Battle in the Desert Report game 1

I took my Doombull army to the Battle in the Desert tourney yesterday. It was a relatively small tournament with 12 players, 3 rounds.

The tournament itself was fantastic. Every table was set up with desert terrain features from Pyramids and Sphinx models, to oasis, tents, obelisks, and other desert type terrain. Every table looked like you stepped into Egypt.

Each table was a different scenario. So the table you played on determined the scenario you were playing.

My list consisted of:
Ratspawn, Doombull, Undivided, hvy armor, Sword of Might
Level 2 shaman, staff of Darkoth, dispel scroll
Level 2 shaman, bray staff, dispel scroll
Level 2 shaman, bray staff, dispel scroll

5 Minotaurs undivided, standard, great weapons
4 Minotaurs undivided, great weapons
4 Minotaurs undivided, great weapons
3 Minotaurs undivided, great weapons
3 Minotaurs undivided, great weapons

6 Chaos Hounds
5 Chaos Hounds
5 Chaos Hounds
2 Beast chariot
2 Herds, 7 Gors, 6 Ungors, full commands

5 Chaos furies
2 Spawn mark of slaanesh

Game 1: This table had a Wall of Kings on my right side. It was impassable, so you were destroyed if you fled into it. But if you were fleeing towards nearest table edge, you would not go towards it.
On the left side was a river that ran almost the entire length of the table. And was difficult terrain. 2 small walls were at the edge of my opponents deployment zone in the middle.

And fitting enough I was facing a Tomb King army.
He had from my left to right:
3 chariots
Big spear unit of 24 skeletons with Tomb King
3 carrion
Skull chucker catapult
20 Archers with Heirophant lich priest
10 archers with lich priest
Another big unit of 24 skeletons with Tomb Prince
Bone Giant
3 chariots

And 2 tunnel markers for his 2 tomb scorpions in the middle, closer to my side.

Turn 1: He moved almost nothing except his 3 carrions into the middle of the board.
He then shot twice with the catapult and missed the first time and kills a single fury with the 2nd shot. His magic and archers did nothing.

Turn 1b: I move a herd up in the river towards his chariots. A spawn and 3 Minotaurs are also moving up that side.
I have 2 hound units charge the carrion. 1 fails its fear test on Ld 9, but the other makes it and kills off the carrion in 2 rounds of combat without losing a hound.
On the right side I have a unit of 3 Minotaurs on the far right facing off his 3 chariots and my 2 chariots beside him. The 2nd herd is there for magical support.
My furies fly in behind his carrion. Due to some impassable terrain there, nothing could charge them.

Turn 2: Again, not much movement. Scorpions do not show up. His Giant moves up some. He shoots his catapult and misfires. So cannot shoot this magic phase, or his shooting phase.
His archers do almost nothing.

Turn 2b: Furies charge the catapult. Kill 2, win, the other crumbles, I destroy the catapult and fly behind his lines. Ouch he is not happy.
I line up my minotaurs to charge his chariots. I also line up minotaurs to charge his archer units with the lich priests. Spawn is moving up on skeletons with tomb king. I place some Minotaurs behind a wall, so I can still get off the flank charge on them if they charge.
My herd on the right fails its unruly and runs up close to the giant.

In magic I do a wound to his chariot on the far right.

Turn 3a: one scorpion comes up, he decides to hold off charging. Nothing near it that can charge it.
3 chariots into Minotaurs on the right. I flee 3", but still manage to get away, so the chariots fail their charge.
He doesn't charge the giant into my herd that I thought he would. He is trying to keep his battle line in tact.
He wants to move his lich priests behind his lines, but I kindly remind him my furies are hanging back there. So he reforms his 20 archers into a block, but has to keep the Lich priest at the front. He moves the 2nd lich priest into the block with the prince for more protection.

He tries some magical charges, but I shut him down except for 1 on his far left chariots. I let it go. He charges my minotaurs about 13" away, so I figure as long as I roll 3" or more I'm fine. Of course on 2d6 I roll 2" and they are cut down. But my herd makes their panic check. Whew!!

Turn 3b: Herd into flank of the chariots. Chariots into his far right chariots.
Minotaurs into his archers with the Heirophant Lich Priest. Spawn into the rear of the far left chariots in combat with the herd which makes its fear test.
The fleeing minotaurs rally.
I do a wound on the giant with magic.
In combat, the far left chariots suffer 4 wounds and with the rest of my combat res, the chariots crumble.
On the far right only 1 of my beast chariots makes its fear test so charges the 3 chariots. But with impact hits and regular strikes I manage 5 wounds plus the 1 wound from magic earlier, and I kill 2 of the 3. He does nothing back and crumbles. The chariot moves out of the charge arc of the giant.
And finally the big one, the 4 Minotaurs charged the archers behind a wall. So the archers swung first, doing only a single wound. I kill 4 archers and then do 2 wounds to the heirophant killing him. I win combat, and he begins to crumble.

Turn 4a: More crumbling. 2nd scorpion pops up, both charge rear of Ratspawns unit of 5 minotaurs. He does only 1 wound. I do 6 wounds back and he crumbles to dust.
Giant charges hounds who flee leaving the giant hanging badly. He is afraid to do anything with the Tomb King and Tomb princes unit.
Minotaurs fighting the archers, kill another 8 and the rest of the unit crumbles.

Turn 4b: Ratspawn and unit into the giant with a chariot in the flank. Kills the giant outright. Minotaurs into flank (only 3 left) of the small unit of archers, kill them all.

I now have the Tomb Prince unit completely surrounds with Minotaurs on every side except the rear where a chariot is ready to plow in.
The tomb kings unit is in a really bad position with a spawn on its flank and 4 Minotaurs ready to hop a wall to get to its flank. And those are the only 2 units he has left.

He concedes the game at this point.

My opponent had some really bad luck luck with his dice and was really hesitant on what to do. He was just not ready for a wall of beef with great weapons running at him like that. It was like looking at a deer in the headlights. I felt pretty bad for the guy. He was a great sport about it, and went on to win his other 2 games.
I just think the Doombull list was something he had never played against before.
And once the furies punched through the catapult, he had NO where to hide those Lich priests where they would be safe.

The river was also a huge advantage for me as I could move my herd down there trying to get to the flank of the chariots without fear of them charging me.
I also felt he deployed really poorly.

But great game for Ratspawn and company.

Round 2 coming Soon.

Ben