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Again - just my perspective on things - and possibly
based on poor memory.
24 players attended - a new UK record for
exclusively UK players. - corrected.
My draws were middling - I can't remember the second rare I drew, but I didn't
use either of my rares. The first one was an Arcane Ballista... yeah...
But my uncommons were competitive, the must "use" were the ones which would
assist in winning inits, keep the Hill Giant alive and assist in the inevitable
Morale Checks that the Hill Giant would get:
Hill Giant Barabarian
Warpriest of Moradin
Warforged Bodyguard
Then I had to add a Troglodyte thug to flank and a secondary beat stick in an
Orc Mauler. With the last 4 points I added a Skeleton Legionnaire. That's my
warband and I didn't hold much hope but it might do OK.
Round 1: Rob
A newish player at Manchester and skilled. His warband was Warforged Captain,
War Troll and a Hill Giant Barbarian. Two beaters. The problem with this warband
was that it had no reliable way of getting tile points without losing something.
The game degenerated into a slugfest - the first round proper round of hitting
and my warband got itself organised around supporting the HGB and flanking the
WT. Ultimately I got 3 consecutive hits in on the WT (I won init in the second
round) and the WT was down. The Bodyguard was soaking up the pain from the other
HGB on mine and ultimately that one dropped also. The Warpriest used his close
wounds spell to keep the Bodyguard alive just long enough to drop the opposing
HGB and then mop up. Not an easy game and Rob had forgotten that his WT had a
ranged weapon and never used it. 1-0.
Round 2: Pawel
Pawel's pulls included a Chimera, Brass Samurai, Steelheart Archer, Hunting
Cougar, Halfling Slinger, Quaggoth Slave, Warforged Bodyguard, Troglodyte Thug
and Skeletal Legionnaire - this might be slightly wrong though - but the first
few were definite.
This was going to be very tactical based on Pawel's normal like for single large
hitters such as a Mounted Paladin or Archmage. We both basically drew tile
points every round - me near the exit on the shared area. I picked off his
fodder (Quaggoth Slave, Steelheart Archer and Bodyguard) his bodyguard went into
full battle and accidentally was left out of command and then failed a Morale
Check while under the Warpriest of Moradin's commander effect and left the field
of battle. He also drew up the Quaggoth to tempt the Orc Mauler into battle at
the top right (to the right of the statue of Tiamat). A part of a feint from me
to split his force into two by threatening his Cougar tile grabber. Somewhere in
the middle I drew my whole force across and out of the main chamber to attack is
annoying Archer - who promptly died in the bottom left chamber. The main game
was a little blurred - but we ended up about 83-40 points. 2-0 and, as usual, a
very tough battle with Pawel.
Round 3: Guillaume
We were moved to table 1 and having only played (a losing game) against Guillaume once on Vassal (and
watched him a lot) I knew this was going to be tough. His warband had a Warforged
Bodyguard, Aspect of Moradin, Troglodyte Thug, Warforged Scout, and a shieldwall
soldier - now... I forget the rest - I suspect it was a Warforged Captain. I
asked him to set up and he placed his warband at the bottom right. I had
miscalculated that I could get to Victory points in round 1 from either location
with speed 7 (the printouts from the WoTC website weren't clear enough and the
top left seemed to stretch out 2 more to the right than the actual assembly area
was). Anyway, Sam pointed this out... He placed his Scout at the bottom left to
get tile points and I was instantly behind. I could've gone for tile points at
the top, but he was drawing his warband that way. Instead I based the scout with
the rather substantially larger HGB and in the next round managed to kill it and
gain VPs without Sam being able to. I also managed to get rid of the Trog and
the Shield. In hindsight, I realised that he failed the spell from the Warpriest
and he removed it altogether. He shouldn't have removed it, but should have
taken a morale check instead, it was only 10 dmg. My whole day was riddled with
minor mistakes like this - not a very precise science. The battle ended up with
his Aspect of Moradin being unhurt and his bodyguard being the speedo. Once we'd
got to about 150 pts to me to 80 or so for him, I decided to run like mad since
the Aspect was about to bear down on my HGB - a very uneven matchup. So the Orc
Mauler went in one direction, the Warpriest and Bodyguard in another and the HGB
in a third. The theory was to keep him hunting - something he did very well and
ultimately killed the Warpriest and the Bodyguard - at the expense of tile
points. I then placed the Mauler up at the top right (after a very long walk)
and went hunting with the slightly injured HGB - the target was his 15 HP
bodyguard that had got separated from the Aspect. The skill of Sam was such that
he did manage to get a hit on the much faster HGB - and it was a crit. However
the HGB got down and based the bodyguard, I won the next round init and killed
it - that drew me to over 200 pts. I think he got 150-ish - so very close in the
end.
Round 4: XAos.
Nearly a mirror matchup from round 1 except he also had a tile grabber - the
lowly Shieldwall Soldier. We spent the first few rounds dancing around - my plan
was simple - hopefully draw him in to battle at the lower shared VP area and use
my synergies better than his. However Steve is a very skilled player and I
actually up making a couple of very unwise decisions based on the +15%
initiative bonus chance I had over his - I went and killed his Shieldwall
soldier bait and then promptly lost init. The idea was to kill and draw back and
then keep the battle flowing at my pace in my area. Not to be. The battle was
lost when I 1) misused my "close wounds" on on the Trog Thug instead of on my
strategic pieces, 2) gambled on winning init - 15% is a gamble and 3) forgot to
use the bodyguard to absorb the blow on the HGB that forced it to make a morale
save. That was the exact scenario that I had considered for the Warpriest
combo... Do'h. So the HGB was now being based by his injured and wounded (and
had passed his MC) War Troll that I kept missing and his HGB. I was getting tile
points and he wasn't so I wasn't in a completely lost situation and felt I could
push the game. The HGB has +15 to his Morale save - Level 8, level6 commander
and +1 bonus from Divine Protection Spell - I rolled a 1... Game over - unless
there was some luck.
I charged the Warpriest in and connected to his War Troll down by 55 HPs and
then critted with the Orc Mauler on it. Dead. However - that was also a mistake
by us, the Mauler doesn't do magic damage so it should have stayed alive on 5
HP.
It went downhill from there - even though we (erroneously) removed the War Troll
I really had no chance - his HGB knocked the Warpriest for 40 points and then
again to obliterate it. Game over - he was over 200pts against my unfair 156 -
the Wartroll shouldn't have been in there. As I came home I was mulling all the
mistakes in this game I made and realised that they were there because Steve was
counting on some of them. Very skilled player and the first time I've met him
over the table - 3-1.
Steve went on to play a final against Richard Moore that he also won - 200-157.
Wardrums is an interesting set with variations on themes and new themes that'll
take some time to get the hang of. Still too early to read a true tier 1 piece,
but I liked the bodyguard a lot.
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