BR: Beasts vs Orcs & Goblins

So the magic heavy, double giant army setup across from me. Here were the deployments:

Mine first:


From the bottom to the top:
3 Rat Ogres / Minotaurs
5 Giant Rats / Chaos hounds
4 Rat Ogres
Beast herd with Setrad
Chariot
6 Giant Rats
Ratspawn and body guard
Failed Rat ogre spawn
Herd with other shaman and wargor
Furies behind them
5 Giant Rats
Chariot
Failed Rat Ogre spawn
3 Rat Ogres
4 Rat Ogres

So everything packed in around Ratspawn and Rat Ogres on the flank.

His deployment:


As you can see another famous member of the unpainted legions. ;-)
From bottom to top:
10 Arrer Boyz with Lvl 2 shaman
giant
3 snotling bases
wolf riders behind them,
arrer boyz with shaman lvl 2 behind them
Giant
20 goblins, with 3 fanatics and goblin shaman
Rock lobba behind that
Squig herders
10 arrer boyz with lvl 4 behind them.
20 goblins with 3 fanatics
Rock lobba
chariot
5 wolf riders
chariot
5 wolf riders.

Turn 1a: Get 'em boyz
The only animosity was the Lvl 4s unit who moved up and stopped when they hit the squig herders. Then everything but the arrer boyz and rock lobbas moved up. The wolves held back but everthing else went pretty much full speed, stopping outside my 12" charge range with his giants.

Magic phase: He is pulling out his dice, And getting ready to cast spells. He casts foot of gork so I dispel it.
Then he reailzes everyone is pretty much out of range to cast anything else. But if he gets Waaagh off everyone will be in range. Ding, Ding, Ding!!! David was right.

So with 4 dice he throws a mighty 15 with the Waaagh! spell. I look at everything and don't like the way it looked so let it go. Everything moves up 2d6". Warmachine crews, giants, chariots, etc.. It was a disaster.

Then with all of his magic, he manages to only kill off 1 ungor. I scroll his hand of gork to move his giant into combat. Shooting kills nothing.
1 of his warmachine crew ran 12", which means he would need 2 turns to run back to them. So he couldn't shoot it till turn 4. Turn 3 for the other one.
He immediately regreted throwing the spell.

Turn 1b: CHARGE!!!
From bottom/right flank. 3 Rat Ogres into giant. Failed my fear test, but on the re-roll, I got a 8. He didn't use his bound spell. If he had and I had failed to dispel it, I would have failed this charge.

Chariot into snotling bases, hounds in front of ratspawn into snotlings.
Ratspawn and body guard into the Giant.
He was thinking I couldn't do this because no LOS, he forgot, everyone can see big guys.
Herd on left into squig hoppers.
Chariot and hounds into flank of goblins on hill.
3 Rat Ogres into front of goblins on hill.
4 Rat Ogres into chariot that had moved up 11".

His chariot flees but everything else holds.
Ratspawn and company easily make their fear test.
His goblins on the hill fail his, so need 6's to hit.
My herd in front of the house wants to enter the house, quickly fails its unruly check. The giant Ratpsawn is charging is closest, but still 12" away, so no charge.
Everytime I have ever wanted to enter a house with a herd, I fail their stupid check.

Then the spawns move: Up a couple inches and out pops 3 fanatics. All 3 heading to protect the snotling bases, but with their 6, 4 and 2" moves, they are not protecting much.
The spawn was heading towards the squigs but its big 7" move on 3d6 falls short.
The other spawn moves up 2" and out pops the fanatics from the group on the hill.
2 head towards the 3 Rat Ogres, one hit and went through and the other stopped in between. I moved them up, and he does 12 hits from the 2 fanatics. 9 wounds, takes them out completely. Not looking good.
The other moves 3" to the flank where the chariot and hounds are coming from.

the spawn is moving also towards the squigs, but its big 6" move clogs up everything.

Charges:
The 3 barely make it to the giant but make it.
The chariot can squeeze between the house and the fanatic and hits the snotlings with no problem.
The hounds charge up and end up hitting all 3 fanatics and are wiped out to a hound.
Ratspawn now has a clean charge lane to the giant in his area.
The herd makes their charge easily.
The hounds going for the goblins flanks hit the spawn and stop.
The chariot can squeeze by, hits the corner of the goblins but when it aligns itself it stops on top of the fanatic. 5 wounds later on 2d6 hits, and the chariot is gone.

My herd runs top speed and lands on a fanatic and losses all its ungors. But the fanatic is destroyed. Now we just have 2 right in front of us.

In the magic phase, my shaman in combat cannot use Dark hand so he tries to make the furies cause terror. I roll a 15, so out comes a dispel scroll.

Since I now have the Rune Herd stone as my 3 Rat Ogres are closer to it than his giant, I have 4 more power dice. So I'm thinking 2 dice on each of crows feast and beast cower.

So 2 dice for crows feast to blast one of the fanatics in front of me. I roll double 1's and then roll 10 on the magic chart. So str 8 hit which wounds, I'm now level 1 and lost my crows feast spell. That Suxs.
Then 2 dice to cast beast cower on his giant facing Ratspawn, just in case. And I roll a 5. Oh well, so much for magic.

Finally, Hand to hand.
I do the herd first and manage 6 wounds on the hapless squigs leaving on the handlers left. They break and run.

I then do the chariot which wipes out the 3 snotling bases on the charge and overruns.

I then do the 3 Rat Ogres on the giant. With 9 attacks I get 6 hits and then 5 wounds. He gets thump with club back, and I make my initiative test. The giant with 1 wound left lives.

Finally to Ratspawn. 3's to hit, 4's to wound. I get 3 hits and then 2 wounds. I did an extra 10 wounds from the Hellfire sword and the giant just exploded. (Even going with the 1d6 would have been enough to kill him. As I rolled a 4 and a 6).

At this point it was time for panic checks, but my opponent just conceded the game.

All his heavy hitters were dead, almost dead or fleeing except for 1 chariot that was not in charge range. His wolf riders were looking at Ld 5 fear tests and even if he made them, he didn't think they could do much to the minotaurs.

And all 4 of his wizards were in my sights for next turn charges.

Here was the pic at the end of the game:


Personally, I thought he conceded a bit early. We could have gone another turn to see if he could turn it around, but with the fanatics blown, his rock lobbas unable to shoot, and 1 for 2 more turns. Add in one giant dead, the other down to 1 wound, he would have to hope for scream and bawl and hope I broke. Even if I did, my 4 minotaurs were right behind them.

The writing was on the wall and he read it quickly. He tried something he had never tried before, didn't understand all the consequinces of what he was doing and really screwed himself over. He was in great position, the Waaagh!! was just not necessary.

He had a good plan of delay, shoot and magic. But then slipped back into that Orc aggresiveness they tend to have. A bad move.

My opponent was a great sport about it, he just hates it when he does stupid moves and we both agreed that one was bad. We have a rematch scheduled and I'm sure he will do better next time.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Until next time...

Last League Battle done

I played my last scheduled League battle yesterday vs an Orc and Goblin army. As it turned out, my opponent only lives 10 minutes from me and we have played in the past. Its been 3-4 years since we last faced off and he is not playing his traditional Vampire Counts but instead running with the greenskins for a change of pace in this years league.

Since I was the home player and took my road resource I had an extra 75 points to spend. So my army looked like:

Doombull und, Hvy armor, shield, hellfire sword.
Wargor, hvy armor, gr.weapon, und.
Lvl 2 shaman, und, staff of darkoth, d.scroll, beast magic, crows feast, beast cower
Lvl 2 shaman, und, 2xd.scroll, bray staff, death magic, dark hand, the fear to terror.

5 Minotaurs, und, gr.weapons, bloodkine, standard
4 Minotaurs, und, gr.weapons
4 Minotaurs, und, gr.weapons
3 Minotaurs, und, gr.weapons
3 Minotaurs, und, gr.weapons
2 Tuskigor chariots
6 Chaos Hounds
5 Chaos Hounds
5 Chaos Hounds
Beast Herd 7 gors, ex hand weapons, 6 ungors, spears, full command
Beast Herd 7 gors, ex hand weapons, 6 ungors, spears, full command

8 Chaos furies
2 Spawn maked of slaanesh
Total: 2324 points

I don't have my opponents list with me but from memory:
Orc Great Shaman Lvl 4 w/+1 casting staff, 6+ ward, Horn of Urgok (bound PL 5)
Spells: Gaze of Mork, 'Eadbutt, Fists of Gork, Waaagh!

Orc Shaman Lvl 2 w/dispel scroll, Power stone
Spells: Gaze of Mork, 'Eadbutt

Orc Shaman Lvl 2 w/ dispel scroll, Power stone
Spells: Gaze of Mork, 'Eadbutt

Night Goblin shaman Lvl 2 w/2 magic mushrooms, Callar of Zorga, Brimstone Bauble
Spells: Foot of Gork, Hand of Gork

3 x 5 Goblin Wolf Riders, spear, shield
2 Orc Boar Chariots
2 Goblin Rock Lobbers
Night Goblin Squig herd (6 squigs, 4 herders) (League resource lets him take an extra special)
20 Night goblins w/3 fanatics
20 Night goblins w/3 fanatics
3 bases of snotlings
3 x 10 Orc Arrer Boyz

And then the big ones...
2 Giants

Ouch, this was a nasty list. 12 power dice, 2 giants, 30 orc archers and 2 catapults. Not to mention the fanatics, that I wasn't sure were there or not.

We rolled for scenario and got pitched battle. No objectives, table quarters count.

We rolled for terrain and got 6 pieces. Hill, wood, farm house, area of boulders. Then the 2 strange ones.
On the 12 on 2d6 we got the Enchanted bone yard. Counts as difficult and anyone who starts their turn there or moves into it, suffers 1d6 str 2 hits.
Story behind it is a Necromancer tried to raise some skeltons but bumbled the spell. The skeletons animated but didn't form together. So they grabbed the Necromancer and are forcing him to stay there so they will stay animated. Since the necro is undead, he won't die, but can't leave.

Then on a roll of 2 on 2d6 we get the Arcane Herd stone. This is straight out of the rulebook on page 100. Whoever, holds the herd stone at the beginning of each magic phase, gains either +1 power dice or +1 dispel dice. To hold it, you must be US 5, and closer to it than any of your enemies US 5 units, and be at least within 12" of it.

So some really weird terrain.
We placed, he won the roll to pick sides, and we deployed. (picture coming tomorrow). We had the exact same number of drops, since he picked sides, he dropped first and so dropped his characters right before I dropped my characters and he got the +1 to go first.

he won the roll and got to go first.

The BR will come tomorrow. (forgot my pictures, sorry). But this was one of the shortest 6th or 7th edition games I have ever played. I don't want to spoil it. But Wow!!

Justin showed up to my house at 6:30. He looked at my army and I showed him my favorite models until 6:45. We went down and got some food. Started rolling for stuff, setup terrain and deployed the armies by 7:30.
By 8:15 he was driving away.
I guarantee you it is not what you are thinking. He did not miscast. He failed casting only 1 spell. I had a miscast. The dice were hot for him. So what could have possibly happened???

Until next time...

Whats going on?

Dear readers,

I'm finding it harder and harder to maintain this blog. It is just very difficult to continue to post on a daily basis since I'm getting busier at work.

I'll try to keep it going at least through my League Playoff run. It looks like I have made the playoffs. All I have to do is play my last game. Even a loss gets me in.

So I'm looking forward to that. I'll be joined probably, by my son playing Slaanesh chaos mortals, Shaun with his Skaven and Greg with his Dwarfs, from the South West Region. On the NE side it is Paul with his TK, his son Alexander with Ogre Kingdoms, Merlon with Wood Elves and then 1 of 3 players depending on the final round of games.
So a very nice mix of armies for the playoffs. Should be a great time.

If things continue to play out, I'll probably end up playing Andrew unless Shaun just forfiets his last couple of games. Which might happen since I am calling the League finished on April 1st and all games not completed will be forfieted.

I've played Andrew with Ratspawn against his Slaanesh mortals 1 time. I managed to pull it out, but he had me on the ropes and took out Ratspawn pretty easily. And in my games vs Shaun and Greg, I lost and had a draw. So no matter who I play, it will be a tough, tough game. Should be great.

Also, on another note, I started my next army. I worked out the list today and all the models I'll need for it. I'm pretty excited about this project now, as it is a compltely different style of army than I have ever played before. It took me an hour to put the first model together and get him cleaned up last night. Tons of slag, flashing and mold lines. So its going to be another very slow project. But I'm not ready to reveal it yet.

The finale of Battle Star was pretty good. Baltar getting aquitted, which I figured would happen. But then Starbuck coming back and saying she had been to Earth. Then the bad news, its done till 2008!! So 9 months before the next episode. Just when it was ready to start getting good again.

Dresden Files is still delivering, with some exceptional writing and stories. My only problem with the show is the number of dead bodies, he finds. And it doesn't really add to the story that he finds them. I just always have a problem with dead bodies dropping around the main character. Anyway, the rest of it is great.

Still waiting on the next episode of Heroes.

Until next time...

300

Like I mentioned, I got to go see the blockbuster hit *300* last weekend. Man, what a movie. The battle at Thermopylae has always fascinated me, and I've done some reading on it as well as watched more than 1 documentary on the battle itself.

This movie went beyond just the battle and gave us a little history on where King Leonidas came from, how he and other Spartan warriors were raised and what made them the Delta Force warriors of the Greeks.

I also got to watch a History channel documentary called *Inside the 300*, which covered many of the same topics as the movie. I was amazed at actually how accurate the movie was to the truth.

Just for your info a few things that were left out/changed in the movie:
1. The Spartan warrior doesn't go kill a wolf, they had to kill a slave without being caught. I can understand why they changed that.

2. They changed what the Oracle said. What she really said was that Greek would perish unless a king sacrificed his life. (basically) Why they changed this, I don't know. I think this part was a mistake. I guess they wanted a better reason for the Spartan Council to bicker about not sending the whole army. That did happen in reality, I don't think they needed to change this.

3. They left out completely the greek navy battle that kept the Persians from landing troops behind Leonidas. The Greeks here were outnumbered 6-1 or more, and held out longer than the Spartans did. After the Spartans fell, the Greek navy fled.

4. Scholars cannot be sure how big the Persian army really was, but most feel it was probably only 300,000 though some feel it could have been over 1 million. The movie was pretty vague on that part.

5. When the Persians marched their 10,000 troops up the goat trail, the 1000 Philisions (sp?) who were guarding it, thought the Persians were heading for their city and abondoned the trail to protect their city. This opened up the trail for them to come behind the Spartans.

6. When the Greeks fled, it was not an all out flee. They left in small numbers to keep the Persians from knowing they left.

7. They left out that 1000 Greeks actually stayed and died in the final stand with the Spartans.

8. They left out that the Persians got to Greece by building a huge bridge out of pantoon boats and walked across the Agian sea.

9. It left out that 2 months after Leonidas died, the Persians marched on Athens and burned it to the ground. It was after that, that the Greeks and Spartans banded together and eventually pushed the Persians off of Greece, burned their bridge and this led to Phillip uniting Greece and then Alexander destroying most of Persia.

10. They had the wrong reason Xerxes and the Persians invaded in the first place. It really was, the Greeks supported an uprising in a Persian city 50 years earlier, when Xerxes father or grandfather was king. The rebels burned the city to the ground. This led the then Persian king to promise to burn Athens to the ground. Then 10 years before Thermopylae, a Persian army of 50,000 or so landed near the city of Marathon and were defeated by 10,000 Greek Troops. (These numbers are highly debated and vary depending on the sources and scholars)
Xerxes then had a slave every day whisper in his ear during supper, "Remember the Greeks." So this is why he eventually forced his way into Greece to burn Athens.

Now barring the small number of *changes* they put into the movie, this was an epic movie that will be well remembered for some time. It won't win any oscars, but wow, just wow.

One thing that did bother me a bit was the number of small children in the theatre with me. What the hell are those parents thinking?? 7 to 10 year old boys and girls have no business being in that theatre. That was rediculous.

Anyway, what did you guys think of the movie?

Until next time...

Bayou Battles GT Final Thoughts

Well another GT down. It was my first for the 2007 year and I'm really only planning on attending the Lone Wolf GT in August this year to go with it.

I have to admit, it was one of the best times at a GT I have ever been to. The Giant Bash was a ton of fun. Getting to sit around and talk with friends like Rick, Jordan, Roy, Adam, Bryan, David, Jim, Lex, Jody, Jason, Mark, etc... The list just goes on and on. That is the best part of the GT scene. Playing cards Saturday was a lot of fun, even if the best hand I got was a Queen high.

Getting to play Isaac Friday night with his beautiful clown army was great. Getting to watch people fawn over my Rat beast army was more than I can describe.

I'm always happy with a 3-1-1 finish and thought I might have an outside shot at something, but it was not to be. I walked away completely empty handed. Not even a door prize. So that was a bit dissapointing. 3rd GT in a row my name hasn't been called. So maybe I'm just losing my edge.

But getting to see the results was a real lift.
6th place overall
3rd place best army
4th place players choice (was told by the judges)

With 69 players, this was a great finish. So I have to say my first GT run with Ratspawn was a good Success. The only thing that would have made it better was if they had actually handed out 1st through 3rd best army.
It was great to see so many of my friends take home awards. David Bowman, Jordan Braun and Rick Thompson for best generals. All 3 good friends. Jason Johnson and Jim Bailey for best overall. More good friends. Bryan Ching, Adam Clark, Roy Eggesperger, Isaac, Grejada. It was just a who's who of Southern US Warhammer goodness.

I learned a lot about how this army runs, what works and what doesn't. Hopefully, when it hits the ground running at the Lone wolf it will do even better.

Until then, I still have 1 more league game, then into the playoffs, as I've now clinched a spot in my League Playoffs. I pulled 3rd place with this army last year. Hopefully I can make it to the finals top table this year. Its a 30 player league this year so nothing to take lightly.

Until next time...

Bayou Battles Round 5 BR

So now I'm sitting at 2-1-1 and probably out of the running for everything but maybe players choice and/or best army. 3-1-1 might be enough for a 3rd overall, depending on how everyone else fairs. But with so many players at 3-0-1 going into this round that is a long shot at best.

So I'm off just to enjoy the battle and have a good time. I get to my final table and I'm sitting across from another Bretonian army. His army looked like this:

Bret Lord, Virtue of Purity, Gilded Cuirass, Sword of Might, Hippogryph
Paladin BSB with War Banner, Virtue of Duty
Paladin Virtue of Discipline, Sword of Heroes
Damsel of the Lady Chalice of Malfleur, D.scroll

8 KoR, full command
9 Knights Errant, full command, Errantry banner
20 Men at arms, halberd, LA, Sh, standard, musc
8 Peasent Bowmen
9 Questing knights, full command
3 Pegasus Knights, champ, musc
8 Grail knights, standard, musc, Conqueror Tapestry

I'd barely sat down and met Chris Jackson, my opponent, when Chris started fawning all over my miniatures. I always love this of course and showed them off proudly. We then rolled for table sides and sat down, when Chris got a phone call that he had to take. As he disappeared, I was a bit miffed at first but after a couple minutes, I relaxed and took a bit of a nap, which I think helped me a whole lot.

When he returned, we set up and he played very fast, so the loss of 10-15 mins never factored in. And my nap helped me much more.

On the right side of the table were 2 woods about 12" from each table edge and 18" from the right side of the board. On the left was a small tower and a hill in his deployment zone. He put his archers on the hill and his Grail knights next to them on the flank. On the right flank he put his 20 men at arms and his pegasus knights.
His 3 Lances took up the middle and his Lord on Hippogriff was next to the hill with the archers.

He of course prays and I take the first turn.

Turn 1a: Remembering how well my tactics worked for game 1 I thought I'd try it again. So I ran my giant rats/hounds out as fast as they would go, and my Rat Ogres/Minotaurs were following a few inches back.
Herd on left heads for the building, herd on the right runs into the woods.
Furies land on the tower roof. With skirmished and hard cover, I feel pretty safe.

Turn 1b: Chris and his Brets don't take the bait. Even his Errant knights at -2 Ld hold back their charge. So he only moves up a few inches and thats it. Flies his Peg knights to the far right table edge.
His archers shoot at my furies and do nothing.

Turn 2a: Since he didn't have any charges, my Rat Ogres are still behind my giant rat shields. So the only charge was furies into the archers. He stands and shoots. Needing an even higher number to hit, (now 8's and 9's) he gets 2 hits, and 2 wounds. I then fail 2 ward saves. Ugghhh, he makes his fear test and has the hill crest. I figure this won't last long.

My herd wanting to head into the safety of the building fails its unruly and heads straight for the Lord on Hippogriff instead. Ugghhh!!

On the left flank I run the hounds right in front of the Grail knights and angle them towards the board edge. I line up my 4 Rat Ogres and chariot to get a flank charge when he is forced to charge with them.

On the right flank I move 3 Rat Ogres up to face off his men at arms but keeping the pegs in front. I keep the herd in the woods behind them. I also run the chaos spawn that direction.
My other spawn moves right in front of the Lord on hippogriff. And my 2 hounds in the center went right up to the lances and angled to my right.

In combat, my furies lose combat killing only 1 archer and losing one myself, but roll a 4 and hold out.

Turn 2b: Charge with everything!!!
Grail knights do a bold move and charge the herd that failed unruly so he can wheel to avoid the hounds to hit the herd in the middle of the board easily 14-15" away. Lord on Big bird charges the spawn.
Knights of the Realm with both paladins charge 1 hound unit.
Questing knights and knights errant charge the hounds on the far right.

My herd flees the grail knights. My hounds on the right flee the 2 lances and the questing knights skirting the woods catch them. The knights errant running right through the woods, don't and are caught up on the edge of the woods.
My spawn and other hounds stand and take it.

His pegausus fly to my half of the table on the right flank and by my herd in the woods. Not sure if he forgot they were skirmished and have 360 LoS or if he thought the peg knights could hold them.

In combat the lord and bird manage only 1 wound on the spawn. And the spawn gives a wound back on the bird, but it makes its ward save.
The knights destroy the giant rats, and choose to overrun. This protects the flank of the questing knights but if he doesn't run far enough he is in trouble. He runs only 10" and is at an angle, right between Ratspawn and a unit of 3 Rat Ogres.

In the fury combat, we both whiff. I lose by 1 and roll low enough that I only lose 1 model. So 1 fury left.

Turn 3a: Counter Charge!!
On left flank, 4 Rat Ogres and chariot into flank of grail knights.
Hounds move up to charge archers next round.

On right flank, spawn moves into Men at arms, herd charges out of woods and into pegasus knights. 3 Rat Ogres move up to get flank on men at arms next round.

In the middle, 4 Rat Ogres into front of questing knights. 3 Rat Ogres into flank of Knights of the Realm. And then I had to make a choice. I could squeeze in Ratspawn and group into the flank of the Questing knights, but it would be messy with all the other models. Or I could hit the front of the KoR unit with BSB and hero with sword of heroes. I decided it was better to take out the hero. Plus I'm thinking if I break them, the 3 Rat Ogres will hit his lord on the flank.

I forget completely that my chariot behind my 3 Rat Ogres could easily see over them to see the hippogriff. I could have charged into his flank. So in the magic phase I try to cast the beast movement spell, but he dispels it.
My herd rallies.

In combat, the Grail knights are butchered, broken and run down.
The lord kills off the spawn.
The other spawn does only 1 wound, and suffers a wound to their halberds.
My herd kills off a peg knight, wins combat, but he holds.

In the middle, my 4 Rat Ogres (only 3 can get into combat because of their small 75mm front) on his questing knights do a lot of wounds, but after all his armor and ward saves I only kill 1. He then does a couple wounds, and breaks my Rat Ogres. Ugghh, running them down.

Finally, Ratspawn issues a challenge. I figure he will accept with the hero with sword of heroes, but his champion accepts instead. I shrug and do a wound to his champ and tack on another 5 wounds from the hellfire sword. He then asks what the toughness of my Rat Ogre/Minotaurs are. I say Toughness 4 and you can see the air deflate out of him. He was thinking they were toughness 5 for some reason and he would slice through them like butter.
When the dust cleared, there were 2 knights and his 2 heroes left. I can killed off 6 knights plus my overkill. He does kill 1 Rat Ogre in Ratpsawns body guard, but breaks and runs.
My Rat Ogres pursue, but for some reason I decide to have Ratspawn restrain. Another huge mistake.

Turn 3b: Its not over till its over.
His lord charges my herd. He rallies his 2 heroes and KoR.
He turns his questing knights to face the rear of Ratspawns unit. He turns his Knights Errant to face the front but off to the right.

In combat, the peg knights lose another knight but hold again.
The Lord on bird kills off several gors and I do only 1 wound back on the bird. He wins by 2. Needing a 7 not to break, I fail, and am caught and run down.
The spawn kills a few more men at arms.

Turn 4a: Save Ratspawn time.
After having lost Ratspawn in the last game, I really didn't want to lose him here. Even if I moved a full 6" I couldn't get away from the double lance charge. If I turned around, I'm still getting it. My only hope was to charge something and then pursue it out of range. The only thing even close was the knights errant.
I looked at it for a long time and decided it was worth the risk. I had to wheel 5" and was then 6 and 3/4" out. But I made it. Whew!!!
Chariot and Rat Ogres into the knights of the realm
Rat Ogres and hounds charge the archers.

I turn my 3 Rat Ogres on the far flank around to face the questing knights rear instead of charging the men at arms.
Turn my chariot around to face his lord.

In combat, I wound the champ peg knight, he finally breaks, I let him go and he flees off the board.
I hack down the archers who are broken and chased down.
Chariot and Rat Ogres kill off the rest of the KoR and the BSB. Only the hero left, he does a couple wounds but then runs off the board.
I kill a few more men at arms.

Finally, Ratspawn. I really need to break him or Ratspawn gets it in the rear hard.
I challenge, he is forced to accept. I kill the champ but only 1 overkill from the sword. I then kill off only 1 more knight. He does only 1 wound. So I have 3 wounds, banner, and I have US 15, to his 14. I win by 1 and with US, he needs insane courage. He fails and I pursue out of charge range of the questing knights. Errant knights get away.

Turn 4b: The game is over at this point. All Chris has left is his lord on bird, questing knights, men at arms and fleeing knights errant.
He rallies his knights errant lance.
He turns his questing knights to face my 3 Rat Ogres.
He flies his Lord on bird up behind his lance for a countercharge support.

In combat, my spawn kills a few more men at arms, he wounds my spawn. It is now getting close to the point where I'll win combat soon.

Turn 5a: Time to finish this off.
Ratspawn into knights errant
3 Rat Ogres into questing knights.

Chariot into his lord. I'm hoping my impact hits will kill the bird, leaving his lord on foot. No such luck as I fail my terror test twice and flee with the chariot.

I turn my other units around from his board edge and move closer to the middle.
I run my herd back into the woods.

In magic I use my wild call spell from the staff of Darkoth on my herd to charge the questing knights in the flank. I roll a 14 on 3d6. With only 2 dispel dice left, he fails the double 6 roll and in they go.

Ratspawn easily kills off the errants and off the board they go.
spawn kills another man at arms and is still losing combat.

Finally the questing knights. I commence to put a severe whooping on him and all his good luck with ward saves went away as I killed off 6 knights leaving only 2 left alive. Needing insane courage to stay... HE MAKES IT!!

Turn 5b: The Lord on bird charges into the flank of my herd. He kills off several gors, but I do another wound to his bird. His knights kill off a Rat Ogre, but with their 6 str 6 attacks back, I take out the last of the questing knights.
I win combat by a couple, but his lord holds.
Spawn whiffs.

Turn 6a: 3 Rat Ogres charge flank of men at arms.
Everyone else moves to capture table quarters, 2 Rat Ogres who just finished killing questing knights, move so if lord on bird breaks the herd, he will not hit me.
chariot rallies.

In combat, he kills off all but three ungors, shaman and wargor. I do another wound to the bird killing it.

The men at arms crumble from the flank charge and are chased down.

Turn 6b: Lord kills off rest of the herd. Wargor puts a wound on the lord. He wins combat, by 1, the wargor and shaman hold.

End of the game, its a massacre Beasts: 19, Bretts: 6.
I lost the point for not killing his general.

GT final thoughts coming soon.

Until next time...

Bayou Battles Round 4 BR

It is Sunday morning. I have a record of 2 wins and 1 draw. I have 51 points. There is only 1 player at 3-0 with 58 points. The most anyone else can have is 55, but that last scenario made it difficult to get all 20, so probably more likely 53. So I'm right in the top 5-6 in battle with 2 rounds to go.

I find my opponent is David Long. Now David and I have a bit of history. We met in the first round of the Lone Wolf last year where his Lizardmen beat my Skaven. It was a great game that was spoiled slightly by the fact that he rallied his general in a unit with 1 skink left. Something he shouldn't have been able to do. We both missed it, those things happen. His general went on to play a major part of the victory. And I end up going 4-1 in the tounament and walked away empty handed.
So I kick myself when I think about that.

David is a member of the Direwolf FAQ council as am I. So we both know the rules very well. And know how to push them to the limits.

We are both at 2-0-1 and have 51 points. But now I'm playing my Beast army and he has his High Elves. His army looks like:

Archmage Lvl 4, Staff os solidity (ignore first miscast), Amulet of Pure flame, (-3 enemy casting at unit), Seer (pick his spells), D.scroll, pure of heart.

Mage Lvl 2, Ring of Corin(Vauls unmaking), Silver wand(extra spell)

Commander, hvy armor, barded steed, BSB, helm of fortune, Sword of Might.
(2+ re-rollable armor save, +1 strength)

21 spear elves, mus, standard to treat difficult terrain as open.
3x 5 Silver helms, 2+ armor

6 Dragon Princes, champ, standard, warbanner
21 Sword masters, full command, banner of sorcery
7 shadow warriors
2 Great Eagles
2 RBTS.

I have no real problem with Davids list, but I think the Banner of Sorcery put it over what I'd call a Indy GT list. Anything that takes you into double digit power dice, and now add in a bound item, is just wrong to me for an Indy GT. So David, if you read this, I did mark you down one from normal because of the double digit power dice.

I have a small check list in my head, and if you exceed any of these, you get dinged. That is just me. I actually decide what I'm giving an army before the game.

We set up and roll for the first turn. I have my choice and I think I made the worse decision I possibly could by letting David go first. Maybe this was because I knew I was going to ding his army, or maybe I was just tired. Either way I think it cost me.

Turn 1a: David runs a few units up. He runs his BSB right up in front of my hounds that are shielding Ratspawn and company.
Then comes the magic phase. 10 power dice and the bound spell. He wants to unmake my d.scroll. I throw one dice at it and stop it. I then end up burning both scrolls. One was a big mistake on.
Shooting didn't do much.

Turn 1b: Hounds charge the BSB. Then hopeing my spawn might make it as well, I roll a whopping 7" and fall short. Everyone else moves up.
BSB wins combat, hounds break and run through Ratspawn, who makes his panic. Now wanting the BSB to pursue, he passes his restraint roll.
I have 2 spells to cast. Dark hand at his mage lord and the spear thrower at a silver helm. I decide on the spear first and get IF!! Ugghhh, if I do the dark hand first, I get it off on his Mage lord. Doh!?!? I kill the Silver helm and he dispels dark hand.

Turn 2a: He charges a unit of 4 RatOgres in the flank with the spear elves. Its a long 10", and I debate it for some time. If I stand and he is in range, he breaks them, and hits my herd and probably breaks them as well. I couldn't take the chance and I flee. We measured it and he was 10 1/2" out. Ugghhh!! Another mistake on my part.
He moves a unit of Silver helms up and at an angle to Ratspawn to lead me away from the combat.
For magic he gets 11 power dice. He tries Vauls on my sword, I let it go and its out of range. He then blasts a unit of 3 Rat Ogres who were setup to charge the flank of the spear elves. I'm down to 1 Rat Ogre there. He also blasts my 5 furies killing them down to 2.

Turn 2b: I had no choice but to charge the silver helms with Ratspawn and group. I also charge a unit of Silver helms with the BSB with a herd. 2 Furies into his mage lord on his own. He holds with everything.
Ratspawn makes it easily, and wipes out the whole unit.
The herd is just in.
The furies are 20 and 1/32" away. In 90% of my games I'd give that to my opponent, but no deal with David. I was short and stopped 1" out from him.
In the herd my Wargor and BSB end up in a challenge. With my 3 attacks I get 2 wounds and he fails both 5+ armor saves and on the re-roll!! So I kill him. Then with the rest of my 13 or so str 3,4 & 5 attacks, I can't get a wound. I still win combat, but he makes his break test. If he misses this, I hit the flank of his swordmasters.
The 4 fleeing Rat Ogres rallied as did the hounds.

Turn 3a: I had moved the lone Rat Ogre in front of his spear elves so he would have to charge him. So he did, I fled and he catches me moving the full 10".
His Dragon Princes charge my spawn that had moved a big 5" the previous turn.
He lands an Eagle right by Ratspawn, trying to force the charge again.
He charges an eagle at the recently rallied chaos hounds and got his sword masters into my herd in combat with the silverhelms.
His shadow warriors charge my furies.

Magic combined with affective shooting continues to pound me and I'm losing troops fast.

In combat, my hounds beat his eagle, but it stays.
My furies take no wounds, and get 2 hits, but only 1 wound on the shadow warriors so its a draw.
In the big combat, he kills my wargor, kills my shaman with a horse and breaks the units and the silverhelms run it down. The swordmasters restrain.

Turn 3b: This got real tricky here, but I charge my herd at the eagle in combat with the hounds.
I charge Rat Ogres and chariot into silverhelms on the left flank.
The chariot behind the Rat Ogres had a small bit of LoS to hit the Eagle in front of Ratspawn and I took that charge. This surprised David and I thought I was going to bring this game back.
On the right flank my unit of 4 Rat Ogres charged the Silver helms that just caught the herd that broke. They fled and So Enemy in the way had me hitting the spear elves in the flank. He flees with them as well.
He fled the Silver helms from the combined chariot and Rat Ogre charge.

Then in movement, I made a great move where I turned Ratspawns unit to the right. Wheeled up 1 1/2 inches and then expanded frontage by 5 models. This gave me a great line to charge the flank of his swordmasters.

In combat the herd with hounds beat the eagle but it holds again.
The chariot does only 1 wound ot the eagle and he holds.
The furies lose combat and pop.

Turn 4a: No charges. He rallies his 2 silver helm units. But fails on his spear elves. He needs to head towards the side board edge. At first he wanted to wheel them, but I corrected him in that they just spin on the spot. This made a huge difference as they were now going to touch the Dragon princes and hop right over. When they did, off the board they went. The DPs make their panic test though. Damn it.
He moves Dragon Princes around to run parrallel to my back board edge on the right flank.
He surprises me by turning his Sword masters away from Ratspawn and moves as far as he can away. So he is 4+ inches out.

His magic and shooting knock down Ratspawns unit down two guys. And knock my unit of 4 on the right flank down to 3.

The Eagle in combat with the herd, holds on again.
The chariot vs eagle combat ends in a draw with him wounding me.

Turn 4b: Ratspawn charges rear or Sword masters. They need to flee at least 8" and get 9. Ugghhh!! That was huge in so many ways.
Chariot charges silver helms again.

I move some hounds over to help out the chariot vs the eagle.
I move 2 hounds in front of the DPs so that is their only charge. I move my Rat Ogres to the flank of the DPs.

The silver helms take the chariot charge but I kill all but 2 who flee and are chased down.
The herd with hounds finally break the eagle and chase it down.
The eagle takes another wound, but still holds.

Turn 5a: No charges.
He rolls a 10 to rally. I'm thinking he could end up off the table here. But he measures to his wizard lord the general and is just in the 12". He makes it. Exactly what he needs.
He backs his DPs up so the Rat Ogres are on their front.
He moves the silver helms down to support the DPs.

His magic knocks Ratspawns unit down to just 2 others besides Ratspawn. Shooting puts a wound on Ratspawn and a wound on the champ.
His magic also knocks the unit of 3 facing the DPs, down to 2.


Turn 5b: I get impatient here and charge my 2 Rat Ogres into the front of the DPs. Then move my herd up in charge range.
3 Rat Ogres charge an RBT and kill it.

In my magic phase I cast Wild Call. I need a 9 and get an 11. He rolls 4 dice to stop it and gets a 10. I'm elated until he remembers his +1 to dispel. Ugghhh!!

My 2 Rat Ogres manage to only kill 1 DP. He kills a Rat Ogre that was already wounded and breaks the other chasing him down. This panics the Herd and they flee as well. His DPs end up right behind my herd.

Turn 6a: He charges the DPs into the herd, who only flee 3", panicking a hound unit as well.
Then in magic he blasts Ratspawns unit into oblivian. Ratpsawn is left with 1 wound. So he shoots with his shadow warriors and gets 2 hits. Needing a 6 to wound. He gets it. I have a 4+ armor save and I throw a 2. Ratspawn and any hope of getting to his wizard lord is gone.
This also happened because my shaman was dead and I only had 2 dispel dice to stop a 2d6 str 4 magic missile. When I threw 3, I stopped it. Then remember I only had 2 dispel dice.
If my herd doesn't panic I stop this. Or if I get off Wild call I win that combat and same result.

Turn 6b: It doesn't matter as I'm down by over 1000 vp and almost nothing left on the board. I do finally kill the eagle fighting the chariot, but small consolation.

David had beaten me again. Congrats to David, he played a superb game. The dice seemed to favor me early on, but then they heavily favored David after I took down his BSB. I had my chances and I think if I'd gone first it would have been a much better game for me.
Now David Long is the first person to ever beat me 2 games in a row. This has never happened to me before.

I will get you next time David.

So Loss for the Beasts, Elves 19-20, Beasts 6.

Until next time...

Bayou Battles Round 3 BR

First a couple of announcements.
1. Sorry I didn't post yesterday, things got hectic.
2. I got to see 300 over the weekend. WOW!! I loved it. There won't be any Oscars for this film, but what a great movie. Also, saw a documentary from the History channel about the 300. Very enlightening. I always think its good to know the real history and not just the *Movie* version that people will swear to.
3. I can't wait to see all the Spartan armies to hit the scene next year.
4. I have been spelling Bayou imporperly and want everyone to know it's correct spelling is with an a.

Round 3: Vs Wood Elves.
Scenario was Wild Squigs. Give 1 character a squig. It acts as a warbanner and gives your unit 2 str 5 attacks in combat. If the unit holding it flees you drop it. It will then hop around randomly. And when you pick it up, it will attack you. If you make your panic test you can keep it.
If you break someone in combat with a squig you may pursue/overrun or you may capture the squig, but not both.

Bonus points were given for holding your squig, capturing your opponents squig and if you get your squig into your opponents half of the table. Penalty points for keeping it in your deployment zone.

My opponent fielded an army that looked like:
Lord w/stuff. Not sure, annoyance for sure, and a 3+ ward save that runs out if he fails. And Bow of Loren I think.
Noble with Hail of Doom arrow.
Couple of Mages, Lv 1 and Lvl 2.
Big block eternal guard
2 units of 10 archers
3 Treekin
7 wardancers w/champ
8(?) Dryads w/champ
5-6 Waywatchers
Treeman
3 Warhawk riders

Here was the only pic to make it out of the camera and the GUO's corruption:


The smiley faces are the squigs. I gave Ratspwan mine and he gave his Noble his.

You can see his 2 archer units (he put both wizards in the one of the left)
His eternal guard unit to the left and behind the archers.
The wardancers in the woods. The treeman is there as well.
Further left is the dryads and warhawk riders.
On the right you can see the treekin and the waywatchers are further right.

Not sure exactly the turn orders, so I'll do my best.

Turn 1: he goes first and doesn't kill much. Did a little tree surfing.
Turn 1b: I run up as fast as I can.

Turn 2: He moves up his treeman, warhawk riders land on the left flank and shoot at my Rat Ogres. With his 2 rounds of shooting, he kills 1. On the right he kills off 2 furies with his way watchers. Kills a Rat Ogre from the group of 4 showing in the pic.

Turn 2b: Herd next to Ratspawn, fails terror test and flees. I move up further.

Turn 3: warhawk riders charge herd, herd flees more, but sideways and doesn't run off the board.
dryads on left flank charge Rat Ogres, but are so far away only 2 can get into combat, He whiffs I do 1 wound, we draw.
Wardancers charge out of woods and into spawn. Kill spawn overrun and hit hounds, who flee and get away.
Treeman is skulking behind my hounds.
His treekin charge out at 4 Rat Ogres. Kill 1 and win combat by 1. But I hold. I remove the wrong guy.

Turn 3b: Hounds charge treeman. My thinking is, he breaks the hounds and pursues into Ratspawn with his hellfire sword.
Herd rallies, hounds rally. I'm so worried about the wardancers charging my chariot, that I miss them charging Ratspawn in the flank completely.Ugghhh!!

If I removed the other end of the Rat Ogres, the chariot could charge in. As it is, the chariot is blocked out and the herd declares a charge for support, but fails its fear test.
Rat Ogres charge the flank of the Treekin.

In combat, the hounds whiff, the treeman whiffs. 1 hit fails to wound. Hounds win by outnumbering. Then the 9 plops down and the treeman breaks!!! He then runs 4" and the hounds chase him down!! 30 points vs 285 points. Gotta love it.
The Ratogres kill 2 dryads, win combat, break them and chase them down. I now own the left flank.

I win combat with the treekin taking them down to 2, but he holds.

Turn 4a: Wardancers into flank of Ratspawn. More shooting more killing.
He moves the warhawk riders behind ratspawn, so if he breaks he will be cut down.

In magic he cast treesinging and miscasts. His guy takes a wound. So he casts with his other wizard and miscasts. I get to cast a spell for free. So I use my herds staff of Darkoth spell to charge the just rallied herd into the warhawk riders. When I charge the closest and the rest line up, it pulls them out from the flee path of Ratspawn.

In combat his 6 wardancers with 19 attacks does 8 wounds. Ouch. Avg was 6. I get my 2 squig attacks back and kill a wardancer. So he has 8 + flank = 9. I have US, banner, 1 wound, squig. So he still wins by 5. So needing a 4+ I fail.

I flee with Ratspawn 12" and get away. He opted to pursue and not capture the squig, and fails to catch me. Since the warhawk riders aren't there anymore thanks to the timely miscast, Ratspawn lives.
The herd easily beats the warhawk riders and catches them when they break.
The combined effort of the Rat Ogres break the last treekin and chase him down. One unit would hit the way watchers. Only 6" from the table edge, he takes his chances fleeing and runs 5" to get away.

Turn 4b: Rat Ogres chase way watchers off the board.
Herd charges wardancers.
Ratspawn and company rally. Everyone moves up to ready for turn 5 charges.
The squig jumps over by the hounds who broke the treeman. So they turn around and pick him up. He attacks and kills 2 hounds. I make my panic check.

I kill 2 wardancers, he kills a couple gors, but I win combat by 3, he breaks and runs 12". Right into the hounds who just turned around to pick up the squig. Go hounds!!!

Turn 5a: "Can it get any worse."
He charges Lord into 2 Rat Ogres (with 1 wound on one) on my left flank.
He moves his wizards into the eternal guard. He moves noble out of Eternal guard to get squig out of deployment zone and a shot to get it into my half of the board by end of the game.

He shoots and kills a few things.

In combat his lord with 4 attacks, needing 3's and 2's. Does 1 wound. Ouch.
With 6 attacks, needing 4's and 2's, I get 2 hits and both wound. With a 3+ ward, he fails both!! He needs insane courage and fails. I chase him down and the 2 rat Ogres end up right behind the eternal guard.

Turn 5b: 3 units of Rat Ogres charge the archers on the right. They flee and are caught.
The 2 chariots charge the archers on the left. They stand and shoot at the chariot with 3 wounds and drop it. So single chariot into archers who are in front of the eternal guard.
2 Rat Ogres charge the rear of the eternal guard. They fail their fear test, so will need 6's to hit.

Chariot kills off 4 archers, wins combat by 3, they break and are caught. Chariot impacts into front of Eternal guard.
With combined kills from chariot and Rat Ogres and even with many attacks back with the eternal guard, needing 6's to hit, they get no wounds. I win by 5-6, he breaks and the Rat Ogres chase him down.

Turn 6a: with only his noble left on the board, he concedes.

Win for the Bests: 17 - 6.

Until next time...

Boyou Battles Round 2 BR

My next game up was against a great sport and very good player Bryan Townsend. He was borrowing a mutual friends Nurgle Daemonic Legion army.

here is a pic that survived the corruption:


It is my guess that the Great Unclean one in this picture corrupted the rest of my pics.

His army list consisted of:
Great Unclean One: Cloud of flies (-1 to hit) & Stream of Corruption (str 3 breath weapon)
Daemonic Herald of Nurgle(BSB) Spell Breaker

16 Plague Bearers w/Full command (GUO went in here)
19 Plague Bearers w/full command (BSB in here)

3 Nurgling swarms
4 Nurgling swarms
3 Plague Riders
3 Plague Riders

Everything has Cloud of Flies, so I'm -1 to hit everything in the army. This is an almost worst case matchup scenario for me. I can't hit anything, and even if I do, it will always have the 5+ ward save. And he is totally unbreakable. Great.

He deployed with 2 blocks dead center, nurglings in front of each block, plague riders on the outside of each big block.

I spread out and was lucky in my spell rolling getting beast cowers for both spell casters. It would affect 4 of his 6 units if I could get them off.

He won the roll and chose to let me go first. The scenario was Fire Ants. If a small 3" template of ants touches your unit you take 2d6 str 2 hits with no armor saves. Roll randomly each players turn on where it moves. On turn 4 a 2nd one came up.

Turn 1a: I moved out forming a half circle while keeping my herds back. I really didn't want them getting involved in anything. I get beast cower on the nurglings in front of his GUO, so they can't move next turn.

Turn 1b: With his Nurglings stuck, the GUO can't really move either. He moves up his other block and other units some.

Turn 2 was a lot of the same.

Turn 3a: I charge my spawn into his nurglings to tie them up. Figured this would keep his big blocks bogged down for a while. Continue to encircle him. Continue to get hammered by the fire ants who are coming straight for my units while avoiding his completely.
He uses his scroll to stop all my spells.

Turn 3b: His Plague Riders on the left flank charge forward and hit my spawn killing it, but choosing not to overrun. On right flank he slides the plague riders over so he can charge my spawn the next turn.

Turn 4a: I move up, encircle more. On right flank, 4 Rat Ogres going a long way around some trees. On left flank move 3 Rat Ogres in front of Plague Riders.

Turn 4b: Plague Riders charge 3 Rat Ogres on left flank. Plague Riders charge spawn on right flank. Wipe out spawn. Rat Ogres flee, failed charge.

Turn 5a: 2 chariots into flank of Plague Riders. I do about 7 wounds and he saves 3 of them. Makes his Instability check.
4 Rat Ogres into flank of Plague Riders on the right flank. Get 3 in, 9 attacks, 0 hits.

Turn 5b: nurglings charge into chariot. I take couple hits, wound plague rider. Couldn't wound the damn swarms. Chariots auto break, both get away.
On right flank, he does 2 wounds to me. With 9 attacks again. I get 0 wounds.
Nurglings charge into 4 Rat Ogres who were flanking around the rear. Get wiped out.

Turn 6a: Both chariots fail to rally. gone.
Beast herd fails unruly and charges nurglings. 3 Rat Ogres into the front of the plague riders on the right flank. 4 Rat Ogres into the rear. (I now have 10 Rat Ogres fighting the 3.)

With 21 attacks to start, I get 6 wounds. Needing 5+ to hit, and 3+ to wound.
He saves 5 of the 6. Ugghhhh!! He had 1 wound on him from something else.
I also failed to cast beast cower on them on 3d6 needing a 7+. He had no dispel dice left either. He kills off 2 Rat Ogres. I end up doing 1 more wound, with all the bonuses I think I won by 1. But this unit should have been dead right here.

Beast herd does some wounds to the swarms, they pass their test.

Turn 6b: His 2 guys got to attack on the right flank and killed off the Rat Ogre in the front and 1 on the flank (3 wounds total). I do around 6 wounds and again he saves just enough. He has his last guy there with 1 wound left. Ugghhh!!

The 4 nurglings I took down to below half. They make their test. End of the game.

When we added it up I had:
3 Nurglings = 120 points
1/2 of 4 Nurglings = 80 points
1/2 of 3 Plague riders = 120 points
1 table quarter = 100 points

For a total of 420 vp.
If he suffers 1 more wound in those incredible ward save rolls he was making, I get all of 1 PR unit and 1/2 of the other for +240 points.

He had:
Both chariots = 170
Both spawn = 150
3 Rat Ogres = 138
1/2 of chaos hound unit = 15

For a total of 473 points. So even with the PR units I didn't have the win. I think when we were adding it up, we left off the Rat Ogres for 138. I thought I was up. But he was up by 50. Luckily it did not make a difference in the outcome.

A hard fought game where just a couple saves here or there would have made a huge difference. But his rolling was incredible. And not just only on the ward saves. He hit Ratspawns unit with the ants and did 11 hits. Needing 6's to wound he got 5!! Those kind of things kept me from trying to really engage.

Final Result: Draw: Beasts: 14, Nurgle Daemons: 13

Until next time...

Boyou Battles Round 1 BR

I played a great guy by the name of Zack S. in the first round and his Bretonnian horde. That was exactly what he had. He was sporting 9 Lances (Grail, questing, 2 Errant, 5 KoR), 2 units of mtd yoemen, 4 pegasus knights, General, BSB, 2 damsels.

I liked the list a lot, except he had no banners and no musicians on anything. Most lances had 6 knights in them.

BTW, I discovered yesterday, that for some reason most of my pics from the Boyou got corrupted. Only a couple made it. This battle pics, did not. Not sure what happened, but sorry but no pics today.

The scenario was capture the girls. 1 dead center & 2 were 1 foot away on either side.

Turn 1: I ran 2 units of hounds out to the middle to capture 2 of the girls. The 3rd was in a woods. I moved the rest of my units up about 4 inches behind my hounds.

Turn 1b: His KoR with BSB charge hounds in the center. Both Errant knight units in the middle also charge. My hounds flee, so all 3 units are together in the middle of the board. He moves his Grail knights to get a flank charge if he can hold with his knights.
On left flank, questing knights charge the hounds, hounds flee. Questing knights take the girl. General with KoR and 2nd KoR move up in support.
On right flank he moves up 2 units KoR & mtd yoemen to set up trap.

Turn 2: Ratspawn & company with chariot charge 3 units in the middle. So 2 knight errant, and KoR with BSB. I challenge, he accepts with Errant champ. I do 2 wounds that turns into 9 more. So I get the full 6. But then with all the rest of my attacks. 5 impact hits, 5 wounds, he saves them all. 3 str 5, str 4 and 10 str 6 attacks, I get a total of only 2 more wounds. He made that many armor/ward saves.
He does 3 wounds back and takes down a Rat Ogre.
So I have 8 + standard, to his 3 wounds, rank, standard, US. So I win by only 3.
He needs 6+ his units to hold with re-roll.

So with 6 attempts, he fails all 6!!! The Horned Rat was surely blessing me today. He fled with all 3. I pursue with both, catching both knights errant and capturing the BSB. The KoR get away but fail to rally and are off the board. More importantly the Grail knights have nothing but a hound unit to charge.

On the left flank, Furies charge yoemen who flee. 3 Rat Ogres into KoR. 4 Rat Ogres into Questing knights. Chariot into questing knights. Combined I kill all 6 questing knights. Chariot overruns and impacts into KoR with his general.
3 Rat Ogres kill a knight, but lose combat and hold.

On right flank, unit of 3 charges yoemen who flee.

Turn 2b: Charges on the right flank. KoR charge 3 Rat Ogres who flee off the board, but now their flank is exposed to a unit of 4 rat ogres.
2nd KoR charge the herd in the woods. Herd flees, KoR stuck in the woods.
4 Pegasus knights charge Ratspawn and company in the rear. But since they just killed 1 Rat Ogre, I removed the one behind Ratspawn, so he can fight and challenge again.

Grail knights turn to face Ratspawn and chariot.

In combat the Pegasus knight do 2 wounds. Ratspawn, whiffs. But Rat Ogres manage 2 wounds and kill a knight. But with the rear bonus, its a drawn combat.

The chariot hitting the generals unit does a wound, but I end up losing break and am caught. KoR with general rush forward and hit my herd.

The 3 Rat Ogres fighting the KoR on the left flank, win combat after hacking down a couple and break them.

Turn 3: Center: chariot into flank of pegasus knights. Kill 1, Ratspawn kills the champ. I leave 1 alive to flee so I can pursue. Chase him back to the center of the board and out of the charge arc of the grail knights. ;-)

Left flank.
Furies charge yoemen who flee but I catch him. I do end up in front of the grail knights.
4 Rat Ogres hit flank of generals unit.
spawn hits the other flank. When the dust cleared, his general was the only one left, he auto-flees and is run down.

Right flank. 4 Rat Ogres hit flank of KoR. Herd rallies.
4 Ogres kill 3 knights, they auto-break, and are caught. Yoemen panic and run off the board. KoR in the woods panic and run.

So at this point he has 2 knight units left. Grail knights and fleeing KoR.

Turn 3b: KoR rally, Grail knights charge furies, wipe them out, opt not to pursue.

Turn 4a: Herd charged KoR through woods. Had a slim line of sight between woods and a building. I win combat by 2-3, he breaks I catch him.
I turn Ratspawn around and head down to the grail knights.

Turn 4b: He turns his Grail knights around and makes one huge line with them.

Turn 5: Ratspawn and company charge grail knights. Herd charges grail knights.

the combat is fierce but I kill 3-4, he kills a couple gor and a Rat Ogre. But I win combat by 4 with the help of overkill from the Hellfire sword.
He breaks and is run down.

I capture all 3 girls. Massacre for Ratpspawn and a 20-7 victory.

Until next time...

Ratspwan Army Pics

Ok, here are some pics of my army. They are not the best, as I was in a hurry to take these. But here you go.

Display board:


Whole Army:


Ratspawn, Rat Ogres and Spawn:


** Click on the picture to Enlarge **

Giant Rats for Chaos hounds, Night Runners with wings for furies, chariots:



My beast herd pictures came out really blurry, so I'll try and post them seperately.

I hope you enjoy these.

Until next time...

My apologies

Just want to say I apologize for not getting to post more. I'm stuck in training all day long and barely have time to read my email, much less post anything or do an article.

Today is the last day, so I should be able to start again tomorrow.

Coming soon:

Complete Army Pictures of Ratspawn the Reincarnated and his followers.
Much more detailed battle reports with a few pics thrown in.

I'll be trying to start those tomorrow.

Until next time...

GT is over

I got back last night and didn't post. Spent the day with the family away from Warhammer. I did post a battle report on direwolf but wanted to give a brief here.

I had a great time. Played 5 great opponents, well except for that low life cheese ball named David Long. I had a great time with every game. Well except for that one. ;-)

Actually I'm kidding David's game was great to. I ended up 3-1-1 with my only loss to David Long. 2nd time in 6 months that has happened. Ugghhh!! I'll get you next time David.

Anyway, I finished in 6th place overall out of the 66 players there. Which is great, IMO.
I also actually got players choice votes for my army. I'm sure the only time that has happened. And was told by the organizers I came in 4th in voting. Something I'm especially proud of.

I beat 2 Bretonnian players and a wood elf player. I drew a Nurgle Daemonic legion army and lost to Long's Magic heavy high elves.

I'll try to do some more detailed reports later.

Until next time...

Its GT Time

Thats right. After months of work and effort, everything is finally coming together.

I got the army finished up on Wednesday evening including adding static grass to the entire army.
Had a bit of a scare as some of my movement trays had too much flock & sand on them and kept me from getting my miniatures in. A quick slice with a razor blade solved most of that and the army is ready to go.

I'm all packed and in just over 2 hours I'll be on the road to Houston. So for all of you guys not going, you are going to miss one hell of a good time. I am so pumped for this GT I cannot even think straight.

I hope you guys have a great weekend. I'll try to post on Sunday or Monday but no guarantees. I'll be back into work Tuesday but I'll be in meetings for 2 days. So it may be a while before my next post.

But when I do, I guarantee battle reports (though not as extensive as usual) and pictures of some fantastic armies.

So the army is packed. Dice have been properly incensed and pampered. Sacrifices of Hobo entrails made to Moki the Dice god. Tactic books have been written and read.

I even started jogging to get my endurance up.

Everything will be done by Sunday night.

So until next time...

BR: Beasts vs Wood Elves wrapup

Not a lot I can say about this game. Made several mistakes that killed me.

1. I got my chariot out in front of my units. This is a bad thing as then you can't flee without it doing impact hits to your own guys. They need to lag behind.

2. Never count on a small pass against wood elves, it may not be there.

3. If I have a scenario where I need to keep US on the board, hold the hounds back. Less than 100 points makes up 1/4 of my US.

4. Again, I setup with my herds away from Ratspawn. They need to be closer to him to use his Ld of 9. Ld 7, just doesn't get it done. The Rat Ogres with Ld 8, and re-roll can work fine away from him.

5. Dryads with that 5+ ward, are just as tough as nails, as are the damn wardancers with their 4+ ward save dance.

6. In the end I still won, but a very tough game that was a lot of fun.

Until next time...

Chaos Rat Spawns

Here are some pics of my failed Rat Ogres, ie. Chaos spawn.

I hope you enjoy them.

spawn 1 front:


** Click to enlarge **

Spawn 1 back:


Spawn 2 front:


Spawn 2 back:


I hope you enjoyed them. Let me know what you think.

Until next time...

48 hours and counting

We are now down to the final 2 day countdown. In a mere 48 hours I will be kicked back in a rental car enjoying the ride down to Houston for my first ever Boyou Battles GT.

Somehow, I have always managed to miss out on it. Not this year.

The army is 99.5% ready to go.

All movement trays are now finished.
Display board is finished.
Army is completely finished, highlighted, based, and coated.

The only thing I could do is add static grass.

So with 2 days left, I will work on adding static grass to the army tonight. With any luck, I will finish tonight and be able to spend tomorrow night taking pictures and packing.

The excitement is building. I am getting so pumped. All my hard work for the last 18 months and ecspecially the last 3 months is really starting to show.

Schedule:
Wed 3/7: Add static grass to the army. Take pics of my spawn to post tomorrow.

Thurs 3/8: Set up the whole army in their movement trays on my display board. Take pictures of everything. Pack them all up. Pack up my backpack, double check that I have everything needed.

Fri 3/9: Take off work at noon, lunch, final packing. Drive to Houston, going over the lastest army book. Check into hotel, setup army. Receive lots of compliments. Play a practice game. Go see the new movie '300'.

Sat 3/10: Begin to whoop a$$ and take names.

Until next time...

BR: Beasts vs Wood Elves part 3

Ratspawn could feel the victory within his grasp. His Doom Glaive had just sliced through three of the mechanical dryads like they were made of butter.
But the Wood Dwarf general wasn't finished yet.

***************************

Here was the setup when we left off:


Turn 4a: Get away from Ratspawn
I was really expecting him to turn his general's unit to face ratspawn. His stubborn eternal guard would have the general who could challenge with the annoyance, as well as the hill and US on me. Not sure I would have wanted to make that charge.

But instead he charges down the hill with his eternal guard into my Rat Ogres.
The wardancers charge the chariot, who flees off of the table. If I hold, he kills it or wins combat and he gets to pursue off the table.

In magic I easily stop his last spell, tree sing.
Shooting has everything at the unit of 3 Rat Ogres on the far left. He kills 1 and does 2 more wounds. But they pass their panic test.

In combat, Ratspawn challenges and the wardancer champion steps up to the plate. I get 3 hits and 2 wounds. He saves one. But then explodes into 5 more wounds, giving me max overkill. Damn I love that sword when it works.
The other 10 attacks nets another 4 wardancers dead. They manage a couple wounds back, but still need insane courage and fail. Ratspawn and company run them down and end up behind the archers who are now facing left on the table.

The wardancers on the spawn actually fail to wound and I kill another one.

Finally in the big combat, his general and unit kill off a couple Rat Ogres. The Rat Ogres whiff and run.
the Eternal guard restrain, not wanting to open their flank to the unit of Rat Ogres on their right. But the dryads chase them down.

So here was the setup at the beginning of my turn 4:


Turn 4b: Its time to put this one away.
Ratspawn and company into the rear of the archers.
Unit with 2 of 3 Rat Ogres left into the scouts.
Unit of 3 Rat Ogres into the unit of 4 dryads.
Beastherd on the hill into the wardancers in combat with the spawn.
Beastherd with Setrad, into the wardancers by my temple structure.
Giant Rats also charge the same group of wardancers.

The scouts stand and shoot, doing 1 wound and killing the 2nd Rat Ogre in the unit. The last one makes his panic and plows into the scouts.
The big archer block with wizard, flees from Ratspawn.
Everything else holds.
My Giant rats would have to go through a little difficult terrain around my temple structure and failed their charge.
The 5 fleeing hounds, failed their 2nd attempt to rally and fled off the board. 10 more US points gone.

For magic I do drain life on a wardancer which he uses his last scroll on. And then dispels my bears anger spell.

In combat, The lone Rat Ogre kills 1 archer. They fail to wound and it is a draw.

With the spawn, my shaman and Foe Render with 5 attacks, manage only a single wound. He then puts a wound on the shaman and kills the spawn doing 2 wounds with 4 attacks. ugghhh!!
I still win by 2 and he breaks and I chase him down with the herd.

Now onto the big combats. Rat Ogres in the Dryads. I don't really want to kill them all. I want to leave 1, so he can break and I can pursue into the wardancers fighting the herd. This is where bloodgreed sucks.

Anyway with 9 attacks, needing 4's and 2's, I blast away. 5 hits, all wound. Ouch, maybe too much. But with his 5+ ward, he saves 2. Perfect. He fails to do anything. So with the Temple structure, I win by 5. He needs a 5 to hold and rolls a 4. UGGGhhhhhh!!! The worst possible outcome.

I then do the herd attacks on the wardancers. I challenge with the wargor. His champion accepts. My thoughts are, I'll prove a wargor is worth his mere 64 points.
Needing 4's to hit, I get 2 hits and 2 wounds. The wardancer with his 4+ ward dance, saves both of them. Then with 3 attacks back, he gets 2 hits. Then needing a 5 to wound, gets 2 wounds and kills my Wargor. Now this sucks!!
Luckily the rest of the herd was on target and killed off 3 dancers. The attacks back only killed 1 gor. So I win by 4. Rank, banner, US and temple structure.
He breaks, I restrain and he is cutdown by the hounds behind them that had failed their charge.

If I pursue here, then my herd is in the overerun path of the Eternal guard which I want to avoid.

Here is the setup at the beginning of turn 5:


Turn 5a: Keep your eye on the goal: Setrad.
The Eternal guard charge into the flank of the 3 Rat Ogres. I can do nothing but stand there.
He rallies his big archer block.

He casts tree sing again, but I dispel it.

In combat, My lone Rat Ogre kills off 2 of the archers who whiff, I win combat but he holds.
In the bigger combat, he kills 2 Rat Ogres. I get 3 attacks on the lone dryad. I whiff with all 3.
The Rat Ogre breaks and runs. The Eternal guard restrains, but the lone dryad runs him down.
The unit of Giant Rats panics and runs off the table as well.
The herd makes its panic check.

Here is the setup for the beginning of turn 5b:


Turn 5b: I fail my stupidity test.
With the game still in the balance I know I need to get a few more points. So Ratspawn into the big block of archers. But not wanting to give up the standard, they flee and are cut down by the block of 4 Rat Ogres.

Then in a moment of idiocy I charge the dryad with the herd. Huh????
I then promptly fail my fear test and am stuck there.

The much smarter move is to just move the herd down by the dryad, out of charge range of the big block and set up a turn 6 charge on the dryad. Buttt NNNnooooooo!!

I then cast dark hand on his Eternal guard trying to draw out dispel dice. It goes off and I kill 1 Eternal dwarf guard. I then try to cast wild call on Setrads herd. But now being lvl 1, I can only use 2 dice and need a 9. I get a 7.

In combat, my Rat Ogre kills another archer, they fail to wound again and its a draw.

So short turn 5.


Turn 6a: You gotta go for it.
Charge!!! Eternal guard and lone dryad into the beast herd.

If I take it, I will surely get slaughtered and lose a banner and probably get run down by one of the units. So, I flee.

I know I need to run a long way since the dryad can cut me off.
Remember the unit is worth 108 points, but Setrad is worth 160 points and is the objective: 400 points. So 668 victory points are riding on this roll.

I roll an 11!!!! Unbeleavable. Even with Dryads 10" charge he falls a 1/2" short. If I only run 10 inches, I'm dead.

In combat, his scouts whiff again and my Rat Ogre kills 2. Needing insane courage, as I finally outnumber him, he runs off the board.

And here is the setup at the beginning of turn 6b:


Turn 6b: It comes down to a 2nd dice roll.

Boy is it close. I've never lost to this player, but I'm looking at that big hunk of points sitting in the middle of the table and I'm just not sure I have enough.

I start looking at my US numbers and I have failed to reach my objective. I needed to still have US 70 left on the board, but even if I rally my herd, I'm only at around 60.

No charges.

Rally time. Needing an 8 to rally, luckily he didn't aim at my Herd Champion in the previous combat, I pick up the dice.

I toss the dice and immediately one drops on a '5'.

The other is bouncing horribly long...

And comes to rest on a '3'. I pass the test. Whew!!!

Ok, so I just managed to somehow save 668 victory points from running off the board.

I moved my herd as far as they would go towards the dryad. I cast dark hand of death.

It goes off, he fails to dispel it. I measure range and its 27" out.

I then have one last shot to get that dryad. Wild call with the Staff of Darkoth. Needing a 9 on 2d6. Were the dice still with me. No. I roll a 7.

So that is the game. Nothing else moved, so no final picture.

It was time to add it up. This was NOT a pitched battle, so no table quarters. Neither of us got the objectives, so it came down to strictly victory points.

When the number crunching was done, He had just over 1000 victory points.

And I had just over 1400.

so a minor victory in the 400-450 point range.

A very tough, very hard fought victory, that I enjoyed a lot. I hope you enjoyed it.

Wrap up and thoughts coming soon.

Until next time...

BR: Beasts vs Wood Elves part 2

Ratspawn spat on the rocks near him. A little spittle running down his chin. Who are these stunt-things that get in my way?

Kill them. Kill them all...

****************************

Turn 1a: The stunted wood elves waddle up but only slowly. Hoping to slow down my line of attackers with spells and arrows.

He casts wood singing. He wants to move the wood to close the gap between the woods on the left and my temple structure. What this would do is force my chariot to run all the way around the woods where I already have an overloaded flank.
He rolls really high, so I roll all my dispel dice to stop it.

He casts it again and gets a miscast. I'm allowed to cast. Since all my spells are out of range except the one movement spell, I go ahead and move the chariot up. He tries to stop it but fails.

In shooting he kills 2 hounds of the 6 in front of Ratspawn. They fail their Ld 9 panic and run through 2 Rat Ogre units including Ratspawns. We make all the rest of our panic tests.
He also kills off 2 of the hounds next to the temple structure, but they pass their panic test.

Here is the setup at the beginning of my turn:


** Click on the image to Enlarge **
In this pic the wardancers look closer to correct. So he probably fixed them after the first pic.
Turn 1b: Lets get it going.
Charge!! A turn 1 charge with the chariot into the scout archers. The pic already shows the charge arrows out. He flees and goes 10" and runs through the dryads. I'm about 2 or so inches short of the dryads.
The spawn lurch forward and the rest of my army moves to keep pace.
The hounds at the table edge do rally.

In magic I cast dark hand at the wardancers on the right. He scrolls it with the Lvl 2. Setrad then casts wolf hunt on the chariot again, hoping for a high roll and plow into the dryads.
I miscast. Lose a level, take a str 8 hit, lose a spell and magic phase ends. He rolls a '1' and fails to wound me. Whew!!

So here is the table at the beginning of turn 2.


Turn 2a: 2 charges. Dryads into the chariot and wardancers with lvl 2 into the spawn.
I considered fleeing with the chariot, but doing impact hits to my own guys was not a pleasant option. Also, while I figured 1 dryad was in range from the previous measurement I wasn't so sure about the rest of the squad.
I hold with both.
The dryads measure, sure enough 1 is in, but that is all. I check for fear and make the test. Chariot is faced off with the congo line of dryads. If my chariot can hold for 1 round I can bring the beastherd into the flank.
He measures for the wardancers and is out of range, so failed charge.

The fleeing scouts rally. everything else dances around a bit. While they may look like dwarfs they flit around like fairies.

In magic he casts tree sing and I dispel it. He then casts it again, I scroll it. He then casts the terror spell on the dryads, so I scroll that as well.

In shooting, he lays into my 3 hounds next to the chariot in combat. 3 wounds later and I'm making panic checks around. Everyone makes it except Setrad and company. And raising their skirts, they flee going through a Rat Ogre unit, who makes their panic.

In hand to hand the dryad gets 2 attacks, 1 hit, 1 wound, I fail my save. Ugghhh.
With my 4 attacks, I get only 1 wound and he fails his ward.
So 1 wound + US to my 1 wound. Then I remember my Temple Structure behind me. +1 to combat res. So its a draw. The chariot holds. If only the herd had not fled.

Here I am at the beginning of the Beasts turn 2:


Turn 2b: Magic flux
The only declared charge is my furies into his scouts. He stands and shoots but fails to wound none. I measure it out and I'm 20 and a half inches out. Ugghhh!! So no combat. there.
I can move the spawn into the dryads, but that lvl 2 wizard is looking tasty. I move the spawn at the wardancers and hit them.
Everything else mvoes up. Setrads herd rallies.

In magic I cast dark hand on the wardancers on the right again and another miscast. This one did a str 4 hit, which again fails to wound and ended the phase.

In combat the dryad again does 1 hit and 1 wound. I again do 2 hits, 1 wound, we both fail to save. Another draw.
The spawn rolls a 5 and I get 6 attacks. 4 on the Lvl 2, 1 on the champ, 1 on a normal guy. The lvl 2 dies as does the normal guy. With his 5 attacks back, needing 3's and 6's. He does 2 wounds. WHAT!! Ugghh, at least getting the lvl 2 was worth it.

Here we are at the beginning of his turn 3.


Turn 3a: More combat and magic craziness.
I had setup a nice trap for his wardancers on the far left, but he wouldn't take the bait and instead went after the chariot. But with the dryad in the front, he could only get 1 wardancer in the front. So he formed another congo line out the back. Oh, if the chariot can hold 1 more round, help is coming.

The rest of his units dance around a bit.
In magic he casts tree sing and I let it go. It moves up about 3". No biggie.
The he casts the terror spell on his dryads. I really didn't want Ratspawn to have to take a fear test to charge them, so I was going to dispel it.

He then promptly rolls a miscast. And then a 12!! So it goes off with IF and the wizard loses the spell. So his only spell left is tree sing. But the dryads now cause Terror.

In shooting, everthing goes at the furies. Pop go the furies and the hounds on that right side turn and run. Everyone else is ok.

In combat the wardancers on the spawn do the last wound with their 13 attacks but are stuck there.
The wardancer on the chariot hits and wounds. I fail my 4+ armor. Then am hit and wounded by the dryad but I make my armor save to stay alive.
But needing 1 wound on the wardancer. Same to hit, easier to wound, worse ward save, I whiff with all 4 attacks.
He wins by 1, and needing insane courge because of the dryads, I break and run but get away.

Now onto the huge next turn.


Turn 3b: Let me introduce you to Ratspawn and company
I charged Ratspawn into the Dryads. I could have done the wardancers. But even if I break them, I hit the eternal guard and am hit in the rear by the dryads. Not a pretty prospect. But I did do a tactical wheel, so I would hit the wardancers on the overrun.
I also see that my chariot has a sliver of daylight between Ratspawn and the hill and can see the dryads as well. So in goes the chariot as well.

My block of 2x2 Rat Ogres charge into the Dryads.
My spawn surges 16" and hits the wardancers on the right.
My chariot rallies, but the hounds run to the edge of the board.
Everything else moves up.

In the magic phase I cast drain life on the wardancer champion, he scrolls it. I cast bears anger on my wargor, but its dispelled.

Combat: I do the spawn first. I kill his champ and his guys do 1 wound back to me.
I then do the unit of 4 Rat Ogres and with 6 attacks I kill off only 2.
He then does 3 wounds. But with US it is a draw. Ugghhh!! Oh, but wait. The Temple structure and +1. So I win by one. But with the general within 12" he only needs a 9 and makes it.

Finally, the big combat. Facing 16 dryads, Ratspawn and company and the chariot plow in and kill off 8. This is after he made about 3-5 ward saves.
But with no attacks back, these terror causers need insane courage and cannot get it. They are quickly cut down and Ratspawn and company hit the wardancers.

Here is a pic at the end of turn 3.


Here you can get a good look at one of my herd stones that Ratspawns body guards carry around with them.

I'm feeling really good at this point in the game, but oh how things can change.

Part 3 coming soon.

Until next time...