Rushden Rumble 2016

[leopard]

Its on, its Warhammer 8th, its doubles and its utterly mental.

First Saturday in March, 1,200 points - details on the warhammer forum if anyone is interested. The legend that is Thangrot is going, and looking for a suitable partner if anyone is interested in whats likely to be his last outing under the 8th edition rules.

[leopard]

Thangrot has retired!

Have teamed up with a guy from WHF who has a goblin force so have changed to the brave knights of Bretonnia, will feel odd using an army I actually have had some success with and came mid table last time they went to an event - which was such a shock I went back to using Orcs for the safety of being no so much at the bottom of the table as on the floor under it.

[Baldie]

Good luck sir, shall look forward to reports of horse riding gobbos and manicly flailing knights.

[leopard]

Slight change, I;m now paired with whatever Lizardmen are called this week, have stuck with Bretonnia though fro what is likely the last gasp of 8th edition for me.

List is in, roughly going for the following, at 1,200.

2x lances of knights, only small, 7 knights including command, to pad out with characters - have found the knights run a lot better as tag teams
1x trebuchet, because it would be rude not to

The rest is characters, a HKB lord, a BSB with a flame thrower then a damsel (Lv:2 beasts) and a prophetess (Lv:4 heavens)

magic is for the buffs, likely to be running with at most 6 dice so will be using the easier to cast stuff, all of which works well with Bretonnia, the trebuchet is very hit & miss, but when it hits stuff stays hit, at low points it can gut a unit with one shot, the knights hold back until they can be decently certain of the charge, then both hit something to try and blow through it..

And thats about as far as it goes in terms of planning, but at least this year I have the stuff to hurt small elite units.

[Baldie]

Lizards and Brets, best of buddies.

[Baldie]

Good luck sir, may much blood be spilt and hopefully some of it the enemies.
Reports required as I like to live my life vicariously these days though hope to get some games in at hammerhead this weekend.

[leopard]

Massive casualties are the main thing, if the majority of them can fall on the enemy this is a bonus...

Planning to take a few pictures and will do a write up of just what happens to Sir Leopardus and his merry bunch.

Whole army is a bit of a glass hammer, but unlike the O&G when these guys hit properly they can actually do a bit of damage to something, of course they can also hit with rubber lances and do more damage to themselves...

Either way should be fun

[leopard]

Rushden Rumble, 2016
Sir Leopardus Rides Forth

So the day was upon us, the 4th attendance at Rushed for the doubles tournament, 1,200 points each this time and the usual blend of oddball scenarios.

This year, in a dramatic break with tradition running the brave knights of Bretonnia, with the brave Sir Leopardus in charge, or at least at the front.



From left to right we have:
- Barney the giant, so named for the barn door he carries as a shield, this event granting Giants a 5+/6++ save in an attempt to keep them around for more than a single turn, also a mandatory element of the army that everyone gets for no points.
- A trebuchet, because it would be rude not to include at least one, and the rules prevented me including more than one.
- 7 Knights of the Realm, with a command group
- 7 more Knights of the Realm, again with a command group, this time with a banner that prevents a stand and shoot reaction, because it annoys the heck out of elves and empire players
- Prophetess of the Lady, Level 4 with Lore of Heavens
- Lord, with a mundane lance and an enhanced shield, but the knack of heroically killing with but a single blow.
- Paladin, carrying a dirty great flag and with the Wyrm Lance, because not bunch of heroic knights is complete without a flame thrower
- Damsel of the Lady, Level 2 with Lore of Beasts

And thus the army set forth to the field of glory…

[leopard]

The first encounter
Tackling the hordes of darkness with the help of dinosaurs

Our first encounter was an egg hunt, several highly prized dragon eggs, that in no way were cheap mini cream eggs despite looking exactly like them were scattered on the battlefield, each would provide a bonus of 100VP to whoever was carrying it when the game ended.

Oh yes and the eggs owner was in the area, likely to make passes to express irritation at her eggs being stolen.



The armies deployed, no real intermingling, Sir Leopardus to the bottom right, with our Lizard allies to the top right - what can only be called a character stuffed brick of warriors, some dinosaur with a magical thingy and a few skinks. Not sure what the enemy made of that brick but it scared the hell out of me.

Facing off against a force of Goblins, about which more in part three, with some squigs, some 50 archers, a honking great spider and a Wyvern with a Shamen riding it to lead them. Also facing Dark Elves, with a dragon rider in charge, ten fast cavalry and two blocks of females with enough clothing for about half of them.



Things started well, the Dark Elves vanguarded the fast cavalry forwards, with a character in attendance, given they also would have the first turn this wasn’t as risky as it looked, Indeed I fully expected them to be alongside the lance of knights very shortly after.

Their first turn saw the goblins squabbling to not much effect, the fast cavalry being slightly marching through a wood, that turned out to be somewhat nasty and had some more of them for lunch, five and the character survived but ended up alongside the knights safely out of arc. That dark elf dragon made a pest of itself and my ally generally didn’t manage to do a lot either.

Our first turn didn’t see much, the knights redeployed to face the elves, the general breaking out to flank them - basically to make it a little bit harder to play silly games and to free up a few options, the second lance making a cautious advance with the trebuchet making a dent near but significantly not near enough to the enemy.

All in all a somewhat inconsequential first turn really.

Towards the end of the second enemy movement the situation in the centre was thus:



The fast cavalry character having leap out to charge the trebuchet and the dragon tormenting the lizards dinosaur thingy, again the goblins didn’t do much, their monsters taking shelter behind a building to be out of sight of my second lance.

Amazingly in the ensuing combat the trebuchet grew stood their ground and held, though but two of them remaining thus pinning that character in place, of course safely out of sight of my general, blocked by his own unit, or so they thought.. The fast cavalry ‘sneaked’ through the gap to again sit alongside the lance - that was actually what I hoped for as it got them out of the way.

Onwards to our second turn!



With the enemy fast cavalry out of the way the knights charged the dragon, figuring its better to do it while he is busy than be next on the menu, with them out of the way the general pounced on that enemy character.

To the far end of the table the skinks grabbed an eggs and the warriors finally worked out where the enemy actually was and advanced.

To the other side the situation continued nicely



The orc shamen had moved to be out of the arc of the knights, who decided that they didn’t fancy playing silly buggers with a flaying character they would never catch so they ignored it, Barney moved up, not into combat as he couldn’t but to make sure the Wyvern took the hint and cleared off. Comments from the orcs indicated they feared we were after the spider, we were actually after the egg but a bit of paranoia never hurt.

Needless to say the trebuchet died, the elf striking before my Lord, who then killed him with a single blow before turning back to face the enemy in our rear.



My knights discovering that a dark elf dragon is not a sensible thing to charge, and less so when you charge through a wood to do it, and even less so when your lances are made of rubber, that managed nothing between them and were somewhat reduced for their troubles.

The enemy turn began, and saw a very long range charge by an enemy giant on my General, who as the image below showed decided not to argue..



Brave Sir Leopardus indeed.

Demonstrating why I seldom bother with magical armour on characters, they tend to get chased off or run down long before they actually get killed anyway.

The elves regrouped and the enemy monsters piled towards the centre of the table to get away from my other knights, and focus on that slow moving brick - figuring they needed to all hit it at once.





To the rear we decided that a block of 50 night goblins was bound to have a few fanatics in there, and a small block of knights is not the best tool for handling them so stayed back, but did secure a second egg. Barney moving to chase the enemy monsters.

Time moved on and the dark elves put a block of women to slow the lizards down, having been reduced somewhat by magic the lizards figured they could have a go, so they did.



Deciding to avoid the fanatics the knights simply went the other way, the lizards made contact with the elves and the elves moved into position to counter them.



A mess was developing, sadly my lot were too far to really help, but the lizards were not doing badly, having munched the elves, but were left somewhat exposed to a series of enemy units



Who naturally all piled in, one unit of lizards with some characters now faced one of the enemy giants, a massive spider, a dragon and a wyvern… Yet they didn’t break.

to the other side the goblins advanced, trying to trap my knights with fanatics if we attempted to join in



Yeah, not going to be flanked by that lot willingly.


And that was more or less that, the Lizard unit did die, but the characters survived, holding the third egg, a defeat, but with the bonus points for the eggs a 3:17 one and not worse.

Perhaps not a good start.

You may have noticed one thing missing, no real mention of magic, for good reason - throughout the game we rolled terribly for power dice and the few spells that did go off had no real impact, but conversely neither did the enemies so will accept that.

Barney survived, providing some bonus points in a side event and I saw again just how much of a tank lizard characters can actually be.

[leopard]

Game Two
Watching it all going wrong

The second game saw a battle among some haunted ruins, which had a 50% chance to spew S3 magical arrows, 1d6 of them at anything within 6” at the start of the turn. Hence deciding to stay clear as much as possible.

Here allied with Ogres, facing so Bretonnian turncoats working alongside the Elves from the blasted island.



The armies deployed, with both praying we rolled off and had the first turn, so baring the enemy vanguard of a few reavers forwards we went.

Both lances advanced, taking care to put the sword masters close, but not too close just yet, the giants plodded forwards to support the urge infantry and cavalry, deciding to run both as a tag team.

Dropped the warm lance on the reavers, hitting two and killing one, figured it was the best shot I was likely to get so took it, got a hex on the sword masters just in case they decided to risk a long range charge and managed it.

Then the shooting started…



Tribute again shot a hole in the ground while aiming for some knights, however my ally had slightly more luck, managing to one shot an enemy giant with a cannon, which saw the elf silver helm cavalry depart as a reaction, in effect crippling the enemy ability to use movement on that side of the table and leaving a bunch of seaguard very alone.

The enemy turn started, their knights advanced looking to set up a charge the following turn but being generally cautious, they moved on to the magic phase where it all went a bit pear shaped, for them.



The ogre player unleashed some sort of gimmick that caused a miscast in both enemy mages, both of whom rolled somewhat badly, the Bretonnian damsel having the lesser blast survived but left the men at arms around her wondering who’s idea it was to stand near her.



Then the elf mage blew up in spectacular version, vanishing to gork only knows where, taking a stack of men at arms with him, gutting that unit and removing most of the enemy magic and wounding the surviving giant.

To be honest its exactly that sort of gimmicky magic stuff that can turn a game and is something you have utterly no defence against, this sort of stuff can really break a game and here proved critical.

Our second turn started



To the side things developed a bit, the enemy knights charged by somethings from the ogre side that looked like werewolves, we also got one of the two lances into the sword master, the second fluffing the charge role which was to prove unfortunate, for the ones who made it in.



In the centre the ogres and giants advanced towards what was left of the men at arms



Thanks to some lucky magic we buffed the knights and hexed the elves, as such the combat wasn’t the fiasco I was expecting, two knights down and two sword masters, plus a wound on my general, a drawn combat in the end, though now we lacked the charge bonuses, and having only managed to kill two elves with them things didn’t look two bright, as usual the knights did nothing and the horses did the damage.

The enemy reacted of course, their knights reforming and moving with an eye on the flank of mine



But being cautious to stay such that my second lance couldn’t get to them.

The combat again proved inconclusive, a few more sword masters and knights dropping but the fight continuing.

As our next turn started things started to warm up



My second lance did a few handbrake turns to shuffle sideways, to get out of the enemy charge arc and face the archers, figuring the combat would be over shortly, but if they joined it we would get their flank.

In the centre the men at arms had what could be described as a bad day at the office as two ogre units piled in, Barney fluffing his charge roll.

On the far side the ogre cannon and the sea guard carried on a small private battle that would last the rest of the game.

The combat saw my lance wiped out, taking a few more elves with them, but not enough, the enemy turn saw the elves advance, and the archers fall over, again.



Combat saw the last of the men at arms removed, well evaporate is perhaps a better word, with the ogre cavalry chasing them down to get a better position.



The enemy turn came, and as they sword masters declared a charge saw my knight decide the blessing isn’t worth all that and depart.



Enemy cavalry rotated to face the ogres and the archers wheeled a bit likewise

Then our turn came round once more, the knights rallied and turned back towards the enemy taunting them as they did so.



My allies giant decided the archers looked tasty and the ogre cavalry pulled off a long range charge into the enemy knights



Both of which went as expected, seeing the knights and archers removed and the giant running into the sword masters… The enemy even started packing away at this point..

Naturally they elves killed the giant, he got a few of them and on the final turn we got a few more with a thunderbolt, not enough though to get any actual points from them.

Result: 17:3 to us, in a game decided really by a single magic item in a single turn.

The trebuchet survived this time, though it didn’t actually manage to do a lot, magic did a fair bit more, but just with buffs and hexes adjusting combats slightly.