Hobby Related Material

Army Building

Painting

GT @ Convic 2007

For the first time since 2003 I could afford a flight to Melbourne for a tournament (saving for and buying a house bleeds you dry ;)) and as the Vagabonds boys had been hassling me for the last two years to come along to Convic it was perfect timing to head back to my old stomping grounds south of the border.

My love for playing WFB tournaments had been waning of late due to a couple of things, the first being the shafting my Beasts army got under the 7th ed rules set (I’ve been playing them for the last three years) and the second being the only other armies in my collection that were painted to tournament standard was either a 1500pt Savage Orc army or about 5000pts of Empire but without either a Stank or a Pope on an Altar, i.e. not very competitive lists.

I did however have a Nurgle Daemonic Legion army on the boil, it just needed to be have a decent list put together and I needed to collect the last one or two models I needed to get the job done. I had played with Nurgle Daemons at Dogcon earlier this year, borrowing an army from Gav Who? as my own army was far from being collected or painted.

This time around though I didn’t want to take Papa Nurgle and I wanted to go with a no magic, no shooting army. There was method to my madness, with three reasons behind the decision.

  1. I’m sick of all the little pampered babies having a sook online about playing opponents who had 8 dispel dice and three scrolls which negated their 11 power dice and 3 bound items magic phase. Suck it up princess!
  2. I wanted to prove it is possible to be competitive in 7th ed with a combat army, even if it was daemons.
  3. I wanted a small army that was easily transportable interstate also it’d be less units on the table, which in turn means less bending over. Playing my Empire army at Fortunes this year I found out just how bad my broken back is getting. After consultation with my physio, changes had to be made to how I play my games, it’s that or give up playing two day tournaments :( something at this point I’m not willing to do.

I played a few practice games at one of my local gaming establishments The Blind Pig and a couple at The GT Battle Bunker (i.e. my back deck) with a couple of different lists. The lists were snipped and changed here and there; they usually varied with the number of characters i.e. two Exalted Daemons & a Herald BSB or a Daemon Prince and a Herald BSB, depending on whether I went the 2350pt or 2250pt army list option available to me. Sometimes I had three units of Plaguebearers, sometimes two. I even tried out the Nurgle Chariot once or twice without too much success. Consistent throughout though was two units of Plagueriders and two units of Nurglings. It only took a quick PM or two later to that all round good bloke Charles Black and my list was finalised for the event.

Daemon Prince, Diabolic Splendour, Blade of Ether, Soul Hunger

I went the lord level option Daemon Prince over the hero level Exalted Daemon because of the extra 50pts of magic items available to me. And Exalted just doesn’t cut it without the full kit whereas the DP can take full advantage of it. Also in my mind the DP is a concession in the list, everyone I have talked to about Daemons in general has said a DP is pants; it can’t take anything on, so I had to have one.

In my practice games I don’t think I had a game where the big fella didn’t pop. It was only after having my last practice game against Gav Who? that the penny dropped. Gav gave me the tip to stick the DP in a unit of Plaguebearers because it’s harder to target him with shooting and magic, and then move the unit up 8 inches in the first turn. After that the DP is then free to fly out 20 inches and usually he’ll be behind the enemy lines causing the all important terror checks, essential in disrupting the enemy line.

Soul Hunger is needed with the 5 attacks a DP gets, odds are you’ll be hitting on 3’s 99% of the time, so that’s on average 3 hits, so getting the extra 2 in from the reroll helps out lots. Blade of Ether ensures that when you do get all those 5 hits to hit, the wounds that are done with strength 5 can’t be saved. And Diabolic Splendour is there for the times the dice gods get angry and you air swing like a mofo.

Daemonic Herald, Daemon Beast of Nurgle, BSB, Greater Icon of Chaos, Warbanner, Spell Breaker

A Herald is essential for a DL army IMO. That all important reroll on the occasions where you do roll high for pop tests is gold! Again in my practice games I learnt how to use this model correctly. Starting him out in a unit or keeping him behind the lines, depending on what the opponent had in the army in respect to magic/shooting.

The Daemon Beast of Nurgle was taken instead of a straight Daemonic Mount because it’s got the added benefit of being in theme with the army as well as the chance of doing extra damage with it’s d6 +1 poison attacks.

So with the 3 strength 5 attacks from the Herald and the d6+1 strength 4 from the beast the model can pack some punch. The fact that it’s a BSB and can take the Warbanner just adds an extra +2 to combat res helps immensely.

The Spell Breaker was there to compensate for not having any magic level generated dispel dice.

Daemonic Herald, Daemon Beast of Nurgle, Spell Breaker

This one was a last minute inclusion. It was always going to be a toss up between a Exalted Daemon and another Herald for inclusion in the army because of the extra flexibility another character provided.

The Herald/Beast combo won out based on the attacks it could pump out (see BSB comments) points wise compared to the Exalted. It also provides a good bit of flexibility when added to a Plaguebearer or Plaguerider unit, being able to keep up with both units speed wise.

My characters: My Characters

15 Plaguebearers, Full Command, Unholy Icon

The main points sink in my army apart from the DP. This unit got the full combo, with full command and the Unholy Icon giving it the 4+ ward save. The full command gives me the ability to take on most units from the front, i.e. if they charge me or I charge them.

If required a character could fit into the front rank of this unit even with the full command group.

15 Plaguebearers

There were no points available in the army to give this unit any upgrades; otherwise they’d have at least got a standard. One bonus with this unit is that I could put two characters in the front rank unlike the other unit, where a second character would be relegated to the second rank due to the command figures.

Regarding both of the Plaguebearer units, I went with 15 in both because in practice games 10 man units were not making it across the table or when they did they had no combat res from ranks to be effective.

3 Nurgling Bases

3 Nurgling Bases

The skirmish ability of the Nurgling bases, combined with their 12 wounds and the -1 to hit from cloud of flies made these guys perfect for holding up hard hitting units, providing protection on flanks or, against Beastmen armies, rears.

Just wish the little fellas had poison, it’d be in character and would make them a gold medal performing unit. I’d be more then willing to pay any extra points to get that ability.

3 Plagueriders

3 Plagueriders

The big hitters of this army. The fact that one unit can dish out 3d6+6 strength 4 poison attacks, has toughness 5 and -1 to hit means that the enemy can throw anything they want at them and more then likely I will win combat.

Their one weakness IMO is they are 150mm wide on the table, which means long wheels and the potential to leave unguarded flanks.

Regarding the army as a whole, during practice games I found that deploying them with the two Plaguebearer units in the middle, with Nurglings on the outer flanks and tossing up on the Plagueriders and going for either both on one flank or one on each flank. Wherever possible I’d anchor against a flank and take up only have a table width for my deployment. Characters went into units to start with and then moved on from there if needed.

The rest of my army:

Left side of my army Right side of my army

Visual Appeal

Chaos Daemons in general suffer from a lack of support from GW when it comes to models. Good luck trying to find a Chaos God specific Daemon Prince/Exalted Daemon or some of the Daemonic Cav models on a GW shelf.

Because of this minor setback on the part of the company that gives us players a wealth of potential conversion opportunities and the characters and Plagueriders in my army have taken advantage of that.

My DP is a Reaper Undead Troll onto which I have sculpted some greenstuff wings and a horn. His Blade of Ether is a scythe taken from an old school death figure from some unknown manufacturer I had in my collection.

The Daemonic Heralds are GW Chaos Trolls mounted on Reaper Purple Worms. Took a bit of snipping and bending to get the trolls to sit right on the worm, but once that was done a bit of greenstuff for a saddle pad and it was all good. The BSB got a standard from a plastic GW gor standard bearer and I had an old Nurgle Chaos Icon in my collection that sits proudly on top of the banner.

The Plagueriders are Burrowing Bugs from Mongoose Publishing’s game Starship Troopers with GW 6th ed Plaguebearers on top. Again a bit of bending of legs and some green stuff was required to get them to sit right on the mounts.

The Nurglings are standard 6th ed metals and the Plaguebearer units, which I borrowed from Gav Who? for the event as mine weren’t finished, are a mix of 5th and 6th GW metal models.

Some of the stuff I used was already painted (BSB, Plaguebearers and Nurglings) but others needed to be started from scratch. This included the DP, normal Herald on Daemonic Beast and both units of Plagueriders. I started painting them on the Saturday before Convic, did a bit on Sunday and spent a couple of nights after work and had everything done and based including movement trays by the Thursday night. Gotta love a small army.

The trip itself.

The Muppet King Jim Henson had a panic attack on the Wednesday when he worked out that he wasn’t going to be at the same airport as Gav and I and I’d organised for us to get a lift from our host Mark Povah so he thought he was going to be stranded. A bit of juggling and fifty bazillion phone calls later Trent was lumped with paying for the cab fare for Gav and I split with the NSW boys. Cheers to Locky for organising that pickup!

Having never done it before, Gav and I flew Jetstar for the first time and after that trip it’ll be the last time – nuff said.

The cab ride to the hotel was a cracker, the Chemo Kid looked absolutely beside himself to be out of the hospital, the Fonz was to cool for school and the walking plague of Nurgle that is Akhtar almost poisoned the lot of us…twice!

Fluid refreshment fulfilled the needs of many that night and I must remember when it comes to drinking, my skills have faded with age and I’m a light weight, jeez I payed for it on the Saturday.

My pick during the round table was Luke van Kuyk, and didn’t he let me down during the tournament.

Day 1

A couple of hours kip and an early bird wake-up call from Mark’s daughter Georgia, she robbed me of 3 minutes sleep damn it! :( Jeez I felt seedy as. We were on our way to the venue in next to no time and after a preliminary “hang on a tick boys, feeling a bit queasy moment” I had my nuts roasted by the front seat warmer in Mark’s car. There’s an experience I don’t want to repeat again.

The venue was filling up nicely, plenty of players, plenty of new faces and lots of old ones. Jackie Brown was going hard early for the sexiest general with his pretty little scarf ;) A good, tough field turned out so it was going to be interesting.

I’d successfully kept my head down and dodged a grudge match for the first round so it was great to hear that Dom had used the Rankings to determine matchups for those not having grudge matches (this is something I did at Dogcon a couple of years ago to alleviate the bunny hunting first round problems that can occur) and it works a treat IMO. It meant I’d be playing someone of relatively equal skill at this point of the year and that meant Sean (nasher) Davis from South Australia with his Dwarfs, a tough nut if ever there was one for Daemonic Legion.

Game 1

Sean (nasher) Davis – Dwarfs

Scenario: Dance of Deployment. Cards – me: Fog, him: can’t recall

Anvil, BSB, 2 x Bolt Throwers, 2 x Organ Guns, 20 Longbeards, 20 Hammerers, 20 Slayers, 20 Warriors, 10 Rangers, 10 Miners

Seans army is tough, very tough. The Anvil for movement along with the 2 Organ Guns and the two BT’s will give anyone pause IMO. Magic wasn’t going to be an issue though, so my two spell breakers were going to be a useful points investment this game :)

I went wide with my DP and a unit of Nurglings on the right in the vain hope of being able to take out his war machines and get into the anvil by turn 3 with the DP. First turned I moved the DP up behind a wood, Sean got on with his miners who promptly failed a terror test when the anvil moved them and they were off the table. I then set the DP up to charge a BT and over run into the anvil, but Sean failed his terror test on the BT crew and they legged it, unfortunately for me slightly to the right of the anvil. The Nurglings decided to camp in the wood for the rest of the game rather than face an angry organ gun. I nabbed a table quarter with them in the end. I made a mistake with the DP and charged down the fleeing crew rather than opting for the Anvil. When I returned to the board I went up in a cloud of green mist as two OG’s and a BT were aimed at me, in fact only one OG was needed to do the job.

Pic of the DP about to break the BT crew, and more moving the Plaguebearer with Herald up to support the Plagueriders.

Game 1 - army in play

The BSB was deployed in the unit of 4+ Plaguebearers left of centre and they got into combat with the Slayers, consistently winning combat and eventually destroying them. A unit of Plague riders on my far left went to take on a unit of Rangers with x-bows. One dropped on the way over, another took some wounds on the charge in and the other had a protracted combat which it was never going to win, not a good point swap IME 240pts for a 100 something :(

In my centre the second unit of Plagueriders went swooping behind a hill and managed a combined charge with the other Herald out of the Plaguebearer unit onto the Longbeards with BSB after his Anvil went pop trying to get them into combat. My memory is hazy here – green around the gills and all that I was ;) I know I eventually got flanked by hammerers and destroyed but IIRC I took out his BSB.

I learnt:

Sean learnt:

11-9 win.

Game 2

David (lonehunter) Atkins aka Cuddly Dave – Dark Elves

Scenario: Take and Hold. Cards – me: Kill his general, him: Atrocity on the 4+ Plaguebearers

Dave’s army was Lord on Manticore, 2 lvl 2’s, Executioners, Corsairs, 1 x 20 Spears, 2 x 10 X-bows, 2 Chariots, Cold One Cav, 1 x RBT, Dark Riders

IMO Dave’s list is pretty soft for a DE list and I marked it accordingly, the inclusion of both the executioners and the Corsairs along with only one RBT and one unit of Dark Riders. Very much the anti-thesis of what DE can do well with i.e. movement, magic and shooting.

IIRC Dave went from my left to right with Chariot, Manticore, Chariot, Cold ones, executioners, Spears, X-bows, X-bows, Corsairs, RBT, Dark Riders.

From my left to right I went Nurglings, Plagueriders with Herald, Plaguebearers with DP, 4+ Plaguebearers with BSB, Plagueriders, Nurglings in a wood.

Dave won first turn and moved his Manticore up to the side of a building. I gave him the choice to charge my Nurglings or charge my Plagueriders with herald, who’d been moved within the unit so he couldn’t be challenged if Dave maximised his manticore. The Nurglings protected my rear because Dave would have been charged with them if he didn’t charge me first. After a bit of umming and ahhing he chose to charge the Plagueriders. Can’t recall who won combat but in my turn I flank charged him with Nurglings and won combat, breaking and running him down. So that was double points from the scenario in the bag and it was only turn two. He then passed a stupidity test on his chariot charging the same Nurgling unit. A protracted combat saw him do not very much and I broke it as well. A failed stupidity test for his other chariot saw it sneak into charge range of the plagueriders who’d just cleaned up his general. It broke from combat and the pursue roll took me into his Cold One Knights, which were beaten, broken and run down. I was off the table by this stage and had to come back on and threaten the executioners.

In the middle both units of Plaguebearers moved up, the 4+ unit hiding behind a hill while the DP flew out to cause a few terror checks. One unit of X-bows failed, fleeing through other units causing panic tests. They eventually rallied in the most dumb arse place, smack dab in front of the unit of Spears, Executioners and Cold One Knights preventing them from charging early on. The DP then went on to survive 3 or 4 attempted shots from the RBT in his quest to take out the lvl 2’s who were on their own. Dave needs a new Golden d6 because his sucks arse! One lvl 2 finally succumbed to the pressure from the DP. The Plaguebearer unit snaffled the marker token for an extra 150VP.

On my right the Nurglings went to protect my flank from Dark Riders putting them under pressure and preventing him from getting into my rear. Dave tried to charge in at one stage and failed his fear check but I eventually got close enough for a charge and cleaned them up. I proceeded to hunt down the RBT after that and took it out as well.

The other unit of Plagueriders went out to specifically take on the Corsairs, taking shots from the second X-bow unit on the way in. I won the combat when it eventually happened and IIRC caused panic on the X-bows who ran off that table as well as me down the Corsairs.

I learnt:

Dave learnt:

20-0 win

Game 3

Steven Kostenko – Lizardmen

Scenario: Meeting Engagement. Cards: me – veto, him – just want to play

2nd Gen Slann with BSB, two plaques and diadem, Nike Saurus, Temple guard, 2 x 20 Saurus, 4 Kroxi’s Skinks with Javs, Skinks with blowpipes, 1 pack of 2 Sallies.

Always curious as to why someone would take a massive points sink like a 2nd Gen Slann instead of just a 4th Gen, Steve’s response was mildly amusing, “For 150pts more I get so much stuff!”. My thought was “For 150pts less I’d get so much more enjoyment out of the game”. I marked appropriately IMO, i.e. not the worst, but close to it.

Going in this was going to be a hard game as I didn’t have enough magic protection to survive the onslaught from the Slann who went Lore of Light and was guaranteed an extra 2 dice per phase saved in his diadem due to me not casting anything. He castled up in the centre with his Temple guard flanked by both units of Saurus. A tough nut I was never going to be able to crack as my Plagueriders which were the only unit capable of taking on the Temple Guard in that situation had already deployed out on my right flank. My centre hiding behind a wall and building were my Plaguebearers with heralds attached. And the Nurglings were on my centre right behind a wood read to go skink/Nike Saurus Hunting just like my DP was planning on doing.

The Plaguebearers did some jiggling movements between the buildings and walls and I hoped it’d be enough to draw Steve’s TG unit forward at the very least, while leaving me within the protection of the defensible structures. They took a fair bit of damage at the hands of the Slann and the magic phase, taking out one unit entirely by the end of the game.

On my right I played tag team with the Kroxi’s and Sallies, while the Nike Saurus hid out of right but was possibly able to charge next turn. I had a hard decision to make with my DP. Jump over and cause terror on skinks, and Nike Saurus and take the possibility they pass and try to survive a whole heap of spewed flame from the Sallies. I made the move and it worked in my favour with the skinks failing. The Skinks ended up in front of his TG and one Saurus unit. I think the DP got charged by the Nike Saurus and I won combat outright destroying it. Spent the next couple of turns flying off to my right and dealing with skinks making them run off the table, coming back in the 6th turn for a charge on another unit on the off chance I could panic them through his units on a flee – wasn’t to be though.

The Plagueriders charged the Sallies which fled, moving me up to force the Kroxi’s to charge both units as I thought I could take that and do OK. In his turn he rallied his Sallies from the earlier flee earlier behind his Kroxi’s which promptly lost combat and were broken, causing panic again, which made the Sallies flee off the Table. One lone Kroxigor survived the game on one wound even though I had charged my BSB in at the last turn hoping that the extra +2 combat Res in addition to the Plaguerider attacks. All that happened was a lot of air swinging. I needed my Daemonic Beast of Nurgle but it had been nailed by a magic missile one turn earlier.

The Nurglings decided the wood in the middle right of the table looked a good place to chase skinks from. Pity for them it brought them into range of the Slann and his “sucks to be a daemon” magic phase. They did survive long enough to hold up some Saurus and prevent them from coming after my Plagueriders who were trying to get around the flank.

I learnt:

Steven learnt:

8-12 loss to me.

39 Battle points after Day 1, not too bad considering the seedy start. Even better I was in front of Guns – jeez he was pissed ;)

Saturday night saw me drinking a lot of water and rolling a lot of dice and dropping some absolute clanger one liners. While it wasn’t as bad as Jackie Brown being the first one out I got absolutely smashed by some little tacker called Brent. I pressured him for his username on WAU to no avail, but he’s stuffed up now haven’t you Void. ;)

Me, with my back to you - note the growing bald spot, getting smashed by little Brent in the corner, guy with the scarf is Jack Brown, last years Sexiest General.

Danish Dice game

Day Two

A good night sleep at the House of Povah saw me bright and refreshed early in the morning. I grabbed the back seat so as not to roast my rocks again but Gav loved it in the front, I’m a bit concerned.

Game 4

Shane (xerciese) Watson – Nurgle Beasts

Scenario; Heavy Hitters. Cards; me - Here to fight, him - veto

Poor old Shane had a headache – too much booze and not enough water during the dice game the night before. I fixed him up from my pharmacopeia and he was right as rain in next to no time.

Doombull, 3 lvl 2’s, 2 herds, 3 lots of Nurgle Mino’s, 2 lots of Centigors with full command, 2 warhounds, 2 chariots, Dragon Ogres.

Lucky us had Warhammer luminary Phil Cotrell gracing use with his presence for this game, and bugger me if he wasn’t a right royal pain in the arse, giving me a kiss of death you would not have believed – details later.

Buildings played an important part in this game, with a bit of rules reading required so we both knew what the g.o. was with the two that were on the table.

From my previous game I knew that even with St 7 the Dragon Ogres would struggle against Plagueriders. I knew that terror would be an issue as well with the relatively low leadership herds/bray shamans. Problem was he rolled up some massively impressive spells, with 2 Hunters Spears, Wolf Hunts, Unseen Lurker – it’s all about the movement baby!,/p>

I deployed wide on the right flank with a Plaguerider unit with the two Nurgling units to it’s left, then the Plaguebearer unit, followed by the other Plagueriders and the 4+ Plaguebearers behind a building.

The DP jumped forward causing a terror test on a herd with two mages in it. It was successful and saved his arse for a turn, but the unit rallied on the Doombulls Ld, more is the pity as I could have nailed it with a charge from the DP. The DP instead charged some centigors off the table, coming back on later to cop a hunting Spear which knocked him down some and then he was cleaned up by the Doombull and its Hellfire sword, just one wound got through but it was enough to do the job after the multiplier

The 4+ Plaguebearers jumped into the building and stayed there for a bit, eventually coming out and taking on the herd, which had previously fled my DP, and a Minotaur unit. The unit survived the game thankfully, but had done half wounds on one bray shaman in the combat before it was broken from combat, which in turn had caused the other herd, which had moved into my 4+ unit’s rear ready for a charge, to fail a panic test and run into the impassable building destroying it on the last turn.

The right hand Plagueriders played tag with a DO and Mino Unit, but this time my luck wasn’t as good and I lost combat the first time, making it through OK in the second round by which time a chariot was sniffing around my flank.

The best fun to be had in the game was me intentionally opening up my flank on the Plagueriders in the centre to a chariot so that I could have a crack at a unit of Minos and the fleeing herd with two shamans which I’d get on the over run. Phil chirps up at this stage with the following curse. ‘I reckon you’re going to lose that combat by one GT and the roll an 11 for the pop test’. Being a touch confident in the -1 to hit against the Plagueriders for the tuskgors and crew and the odds that the impact hits would be 4, I bet him a can of coke on the outcome. Needless to say I was out of pocket a can of coke two minutes later. That chariot went on to threaten my other Plaguerider unit on my right flank.

7-13 loss to me.

I learnt:

Shane learnt:

Game 5

Dave Price - Skaven

Scenario: No half points/table quarters. Cards: me – Magic is fickle, him – kill the general

Dave is from Shepparton, and he’s been trying to get to Dogcon for a couple of years now without any luck, so hopefully he can swing it for next year as he’s a top bloke and we had a cracker of a game. I can’t recall his WAU username though he did tell me, something starting with D IIRC, but he tagged himself with Magic Dave for club JiDave as he always takes armies with magic, and he wasn’t doing to bad with this Skaven army either.

Grey Seer, Warplock Engineer, BSB, Assasin, Stormvermin, 2 x clanrats with ratlings, 2 x slaves, 2 x night runners, 1 x gutter runners, 2 x 6 Jezzails, Giant.

Deployment played a big part in this game. I went wide on my left flank with a Plaguerider unit, then Nurglings, Plagueriders again, then Plaguebearers with DP and Herald, 4+ Plaguebearers with BSB and the Nurglings.

I marched up the Plaguebearers with DP and then launched him out to take care of one of the Ratling guns. I chose not to over run so I could take advantage of the Terror, and it worked famously, launching the parent unit through his lines sideways causing a few panics, which in turn saw a unit of slave’s pop out off the side of the table. However the position of the DP also meant it was possible for the other Ratling to have a crack at him, I had to deal with the giant first and then it was back into a Plaguerider unit.

Nurglings on my left dealt with the gutter runners and then pressured a clanrat unit

Plaguebearers on my left took out Night runners and a slave unit and then started coming back to my right flank to provide support as well as tag teaming with the nurglings to clean up the clanrats.

On my right I ignored the jezzails, but sent the Nurglings off after the Storm Vermin. I needed to stop them sweeping through from that side. The Nurglings held them up for a turn; allowing me to get my own Plaguebearer units around and facing them front on. Dave cast frenzy on them but the proceeded to turn them around and back away from my units. This didn’t make sense to me, as with his combined combat res he could have easily taken out my Plaguebearer units and Heralds which were sitting flush next to each other.

By the time I got to dispel the frenzy in my own phase *Edit I have since been informed by BF post event that this isn't possible - I blame Dave - he told me I could ;) I could only charge my BSB out of the unit into the rear as Dave had moved too far away. I also tried to get my DP in but from my side of the table what looked possible wasn’t when I checked the angle, I missed the line of sight by a bees proverbial.

Thinking all was lost with three turns of fighting ahead I did my best to clean up his BSB who was in the back rank. My combo of War Banner and BSB reroll allowed the BSB to survive until the end of the game in that combat.

The failed charge from the DP worked out OK in the end as the terror tests caused by him on the remaining Ratling gun and Assassin meant they were fleeing in Dave’s turn 6 with no chance to rally.

I learnt:

Dave learnt:

18-2 win.

Game 6

Richard Annear – Khorne Beasts

Scenario: Pitched Battle. Cards: me- Atrocity, him- Kill the General

Beastlord of Khorne, BSB of Khorne, 2 Undivided Wargors, 2 hounds, 2 herds, Big unit of Khorngors, 4 Undiv Minos, 4 Khorne Mino’s, 4 Dragon Ogres, 2 Spawn.

Richard deployed his Khorngors with BSB and Beastlord in them behind a wood. He’d given me Atrocity on his Khorngors, so they had to fall, the characters were a bonus I couldn’t pass up.

The 4+ Plaguebearers with Herald in them had a great chance to take out the unit during the second turn when Richard got unlucky with the Spawn and moved it up into range for a charge, something I did do, and the 10 I rolled for over run brought me into the flank of the Khorngor unit. Turns out Richard was counting on over run being subject to the normal movement rules, when in fact it ignores terrain penalties, so the wood he’d been hiding behind wasn’t going to slow me down.

My central unit of Plagueriders also took on the other spawn which was in front of the Khorngors. I got unlucky this time though as the over run fell short and I couldn’t hit the Khorngors. In reality this worked out OK as it allowed his Dragon Ogres to charge my flank, I didn’t pop and my other Plagueriders hit them in the flank popping them.

The Khorngor unit lost 4 wounds in the combat with the 4+ Plaguebearer unit, combined with a flank charge, two ranks and a banner he lost combat by a couple, rolled high and then rolled a double 1 for fleeing. I in turn rolled a 4 and grabbed about 1200pts in one combat. Admittedly Richard was gutted, but to be fair he brushed it off and went to work with his Minotaur units trying to take me down as best he could.

My other Plaguebearers with BSB turned to face the Minotaurs coming around my left flank. The Khorne Minos were first in but weren’t successful and then the undivided Mino’s had a crack and they too were unsuccesful.

I left my Nurglings behind my deployment zone to cover for the ambushing units Richard was planning on bringing on, lucky I did because he got a dog unit with a character in it and a herd into my rear. In the scheme of things this was important as the first unit of Nurglings was charged by the herd and destroyed, but the second unit held up both the herd, character who was now separate from the dogs allowing the Plagueriders who had done the DO’s in to come back and deal with them. The resulting combat saw and over run into the dogs who in turn were killed.

The DP used his skills in causing terror in this game, accounting for a Wargor and a unit of Hounds which had come in from my far left flank. Then he went on to do what he could with the other herds.

I learnt:

Richard learnt:

20-0 win.

The Washup

The post game discussions were interesting as plenty of lies were told and misinformation spread. I figured based on my BP score alone I’d be in the top 10 Overall, but I knew soft scores would have an effect as it usually does and should.

I finished up 5th Overall on 164 with 81 Battle Points, 24 for Sports, 27 for Comp and 32 for Appearance.

My combination of high BP and good Comp saw me awarded the Best General Award – something I’d never considered possible, and something I am stoked to have received.

Me getting the award:

Danish Dice game

The trip back to the airport on the taxi was a cracker, plenty of ribbing was had, many digs were made by me to the other notables about where they’d finished in relation to myself. Not sure how much longer I can milk this before it blows up in my face though.

Thanks goes out to Dom Holloway for being the TO, to the other Vagabonds for giving him the support he needed, to the Bowls club for their efforts behind the scenes in the kitchen and bar.

Looking forward to the next tournament.

Cheers,

GT