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GT @ Orktoberfest 2007

After the success of my Nurgle Daemons at Convic earlier this year (5th Overall, Best General - see Report) I decided to take them to Orktoberfest, except this time the army was going to be all my own work - no borrowing figures from Gav Who? this time around :).

Orktoberfest is the biggest Warhammer tournament in Queensland and is put on by the Queensland Gamers Guild. It's been running for 5 years and goes from strength to strength each year, with 62 players finishing the event in 2007.

In the two weeks leading up to the event I painted and based 30 Plaguebearers which have been sitting on my desk for 6 months. I also stripped, painted and based the Nurglings as well.

I had two personal challenges for the weekend, one to beat my mate Dodgy Dave Lancaster in the Overalls and also to garner a few Players Choice votes for my newly finished army.

So I have my Daemon Prince, Blade of Ether, Diabolic Splendour, Soul Hunger

Daemonic Herald BSB with Warbanner and Spellbreaker on Daemon Beast of Nurgle

Daemonic Herald with Spellbreaker on Daemon Beast of Nurgle

15 Plaguebearers with Full Command and Unholy Icon

15 Plaguebearers

3 Nurglings

3 Plagueriders

The total of the army is 2245pts, and there is nothing else of any use that I could spend the 5pts on.

This year I had Jeff Traish, Evan Ferris (Fri, Sat) and Charles Black (Sat, Sun) staying at Hotel GT. I spent Friday night doing some last minute touch ups on the Plaguebearers while waiting for Gav Who? to drop off Traishy and the Doombull. It ended up being a late night :)

A bright and early start on the Saturday morning got us to the venue just after 8am. Plenty of time to catch up with all the interstate travellers before the round draw was announced.

Please note I don't claim any accuracy for what I write below, it's what I think happened in the game without having notes to fall back on and I'm sure my opponents may be able to clarify certain bits that I have forgotten :D

Game 1

Kenton Presland - Wood Elves

Wardancer Lord, Wardancer Hero, 2 x lvl 2's, 1 big unit of Glade Guard with Banner of Springtide, 1 small unit of Glade Guard, 1 unit of 5 glade riders, 2 units of 8 Dryads, 1 unit of 3 Warhawks, 2 units of 8 Wardancers, Great Eagle, Treeman.

I won the roll to go first and took it, moving up with all my units as far as I could. I slipped my rear protecting unit of Nurglings to the left to cover any possible Warhawks flying into behind my army. Kenton moved up some units, shuffled some others, used a wood to his advantage and got close to my army but out of line of sight, his magic moved the protective wood further in front of my Unholy Icon unit, making future moves for them harder.

I declared a charge with one unit of Plagueriders and DP onto his Banner of Springtide unit, he chose to flee, rolling high enough to avoid the direct charge, but due to the rules about having to flee from highest US i.e. the Plagueriders, the models went off on a tagent which, once the figures had been moved, brought them into range for my DP who ended up on top of the Glade Guard - effectively killing them. So at the top of the second turn, he was down one major strike unit in his army. Unfortunately it meant the DP was now in a position to be charged by Wardancers in the flank. Some other movements by me forced the issue with the Glade Riders on my right flank and the Warhawks. Kenton charged my DP who was challenged by the Wardancer Lord who had the friggin Annoyance of Netlings - fuck I hate that item. He moved his Treeman up to threaten my Unholy Icon unit and brought a Dryad unit over to support them, the other Wardancer unit moved over to behind the DP. The Glade Riders backed off a bit and the Warhawks moved up to suuport them. Magic again moved the woods around and Strangle Root did some damage to my Unholy Icon unit. In combat he did a wound or two on my DP, I did none in return but held.

I charged the Glade Riders with my Plaguebearer unit with Daemonic Herald in it, killing them outright but choosing not to overrun. The Unholy Icon unit turned to face the upcoming Treeman charge. The BSB moved up to be in range of the DP just in case as well as lining up the Dryads for a possible charge. The DP took some wounds and did none in return but still held in combat. The Treeman popped against my unholy Icon unit of Plaguebearers, rolling 12 for his stubborn test, this allowed them to get into his Dryads, breaking them and then into his second unit of Dryads. The Nurglings charged the Warhawks, over running onto the hill. The Unholy Icon unit killed the Dryads overrunning into the rear of his wardancer unit, but it wasn't enough to stop the DP blowing up. He rear charged my Unholy Icon unit with the other Wardancer/Wardancer hero unit and slaughtered me in combat but I held which allowed my Nurglings to charge his Wardancers in my rear in the flank. The BSB charged the Dryads who had been broken from the Unholy Icon unit but which had rallied in Kentons turn, killing them and falling short of running into the Glade Guard unit.

The Unholy Icon unit popped leaving his Wardancer Lord and unit free to charge the Plagueriders, the Nurglings took care of the Wardancers, in turn charging the flank of his generals unit which broke from combat and was run down. The BSB took the Glade Guard unit under half and the final Dryad unit died to the Nurglings on my right. The Great Eagle was a pain in the arse, but they always are. And I didn't get anywhere near threatening his mages.

The wash up: 12-8 win to me.

Game 2

Jason Beasley

Hero on Taurus, Hero on foot, 2 x lvl 2's, 2 blocks of warriors, 2 x 15 Blunderbus, 2 x hobgobs units, 1 x Bull Cents, 2 x Bolt Throwers, 1 x Earth Shaker

Jason got some ideal terrain placement in this game, basically funnelling my army into an opening through which I may have only been able to fit three units through. Also allowed his Earthshaker to take a number of pot shots slowing me down even further. I spent the whole game with one unit of Nurglings trying to take on a Blunderbuss unit with one of his mages, finally taking them out in the 6th turn. He had a a bad deployment with his Bull Centaurs, which effectively kept them out of the way and not too much of a threat to me. The DP got a charge off on them, breaking them and over running just short of one of the Bolt Throwers. I did get the charge of on the BT killing it and then flying over to be behind one of his Warrior units and the Earthshaker where Terror was attempted, but he passed both units tests. His Taurus was a pain, getting into my rear and taking on the unit of Plaguebearers in the rear, but I won combat due to having the BSB in it. I turned to face and we slugged it out for a turn or two before I got off a charge into his flank with the Unholy Icon unit which finally won me that battle.

One Plaguerider unit went on to take on a big unit of Warriors but didn't have the strength to get past the armour save of the Chaos Dwarves in combat. The other unit of Plagueriders went up the guts to take on a unit of Hobgoblins which were broken from combat, which allowed the Plagueriders to get into the other Warrior unit. This combined with a rear charge from the DP was enough for me to get that unit.

The wash up: 10:10 draw

Game 3

Jeff Galea

Lord, BSB, lvl 2 mage, lvl 1 mage, Grail knights, Knights of the Realm, Peg knights, 2 x Errants, Mounted Yeoman, Trebuchet, 2 x Men at Arms, Skirmishing Bowmen

This was the Battle of the Moderators - both Jeff and I are mods on WAU. Now Jeff and I are quite happy to give each other a bit of stick, but every time he has a crack at me I gently remind him that I won the one and only game we've ever played, and he clams up every time. So there was a bit of pride on the line in this game. ;)

I took a gamble in this game and moved up 12 inches with both Plaguerider units on my right Flank, and flew the DP over to join one of them. I knew I was going to be out manuevered in this game so I thought if I forced the issue it'd be on for young and old. And Jeff obliged me by taking the bait and charging into the unit of Plagueriders with DP, with his Lord, Grail knights, BSB and Errantry Knights. There was an overlap from the Errants which brought the second unit of Plagueriders into combat as well. The Lord declared a challenge which the DP accepted and took no wounds and in return did two to the Lord. The second round of combat saw my Initiative take the Lord off his horse, effectively removing the threat of the Sword of Heroes which it was toting.

My BSB and Herald were in the normal unit of Plagubearers which had moved up to beside my Plaguerider units, Jeff baited me with Mounted Yeoman which I charged with both the BSb and the DH, killing them outright to overrun into his Men at Arms unit which had moved up to prevent me flank charging his Grail Knight unit. I took a turn or two of combat to beat them, which allowed his KoTR unit to move up into charge position. My Unholy Icon unit moved towards his remaining Errantry unit, hoping for an impetuous charge. The Plaguebearer unit, did a 180 and swung around towards the Plaguerider/DP combat.

The KoTR charged the Unholy Icon unit, which saw them fluff their attacks and in turn the Plaguebearers broke them but couldn't catch them, one of his mages panicked from the broken unit and fled off the table, the KoTR stopped one inch short of the table. This left me open for a flank charge from the Errantry unit, which took on my unit, I held and eventually broke them and ran them down. The KoTR failed to rally.

Through 10 turns of combat my Plagueriders and DP held, allowing the BSB to eventually flank charge the Grail Knights, giving me enough combat res to win the titanic battle. My pursuing models then over ran into the Peg Knights, making mince meat and feather pie of them. Serves them right for failing their fear test to charge in says I :D

Jeff ended up with one mage, his Treb, unit of skirmishing Bowmen and a Men at Arms unit left on the table. Now if he had have joined his mage to the Treb the US would have negated the table quarter which I claimed with a unit of Plaguebearers, but it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the game.

The wash up: 17-3 win to me - and a 2-0 lead in the Battle of the Mods - Huzzah!

Saturday night

The draw for the next day was made available and I had drawn Charles Black for the first game on the Sunday - Chuck and I have only played one game in the past, where he drubbed me 20 nil even after I helped him with a tonne of rules regarding his army, here's hoping tomorrow wasn't going to be the same result.

As with most tournaments I get to in the country the Warhammer Poker Tour was on again, with three tables of players hoping to make it through to the final table and the chance of a nice pot of cash. And as with most of my efforts in the WPT, I was again out first on my table. Too many people on the table (I'd prefer no more than 6 while there were 10) and shit cards saw me busted out by a pair of 10's - WTF! Congrats to Bryan Cook for taking out the final table game, not only did he walk away with a pot of cash but he regaled us with a tale of his new job working for Ralph magazine - Bryan used to be the editor of the Oz WD for those not in the know before moving on to greener pastures, and good on him, lucky bastard.

Game 4

Charles Black

Lvl 4 Daemon Prince, Daemonic Herald BSB on Chariot, 10 Daemonettes, 15 Daemonettes, 18 Daemonettes with Unholy Icon, 2 x 5 Mounted Daemonettes and a unit of Pleasureseekers.

My ability to be a muppet came to the fore with this game. I didn't pay close enough attention to the movements Chuck had been making with his units, and if I had have I would have known that a charge I had have declared with my Daemonic Herald would have been out of range, leaving the DP, who I had done a combo charge with, on his own vs a unit of 10 daemonettes. What should have been an easy combat to win and break through turned out to be a long drawn out process for me, seeing my DP reduced to 1 wound in a couple of turns of combat.

I should have ignored his Mounted Daemonettes on my right flank, rather then sending Plagueriders after them. My units of Plaguebearers were quickly surrounded by the speedy Slaaneshi Daemons, with my flank protecting Nurglings were easily dealt with by his Daemonette Cav and Pleasureseekers. A combined charge from Charles with his DP and BSB into the flank of my Unholy Icon unit, combined with a combo charge from his 15 Daemonettes in the front had me worried as my BSB was in there as well. I accepted his challenge from his DP and moved my BSB over to take the hits.

The combat lasted for a number of turns, with me consistently losing combat and whittling the Plaguebearers down due to combat res. A flank charge from my Plagueriders, who only got one model into contact with his Daemonettes saw me go from losing combat by 2 or 3 to losing combat by 8 - having lost my BSB that turn. This saw my Unholy Icon unit popping. His DP went on into the Plagueriders and combined with the Pleasureseekers, who'd gone through my other units of Nurglings and Plaguebearers, making minced pus of them.

It was all over pretty quickly - and then I find out that Chuck had been seeking guidance from the perenial bridesmaid, Gav Who?, on how to beat my army - unfair says I ;), then again if I wasn't a muppet he wouldn't have gotten behind me, and I should have forced himn into frontal charging me rather then what had occured. We both knew that this big loss would line me up for a good run to the finish of the event.

The wash up: 20 nil loss

Game 5

Matt Hoskings

Lord, BSB, lvl 2, Grail Knights, 2 x KoTR, 2 x Errants, Peg Knights, 2 x Mounted Yeoman, Skirmishing Bowmen, Ranked Bowmen, Men at Arms

Rubbing my hands with glee I looked forward to this game with Matt, last time we'd played in a friendly he chewed me up with the Tomb Kings he was using against my Beasts of Chaos so it was payback time for me. This time I knew I was in with a good chance, especially after my experience in the game vs Jeff and his Bretonnians.

I moved up with all units, leaving my Unholy Icon unit to guard my right flank from his KoTR and Grail Knights. Matt failed a fear check for his other KoTR unit, leaving just the Errantry knights to take on the Plaguerider unit with Daemonic Herald in it. I held the combat for two turns, allowing him to declare a charge again with his KoTR which missed out on making it into combat because Matt had expanded frontage with his Errants to get more attacks in, which in turn forced the KoTR to make their charge partially through a forest, which meant they fell short of the Plagueriders. I then proceeded to win that combat, causing the Errants to run and the KoTR to fail their panic check, leaving to flee away from the combat, they never rallied.

The Unholy Icon unit maneuvered to protect their left flank from the Errants with a forest allowing only the Grail Knights to charge in. A long drawn out combat ensued, eventually I won through when my Nurglings got into his flank and the combat res was too much to compensate for. The Mage in the unit of Grails was killed in combat when she had to move into base to base with the Plaguebearers due to casualties occuring on her protectors.

On my left the Nurglings protected my flank from the Pegasus Knights, eventualy taking them down. In the middle my DP and Plaguerider unit took on the KoTR and BSB unit winnig that combat as well. The plaguebearer unit with BSB went up the guts to take on the Skirmishing Bowmen - they didn't last long :) This left the DP free to fly on over and causing a terror check which was failed by the Archer unit hiding in the building on the final turn.

The Plaguerider unit, with Daemonic Herald, had busted through the line and swung around to take the charge from the Knights Errant unit which had given up on trying to get into combat with the Unholy Icon unit. The Errants bounced and were seen fleeing at the end of the game.

The wash up: 20 nil win to me

Game 6

Anthony Chen

Jag Saurus, Saurus hero, Saurus BSB, lvl 2 skink, 3 blocks of Saurus,2 units skinks, 1 of Terradons, 2 x 3 Kroxi's, Stegadon

Anthony is from Melbourne and had made the trip up for his first Orktoberfest. His experience with Nurgle in the past had been against Andrew Bishop Nurgle Daemons which wasn't a pleasent experience he told me. Lizards aren't an army I regularly play against so my skill set is lacking in that area. We were within one BP of each other, so out of curiosity I checked the overall sheet for the round and Anthony was ranked 14th and myself 17th going into this game (he had better comp scores), so whichever of us won would most likely end up in the top 10.

I deployed so my left flank was protected by the table edge, and threw Nurglings out on my right and behind my main line for protection from the Terradons. The DH joined one unit of Plagueriders on my left, the DP in the Plaguebearer unit and the BSB in the Unholy Icon unit in the centre with the other Plaguerider unit on it's flank. I won the roll to go first and moved my units up. The rear Nurglings slipped to my right which is where the Terradons were going to be coming from. Anthony moved a unit of skinks up in front of his Saurus block with BSB. This allowed me to get a charge off with my DP into the skinks (he survived the stand and shoot;)), I did enough to break and rundown the skinks and my pursuit move put me directly into base to base contact with the BSB in the Saurus unit. Anthony moved some units forward i.e. Saurus block, Kroxi's and Terradons on my right and other units back, Saurus with Jag Saurus, Kroxi's and Steg on my left.

My DP killed the BSB in combat, but I didn't declare a challenge, which was a mistake on my part as there were no champions which could have saved the BSB and I didn't get any overkill, just the two wounds for killing the BSB. I lost combat but I made my pop test. Anthony didn't have a flank charge on the DP in his turn,but moved to try and get one off in his next turn. The Terradons came over to threaten the Nurglings, the units on my left shuffled back again.

I declared a charge with my Plagueriders on the Saurus unit my DP was in combat with, getting two in base contact, the ensuing combat saw me win and break that unit, the DP pursued and got the banner, the Plagueriders pursued and ran into the other Saurus unit. The Nurglings charged the Skinks and Terradon units. The Terradon combat went first and they lost allowing my Nurglings to get into the flank of the skinks in combat with the other Nurglings, that combat was also a loss for the Lizards. The resulting pursuit from the first unit of Nurglings in combat with them saw them get nearer the flank of the Kroxi's.

Anthony declared charges with his Steg and Jag Saurus unit into the Plaguerider/DH unit. The Jag unit failed the fear test, so just the Steg went in, and when maximising he effectively blocked the Saurus unit from getting in in the future without some side stepping to be done. Can't recall who won combat, but we had to fight a second and third round where I won and the Steg held, allowing me a charge with my remaining Plaguebearer unit onto the Steg, the extra two ranks and outnumbering were what I needed to get the win and break the Steg. It caused a panic on the Saurus block but they passed it.

The Nurglings took care of the Kroxigors on my right, the Plagueriders dealing with the Saurus block as well. The DP flew around the back of the Jag Saurus unit, hoping for a Failed Terror test and a crossfire result. The Kroxi's on my left tried to take on the Plaguebearer unit, which held, allowing the DP to charge them in the rear right at the end of the game, breaking them as well. My BSB and his Unholy Icon unit went after the Skinks in the centre getting them to flee, allowing them into the Jag Saurus Unit, they broke them and the flee took them through the Skink Priest who made his panic tyest but lined him up against my unit in combat. A bit of mopping up was done, a table quarter grab with Nurglings and it was all over.

The wash up: 20 nil to me.

The Results

Turns out I came 6th Overall out of the 62 Players. So for my challenges for the tournament I beat my mate Dodgy Overall - he came 26th, and according to Mick the TO a I got a number of Players Choice votes, but not enough to affect my Appearence score. So all in all a good finish :) Special thanks goes out to Mick for being the TO and for QGG for running the Orktoberfest Weekend - 170 players in theree different gaming systems (WFB, 40K and LoTR) is a hell of a lot of gamers in the one spot - Good effort guys :)

Post tourney I found out my result in the event also bumped me up in the Irresistible Force Rankings to 10th spot out of 653 players in the two countries, earning me an invite to the Australasian Masters event in Sydney. I also finished as top Daemonic General of the Year and tied for first place with Trent Denison for Top Sports as well (the second time I have earned this honour) - what a great way to finish the tournament season :D

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