Ah Lonewolf, the jewel in the Texas crown of tournaments! I attended last year and had a blast, and was oh so close to winning Best General. Winning 5 out of 6 games losing only my final game vs Marc Taylor. Sadly my paint wasn’t great so I sunk down to 12th. This year I hoped that maybe the Best General trophy could be mine! I had also spent the last year working on my paint, and other hobby aspects, pushing myself to improve. Hopefully I thought this would give me a vague chance of a decent overall placing.
Now the fantastic thing this year is, I did not attend alone from the UK,
my friends Waltz, Nick, Jon and Ed also attended and this just ramped things up
to AWESOME+. We stayed with Jeff and Mark and they gave us the real VIP
treatment, such nice people. Thanks guys! I could waffle on about Texas for a
while as it’s amazing but I guess most of you want to hear about my army and
the tournie itself, so onwards my friends!
The Army
The Army
This is the year of the Varangrr, I try to mix things up and
make a new army most years, this just keeps things interesting, and allows me to
push my hobby too. As I really wanted to go all out this time, I added flickering green LED’s to
every Regiment and Horde and also the Monsters/War Engines. This required me to
learn a lot of new skills but I think was worth it.
Army List
I originally tried a different list at Fools
of War, but it wasn’t really my style, being just a little too shooting
centric. This new list focused on the hammers, 4 of which have Pathfinder, (3
Fallen and the Mounted Sons) this as you’d guess is rather handy. I also have
chaff and even some nice shooting, not to mention the King on Chimera. It’s a good all round list in my opinion as it allows
me to take out some ranged threats and throw a little damage around as desired
but still hammer through where needed.
Start of Day 1
The day dawned and LONEWOLF was here! I, perhaps foolishly, stayed up late the night before, so I was a little hungover, but hey that’s part
of the fun! Robby King rocked up to me and gave me a large can of some crazy high
alcohol concoction, I actually rather enjoyed it, thanks Robby!
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| Jon and myself sporting our FFS Tshirts! |
GAME 1 – Kris Kapsner – Herd - Bullseye
I’d challenged Kris as he was someone I really wanted to
play, and as he’s also won various tournies. I knew it’d be a close fun game, and
it was! The scenario, Bullseye was a variant on Dominate, which was cleverly
done, it consisted of 3 circles, and you scored more for being closer to the
centre.
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Kris Kapsner
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This was a nail biter of a game! Kris and I both deployed
heavily on one flank, I mostly tried to delay the Stampedes, while pushing through
on the far flank with my Chimera and the Mounted Sons. Things were very close
in the centre, an early turning point was the Guardian Brutes routing my King on Chimera in one go. (I’d been forced to charge them in the front to protect the
flank of another unit) I’d really thought he would hold a turn... (average damage with Banechant was 8, with a 12 nerve check being needed twice, but Kris rolled really well for them)
By the end of turn 6 I’d killed everything bar the 2
Stampedes and the Shamans, but likewise I’d lost most of my army. If the game
ended now Kris would win, if I got a turn 7 I would likely rout both Stampedes
for a big win. The game ended! Giving Kris an 11-9 win. Amazing close game,
Kris is a great opponent; I really hope we get to play again some day. :-)
GAME 2 – Mike Grajada – Herd - Debbie does Dallas
Mike was a really nice guy who came along with his son Jeff, (who has a child on the way, congrats again!) I hope one day I get to go events with my son. :-)
This scenario meant we each had a “Debbie” who buffed a unit
it was assigned to, but on a 1 each turn it would go wild. Mine behaved well
and happily stayed under my control all game.
Mike’s Debbie however was a true diva and decide she would
much rather march the unit forward and give me a flank instead of charging and
routing me, ouch…
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| Near the end of the game. |
I had an early advantage after taking all 4 of Mike’s chaff
units by turn 2, this allowed me to start getting round the flanks and rears and
eventually I wiped pretty much everything out. For a 20 - 0 win to me.
GAME 3 – Steven Housenick – Goblins – Lone Ranger
Steven had a really nicely themed Goblin list, that was also
challenging to face! He really got into the swing of things here for a really
fun game, it was actually really close and one of the key highlights was Steven’s
Mawbeasts hindered charging my Magus Conclave, routing it, then hitting the
flank of my Mounted Sons and routing them too! Eeeek!
Fortunately as the dust cleared I’d done the most Lone
Ranger damage and got mine over to his deployment zone, for a decent bonus,
giving me a 16-4 Win.
GAME 4 - Jesse Berglund – Elves – Twister
Jesse is one of the Lake SWATT guys and he was a pleasure to
face. His list was tough so I knew I had to get stuck in ASAP. Luckily the Twister decided to help me out, touching down on both his Dragons and a shooting
horde removing their flight and penalising all shooting in that area. I sped straight up the flank placing all my Fallen into a wood, Jesse double
charged the Dragons into one of the Fallen, if he’d routed it, he may have been ok. (still needed a decent overrun) But luck was not with him and just wavered it, giving me a
flank charge on both Dragons spelling their doom...
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| With the Dragons gone the way forward was clear |
Elsewhere my army mostly sat in forests, soaking up shots. I sent all my shooting into the Stampede causing it to back away. My King on Chimera was smashing
stuff on the other flank, but then rolled poorly on the rout test against Palace Guard with
Stormwind Cav facing its rear! Thankfully the Lonewolf reroll saved the day,
allowing me to turn to face and eventually kill the knights. (I was behind an obstacle)
20-0 to me.
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| Surrounded! |
End of Day 1
So at the end of the day I’d done quite well despite my loss
against Kris, I was now top of battle which was a pleasant surprise. A lovely
evening followed going for a meal with Kris and the other guys. Again I was the last
Brit standing as all the others got an early night again! :-P
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| Late night chilling |
Start of Day 2,
Ok now I was even more tired and hungover but hey it’s all good, time for a beer and more KoW! ;-)
GAME 5 - Michael Pearcy – Basileans - Poison Wells
I’d been really looking forward to this and so had Michael,
in fact he’d been thinking about it instead of sleeping, I suspect he was even more tired than me! ;-) This was a another
great and very tough game. As Michael had the speed advantage I knew I would
have to set up some bait, so I quickly got a Fallen horde up the flank
threatening his units but out of LoS of everything bar some panther lancers, I
dealt with them and held giving myself a nice nimble charge angle on his other
units. My other units were set up to charge anything that charged the Fallen.
Michael went for it, but got overconfident and went in with
just the Elohi (Gneuss could have combo charged with them) and they failed to
waver my Fallen, this was a terrible result for Michael as I was then able to rout
the Elohi and Gneuss with Flank attacks.
To give Michael credit he kept going
despite that, played very well and took out several more of my units, I just couldn’t
catch his individuals. In the end I held two of the wells and his Paladins were backing
away on my right, just holding the third. But my Magus conclaves concentrated fire and finally routed
them last turn for a 16-4 win to me. Cheers Michael, what a great game, really
hope we get to play again at a future event!
GAME 6 – Marc Taylor – Trident Realms of Neritica – Six Flags of
Texas
Again! Just like last year it was down to Marc and myself battling
for Best General! I knew I was top on battle coming into the game so
theoretically even a draw would give me the Best General trophy, but honestly I
don’t play that way, I always go all in and try to win big, more fun that way. I
was pleased to see Trident Realms doing so well, despite the nay sayers saying
they still weren’t that good. The army was obviously working out well for Marc!
I knew this would be a tough game.
Marc won table sides and unfortunately was able to put both
his bolt throwers on a hill. All his units were on that one table half, canny
deployment and difficult for me to get around due to a large building.
Last year Marc got a double 6 waver on my Stampede this
proved critical, so this year what does he do? First turn both Bolt throwers shoot
one of my Fallen Hordes, both hit, 9 damage and wavered… Damn! Not an
auspicious start. But it’s ok, I moved up on the flanks as much as I could,
while staying well away from the Placoderm Horde… Marc moves closer and here he
makes a mistake, he positions his Naiad Wyrmriders behind other units but
within 16” of my Fallen, and he gives me a flank. (via a long run behind the building)
This proved critical as I took them out in one go and was now behind his line.
I was also able to rout a unit of his Crabs, though the other took a little
longer.
On the right the Knuckers were being a menace, they are
amazing units, and Marc played them really well. He easily took the flight away
from my King on Chimera, however I still had LoS and angle to do a single pivot charge
into his River Guard escaping the dead zone he had set up. (Knuckers on the flank
etc) He tried again but once more I snuck out with a single pivot charge into a
bolt thrower this time.
By then the Placoderm Horde was surrounded, I had purposely avoided
it until I was reasonably confident I could rout it in one go. Fallen in the
front and my King on Chimera in the flank did just enough damage and routed it.
At this point all Marc’s remaining units ran away! He
sensibly tried to kill anything he could then fled the remainder to hold a
table area, I finally caught one Knucker then the game ended with me in control
of the other 5 areas, for a 19-1 win.
Results
This put me in the lead for battle, however during the award
ceremony my name was not called out for a Best General trophy! This had me
excited, as that meant I’d done well enough for an overall trophy. My name was finally
called out, and I walked up to the front. Jeff Swann was 3rd overall, Aaron
Chapman was called out as 2nd overall, giving me… 1st
overall! The chant of UK, UK, UK from my teammates, rolled out across the room. To say I was
pleased is an understatement. ;-)
Congrats to everyone who placed, and Ryan especially for his
beautiful army and board, a true work of art. Special congrats to Team BOJF, with Ed winning 2nd best Sports,
and Nick for the best mounted Lone Ranger! (really nice conversion)
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| Ed and myself with our Trophies, note the snazzy Altrincham Gamers Club Tshirt! |
Overall
Wow what a weekend, Mark had done an excellent job
of running the event as always, I had an amazing time, and was really pleased
to have this year not only got the highest battle score but indeed to surpass
that and win overall! I was really pleased with my paint score, which was 62
out of 80, big improvement on last year. I’m glad I went all out with LED’s and
working on my paint to improve my skills, hopefully I can continue to improve
as time goes by.
Thanks to everyone I played, all my friends for coming
along, all the guys I hung out with and drunk beers with, Jeff and Mark for
hosting and their wives Jen and Lyndsay for putting up with us! Also thanks to my wife Cathy for letting me go at all! ;-) Lonewolf and in
fact Texas in general is amazing I would love to come back next year to defend my
title! Course before then we have the US invasion of the UK Clash of Kings to look forward to, Hell yeah! :-D
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FFS and CC with Waltz looking especially handsome
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Army thoughts post event
My army worked as desired all tournie long, I felt I had
answers in general for all my opponents lists. The only thing I did feel was missing
from my army was a combat Individual, I really struggled to get to grips with Michael’s
individual characters.
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Jeff looking GORGEOUS with his UK cap on! Mike is Jealous! ;-)
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Dan - what do you see as the main advantages of Horse Raiders over Tundra Wolves. Obviously the 7 Ranged Attacks but does that offset the extra speed? Are they interchangeable or do you think the Horse Raiders are overly superior?
ReplyDeleteThey bare both good in different ways. Wolves are better as pure chaff, you can hide them behind a unit, pop them out just to die, they are also better to just sit and threaten flanks. Horse Raiders on the other hand are better for a more varied role, they can do melee as needed, chaff as needed, but also have the bows which I love, very useful, every now and again they do 5 damage from bowshots or something and waver or rout a chaff unit etc. :p
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