Masters 2013, part 1.

So this weekend New Zealand's Warhammer masters are being played out in Hamilton and I'm one of the fortunate 12 who will be attending. This years masters is a who's who of local and national talent, unfortunately 2 of the top 11 couldn't attend however 2 very good players have taken their place.

2012 Master - Tom Dunn (Wellington)
#1 - Pete Dunn (Wellington)
#2 - Ross Hillier-Jones (Tauranga)
#3 - Dan Butler (Hamilton)
#4 - Sam Whitt (Otaki)
#6 - Sam Campbell (Kapiti)
#8 - Peter Williamson (Masterton)
#9 - Hamish Gordon (Kapiti)
#10 - James Brown (Auckland)
#11 - Rory Finnemore (Auckland)
#12 - Richard Barby (Auckland)
#15 - Locky Reid (Wellington)

Lucky or unlucky for me one of my good friends and Warhammer nemesis Sam Campbell has also qualified for the event for the first time as well and for those who do not know this is only our first year attending competitive events! We will be making the road trip to Hamilton together which should prove entertaining but unfortunately for Sam he's without his usual cheer squad, his wife Fern. Wth a little luck on our side one or both of us should podium or at least put up a top 5 showing! 

I personally think some of our rivals and internet commentators alike have written both of us off  however I think they need to be reminded that we have both put up good numbers this year and I think the qualify of local events will give us an edge over players outside the area!

 For better or for worse the Masters lists are out, amusingly enough this has caused some significant debate over the last few weeks on twitter and various blogs from the "lack of originality" in the lists to further debate over the "Pete Lite comp" system.

My own list (below) has caused some interesting debate so we should start their! Some may call it predictable that I've taken WoC for this event but I'd like to point out I have fielded Skaven for 4 of the 7 events I've attended this year. The main reason I chose WoC was simply due to the field I through was going to attend and as such I wanted to field an army that packed a real punch... My initial throught's were to run my new empire army given its impressive magic phase, good 1+ ar and its Cannons, Hellblaster and Steam tank.... however I felt I really didn't have enough time under my belt to play it as efficiently as it needs to be played. This left me with 2 options Skaven or Woc... while skaven is super fun to play the field I thought I would see worried me... Skaven's archiles he is 2 fold - it stuggles to deal with 1+ Ar and Reg 2 things I knew would be out in force this weekend so the answer was simple, WoC it is!

My list; and as Pete Dunn would say its a brick in a sock! 


Deamon Prince - Mark of Slannesh, Level 4 Wizard, Lore of Slannesh, Chaos Ar, Scaled Skin, Demonic Flight, Soul Feeder, Flame Breathe, The Other Trickster's Shard, Dragonbane Gem, Charmed Shield.

Exalted Hero - BSB, Mark of Tzeentch, Talisman of Preservation, 3rd Eye of Tzeentch, Enchant Shield, Demonic Mount, Burning Body, Halberd.

Throgg

2 units of 8 Trolls

1 unit of 7 Trolls with xtra hand weapons

1 unit of 3 Skull Crushers of Khorne, Banner, Musician and Enscrolled Weapons, Banner of Eternal Flame

1 unit of 4 Skull Crushers of Khorne, Banner, Musician and Enscrolled Weapons

 
So why did I choose this build, the reason is simple, hitting power... it has 5 effective large combat blocks that can go toe to toe with almost any unit and 3 hard as nail combat lords, 2 of which are independent and very mobile in the unkillable Tzeentch BSB and the Slannesh DP. Having said this though the general consensus in some arena's is that I missed the boat with this list.... I personally don't think so but the results will truly tell weather I was right or wrong.

The biggest issue ppl seem to have is where is the Chaff and won't I get Chaff'ed up and diverted out of the game!? Well folks WoC in my humble opinion has very very average options in that department when compared to the likes of DoC, Empire, DE etc 1) Dogs while cheap are combat in-effective, lack mobility and any real defence.... 2) Marauder horseman , while these are good they are also costly and in my experience easily dealt with... I like these guys but they have really no punch... I also suspected ppl would pack a ton of shooting and magic missiles.

So what about core Chariots I hear you say... 1 word sums up why I'm not bring them and that's CANNONS... I predicted at least 3 DoC list fielding 2 cannons each and at least 1-2 Empire, 1 Skaven, 1 Orges and  possibly a Chaos Dwarf list again all fielding their maximum artillery package.... this meant in almost 1/2 of my match ups they would provide relatively costly and for most part useless, or as I like to say KINDLING.... This years Tournament scene has also seen the rise of the 1+ Armour save and monstrous cav and str 5 impact hits just dont cut it vs those badboys!

Given these factors I personally don't see chariots doing the job they need to at this event however Trolls on the other hand offer alot more when stacked up against the field I speculated.  What makes Trolls great... movement 6, 3 or  4 Strength 5 attacks, Toughness 4, Immune to Psychology, Regen 4+, a stomp and critically a strength 5 Vomit! Add all this to Throgg's insanity and the fact that their core and you have pound for pound one of the best combat units for their relatively low points cost.... simple! And the final reason 3 big units of Trolls simply looks cool!

Moving onto my Lord/Hero choices

Slannesh Daemon Prince - why?

1) 1+ Ar Save 5+ Ward, Weapon Skill 9, Thunderstomp, Str6  T5.

2) Demonic Gifts - Str 4 Flaming breathe, +2 to armour, Fly special rule and the ability to regenerate wounds.. mmm mmm mm!

3) Slannesh magic is extremely powerful and enables you to effectively and sometimes brutally control your opponents movement phase.  

4) The Mark of Slannesh gives you the Armour piercing special rule which gives you a massive -4 penalty vs anything with armour

Why is this build better than a Nurgle DP.... its simple death magic while good is Slannesh magic's poor 2nd cousin especially once you factor in our comp system...inspiring presence essentially neuters your ability to snipe characters effectively and that seriously weakens 3 of your best spells.... This is also one of the reasons why I'm not fielding a single Hellcannon...

Throgg - 1 word "INSANE"... trolls in core is nice but even just having them in special only would still make me field both him and his cohorts... 5 Str 8 attacks @ weapons skill 5, a stomp, 2d Str 5 vomits with no Ar save (WTF), Toughness 5, regen 4+, 18 inch leadership bubble to all trolls, monsters, monstrous beasts etc and all for just 195 points, what's not to like! :)

Exalted Hero - Simply unkillable.. enough said... (I lied) The only way this guy dies is either through shear bad luck or stupidity on your part.... combat res is the only reliable way to kill him and that's exactly the reason why I have Halberd on mine.... that means you will get overkills when challenged by blocks rather than your mount killing him and leaving you on 5's (re-rollable)... and as for Burning body, I expected alot of trolls, beasts and regen's so I'm happy to sacrifice him to a character with the 2+ ward especially since he has a 3+ rerollable ward, 1+ar and a demonic mount with str5 attacks... plus he will likely always win combat res with the BSB bonus ;)

2 units of skull crushers....there the best monstrous cav in the game and they simple out perform any other rare, special or core choice WoC have, plus 2 units gives me the extra banners I need for Blood and Glory!

Part 2 to come!

Skitterleap - The Aftermath.

For those of you who don't know over this long weekend Peter Dunn held his annual Skitterleap fantasy event (2400 points), as always it was well run, organised and judged.

For the first time this year I ran my old favourites  - Warriors of Chaos, list below:

Daemon Prince - Chaos Armour, Scaled Skin, Charmed Shield, Swords of Striking, Dragonbane Gem, Flaming Breathe, Soulfeeder, Wings, Mark of Nurgle, Level 4 Mage on Lore of Death

Exalted Hero - Chaos Armour, Enchanted Shield, Talisman of Preservation, Mark of Tzeentch, Third-eye of Tzeentch, Great Weapon, Demonic Mount

Throgg the Troll King

11 Chaos Trolls

11 Chaos Trolls

5 Chaos Warhounds

5 Chaos Warhounds

4 Skullcrushers of Khorne with Musician, Banner bearer and enscrolled weapons.

3 Skullcrushers of Khorne with Musician, Banner bearer  with Banner of Eternal Flame and enscrolled weapons.

Tournament, Day 1:

Round 1: Dawn Attack: James Milner,  High Elves.

Draw : 10 - 10

This was not my ideal match-up Rd 1 as the Banner of the World Dragon basically mean I would struggle to get any points out of the Cavalry Bus which held almost 1400 points unless I could somehow lock it down and get a unit of trolls into it... James's list however featured enough chaff to possibly divert and tie me up long enough let his Death Mage go to work, the only weakness I could see was the lack of "Sisters of Avenlore", however the bolt throwers could put my Daemon Prince at risk.

Basically this game saw both of us being split at opposite ends of the table, one of my troll units was lucky enough to be in the centre however the remainder of my army was basically all left except for 1 unit of S.Crushers, James was also centre left.

In the end I took off the bulk of James's army leaving basically the bus while he managed to pin one of my troll units and purple sun it off over several turns, the end result was I was up by 186 battle points by not enough for small victory.

Round 2, Blood and Glory: Ryan Lister, Warriors of Chaos.

Win: 11-9

Another strong army list, Ryan's was your basic WoC list with a few tweeks, he'd gone for a DP of Slannesh (other tricksters shard, C.Shield & D.Gem) a small unit of Dragon Orges and some Warriors with MoS and Halberds... my biggest worry was his BSB on disc which had all the usual toys plus burning body which didn't bowed well for my trolls. I thought I had massive advantage in this match-up as I felt my list overall was much stronger than his plus I had fortitude 5 vs his @ 4.
I deployed dead centre with my skullcrushers flanking each side. Ryan deployed centre left with his Chimera and DP in behind and his BSB centre, his chariots and dogs covered his flanks and provided redirectors.
My game plan was to go after Ryan's WoC unit to break him then clean up from there. Ryan's only real mistake in this game I felt was vanguarding his units of dogs across to cover his unit of Slanessh WoC. I understood why he did this but I felt he was better off letting me move forward T1 and redirect my units for T2 and then pick his combats. his choice left me with 2 options charge and try to overrun or back-up. I took the charge @ his dogs with my Skullcrushers which fled, I then redirected into his WoC which held as I need an 11" and I also charged with my DP, again he held needing 11". Unfortunately for Ryan he could not flee as he had another unit in behind the WoC which would have bounced them off the board, of course I rolled an 11 on the S.crushers, the DP failed its charge. In the magic phase I threw all my dice @ Doom and Darkness reducing his leadership to 5, I then easily won combat and he unfortunately for Ryan he failed his re-rollable 5's and fled off the board giving me the game. I thought from here I would be able to clean up however Ryan sensibly backed up and moved his forces around my flanks to make things awkward, his Slannesh DP C.Choired and acqueiscesd'ed my units and the BSB ran interference.    

My biggest mistake was underestimating the Lore of Slannesh as Ryan's DP charged both my Nurgle DP and BSB over the last few turns... all I have to say is damn... C.Choir plus the "Others Tricksters Shard" is super good and super annoying together! It's safe to say my DP didn't even get to fight in combat and the BSB exploded as well before combat failing 3 out of 8 saves... A technical win as I broke Ryan first but really more like a 13-7 / 14-6 victory to Ryan... and I know have ALOT more respect for C.Chior...

Round 3, Watch Tower: Rory Finnemore, Vampire Counts.

Win: 20-0

 Rory was running the more traditional Blood Knight bus list with a pair of Vargulf in support. I felt good about this match up as my BSB "should" be able to take on his blender lord or my Trolls could just vomit the unit away.... on top of that death magic can run havoc on the VC lists... T2 I put a unit of trolls into the Watch tower which held it the whole game. The game for Rory came down to wat would happen T3 where he charged his Bus and Blender Lord into my DP and  his Vargulf into my big unit of S.Crushers. My S.Crushers carved up the Vargulf over 2 turns while his Blender Lord failed to kill my DP doing only 1 wounds when it had re-rolls to hit and only 2 wounds when it had re-rolls to hit and wound... to be honest his vampire should have gutted me... Str 7 with red fury ASF, initiative 10 etc etc... Luckily the DP didn't fluff his attacks in either round of combat killing the lord outright, Once the general was gone it was pretty much over as his army just crumbled away.

Day 2 ended with me on 41 points - not the ideal start I wanted but I was middle of the pack and still in with a good chance depending on my performance in rd4-5.

 Day 2:

 Round 4, Battle for the Pass: Peter Williams, High Elves.

Win 13 - 7

 This was probably the worst scenario I could have asked for vs Peter (in my opinion). Peters list was his usual styled point's denial list with lots of small units to divert and shot backed up by 3 bolt throwers and some monsters. He also had 2 units of "Sisters" backed up by a Level 4, Lore of Heavens. My Game plan was to spread my troll units wide to absorb the shooting, BSB between the 2 units since he's nigh unkillable, a unit of Skull Crushers in behind each with the dogs covering my rare to stop his shadow warriors getting in behind my lines with scout. The DP was positioned behind Throgg to give him cover against the 3 bolt throwers, unfortunately he also had 2 Skycutters...

Peter surprisingly put a large number of his units forward on the 24" line, T1 I pushed all my units forward as there was little point giving him a free round of shooting and I was happy to take combo charge vs the phoenix on the left as the trolls vomits and regen would help secure that plus steadfast. I rolled 7 but only managed to kill a single Sister as my death spells failed to hit their mark.Pete's T1 and as predicted Pete combo charged the left unit of trolls with the Skycutter, T.Chariot, Phoenix, 5 Silver Helms and the Noble on Eagle with the Star Lance. I personally think this is where he went wrong as he should have moved back and shot before trying to attack but meh I could be wrong. Shooting and magic from peter took its toll as I let a Thunderbolt through and he of course rolled a 6 and did 5 wounds to me... I then proceeded to fluff my ar and wards putting the DP to 1 wound.... SHIT.. I thought at max I'd take 1 wound between my 1+ar and 5+ward...

Shooting began and the remaining skycutter was able to get LoS and took out my 530 point DP... ouch! The trolls got whittled down a couple of models on the right.
Combat he killed a couple trolls, I vomited and put 3 wounds on the silver helms, 2 on chariot and 2 on a skycutter. Rolled steadfast and held.

The game from here went back and forth over the next 5 turns but the trolls took their toll eventually breaking and running from another chariots put into the combat but as planned the S.crushers then killed everything that pursued the trolls.. The BSB got into a chariot then the prince, archer unit and the general. The highlight for me however was one big fail, I charged the shadow warriors with my unit of 3 S.Crushers which ran off the table, I chose to continue the pursuit and needed a 4 to get off the table to protect the unit of course fate killed me low and hard... I rolled a 3 setting my unit up for 3 Str 7 bolt shots of course the unit was wiped.. ;(

Overall a good game that went back and forth for ages, hats off to Pete who is always a worthy opponent!

Round 5, Battle Line: Sam Campbell (my nemesis), Khorne themed Daemons of Chaos.

Win 20-0

 

This game was never going to be easy for Sam as his army is only T3 (go trolls)... he had no magic plus we played a test game the previous week and I tabled him.
Sam however got the best start he could rolling the multiple wounds 2 and taking the obsidian blade with his other (no armour saves allowed) on the Blood Thirster which was going to be a right pain.... he also won the roll on 6... (hate your dice so much Sam!)
Sam had a ton more drops then me so I positioned my trolls centre flanked by a unit of S.Crushers, dogs forward to divert and the DP & BSB almost dead Centre between the unit of trolls. Sam positioned the bulk of his army left with his S.Cannons far left and right to try for some dirty flank shots. T1 he didn't move a thing except for Billy left then sat back and shot... basically Sam planned to delay combat as long as possible allowing his S.Cannons and Rain of Chaos to whittle my trolls and S.Crushers units... He then played Orge and backed up for consecutive turns...bastard!
His only real mistake was to push Billy up towards my S.Crushers on the left unfortunately he left just enough space for me to march out of his charge arch... he then put Billy in behind me and rare charged my BSB of course he did no wounds and I held on re-rollable 7's... my BSB then gutted Billy over the next 2 combat rounds...

Once my units were in combat they did what Trolls, DP and S.Crushers do best and smashed through his units.... the highlight of my game was the DP flame breathe... dble 6's then 11 wounds, 10 dead Bloodletters, unit wiped **YES** *Fist pump* ;)

Sam was tabled by T4 but was very gracious in defeat and to be honest this was probably the worst match-up he could have had all tournament. Pete Dunn then chased Sam around tickling his stomach which highly assumed me and I'm sure mentally damaged Sam lol! For those of you who don't know Pete suggested on Twitter that Sam was going to roll over and let me rub his belly to get me into masters if we played!

This tournament really showed me that where WoC is concerned the Lore of Death's best spell by a mile is actually the buffed "Soulblight". -1 Toughness -1 Strength to all enemy units in 24" not the sniper spells or purple sun.

So after 2 days of very enjoyable gaming and a surprising paint score of 30 (Thanks Sam W) I ended up on 74 BP's and 80.83 total giving me 2nd and finally a place in the top 11 and qualification to masters.

I'd just like say a big thanks to all my opponents for being such good sports all weekend and thank you to Sam for Judging and Pete D for putting together yet another great tournament with great Terrain!  Now I'm looking forward to Masters in December (assuming no last minute reshuffle in rankings) then the 4k event in January which I'm really really looking forward too! :)

 

 

Why Skullcannons should be restricted - a Sam Campbell tale! 

So why restrict Skullcannons you might ask…

To put this article into perspective, my good friend Sam and I have been having a running “discussion/debate” over the last few months about why Skullcannon's should be restricted to 0-1 and last week Overlord Ratty Pete Dunn posted an interesting blog about the Warmachine Caps in our current tournament environment... so with these 2 things in mind I thought I’d put my rational on paper.

Quickly I’d like to say to Pete, I personally think you've hit the sweet spot for all artillery restrictions in the current competitive environment with the exception of the S.Cannon while preserving the overall player enjoyment level!  

So let’s start this with a comparison of the Skullcannon to his restricted cousin the Ironblaster… But before we do you might ask yourself why did the Ironblaster actually get restricted and I'll tell you why  

1)      Its ridiculous mobility means you an virtually always find LoS to any target you want… having 2 means there is literally almost never a place to hide or way to move that would allow a player to hide monsters or lone characters given our current “true line of sight rules”…

2)      Its killing power both in combat and shooting is ridiculous from a points perspective when compare to other army options that the likes of Empire, Dwarfs and others have access too.

3)      (an extension of 1) It allows an Orge general to pick points where ever he wants, back up with impunity and ultimately steal games in unfavourable match-ups. Double Ironblaster basically restricts an opposing general’s movement and to a degree physiologically causes some players to dble think themselves and their tactics... as they say if you control your opponents movement phase you've won 1/2 the battle. 

4)      These issues coupled with Orges other strengths; long charge ability etc greatly reduced the overall player enjoyment level as a result.

There are I’m sure many many other reasons for its restriction but these are the one I personal see as being the major issue.

So onto our comparison and I'll try to be objective as possible (try!!!)   

	Iron.Bl	IB crew		S.Cannon	SC crew
Cost	170	-		135	-	W
Movement	6	-		7	-	W
Weapons Skill	-	3		5	5	W
Ballistics Skill	-	3		-	5	W
Strength	5	4		5	4	W	+1 Str on charge
Toughness	6	-	W	5	-
Wounds	5	-	W	4	-
Initative	2	2		2	4	W
Attacks	3	4	W	3	2
Leadership	-	7	draw	-	7	draw
Armour	4+	-		3+	-	W
Ward Save	N/A	-		5+	-	W
Range	36	-		48	-	W
Str of Shoot	10	-	draw	10	-	draw
Shoot Wounds	D6	-	draw	D6	-	draw
Grapeshot Str	10	-	W	5	-

As you can see from a purely cost and stat basis the Skull Cannon wins hands down taking out 9 categories of the 16 on offer while only losing 4 and drawing the remaining 3... that alone should be enough to restrict it but lets keep going...

So what about the special rules I hear you say, well lets start with the Ironblaster first since it must do something insane to warrant its restriction when the Skullcannon isn't.

Ironblaster rules: Chariot, Large Target, Fear, Move and Fire, Massive Grapeshot and Volley of Cannonballs.

Chariot - D6 impact hits @ str 5 but again the Skullcannon wins out doing D6 Str6 impact hits.

Large Target – Pretty irrelevant since we use true line of sight and the Skullcannon is similar in actual size (model wise) to the Ironblaster. 1 or 2 minor rules impact here but they have very very minimal impact...

Fear - Irrelevant and Skullcannon has it too.

Move and Fire - This is what makes this unit insane since it allows you to alter your firing arc's minimising the chance of any target your opponent has hiding...but the Skullcannon has it to and again it does it better moving 7" vs the Ironblasters 6"...

Massive grapeshot -  Str 10 grapeshot still at 12" or less hitting on 5+  due to the poor Orge BS (as 60%+ of the time your at long range)... This is only marginally better than the Skullcannons Str5 with Ar piercing but the SC hits on 3+ so is going to hit 66% of the time vs 33% time, the Ironblaster wounds most of the time on 2's while the S.Cannon normally wounds on 2’s, 3's or 4's against everything but toughness 6+.

So I’ll give the Iron Blaster a little win here.

Volley of Cannonballs - When determining the bounce, roll the artillery dice twice and pick the longest bounce. This is a reasonable ability but 2 obvious issue stand out firstly you now have twice the chance of misfire and the added bounce range still doesn't make up for the range differential the Skullcannon has over it... 36” + up to 20 vs 48” + up to 20”

Now for our friend the Skullcannon...

It's rules: Chariot, Fear, Immune to Psychology, Flaming Attacks, Demonic Instability, Demonic Attacks, Daemon Engine, Daemons of Khorne, Gorefeast, Hellblades

Chariot - as above

Fear - as above

Immune to Psychology - never hurts... better to have it than not in general... and in all the games I’ve had vs orges at tournaments I’ve only ever seen an Ironblaster flee intentionally once… and I still cut it down!

Gorefeast - umm you have a chance at recovering wounds when you inflict wounds from impact hits... downside…none! All I have to say is sign me up!

Flaming Attacks - I see this as one of the most debated issues but in my opinion its actually one of the best abilities the cannon offers... Firstly you get to negate regeneration, this is pretty huge since some of the most devastating units have this ability and you simple negate it entirely. You’ll basically never fear Abombs, Chimera's, Hydras, opposing Nurgle Beasts, Trolls etc... The only really back draw to this is vs Characters with either the Dragonsbane Gem and Dragon's Helm (or similar ability) since they have a 2+ ward vs flaming attacks... To those ppl I say who cares 90% of generals in our competitive environment hide their characters in bunker units since there to costly or critical to risk having them shoot off or magic'ed away. Of the models that can actually operate successfully outside of a unit alone there is only a handful that you actually need to fear and the rest are pretty crap because their generally terrible. These are units like the Empire Peg Captain etc… As for mounted lords you can simple shot out the mount from under the rider (yes you don’t get the points but you've now significantly limited that models impact on the game and allowed for it to be easily picked off by other means ie magic/combat etc. Of those that can survive in the current competitive environment only 3 come to my mind that actually concern me and 2 of those are in the WoC army. The Daemon Prince or the 3 + reroll 1's disc Lord or Exalted (who’s nigh unkillable anyway without combat res),  the third is the DE Peg D.lord with pendant which like our Disk lord is nigh unkillable with a cannon either way... of those 3 the “flaming” special rule only hurts you against one of them and that's vs the  Daemon Prince...who still has a Charmed shield (virtually always)and a 5+ natural ward. Eeither way it's not a total lose since vs WoC you need to pick off their Skullcrushers, Chimera, Hellcannon and Chariots anyway… hardly a major concern either way since you can tie up the Deamon Prince with beasts or a block of Plague bearers with steadfast.

Demonic Attacks - magical attacks, these are great, no ethereal can tie you up or stop your attacks, you can now kill a Slann and magical attacks punches though special saves that units like Dryad's have or alternatively it allows you to attack through so special items in other army books. The only back draw I can think of to this is vs a unit with the Banner of the World Dragon and like all Bus unit your going to simply divert it out of the game and take all their other points anyway... so no lose here.

Demonic Instability – the rule that makes daemons ridiculous, you don’t run when crushed in combat, you can’t take more than 10 wounds off a unit even if you beat it by 50 combat res… win/win I say. In a traditional army like Empire, Orges or Orc’s if you break you have about a 55-60% chance of being court and destroyed outright when you’re both rolling 2D6 or 3D6 for flee and pursuit.

Daemon Engine – totally irrelevant.

Hellblades - KB, backdraw- none, not quiet as good as poison but it can mean sometimes you get a random kill against a multiple wound character.

So after all's said and done its pretty clear the Skullcannon is better than the Ironblaster so I'm not sure how anyone can justify it not being restricting to 0-1. Maybe so of the reasons outlined above is why every major event pack I've seen outside of Swedish comp restricts both Ironblasters and Skullcannons to 0-1...

The only possible reasons I can see right now for not restricting Skullcannons is that only a handful of ppl can actually field the current competitive version of DoC. So with only 1 or 2 ppl fielding Skullcannons per tourney it's "yet" to have any significant impact on the NZ tournament scene. One other possible factor is the prohibitive cost of GW models in NZ thus very few ppl are in the market for buying a new army outright or alternatively the fact that WoC and HE have also had new books recently and both these armies have always been more popular than the DoC so they’ve been more readily overlooked...

However after CtA's next weekend I think ppl will learn to appreciate the ridiculous power of fielding an army that can have 2 Skullcannons backed up by 12 beasts, Epidemius, Plague Drones, Furies and Plague Bearers… If Sam can’t top 3 with his filthy (Hamish approved) list he should quit or as I told him the other night put the daemons under the front wheel of his car…  J

Day 2 @ Panzerscrek!

So after a less than satisfactory Day 1 I was sitting on 32 points in the middle of the pack.

Rd 4 - Charlie, Dark Elve's - pure witch elve list with no magic.20-0

So Charlie had to be one of the nicest guys at the event and his army theme and its look was amazing, he got my vote for best painted and sports.We were playing battleline, I deployed between a forest and building with 1 unit of Demi's centre right in front of 1 unit of Halberdiers and the second extremely left looping rd the forest. T1 I pushed my Demi's and mages unit forwards. Magic and shooting I began to feel mean....  1 shoot’ed his Mantacore and rider, second cannon tried for the Cauldron but was warded and I killed about 20 Witch Elves rolling Dble 6's for magic, its safe to say Double Banishment, Shim's burning Gaze and bound Fireball did its job on the largest unit of elves reducing it well below 1/2 strength. T2 saw me charge with the demi's into Charlie’s harpies which then overran into a small unit of witch elves, the centre unit then charged a 20 man Witch elve unit which ultimately fled allowing me an overrun into Charlie’s depleted central unit of witch elves. The first charge was a total mistake as Charlie failed to move his Crones unit up 2 more inches suffling them only 3, then mean he left just enough space for me to get past his Crones unit and take me totally out of her units counter charge arch. T2 shooting and magic took a tool on Charlie’s army; I got the Cauldron of Blood and killed about 14 Executioners. In the end I tabled Charlie on T4 for the lose of an archer detachment, that magic, artillery and demigryph's did their job and I was lucky enough to keep my core out of combat as they would have been torn to pieces had a witch elve unit reached them.

Rd 5 - Caleb and his WoC monstrosity. 13-7 lose.

This was overall my favourite game of the weekend and one of the bloodiest battles on both sides, for the majority of the match I was ahead by about 400-500 points until t4 when a single chariot charged my Arch Lector and his Alter which had been protecting my Halberdiers flank. At that stage the Halberdiers where locked in a prolonged combat with a small unit of Nurgle Chaos Knights (4 left of 7) since T2. Its safe to say that we both failed to wound each other however I found myself down by 1 (given charge) against the chariot needing 9's re-rollable to stand, of course I rolled 12 then 10 and fled off the table. While this was extremely unlucky it turned the game from a certain win to a lose as the chariot reformed then hit my flank doing 7 impact hits wounding 6 of them. this mean I lost combat by 6 rather than being up by 2 against the Knights. I needed re-rollable 8's to stand and of course in true fashion I rolled high and was promptly cut down by the Chariot while the Knights reformed.... the lose of my Arch Lector also put me on tilt a little and I forgot to move my 2nd Halberdier unit out of the building it was occupying the following turn, this provided to be very relevant as they ended up breaking Caleb’s generals unit in the first round of combat but failed to catch it rolling 4" while the Warrior unit ran 10 and eventually reformed, had I engaged the unit a turn earlier I would have wiped it out rather than leaving it rallied on 5 models on t6, OOPS!
While my tactics had only lost to dice rolls my opponent Caleb was a great sport and did nothing wrong the entire match, he got a little lucky in a couple of spots and I a touch unlucky but overall a very very enjoyable game!

Rd 6 - Peter Dunn, DoC 12-8, Meeting Engagement
At the start of the round I'm fighting for 3rd place as Peter Dunn and Peter Williamson are locked for 1st and 2nd unless I can get a 20-0 win and Pete gets less than 5 points but of course I'm pair up against Pete and his filthy Tzeentch Deamons of Chaos list. For those of you who don't know how Pete's list works, it has 5 levels of Tzeentch magic trying to roll Gateway, this is broken on a Horror unit as they can throw 6 dice every turn at gateway with impunity as their ability allows wounds caused to be added to the unit before any miscast results on dble 6's is applied.. and to top it off they still get their wards! to add some additional punch Pete also has a Lord of Change with the Lore of Metal and Wand of Whimsy (great...) backed up with 6 screamers and 6 beats of nurgle and the usual skullcannon...

So I'm stuck with a hard decision the table we're on has multiple buildings (both down the middle of the table on the angle, 2 hills, a largest forest and the biggest march I've seen on a warhammer table and to top things off we're playing meeting engagement. I picked the left side of the table positioning my army between the 2 hills, not ideal but I felt it was the right choice. I was initially going to take the otherside but I felt that the forest and the march in conjunction with the buildings would majorily limited the movement of my army and I needed to be reasonably offensive as I could not sit back and try to cannon him of the table given LoS issues thanks to terrain... plus metal magic and gateway would just rip my demi's to pieces... I roll to deploy and of course my lvl4 mage of Light was off the table along with a large unit of Halberdiers...Pete starts with 1 single beast and small unit of horrors off. his deployment is highlighted by hiding the greater deamon and skull crusher behind a building very much out LoS, knowing this however I had positioned my metal mage with a unit of archers so they could move up to a building and cast Searing Doom (LoC rolled 2+ AS) while being unchargable that turn.

T1 sees me move my Demigyphs up the flanks marginally, bring on my reserves (lvl4 was out of range of anything relevant), magic I cast Searing doom on 5 dice against the LoC, I make a mistake and don’t specify the 2D6 version and end up with 1d6 rolling 2 wounds, 1 being saved by its ward... oops.. Shooting and the cannons take off 3 Screamers and the volley gun does 3 wounds on a horror unit. Pete prodictably moves up his units conservatively with the 2 single beasts moving to divert the demi's, Magic was uneventful, shooting sees the Skullcannon misfire and kill itself (YES! "fist pump") ;).
T2 I throw my Demigryph's into a longish charge against the keeper and move the 2nd unit to flank the screamers on my left. Magic i roll poorly and was unable to cast anything relevant. Shooting I take off another screamer and kill a couple more horrors. T2 is the tuning point of the game for Pete's magic he rolls dble 1's this result in his beast on the right dying allowing my Demi's to get round behind his line. over the next few turns we trade magic and combat, I get Pete's LoC in the end but again fail to destroy over 500 points of Daemons as the Demi's fluff their rolls on our last turn (t5)... Great game I just wish I was able to steal a couple more points from Pete but it was not to be!
In the end I was tied for 3rd with Mike on battle points, ultimately though I dropped to 7th after painting and sports scores were added... painting being the only issue...as i got full sports points.
Ah well a great weekend had by all and the first proper outing for my empire which I thoroughly enjoyed! I officially love having real cannons in a list backed up by good monstrous cavalary and magic… being on the receiving end of cannons was horrid! Last night I ordered 4 boxes of Demigryphs so the Skaven may take a well deserved rest soon! J

So Panzerschrek is now in the books and a slightly disappointing 7th place.... on the bright side I was 3rd equal on battle points losing 4 slots to painting. Overall the weekend was great and Jeff ran a well organised fun event so big ups to him for organising things!

So on to Day 1

Rd1 - Battleline. Sam Campbell, DoC 10-10
So my nemesis, club mate and friend Sam... I was pretty confident I'd get a 15+ win here unfortunately it ended up being 10-10. Overall a good game but a terrible table with tons of buildings and large terrain for Sam to hide points behind... This game was highlighted by me being unable to finish off 2 of Sam's largest units which where greatly depleted. A units of Plague Bearers and Daemons of Slaanesh were locked in combat with my Demigryphs. A few poor rolls, a couple lucky wards and 2 very lucky leadership tests for Sam saw me leaving his Nurgle BSB, 3 Plague Bearers and 2 DoS totalling around 750-800 points. No an ideal start but it could have been worse!

Rd2 - Mike King, Lizardmen. 20-0
This game started and ended for Mike on T1, before I'd even moved or cast Mike used 3 dice to cast a defensive bubble of course miscast and put his Slann down the hole. This then broke his army as the Slann was his BSB and General. By T3 or 4 I had tabled Mike and took 2650 points for the lose of just 190 points. Demigryphs were MVP!
I felt bad for Mike given the circumstances, had his Slann gone down 3-4 turns later it wouldn’t have been so bad but turn 1 is rough. L

Rd 3 - Peter Williamson, High Elves, 2-18.. To be honest I was looking at a big win here as Pete's army was far weaker than my own... but it was not to be.

So after seeing Mike lose to unfortunate circumstances it was my turn to endure a similar fate. Peter's army started 300 points up on me given the comp system and was basically a flying circus list with griffin lord, dragon mage and snow phoenix. I got the same Table as game 1 vs Sam with tons of redicculous terrain everywhere…. So tons of places to hide big monsters…
T1 Peter moved up slowly and then cast a 2D6 Fireball on one of my cannons which I let through, he cracked the Mages pendant adding +1 to wound for this spell, the result was exactly 3 wounds. The subsequent panic tests (Ld9 with re-rolls) saw my Lvl4, 40 halberdiers and another support unit turn and flee off the board... This effectively put me behind by 1000+ points before I'd even moved. Things then proceeded to go from real bad to worse... I throw 6 dice at Searing Doom (casting with IrrForce) then rolling Dble 1's for hits then failing to wound (ward and 1), I then proceeded to wound my wizard and lose the remaining dice in the pool. Shooting... my cannon hit his general and Griffin, 5+ ward saved the general and I failed to wound the Griffin... Halblaster 3 artillery dice.. 2 misfires and 2 turns without being able to shoot. In the end I took off over 800 points of Pete's army, at one stage I should have killed the Dragon and Phoenix but of course I didn’t and my remaining unit of Halberdiers were ground down over 5 rounds of combat.... leaving each on 1 or 2 wounds of course. A totally horrible game but Peter did nothing wrong, he diverted my Demi's as much as possible while the Dice and Warhammer gods kicked my while I was down! lol.