Toady we have a guest poster. My good buddy Drew whose ogres have been seen here on a number of occasions took Bretonnians to a one dayer on the weekend. Here is what he had to write about the weekend.
So I'm pretty settled in 8th ed, and I've given the ogres a fair shake of late so decided to shelve them for a bit. I gave the deamons a whirl, onyl to remember that everyone plays daemons, and they were quickly re-shelved. The greekskins didn't have the numbers to play 8th yet, which left me with Brets.
I used to play a bit of a deathstar in 6th, but that quickly didn't work and I haven't used them again since early 7th. They've had some good use from my club-mates, which was great. I dusted them off and looked at what I could put together.
Lord
Barded Warhorse
Virtue of Heorism (Heroic Killing Blow- GOLD!!!!!!!!)
Gromril Great Helm (+1 save, re-rollable)
Beserker Sword (Gain frenzy, never lose it)
Dragonbane Gem (2+ war against fire)
Potion of Quicknes (OuO, +3 initiative)
Prophetess
Barded Warhorse
Dispell Scroll
Ruby Chalice (After the phase in which she or her unit first take a wound, the unit can't be wounded on better than a 3+ from non-magical sources)
Battle Standard Bearer
Barded Warhorse
Virtue of Duty (+1 CR)
Banner of the Lady of The Lake (Enemies in B2B don't get rank bonus)
Damsel
Barded Warhorse
Chalice of Malfleur (At the start of each enemy magic phase, roll a D6. 1 Take a wound, no saves. 2-6 gain an extra dispell dice)
Knights of the Realm "The Star"
15 Knights
Full Command
Flaming attacks
Knights of the Realm
6 Knights
Champ, Muso
Knights of the Realm
6 Knights
Champ, Muso
Bowmen
16 Bowmen
Full Command
Braizers (Flamig Arrows)
Mounted Squires
5 Squires
Standard, Muso
Mounted Squires
5 Squires
Standard, Muso
Pegasus Knights
6 Knights
Full Command
The original lineup had the lord decked out to re-roll in challenges, but was persuaded to go for HKB, now that you can use it with a magical weapon. The berserk Sword was probably more of a liability than the 5 points it saved me on the sword of battle, but there was only one situation that I would have been better off not persuing in, and at the time I thought it would work.
In case it's not clear, ALL 4 characters would be joining The Star, bumping them up to 19 models (and 6 ranks to boot- hooray lance!)
Game 1
Opponent: Eric W (Sorry, can't remember what W was)
Army: High Elves
Scenario: Meeting engagement
I had played with my army once before, against high elves. Both times my opponent seemed not to want to take eagles, which I was quite happy to go with. Eric deployed on the line, and I opposite, a little back to keep my options open. Eric had lots of hard-hitting stuff (2x10 Swordmasters, 2*6 Dragon Princes, A lvl 4, lvl 2 and a bunch of shooting), so I didn't want to get overcommitted with the star.
I rashly decided to hit his spearmen in the building, hoping to assassinate the BSB and lvl 4 hiding with them. Trowing caution to the wind, as well as not reading the building rules properly (or not remebering them anyway), The Star hit the building. Firstly, I lost my lances (sad), and secondly, the lvl 4 didn't have to fight. Woops. However, the BSB stepped up and took aim with my HKB. Warded. Darn. My unit bounced and the elves expectedly held. I was now surrounded by a SM unit, DP unit and lion chariot.
They hit me, but I'd managed to get flesh to stone off last turn so I wasn't too upset. I lost abotu 1 knight to the charge, and managed to win combat due to my static CR of 6.
I countered with 6 knights in the chariot's flank, and that sealed the deal.
Meanwhile, the peg knights (who had started off-board), came on at my narrow flank and landed right next to the bolt-thrower battery. Not much else needs to be said there (:.
Game ended with a 20-0 my way, and I was quite pleased with how The Star had done. Even after a stupid mistake, they'd come good. Great game Eric, look forward to another!
Game 2
Opponent: Mark "The Skilled Man" Skilton
Army: Dark Elves
Scenario: Battle Line
Mark is a club-mate and I have played him on numerous occasions. The outcome can usually be determined by what army he is using. If it's something soft (like Dogs of War, or Beastmen) I will win. If it is something hard (like Dark Elves) I will lose. My army, and our skills are irrelevant. Mark took Dark Elves today. Sigh.
The army boasted 8 levels of maic (4,2,2), a slightly combat BSB, 10 xbows, 16 xbows, three bolt throwers, 2x5 shades, 6 harpies, 5 dark riders and a hydra. Oh, and he had some shooting too.
Mark did in deed concentrate all fire power on The Star, and had it limping my turn 2. A lucky magic phase on that turn allowed it to limp a little further than it should have really. His A-Wing came in the form of a hydra, who did manage to destroy The Star, but was blown up the process (on the receiving end of a HKB). My right flank managed to advance on him and get through, eating some bolt throwers and killing a mage with a throw-away spell. The peg knights hit his Lvl 4's power dice bunker square in the front, and managed to eat their way through it. The Lvl 4 had the pendant, but ran with the rest of the spearmen once I was through with them.
One rules issue cropped up (Discussion here) that resulted in the demise of my prophetess. The game is over and I don't care about the result, but I would like to know for future reference! Outside of that, the game resulted in a draw, which I was more than happy with considering the line-up!
Game 3
Opponent: Big Dave Durie
Army: Wood Elves
Scenario: Blood and Glory
I met David at Axemaster, and have always found games against him to be a pleasure. He didn't look happy at the prospect trying to stop my bus (which he would have to do if he was going to win the scenario). My army had lots of expendable peasant-banners, so I had a fortitude (?) level of 8. 4 of those were in The Star. David had 6, spread out over 3 units of glade guard and a BSB.
His army was an unkillable lord on eagle, BSB with HoD, Lvl 4 with scroll, three units of GG (one scouting), 2x10 dryads, 6 treekin, an eagle and a treeman.
I was set-up for an unfavourable overrun by a giant eagle, and I went in way too quickly. I managed to aim the overrun up with the flank of the tree kin, but I didn't get up to check how far they were. Naturally, they were more than 12" away, which had sealed the game to me. I took dryads and treekin in one flank, treeman in the other. Miraculously, I took no wound of the treekin (two had to fight my lord), two from the dryads and a couple froum the treeman. I killed a treekin in return and because they lost their ranks, I got mine back and won the combat. Only the dryads broke. After one more round I shrugged off the treekin too.
I managed to get a small Knight unit to charge his BSB's unit, which got it to run toward the board edge. Then some squires made it run again and they were off.
My peg knights snuck along the flank, but in turn three took all thre glad gaurd units shooting and ran off the board. Cowards!
In the final turn, I managed to blow the treeman and that freed The Star up to go hunting glade guard. The day was mine, despite my hammering at the hands of tree-spirits.
17-0.
So two wins and a draw, not to mention favourable comp (7/10, 6/10 and 6/10 for each game), put me into my first ever podium place! I even had a draw overall with Ben Leopold (the overall winner), but he took the prize on countback. I spent my winnings on the spot, and bought myself a copy of Settlers of Catan (a great game if you're curious).
Great day was had by all, and I look forward to some of the other events the Battle Bunker Boys are going to run. The only complaint on the day was about byes (which the TO was fully aware of but unable to avoid). Annoying, but sometimes unavoidable. Didn't sour the day in my eyes, nor in the eyes of those affected that I spoke to.
Cheers again!
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