Call to Arms 2013 write up

Hi all,

Last weekend was the annual Wellington Call to Arms event - complete with the traditional fire alarm. I entered the exact same list as I took to Horned Gobbo:

Archlector: HA, GW, Dragonhelm, 4+ ward
lvl4: heavens, scroll
BSB: full plate, enchanted shield
Engineer
38 Halberds: FC
5 archer detach
10 archer detach
10 Inner Circle Knights: M, SB
5 Knights: M
2x4 Demigryphs: M
2 Cannons
Steamtank
Hellblaster

Nice little list that competes in every phase. Wall of 1+, token bus and a whole heap of artillery.

Game 1: Dawn Attack vs Adam's Dwarfs

Wow, what a game 1 draw! Adam's list was basically Anvil, bugman, 2x rangers, strollas hammers with rune of challenge on a shield bearer dude...yup. 3 units. s5/6 and ws5 across the board.

After some Strollaz action Adam challenges the Demis into the hammers...Stank decides to also come along for some fun.

...And then I rolled in a way that set a precedent for the whole event. Stank does 10 from Impact hits (nice)...and then with all the Demis attacks, riders + stomp I manage 1 extra wound! To add insult in his s4 sheiedbearer dude (d6 wounds) kills a demi in return...yup going to be one of those events!

Meanwhile the rangers get anviled though my lines. Down go the Inner Circle knights without a fight

...and it is only end of turn 2! My Bus comes up to distract the rangers and of course gets smacked in the front and flank. It puts up a fair fight - holding a few times until it breaks...bye bye BSB..but it escapes and rallies...HOWEVER Mr STANK is having none of that!

Having finally dealt with the Hammers, mr Stank promptly runs over BOTH ranger units in an epic display of Stank I havnt seen since it was t10!

Result: 14-6 to me. MVP goes to Stank...notable mention to vanilla knights who tied up Anvil for most of the game and reduced it down to 2 wounds...though 2 wounds short of tabling the dwarfs!

Game 2: Blood and Glory vs Nick's Ghost Chips VC

OMG. Seriously...I opted against taking a light council to CTA because the trend of late has been for nil to none VC participation at events...trust me to run into a list packing a black coach and 18 Hexwraiths! Looking at my MMissile collection (no comet) it was clear that I wasnt going to win this one unless the Vamp crumbled...

I get first turn. Thunderbolt and chain lightning do SOME damage to the Hexwraiths...but not enough. Cannons open up. Dead Zombie dragon and 3 ward saves on Vamplord later and I was playing catch up.

My only hope was to get stuck in fast and start smashing stuff....or get everything else into me...

 1 unit of demis went into zombies and got a black coach to deal with before it went ethereal. The other unit wore hexwraith death to the face. IF Vortex destroyed by Halberds. 

The  ICKS in bottom left died to double hexwraith sandwich. They had their moment to escape via fellbat charge - overrun off board...however they fell short by 1 inch (not even a big charge grrr). Halberds realised their best option was somewhere the battle wasnt while the Stank went on max blocking mission...

And that was that...I managed to snipe the 2 necros....while my lvl4 decided to go down the hole in a massive display of thunderbolting goodness...1 hit.

Result: 8-12 loss. MVP goes to Stank again for holding the line and protecting my Fortitude. I was also very impressed that I killed 14 out of the 18 Hexwraiths...given the Vamplord survived grrrr

Game 3: Battle of the Pass vs Neil's Woodies

Havnt played this mission in ages! Neil was rocking an avoidance list with block of Eternal Guard, Horn of Asrai, marcus Locus Dragon (ldship test - if fail have to charge - all who can charge have to test....no strength bonus from weapons), treeman and stuff.

Turn 1 the warhawks wear a thunderbolt and die while the Highborn catches a cannonball to the face...somehow the dragon survives. I made a tactical error driven out of fustration:

Plan: flank Treeman with demis...kill Eagle with magic and shooting...wear wildriders to the flank..hold from steadfast and then counter charge FTW with the knights...right....right???

Reality: fail to kill Eagle (1 wound in total grrr), Wildriders roll like the wind, while my Demis forget they have armour. Get run down while Eagle holds up my knights for 3 (yes 3) rounds of combat OMG.

So Treeman then wears thunderbolt and dies, Halberds make moves on the Eternal Guard, ICKS go to trap wildriders and Knights take on the other wildrider unit...cannon to take care of eagle #2

First comet of the Tournament makes a mess of the Eternal Guard. ICKS Fluff and are run down by Wildriders (not making this up!). Kill BSB, Break Eternal Guard...fail to run down by 1 inch and game has to end early cos out of time.

Result: 16-4 win to me. Not capturing the Eternal Guard and 1 turn short was a huge VP blow...oh well. MVP goes to lvl4 with all his Thunderbolting goodness.

Game 4: Meeting Engagements vs Hamish's netlist Skaven

Yay netlist Skaven minus assassin. I cant remember the last time I enjoyed a game vs Skaven given that all lists are starting to look (and act) the same (Panzerscrek Skaven list aside - that was a fun different game)...kinda means I also go into auto pilot vs them and wake up at the end to see what the outcome was.

we deploy (I go first)

Halberds, knights and 1 cannon off the board. 1 engineer off the board. On rock my models (knights conga line railroad the HPA) and I go after the Doomwheel.

Take it out, drop a comet between the artillery and engage the slaves

With the use of a little known rule (disruption of ranks), and a TO judgement later the clan rats are not ldship 10 with 10 knights in the flank = run down. (gutter runners cleaning out my artillery zzz - point of interest for the tactically minded - fences + longrange + storm banner up = cannot poison artillery) Comet comes down...takes out the skaven artillery. Slaves are ldship 10 for the snore...

Then something "exciting" happens. The rats that were the result of a t2 13th that took my archers and lvl4 (oh yeah - all this with no magic) rear charged my halberds who had cleaned out the slaves and decided to max align on the bell. I thought "sweet - free Combat res"...actually the rules for 13th state you can give them equipment upgrades, detachment hellpits and a doomrocket or 3 if you want = lots of parry saves grrr.

No worries though, I pull down the bell (lost wounds to a cannon) and my Archlector squashes the BSB with his Great Weapon (FOEHAMMER!) and then I casually cold blooded pass the break test to hold and win the game.

Result: 12-8 win. MVP was the Archlector for awesome BSB squashing awesomeness. 2nd MVP was the Inner Circle knights with a flank collapsing charge.

Game 5: Battleline vs Stu's Monstermash WoC

Just like a double rainbow Stu's list came in 2's. 2 Demonprinces, 2 chimeras....um throgg, unkillable BSB, some trolls, lvl2 and some nurgle halberd warrior goodness.

We deploy:

In a moment of tactical brilliance Stu gets the first turn (:P). Moves everything up agressively. IN return my Hellblaster opens up on a Chimera. 24 shots (shortrange) 5 hits...no wounds. Archers remove the charmed shield from general DemonPrince. 3 cannonballs later = not a single wound taken. Magic does nothing either. Yup there goes the game.

The demis hold up the 2nd one for 3 turns, the vanillas snake eye a flee and instead of drawing the general out...do nothing. Good thing my Stank is on steroids and uber charges the general.

In comical news the Chimera fails to kill the Helblaster on the charge! his lvl2 big template miscasts and removes a whole heap of warriors...thunderbolt also helps with this...Demis take out 1 Chimera Then flee a throgg charge.

Meanwhile the Halberds are being universally useless and take 3 (yes THREE) attempts to roll a 7 on the dice to charge the halberds...wearing a flamecage (19 dead) to do so GAR. Stank eventually grinds down the general. Innercircle knights lose 3 charging the BSB who holds (grr) and get throgg to the face.

Warriors are cut down...lvl2 flees and GETS AWAY. Halberds you are useless! OMG 1 inch miss. (2nd time this event) after having taken 3 turns to charge them!
I also make a mistake with the last demis -  charged in instead of backing off and fleeing the final charge.oh well

Result: 8-12 loss. Cannon failure turn 1 really defined this game. With the general dead I would have been free to clean up the other monsters a whole lot easier. Fun game though.

Overall: 58 battle points and 9th place. A respectable amount...even though my losses were small my wins were not big enough to count. My artillery had an off weekend. The only game it really fired was my win vs the Woodies. Every other game it either did nothing, or not enough...especially the helblaster. I have no cool helblaster stories (and reading the last year of reports you will see that that is odd).


Thoughts on list:
Will I swap out for the light council? It is a tempting list...IF you can guarantee your deployment. With 2 out of 5 missions messing that up = I still think my list is the better scenarios list + how cool is it having Otto the Archlector trooping it out on foot smashing stuff with a huge hammer? Very cool is the answer. If I was a real man of the Empire he would be trooping it with 38 Great Swords...watch this space...