Orktoberfest Recap!

Why "Die another Day?" I thought I was going to get done this weekend in Brissie... This was not to be the case.

I am just now becoming conscious again after my weekend in Brissie playing 8th ed at Orktoberfest. Orktoberfest was using very strange rules. Lots of 7th ed tide overs. If you were running at the end of the game you were counted as destroyed, hills were counted as being unlimited hight (limiting TLOS), max 12 power dice a turn period, etc... Day one had a truncated scoring system too which was strange. The most you could win on day one was 15 points. Conversely the least you could score if you lose was 5. Narrowed the field so that day two was tight and competitive. The tourney mainly ignored missions which I thought was rather silly. All in all I probably would not have gone had I know how much they were monkeying with the game in the players pack. On the whole though I was really happy and I am very glad I did go (I just hope that next year they will leave the game alone!).

Thursday night before the event I was one of the chaperones for our lower school sleep over. I had two kids vomit, one kid pee in a corner, a crier, a roller in his sleep with a swishing sounding sleeping bag and a snorer. All in all no sleep. I then taught the next day and while my fellow staff when home to crash I caught a plane and flew across Australia to play war dollies. Was really tired all weekend. Never again...

Game 1: Pete Dunn: Skaven. Pete is a veteran player who I last faced years ago at Liber Animus. He is the Number one ranked NZ player and happens to be the guy I was staying with up there. When I last played Pete I lost badly and had to grow my hair for 6 weeks. YUCK! No bet this time. He had a VERY hard list with 2 WLC, an abomination and a furnace. I got slapped around in this game. Pete is a really good player and I hadn't play tested my army at all. Learned alot about 8th ed and I with my 5 points I was ready for round 2.

Game 2 and 3: High elves and Dark Elves... Game 2 was against a high elves list with no bolt throwers, a lvl 2 mage, and lots of seaguard. The fiends and the Thirster got stuck in and the rest of the army hammered down the middle. Bloodletters made short work of just about everything they touched. I did loose one combat against two swordmasters and a noble on a griffon. Despite the reroll the unit whiffed its leadership badly and popped. OUCH! By turn 5 he was finished though and I took 15 points to game three.

Game 3: Dark Elves: No hydra, no bolt throwers... Weird... Lots of magic, some crossbows, a cauldron and lots of elite units (witch elves, black guard, etc). Bloodthirster go stuck in with a first turn charge against some corsairs. It axed that unit and ran them down when they fled. It then turned around while the rest of the army hit the front lines. I generally did pretty well. The flamers got into a shooting match against lots of crossbowmen and over three turns I wiped them out. Ended with another 15 win.

Dinner, sleep... Coffee... Breakfast...

Game 4: Played another vet player with a Slann and skink list. Massively annoying to play. Chris was great fun and I really enjoyed him but his army was like getting hit in the face a hundred times by little fists every turn. It was fine in the beginning but boy was it annoying by the end. I thought I had his Slann in turn 5 but the silly bugger was able to just get out of my charge arc. I couldn't kill enough little crap for points as he ran from almost every combat. In the end he won 12 to 8. I was raging after that and my next opponent was to feel the wrath.

Game 5: High Elves. Little bit of everything. I smashed one side of his army and ate through the other side. Could not get through his swordmasters and mage though. I eventually got them into combat with my horrors who I buffed to be +2 toughness or toughness +4 for the last few rounds and held them up. The game was about to end with a major victory to me when he hit my thirster with a comet of cassandora and took off a bunch of wounds (I forgot my ward bonus for Magic resistance). He then finished him off with a lucky bolt thrower shot. My victory dropped to 12 points. Hey, I will take it!

Game 6: Warriors of Chaos. My opponent had a shrine, two big blocks of warriors, a big block of knights, and a daemon prince. Turn 1 he got too close to my thirster with his knights. The Thirster got close up and personal and over a few turns ate the knights. Meanwhile one unit of his warriors got dual charged by my horrors and a blood letter block. I won that combat and swept into his DP. The horrors took him down surprisingly and the rest of the game was just wiping things up. 20 points to me.

I packed up and ran for the airport only to have my flight delayed. Missed the awards ceremony but found out later that I came 7th. Not to shabby. I am very proud of this as I was aiming for dead middle of the pack.

With my placing I almost became eligible for the Victorian Masters event. I was ranked higher than number 10 but then I learned that not all his results had not been put in. As number 10 is Chris Cousins who helped me to get the army together in the first place... What can I say... I couldn't argue with his being placed above me. He helped me get where I am now. No worries. As I am now number 11, I hope someone drops out and I get a shot this weekend...

Have a new army to use to... Coming soon... Pictures of my BLOODY RATS!!!