Hello All!

Welcome back to another battle report from the ETC 23. Apologies it has taken so long, I’ve got sucked into Red Dead Redemption 2 and trying to clear my painting back log which mostly consists of Knights for my KoE. Let’s face it though, I’m never clearing the back log of grey plastic really, but I can live in hope.
When I last left off I had just managed to sneak a small win against a slippery Sylvan Elf list in round 3. So now we move onto Round 4, where Team Scotland where drawn against fierce local rivals, Team Wales! This was always going to be a spicy game as we all know each other very well as we are always at the same tournaments here in the UK and are always playing against each other. To make the narrative even more intense my partner in crime on the Paired Weapons Podcast, @Mattyp, who was previously on Team Scotland was now playing for Team Wales! A real heel turn right there and if every other tournament me and Matt have ever attended were anything to go by, we were destined to play each other.

So the team captains sat down and did the draw, I was goading Matt incessantly as I knew I could smash his Empire list. However, it wasn’t to be. Instead I was drawn against the Warriors of the Dark Gods list being pushed about by a stalwart of the UK Ninth Age scene, Rory. We’ve played against each other a few times over the years and they’ve always been delightful games so I was looking forward to this game, but I was not looking forward to facing his list!

575 - Chosen Lord, General, Karkadan, Shield, Hand Weapon (Burning Portent), Talisman of Shielding, Gluttony
390 - Sorcerer, Wizard Adept, Evocation, Plate Armour (Ghostly Guard), Paired Weapons, Binding Scroll, Book of Arcane Mastery
380 - Sorcerer, Black Steed, Wizard Adept, Alchemy, Plate Armour, Paired Weapons, Magical Heirloom, Rod of Battle
659 - 23 Warriors, Gluttony, Standard Bearer (Zealots' Banner), Musician, Champion
243 - 9 Barbarian Horsemen, Shield, Musician, Champion
714 - 5 Chosen Knights, Gluttony, Standard Bearer (Wasteland Torch), Musician, Champion
610 - 10 Warrior Knights, Lance, Sloth, Standard Bearer (Flaming Standard), Musician, Champion
390 - Forsaken One
390 - Forsaken One
145 - 5 Flayers
4496

This is a horrific list and I had this down as a red, however it was one that no one else in our team wanted to face either. I think the Burning Portent scared a lot of our team as we had a lot of multi wound units on our teams, and then the rest of the army is tough too. The only thing I had going for me in this match up is the complete lack of ranged damage coming from the Warriors, without any ranged damage they would have to come in for a fight and with just one unit of chaff I had the potential to sit back and zone this list with my Chariots and Minotaurs.

The scenario we were to play was Refused Flank and Hold the Ground, so diagonal and centre. Diagonal doesn’t help me try and keep my opponent at arms length as we are going to be starting closer than normal but Hold the Ground may favour me as I can sit on it and zone with Minotaurs. My main worry now is the Forsaken Ones, I have no answer to these really as I have little ranged damage, I need the Cyclops to do some real damage this game. With their random movement they are almost impossible to sneak past and being unbreakable makes fighting them extremely treacherous because if you don’t kill them in one you can be left in a bad position and face some counter charges.

Deployment


Beast Herds 1


Warriors 1


BH2


Warriors 2


BH3


Warriors 3


BH 4


Warriors 4


BH 5


Warriors 5



Turn 6



We tote up the victory points, there’s not a lot from me really as i’ve only killed a Forsaken One and badly wounded another for half points. I’ve lost all 3 Cyclops, a pig and 2 Briar Beasts. That makes it a 12 - 8 loss on points but i won the objective to sneak an 11 - 9 win! Given that i had this as a red match up i am delighted to get a win. I started out with a plan of just scoring the middle and zoning my opponent and it worked a treat.

The game ended up being a bit of a damp squib but felt like the kind of game you would expect at an ETC, no one wants to risk anything too big and end up losing big because that may cost the team big in the end, so you have to play conservatively to try and keep losses to a minimum.

I think my opponent could have been a little braver personally. His Chosen Lord should have gone solo as he would have caused me a world of problems, instead he just stayed in the Chosen Knights. I think the Chosen Lord should have just ran out in front of my army and dared me to charge him. I’m not sure if 6 Minotaurs or the BSB could have gotten the job done. The Beast Lord vs Chosen Lord fight would have been interesting but still very swingy and could have ended badly for me. Even just lobbing the Chosen Lord down a flank would have caused much more of an issue than him just sitting in his unit.

My opponent should have been much more… [Read More]

On this show, Tony and Paul are joined by Ed Murdoch and Adam (Tanka) Jones to discuss the various weaknesses of the Warriors book.



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Show Links:

Free rules for The 9^th Age – the-ninth-age.com/

9^th Age Tournament Updates - www.Tourneykeeper.net


Credits Due:


Music from the Freemusicarchive.org:

Into - Jan Morgenstern - Circling Dragons
Outro - BoxCat Games - Battle 'Special'
Sponsor music – Ice Man – SI-PML


Sound effects from FreeSFX.co.uk [Read More]

Round 0: Here is the hall before the tourney starts.
Round 1:The First game of the Day
Round 2: The first Time Highborn Elves from @'Nighty'
Round 3: The 2nd Time Highborn Elves from Nighty

Bestpainted Armies on Parade. [Read More]