Runefang 2013 write up

Hi all,

Last weekend was Runefang VI in Wellington. I took the Empire figuring that a semi-decent result will net me the NZ Empire icon. I was a bit rusty going in having not actually used my list prior to the event, and having spent most of the year so far using the woodies.However, I was not going to let a small thing like that get in the way of having a good time!

Game 1 vs James M's WoC dawn attack

We deployed:

Not a bad set up for me. Hellblaster vs the important stuff, demis vs the rest and cannons miles away from everything.

The first couple of turns went this way and that. I cannoned off the Hellcannon with 1 shot! The stank missed a spawn by 1 inch... (it ran it over the next turn)

Eventually I got myself into a decent position with a comet in a good location...

Then the hellblaster exploded (double misfire, re-roll...double misfire...roll 1 on the misfire table) and my cannons couldnt get past the super wards on the flying lord and the lvl2. 1 unit of knights got thrown under the bus to get the skullcrushers out of the game.

However 2 escaped and I threw more knights at the skullcrushers to try get their points. Meanwhile the comet x2 comes down and the Demis go in for the kill.

Win combat, but then roll 12 and 10 for overrun (but the wrong way around) and ended up like this

If rolled in the other order = flank of warshrine and other unit looking front on to tznch warriors...sigh. So the Demis get rolled...however the disclord fails stupid...

And gets run down. Meanwhile my archers + lvl4 flee the lvl2 charge, fail to rally and give up too many points running off the board.

End result: 11-9 to me.

A little fustrating as this could have easily been 15-5....shouldnt have overrun with the Demis. But a fun game none-the-less.

GAME 2 vs  Simon "in the freezer right?" Switzer Dwarfs. Blood and glory. 

Game 2 and all enjoyment of the tournament is sucked away as I find myself vs Dwarfs.

We deploy (no surprises)

Close up of the Dwarf "tactics"

I slowly win the artillery war and close in on this fort (note the comet!)

But the dwarfs kept retreating with stubborn Hammers protecting his units

The halberds have a go at the rangers in the building...4 short of getting them and 12 warriors left grrrr

End result: 11-9 to me (or "massive victory to the dwarfs"). 

Game took all of 10 minutes and Simon went round the other dwarfs to tell of his famous victory! In all fairness, Simon knows how to avoid combat...I wasnt going to charge stubborn Hammers when everything is covered with a counter charge.

GAME 3: vs Cody WoC Watchtower

Cody gets the tower and chucks in 20 warriors. I charge the building...

And then kill the Demon Prince with 1 cannon shot, which panics the chimera off the board. I'm ashamed to say I then used a "tactic" I learnt from Simon the previous game...the sideways deployment of hellblaster on the 12 inch mark. Pivot to front on centre = in range turn 1. 4 Nurgle knights eat lead.

Knights + BSB charge  into stank...do nothing and then experience the grind.

  BSB eventually dies and my artillery turns its attention to killing the remaining warriors. I then get into combat with the Hellcannon

take it out in 1 round of combat and occupy the watch tower turn 4...call game as Cody only had his lvl1 left.

End Result: 20-0 to me. 

A bad match up for Cody. This mission and blood and glory both had 1000vps associated with the mission. I felt it was too much as there were lots of 20-0's. If it was 600vps as usual, I still would have won 20-0 this game. Good to see Horned Gobbo is back to 600vps and score minimum of 11-9 win.

End of day 1 I was near the top of the "rest" and in a good position to push for top 3.

Game 4: vs David Skaven. Meeting Engagement

So naturally I hit one of the armies I had down as a bad match up. Plague magic, blocks of "worth nothing" and chaff toys = I was going to struggle. Dave got first turn. I had my halberds, hellblaster and a unit of knights off the board.

Dave's WLC explodes (yay!) My stuff comes on.

And my cannons fail to kill the Doomwheel. Doomwheel then fails to zap stank...so stank runs it over. My knights and demis completely forget how to pass 1+ armour and start dropping like flies. I then force the point.

Mainly because my cannons were doing nothing, but also because the gutterrunners were taking me apart. Naturally everything holds, so the assassin (weeping blades, potion of strength) charges in

And I hold

But then both demis fluff and run. Meanwhile I finally get the rat ogres. The halberds get skaven'ed, so the charge the Ogre rat thing kill it, and overrun into the greyseer special character to get a sneaky 550Vps...

...nope. It was worth the shot though.

End result: 5-15 loss. 

A decent result for me given the match up. Everything now rests on the last game...

Game 5 vs Jeff Kent's Skink cloud. Battleline

SO yeah...another really bad "get a decent win" match up.

We deploy:

Lots of flee charges

Then I finally catch the damn skinks!

However the knights rubber lances + cold blooded ldship = I dont get far. 2 other things didnt work for me....cannons killed 3 skinks failing again, and again to hit, or wound. Hellblaster blows up again, another cannon blows up. Stank cannon misfires etc etc. Basically there are 2 very lucky scarvets out there! However one did die to thunderbolt (Thunderstruck!) I made a gamble and fled a scarvet charge with a unit of demis and got caught (fail charge by scarvet = run over by stank + had a decent chance of successful flee). Two comets got cast. 1 came down at s7 (so everything escaped) and the 2nd didnt come down at all (up to s8...). End game stank was on 2 wounds (survived 2d6 searing doom with 6 wounds left) and the archlector got turned to gold bottom turn 6 to bring the game back to a draw.

End result: 10-10 draw

A great game. I've learnt my skink cloud lesson from NZTC and I feel I had the upper hand all game. Pity skinks are worth nothing when die!

Tournament result:
I ended up 10th equal, so top 10 yay! The extra 1000vps for 2 missions really screwed the bell curve as the top 10 (except for Pete Dunn) were crazy clumped together. In total there were 12 people in the top "10".

Also, I'm now the NZ Empire Icon holder (which was my main goal for the year).

Given the lack of warm up games this was a good result. 2 bad match ups and a dwarf castle didnt help, but I'm happy with the way I played with the exception of the demigryph overrun game 1 and flee game 5.

Big thanks to Peter Williamson for TO'ing and Pete Dunn for the usual efforts.

Thoughts on the list:
 I think the list was 90% there. Having the banner in a Demi unit cost me dearly in the skaven match up. auto dying when flee = the survivor was on snake eyes to rally. The 2 chaff knights was 1 too many as they really wanted to be in combat, but couldnt do anything. Not running the halberds horde and only 1 mage made the hurricanum redundant too. (pity as it is such an awesome model) I constantly felt like I was lacking a combat unit. The stank earned its place in the list. Sure it was "just" another cannon...but it was finally more than that every game. I dont know how I've survived without it!

So the Post Runefang Empire look like this:

Archlector: GW, HA, Dhelm, 4+ ward
lvl4: Heavens, scroll
BSB: Fullplate, enchanted shield
Engineer
38 Halberds: FC
5 Archers detach
10 Archers
5 knights: M
10 ICKs: M, SB
2x4 Demigryphs: M
2 Cannons
Stank
Hellblaster
2400