Off to Alamo

I am off to the Alamo GT in San Antonio, Texas. I am all packed and ready to go and I leave first thing in the morning. As I will be away from the computer and deeply engrossed in a weekend of gaming this is the last post until next week. Here's to good generalship, proper deployment, and lucky dice.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I am busy! Busy with work, busy with life, and more importantly, busy with packing everything I will need for the Alamo GT this weekend. Packing for a tournament of this size (over 60+ players) is much different than packing for a game down at your Friendly Local Gaming Store ("FLGS"). Tournament packing requires much more thought and involves many more stages of "packing" before you and your army are ready to travel. This post is dedicated to my tournament preparations so that you can see what it is like to pack for a big tournament.

Point Hammered Episode 71

Point Hammered Episode 71 "What's Going On?" is now up. In this episode the boys talk about Ogres, Ogres, and more Ogres. Listen here: http://pointhammered.com/episodeRecent.php

Also, a special thank you to the guys at Point Hammered for linking West Coast Warhammer on its website.

Alamo GT Scenario Review

The Alamo GT is almost upon us (Yay!). Yesterday, I presented my army list for the tournament. Today, I will be going over the Alamo GT scenarios and explain my plan to get the bonus points from each scenario. Let's dive in.

Standard rules for all scenarios: Normal 12" deployment with 100 victory points to win. A win net's 16 battle points for the scenario, a draw nets 8, and a loss 4. Each scenario has a bonus objective worth 4 battle points. So, if a person wins all their games and gets all the bonus points they will recieve 100 battle points. Looking at the scenarios, I don't expect this to happen. Actually, I don't expect anyone to even get all of the bonus objective points. They are just that difficult to get.

Alamo GT Army List

Here it is, boys and girls, my official army list for the 2012 Alamo GT taking place in San Antonio, Texas next weekend November 2nd through 4th. After several days of tinkering, especially after the Wood Elf FAQ update, this is the list I devised and turned in to tournament personnel:

Highborn (292 points)

• Altered Kindred, Bow of Loren, Dragonhelm, Stone of Crystal Mere, Arcane Bodkins, Great Weapon, Light Armor, Shield

New Warhammer Fantasy FAQs

So, unless you have been living under a rock for the past few days, you should know that there was a major update to almost all of the Warhammer Fantasy FAQs. These new FAQs, which are now valid and official for all upcoming tournaments, change the game in several significant ways. In this post, I identify what I think are some of the biggest FAQs in the new update and discuss how they are likely to impact the tournament scene in the coming months. Don't forget to read them all before your next big tournament.

First, let’s being with the Main Rulebook FAQ. This FAQ, by far, makes the biggest changes to the game. Here are the ones that will most impact the tournament scene:

West Coast Hammertime Episode 8

West Coast Hammertime Episode 8 is now up and available for all to listen to. This episode includes an interview with Michael Hengl from Leadership 2 who was with the guys in So Cal to practice for the upcoming Alamo GT. Also included in the episode is a Lizardmen army book breakdown.

Give it a listen: http://www.westcoastgt.com/wordpress/?p=105

Weekend Round-up 10.21.2012

This past weekend I was participating in a few non-Warhammer activities. As such, I made no painting progress. The only hobbying I even managed (if it counts) was reading the updated Warhammer Fantasy FAQs that were posted. Wow! That is really all I can say at this time. I will be doing a full write-up tomorrow about the biggest changes the FAQs made to the game.

Other than that little bit of reading, I only managed to put together a draft army list for the Alamo. As my final list is due on Wednesday, I will be finishing up the final army list tonight and tomorrow after I take another look at the Wood Elf FAQ. Once I have turned the list in, I will be producing my list here and will go through each unit choice so you can see why I am taking certain units or items. Then, at the end of this week, and through next week, I will be analyzing the Alamo GT scenarios and how I will be using my list to get the all important bonus points.

Until then, Round 3 of last weekend's tournament will be posted this evening.

Round 3: High Elves

Round 3 was against my friend, and multiple-time former roommate, Kris. He is a great guy and is just now getting into Warhammer. Something about painting little figures detracted him from the hobby during his twenties. 

This was his second tournament, and eighth game total. His last tournament was three rounds at 1250 points, before which we had two practice games to get the basic rules down. This tournament he jumped up to 1750 points and managed to pull off an amazing win against his Round 2 Ogre opponent. I watched the end of that game and noticed that there was not a single Ogre left on the board at the end. Way to go Kris!

This is Kris. Yes, he really is that ugly.

And this was Kris' list:

Archmage

• General, Level 4, Lore of Fire, Book of Hoeth!!!

Korhil (yes, the awesome High Elf special character)
Mage

• Level 2, Lore of Shadow, Annulian Crystal

Archers (35 of them, full command)

White Lions (10, full command, Banner of Sorcery, champion was given the Sword of Battle)

Sword Masters of Hoeth (20 full command, champion was given Enchanted Shield)

Pretty straightforward list. The White Lions and Sword Masters do the heavy combat lifting while the BIG ASS archer unit is shoots and kills whatever gets close enough to threaten the level 4 mage that is always bunkered in the unit. Oh, and there is the Book of Hoeth to deal with. Overall, its a tough, but manageable High Elf list. My priorities for this round were:

1. Kill the Sword Masters.
2. Get into combat with the archers and kill the Level 4 (even if it cost several units).
3. Kill the Shadow Mage.
4. Kill the archers.
5. Stay away from, or kill the White Lions. (As they have a 3+ save to shooting I wasn't expecting to kill that many of these guys outside of magic)

For this round, Kris and I would be playing Clash of Heroes. Clash of Heroes is the standard scenario with 12" deployment zones. The winner is determined solely by victory points with the difference in victory points determining the type of victory: 0-99 points is a draw, 100+ is a minor victory, 300+ is a solid victory, and 600+ is a massacre.

Bonus points are awarded as follows:

• +1 for killing more enemy characters and champions
• +1 for having more units in your opponent's deployment zone
• +1 for destroying your opponent's most expensive unit, excluding characters

I rolled for spells and got Wyssan's Wildform, Flock of Doom, Amber Spear, and Curse of Anraheir. Kris rolled and got a bunch of different spells; the most important being Flame Cage and Fireball.

Deployment for this scenario was rather straightforward.

Kris deployed in the center of the board with his archer unit (and Level 4) sitting on the back edge of the table, partially obscured by a forest. His Sword Masters were placed to the left of the archers while the White Lions, with the Shadow mage, were deployed in front of the archers.

I deployed in a long line. My faster units, an eagle and the Glade Riders, were deployed on my right flank. My center was held by the large archer unit. Next to them I placed all three Dryad units who were to move towards the opposing archer unit at top speed. Behind the Dryads I placed the two ten-man archer units. Finally, I deployed the Waywatchers behind the obstacle in the center of the board to tempt the White Lions.  My last eagle hung back behind my lines to go where needed.

The High Elves won the roll off to go first and both the Sword Masters and White Lions marched 10" toward the Wood Elf lines. In the magic phase, the Level 4 successfully cast a Flame Cage on one of the Glade Rider units, but managed to kill only a single elf. As the archer unit had not moved, they were out of range of everything but the Waywatchers. They took aim, but failed to hit as they needed 8's: -1 for long range, -2 for shooting through the White Lions, -1 for skirmishers, and -1 for Waywatchers.

Wood Elf Turn 1 saw all three Dryad units surge forward 10". The archers all wheeled to face the Sword Masters while the Waywatchers moved away from the obstacle making sure to keep the White Lions in short range. With one unit on the right flank stalled by the Flame Cage, the entire flank decided to take the turn off and stand around.

My Level 4 cursed the White Lions with irresistible force which, in turn, wounded the mage and killed five archers from the large unit. But, at least the mage didn't get sucked into the void!

In the shooting phase, two White Lions dropped with arrows through their eyes due to the Waywatcher's Lethal Shot. In the center of the field the combined archer shooting killed 5 Sword Masters.

High Elf Turn 2 began with the cursed White Lions charging the closest unit of Dryads while the Sword Masters continued moving towards the archers. The White Lions successfully made contact with the Dryads, but three of their number died to dangerous terrain.

In the High Elf magic phase, the Level 4 irresistibly cast (thanks to the book) a maximum level Fireball at the Waywatchers vaporizing the whole unit.

In the White Lion/Dryad combat, the Dryads are killed outright by the White Lion's superhuman speed. Six Dryads died to the combined attacks of Korhil and the unit champion who both had magical attacks. The remaining two Dryads could not withstand the salvo of High Elf axes and died. The White Lions, in their zeal, then decided to overrun and ran into the flank of one of the ten-man archer units that had previously wheeled to face the Sword Masters. However, the overran cost the White Lions another 2 models as well as wounding the Shadow mage.

Wood Elf Turn 2 was all about shooting. The two remaining Dryad units and the Glade Rider units on the right flank continued their advance towards the High Elf archers. The unengaged archers moved towards the Sword Masters and away from the White Lions that were now in my deployment zone. The second eagle flew over to protect my rear in case the White Lions wiped out the archers.

In the shooting phase, the Wood Elf archers killed 13 more Sword Masters leaving only 2 left in the unit.

The combat phase saw the White Lions decimate the archer unit, causing them to break. The archers were then rundown by the White Lions who pursued the archers deeper into the Wood Elf lines.

High Elf Turn 3 saw the last two Sword Masters killed by a stand-and-shoot reaction from the large archer unit as they foolishly charged the larger unit. The White Lions reformed to face the rear of the nearest archer unit. And the bunker unit of archers stared ahead as the Dryad units finally came into range.

The High Elf mage again showed why the High Elves are the masters of magic as he again cast the large Fireball with irresistible force. This time it was directed at one of the Dryad units in front of the archers leaving only a single Dryad left to stare down the archer unit. The archers, in turn, fired at the other Dryad unit killing 4 of them.

My Turn 3 saw the Wood Elves take complete control of the battle. The lone Dryad declared a charge at the High Elf archer unit to draw out the stand-and-shoot reaction. But after all the archer shooting, the Dryad emerged unscathed and made it into direct base contact with the Level 4. The full strength Glade Rider unit charged the archers in the flank and also made it into base contact with the Level 4. The eagle I had moved the previous turn towards the White Lions charged the unit in the flank where the wounded Shadow mage was looking very forlorn. Finally, the rest of the army moved away from the White Lions in case the eagle failed to hold the unit in place. Wood Elf magic and shooting phases were skipped to get to the important combats.

In the main archer combat, the High Elves struck first and failed to cause a single wound. In return, the might of the lone Dryad and Glade Riders managed to kill the Level 4. The High Elves lost the combat, but held their ground for another turn as they were steadfast.





In the White Lion combat, the Shadow mage struck first and failed to wound the eagle. The eagle then killed the mage, but the White Lions held. Korhil then took the mage's place, eyes fuming at the eagle's treacherous act.

For High Elf Turn 4, we moved straight to combat. Korhil easily killed the eagle. In the archer combat, the High Elves failed to cause a single wound and suffered 5 in return. The archers then failed their steadfast leadership test and were run down by the lone Dryad. Go go amazing Dryad!

As Wood Elf Turn 4 began with only a single High Elf unit on the board, I moved all units with shooting attacks toward the White Lions. The combined force of Wood Elf magic and shooting killed the remaining White Lions, thereby wiping every last dirty High Elf from the battlefield, including the illustrious Korhil. Slaughter to the Wood Elves.

At the end of Turn 4 I had managed to wipe out the High Elf force for a full 1850 points and managed to only lose 440 victory points in return (one ten-man archer unit, a Dryad unit, an eagle, and the Waywatchers). That gave me a massacre and 17 battle points, plus all 3 bonus points for (1) killing more characters as I lost none, (2) ending the game with two units in his deployment zone, and (3) destroying the enemy's most expensive unit (the High Elf archers). Perfect game!

At the end of the tournament I had finished with 53 out of a possible 60 battle points and won Best Overall. A good three games and a good tournament. Next month we will be up to 2000 points so I will be practicing with the list I expect to bring to WaaghPaca! in January.

Round 2: Daemons

Round 2 was against Kevin. Kevin is a newer player to Warhammer and is working on his Daemon army. Having seen Kevin's progress over the last several months I must say that his army is beginning to look fabulous. More importantly, he is making remarkable progress as a player and is getting ready for the "big leagues." I am hoping he wants to start traveling next year for some two-day tournaments as I could use some new road trip buddies. Maybe I can talk him into the Bay Area Open in 2013.

This is Kevin's "I'm a Daemon" face. We had to take two pictures because the first one was worse than this (if you can believe it). Maybe he was just having a small seizure at the same time?






Anyways, here is Kevin's list for the tournament:
Herald of Tzeentch

• General, Level 2, Loremaster, Lore of Life

Herald of Khorne

• Battle Standard Bearer with the standard of  -2 to a magic lore

Bloodletters (49 with full command and bonus movement banner)
Horrors (24 with full command and Banner of Change)
Flamers of Tzeentch (two units of 5 with Pyrocaster)

This build is pretty thrash heavy as it brings the big punch in each phase. Especially at only 1750 points. Kevin's Bloodletter's have a higher than normal charge potential with the bonus d6" on the charge banner. He also has good offensive magic in the loremaster and horrors as well as good magic defense in the -2 banner. Finally, his shooting phase is awesome. He gets 10d6 strength 4 shots a turn. Not too shabby! One unit of Flamers, even with the changes, is still rough and two almost seem cruel. I would definitely count this as the hardest army brought to the tournament.

The units I was most concerned with were the Flamers and the Horror unit. Therefore, heading into the game I viewed my priorities as:

1. Kill the Flamers.
2. Kill the Flamers!
3. KILL THE MOTHER FUCKING FLAMERS!!!
4. Get into combat and then kill the Horrors and the Herald of Tzeentch.
5. Stay away from the Bloodletters.

With my priorities all sorted out, we checked on the scenario (Border Pass) and began Round 2. Deployment zones in Border Pass are 24" in from the short table edge as we would be playing lengthwise. Also, there is a special piece of terrain, a border fort, that is placed in your deployment zone at least 12" from the short table edge. The border fort counts as a normal building with following changes: it has toughness 8, 6 wounds, and a 2+ armor save. If a border fort is reduced to 0 wounds, the fort collapses and becomes impassible terrain.

The winner is determined solely by victory points with the difference in victory points determining the type of victory: 0-99 points is a draw, 100+ is a minor victory, 300+ is a solid victory, and 600+ is a massacre.
Bonus points are awarded as follows:

• +1 for destroying your opponent’s border fort
• +1 for having more units in your opponent’s deployment zone than they have in yours
• +1 if your most expensive core unit is alive and not fleeing at the end of the game

We set terrain so that each player had a tree, a building, and an obstacle in their immediate deployment zone. I also made sure that there was an additional obstacle a few inches in front of my building. We then placed border forts roughly kitty-corner to each other 12" from our respective short table edges.

I rolled for spells and got Wyssan’s Wildform, Amber Spear, Curse of Anraheir, and Transformation of Kadon. Kevin had a loremaster, so he got all the spells from the Lore of Life.

I won the roll for table sides and had to deploy the first unit. However, because I had so many drops Kevin was deployed before I had placed anything important.

He deployed entirely on my left flank with a unit of Flamers in his border fort, the other unit of Flamers in front of the fort, the unit of Bloodletters on the maximum edge of his deploymet zone, and the Horror unit behind that. The heralds went into their appropriate units.

I deployed the two ten-man archer units in both buildings and the large archer unit behind the obstacle. Two Drayd units and both Glade Rider units were deplyed behind the trees on my left flank about 36" away from the Bloodletters. The eagles went behind the buildings, the last Drayd unit was also deplyed behind the obstacle, and the Waywatchers deployed in Kevin's other building deep in his deployment zone.

Kevin won the roll for Turn 1, but because everything was so far away the only thing he could do was move into position. The Bloodletters and the Flamer unit not in the building surged forward 10". The Horrors attempted to swift reform towards the Waywatchers but failed and simply reformed facing the long table edge. In his magic phase was, Kevin's Bloodletters received the blessing of Flesh to Stone making them toughness 5. As nothing was within range of the Flamers, Kevin had no shooting and passed the turn to me.

In my Turn 1 I developed my battle line by moving the Dryads on the left flank deeper into the trees and sending the Glade Rider units towards the closest Flamer unit. Magic saw the toughness 5 Bloodletters cursed. My first turn of shooting only managed to kill 2 of the the toughness 5 Bloodletters leaving the unit at 48 models remaining strong.

In his Turn 2, Kevin continued to jockey for position. The closet Flamers continued to move forward. The other unit of Flamers left the confines of the border fort while the unit of Horros marched towards Waywatchers in the building. The only unit that didn't move was the cursed Bloodletters. Both Kevin's magic and shooting phases were ineffective as he failed to kill a single model.

My Turn 2 presented me with an interesting choice. Looking over the battlefield I noticed something interesting. Both units of Glade Riders were roughly 17" away from the Flamers.

I declared a charge with both units, and lost only a single Glade Rider to the Flamer's stand and shoot reaction as they were shooting with a minus 4 penalty (long range, multi-shot, charging enemy, soft cover). Both units made it into contact.

In the magic phase I was only able to curse the Bloodletters. Shooting managed to kill another three Bloodletters leaving 45 models in the unit. On the left flank, the Waywatchers (who had moved out of the building this turn) also managed to kill a Flamer from the second unit.

In combat, I completely fluffed all of my attacks. Luckily, the Flamers also failed to cause any wounds in return so I won the combat by 1 because I had charged. The Flamers then proceeded to pass their leadership 6 break test.

Kevin played it safe in his Turn 3. The Bloodletters didn't move while the unengaged Flamers and Horror unit moved closer to the Waywatchers in the building. Magic and shooting once again failed to kill a single elf. 

In round 2 of the Glade Rider combat, the elves struck first and managed to kill a Flamer. In response, the Flamers killed 2 Glade Riders drawing the combat. Yet, the Wood Elves did not come unprepared as the musician blew on his horn to win the combat by 1. But the Flamers again passed their leadership 6 break test.

My Turn 3 saw my entire battle line shift. The Drayds on my right flank moved towards the Horrors. The Waywatchers moved closer to the unengaged Flamers placing them in short range. The rest of the line wheeled slightly to bring maximum bowfire onto the Bloodletter unit.

Magic saw the Bloodletters cursed for the third turn in a row, while the combined archer shooting contributed to the death of 7 more Bloodletters reducing the unit to 38 models. Finally, a single Flamer died to a killing blow shot by the Waywatchers.

In combat round 3, the Glade Riders managed to do another wound to the Flamer unit, but lost an elf in return. The Glade Riders won the combat once again thanks to the musician, but the Daemons held fast, passing their leadership 6 break test for the third combat phase in a row.





Kevin's turn 4 was uneventful. None of the Daemons moved, including the Bloodletters for the third turn in a row. Magic and shooting once again failed to kill a single elf.

Round 4 of the Glade Rider/Flamer combat was a wash as neither side could wound the other. As I had come to expect, the Daemons then passed their leadership 6 break test; this time with the help of the BSB in the nearby Bloodletter unit.

My Turn 4 was equally ineffective. In the magic phase I only managed to curse the Bloodletter unit while my shooting only killed a Bloodletter (dropping the unit to 37 models including the herald) and a single Flamer.

In round 5 of the close combat the Flamers killed a Glade Rider, but both units passed their leadership 7 break tests. Combat would continue into another turn.

Kevin's turn 5 was as uneventful as his turn 4. Neither the Bloodletters or the Horrors moved and the unengaged Flamers failed to hit the Waywatchers.

In round 6 of the close combat, the Glade Riders and Flamers managed to cause two wounds each, and another Flamer dissipated to combat resolution leaving only the Pyrocaster in the unit.

In comparison, Wood Elf Turn 5 saw serious action. As I could also see that Kevin was looking at his Bloodletter's with increased interest, I flew an eagle in front of them to prevent them from charging the archers I had to move towards the unengaged Flamers.

I also declared a dual charge with the Waywatchers and the Dryads on the right flank into the Horror unit. A strong charge roll saw the Dryads slam into the flank of the Horror unit as the Waywatchers hit the front.

For the first time this game I failed to curse the Bloodletter unit (good thing I moved the eagle). Massed Wood Elf shooting killed the second Flamer unit as well as three more Bloodletters. There were now only 34 Bloodletters sitting right outside my deployment zone! 

  

In the Horror combat, I killed the Herald of Tzeentch along with seven Horrors for the loss of only three Waywatchers. Three more Horrors dissipated into the warp to combat resolution.

In round 7 of Glade Rider/Flamer combat (yes, this one combat went 7 rounds), the Pyrocaster killed all of the Glade Riders in the second unit leaving only a single Glade Rider in contact. Unfortunately, that poor elf's courage broke and he fled from the combat. The Pyrocaster pursued, but ran smack into the first Dryad unit the trees who were looking forward to making short work of the troublesome Daemon.

Kevin's last turn saw the Bloodletters move for the second time this game when they charged the eagle directly in front of them. To spare everyone the suspense, the poor eagle was quickly shredded.

As Kevin's other remaining units were engaged, he entered his magic phase. For the first time all game Kevin successfully cast some offensive magic as the Banner of Change killed the Waywatchers in combat with the Horrors.

In the Horror combat, the Dryads killed 6 more Horrors without the loss of a single Dryad. In the other Dryad combat against the Pyrocaster, the Dryads failed to wound the Daemon. In response, the Daemon failed to wound the Drayds. However, because the Flamer charged, the Drayds lost the combat by one and failed their stubbon break test. The Dryads were subsequently run down by the Pyrocaster! I, of course, blame the Dryad's performance on the fact that they were unpainted as this was the same unit from Round 1 that failed to live up to its expectations.

My Turn 6 was just rap up. The lone fleeing Glade Rider failed to rally, but didn't run off the board. I also knew at this point that I couldn't kill the Bloodletters, but I wanted to show Kevin just how much damage short range elf shooting can do to toughness 3 targets so I moved the archers into short range. The unit of archers in my border fort killed the Pyrocaster. Finally! The remaining archers (now all in short range), along with the BSB and his Hail of Doom arrow, shot at and killed 14 more Bloodletters dropping the unit to a much more manageable 20 models. It was at this point that I thought I probably should have been more aggressive against the Bloodletters as I had another eagle I could have baited with. Oh well, next time! In combat, the Dryads killed several more Horrors and caused the rest of the unit to dissolve. Thus ended Round 2.

Looking out over the battlefield, I had managed to kill everything but the Bloodletters and the Herald of Khorne giving me a decent 1017 victory points. In return I lost 445 victory points (one unit of Glade Riders, one unit of Drayds, one eagle, and the Waywatchers). I won by 574 giving me another Solid Victory and 14 battle points. I also managed to pick up two of the bonus points for (1) having a unit in the opponent's deployment zone (the Dryad unit that killed the Horrors) and (2) having my most expensive core unit (the large archer unit) alive at the end of the game. 16 more battle points brought my total to 33 battle points after two rounds.

Point Hammered Episode 70

Point Hammered Episode 70 "Johnny is a Cock Magnet" is now available.

Rodge and Johnny cover their exploits at the Bugman's Oktoberfest Tournament. This episode includes lots of stories about the trip and the duos' exploits, including a bit about playing 7 -14- 21 which is one of the best bar games ever. Check it out: http://pointhammered.com/!

Round 1: Ogres

Round 1 I played David and his Ogres. His list is pretty entertaining to play against as it includes lots of things that you rarely see on the tournament scene like using Gut magic and not having Mournfangs or Iron Guts. This was his list for the weekend:

Slaughtermaster

• Level 3, Gut Magic, Fencer's Blades, Talisman of Preservation

Bruiser

• Battle Standard Bearer, Banner of Eternal Flame, Heavy Armor, Great Weapon

Ogres (two units of six with full command and iron fists)

Stonehorn (with harpoon launcher)

Maneaters (four, full command, swift stride, stubborn, Banner of Swiftness, Heavy Armor)

Leadbelchers (three)

Scraplauncher

Sabretusk (single pack of 2)

What is interesting at first glance is that this list is missing almost all the normal Ogre tricks. Even though this was a 1750 point tournament, a lot of players would have just brought a unit of Iron Guts, two Mournfang, and an Iron Blaster, and called it good. It was refreshing to see an Ogre army at such a small point amount have lots of Ogres and creatures. Also, it was nice to not have to worry about a Hellheart, although with only a single mage that stays in the back field this isn't a normal concern.

Also, I noticed that the Maneaters are not the standard build, but are an interesting creation of David's. They are built to charge and hold up units until the Stonehorn or the Ogres also make it into combat. They are stubborn, have swift-stride and with the banner have movement 7. On paper this makes them an excellent long charging unit that should be maximizing its d3 impact hits as much as possible.

I asked David about some of his other choices, particularly the 'tusk pack and Scraplauncher. He said that the 'tusk pack was his cheap deployment drop, but I don't agree with his assessment. If he, or anyone, wants to maximize his cheap drops then this pack should have been split into two separate sabretusks. Each one gives a separate drop and the ability to redirect a unit. Plus, there really isn't that much that two 'tusks will do that a single one can't.

David stated that he liked the Scraplauncher because of its killing blow ability and the fact that most armies he has been playing take large units of troops. When facing such large units, especially heavily armored units like chaos warriors or knights, the killing blow en mass was better than killing a single model with an Iron Blaster. An understandable statement, but there is just something magical about that cannon that is hard to resist when looking at the Ogre book.

Finally, David brought a Stonehorn. I just love this guy. I don't think enough Ogre players utilize him to his full ability. Not only does he make units strike last, so you have more Ogres attacking the enemy, but he is much harder to kill than the other big Ogre creatures including Mournfang (and yes, I am ready for any and all hate mail at such a statement). Because of its special stone bones rule, it can take three or four cannon balls, or like-type weapons, to bring this creature down. I find it is a model that your opponent has to deal with or it will negatively effect their combats, and that alone is worth its points and spot in the army.

Looking at David's army, I was most concerned about a few units. In particular, I didn't want to see combat with the Stonehorn as nothing in my army, except for maybe wild-formed Dryads, could really hurt it before it crushed whatever it was fighting. Second, as my army ran a lot of chaff, I was worried about the Leadbelchers and the units' 3d6 shots. Finally, I needed to watch out for the Scraplauncher. I don't need my unarmored BSB or Level 4 getting killed by a lucky killing blow just because I rolled a 1 on a 'Look out Sir' roll. Therefore, heading into the game I viewed my priorities as:

1. Kill the Stonehorn
2. Kill the Scraplauncher
3. Kill the Leadbelchers
4. Kill the Maneaters (as they were the fastest unit in the army that worried me)
5. Kill the Units
6. Don't get into combat unless I am guaranteed to win and kill at least 1 Ogre a round.

With my priorities all sorted out, we checked on the scenario we would be playing (Broken Glory) and began Round 1. Broken Glory is a modified Fortitude scenario. Deployment zones are 9" from the short table sides and 9" from the center of the table. The winner is determined solely by victory points with the difference in victory points determining the type of victory: 0-99 points is a draw, 100+ is a minor victory, 300+ is a solid victory, and 600+ is a massacre.
Bonus points are awarded as follows:

• +1 for causing your opponent to reach their breaking point first (Note: there is no additional victory points awarded nor is the game over at this point)
• +1 if the enemy BSB is dead
• +1 if you did not lose any banners

We calculated our beginning fortitude. David's was 6: 2 from the general, 1 from the BSB, and 3 from regular banners (one in each of the normal Ogre units and one in the Maneaters). My starting fortitude was 4: 2 from the general, 1 from the BSB, and 1 from the large archer unit with the Banner of Eternal Flame. I knew I had my work cut out for me if I was going to actually cause him to break fortitude.

We set terrain so that each player had a tree, a building, and a hill in their immediate deployment zone. I also made sure that there was a copse of trees in the middle of the battlefield from which my Dryads would be able to benefit from their Stubborn special rule.

I rolled for spells and got Wyssan’s Wildform, Flock of Doom, Amber Spear, and Curse of Anraheir. David rolled for his three spells and got Great Maw, the toughness spell, and the regeneration spell, but I didn't really care as they were Gut magic from a level 3 so I wasn't worried that they would actually be cast that often.

Deployment was pretty straightforward:

On my left flank I deployed an eagle, a unit of Dryads, the Waywatchers in the upper forest, and a unit of Glade Riders next to the building. Finally, a unit of archers was deployed in the building itself.

On my right flank I deployed another unit of Dryads beneath the trees in the center, the other unit of Glade Riders next to them, and then the last unit of Dryads on the far right. Behind that line I placed the unit of archers with the BSB behind the forest and the large unit of archers with the Banner of Eternal Flame and the Level 4 in the building.

David's deployment was rather straightforward as well: everything important went in the middle. On the very right (from his side) of his deployment was the Scraplauncher (not pictured), then a unit of Ogres, another unit of Ogres with BSB and Slaughtermaster, the Stonehorn, and then the Maneaters. Behind the Maneaters on the hill David placed his Leadbelchers. The 'tusk pack was placed at the left flank corner of his deployment.

We rolled for the first turn, I won priority and began a game that can best be described as "pincushioning."

[Stupid moment #1: I was so anxious to start the game that I rolled the dice off for turn before vanguarding. Thus, one of the fast cav units took two turns moving around terrain before it was able to do anything. The game hasn't even really begun and I am making mistakes. This does not bode well for the Alamo.]

My first plan of action was to prevent the Ogres from utilizing their full movement capabilities. In this way, I baited with my fast cav on the left flank, moved the eagle and the dryads up to support a second turn charge, and brought the waywatchers 10" closer to the Ogre line.

My right flank simply moved up in a hard right formation with the fast cav taking cover behind the hill, the Dryads moved within the maximum charge range of the Maneaters and the eagle moved up behind them to charge the 'tusk pack if it emerged from behind the hill.

The magic phase began with a BANG! An attempt at an innocuous Flock of Doom at the Stonehorn was met by a "go ahead." A huge flock of ravens appeared (11 hits) and descended on the Stonehorn, biting and hacking huge chucks of flesh from its bones (4 unsaved wounds). Next, the main Ogre unit was cursed as the ground around them became a tangle of glass shards.

As the mage expended his last bit of magical energy, the archers decided the time was right to show the Ogres what the definition of Elven accuracy means. After a quick command that any Elf missing such large targets would be forced to wear a pink uniform next battle, the archers let loose causing several wounds on the Scraplauncher, the main Ogre unit, and causing the death of a Maneater. First blood to the Wood Elves!

David's turn began with his declaring charges against everything that was even remotely in range. Three failed charges later and the Ogre units had only managed to stumble a few inches forward. Though to be fair, the only reason the Ogre unit on the left flank failed was because my fast cav fled as a charge reaction and zoomed back into my deployment zone.

See! Look at me flee. The biggest surprise of the movement phase came when the cursed Ogre unit (with all the characters in it) didn't move. I know the curse is scary, but I disagreed with David's decision to not move this unit. The most that would have happened was it would have caused a wound or two, or at worst, killed a single Ogre. Maybe he was afraid of wounds building on his characters. But this unit would only move when I failed to cast the curse.

The Leadbelchers opened up in the shooting phase and proceeded to kill, three of the Glade Riders on the right flank. I wasn't expecting this and it hurt. But the unit passed its break test and sauntered on. 

[Stupid moment #2: Not paying attention to line of sight. I had the Glade Riders behind a hill, but not right up next to it. Thus, the Leadbelchers on the other hill could see a little bit more than half of the unit. I didn't notice this until he declared them as a target. For the future I need to make sure to have my units blocked by terrain as much as possible. This is also the second stupid mistake with the Glade Riders and its only Turn 1! There must be a pattern here.]

Turn 2 involved a lot more moving into position. The right flank continued its advance with the dryads moving a little further up and into the trees. The middle dryad unit moved straight into the center trees. The large archer unit left the confines of the building to be within 24" of the Stonehorn and the units of the left flank continued to move closer to the Ogre lines. Importantly, the fast cav on the left flank rallied, and as they had fled from a charge last turn, were free to move. The unit moved up again to bait the smaller Ogre unit.

Magic once again saw the main Ogre's unit cursed while the Stonehorn was hit with a giant spear of amber light reducing the giant monstrosity to ash (as the Stonehorn had already taken 4 wounds last turn I only needed to roll a 3+ to kill it even with its stone bones rule).

Shooting proved as effective as turn 1 as one of the Leadbelchers was wounded and the Maneaters were reduced to a single champion model who looked equal parts perplexed and pissed at what had happened. However, because the Maneater's had a banner in the unit that was killed to shooting, David lost his first fortitude point. Fortitude values were now Ogres - 5, Wood Elves - 4.

David's turn 2 began just like turn 1 with a series of charges. The small Ogre unit again charged the fast cav on the left flank who elected to flee out of the ogres charge range.

The lone Maneater also charged the dryads in the woods on my right flank, but failed to make the charge due to the loss of the unit's Banner of Swiftness.

Remaining moves saw David bring the 'tusk pack over the hill, reform the Leadbelchers towards the now-depleted fast cav unit on the right flank, and move the Scraplauncher closer for a shot at my Level 4 in the large archer unit. Both the Ogre magic and shooting phases were ineffective and the battle moved into turn 3.

Turn 3 saw two charge declarations from the Wood Elves with the dryads on the right flank making their charge against the 'tusk pack and the center dryad unit failing to charge the smaller Ogre unit. Luckily, I rolled so poor on my charge distance the dryads were still in the woods after moving their failed charge distance. The waywatchers moved closer to the Leadbelchers and the eagles swung around behind the Ogre lines looking for an opportunity to strike. The archers wheeled to see the incoming Ogres.

The archers managed to fell both the last remaining Maneater (netting me a substantial sum of victory points) and a Leadbelcher.
  

In combat, the Dryads struck first against the Sabretusks killing one outright and causing the unit to break and flee from combat.

Unluckily, the remaining Sabretusk outpaced the dryads as it crested the hill and out of the dryad's line of sight (the dryads managed a mighty pursuit roll of three). Don't they just look pathetic? They are probably mad that I haven't painted them yet and that is why their performance was so lackluster.

David's turn 3 began with more charges. On the right flank, the Leadbelchers charged the depleted fast cav unit off the board. In the center, both ogres units declared a charge against the dryads in the center that failed their own charge on my turn, and ...

both units made it into contact (Shit!). Though neither unit rolled high enough for the d3 impact hits (Phew!).

In combat, the dryads stuck first killing one bull in the smaller Ogre unit and two Ogres in the main unit. In response, the combined charge killed off six dryads. It could have been worse but because I was six wide only two ogres from each unit were in base contact. The dryads then passed their stubborn leadership 8 break test for being in the forest. It looked like combat would continue.

At this point I stepped back to see how the game was progresing. There were two Leadbelchers left on the hill on the right flank and a fleeing Sabretusk about 12" from the back table edge. In the center of the table there was a massive combat that I was sure to lose eventually (most likely this turn) as both units of Ogres were still combat effective. Moreover, both units were close enough that if they won combat this round, David would be able to charge at least one of my archer units on his turn. After assessing the situtation I began my Turn 4 in earnest.

I charged the Glade Riders and the eagle on the left flank into the smaller unit of Ogres as shown (Glade Riders in the flank and eagle in the rear). My thought here was to add some much needed combat resolution (as there were only two drayds left in combat), and if I got lucky, the smaller unit would be locked in combat on David's turn and unable to charge the archers. I also flew the other eagle 1" in front of the main Ogre unit in case it was free to move on David's turn.

With magic and shooting I killed off the fleeing Sabretusk and the last two Leadbelchers.

Combat saw a single Ogre die to the combined charge while I lost both Dryads and three charging Glade Riders. However, due to combat resolution, I only lost by one and passed both break tests keeping the smaller Ogre unit locked in combat on David's turn.

*Also, note the obnoxious eagle on the right!

On David's turn he once again began by declaring charges as there was little else available for him. He charged the Scraplauncher into the rear of my eagle in combat, and the main Ogre unit charged the other eagle.

In combat I lost every unit. The impact hits from the Scraplauncher killed the eagle, the small Ogre unit made short work of the remaining Glade Riders, and the eagle disappeared into a puff of feathers. However, David chose to reform his main block instead of overrun so that he could hopefully charge my archers on the next turn.

Turn 5. Time to get serious. The Drayds on the left flank (who had done absolutely nothing all game) charged the Scraplauncher in its rear. Both archer units on the right flank shifted further to the right and the remaining Drayd unit on that side moved down to help block Turn 6 charges.

In the shooting phase the combined shooting of the three archer units and Waywacthers managed to kill one Ogre in the smaller unit bringing it down to three models and another two Ogres in the main unit dropping it to four models (including the BSB, Slaughtermaster, and champion).

Combat saw the now Wild-formed Drayds kill the Scraplauncher and cause the smaller unit of Ogres to break and run into the trees.

David's Turn 5 was quick: the smaller Ogre unit rallied and the main Ogre unit reformed to be able to charge one of the archer units on Turn 6.

My Turn 6 saw only seven Ogre models start on the board. A little manouvering with my main archer unit and it was beyond the maximum charge range of the main Ogre unit. The BSB then jumped out of the small ten-man archer unit also on the right flank and into the large archer unit. The ten-man unit wheeled slightly to increase the chance that on a flee reaction they would be able to stay on the board. My remaining units simply converged on the Ogres' position because they could.

The combined archer fire on the right flank (now including the Waywatchers that had moved down and the BSB finally using his Hail of Doom arrow) fired into the main Orge block. Because I had reduced the unit to less that 3 rank and file models, I was able to kill both the BSB and the unit banner leaving only the Slaughtermaster and unit champion left. This also reduced David's fortitude to 3 (2 for the general and 1 for the banner in the other unit). The other archer unit in the building shot at, and killed, one Ogre in the smaller unit leaving only the unit banner and champion. I had missed my chance to kill that banner and break David. Drat!

David's Turn 6 began as most of his others had, with a charge. The main Ogre unit was too far away to declare a charge so only the smaller Ogre unit (with just the unit banner and champion) declared a charge against the small ten-man archer unit. I elected to flee and almost fled off the board (and I mean almost, like 1" away) but stayed, I like to think, do to the wheel in my turn changing where the center of the unit was. David took a minute, picked up some dice, passed his leadership test and declared a re-direct charge against the large archer unit. I declared a stand and shoot reaction, picked up a large handful of dice, and managed to KILL the unit banner breaking David's army right there. David failed his charge and then I did a little happy dance. No, really! I danced a little jig because, in all honesty, how many players can say they broke their opponent's fortitude in the final turn of the game on their opponent's turn. Not many I would wager. And with that the game ended and we caculated points.

I had managed to kill everything but three Ogres (though to be fair, as they were the two remaining Ogre unit champions and the Slaughtermaster, they were worth a fair number of victory points left on the table). I had managed to kill 963 points of Ogres compared to only losing 454 points of Wood Elves (both eagles, both Glade Rider units, and a single unit of Drayds). I won by 509 victory points giving me a Solid Victory under the scenario and 14 battle points. I also managed to pick up all three bonus points for (1) causing David to break, (2) killing his BSB, and (3) not losing any of my banners. Thus, at the end of Round 1 I was sitting at a pretty 17 battle points.

This Past Weekend

Somehow, I managed to accomplish a significant amount of hobbying this weekend. I attended a tournament at my local stomping grounds on Saturday and played three great games of Warhammer. On Sunday I managed to do some painting and hobbying and finished several steps in some of my ongoing projects.

As I will be providing Round Breakdowns and Battle Reports in the coming days, this post is just to show off what hobbying was accomplished.

Here is the first of the Glade Riders for the new unit. The bow and weapons still need work, and nothing has been done to the back of the rider, but the clothing color scheme is pretty much finished.

Another Dryad with initial base colors, the dark wash, and initial highlights on the wood color. There are still several layering effects left including the blue sprite and the fall foliage. This one should be finished (except for basing) this weekend.





Here are three Glade Guard after initial base colors and a washing of Devlin Mud. Next up is painting the model with a three color layering for the armor, clothing, and skin.

The biggest accomplishment of the weekend was finishing the bases on the second unit of Glade Rider horses. All ten horses were completely based and then sprayed with a matte finish to keep the flock and other basing materials in place.

Different angle.








Close-up of one of the horse bases.

Another close-up.

The beginning of two magnetic Dryad bases for the Dryads I finished last weekend. One has a sprite and the other a rock piece. Because the Dryad models are so tall I find more materials on the base provide a better look for the Dryads overall.

The start of the next movement tray for the second unit of Glade Riders.

The first finished movement tray for the first unit of ten Glade Riders. Hopefully this coming weekend I will be able to finish the Dryad bases and get another two Dryad models completed bringing my grand total of complete Dryads to three and completed Wood Elf models to fifteen. Yes, I know I am slacking on this, but I am actually trying to paint these models to the best of my ability to hopefully eke out a couple extra paint points at the tournaments next year.