Up until the day I left for the Marauder Mayhem I was very apprehensive about attending this tournament. Much earlier in the organizer and myself had run into some problems with the tournament and I was not looking for ward to attending but my college buddy grew up in the area and we had room and board at his parents so off I went.
I had put almost no effort into my army as I was really going to promote our tournament which was going to be in 3 weeks so I just took a soft fluffy dwarf list and avoided all my better conversions as they might be judged proxies. I also took many extra dwarves incase my dioramas or modeling was unacceptable. So I took:
Dwarf lord on shield bearers with great weapon and rune of stone
Runesmith with shield and rune of stone
Thane BSB with rune of stone
25 Warriors with shield standard and musician
25 Warriors with shield standard and musician
20 Warriors with shield standard and musician
20 Warriors with great weapon standard and musician
20 Warriors with great weapon standard and musician
16 thunderers with standard and musician
15 hammerers with shield standard and musician
cannon with rune of forging
cannon with rune of fire
Organ gun
Now they do a few interesting things at this tournament like pairing the first two rounds in advance and instead of scenarios they use a scenario card system. Each player gets 7 cards of which 2 are pitched battle cards which lessen the severity of the other cards. The other cards hose some units and make such units worth more victory pts. So there was a magic lull, high winds (hurt shooting and fliers), monster hunt, marshland (hurt cavalry and chariots), and capture the flag (which was king of the hill). Each player selects one card each game and both then affect the game.
The 3 hr drive to the event was made all the more enjoyable by a 1 hour reading break on the NYS Thruway but my late arrival Friday only forced us to relax at Josh’s parents house instead of going down to the site.
So when we arrived on Saturday we set up the four tables Josh had brought and got down to gaming. My first round opponent was a great Orc and goblin player with a excellent sense of humor named John. His army was 32 blocks of 20 night goblins with 2 fanatics each and some netters, 25 orcs with 2 hand weapons, 25 biguns with spear and shield, 23 savage orcs with additional hand weapon, 20 black orcs, 4 snotlings, 2 units of 5 wolfriders with shield and spear, a giant, 2 bolt throwers, Orc boss, and a lvl 4 night goblin. There was a large open area in the left center of the board and he set up his savage orcs on the far left. The giant, snotlings, and wolf riders were on the far right and the rest of the army was set up in the center with the orcs slightly behind the goblins. I put the thunderers on the right with the cannons and 20 dwarves with great weapon on the far left, while the rest set up in the center. His magic never really got going and the wolf riders spent two turns squabbling. So I went forward and released the fanatic in the center only to be charged by his goblins next turn. When these lost I was able to charge into the orcs and even flank the black orcs which panicked his characters off the board with a Bolt thrower. I cleaned up the center but lost to the savage orcs on the left. On the right I shot his dead one unit at a time. It was a massacre and I got maximum points.
Game 2 I played a wonderful new play named Richard with an Empire army in a capture the flag scenario. He was playing 20 halberdiers with 2 detachments of free company, 20 spearmen with 2 10 an detachments of free company, 10 knights, 10 huntsmen, 5 pistoliers, two units of 10 hand gunners with 5 man hand gunner detachments, two cannons, a mortar, a hellblaster, Elector count, wizard on horse, and engineer. The board was bad as it had 5 large impassible rock formations which divided the board into 4 passages – one on the right left center and one diagonal between the center and the right. We both set up with the shooters on the right, artillery on the left and most infantry in the center. I had a unit of warriors with great weapon on the left opposed by the pistoliers, knights, and huntsmen. I also had 25 warriors on the right and the hammerers in the diagonal passage. On turn one he moved up on the left and was able to roll well for handguns range and shoot. In the center he moved out a little. I moved up the thunderers and moved everyone else forward. On the left this blocked the exit to the passage for his pisoliers who were in front of the knights. I shot the hellblaster dead but blew up the organ gun. He then moved up but as he had nothing to do on the left he charged my unit with the pistoliers who lost but stood. I moved out and starting whittling down his detachments and hangunners. In combat the warriors beat the pistoliers, killing all but one, and panicked the knights, moving the warriors up to the far end of the passage on the left. Turn three he rallied and moved into position in the center but an errant mortar shot killed 8 spearmen. Thus when I charged I hit everyone and the detachments were worthless. I also started to destroy the hand gunners on the right. This wrecked most of his army and I spent the rest of the game running into things and running them off the board for another massacre with maximum points.
Game three was one of my best fought games with a great lizardman player named John who played his high winds card into my pitched battle. His army was 2 units of 16 saurus, 10 skinks, 10 scouting skinks, 2 units of 5 cold one knights, 2 units of three salamanders, a saurus hero on cold one, a saurus lord on cold one, a skink wizard, and a saurus BSB on foot. The board had a terrible and large piece of impassible terrain right in the middle of it with a stream on the far right, a woods on the right perfect for his scouts, and a hill on the left. He set up his cavalry and a saurus unit on the left with the scouts and the rest on the right. I put the thunderers on the hill with a cannon, with 3 units of warriors on the left and the rest on the right with the general and BSB. He went first and came right across the board into my waiting troops. The Organ gun opened fire and destroyed one of the cavalry units panicking the saurus hero. I also started whittling down one of the salamader units. Turn tow he charged with cavalry into a unit of dwarf but bounced not even winning combat though he did not run. The salamanders started to eat skinks and ended up killing more skinks then dwarves. I flanked his cavalry with the hammerers but failed to kill anyone though I die kill a salamander unit and set up the saurus on the left for a flanking. Turn 3 he flank charged the hammerers, and charged one of the dwarf units on the left which fled. I proceeded to lose the battle on the right for several turns until the other unit of warriors could charge into the saurus and win the game. I also charged the saurus on the left in the flank and eventually scored them but lost a unit and some war machines to shooting. My general also lost a classic battle to his saurus lord but in the end the two characters on cold ones were all he had left. Even though the game was very touch and go most of the time and he probably won more rounds of combat than I did he was massacred for another maximum point victory.
Game 4 was against Matt York multiple GT winner and one of the best players in America. He was playing his tough skaven horde with 6 units of 25 clanrats, 6 units of slaves, 6 jezzails, 2 rattling guns, 2 rat swarms, 2 tunneller teams, a general, BSB and 2 warlock engineers. This was the first open battle field I had played on there was a hill just outside my deployment zone in the left center and woods in the far right while he had a hill in the right deployment zone perfect for jezzails. He was set up in his checker board maniple formation with the slaves in front of the clanrats and the swarms on the right. I had a cannon on each side and the organ gun in the center. I also had the thunderers on the right and the rest of the troops set up in long thin line with the runesmith in warriors with great weapons on the far left, hammerers in the center with the general and BSB to the right. My games with Matt are the tense tactical affairs with many small moves and lots of angle play, and a plethora of little traps. The game proceeded with us cautiously approaching each other while the tunneller teams tied up the thunderers organ gun while my cannons cleared the rattling guns. Then on turn three the contest began with him offering some slave units to me to set up his game and using his swarm to tie up my far right unit. On the hill and on the right I bit using another unit to protect the flanks of my units. When I won these combats I could not pursue. He then hit the unit which was flank protecting my hammerers and the unit on the hill with his general’s unit, tunnellers, and a slave unit. I lost and ran but when his general’s unit did not pursue my unit on the hill needed to break the slaves. He also offered the hammerers another unit of slaves to set up a flank charge with his BSB. I failed to beat the slaves on the hill but destroyed the swarms a turn early. This allowed me to charge heavily on the right, and forced a lot of fleeing on his part. On the far left though I could not extract my unit from the impending flank charge of his soon to victorious general. This happened as his general’s unit flanked the unit on the hill and both them and slaves swept into my great weapon unit with the runesmith on the far left. He also flanked the hammerers but I knew they would stay. My turn was the turning point of the game as my general came over and killed his BSB I proceeded to start beating units on the right and the warriors on the left stood after the warriors killed 6 ratmen and the runesmith stood up to his general in the challenge. He then erred by charging a slave unit into the hammerers and a clanrat unit into the warriors on the left. With many more attacks in each place I started to win battle which freed the unit on the left. All that was left was for the combats to play themselves out and some units to rally. The last excitement was when 3 tunnellers lost to a cannon crew and put an end to his game. I ended up with a minor victory but any victory against Matt York is a good one.
Game 5 I played another GT regular Brent Bailey with a fast Chaos Mortal army with a slaanesh theme. It had 9 chosen chaos knights, 2 beast chariots, 3 units of 5 dogs, 2 units of 5 marauder horsemen with flail, 5 furies, 5 mounted deamonettes, a Giant, 2 Exalted heroes on Beast of Slaanesh, Chaos lord on beast of slaanesh, and exalted hero on horse. In this game I played the marsh card to make each of his units twice as expensive and he played high wind. There were two pools in my He set up with his knights in the center with the characters in with them flanked by chariots, and screened by dogs and furies. There were dogs on each flank with deamonettes and giant on the right and marauders on left. As the board had 2 pools in my deployment one in the center and one on the right with a hill in front of the pool on the right and difficult terrain on the left. On the far right there was a big piece of impassible terrain. I set up with the organ gun in the pool in the center and a cannon in the pool on the left with the other cannon and thunderers on the left protected by 20 warriors with great weapons. With the rest of my army set up to the right of the pool with hammerers right of center behind the hill. I let him go first and he moved out with the knights and blocked their sight with the furies so I shot a unit of dogs dead, some knights dead, and a marauder. He then charged the Organ gun with dogs and a unit with the giant. He then moved to block my units on the right with a dog unit and moved up to charge next turn. I held in all combats so I charged the dogs on the hill shot some more knights dead, killed a chariot, and a marauder unit. My hammerers turned to face into the center on the hill. In the combats no one broke even his dogs. Turn 3 he charged his last chariot into the giant combat, an exalted hero into the Organ gun crew, furies into the thunderers, and the knights into a unit of warriors in the center. He put the deamonettes in front of the hammerers and set up to charge on the left. Now despite losing by one or two I ran from the knights and giant. His knights and chariot ran off the board. But I beat the furies and the dogs though the furies stuck around. In my turn the hammerers obliterated the deamonettes, the thunderers beat the furies, and I put 3 wounds on the giant and 2 on the exalted hero. He returned to set up charges in all directions and I turned to trap with the hammerers and other unit on the right. I shot the last chariot dead and killed the giant. His marauders and exalted charged the reformed thunderers and his knights charged the warriors who fled and escaped. After destroying the thunderers I killed the Slaanesh beast on his exalted and flanked the knights sending them off the board. With only an exalted on foot and 4 marauder he conceded the game for maximum points.
I was happy as I had done well in the game play section but I have learned that this is often not enough. I have had great battle scores before only to be held back by sportsmanship and painting. So though Matt York keep congratulating me, I was skeptical. Yet when the awards were announced I had won my first big tournament. Despite the second lowest sportsmanship score and a low painting score (why won’t judges look at my army).
