BIG March Wrapup

Well the fantasy tourney has come and gone... well done to Alex , Guns and Doombull for their placings and to Carwyn and the rest of the B.I.G. crew for a great weekend. I finished 7th overall and was very happy with this result in light of my limited game experience with HE's and the match ups at the event.

My results were:
v Tomb Kings (Terry Mo) WIN 20 - 0
v Bretonnians (Evan Ferris) LOSS 20- 0
v Bretonnians Errantry List (Jeremy Arato) WIN 18 2
v Chaos Dwarfs (Emmanuel Beckman) WIN 20 - 0
v Skaven (Nathan Goodchild) LOSS 12 - 8
v Dwarfs (Luke van Kyck) WIN 11 - 9

The fragile nature of the HE list (IE limited troops T3 etc) means that certain armies will cause you a lot of grief. Brets with their 2+ armour , 5/6 ward saves and speed are a tough nut to crack. The errant list has some flaws and I was able to exploit this by drawing errant units into charges , fleeing then counter charging. Jeremy did have some poor dice rolls but was , and always is, a true gentleman to play.

Evans army has 4 big units of realm knights, a unit of pegs, 2 trebs and a number of MAA units. A well balanced list with a lot of units. I was lucky in turn 2 to get a combined charge with a lion chariot and Dragon Princes against a unit of knights that Evan had pushed too far forward in his first turn. Combat went in my favour but he made a leadership test on 4's and it then became a protracted combat with both of us adding extra units in an attempt to break the stalemate. Obviously from the score this didn't work for me :)

The games against the two dwarf lists were tough; the ancient enmity between the two races was certainly added too and I was happy to add two dwarven scalps to my trophy cabinet. It was also a pleasure to play against the army I just finished painting for Luke... nice to see your hard work lined up across the table from you.

Nathan aka Chopper is an excellent player (3rd at last years Australasian WHFB Masters) and his Grey Seer led skaven list was a challenge. I was in control of the game till turn 5 when Nathan unleashed a devastating magic phase of plague and warp lighting that decimated my spearmen and white lions. Tough game but a lot of fun; the smaller size of my army told in the end.

So what did I learn what would I change...
The white lion units were excellent. The fear causing chariots were helpful with a number of units failing their fear tests and subsequently hitting on 6's... an extremely important characteristic when you are only T3 with a 4+ AS. Two are definitely need to get off double charges and hopefully break units in a single turn. The white lions were excellent in combat but every man with a range weapon attempts to shoot at them.. I'm leaning to Phoenix Guard as a choice instead of them as their 4+ ward save is needed against war machines; which incidentally in 3 of my 6 games decimated the combat effectiveness of this unit. The ability to move through wooded terrain makes them a difficult unit to not have in one's list.

Dragon princes, eagles and bolt throwers performed as expected and are necessary units to a successful list IMO.

Characters... I received a bit of criticism for my character setup by various people. The mage setup was perfect. The ability to choose my spells on one mage meant that I could taylor my magical attacks to the force I faced. This was crucial in my game against Luke where the Lore of Metal allowed me to choose Gold and Brass and nullify his important runic items and stop his machines from shooting. The extra spell on the other mage couple with the Banner of Sorcery also greatly improved the magical capability of this army. There is no doubt in my mind that a strong magic phase is necessary to augment your combat capabilities or in turn protect the flowers of your army from being "picked".

No Lord choice was , in retrospect a mixed bag at the tourney. The cheaper hero allowed be to have more troops on the table; something that I think is important to any fantasy army. The reaver bow was fantastic as was the Gem of Courage which gave me a 1 turn BSB for my white lion unit with the hero in it. What I did miss was the extra 50 points of magical items that would have made this character choice more effective in critical combat situations. The leadership was not an issue as my Empire army only has leadership 9 so I was not unduly perturbed or affected by the lesser leadership offered by the hero.

Well , I enjoyed the tourney and the brief foray into High Elfs. Of the armies I have played at tourneys in recent years I would rate this army below, Wood Elfs (best army I have ever played),Bretts, Empire and Chaos Demons. The HE's are fragile at 2250 points but I believe they will come into their own at 2500 points and beyond.

Gav :)