http://theverminlord.blogspot.com/2013/01/eshin-scouting-party.html?m=1
Dale and I had played at Northstar on his path to the top. Our round 3 game consisted of me on top when the game ended turn three but him on the objective just due to where the combat was taking place (mournfang in the rear of stormvermin). Another turn and more stormvermin would have died, pulling the mournfang off the objective and giving me the win. Long term I think we would have won. But we only got 3 turns. Objective was worth 300 points and squeaked him into the win. Dale is a great player, a great competitor and a great sport. He plays a beautiful orc themed ogre army. At Northstar I gave him both my favorite opponent vote and my favorite army vote. This weekend he just earned my favorite army vote but after our game was barely up for opponent. It was close between him and Nicol. Dale is a top tier player and like Nicol every turn consisted of the passing of the arcs and lots of forward thinking. His list was as follows:
Slaughtermaster, general, warrior bane, dispel scroll, talisman of endurance, crown of command, level 4, lore of death
Butcher, level 2, extra hand weapon, lore of the great maw, hellheart
Bruiser, BSB, Tormentor Sword, Obsidian Amulet, Rock Eye
5 Ogres, Banner
5 Ironguts, Standard of Discipline, full command, look out gnoblar
7 units of 10 gnoblars
4 Mournfang Cavalry, banner, heavy armor, ironfist
2 Mournfang Cavalry, banner, heavy armor, ironfist
3 units of 1 Sabertusks
Ironblaster
I didn’t know about many of these items until checking his list to type this post. Besides the standard, dispel scroll, hellheart and rock eye none of his items came into play.
Mission #4:
Victory Condition – 100 Victory Points
Bonus Point – More Fortitude within 12” of the objective
Deployment – Blood and Glory
Man of Intrigue – D6 Dangerous Terrain when charging (never came into play)
Objective Marker – 2 Fortitude
Table Sides – Most facial hair chooses
Go First – Normal
The Board:
I don’t recall any of the terrain having anything to do with the game. Like my second board it was just all ice with a few clear spots. The clear spots were mysterious normal forests, though the one in the center was rolled normal – and the only one entered. With a mission like this, I was surprised they had put so much in the center. The 6” impassible from my second game would have made getting any points in almost impossible unless you just moved your unit to face the impassible.
This was the first mission where both players couldn’t get the objective, and where they field started to split amongst the top field. I think there were only 2 people who came out of this mission with full points, while 7 went in. Those two played at the top and ended up with 19s. This was also the first mission I wanted to go second on. Going first would mean Dale would have a chance to counter any last grab for the objective, in his case it would have been charging forward and killing off my army (or flee pushing them out of the circle). I chose sides, though they were the same, and was done deploying my army before he was done deploying his gnoblars. He had deployed his kitties first, but it wouldn’t have mattered as I only had 7 drops.
Dale was my first opponent of the weekend to actually pre-measure to make sure my shades didn’t get back field. I’m not sure the vampire cared, the warrior didn’t have the units to cover the board and I think Ryan mean to, but didn’t measure and ended up leaving me a 1 man wide space on his flank.
He deployed the kitties along the back in the hopes they wouldn’t cause panic, his seven gnoblars in the center in 2 columns for his flee/rally tricks, one unit of ogres on each side and one unit of mournfang on each side. The ironguts got the general and BSB and were next to the 4 man mournfang, while the ogre unit was outside of general/BSB range and got the level 2, the small mournfang unit and the Ironblaster (behind the mournfang). I split my fast cavalry on flanks, but characters in the center with the hydras and put both shades on the left flank.
I used my vanguard to begin the encirclement. Dale used his first turn to move up and Rock Eye my wizard. Seeing my reverse ward save he decided to pop my BSB with the cannon and knocked off Charmed Shield. The kitty on my left moved to march block the shades and the 2 pack of mournfang moved to face them. Dale was careful to keep me from getting around the flank on my right.
On my turn 1 one of the shades failed its march block so couldn’t get out of the charge of the 2 pack. One hydra moved up to try to push off some gnoblars with its breath weapon (dropping 2 units to 3 models), while the other moved up to counter charge when the ogres/level 2 went in. I kept my wizards back from his, not knowing which had the Hellheart. My general was within a 5/6 hellheart of his level 2, while my level 2 was within 6 on the hellheart from his general. Turns out the level 2 had the hellheart and once I rolled 9 power dice Dale decided it was time to use it. One roll and his tournament reroll later and my General was missed. I then proceeded to roll 2 6’s followed by a 1 and 2. I used my reroll on the 1 and rolled another 1. Luckily my general rolled his 4+ and then a 1 to wound and a 1 on power dice, leaving me basically untouched and effectively having rolled one extra die on the spell (can’t remember which, but it wasn’t important). My level 2 than took off 1 mournfang from the 4 pack, but he didn’t fail his panic. I put 2 wounds on the 2 pack and 1 on the march blocking kitty.
On his turn 2, he charged my hydra, which would do some wounds before dying. He also charged a unit of dark riders with his march blocking kitty. The kitty would die before attacking. The last mournfang in the 2 pack charged the shades, but panicked when one died to my stand and shoot. The ironblaster killed my BSB. On my turn I took out the ironblaster, counter charged with my hydra into the ogres and took out more kitties and gnoblars. I also pushed the last mournfang farther down the board.
Turn 3 and we realized we had somehow spent 2 hours on screwing around. I’m not sure how it happened. I was having a great time though. Due to the time restriction, Dale moves his iron guts into the center to try to claim the objective. The single mournfang rallies more ogres die to the hydra.
My turn 3 and I move in for the kill. I’m maybe 300 points down (small loss), but the game is set up for the swing. By moving his iron guts the way he did, he’s provided me a line that would pick up his level 2, the last ogre, a full unit of gnoblars, and the entire irongut/general unit. I line up for the purple sun, knowing the wounds should give me enough dice to boost searing doom on the last 3 of the mournfang and hopefully push them off the table with a single leadership 7 roll. Alas, it was not meant to be, as with a successful casting of purple sun, I proceed to roll a misfire followed by a 6 and disappeared my wizard. I should have rolled for his three wounds to see if I got dice back, but now I was down so many points that I couldn’t make it up. Medium loss for me, but I had grabbed the objective for a 2. Sad, as I was primed to take it.
As noted before, this round level 2 people with 19s. Either of these lists would have caused me some heartache, either skaven with stormbanner or fast cavalry warriors. Both of which were being played by top tier players. It would have been a hard fought battle either way. But not meant to be.
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