Now lets get down to the good stuff. It was a 1500 point standard tournament. I believe that at 1500 points Ogres aren't that great. 500-1000 point games, we're great! 2000+ point games, even better! 1500 is that magical spot where once you buy all the characters/core you need to function at that level, you've got no points left to bring the good stuff. I chose to run a list with a single Firebelly and max out on shooting.
The basic rundown of the list was:
Firebelly
1xBulls
1xIronguts
2xUnits of 4 Leadbelchers
Ironblaster
Maneater Sniper/Scouts
Since in this format, you either win or lose (none of that minor victory/loss nonsense), I can choose to fight when I need to, or I can stay at range and play points denial.
Game 1: Got any cheese? (Skaven)
Ahhh the little rat bastards. I both love and hate playing skaven because it can go either way for me. I get my ass handed to me, or I do the handing.
My opponents list essentially was:
Lvl 4 wizard
Lvl 2 wizard
BSB
Plague Monks
Clan rats
Skaven Slaves
Gatling Gun
Rat swarms
Warped lightning cannon
Jezzails
They were kind enough to start our morning off with a basic pitched battle, no pesky strategy required that early in the morning. After we did our regular deployment, I don't think he was expecting me to say.. oh I have scouts. He had his shooting units on one side of the board and his BSB close by. So the maneaters popped up over there, plenty of potential targets.
I got first turn so this meant that the Maneaters couldn't charge into the Jezzails, so I moved them forward a bit and took some sniper shots at the BSB. My thinking here was either, I take out his BSB leaving him to take leadership tests without rerolls or I would at the very least scare him into turning as much of his army to deal with the maneaters as I could. My sniper shots did that trick, picking off the battle standard bearer top of turn 1.
If the maneaters could survive the shooting and magic phase, I would be able to take out the little fire base had on the hill and then my own shooting would be free to sit back and pick him apart. My opponent knew this as well as I did so he fired everything into the maneaters as well as turning 2 units to face them. At this point, even if the Snipers didn't survive, getting him to redeploy half his force, taking out the BSB, AND drawing all the rats shooting and magic for a turn meant they did their job regardless if they survived or not.... which was good, because they were cut down to a single man... err ogre. I rolled boxcars on their panic check and then another pair of 6's on their flee so the boys ran off the board.
Once all my guns were in range, I was able to unload into the rats.. slowly taking down their number. My firebelly rolled Flame cage as one of his spells so I was able to force his plague monks to not move. This made them non factors in the game till the end at which point I had destroyed the rest of his army and sent my entire force to deal with them. I tabled my opponent at the end of turn 5. Losing his bsb, and having half his army out of position is what really did him in. Had he just assumed that his shooting would take out the maneaters, I think the game would have been a lot closer.
Ironblaster was a piece of shit this game. 5 turns of firing and it managed to hit ONCE taking out 90 points of lightning cannon. I only mention this, because be prepared for a reoccuring theme.
Game 2: Dirty Hippies (aka Wood Elves)
This was the "top table" game. My opponent had tabled his first round match-up as well. Wood elves... uggh. In tournament play, I've only managed to beat elves one time with my ogres so I knew I'd need some luck to beat them... especially since the elf player was actually good!
[305] Spellweaver (Lore of Life) + L4 + Dispel Scroll + Hail of Doom Arrow (General)
Heroes: [187]
[187] Noble on Great Eagle + BSB + Light Armor + Dragonhelm + Amaranthine Brooch
Core: [478]
[96] 8x Dryads
[96] 8x Dryads
[160] 11x Glade Guard + Musician + Standard Bearer + Banner of Eternal Flame
[126] 10x Glade Guard + Musician
Special: [195]
[195] 3x Tree Kin
Rare: [335]
[285] Treeman
[50] Great Eagle
Total = 1500pts
Heroes: [187]
[187] Noble on Great Eagle + BSB + Light Armor + Dragonhelm + Amaranthine Brooch
Core: [478]
[96] 8x Dryads
[96] 8x Dryads
[160] 11x Glade Guard + Musician + Standard Bearer + Banner of Eternal Flame
[126] 10x Glade Guard + Musician
Special: [195]
[195] 3x Tree Kin
Rare: [335]
[285] Treeman
[50] Great Eagle
Total = 1500pts
The scenario was deploying diagonally across the board. For every unit we would roll a die. On a 1, that unit had to come in from reserve.
Manditory blurry photo
This battle was pretty one sided for the most part. My scouting maneaters didn't phase him. He sent just enough troops to deal with them and with his speed was able to turn them back into position cause little to no effect. Most of his units spent their time in the woods making my shooting ineffective, he didn't need to come out of the woods to kill me and he knew it. I had to press forward as best I could while being shot and magic'd to death. In another tournament format, I would have hung back and tried to keep the loss to a minor one, but in this all or nothing format, I had to just throw what I could into any fight they could find, and none of those fights were the ones they wanted to be in. Dweller's below took out my general and most of the ironguts, so my most effective fighting unit was majorly crippled.
Again, my ironblaster wasn't worth it's salt. I managed to get hits on the treeman 3 times... and all 3 times, I rolled a 1 to wound him. That treeman will have a story to tell to his sapling about the time he caught 3 cannonballs out of the air.
Aside from the single treeman in my army, I don't have any Treekin/dryads. After seeing them in action, I think I might have to pick some up.. if I ever finish the laundry list of other projects I'm doing.
Game 3: Knights Knights and more Knights (Empire)
My opponents are was:
Luthor Huss
Mounted lvl 2 wizard
Hero on pegasus
HUGE unit of Inner Circle Knights
Large unit of Reiksguard Knights
Cannon
Mortar
The game was capture the hill. After turn 5 we would roll a die to see if the game ends, if not, it keeps going. This game ultimately came down to me keeping his largest knight unit away from the hill. The maneaters popped up next to the smaller knight unit and was able to tie them till turn 6, when they finally destroyed what was left. I lined up some charges for him that would put the large unit out of position at the end of the game and lucky enough for me it worked. I eventually got tired of my ironblaster failing to wound anything and had it function as a speedbump that ultimately kept the knights away from the hill. At the end of turn 6, we rolled and the game ended with me having 2 units in control of the hill.
I went 2 -1- 0 for the day, and scored the maximum number of points for paint and sportsmanship(aka soft scores) so I was pretty happy. That would have put me in either a 2 way tie for 2nd place, or sole second place(not sure how the other guy did in his last game) with my only loss coming at the hands of the overall winner.
Fun day, 3 games against new 3 new opponents.. none of which were dicks... and lets not forget the most important part of the day.. Some kid got Rock em, Sock em Robots for Christmas.... which is what someone brought as their donation (I brought a Barbie doll because I figured w/ the group of nerds that would come to a Warhammer tournament there would be an abundance of boys toys)
