Panzerschrek Battle write up

Hi all,

So this weekend Panzerschrek was held in my hometown Palmy using the Swedish Comp. Rule was to get between 13 and 9 on the comp system. I missed the clarification in the email chains, but apparently you could go as low as 0.5 below a score and round up. No realising this I wrote my list to be a 13.2 to guarantee the 13 comp score.

My list:

ArchLector: HA, GW, Ratslayer's Helm, Talisman of Preservation
Lvl4: Scroll, Lore of Metal
BSB: Fullplate, Enchanted Shield, Warriorbane
WarriorPriest: HA, Fencer's Blades
Witch Hunter: Brace of Pistols
Witch Hunter: Brace of Pistols
Captain: Pegasus - Ironhard hooves, Fullplate, shield, dragonhelm, dawnstone, lance
40 Halberds: Full Command
5 Archer detach
10 Archers
10 Inner Circle Knights: Musician, Standard
28 Great Swords: Full Command
4 Demigryphs: Musician
Cannon
Helblaster Volley Gun.

So a little bit different to my usual list. Notably the addition of 2 witch hunter, greatswords, and the lack of artillery...

Game 1: vs Fern Orcs and Goblins. Battleline

Fern was rocking a big goblinblock, 3 lvl2's-one on a carpet, 20 blackorcs and chaff. We deployed:

I shuffled up and cannon the mangler. Into the tower goes warboss, BSB and 60 nightgoblins. Black Orcs march on up.

I decide to give the Black Orcs some Helblaster love...

Yup...never done that before and it was awesome! However, the blackorcs charge on in, Peg flees 20 gobbos, spiderriders try to flank and front the halberds...flanker misses. Chariots go into Demis

Bye bye black orcs and all the casters, bye bye chariots (1 killed by a scattering lobba) bye bye spider riders and my army starts to close on in on the tower with the Halberds trying the get to the Squigs and handlers.

The halberds catch the squigs in the rear (failed stupidity from Final Trans or something), and I continue to hopelessly Final Transmutate the Tower fruitlessly failing to catch any characters...in fact my efforts suck my own lvl4 down the hole :(.

End result: Win 17 - 3. My Witch hunters failed to get their target...but they did kill a lvl2 shaman!

 Game 2: vs Neil Warriors of Chaos - Blood and Glory

Possibly the only time in the history of WHFB that someone has declined a TO invitation to cheese up their list some more. Neil's list came in at 16.3!

We deploy:

The classic "refused centre". Rocking Valkia meant Neil could afford to split his army and with the help of the 2 buildings completely out deploy me. All I could really do is shuffle up while my single cannon fails to wound the shaggoth

Eventually I got myself into a position where the Greatswords could go pick on the forsaken and the skullcrushers with the ICKS in tow

While the halberds and Peg pick on the other side of the table

Demis push the warshrine off the table with a flee, but have to flee themselves from a shaggoth  charge in the flank. Valkia soloed out into the ICKS to escape the Great Swords (pushed the ICKS a little too far forward).

The BSB went for the Halberds while the Peg went for the knights.

In both cases I was unlucky - the Knights held a solid losing combat, reformed to face and killed the peg, while the Halberds failed a steadfast test and were ran down :(. In more exciting news the GreatSwords got into the Forsaken while the Valkie vs ICKS became a stalemate with Valkie having to pass very nervous ldship tests to stick around...

After the Forsaken, Great Swords get into the Skullcrushers and we run out of time.

Result: lost 9 - 11. No one was broken and the battle could still have swung either way. Oh well

Game 3: vs Stu Warriors of Chaos - Battleline

Righty - 2 blocks of GW nurgle warriors, lvl4 death, disc dude, chariot, 5 doggies, and knights.

We deploy:

Basically Stu's plan here was to cramp my playstyle and hopefully walk all over me. I did a little bit of fake deployment with the Halberds and knights  to bring my line to the centre while the Demis checked the flying guy.

The Chariot was the first to come through. My artillery wasnt very hot - cannon did 2 wounds to chariot, then overshot while the hellblaster wasnt rolling the shots required to make any impact.

The Chariot finds itself in a very, very compromising position (dies) while the Knights get searing doomed and Hellblastered off the table.

The battle is now set - ineffectual magic from both of us really just delayed the proper punch up.

SO in came 1 unit with the lvl4 who found himself opposite a Witch hunter...

2 hits, 2 Killingblows....and warded boo hiss :( That would have been game to me right there- especially as the flying guy failed a charge and got caught and chased off the table by the demis. Meanwhile the grind continues - I keep pumping shots and magic into the 2nd unit, but not enough (ie 2d6 searing doom kills 2 from 3 hits...). Peg goes into the side to get some kills...but his armour fails him and is too easily and cheaply thrown away.

I pop the halberds out to divert the 2nd block away from my lines, then promply hop back in the tower haha. The grind continues...

I set up to blow the 2 unit of the board...but Helblaster misfires, magic fails to cast etc etc. I did get the lvl2 with the cannon though. I didnt want to put the Halberds in because hitting on 5's vs all that s6 was never a winning proposition for me. On the LAST turn the greatswords fall over and I give away far too many points.

Result: 9 -11 loss. That last combat phase cost me the game. I knew going in that 28 Greatswords was not going to be enough for a grind...and unfortunately I got a game where grind was exactly what I was going to have to do. Great game otherwise. I felt I was always in control of what was happening and managed the flow of the battle nicely.

Game 4: vs Papa Sam's Demons of Chaos - Dawn Attack

Great Game for a Sunday Morning. When you're too tired to think, having the deployment provided by the dice is a nice thing to have! The first turn was defined by me pulling out the scroll and the cannon failing to hit the Keeper, while his Skillcannon destroys my cannon and kills a demigryph.. Sam sets up some bait...

Which results in this:

...WHich results in this:

...which results in THIS:

ie Peg dead, and Keeper finds him or herself out of combat, takes 1 wound from 26 halblaster shots....time to waltz around to wail on the halberds then (who failed a supporting charge)

In go the Halberds and the Greatswords:

And then we get to this:

ie the hellhounds failed to kill the engineer = another 26 shots at Keeper = dead keeper and my foot sloggers show whose boss. Of course the Demons try to rectify the situation

And do a pretty good job at it (the plaguebearers kept failing longrange charges). The hellhounds find themselves unable to make contact due to the impassible terrain, so get a rear charge...but my Halberds come in to smash up the skullcannon.

FINALLY ON THE LAST TURN the plaguebearers make it in. Witchhunter on nurgle herald is a total fluff fest...but a very exciting challenge to have.

Result: 14 - 6 win. I was lucky the Plaguebearers failed to get to combat sooner...once again 28 Greatswords is an uncomfortable number to have!

Game 5: vs Peter W High Elves - Battleline.

So Peter took a 3 monster list in a comp pack that heavily comps the counters to monsters...smart man, and it was paying off. At this stage he was guaranteed 1st place...

We deploy and I move up a bit to try catch some points

My plan was to kill the General (Special character dude on super griffon) and see what happens. Long story short...3 Final Transmutations, and 2 cannon shots did not do a single wound. The rest can be explained with pics - enjoy the monster mash:

Halberds were caught in the forest from failed charge to safety. ICKS failed a swift reform turn 6 that would have got them to safety. All I killed was 1 RBT and 1 unit of Reavors to avoid the nude run.

Result: 0 - 20 loss....and I drop from 3rd to somewhere down the table. If I had killed the general then I think things would have been a little different as the target choice etc would have to be more considered - especially if I had demis running around. But good to see a chaff and smash High Elf list in action...gives me plenty of ideas and hope...

Game 6 vs Nick's Skaven - Meeting Engagement

Last game and Otto gets his fluff match up. The Rathelm he wears is there as a sign of his no-nonsense approach to tackling the ratty filth...especially when it is rocking a Verminlord! I set up second and Otto, the warriorpriest, helblaster, Halberds, and ICKS are all late for the battle...

We shuffle up...I place my Helbaster to counter the Hellpit and verminlord (hiding behind the building). Cannon explodes turn 1 as I completely forget about engineer re-roll...The Verminlord and some slaves  charge into the Demis hoo-rah!

Kill one, fail to run down and run straight into the awaiting Otto and his brave Halberds!

...with some ICKs in the flank for static Combat res, and a Warriorpriest throwing himself under the bus (fencer's blades to reduce overkill) the slaves pop, and the verminlord runs to safety :( Meanwhile the Greatswords + 2 witchhunters and BSB + peg take out the 2nd slave unit POP! and overrun into the General warlord's unit

Verminlord rallies and prepares himself for the 2nd attempt while the Greatswords kill the BSB, General and the stormvermin run (witchhunters managed 2 wounds on the target)

In other news, my detachments kill 2 gutterrunners who them flee off the board! The Hamsterwheel however finishes them off nicely + my lvl4 runs off the board with a failed rally grr. So the Stormvermin run off the board and the Greatswords set about destroying all the skaven machines of war. The Hellpit comes out for some fun...

And takes out the knights over a couple rounds of combat due to jerk move reforms to get the BSB in range

Halberds were in horde to take the HPA to the face...they almost kill it, but the game ends :(

Result: 14 -6 win. Losing the lvl4 off the board cost me a 15-5, but happy with the win given what I started with off the board and the demis taking no part in the battle other than acting as verminlord "bait".

Overall result:
So after 6 games, paintscores and sports etc I came in 5th behind Sam Whitt who did the most impressive submarining EVER on the last 2 turns. Peter Williamson picked up his well-overdue first tournament win so congrats there.

Thoughts on the event:
I thought the event was well run and in a decent location - helped by the onsite hot food stand and free coffee/tea (God send!). It would have been nice if there was an official "all info in one place" comp pack to clear up the rounding issues etc..but it didnt affect things too much. I didnt have a single game where the comp impacted on the score.

As much as I think the Swedish Comp is overly proscriptive in its approach, it was great to have a change of scenery and see different units on the board. That alone makes the comp "worth it" for the odd event...but not as a "standard' approach.

Thanks to Jeff for organising the event and I look forward to going back next year.