Warhammer Fantasy Tournament Wrap Up

Dark Elves after the battle (source)

I have definitely been on a Fantasy kick lately.   On Saturday, I went to Gamer's Sanctuary for their monthly Warhammer Fantasy tournament.   I have not been able to attend the last few tournaments, but I know they have had a decent turnout at the last few.   For this tournament, we only had four people this time (myself included) which met the bare minimum to play it.   However, it was all regulars that I have had enjoyable games with in previous tournaments and this time was no exception.

For my Dark Elves, I took my new (tweaked) 2500 point list that I had run against Michael.   My list brought the classic newbie-friendly 2x Hydras, a level 4 High Sorceress with Shadow Lore, and a variation of the unkillable Dreadlord General riding a Cold One.  I did include a small unit of harpies and a level 2 sorceress with Lore of Death on a Pegasus mount.  This time I also brought a minimum hero (Master) with a BSB instead of the more expensive Death Hag and Cauldron of Blood.   With the exception of some underwhelming magic phases, the list performed very well against all three of my opponents.

Game 1
Dark Elves versus Empire
Scenario:  Dawn Battle

My first game was against Sean, a Empire player that I think I have played at the last few tournaments at GS.   He ran a heavy Cavalry list this time, backed up with a Steam tank, a couple of cannons, and a big group of halbrediers.   He also brought a level 4 wizard with Lore of Shadow.

The Dawn Battle scenario features random starting placement for your units and he rolled a lot of his army clumped together on my right flank.    I ended up pushing my left flank and then towards the middle while trying to hold my right flank.   The Hydras did a great job of absorbing cannon shots with successful regeneration rolls and that helped my squishy elves engage in combat.   Sean had some bad rolls and failed a lot of 1+ armor saves on his heavy cavalry to my my shooting and close combat.   Also, the steam tank had two turns of misfire rolls and basically stalled out in the center of the board with it's boiler overheating (I still find the rules for that thing confusing as hell).   By turn six, I had killed his general and won by just over 200 victory points.   It was a good game, but I felt like I stole that one due to his bad dice rolling.

Game 2
Dark Elves versus Beastmen
Scenario: Blood and Glory

Game two was the Blood and Glory scenario that I had practiced with Michael earlier in the week.  For the tournament, the Blood & Glory fortitude victory condition was ruled as a bonus 200 VP instead of an auto win.  I played against Neil who brought a horde heavy Beastmen army.   I played against Neil before in Fantasy, but this was my first time against his Beastmen.   He ran quite a different list than I was used to seeing and which featured a lot more models, a couple of chariots, and two ambushing units.

The game did not start off well as my level two sorceress miscast her first spell and had her level reduced to zero.   I did manage to shoot up one of the chariots at range which was big since those things tend to wreck havoc on my T3 elves.   I managed to do a good job with my harpies this game and caused a log jam for some of his units in the center as he had to slow down to clear them out.   He did a good job getting off a few long range charges, but I managed to hold off and counter attack.    One of ambushing units arrived from my board edge, but I was able to swift reform my crossbowmen and shoot them before they could charge.   My big hero this game was one of the Hydra's that managed to cause a unit of his to flee off the board just from causing Terror from a declared charge.   I managed to destroy or break most of the units in his army for a decisive win.    Neil was a great sport and gave me some good tips for playing my Dark Elves.

Game 3
Dark Elves versus Warriors of Chaos
Scenario: Battle Lines

For my third game, I played another familiar foe, Al and his Warrior of Chaos army.   This was my third time playing Al in tournaments and his Chaos army has often won the painting award.   It is really well done.

He was pretty light on magic with only a level two wizard.    But he did have two big blocks of Nurgle Warriors and one block of Khorne Warriors.   Warriors of Chaos has tough troops, I got a bit lucky on running one block down with my Cavalry after they broke from combat.    This was a grind style game that was bloody on both sides.  The final battle ended up in with a mess of multiple units in one combat with flank and rear attacks.    I was getting tired by the third game of the day and I appreciate Al helping work through the complicated combat resolution for these fights.    In the end, our generals ended up in a challenge against each other with my Dreadlord holding out (thank you cheesy Pendant) and defeating his Nurgle Lord.   When all was tallied up, I had less than 100 victory points over him at the end (which is a draw), but since I killed his general I won by 1 battle point.   Good game!

So going 3-0 on the day felt pretty good, and was my best Fantasy tournament performance so far.    However, do to the battle point system, I actually ended up in 2nd place behind Sean's Empire.   All in all, a fun day of Warhammer Fantasy.   I believe all the attendees and a few other Fantasy players will be coming to Foodhammer.   Should be a fun day of square and round base battles for a great cause.  See you there!