It’s been a busy week since returning from
a great long weekend in the Hawkes Bay and the well run NICON but I thought I
would do a quick rundown of my 6 games.
Game 1 James C – WOC L 1-19
I had beaten James in our last two
meetings but his play is steadily improving and he is running what I have down
as one of the worst Ogre match up’s a flying death Daemon Prince of Nurgle. With only 1 cannon my list really has limited
tools to deal with this chap. I was
feeling in a comfortable position though for a tight game until T3. My Slaughter Master proceeded to “suck himself
off” on a 3 dice cast taking a couple of his Irongut friends with him. I then compounded this by making a mistake
with the charge arcs on James’s Skull Crushers which he exploited to pick up my
maneaters. However once the SM has gone the
DP went into the gutstar and proceed to chew through it and on T6 killed my BsB
breaking my steadfast on the pretty much the last roll picking up 1000+ points
and a very solid win. Big learning from
this, take an earthing rod!! This was the second event in a row that a cascade
on a 3 dice cast had cost me big.
.JPG) |
| It was almost too nice for Tin Soldiers |
Game
2 Rob Sadler – WOC W 18-2
Rob had a dare I say it more fluffy WOC
list. He had a bit of everything, disc lord, crushers, hell cannon, dragon
ogres and trolls which was good to see.
However he was lacking the combat punch to really trouble my list and I
could push up fairly hard. It got worse
for Rob as I put a cannon ball through a crusher killing it and the bounce took
it into his disc lord. He failed his 3+
ward and died. Once that happened it was
probably a bit of a non-game for Rob which was a shame but he took it well as I
pinned his troops with gorgers and ran over the rest of it for the bounce back
win.
Game 3 Mike King – Lizards 20-0 W
I think Mike found this all weekend
that his list change didn’t pan out as he didn’t have enough chaff to keep people
off him or the light magic to buff his Saurus.
He was stuck between two worlds and his list didn’t really fit in
either. I was still potentially worried
about this match up with death/metal. Mike
however really helped me by deploying very centrally, he should have put one
Slann in a building with 30 Saurus (I’m struggling to get them out) thus
forcing me to go after the other half of his army allowing his Slann 6 turns of
casting metal magic at me picking up points.
I got first turn tactically pushed it all forward… from then Mike was in trouble. I scrolled purple sun and then the fatties
went into the bunker with both Slann T3.
Many frogs legs were consumed. Mike
was great about it and picked up my best sports vote.
So at this stage the periscope was well
and truly up!!!
Game 4 Dan B – WOC D 10-10
My third WOC and this time a Lord, a
Lord a Chaos Lord on a Dragon, with two hellcannons and toys! This was dawn attack and I ended up in the
left corner and Dan largely in his left corner diagonally opposite with both
cannons which were the points I felt I could nail down. I knew unless I made a really bad error Dan
couldn’t trouble the gut star so it was about picking up points elsewhere for
both of us.
I proceeded to hit the Lord on Dragon
with a cannon ball, his Lord failed his charmed shield and died but I rolled a
1 to W the dragon! Dan then kept it safe
to hold the points. We swapped chariots
for mournfang and the ironblaster and I took a risk 6 dicing the panic spell to
get rid of his Chimera. Dan killed my
firebelly with a 3D6 fireball rolling 17 hits… after I had run him out of a
unit and thus it went.
I finally managed to get to 1
hellcannon and kill it while Dan’s disc BsB finished the maneaters.
All in all a really tight seesaw
game.
Game 5 Pete Dunn – DOC 10-10 D
This was the first time we had played
so I was looking forward to playing the Grey Seer himself with an army I’ll
admit I didn’t see the power level until I saw it played well at the
weekend. There was a Wizards Tower on
the table which Pete picked when he won the roll off thus getting two gateways
turn.
I got first turn and promptly shot off
the Chicken of Change which Pete had left vulnerable with a miscalculation. This was a massive boost. It then started to swing back to Pete as the
counter barrage from two skill cannons took off my Ironblaster, and two 6 dice irresistible
gateways removed mournfangs and chipped away at the maneaters. I had no choice but to push up and 10 letters
turning up behind me could have been a problem.
I failed a charge with my last mournfang on a skull cannon that would
have helped and then made probably my only mistake by pushing the maneaters
right up infront of the other cannon.
Pete charged the rear of my gutstar to
hold them with the 10 bloodletters but I made way and popped my breath weapon
to make sure they went in a round. Pete misjudged
the combat reform and allowed me to get into his burning chariot.
I then lost the maneaters to the skill
cannon charge (I thought I would be steadfast or do enough damage and I was
wrong) Pete’s magic was also bleeding points of me. I felt I was unlucky not to pick off a horror
block after I’d pinned them with bulls but I fluffed my attacks and broke.
It ended 10-10 in a really tight game
with Pete playing well to come back.
Game 6 – Brian Smith DE’s 17-3
I was right back in the hunt at this
point have played all of the other top 3 players. I drew Brian with a hard as nails double
cauldron, double hydra shadow executioner list.
I however had a very clear plan of how I would take this down and I was
able to use my experience to pull it off.
The key moment came in the middle came when I pinned his corsairs for 3
rounds of combat with 2 mourfang. The S3
just did nothing to me and I was able to kill 5/6 per round. This until he mindrazored them off, gave me
all the time in the world to set up his executioners. Rather than charge him with the star I ran
the firebelly out the side and breath weaponed down the flank of the horde. I killed I think 19 thus breaking the combat
power of the unit. Brian then charged me
as he had no escape and I killed his Bsb and the unit thus breaking him in
Blood & Glory.
I then got the corsairs as well. Brian kept his cauldrons, L4 on peg and hydra
alive preserving the points limiting the loss.
In the end I came 3rd but
the first game just left me with too much ground to cover. I was happy with my play overall making a
couple of mistakes with the maneaters over the weekend. The level of play was very high which was
great and it is good to see younger players developing. Brian was taking notes and I’m sure will
learn from our game.
I will likely make some list changes,
the 2 gorgers while good at 90 points each don’t do enough. I could have had another 2 mournfang and a 2nd
level on my firebelly almost. The
maneaters, while I sometimes used them badly pretty much gave up their points
in every game and I might just go back to the 3 or try pistols for a change. WOC are certainly a problem for the Ogres and
having played them 7 times at the last 3 events I will be preparing to play
more of them.
.JPG)
