Borderwars III: Tournament Battle ReportIt was time for Borderwars III again. I had been looking forward to it for a long time. Borderwars is a team competition and Team Tennessee was the two-time defending Champions, first winning it in Greensboro, SC, and then again in Chattanooga, TN.
The turnout was a little disappointing with several states canceling at the last minute. We could only muster six players from Tennessee. Since Bob Shippee and I were the main arbiters, we just decided to break into three man teams instead. This allowed us to field two complete teams.
My friend Charles and member of both previous championship teams could not attend, so I turned to Allen Blessing (aka Monster) from Gallatin, TN. Allen had very nearly won two major GW Grand Tournaments, and I think has won several RTT events. I decided to “load” one team with veterans to increase the chance that one of the Tennessee teams kept the cup.
The other Tennessee team was my friends Dave Brown (aka Chaos Dave), Craig Bournemann (aka Redawg), and our friend Carl Cannon. Carl was a member of last years winning team. All three of them were playing hard armies, and I just knew they would be hard for the other teams to gain any ground. Dave was playing Chaos Mortals, mostly knights and chariots. Craig was playing a 2nd Generation Slann Lizardmen army, as was Carl.
Note: I took as many pictures as I had time to attempt. You can view all of them if you click on this link:
hereMy Army List:The list I took the Necromincon was pretty solid but it was too gimmicky for my personal tastes. It was also a 2250 pt list so I had to shave points to get down to the 2150 limit. I dropped the expensive Assassin and the Warp Fire Thrower and added in a couple of Jezzails and a BSB with the War Banner. I did have the twins for some effective magic, and two weapons teams. My goal was to have a “comp” friendly Skaven army that I wouldn’t mind playing against myself. Most Skaven armies play “flee and flank”. This Skaven army was designed to “hold and flank” much like my beloved Empire armies. Now I was playing a style that I’m more used to and it was much more effective.
Warlord Skar RATchamon's Clan
Warlord Skar RATchamon
Warlord, Halberd, Heavy Armor (102 points)
Chieftain Inkey Black, BSB Upgrade, Heavy Armor (99 Points)
Engineer Squawk
Condenser, Warp Blades, Accumulator, Dispel Scroll, Dispel Scroll (135 points)
Engineer Querpa
Condenser, Warp Blades, Accumulator, Dispel Scroll, Storm Daemon (135 Points)
Characters: 4 (Total Characters: 471 Points)
Core Troops:
Iron Icons
24 Clan Rats. Standard, Musician (135 Points)
Rat Skullz
25 Clan Rats. Standard, Musician (140 Points)
Rattling Gun (60 Points)
Humie Skullz
25 Clan Rats. Standard, Musician (140 Points)
Rattling Gun (60 Points)
Goblin Killerz
25 Clan Rats. Standard, Musician (140 Points)
Gravel Grinders
20 Slaves, musician (44 Points)
Crumb Catchers (44 Points)
20 Slaves, musician
Boulder Bashers (44 Points)
20 Slaves, musician
Pea Gravel Pasties (44 Points)
20 Slaves, musician
The Grapplers (35 Points)
5 Night Runners with Additional Hand Weapons
Midnight Mole Rats (35 Points)
5 Night Runners with Additional Hand Weapons
The Silent Skunks (35 Points)
5 Night Runners with Additional Hand Weapons
Rotten Ratz (90 Points)
3 x Giant Rat Packs
Really Rotten Ratz (90 Points)
3 x Giant Rat Packs
Smarmy Swarms (135 Points)
3 x Rat Swarms
Total Core Troops (1271 Points)
Purveyors of Pestilence (96 Points)
12 Plague Monks with extra hand weapons
Tiny Tunnellers (85 Points)
5 x Gutter Runners Tunneling Team
WallyRatShooterz (100 Points)
7 x Jezzails
Total Special Troops (321 Points)
Rare Troops:
Puss Pockets
5 x Plague Censer Bearers
Total Rare Troops (85 Points)
Total Models: 274
Casting Dice: 6
Dispel Dice: 4Game One: Ogre Kingdoms Bob Shippee is one of the nicest gamers you’ll ever meet and one of the most skilled. I’ve only played against Ogre Kingdoms twice before, so I wasn’t that familiar with the list.
Without hills on the table and a couple of large woods in my deployment zone, I couldn’t help but split my army into three battalions. The large woods right in front of my army disrupted my usual maneuver scheme. So here is how it went.
On my left flank I put my Plague Contingent, a Giant Rat unit, a unit of Slaves, and a unit of Clan Rats with one of my rattlers. Because It was difficult to keep my army in command, I chose to put my new BSB in charge of that flank. Basically, there was over 90 models against about 23 of Bob’s and the Gnoblars and the Ogre unit over there crumbled under the numbers and Bob’s abhorrent dice rolling.
On my right flank, I was hamstrung by a narrow wood, but what it did allow me to do was setup a nice ambush against the unit of Heavy Ogres and Gnoblars over there. It was the same result on that flank with the Heavy Ogres being destroyed and the Gnoblars running for the remainder of the game.
It was the middle where most of the stuff happened. My shooting and magic caused a ripple of panic tests sending his General running. While he rallied several times, on turn six he ran off the table. I think Bob can roll ten or higher more than anyone I’ve ever seen.
There was one turn where he could have brought the game back close. I gambled and fled with my General’s unit. This of course caused my rattler and one of my Warlocks to run. The gamble paid off when I rolled a seven and rallied one inch from the table edge. It was after that my magic shooting and massed CR, plus Bob’s inability to pass a single panic test spelled his doom.
Win to the SkavenCommentary: Honestly, Skaven are a bad matchup for the Ogres. I have so much massed CR, and with my new BSB, re-rolls for failed break tests, efficient shooting and magic, etc. However what did Bob in was simply his dice. I would have thrown them away right then and there. I liked his army, I liked its design and I thought it worked well together.
Game Two: Lizardmen I looked at Andrew’s army and saw no Slann and I thought I was in for an easy game; boy I was wrong! His army is what I call a “Huanchi” army, meaning it all depended on surprising the other armies with the Huanchi Banner. I knew what his plan was it was stopping it that was the real challenge.
I used the very large woods in the center of the table to setup an ambush. The problem is it also constricted my army where his Huanchi “trick” might work.
Over on the Skaven Left flank, he managed to kill a unit of Night Runners with his Nike Lizard and his Terradons. I think he also killed one of my Rat Pack units with Skink fire. I sacrificed a unit of Slaves to divert his Saurus Cavalry away from my army. Later I charged them in the flank with my Swarms to hold them while I dealt with the rest of his army.
On the right flank, I managed to run most of his stuff off mainly due to my leadership battery of General and BSB. After my shooting reduced his Kroxigors over there to almost nothing he fled a charge and ended up in the middle of the table and their story continued over there. That large woods really screwed my army as I couldn’t bring my numbers to bear.
The middle was where the fun began. On one of the early turns, I used my General’s Leadership to charge a unit of slaves into his big unit of Kroxigors. The slaves rolled a lucky hit and wound on his Kroxigors giving my 5 CR for him to overcome. Swinging back, the Kroxigors killed 5 Slaves, but lost the melee due to the musician. Andrew failed the break test and there went 4 almost intact Kroxigors to 44 pts of Slaves.
Remember the fleeing Kroxigors? I had moved my General around to keep helping with leadership and later in the game, that very same but depleted Slave unit, charged the other unit of Kroxigors in the flank, also destroying them! I think I’m going to glue some rusty shields on that unit and promote them to Clan Rats!
The entire battle was really about his large unit of Saurus Cavalry. He put an Old Blood and a Scar Veteran in that unit! It was much like a Slann army in that if you didn’t kill that unit you would get a draw at best. Well I shot and magicked them down to a manageable level. With only that unit to deal with I thought I had the game won. In fact I started letting off on him doing some silly things that cost me my last rattler and my mages.
Earlier in the battle I charged my Swarms in and thought I would hold them for awhile. I didn’t realize he had two major hitty heroes in that unit! They lasted all of two melee turns. After that he reformed and moved forward to try and “Huanchi” me in his magic phase. I was very relieved when he blew the first roll AND his re-roll. I charged him in the flank with an intact unit of Clan Rats. He held and in fact sent them running in his next melee turn. By then my General and BSB beat feet to another intact unit. In his next turn, he charged into yet another intact Clan Rat unit and killed like 20 models! My shooting continued to deplete his unit while he was killing me one Clan Rat unit per turn. With my General so close, I rallied what remained of my Clan Rats, which kept him from charging yet another intact unit. He blew through them and pursued into one of the two intact units of Clan Rats. This unit was the one protecting my Jezzails. If he broke that unit, he would have surely panicked my Jezzails; it was my turn six.
I had no choice, I fired all 6 Jezzails into the melee. With a bad roll, I managed to kill one of my own troops, but I hit with the other five. I picked up the dice and randomized-ALL HITS on the Saurus Cavalry. Again, I picked up the dice-ALL WOUNDS, destroying the Saurus Cavalry unit utterly and only leaving the Old Blood and Scar Veteran. Well he had to take a panic test, he had used up all of his Old Ones dice and had to depend on his regular dice for a test. If they passed the test he still had about fifteen attacks. Well that was what he rolled for his panic test-a fifteen! Just before he would have probably broken my last good unit and netted himself another three hundred plus points, he gave me the game.
Win to the Skaven! Commentary: I must say that he had a truly hardcore army. On top of that the terrain worked against me because I couldn’t scatter away from it fast enough. Lastly, I thought I was easily going to win the game and backed off-big mistake! It was only a lucky series of dice for me, and some unfortunate rolls for him that saved that game.
Game Three: Dwarfs I’ve played against Casey four times previously; a RTT in Cleveland with my Empire-he slaughtered me, Charlotte GT with my Empire-he won a minor victory, at the Necromicon in a bizarre series of dice (much like my previous game), he pulled a win out of what was probably a draw. This was my chance to actually win a game against him.
We played an objective scenario where you had to start 18” away from the objective. I got the first turn and moved most of my army onto the objective. I hoped the hill, BSB, outnumber, leadership etc, would allow me to hold.
I sent my Plague contingent and some other units towards his bolt thrower, crossbowmen and his Ogres. Over several turns, I managed to kill all of them.
There was yet another large woods on the right side of the table. I placed a single Giant Rat unit over there to attack whichever unit came around the corner. It turns out that it was his General in a unit of warriors. I had depleted the unit with Jezzail fire and there was only fifteen of them remaining. My dice loved me and I killed all of the ones in combat. He passed his test to stay. In the next turn, I again rolled well and killed another Dwarf. Again he took a test and this time he broke! Since it was my turn next, though he had gotten away, they were ran down by a 90 point unit. This caused yet another stretch of pathetic dice for Casey as the destruction of this unit caused his Runesmith’s unit to panic.
On the objective my Clan Rats and Slaves fought against his large Slayer unit and a unit of Miners My dice could do no wrong and I managed to reduce the Slayers to about four models before the game ended. The Miners eventually broke one unit of Clan Rats, but it didn’t matter with his General gone, all of his artillery, and with every unit under half strength turn six came to a close.
Win to the Skaven!Commentary:I honestly don’t know how Casey drew me to play since he had just lost to Brad (Bigrin). I guess it was because of the Borderwars event. He did nothing wrong the entire game. In fact early in the game his shooting was outstanding. In our game at the Necromicon his great dice on the last turn won him the game, this time my great dice the entire game and his horrible dice won me the game.
Game Four: Slannesh BeastmenI had played Mark before at an RTT. His army was one that I feared mostly because of the Slannesh magic. Having played Bigrin so many times and losing games due to the spells, I had a great deal of respect for his army. I noticed that his army was kinda small on the table. I don’t know when you are supposed to tell the other guy you are ambushing but I wish I had known before my tenth deployment. It didn’t matter I had a plan. I was going to rush forward and destroy his army before his ambushers could help.
Over on the left flank I placed my Swarms opposite of his two Chaos Giants My plan was to pin one of his giants with the Swarms and shoot and magic the other one. Mark allowed me to fire my Stormdeamon on his giant which left it with only one wound. My Censer Bearers charged it in the flank killing it and overrunning into the flank of his BIG Slanngor unit. Both Giants were out of it.
On the other flank, I tried to combine charge his Minotaurs with two units of Night Runners and a unit of Clan Rats. Only one unit passed and the Minotaurs destroyed them! This kept him from overrunning and I got to charge him on the next turn, breaking them and running them down. Still on that flank, my Giant Rats charged into the flank of one of his chariots breaking it and eventually running it down. My Jezzails destroyed the other one. Basically there was no left flank left and I had lost 35 points of Night Runners.
With a lucky roll my Tunnel Team came up and charged one of the hated Slaneshi mages. I won the melee but failed to catch him.
His ambushers came on, but succumbed to my other unit of Giant Rats, and concentrated Jezzail, Ratling Gun, and Warp Lightning fire. The only unit I lost was the Jezzail unit and a panicked Ratling Gun.
Remember the Plague Censers that killed the Giant? The Slanngors had to roll to avoid the effects of the Censers. He lost all three in contact, but I lost one myself. I had only three remaining but they all hit and killed I think six more Slanngors. Despite, the ranks and standard and his Beastlord, his unit failed its breaktest and ran, though again I failed to catch them. Since I had pursued into his unit, it was my turn next and I ran them down. It was turn three and Mark graciously extended his hand.
Win to the Skaven! Commentary:Well it was weird playing a Beastmen army that was as screwed by the terrain as my Skaven Horde army. Since I play against Beastmen a lot, I know most of their tricks. My army just has too much massed CR, magic, magic defense, and shooting to go down easily to them. I felt bad for Mark because those Plague Censers rolled out so well, and his break test was so high.
Thoughts:
Well, I was the only undefeated person. Bigrin had one loss, and Allen had a draw so I knew I was in pretty good shape to win the event. I did my best to make a comp friendly Skaven army that folks wouldn’t mind playing against.
Summary:
Well the rewards were announced and Team Tennessee had retained the coveted Borderwars III cup for the third straight year.
My team was myself (Atchman), Brad Grinstead (Bigrin) and Allen Blessing (Monster). Combined we won ten games, drew one, and lost one.
I was please to hear Dave Brown’s name called for Best Army, since he is a close friend of mine and a member of Team Tennessee II. Bruce Chirrey (Dark Elvis) won the Best Sportsmanship award. I pretty much knew it was down to myself or Monster for the overall award, but I figured his Draw (and perhaps comp) would give me the win and it did!
For the second time in three weeks I won a major award, Best General at the Hoosier Challenge IndyGT and Overall Winner of Borderwars III.
Atchman