Friday, March 28, 2008

Blood Bowl tournament

Well for those of you who know me, I am not one to play games without getting competitive. And sure enough it didn't take me long to get into a tournament in my online forum.

Its a starting tournament, where every coach must have a rating of 150 or lower. You start with 150.

I am playing my first opponent, hopefully tonight. I have 10 days to get the game in. I'll be playing against his speedy Lizardman team with 4 saurus and 7 skinks. Should be a fun game. I've played against Lizardmen once already so I know a little how to deal with them.

I'll post a report after the game.

Until next time...

Chaos Dwarfs, my 2nd team

When I first signed up on Fumbbl, I decided I would play 2 teams. One fast and quick and one bashy.

The fast and quick one was an easy choice with Skaven. The speed 9 gutterrunners that I love have worked wonders for me. I started out with a draw and have gone 5/1/1 with them since the start.

I picked the big hats, the whacky dwarfs who have gone to the dark side for my bashy team. I love the chaos dwarf blockers who come with block, tackle (to stop those dodge guys), and their armor of 9. Add in the Minotaur or troll, Bull Centaurs and a bunch of cheap goblins and you have a heck of a team. Or so I thought.

My first build I got greedy, went after the Minotaur, 2 bulls, and then barely had enough to field 4 chaos dwarfs, only 2 re-rolls and no apothecary.

After and 0-2 start, losing to both a 2nd game Lizardman player and a dwarf player. Both of them pretty sound stompings. I had my minotaur killed, a dwarf killed, still didn't have an apothecary, was replacing dead guys with hobgoblins, and could barely field 9 guys for my next match.
With a rating of 98, I could continue the uphill battle to try and bring this team back, but decided it was best to scrap that experiment and so into the retire heap went Hashut's Big Hats.

Out of that experiment comes the new and improved Big Hats for Big Heads. With new uniforms and a new coaching philosophy. Instead of going with big guys I went small instead. I took my max number of 6 chaos dwarfs, 1 Bull Centaur and 4 Hobgoblins. 3 Rerolls and a FF of 8.

I ran them onto the field last night against the only other Academy team playing, goblins. This was a really bad matchup for my opponent, 2 trolls and 11 goblins.
My Chaos Dwarfs chewed them up and spat them out.

I lost the toss and kicked off to him. This led to a quick touchdown for me. Another kick off another touchdown.
The only time the ball was on my half of the field was when he kicked to me in the 2nd half. And even then it was never more than 4 squares from the LOS.

Since his team was rated higher than mine by 11 points I got a free bonus. I rolled up Ironman and so my Bull Centaur could not be hurt this game!! Double sweet.

I only got 1 player hurt in the game and that was a hobgoblin who rolled a skull + both knockdown on a goblin with the ball. I could have re-rolled it, but I figured getting the ball out of his hands was more important and took the hit. It actually knocked both of us out, Dave the hobgoblin just KO'd while the goblin was seriously injured.
Dave missed the rest of the game, but with his early touchdown, that injury and the MVP award, he is proudly sporting the block skill that will prevent the knockdown next time.

And my Bull Centaur, Little Feet, took in the other 2 touchdowns and picked up +1 MA. Very sweet, was looking to give him block to be an excellent blitzer, but figure he can get that next. I couldn't pass up a move 10 str 4 guy. Once he gets block and break tackle, he will be great.

Final stats were TDs: 3-0, Inj: 4-0; FF +1 to no change.
Money: 50K to 80K. How the heck does he get more money here when we had the same Fans going in? Oh well, enough for an apothecary.
So the new CD's are 1-0 and I hope to get a lot more games with them soon.

Until Next time...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Blood Bowl

This is my latest hobby that I am really enjoying. I have found a site on line to play. http://fumbbl.com/

I can go there, build any team I want to and play whenever I like. The program is very interactive and friendly to use. There are literally hundreds of players signed up and dozens to play at any time.

I'm still a bit new to the game, so am still learning all the neat concepts, tactics and rules. But I'm having a good time with it.

For those who don't know what blood bowl is, let me try and sum it up. It is a board game to play football/rugby with fantasy creatures found in the warhammer world. The rules and game are produced by Games Workshop who also produces the miniatures for them.

I started a Skaven team, what else, and have actually done really well with it. My first team, I ended up with a draw, but had made the mistake of not buying myself enough fans to start with. Didn't realize until later that you may not buy more fans, you have to earn them. So ended up scrapping that team and creating a new skaven team with a fan factor of 8 and is now up to 10. I am now 5-1 with this team. The only loss coming to a Kemri team that just plain beat the crap out of my team. I had no one who could stand up to their 4 strength 5 mummies. At one point in the 2nd half after his 2nd score, he put 11 players on the field and I only had 4. I had started with around 13, so had had 9 knocked out of the game and unable to return.

Since then I purchased a Rat Ogre to add to the team to give it some more muscle. I also got dauntless for one of my gutter runners. This allows him to match strength for strength with anyone on the field. Add in a storm vermin with guard and I'm feeling ok about my chances now.

Was playing an Orc player last night and was matching him bash for bash. And into the 2nd half I still had players sitting in reserves. Usually by that time, I'm down to 8 or 9 players and that is when I really start to feel the pain coming and start taking serious injuries. Unfortunately, I was in the lead 1-0 and the socket connection dropped out. We tried all 5 servers at that point and I could not connect with any of them.

He had the ball and was driving, and because of a blunder, I didn't think I could stop him. But he still had half the length of the field to go. So I still had a pretty decent chance of stopping him or depending on time, getting the ball back with enough time to score again.

My 2nd team is a chaos dwarf team. This thing has been a disaster since I started it. Its actually rated worse now than when I started it. I have had 2 players killed a chaos dwarf and my minotaur. I am 0-2 with it, and am getting very frustrated with it. Though in the last game, I had a great chance to stop him from scoring in the 2nd half to take the 2-1 lead, but he makes an agility 2 dodge and ties up my bull centaur to prevent me from doing it.

So now my plan is to scrap the team and start over. Otherwise my next game I'm playing with just 9 players as 2 more are sidelined with injuries. Its just not worth it and time to move forward with a restart. I think I'll start with my Chaos dwarfs, and more re-rolls.

I'll keep you updated on my teams.

Until next time...

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Son is Home and new Joy

After 6 months in Iraq my son came home from Iraq on Saturday. We were at the airport to meet him and it was a real sight. About 30 or so people gathered for the home coming in this small town terminal. But it was all smiles and teary eyes.

This is not to say it went without incident. Friday at 5:30 my son calls and left a message saying he was in Baltimore. This was supposed to be our cue that he would be in town in about 5 hours. I didn't get home till 6 and my wife was running around like the house was on fire. She had already packed a bag and wanted to know what I wanted to bring.

I quickly make a hotel reservation, finish packing, load the car and were ready to back out by 7PM. Flight was supposed to land at 10 PM, and it is a 3 hour drive there from our house. When something occurred to me.

You know I don't think they would have time to catch the connection into DFW to make it home tonight.
So Marilyn suggests, why don't we try calling the caller ID number.
We do and its my son's air force buddy. He tells us, no, they are in Baltimore and will be coming in tomorrow.

Well we were relieved we didn't have to drive 3 hours tonight and drop an extra $100. I quickly call the hotel and cancel the reservation. They do it even though its after 6 PM as it has been less than an hour since I made it. Tim is really upset as he wanted to see his brother. So we have to take him out to eat dinner.

And when we get to our hotel on Saturday the hotel manager was just out of the service and gave us a huge discount (read as 35% off) our room. WOW!!
We had a great visit with our son and made it home Sunday.

Yesterday I drove back down and got him, so he is home with us now through Easter.

My son has always had an interest in the game Blood Bowl. And with their being a blood bowl tournament at the Hillbilly this year, I figure now is a good time to get back into it.
I've downloaded the latest rules and read them, and signed up to an online forum that allows you to play over the internet. Got in my first game Tuesday night with a very good Dark Elf player who helped me through the steps of using the online game.

I did pretty well after I fell behind 1-0. I managed to even take the lead 2-1 but gave up a last turn touchdown to get a tie 2-2. It was then that I found out my team had a major flaw. Nothing to do with the team, but the league stuff. I didn't give myself enough fans, and didn't make much money. As it turns out the online game still plays 4th edition, which is very unforgiving to players with low fan factor.

So I had to scrap the team and rebuild it and I upped my fans from 3 to 8. I'm looking forward to playing with it.

It is a Skaven team (what else) with 3 gutter runners, 2 storm vermin and 6 linemen. It is built strictly for speed.

As a change of pace I am looking at a chaos dwarf team as well with 2 bull centaurs, a few chaos dwarfs and some cheap hobgoblins. This would be my bruiser team.

I'm looking forward to playing a lot more and hoping to have a good time.

Until next time...

Thursday, March 13, 2008

GT critique, a look back

I know its been a while since I posted last, but you know how real life can be.

And I wanted to wait a bit before posting a critique of myself from the GT.
When you win overall, its easy to say Wow, good enough, but I think there is always room for improvement.

So if you look at my overall score I got a 223.
Sports: 64, Battle: 83, Appearance: 66, JR: 10

First my projections:
Sports: 65, I got a 64. I was hoping to draw the fav player vote from one of my opponents but failed to get any. You can't control it, so you do what you can.
I got a 64 last year, and a 61 the year before. (1 bad game, 1 fav game). At least I went 2 straight years without a bad game vote.

Appearance: 70, I got a 66. Last years was a 65 and all I changed was putting my heroes up on a hill. But that 1 point was enough. I knew 70 was really stretching it. But last year they seem to have given out more 70s. I know the judge changed up his score sheet some. The top army went from 77 to a 73. Heck even Jim Bailey only got a 70. So I will not complain about a 66. Probably about right.

JR: 10, got 10. good. No one scored more or less than 10.

Battle: 88, I got an 83. Last year I got a 78. So an improvement of 5 points. The highest anyone got was an 84. I did throw that 1 objective away after it was handed to me. That cost me the 4 points that would have put me to 87. But those 4 extra points in round 3 would have left me with different round 4 and 5 opponents. So I may not have gotten the 20 and then 19 I did for those last 2 rounds.
Everything worked out great. But I really needed to hold onto those 4 points.
In game 1 I also only had to kill the Tomb Prince, and I had my chance. I do that, and I win the game and get the objective. But then the entire next 4 rounds are different.
Now in round 5, I forgot to overrun my shaman in turn 5 that would have taken him off the board and to safety. So I should have gotten the full 20. Leaving me at 84 out of the 88 projected.

Overall. 2 years ago I got 10th, last year 7th and this year 1st. So I am of course extremely pleased with my outcome. But these same scores last year would have only gotten me 2nd best general, as I'd lose in the 3 way tie for 2nd/3rd overall and end up in 5th overall instead of 7th. But with painting going down a bit, may explain it.

Things I could have done better:
Game 1: played more aggressive. I sat back way too long. Been smarter attacking the Tomb Prince. With just a hair bit of forethought, I could have killed him, gotten the win and the objective. So cost me 12 points there.

Game 2: I cleaned the table of wood elves, so I'm pretty happy with that game.

Game 3: I played this game pretty well. I fled with some dogs that I shouldn't have. And then when I had the game won and the objective in hand I threw my ranger into combat where I knew he had a good chance to die.
Cost me 4 points there.

Game 4: I baited the khorne knights badly. Should have gotten the flank charge on them, instead it became a front charge that helped him. Other than that I don't think I did anything wrong. David almost won the game if I had broken when I lost by 3. But to be honest I shouldn't have lost that combat to begin with. So the dice gods just averaged things out is all.

Game 5. John just totally outplayed me. I set up bad, I played badly, I rolled poorly and when John had the win in hand, he snatched defeat out of the very jaws of Victory. I ended up with the win, that had I been thinking would have been 20 instead of 19. But that is sometimes how games go. In particular, I should have split my 2 herds up to keep his 2 daemons from going after both together.

Anyway, there are no complaints here. Ratspawn and company did what I haven't been able to do for some time. I'll be using the same army in the Hillbilly come July for his farewell tour. Then I'll be retiring Ratspawn. At least for a couple years.

Until next time...

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Lone Wolf 6 GT, 2008 Part 4

So this led me to game 5. 64 points put me in a 8 way tie (or maybe 10) for 3rd place. 2 players had 72 points going into round 5. I looked at the postings and it was John Bailey with Daemonic Legions Slaanesh.

An underrated army, IMO. Very fast, deadly and can be super tough. With everything moving 10 or 20, it was going to be tough to corral him in.

John and I have been friends for several years, talking at almost every GT, having a beer together, etc... but never played. So I was looking forward to the game.

Right next to us was Rick Thompson fighting John's brother Jim. I was placed on table 4. John's army looked like:

Daemon Prince w/Soul Hunger, blade of ether (I laughed), spell breaker, Lvl 4
Exaleted Daemon w/Blade of Ether (again laughed), Lvl 1
Both marked with Slaanesh

10 Daemonettes, mus
10 Daemonettes, mus
10 Daemonettes, mus
7 Mounted Daemonettes
7 Mounted Daemonettes
6 Mounted Daemonettes
2 Chariots of Slaanesh

A great army, with a good theme. It wasn't painted yet, but you could tell already its going to look great when its finished.

We had a couple woods on the table, 1 hill a ruined building and some small walls.
Don't take these pics too seriously, I made mistakes making them, and the terrain isn't to scale. But should give you an idea of how the game played out.


His turn 1 he moves everything up. With IF he gets off Titilating delusions on my generals unit to move to his right.
He had his Prince in the Center and Exalted on the right. After I tricked him by not putting any herds over on the right, he flew the exalted to the left.



Ratspawn Turn 1b: With no charges my left most herd promptly fails their unruly and sprints into the building. I move my spawn in there as well.
I figure the furies will be pretty useless in this game, but two of my objectives is have more points in his deployment than him, and capture more table quarters, so I decide to play 75 points short and have the furies just handle those duties.

The picture is already screwed up, I forgot I didn't move the hounds in front of my DB to keep me from moving very far. And my spawn on the right moved like 3".



Daemons turn 2: He could have charged his exalted into the herd in the building but held off. He did charge the daemonettes into my hounds on the right side. The hounds flee and don't run very far and get in the way of things, of course.

The 2 flanking daemonette rider units pull back. everyone else moves up.



Ratspawn turn 2b: Well, time to get aggressive. Minotaurs and 2 chariots charge into Daemonettes. My hope is that one chariot is on flank and will overrun into his chariot, other chariot will overrun into riders on far right.

Well both chariots were in the front, and no matter how we worked it, 1 unit was going to be left out. So I decided to have both chariots slam in and have the minotaurs hold back.

The herd in the ruins promptly fails its terror test and runs away. 2nd herd with 2 shamans fails its unruly and runs up into the ruins. Geez!!
The spawn flies through the ruins, like 15" and hits the flank of the daemonettes.

In combat the spawn kills 1 daemonette, no wounds by him.
On the right we plow through them killing 7 or 8, the others pop and the left chariot hits the flank of the daemonette riders, the other one falls short of hitting.

This picture is fairly accurate as to how things were. If it has a skull on it, it means it is dead and no longer there. I leave the unit there so you can get a feel for how things worked out.



Daemons Turn 3: John knew he had to do something. I had bears anger on one of my shamans in the herd in the ruins. But what I didn't realize was his Princess could draw line of sight to 1 model. So both Exalted and Princess into herd. I knew I would get slaughtered here and lose the banner as well. So after much moaning, I fled with the herd and 2 shamans!! Ugghhh!! One of the hardest things I've ever done.

The herd obviously cannot flee far enough and the exalted catches them. The minotaurs make a panic check. We both agree the minotaurs are too close to the wall for the daemons to land there and simply overfly them.

On the left, the riders charge the hounds who flee. My plan was the hounds run about 10" and the riders catch them and have to stop at the wall. Well the hounds had other ideas and run like 15". So its a failed charge and the riders stop short keeping the minotaurs in their front flank.

On the right the riders and chariot charge the 3 minotaurs who flee and get away.

In combat the daemonettes fail to wound the spawn who kills another couple daemonettes.
The chariot slams into the daemonettes and kills a bunch. After the roll a single rider is left. bad news for that chariot.

In magic he used his magic missile to kill off the far left side hounds.



Ratspawn turn 3b: I have you now!! (or so I think)
4 Minotaurs into riders.
2 hound units into daemonettes
Ratspawn and company into flank of daemonettes
3 Minotaurs into chariot
chariot into lone rider.

I rally my herd and reform them so they are not in Line of sight of the Princess.
The spawn moves over to them.

The left hounds make their Ld 9 fear test and plow into the Daemonettes. Now for the hounds in front of ratspawn. Needing a 9. I roll a 10. Ratpspawn fails his charge!!

The minotaurs have to wheel more than I thought to avoid the chariot and end up with a failed charge on his right chariot as well.

In combat, the chariot crushes the last rider and overruns.
The hounds lose 3 of their guys, break and runs past the minotaurs. (forgot to show that.)
The spawn killed 1 or 2 daemonettes.

Now the big combat on the left. I charge in. His mounts strike first and with 6 attacks get 3 poison hits!! Killing a mino out right. Then get another hit and another wound. So 4 wounds on 6 attacks!! So I only get 9 attacks back. Should get 4 wounds, I get 3. The then saves all 3!!! NOOOO!!! Then his daemonettes promptly do 2 more wounds and kill off a 2nd minotaur. The other 2 have had enough break and he runs them down.
I put a skull on my spawn, but I think he lives through this phase and is killed in the next turn.



Daemons turn 4:
The riders feeling a bit relieved charge at my minotaurs with the chariot. If I flee off the board I have a decent shot of still having the riders in my charge arc. But they only flee 4", don't get off the board by 1/2" and the riders catch them going off the board and the chariot moves its full 20" and to safety. Ugghhh!!

After doing no wounds to the spawn in 3 or 4 rounds of combat they do 3 in one and kill it off.

The 2nd chariot charges my chariot. If I flee I'll run through my own minotaurs and his chariot will hit the minotaurs. So I take the charge, the chariot is crushed and his chariot overruns just enough to get out of my charge arc by 1/2". Things at this point couldn't get worse.

The daemonettes charge my minotaurs. They manage only a couple wounds and the minotaurs slaughter them some daemonettes and pop them. Finally something goes right.

His exalted flew up to help with the spawn. The Princess flew to the board edge. And decided the best way to catch the herd and my wizard was to frenzy the unit. Which he did.

Ratspawn turn 4b: Things are looking bleak and even the prospect of pulling a draw are becoming fleeting.

The frenzy kills off 3 ungors. This isn't so bad as it opens a patch for the spawn to get through. Spawn and herd charge the Princess.

Minotaurs in the middle charge the daemonettes in the flank.

Everything else moves aorund in hopes that I might stand a chance to actually catch something. Silly me.

The minotaurs come in, slay some daemonettes and win combat, but they hold easily.

In the big combat he challenges and my shaman more than happily steps to the rear of the herd. So the big bad Princess puts all 5 attacks on the spawn. 4 hit. Re-rolls the miss and misses again. Then needing 4+ to wound, only 2 wounds. So he actually rolled average, I can't believe it. I can't touch him but with banner, numbers and musician I win by 1.

Of course I let out with the "don't pop" and sure enough. Down drops the 11 and his Daemon Princess worth 580 points + 100 points for his general just got handed to me on a silver platter.

In the excitement/stun of the moment, depending on which side of the table you stood, I forgot completely about overrunning. I only remembered today when writing up the report. I not only can I must overrun the herd and the spawn can as well. If both of those run off the board... Oh well.



Daemons turn 5: John is in a state of shock. He had this game in the palm of his hand. Heck, all he really had to do was go fly away and let the game end. He was easily up by 300. But one of his objectives was kill my shamans and take my banners. So he was going after those precious battle points. Now it had slapped him in the face. He is thinking is actually down at the point. But if he had stepped back, he is actually slightly ahead or a draw at worse.

But he feels he needs to make up the points. Exalted into the minotaurs fighting his daemonettes.
His riders charge the herd. Since I'm frenzy (I should have run off last turn and not be here) but instead have to take it.

His other guys show me what it means to move 10" all the time.

In combat, the exalted kills a minotaur and I kills some daemonettes.
His riders kill some gors and I do 3 wounds back. I'm thinking I might actually win this when he makes all 3 ward saves again!! This unit has taken 6 wounds and made every single ward save on 5+. I autobreak and am run down. He slams into the spawn, who also shouldn't be there.



Ratspawn turn 5b: I charge with Ratspawn, but its about 13" away and is a failed charge.
I move the rest of my guys so he has no charges.
In combat his exalted takes my minotaurs down to 2 guys, 1 of the minotaurs has 2 wounds on him. I wipe out the daemonettes.
The riders easily kill off the spawn.



Daemons turn 6: With no charges he moves his guys to prevent a turn 6 charge by me.

Then came the combat. With 4 attacks needed 3+ to hit and 3+ to wound, the Exalted rolls 4 1's to hit. I can't believe it. He fails to kill my guy with a single wound left. This gives me 6 strength 6 attacks back. I manage 3 wounds and he makes 2 of his ward saves. So he has only a single wound left.



Ratspawn Turn 6b: End of the game.

with no clear charges, I turn the minotaurs around and move them into the top right table quarter. I try to move the hounds to the bottom left, but as it turn out I can't get there.

so now it is down to the final combat. He gets 4 attacks, he swing and gets 4 hits!!
He could do it here. With 4 wounds he can wipe out the whole unit and prevent an attack back. With a single wound he knocks me down to just 1 minotaur.

He rolls his 4 to wound rolls and does not get a single wound. All 4 were 1's and 2's. I can't believe my eyes. Reprieved again.

with 6 attacks I get 5 hits and 3 wounds. He rolls his dice. A 6, A 5, ...... and a 2. He dies!!! I can't believe it. 335 points just went.

I'm starting to shake. Could I have actually pulled this off. We look at the bonus points first. I own the top left, and the top right. The bottom right is contested. I almost give him the bottom left when I think to measure for my minotaurs and they are in. Bottom left contested. Add in his general and I am +300. He has the one banner and is at +100.

We add up the points and I'm up by around 230. Add in the 200 and I win by 430 or so. A minor victory, but enough. I managed to pull 3 of my 4 objectives, the last one was keep my least expensive character alive. That was the final shaman he killed. If I'd run off the board like I was supposed to I would have gotten the 200. No way he would have gotten him.

So win 19 points. Final for 5 games: 83 points

Everyone around us is drawing. Table 1 with Jon and Jordan, draw. Jon with 83 points, Jordan with 82. Joe comes up, he also has 83. Then Jeff Grejada walks up with 84. Rick and Jim Bailey had fought to a draw. One last big game between Trev and Chris, both beastmen friends, it ends up a draw.

I'm feeling good. But really thinking 2nd general. That 1 point I play over in my head. Maybe I managed to pull a sports vote to put me up. I know its going to be close.

I pack up and put away my stuff. Come back up and take a seat. We go through some hand outs, I get an Orc general box. Sweet.

After approximately 18 hours and 34 mins we FINALLY begin the awards.
Painting awards, friends win stuff, nothing for me. Not surprising. I try but I'm not that good yet.
Finally they get to the good stuff. Best general. I'm feeling it.
3rd, Jordan. Sweet, I know I beat him, so I'm feeling really good.
2nd, Joe. Ok, now we are into the 83's. I'm thinking Jeff or best general now and I pull a 2nd or 3rd overall.
1st place Jon. Ok, a bit of a surprise there. That must mean Jeff pulled the best overall. I must have gotten 2nd overall. Or maybe 3rd. Or maybe someone tanked my sports and I get nothing. Oh that would suck.

They give out some lousy best army awards and sportsmanship. Some friends win these, but I could care less. ;) Really, I was very happy for all of them. Trev, Roy, Eric, etc...

Finally onto best overall.

3rd best overall, Jim Bailey. Wow, that came out of nowhere. His painting always puts him in the running, but now I'm feeling really nervous.

2nd best overall goes to... here it comes, I know it... Brian Ching. What?? No way, I got skunked. Nothing for me. I'm really happy for Brian. He is one of the most fantastic players you'll ever want to play against. But at this point I'm thinking Jeff for overall.

My friend points to me and says "you got it, good job". I shake my head. I don't think so.

And first place overall goes to.... Ben Burns. I cannot believe I heard my name. I have not won an overall at a GT in 4 years. This was truly a moment for me to savor and enjoy. But all I could do was run up there as fast as I could before they changed their minds and realize what a mistake they made.

As it turns out Jeff got a sports ding that kept him from Best general. He wasn't close enough for overall.
Later looking at the scores, I won by a single point. I won 3 objective points, most points in his deployment, most table quarters and kill his most expensive unit. It took all 3 as a tie with Brian and he probably wins the tiebreaker.

3 points separated the top 6 players and only 6 points for the top 10. I got a wonderful trophy:



The Limited edition $90 rulebook in the leather case, still in the shrink wrap.



Well, its no longer in the shrink wrap. But more importantly, I had a fantastic time hanging out with friends, playing the game and hobby I love, with an army that I loved building and painting.

I am going to run Ratspawn through the Hillbilly as its victory lap, but then Ratspawn will move into a retirement home, happy, healthy and victorious.

If you've managed to make it this far, thanks. I hope you enjoyed it.

Final thought: Luck. The planets, gods and stars, all aligned to give me this win, as my play had very little to do with it.

Thanks to all my opponents, Lex, Brent, Justin, David and John. You guys were the best.

Until next time...

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Lone Wolf 6 GT, 2008 Part 3

Next up was round 3. One of the toughest rounds as everyone is tired from the strain and stress of 2 tournament games already.

I am matched up against Justin Robbins and his Tomb King list. (from memory)
Tomb king, destoyer, 4+ ward
Tomb Prince, d.scroll
Lich Priest hierophant on steed, 4+ ward
Lich Priest, jar, d.scroll

2 big blocks of skeleton warriors
block of skeleton archers
2 groups of 3 chariots
2 scorpions
Giant
Skull catapult with foe skulls
3 carrion

I think thats it, but I could be wrong. Justin's list was the only one I didn't get a copy to keep.

Justin looked distracted and tired throughout the whole game, not sure why. Several times I actually had to bring his attention back to our game. I had played Justin about 3 months ago in a small tournament where I wiped out his army with Ratspawn. So maybe he was figuring he didn't stand a chance, not sure.

The scenario was the Lone Ranger. One of our most expensive models in a unit of 3 became the lone ranger. He would run around shoot people and could get into combat. He was immune to fear, and was stubborn 10. But only 2 wounds and a 5+ ward.
He had a BS of 9 and a repeater pistol. The objective was to keep him alive and have done more wounds with him than the other guys lone range. You didn't have to take a lone ranger.

Justin did, so lost a chariot. I did, and lost a minotaur out of Ratspawns unit.

first turn nothing much happens, but at the end of turn 2 I charge his catapult with my furies and am 1/2" short of getting there. So they end up short, but I charge my spawn and minotaurs into his carrion, wiping them out and setting me up perfect for his chariots who have some hounds in front of them being annoying.

I charge 3 minotaurs into his unit of 2 chariots. I do 2 wounds and he does 3 wounds back and wins combat!! I manage to hold and kill off the chariots the next round.

His Tomb king kills my spawn and then overruns into my hounds. I should have taken the charge, but I flee and they run 16" and right into my field of charges on the right side.
His giant charges some hounds who also flee around 15" and right in front of my minotaurs about to charge the chariots on the left side.

He drops a rock that lands right in front of ratspawn, getting a partial on him and another Minotaur. With only 4 Mino's in the unit I get no Look out Sir. He rolls for the partials and misses with both. Whew.

Big turn 3 as minotaurs charge his giant and kill him over 2 rounds of combat. Chariot hits a scorpion and wipes it out. Minotaurs try to charge the chariots, but the stupid hounds rally on a 5. :| The furies take out the catapult.

On the right side, the hounds rally also and force a failed charge from 4 minotaurs on the archer block with LP in it.

He then charges the 4 minotaurs with his Tomb Prince and Heirophant in a skeleton warrior block. I flee the charge. This lines him up perfect for Ratspawn and company to go after the heirophant.

On my next turn I charge ratspawn into the heirophant. Then to tie up his generals unit I do something stupid. I charge a chariot and the Lone Ranger into his tomb king unit. We manage to do 5 wounds, but he still wins, and the chariot auto-breaks. The Lone Ranger holds on stubborn 10, but now he is tied up.

I do a triple charge hounds, furies and chariot into his unit of 3 chariots. Hounds and chariot both make their fear checks and I get the triple charge off and kill off all 3.

Ratspawn then manages 3 wounds on his heirophant who promptly makes all 3 4+ ward saves. I manage like 2 wounds on the skeletons and I lose a minotaur back. I break. First time this Gt. I roll my flee, 3 inches!!! OMG!! I'm going to lose Ratspawn.
He pursues 2 inches!!! Is this even possible, I get away and live!! WOW!!

On his turn he charges but I flee and hope over a hound and the 4 minotaurs who had just fled. So he has a failed charge. His general hops over and kills my lone ranger so I cannot get the objective. He also charged his lone ranger into my unit of 2 minotaurs that had killed his 2 chariots. He killed 1 minotaurs, but I then killed him.

His magic is starting to get through as I'm out of scrolls. So I move my herd up hoping his LP and archers would charge it. 4 minotaurs flank the block with the TP and heirophant. I wipe out almost half the skeletons before he stops crumbling.

On his turn he takes the bait and charges the archers in. I make my fear test and put 2 shamans on his LP. He gets an amazing 3 wounds on gors, needing 4+ to hit and 5+ to wound with 5 attacks. Odds were he would get 1. I do only 1 wound to his LP on top of that, but kill a couple skellies. Win on size and he loses another skeleton.

He manages to magic his TK unit into the minotaurs and his TP moved over there but after all the killing only won by 2. Ratspawn had just rallied, so I needed a 7 and got it.
On my turn I charge Ratspawn into his heirophant again and my 2nd herd into the flank of the same unit. Justin concedes at this point.

It was a very tactical game that could have gone a few ways. But he was about to lose his TP, heirophant and 2nd lich priest. He knew his generals unit wasn't going to come back from that.

Win 16 points. Total for 3 games, 44 points.

Saturday night went out for burgers and beers with Trev, Chris and Chuck. After some good laughs we decide to do a 2v2 battle. So Ratspawn and company hook up with Chris' Khorne Beastmen to fight Trev's Beastmen and Chucks 'always cast with IF' high elf list.

We didn't get to finish this titanic battle, but we had fun for 3 turns. It was wild. No less than 6 and as many as 8 spells were cast with IF. We had a chariot flee well over 30" smashing through 5-6 units including high elves and beastmen before destroying itself in the woods. We saw what happens when minotaurs throw themselves on HE spears, its not pretty. But a herd charges a lion chariot, whips up on it and forces it to flee.

All in all good fun. We called it a draw as they were turning out the lights on us. Party poopers.

Round 4 had me matched up against David Norvell and his Khorne Beasts. David and I played 2 weeks ago, but both of us with different armies. This would be a rematch David was planning to win.

khorne Beasts:
Warlord Mark of Khorne, Hellfire sword, talisman of protection, enchanted shield, hvy armor
Wargor BSB with mark of khorne, armor of damnation, sword of might.
Beastherd 8 Gors, 10 ungors, full command
Beastherd 8 Gors, 6 ungors, foe render, mus
Beastherd 8 gors, 6 ungors, foe render, mus
4 units of 5 chaos hounds
3 tuskigor chariots
5 chaos knights chosen, mark of khorne, standard of never lose frenzy, musician
5 furies
4 Minotaurs, great weapons, mark of khorne
4 minotaurs, great weapons, mark of khorne
3 Dragon Ogres

This was one hard hitting army.

He goes first and pushes up the hounds, rest of the army moves up conservatively. On the right side there is a large ruins area and his general is in his big herd there.
Knights, minotaurs and chariots in the middle, dragon ogres on the far right.

We set up an oil well and can attack or defend. I decide to defend he is going to attack. He gets one from move at the beginning of one of his turns, but never takes it. He has to kill all my characters. All I have to do is have more units around my oil well at the end. It also gives me +1 Combat res within 6" of it.

On my turn, some hounds charge hounds in the middle. I whiff and he breaks me over running into some minotaurs. I move my hounds up to draw some frenzied charges.

His knights and chariot take the bait. The hounds flee and get away jumping over ratspawn. The chariot hits a spawn, destroys it and overruns into Ratspawn.
The knights fail their charge but don't move enough to offer up their flank.

He fails his unruly test and comes up right behind my right side herd by my oilwell.
On the left side his Dragon Ogres and Minotaurs charge a hound unit that fails its Ld 5 test but holds. Is wiped out and the Dragon Ogres overrun the minotaurs cannot.

On my turn my herd charges his herd, that just ambushed, breaks it and restrains thinking he will run off. He runs 3" and stops 1/2" from the board edge.

I charge 4 minotaurs at the Chaos knights. I whiff badly and only kill 2. He does around 7 wounds, breaks them runs them down but stops when he hits his chariot.
The chariot kills a minotaur in Ratspawns unit but is beaten. It flees and I run into the knights with Ratspawns unit.

On the left I charge minotaurs and a chariot into both the Dragon ogres and 4 Minotaurs. He flees with the dragon ogres and gets away.
I then use my spawn to chase the dragon ogres to within 1" of the board edge.

The minotaurs of khorne are beaten and run down by the chariot and 3 minotaurs.

On his turn chariot into my chariot that flees and is caught. Minotaurs and chariot into my furies.
His general is still kind of dancing around on the right flank facing off with 3 minotaurs. I'm a bit surprised with the hellfire sword he isn't pushing this.

His chariot and Minotaurs hit the furies, but only manage 2 kills as I finally make some ward saves. I do a wound to a minotaur and I only lose by 2. I roll a 5 and only 1 fury pops. Leaving me 2 in combat. SWEET!!

Ratspawn and company then manage with 11 str 6 attacks, about half needing 3+ to hit and 2+ to wound, only 3 wounds. He then saves 2 of those. So with 6 attacks he hits with 5 and does 5 wounds!!!
So 5 wounds and banner = 6 to my 1 wound, banner and unit strength. He wins by 3. I roll the dice and needing a 6, I roll a 7. Then I remember we are right by the oil well and I get +1 combat res for that. This means I hold and don't break!!!

This is huge. If he breaks me here I die as his furies are just a couple inches behind me. Otherwise David wins the game right there.

I've gotten confused here as something is out of order. I do know the next round I killed off the 2 knights. I then charged into some hounds who fled and I was able to hit the chariot that was in combat with the furies.

Destroying the chariot, the minotaurs in combat with the furies lost combat and fled. The fury and ratspawn chase and ratspawn runs into another chariot while the fury flies past it.

On his turn the recently rallied Dragon Ogres charge my spawn, kill it and overrun into the lone fury.
And Ratspawn destroys the chariot.

Then on my turn Ratspawn charges the Dragon Ogres along with a chariot in the flank of the DO's. This wipes them out.

Wind of death took care of the 2nd herd. So all he had left at this point was his BSB by himself on the left. And on the right his general in his biggest herd who still had not fought a combat.

David concedes at that point. It was a huge 4th round win that really came down to me making that break check on 7 due to the oil well. Without that he destroys ratspawn, and all the rest of that, minotaurs 2 chariots and dragon ogres live to kill off my stuff. It was a real game changer.

David is a fantastic player and a great sport who I know will probably beat me the next time we meet.

Win 20 points. Total for 4 games: 64 battle points

Coming soon Part 4 the finals.

Until next time...

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Lone Wolf 6 GT, 2008 Part 2

Saturday morning had me facing off against Lex Simon and his Tomb Kings. Lex is a good friend and we have played a few times in the past. But since he moved to Austin about 2 years ago we haven't faced off and it was great to get the chance to match tactics with one of the best TK players I know.

Lex TK list:
Tomb king, destroyer, collar
Prince in a chariot of fire, flail
Lich priest jar, cloak, heirophant
Lich priest, 2xd.scrolls

10 skeletons w/bows
10 skeletons w/bows
24 Tomb guard with reform banner, full command, TK
5 light skeleton horsemen w/bows
5 light skeleton horsemen w/bows
3 chariots
3 chariots
3 Carrion
2 scorpions
Bone giant
Skull catapult with skulls of the foe

The scenario was the Cowboys Curse. Our general is smitten by some tart. Every turn you pick a different curse to lay on your opponent's general. And it is cumulatively worse. You can dump the tart at any time to rid the curse, but then you cannot get the objective.
to get the objective you must live with the curse and end up with more banners captured and owned, than your opponent.

The curses were: (pick 1 for each turn, may not repeat yourself)
-(turn #) to any combat res his general is a part of.
-(turn #) to power dice and add them to your dispel pool.
-(turn #) to the characters strength
-(turn #) from any casting roll your general uses, including bound spells
-(turn #) off the generals ld
-(turn #) off any 1 dice roll made by the opponent. Can force a miscast.

Each curse only lasts during your opponents turn. But can be a real pain in the butt. It got in my head more than I wanted it to. The Ld, strength and combat res were really worrying me.

So this caused me to be a lot more hesitant than I normally am. He got to go first and turn 1 kills a minotaur in my general's unit. I then have to make a Ld 8 panic test and fail. If it wasn't for the undivided which I passed, I'd been running off the board turn 1 of the first game. Wouldn't that suck.

I lined up my furies to take out the catapult, but on turn 2 it blew itself up. So I threw the furies at some archers and they promptly popped.
A herd failed 2 unruly checks in a row and then passed their fear test to charge into chariots with the tomb prince. This combat goes for 3 rounds, sees some fast cav charge in the flank. I then try to charge some minotaurs in and miss it by 1/4".
I finally whiff my rolls and the herd breaks losing its banner. With only a wounded Prince and 2 of the fast cav left.

The other 3 chariots charge 4 minotaurs, manage to kill 2. I kill a chariot back but break and run getting away. I rally, he charges with the 2 and blows the impact hits and I destroy the chariots.

On the left flank, three minotaurs are trying to get lined up to charge the giant and who has been hobbled by beasts cower. But it backfires. The giant gets on their flank and is magically charged in. But he whiffs and only gets 1 wound on the first set of attacks. Then gets a 2nd on the unstoppable assault. Killing my end Mino and winning combat by 3. Needing a 5 to hold, they do. The next round he only does 2 wounds again, and I do 2 wounds back. He wins by 1 because of the flank and again I hold.

In the middle his prince charges some minotaurs who fled. So I charge his chariot with a spawn and hold him. Over 2 rounds of combat he only does 1 wound to my spawn and I destroy the chariot out from under the prince. So on my turn 5 my 3 minotaurs charge in but only 2 can get on the prince instead of 3. I whiff all the attacks and only win by 1. So he loses his 2nd wound but doesn't die.

He had flown his heirophant over to make sure he could get that giant charge off which exposed her. I got IF dark hand of death on her, and poof. But no crumbling.

Game ends. Ran out of time at the bottom of 5. Lex never designated who had claimed the banner that had been captured. The 2 fast cav were gone, but the prince lived. We rolled for it and the prince had it. After we added up points, I was up by around 250. That banner cost me the win and the objective. I tried to sweet talk Lex into giving it to me, but he would have none of it. Great game Lex, I look forward to our next one.

So 8 point draw in a very well fought tough battle.

Game 2 verse Brent Collins and his Wood Elves:
Lvl 4 mage with stave and 2 d.scrolls
Lvl 2 mage with HoDA
Wardancer hero with Lamenations of dispair. A one shot bound item
wood elf noble BSB with Oaken armor

10 Glade Guard
10 Glade Guard
8 Dryads w/champ
8 Dryads w/champ
8 Dryads w/champ
3 Treekin
19 Eternal guard w/full command
5 Wardancers
6 Wardancers
Treeman

Brent is an excellent opponent who was a lot of fun to play, but Brent, you need to really practice with the army a lot. I think he had a lot of new things in the army that he wasn't use to playing with.

1. He never used his Treemans spell singing
2. He never used the one shot bound item he had, or the Hail of Doom Arrow.
3. when I charged his Eternal guard with BSB I asked if there was a champ and he said no, so I challenged and the BSB stepped up.
4. When I killed the BSB, I don't think he made his regeneration rolls? I may be wrong there, but I don't remember it.
5. He had my generals unit in a horrible spot, and charged the front with his eternal guard. I was expecting the wardancers with hero in the flank, and it never came. I killed the BSB, so the unit wasn't stubborn and broke them running them down.
6. He finally did charge my general's unit with a unit of wardancers and decided to go with the 4+ ward dance??? He only manages 2 wounds and I manage 2 back and I win, break him and overrun into the ongoing Treeman battle and cut down the treeman same turn.
7. In turn 6 I decide to go for the total destruction of his army and charge a chariot and Ratspawns unit into the Hero and wardancer unit. He goes with the +1 attack dance??? The chariot kills every last wardancer except the hero. The hero in a challenge with Ratspawn never gets a swing off.

In the end I had half my army left and he didn't have a model on the board. Even his general who was hiding in the woods died from a drain life spell on the bottom of turn 6.

For me it was a really fun game that allowed me to relax and get into the flow of the GT. You really need that first win to get you feeling good about yourself. And this game did it.

Brent was a great sport, several times he would make mistakes, like not moving his wizard out of the rain so he could cast or move a unit so he could treesing the woods. I was more than happy to let him do this, but he wouldn't. I almost even insisted but Brent wouldn't. He wanted to make himself learn from his mistakes.

So it ended up being an easy win, but a really really great game. Brent got my favorite opponent vote.

Win 20 points. Total through round 2: 28 Battle points.

Coming soon Part 3.

Until next time...

Monday, March 03, 2008

Lone Wolf 6 GT, 2008 Part 1

I attended the Lone Wolf this last weekend and it was a blast. It started with me taking off early Friday from work. I got home and threw in 300 to watch while I finished up some stuff around the house. This really got me pumped up and in the mood for some serious gaming.

I got up to the Game hall about 3 in the afternoon and helped with the final setup. I had planned a 'Ard Boyz practice game but that fell through, so I started quickly looking for alternatives.

While sitting around I start talking with a new face, Chris. A really nice guy who plays beastmen as well. As it turns out we are both part of the Herdstone message boards. He is from Albuquerque and is friends with Marcus Martin a long time acquittance of mine. So we decided to throw down for some Friday night practice.

My list was basically the same one I ran last year.

Ratspawn the Reincarnated.
Doombull undivided with Heavy Armor, shield, sword of might
Lvl 2 Beast shaman, und, Staff of Darkoth, D.scroll
Lvl 2 Beast shaman, und, braystaff, d.scroll
Lvl 2 Beast shaman, und, braystaff, d.scroll

5 Minotaurs und, great weapons, banner
4 Minotaurs und, great weapons
4 Minotaurs und, great weapons
3 Minotaurs und, great weapons
3 Minotaurs und, great weapons
5 Chaos warhounds
5 Chaos warhounds
5 Chaos warhounds
2 Tuskigor chariots
2 Beast Herds, 7 gors, 6 ungors, full command
5 Furies
2 Chaos spawn of slaanesh

Chris' Army was a Beast Khorne list. I don't remember everything it had, but from memory:
Wargor of Khorne,
2 exalted heroes on steeds, undivided
3 units of minotaurs of khorne, 1 with great weapons, 1 without.
4 Beast herds.
some chaos hounds
2 beast chariots
8 furies
14 Beastigors mark of khorne, warbanner

This game actually went pretty quick, as I threw a few spells early on, and nothing on less than a 13. So his herds and furies were suffering early on.
Then I got off 2 charges that were right at 12" with my minotaurs on his and took out 2 units.
His khorngors killed a spawn and overran hoping to get out of charge arc of ratspawn, but he was about 1/4" too short, and I was able to see their flank. I killed 3, and with flank, outnumber, banner, he lost his frenzy, autobroke losing the khorngors, his general and a banner. That pretty much summed up the game.

Chris and I hung out the rest of the weekend and he is a great guy. I can't wait to meet up with him at future tournaments.

I then met with David Long in a 2nd warmup game Friday night. David and I have really become pretty good friends since he beat me 2 years ago at the Lone Wolf. He beat me again at the Boyou last year, and we met again last Lonewolf when I scored my first victory against him. We were both wondering if we would meet for the 4th time in 4 GTs. It turned out not to be so, but the warmup game was a lot of fun.

His army:
Dwarf Lord on shield bearers with 1+ re-rollable saves, some other stuff
Couple of thanes, and a runesmith with 3 d.scrolls. 1 of the thanes was a BSB I think.

2 20 man hammerer units with commands, rune standards.
unit of warriors
unit of longbeards
10 crossbowmen
2 bolt throwers, str 7
grudge thrower, volley gun

He setup in the middle, had his runesmith in some woods by itself.
then warmachine between each unit.

crossbowmen on left then warriors, then longbeards with bsb, hammers with lord, hammers with thane. BTs were on the outsides, grudge thrower and volley gun in the middle.

He didn't have any hills, which made it easy for me to shield my chariots from his bolt throwers.

I won the roll off and decided to go first. I rush forward with everything. Magic has me wipe out 5 or so crossbowmen and a few hammerers.
It was his turn and he moves the far right hammerers up.

He then promptly misfires with the grudge thrower. He rolls a 3 so it wouldn't be able to shoot till turn 3. He decides to re-roll it and gets the 1 its gone.
He then promptly misfires the volley gun and it explodes. OMG!! I am laughing my ass off at this point. As is David and everyone hanging around watching.

His bolt throwers all manage to miss or bounce off and his crossbowmen are useless.

On my turn, I throw my furies into the flank of his remaining crossbowmen who flee off the table. EitW has me hit the bolt thrower.
I move hounds up to block everything, move everything else up. Magic kills a couple dwarfs. Spawn heads into the woods to go after runesmith.

In combat, my furies whiff, he kills 2, and I pop. Uh oh, that was bad.

On his turn he charges with the warriors at my hounds. This was setup to open up their flank, but when my hounds flee, the chariot is now exposed to the bolt thrower.
On the right flank, the hammers charge and the hounds flee.

He runs his runesmith out of the woods back towards his board edge.

He shoots his bolt thrower at my chariot and hits, but then rolls a 1 to wound.
His other BT misses.
This is just getting sad.

In the next turn, I charge my chariot into the bolt thrower, charge 2 units of minotaurs at the warriors.
triple charge the right flank hammerers with 2 minotaur units and a chariot, killing every single hammerer. The thane autobroke and ran towards his bolt thrower, I had 1 unit of minotaurs pursue and catch him and hit the bolt thrower as well.

the chariot failed to kill 2 of the left side bolt thrower crew, so they stood there. Then the minotaurs wiped out the warriors who failed their insane courage and wiped them out. resulting overrun hit the combat with the chariot and bolt thrower.

This left just his general's unit and the long beards. The bolt throwers are soon destroyed in the next round of combat.

On my next turn I charged in a chariot, 4 minotaurs and 5 hounds on the flank to break his 2 remaining ranks. I only kill 1 hammerer in all of that. 1 minotaur had to attack the lord. While all the others sat around on their horns, this one was actually awake. I get 3 hits and 3 wounds!! So his 1+ becomes a 4+ re-rollable save and he ends up missing 2 of them. I still lose combat by a ton as they kill 4 hounds and a minotaur. everything breaks. The lone hound is long gone, and the dwarfs are able to run down both my fleeing minotaurs and my chariot!!

He still has nothing to charge, so he spins around to face my general's unit.
Then on my turn he forces Ratspawn and minotaurs to charge his unit. So I do so. My herd with 2 shaman was about 7" away from the hammerers and failed their unruly roll and ran into the rear of the hammerers.

He doesn't challenge and neither do I. He has the banner of double unit strength, so I need to get his unit below half and kill his general. Otherwise he is immune to fear and will be a stubborn 10 to break. And his long beards are ready to flank charge Ratspawns unit with the BSB if I am still there. All my other units are facing the wrong direction to protect my flank.

I decide to just kill as many hammerers as I can to make sure I win combat, then we will worry about the other stuff later. The Dwarf Lord only has 1 wound left on him, so I just put 1 minotaur on him. I get 3 hits, and 3 wounds again!!
He then fails all 3 armor saves at 4+. On his re-roll though he makes the first, the second...and fails the 3rd. The Dwarf Lord dies.

So now I just have to get his number down to 8 to get them below my unit strength of 18. My herd in the rear manages to kill 4!!! Fantastic. Then even though ratspawn whiffs and only kills 2, the rest of the minotaurs chip in and kill off 5-6 more and drop him down to 6 or 7 guys. They auto-break and Ratspawn is able to pursue out of the charge range of the long beards.

We shook hands at that point and my record with Mr. Long is now at an even 2-2. But I'm sure we will be playing much more in the future.

This ends part 1 of my Lone Wolf 2008 experience. Coming next, Part 2, Saturday Morning and the real tournament games.

Until next time...

Sunday, March 02, 2008

WOW!!! GT Best Overall!!!

It has been almost 4 years since my first GT Best Overall. Today I got my 2nd. They are precious things, that only a few players have more than 1. But it seems like every 4 years, the stars and planet align and I walk away with one of the big boys.

In 1999 I got Best General at the Direwolf GT.
In 2004 I got Best Overall at the Dallas Battle for the Lone Star GT
And now in 2008, the Lonewolf GT.

This is by far the best, most quality loaded GT I have ever done this well in. Really big name players were up and down the tables. I couldn't turn around without running into a GT vet with a Best General or Overall award to their name. With 86 (yea, 86!!) players it was a very tough row to how.

I'm not sure of my final scores on anything. As soon as they gave me the awards, I beat feet for the door before they realized their mistake. I had hopes, but was really expecting a 2nd or 3rd General or Overall. When they went through the Best general awards, and then had called out the 3rd best general, I was sitting on pins and needles. I knew there was one other player who had not received an award yet who had one more battle point than I did. So I was silently praying they called out his name for 2nd overall.

Then they announced 2nd overall and it was neither me nor him. I was a bit stunned. Only one award left and 2 of us with really top battle scores empty handed. My friend looked over and said congrats. I quickly told him to hold off. I wasn't so certain.

Then it came, best overall. Me. I was stunned, happy, thrilled, all the above. Hours and hours of work, assembling, cleaning, converting, painting and playing an army. It starts out as a small seed of an idea. In this case, extra models I had laying around. And with very minor tweaks, this army was built straight up from that. About the only big change I had was to drop a pretty useless hero and a massive sword for my general to add in a 3rd wizard. Which in most games came in very handy. But the models themselves didn't change.

My Ratspawn the Reincarnated army was a labor of love. It is the first real army I lay out and am proud of. It never won any painting or players choice awards, but it did come close several times.
It has won me the following awards:
3rd Best General, Lone Wolf GT 2007
3rd place MAWL League 2006
1st Place MAWL League 2007
Best Overall Desert Classic 2007
Best Overall Lone Wolf GT 2008

And 3, top 10 finishes out of 3 GT's. That is a big feat right there.

I am going to bring it to Memphis in the Hillbilly in July, and then it will be packed away into retirement, at least for a while. I am almost sad that my run with Ratspawn is coming to an end.

I'll try and do some full battle reports later and a review of all my scores once they are posted.

So, until next time... This is one very happy camper.