Horned Rat 2014 Battle reports

Yo

Weekend just been was my first ETC event...well ETC comp (including table set up) as a singles event.

I decided to rock the Empire:

Grand Templar Master:  Runefang, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem, Potion of Speed
Lvl4 life: steed, Crown of Command, mr(3)
BSB: steed, 1+ armour, lance, White Cloak
Captain of the Empire: 1+ armour, lance, Other Trickster's Shard
Lvl1 fire: steed, scroll
13 Inner Circle Knights: Full Command, banner of Discipline
5 Knights: Musician
5 Knights: Musician
Cannon
Cannon
4 Demigryph Knights: Musician
Steam Tank
Hurricanum

Very exciting list. Knight Bus, Demis and Stank hold most of the points. I got the usual Pete Prediction of Death and set about disappointing him.

Game 1 vs Mike King's Beastmen.

Very exciting first game due to the list.
choppy lord on foot with armour and the brass cleaver
Choppy Doombull
Choppy BSB
2 lvl2's - beasts and shadow
3x5 ungor bow thingies
5 million Gors with Totem of Rust
2 Pumbas
2 chariots
5 super rallying harpies
8 minotaurs: FC
Gorgon (yes, you read that right)

we deployed and stuff - and then Mike tells me that in ETC if a unit has ambush it has BRB Ambush = the 5 million Gors were coming up behind me...sigh

Anywho I moved forward and stuff...killed a couple of minos with dwellers, cannoned stuff

I then got lucky with t2 Dwellers picking off the Choppy Doombull lord character and the unit champ. This then drew them into the Demis who beat them up over 2 rounds of combat. Meanwhile...

and Amber spear picks off my Hurricanum. I turn the lance around and get charged...

Grandmaster and the Beastman General get stuck in an epic challenge which I win. Knights did not need to make use of their stubborn even though I had no static res and the gors were wildformed. In my turn it is rather obvious what happens and the Gors are taken off.

The Gorgon meanwhile spent his time beating up a unit of knights t6 I pinned down on the bus and Runefanged it to the face.

Result: 20-0 to start the event. Dwellers and Runefang FTW.

Game 2 vs' Tim Joss's Dark Elves

2 1/2 hours of stuff running around me (and forgetting to take pics). Only time my Stank died...3 RBT's doing 3 wounds each in a single round would do that! I eventually pinned down the 25 xbow guys and runefanged them to bits (the other stuff helped too). Also picked up the RBT's and got super unlucky to not get the shades (needed a 7 to run them down from a flee...rolled a 6 with swift-striding knights sigh).

Result 9-11 loss...the difference in not catching the shades

Game 3 vs Ryan Lister's WoC

Another interesting list that was going to cause me problems...
lvl4 tzeentch on disc with the defensive stuff
unkillable BSB on dmount
Babysitter exhalted on dmount
block of  slaanesh warriors
2 slaanesh chariots
3 units of vanguarding doggies
8 Trollololololololols
4 skullcrushers hellcannon

I sat back, killed the babysitter with cannons and braced myself for impact...

And the lance formation meant I was stopped from helping. I was in the flank, but could not wheel past the cannon off to its right. Meant I had to swift reform into a "normal" bus and wear another round of vomit on the stank. That awkward turn of waiting was the turn the Skullcrushers (1 had been cannoned off) charged my Demis (who had the hurricanum nearby). I take 1 wound from the riders and give 5 wounds in return and shrug of the mounts. They break and I fail to run down. repeat this THREE MORE TIMES before I eventually catch them.

So I finally get my supporting flank charge on the trolls, casually dweller off the general (like a boss) and smash up the now ldship 2 trolls and run them down. Big game swing there as my bus re-lances and goes after the hellcannon. I would say I Runefanged it off...except the grandmaster was too busy runfanging the crew leaving the heavy work to the captains and other knights. Hurricanum also saw combat charging and killing some doggies!

Result: 18-2 win. End of day 1 I'm on a comfortable 47pts

Game 4 vs Hugh Dixon's Dwarfs

First game vs the new Dwarf book and the list is as exciting as I expected it to be.

2 runesmiths with spelleaters
BSB wiht the 4+ward, all  dwarf things within 12 get 5+ ward vs shooting and magic missiles
Horde of Warriors with GW
20 Quarellers with GW
big block of hammers with the "give stubborn to units within 12" banner
2 gyros
2 cannons - runed up
Organgun - runed up
5 rangers

we deploy and I opt to deploy the knights normally because I knew I needed to maximise attacks to break through the stubborn.

I move up using the building to shield my approach. The "cannon-off" was a fluff fest. My cannons died to gyros, but I took out a dwarf cannon in the process! My target was the crossbows (stank - distracted running over a gyro and misfiring for a bit) and the warriors (bus and demis).

Rule 1 of fighting dwarfs: dont let the artillery kill too much  (used terrain to mask approach)
Rule 2 of fighting dwarfs: don't do it on their terms...

So I set up the bus to take the charge that would draw them away from the stubborn banner.Warriors charge, I win the combat, Demis flank in and I wreak face - enough to get them out of the stubborn banner range. They break and run...11 inches and pop through the Hammerers sigh. 0vps for me (cost me the OTS captain). Meanwhile I get the Stank into the crossbows (well, I miss by 1 inch and they charge me). In flank the Demis who kill them all... BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!

Result: 10-10 thanks to super fleeing warriors.

Game 5 vs Pete Dunn's Skaven

Same table as the last 2 games...This game was very much mine to pick off the sneaky 11-9/12-8 and some really annoying bad luck cost me the win.

1) I was sloppy with the BSB placement at deployment because nothing could see my stuff...except the indirect firing rat-a-pult that kills 2 knights and the unit flees of the board...
2) IF dwellers on bell and Strength test passed (grrr)
3) 3rd cannon hit and the seer finally dies and bell takes 2 wounds
4) sticking my nose out to the dweller (or not) the seer gave the magic missile battery/doomrocket a chance on the bus. hopeless armoursaves and wardsaves later I need to re-grow 1 knight to get my unit above 25%. 3 magic phases of 5 dicing re-growth and I couldnt do it :( Oddly with ETC comp I was wanting fewer dice...instead Pete got 6+ dispel dice for the last 3 turns grrr.

Though the warplightning cannon did explode (allowing me to stick my nose out...) and I picked off the Hellpit with fireballs and cannons (yay!).

The Skaven "advance" t6

My (successful) "anti gutter runner" tactic

Result: 10-10

Overall

Overall I ended up on 67 battle points and got a 30 for my paint score (need to flock my movement trays and drybrush the black metal with something to give it some shape and get better at convincing TO's that my carry tray is actually a display board).

This of course gave me 4th place...0.03 overall points short of Tim in 3rd. Sigh. As usual looking over the games there were easy places for the extra points:
1) catching the shades
2) catching the dwarf warriors
3) not sticking my nose out and placing my BSB to cover everything.

As usual a well run fun event. ETC isn't that bad...though always playing battleline does get a little repetitive and some of the rule changes are annoying but not fun destroying.

Oh well...first solo event of 2014 so I'm happy with 4th. Next event is Panzershriek where I get to have some more ETC games. Hopefully I'll have my Woodies all ready for that :D