So after two games I was sitting at the top of the pack and landed on Table 1 for a game against a good friend and his nasty ETC Dread Elf List. Hugo is one of the better players in our region and we have very consistently close games, so I was looking forward to it.

Here’s his list for reference:

Dread Elf Chariot/Hydra Spam:


Sea Dragon Host:


Thoughts on the Match up:



Scenario/Deployment/Special Objectives:

Spell Selection:


Terrain and Deployment:


Sea Dragon Host- Turn 1:



Dread Elf Chariot/Hydra Spam- Turn 1:


Sea Dragon Host- Turn 2:



Dread Elf Chariot/Hydra Spam- Turn 2:


Sea Dragon Host- Turn 3:


Dread Elf Chariot/Hydra Spam- Turn 3:



Rest of the Game:


Results and Thoughts on the Game:
[Read More]

Game 3 –Undying Dynasties

So after two wins, I was up in the top tables and would be facing Yann @'Shizuu' and his beautifully painted Undying Dynasties. You might remember his army from a previous battle report, but now he has completed the painting and it looks amazing(Asian/Japanese theme where Sphinxes are Dragons).

He hadbrought the following:


So a list that has a bit of everything, good long ranged shooting and magic, someredirectors and a couple of good anti-push elements in the form of the sphinxes and the chariot unit.

We got to play Frontline Clash and Breakthrough: I picked sides, giving the UD the side with an impassable terrain potentially breaking the battle line in half, and my opponent opted to drop his entire army once he’d seen where my (scoring) Dread Knights were going. The UD deployment was heavy on the left flank, with the Sphinxes guarding the one flank and the other one protected by the table edge, and a unit of shabtis on each side. This allowed me to pit all of my monsters AND the acolytes against the two sphinxes, safe from the left Shabtis, at least for the firstturn. I took a lot of pictures before we started the game, so here you go:










For magic the hierophant got Stars Align, Scrying, Know thy enemy and Unerring Strike.The Pharaoh got Altered Sight and my Acolytes chose Ice and Fire/Crippling Fatigue and Grave Calls/Breath of Corruption.

Turn 1 – UD

The Sand Stalkers saw the opportunity to use their gaze at the Dread Knights and moved up aggressively. The sphinxes spotted my fast cavalry near the wood and one of them moved up towards it,with the other and the pharaoh’s unit moving slightly forward.

With Unerring Strike out of range for the first turn, the magic phase was low impact, aided by my opponent failing a couple of 3d6 casting rolls! Shooting was aimed first at the fast cavalry to the right, killing all of them with a combination of the Sphinx’s Breath Weapon and the bows of the Scouts. The Shabtis targeted the yema Acolytes and felled a couple. Finally, the Sand Stalkers couldonly wound the Dread Knights once, killing a knight but now comfortably within charge range!

TURN 1 – DE

My opponenthad given me an opening that I tried to exploit: the sphinx that had used its breath weapon presented its flank to my Acolytes: with 11 poisoned attacks plus charge + flank theodds of killing the beast were too good to pass up. They promptly failed their charge, though! The dread knights charged downhill on the Sand Stalkers, making it in.
In remaining moves, I pushed both Krakens aggressively towards the rightmost Sphinx, threatening the advance of the other monster, too. The Dragon followed suit, screened from shooting by the two monsters’ footprints. A medusa was thrown right in front ofthe chariots and pharaoh, buying me a turn.

In magic,the Yema Acolytes cast Breath of Corruption on themselves, to deter the sphinx from charging them (that would have been an ill-advised charge anyway; with poison and 4+ aegis they’d probably hold that charge and allow my Kraken the countercharge).
The Dread Knights made short work of the Sand Stalkers and reformed to face towards the center.



TURN 2 – UD

My adversary had a lot of possible charges this turn, although half of them were traps. He saw right through them, though: the chariots crashed into the medusa -killing it without breaking a sweat- , the left Shabtis declared a charge into the Dread Knights which I promptly fled. The sphinxes elected not to charge, repositioning instead: the right one failed its march test, meaning that it would have to take the kraken charge on the following turn! The scorpion appeared and moved rightin front of the Dancer unit.
In magic the Hierophant managed to cast Scrying on the rightmost sphinx, but all theother spells were dispelled. Shooting resulted in another two Yema Acolytes dying.




TURN 2 – DE

The Prince sounded the attack, and a good chunk of the army charged: the dancers charged into the Sand Scorpion, the left Kraken and Dragon combo charged the farthest Sphinx, but only the kraken made it in, with a very nice overrun path into the chariot unit. The second kraken and the unharmed Acolyte unit combo charged the second sphinx.
In remaining moves the Dread Knights rallied and the infantry moved up more aggressively, now that both sphinxes were tied up. I had to push my last yema acolyte forward… [Read More]

Welcome back Ninth Agers and this the write up of fifth and my final game of the Breakthrough tournament.

So far I’m on 3 losses and a win but that put right down on the bottom table where I was drawn against Orcs & Goblins, not a great match up for the Kingdom of Equitaine due to their ridiculous number of anti armour things they can bring to the battlefield, Git Launchers, Gnasher Wrecking Teams, Mad Gits and Trolls to name a few, all are perfect for squishing expensive knight blocks. Luckily my opponents list didn’t contain all of those things:



Iron Orc Warlord, Wyvern, General, paired Weapons, Shield, Shady Shanking, Talisman of Shielding = 645

Common Orc Chief, War Boar, Paired Weapons, Hero’s Heart, Basalt Infusion = 255

Iron Orc Chief, BSB, Shield, Crown of the Wizard King = 270

1 Feral Orc Shaman, Wizard Master, Shamanism = 440

Common Goblin Chief, Wolf Chariot Light Lance = 135

25 Feral Orc ‘Eadbashers, Champ, Standard Bearer, Green Tide Banner, Paired Weapons, Mammoth

Stabber = 660

3 x 5 Feral Orc Boar Riders, Paired Weapons = 465

2 Goblin Wolf Chariot = 225

20 Iron Orcs, FCG = 470

Gargantula, Web Launcher = 550

2 x 1 Skewerer = 180

1 Git Launcher, Orc Overseer = 205

Total = 4500



My List can be found in my game 1 blog post here.


So my opponents list doesn’t contain the worst offenders in the Orcs and Goblin army but there is still plenty of things in that army for me to fear. The War Machines always have the potential to ruin my poor knights and they definitely mean I can’t run my Duke solo so he’ll be hiding in with the Pegasus Knights. The Gargantula is not a monster to be taken lightly and hopefully I can get my Questing Knights or my Duke into it and kill it quickly or else it will destroy my knights. The Warlord on the Wyvern presents the same problem too as he packs a punch but is even more mobile. There’s two medium sized blocks of Orcs, the Ferals and the Iron Orcs. Hopefully I can whittle them down a bit with magic and shooting and then smash through them. If I can get a successful double charge off on them then I should win that fight but there is plenty of chaff in my opponents army to stop that from happening. There’s 2 Hero characters who may not be the toughest of fighters they can certainly cause me problems, 3 units of scoring cavalry could be problematic depending on the scenario or they could just chaff me up.



The Deployment type for this scenario turned out to be Frontline Clash and the Secondary Objective is Hold the Ground, not a great one for the Kingdom I think, we’re not great at sitting on objectives, the horses need to be moving!

For my spell selection I pick Breath of the Lady, Swarm of Insects (might get lucky and get a wound or two on a monster or kill a Warmachine), Totemic Summon and Break the Spirit. My opponent picks Awaken the Beast, Swarm of Insects, Totemic Summon and Break the Spirit, the best 4 Shamanism spells out of the 6 by a mile, Chilling Howl has it’s uses but it’s to circumstantial and does anyone ever take Savage Fury? The Orc Chieftan gets Cosmology on his Wizard Crown and takes the Signature spell for Orcs & Goblins, Bring the Pain and takes the first Cosmology Spell, Altered Sight.



Deployment

Kingdom of Equitaine 1



Orcs & Goblins 1



KoE 2


O&G 2


KoE 3



O&G 3


KoE 4



O&G 4


KoE 5



O&G 5




So that’s the end of the tournament, in the end I finished 40^th out of 44, so not bottom at least! I did win Best painted though and to be honest that’s all I was hoping for. After this tournament I definitely need to have another look at the Kingdom of Equitaine to find a list that works for me, some of the units I took certainly didn’t pull their weight (I’m looking at you Pegasus Knights) and some choices were solid but just had the misfortune of being pushed about by a terrible general.

One thing that I will definitely keep is Shamanism, that is a fantastic lore and if it wasn’t for Totemic Summon I may have faired even worse in my games, them Totemic Beasts netted me a lot of points! I am tempted to take 2 Damsels next time though just for the extra channel and a bit of spell variety.

The Crossbows were very meh if I’m honest, they are certainly better than just bows but the cost of them is exorbitantly high for what they are, it would be a rare occasion that they ever got their points back. The Brigands weren’t much better, they did do some killing but they were more just poor chaff, I’d rather take another unit of Yeomen Outriders. The Yeomen are very good for what I needed them to do, I just need to use them better, I either use them at the wrong time or I just have them in bad positions, I often move them as an afterthought and that’s not what they are there for.

I was happy with the Aspirants who I thought did a sterling job in this tournament and I definitely prefer running them 5 wide because getting their extra attacks on the charge is good and not having such massively long flanks is good to, means… [Read More]