G’day Goonhammer readers! The ultimate Victorian Kings of War tournament, ConVic, continued into Day 2. Urr with his Varangur has a very respectable score of 3 wins and 1 loss, while Cytoplasm and his Goblins have been a bit more humbled with 1 win and 3 losses. Read about our Day 1 exploits, as well as a brief description of the tournament here.
Day 2 elevated the points level of the games to 2,300 points for a total of 3 games. Cytoplasm had a reputation to repair while Urr just needed to stay the course, one of us might just manage to podium, or at least win Best Evil General.
Now, throughout all these articles covering our Road to ConVic, we had never shared our 2300 points lists, so without further ado, here they are:
Urr’s Varangur at 2300 pts 1 x Draugr (Horde) 1 x Reavers (Troop) with Skirmisher’s Boots 1 x Huscarls (Regiment) with Mead of Madness 1 x The Fallen (Horde) with Blessing of the Gods 1 x The Fallen (Horde) with Brew of Strength 3 x Snow Foxes (Regiment) 2 x Magus Conclave with Elite 1 x Frost Giant 1 x Lord with Banner of Abbetshire, Snow Fox and Brutal 1 x Lord on Frostfang with Snow Fox 1 x Magnilde of the Fallen
Cytoplasm’s Goblins at 2300 pts 2 x Rabble (Horde) 3 x Trolls (Horde) 1 x Luggit Gang (Troop) with Skirmisher’s Boots 2 x Big Rocks Throwers 1 x Goblin Blaster 2 x Winggits with Bombs Away! 1 x King with Jareth’s Pendant and Sacred Horn 1 x King upgraded to Groany Snark 1 x Troll Bruiser with Staying Stone 1 x Grupp Longnail – Gorp’s Explodo’matic Bangstiks – 1 x Fleabag Riders (Regiment) with Sir Jesse’s Boots of Striding 1 x Fleabag Riders (Regiment) 1 x King on Fleabag with Mace of Crushing
Round 5 – Scenario: Smoke and Mirrors
Urr’s Varangur vs Adam’s Ogres
Once again, I was up against Ogres, so I knew it would be a struggle going in.
1 x Shooters (Horde) 2 x Warriors (Regiment) 3 x Siege Breakers (Horde) 1 x Warrior Chariots (Regiment) with Blade of Slashing 1 x Mammoth upgrade to The Big Deal 2 x Berserker Bully 2 x Warlock with Drain Life 1 x Nomagarok
This is a bit of a different list style; no Crocodogs, but extra Siege Breakers, some Bullies, and a Shooter Horde, to add some extra ranged firepower. This was also a mission I am not very practiced in, and that’ll come back to bite me later.
Again, I’ve got the faster list, so I want to end up round the back, behind those Siege Breakers, and take out the ranged support, and then go sit on some objectives. The Chariots might give me some trouble, matching my speed, but I’ve got Foxes to throw in as a speed bump.
We deploy facing off in the middle, with one unit of Fallen, a Fox unit and the Lord of Frostfang facing off against the Chariots and the Big Deal on the right.
Adam gets first turn and pushes up everything but the Shooters. I’ve learnt my lesson, so my Foot Lord is hiding behind the Draugr. He can still be seen, thanks to the Ogres height, but Individual, Cover and Spellward make him an unappealing target. Instead, the Huscarls eat the ranged output, but take more damage than I’d like.
I race up everything, though the aforementioned Huscarls move to hide behind a hill. I put the Snow Foxes in range of the Chariots and let the Fallen get charged by the Big Deal to have the Frostfang Lord set up to flank it. There are a few pings from the Conclaves, but nothing exciting.
Adam proceeds to engage. On my right, he kills the Snow Foxes with the Chariots, and rolls hot with the Big Deal and kills the Fallen. So once again, he’s living up to his name, this time it’s against me though. In the middle, he charges the Frost Giant to slow him down with some Warriors, and does a little damage. The Siege Breakers move up towards the objectives. He shoots off the Reavers with a combination of magic and the Shooters.
With that, I know I have to get stuck in, too, or I’ll have nothing left to fight with. I put the Frostfang Lord into the Chariots now I can’t flank the Big Deal. Its reform has left it unable to see the Lord in that combat, and he wavers the Chariots, so he’s safe for one more turn. The Draugr join the Giant in killing the Warriors that charged it, just to get some more speed and a reposition. The Fallen kill Nomagarock, the Snow Foxes disorder the Shooters, Magnilde fights a Bully and the Lord on Foot a Warrior regiment.
The Big Deal repositions, but struggles to get anywhere good thanks to a long base and lack of Nimble. The same injured Bully goes into the Fallen, and with some Drain Life (even through Spellward), kills the remaining Fallen. The Warriors do a few wounds to the Lord on Foot, but everyone is jammed up in the middle, so the Siege Breakers are stuck there doing nothing, while the right-side ones are still sitting on objectives. The Shooters also kill the Foxes.
I get to hit back. The Frostfang Lord kills the Chariots, and reforms to flank the Big Deal.
The Giant kills the Bully and gets nice reform to flank Siege Breaker and be safe from attacks.
Magnilde has to go and disorder the Shooters, and the Lord on Foot chooses not to attack the Warriors. They are the only thing containing the Siege Breakers, so one unit turns to face the Giant, and another leaves the objective to attack the Draugr.
This gives the Giant a flank on them on my next turn, killing them and repositioning away from the other Siege Breakers. The dance between the Big Deal and the Frostfang Lord continues, with The Lord moving away to flank some Siege Breakers. Magnilde gets another round into the Shooters, but they keep on living. Now that they are not being faced down by two Siege Breakers, the Huscarls get over the hill, with a Conclave protecting them from a charge.
I’m not in too bad a spot now, provided things can go my way a little.
Unfortunately, they do not. The Warrior regiment and magic waver the Giant, and the Siegebreakers there have repositioned to make sure they’ll see the poor Giant next turn. Magnilde gets killed as well, so there’s no Inspiring on that side of the board. The Huscarls also get wavered, so there’s no chance of killing the Siege Breakers on the right and stealing that objective.
Thanks to those wavers, I no longer have a chance to get back in the game. The Huscarls die to magic, the Giant dies to a flank from the shooters, and the Draugr get killed as well. While I do get to hold a token with the Frostfang Lord and shoot off the last Warrior regiment to stop them holding a token, I lose decisively.
Remember at the start when I said I hadn’t practiced this mission enough? The two two-point tokens were in front of the Siege Breakers the whole game. I really needed to chuck mine out on a wing, and just go put Snow Foxes on it for the whole game, but thought I could brute force my way through to hold the tokens. This of course fell apart against Ogres, and especially when the Fallen dropped in a turn. A fun game though.
Cytoplasm’s Goblins vs Damo’s Free Dwarfs
1 x Rangers (Regiment) 1 x Rangers (Regiment) upgraded to Hearneas' Handpicked Rangers 1 x Brock Riders (Regiment) with Brew of Strength and Pathfinder 1 x Brock Riders (Regiment) with Brew of Sharpness 2 x Earth Elementals (Horde) 1 x Ironbelcher Cannon 1 x Greater Earth Elemental upgraded to Craggoth & Kholearm 1 x Greater Earth Elemental 1 x Stone Priest with Conjurer’s Staff and Bane Chant (2) 1 x Stone Priest with Wings of Honeymaze and Alchemist’s Curse (3) 1 x Berserker Lord on Brock with Blade of the Beastslayer
Damo’s Free Dwarfs is equal parts hard and soft. The harder than nails Earth Elementals and Greater Earth Elementals make for a solid core that my army will struggle to chew through. The actual Dwarfs in the list are comparatively squishy, all Defense 4+ at best, and so it was these that I focused on initially while I pondered the inevitability of the walking blocks of rock.
The table sides were decided and I had two hills right in front of me. This is pretty good, get over the hill, see all that is before you and crush them. Downside is you get shot quite a bit more.
With the blocking terrain in the middle of the battlefield, I opted to have my large contingent of Rabble and Trolls on the left, and the Bangstiks on the right. Damo had all the forests on his side and the other blocking terrain, so had to straddle his army between all of these in order to keep line of sight on my forces. This ended up with the bulk of the elementals (including Craggoth) on the left with the Rangers, the remaining elementals in the middle, and finally the Brock Riders on the right.
Large infantry versus large infantry.
Cavalry versus cavalry.
And some goblins crushed in between.
Craggoth scouted up the full 12”, which makes sense because he’s a Defense 6+ titan. The rest of the army largely stayed put.
As always goes with my games, the battle was a tale of two sides that do inevitably come together. On the right side, my Bangstiks immediately jumped the hill, getting into charge range of both his units of Brock Riders, but denying any return charges (Speed 10!). On the left, my forces mounted the hill considerably more slowly, Rabble first and Trolls just trying to peek over.
Craggoth, having already made it halfway across the battlefield, moved into the flank of my Rabble horde on the left, and was promptly Surged in. The rest of the Free Dwarf army shuffled around, waiting to see how well Craggoth would do. Although the monstrous Earth Elemental did damage, the low volume of Melee 4+ attacks meant that it wasn’t enough to rout the Rabble horde.
In my second turn, the Rabble charged downhill into the oncoming horde of Earth Elementals, leaving Craggoth open for attack by a horde of Trolls. I then positioned my Troll Bruiser and Luggits for rear and flank charges respectively, assuming Craggoth didn’t suddenly roll hot and delete the fresh Trolls he was now currently engaged with.
On the right side of the battlefield, my Bangstiks rushed the Brock Riders. The ones on the right were out in the open and without Inspiring, and so their demise came as no surprise. The other Brock Riders were Inspired and in the forest, yet the Hindered Bangstiks took them out as well. It was a gamble splitting the Bangstiks to attack separate targets, but it paid off.
Successful on their missions, both of the Bangstiks turned inwards to begin the work of getting through the remaining elementals. Due to their victories in combat, however, they were already quite damaged, so I was cognisant of the cannon and Alchemist’s Curse.
Keen to get some revenge, Damo surged his other Greater Earth Elemental into the front of one of the Bangstiks, while the horde of Earth Elementals and Craggoth countercharged the Rabble and Trolls respectively. The Bangstiks did not fare well, having already been tenderised by their own explosives, but the rest of the Goblin army held steady.
With the Trolls keeping Craggoth occupied, the Troll Bruiser and Luggits hit the rear and flanks. The combined might of all these Trolls and buff Goblins dismantled Craggoth, freeing up the units to now deal with the Rangers and remaining Earth Elementals. The last of the Bangstiks, along with the King on Fleabag and Grupp, charged the Greater Earth Elemental. Thanks to some successful war engine shooting, this titan was already damaged, but it was still lucky that I managed to remove it with my measly goblins.
With both the Greater Earth Elementals gone, I could breathe a little easier. Only two more hordes of Defence 6+ to go!
Over the course of the remaining turns, I found out that Free Dwarf Rangers are quite robust. I managed to remove the Earth Elementals with my Trolls, but the Rangers held and dished out quite a bit of damage. In the end, however, the Rangers were all that remained of Damo’s forces, while I had control of Bluff counters thanks to my remaining Rabble horde and a Winggit that just stayed in the right hand corner all game. Thus I scored my second win of the tournament.
Damo was a fantastic opponent as always, even once the Greater Earth Elementals went down. He kept the pressure on with tight use of the Rangers, and that Alchemist’s Curse killed plenty including my Winggit and Groany Snark. It’s a fantastic spell even when you’re not facing high defence units.
Round 6 – Scenario: Loot
Urr’s Varangur vs Tucky’s Order of the Green Lady
2 x Naiad Heartpiercers (Regiment) 1 x Order of the Brotherhood (Regiment) with Brew of Strength, Vial of Sacred Water, and Banner of the Green Lady 1 x Order of Redemption (Regiment) with Blessing of the Gods 1 x Order of the Forsaken (Horde) with Sir Jesse's Boots of Striding and Vial of Sacred Water 1 x Order of the Forsaken (Horde) with Maccwar's Potion of the Caterpillar and Vial of Sacred Water 2 x Beast of Nature upgraded to 7 Attacks with Wings 1 x Pegasus 1 x Unicorn with Heal (5) and Alchemist's Curse (2) 1 x Unicorn with Lightning Bolt (5) 1 x Avatar of the Green Lady
Another uphill struggle for me here. I was up against former Australian Master Stephen Tuck and his Order of the Green Lady, encouragingly titled “Let’s Play Kill Some More”. This was one of the lists I didn’t want to see up against me. It’s got speed, hitting power, high defense and heal, and is piloted by a very good player.
We were playing Loot, and I got to drop the second token, which was a big help. I dropped my token between Tucky’s and the closest board edge, trying to reduce the usefulness of his speed by condensing the battlefield.
We both deployed all our forces in that half of the battlefield. I had my speedy elements on my right, and the hopefully more anvil-y stuff on the left, with a bit of reactive punch in the middle.
Tucky gets first turn and moves up, with no range on me it’s a very quick turn. It’s also quick for me. I move up on the right to get charge range on his units. On the left I shuffle the heroes and reposition to not give flanks, and the Conclaves put 5 wounds on the Order of the Forsaken on the left, and get a waver. Tucky would fail his Headstrong roll here next turn, and that would be the only one he fails for the whole game. On the left, a Beast of Nature had flown down and pivots to face my flanks so Magnilde runs over to take it on, while the Huscarls and Giant shuffle.
Those wounds on the Forsaken get healed up on the next turn, as Tucky continues to move up. On the right there’s a lot of jamming me up with the chaff while his knights pick up the token, and a bit of Lightning Bolt. The Fallen waver the Beast of Nature, and kill it next time they fight.
The Lord on Frostfang does a slow job of killing the Order of Redemption, as they pass their Headstrong, and Regenerate as well as get healed. The other Fallen do a sneaky Nimble charge into the Forsaken hiding in the back. They manage a waver, but the Headstrong roll is successful, and after the Redemption Knights kill the Frostfang Lord, the Forsaken spike and kill the Fallen.
While this was happening on the right, the left is being saved by Magnilde killing the Beast of Nature, and tanking the Forsaken. This sets them up to be charged by the Giant and Reavers, who get the kill.
Following this, The Fallen and Draugr try to kill the Redemption Kinghts with the token. It does eventually happen, but leaves the injured Fallen alone, facing down the Order of the Brotherhood Knights (there’s too many types of Knight to keep track of in this list!). The Lord on Foot manages to take a charge from the Forsaken, which, as they are already damaged, get taken off by the Lord and Huscarls. The surviving Conclave (one was killed by the Brotherhood Knights, who use the reposition to charge the Draugr in the rear), with the help of the Frost Giants Icy Breath, manage to kill a token carrying Naiad unit.
At the end of 6 it is a draw; one token each, but we get a 7. Tucky lines up an easy charge on the Fallen and takes them off, securing the rightmost token. He positions his Unicorn to stop the Frost Giant getting the leftmost token, but can’t secure it himself. The final token is on a unit of Naiads, facing down the Huscarls, and he manages to waver them with his ranged attacks. Fortunately, with a reform move from the Huscarls, the Reavers on the hill can Nimble around the Huscarls, and they, along with the Lord, kill the Naiads and claim their token, so it’s one token each and matched attrition as well, for a 10-10 draw.
This game felt like it had many swingy moments, for both of us. The first successful waver at the start of the game from the Conclaves let Magnilde hold the whole left flank by herself for more turns than she should have. Both the Forsaken failing to kill the heroes they charged in one go, setting up the countering infantry charges were big. On Tucky’s side, the rest of the Headstrong rolls being passed, letting him kill the Frostfang Lord, and the Fallen where usually the units wouldn’t even hit back was big, too.
All in all, another great game, and I am definitely happy with a draw here.
Cytoplasm’s Goblins vs Trent’s Ogres
3 x Warriors (Regiment) 1 x Hunters (Horde) with Brew of Haste 1 x Siege Breakers (Horde) with Chalice of Wrath 1 x Siege Breakers (Horde) with Staying Stone 2 x Crocodog Wranglers 1 x Mammoth upgraded to The Big Deal 3 x Ogre Warlocks with Drain Life (5) 2 x Sergeant with Heavy Crossbow 1 x Nomagarok
It was pure luck that I had gotten this far without facing a single Ogres army, and now in Round 6 I was coming up against an almost typical Ogre list directed by the very affable Trent. The standard stuff such as Ogre Regiments, Siege Breakers, 3+1 Warlocks and The Big Deal were no surprise, but the Hunters with the Brew of Haste and the Crocodog Wranglers added a considerable amount of speed to what is otherwise a predictable army.
I should also add that Trent’s Ogre army was 95% Mantic, and it looked incredible. A thorough paint job made these miniatures pop. I look forward to seeing what he could achieve on the new Ogres if he gets them.
My deployment strategy was dictated by the two pieces of blocking terrain that subdivided the board into equal thirds. In the middle of the board, between the two houses, I deployed the Rabble and Trolls with all their associated support pieces. On the left flank went the Bangstiks formation, the Luggits and Grupp Longnail. In between these were the two Winggits and the Blaster. I abandoned the rightmost flank, focusing my efforts on just getting the two tokens.
To face down my Bangstiks, Trent deployed an Ogre regiment, a Sergeant, the Hunters and The Big Deal. The rest of his army spread out across the middle, leaning slightly more to my right in order to grab the right token.
Fighting on the left flank is underway quickly. The Ogre regiment had moved up right to the centreline, and my Bangstiks pounced, destroying them utterly. The Winggits flew into both the Hunters and The Big Deal to hold them up so that next turn the Bangstiks could charge into them. Damage was dealt but just not enough to break either, and so the fight continued on in this flank for quite a few turns.
In the centre, my Goblins advance under a withering barrage of Lightning Bolts from the 3+1 Warlocks. Damage is being done everywhere but thankfully nothing perishes. The Troll Bruiser claims the middle Loot token first, but promptly drops it to charge one of the Warlocks. Groany Snark charges another Warlock, and a third Warlock is Wavered from by me Big Rocks Throwers, giving me at least some respite from the electrical torture.
The Ogre regiments test my Rabble, and somehow one of the Rabble hordes takes them down, while the other gets stuff for 3 turns. The Troll Bruiser is dismantled by the Siege Breakers, and the Crocodog Wrangler wavers Groany Snark. The Lightning Bolts start coming back with a vengeance, but also some Drain Life.
On the left flank, the King on Fleabag and one of the Fleabag Riders regiments are no more, but thankfully the Luggits, Grupp and the remaining Fleabag Riders are enough to dispose of The Big Deal and the Crocodog Wrangler. The Hunters, who had retreated into the forest, were harder to deal with. The Bangstiks went in, but bounced and were slain. It took Grupp coming in next to finish them off.
My major mistake here was then to start bringing the Luggits into the central fight. All I could see was the potential of a flank charge with Luggits, I didn’t stop and think that the whole point of the left flank was to get the left token, and without it I would be trying to fight Siege Breakers for the right token. See? Big mistake.
What the Luggits arrived to see in Turn 5 were my three Troll hordes facing off against two Siege Breaker hordes and 4 Warlocks. I should have just run away with my token, but I couldn’t back up fast enough.
Groany Snark had tried his best to kill the Warlocks, but each time he failed to kill them on the charge, and he is rather terrible if stuck in combat for any length of time. Especially with a Crocodog Wrangler chasing him down (those are seriously good character hunters).
The next two turns saw the Siege Breakers tank their way through all the damage I could dish at them and finish off my Trolls. They took the middle Loot Token. The rightmost token had been abandoned so this central token was key to Trent’s eventual victory. A victory I could have denied were I to use my Luggits differently.
Ogres are definitely tough, but I could have been smarter. A great game nonetheless!
Round 7 – Scenario: Dominate
Urr’s Varangur vs Rex’s Salamanders
1 x Ghekkotah Warriors (Regiment) 1 x Ceremonial Guard (Horde) 2 x Corsairs (Regiment) 1 x Tyrants (Horde) with Effigy of Fire and Sir Jesse's Boots of Striding 1 x Tyrants (Horde) with Effigy of Fire and Maccwar's Potion of the Caterpillar 1 x Scorchwings (Regiment) 2 x Ember Sprites (Regiment) 2 x Lekelidon 1 x Clan Lord mounted on Raptor with Trickster’s Wand 1 x Herald with Lute of Insatiable Darkness 1 x Mage Priest mounted on Raptor with Conjurer's Staff and Scorched Earth (2) 1 x Rakawas, the Pale Rider
My last game of the weekend was up against Rex and his Salamanders. This might be a familiar list to you, as it’s very similar to the list Rex ran at the Winter Carnage event. You can check out him beating me pretty soundly here. This time my list is a lot stronger, so let’s see how I go.
Unfortunately, I lose the roll off to pick sides, and get stuck with an awkward building in the middle of my deployment zone, which is less than ideal for Dominate.
We deploy across from one another, spread out across the table. Rex has his shooting element on my left, along with Rakawas and the Scorchwings, while the middle is full of Tyrants, and the right is held by the Ceremonial Guard, who’ll move up to anchor that flank against a building. I’ve also spread out, deploying the Conclaves on a hill on my right, along with the Reavers, Frostfang Lord and one Snow Fox. The Frost Giant and one unit of Fallen are also on the right side of that building, with everything else on the left.
Rex gets first turn, and moves forward, setting himself up nicely with the terrain, and puts a couple of wounds on the Draugr through shooting. And it’s basically the same for me. I move and put a couple of wounds on the Tyrants from the Conclaves, and I’m done.
This turn is where it starts getting scary. After moving up a little, Rex opens fire into the Draugr with basically everything. Rakawas, the Scorchwings, both the Corsairs and both the Lekelidon roll solidly and take the Draugr off. A tickle of wounds on a Snow Fox also wavers them, holding up the Huscarls behind.
I know I can’t sit back and take that amount of firepower, so I go for the “charge everything” approach. On the right, Rex misjudged the speed of the Fallen, and the Ceremonial Guard get triple charged from the Frost Giant, the Frostfang Lord and the Fallen (I couldn’t get the Reavers in there to be super sure of killing them thanks to good positioning against the building). I roll well there and manage to take them off, opening the whole flank to me.
On the left Magnilde and the Snow Foxes get into the Scorchwings, and waver them. The Lord goes into the Ghekkotah, and wavers them, and the Fallen go into the leftmost Corsairs, and manage another waver. So that’s a good turn for me. I also keep chipping away at the Tyrants with the Conclave. The wavers on the left hold up Rakawas, and keep most of my units in a good position. The Fallen can only be flanked by what will be hindered Corsairs, so there’s not even a lot to worry about there.
Rex needs to hit back pretty hard, but I’m right up in his face. He does take the flank charge into the Fallen, and doesn’t accomplish much. The injured Tyrants hit the Giant, putting a lot of wounds on it, and getting a waver. Rakawas is stuck, so pivots to draw sight to the Fallen and breathes terrible fire on the Lord. The rest of the shooting clears off the other two Snow Fox units, and starts chipping the Reavers and Frostfang Lord.
I keep on smashing where I can. Because of awkward positioning and height issues, I can’t charge the Tyrants, so the Giant pulls back and the Conclaves pick off the injured ones. The Reavers clear up the Ember Sprites. The Frostfang Lord and rightmost Fallen just have to reposition, but the leftmost Fallen kill the injured Corsairs and overrun out of Rakawas’ sight. The Foot Lord wavers the Ghekkotah again, and Magnilde and Foxes kill the Scorchwings.
So I’m still looking good here, and Rex needs a good turn to catch up.
It’s not off to a terrible start, but not quite what he needs. The shooting and magic wavers the Giant again, but can’t quite take it off. Rakawas does get the Snow Foxes with his Fireball, though. The Clan Lord can’t get the Reavers off, and even with a rear charge, the Corsairs barely scratch the Fallen. The Tyrants get the Huscarls in one, but it’s not really enough.
Over the next turns, I clear off the rest of Rex’s unit strength. The left side Fallen go through the last Corsairs in one, the other Fallen and Lord get the Lekelidons. The Foot Lord and Magnilde get the Ghekkotah. Rex does clear the Giant, and the Tyrants go into the Reavers, devastating them, but subsequently, a double one nerve check keeps them around, pinning the Tyrants and allowing The Fallen to get an easy kill. In the end, I’ve got 8 unit strength in the Dominate Circle, and Rex only has Rakawas left on the board, on the other side of the map. So it’s a big win for me.
I’m pretty happy with that one. Getting the Ceremonial Guard in one go was maybe not as big as it looked, the Frost Giant would have died a bit earlier, and the shooting could have changed targets, but it would have depended on how well the Guard could have hit back. The Conclaves were very handy in this game. Tyrants are exactly the target they want to be hitting, high value and only Defense 4. Fallen put in the work, like they always do, and the Huscarls didn’t get to do anything, again.
Cytoplasm’s Goblins vs Brendan’s Northern Alliance
2 x Huscarls (Regiment) 2 x Ice Kin Hunters (Regiment) 1 x Snow Foxes 2 x Snow Trolls (Regiment) 1 x Snow Trolls (Horde) with Chalice of Wrath 1 x Frostfang Cavalry (Horde) with Brew of Haste 1 x Lord with Wings of Honeymaze and Horn of Winter 1 x Lord on Frostfang with Blade of Slashing and Snow Fox 1 x Ice-Queen with Conjurer’s Staff, Heal (5) and Bane Chant (2) 1 x Snow Troll Prime
The final round of the tournament pitted me against Brendan and his Northern Alliance. If I was hoping for an easy end, then it wasn’t going to be against this list. The Snow Trolls, Huscarls and Frostfangs all hit harder than what I can, but at least I have numbers on my side.
Numbers and Groany Snark.
I managed to move a hill into a deployment zone using the special tournament rule, but unfortunately was relegated to the other side by Brendan’s superior rolling. This was unfortunate as this side had both the blocking terrain pieces immediately in front of the deployment zone. This forced me to deploy the bulk of my army between the buildings, which also had a hill immediately in front as well. The Bangstiks and the Luggits were on the left flank, which had a forest.
Brendan deployed his Frostfang horde on the right flank, opposite the giant building. The Ice Kin Hunters were happily in a forest while most of the Snow Trolls, one regiment of Huscarls and the Ice Queen sat on or next to the hill (my hill!). On the left flank a separate contingent of Huscarls, Snow Trolls and the Frostfang Lord stood watch.
I got the first turn, and my army simply mounted the hill to survey the land. Taking it slowly while my war engines do their work, their work being 9 damage against the regiment of Snow Trolls on the hill (revenge for taking my hill away from me!). Predictably, the Snow Trolls were wavered, which would hold up his Huscarls nicely.
One of the Bangstiks went up the far left side and turned to face his flank, while another entered the forest; both threatened his leftmost forces. This forced Brendan to turn his units to face the Bangstiks while the rest of his army moved up carefully, wary of the war engines.
In my second turn all caution was thrown to the wind and I sent both the Bangstiks in; one regiment into the Huscarls, the other into the Snow Trolls. The Snow Troll regiment promptly expired, but my other regiment did negligible damage to the Huscarls; not good. On the other side of the battlefield, the Big Rocks Throwers flattened the other Snow Troll regiment on the hill, and Groany Snark sniped the Ice-Queen, who was spotted from my own vantage point atop a hill.
Brendan was not impressed, and started moving his forces closer to my battleline, which really hadn’t moved much at all. On the left the Huscarls made short work of the Bangstik regiment, and turned to face my final regiment of Fleabag Riders. The other Huscarls turned, and while I tried to chaff them up with a Winggit, it was all for naught as by Turn 4 the Bangstik formation was no more.
The horde of Frostfangs, while terrifying, were forced to slowly make their way through a forest. I gave them no opportunities to charge and even managed to get Groany into their flank for a whopping 9 damage!
The Ice Kin hunters weren’t being lazy all game. Their sustained barrage of arrows first removed the Goblin Blaster, then the Rabble horde on the right! These were quickly becoming Brendan’s best units this game.
By Turn 5 the game is getting incredibly close. The Huscarls are approaching the centre from the left, while from the right the Frostfangs and Snow Trolls threaten. It’s looking bleak for the Goblins.
But then I see my chance. All of my Troll hordes are in range of Brendan’s Snow Trolls. One in the flank, two in the front. In hindsight all three hordes are overkill, but for 6 games thus far my Trolls had always struggled to get the job done. I wasn’t going to take that chance in the last game of the last day.
The Trolls went in, and it was glorious.
Miraculously, the Big Rocks Throwers remembered their duties and took out the already injured Frostfang horde. Suddenly all that remained were the Ice Kin Hunters, the Huscarls, and the Snow Troll Prime. Over the next two turns, the Trolls did their best to prevent the Ice Kin Hunters from entering the Dominate zone, and succeeded! But unfortunately the single horde of Trolls sent to dispatch the Huscarl absolutely failed, allowing the Huscarls to walk into the middle.
It was a draw. A perfect draw even when the kill points were counted, and it was an incredibly fun game. Brendan is a delight to play, and having such an ending was very satisfying.
The silly thing is, if I remembered the special rule for this tournament, I might have won. Whatever is on the very centre of the Dominate zone counts as 1 unit strength higher. My Goblin King could have stood there instead of standing 6” away, but alas, I think my brain had hit its quota by this point.
Final Thoughts
Urr:
Overall, I had a blast. A great event, and a lot of great games and people. I finished with a 4-2-1 record, and I ended up 9th out of 26, which was much better than I thought I’d get given the quality of players and the lists that came along. There was also only 10 points between 3rd and 9th, so a very close top end (until you see first), with World Number one Jeffrey Traish taking it out, not dropping a game and finishing almost 20 points over the runner up, Adam Storey, and Age Zae rounded out the top three. A big congratulations to all of them.
I definitely would recommend it to everyone, and am looking forward to being here again next year.
A big shout out and thank you to Andew Goodman and Geoff Holland for running the event, and hopefully we can keep growing the event next year.
Cytoplasm:
Everything that Urr said was true for me, too. Well, except for the win-loss-draw ratio. Otherwise I enjoyed it just as much! I went 2-4-1 with my Goblins and I am actually quite proud of my victories and prouder still of my draw. Most surprisingly I won Player’s Choice for my army, which was lovely because I had a real vision for the look of my army and I was delighted that people enjoyed it.
I was most surprised at how many interstate people showed up, and I think we put on a good show. Next year I hope there’ll be more, and I hope I can head up to some of the events in Sydney and Brisbane myself. This game is just so much fun and playing an even greater variety of people just makes it all the better.
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