I recently traveled down to Black Dragon for a 2K KoW event, this
would be 4 games so excellent practice for the upcoming CoK UK.
After my poor performance at Altrincham I refocused my list
and tactics, this would basically be a 2 pronged attack pattern, the Stampede’s
with a Beast pack, the Spirit Walkers and the foot Shaman being the first group and the Lycan
Hordes with another Beast Pack and the Mounted Shaman being the 2nd.
The Avatar a new addition, goes wherever I feel he’ll help most, usually
opposite something shooty on a flank if possible. I deploy him last too.
As you can see if you look back at my Alt list, I’ve dropped
two units of chaff, and this still felt like it was enough, possibly 3 is the
sweet spot.
Game one - David
Hetherington – Dwarves – Push.
Dave is a new player, but was very
enthusiastic and we had a great game! He forgot quite a bit but I was happy for him to go back and do it, and where I spotted it I reminded him too, which he appreciated. My army though swept in and started taking his units off here there and everywhere.
Dave’s inexperience showed and I
tabled him, but we did enjoy the game nonetheless, Dave saying he'd picked up some tips and tricks, hopefully we can play again some time when he's got more experience under his belt. :)
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| Stampede goodness. |
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| Deep in thought! |
Game two - Andrew Hartwell – Ratkin –
Pillage
Andy is much more experienced and his army was VERY shooty.
He had two flanks one with the Death Engines and the 3 Warlocks and the other
with the Weapon teams and the Ogre Boomers. I went and advanced everything to
just out of 12”. Andy first turn saw him waver a Stampede in one go! And damage
my Avatar. He also got very unlucky sending a Shocktroop horde into my
Beastpack, and rolling double 1…
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| Mmm flanked horde incoming! |
This meant on turn 2 I could get my Lycan Horde into the Shocktroop's flank and routed them, I sent the other off after the flank of the warriors on the hill. Elsewhere my Avatar took out a Weapon team, then angled
onto the rear of his army. (Their positioning prevented me charging the Ogres flank) The lucky
beastpack charged a Death Engine, didn’t do anything but at least it then took
on the Beastpack instead of shooting me. The shooting was now reduced which
helped immensely, I still lost the Stampede and the Avatar though. (ouch)
My turn 3 I had the opportunity to charge the Warlocks with
a Lycan horde, 1, 2, 3, all dead, 3 units routed by one unit in one turn is a new
record for me! Elsewhere everything was falling apart for the Ratkin and be the
end of the turn there wasn’t much left. This ended with another tabled result
and max points for me.
Game 3 - Nick Goodall – Dwarves – Loot
Nick went first and the dwarves sped
forward! On my left the Brocks all moved into charge range of my Avatar but not
the Stampede, I used a Beast pack to delay a Regiment of Brocks, Allowing my
Stampede and Avatar to move into better positions but out of range of the other
Brock Regiment. The Beast pack worked great as on the following turn the Brock
riders rolled a double 1 to rout them! I would get my comeuppance later
though… The Elementals advanced, and I
could have charged them with my Lycans, Nick had set up flanking units though
and I judged it too risky. Instead I swept a unit forward ready to flank. I sent my Spirit Walkers in the central Ironguard regiment which were holding a token but they did little.
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| Thinking again... |
The Ironguard countercharged and routed the Spirit Walkers, even worse the flying King charged past and engaged a Stampede keeping it in place and stripping their TC. In retrospect I wish I’d Banechanted them straight
away, but went for Heal instead. The Greater Elemental got in the face of my
flanking Lycans, but I nimble charged past into the flank of his Elementals
routing them in one go. Due to Surge I was forced to turn round or have him
into their rear, this was a shame as they were in an otherwise great position.
I did Banechant these guys, but still got stuck with the Greater Elemental the next
couple of turns.
Around turn 4 things we’re looking
ok, I’d bane chanted my Stampede and they smashed the King, I’d got my other
Stampede into Brocks and my Avatar into the Berserker Brock Lord, all I needed
was reasonable nerve rolls and I would rout several units. I rolled Double 1, not
once but twice and then a 3 on the King. (which wavered him at least) This was a
terrible setback and in the following Dwarf turn The Brocks routed the Stampede leaving me with just a damaged Avatar vs three units! My left flank had collapsed...The Dwarves were now solidly in
possession of all 3 loot tokens.
In the centre the King passed his
Headstrong roll, (grumble) and got joined by the Ironguard regiment, they
wavered the Stampede with a high roll. (noooooo!) The Dwarf shooting also
wavered my Lycan Horde in the centre… The Avatar ended up flying away as fast as it could and abandoned the flank…This meant I only had the one charge that
turn, the other Lycan horde, which finally finished off the Greater Elemental and
turned to face the Dwarven centre.
The Dwarf King and Ironguard regiment
continued hammering my Stampede and routed it, overrunning forward and that was
most of my centre gone too! An Ironguard Regiment (with a token) got in the
face of my flanking Lycans, and the Brocks moved a little closer to the
centre.
This was now my 5th turn and all looked bleak, I was left
with the Avatar, a Shaman and both Lycan Hordes. (one wavered) However Nick had
made a key mistake overrunning after killing the Stampede, I was able to Nimble charge my Lycan horde past the Regiment in front of them and into the Dwarf King, killed him then overrun into
the Ironguard’s flank killing them and grabbing a token! I killed off the
remaining Flame Belcher with my Avatar.
This left Nick with little to do on
Turn 6, he just prepared his unit for the charges, My Avatar routed a Brocks
Regiment and the Lycans took the final Ironguard Regiment, granting me anothr token! In the end I grabbed the tokens and killed most of Martins army giving me a big win! Phew I thought I’d lost that for game for a while.
Game 4 - Martin
Dinsley – Ratkin – Invade
Martin had a balanced Ratkin list, this was more challenging
for my army than the shooter centric list of Andy’s from earlier. Martin got
first turn and advanced, being Invade this made sense, but I decided against
getting too close and let Martin move into my charge range instead, which he
did.
My turn two I unleashed my Lycans, they double charged and took out a
Brute horde quite easily, I advanced carefully and positioned my Avatar for a
flank charge. Then turn 3 Martin moved up and jammed my Stampede’s with chaff.
With one unit I was able to kill them and then back up out of charge range of
the Shock Troop Hordes, the other killed the Hackpaw chaff but still had to
deal with Warriors. My Avatar was able to charge a flank but decided against it
and went round to the rear instead.
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| And lets let everything come to my side of the board on an Invade, surely that will work right? |
On the left it was looking great I killed the 2nd
Brute horde Leaving a chaff unit of Hackpaws, some Vermintide and a Warchief,
here though it all went wrong. After killing the Brutes I pivoted my Lycan
horde towards the main line, Then I did the rear combat into the Hackpaws, 54
attacks, double 1. <sigh> Next turn saw the Hackpaws rear charge my
lightly damaged Lycan horde with 27 attacks! Routing them instantly…
The Lycan horde
saw off the murderous Hackpaws… In the centre my Stampede killed the warriors horde then
eyed up the left Shock Troops horde, I sacrificed a Shaman to stop
them multi charging the right Stampede. Next turn just one horde came in, with
Bane chant though the Stampede was heavily damage and wavered. (damn they hit hard!)
I was running out of units now, My Avatar finally got it’s
rear charge into the right Shock Troops horde and routed them, The Lycan horde
routed a warchief that had killed my foot Shaman. The unwavered Stampede got
chaffed up by a Weapon Team, which it duly dispatched.
Martin’s turn 6 saw my heavily damaged Stampede routed to
combined Lightning bolts, and the other killed by a combined charge of a Shock Troops
horde and a Warchief…
My final turn dawned (no turn 7’s at this event) I used my
Lycans to finish of the Vermintide, and my Avatar to kill a Warlock, and the
game ended. I knew going into the game that if I could get a draw I would
likely win the event, and as I was ahead on points I felt reasonably confident.
Martin however said, “I Win” Turns out we were playing an INVADE of course, I’d
completely forgotten. If I’d even remembered turn 6 I could have flown the
Avatar into the other half and claimed the draw… As it was Martin won the game
and the tournie!
What did I learn?
It shouldn’t need to be said, but pay
attention to the scenario! I sometimes find myself so focused on killing the
enemy that the scenario will go out the window! To help combat this I’ve
ordered myself a laser cut plaque saying “Scenario?” on it, this will sit in
front of me as I play so hopefully now and again I’ll see it and think, oh wait
a minute! :p
Army wise I was very happy with it,
it’s low defence but the speed means you don’t need to weather shooting for
long. The Avatar which I'd added in for this tournie worked great, he was targeted
by shooting a fair bit which saved my other units some damage, pairing him with
a Shaman is nice to combo with the Iron resolve too. The Very Inspiring source
also came in handy when the nearest Shaman couldn’t quite cover everything or
died. I’ll certainly use him again, I liked the large Dragon like threat.
Overall
Great day, Black Dragon is a really
nice looking store and Garry did a good job running the event! Also large
Domino’s pizza for £5.99 can’t say no! ;)
Results
1. Martin Dinsley 40 Ratkin
2.Garry Sharp 38 Ogres
3.Dan King 38 Herd
4.Nick Goodall 36 Dwarves
5.Andy Ransome 32 Undead
6.Kieran Lambert 31 Ogres
7.John Owen 31 Elves
8.Sam Barker 29 Dwarves
9.Richard Tomlinson 29 Brotherhood
10.Lee Fellows 29 Goblins
11.Andrew Hartwell 28 Ratkin
12.Luke Lister 27 Elves
13. Kieran Allison 26 Herd (Best Painted)14. Scott Gibbens 26 Orcs
15.Jonathon Faulkes 25 Varangur
16.Sven Bayliss 24 Ogres
17.Sharad Vora 22 Varangur
18.David Hetherington 21 Dwarves
19.Ian Davies 21 Ratkin
20. Gary Angus 18 Brotherhood
Top 3 lists,
Martin’s and mine are both above, here’s Garry’s shooting Ogre list of DOOM (tm)
Thanks for reading. :)
Daniel.
