Recently I went to an awesome two day AoS tournament in nearby Ohio hosted by the Rend 4 gaming group. This was my first time attending one of their events and also my first outing with the Legion of Grief, so how'd it all go?
Like I said, this was my first time going to an event hosted by the Rend 4 gaming group, so I didn't know exactly what to expect. The venue was great, and apparently is new to the club. The gaming store in Ravenna, Ohio, takes up the whole third floor of the building it's in. The tables were spread out over several smaller rooms, making it seem more personal and also minimizing the volume level, which was nice. Neil and Dave did a fantastic job of running the event, and everything went smoothly. They even had some free homemade food for everyone on Saturday! It was nice that there was a pub on the first floor of the building too. All of the tables were themed to different realms and they all had a preset realm rule chosen as well as the scenery rule for each piece. This was the more narrative side of the tournament that I was really excited about. The tables even had unique names a bit of backstory for each one. It did end up being a little hot and stuffy on the Saturday due to a heat wave hitting the Midwest at the time, but that's not anyone's fault. Every store/restaurant that we went into that day felt like their A/C was struggling to cope with it. It was really an amazing event and I definitely plan on going again! If you're in the midwest you should consider going.
I decided to bring my Legion of Grief list with me, which I had never played a single game with beforehand. That's always a good idea, right? The list was built around the idea of debuffing my opponent's bravery as much as I can and then screaming at them with three Banshees. I also wanted to use some of my new shiny toys, like the Corpse Cart and Mymourn Banshees. The Mymourns didn't do a whole lot, but the +1 to cast from the Corpse Cart was pretty key all weekend. With my army in tow is was time to get some games in. First off was my fellow NEO and my grudge game, Chuck Moore!
Game 1
Chuck Moore - Idoneth DeepkinKnife to the Heart - Hysh
Chuck brought his new Idoneth Deepkin with him to the tournament instead of his usual Daughters of Khaine. I've only faced Deepkin once before and knew how hard they hit. His list was a bit more balanced though, with only 6 Eels. The core of his force was the Namarti Corps battalion. He also had some sharks and an Eidolon of the Sea, the magic one. All of his eels and sharks started off the board with his Soulscryer while his Namarti and remaining force castled up around his objective with some of them ready to push into my territory. I set up a screen of skeletons, with one unit hanging near my objective. I then put my ghosts behind the skeletons with my unit of Grimghasts on my right flank ready to sweep into him.
I managed to get off both of my Endless Spells and Chuck also cast his own Gravetide as well as a Purple Sun. It was the most Endless Spells I've had flying around in one game. My skeletons weathered the initial wave of Namarti while Kurdoss went off to tie up the Eidolon and hopefully kill him. I caused a few extra models to flee each turn with all of my bravery debuffs and Olynder's Mortarch of Grief ability. In one turn I wiped out an entire Reaver unit with my Banshee's screams after I made them negative 1 bravery. As in below zero. It was pretty satisfying. I also brought my Bladeghiests back after they were killed off so I could throw them into the fight again. Kurdoss managed to kill the Eidolon and my Necromancer set up the Grimghasts with Van Hel's so they could attack twice in the turn they assaulted his objective. The Reapers were successful in wiping out everything in their path, while his eels and sharks came on the right flank to try and take my objective. Luckily he had to come on far enough away due to me stringing out a unit of skeletons that his eels failed their charge. I also moved the Spirit Hosts over that way to act as a speed bump just in case. At the end of turn 3 I controlled both the objectives and the game was over. I also managed to get both of my secondaries which involved controlling more objectives then him and taking an objective he previously controlled. Chuck was an amazing opponent and a ton of fun to play. He even handed out a refreshing Mike's Hard on the turn when he had High Tide (his theme was Deepkin Beach Party). It was a great start to the event and let me learn a few of the ins and outs of my list. Now I need to play against Chuck again when he's using his trademark 200 Witch DoK list.
Victory - Max Points
Game 2
Shaun Phillips - Hammers of SigmarShifting Objectives - Shyish
My second game was probably my favorite game of the weekend for a few reasons. Shaun was great to play against, his Stormcast army was beautiful, it was Nighthaunt vs Sacrosanct Stormcast in Shyish (Soul Wars!), and I also pulled off my favorite moment of the even in this game. Since it was Shifting Objectives I tried to deploy fairly evenly across the board. I also needed to block off my back board edge from the Evocators he left in the heavens. In the first turn not a whole lot happened. He went forward and claimed all three objectives, which I then took the two minor ones back in my own turn. His Evocators came down in my back corner, so I sent Kurdoss over there to soften them up a bit and hopefully act as a bit of a speed bump. I also managed to get the Horrorghast off in preparation for next turn.
 |
| Before the Scream |
In the second turn I locked up his big unit of Sequitors with some skeletons and Mymourns, who had been summoned from a gravesite earlier to plug a hole in my screen. Now came the big moment though. I had both my Endless Spells off near the Sequitors to debuff their bravery, plus my own units and the Skeletons' banners, a piece of Sinister scenery, and Pall of Doom from the realm spells, making the large unit of Stormcast bravery 0! Enter three Banshees. Between the three of them and Olynder's little scream I did a whooping 27 mortal wounds!!
 |
| After the Scream, with a nice casualty pile in the back |
It was amazing and the whole gimmick I built my list around. After he removed his models he only had one left who then promptly fled to battleshock. I also took out his unit of 10 Sequitors with my Bladeghiests and Spirit Hosts. Everything was turning up Milhouse and then he rolled two 5s to bring back both units at full strength due to the Hammers of Sigmar rule. At least I had clogged up the objectives so he couldn't bring them on close to them. I knew better then to kill the Sequitors again, so I just wounded the small unit and then kind of screened them in where they were at.
One of my secondaries was to kill his general, Aventis Firestrike, so I launched Olynder and the Bladeghiests into him to bring him down. It looked like I was going to take the game and then he teleported his large unit of Sequitors over to the side of the table with the main objective on it. No worries, he was still out of range to claim it and couldn't move. That is, of course, unless he made a 9" charge, which he promptly did, just edging me out on victory points. This was an amazing game and as well as having some really cool moments, it could have gone either way right up to the end. It literally came down to a charge roll on the last turn. I should have focused on killing his banner bearer earlier, but I don't think I had anyone in position to do it really. Oh well, I had a great game!
Loss, but got both secondaries.
Game 3
Josh - Disciples of Tzeentch
Relocation Orb - Aqshy
My third, and final game for Saturday, was against Josh and his Warriors of Chaos heavy Tzeentch army with Archaon. Relocation Orb is always a hard one for me to play, regardless of what army I'm using. I deployed with a screen of skeletons again, and then we both kind of lined up across the board. My magic, unsurprisingly, did nothing this game. In the first turn we both advanced towards the center and he managed to tag Archaon into my skeletons, locking Kurdoss in as well. I did a few wounds back, but not much. In the second turn Kurdoss was auto-killed with the Slayer of Kings and my Bladeghiests were wiped out. I managed to bring them back, but they just died again.
Over the next few rounds the orb bounced around a bit and the score got close for awhile, but in the end he got too far ahead for me to come back. He also managed to mortal wound off most of my army, including Olynder. Unfortunately my army doesn't really have a good counter to that much offensive magic. I ground through most of his Chaos Warriors, but there was no way for me to deal with Archaon or the Lord of Change. I ended up getting tabled, but once I realized I was going to lose anyway I just started playing for my secondaries as much as I could. The Necromancer put up a good fight actually, and managed to stay alive for quite awhile due to him being able to bounce wounds onto nearby friendly units. That was a little moral victory.
Loss, but got both secondaries.
Game 4
Andrew - Fyreslayers
Total Conquest - Chamon
My first game of Sunday was against Andrew and his Fyreslayers. I felt pretty good going into this match up since I thought my ghosts could handle the duardin. He had three units of Hearthguard for his battleline though backed up by heroes, and man are those guys hard to budge. I had to deploy to deny him the back table edge from his tunneling unit, but he ended up bringing them up in front of my left flank. In turn one he killed my skeleton screen on the left flank, which allowed the Bladeghiests to get in there and start attacking. On the right flank I moved my Grimghasts forward and killed one of his three Berserkers. In the second turn the Bladeghiests were killed, giving him my objective there, but I managed to capture it back in my turn. I also brought my Bladeghiests back on that flank, ready to charge in again. He now had two units of Hearthguard stuck in over there, and I was really trying my best to grind through them. I even charged Olynder in after the Bladeghiests failed their charge. She only did a bit of damage, but was key in taking back that objective. I ran Kurdoss overtop of the combat towards his heroes. On the right my Grimghasts were ground down due to two Berserkers and his Runefather.
In turn three I retreated Olynder out of combat and then brought back my Grimghasts on the left flank. I ran Kurdoss onto his back objective, taking it for myself. Through a bunch of bravery debuffs, combat, screams, and failed battleshocks I managed to chew through all of the Hearthguard on the left flank. I really love these Banshee screams against low bravery. He charged two of his heroes into Kurdoss, but he held his own and killed one in return, making sure I held onto that objective in his turn as well. I was now ahead in points and just had to maintain my lead. I used my skeletons on my right flank to create layers of screens making it very hard for his three heroes to make it to my objective over there.
I then ran Kurdoss off his table edge, securing one of my secondaries, and started sweeping my army over towards his remaining forces on the right. I knew I had the game, so I focused on my last secondary, which was to make a charge from more than 9" away. I lined up several units 9.5" away from his heroes and rolled charges, burning command points until one of them made it. Olynder went in and promptly died, but she got what she was going for.
Victory - max points
Game 5
Blaine - Beasts of Chaos (Gavespawn)
Focal Points - Ghyran
My final game of the event was against Blaine and his Gavespawn Beasts of Chaos. I've never faced off against them before, and boy oh boy did I underestimate them. I did my typical screening move and moved forward. I claimed 3 of the objectives, but this is where I made a crucial mistake. I could have claimed all 3 of them with just my skeletons. I should have left my ghosts where they were at, instead I moved them up behind the skeletons. In his turn his whole army charged my lines. The skeletons basically crumbled, and then he managed to also kill Kurdoss, and all of my Grimghasts. I was still in the lead on victory points, but ow, that hurt. He also had the Khorne battalion meaning he was re-rolling a lot of his misses.
In the second turn I counter charged and managed to kill almost everything of his that had charged, except for a Beast Lord, some Dragon Ogors, and a few Bestigors. I did a lot of bravery debuffs again, which makes Beasts run away fast. I also managed to scream off his Shaggoth, which was fun. Also, that Wild Fire Taurus is no joke. I brought the Grimghasts back on my right flank ready to recharge in there. The Bladeghiests were then hacked apart by his Beast Lord who had damage 3 or something on his weapon. It was pretty brutal. I ran my Spirit Hosts up towards his objective, and they were then trampled by his Bullgors. Olynder was taken down by a rampaging Chimera, with just enough wounds caused on her. I should have positioned her better, but I needed her close enough to the gravesite for the Grimghasts. The rest of my army was then essentially picked apart piece by piece. The volume of attacks from this army was my downfall. Make me roll enough dice and Ethereal stops mattering as much.
It was a fun game and a real eye opener for me on the BoC. I wasn't able to score any of my secondaries this game, but I still had a lot of fun.
Total Loss
With that the tournament was over. I ended up going 2-3 and coming in 17th out of 30 people, so a little lower then I wanted (I always try to aim for the top 50%), but not bad at all. I knew going into this event that it might not go perfectly since I had never played with the list before. I managed to do a lot of the things I set out to, mostly a horrendous amount of mortal wounds through Banshee screams, so I'm happy. Looking at my list if I were to make changes I would probably drop Kurdoss and the Mymourns, since they didn't do much. Kurdoss only stole two command points the whole weekend, and he did a bit in combat, but not a whole lot. I would probably slot in a smaller hero like a Spirit Torment, plus some Hexwraiths or something. I could also slot in a Black Coach with those points instead, which is always tempting. Besides that I'm pretty happy with the list and it did what I designed it to do. My second game was so close it easily could have been three victories for me, and I had a great time. This event really was extremely well run. The tables looked amazing, everyone was friendly and nice, and I loved the narrative feel that ran through the whole thing even though it's a Matched Play event.
I did manage to pick up second Best Painted in the painting contest. Our club also did pretty well, with Brad (Rhellion) taking out the whole event and Best Chaos, and Al winning Best Order and Coolest Army with his Seraphon. Go Detroit Warhammer Club! I look forward to coming back to the next Rend 4 Event if I can.
Until next time,
Tyler M
No comments:
Post a Comment