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 2nd 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
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| 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.
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| 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.)
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| 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)
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| 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
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| 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 1st place and a gorgeous
trophy! Props to Paul Welsh who hand painted the disc, super cool! Save J came
2nd with KoM and Sam came 3rd with Dwarves, well done
guys!
Dave Crabtree won Best painted with a gorgeous new Herd army it was really nice. :)
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| Dave's lovely army |
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| 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!
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| 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 2nd 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! ;-)
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| Army shot |
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