Thraundils battle log, game 50-55: National Finals!
Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2014 9:04 am
Hey everyone! Here's a quick recap of this weekend. Written in the usual swift style, I will maybe try and find the time to illustrate one or two games. Probably the victories, as I really cant take much with my home from my losses from this weekend, you will soon see why if you read on
To spoil everything from the get go: I finished on 9th place out of 20 participants, with a final BP score of 66. My goal was to end above 60 BP, which is the average score. Mission complete
As per use, opponent lists are from memory, so there may be inaccuracies.
The list:
Dreadlord, 1+, dawnstone, cloak of twilight, dark pegasus, lance
Supreme Sorcerer, lvl 4 wizard, lore of death, obsidian lodestone, dispel scroll, dark steed
Master, BSB, 1+, charmed shield, talisman of preservation, dark pegasus, lance
Master, 1+, armor of destiny, dark pegasus, lance
Master, 1+, glittering scales, luckstone, ironcurse icon, cold one, lance
13 dark riders, musician, repeater crossbows, shields
3x10 witch elves uden noget
4 RBT
9 Cold One Knights, FC, banner of swiftness
5 shades
Game One: Warriors of Chaos
Decent matchup for me. Would probably rate it 60-40 in my favour after seeing my opponents list:
Lvl 4, 2+ armor, MR(3), scroll, mark of nurgle, lore of nurgle
Lvl 2 fire, skull of catam, ruby ring
Exalted hero on demonic mount, BSB, mark of nurgle, charmed shield, talisman of preservation, scaly skin, great weapon
17 warriors, mark of nurgle, halberds
2 nurgle chariots
1 slaanesh chariot
Chimera, flaming breath, regenerating flesh
4 skullcrushers, mus, gleaming pennant
3 skullcrushers, mus
I dont recall his spells, I dont believe his lvl 4 got rancid visitations though. I got all 3 sniper spells and doom and darkness, opting out of the sun. Deployment went exceptionally well: my knights stare down his center, and I get to place shades for a sneaky frenzy bait should I get turn 1. I manage to do so, having finished my deployment first, and I place the shades in front of his 4 crushers such that an overrun would bring them in a great charge position. I place my fliers accordingly, while the knights threaten the centre. Shooting kills a crushers off of the 3 man unit, and in the pagic phase I manage 2 wounds off his lvl 4 on carass, prompting him to throw all dice on dispelling spirit leech. This allows doom and darkness on the 4 crushers, who promptly fail 2 frenzy LD checks, and rage after my fleeing shades for a picture perfect scenario. My opponent spends a half hour deciding on his other movement, but at last decides he must pressure, and he advances full speed with everything. I charge his warrior block with knights in the front, my BSB in the flank, and also 5 witch elves in the front (he had magic'ed the other 5 away). I also charge his 4 skullcrushers with my lord, destinymaster, and the DR block with the lvl 4. In retrospect, the DR should not have been in, but I wanted to make certain that I would break steadfast, or I am chanceless. I then IF a doom and darkness on his nurgle warrior block.
Lord kills 1 skullcrusher singlehandedly and wounds another, whom the master finishes off. Dark riders manage nothing, lose I believe 5 or 6 of their number, but I win combat by a pretty nice margin and he runs off the table. I pursue with everything, as he has a chariot posed to countercharge. I need 7 to get out of the table, but only my lord manages this, with the DR pursuing a mocking 6" and the destiny master rolling triple 1!!!
In the knight combat, I decimate him. His lvl 4 takes the ticked, his BSB takes a wound, and 11 warriors of nurgle are impaled either on lances, or ripped to shreds by furious cold ones. He kills off the witch elves and a few cold one knights, but I win combat by so much that, with doom and darkness, he will need double 1. Which he promptly rolls. His countercharge breaks the knights, my BSB dies, and on the flank his chariot runs into my destiny master, breaks him, and overruns into my lvl 4 unit. Disaster is impending, but 10 witch elves kill the chariot and my lvl 4 survives. Absolute bloodbath! The rest of the game is a mop-up. He is too depleted to engage my lord in combat, but I can not pressure him either, and he advances on my backfield. Some highlights: a big fireball hits my lvl 4 who is solo after her dark riders die. She makes it through, and kills his firewizard. 2 crushers with a combined 5 wounds charge 10 witch elves, and I land so many wounds as to kill them outright. My lvl 4 2-dices caress on his BSB on turn 6, gets IF, manages no wounds. He asks to roll to wound on her (she has 1 wound left). He lands a 1! My last remaining bolt thrower then finishes the BSB off for good measure. But due to the massive slaugther, i win 11-9. I should have won at least 13-7 as him holding on snakeeyes is so irritating. My knights had probably been destroyed by his countercharges anyway, but my BSB could have survived for sure, and more of my backfield would then also have survived.
Game Two: Skaven
I get a skaven player for my game two. Not a big worry as he has no cannons!
Skaven list:
Grey seer, lvl 4 on screaming bell
Plague priest, lvl 1 on plague furnace
BSB, great weapon, 6+ ward
Chieftain, great weapon
Assassin, strength potion, d3 wounds
2x60 skaven slaves
44 stormvermin <-- bell and lord here
35 plague monks <-- furnace and priest here
Hellbit abomination
Doomwheel
At a glance, 2 unbreakable blocks, 2 slave tarpits, and couple of big monster targets. Hard to take points from, but he will not get many from my mobile list either.
I get the purple sun and a couple of snipes. I forgot his magic, it was not too terrifying. Deployment goes well as he hides his towers on a far flank. I even get to deploy first, meaning +1 for first turn which I get. I advance with caution, respecting the hellpit maybe a bit too much. Out of range for snipes, I try to sun it but he dispels. Shooting causes 4 wounds on the wheel, and he goes out of control off the board. Upon returning, he rams into his own plague monks, killing 5 of them he advances with caution, and his magic phase is not very eventful. I move up with witch elves blocking his hellpit, and hide characters behind them. I make one mistake: my lord joins a WE unit. He gets into it with the hellpit, kills 7 witches, which thankfully due to matching footprints means im steadfast. Next turn I flank the hellpit with other 10 witches, but for good measure I also purple sun it off the board (meaning he doesnt get to roll on the table, mwa ha ha!). By now, the doomwheel is also gone, so I start shooting the plague furnace, knowing the 4+ ward on the bell will make it difficult for me to get through. He continues to move forward with the towers, and I get stuck in a slave grind for a turn longer than I had hoped, making me sweat a bit. I manage to get my BSB in a great position though, and as he gets his plague tower ahead of his bell tower, I seize the moment and slams destiny master into his front, BSB into his flank, and 10 witches into his rear on the bell tower. Over several rounds of combat, I manage to kill the BSB, bring the lvl 4 down to 1 wound twice (he has the healing thingy from the skaven book), and the WE unit in the rear makes tremendous work while he cannot really harm them. His assassin appears but my destiny master takes it like a boss, grinding it out with him for 4 whole turns before succumbing to the many S4 armor piercing strikes. Nearing the end of the game, 2 surviving witches pass a frenzy test to block his plague tower, and the lord slams into the bell tower as well in an attempt to bring the stormverming below 25% to get 50% points. I succeed. I also finally manage to shoot the plague furnace down. My knights are his magic magnet for the entire game, but 3 knights + the master survives, yielding no points! I scoop up a 14-6 victory after some stable play by me and some movement errors by him.
Game Three: Dark Elves
I now start to draw the good players. This guy was on the danish ETC team this year, although with skaven. His list:
Lord on pegasus, similar to mine
Lvl 4 on foot, shadow, hotek, dispel scroll
BSB on pegasus, similar to mine
Master on steed, 1+, opal amulet
2x14 darkshards, one with flaming banner
3x5 dark riders, shields
4 RBT
Chariot
5 shades
Kharibyss
5 warlocks
At first glance, his list seems a lot softer than mine. He gets first turn, and advance at some speed. He actually makes a small (or maybe calculated, I dont know) error by joining his steedmaster and BSB onto a dark rider unit within 18" of my destiny master, with no immediate countercharge options. I know if I get the charge, I will eventually have my lord and BSB join in the fun and break him, so I declare the charge, but end up failing. Frustrating. But to add insult to injury, my lvl 4 rolls snakeeyes on her first casting attempt, hotek miscast, dimensional cascade, she dies along with half of the dark riders. From this point, its pretty much a dicerape. My BSB dies to the first singleshot, he charges the failing destiny master and grinds him down, and he starts shooting my knights. Example: 5 wounds on my knights, after 3+ armor save: 5 dead knights. I just couldnt catch a break, and I end up with a 0-20 defeat after exactly no dice roll goes in my favour. Frustrating to say the least! I had a good gameplan, but failing a roll which requires a below-average roll is just... Gah!
Game Four: Vampire Counts
Being suddenly slammed far down into the standings, I find myself against a vampire counts player. Who aparently decided to skip out on half of the tournament, and to this moment nobody really knows why. So I get a 20-0 walkover and a sitout. BORING!
Game Five: Orcs & Goblins
Onwards, then. With the walkover giving me what I believe is the "10 points" I probably should have had from game 3 anyway, I am again in the upper half of the bracket. I draw an orc player who won his first 2 games 20-0 but lost his game 3 0-20.
Savage orc warboss, great weapon, glittering scales
Savage orc shaman, lvl 4
Savage orc shaman, lvl 1
Black orc BSB, 4+ ward, great weapon
2 goblin heroes on wolf
Like 35 savage orc big 'uns, FC
5 spiders
20 night goblins with 2 fanatics
2 boar chariots
2 doom divers
2 rock lobbers
pump wagon
10 trolls
2 mangler squigs
Deployment goes absolutely well on my end. He corners up, which makes it easy to me to approach from one flank due to terrain. He also misplaces one doom diver, allowing me to scout my shades 12" from it. I get turn 1, and advance full speed, staying out of any charge threats. Magic doesnt do much, and 4 bolt throwers only manage 1 wound on a mangler squig... On his turn he shuffles, moves the squigs into position, and I burn my scroll on a boosted foot of gork. His shooting falls short, and doesnt do much damage. On my turn 2 I get some nice charges in, getting the shades into one doom diver and my BSB into a chariot. Destiny master draws out the fanatics for no damage in return, as his chariot is in the way. Hilarity ensures as a purple sun drags 6 trolls into the hole, and the vortex ends up right in the middle of his army. Disaster then strikes as 9 dark rider shots fails to wound the mangler squig sitting right in front of them, and I am forced to blow all bolt throwers through hard cover to get it down. This means his other mangler kills my destiny guy but his remaining doom diver misfires, and he blows his magic phase on removing the purple sun.
I am able to fly into great positions to take the last war machines out, while still denying him combat. Any further sun attempts are dispelled, but in my turn 5 I get my BSB in the flank and lord in the rear of his savage orc bunker - all that is left on the board. He cant dispel doom and darkness, and he makes an inaccurary with his make way! moves: both his BSB and general comes to my BSB, which means I call a challenge with the BSB and he accepts with his lord. This leaves his BSB unable to participate, as my lord is on the 'other side' of the rear rank. I go to work, win combat, but he makes his LD6 with the reroll. Meanwhile, 10 witch elves aim long for the flank of the remaining trolls, make it on an 8, and routs the unit (again thanks to LD6 bubble from the general). Over his turn 5, he takes my BSB down to 1 remaining wound, and on my turn 6 I get my cold one master into his flank, and my knights into his front. I aim a purple sun through his unit which he dispels, and I then get doom and darkness up again. In the challenge, he inflicts 3 wounds on me (insisting on rolling very well to hit), but my BSB makes the demon save on his armor. I kill his lvl 4 with the knights, and of course wins combat. He is still steadfast, but this time double LD6 is not enough and I run him off the table for a 20-0 victory.
After 5 games, I am 5th place overall.
Some trivia about which race was probably given too free reign in the restrictions: top 3? All wood elves.
Game Six: Wood Elves
So for game 6, I played on the finals table. Number 1, at the time ahead by a massive 11 BP to number 2, had already played against and defeated number 2, 3 and 4... So I get to play the strongest WE in denmark. Which probably wouldn't have happened if not for the walkover in game 4, so thanks again for skipping the tournament, jackass. Anyways.
His list:
Lvl 4 high, scroll, mr(3)
Lvl 4 metal, moonstone
BSB, charmed shield, hail of doom arrow
11, 11 and 10 GG, trueflight
5 glade riders
7 wild riders, shields, flaming banner
7 wild riders, shields
5 wild riders, shields
5 sisters of the thorn
2 eagles
14 waywatchers
Absolute nightmare list. Good job with the restrictions, guys
Deployment goes okay. I make a gamble advancing my entire force to the centre where only one wild rider unit is covering the field. I dedicate all my firepower to it, but 3 wild riders still stand... After 9 dark riders, 5 shades and 3 RBTs all aim for them. They charge my dark riders, tie up 2 fliers which had joined them for the magic res, kill my lvl 4. All this I was ready to accept, if I had only killed him back - but out of 8 attack rolls on 4+, I manage only one hit... Which kills one wild rider, but still. Not cool. IF I had killed them, I would have gotten the king reform, and could have charged. Now, I am tied up in my own phase, where I of course kill the last wild rider allowing him a full shooting phase. On my next turn I try a 12" charge with my lord, but fail. In hindsight, I should have called for a full retreat at this point, and he mauls my units and heroes from a distance. In the end I only manage to salvage my dreadlord for a 1-19 defeat.
What a horrible matchup. Especially vs that list. What does WE struggle against... armor? Oh, take a lvl 4 metal. Issue solved. He is guaranteed to win any shooting duel, so he doesnt have to advance. And because wild riders will defeat literally anything if they get the charge, he can just hang back and create deadzones where I cant advance into. I honestly dont know what to do in a game like this. He said that maybe, if I had advanced with everything, and let the fliers all be isolated, I could have maybe gotten one into combat on my next turn... and be challenged off by the champion, rear charged by wild riders, and died. Given a slightly more closed-off table, I may have been able to hide just see how many points he could have shot from me, but my end of the table was completely open.
If I were to repeat the game, I would simply corner up, run away, and see how much he can shoot if he has to advance on me first. Probably would have kept a lot more points that way.
But man. Wood elves... Ugh. Everybody hates on the dark pegasus list, but this is worse his list and playstyle reminds me of the shade star version II. He doesnt need any melee characters in it, because wild riders are sicko strong. And he doesnt have to worry about being caught due to moonstone. And he shoots like a boss with hand of glory. I mean, bloody hell. He went through the weekend with a clean record, defeating two other wood elves on the way along with 2 warriors, me, and I forgot his last opponent.
Here's how brutal his wood elves are: he was against a warrior list, BOTH his wizards die to miscasts on his own turn 2, and he wins the game 11-9
Anyways. I am completely satisfied with my performance this weekend. I play 3 very stable games, unfortunately sit over one game (which effectively counts as a win for me as my opponent of course saw it coming, and forfeited for fear of my name ), get diceraped one game (still pretty mad about that, but what the hell can you do when literally every single dice roll goes to your opponent), and then also gets stomped by the overall winner. I cannot be upset about the last game - I could have lost less severely, but there is not really a scenario in which I beat him. His list is designed to win big, every game. It is strong in every phase, has very few weaknesses, and he plays it extraordinarily well. And the guy is 17
And, I beat the guy who came 2 overall, and I beat two players who where good enough to qualify to the finals. I am happy, and next year I'll tune my list even more. And hopefully, people will realise that if you restrict the good choices in an army, you are left with an army which will sometimes struggle.
To spoil everything from the get go: I finished on 9th place out of 20 participants, with a final BP score of 66. My goal was to end above 60 BP, which is the average score. Mission complete
As per use, opponent lists are from memory, so there may be inaccuracies.
The list:
Dreadlord, 1+, dawnstone, cloak of twilight, dark pegasus, lance
Supreme Sorcerer, lvl 4 wizard, lore of death, obsidian lodestone, dispel scroll, dark steed
Master, BSB, 1+, charmed shield, talisman of preservation, dark pegasus, lance
Master, 1+, armor of destiny, dark pegasus, lance
Master, 1+, glittering scales, luckstone, ironcurse icon, cold one, lance
13 dark riders, musician, repeater crossbows, shields
3x10 witch elves uden noget
4 RBT
9 Cold One Knights, FC, banner of swiftness
5 shades
Game One: Warriors of Chaos
Decent matchup for me. Would probably rate it 60-40 in my favour after seeing my opponents list:
Lvl 4, 2+ armor, MR(3), scroll, mark of nurgle, lore of nurgle
Lvl 2 fire, skull of catam, ruby ring
Exalted hero on demonic mount, BSB, mark of nurgle, charmed shield, talisman of preservation, scaly skin, great weapon
17 warriors, mark of nurgle, halberds
2 nurgle chariots
1 slaanesh chariot
Chimera, flaming breath, regenerating flesh
4 skullcrushers, mus, gleaming pennant
3 skullcrushers, mus
I dont recall his spells, I dont believe his lvl 4 got rancid visitations though. I got all 3 sniper spells and doom and darkness, opting out of the sun. Deployment went exceptionally well: my knights stare down his center, and I get to place shades for a sneaky frenzy bait should I get turn 1. I manage to do so, having finished my deployment first, and I place the shades in front of his 4 crushers such that an overrun would bring them in a great charge position. I place my fliers accordingly, while the knights threaten the centre. Shooting kills a crushers off of the 3 man unit, and in the pagic phase I manage 2 wounds off his lvl 4 on carass, prompting him to throw all dice on dispelling spirit leech. This allows doom and darkness on the 4 crushers, who promptly fail 2 frenzy LD checks, and rage after my fleeing shades for a picture perfect scenario. My opponent spends a half hour deciding on his other movement, but at last decides he must pressure, and he advances full speed with everything. I charge his warrior block with knights in the front, my BSB in the flank, and also 5 witch elves in the front (he had magic'ed the other 5 away). I also charge his 4 skullcrushers with my lord, destinymaster, and the DR block with the lvl 4. In retrospect, the DR should not have been in, but I wanted to make certain that I would break steadfast, or I am chanceless. I then IF a doom and darkness on his nurgle warrior block.
Lord kills 1 skullcrusher singlehandedly and wounds another, whom the master finishes off. Dark riders manage nothing, lose I believe 5 or 6 of their number, but I win combat by a pretty nice margin and he runs off the table. I pursue with everything, as he has a chariot posed to countercharge. I need 7 to get out of the table, but only my lord manages this, with the DR pursuing a mocking 6" and the destiny master rolling triple 1!!!
In the knight combat, I decimate him. His lvl 4 takes the ticked, his BSB takes a wound, and 11 warriors of nurgle are impaled either on lances, or ripped to shreds by furious cold ones. He kills off the witch elves and a few cold one knights, but I win combat by so much that, with doom and darkness, he will need double 1. Which he promptly rolls. His countercharge breaks the knights, my BSB dies, and on the flank his chariot runs into my destiny master, breaks him, and overruns into my lvl 4 unit. Disaster is impending, but 10 witch elves kill the chariot and my lvl 4 survives. Absolute bloodbath! The rest of the game is a mop-up. He is too depleted to engage my lord in combat, but I can not pressure him either, and he advances on my backfield. Some highlights: a big fireball hits my lvl 4 who is solo after her dark riders die. She makes it through, and kills his firewizard. 2 crushers with a combined 5 wounds charge 10 witch elves, and I land so many wounds as to kill them outright. My lvl 4 2-dices caress on his BSB on turn 6, gets IF, manages no wounds. He asks to roll to wound on her (she has 1 wound left). He lands a 1! My last remaining bolt thrower then finishes the BSB off for good measure. But due to the massive slaugther, i win 11-9. I should have won at least 13-7 as him holding on snakeeyes is so irritating. My knights had probably been destroyed by his countercharges anyway, but my BSB could have survived for sure, and more of my backfield would then also have survived.
Game Two: Skaven
I get a skaven player for my game two. Not a big worry as he has no cannons!
Skaven list:
Grey seer, lvl 4 on screaming bell
Plague priest, lvl 1 on plague furnace
BSB, great weapon, 6+ ward
Chieftain, great weapon
Assassin, strength potion, d3 wounds
2x60 skaven slaves
44 stormvermin <-- bell and lord here
35 plague monks <-- furnace and priest here
Hellbit abomination
Doomwheel
At a glance, 2 unbreakable blocks, 2 slave tarpits, and couple of big monster targets. Hard to take points from, but he will not get many from my mobile list either.
I get the purple sun and a couple of snipes. I forgot his magic, it was not too terrifying. Deployment goes well as he hides his towers on a far flank. I even get to deploy first, meaning +1 for first turn which I get. I advance with caution, respecting the hellpit maybe a bit too much. Out of range for snipes, I try to sun it but he dispels. Shooting causes 4 wounds on the wheel, and he goes out of control off the board. Upon returning, he rams into his own plague monks, killing 5 of them he advances with caution, and his magic phase is not very eventful. I move up with witch elves blocking his hellpit, and hide characters behind them. I make one mistake: my lord joins a WE unit. He gets into it with the hellpit, kills 7 witches, which thankfully due to matching footprints means im steadfast. Next turn I flank the hellpit with other 10 witches, but for good measure I also purple sun it off the board (meaning he doesnt get to roll on the table, mwa ha ha!). By now, the doomwheel is also gone, so I start shooting the plague furnace, knowing the 4+ ward on the bell will make it difficult for me to get through. He continues to move forward with the towers, and I get stuck in a slave grind for a turn longer than I had hoped, making me sweat a bit. I manage to get my BSB in a great position though, and as he gets his plague tower ahead of his bell tower, I seize the moment and slams destiny master into his front, BSB into his flank, and 10 witches into his rear on the bell tower. Over several rounds of combat, I manage to kill the BSB, bring the lvl 4 down to 1 wound twice (he has the healing thingy from the skaven book), and the WE unit in the rear makes tremendous work while he cannot really harm them. His assassin appears but my destiny master takes it like a boss, grinding it out with him for 4 whole turns before succumbing to the many S4 armor piercing strikes. Nearing the end of the game, 2 surviving witches pass a frenzy test to block his plague tower, and the lord slams into the bell tower as well in an attempt to bring the stormverming below 25% to get 50% points. I succeed. I also finally manage to shoot the plague furnace down. My knights are his magic magnet for the entire game, but 3 knights + the master survives, yielding no points! I scoop up a 14-6 victory after some stable play by me and some movement errors by him.
Game Three: Dark Elves
I now start to draw the good players. This guy was on the danish ETC team this year, although with skaven. His list:
Lord on pegasus, similar to mine
Lvl 4 on foot, shadow, hotek, dispel scroll
BSB on pegasus, similar to mine
Master on steed, 1+, opal amulet
2x14 darkshards, one with flaming banner
3x5 dark riders, shields
4 RBT
Chariot
5 shades
Kharibyss
5 warlocks
At first glance, his list seems a lot softer than mine. He gets first turn, and advance at some speed. He actually makes a small (or maybe calculated, I dont know) error by joining his steedmaster and BSB onto a dark rider unit within 18" of my destiny master, with no immediate countercharge options. I know if I get the charge, I will eventually have my lord and BSB join in the fun and break him, so I declare the charge, but end up failing. Frustrating. But to add insult to injury, my lvl 4 rolls snakeeyes on her first casting attempt, hotek miscast, dimensional cascade, she dies along with half of the dark riders. From this point, its pretty much a dicerape. My BSB dies to the first singleshot, he charges the failing destiny master and grinds him down, and he starts shooting my knights. Example: 5 wounds on my knights, after 3+ armor save: 5 dead knights. I just couldnt catch a break, and I end up with a 0-20 defeat after exactly no dice roll goes in my favour. Frustrating to say the least! I had a good gameplan, but failing a roll which requires a below-average roll is just... Gah!
Game Four: Vampire Counts
Being suddenly slammed far down into the standings, I find myself against a vampire counts player. Who aparently decided to skip out on half of the tournament, and to this moment nobody really knows why. So I get a 20-0 walkover and a sitout. BORING!
Game Five: Orcs & Goblins
Onwards, then. With the walkover giving me what I believe is the "10 points" I probably should have had from game 3 anyway, I am again in the upper half of the bracket. I draw an orc player who won his first 2 games 20-0 but lost his game 3 0-20.
Savage orc warboss, great weapon, glittering scales
Savage orc shaman, lvl 4
Savage orc shaman, lvl 1
Black orc BSB, 4+ ward, great weapon
2 goblin heroes on wolf
Like 35 savage orc big 'uns, FC
5 spiders
20 night goblins with 2 fanatics
2 boar chariots
2 doom divers
2 rock lobbers
pump wagon
10 trolls
2 mangler squigs
Deployment goes absolutely well on my end. He corners up, which makes it easy to me to approach from one flank due to terrain. He also misplaces one doom diver, allowing me to scout my shades 12" from it. I get turn 1, and advance full speed, staying out of any charge threats. Magic doesnt do much, and 4 bolt throwers only manage 1 wound on a mangler squig... On his turn he shuffles, moves the squigs into position, and I burn my scroll on a boosted foot of gork. His shooting falls short, and doesnt do much damage. On my turn 2 I get some nice charges in, getting the shades into one doom diver and my BSB into a chariot. Destiny master draws out the fanatics for no damage in return, as his chariot is in the way. Hilarity ensures as a purple sun drags 6 trolls into the hole, and the vortex ends up right in the middle of his army. Disaster then strikes as 9 dark rider shots fails to wound the mangler squig sitting right in front of them, and I am forced to blow all bolt throwers through hard cover to get it down. This means his other mangler kills my destiny guy but his remaining doom diver misfires, and he blows his magic phase on removing the purple sun.
I am able to fly into great positions to take the last war machines out, while still denying him combat. Any further sun attempts are dispelled, but in my turn 5 I get my BSB in the flank and lord in the rear of his savage orc bunker - all that is left on the board. He cant dispel doom and darkness, and he makes an inaccurary with his make way! moves: both his BSB and general comes to my BSB, which means I call a challenge with the BSB and he accepts with his lord. This leaves his BSB unable to participate, as my lord is on the 'other side' of the rear rank. I go to work, win combat, but he makes his LD6 with the reroll. Meanwhile, 10 witch elves aim long for the flank of the remaining trolls, make it on an 8, and routs the unit (again thanks to LD6 bubble from the general). Over his turn 5, he takes my BSB down to 1 remaining wound, and on my turn 6 I get my cold one master into his flank, and my knights into his front. I aim a purple sun through his unit which he dispels, and I then get doom and darkness up again. In the challenge, he inflicts 3 wounds on me (insisting on rolling very well to hit), but my BSB makes the demon save on his armor. I kill his lvl 4 with the knights, and of course wins combat. He is still steadfast, but this time double LD6 is not enough and I run him off the table for a 20-0 victory.
After 5 games, I am 5th place overall.
Some trivia about which race was probably given too free reign in the restrictions: top 3? All wood elves.
Game Six: Wood Elves
So for game 6, I played on the finals table. Number 1, at the time ahead by a massive 11 BP to number 2, had already played against and defeated number 2, 3 and 4... So I get to play the strongest WE in denmark. Which probably wouldn't have happened if not for the walkover in game 4, so thanks again for skipping the tournament, jackass. Anyways.
His list:
Lvl 4 high, scroll, mr(3)
Lvl 4 metal, moonstone
BSB, charmed shield, hail of doom arrow
11, 11 and 10 GG, trueflight
5 glade riders
7 wild riders, shields, flaming banner
7 wild riders, shields
5 wild riders, shields
5 sisters of the thorn
2 eagles
14 waywatchers
Absolute nightmare list. Good job with the restrictions, guys
Deployment goes okay. I make a gamble advancing my entire force to the centre where only one wild rider unit is covering the field. I dedicate all my firepower to it, but 3 wild riders still stand... After 9 dark riders, 5 shades and 3 RBTs all aim for them. They charge my dark riders, tie up 2 fliers which had joined them for the magic res, kill my lvl 4. All this I was ready to accept, if I had only killed him back - but out of 8 attack rolls on 4+, I manage only one hit... Which kills one wild rider, but still. Not cool. IF I had killed them, I would have gotten the king reform, and could have charged. Now, I am tied up in my own phase, where I of course kill the last wild rider allowing him a full shooting phase. On my next turn I try a 12" charge with my lord, but fail. In hindsight, I should have called for a full retreat at this point, and he mauls my units and heroes from a distance. In the end I only manage to salvage my dreadlord for a 1-19 defeat.
What a horrible matchup. Especially vs that list. What does WE struggle against... armor? Oh, take a lvl 4 metal. Issue solved. He is guaranteed to win any shooting duel, so he doesnt have to advance. And because wild riders will defeat literally anything if they get the charge, he can just hang back and create deadzones where I cant advance into. I honestly dont know what to do in a game like this. He said that maybe, if I had advanced with everything, and let the fliers all be isolated, I could have maybe gotten one into combat on my next turn... and be challenged off by the champion, rear charged by wild riders, and died. Given a slightly more closed-off table, I may have been able to hide just see how many points he could have shot from me, but my end of the table was completely open.
If I were to repeat the game, I would simply corner up, run away, and see how much he can shoot if he has to advance on me first. Probably would have kept a lot more points that way.
But man. Wood elves... Ugh. Everybody hates on the dark pegasus list, but this is worse his list and playstyle reminds me of the shade star version II. He doesnt need any melee characters in it, because wild riders are sicko strong. And he doesnt have to worry about being caught due to moonstone. And he shoots like a boss with hand of glory. I mean, bloody hell. He went through the weekend with a clean record, defeating two other wood elves on the way along with 2 warriors, me, and I forgot his last opponent.
Here's how brutal his wood elves are: he was against a warrior list, BOTH his wizards die to miscasts on his own turn 2, and he wins the game 11-9
Anyways. I am completely satisfied with my performance this weekend. I play 3 very stable games, unfortunately sit over one game (which effectively counts as a win for me as my opponent of course saw it coming, and forfeited for fear of my name ), get diceraped one game (still pretty mad about that, but what the hell can you do when literally every single dice roll goes to your opponent), and then also gets stomped by the overall winner. I cannot be upset about the last game - I could have lost less severely, but there is not really a scenario in which I beat him. His list is designed to win big, every game. It is strong in every phase, has very few weaknesses, and he plays it extraordinarily well. And the guy is 17
And, I beat the guy who came 2 overall, and I beat two players who where good enough to qualify to the finals. I am happy, and next year I'll tune my list even more. And hopefully, people will realise that if you restrict the good choices in an army, you are left with an army which will sometimes struggle.