As it's been a long time since that tournament, I will just post my descriptions of the battle. Sorry for not having any pictures from the battles, but I didn't make it as I was rather busy back then and there wasn't many people who asked for any reports back then. Here's what I wrote back then:
Battle 1: Orcs and Goblins.
He had 2 chariots, 1 horde of big unz, 1 horde of black orcs, 1 horde of 80 night goblins, and a unit of normal orcs at the back, where all his heros was at. I quickly figured out that I wanted to focus each unit down, and the perfect opportunity came after my round (where I just moved closer) as he failed his animosity and failed a charge against me. After he moved the rest of his army a bit more forward, having the black orcs closer at the left flank and moving up slowly with his goblins, due to miasma.
I charged with my spear elves, witch elves and 2 hydras and needed just about average rolls on all of them to get in close, however it was only the spear elves who got there, and the bigunz wiped them and overran into the witch elves. His 'ead butting mage was kinda dangerous for my sorceress, so I had moved my master up behind the black orcs, ready to charge the command unit and try to challenge some of those heroes to death. I moved the harpies up on the left to try and take off some of the charges I would most likely get against me, although without enough movement I couldn't set them up to redirect as much from the GW black orcs.
On his turn, he charged into the harpies with the black orcs and a chariot, wiping them out quickly before he overran into my hydra with his black orcs (And a stupid flank charge as I had failed my previous charge). My witch elves cut down lots of orcs, even while I had somewhat bad rolls. I won the battle, but the big uns still had more ranks and stood their ground. I dispelled a gork stamp on my units and felt rather happy I got away from most of the worst magics.
in my round three, I charged with my Hydra to help my witch elves even battle. I was thinking the second hydra would struggle a lot, especially if he had a fire banner. I hoped to slam in with my chariot to help my poor hydra out, but it went stupid... even to put me in an even worse position, the master failed his charge against the character unit as well! I got off enfeeblement on the big unz, and suddenly the combat looked so much better as I also had spread the witch elves out 11 wide! The 11 witch elves killed 18 orcs, with just a couple more losses, and the hydra ate up all but the 2 last orcs. As he fled, I followed with my witch elves, but decided (stupidly) to stay with the hydra and prepare to either help the second hydra, or charge into the character unit. Unfortunately, he had the flaming banner on his orcs, and so he immediately trashed my hydra in that other combat, and overrun further, almost reaching the one who had helped the witch elves. On his round, he charged my witch elves with the command unit, and a chariot. He managed to roll max impact hits, and my witch elves was put down to only 2, making it hard for me to do much with them... except killing the mage!
Unfortunately, my last hydra died as quick as the first, and with not much left, the game had to end as we had spent too much time (long hard combat rounds), and I didn't get to use much of my master at all really.
The game ended 9 - 11, meaning that I got a minor loss, and I was not so happy about some of my tactics. I could and should have managed to hold off those black orcs much better, and made SURE that I got all my units to kill each of his big units. If I had played better, I could've taken his command unit, and the big unz in the middle.
Battle 2, Beastmen:
Not ever having played against Beastmen, I was kinda excited and not so sure about what tricks his army had going for them. I noticed he had a horde unit of beastmen (2 handweapons with a chance of hatred and even frenzy if I remember correct). He also had a big unit of 6 minotaurs, where one of them was a hero, another big beast who I think was a unit choice, some skirmishers, another unit of beastmen, 2 units of harpies, 2 chariots, one mage of lvl 3 beast, 1 bsb and one beast hero of some sort... all of the three last ones were in the horde unit.
This was a special scenario game, where we split the battle from one edge of the table, to the other, and we could place our units 6 away from the line across (meaning we could start 12 away from eachother! He won the roll and set out first (And would have 1-5 chance on d6 to start the game), but I felt I had the edge as I could set out however I wanted. My setup was quite compact and quite perfect as my witch elves would meet the minotaurs, and I placed both hydras and the spear elves to get closer to the big horde unit.
He began the game by trying a charge against my witch elves with a chariot, clearly a suicide run, but the idea of taking down some of them was kinda good. I was too far away, and he failed the charge. Other than that, he moved closer with his units and he improved his str and attacks with 3 on his general with magic. His harpies blocked my witch elves, and his other unit of harpies, blocked my hydra and master from charging his horde unit. Although I might have chanced getting the charges with several of my units into the horde unit, I decided that this wasn't the round to do stupid things. Instead, my master charged the harpies, and my own chariot charged his chariot who had failed his previous charge. I also placed my harpies in front of his minotaurs, blocking any movement with them. Then I moved forward with my hydras to each side of the horde, 2 inches away, and the spear elves 1 inch away. I used my magic to lower the stength of the horde unit by 3 (yeah, 1 in strength on most of them). The bad breath of the hydras quickly removed slightly over half of the horde, and I shot down the first unit of harpies that blocked my witch elves. In close combat, I killed 3 of the 5 harpies but failed to catch them as they fled, stopping close to my hydras, and finally my chariot almost killed his, and managed to catch up when it fled.
In round two, my opponent decided he had to charge my spear elves with what remained of his horde. He also charged into my harpies with the minotaurs and charged into the hydra with his chariot. His small skirmisher shooties went into a house in the middle right of the table, and his other beastmen unit gets a bit closer to my right flank. He got his hero booster through again, while I dispelled the +1 s and t. In the close combat, I lost a lot of spear elves as his hero had lots of attacks and still a high S. Of course, my spear elf unit stood their ground, killing a couple of beastmen as well, while my hydra ate the chariot rather quickly without much wounds on him (I think he got two wounds). My poor harpies was eaten alive by the minotaurs, who was so eager to eat that they didn't manage to overrun to my witch elves. Of course, when it was my turn, the fun really began. My witch elves got a +1 attack from my CoB, and quickly ran into the minotaurs, the two hydras and my master joined the battle where my spear elves struggled, against the beasthorde with all those characters, and I turned the chariot around to get ready to charge anything the next rounds. My sorceress moved more away from the right flank towards the left to get away from any threats. This time, enfeeblement didn't get through as he used the scroll, but I got miasma through, which means that his inititive and WS got lowered a lot, making it easier for me to hit. His lord killed several spear elves once again, while I returned the favour by killing all his beastmen and his mage with the combined forces, leaving only the BSB and the lord... unfortunately they stood their ground due to the crown of command. On my left flank, my witch elves took some hits due to the ASF on the minotaur hero, but killed all but the hero and one minotaur in return. The result was fleeing minotaurs, which I followed but didn't manage to catch.
In round three, things looked very good for me. His lone beast charged my chariot, and his minotaurs turned around to face the witch elves again. His units on the right wing moved closer, while I kept shooting at them. Without the magic of his mage, the spear elves didn't loose as much in numbers, and was still alive. The chariot lost the combat, taking a wound, but held it's ground thanks to his high leadership. In my round three, I gave the spearmen KB, charged into the minotaurs with the witch elves again, charged the beast who was ripping my chariot apart with my hydra, and moved the master and other hydra around so they could charge the lord and BSB the next turn. I kept moving left with my sorceress and the unit, shooting with the crossbowmen on the last beastman unit. In close combat, my witch elves cut down the last minotaur but didn't manage to kill the hero. They did however pursue it to death, revenging the eaten harpies. My spear elves got KB on both the lord and BSB, the first managed a 4+ ward, but the other was outright slaughtered! Meanwhile, the hydra helped the poor chariot, and they both turned to face the beastman lord who struggled with the spear elves by now.
His round four was quick He decided to move the last beastman unit so that I couldn't kill it, and shot with his small beasts, not killing anything. His lord killed a couple of spearmen, while I got another KB on him... which he saved with another 4+. He stood his ground and I got the final round we would need... I decided two hydras would be enough to kill the lord, and used the master to charge into the house. The result was that the small beastmen got a few wounds from my master, but stood their ground after wounding my master. The beast lord had his Initiative down, and with two more KB attacks, he finally died... before the two hydras got to chew on him.
The battle was rather one sided as I got the positions I needed. I took out 2070 VP and lost only 55, which is a new record for me in 8th edition. 29 pts on two games put me in the top 4 before the final battle of the day.... and in the top four, it was Empire, Dark elf, Empire, Dark elf!
Battle 3, Empire:
It's the second time I met the opponent who waited for me at the third battle. It was against him I got my first battle against empire, and the first time I was massacred and lost 20 - 0! Funny that the second time I would meet empire, I met the same opponent almost half a year later. This time he had a new army book and maybe even a better list. I did however have a better list too.
His new army had a lot of focus on heroes, fielding two mounted ones, one a general and one war priest, while he had 4 on the ground one engineer for the warmachines, and one war priest, a mage, and the bsb together with a horde of halberdiers . He had two detachments, a small unit of those skirmish archers, and a medium group of swordsmen (20 I think). Other than that, he had two cannons, and the one I always forget the name of who shoots 3 artillery dice of shots with str 5.
The scenario of the battle was another new one to me. It was about keeping your standards and general above two points (or your opponent would get 500 pts). The general was two points and each banner was one. That left me with 6 altogether (general, bsb, banner of witch elves, and two banners of spearmen), while he had 5 (general, bsb, banner with knights and banner with halberdiers).
Round one:
Knights on the left, cannon shot not wounding my CoB because of 4+ ward, artillery machine reducing my 14 crossbowmen to 2. My spearmen went straight forward, my hydras, chariot and master went up right, my sorceress with spearmen went into the building, my witch elves following just behind. I decided to take a huge risk, using 12 PD to go for a large blast pit of shades... which went of the table and the misscast gave my sorc a wound and killed some spear elves.
Round two:
Knights continued around the bend of the forest, no good shots for cannons, which took out some spear elves instead. The artillery machine killed a few witch elves after some missfires which halfed the numbers of shots (he rerolled one missfire with the engineer). I charged my spear elves againts the archers, who fled, and redirected into the swordmasters. I moved my two hydras, chariot, and master up along the right wing towards the warmachines, and reformed the witch elves, making them face the incoming knights while backing out from line of sight of further shots. I did some mistakes with the spells, using enfeeblements on the swordmasters and suddenly decided I would put the withering on the halberdiers in hopes of winning the fight with the detachment and be able to turn and face the halberdiers (needed luck for that for sure). The fight that followed, made the swordmasters loose the fight, however the bsb had the crown of command, so the swordmasters stood their ground.
Round three:
Halberdiers charged my spear elves and his knights moved closer, in range of the witch elves. He shot with his cannons, and I felt rather stupid as he actually managed to hit two of my hydras with one shot... luckily, I had trained my hydras to catch cannonballs with their teeth this day, and even though both was hit, both managed the regen ward. The artillery machine took off 4 wounds of one hydra, and I was rather happy about not really loosing anything... before my spear elves was beaten, but 8 of them managed to flee, with the swordmasters following but not taking my elves out.
In my turn, I charged the two hydras in the artillery machine, the chariot into the swordmasters who decided to flee, and I actually catched them by rolling a 12... the exact amount needed to catch up! Also, my master decided that a cannon down would make it a lot easier for my monsters and himself, so I charged that one too. Finally, the witch elves charged the knights, (which also got +1 attack). Now, what I needed this magic round was of the same PD amounts as the first two turns (12 and 11), but of course I rolled a total of 3! While I decided that enfeeblement would be the safe way to keep the witch elves alive and maybe take one or two of the knights, I went for the very chancy mindrazor, and needed to get it through with 3 dices and +1 dice from sacrifice.... and I got 20! The close combat that followed, crushed my opponent. I took down all the knights, lord and war priest with my witch elves loosing just a couple due to the lord having the same initiative. My hydras ate the artillery machine, while my master cut down the cannon crew. With one swift crash, I had the upper hand by far. Even better, I had gained the extra 500 VP for taking down the necessary keypoints (general and standard).
Round 4:
The round where I started to do lots of mistakes. I fled with the hydra, which had 1 wound left, from the halberdiers. However, I didn't see the engineer who was quite hidden in the forest behind the other hydra. He had the fleeing hydra in sight, and made me flee a second time with the total amount of three on the 2d6 flee dices, he slaughtered it. The halberdiers redirected into the chariot, who got hit and fled away.. in the pursue, the halberdiers hit the spearmen who had managed to rally. He also shot that turn, the cannonball crashing into the hydra, who didn't care as he managed yet another regen save.
In my round, I decided to charge into the last cannon... and to make sure, I used both my master and hydra (which could have been used to burn up alot of halberdiers... gah). I gave my spear elves +1 attack from the CoB at the beginning of the turn, my chariot managed to rally and got back into the combat, and I went out of the house with my sorceress and spear elves... trying to get away and save some points. The cannon died quickly, but so did my spear elves, and the halberdiers ran into the chariot (which just had rallied) next.
Round 5:
He managed to get the Comet of Cassandra through while killing my chariot in this round, and I kept running away from it to get to safety. It hit the ground with only 4 range, not hitting anything. We quickly moved to the last round as I tried to keep away from his big unit, quite sure about my victory.
Round 6:
Another comet, it hit on my turn, killing a few spear elves, but not doing any game changing damage.
Result:
18 - 2! So close to another 20 - 0, but as I did many mistakes in this game, I should be quite happy. I was rather lucky with some of my rolls, in particular the 4 regen saves from cannonshots and getting through the mindrazor with only 4 dices. I would of course have used all the dices to get mindrazor through at that critical moment, but with 3 PD generated, I needed to rely on luck... and it went well.
Day one was done, and I had managed to acquire a second place, just after another dark elf. Day two would be only two more battles, so to achieve my goals of more wins than losses, I would only need one more win the next day.
And that was the end of the reports I got. What I can say though, is that on the second day, I met the other dark elf and crushed him entirely. However, since it was watchtower scenario and he had 40 corsairs in the building, he held his ground very nicely inside. Hadn't the judge done a major mistake and saying that I couldn't stomp in the building, I'd break him and get another 20 - 0. Instead I think I got an 11 - 9.
In the last battle I had, I met the strongest of the empire lists, one who could beat mine quite nicely. It was 3x3 demy gryphs and two knight units, + warmachines, those other spell chariots, and a minimum core of halberdsmen, some bowmen and generally a very nasty list. It ended in a draw after I've messed up a lot of my movement and using mindrazor 3-4 x times :p
The end result was that I got second place, only 6 points behind the winner who was a lizardman player (Who wins almost any tournament he's in these days). If I had got the 9 points from that dark elf battle as well, I'd be first... however, I'm happy with the tournament and the result in general.
