Raze and Ruin 2013

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Cerebros
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Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Introduction

Raze and Ruin was a new event taking place in my home town of Leicester on the weekend of 19th to 20th October 2013 and run by Sandy Wilson of the Leicester Phat Cats. An updated version of the 2013 South Coast GT comp pack was used and scoring for the rounds used the 20 – 0 system. Three of the five games were straight Battle Line while the other two games used the Meeting Engagement and Dawn Attack scenarios.

While Sandy was hoping to get forty players, in the end there were twenty-four on the day after someone dropped out last minute. The event fell between a couple of bigger more established events which probably didn’t help the numbers. Reflecting the popularity of Chaos armies not of the Beastmen variety at the moment Daemons and Warriors of Chaos were represented by four players apiece, while High Elves and Empire were next up with three players each. Bretonnia and Wood Elves were notable by their absence in the field and I was surprised there was only one Lizardmen player considering the book had not long come out (regular opponent/tournament travel buddy Nick unfortunately hadn’t been able to make this event which would have doubled the number of worshipers of the Old Ones participating).

Having to submit my army list not long after going to Blood and Glory four weeks earlier I only made a few tweaks to my list (thankfully the SCGT comp for High Elves is minimal and didn’t affect my list in any case). First of all, out came the additional banners I’d put in to give me more Fortitude points for the scenarios at Blood and Glory. In came the Banner of the World Dragon on my BSB. My Archmage I switched to Shadow Magic from High and swapped his Dispel Scroll with the Book of Hoeth from the Loremaster. With the spare points from the banners I increased the size of my large Archer unit to 23 and decided to try out Swiftsense on the Great Eagles to see if I could improve their chaff and low level wizard hunting ability.

Unfortunately, I only managed to get two practice games in before the tournament which meant I didn’t really get to see how well the list played against a variety of enemies (not that there’s a massive variety of armies being played at my club these days) so going into the event I had no idea whether the changes I’d made would turn out to be improvements or not.


Archmage
- General
- Level 4
- Lore of Shadow
- Ruby Ring of Rhuin
- Book of Hoeth

Loremaster of Hoeth
- Dispel Scroll
- Dragonhelm
- Talisman of Endurance

Noble
- Battle Standard Bearer
- Halberd
- Dragon Armour
- Shield
- Banner of the World Dragon

5 Ellyrian Reavers
- Musician
- Bows and Spears

23 Archers
- Musician

12 Archers
- Musician

12 Archers
- Musician

22 White Lions
- Standard Bearer
- Musician
- Razor Standard

13 Sword Masters
- Musician

13 Sword Masters
- Musician

Great Eagle
- Swiftsense

Great Eagle
- Swiftsense

Repeater Bolt Thrower

Repeater Bolt Thrower

Repeater Bolt Thrower

(if you're just interested in my game against Dark Elves, skip ahead to Game 3)
Last edited by Cerebros on Thu Nov 07, 2013 10:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game 1 – Tony Hayle (Empire) – Battle Line

Before the event Sandy had released all the competitors’ open lists so once the draw went up I was able to see what I would be facing in the first game, which turned out to be a wall of 1+ armour saves.

That didn’t give me much confidence going into the game as my experience with Empire since the new book has been that if I don’t get the first turn, and hopefully get the chance to inflict damage with magic and my Bolt Throwers, generally the heavily armoured stuff just walks all over me. And that experience wasn’t with Empire armies running just Knights and Steam Tanks.


Grand Master
- Runefang

Battle Wizard Lord
- Level 4 Wizard
- Lore of Life
- Warhorse
- Barding

Captain of the Empire
- Battle Standard Bearer
- Warhorse
- Barding
- Great Weapon
- Full plate armour
- Shield

Captain of the Empire
- Imperial Pegasus
- Full Plate Armour
- Shield

Captain of the Empire
- Imperial Pegasus
- Lance
- Full Plate Armour

5 Empire Knights
- Musician.

5 Empire Knights

13 Knights
- Inner Circle
- Full Command
- Great Weapons.

5 Demigryph Knights
- Standard Bearer
- Musician

Steam Tank

Steam Tank


Magic

Archmage (Lore of Shadow)
- Mystifying Miasma
- The Withering
- Penumbral Pendulum
- Pit of Shades

Wizard Lord (Lore of Life)
- Flesh to Stone
- Shield of Thorns
- Throne of Vines
- The Dwellers Below


Deployment

Image

In Tony’s deployment zone there was hill about a foot from the left table edge and a statue about a foot and a half from the right edge. There was a small wood a couple of inches from the right tale edge, a swamp about two feet from the right edge and midway between the deployment zones and a small patch of difficult ground about eight inches from the right table edge and about six in front of my deployment zone.

There was a large building six inches from the left table edge and equidistant between the deployment zones. In my deployment zone there was a large wood just to the left of centre while in the right corner there was a hill.

Tony’s Empire all deployed up on the 12” line with one of the small Knight units to the left of the hill with the lance wielding Pegasus Captain on the hill’s left slope. On top of the hill were the Demigryph’s while the Inner Circle Knights were on the right of the hill with the Grand Master, Wizard Lord and BSB in the unit. The statue was flanked by the Steam Tanks with the other unit of knights and the other Pegasus Captain filling most of the gap between the second Steam Tank and the table edge.

My core units deployed in the right corner with the Reavers on the slope of the hill with a small Archer unit and then the large unit and the second small unit. One of the Eagles deployed about five inches back from the second small unit.

My combat units deployed across the left half of the board, facing in to the centre. On the far left was one Swordmaster unit with a Bolt Thrower to their right, then the second Swordmaster unit with the Loremaster and the second Bolt Thrower to their right. In the wood the White Lions deployed with the BSB and Archmage with the third Bolt Thrower to the right of the wood. The final Eagle deployed behind the middle Bolt Thrower.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game

Unfortunately for my plans Tony won the roll for first turn and pushed everything forward. In the magic phase I let Throne of Vines through and scrolled Dwellers on my White Lions. His shooting was ineffective as one Steam Tank shot at my right Bolt Thrower but came up short while the other one targeted the right Eagle and hit but failed to wound it.

In my first turn the only major movement was my Reavers on the right flank who moved up into the flank of the Knights, my other units generally just shuffling slightly forwards or back apart from one Eagle I put out hoping to pull the Demigryphs more to where I wanted them (in hindsight I think I went too early with this).

An irresistible Spirit Leech on the Peg Captain nearest the Loremaster caused a wound on the Captain, wounded the Loremaster and killed five Swordmasters. A Pit of Shades at the Inner Circle Knights killing six. The miscast result which saw one White Lions die. Shooting was ineffectual barring a single wound put on the Demigryphs.

The wounded Peg Captain charged the central Bolt Thrower and the Demigryphs charged the Eagle while the Inner Circle Knights edged forwards and the unit on the right moved up more. Back in the centre the other Peg Captain moved to threaten the Bolt Thrower.

Dwellers went off on the White lions and killed eight, as well as putting a wound on the BSB and Archmage. One of the Steam tanks striped a couple of models off the left unit of small Archers. In combat the Demigryphs cut through the Eagle while the Pegasus Captain did the same to the Bolt Thrower but didn’t overrun far enough to hit the one on the left.

High Elf turn two saw the Loremaster’ Swordmasters charge the Demigryphs while the large unit of Archers and the small unit of Archers on the right charged the nearby Knights. The White Lions moved forwards a bit with the surviving Eagle moving to try and protect their flank. Pit of Shades at the Inner Circle Knights went off irresistibly again but this time scattered off and the miscast result caused a wound to both the Loremaster and Archmage.

The Bolt Thrower on the left shot down the Pegasus Captain threatening them but the crew of the one on the right failed to even hit the one bearing down on them. The left Archers shot down an Inner Circle Knight. Combat saw the combined Archer charge kill a Knight for two losses in reply but the Knights held. The Swordmasters killed a Demigryph but the Loremaster was killed in return as well all bar three of the surviving Swordmasters in the unit. The Swordmasters held.

Empire turn three saw the Knights on the left charge the Swordmasters in front of them while the Inner Circle Knights charged the Eagle and the other Pegasus Captain charged the Bolt Thrower on the right.

In magic Shield of Thorns was cast on the Knights fighting the Archers while Flesh to Stone went off on the Demigryphs. At the end of the magic phase five Archers from the small unit and two from the large unit in base contact with the Knights were killed by Shield of Thorns. The Steam Tank on the left shot the unengaged Bolt Thrower to pieces while in combat the other one’s crew were cut down.

The eagle was cut to pieces allowing the Inner Circle Knights to reform to face the flank of the White Lions while the Archers and Knights killed two from each other’s units but the Knights still held. In the last combat the Swordmasters and Knights also killed two apiece from each other’s units but the Swordmasters broke, although the Knights failed to run them down.

The White Lions attempted to charge the Demigryphs but failed and staggered forwards three inches while the Swordmasters rallied. A casting Pendulum was dispelled while Pit of Shades on the Demigryphs killed one but didn’t panic the unit. Shield of Thorns killed several more from the two Archer units. The left Archers shot at the Inner Circle Knights and shot down two more. In the only combat the Knights fighting the Archers finally won a round of combat but the Archers held.

Turn four and the Demigryphs and Inner Circle Knights charged the White Lions while the surviving Pegasus Captain and one of the Steam Tanks crashed into the left unit of Archers. A six dice casting of Flesh to Stone went off, while Shield of Thorns left only one model in the (formerly) large unit of Archers.

The Steam Tank commander shot down an Ellyrian Reaver while it was handbags at dawn between the Knights and surviving Archer. The other Steam Tank and Pegasus Captain unsurprisingly cut through the Archers. In the big combat one Inner Circle Knight was killed and wounds put on one of the Demigryphs but my BSB and Archmage were cut down, although the White Lions held.

My remaining Swordmasters charged the Knights who had been in pursuit previously. The Knights elected to flee but rolled low and were cut down. Throne of Vines was dispelled in the magic phase but Shield of Thorns killed the last Archer. The White Lions failed to score any wounds on the Demigryphs and were cut down in response.

The victorious Demigryphs tried to charge the Swordmasters but failed. Throne of Vines went off irresistibly followed by successful castings of Shield of Thorns and Flesh to Stone. The Steam Tank occupying the top half of the table took a shot at the Ellyrian Reavers and killed one although the unit didn’t panic.

With nothing much else to do I charged the Swordmasters into the Demigryphs and dispelled Shield of Thorns on the knights in the magic phase but to no avail as the Swordmasters could only score one wound on the Demigryphs for eleven taken in reply, which wiped the unit out.

I think time was called then – I’ve not made any notes for an Empire turn six but on the other hand, looking at my points workings, I’ve given Tony the points for my Ellyrian Reavers who were definitely alive at the end of turn five. So either we did do his turn six and I didn’t note it down or I messed up and forgot to remove the points for the Reavers from the total. Not that it made any difference to the tournament points, a 20-0 for Tony in case you couldn’t work it out.


[u][b]Summary[u][b]

As I was expecting, without getting the first turn it was an uphill challenge for me. When I saw the table layout I decided to split my core and the rest of my units but start deploying as if I were going to go for refused flank on the right but then deploy everything else on the left. To be honest after I started deploying I thought that deploying in the opposite sides to the ones I did would probably have been better but then Tony put down one of the Steam Tanks and I decided to stick with how I was deploying rather than put my elites where the Stanks could get at them quickly.

I could probably still have deployed the specials better to protect them from being flanked but on the flip side that would probably have meant the White Lions taking more hits from Dwellers Below.

During the game one of the big mistakes I made was forgetting to combat reform the large unit of Archers in the combat with the Knights when I had the chance and not dispelling Shield of Thorns on them. I decided not to dispel Shield initially because I was expecting the static combat resolution of the Archers to break the Knights in the next turn which didn’t happen and I was then in a situation where I was needing to cast things rather than use dice to dispel it. I think Shield killed the vast majority of the Archers in those units so not dispelling it was a pretty major mistake.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game 2 – Les Martin (Warriors of Chaos) – Meeting Engagement

After my thorough pasting in game one on table one I was now down on the bottom table, table twelve for my second game. For the second tournament in a row I ended up playing against Warriors of Chaos in the Meeting Engagement scenario.

Unlike the last time there were some actual Warriors of Chaos in this Warriors of Chaos army. This was more what I’d been expecting to see previously when being drawn against Warriors – a couple of units of Skullcrushers, Daemon Prince, couple of characters on Disc of Tzeentch and then some tough Warriors in Core. In fact the only things missing were some chariots.

Of course, just because this was more like what I was expecting (based mainly on what I’ve heard listening to the various Warhammer podcasts out there) still didn’t mean I had any better idea of how to go about tackling it. After all, I only had three combat units whereas Les had a good four units plus characters who could quite happily do a number on my non-combat units (and probably my combat units as well).

Add to that the random element in the deployment of possibly having units not turn up and I wasn’t particularly hopeful of clawing my first tournament points of the event out of this match-up.

Daemon Prince
- Level 4
- Lore of Death
- Mark of Nurgle
- Chaos Armour
- Daemonic Flight

Chaos Sorcerer
- Level 1
- Lore of Fire.

Exalted Hero
- Disc of Tzeentch
- Halberd
- Shield
- Mark of Tzeentch
- Battle Standard.

Exalted Hero
- Disc of Tzeentch
- Halberd
- Shield
- Mark of Tzeentch.

20 Chaos Warriors
- Standard Bearer
- Musician
- Halberd
- Mark of Nurgle.

19 Chaos Warriors
- Standard Bearer
- Musician
- Halberds
- Mark of Slaanesh.

5 Chaos Warhounds

3 Skull Crushers Of Khorne
- Musician
- Ensorcelled Weapons

3 Skull Crushers Of Khorne
- Musician
- Ensorcelled Weapons


Magic

Archmage (Lore of Shadow)
- Mystifying Miasma
- Enfeebling Foe
- The Withering
- Okkam’s Mindrazor

Daemon Prince (Lore of Death)
- Spirit Leech
- Soulblight
- Caress of Laniph
- Doom and Darkness
- Fate of Bjuna

Chaos Sorcerer (Lore of Fire)
- Fireball


Deployment

Image

On Les’ side of the table there was no terrain inside the deployment zone. Instead there was a building about fifteen inches from the left board edge and roughly the same from the back board edge. Six inches to the right of that there was a wood and, a further eight inches to the right, another building.

Over in my half of the table there was a ruin in the bottom left corner and then a hill seven inches from the left table edge and about eleven inches onto the table. Twenty inches from the right table edge there was a section of hedge practically touching the long board edge and finally a wood about the same distance from the right board edge but around two feet from the back board edge.

Les “won” the roll to deploy first and after rolling for all his units only the Exalted Hero on the disc decided not to show up. On either flank of his army he deployed the Skullcrusher units, with the one on the left between the left building and the wood. Behind the wood were the Nurgle Warriors with the Tzeentch Warriors to their right and the Warhounds just in front. Behind the building on the right were the BSB and Daemon Prince.

For my part the Ellyrian Reavers didn’t turn up for deployment. Hoping to give myself some breathing space before the Warriors hit me, I deployed a lot deeper than I did at Blood and Glory. On the left I had one of the small units of Arches with a Bolt Thrower to their right. Next up came the large unit of Archers, with a Bolt Thrower behind and to their right, and the first Swordmaster unit containing the Loremaster, with one of the Eagles about five inches behind. The White Lions, with the BSB and Archmage in were to the right and slightly behind the Swordmasters and the second unit of Swordmasters were to the right again. My right flank ended with the second small Archer unit who were a couple inches more advanced that the second Swordmaster unit while the last Bolt Thrower was looking down the gap between the White Lions and right hand Swordmasters. The final Eagle was to the right of the last Bolt Thrower.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game

I managed to win the roll for first turn but my only movement was the Ellyrian Reavers coming onto the board the Loremaster’s unit of Swordmasters moving into the wood. An attempt to Spirit Leech the Daemon Prince was dispelled while a casting of The Withering at the Skullcrushers on the left went off irresistibly, taking them down by one point of toughness, with the Loremaster taking a wound from the miscast result.

The small Archers on the left and their larger compatriots in the middle, as well as the left Bolt Thrower, targeted the Skullcrushers on the left and managed to do enough between them to kill one. The right hand Bolt Thrower and other small Archer unit shot at the Skullcrushers on the right but didn’t manage to cause any wounds. With no apparent better shot the central Bolt Thrower decided to target the Skullcrushers on the left but failed to score a hit.

Les moved his forces up aggressively in his first turn with the two Skullcrusher units in easy charge range of Archers. The Daemon Prince cast Caress of Laniph at my Archmage which I chanced letting through. From nine hits the spell did three wounds which were all saved. The Withering was dispelled.

Turn two and rather than watch them just ping shots off the Skullcrushers on the right I charged them with the Archers and the Reavers moved to divert the left Skullcrushers. Everyone else held station. In the magic phase I five-diced Mindrazor on the unit of Archers which went off irresistibly for no pain as n wounds were caused by the miscast result.

My right Bolt Thrower shot at Les’ BSB but missed while the other targeted the unengaged Slaanesh Warriors, causing a single wound. My other shooting at the Skullcrushers was ineffective. The large Archer block shot down four of the Slaanesh Chaos Warriors and the small unit fighting the Skullcrushers minced them and overran.

The remaining Skullcrusher unit charged the Ellyrian Reavers while the rest of the army moved up once move. An enthusiastic Chaos Sorcerer failed to cast a Fireball at one of my Bolt Throwers while a Caress of Laniph at my Loremaster also failed to go off. The Skullcrushers went through the Reavers like the proverbial hot knife and overran nine inches.

Turn three and the Swordmasters on the right charged the Exalted BSB while the other unit backpedalled and one of the Eagles moved out to march-blocking range. Mindrazor cast at the Swordmasters was scrolled which left enough dice for Les to dispel The Withering cast on the now exposed Nurgle Warrior block.

Not that that helped the Nurgle Chaos Warriors as some concentrated fire from two Bolt Throwers and the left and central Archer units stripped ten Warriors from the unit causing them to flee back into the wood. My other shooting saw the Archers on the right take some pot shots at the Daemon Prince and strip off his Charmed Shield but otherwise fail to wound him.

The Swordmasters had met their match in the Exalted BSB as they failed to score any wounds thanks to his pesky Ward Save and they took three wounds in reply.

On the left the Skullcrushers charged the Archers, just clipping the unit thanks to the angle while the Exalted Hero charged the White Lions, the Daemon Prince the Swordmasters fighting the BSB and the Slaanesh Warriors failed to charge the Loremaster’s Swordmasters. The fleeing Nurgle Warriors rallied.

My Loremaster scrolled Soul Blight on the White Lions while my Archmage dispelled Doom and Darkness cast at the same unit. The Skullcrushers failed to break the small Archers while the Daemon Prince and BSB wiped out the Swordmasters, allowing the Daemon Prince to overrun eight inches. The Exalted Hero put out some impressive damage on my BSB in a challenge but the White Lions held. The Chaos Gods were not impressed at the Exalted’s efforts as Les rolled a seven for the Eye of the Gods.

Turn four and my Archers on the right charged the rear of the Exalted BSB who showed what a big, butch, champion of chaos he was by fleeing five inches from them. The Archers redirected at the Daemon Prince but failed the charge. The right Eagle charged the Warhounds who fled and the other Eagle moved back slightly.

Mindrazor went off on the White Lions after a six dice dispel attempt failed and the Exalted was then Miasma’d to reduce his Weapon Skill, which succeeded. While one Bolt Thrower fluffed its chance to shine by failing to hit the Daemon Prince, the other two and the large unit of Archers shot up the Slaanesh Chaos Warriors, killing nine.

Combat saw the Archers do two wounds to the Skullcrushers but take six back and flee off the board with the ‘Crushers in hot pursuit. The White Lions failed to make any wounds stick on the Exalted Hero and were broken in combat, fleeing six inches but not being caught.

Not that they needed to be as the Exalted declared a charge on them in Les’ turn four which saw them flee off the board as the Exalted redirected into the nearest Bolt Thrower. The Daemon Prince and Slaanesh Warriors charged the Swordmasters and the BSB rallied. The Warhounds fled on through the Nurgle Warriors who panicked and fled off towards the board edge.

The Daemon Prince tried to capitalise on the Archmage’s death by Spirit Leeching the nearest Great Eagle off but the Eagle rolled higher. Doom and Darkness went off on the Swordmasters as did Soulblight. That easily tipped the combat the Warriors’ way as although they did four wounds, the Swordmasters took nine in reply and fled only to be run down by the Daemon Prince. The Exalted Hero made short work of the Bolt Thrower and overran into the large Archer unit.

With what little was left to me of my army in turn five I used the left Eagle to declare a charge on the fleeing Nurgle Warriors causing them to flee a further six inches towards the board edge. The only unimpeded Bolt Thrower shot at the Slaanesh Warriors but could only kill one while the Archers held against the Exalted Hero.

The Skullcrushers who’d returned to the table the previous turn charged the large Archers while the Warhounds carried on fleeing and the Nurgle Warriors rallied. The Bolt Thrower on the left was Spirit Leeched off the board while I managed to dispel Doom and Darkness cast on the large Archer block who still ended up fleeing in combat, although they were not run down.

With that it was time for dice down.

Summary

This game went slightly better in that I actually had some more units left at the end of it (even if some were running) and I managed to score more victory points than the first game (a whole twenty-six in fact). Obviously it was still basically a disaster as I was still 20-0’ed, although at least I wasn’t going to have to move anywhere for the next game.

Again I don’t think my deployment helped me, although I still think deploying deeper was the right way to go. It could probably have done with being more castled in the right corner to give me more time to try and shoot stuff, although maybe I should have been cheeky and deployed the White Lions close to the Skullcrushers on the left and everything else behind the Lions.

Other things I should have done differently probably includes instead of overrunning with the Archers on the right, reforming them to face the space the Daemon Prince and BSB would have had to have flown into to press on towards my lines. I’m sure Les wouldn’t have wanted to risk either of them being charged in the rear by a bunch of Archers who might have Mindrazor cast on them again in preparation for the combat phase.

I also wonder if I should perhaps have flank charged the Skullcrushers on the left with the nearby Archer unit when I had the chance. I didn’t at the time because I didn’t want to give the ‘Crushers a free reform to face my large Archer unit’s flank before charging into them but it may have been worth a gamble, especially if the Loremaster could have got Wildform off on them.

A big mistake, I think, was accepting the challenge of the Exalted Hero when he charged into the White Lions with my BSB rather than my Archmage. I gambled, wrongly as it turned out, on him having a magic weapon which it turned out he didn’t. Much though I wouldn’t have wanted to lose my general, having the BSB alive would have been more useful, if only for getting the re-roll on the break test that turn that the Lions failed.
Last edited by Cerebros on Thu Nov 07, 2013 9:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game 3 – Kahtan Al-Samirraie (Dark Elves) – Battle Line

As I’d rightly guessed I was stuck on table twelve for game three, although it was at least going to be Battle Line so there was no random deployment to worry about.

When I saw it was Dark Elves I quite fancied the match-up as I thought my shooting should be able to tip things in my favour, especially if I could get The Withering in the spells my Archmage rolled.


Supreme Sorceress
- Level 4
- Lore of Death
- Lifetaker
- Focus Familiar

Master
- Dark Pegasus
- Sea Dragon Cloak
- Heavy Armour
- Great Weapon
- Pendant of Kaeleth

Master
- Battle Standard Bearer
- Dark Pegasus,
- Sea Dragon Cloak
- Shield

Sorceress
- Level 2
- Lore of Metal
- Tome of Furion

Assassin
- Additional Hand Weapon

30 Spearmen
- Full Command

5 Dark Riders
- Musician
- Repeater Crossbows

5 Dark Riders
- Musician
- Repeater Crossbows

20 Crossbowmen
- Full Command
- Shields

20 Black Guard
- Standard
- Musician

5 Shades
- Additional Hand Weapon

5 Shades
- Additional Hand Weapon

War Hydra


Magic

Archmage (Lore of Shadow)
- Mystifying Miasma
- Enfeebling Foe
- The Withering
- Okkam’s Mindrazor

Supreme Sorceress (Lore of Death)
- Spirit Leech
- Soulblight
- Fate of Bjuna
- Purple Sun

Sorceress (Lore of Metal)
- Searing Doom
- Glittering Robes
- Final Transmutation


Deployment

Image

As I was on the same side as the same table as game two, please see the deployment section for that report for the table layout.

Kahtan deployed the Dark Riders on the left of his deployment zone but the bulk of his army went on the right. Starting midway across the board were the Crossbows then the Black Guard with the Supreme Sorceress. Behind the building were the Warriors with the Sorceress, the other Dark Riders and the BSB on Dark Pegasus. Next up came the Hydra and the Master on Dark Pegasus.

I concentrated my army across the centre of the board. A foot in from the left board edge I had the large Archers, with one Eagle a bit behind them. Next up the Swordmasters and then the White Lions with my BSB and Archmage. The two small Archer units were next up then the other Swordmasters with the Loremaster. Behind the second unit of Swordmasters the second Great Eagle was to be found. All three Bolt Throwers were to be found close to my back board edge with one behind the hedge, the next looking through the gap between the small Archer units and the third looking between the White Lions and left small Archer unit. The Ellyrian Reavers were deployed on the far right.

Kahtan deployed one unit of Shades in the building on the left and the second in the wood in front of his deployment zone.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game

Winning first turn there wasn’t a lot of movement for me other than the Loremaster’s Swordmasters moving to the edge of the wood to put the Loremaster in spell casting range. Not that that did me much good as he promptly failed to cast a Fireball at the Dark Riders. My Archmage cast The Withering irresistibly at the Black Guard reducing their toughness by two. From the miscast result two Swordmasters died thanks to being caught by the template, as did two White Lions. Then the Archmage fell down a hole and so the spell ended anyway. Great.

My shooting, which at least couldn’t blow up on me, was OK. The Ellyrian Reavers failed to do anything to the Dark Riders opposite but the Archers on the right killed two of the Shades in the wood while the large Archer block killed four of those in the building, causing the survivor to panic. The Bolt Throwers all targeted the Black Guard and killed seven.

The fleeing Shade rallied in Kahtan’s first turn while the Black Guard entered the building and the unit was joined by the Sorceress. On the right the Dark Riders along with the Pegasus riders sped down my right flank with the Hydra moving up more cautiously behind them. The Crossbows moved into firing range while the Shades in the wood stepped out of it and the Dark Riders from the left moved behind the Crossbows...

A low dice magic phase saw only a casting attempt at Fate of Bjuna on the Loremaster which failed to go off. The Dark Riders shot down a Swordmaster while the Crossbows and the Supreme Sorceress shot down five of the Archer unit on the right.

Turn two and the Ellyrian Reavers charged the Dark Riders in the rear. The Swordmasters on the right turned to face the Pegasus riders and Hydra while their colleagues on the left marched up the board, closely followed by the large Archer block. The White Lions were also on the move, heading towards the wood recently vacated by the Shades and the left Eagle moved out to the hill on the left.

With a big magic phase the Loremaster attempted to cast Searing Doom at the Hydra but this was dispelled. The follow-up Fireball and Shem’s Burning Gaze went through and put three wounds on it while a Miasma ensured it wouldn’t be coming near the Swordmasters next turn. Three of the Bolt Throwers and the right Archer unit shot at the Crossbows, killing five in total while the Archers on the left shot at the Black Guard in the building and killed three. In combat the Reavers broke the Dark Riders and ran them down,

Both Pegasus riders charged this turn, the BSB into the Ellyrian Reavers, the other into the Swordmasters. An Assassin revealed himself in the Shades on the left while the Hydra tiptoed forwards and the Warriors moved clockwise round the tower. Making use of the Focus Familiar the Supreme Sorceress Spirit Leech’ed off the right Bolt Thrower which caused the nearby Eagle to panic off the board. Soulblight was cast at the Swordmasters but dispelled.

The sole Shade on the left and the Assassin shot at the Great Eagle, wounding it twice. The Dark Riders in the centre and the other Shades shot at the Swordmasters, killing one. The other shooting concentrated on the Archers on the right, reducing the unit to two models. The BSB broke the Reavers who fled off the board while the Master, who turned out to be carrying the Pendant of Kaeleth and something that gave him an extra attack (think Kahtan said this was a potion but not sure which), and his Pegasus killed six Swordmasters for no wounds in reply.

Turn three and the wounded Eagle beat a hasty retreat from the action while the left Swordmasters and White Lions continued their march into the centre of the board. Spirit Leech at the Hydra went through but with the create in range of the General the drawn roll-off meant it took no wounds. Iceshard Blizzard at the Master was dispelled while Earthblood went off (and did nothing for the Swordmasters).

The large unit of Archers shot at the Black Guard in the tower, only managing five hits and a single wound that was saved. The small unit of Archers and a Bolt Thrower targeted the Crossbows and killed four, enough to panic them. The other Bolt Thrower shot at the BSB but missed. Finally the Master fighting the Swordmasters again took no wounds but did several to the Swordmasters.

Kahtan’s BSB tried to charge the central Bolt Thrower but failed to make it in. the Dark Riders took up station slightly behind the left building while the Shade and Assassin skulked around its corner where they could see the Swordmasters. Using the Focus Familiar to extend her casting range again the Supreme Sorceress cast Spirit Leech at the central Bolt Thrower but this was dispelled while the Loremaster used his Dispel Scroll to stop a Final Transmutation cast at the White Lions.

The Assassin and Shades targeted the Swordmasters on the left, killing five and causing the unit to panic and flee through the large Archer unit. Lifetaker was shot at the remains of the right Archer unit, wiping them out. In combat the Master killed the last Swordmaster in the unit, leaving just the Loremaster.

In my fourth turn the Swordmasters rallied while the White Lions marched on further through the wood. The Loremaster attempted to cast both Iceshard Blizzard and Miasma on the Master but these were dispelled. Both Bolt Throwers targeted the BSB but couldn’t get past his save from his magic armour. The Archer units shot at the Black Guard in the tower, killing three more from the unit. In combat the Master finished off the Loremaster and in Kahtan’s turn he charged into the flank of the Archers

Further movement in the fourth Dark Elf turn saw the BSB charge the closest Bolt Thrower while the magic users abandoned the Black Guard in the tower and joined the Warriors. The Dark Riders and Assassin came around the building so they could see the Swordmaster unit while the Shade entered the building and the Hydra decided to run off behind the Warriors.

Spirit Leech was cast irresistibly at the last unengaged Bolt Thrower, destroying it and killing three of the Warriors with the miscast result. Assassin, Shade and Dark Riders shot at the Swordmasters, nearly wiping them out while other shooting targeted the White Lions. Both Pegasus riders triumphed in combat and we were on to turn five.

The White Lions charged the Black Guard in the building while the surviving Swordmasters charged the Shade in the building, surviving the Stand and Shoot reaction. The Archers shot at the Master but failed to get through his armour and ward saves. Combat saw the Shade and last Swordmaster kill each other while the White Lions wiped out the Black Guard and occupied the building.

In the fifth Dark Elf turn the Dark Riders moved out to the right of the hill to shoot at the Archers while the Assassin and Master closed in on the Eagle that was still hiding in the corner and the Warriors moved up past the building. The Sorceress failed to cast Final Transmutation at the Archers but the Supreme Sorceress managed to cast Soulblight irresistibly on them, which saw four Warriors die to the miscast result... Both the Dark Riders and the remaining Shade unit shot at the Archers and killed five.

Turn six and the Archers reforming to face the Dark Riders but they then failed their test to make the reform swift, meaning they couldn’t shoot. I tried to move the Eagle as far as I could out of the way of the Assassin in the hope that the Dark Riders wouldn’t be able to hit it much after moving. This turned out to be a hope in vain as the Eagle was shot down in the Dark Elf part of turn six.


Summary

So, third game, third defeat. While deployment could, as usual, probably have been a lot better, the obvious thing that caused me major problems was the Archmage falling down a hole in the first turn. Without that magical backup it was always going to be an uphill struggle from that point.

I made a bit of a mistake targeting the Hydra with Searing Doom earlier on in the game – if anything was to be a target of that spell it should have been one of the Pegasus riders. I would probably have expected the BSB to have the Pendant of Kaeleth so I would probably have picked the wrong target in any case but finding out where that was should have been high up on my list of priorities as the Master with that item went through the Loremaster and Swordmasters who cost about three times what he did.

Probably the other main mistake was in not moving the White Lions up a bit sooner and quicker and having them more central rather than the second unit of Swordmasters who just ended up getting shot up without doing anything of real note.

On a positive note though I finally scraped my first couple of tournament points in this game.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game 4 – James Boots (Warriors of Chaos) – Dawn Attack

Day two started with me down on table twelve again (although thanks to an organisational snafu, not the same table twelve as the day before – see the event summary for an explanation).

I was facing Warriors once more (and in a scenario which can mess up your deployment again as well) although what was facing me across the table looked like it was a bit more oriented to fun games than tournament efficiency than some of the lists I’d seen at this event and Blood and Glory.

While there was the inevitable Daemon Prince who was sure to give me all sorts of problems I figured I should have a reasonably good shot at dispatching the Marauder Cavalry as well as the Dragon Ogres if I got the right spells and the opportunity to use them..


Daemon Prince
- Daemon of Slaanesh
- Level 4 (Lore of Shadow)
- Chaos Armour,
- Daemonic Flight
- Allure of Slaanesh
- Charmed Shield
- Soul Feeder

Chaos Sorcerer
- Level 2 (Lore of Fire)
- Barded Chaos Steed
- Dispel Scroll
- Chalice of Chaos

Exalted Hero
- Battle Standard Bearer
- Mark of Slaanesh
- Steed of Slaanesh

Chariot
- Mark of Slaanesh

Chariot
- Mark of Slaanesh

5 Warhounds
- Vanguard

5 Marauder Horsemen
- Standard Bearer
- Mark of Slaanesh
- Flails

5 Marauder Horsemen
- Standard Bearer
- Mark of Slaanesh
- Flails

9 Marauder Horsemen
- Full Command
- Mark of Slaanesh
- Flails

5 Knights
- Standard Bearer
- Mark of Slaanesh
- Ensorcelled Weapons

6 Dragon Ogres
- Great Weapons

Chaos Giant
- Giant of Slaanesh


Magic

Archmage (Lore of Shadow)
- Enfeebling Foe
- The Withering
- Pit of Shades
- Okkam’s Mindrazor

Daemon Prince (Lore of Shadow)
- Mystifying Miasma
- Steed of Shadows
- Enfeebling Foe
- The Withering

Chaos Sorcerer (Lore of Fire)
- Fireball
- Flaming Sword of Ruin

Deployment

Image

On this table there was a hill in the top left corner and a wall a bit in front of the deployment zone on that side. About half way across the board there was a small hill that crossed into no-man’s land and in the right hand of the deployment zone was a wood about five inches from the right edge and a bit more from the long table edge. Almost on the right board edge and half way across the board was a building.

In my half of the table there was a larger hill just to the left of centre and crossing slightly into my deployment zone. A small swamp was around a foot and a half from the right table and straddling the deployment line and finally there was a wood a couple of inches to the right of it and just touching my deployment zone.

When all the rolls for which sector to deploy in panned out James had the Warhounds and Chaos Knights, with the Sorcerer, in the left deployment box and the Dragon Ogres with one of the small Marauder Cavalry units in the right deployment box. Across the central box on the left there was a chariot and the large unit of Marauder Cavalry with the Exalted Hero BSB to the left of the hill, the other small Cavalry unit behind it with the second chariot and then the Daemon Prince just to the left of the wood. The Giant was on the back board edge in the central section behind the small Marauder Cavalry unit.

For my deployments I ended up with a Bolt Thrower, Eagle and small Archer unit in the left zone, and both Swordmaster units, one housing the Loremaster, and a Bolt Thrower in the right zone. In the central zone the large Archer unit was right up to the deployment line and to the left of the hill and the other small unit of Archers was to the right of the hill angled towards the right table edge. The White Lions with the BSB and Archmage were next with the Reavers behind them. The final Bolt Thrower was almost on the back table edge and behind the hill to give it line of sight to either side of the hill (although less to the right of the hill unless the Archers got out of the way, and then about seven inches to the right was the second Eagle.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game

I won the roll for first turn again and moved the two Swordmaster units up, the Reavers out in front of the White Lions and the left Eagle out onto the left table edge. A big dice magic phase saw a Spirit Leech cast at the Daemon Prince which was dispelled. The Withering was cast on the Dragon Ogres, reducing their toughness by three. Two Fireballs, one from the Loremaster, one from the Ruby Ring of Rhuin, targeted the Marauder Cavalry, with the unit on the right protected by the Daemon Prince dispelling it while the unit on the left took a casualty.

That left the shooting to finish them off and also four of the large unit of Marauder Cavalry. One Bolt Thrower’s shooting at the Daemon Prince saw two hits and a wound but the armour save but paid to any hopes of chipping of a wound.

The Exalted BSB charged out of the block of Marauder Cavalry into the large block of Archers while the rest of the army moved up as well, the Chaos Knights taking pains to stay out of range of the Bolt Thrower on the right. In the magic phase the Daemon Prince used all his power dice to dispel The Withering. Combat saw the BSB kill a couple of Archers but the unit held.

My Eagle charged the flank of the Warhounds and the Reavers charged into Marauders in front of them. Pit of Shades on the Dragon Ogres drew out a dispel scroll and then the Loremaster got Spirit Leech off on the Daemon Prince but the Prince rolled higher and then Wyssan’s Wildform was cast on the Loremaster’s Swordmasters.

The small units of Archers targeted the remains of the large Marauder Cavalry unit and with the aid of a Bolt Thrower called all bar one of the unit. Both the other Bolt Throwers took aim at the Chariot on the left but only mustered one hit and no wounds between them. The Eagle beat the dogs in combat and ran them down while the Archers lost to the BSB again and once more failed in their attempts to combat reform to go deeper. The Reavers killed the Marauder Cavalry and ran them down.

At the start of the Warriors’ second turn the Sorcerer imbibed from his Chalice of Chaos and was granted a 5+ Ward Save. A wave of charges followed with the survivor of the Marauder Cavalry block charging the central Bolt Thrower, the Chaos Knights charging the nearby Eagle which fled, allowing them to redirect into the small unit of Archers. The chariot on the right charged the Ellyrian Reavers who fled through the lines and out behind the Bolt Thrower on the right. The Dragon Ogres and the Daemon Prince charged the Loremaster’s Swordmasters. Finally the other chariot and Giant moved up.

The Daemon Prince tried to cast Miasma at the Swordmasters to reduce their Weapon Skill but this was dispelled while the Sorcerer cast Flaming Sword irresistibly on the Chaos Knights. From the miscast result five Archers in the unit the Knights were fighting were killed as well as two from the large unit that was nearby. Three Chaos Knights also died while the Sorcerer was sucked into the Warp. Next up the Daemon Prince tried to cast Enfeebling Foe on the Swordmasters but this was dispelled while The Withering on the White Lions, reducing their toughness by two.

In combat the death of three of their colleagues and the disappearance of the Sorcerer didn’t stop the Chaos Knights from ripping through the Archers and overrunning towards the Bolt Thrower and the Exalted BSB also beat the Archers he was fighting and ran them down as they fled. The Swordmasters and Loremaster did six wounds to the Dragon Ogres and two to the Daemon Prince but the Loremaster was cut down along with eight Swordmasters. The unit fled, ending up just beyond the Ellyrian Reavers. Finally the last member of the large Marauder Cavalry block was killed by the Bolt Thrower crew.

Turn three and the other Swordmasters charged into the flank of the Daemon Prince. My fleeing units all rallied while the White Lions reformed to face towards the Dragon Ogres and Daemon Prince. The Withering on the White Lions was dispelled and then the Archmage cast The Withering on the Daemon Prince which was cast irresistibly which ended up killing four White Lions.

In the shooting phase the central Bolt Thrower avenged the Archer block by shooting the Exalted BSB dead while the remaining Archers managed to put a wound on one of the Chariots. The Swordmasters failed to do anything to the Daemon Prince, who killed two of them and took back a wound through Soul Feeder.

It was multiple charge time again for the Warriors as the Chaos Knights charged the Bolt Thrower on the left, the Slaanesh Chariot on the right charged the Eagle that was blocking the flank of the White Lions and the Dragon Ogres charged the Bolt Thrower on the right. The Giant failed to charge the rear of the White Lions and the other Chariot failed to charge the Archers.

Magic saw an attempted Enfeebling on the White Lions dispelled and a Miasma on the White Lions succeeded, taking their Weapon Skill down by one. Finally The Withering on the Daemon Prince was dispelled. As was to be expected the Chaos Knights killed the Bolt Thrower, as did the Dragon Ogres the Bolt Thrower they were fighting, overrunning into the Swordmasters. The Swordmasters were broken by the Daemon Prince and fled off the board.

At the start of turn four the White Lions tried to charge the Dragon Ogres but failed to roll high enough. The surviving Eagle moved out to try and march block the Giant and the nearby Chariot and the Ellyrian Reavers blocked up the other chariot from getting at the White Lions. The Archmage successfully cast The Withering at the Daemon Prince, taking his toughness down by two but then he failed to put Mindrazor on his own unit.

The only shooting action of note was the surviving Bolt Thrower killing one of the remaining Chaos Knights. In a heroic last stand the Swordmasters did five wounds to the Dragon Ogres and only took three in reply, leaving two victorious survivors. Unfortunately, the Dragon Ogres held.

Yet more charges in the Warriors turn as the Daemon Prince charged the White Lions, the chariot being blocked by the Reavers charged them, the other chariot tried to charge the last unit of Archers but failed, as did the Giant who also tried to charge them. The last Chaos Knight moved up at pace towards my last Bolt Thrower.

The Daemon Prince Miasma’d the White Lions to take thee off their Weapon Skill but the Archmage stopped The Withering and Enfeebling Foe at the same target was also stopped. In combat the chariot smashed through the Ellyrian Reavers and the Swordmasters did another three wounds to the Dragon Ogres before being cut down. The White Lions put two wounds on the Daemon Prince but had taken two back already, allowing the Prince to use Soul Feeder to regain the lost ones.

With most of my forces surrounded there was no movement in turn five as the last Great Eagle decided to stay put and observe things from out of the firing line. Enfeebling Foe was cast at the Daemon Prince but dispelled while Mindrazor on the White Lions was cast irresistibly.

The last Bolt Thrower crew took a look at everything bearing down on them and decided to fire a volley at the last Chaos Knight which did just enough wounds to get past its armour save. The Archers shot the Giant and managed to put two wounds on it. Finally for the turn, the White Lions failed to wound the Daemon Prince who did nothing to them in reply.

Both chariots charged again in Warriors turn six, one at the Bolt Thrower, the other at the Archers. Neither failed its charge roll. Meanwhile the Dragon Ogres moved across my back board edge to the centre of the table and the Giant moved over to the flank of the White Lions.

I can’t quite read my notes for the magic phase but I think all James’ casting attempts were dispelled or failed. Combat saw the Bolt Thrower smashed by impact hits and the Archer unit manage to hold against the Chariot. The Daemon Prince issued a challenge this turn and, mistakenly thinking that if I refused he could send the BSB to the back and I wouldn’t be able to get any benefit from the Banner of the World Dragon, I accepted with the Archmage who ended up taking a wound.

With no movement in my sixth turn it was on to Magic where a low dice phase saw me cast Enfeebling Foe on the Daemon Prince and reduce his strength by one. The Archers were broken by the chariot while the Archmage was killed by the Daemon Prince in the challenge.

Warriors turn six saw the Archers ushered off the table by the Dragon Ogres while the chariots and Giant all charged into the White Lions. The Daemon Prince, with a low dice phase, cast a boosted Miasma and took one off the White Lions’ stats. Overall the White Lions took eight casualties in the combat and did three wounds in return, unfortunately not managing to kill off the already wound Chaos Chariot, but the unit ultimately held.

Summary

Again this was a better result than previously, although I don’t think I was helped by the random deployment aspect of the scenario. When we initially totted up the points it looked like it was a 17-3 to James but I asked him to double-check as from my rough workings I thought I’d got more points than James was saying and we realised he hadn’t counted his BSB in my total and so the final result was a 15-5.

A couple of obvious errors in this one. First up was not using the dispel scroll on the Loremaster to dispel The Withering cast on the White Lions in turn two. Given that the Loremaster stood a good chance of not being around in future turns to use the scroll (as the unit had been charged by the Daemon Prince) not using it then meant that I had to use power dice to dispel it later, as well as not using the scroll when I had the option.

The other major booboo was not checking the FAQ for what happens when a BSB gets sent to the back for not accepting a challenge. I think I didn’t check because we were getting low on time but I should have done as that cost me four hundred points for losing my general, which would have turned the result into a 13-7, as well as the chance to kill the Daemon Prince via the White Lions’ higher strength attacks and possibly reform to face the chariots which would have given me a chance of killing them and possibly edging a small win.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game 5 – Chris White (Daemons of Chaos) – Battle Line

You will not be surprised to discover that I was stuck on table twelve once more for the last game.

I was somewhat surprised to be facing Daemons, not least because there was a High Elf and a Lizardmen player who seemed to have been stuck around tables ten and eleven for as long as I’d been on table twelve so I’d thought I’d be playing one of them.

With precisely one game against the new Daemons under my belt, at Blood and Glory a few weeks previously, I wasn’t sure what I should be expecting from this match up. At least this time it was straight Battle Line so I could deploy how I wanted without having to worry about stuff being randomised all over the place. Now if only I could figure out how best to deploy against the wall of red that was facing me…

(Quick note on Chris’ list below. I’m not sure I noted down what he told me about the Daemonic Gifts correctly as putting the “open” list put out before the event plus what he rolled for into my army list spreadsheet I make it that his list is 45 points over the 600 point limit for heroes.)

Bloodthirster
- Exalted Gift (Eternal Blade)
- Lesser Gift (Crushing Mass)

Skulltaker

Herald of Khorne
- Battle Standard Bearer
- Focus of Fury
- 2 Lesser Gifts (Cleaving Blow, Dark Blessing)

Herald of Khorne
- Focus of Fury
- Lesser Gifts (Blade of Blood, Crushing Mass)

28 Bloodletters
- Full command

29 Bloodletters
- Full command

4 Bloodcrushers

Skull Cannon


Magic

Archmage (Lore of Shadow)
- Mystifying Miasma
- Enfeebling Foe
- The Withering
- Pit of Shades


Deployment

Image

As I was on the same side of the table as game four I’ll refer you back to the table layout description there rather than repeating it here.

From left to right Chris had the horde of 28 Bloodletters with the BSB and Skulltaker in, then the Bloodcrushers and then other Bloodletter horde with the other Herald. There was then a gap of about a foot to the Skull Cannon, which was just to the left of the wood, and then the Bloodthirster, which was behind the rear right corner of the wood.

I had decided to try and deploy a bit more compact than usual with the Archers out in front of my elites to a) give them line of site to shoot the Bloodletters and b) act as a meat shield for my elite infantry to try and reduce the numbers the elites would have to deal with.

So, in a tightly packed left table quarter I had one Bolt Thrower right on the table edge and about ten inches in, just to its right and behind, angled towards the Bloodcrushers, were the first unit of Swordmasters and behind them one Eagle. Just to the left and slightly behind the Swordmasters was a second Bolt Thrower and one of the small Archer units were in front of the Swordmasters.

There was a bit of a fire channel for the second bolt thrower and so a couple of inches to its right and just in front were the White Lions with the Archmage and BSB. In front of them was the large Archer block. There was another fire channel with the third Bolt Thrower at the back of it while to the left of it was the second small Archer unit.

To the right of the second Archer unit, at the near slope of the hill, were the second unit of Swordmasters with the Loremaster, then the Reavers, and finally around four inches from the long board edge and about eight inches on from the Reavers was the second Eagle.

The Reavers used their Vanguard move to move along the right side of the hill.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Game

I won the roll for first turn and moved both Eagles up while the Swordmasters with the Loremaster moved onto the top of the hill. The Archmage cast The Withering at the Bloodletter horde on the left, reducing their toughness by one.

That was the cue for massed shooting at the Bloodletters from the Bolt Throwers and Archer units which reduced their number by eight. Meanwhile, the Reavers tried some cheeky shots at the Skull Cannon but failed to cause any wounds.

As an army build for close combat it was no surprise to find the daemonic hordes marching up in their first turn, with the Bloodthirster also flying over the wood.

Chris rolled a total of four for the Winds of Magic which meant the Daemon’s ward saves were reduced by one for the next turn. To add insult to forthcoming injury, Chris failed to dispel The Withering that was in play on the Bloodletters, which left my Archers licking their lips at the potential slaughter to come. The Skull Cannon tried to snipe out the Loremaster but the shot fell shot.

In turn two the Loremaster’s Swordmasters charged the Bloodcrushers while the Eagle on the left moved out to divert the Bloodletters and the other one moved to the right flank of the bulk of my force. The Reavers moved to the right of the Bloodthirster to try some pot shots at him. The Loremaster tried to cast an Iceshard Blizzard on the Bloodcrushers but this was dispelled. He was successful in casting Wyssan’s Wildform on his unit but a single die casting of Miasma on the ‘crushers failed.

The ranks of Archers let loose again at the Bloodletter horde on the left and reduced the unit to just Skulltaker, the BSB, the command and one regular Bloodletter. On the right the Reavers’ pot shots at the Bloodthirster couldn’t penetrate the beast’s hide. Combat saw the Swordmasters inflict ten wounds on the Bloodcrushers and take two back, one of which was on the Loremaster. Chris rolled double-one for the stability test but we ended up having to refer to the Daemon book for how to resolve the result with the end result that three Bloodcrushers were left at the end of the combat (I’m still not a hundred percent sure we did this right, even after looking again at the wording of the rule in the Daemon book and the army book FAQ).

Chris’ turn two saw both hordes moving up (the casualties taken by the unit on the left meaning the unit could squeeze past the Eagle) and the Bloodthirster closed on my lines while the Skull Cannon moved onto the hill in Chris’ half of the table. In the magic phase a six was rolled giving Chris enough dice to dispel The Withering that was in effect on the Bloodletters.

The Skull Cannon shot at the large Archers, aiming to bounce into my Archmage behind then and succeeded in doing so but the Archmage passed his Look Out Sir roll and the brave White Lion who stepped into his place passed his Ward Save. In combat the Sword Masters this time managed to finish off the Bloodcrushers and the reformed to face the, as yet, untouched horde of Bloodletters.

Following up their victory the Swordmasters charged into the flank of the Bloodletters while the White Lions reformed to put them on an angle and the Reavers moved up to shooting range of the Skull Cannon. The Loremaster successfully cast Iceshard Blizzard on the Bloodletters but the Archmage failed in his attempt to cast Enfeebling on them.

All the shooting bar the Reavers concentrated on the Bloodletter horde again and wiped out both the Bloodletters and the characters in the unit. The Ellyrian Reavers managed to make one wound on the Skull Cannon but it made its armour save. Combat saw the Swordmasters do seven wounds for only two in reply and win the combat with no restored models shenanigans.

The Skull Cannon charged into the flank of the Swordmasters in Daemons turn three and the Bloodthirster charged into the flank of the small Archer unit on the right. A roll of ten for the winds of magic meant all Daemonic ward saves were now 4+ which was going to make the Swordmasters’ job that bit harder. And so it proved as although they scored four wounds the Loremaster was cut down and then the unit broke, being run down by the Bloodletter horde. The Bloodthirster smashed through the Archers who fled far enough that they bounced through the large Archer unit in their flee path, ending up in front of the left Bolt Thrower. The Bloodthirster itself overran into the large unit of Archers.

That meant that at the start of my turn four the second Bloodletter horde was out in the open where my shooting could see it only for the large Archer block to be engaged in combat and two of my Bolt Throwers were going to be taking cover penalties for intervening units to shoot at them. I still cast The Withering on the horde, following up with an Enfeebling Foe on the Bloodthirster.

What shooting could see them let rip at the horde of Bloodletters and managed to fell eight of the Daemons, which I felt was good going considering the boosted Ward Save they were currently enjoying. The Bloodthirster made a mess of the Archers, killing eight but the unit was Steadfast and held, although they failed to combat reform to face him.

Daemon turn four saw the Bloodletters and Skull Cannon start making tracks for my units. A nine on the Winds of Magic saw the White Lions take three casualties and the Bolt Thrower on the left wiped out. Enfeebling on the Bloodthirster was dispelled. In combat another ten Archers were killed by the Bloodthirster but the unit clung on, although they still failed their combat reform test.

Other than the Reavers moving to keep up with the Bloodletter horde the only movement of note in turn five was my White Lions reforming to a narrower block. The Withering was recast on the Bloodletters, taking them down to toughness one but a Miasma cast at them to reduce their movement was stopped.

My shooting took out another eight Bloodletters while the Bloodthirster wiped out the Archers at last in the combat. This allowed him the choice of where to charge into the Daemon fifth turn and he chose the Swordmasters. The Bloodletters also charged, themselves going for a long charge at the Archer unit who stood and shot and reduced the Khorne Daemons to just the Herald and the unit champion.

Magic was a ten dice phase again, giving the Daemons that much needed boost to their Ward save and allowing Chris to dispel The Withering on the Bloodletters. The Skull Cannon shot Grapeshot at the Ellyrian Reavers, wiping them out. Dispelling The Withering didn’t do Chris much good as the Archers killed both the Herald and champion in combat. The Swordmasters didn’t fare so well, taking nine casualties and fleeing off the board with the Bloodthirster in hot pursuit.

That meant that at the start of turn six the only Damon unit on the board was the Skull Cannon. The Withering was cast on it to reduce its toughness by my shooting could only put three wounds on it.

In Daemons turn six the Bloodthirster returned to the board while the Skull Cannon shot at my Archmage but misfired.

Summary

Well, those of you keeping track will have noticed that there was distinct lack of Daemons on the board at the end. Yep, this was my first win of the tournament, ending up being recorded as a 12-8 to me (although putting the numbers into my army list spreadsheet while writing this report I realised that I gave Chris the points for my Eagles which were actually still alive at the end of the game, I’d just moved them so far to the right of the board that I thought they were in the dead pile so it should have been a 13-7).

For once in this tournament my plan to whittle down enemy units through magic and shooting played out as intended, although I must admit I was still quite surprised at how rapidly I cut down Skulltaker’s unit of Bloodletters.

To be fair to Chris, I think he said he’d not been playing the army long and I did have to query it when he said there was no effect to my army of one of the Reign of Chaos rolls as I was sure something should be happening from what I recalled of the table.

Looking at where I ended up giving away points in this game, it was pretty much all down to the Bloodthirster getting into my lines in turn three. While I’m still not sure if I gave away the Loremaster’s Swordmaster unit a bit too cheaply, they did take out the Bloodcrushers that could easily have rampaged through several of my units and they also delayed and diverted the second horde of Bloodletters.

I think my main problem with dealing with the Bloodthirster was that my troops were focused on shooting down Bloodletters. When I reformed the White Lions I must admit I was kind of hoping the Archers would hold out until Chris’ next turn and allow me a counter charge. Realistically I should have anticipated that they’d be wiped out that turn and reformed them wide with the Swordmasters tucking in behind to deny the Bloodthirster a charge on them. Of course, that would have blocked the shooting from one of the Bolt Throwers that was so instrumental in shooting down the second horde of Bloodletters.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Wrap-up

Having been superglued to the bottom table ever since game one it will surely come as no surprise that, despite a very minor win in game five, I was last overall and walked away with the wooden spoon, not even achieving my usual goal of two wins over the weekend.

Looking back, aside from the mistakes in game, I don’t quite think my list was suited to taking on Tony’s Empire. Yes, it would have helped if I’d had first turn and could have shot up his Demigryphs but really I could have done with a second unit of Reavers to act as diverters to keep his army off me longer and hopefully get me the charges I wanted.

Game three would probably have gone somewhat better if my Archmage hadn’t dropped down a hole in the first turn. Losing my main magic defence and source of support magic so early meant the game was always going to be an uphill struggle from thereon even if things did go my way.

The two games against Warriors I would have preferred to have gotten at least one of them in Battle Line to give me a normal game’s experience of playing against them. That said, in game two at least I would probably have been far better off deploying tighter in a corner than more spread out.

In terms of tournament organisation overall I think Sandy did well, the only real hiccups being from the venue not being open at the time he expected to allow the tables to be set up for when everyone started arriving, and also the hall we were in on Saturday being double-booked which meant having to tear down the tables and set up anew in a different hall for the Sunday. Obviously these things weren’t within Sandy’s control.

The only real quibble I had was with the Phat Cats’ game boards and mats used as surfaces as some of the mats were the wrong size (for example, in game one the mat Tony and I were using was a foot short on the width) and table twelve on day one had three foot by two foot boards to make the playing area but the middle board didn’t want to stay level and that was a bit of a fear about catapulting units if you put your hand down on that board too quickly/heavily.

All in all if Sandy runs the event next year I’ll be back, after all, it’s not every tournament that you can walk to from home.


Misc shots from the best army nominations



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(You can see the full album, with larger versions of the images,
here)


List Thoughts


I’m not sure what changes I may make to my list in future following this event and Blood and Glory. For the most part I’m running the models I have that are currently painted to tournament standard which doesn’t leave me with a lot of wriggle room to swap in some different units and my painting table at the moment is figuratively covered with Island of Blood Swordmasters I’m painting up to replace my metal models and a few Archers I didn’t end up needing for these last tow tournaments. (I say my table is figuratively covered with them because I had to pack my painting stuff away to make space for my daughter’s birthday party and so will probably spend the next couple of weeks trying to remember where I put everything I was working on).

Just to assess what I have been taking, I’m going to look at my wizards. The Archmage in game is just about as good as he was in the last army book, I just miss the +1 to dispel attempts. The big puzzle is what lore to give him. I had fun running dual High Magic mages under the 7th edition book when I could duplicate spells and be pretty much guaranteed to get the ones I wanted but I’m not sure the lore does enough for the army, especially considering the short range of the magic missile and lore attribute that only really comes into its own if you’re throwing your vulnerable wizard into a combat unit where he doesn’t really want to be. I’ll probably give some of the other magic lores a try to see what that does for the list.

I’m not sure what to make of the Loremaster. He gives you a range of spells, most of which are generally going to be useful during most games (Searing Doom being the most situational of these). However, you’re paying Lord points for a Level 2 casting ability that cannot be boosted without giving him the Book of Hoeth.

With the Book and a high winds of magic roll you can attempt three or four spell castings a turn, hopefully forcing your opponent into a difficult choice as to what to dispel but that means if you’re running a Level 4 alongside him, you’re not getting the dispel bonuses on your highest level wizard that he can get from re-rolling one of the dice.

Where best to deploy the Loremaster is another thing I’m trying to figure out. In these last two tournaments I’ve ended up using him as a combat character and putting him in with one of the Swordmaster units typically. However, he’s still a squishy elf at the end of the day and with the spells available to him when his unit hits combat, three of his spells are useless. For the next few games I’m going to try and remember to deploy him in one of the Archer units on the back lines and see how that goes.

Whether to include the Banner of the World Dragon in the list is something else that’s giving me questions I don’t yet have the answer to. I’ve only run it in my Raze and Ruin list and only on my BSB. The pros of having the banner on the BSB are mainly that you can put the banner where you want depending on what you’re facing and if it’s in the same unit as a wizard you give them and the unit a degree of miscast fallout protection (which came in handy a couple of times in this tournament). The cons are that it’s still on a squishy elf (very squishy if he’s on foot and you forget this 6+ Ward Save from his Dragon Armour) and I found myself putting the BSB in my main combat unit (along with my Archmage) where his squishiness was going to be exploited against anything with non-magical attacks.

The other obvious choice is to put the banner on one of the combat blocks, the problem there being that if it is an obvious choice your opponent may well go to pains to avoid that unit if he has magical attacks in his army.

Looking at my Core the main change I want to make is to put in a second unit of Reavers. To do this I’d probably drop one of the small units I have at present and make two equally sized units out of the large block and the small unit left over. One of the reasons I had the smaller units of Archers in the first place was so that I could use them as diverters/speed bumps if necessary without giving away too many points (even if I’ve forgotten to use them that way).

In Special I’m probably going to be sticking with my current setup for a while due to the fact that I’m in the process of replacing the metal models with the current plastics and so need to get on and get them painted (especially since my White Lions were a Christmas present from the missus who still occasionally has digs at me about all the scenery she’s bought me over the years that I’ve not got round to building and/or painting yet).

With the loss of most of the interesting High Elf banners, particularly the Banner of Sorcery, I’m actually running few banners in my list now. From my, admittedly limited, experience since the new High Elf book came out, I’ve found that White Lions don’t seem to cut through 1+ armour saves like they used to, hence putting the Razor Standard on them.. (At the moment I’m still trying to figure out if I just played opponents on a hot run of armour save rolls or if the reduction in hits the White Lions are getting without re-rolls is becoming noticeable.)

The other hot contender for banner choice on the Lions, at least if you listen to the wisdom of the internet, is the Banner of the World Dragon. While that definitely works if you’re facing Daemons, I’d think by this stage that any Daemon player worth their salt will just avoid the Lions or chaff them up to keep their main units alive while they clear up the rest of your army. It’s also tempting to turn that into a death star unit with most or all of your characters in which isn’t something I want to start doing.

Finally we come to Rare. At the moment this section is populated by the units I had painted before the new book came out (and in the case of the Bolt Throwers, put back in to use up some of the spare points I now had). I didn’t really get much of a chance to test out the Swiftsense on the Great Eagles at this event so I may leave it on them for a little while longer to see if it does have any use. With my current build the Bolt Throwers potentially give me a higher strength shooting fire base, although having that many does have an impact on my deployment with the need to make sure they have line of sight to where their potential targets will be. They also seemed to let me down with not hitting with the crucial single bolts at times during the tournament.

I’m tempted to look at running Frostheart Phoenixes (I think if you run any you run at least two for redundancy) but don’t have the money to add them in at the moment, never mind that they’d be a long, long way down my painting list. I could possibly put in some Sisters of Avelorn instead of a Bolt Thrower, which would make some of my strength four shooting a bit more mobile but again I run into the problem of having to buy some and get them painted.
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Calisson
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Calisson »

Thxs for the report, apreciate the effort. Sorry for the result, but you show the mental strength to survive it! :)
Game 3 was not the only one that I was interested in, I'm playing Empire, too. ;)
Your army seems to lack frosties and dragon banner that many competitive HE list seem to field, that must be for some reason.
Also, BS shooting is said to be seldom enough to solve our melee problems. Good generals say that shooting is meant to get rid of chaffs.
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Cerebros
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Re: Raze and Ruin 2013

Post by Cerebros »

Calisson wrote:Thxs for the report, apreciate the effort. Sorry for the result, but you show the mental strength to survive it! :)
Game 3 was not the only one that I was interested in, I'm playing Empire, too. ;)
Your army seems to lack frosties and dragon banner that many competitive HE list seem to field, that must be for some reason.
Also, BS shooting is said to be seldom enough to solve our melee problems. Good generals say that shooting is meant to get rid of chaffs.


Well like I say in my list thoughts, I'd like to give Frostheart Phoenixes a try but don't have the money right now to get the models, so I don't really want to think about proxying them or anything until I can think about buying the models if I do like running them. Archers are in there to fill up the Core at the the moment.

I did run the Banner of the World Dragon at this event but I'm not convinced so far that it's a must have
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