South West Clash - Cider for all! :D

Last weekend saw a trip down south to Bristol, this was great fun as there was a few of us coming down from t'north. (Walter Simpson, Paul Welsh, Nick Williams, Sam Barker) Much drink and fun was had Friday night, Matt James the TO even joined us/tried to get us drunker still. :P

And relax...

A teensy bit drunk now... :P

I brought my Varangrr of course, my current army. I’d had success at Altibash the weekend before, so decided to stick with something similar.

We arrived nice and early (if somewhat worse for wear) and started with the champagne mimosas. :D

Game 1 – Ed Herzig – Trident Realms - Dominate

Ah Ed, he’s an old friend of mine, but we’d never played KoW together! To rectify this Ed challenged me, and I was happy to accept.

Gorgeous!

Ed’s list was really solid, and the army itself looked lovely. :)

As you can see below I decided to put both my Chimera down one flank, and they faced off vs two Knuckers. I briefly considered holding them just out of charge range but figured Ed would keep me at bay all day if I did, so instead I moved up to by the impassible Height 4 rocks and placed both Chimera together angled towards each other slightly, thereby preventing a multi charge onto either model. I picked on one Knucker with a Conclave and slightly damaged it.

Ed held off with them, out of charge arc, then on the following turn I used a Chimera’s breath attack and the Conclaves to rout one, and luckily wavered the other just with the 2^nd Chimera’s breath attack!

Lets get ready to rumble!

On the left my Fallen closed up and prepared to flank, I had a charge onto the Depth Horrors with my Fallen with Blood of the Old King. I went in, used the artefact and it hugely helped, popping the Depth Horrors in one go and leaving my Fallen behind Ed’s line.

It all started to go badly for Ed now, as he tried to block all the potential flank/rear charges, he missed one and the Fallen behind the line got a rear charge into his Giant! The Chimera’s mopped things up too around the rear until eventually everything routed. Ed only got to kill my Wolves who I sacrificed to prevent his nasty Placoderm horde from getting to a better position and eating my units.

The end is nigh

Big win to me. Ed is a gentleman and took it with good graces, it was really nice to get a game in with him though next time it will hopefully be closer.

Game 2 – Paul Fordham - Varangrrr - Ransack

Paul was the stand in player, he'd also got a really big win in round 1. He was running Varangrrr with a lovely painted army. The list itself was pretty tough.

This game started off quite well for me as I advanced my Chimera (Haste) onto the flank, partially behind the impassable height 4 terrain. Paul’s Herja chased after it, but my Chimera ignored her completely and landed behind his line. (out of sight of Herja)

On the right with my 2^nd Chimera, (Pathfinder) we had a Chimera off, with our Magus Conclaves trading shots for several turns. My Pathfinder Chimera ended up speeding into the centre wood for a flank charge and eventually Paul’s Chimera charged into the terrain, bounced, and was routed in return.

Back on my left with Fallen pushing into the front and a Chimera behind they didn’t last long and I ended up with a big win.

Game 3 – Nick Williams – Abyssals – Control

I was pleased to draw Nick as we’d had a great game a month or so earlier at Haven. His list was powerful and looked to be an excellent match for the scenario.

Unfortunately we only got a couple of turns in when Nick ended up having to concede, as he wasn’t feeling up to continuing. It was a real shame, as I had hoped to earn the win more, (it had started well for me, but you never know how a game will go) But a bit of rest was nice and left us both feeling ready to continue on in Game 4.

Game 4 – Paul Fox – Abyssals – Scavenge

Yes! I’ve been really wanting to play Paul again! I’d played him 3 times in the past and got 2 losses and a draw, and those results had kept me from winning the Clash of Kings and Masters! So this time I was super keen to play as well as I possibly could and earn myself a win!

His list was strong, however I noted that I had the long range firepower advantage, also from previous experience Paul doesn’t tend to sacrifice his units, which was helpful foreknowledge as we’ll see!

We both deployed the majority of our forces on the left flank, with a lesser amount on the right and my Conclaves in the middle. I went first, I pushed all the Fallen forward slightly just out of 20” of his nearest flyers. On the right I moved my Wolves within charge of the Tortured Souls with Haste and set up a flank charge with the Haste Chimera. Paul went for it, failed to rout them and then I countercharged, putting the Haste Chimera into their flank and took them out. It took a few turns but between them and the Magus Conclaves I was able to rout everything on the right. (I lost my Wolves but it was a fair sacrifice)

Now back in the middle Ba’su’su came out to play with my Pathfinder Chimera, the Chimera bugged out (pivot, run away 11") and then Ba’su’su decided rather than chass it fancied a Conclave instead (which it failed to rout due to the difficult terrain penalty)

At this point I brought back the Pathfinder Chimera, and one of Fallen in the stand off, bugged out. (Nimble turn, go 16”) towards the centre threatening Ba’su’su. The Chimera Breathed and combined with the other Conclave I got a waver! Ba’su’su tried to crawl away, but the Chimera and Fallen joined together and ripped him to shreds. (very satisfying! :p)

Just before Ba'su'su is killed

Meanwhile back on the left, the Tortured Souls all moved forward just into their charge range, then I backed out of it, this continued all the way till turn 4, when Paul finally committed a regiment further forward than I could back out of! Also at this point his unit's finally got to the Ransack token, I sacrificed my Fallen at this point to prevent him getting a token till turn 6.

Both Chimera’s grabbed a token as did the Fallen giving me 3 tokens. Paul took the Fallen out on the left with ease but was then unable to generate more than one token.

On the final turn 7, Paul had one chance, he charged the slowly reversing Fallen, (now speed 5 without Nimble due to the token) with his Well of Souls if he rolled well, he could take the token and grab a draw. It was not to be, giving me a win! Hurrah, my first ever win against him. :-D

Thanks to my sacrifice on Fallen on the left Paul actually killed slightly move than I did making the result 14-6 to me. Phew, great game, and I think I showed extreme restraint on my left, but I knew I had to play the scenario and play it well to pull off a win. :)

So end of day 1. We went out for a nice curry and had a few drinks, including some rather excellent cider! Mmm…

Day 2.

Just two games today, and I felt a bit more refreshed after some extra sleep! Let's get it on!

Game 5 – Matt James – Orcs – Push

Aha I got to play the TO, who had won every game so far same as me. He had a lovely Orc list with Abyssal Allies. (yes I face Tortured Souls, 3 games on the row!) I was pleased to get to play Matt as I’d enjoyed hanging out with him over the weekend, also by reputation he was a very good player so I knew it’d be a tough game, which it was!

Taking the Great Ax Horde in the centre with the tokens had to be done, but it was well protected which meant dealing with the flanking units first, or that was the idea...

Matt went first and advanced generally including putting his Haste Krudger on Winged Slasher into 22” range of my Pathfinder Chimera. I decided to try and bait it into a charge into difficult terrain, this seemed sensible. However I foolishly didn’t check to see how far the 22” would get him and the Slasher neatly flew over the top and landed behind out of all my charge arcs… How many times have I done this to others? Well now it happened to me, and it wasn’t pleasant. :P

Eeeeeep!

To compound the error, Matt’s Tortured Souls charged the Chimera preventing me from simply flying away… I came up with a sacrificial strategy, charge the T Souls with my Fallen and offer the Slasher a rear, meanwhile pivot my Chimera to allow me to then deal with the Slasher assuming the Chimera actually survived a charged from Gore Riders in the flank! O.o I know it sounded risky but with terrain odds, were reasonable I’d be ok. (16 hits, 8 damage)

Thankfully it all worked! The Chimera survived, killed the Krudger (rear attack) then turned back to the Gore riders for the front charge on Matt’s turn.  I breathed a sigh of relief as crisis was averted. Sadly he didn't last much longer before the Riders ground him to dust.

On the left my Haste Chimera was being battered by Gakamak, the Wolves dropped their token and ran into a flanking position on some oncoming Orc Ax, but Gakamak then sped off and attacked them instead! Leaving the Chimera to face the Ax by itself. Now interestingly Gakamak failed to waver the wolves and my Wolves the wavered him in return! The Chimera dealt with the Ax but was now heavily damaged. Gakamak used his Fury to countercharge the Wolves, (who gave him that…) and routed them.

Now amusingly I was all set to breath attack on Gakamak and try to kill him off when Matt pointed out his Wardum was in charge range, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth I happily took that, which left me behind the Greatax horde! (we'd both made a positioning mistake now!)

In the centre, I sacrificed my Horse raiders to block the Orclings and consequently the Great Ax behind them, this worked great keeping them in place for several turns. My poor Fallen though, my Skald’s banechant from the Lute of Insatiable Darkness stubbornly refused to work, this meant my Fallen bounced and then got flanked and routed.

Ok it was looking decidedly dodgy, I had one Fallen unit left, if they could rout the Gore Riders they could turn round and go possibly into the Great Ax, with both them and the Haste Chimera, with at least one into the rear I could just possibly pull off a win. No, the Bane-chant still stubbornly refused to work and I bounced off… This spelled their doom and sadly the last realistic chance of a win.

As I knew the Chimera couldn’t take out the Great Ax by itself (short of a double 6 to waver it and a turn 7 and another double 6) I decided to go for the fun option of charging the undamaged Krudger on Gore with a chance of an overrun into the Gore Riders. It worked! I killed the Krudger and wavered the Gore Riders. Except there were some pesky Orclings sitting behind the Chimera, Not routing the riders meant a rear charge, 36 attacks later dead Chimera. :P

That left me with my Conclaves and the useless bloody Skald… The Conclaves at least finished off both the Gore Riders and Gakamak before the game ended, giving Matt a big win. (17-3)

Wow amazing game, honestly Matt outplayed me, he’s a damn good player, I can’t wait to face him again in a future event. :)

Game 6 – George Kirke –Goblins - Occupy

So now things we’re close at the top and I was playing George. I knew I had to win for a chance at the top spot, and George is a great player so I had to be careful. The absolute priority was to take out the War Trombones and preferably the Bloodboil Wiz too.

After deployment, my Pathfinder Chimera was facing a hedge with Trolls behind it, which seemed less than ideal so I bugged out, and flew to the centre, into a wood, offering George’s Phantoms a flank. I figured if I could withstand it, then my Fallen would take out the Phantoms, which they did.

On the left I moved up and prepared for operation KILL ALL WAR TROMBONES!!! :p (note all my units were just out of 17” of them, so they could not possibly shoot me) My Conclaves couldn’t see them, so they shot the Giant instead. (minimal damage)

George’s turn saw little movement, bar the Goblin Rabble which started heading forward. (clearing my view to the Trombones for the Conclaves! Hehehe) George had planned to block my charge to a War Trombone from the Haste Chimera but then moved the blocking unit giving me an easy charge. (oops)

My turn 2 saw mass charges everywhere! The Haste Chimera ate the Trombone, the Pathfinder Chimera despite losing flight was still speed 10 so ate another. The Conclaves wavered the 3^rd! Excellent I love it when a plan comes together. ;-)

To really rub it in, my Horse raiders shot his Wiz needing 6’s to hit, got a damage and wavered it… (sometimes dice do mean things)

On my right the Fallen crashed into the Trolls and bounced with a waver. They bounced back and forward for a few turns but eventually I broke through. The remaining Phantoms did do a fly over and charge into the rear, but difficult terrain saved me unit, then a flank charge killed them off.

It should be mentioned that George’s right flank positioning was excellent, he really took advantage of the obstacle, it pretty much took the Fallen the entire game to get through, and if dice had been nicer could well have seen George’s units winning instead.

Back in the centre my Chimera were feeling smug, they finished off the final Trombone then eventually joined together to take out the Giant before sadly one was killed. The Horse raiders played with the Mincer, using Nimble to get to its flank and wavering it twice on the row! Before my surviving Chimera eventually took it from behind.

As the mist cleared, I jumped onto several objectives and glared at the Rabble Legion that I just didn’t have time to kill... (I’d pretty much run out of time at this point, so had to pretty much skip fighting in my turn 6) We did get a turn 7 and with just seconds left I used my Chimera to breath attack the final Wiz and rout it.

George's final turn saw his Flagger run up to a horde of heavily damaged Wolves needing 6 to hit and rout them! :D Epic end to the game, and a big win to me.

Results

That left me with 1^st overall, Paul Fox in 2^nd and Matt James in 3^rd. (Paul Fox beat Matt in game 6) Paul Welsh won Best painted with his beautiful Varangrrr.

What handsome chaps!

This meant AGC claimed 2 out of the 4 Trophies! (Altrincham Gamers Club)  

Me and the hunk.

Overall

An excellent event, run well by Matt. It was very laid back and I would highly recommend people attend any of his tournies in the future. The venue was also good if somewhat hot! (better once they got the big fans going) My opponents we’re all great and I had some excellent tactical games, cheers everyone! :D

The social aspect was particularly good and Fri and Sat nights were both really top, it was super cool having Matt hang out with us Friday, and having Chris Morris stay Sat was great too, really nice to catch up with him and admire his Smurf army. ;-)

Army Tweaks & Going Forward

Well it worked fine, I still have issues due to my lack of an individual such as Herja but I managed alright and adding her costs more than I'm willing to pay. You can’t have everything.

Hehe more than ever after being beaten by Matt’s Orcs it makes me want to make my own Orc army, I’ve always been put off by the amount of mini’s and painting involved, however I have come up with cunning plan involving my airbush. :p

UK Rankings

Thanks to the win, I think that should put me nicely back in first place, until the Clash of Kings UK at least. ;-)

Altibash IV - The Horn of Victory!

Ah Altibash, the jewel in the UK KoW tournie scene! This tournament is run by my local club Altrincham gamers. So it has that friendly local club vibe but on steroids as it’s packed with people! This time we had a whopping 22 players, not to shabby for a 1 day tournie and honestly I’m not sure we’d fit many more people in there! I was the raining Altibash champion so fighting to retain my title as the “King of War”. ;-)

Here's my new Chimera in the centre below, I wanted a 2 headed model similar but different to my original converted Chimera so this old Chaos Dragon looked perfect.. :)

It was 1800 points for the first two games then 2200 for the next two. You had to keep the majority of your 2200 army the same as the 1800, which made things challenging and meant my list at least wasn’t as finely tweaked as usual, that’s cool though and if made for great variety. The scenario’s had been kept under wraps. Oh and lastly it had two charity rerolls, one good reroll that allowed you to reroll up to dice from one roll of our own, and one EVIL reroll that forced your opponent to do the same. This was over the whole day so if you used these rerolls early on they were gone.

Ok here’s my lists, I decided to drop the Mounted sons with Pathfinder that I would normally field, not that they aren’t amazing. (they are) but I fancied a change and a 2^nd King on Chimera sounded fun. ;)

1800

2200

At 2200 I decided to finally give Herja a run out, I’d never used her before and everyone raves about  her, and seeing as I had extra pts I figured why not. I’ll get into what I thought of her and the lists later on.

Game 1 – Richard Miles - Ratkin – Occupy

Richard had traveled up a fair way for this event and I was glad he did as we had a really good game! His list was quite mixed with a powerful shooting section.

He told me pre game he’d come up with a plan to kill my Chimera but then he was confronted with two of them! :-p Noting this I figured he would likely want to shoot them is possible so quite careful to restrict visibility to my Chimera’s giving them cover as much as possible early game. ;-)

Both mine and Richard’s major token’s we’re on my left so I was determined to push through here, deploying the majority of my army on this flank. I went first and was facing some powerful shooting and the Slave chaff units too, so I cagily advanced my Fallen just out of their charge range. (In retrospect I wondered if that was a mistake, perhaps I should have advanced closer but pivoted the units to allow a nimble charge past the chaff?)

Due to the Chimera lurking in terrain Richard picked on my Fallen instead and wavered one of them. (ouch!) Seeing the ferocity of the firepower I got stuck in and soon reduced the amount of shooting coming my way.

On my right I ran the Haste Chimera and the Wolves a lovely little tag team. These took out the Hackpaws then tangled with the Blight, it took a chunk of the game but they we’re eventually victorious, the Wolves then just sitting on the lesser occupy token. The Chimera returned to the centre and helped mop things up.

I did roll an unfortunate double 1 in the centre and was sorely tempted to use my reroll but I knew if I did I would regret it later, so sucked it up. Fortunately it didn’t effect things too much and this ended with a 20 points win to me, with Richard getting I think a 6.

Game 2 – Mike Roberts – Brotherhood - Scavenge

Mike is one of my local clubmates and I gave him and Paul “I’m not anyone’s Padawan” Welsh a training game the other week. You can see the difference as Mike had tabled his first opponent putting him on max 20 pts same as me!

Mike’s list was pretty intimidating, so much brute force but with the flyers too. To make things even more challenging the table we played on had just a single piece of difficult terrain making my Fallen less effective.

I won the roll off and elected to let Mike go first. He moved up and interestingly gave my Chimera a charge into his Villein Initiates Knight Horde. I checked the angles and found if I charged it none of his other units would be able to charge the Chimera’s flank so would just have to hold to the countercharge so in I went, with the Fallen trailing behind, ready for charges turn 2. (I also grabbed a loot token ojn one of the Fallen hordes) This worked absolutely as planned and over the next few turns I took out everything on the left and then the centre too. If Mike had just positioned his Order of the Forsaken so they could support the Villein Initiates Horde it would have hugely changed the game.

One highlight of the game was my Horse Archers in the centre shooting a mage needing 6’s to hit. The picture says it all. :p

Yep 6 6's out of 7 attacks... :p

On the right I had a single 22” charge Chimera with some Wolves and this danced about and took a chunk of damage but it did keep the right busy, then we it looked it would finally die it did a single pivot and moved away out of trouble. (even if it loses flight it's still speed 11, so pretty nippy) By then the rest of my forces were able to come in and mop up the remainder. Giving me another big win.

The final units, look at the Hero at the back with a Chimera either side! 

Game 3 – Darren “The People’s Chumpion” Parkes – Ratkin – Dominate (GHOST TROLL variant.)

I iz Cooool! :P

Daz really didn’t want to play me again as we have a long running special relationship which involves Darren losing every game we’ve ever played! (We must be at about 10+ games now)

His list was pretty nasty, I was surprised at the lack of Rat Demon though. I knew I would have to approach it carefully.

This would be the first 2200 game so extra units, also it was a special variant on Dominate with a Ghost Troll in the centre who you took turns controlling but must charge if it could. Anyone who routed it would get +1 to winning the Dominate.

Ok so I cagily hid two hordes of Fallen in a wood in the centre as I knew the incoming firepower would be immense. Chimera’s and the other Fallen on the flanks.

Daz went first and advanced to get some shots off, thankfully the cover reduced this and he only wavered a Magus Conclave. On my turn I flew both Chimera’s round on to the left and right flanks each one hugging terrain giving me cover vs Ratkin shooting. Herja ran up behind a wall. Darren had left a Warlock just poking out so I took the charge with my Wolves, (if I’d routed it, I would have got an overrun into a Death Engine too) this would also lure the Ghost troll into charging them as opposed to my Fallen which seemed a better shout.

Daz shot things up some more, but fortunately nothing too serious occurred. By now I had some nice options with the Chimera and spotted a double overrun possibility, he’d put two Warlocks in the wood with the flank of the Shock Troops Horde just beyond, they would all be 1” overruns! I couldn’t resist this and the Pathfinder Chimera went in. Now 20 attacks in the flank probably wouldn’t rout the Shock Troops alone so I also put the other Chimera into the front of the Shock Troops horde. I was aware this was somewhat risky bit if it payed off I would likely rout it in one go.

In they go! (gulp)

The front Chimera was off centre due to a Blight unit I'd just routed

Ok first Warlock 10 hits, 10 damage, and rout!!! On the second Warlock however it went bad and I only did 5 damage (bother…) I rolled to rout and failed… HOWEVER! I had my good lucky reroll and realised if I just rerolled the 1 on the rout test a 3 or more would get it. Obviously it had to be done, I rerolled and got a 2… SIGH… The next turn both Chimera’s were routed… Ok this was bad and gave Daz a real chance to get back into things, fortunately the Fallen, Magus Conclaves and Herja were all going strong. But over the next few turns shooting would take out 2 hordes of Fallen. Darren also nearly got the Ghost Troll but rolled double 1 to rout it!

In the very last turn I routed his remaining solid units and then his last Warlock tabling him with just 1 Fallen Horde, Herja and the two Magus Conclaves remaining. Phew! After losing the Chimera I was quite concerned, this was certainly one of the closest games we’ve had. 

In retrospect the Chimera move was somewhat risky, I probably should have used the front Chimera elsewhere, however it was awesomely entertaining and Daz’s face was a picture! So I’d do it again. :p I ended up on max 20 points vs Daz on I think 8 pts. Daz went and sat in a corner and cried at this point… :-P

Game 4 – Andy Sharp – Goblins - Push

It's so pretty!

Final game and it was two Altrincham clubmates at the top of the table! Whichever of us won this game would win the event, keeping the title in club. (Every single Altibash so far has been won by a club member!) The funny thing is Andy was the ringer player, but he’d been storming along!

Andy’s army was a nice mixed list, I knew I had to approach it carefully or the shooting would be unpleasant.

My deployment was slightly different this time, the Wolves hid behind the Fallen with the Loot tokens on the left leaving the Chimera by itself on the right flank, Magus Conclaves and Horse Raiders in the centre as usual. Andy’s deployment made it tricky for me to get into where I wanted and his Wiz’s ran off and hid from threats too! (how dare they! :p ) This caused huge issues on the left, I’d bashed through a chunk but a single Wiz got through the net and started picking on my Wolves with the tokens and threatening to cost me the game! This meant a Fallen Horde had to hit full reverse to deal with it/pick up the tokens…

Another Fallen horde routed to an 11 roll… (my Chimera had sped off leaving it uninspired) This would have been horrible but I used the Evil reroll to force Andy to reroll and they we’re fine. (phew)

In the centre I was unable to get into the Trolls which had Andy’s tokens, he manoeuvred them very carefully. I was also lucky to avoid charges from them needing a 2 on a reverse after killing his Goblin Shooters, and another 2 reverse after killing the Troll Bruiser later!

Andy’s Goblins grabbed the central token and his shooting routed the Fallen threatening them…

Herja finished off some Mawbeasts but then got shot by everything under the sun and was wavered! (eeep!) She used her nimble pivot and speed to move out of the Trolls charge arc at least.

My Chimera grabbed the central token from the Goblins, dealt with a Giant then sat staring at the Trolls awaiting the barrage of Lightning and Blood boil…

This had been a very tactical game and by the final turn 7 I had a minute left which I just used to get my units out of danger. Andy’s final turn saw the death of the central Chimera who’d been holding a token however Herja survived! (just) and this left me with 4 scenario points to Andy’s 2. (Both his  Trolls and my Fallen were on his table side, doubling the value of mine) This left me with a big win and Andy with a high scoring loss!

Results

This left me with 1^st place and a gorgeous trophy! Props to Paul Welsh who hand painted the disc, super cool! Save J came 2^nd with KoM and Sam came 3^rd with Dwarves, well done guys! 

Dave Crabtree won Best painted with a gorgeous new Herd army it was really nice. :)

Dave's lovely army

Gorgeous!

Overall

I had a really good day with 3 great opponents and Daz… :P (I’m joking, it was an excellent tactical game which I really enjoyed)

The venue was great, and local for me which is a nice change. Kev and his son, Andy, Paul and everyone had done a great job, the To’ing and prep was fantastic. The terrain was good, (love them mats) Especially the tables Paul Welsh had worked on. (my fave being the Desert board)

The food was also excellent with healthy options and even freshly baked scones with jam and cream later on! Honestly I think Altibash is my favourite tournie in the UK, they really go the extra mile. We even got amazing goody bags, cheers guys!

I've got a massive Horn!

Army thoughts

Ok so obviously the army did well but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m happy with these lists… Not having a Skald sucked and would have cost me big in at least one game bar the Evil reroll… I deffo missed that.

Herja? Well I’ve been wanting her in the army for ages, was she any good? Hmm she was ok, she didn’t die, (so great pts denial) but neither did she do enough that it made me think wow I’m glad I have her. Honestly I prefer my cheap Skald, she will be getting binned off in future lists in his favour.

Otherwise I liked it, the double Chimera was a lot fun, being able to pop one on either flank worked great, though I do wonder if I am missing a trick by not tag teaming them. I guess it’s a finesse vs brute force decision. I would typically rather go for flanks and rears as opposed to doubling them up. The one time they did work together they both died! :P

I also rather liked the Wolf unit, and would use it again. (without the artefact that was simply there due to points left over)

UK Rankings

This puts me back in 2^nd overall I do believe, this means if I can come I think, top 4 at Bristol this weekend (a 2 day GT) I’ll be back on top again. Fingers crossed! ;-)

Army shot