Tempest III - 28/29th May - Stockport

[Undead Dan]

Yeah I thought that was a bit of a shame, does he NEED to exploit loopholes to win? We all know he doesnt, so what did he accomplish? Shame there was no smelly shoe prize this time, would have been an extra trophy for him!

Great tournament all in all though, the filth didnt affect me and i finished higher than tom so thats all that matters. 

s r awesum!

[khaosgoblin]

Another good event by the lerker guys, five nice opponenets no issues, my list in hindsight was not that good as I had not thought about how badly the scenarios would effect it (too many units could not manouver in some of the scenarios)or the comp effect on the level 4 (might as well have taken a scroll caddy) but still not too bad finishing 30th so top half.

Was fun to play Dan on the Friday in a leasurly rambling game with a huge punch-up involving a million goblins/Arachnarok/Treeman & treekin, & last game of the weekend a totaly unstressed WE vs WE with Dave as neither of us took it very seriously it was a pleasant end to the event.

Re thinking the army now, but taking a break & will be using the Forest Goblins at Brighton.

Mark

[Dave]

Under tempest the beast mage was a much better choice.  I basically saw how many dice I got each turn and then went for either Curse, Wildform, Spear or +3 attacks on my lord with 4 dice and if I had 8+ dice 4 more at a second one. If I had less than 8 I generally tried my 2 bound items.

The wand of wych elm only resulted in me dispelling 1 or 2 spells which I missed the dice on first time round so would almost definitely have been better with a scroll and a ward save.

My list was quite a lot of fun to play with as it had a nice balance of shooty and combat stuff.  It clearly wasn't the best woody list as mr groves proved with his top end finish and mark's ability to shoot me off the board even when I tried to maximise the modifiers to hit.

I was incredibly happy with my 31st place, I've not had the woodies out at many tournaments but have been playing them hard down the club and I'm starting to get the right balance with them.  I still lose my eagle far too easily far too often so I know I'm still not quite getting it right.  But overall they're a really fun army to play as I find that every game is a challenge and I'm having to think hard not to throw stuff away and how to counter threats to keep the pressure off my important shooting units

[Undead Dan]

Quick wrap-up of my games!

Friday vs Mark's Wood Elves
Wood elf shooting was pretty weak to begin with, then our armies fought, most of the forest spirits died, leaving the remnants of my force facing scores of S4 shots. My Warboss survived only to charge the biggest Glade Guard unit, fail to kill their champion, then run away. Just getting reinforcements!

Game 1 vs Nigel's Orcs and Goblins
He had as many goblins as me, but also, of course, the big 30-strong Savage Orc Big Un unit, with 3 Orc characters in it. However he left that unit in the middle and at the back, not bothering to advance, while I took advantage of the fact that all the gobbos were spread out, doing things like dropping a rock on his Doom Diver to destroy it and panic a nearby Goblin horde off the table. A few scraps saw the rest of his goblins destroyed, before my 9 Trolls took down his 6 Trolls. I chased them down and gave his Savages the Trolls' flank, which he took happily, but I was glad for this, as it meant he ignored my big Night Goblin unit with my Warboss. He overran into my Arachnarok and the Big Stabba took its last wound, and I similarly took his Arachnarok's last wound on my last turn.

Magic and shooting was very hit and miss, with the Foot of Gork smashing up 30 of my Night Goblins in one turn, a Curse of Da Bad Moon killing a third of his Savage Orcs, and between us we managed 5 misfires in a row!

Final result? Dead draw.

Game 2 vs Nick's Daemons
2 Plaguebearer blocks, 1 Bloodletter block (all with Heralds), 7 Fiends, some Furies and Flamers, and 2 Tzeentch Heralds with no Horror block to go in. Extremely slow game, I chucked a lot of stuff at him to cripple his units and kill his Khornate General, so he got all those points, and the game ended during his turn 4 (I didn't get mine), to give him a win by about 700 points. 1400 points of his forces were at half-points though, and I could have finished most of it off if he'd, you know, played quicker. I know it's not intentional, but it's still annoying!

Game 3 vs Andy's Dwarfs
He won the roll for Watchtower and put 20 Dwarfs in it, so my Trolls spent the first 3 turns charging it and killing a few, of course LD10 re-rolls meant they weren't going anywhere. His big trick was a big unit of scouting Longbeards with a hero who had Master Rune of Challenge; fortunately I failed the forced charge turn 1, then chucked fanatics and an IF Curse of Da Bad Moon through them, then finished them off easily.

This game highlighted the worst part of the Watchtower mission IMO; one turn after my Trolls bounced, he charged them with his Hammerers, and could only manage corner-to-corner contact. Thankfully his Dwarf Lord fluffed and I managed a stomp back, and held on a 4, letting my army come to their rescue and eventually destroy all the Dwarfs in the unit (For 3 combat phases, the unit consisted of a Lord, a BSB and a Hammerer Champion for Stubborn re-rollable LD10, grrr). This left the Trolls free for one final charge to clear out the building, while my Squig Hoppers got into the Anvil of Doom and destroyed it too! His runelord only having a 3+/6 save meant that he was surprisingly squishy. I was saved by my printed off FAQs, which confirmed my suspicion that his Runelord couldn't challenge while in the Anvil of Doom.

So, a big win, while letting my opponent have fun (Slayers got to kill my Arachnarok, which is nice and fluffy), then I had to run off to go meet my girlfriend and her nan on the other side of Manchester. Neeeeeoooow!!!!

Day 2 started with Dawn Attack vs Dave Pyle's Dark Elves. He had beat me last game of last Tempest, which stopped me claiming the overall prize, so I was determined to win. Dice were determined to stop me, however. Highlights:
-5 Dark Riders charge my Squig Hoppers + Big Boss, despite my ASF and a tonne of S5 attacks they destroy the whole unit. Grrr.
-Witch Elves with extra attacks from Cauldron charge through 5D6 S5 Fanatic hits and lose just 7 models, annihilate Trolls, then Chariots and Spider Riders that flanked them, before faltering on a common goblin unit, thank god. But Grrr still.
-Cold One Chariots take a pounding before one charged a NG unit with my Great Shaman; my Shaman survived for one turn, then my 2 Wolf Chariots hit the Cold One Chariot in the flank; needing to get 2 wounds to finish it with 2D6+2 S5 hits, they fail of course and the Dark Elves on top finished my Shaman. Grrr.
-Arachnarok charges Black Guard, when he had 6 left, the Spider failed to kill a single one and broke. Grrr.
-It escaped and rallied! Then he Enfeebled it, and because we were so pressed for time, I forgot I could dispel it in my magic phase so didn't charge the Black Guard to finish them off.

Again, his army had taken a tonne of damage, but I didn't have time to finish it off, so, another loss, in my opinion completely undeserved and a great shame.

Game 5 vs Marcus Pitt's Beastmen
Tonnes of Beastmen (No Minotaurs) which he pushed forwards, it was Blood and Glory so I smashed his Bestigor with 2 Chariots, Spider Riders and Arachnarok (Would have been 3 Chariots if my third chariot had rolled a 4 or more for his charge!), brutalised them although lost all the chariots and spider riders, but the Arachnarok kept on, wiping them out, plus his General and BSB to break the Beastmen on turn 2! This was worth 1000 VPs in this comp, and gave me the game. Again a shame that we didn't finish the game, as his Ghorgon had made it around my flank (80 shortbow shots hitting on 5s = 1 wound, ruhh-roh!), but he'd have never made it into anything important, as I had a level 1 Shaman that I could put in front of him, and with only 1D6" overrun, he'd not have reached my main units.

Another great moment was a 5" Curse of Da Bad Moon killing 2/3 of a unit of Ungors who were fighting my Night Goblins, turning a bad fight into a massacre, even though they rallied and survived the game. It ended with my Trolls charging through my own Fanatic, and then failing to kill the Pumpagor. The git! Big win anyway.

Game 6 vs Craig's Orcs and Goblins
Another wacky greenskin-off, he again had the 30 Savage Orc Big Uns, with a Black Orc Warboss with the Battleaxe of the Last Waaagh! (+D6A/S, lower his WS though) in a separate unit of Orc Boyz. When I worked out he couldn't have flaming attacks, I sent in the Trolls which killed off his BSB and the rest of the unit, while the Savage Orcs nearby flailed around charging through a forest, killing a load of them, plus a Black Orc hero! Eventually the Trolls died, but they'd done their job in spades, and the Big Uns were too few in number to defeat my Night Goblins, who reformed into a horde and stabbed them to death! His Warboss on 1 wound had gone for a wander at that point, and my level 1 Goblin Shaman finished him off with the Ruby Ring of Ruin! The Arachnarok got lucky against the enemy Black Orcs who were holding a flank by themselves, winning combat by 1, but they failed steadfast and were all killed. Om nom nom!

Another highlight was a horde of my Archers failing animosity bigtime with a lone enemy Wolf Rider right in front of them. Clearly the git had run between my two Archer units, who fired their bows at him, and ended up shooting each other instead! A dozen of my goblins died to their stupidity, each unit proudly boasting how many of "da reel enemy" they had killed... but still, with all his big units dead, another big win against a great sport, for a final score of 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses!

Didn't manage the trophy this time as another Orc and Goblin player managed 6th place, well done him. But I did make 22nd, making me top OG-er once again I believe. Waaaagh!

[fatolaf]

Nice round up buddy, and well done on top OG...

Was it Clapham Nigel you played first game?

[Undead Dan]

No, no Claphamers there (Think it'd be Erik's kinda tourney though). I hear Nigel's been using even weaker goblins than me...