Have I seriously not posted about the tournament last weekend? Time to fix that!

Last weekend was a CGL RTT: one of our members was going in for hip replacement a couple of days later (I had mentioned that our club is generally a somewhat older crowd, right?), so the goal was to cram in a bunch of games before he had to be off his feet for several months.

It as a 2,800 point tournament, and folks could spend up to 25% of their points on Scrolls of Binding. While I didn’t do this (the only thing I could really do with that would be to run the Fimir, and I’ve found him to be a disappointment), several folks did: I saw some stuff from both Storm of Magic and Monstrous Arcanum on tables. I reallylike this in the context of a local RTT: it gives space for folks to play with goofy, neat stuff like that and really doesn’t seem to be all that unbalancing.

This was a week ago, so details will likely be a smidge fuzzy.

I waffled about whether or not to take Empire or Skaven: I’m playing the former, but the latter is fully painted. In the end, I decided to run the Skaven: a tournament’s a tournament after all. It was, I think, the right choice.

2,800 – Skaven RTT List

Lords
Warlord (General) – War-Litter, Shield
Grey Seer – Ruin, Dispel Scroll, Talisman of Endurance
Grey Seer – Plague, Foul Pendant

Heroes
Chieftain (BSB) – Shield, Armour of Destiny
Plague Priest – Flail, Plague Furnace
Warlock Engineer – Doomrocket

Core
Clanrats x32 – Full Command, Shields
– Warpfire Thrower
Skavenslaves – Champion, Musician, Shields
Stormvermin x27 – Full Command, Stormbanner
– Warpfire Thrower

Special
Plague Monks x26 – Full Command, Plague Banner
Gutter Runners x6 – Slings, Poison
Gutter Runners x6 – Slings, Poison

Rare
Hell Pit Abomination – Warpstone Spikes
Plagueclaw Catapult
Warp Lightning Cannon
Warp Lightning Cannon

So, nothing terribly unusual for me, save for the second Grey Seer, the Catapult, and the swapping of Mortars for Warpfire Throwers (and I’ve already talked about those).

Game 1

Minor Loss vs. Phil’s Tomb Kings

Phil, as it turns out, lives nearby: on the other side of Manassas (in NoVA terms, that’s effectively next door). Given that we had a great game, I probably should try to roll dice with him more often. (This is a theme for the day).

He was running a monster-heavy list (Tombzilla? Sphinxilla?), and with so many enormously big bastards and such high Toughness scores… I just couldn’t break through it all.

2,800 – Phil’s Tomb Kings

Lords
Khatep (General)

Heroes
Liche Priest – Lvl 2, Dispel Scroll

Core
Archers x22 – Standard
Chariots x3
Chariots x7 – Standard

Special
Tomb Guard x37 – Champion, Standard, Halberds
Warsphinx – Breath Weapon
Warsphinx
Warsphinx

Rare
Caset of Souls
Hierotitan

Neither of us play very quickly, so we wrapped at Turn 3. It’s tough to say where the game would have been had we pushed on through Turn 4.

The key turning point in the game was when my Hellpit Abomination had rolled into his Tomb Guard to the front and stuck around; one of his Warsphinxes moved forward and stood on their flank… exposing its flank to the Plague Monks. The Monks charged it and, if they’d been able to beat it in combat, they’d have rolled forward into the Tomb Guard, gotten two combats in with their Plague Banner, and put Khatep in base-to-base combat with the Plague Priest. If I’d won that combat, man, I’d have gotten a very solid win.

It wasn’t to be: I don’t care how many attacks, rerolling to hit and wound… if you’re not able to successfully cast Bless with Filth on ’em, you’re going to have some trouble getting through T8. In hindsight, I should have gone for the Irresistible Force on it; that’s how key it was. Instead of blowing through the Spinx, the Plague Monks did some damage… but then took flank and rear charges from the two units of Chariots.

Game 2

Massacre vs. Bill’s High Elves

2,800 – Bill’s High Elves

Lords
Teclis

Heroes
Noble (BSB) – Great Weapon, Armour of Destiny

Core
Archers x14 – Musician
Lothern Sea Guard x40 – Full Command, Shields, Banner of Eternal Flame

Special
Phoenix Guard x30 – Full Command, Warrior Bane, Banner of Sorcery
Swordmasters of Hoeth x25 – Full Command, Ironcurse Icon, Gleaming Pennant

Rare
Great Eagle
Great Eagle

Scrolls of Binding
Great Dragon

Second game was against the Man of the Hour… and I felt pretty bad about it.

I went first and, before he had the chance to do anything, I’d Gutter Runner’d his Eagles to bits and used both Warp-Lighting Cannons to pop his Dragon. It goes without saying that this was a big deal. IIRC, due to deployment, I was actually even able to kill something like half of his Swordmasters with Warpfire Throwers, as well.

The scenario was a variant of The Watchtower, and although Bill started in control of it, I was able to (on a number of occasions), Curse of the Horned Rat the Elves occupying it… eventually converting Teclis into a loathsome ratman.

Bills only real defense was to spam Final Transmutation, which was effective in killing a lot of models (but not units) and making me really nervous about my characters (though he only managed to tag my Warlord after several tries).

In the end, I tabled him… and even though nobody likes getting tabled, I’m reasonably certain I made the process as pleasant as possible.

Game 3

Minor Win vs. Cody’s Orc’s & Goblins

I don’t have a copy of Cody’s list to post… and I was a bit preoccupied through the game, so I can’t recreate his list. It was a fairly standard O&G list: deep units of Night Goblins with Fanatics, some Mangler Squigs, a bunch of Doom Divers and Bolt Throwers; he also ran three Snotling Pump Wagons and an Ettin from Monstrous Arcanum.

Before the game started, I started to feel bad. GPC has some serious air conditioning issues over by the mini gaming tables; they have for years, and it’s persisted even after they fixed their AC system. The main source of this problem isn’t a bunch of gamers: it’s that there’s a kitchen restauant on the other side of the wall on the far side of the tables… the wall I stood next to all day long.

At first, I thought it might have been something from lunch… but in hindsight, I’m quite convinced it was heat exhaution: vertigo, nausea, headache, and a mad dash to the bathroom. Mark, who’s both a gentleman and a scholar, ran out to K-Mart to game some Pepto for me. It was not cool.

I figured I’d worked through most everything, came out and threw down.

Despite feeling pretty terrible, and worrying through the whole game about whether or not I’d have to run back to the bathroom, I didhave a good game; I’m not sure if I’ve played Cody before, and that’s a shame. There was a lot of back-and-forth but, by the end of things, I pulled out a Minor Win. Had we pushed on a bit farther, I think I was positioned to widen that lead, but there weren’t any huge, drastic events. (Like I said, I was preoccupied.)

Conclusion

Overall, despite getting sick near the end (which also knocked me out for Sunday), I had a great time! I had three fun games against folks I don’t normally get to play against, and that’s always a good thing. It’s something I really need to make of point of doing more of: it’s a big group ’round these parts, but I end up just playing against the same handful of folks… I need to broaden my horizons.

Anyway, between the VPs from tabling Bill and points from Players’ Choice votes (thanks, folks!), I ended up coming in second place overall (woot!).

Here are some other pictures of some of the really great armies I didn’t get to play against: