rolling poorly for armor saves all game, and the Hydra killed off the last three Chaos Knights. Doing wounds was good for the Hydra, but unfortunately not too good for the Lord. The Chaos Knights were no longer engaged with the Dreadlord since they were all dead, which meant my Lord was on his own versus the Champion for at least one more turn until I could pile the Hydra into the aspiring champion's flank. The Hydra couldn't get there soon enough though, the dragon died and the Lord was Fear-broken and run down. However, I cleared everything else from table with strong shooting and counter-charges with my Cold One Knight, BSB and Hydra. It would have been a massacre, but the scenario awarded an extra 400 VP for killing one champion with another champion and so I rolled with the Solid Victory instead. Brad was a great opponent, keeping an awesome attitude despite my extreme luck killing his lord.

Game 2:
Roman's Vamp Counts.

Lord
Vamp Lord (Level 3) with Helm of Commandment, Staff of +1 to cast and +1 dispel, Raise Ghouls, knows all spells, +2 Power Dice.

Hero
Vampire (Level 1) with Book of Arkhan, Infinite Hatred, rides a mount.

Necromancer with Black Periapt, Corpse Cart.

Wight King with battle standard (not Regen Banner!)

Core
Ghouls (20-ish) with Ghast

Ghouls (20-ish) with Ghast

Ghouls (14-ish) with Ghast

Ghouls (14-ish with Ghast

Zombies (20)

Special
Grave Guard (20) with full command, hand weapon and shields.

Rare
Varghulf.

Banshee with 3 Cairn Wraiths.

Scenario: Banners
All banners are worth +2 static combat res instead of +1, and you can only capture table quarters if your unit has a standard. Captured standards are worth double VP and battle points.

I've known Roman for while as a great Wood Elf player. He made the jump to a more competitive army around the same time I did, and I was excited (and nervous) about fighting his Vamp Counts. I hate fighting spell spammers, so this was a chance to do well and test out my Dark Elf list versus a great tarpit-oriented VC player. We ended up with a ton of ponds and craters for terrain, which counted as Difficult but didn't block line-of-sight. I threw the terrain down in the middle of the board to force his regiments into the middle and bottleneck them a bit to slow their movement and limit the effectiveness of Vanhels. I deployed conservatively, and intentionally spread my shooting out to hit different units so he couldn't tell what I was planning to focus my charges on. i really didn't have much of a game plan going into this, so just figured I'd see how Rome deployed and try to exploit any opportunities that presented themselves. He had all the ghouls lined up in a wall, with the Lord and Corpse Cart in a bunker besides them. The Grave Guard held one flank, the Cairn Wraiths held the other. The Grave Guard were a bit exposed, and I didn't want to mess with the Cairn Wraiths, so I loaded up one flank to take on the Grave Guard. I set everything up to challenge the middle, then dashed forward with the dragon and Hydra and fired off their breath weapons. 11 Grave Guard down, and rending stars, a bolt thrower, Lifetaker and 34 crossbow shots finished off the rest of the unit and left the BSB all alone. I charged in my Dragon for the kill, grabbing the battle standard for a Battle Point. The overrun took me into the middle of all the Ghoul units though, which meant that my Lord would be bogged down forever. Helm of Commandment helped the Ghouls tank my lord, and all the Vampire regiments surrounded my dragon and charged him in the flank and rear as well as the front. Zombie screens and Cairn Wraiths slowed down my reinforcements, meaning my Lord was eventually broken. I took second turn though, meaning my Lord rallied in last turn of the game and I finished up with a win.

Game 3: Clive's Skaven

-Skaven Warlord with assorted gear on War Litter
-Plague Priest (Level 1) with censer, assorted gear.
-Plague Priest (Level 1) with censer, assorted gear.
-Clanrats (25) with full command.
-Clanrats (25) with full command.
-Warpfire Thrower.
-Slaves (21) with musician.
-Slaves (21) with musician.
-Slaves (22) with musician.
-Giants Rats (6)
-Giant Rats (6)
-Giant Rats (15-ish?)
-Giant Rats (150-ish?
-Plague Monks (20) with full command.
-Censer Bearers (7)
-Jezzails (10)
-Gutter Runners (6) with poisoned slings.
-Doomwheel.
-Warp Lightning Cannon.

Magic Flux: Extra VP and battle points for killing enemy wizards, dispel dice and power dice are lost on a D6 roll of a 1. Had no impact this game.

Now I was a bit worried. Clive spanked my Wood Elves with a dual Hydra/dual Black Guard Dark Elf list at the SoCal Slaughter a couple years back, and I knew he was a smart general who would play by the letter of the rules. His list was also nearly ideal for killing me: tons of deployments, lots of cheap worthless fodder that would be hard to gain meaningful VP from, and enough shooting to pound my monsters into the ground. Also, I had just gotten an expensive parking ticket while I was out getting lunch, which annoyed me to no end and put me in a bit of a bad mood. To make matters worse, all the designated terrain at our table didn't block line-of-sight. We had ended up with terrain that was clearly meant for 40k, meaning that we had plenty of impact craters but no forests or buildings to hide my monsters behind. Clive won the roll to start deploying terrain first, and quickly claimed the only hill. With no place to hide, I was tremendously afraid for my dragon.

My fears were entirely justified when the Warp Lightning Cannon and Jezzails started knocking wounds off my dragon. By Turn 2, My Lord was dead and the dragon had twp wound left. I managed to deal with the Doomwheel without too much difficulty; massed crossbows scored lucky 6s and brought it down before it could have significant impact. My dragon had passed its monster reaction, and I used its breath weapon to help clear out censer bearers threatening a bolt thrower. My massed shooting largely failed though, the Censer Bearers with Plague Priest weren't wiped out, and they charged the dragon and killed him outright. My bolt throwers panicked the Jezzails off the table, but the Warp Lightning Cannon continued to pose a threat. The real blow came in the middle of the table though, when my crossbowmen were charged by two units of Skaven Slaves. My stand-and-shoot helped there, and I drew the combat with help from the crossbowmen's 4+ armor and Hatred. However, I didn't have a musician, and so lost the combat and failed my Break Test. The crossbowmen were run down, and I lost my Cold One Knights and Dark Riders to panic. My line was crumbling, and I had lost a lot of my heavy hitters. I lost one bolt thrower to a unit of giant rats that had (literally) snuck up a flank. They were sitting in a pile of dice, armybooks and scorecards as they pushed up, and I thought they were casualties instead of still in play (I had killed dozens of giant rats at that point.) When he declared a charge with them at my bolt thrower with scroll caddy in the crew, I was more than a little surprised. Sadly, more victory points yielded too easily. My Hydra, BSB and Assassin/Shades worked hard to regain VP, but the shooting and fodder was too much for them to handle. Ultimately, I go massacred.

Game 4: Michael's Ogre Kingdoms

-Tyrant with Thundermace, Wyrdstone Necklace, Luck Gnoblar.
-Bruiser with Tenderizer, battle standard.
-Butcher with Bangstick.
-Butcher.
-Bulls (3)
-Ironguts (3)
-Ironguts (3)
-Ironguts (3)
-Gnoblars (20)
-Gnoblar Trappers (8)
-Leadbelchers (2)
-Maneaters (4)
-Slave Giant

Lots of Ogre units, combat potential. Most players would discard Ogres as an easy win, but having played Ogres I know that they can be well-played and micromanaged to great success. I pushed hard up one flank and killed off the slave giant with combined shooting, finishing it off in a stand-and-shoot with the shades and assassin. Leadbelchers moved to that flank to fire at that dragon, didn't have much impact, fled a charge from the assassin/shades and were caught. The assassin/shades then took an Irongut charge without the benefit of stand-and-shoot (too close) but won the charge due to Assassin ASF and some bad to-hit rolls by the Ogres. The pursuit of the Ironguts took the unit into the flank of the Maneater Deathstar with Tyrant, Bruiser and a Butcher. The turn before, the Butcher in the Maneater unit miscast and became Frenzied. I baited the Butcher out of the unit with Harpies, then charged the Butcher with my with my Hydra to leapfrog him into the Maneaters. I charged my dragon into the Deathstar to support the Assassin/Shades. , but if I stuck to my original plan of shooting up the Deathstar, there was no way I could handle all the other Ogre Core before they got into my slower units and started gaining victory points. My Dreadlord challenged, the Bruiser accepted, and was promptly beat down by the Dreadlord. My Assassin was on fire, scoring max hits and max wounds, while the Shades tossed in wounds as well. The Hydra and handlers did well also, and the Maneaters were burned down. They had a couple models remaining however, so their Stubborn kept them in the fight. Next turn the Ogres counter-charged, with gnoblars coming into the Shade flank and Ironguts flanking my Hydra. The gnoblars dropped a Shade, and the Ironguts burned down a handler while knocking two wounds off the Hydra. The Tyrant (fortunately) missed with his Thundermace attack, and was hacked apart by combined attacks from the Assassin, Shades and Dreadlord/Dragon for his troubles. Despite killing the Tyrant, I lost the combat by 2 but held with all three units. Next turn, the Cold One Knights and BSB flanked the Ironguts while the Dark Riders charged the gnoblars. Several wounds later, the Ogres were running and the Cold One Knights overran into another Irongut unit and ran them over. By this time, there were three Ironguts and two bulls left on the table with two turns left so Mike concended.

Game 5: Krystopher's Dark Elves

-Dreadlord with Crimson Death, Regeneration, Ring of Hotek, rides a Manticore.
-Death Hag with Manbane, Rune of Khaine, battle standard with Banner of Hag Graef.
-Death Hag with Manbane, Rune of Khaine.
-Death Hag with Cauldron of Blood.
-Crossbowmen (10) with shields.
-Dark Riders (5) with musician.
-Dark Riders (5) with musician.
-Harpies (6)
-Special
-Executioners (17) with full command, Banner of Cold Blood.
-Executioners (17) with full command.
-Witch Elves (17) with full command.
-Hydra.

Scenario: Scouts
Both players can nominate D3 of their opponent's units after deployment. These units are pushed back to the board edge and may not march first turn.

Feud! Civil War! A solid Khainite list versus my Slaanesh themed Dark Elves. I immediately saw that there was virtually no shooting in the Khainite list, and no great answer to fighting mobile opponents. I pushed the Hydra and the Cauldron back to the table edge; slowing down a Hydra is always a good thing, and since the Cauldron is already very slow I knew it would force Krystopher to either advance his whole line more slowly or force them to fight outside of Cauldron range until it could catch up. I made a mistake early though, flying my BSB within twenty inches of the Manticore and taking a charge in the face as a result. The Manticore owned her and overran off the board, but I was ready to threaten it with shooting next round. I would have loved to keep my Dreadlord around to spread his Leadership around as a guard against Terror, but needed him to press in on the opponent. Shooting swept away his Dark Riders, and my dragon pushed up a flank and started going to town with his breath weapon on Executioners. When the Manticore moved back onto the table, it flew to Terror a bolt thrower, scroll caddy and my crossbow unit while avoiding my rending star assassin. I charged a pile of Harpies into the Manticore, knowing they would likely break and the Manticore would be forced to pursue them away from the rest of my line. The plan worked, and I was able to avoid the Manticore rampaging through my backline. I actually moved my bolt throwers on foot behind intervening units to keep them out of line-of-sight from Harpies and the overrun path from the Manticore, and I'm not sure I've ever moved both bolt throwers in a game before. Shooting dropped the Manticore next turn, while my dragon charged a weakened Executioner unit (the ASF BSB had left the unit.) Getting annoyed by my consistent shooting, the Witch Elves dashed forward to try to get into combat with something and took a flank charge from my Cold One Knights as a result. They Fear-broke the Witch Elves with their Frenzy gone, but scored a weak overrun. The Manticore's Dreadlord, now on foot, rear-charged the Knights and killed three. My knights held, and the champ declared a challenge next turn to preserve the unit's numbers. The champ took two wounds, outnumber and fear-causing helped me tie the combat, and a musician broke the stalemate and forced the Dreadlord to flee from Fear and chased him down. The Khainites were running out of units, and I shot down a full unit of 17 Executioners in a single shooting phase. The two remaining Death Hags, now on their own, charged the closest things they could. One charged the Cold one Knights, the other charged the Hydra. Against my Knights, the Hag failed to cause any wounds and was broken and run down for her troubles. The Cold One Knights pursued her into the other Death Hag fighting the Hydra.

This was an epic moment that deserves its own paragraph:
The Death Hag insta-gibbed the Hydra, killing it in one round of combat! She was lanced in the back by the Cold One Knights for her trouble, but not before hacking up the Hydra for a moral victory! I was able to shoot down the Cauldron in the last turn though, tabling the Khainites and giving me my second massacre of the day. Krystopher was a great opponent, and I gave him some of the player awards in gratitude.

Conclusion:
A fun tournament! I went with a tough list, and scored 7th overall, 7th for painting and 3rd for battle points out of about 30 players. It was a fairly small turnout, but the players there were some of the finest in California and included Touradj "The Dark General" Mansouri and some other GT and 'Ardboyz circuit notables, so I was fairly pleased with the end results. I ended with two massacres, a major victory, a minor victory and a received one massacre. My sportsmanship was average, which was a bit disappointing because I'm naturally a stoic guy and always give 100% to accomodate my opponent and keep the game as relaxed and enthusiastic as possible. Comp was poor, but that was a risk I knew going into the game and came as no surprise. I had a rough match-up with poor terrain versus Skaven with lots of range, but had some lucky matchups in my favor in games 4 and 5. I was a little disappointed that my painting score wasn't better, since I had gotten a lot of positive comments on my Dark Elves from several players. One of the painting judges wasn't a Warhammer player though, and had very little familiarity with Games Workshop miniature ranges, and I don't think she realized that virtually every model in my army was heavily converted with a lot of custom bases and extensive greenstuff work. I got a lot of great feedback on my painting from other players though, so I'll probably do some touch-ups (I painted the army in about two months) and hopefully be in better shape for tournaments later this year. Overall, great event with fun opponents and a weekend well-spent.
There is no escape from Chaos. It marks us all.


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