Well, $600 of bar tab and two tired nerdy days later, the event is over. I think I had more fun this year than the prior two, particularly thanks to the Elks Lodge being such gracious hosts to our raucous community. I got five excellent games, but I was largely too busy moving models and holding a margarita to take pictures, so here are some basic rundowns of my games.
Game 1 vs Victor Herrara (Ogres), Scenario Mad Mickey
Victor had one of the other super soft armies in the room, sporting two hunters riding stone horns, two ogre blocks with his BSB and wizard, plus a Thundertusk, and some random chaffy stuff. With all of the fast moving monsters, I was going to have problems and the Snow Blower and Ironblaster meant that I was going to face immediate pressure. Most of the bonus points were tied up into killing Mickey, who is murderous against MSU armies, so I decided on a two part strategy. First, I was going to burn down Mickey as fast as possible, both to get free protection counters (spells against him could not be countered) and to get him out of my path. Second, I planned on using an all out rush to bottle him in his own deployment zone so that he would not be able to get ogres into my infantry units late in the game. The downside is that I had to more or less allow the Snowblower and Ironblaster roam free for a while.
For my part, I executed the plan pretty well, trading wild riders for one stone horn and the wounded dragon for the other. The Snow Blower eventually made it to my lines and my unicorn had to eat a ironblaster charge after burning the mouse down, but she held all game until some counter charges ran off the ironblaster. When the dust settled, I had my wizard, archers, shadowdancer, and BSB left. Victor had his two Irongut units and two characters remaining. We ended up with a draw and three bonus points each in what was a crazy dice game. But, I was glad to take a high draw early and avoid the slaughterhouse lists at the top tables for a while, so it was all good.
Game 2 vs Jacob Berry (Woodies), Scenario House Wife
Jacob is undoubtedly the most fun guy you will ever play at any event. His list was the crazy 3 dragon army with one wild rider unit and some archers to back it up. The downside for him in this was that my larger trueflight block was able to delete his smaller units piece meal, while I slugged it out in the table center and kept his dragons bottled up. In what would be the epic moment of the tourney for me, I declared a flank charge with Wild Riders against one dragon, where I needed box cars to get in.... and made it, slaying the dragon before it got to swing. My general ended up hanging in there long enough to gank the Sisters of Twilight and his general, before getting munched, but this allowed the Unicorn girl and BSB to collect two of the riderless dragons at the end of the game. I ended the game with a major win and all the bonus points.
Game 3 vs Jeff Sues (High Elves), Beach Blanket Bingo
Jeff had basically a Phoenix Guard deathstar and a Dragon Prince deathstar, with associated bits of chaff scattered around. Since VP meant nothing in this scenario, I was at somewhat of a disadvantage due to all of my scoring units being small and frail, which would require me to address his shooting and chaff. For his part, Jeff rammed the Prince bus in my face, where I met it with the dragon and Eternal Guard. In what took far to long, I was able to murder the entire unit to the man, since Jeff kept holding on 4-5s all the time. Ultimately, I was kept completely off of the blankets and Jeff held one with his last remaining unit, so major loss with all bonus points.
Day 2-
Game 4 vs Jon Milano (Vampire Counts), Feeling Froggy?
Jon had a pretty well rounded Vamp list, with the blender lord in the Knight bus, some infantry blocks, and a terrorgeist. For my part, I planned on using Arcane Unforging to detooth the vamp lord to something my dragon could engage. Jon had other plans and sucked his general along with half his bus into the warp on the very first spell of the game. I felt like a jackass winning that way, but it is a tournament and so I engaged in mop up operations. Full points to me in what was a seal clubbing.
Game 5 vs Micah Pierce (High Elves), Center Stage
Micah had a star dragon, two knight bus units, some eagles, and some fast cavalry. While his list was soft, his armor saves presented a challenge and he had a better dragon than I did. In my mind, the plan was to avoid the dragon and engage everything else. Without pictures it is impossible to convey the close maneuvers and blood bath that ensued, but short version is that my general sold his life dearly to keep his dragon away from the rest of the battle while I won the chaff war. When the dust settled, I had my Wizard, BSB, and archers. Micah had a half dead star dragon with no one riding it. So, minor win for me with most of the bonus points.
Final results-
I came in 5th overall, which with the super soft army I took, I was more than happy with. There were chances to secure more points if I had rolled better in places, but I also got freebies when I made the huge charge on Jacob and Jon's Vampire decided to take a vacation into the warp with seven of his pals. I have no complaints and am pretty happy with my score.
Unit by unit recap to come.....
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