Ronin pisze:Jest szansa, ze ci co grali napisza jakis skrotowy chociaz raporcik z bitew? Co by ci, co nie grali zalowali jeszcze bardziej, ze nie bylo ich na turnieju.
Project.
A long time ago, in a village far, far away, there lived a Jedy. His Evil Friend Varden decided to make himself a VC army, and used Jedy as his sparring (or should I say “beating-up”) partner. Despite throwing an assortment of armies at the Drakenhof monstrosity, Jedy managed only two draws out of ten games. Splurting foam he took a really uninspired, 2 trees Wardancers and a Staff wielding mage Wood Elves - and managed to cut off the Vampire’s head twice in a row. VC army without a general on turn 3 is not so tough.
The next tournament was EEGT.
Brilliant scenarios by Barbarossa, decent (as far as GT goes
) rule-pack (no spec-heroes, one non magic hero compulsory ), lured Jedy. ……
International field of about 50 players, relaxed atmosphere (who cares about wining.. what? Golden Balls?), good organization.
So Jedy decided to test an ETC-comped VC army in comp-free surrounding, full of double Trees, Double ST, War Altars, 4 Great cannons, Bret and other Cheese Rosters led by nice players.
His roster was a slightly toned down version of his Evil Friend VC.
Lord – SOM, Flayed Hauberk, Helm, Sceptre, Summon Ghouls, Master of Black Arts, Forbidden lore, on a Nightmare
Wight King BSB with Disgusting Rag. 2+ AS.
Vampire – Nightmare, Spike – Book of Arkhan, Dark Acolythe, Summon Bats
Caddy
3xGhouls (1 ghast)
2x5 Wolves
1x6 Wolves with champ
5 Barded BK
3 Fell Bats
12 BK with +1 to hit
Varg
4 Blood Knights with Hate Rag.
10 PD
6 DD
2 Scrolls.
71 models
2495 points.
Disgusting.
…………
Barbarossa was kind enough to lend his beautiful Vampires.
…………
Evil Varden – who lives in a village nearby, drove Jedy to the tournament. They had time to eat some dead meat on the way, chat with friends Jedy missed for the last year, having played only in two tournaments.
Ah, the glory days of old, when he played in 33 tournaments yearly.
In both last year’s tournaments Jedy had very hard-fought, drawn games with Lires, so not much of a surprise in seeing his infantry High Elves across the table, for game one.
Lires always liked to field elf infantry, played it well, with surprising results for unwary opponents.
4 BRT, Archmage, 2 lvl 2 mages, Battle banner BSB, 2x Archers, SM, WL, Phoenix Guard. No hooves or feathers – really nasty with archers rolling 5, 6 to wound, all spells cast.
Jedy mis-deployed - first – going for the refused flank, then misjudging the ability of the scouts to enter the wood and block the flank. Had any of the Dances gone in – it would have been a different story – but as it was, scrolls and miscasts blocked the main fighting unit.
Lires started by killing the wolves and two units of ghouls, inflicting a wound on The Vampire and necromancer hiding in them.
Before the undead had a real chance of regrouping, Elves were upon them, Drakenhof Banner and Helm of commandment destroyed with irresistible force. With no new or swollen units the vampires counter attacked recklessly. Entering the argument phase prematurely, Jedy fired off the Dance with IF, charging the general in the wrong unit. A Phoenix Guard champion killed him in two rounds of fighting to add insult to injury, but the charge itself was a brain fart.
The last non crumbling unit (BK with Wight King) decided to kill something and charged ten White Lions, who promptly chopped them up into splinters, crumbling the Wight.
Did I tell you that VC are not so tough, without their general on turn three?
Off to the last table.
On the way crossed Gyozo, the Hungarin ETC captain, off to the first table to fight Lires. Wished him luck in avenging me, which he did, to some (14-6) measure..
A very nice opponent awaited me, whose Wood Elves had the misfortune of meeting the future winner of the tournament Empire army (2ST, 4 cannons, War Altar).
Not that his WE very much subtler – 2 Trees, Staff, HODA, Moonstone, wardancers, etc…
He teleported his Wardancers with the Arch mage into a wood in the middle of the board and the hunt started. I was hunting the archmage. His wardancers, wardancer-hero, WR, and trees here hunting my Wight BSB BK unit, (eyeing my general if possible).
We both succeeded.
I killed his lord and his Staff That Was Stopping Me From Casting Small Spells, he managed to killing blow the entire BK unit – Wight survived unscathed.
Draw – I had six misacts – they all resulted in rebounded spells (5-6 on miscast table.)
Game of movement spells and nice chat.
A little higher up the order, a reserve player with Dark Elves awaited me.
Crocodile tears were running down my cheeks, while I was destroying unit after unit.
Those who know me will understand my feelings.
DE Roster is the one I played for two years, just bloated to 2500.
Dragon, Crimson Death, Blood Armour, 4+ ward
Pegasus with Seal
Caddy
3x DR
2x10 xbows
2x20 Warriors
7 COK
10+ Witches
3 RBT
Harpies.
I must have been a bloody genius to place in tournaments with this pooh.
JJ-copyright roster in an army weak anyway, made my VC stretch to give away four points.
“What am I doing here?” - I thought. – “Beating up Dark Elves like a thug, with Drakenhof Banner VC to boot.”
I was fully prepared to abandon the tournament, when I learned that I was to face another DE army in the morning.
Literary ambition made me stay.
Murmandamus is a very nice guy, whose stories and rosters I hate.
He writes many WBF tales which I dislike.
He makes rosters “ala Gorbad Ironclaw of TWF fame” – and those rosters I hate too.
Dragon, Gautlet, 5+ ward, two fat level two sorcs, 2 DR, 2 rxb, 2 RBT, Fat Execs, Fat Witches, two Chariots.
He plays Dark Elves for ages, and keeps on losing, because he refuses to make strong rosters.
How dares he lose with Dark Elves?
It’s a race of murderers, not fluff bunnies, leading their armies to destruction.
So I decided to stab him in the back.
………………………….
Insert appropriate photo of Vardenia de Vir, from House De Vir.
I spun a horrible tale of Betrayal, Death, and Hatred From Beyond the Grave which sapped the morale of the Dark Elves army.
I set up the Blood Knights in a very average manner – only 2 RBT…
After taking off a knight from each side, they were no longer blocked by BK, and forced by Frenzy to charge the Harpies.
They charged, exposing their flank to the eager Dragon, which was waiting on the left.
The harpies fled, landing on three DE units..
The game practically ended here.
All three DE units failed their panic test, ran through other units, which failed their panic tests, nothing ever rallied and if so, was immediately broken, chariots smashed in woods, terror tests failed…
In desperation Highborn on Dragon charged BK uber-unit, survived two rounds and was ran down.
By turn three 10 xb and a fleeing RBT crew were on the table, and I could position a unit with heroes on the altar, thinking which one to sacrifice.
Next turn there was not a Dark Elf on the table. I decided not to sacrifice anything, and went off to argue with Fish, who was playing Varden.
Fish is another, very nice guy, who tends to enter into arguments totally devoid of sense.
I call him “Master of Chaos”.
If playing Eshin Master Assassin, he will come back to you after the game, say – so sorry – and start rolling for the Fell-Blade.
A typical “Master of Chaos” argument phase is – about nothing. Whoever is right, has no bearing on the game.
Mind you, as member of the Riders of Hardcore club, Fish never cheats, and always smiles.
Club policy.
In the mean time… Varden VC – almost identical to mine (+2 PD, different banners), fared better.
First round – “Dębek” – Riders of Hardcore best Bret player – 12-8
Second round – “Żaba” – twice Poland’s best player, ETC team – Brets – 10-10
VC of the only cheat in EEGT – Varden doesn’t take kindly to such people – 20-0
Fish… surprisingly … Brets … 14 – 6.
Watching his game saved me from feelings of remorse (bashing DE with VC is nothing to be proud of).
In the final game it turned out I was to play Fish, and Varden my first round nemesis – Lires.
We quickly placed some bets on who will fare better in this “correspondence” club contest, and went to our tables.
Fish made three mistakes before the game.
1- He argued with Varden
2- He told me Varden won due to amazing luck.
3- He told me he has a very good record against VC.
So I was well motivated.
Reading his roster – (by this time we decided, the secrecy would be nonsense – he knew my roster was like Varden’s, I watched his army play for an hour…) I nodded with approval.
As far as Brets go, this was not a disgusting roster (not like my VC).
I particularly approved of leaving 20 points of unused magic items allowance on the lord, and taking a knight instead of immunity to Killing Blow.
Very fluffy.
Could come in handy, I thought.
Trebuchet exploded, round one, Grail Knights never really saw combat – misplaced.
As it often is the case with two offensive armies, the first one to make the move – loses.
BSB failed his charge against 5 BK (possible overrun into VC general), The Stubborn Grail, fluffed, but stood.
So did the Huge Errants, in the side of Uber BK.
Next round, The General and BSB tried to help the Errants, to no avail.
The BK Killing-blowed the Stubborn Grail, and in my turn charged the general.
KB on the general, KB on the BSB, wards failed, lance run down.
Another lance failed terror and died on monstrous-sized Fell Bats, another was bogged down and broken by two units of ghouls.
Peg Knight trying desperately to reach The Vampire lord were caught by wolves, and defeated by Blood knights.
It was all over but the shouting..
………………………..
Insert photo.
With three rounds to go, Fish had a Lance of Grail Knights, fleeing Peg Knights and 2 dispel dice., against my entire army.
I let him rally the knights, and we counted the points, as of this moment, though of course The Rider of Hardcore offered to quickly play till the end – I answered, that I’m not interested in such points, and preferred to chat.
So the result was only 18-2 in my favor.
Varden fully avenged my defeat by Lires, crushing the HE 18-2 and finishing a deserved third in the tournament.
I placed an undeserved sixth, due to a broken roster, and fighting Dark Elves.
Conclusions;
Drakenhof Banner VC, ETC-comped or not, should not be allowed to play Dark Elves, unless Jankiel is the Elf general.
They do quite fine in a non-comped surrounding, against 2 ST and 2 Trees armies, and will inevitably have to choose between Demons, Empire or Wood Elves with Staff as ETC opponents.
As always, any attempt to restrict army composition for a tournament – just makes VC stronger. VC do not suffer under ETC restrictions – on the contrary. Armies which are their natural enemies – are cut down by restrictions (Empire) , so VC get relatively stronger.
Tournament overview – time well spent.
Nice rulepack, fair and chatty opponents, the best referees.
International players should definitely take this tournament into consideration.
I hope Barb’s imagination will not run dry next year, and he will be allowed to introduce scenarios and restrictions, which will allow all to enjoy their time here, even more than they did this year.
Insert photo.
