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| Image description: a scoreboard. Your blogging hero is placed 24th out of 26. |
It's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
So I went to the Cry Havoc tournament last weekend last month in Stockport, giving my Normans another chance to to be annihilated by the best and brightest of the Kings of War scene.
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| On parade during the lunch break. I regret that I have to put over one hundred models in formation on their bases each time, but the effort is worth it. Sorta. |
As always, the pressure of timed games and the need to use my phone as a stopclock means I didn't get pics of all the armies I played against, so at great expense I have commissioned an artist to depict the missing one.
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| Opponent one, undead. |
First game: Undead
This time my first opponent was not a well-known podcasting tournament champ, so I had high hopes of not getting tabled. The goal of the scenario was to capture immovable loot tokens on the board. I reckoned I could make a good showing in the center, ignore my right flank and leave a token force to get chewed up by the terrifyingly powerful vampire knights. Overall, this plan was pretty successful. My knights got bogged down in a slogging match with their bony counterparts in the center, which was sort of the plan, but on the flanks the powerful (and expensive) vampires occupied themselves for half the game by chasing down my cannon-fodder archers. Had they been deployed to the center, I would probably have taken more severe losses. On my right, the ever reliable trolls & beastmen chewed through some belligerent ghouls (presumably on sabbatical from running Manchester schools) and the armored skellies guarding an objective. Huzzah! Our forces more or less cancelled each other out in the center, but the vampire knights bouncing off my spearmen and a lucky roll to end the game left me very happy with a losing draw. Double Huzzah!
Second game: Elves
I was feeling pretty confident going up to the second game, until I saw my opponent was Dan King, the highest ranked tournament player in the UK. Argh. Having never faced elves before, never faced dragons before, and not knowing how to deal with armies faster than my own the resulting tabling was swift and merciless. I managed to shoot both chariots off the table as my one consolation, but still failed to score enough kill points to avoid the dreaded "20-0" tournament score.
Third game: Twilight Kin
In this game I was decisively outlisted and outfought. Again, lack of experience with the enemy and fast troops proved my downfall. My first mistake was to divert the Great Chieftain off to the far flank to mess up the Assassin who had charged my archers on the first(!) turn rather than keeping up the morale of his troops in the fight against the enemy cavalry. As a result a 100 point individual tied up twice his value of troops AND had a hand in routing one of my big hitters. On the right flank, things weren't much better either. I didn't expect to do well against a dragon and two infantry units, but the speed with which my troops were chewed up (25 CS1 attacks!) was unnerving, and I totally deserved to kill that dragon, but I just couldn't roll high enough to rout it! The center went about as well as you'd expect, so all that kept me from annihilation was my standard bearer who wasn't worth the trouble of killing. At least I got enough kills to stave off the dreaded 20-0.
Final game: The Herd
Once again I found myself in the last place playoffs. I was at least content to know that my opponent would now be much closer to my own skill level, but things would still be pretty dicey.
This time I sent my main force up the centre, while on my right flank my plan was to cower in the woods to blunt the impact of a stampede (yes, the Herd get to field stampedes of animals as units).
Things went more or less predictably, the stampede grinding down my sacrifical right flank while I made great inroads in the centre. To mix things up, a flying chimera and alpha-werewolf broke through my line and started rampaging around my crossbows and cannon, but my main thrust did a very good job of cleaning up the centre. I was aided in this by an argument over the interpretation of the 'overrunning individuals' rule, where I insisted on what turned out to be the 'correct' interpretation. This left a bad taste, after all, would I have been so keen on the letter of the law had it not been in my favour?
Thankfully the rules lawyering was resolved, and play continued. The werewolf got bored of chewing up my missile troops and came back for a big punch-up with my knights. Things were going well and I was one charge away from routing him and securing a glorious victory, but then we had to roll for a seventh turn. To mirror the first game in which I snatched a draw from the lack of an extra turn, on this occasion final victory was denied me and the battle ended on a honours-even draw.
I think the army I brought could have been better, but I'm not sure where to make improvements. The cannon (which has a 1/3 chance of hitting) is a bit random and indeed, professional opinion is that a full battery of 3 should be taken or one shouldn't bother. I've also toyed with the idea of replacing the trolls with werewolves, which would be better in difficult terrain but would also require buying more models. Will keep you posted.
So, all in all a good day's gaming. The pie & mash provided by the organisers was top notch, the venue excellent, and the company splendid. My performance was unchanged since the last tournament, but no surprises there. One final observation was that it was nice to see that not everyone playing was white or a man, and that no-one made any mention of the fact I was wearing a skirt. Hurrah for inclusivity!
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| Opponent 2: Elves. Army was borrowed for the tournament, but gorgeous to look at. |
I was feeling pretty confident going up to the second game, until I saw my opponent was Dan King, the highest ranked tournament player in the UK. Argh. Having never faced elves before, never faced dragons before, and not knowing how to deal with armies faster than my own the resulting tabling was swift and merciless. I managed to shoot both chariots off the table as my one consolation, but still failed to score enough kill points to avoid the dreaded "20-0" tournament score.
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| Opponent 3: Twilight Kin |
Third game: Twilight Kin
In this game I was decisively outlisted and outfought. Again, lack of experience with the enemy and fast troops proved my downfall. My first mistake was to divert the Great Chieftain off to the far flank to mess up the Assassin who had charged my archers on the first(!) turn rather than keeping up the morale of his troops in the fight against the enemy cavalry. As a result a 100 point individual tied up twice his value of troops AND had a hand in routing one of my big hitters. On the right flank, things weren't much better either. I didn't expect to do well against a dragon and two infantry units, but the speed with which my troops were chewed up (25 CS1 attacks!) was unnerving, and I totally deserved to kill that dragon, but I just couldn't roll high enough to rout it! The center went about as well as you'd expect, so all that kept me from annihilation was my standard bearer who wasn't worth the trouble of killing. At least I got enough kills to stave off the dreaded 20-0.
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| Opponent 4: The Herd |
Final game: The Herd
Once again I found myself in the last place playoffs. I was at least content to know that my opponent would now be much closer to my own skill level, but things would still be pretty dicey.
This time I sent my main force up the centre, while on my right flank my plan was to cower in the woods to blunt the impact of a stampede (yes, the Herd get to field stampedes of animals as units).
Things went more or less predictably, the stampede grinding down my sacrifical right flank while I made great inroads in the centre. To mix things up, a flying chimera and alpha-werewolf broke through my line and started rampaging around my crossbows and cannon, but my main thrust did a very good job of cleaning up the centre. I was aided in this by an argument over the interpretation of the 'overrunning individuals' rule, where I insisted on what turned out to be the 'correct' interpretation. This left a bad taste, after all, would I have been so keen on the letter of the law had it not been in my favour?
Thankfully the rules lawyering was resolved, and play continued. The werewolf got bored of chewing up my missile troops and came back for a big punch-up with my knights. Things were going well and I was one charge away from routing him and securing a glorious victory, but then we had to roll for a seventh turn. To mirror the first game in which I snatched a draw from the lack of an extra turn, on this occasion final victory was denied me and the battle ended on a honours-even draw.
I think the army I brought could have been better, but I'm not sure where to make improvements. The cannon (which has a 1/3 chance of hitting) is a bit random and indeed, professional opinion is that a full battery of 3 should be taken or one shouldn't bother. I've also toyed with the idea of replacing the trolls with werewolves, which would be better in difficult terrain but would also require buying more models. Will keep you posted.
So, all in all a good day's gaming. The pie & mash provided by the organisers was top notch, the venue excellent, and the company splendid. My performance was unchanged since the last tournament, but no surprises there. One final observation was that it was nice to see that not everyone playing was white or a man, and that no-one made any mention of the fact I was wearing a skirt. Hurrah for inclusivity!
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