Toms Youtube Battle Reports

[tmarichards]

Mournfangs being able to flee from charges drives me into a rage.

[Clockwork]

Didn't realise that it was this weekend - good luck! Looking forward to the battle reports.

[tmarichards]

Hi all!

First up, a quick apology- because of my iPhone going on the blink and me forgetting to take my memeory card down to SCGT, there will be no Youtube battle reports from the event there will, however, be a longish (probably 3 part) summary that I will record when I get back talking about my games.

At the moment, it's the evening of day 1 after the first 3 gams so I'm going to give a brief rundown of my 3 games so far.

Game 1- Skaven

The draw was up the night before, and seeing that I have Skaven first up is never that nice for me. I've done a lot of work and theory on the match-up recently, but I'm still not comfortable playing against them. However, as far as it is possible for Wood Elves to be "strong" vs Skaven, I think my list is pretty decent against them with the balance of a lot of shooting, Dryads and most importantly 2x4 Treekin who are just so so good in this match-up.

This game was against Colin Dabin (apologies if that's not quite right, it's late and I'm tired), and when I saw his list I wasn't entirely unhappy with it. A Seer on a Bell being pushed by Stormvermin, no Storm Banner, no Engineers + toys, a Plague Furnace, 2 units of gutter runners, a cannon, some rat darts, a catapult and a big clanrat block with some other random bits. No Abomb, which is a bit of a mixed blessing- on the one hand it's one les thing to deal with, on the other they're usually free points. The lack of a Doomwheel made me very happy indeed. There was a chunk of impassable terrain on the left and a building on the right which encouraged Colin to deploy very centraly, and I went for a very aggressive opening to match him. My current "standard" deployment vs Skaven is to have the Treekin the centre opposite his blocks and the Glade Guard out on the flanks. Identify what in his list can hurt the Treekin (in most Skaven lists this is a surpisingly small amount of options), and deal with it. In this case, it was the cannon, so I deployed 4 wide to minimise the effects- very standard fare.

Colin got the first turn and pushed straight towards me with a couple of desultory magic and shooting phases- I was let off from a bad spot where I had an eagle wtihin 6" of both Waywatcher units who were away from the ld bubbles by his cannon missing. I dropped the Priest and the Furnace on my first turnwith some great Glade Guarding and the HoDA. I then fed the monks chaff, putting 30-50 Glade Guard into them for the next few turns until they died. With such a small list, Colin couldn't stop the Waywatchers running around him and picking off rat darts and eventually getting into the war machines. In the centre, one unit of Treekin ran into his Bell unit and ground it out over the course of the game (I killed the Bell then ignored the Seer, instead working on breaking the Stormvermin and running them down which I did in my turn 5), and the other went into his Clanrat unit and did the same thing.

Overall, my dice worked and I wasn't made to pay for my usual game 1 errors because of bad dice on Colin's part. However, in general I just managed the game better and I dictated where and when the combats were fought and who between. I go Colin's entire army plus bonuses for BSB, general and standard bearers for a big win at the cost of the eagles- 2650 VPs against 100 VPs sees me off to a 20-0 victory in game 1!

[tmarichards]

Game 2- Skaven

So after a max win round 1, I knew I'd be up where the big fish swim and they feed on small fry like me :/. With 5 Skaven armies on the top 10 tables, it was hardly surprising that I drew one- Dom Hook of the Black Sun gaming team who do a very decent podcast (not for the faint of heart though), and we were playing on table 2 which meant that at this points, I was sitting 4th out of 160 players ! In contrast to Colin, Dom has a very nasty Skaven list- 4 big blocks of rats, Stormvermin with Storm Banner, Power Scroll Seet, Discipline BSB, 2x7 Gutter Runners, Abomb, Furnace, cannon and the usual peripheral chaff.

Of course, I wasn't happy to see this- my thoughts on Skaven are well known, and getting them for a second consecutive game was a bit of a blow, my head went down and all I could think was that I was going to get 20 zipped. However, rather than let it affect me I went throgh my usual process- look at his lists, take out the positives- the Abomb is fairly easy points, I know I can kill the Furnace and there is no Doomwheel- I must say, I am pleasantly surprised that more Skaven players don't take these as they are BENT.

Terrainwise, the left hand side of the board had a couple of big its of impassable that really hampered access to my left hand corner, so after feinting right I castled up on the left with load of Glae Guard opposite the Furnace and the Treekin looking menacingcly at the infantry that had to go through them to get to my blocks. I got the first turn, and pumped 56 Glade Guard shots into the Furnac for the princely reward of a single wound on the Priest... in return Dom began the long push towards me and continued to keep his Abomb hidden. Popping the Storm Banner on my second turn knocked out a turn of shooting(fortunately it went down at the start of my third turn) which meant I had to sack a unit of Dryads to stop the Furnace getting into me and a unit of Treekin to do the same to the Abomb because the eagles couldn't fly However, my best intentions on the Furnace went awry as it promptly produced a double 6 overrun to get into a unit of Waywatchers, whcih meant I had to throw a unit of Glade Guard and an eagle into the way to stop it getting into my characters. The abomb munched the Treekin, and 2 units of Glade Guard, befoe finally going down- some bad unit placement meant both characters had to dive into the same unit, which is the cardinal sin of Wood Elves.

Fortunately for me, Dom was unable to make me pay for this- he was handling his magic phases well (small magic missiles at the Dryads, bigger spells at the Treekin) but I was handling my dispelling equally well which may have prompted him to throw a 3 dice Scorch at my remaining Treekin i the face of my 4 dispel dice. Up came the double 6, which led to a Dimensional Cascade, which led to a dead Grey Seer turn 2

At this point, I saw an opening for the Treekin- the usual Skaven response to them is to throw Slaves in the way, but with the Grey Seer dead his ld halved and the Treekin went on a rampage- through a unit of slaves into the Stormvermin, through them into the Cannon and then off the board out of trouble my turn 6 to regain me a million points. By this time, the Priest is dead and the Furnace has one wound left, and now that the cannon is dead both my characters run out of their unit to stand as far away from his army as possile whilst the big Glade Guard bunker valiantly redirect the Furnace off the board in Dom's turn 5. The Doomrocket goes 7 dice to land exactly on the last unit of Waywatchers, killing 6/7 of them, the last one of whom is potted by the final cannon shot of the game before the Treekin silence it.

All in all, it equated to a very bloody 10-10 draw, each of us getting around 1400 VPs I think. The Grey Seer going down so early was a real boon for me, but these things do happen To be honest, considering I though I was going to not get a single point out of the game, I would've happily taken the 12-8 loss so a 10-10 against a horrendous Skaven army with Wood Elves on table 2 of the biggest UK tournament of the year is, to me, a win. Credit where credit is due, Dom is a good player and had the Seer not died it would've been a completely different game- to which it is, perhaps, worth wondering if his gameplan should maybe not rely on the Seer so much?

Anyway, after round 2 I am on 30 out of a possible 40 points, and all of those against Skaven. A winner is Tom!

[tmarichards]

Game 3- Wood Elves

Finally, not Skaven! This was against Daniel Bailey in a mirror match-up but with decidedly different lists. Dan had a Life level 4, a BSB on an eagle without a bow, 4x10 Glade Guard, a flaming 16, 2 units of Dryads, 2 eagles, 6 Waywatchers a Treeman and a Treeman Ancient- these last 2 had me very worried as I had no way to deal with them beyond some good magic coming through, and we all know how much I like relying on magic with Wood Elves...

So, all of our Glade Guard square off- his in his right hand corner, mine in the centre of the board. Both his Treemen set up on my right flank, and I put a good bit of chaff down to tie them up. I also screen my Glade Guard with my Dryads, which Dan didn't- his instead deployed in the centre next to his Glade Guard- remember this as it becomes important later on.

Dan gets the first turn, which is massively important in the mirror match as it lets him get a head start on the shooting duel. However, with the Dryad screen he is unable to touch my Glade Guard, and instead tried to take out a unit of Dryads- with 5s to hit, 5s to wound and a 5++ this doesn't work well, and on my first turn the screen runs out the way and I step forward with my superior Glade Guard numbers, which basically gets the momentum in the duel- I'm already up by 10 GG, and now I essentially remove one of his units for no return, thus extending the shooting lead- as you can imagine this is very difficult to come back from.

Over on the right, the Treeman are worrying me. The level 3 eyes up the rare Treeman, and with a flick of her wrist throws a big Amber Spear into him- 6 dice, double 6. Wounded. 6 Wounds. Dead Treeman. On the miscast, I do a wound to myself. On my second turn, well, it worked last time... the level 3 eyes up the Ancient and... yeah, you get the picture. 2 turns, 2 IF Amber Spears, 600pts up for me for 2 wounds on the mage. Skillz.

At this point, we can both sort of see where this is going- I've gotten ahead in the shooting duel, and rather than take risks to kill him quickly I just work to extend my lead- injured units pull back, eagles fly out of range and I send a unit of Treekin running at his level 4 in the flaming unit so that he has to deal with them. He redirects them with an eagle, then Waywatchers, but can't stop me getting into the bunker around my turn 4 at which point I grind them out- Dan doesn't roll well at all on his shooting against them, and even at short range the S4 flaming doesn't do that much- 3s to hit, 5s to wound, I get a 5+ and then a 5++. To be honest, he probably should've got them in the end.

In the rest of the game, once the shooting battle swings my way it just never swings back- I shoot of his Glade Guard, and the Waywatchers track down a Killing Blow his BSB on my final turn to take his last model off. It was still a very fun game- Dan took the loss, and the horrendous luck that went with it, like an absolute gentleman and barring an exceptional opponent tomorrow he will get my Best Sports vote. Both the Treemen going down is obviously very lucky, and without that I think the game would likely have been a draw, with my winning the shooting battle but the Treemen getting a load of chaff. As it was, I played for and got the 20-0 win with something like 2525 VPs to 212.


That wraps up my games from day 1- as you can tell I've had some good draws and some good luck, but I also haven't really made many bad mistakes. Tomorrow, I play Bretonnians on table 3- so, at a 160 player event I am currently in 6th place with around 6.5K VPs and 50 tournament points out of a possible 60. With Wood Elves.

So clearly- Wood Elves are terrible in 8th edition and require a new book. They're not competitive. Mass ballistic skill shooting is rubbish.

Derp.


EDIT: Reading back on this in hindsight, those last couple of paragraphs make me chuckle at just how insufferably smug I sound. Whilst this may have been true at the time, the UK metagame has unfortunately moved more and more towards armour and monstrous cavalry, which are massive problems for Wood Elves. As a result, all of the nay-saying I was trying to disprove at the time of writing these reports has since magnified.

[Rosstifer]

Well done! That's a very god result so far. Now don't bottle it in day 2, that's what I always do
Not that I've ever been lucky enough to attend such a huge Tournament.

Here's hoping you avoid bloody Ogres too. Euuurgh.

[TsukeFox]

Man I do not get Skaven players who do not take a warlord as the general. A 103 points at most will save the game in case the ole Greyseer blows up.

And the doomwheel is not bent- just good for its points, for something that can blow up & crash into the owners units or roll farther into enemy lines that one wants. & personally scene my doomwheel get sniped by more doom divers than I can to mention.

Anywho lucky breaks against team Skaven !! Gah who brings the furnace in a tourny game?? Unarmoured piece of junk.

[Rosstifer]

Gah who brings the furnace in a tourny game?? Unarmoured piece of junk.

Every Skaven player I've ever seen, ever? As someone who doesn't have much shooting it intimidates me alot!

[Akkaryn]

Combined with the storm banner the furnace is great. I personally prefer the bell though (I know I'm the minority with this one but I get more bang with it usually)

Grats tom. I've found brets to be quite easy. But my lists do have the loren lord to really make that armour pointless.

[vcassano]

Congratulations on the excellent performance thus far! What is most striking about your performances are the VP totals. People often say Wood Elves eke out wins by narrow margins. Not here, apparently. Clearly you had some advantageous luck, but I really think the two Treekin units help - they can be mighty brutal in combat and can actually make lesser units cower away, which means more shooting. Also they are more cannon-proof than the other combat units in the Wood Elves (Treeman/Ancient, particularly). Good luck later on today!

[MOMUS]

Congrats on the progress so far, i hope you go all the way

We still get a recap video of this? -Get your mates to take some pictures of the best painted if poss.

[tmarichards]

Ok so here come the day 2 reports! For those who follow me on Twitter, this will largely be stuff I have already said but I'll do a little bit more depth because I don't have a character limit. Apologies in advance if the overall tone is less than palatable, unfortunately today did not go as well as yesterday and it's really put me in a bit of a downer.

Game 4- Brets.

This was against Tom Hale, and to be honest I don't think anyone expected to see Bretonnians or Wood Elves on table 3 of a 160 player light comp event, let alone playing each other. Of the armies around us, as much as I don't like Brets (I've only played them twice and been smashed each time) I was happiest to get them instead of the Skaven, VC, Lizards and knight-heavy Tomb Kings armies on the tables next to us. My gameplan going in was dependant on what Tom did- I would do my usual deployment which sees me put down 6 units but doesn't commit me to anything, and if he went in the centre I would split my army and put the Treekin opposite him (they die to Bret lances because they can't touch the characters, but he has to waste a few turns getting to them and then coming back in and if he tries to ignore them and I pull out a long range flank charge he's in a spot of bother) or if he went in one corner I would go in the other. He rolled up Comet, and went in his right hand corner so I went in my own right hand corner

Tom had 3x9 Knights of the Realm, 2 5s of Errants, 3 Peg Knights, 2 Trebs, a Heavens level 4 in a skirmishing archer bunker, a BSB with a 1+ re-rollable, a HKB lord with a 1+ re-rollable and a third hero to carry the Virtue of +D6 charge who also had a Luckstone.

My thinking going into the game was that I had a good lead over the next highest Wood Elf player, so as long as I didn't do anything stupid and got a few points I'd still be in the running. I said at the start that if I could get 6 points from the game, I would be happy. He pretty much came straight towards me, and on his second turn made pretty much his only serious error of the game- both my eagle were hovering just outside max charge range, and by just being a bit sloppy he left came far enough forwards and left enough of a gap that both the eagle could dive into a gap between lances where they couldn't been seen and which led to me getting both his trebs, his level 4 and the archer bunker.

The small force on my left accounted for one of the Errant units, but all died- however, it meant that Tom had to send a full lance to deal with them which took it out of the rest of the game. The Peg Knights ran around harassing my shooting, as they just wouldn't die! Lowlight had to be the BSB rolling up 11 on the HoDA, needing 3s to hit them and only getting 2 hits and no wounds. I did manage to reduce them to 2 models and panic them, but they rallied on the board edge. In my turn 5 I shot another one off and the last one down to one wound, but he managed to survive long enough to fly away from all my shooting and hide in the far corner saving 200 odd points. Tom's remaining lances basically rolled over all the chaff I threw in their path- Glade Guard, Dryads, Treekin, the works. He only engaged with the lance with 3 characters in the front, and I have to say this is one of the 2 pet hates in Warhammer- people filling their front ranks with nothing but characters/champions. It meant that the only 3 models I could attack each had a 1+ re-rollable and a 5++, which to be honest is just abusive and a retarded game mechanic that should be changed.

The last half of the game became a classic exercise in Wood Elf evasive play- sacrifice whatever you need to to keep the main points safe. The Treekin can't evade because they don't have a musician and can't flee, so they become expensive speedbumps that I put 1" directly in front of him to limit how far he can over-run into my army. The BSB's unit took 2 direct hits from a treb, killing pretty 2 full units and eventually leaving the BSB in a unit of 2 with no other unit in range to get a Look Out, Sir! Rather than give him both the unit and the BSB to a single treb shot, I ran them in different directions reasoning that surely he wouldn't roll a third hit in a row with the blasted trebuchet. Treb aims at the BSB's head, direct hit. Rolls a 1 to wound.

From here, Tom cleans up around half of my army, ending up in my deployment zone charging at my army which is fleeing charges into his deployment zone in a fairly odd situation. He had a couple of failed ld tests on his combat reforms after running down fleeing troops which gave me a bit of breathing room. In the end, I only got what the eagles cleaned up and both the Errant units whereas Tom got my Dryads, all the Treekin, all the Waywatchers, 1 eagle and 3 small units of Glade Guard to make the final result a 14-6 win to Mr Hale. Disappointing to lose, but tbh I'd wanted 6 points from the start and I'm happy not to lose my first game until day 2. A few things could've swung it- those passed ld test would've meant I was fleeing lances that were about 7-8" closer than me in the final turn, as it was he need double 6s to complete the charges but I was never going to take the risk. Had he not made the mistake that let the eagles get behind him he would've hard his magic beyond his 3rd turn and I would've gotten a lot less points, but I'm not going to make excuses for what was simply sloppy play. If I had done one more wound to the peg knights to finish them off it would likely have been a 12-8, but I think 14-6 was very fair.

On a side note, Tom went on to take not only best Bret at the event, but second place overall from a 160 player event which is no small feat, especially with a book that is typically seen as weaker (I personally disagree that Bretonnians are a weak army, they're just not skull-numbingly overpowered like Lizards/Skaven or retardedly simple to play like Ogres which means you actually have to be decent at the game to consistently win with them).

[tmarichards]

Game 5- Empire

This was against Owen Farmer, and I was not happy at all with his list- Tank, War Altar, a million halberdiers, Light level 4, Hellstorm, 2 cannons a peg hero and an engineer with some other bits. Owen castled up his entire army on a 4x4 section of his left hand side deployment zone, with just the Altar in the middle and the Tank on his right. My first thought was, deploy everything in the opposite corner and give the Tank 600pts of chaff, take the 6 points and aim for a big win next round. However, another Wood Elf player had sneaked ahead of me so I figured that I really needed to take the risk and come out and play. Also, sitting in a corner and looking at him for 6 turns has no appeal because I am neither that much of a c*nt nor a Dwarf player and if I pay good money to attend an event I want to play all 6 games- otherwise, what's the point? So, I deployed a lot of shooting opposite him to try and make something happen with a load of chaff opposite the tank to try and tie it up. One unit of Treekin hold me left ready to push past a big building in the centre if his halberdiers get too ambitious and the other goes opposite his level 4.

Owen get the first turn and pushes towards me, and does a little bit of magic to no great effect. He cannons off one of the Treekin, then gets a direct hit with the Hellstorm that kills 13 out of 16 Glade Guard from the big unit. However, I was baffled as to why he fired the cannons first- the Hellstorm is clearly going to take my Look Out, Sir! away if it hits, and firing the cannons last means he can either snipe the level 3 or still shoot the Treekin. Again, just bad play really. On my first turn I chaff up the tank with Dryads, and dive the level 4 into the next unit of Glade Guard and run the Waywatchers into the building in the centre, reasoning that he'll never shoot them out and if he want to magic missile them, he's not helping get the LOS off the general. Figuring that she's about to die next turn, I chuck a massive Amber Spear in the War Altar. 6 dice, double 6, hits the Altar. Wounds. Failed the ward save. 6 wounds. The Waywatchers then snipe the very confused looking Arch Lector who is standing on foot all his own wondering why his ride has just been turned into kindling. On the miscast, my level 4 Dimensional Cascade, and lives but nukes 7 of her 10 man unit- so she's now looking at 2 cannons with no LOS. My shooting is pretty abysmal, I pick of a few models here and there.

Side note! After the game, it was pointed out to me that the Altar has magic resistance to the effect of a 2++ vs magic. Now, I don't remember what Owen rolled on his war but I'm pretty sure it wasn't a 1. However, in both the run of the game and the overall tournament it made absolutely no difference whether we played it wrong or not- sadly, this gives you an idea of how this game goes.

On his second turn, Owen again pushes forwards and runs the Peg hero well away from the building, gets a halberdier block into a unit of Treekin that I very stupidly exposed the flank of and shoots the first cannon at the level 3 who does not have a Look Out, Sir! and kills her. Or rather, he doesn't- he shoots it at the Waywatchers in the building, killing 4 with the D6 hits. He then shoots the second cannon at the mage who has no LOS, killing her. Or rather, he doesn't- he instead once again shoots the Waywatchers killing the last of the unit. This baffled me, to say the least. The Hellstorm gets a second direct hit, removing 9/10 of another unit of Glade Guard. The Treekin break and run off the board, making me pay for a dumb error which was simply bad play.

With the proverbial really hitting the fan, I decide to hope for a bit of luck- the level 3 runs out of what's left of her unit towards another unit on the far left of the board who are currently chilling out in a building to avoid the tank. All I need it one turn of him not hitting the level 4 with the cannons, and she can dice into a unit that can't be seen by any of his war machines. I shoot off a few models.

Next turn, Owen fires the first cannon at the level 4, and it doesn't hit her. He fires the second cannon at her, and it also doesn't hit her! This is a bit unlucky, but given that he was rolling 3 artillery dice a turn for 5 turns and he didn't misfire once, I think this can be excused. However, in my next turn a lone Dryad that broke from the Steam Tank flees and clips the unit in the buidling that the level 4 is running towards. They fail their panic test and flee off the board, which leaves the level 4 in the open again at which point she does get cannoned.

At this point, it just goes from bad to worse and when it all starts going wrong there are no brakes on the rape train. Trying to claw some points back I charge 4 Treekin into a unit of 40 halberdiers. I do 3 wounds to him, lose 2 Treekin in return and get run down. The Hellstorm scores a third direct hit and kills 8/10 of another unit of Glade Guard. Owen messes up a simple charge sequence that allows me to flee the remnants of the big unit through a building away from his army, but is then able to recover from his mistake by killing the with a magic missile. I manage to keep a couple of units alive with a couple of models left by just moving them really well because Owen position his units terrible to try and get them, but it's too little too late. I end up with 7 glade Guard left on the board in 2 units, and all I killed was the Altar- which I maybe shouldn't have got.

Overall, this game really knocked the wind out of my sails. I don't really mind if I come across as a bad loser or not, Owen turned up with a list that I couldn't win against and then didn't even play it that well making lots of mistakes that I considered obvious. However, it's easy to recover from making mistakes like that when you have war machines and good magic. In the end, I went down 20-0 in a game that I should never have tried to play. It did get me thinking afterwards- would I rather make the game a non-event and sit in a corner to take the minor loss, or try and play the game and lose to a player who I didn't consider to play particularly well simply because he has an abusive list? Overall, I think I'd rather take the non-event, so if nothing else I'll know for next time- as much as I may not want to do it, it'll be better to do it than to have another game like this.

[tmarichards]

Game 6.

So, the top Wood Elf player got a minor loss in his round 5 game, so if I got a big win and results went my way I could still feasibly take out top Wood Elf which meant that next game I needed to come out all games blazing and play for the big win. As a result, I wanted a decent match-up where I could put the last game to bed by playing well and getting a good win. So, the draw goes up and what do I have?

Lizardmen.

I was not a happy bunny as you might expect. Get to the table, and what sort of build is it? Loremaster Death Slann who Bane Heads the level 3 so no magic for me. 2 mounted Scar-Vets. 2 Salamanders. SKRox. Saurus bunker. The world in skirmishing chaff. Very very standard, and it's very standard for a reason- it's bent as *****. Anyway, rather than get myself too worked up I decided to look at it from an objective points of view- forget what army he is playing, what are the basic building blocks of his list and how do I deal with them? Death caster mage in a combat bunker- I split the characters up so he can't snipe them both in one phase, and slow the block down by double fleeing with eagles. Lots of chaff- shoot it until it either dies or panics. A combat unit that hits hard but doesn't like getting hit in return- whittle it down with shooting and Dryads and shooting then put the Treekin into it.

And, as a matter of urgent priority, make the bloody Salamanders DIE. As soon as possible please.

Unfortunately, this just doesn't work against Lizards- the Scar-Vets make redirecting incredibly difficult because I have to block off both the unit and stop the charging which I am able to do for a bit, but even with the level 4 hiding behind a building on one side and the BSB out on the other it won't last for long. I am helped out by Tim failing to cast with the Slann in 2 of his magic phases though which helps keep me alive for a bit longer and also producing the first ever failed Scar-Vet stupidity test (Cold Blooded 9 with a re-roll) to turn his frog's unit stupid for a turn. Despite pumping around 50 short range Glade Guard shots and the HoDA into the Salamanders they live long enough to kill 2 units of glade guard, a unit of waywatchers and panic the level 4 off the board. Shooting the chaff doesn't work because it all skirmishes, and even when I do force a panic test they have ridiculous leadership so they either don't fail or they rally next turn.

I do manage to weaken the SKrox and eventually grind them out with a unit of Treekin (the other unit spends the game dodging Scar-Vets which is horrendously difficult and required sacking the big Glade Guard unit) and get a bit of chaff, but on his turn 6 Tim kills the BSB with Caress of Laniph (which is a less than 50-50 chance with the average 3 hits, and he only got 2 hits on him...) which panics a unit of Glade Guard off the board, and in my turn 6 I fail to Killing Blow the Svar-Vet that is sat out in the open with no Charmed Shield left.

So, in the end, I end SCGT 2012 with a 14-6 loss, which isn't great really. Overall I got 62 points and came 74th out of 160, but considering that at the start of day 2 I was on 50 points and I was sitting happily on 6th I kind of feel like I threw it all away. The top Wood Elf general took a very different route to the top than me- he got smashed round 1 then worked his way back up, which may be a better method that trying to get up high than stay there- I certainly would've had worse lists and probably also worse opponents if I had held back a little bit of day 1. However, that just doesn't sit right with me- as is probably obvious I am incredibly competitive and I always want to do my best, and I also find it incredibly disrespectful to an opponent to hold back on them in a tournament game ( a friendly is of course a different matter) because it implies that you don't think they're good enough to beat you unless you throw the game. If I am losing, I don't want my opponent to give me a few free points or whatnot, I want them to press on and make me really work to try and get something back so I extend that same courtesy (for better or for worse) to my opponents.

Overall though, bitterly disappointed with how the event went. I'll go into it in more depth when I record a summary tomorrow, but I really don't feel like I earned any of my results because of how lucky I was in the games where I didn't lose. In any case, despite the rubbish finish I do have a few good points to take away and I learned from a few mistakes. Still, would've been nice to get the best in race trophy at my first major event with Wood Elves.

[TsukeFox]

Ouch-
So good job Nuking the pope mobile!!

Ya it is a tourny- best to nab the points where you can. But!! If it was the last battle of the tourny & this empire player was standing in your way for 1#!!
What would you do?
At least, when the 8th empire book is legal, the steam tank will be T6 and maybe victory will be closer in sight.

[Lord Dan]

The guy's name was really Owen Wilson?

[vcassano]

Thanks for the reports, Tom. It is a shame to see that some of the games were bad (it seems like losing isn't so much the problem, but the manner of defeat). I share your dislike for boring gunlines; hence why I play the two most aggressive armies . The Empire battle just seems a bit rubbish, really, though by the sounds of it I cannot fathom how he won best Empire. It makes me really glad that the Empire have been pushed to be a little more aggressive in their new book. As for Lizardmen, well, I have long considered them and Dwarfs to be the most dull books around. Dwarfs can barely compete in half the phases. Lizardmen are Fantasy's Space Marines - the most forgiving army around.

[tmarichards]

@Lord Dan- whoops, no it wasn't. Fixed that

Lizards are indeed a blight upon the game. As it stands, I am perfectly happy with the current Wood Elf book- I firmly believe that as long as I play well enough, I can compete with the rest of the power armies at an overall tournament, maybe not in the game itself, and to be completely honest I'd much rather see Lizardmen and Skaven get new books before a new Wood Elf book as I think they are terrible for the game.

[TsukeFox]

Amen-!! I demand my Skaven spells get powered up versions (3d6 Warplighting like back in 7th!!) & 13th goes away-I rather have a warpstorm vortex thing.

Further Wood elf lore has to be fixed or removed so that a hero Mage is viable. Maybe add lore of shadow or light...
Or some BA monstrous Calvary.

[tmarichards]

Wood Elves with Lore of Light would be a force to be reckoned with. WS10 I10 Treekin with re-rolls to hit? Yes pls.

Failing that, an errata allowing our hero mages access to the rulebook lores. I'm sure allowing me to only spend 115pts to get my scroll and Wildform wouldn't be too game breaking :/