.
I arrived late afternoon, after 10 hours of traveling. Took a cab to the event, where I met up with the rest of the team
. At the time Chris was playing in the Ashes event vs Russia.
Next after doing some shopping proceeded to the house where we met up with team Poland. To integrate we had some drinks, and then some more, and some more after those, and then even more. 3 hour's of sleep later, we prepared to leave for the event. I must admit I was in no shape to play, I just could not concentrate (Here the entire team helped me to do the parings which I'm very grateful for).
After carefull reading of the lists, I was paired up with scaven, since it was a bad match up for most of the team. I knew I was in bad shape, so I took the time to read my opponents army four or five times before we started deploying.
I had was using, in case any one is interested
.
Supreme Sorceress: General, lvl 4, Death, Sacrificial Dagger, 285
Supreme Sorceress: lvl 4, Metal, Seal of Ghrond, 290
Master on Dark Pegasus: Beastmaster's Scourge, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Black
Dragon Egg, Dragonbane Gem, Enchanted Shield, 194
Master on Dark Pegasus: Beastmaster's Scourge, Heavy Armour, Shield, Cloak of Hag GraefDawnstone, 192
Master on Dark Pegasus: BSB, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Sea Dragon Cloak, Pendant oKhaeleth, Dragonhelm, 212
10 Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen: Shields, Musician, 115
10 Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen: Shields, Musician, 115
10 Dark Elf Repeater Crossbowmen: Shields, Musician, 115
15 Dark Elf Warriors: Standard, Musician, Shields, Standard of Discipline, 129
5 Dark Riders: Musician, 92
5 Dark Riders: Musician, 92
5 Harpies: 55
5 Harpies: 55
5 Shades: Extra Hand Weapons, 85
1 Cold One Chariot: 100
1 Cold One Chariot: 100
1 War Hydra: 175
Total: 2396
So game one: vs Ville Rantanen from Finland, and he was using;
Seer, foul pendant earthing Rod, Ironcures Icon
Seer Power scroll
BSB, Standard of discipline
Engeneer Ll dispell scroll
Engeneer brass orb
Engeneer Obidina lodestone IMPORTANT TO NOTICE
40 Stormvermin + Storm banner
2x 40 slaves
34 slaves
2xrat swarms
2x3 pack masters
2x5 gutter runners
Abom
Doomwheel
Plague catapult
WLC
This game was a risky match up for me. Since my opponent had more then enough toys to take my army down. I had metal magic on one of my sorc, rendering her pretty much useless against the scaven. My roll for spells was terrible, I didn't get a single spell I wanted. I was left with a bunch of sniper spell's. And nothing useful on the metal mage.
Ville cornered his list, in the left, I matched that with my shooting unit's, but deployed my points on the the right, where I was faced only by a doomwheel. I took one last look at his list, before deploying my generals escort, mainly to decide the priorities of my sniping spell's. And I notice his General has only a 5+ ward …. hmmmmm... I decide to go for it, and instead of placing the bodyguard in the opposite corner, I set up my General with Death magic directly in front of his line. What I failed to notice, was the presence of the lodestone in his army, despite reading his list about 10 times till this point, and I was looking if Ville included some magic resistance on one of his other characters.
the scaven stole the first turn but not much happened in the first turn from what I remember.
You could imagine my surprise, in my first turn when my opponent told me, he has 2+ ward vs magic, just after I moved my S.Sorc. right in front of his entire army to try to sniper his general. So my magic does nothing to his general. And I know I'm doomed, with the second sniper spell I try to sniper the Abom as it was the nearest threat, but fail to do any damage. I use seering doom to take the doomwheel down. Some rat's fell in the shooting phase, but I knew at this point I'm going to loose bad. I give the Ville the go ahead to start his turn.
He shuffles but nothing major, and then start's his magic phase. He got a dubble 4, one of the worst outcomes possible at this point. The magic came down to one thing, will I dispel the scorch or dreded-13, I decided to dispel the scorch, reason, It was cast, while the 13 and lighting still needs to meat the casting value and then do enought wounds to take my unit down. I decided to play the odd's, if I let the scorch off, he still could If's the 13, the unit was dead, he could fail one of the later spell's or just not roll high to wipe out the unit. I had some archers near by. Unfortunately the dice gods punished me for my condition, and my General unit was wiped out, and a lightning bolt took out my genreal, then the corpses were replaced by Rat's. but in the movement phase I forgot to change unit corners to get the 4+ look out from my RXB's.
There was not much I could do, from this point on, but to limit my losses, Also one of the other hilight's was in the 5th turn my other sorc failed a ld 9 panic test and ending up, running on to a hill, directly in the center of the table just in front of the whole scaven army, again my opponent rolled well in the magic phase, and her doom was sealed, she held nice dispelling spell after spell, letting past the small lightning bolt's and using the remaining rxb's as shield's. But She was killed by the final spell cast on the last dice. One funny thing happened, when the Abom was going to mop up my chaff, my opponent rolled a triple 6's, and the abom smashed in to it's own lines.
In the end my opponent got a 15-5 win. I can only blame myself for the result, I played horribly,
I cast spells on unit's who couldn’t benefit from them, also deploying my sorc in front of the scaven line was just ….. . Also my opponent played well and rolled what he needed when he needed to, so the battle was once sided from turn two.
Ville I can only apologize for giving you such a poor game
, but I think you were happy with the result :wink: .
Game Two.
This game I was almost sober, and my hang over had already started kicking in. Again I take one for the team, and I'm pared up vs Attila Jeles form team Hungry and his scaven. My hang over was killed by a shot of delicious Hungarian brewed high percentage alcohol
.
Attilas list.
1 Grey Seer: General, lvl 4, Ruin, Power Scroll, 275
1 Warlord: Heavy Armour, Shield, The Fellblade, 193
1 Chieftain: BSB, Halberd, Heavy Armour, Shield, Banner of the Eternal Flame, 84
1 Plague Priest on Plague Furnace: lvl2, Plague, Flail, Opal Amulet,
Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon, 334
27 Plague Monks: FCG, Plague Banner, 251
1 Warlock Engineer: Doom Rocket, 45
40 Skavenslaves: Musician, Champion, Shields, 106
24 Clanrats: FCG, Shields, Poisoned Wind Mortar, 188.5
6 Gutter Runners: 72
30 Stormvermin: FCG, Razor Standard, Doom-flayer, 335
6 Giant Rats: Packmaster, 26
1 Hellpit Abomination: Warpstone Spikes, 250
1 Doomwheel: 150
1 Warp-lightning Warp Cannon: 90
Total Army Cost: 2399.5
This game went in my favor, as Attila was scared of my hydra, and decided to use his Abom to take it down. While I decided that there was no point in using my hydra, since he has a cannon, doomwheel and an Abom to deal with the beast, so I parked her on my right flank behind a huge obelisk (and it was huge, twice as long as my hydra).
The Scaven deployed on the back line.
I got first turn, The doomwheel took a seering doom then it was followed by spirit leech that finished it off. My elves were up for vengeance. With shooting I took down the PWM, and some rat's here and there. To my surprise the Scaven rushed me
. From the left, The abom heading for my hydra, then some slaves, next the plague furnace, clanrat's with bsb and warlord, stormvermin next were parked in a wood. I was caught off guard a little. So in response I counter charge :wink:. My chariot's in to the clanrat's containing the BSB and Warlord. I figured since the warlord would be targeting my chariot's with the fell blade, I should use some more CR and rank's to take away his steadfast. So I charged my rxb's down hill, in to the Warlord, as I go to move my rxb's I notice that my l4 metal mage is attached to it 
. The stromvermin accompanied by the seer are in the wood, so they are charged by a peg. No stead fast means the rat's choose to flee. Magic and shooting does nothing significant, except for the doom and darkness on the warlord's unit.
In the combat phase I kill a few clan rat's with the chariot's impact hit's, then the fellblade takes my chariot down, the combat was lined up in such a manner that only 2 Rxb's were in contact with his fellblade, and they land 4 hits, next all 4 wound and the warlord fails 3 saves
. The carnage their leader has experience, plus the doom and despair feeling, was more then enough for the clanrat's to turn tail and run, and in the process were mercilessly cut down by the elves.
Scaven turn
With the BSB and the lord massacred by the fury of the darkelves, the stormvermin couldnt shake the feeing there is no hope of evading the vengeance of the dark elves, they do what scaven do best, turn tail and run, taking the seer with them. From now on it was just vermin extermination. With the exception of evading the abomb with my hydra. All in all a 20-0 win for me.
My opponent made 2 mistakes in the deployment, 1 was with the abom, who should have charged my lines, and not chase my hydra around an obelisk, the other, by running his seer and storm vermin through the woods, as he had some room to go around it. I on the other hand was pretty much sober, and my dice had not failed me. AN If he swamped hid Doom wheel with the Abom I would be in much more trouble.
End of day one
We as a team were planning the paring a little wrongly, so used the evening to figure out where we made the mistake, since Andi our VC player got 2 horrible match up's in both the games, while we could have avoided it in the paring's quite easily.
Game 3 was vs Team Netherlands Jacques van der Puijl, and his lizardmen.
A good match up for my DE.
Slann Mage-Priest: General, Lvl 4, Light, Focused Rumination, Plaque of Tepok,290
Slann Mage-Priest: BSB, Light, Focus of Mystery, Banner of the Eternal Flame, 310
Skink Priest: lvl 1, Cube of Darkness, 105
Skink Priest: lvl 1, Dispel Scroll, 90
Saurus Scar-Veteran: Cold One, Great Weapon, Light Armour, Dragonhelm, Venom of Firefly
Frog, Dawn Stone, 161
39 Skinks: Musician, 201
38 Skinks: Musician, 196
3x10 Skink Skirmishers: 70
3x9 Chameleon Skinks: 108
3x3 Terradon Riders: 90
3 Salamander Hunting Packs:+3 Handlers, 240
Total Army Cost: 2397
He set up his unit's in a defensive manner. I deployed my troops back, with my peg's forward (almost immune to terradons).
I got firs turn, moved forward aggressively.
First of all, trying to take down his teradons and camelion's as they possessed the biggest threat to my lightly armored elves.
On the left I use my dragon egg to fry a camoskink unit and a unit of teradons, unfortunate 2 camoskink survive, and I only wound 1 teradon. I use all 3 unit's of RXB's to shoot that teradon unit, unfortunetly they just refuse to take any dammage
. The camos flee, but stop at the border edge so no point's from them . On the right I cast doom and darkness on another teradon unit reducing their Ld two 3 , the flank is guarded by them and a unit of camo skink's. My general uses spirit leech and caress of Lamph, but the terados must be blesses by the old ones, as I cant get a single kill , in the shooting my shades only do 1 wound to the same teradons and failing to cause a panic check on ld 3 teradons !!!, The teradons are now free to rain havoc on my army #-o.
As one can easly predict, the lizzies retaliate, killing my Shades and both unit's of DR. Also the hydra takes 2 wound's from burning gaze. And my assault is shattered at this point.
I have go from a very confident deploy/move to a horrible turnout. I just lost the needed units who could allow me to contain such a large skink force. I'm now on the defensive.
I fail a 10 re roll able stupidity with my CoC, and move up 6” towards the Scar vet, allowing him him a long 10+ charge. I keep the pressure on with my Pegasuses knowing a draw will cost me a lot.
The lizzie player makes the 10+ charge on my chariot, killing the chariot in one go, and makes a long overrun, just to be out of the los from my pendant BSB, who was waiting to flank him
. Shooting and magic takes my hydra down .
In my turn my CoC charges a huge unit of skink. I cast both spirit leech and cares on the scar vet, but fail to do any damage
. I let 120 rxb's bolts fly at the scarvet (2 turn's) , but also fail to do any damage . not counting the sniper spell's that targeted him .
I get a brake in the 4th turn as I close in with my death mage towards his slans,by getting a 11 PD phase, but I roll a double one when casting the first spell
, erasing any chances at gaining any real point's for the battle. This game was going badly for me from the beginning, all in all my death mage did 0 wounds with 8 sniper spell's she cast. The only charges I made with my flyer's were auto ones, I kept failing even the 5+ ones. On top of that I couldn’t kill skink in CC if my life depended upon it. Unfortunately we only played 5 round's, I could have used the last one to get some point's back, as I set up my remaining 2 peg's for auto charges on his lone slans, but with the way the dice went, I truly doubt I could accomplish it, so I didn;t really pressuer my opponent to try and finish the game.
The dice were just going against, and any effort I made was stopped when I had to roll dice. I end loosing 13-7. Which is really horribly, considering it was a excellent match up for me
.
Next game was vs Belarus, Alexanders Vinogradov's Beastmen
I did not want to play vs shadow magic, but my team convinced me that 2x lv1's shadow mages and a l2 beast is a good match up. Since my hydra will wreck havoc [-X. Well, we somehow failed to see the Lv 4 Shadow in the list
. I saw this as soon as we started deploying, not Good was the only thing I could think, I had a terrible feeling about this game .
My opponent set up in the center of the table on a hill. While I went for the flank's.
I got first turn, moved into range, concentrated fire on the beastigor, taking down the back rank. My pegs moved a little forward.
My opponent ran at me, full throttle, and was up in my face. In the magic phase, I saw a irresistible pit of shades on my hydra, and the beast went down. Then wild form on beastygor. I send in my chaff to slow him down. It worked nicely, as the beast hardly advance. Magic did little.
I wasted my dragon egg
, but it drew out his Dark chalice. The other peg's charge a unit of gor which were in a forest 
.
My metal sorc was in the middle of the table, I decided to move here to the left. Do to miasma she couldn’t reach any of the Rxb's, So I moved here back to my mage bunker, and next turn I would run here in to the Rxb's on the flank. As the RXB's were in a good position and I did not want to move them.
And the poop hit's the fan #-o . I cast doom and darkness on the gor's (in forest). Cascade my sorc, while the unit is forced to make a painc test on a LD 10, which they fail and the flee of the table on a 11+. Turn 3 and I have no magic
. The doom and darkness is gone, sinc my mage is no longer present on the table . The rest of the game is just a comedy, as my dice keep failing me time after time, The only time I do roll well, turns out I killed too many gor, and the when the casulties are taken off the unit is no longer in the forest , and they regain their stedfast #-o. I just cant do enough damage to the beasts to get any real point's, I had needed to kill 2-3 models from both the gor and bestigore to get 50% point but I just couldn't. In result I'm properly smashed 2-18. On the other hand loosing almost 900 VP's turn 2 will do that to you .
Game 5 vs Richard Morrisons High Elves
Prince on Star Dragon: General, Dragon Armour, Enchanted Shield, Sword of Anti-Heroes,
Vambraces of Defense, 624
Noble on Great Eagle: BSB, Dragon Armour, Spear, Shield, Helm of Fortune, Guardian Phoenix,
220
Mage: Level 2, Light, Silver Wand, 145
Mage: Level 1, Light, Sigil of Asuryan, 140
Mage: Level 1, Light, Dispel Scroll, 120
20 Archers: Standard, Musician, Banner of Eternal Flame, 245
12 Archers: Musician, 137
12 Archers: Musician, 137
13 Spearmen: Musician, 122
21 White Lions of Chrace, FCG, Banner of Sorcery, Champion,Amulet of Light, 410
Great Eagle, 50
Great Eagle, 50
Repeater Bolt Thrower, 100
Total: 2500
I must admit, I instinctively did not want to play the HE. The DE generals don’t like to admit it, but the HE book is designed to take the DE down. Despite the fact that the DE generally have a much strong army book. Plus the ETC comp tips the balance even further. I finally agree thinking I can finally use the Metal mage to take the dragon down since he has a decent save. Only after a cast seering doom I find out the the dragon amour gives the mounts 2+ ward vs flaming attack's. But the funny thing is I roll 1 hit to which is allocated to the dragon and he fails his 2+ ward
.
But let's start from the beginning.
I was surprised when my opponent started setting up defensive behind a hill. I quickly took advantage of that, pacing my archers out of sight, but in the center using a forest for cover. I lucky won first turn. I rushed forward with my army. Both peg's going 20” deep. Leaving the BSB to counter the dragon. and the RXB's moved their full 10", to cover as much ground as possible.
My opponent makes another big mistake. He moves his dragon up the left side putting and obelisk between the dragon and the hydra, but it is in charge range of my chariot and the bsb. While only having his bsb for support, I had 2 chariot's and the hydra. Plus a possible long charge by one of other my peg's.
In my turn I charge, unfortunately one of the chariot fails it's stupidity (LD10 rerollable
), stumbles forward. But my BSB makes the charge, normally I would avoid the dragon at all cost's, but he does not have the tricksters shard, so I should be ok untill I get sum support on the flank. The dragon peg. Swallows the egg and after 15 minute’s of positioning I move him to breath on the big unit of archers, killing most of the unit 
. I move the Hag greaf peg to threaten his RBT, along with the dragon peg, just in case he get's lucky and snipers on of my peg's. While the hyrda leaves cover and moves in to auto flank charge his dragon. Ach... in the magic Doom and darkness that targeted the dragon is stopped. I hit only with 1 attack, reroll just to miss again, but the single hit, wound's the beast. Unfortunately I take a wound in return , no big deal it can happen, I still win combat by 2, unfortunately the dragon hold's.
Magic phase the banishment is cast on my Hag Greaf peg, my opponent was surprised the the spell is at ½ strength, as he was convinced it was only against normal shooting, so I let him target my hydra instead. I know I should have not allow it, at world class tournament, but I'm a nice guy, and it's such a nice game. He wounds the hydra 7 times, and I fail 5 regen's
, unbelievable , so next turn no flak charge on the dragon .
My opponent turn
The RBT aim at the dragon peg, needed 5+ to hit (cover from arches), he manages to hit
, on top of that he wound's on 2+ so no suprise, but he need's another 5+ to deal 3 wound's to kill him, whitch he does . It just ruins my battle plan, I was going to charge the hag Greaf peg in to the RBT, to get an 4” overrun in to the archers, which the dragon peg was to charge also, with the 12 attacks and 2 stomp's I should have wiped out the remaining archers in the unit. Reform to face the remaining HE who at this time would be between my chariot's and the peg's 
.
In my turn both of my chariot's pass their stupidity
, then charge the evil HE bsb, both make it, I also cast enchanted blades on one of them just to help with the rerollable saves. The first chariot kills the BSB uppon impact . since my chariot's have nothing better to do the reform. My remaining peg charges the RBT, killing it on the charge. Then my luck totally ran out . My opponent fails his panic roll with both the WL and the scorched archers, then if that wasn't enough, he runs far enough, so I cant overrun into archers, since I needed something like a 12 to reach them. And the WL run over a hill and I cant see them. So I have a stranded Pegasus that cant reach anything. Because the dragon peg was killed in the shooting phase .
My bsb does more wounds the dragon he has 2 left, take none in return but the blasted thing still hold's
. I could have really used that flank charge from the hydra.
The He unit's rally and not much happens. Or I just don’t remember.
Next my chariot's charge his mage bunker, he flee's, but flees far enough to clear the line of sight of my peg, I get no love out of my new dice, as the chariot fails to reach the fleeing elves. the other chariot charges some archers along with the remaining peg.
Next my bsb dies by taking 2 wound's from the dragon, an they were the only wound's the dragon dealt that turn
. Next I see my unit of shades panic and never rally, harpies are slaughtered by an eagle, who refuses to take wound's from missile fire, the “scorched” archers kill off a unit of DR with just a few shot's. The dragon charges my rxb's with the metal mage, so I have to challenge sacrificing here to save the rxb's, she is properly massacred. In the mean time, I just cant snipe the dragon or the rider. My excellent beginning yet again falls apart like a house of card's. From a possible 18-2 win it swing's to a 7-13 loss in last 2 turns. I'm crushed at this point .
Last game we face team Sweden, and I'm pared up with the dwarves.
Again a decent match up for me.
Paul Berclaz, Dwarves
Runelord on Anvil of Doom: General, Shield , Spelleater Rune, Rune of Stone, Rune of
Preservation, Rune of Resistance, 413
Master engineer: Great weapon, Dwarf Handgun, Rune of Stone, 89
Thane : BSB, Great weapon , Crossbow, Master rune of Gromril , Master Rune of Challenge ,
Rune of Brotherhood , Rune of the Furnace , 174
22 Quarrellers : Musician , Standard, Great Weapons, 301
23 Quarrellers: FCG, Rangers, Great Weapons, 347
20 Minors: FCG , Steamdrill, 270
20 Minors: Musician , Standard, 235
5 Slayers: Musician, Giant Slayers(x3), 106
Dwarf Canon: Engineer, Rune of Burning, Rune of Forging , 145
Grudge Thrower: Engineer , Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Penetrating, Rune of Burning, 150
Grudge Thrower: Engineer, Rune of Accuracy, Rune of Penetrating (x2), 170
Total: 2400
The Dwarves set up in the right corned, war machines behind 2 unit's of xbows and anchoring the line with the anvil.
I decide to rush them, since 2 of my characters have a ward from flaming attack's, I have a decent chance to get a 20-0 win. I set up directly opposite, with rxb's on the right, to lure the miners, then flee to the center of the table leaving them stranded, while the rest om my army pushes forward. I have a lot of experiance vs the Dwarves, and I have more then enough toy's to deal with the dwarves.
I win first turn, so I rush the dwarven lines, moving at maximum with every thing (even rxb's).
In my opponent's turn his shooting does little as I screenm my army with harpies (jeeping just over 15" from his xbows), his warmahines kill a chariot, and a few shades die to the anvil power.
In my go
He uses his rune of challenge on my Dragon peg. After some thought I decide to not to risk him to gurge shot's, and decide to charge the xbows containing his BSB, but only after I swallowing the egg, I also support the charge with my bsb and chariot for extra killing power. While my last peg makes a easy 16” attempt to get the cannon, well at this point my luck ran short once again
. I roll a total charge of total of 5 on 3 dice, failing to reach the cannon, my chariot docent make it to the xbows, but the dragon peg makes his 19” charge, to my disappointment, bsb is also in. In the movement I notice a nice gap between the 2 unit's of xbows and warmachines, where a unit of miners will probably fit. I park both unit of harpies there, allowing me auto charges in to his gurges next turn. It's good to notice that the harpies were placed in such a manner that no miners could enter the table at that edge, additionally nothing had los to the harpies, and they were with in the 12” minimum fire distance of both the gurges. Also move up my DR, just in case he decides to turn facing with his remaining xbows and anvil push them in to my harpies. Because the hag greaf failed his charge I move the hydra in to the open, to encourage the cannon to target her, and not the harpies with the grape shot, which could ruin my day :wink:. My opponent doesn't have any engineers with his war machines which makes them theoretically easy prey for my unit's . As I mentioned my luck ran out some were around this point. The BsB take a Wound form the stand and shoot, I kill some dwarves but with out magic support there is no chance of braking them, I had no magic support because I failed to cast my first spell, a spirit leech at the cannon.
In my opponents turn the hydra goes down form shooting, so does the last chariot. In the combat phase my pendant bsb is killed, and the dragon peg brakes on a LD9 test. Do to, the fact he ran both unit of harpies decide to flee also, the dragon peg panic's my shades, who panic more unit's. Also my 2 rxb's unit's had to flee because of the advancing miners who appeared on my right flank. Also because my dragon peg fled, the dwarves got a free pursuit move, and they catapult towards my panicked army. And this is how the rest of the game looked I was fleeing The only thing I managed to do is kill the cannon in CC with my remaining peg, but it took me 4 combat rounds to kill 3 crew members
, and I get a gurge in the last turn. I'm crushed 19-1.
So in total I got 43 point's. I must admit I was devastated by this result, especially since I don't believe I was outplayed in any of my games. I rarely complain about luck or dice roll's since in the long run, both good and bad happen. Unfortunately in the majority of the tournament I had the felling that I had outplayed my opponent's and the dice swung thing their way. The only exception was the first day, when in my first game I just played terribly, and the result poorly reflected how bad I played, thou I should have lost more, if my opponent put any pressure on me.
But despite my poor performance I had a great time with the rest of the team, and I have been to the only world class tournament, and that is something not many players have experienced.
One of the thing's I always repeat to other's, don't make any last minute changes to a working list. And what did I go and do, traded my shadow mage for a metal mage, in result I had one mage that was not working with this list, and each game I regretted the change.
I hope I will be able to go next year, and have as much fun as I had with the rest of team Canada
.
. But still I could have done much better.
