Well, I’m finally home from the Charlotte GT, and as promised, here is my GT report. I drove to Charlotte in a heavy downpour that caused a lot of accidents on the road, but made it safely if somewhat slowly. I checked-in to the overly-ostentatious hotel, the Westin, and entered the ballroom. The Blood Bowl tournament was in full swing, and several gamers were already playing pick-up games on the beautiful GW battlefields. There were three separate types of battlefields, one was an empire village, another was the chaos wastes, and the third was a frozen Kislev landscape. What immediately caught my attention were the very limited areas for maneuver on the fields of battle. There was a LOT of scenery and difficult ground that usually provided only two or three narrow avenues of approach to the enemy. This would be a great hindrance to my huge Empire horde army.
I met the Atchman and his friends who were already engrossed in some pick-up games, but had to get to my room to finish flocking and painting the army’s bases. Yes, it was STILL unfinished, and would not be finished until 2 hours prior to my first game. I did finish it by the skin of my teeth with a Herculean effort from my best friend George. We staggered, bleary-eyed into the hall the following morning, got our table assignments and met our first opponents.
I did not take notes at all, so the following battle reports are just the highlights from my memory. First, my army list;
Sigmar’s Hammer
The Garrison at Black Fire Pass
Commanders:
Feldmarshal Maximillian Eberhardt 167 Points
Elector Count 80, General, Full Plate 12, Shield 3, Great Weapon 6, Warhorse 15, Barding 6, Holy Relic 45
Oberst Franze Krieger 97 Points
Captain 50, Battle Standard Bearer 25, Full Plate 8, Warhorse 10, Barding 4
Ernst Schuck 119 Points
Warrior Priest of Sigmar 95, Heavy Armor 4, Shield 2, Two Handed Hammer 4, Warhorse 10, Barding 4
Eva Zumwald 109 Points
Sorceress 60, 2nd Magic level 35, Warhorse 10, Barding 4
Core Troops:
Sons of Sigmar 281 Points
28 Swordsmen with Light Armor and Shield 196, Champion 10, Musician 5, Banner 10
12 Free Company Detachment with two hand weapons 60
Sigmar’s Might 271 Points
28 Swordsmen with Light Armor and Shield 196, Champion 10, Musician 5
12 Free Company Detachment with two hand weapons 60
Eberhardt’s Home Guard 423 Points
32 Swordsmen with Light Armor and Shield 224, Champion 10, Musician 5, Banner 10, Griffon Banner 50
12 Free Company Detachment with two hand weapons 60
8 Handgunner Detachment 64
The Jaegers 70 Points
7 Huntsmen with Longbows 70
Knights of the Griffon 1st Regiment 115 Points
5 Knights with Lance, Hand Weapon, Full Plate, Shield 115
Knights of the Griffon 2nd Regiment 115 Points
5 Knights with Lance, Hand Weapon, Full Plate, Shield 115
Special Troops:
Sigmar’s Dagger 131 Points
6 Pistoliers with Light Armor and Brace of Pistols 114, Marksman 7, Repeater Pistol 10
Helga & Gertrude 150 Points
Mortar with three crewmen 75, Mortar with three crewmen 75
Brunhilde 100 Points
Great Cannon with three crewmen 100
Casting Pool 4, Dispel Pool 4, Models in Army 171
Game One, vs. Benjamin Hitt’s Lizardmen
Benjamin finished 18th overall and had a very attractive army and display.
I had played Ben’s army before with my Bretonnians in a rogue trader tourney and won, so he was out for revenge in this game. On the first turn my huntsmen raced out of their cover and shot-down a mage that was lurking behind some cover on his left flank. The huntsmen were then pin cushioned for their efforts by two swarms of skinks with blowguns. I was lucky enough to cast the Comet of Cassandora with irresistible force, and placed the marker in the middle of his lines between two units of Saurus and waited. Both our forces advanced and met in the middle of the field. One unit of kroxigors managed to break and overrun one ofmy units of infantry, but the kroxigors were immediately pinned by two units of knights in support, and eventually destroyed. Everywhere else on the field the men of the Empire prevailed and ran down unit after unit of lizardmen. On the final turn of the game Ben had only two small units remaining when the comet finally came crashing into the battlefield, killing a good 25% of my own army, and barely touching his, but this was still not enough to reverse his misfortune, and the first game went to the Empire.
Game Two, vs. Casey Cronan’s Orcs & Goblins
Casey finished 5th overall and won 2nd place for “Best Army”.
There is not a whole lot to say about this game. Casey failed just about every animosity test, on nearly every turn, immobilizing the majority of his troops for most of the game. This allowed me to dictate the battle and practically wipe his army from the field. He was pretty bummed out about it, but it was not bad tactics, just truly horrible luck on his part. Casey’s army beat Casey, I just walked-up and cleaned up the mess. My highpoint was landing two mortar shells into a unit of 30 night goblins and killing roughly 22 of the little blighters. Victory to the Empire lads.
Game Three, vs. Mike Bradbury’s Chaos Tzeentch army
Mike finished 27th overall, and had a stunningly converted army using mostly Kroot models, with everyone on flying disks.
This was a truly rock hard Chaos army of about 40 models. Mike had his minimal core choices in small units of hounds, and the rest was two units of knights (one chosen), a large unit of screamers, a spawn, some wizards in chariots, his general in a chariot, and a few chariots to fill-in. This was going to be the killer Chaos tournament list against the fluffy bunny-like Empire list of composition. Two diametrically opposed ways of playing, both legal, and both viable. Unfortunately the scenario was to hold a central objective, so I knew I was in for a rough time. I did my best to feed Mike’s army cheap, inexpensive units and then counter with a good hard punch, such as a fully-ranked unit with flanking support. My highpoint of the game was feeding Mike’s Chaos chosen knights my Battle Standard Bearer’s unit and detachment, which was immediately run down and destroyed, but if gave my cannon a flank shot on his chosen knights, killing all but two, tripling the points of what he killed…Woo Hoo!. Mike’s highpoint was turning half of my General’s unit into horrors, and then watching the unit whip it’s own behind in combat. There was little my 4 dispel dice could do against his 13-14 casting dice so I suffered in his magic phase, however, he suffered greatly during my shooting phase as the mortars swept all the hounds from the field, and my cannon wiped out his chosen knights, and every chariot on the field. We had an absolute BLAST of a game. When time was called, I was sitting on the objective with one of his units on the objective as well, so the tie-breaker was the number of units still on the field over unit strength of 5. I had 9 units, he only had two. We shook hands and declared the Empire the winner, we started to fill out the results cards when one of Mike’s friends reminded us that I had to roll to restrain pursuit with the unit I had on he objective (They had just sent Mike’s general running for his life on the final turn). I promptly failed my leadership test, ran off after his fleeing general, leaving the objective in Mike’s sole possession. Chaos was now the victor. I was miffed to say the least, but I remembered that I was trying to win best army, not best general, so took the loss the best I could. Victory to Chaos. To this point, Mike had my vote for best opponent.
Game Four, vs. Todd Wiatt’s Chaos Nurgle army
Todd finished 2nd overall and won “Best Army”…the award I wanted…argh!
Not much to say about this game either. Remember the Orc and Goblin fiasco in game two? Well now it was MY turn to see some of the worst dice rolling of my gaming life. In two turns of fighting, I had my Battle Standard Bearer’s unit run down and killed by a single fury, my General’s unit panicking and running from a stand of nurglings, only to be caught and destroyed, and a single detachment running from combat, right into the middle of my three gun battery and panicking all but one mortar crew off the board. Things tended to go downhill from there as I could not mount anything even resembling a defense to Todd’s relentless assault. If I needed an 11 to make a leadership test I would roll boxcars twice, if I needed to flee three inches away to be safe I would roll snake-eyes. I felt terrible because I thought I was not even providing a challenging game to Todd. I guess it was just my turn to get hammered. Todd was a gentleman about the whole thing, and tried to cheer me up without much success. At least the game was great to look at, as Todd’s Chaos army has some beautifully disgusting conversions and is painted to a very high standard. Victory to Chaos.
Game Five, vs. Jason Holliday’s Chaos Beastmen
Jason finished 12th overall, and his army was well balanced and painted.
I was not looking forward to facing Chaos again, as I had just lost two games to them, but I was interested in seeing the new beastmen in action. This scenario gave bonus points for getting your messengers off of the opponent’s board edge. Jason plays a true hand-to-hand beastman army, with 4 units of hounds, 4 chariots, 2 herds, 1 bestigor unit, 3 dragon ogres, and a spawn, all led by a doombull. This game was simply great. Jason collapsed my right flank, while I collapsed his right flank. In the center we had a great combat embroiling about 10 units for most of the game. He destroyed one of my large blocks of infantry, a detachment, and a unit of knights, but on the final turn his General caught a cannonball, and his two main units broke and ran, giving me a victory. I got all three messengers off the board, and he got 1 messenger off the board. I believe that this was the margin of victory as I only won by about 300 points. Another great game against a great opponent, Jason now had my vote for best opponent so far.
Game Six, vs. Mike Stephen’s Dwarves
Mike finished 6th overall and won “Best Sportsman” just beating out my friend George.
I am quite used to playing against dwarves as my friend George plays them. Mike set-up a strong infantry center, with a large shooting contingent with siege weapons on his left, with a delaying unit of slayers and a gyrocopter on his right. I set up the same on my side with all my fast-moving items on my left. I was lucky enough to go first, so I dropped the gyrocopter with a cannonball, and lobbed mortar shells into the slayers. This quickly gave me a flank to sweep around in the final turns of the game. I dangled a tasty target (my unit of Count’s troops with the Griffon banner) in front of a large unit of Mikes warriors and they took the bait. They lost combat, and fled right into the middle of his lines, by the time the ensuing panic tests were settled, I had turned Mike’s right, and had pushed him into a corner. Things were not looking good for him, but dwarves are dwarves, and we finally got our battle lines engaged in the classic “You are going to lose to these dwarves in two or three turns” combats. Mike clawed his way back into contention unit by unit, until the final turn when my main battle line crumbled before the much weakened but still resolute dwarven line. We added up the victory points, and he was ahead now but only by 105.5 points, a draw. What a way to end the tournament! A tooth-and-nail battle that ended in a bloody draw with an outstanding opponent. Mike snatched away my vote for best opponent from Jason Holliday with his equally good-natured temperament throughout what looked to be a devastating rout for the dwarves early in the game. Definitely my best game at the tournament.
So I finished with three wins, two losses, and a tie. Better than the 3 wins and 3 losses I was aiming for, but I was sure that the two losses and the tie game would remove me from the running for any of the overall awards. Soon I was off to the awards ceremony, hoping to win best army. My Empire army won the Player’s Choice award, and my friend George won 2nd place for Sportsmanship. I did not win best army, I didn’t even place, so I contented myself with Player’s Choice, and was sitting there planning what I was going to do to improve the army when they announced the overall winner. I remember my bud George cheering really load and applauding while looking at me, and my pal Henry holding up a hand for me to high five. I just looked around with my typical blank expression until George saw my confusion and informed me that I won. I looked at the audience and the staff and they were all applauding and looking at me. To say I was stunned was an understatement. I stood up and looked around to make sure nobody else was on their way to the front, and staggered dumbfounded to the front of the crowd. I can’t even tell you what Dirty Steve said to me as he thrust the overall trophy into my hands and congratulated me; I was too much in shock. Suddenly, it was all over, everyone was shaking my hand and congratulating me, and taking pictures for white dwarf. After a short wait, the staff posted the final scores, and evidently, my battle score deficit was compensated by my appearance and sportsmanship scores, giving me the victory by a scant two points. Victory to the Empire! With a nice fluffy list to boot!
Many thanks to the GW staff and tournament organizers. Thanks to my opponents, there was not a bad game in the lot. Mot of all, thanks to my wife and friend George, without their help I would never have finished my army in time. I ‘m looking forward to putting my Empire lads back into battle, trying to win best army at an upcoming GT, and beginning work on my new Bretonnian army when they come out later this year…I already have a great display board taking shape in my mind…
The Village Idiot
Still dumbfounded...
