WFB Tournament Commentary Game One

This was Game one of the tournament that I described in the post here. Unfortunately, I did not take any notes, so I won't be giving you a play-by-play. Having said that it has been about a month ago, and the games are pretty set in my mind and I did take quite a few pictures in the first two games, and I sort of trailed off on the pictures in game three.  It ended up being a long day, but that is for another post.  

 My army that I brought was as follows:

Characters:

Lord(Lord of Pain): HW, GA, S: Runes: M. Rune of Swiftness, Rune of Fury, Rune of Cleaving, Rune of Stone, M. Rune of Spite

Thane: HW, BSB, LA: Runes: Gromril, Resistance

Runesmith(Runesmith of Pain): HW, GA,S: Runes: Rune of Fury, Rune of Cleaving, Rune of Stone, Rune of Spell Breaking

Runesmith: HW, HA, GW: Runes: Rune of Spell Breaking(X2)

 

Core:

Dwarf Warriors (X24) HW, HA, S FC

Dwarf Warriors (X24) HW, HA, S Vet, Mus

Dwarf Warriors (X10) GW, HW, HA, S

Dwarf Warriors (X10) GW, HW, HA, S

Crossbowmen (x10)

Crossbowmen(x10)

Miners (X12) vet

 

Special:

Ironbreakers (X24) FC

Cannon - Rune of Forging

Bolt Thrower - Rune of Penetrating, Fire

Bolt Thrower - Rune of Penetrating

 

Rare:

Organ Gun

 

Game 1:

 

The setup of the game was a take and hold an objective scenario basically the same as scenario 5 of the BRB, but with one major difference. Instead of the deployment zones on the long edge of the table, we had them on the short edge of the table. The were deeper deployment zones, so I only needed the 12" to get to the center of the table. I was playing against an opponent who brought up a very old set of Orc and Goblins from back in the 70's of Ral Partha fame. Here is what we had at deployment:

 

My Deployment:

and I left this out, but I have my miners to the side.

 

His Deployment:

Turn 1:

My opponent had a hard time understanding how the magic rules work it seemed as I had to help him out in determining what he needed to do in order to setup the spells for his shamen.(always a bad idea to ask the dwarf player on this) Once I got that sorted, we rolled for turns and I think that I made him go first. First turn was pretty booring, just moving to the objective. My opponent decided to take his massive unit of trolls and a Giant through the woods for the rest of the game. He had limited magic through. He did drop a rock with his Rock 'Lobba on one of my warriors unit and they fled due in horror. With the General in the unit no less.

I had no problem rallying the fleeing unit of warriors. I guess that they found their balls again. Other than that, I right hooked with with my Ironbreakers towards the objective. Filled in with my GW detachment where the warriors were to begin with. I also moved up the rest of my army. I returned fire at the Rock 'Lobba and hit a crew member. My bolt throwers did some damage to some rank and file(Black orcs?) and I tried to hit at troll with my other one. Green one was the non flaming BT BTW. Crossbows took pot shots at the orcs that they could see. Pretty standard so far.

 

Turn 2:

My opponent kept moving the same routes as before. I don't recall much magic happening this turn either, but I believe that he got of one of his magic missiles and took out a warrior on my other larger unit. His magic was pretty tepid with what I brought to the game. His Rock 'Lobba viered off to the side after trying to destroy my organ gun.

I rolled to get my Miners into combat, which happened no sweat. I posted them up on the flank and got them behind the trolls. I continued to move my unit up with my GW detachment approaching the objective. Ironbreakers continuing with their right hook oblique on the flank. Warriors with the general moving fast to catch up to the rest of the line. My whole right flank got ready to take on the trolls and Giant. I continued to shoot at the Rock 'Lobba with my cannon and I started to score some hits with it, but not enough to kill the damn thing. My Organ gun started to open up but I believe that I misfired on this turn on it. No damage, just miss the turn. My Bolt Thrower killed a Troll and started to whittle down his forces along with my Crossbowmen.

Turn 3:

My opponent once again moved forward, trying to keep all units together as all of his monsters were walking in the woods. He reformed his Wolf Riders to get ready to engage my Miners. Another magic missile on the same Warrior unit that I failed a dispel roll on. His Rock Lobba once again did no damage.

From there I continued moving forward with my General's Warriors, and GW detachment in the center to claim the objective. My Ironbreakers still doing their right hook. I move up with my Miners on the wolves, and my right flank still holding and guarding the forest with all of his monsters. Ever present for a flanking charge, I made sure that my BSB unit is maximizing the frontage that he is in. I destroy the Rock 'Lobba with my cannon. My Organ Gun takes some damage on his orcs in the center. Both Bolt throwers hit nothing, and my Crossbowmen did some damage to his center units.

Turn 4:

My opponent charges with his Giant against my other GW Detachment. I proceed to panic with my Crossbowmen and Bolt Thrower. Ironically my GW detachment were in it to win it. Likewise with my BSB unit. Its good to have the General nearby. He also charged his wolf riders into my unit of Miners. They held and took the charge. Everything else was creaping up to the objective. I was able to roll well and fully stopped his magic this turn burning the last of my Dispel runes on my Runesmith of Pain in the Ironbreakers. My GW detachment stood no chance against this Giant, fled and was run down by the Giant. My Miners put up a good fight but eventually had to run and was run down by the Wolf Riders off the board.

 

From there I continued my plan of attack. I reformed my BSB unit to get into the fight more as I was worried less of the trolls, as they look to be bogged down in the trees for the rest of the game. I continued to advance with my General's unit and my Ironbreakers to the objective. I opened up on the Giant with both my Cannon and Organ Gun. I managed to nuke it completely. I continued to whittle down the center with my crossbows left and my Bolt Thrower did land a hit and took out a few of the far left flank unit which were Black Orcs.

Turn 5:

We were on the last turn as our TO was calling time on us. He managed to bring more of his units closer to the objective, got his Wolf Riders back on the board, and continued to have his trolls bogged down in the forest. No real magic to write about at this juncture. He did not do any charges on his round that I recall. I was not able to take any more pictures as we were focusing on the land round.

At my turn I did charge with my Ironbreakers unit on the flank to his Black Orcs. I managed to take him out with copious CR on my side and good CC from my runesmith in the unit.

The end of the game you calculate who is within the halo of the objective and t and I had over 500 points worth of units with my Generals unit and the detachment of GW close enough to the objective. He had nothing close enough to counter my points. It was one sided, but not as much as it could have been with more points camped around the objective like I could have had.

To be continued for Game Two...

Dusting Off My WFB Books Again

 

So I went to this tournament last weekend. It was quite a day trip from here in Charlotte, but that was due to the back roads to get there. I took a different route going home that lent me a faster trip home, I thought, but regardless it was about two hours to and from.

As far as the hobby store goes, it was nice location. Right in the middle of Aberdeen, NC which is a small town right between Pinehurst and what used to be called Ft. Bragg. It is right off of US1 and a little history of US1 is that it was the first highway stretching from Maine to the Florida Keys in the US. First established in 1025 and most of the buildings around town look to be built around that time period. There was obviously a lot of military around town but overall it was a nice sleepy old town in NC like what you would imagine Mayberry to be.

Hit Points Hobbies appears to have been located in one of these older buildings from before the war.(WWII) I got that impression form the hardware in the bathroom. The lock on the door was an odd chain lock that locked vertical with a "T" connection and two spigot's one for hot and one for cold water in the sink. Honestly I find that to be a novelty these days so I was ok with it. The shop has the usual game products, but instead of what I normally see with comic books, they had a whole room of video games. It was kind of like an arcade but only for more modern games with consoles hooked up to TV's. It was to a varying degree as far as which edition they had available. So you may find something like a Playstation 4 or 3 there instead of the newer editions for instance. I am not into console gaming so I cant tell just by the look. One other big thing that they were doing there that was different was that they offered a 3D printing service there. You could see the printers in one of the small side rooms that they had. They also had a few paint stations for someone to work on some models as well as I would assume advanced tools like an airbrush.

Overall it I thought that it was a fine store to visit. The general atmosphere and people working the store were nice folks. They do have a store cat so if you are allergic to cats, you are SOL. The cat smell was not bad, but it was faintly there. It makes the store smell more of a home rather than a store, and certainly better than some of the stores that I have been in. I guess that a new coat of paint and an annual cleaning would make things better but not by much. Here is their website with a picture section:

https://www.hitpointhobbies.com/

As far as the tournament goes, it was pretty decently run. All of us were rusty as hell in both playing games, but the TO did a good job in resolving disputes and such events. They kept us on track and got us to finish in a reasonable time in the evening. I have may be two critiques of the tournament management.

One was that they insisted that we use communal dice rather than your own. It is not a big deal to me, but who in the hell is the asshole who loads their dice to win at WFB? But who knows they may be down to that level. Another problem with it was that, the dice was weird colors so not easy to read. If this really is a problem, then I would suggest weighing the dice blocks of people and demand that we use Chessex dice, or if necessary give everyone a block of Chessex to use for the day. They had no problem with my artillery and scatter dice however.

The second was that on my last game my opponent and I were on the same table that we played our games on before. Meaning that he played game one and three on the same table and I played game two and three on the same table. It may not have been possible, but getting us on another table would have been nice.

This is their first time running a WFB tournament in a long time, so as far as hiccups goes, it was pretty small. I guess that they put this one out there to plan just as it was posted. They are planning a new event some time in January or February, and they promised that they will get to planning that a lot more sooner than they did this one, so I guess that they are working on it how. They also had trophies where one was a 3D printed dice tower.

The players were nice to play with. Almost all of us had lunch together at a brewery, and had a great conversation about painting over beer and burgers. Definitely about half were either current or former military, no surprise given the vicinity of the base. Overall I recommend the event that they put on.

Craters and Dreadnoughts

 We have had a wild ride so far at the start of the year.  Lot of medical and business issues with my surviving parent put writing this post out of my mind.  But better late than never.  I have two new items to display on my blog.  

First thing is my craters.  I actually finished these a while back, and now I am going to put them up for display:

I used plaster as the form of the actual crater, painted them up using the paint formula from Hirst Arts on earth tones, and then gave them a wood stain finish.  I like the look and I think that it will last for quite a while.  

I also finished up a dreadnaught for the most part.  It is still missing the varnish, but that is something that will come later when I have better weather here in a few weeks.  I included the older squad of tac marines that I already have done for a family photo.  

I finally found a company that can do what seems like good squad markings for Crimson Fists.  I am still testing them, and finishing off the last of the marines in the new squad.  Little by little this squad will be finished.  I also have a scout combat squad that is currently being worked on, as well as one of the Ork squads from last year that I have been working on.  They are on the back burner right now but still actively getting paint on them from time to time.