Warmahordes 35pt Steamroller Tournament - Bolton

One of my mates Jason became a Pressganger late last year and runs monthly tournaments at the Portcullis Gaming Store in Bolton. Having been told about these for some time we had the opportunity to go (along with combining the collection of a few models, to be covered in a different post). We recently introduced a mate from LARP, Kipper to the game and he has developed a rapid love for all things Troll! So me, Mehmet, Kipper and Josh left sunny Hull at 7:00am on Saturday to head to Bolton.

The venue is very deceptive! We arrived to a smallish store front packed with gamers talking lists and gluing models. Kipper had inside information about some of the models in stock and proceeded to buy Skaldi, the Troll Cavalry Box and their Dragoon. We set to gluing these pretty swiftly as they where in his list! The shop owner Brian is very friendly and was chatting to us as soon as we arrived, they stock a MASSIVE selection of miniatures, pretty much every system is supported in some way with a large FoW and WW2 section, some GW, Privateer, Malifaux, Ancients, card games, board games, etc. I think you get the picture.

We where then shown upstairs where 6 tables where laid out with scenery and space for a couple more, so they can comfortably hold 16 player tournaments. So without further ado, i will show you my list and then what i went up against.

Commander Coleman Stryker

     Thorn

     Ol' Rowdy

     Squire

Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team

Sword Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Archduke Alain Runewood

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

Journeyman Warcaster

Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator

Stormsmith Stormcaller

Stormsmith Stormcaller

This is pretty much the list i have been playing a while now, with a change of the Storm Guard for the Black 13th and some Stormcallers. Its a pretty robust list with some nice synergy and damage potential, in both normal turns and feat turns.

Game One
Fox - Lich Lord Terminus
Scenario - Overrun, which now has the added fun of Kill Box!

Lich Lord Terminus

   Defiler

   Erebus

   Seether

Bane Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts)

Bane Lord Tartarus

Pistol Wraith


So imagine my joy to see Terminus across the board for game one, i mean its not like i play this guy much...... The terrain had a house with a walled garden in the middle, some woods to my right and some walls over to the left.


I deployed pretty centrally with the Sword Knights with Rowdy on my right, B13th and Thorn on the left, and Stryker in the middle. Terminus set up slightly to my right with Erebus and the Defiler on the left, Seether and Banes on the right. My plan was to draw Terminus forward while maintaining a healthly distance with Styker, my threat range was higher but i would have to shoot off his focus first with Eryss.


First turns as usual, advance cast spells (Deflection/AS on SKs), Terminus moving right towards the house/forest funnel. Second turn saw my forces engage on the left Thorn with PC charges the defiler and did some serious damage, Eryss advanced and shot at Erebus but missed, Sword nights engaged the defiler and trashed him. Right saw some more positioning with the Stormsmith disrupting the Seether. Terminus cast berserk on Erebus loaded him with focus, activated feat and charged to my right beside the house. I knew my plan had worked i just had to hold him there while i dismantled his army! Erebus advanced into 2 SKs and killed both but his overtake did not allow him to engage anyone else, Fox said he should have trampled! I think if he had the game may have gone the other way! Seether charged Rowdy and smashed his Hammer, then to my surprise chain attack threw him at Styker! He hit and Rowdy sailed through the air, however due to their affinity, as soon as he came B2B with Stryker, Stryker becomes immune to knockdown.

Turn Three, time for Strykers feat! This would be the turn to cause as much damage as possible to the enemy. Stryker allocated some focus out to the jacks, then he moved away from Terminus, popped his feat and cast positive charge on Thorn. Thorn then engaged Erebus in the side, hit him a few times and brought him to about 1/2 health, Rowdy walked over to the Seether and hit him with his hammer and fist doing a bit of damage. Runewood went next and gave the SKs path to victory for +2 charge attack rolls. The SKs then charged in, this is when they come into their own! 3 engaged Erebus, the others charged to engage Banes and Mechthralls in front of Terminus. The ones on Erebus gained both Flank and PC bonuses, putting them on effective MAT 12 4D6+12 damage! Erebus however would not be killed easily, broke both his arms and his cortex, leaving his movement and hull intact, I figured i would kill him with my feat attacks. the rest of the unit killed about 5 models on the right. Black 13 continued to blow Mechthralls away to reduce the number of sacrificial pawn targets. I moved about engaging more infantry and failing to kill Erebus! missing the extra D6 for the charges made some poor rolling do zero damage! With my feat turn over, i had thinned the infantry and pushed hard into the enemy lines. Stryker was clear of Terminus for another round and i was feeling like i could have a shot at winning. The cryx turn saw Erebus damage Thorn, Terminus charged Rowdy and scrapped him, the Pistol Wraith killed the squire, some Mechthralls dodged the mage storm in front of them, the remaining Banes and Tartarus killed off the SKs on the right.


The rest of the game saw Stryker kiting Terminus around the building while i tried to take out the sac targets within 3 inches for a Eryss assassination run. Both armies ground each other down, and dice down was called before i decisive win could be determined. As neither of us scored any SPs it came down to kill points which i won 35 to 32. A damn close game, that i won largely to knowing all about the giant winged menace!


The next game saw we up against a caster i had not played before eButcher!

Kommander Orsus Zoktavir

    Berserker

    Juggernaut

    Juggernaut

    Spriggan

Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts)



I had a look at his cards and did not like the look of a lot of free charging heavies! Didnt ready the feat quite well enough and this would tell later.......


Playing Incursion scenario with a small building on the left, wood in the middle and far right, walls on the right, I would go first. Same deployment as last game, Eryss in the central wood.

 Usual first turns, advance up and cast spells. I opened up on the shock trooper on the left with the black 13th killing 2! Eyrss disrupted the Spriggan, more advancing from the Khador player, the shocktroopers charges the black 13th, one made it and missed his atttack.


My third turn once again saw my feat! There was a good chance i would be able to get at least one SK and a PC Rowdy in base with Butcher. My opponent had placed a Juggernaut, Spriggan and Butcher in a B2B triangle, due to the line i had with Rowdy a Slam would send the Juggernaut into both models knocking them down, so i loaded Rowdy with 3 focus and sent him in! He slammed into them knocking them all down and doing a couple of damage to an arm 21 Butcher. Eryss went next and shot of his focus! The SKs recieved a charge/run order and engaged all across the front, damaging the Berserker and killing the remaining shock troopers. Strkyer then advanced and PC Rowdy activated his feat. Rowdy then went round and smashed Butcher with a boosted pow 20 hit! leaving him on 3 health! the SK then moved in, 3D6+12 damage, i needed 9 on the dice to win, rolled a seven! The Butcher had survived and just as i was about to move stryker back 3 inches the clock ran out! I thought i may be in trouble but hoped for my high def to keep me out of trouble. Now this is when Butcher pops his feat, i was unaware that when you spend "Rage" tokens then allow you to move and attack not just attack, so you can imagine my surprise as the 2 KD warjacks managed to get some hits on stryker! My Op was lucky on his first roll and crit froze stryker, i i really though this was it...... poor damage rolls, left me on 5 health! Both warcasters had survived against the odds! Rowdy then put the boot in and killed Butcher.


This saw me on the top table for the final round, however i had failed to score any scenario points and i knew that i had to win to place!


As i had feared i was paired against Josh with his Shae list, the scenario was destruction you had to destroy an arm 20, 20 health monolith to score points. With the Commodore in Josh's list i knew i was in trouble it would be able to sit far away and take the target apart.

Captain Phinneus Shae

    Freebooter

    Mariner

Commodore Cannon & Crew (Commodore and 3 Crewmen)

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Sea Dog Crew (Leader and 9 Grunts)

    Mr. Walls Sea Dog Crew Quartermaster

    1 Sea Dog Crew Rifleman

Bosun Grogspar

Dirty Meg

   Buccaneer

Doc Killingsworth

First Mate Hawk

Lord Rockbottom

I am not going to go into too many details on this fight as i have played this list alot. We both had some pretty poor rolls with both WCs failing to have a big impact on the game, both feats caused minimal damage, Josh took out an objective with the Commodore as predicted, i had just lined up a run on Shae when the round was called, Josh played for the scenario win and pulled it off!

This SP put Josh above the other player on 3 wins and into first place! More of a shock was our new player Kipper, winning 2/3 games scoring 3 CPs and coming third! A cracking result for him, i think the new cavalry caught a lot of people out! I placed 5th in the end, with Mehmet in 8th.


I learned that you shake effects in the maintenance phase, and that if Strykers survival is dependant on moving away during feat turn, then do that early as possible!

A great day out and got to meet some new gamers, introduce a mate into the tournament scene (he is thinking about framing his certificate!)