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GT @ Dogcon 2007
I claim no accuracy at all on any of the following as it’s all from memory as I don’t take notes, so don’t bitch at me if you think I’m wrong because the care factor is lower then a snails belly. :D
Prior to the event:
Spent a pretty hectic couple of weeks whipping up some more terrain. Took up my spare time for most nights and weekends leading up to the event as I had to ship it down to Locky a week before to make sure it arrived on time. There’s now more then enough for 50 tables worth that stays in Sydney and is/has been used for a number of tournaments, not just Dogcon.
With the army, Chuck had been in Brisbane in December for work and came over for a game/dinner and we discussed what I should/shouldn’t take to Dogcon. I decided to whip out the hard stuff for the Nurgle army. So I changed my Orktoberfest list and bumped up the Plaguerider units from three to four, added in another unit of four, split my two units of 15 Plaguebearers into three units of 10, dropped some Nurglings and a Herald on Daemon Beast of Nurgle to get the points. For the two 2500pt games, I had another unit of 4 Nurglings and added an extra 2 bases to the small unit.
I had to borrow some figures from Phil Cotrell because the ones I needed were delayed in shipping, but they’ll be available for the next event I play in. Cheers for that Phil – much appreciated. That’s also why my army wasn’t out for display during the beauty pageant – borrowed figures - for those that asked me in person and others who may have been wondering.
This year was the first time I flew to Sydney for Dogcon, having regularly made the trek down from Brisbane in the car/mini-bus with my terrain for use at the event. As we’re all setup with terrain in Sydney now I didn’t need to bring my own – yahoo! But stupidly I’d booked for the crack of sparrow fart flight in on the Saturday morning.
Saturday: Travelling/Dogcon Teams event day.
Getting up for a 4:55am flight is not something I’d recommend to anyone ;) Also getting drunk to make sure you get some sleep prior to the event is also not a good idea. You’d think I’d have learned from my efforts at Convic last year, but no, I just had to finish the session with a dirty great Belgian beer which ruined me.
Seedy as I was and copping ribbings from Gav and Luke we got dropped at the airport caught up with Trent, made our flight and were off south of the border. Off the plane, we headed for the golden arches for a quick feed, let me tell you right now that the first bite on that bacon and egg was absolute torture and I almost couldn’t do it.
We split up at the Sydney airport with Trent and Gav heading straight to the venue while Luke and I and our drivers (thanks Kellie/Ian) went to the international airport and picked up Dave Grant who’d jumped over the ditch from NZ. Bit of confusion in trying to track each other down at the airport, but we eventually met up and were on the road.
I hadn’t planned on playing in the Teams event as I was more interested in relaxing and watching but I got suckered into playing as Sart had pulled the pin on coming and the CCGG team was one short.
I slotted into the Rank 3 possie as Ahkter and Beau are much better players then me, nah not really, but they’d already started their games so I scored the low ranking ;)
Game one was vs Brent Moore (Void) and his Nurgle Daemonic Legion
Brent is from Ballarat, the same young fella who nailed me in the Danish 6 Dice Game at Convic last year, little punk! He had Pappa, Herald BSB on a Beast of Nurgle, some Nurglings, Plaguebearers, Plagueriders and a chariot pulled by two beasts of Nurgle. The army looked great and was fully converted, looking like a shambling herd of turds with claws and teeth, the Chariot was standout as it was a dirty great toilet bowl. Very in theme and very cool. I won the game.
I think it was about this time I grabbed my first beer for the day, same situation as the bacon and egg – took a fair bit of mind games to take that first sip, and once I did it was all good.
Game two was vs Michael Fair and his High Elves
Lvl 4, Dragon mage, BSB on horse, 20 Spearmen, White Lions, 2 x RBT’s, Great Eagle, Dragon Princes.
First time I played them under the new HE rules.
Can’t remember too much about this one right now, and will add detail later if I remember or Mick reminds me. But I know I lost.
Loss
Game three was vs Matthew Hosking (Mattheus) and his Bretonnians
Lord, BSB, 2 x lvl 2’s, 2 x Men at Arms, 1 x Peasant Bowmen, 2 x Squires, 1 x Errants, 1 x KoTR, Treb, 3 x Peg Knights, Reliquae
Matty and I had played last at Orktoberfest Game 5, see here: Orktoberfest report, where I schooled him in how much Nurgle Daemons love playing Brets.
Matt took that teaching to heart and converted it into a draw at Dogcon.
Played three games, won one, lost one, drew one. We came 6th overall. Not bad for something I wasn’t planning on doing.
Thanks to Locky for giving up his time to make sure it all ran well.
Spoke to Ken afterwards and asked if I could change my list for the Individual Dogcon event as my games in the Teams event had shown me the 3 units of 4 Plagueriders were just too unwieldy. Hadn’t had any practice games with the army, so it was a new experience for me on working out how they’d play on the table. “Yeah, no dramas” he said, “just take a 5pt hit”. “Nah I’ll pass” was my response – tough bastard, no freebies off him sad. :(
Saturday night.
It’s a blur, think I watched some cricket/tennis, possibly played the dice game, had a pretty good nights kip at Ev’s place, except I’m a muppet and left my suitcase at the venue – duh!
Sunday.
Game 1 vs Andrew Goodman (Halrax) and his Khorne Daemons.
Bloodthirster, Herald BSB on Jugger, 3 units of Bloodletters, 2 units Flesh hounds, 1 unit of 4 Juggers, 1 Chariot with 2 Juggers.
Talking with some blokes on Saturday I’d worked out Trenthammer style (theory hammer for those unfamiliar with the nomenclature) that if I could get the BT to charge a unit of Plagueriders, maximising against 3 of them, there was a chance that I might win combat. BT has 8 attacks, 4’s to hit so average says that’d be 4 hits, strength is shed loads, so 3’s to wound, that should be 3 wounds saving on 5+, chance of only losing two wounds, with 3d6+6 poisoned attacks back, hitting on 5’s wounding on 6’s, equals 15 attacks on average, hitting 3 times, maybe getting a wound, plus outnumber, good chance of not popping or even drawing the combat.
I won the roll for first go and made every movement count, effectively blocking AG from charging any unit of mine and not allowing him to land the BT behind or beside my line of troops. He moved some troops up to be able to charge in his next turn.
In the 2nd I got my DP behind his line and threatened the chariot, and shuffled some other troops around and set up the charge for the BT to hit the Plagueriders. BT had to charge in and did so, thought I was a little worried he might have gone for a plaguebearer unit which was set up for a possible flank charge on the BT next turn if he took the plagueriders out and over ran. AG moved fleshies to block the charge on his chariot.
In combat his BT did everything according to the averages, except it did 4 wounds and I failed 3, so lost a dude. Hitting back I rolled box cars, giving me a total of 16 attacks, of which 3 hit, one was poisoned. Didn’t wound him and he made his armour save against the poison one. Three wounds vs none and an outnumber saw me taking the pop test at neg 2, which I passed and it was onto turn 3.
Moved a unit of Plagueriders up to prevent the flank of the one in combat with the BT from being hit by the unit of Juggers, who were given a bait unit of Plaguebearers to charge in the flank, hopefully popping them and allowing me a juicy flank charge with plagueriders.
Because the bait unit of plagueriders didn’t pop I had to adjust positioning on possible flank charging Plaguebearers as they weren’t in the ideal spot to get that charge off right away.
Got flank charged by his Juggers into some Plaguebearers who were almost far enough away to have avoided it, using a small pond as defence. They didn’t pop, allowing a Plaguerider unit to hit them in the flank, but only one could contact it, due to the bloody pond.
Chariot got a charge off on the Plaguerider unit with the BT in contact, amassing a bunch of wounds and I popped, with it over running into the Plaguebearer unit.
The DP didn’t do enough damage to fleshies in one round of combat, popped them in the second round.
My BSB charged the flank of the chariot, amassing a wound I think. I won combat – he didn’t pop and I got rear charged by the BT, which challenged and then popped the BSB.
The DP charged a fleshie unit on the hill, again, got stuck in combat, reare charged by Bloodletters, wiped out the fleshies, just in time to be charged in the flank by the BT – pop one DP.
The BT was now free to move around and he lined up my DP.
17-3 loss to me.
Game 2: Nathan Frawley and his Lizardmen
Gen 4 Slann BSB, Nike saurus, skink chief with cloak of feathers, lvl 2 skink shaman, Stegadon, Kroxigors, 4 units of skinks, 1 unit of Saurus, Terradons
Nathan had me out shot and out magiced from the start, yet he made the biggest mistake IMO, he didn’t choose Lore of Light for his spells – that Lore is death on a stick for any Daemon army IMO – and having faced plenty of Empire armies with Altars running bound spells from the lore of Light, I know how bloody hurtful it can be.
I went in hard with Plagueriders trying to charge anything and everything, got some skinks at one stage which got me into position to be charged by Kroxi’s which didn’t do enough and were in turn hit in the flank by another unit destroying them.
BSB was a champion taking on the Nike saurus and doing a wound, breaking him and pursuing into the Skin chief and destroying him in the next turn, leaving me again free to charge the Nike Saurus, eventually killing it. Magic took out the Beast of Nurgle, but the BSB on his own took out another unit of skinks and then the terradons in combination with a plaguebearer unit providing support to trap the terradons.
The DP went after the Stegadon eventually getting a rear charge on it after it had charged a unit of plagueriders. Did enough wounds in the last turn to take it under half points.
Slann was the last thing standing. He’d spent the game hiding in the woods casting magic via his skink shamans line of sight.
13-7 win to me.
Game 3: Aris Tottle and his Ogres.
2500pt game, so an extra unit of 4 Nurglings for me and bumped the other unit up by another 2 bases.
Had a big all in brawl in the middle of the table with my DP in challenge with his Tyrant with tenderisier. Managed eventually to break him and run him down, leaving my DP on one wound.
Plagueriders on my right took out a unit of Gnoblars and a unit of Bulls. Central Plagueriders took out a unit of Ironguts and Butcher who’d flank charged my DP for the extra combat res. Breaking them from combat and eventually running them off the board.
On my right Nurglings took on Gnoblars and Leadbelchers, taking out them both, and then coming back into the Rear of a Maneater/BSB unit, and popping after a prolonged combat including a second unit of Nurglings. Eventually he chewed through me and went after my BSB who was in a unit of Plaguebearers, but I did enough in the challenge to take him out and scrape up the points.
18-2 win to me.
Sunday night.
I think I played poker and went all in early against four spades in the middle without having one in my hand - moron.
Remembered to take the suitcase back to Ev’s biggrin.gif. Absolute classic night though – watched the tennis final – bad luck Tsonga, and then caught some of Not Another Teen Movie, and there’s a piss funny photo somewhere that Ken took of Ev, Nath and I all with our hands up blocking the half of the TV with the old duck in it being kissed by the hot chick. Legendary!!!
Here it is:
Game 4: Kin Sum (Kojihama) and his Wood Elves.
Again a 2500pt game. Alter, lvl 2, Branchwraith, 3 units of dryads, 2 of wardancers, 2 of wild riders, 1 of glade riders, 2 of 10 glade guard, Great Eagle, Treeman.
His head wasn’t quite into it, being a bit over tired he wasn’t concentrating enough.
Two glade guard units were on the hill, my DP flew over and caused terror, making one flee off the table. The other turned to face and combined with the Hail of Doom, took my DP down to 1 wound. I sacrificed him into the Treeman, trying to take off some wounds so that a Plaguerider unit would have a chance at taking it out.
At one stage in the game he sent his Alter over to annoy my Plaguebearer and plaguerider units, but as I pointed out to him, what was the point, he couldn’t take on any of the units on it’s own as there was nothing to support it all he would do would be march block, which would get him no points in the game. He was better off bringing it into play in tandem with other units he had on the other side of the board. This led to a 10-20 minute discussion on thinking ahead in a game and setting traps and hypothetically what may or may not happen.
In the end I sprung the trap, got a good wheel on the charge and managed to obliterate a unit of wardancers over running out of the way.
Kin got of a combo charge on one unit of Nurglings with wild riders and due to maximising of my skirmishers; he got his Alter and dryad unit into the flank. I soaked up the attacks, and smacked his Alter for a wound, didn’t pop and smacked the Alter again in the next round taking it out.
13-7 win to me.
Game 5: Marc Hurwitz and his Wood Elves
Lord on Dragon, Branchwraith, lvl 2, BSB with Netlings, 2 units of 10 Glade Guard, 3 Treekin, 6 Waywatchers, 7 Wardancers with muso, 19 Eternal Guard, Great Eagle.
Made a mistake with my movement in the first turn which allowed his Dragon to get behind my ranks.
My Plaguebearer unit with DP in it moved up so I could possibly get a charge off with the DP in the second turn. I basically shuffled the rest of the army forward.
I made another error in movement in my second turn moving a plaguebearer unit just up onto a hill which gave him line of sight onto its flank. He took the charge and proceeded to roll one wound with his nine attacks and I failed it, hit him back with one plaguebearer doing a wound to the guy on top. With my outnumber, wound vs his wound, flank bonus it was a draw, but I got the hill after a quick flick through the rulebook to confirm that bonus against fliers, so I won by 1 and he rolled a 11 for his break test and was promptly run down.
DP got into combat with wardancers, did some damage, didn’t break them, got flank charged by dryads, did more damage to the wardancers which again held, flank charged the dryads with my BSB and finished them all off leaving my characters free to move on. The DP went off after some Glade riders while the BSB held centrally.
Meanwhile one unit of plagueriders had chewed through a Glade Guard unit, over running and getting out of position. Marc attempted a flank charge from his treekin on that unit but fell short, allowing me a flank charge with a second unit of Plagueriders. I manged to get one into combat (had to avoid a wood during the wheel) and we fought it out for a couple of turns, before he managed a flank charge from his Eternal Guard unit with BSB on my Plagueriders. I think I popped.
This left my BSB and a lone plaguerider whos unit had been shot to pieces to join up and charge the Eternal Guard unit who fled in the 5th turn, and rallied in the 6th. My plagueriders who’d gone through the Glade Guard had by this time made some delicate turns and got into position to charge the Treekin which they did in.
In my last turn the DP and Nurglings managed to get the Glade Riders. And Marc got a charge off with his Wild Rider unit into the flank of a plaguebearer unit in the last turn, but didn’t pop them.
19-1 win to me.
Game 6: Gavin Clarke (Slardy) with Empire
Arch Lector on Altar sword of Sigismund, Armour of meteoric iron, BSB on Barded Horse with Hammer of Judgement and Icon of Magnus, WP on Barded Horse with Orb of Thunder, Lvl 2 on Barded Horse with Rod of Power, 2 vanilla knight units, 2 a 15 flaggies, 1 unit of IC Knights with Warbanner, 2 x 5 Pistoliers inc Champs with RP’s, 12 crossbows with detachment of 5 swordsmen, 15 swordsmen with detachment of 5 archers, Canon, Helblaster.
If ever there was a scissors to paper army matchup this was it. Gav had the samurai sword to my tissue paper. Taken Lore of Light on his Mage, combined with the Lore of Light on the Altar, with the bound spells from it and the Arch lector and Warior Priest plus the orb of thunder made my two dice and one Spellbreaker look outclassed.
Turns out we were ranked 5th and 6th going into this game, with both of us having a chance of a podium finish. So there were no punches pulled in this one and it was on for young and old.
I held my dice for the Orb in his first turn but only rolled a 3 which meant my plan to get into his lines and terror his outriders wasn’t going to happen, I had to slip around the right flank with my DP and Plaguebearer unit.
I copped a shed load of magic/shooting which whittled down my Plagueriders. Strength 6 will do that.
A failed charge by one inch saw me get flank charged by a unit of flaggies, and eventually the other unit got in my front. I whittled down the flanking unti to get half points on it, but I was eventually destroyed.
Managed a charge from a Plaguerider unit onto the Altar – the only way I can do any damage to it, as the van Horstmans keeps the characters away. I scored a wound on it – according to Gav the only person to do so in the 6 games he’d played in the tournament. A counter charge by the Knights with BSB unit saw me popped and then my BSB was charged by the Altar, I lost combat and was ded.
The DP went after Pistoliers who’d fled out of reach, leaving him caught in the crossfire of magic/shooting make him a puddle of green gunge. The supporting unit of Plaguebearers went after the Pistoliers, which in turn fled off the table, causing a unit of knights to panic, but they rallied.
Nurglings got a charge off into the flank of his Knight unit with WP and mage and I managed to kill the mage.
The plaguebearers had a chance to charge the unit of knights in the last turn but had to withstand 28 shots from the helblaster in Gav’s last turn, I took off three models, leaving me at US 6. I decided not to charge the knights as my outnumber was gone and it would have been suicide so I opted out of giving Gav the points and instead denied him a table quarter.
On my right the Plagueriders played shuffle up the board, getting march blocked by Pistoliers and shot by them and crossbowmen and archers. Constantly moving back out of my charge range with his knights and swordsmen unit, he managed a canon shot on them as well and it was all over for that unit.
Toting up the scores at the end I’d managed to grab a whole solitary point off Gav, denying him the 20 nil he sought.
1-19 loss for me.
The Washup
I came 20th Overall after my four wins and two losses, better than last years effort of 34th when using Papa Nurgle. So I’m pretty happy with that. Also stoked to know I had a crack at a podium finish, but was denied by a bad match up of armies. Oh well, next time it could be a completely different story.
Got fair to middling comp of 19 out of a possible 24 - to be expected, I was looking for 3's when i'd seen the criteria.
Managed to get full marks of 24 for sports plus a bonus one, so that at least tells me I gave my opponents good games and didn't jib them of anything.
Also got full paint points, which I expected as it easily fitted the criteria of that.
Thanks also to my 9 opponents over the weekend, I had a ball and was happy to have had a crack a t a couple of guys I’d never played before. Cheers for that.
Thanks goes out to Ken Ferris for putting in the time to be the TO, great effort mate. Good to see you weren’t too stressed out over the weekend. When are you running another one??? ;)