Genghis Con Fantasy Tournament Report (with pictures!)

So, I recently got back from Genghis Con, which is our area's yearly (bi-yearly?) big event.  There's a 40k GT (which I competed in) and then a 3-game Fantasy tournament on Sunday.  This is my report on how my Dark Elves did at this tournament.
 
So, first, here's my list at 2250:

Supreme Sorceress w/ Pendant of Khaleth, Lifetaker, Sacrificial Dagger, 6+ ward for unit vs. warmachines, General, Lore of Shadow

Master w/ Cold One Chariot, BSB, Halberd, Armor of Eternal Servitude, Full Mundane

Master w/ Cold One Chariot, BSB, Crimson Death (S6 sword), Full Mundane

10x Crossbowmen w/ Shields, Standard, Musician
10x Crossbowmen w/ Shields, Standard, Musician
10x Crossbowmen w/ Shields, Standard, Musician

30x Warriors w/ Shields, Standard, Musician, Flaming Standard (Sorceress went here)

20x Black Guard w/ Standard, Musician, Banner of Murder (Armor Piercing)

Cold One Chariot
Cold One Chariot

Hydra
Hydra

So, it has 4 Chariots and 2 Hydras.  Somewhat difficult to deal with, though it wasn't exactly the way I wanted it to be.  My 2nd Master w/ chariot came about because of weird extra points I had, and ... well... I realize it's not really optimized.  But let's try and move past that, shall we?

The idea is that everything I have can be pretty potent, whether buffed with magic, or alone, or hunting in packs.

I should also give the disclaimer that the games I played in this tournament are games 6,7, and 8 for me in 8th edition.  I have very little experience in this new edition, so if I do something boneheaded, feel free to correct me.  Trolling will be ruthlessly deleted however :)

I was hoping to get three laid back games.  After the drama (that is still going on) about Genghis and who got what prizes, I just wanted to relax and roll some dice.  

So, Game 1:  Dark Elves vs. Orks and Goblins

So, I got paired against Ryan Taylor, who had painted his army in a week.  Literally, a week.  The models were all great tabletop quality, and I was super impressed with it all.  Here's a picture of his army, first:

Lots of models for a single week, eh?

He was a very cool guy, and got my vote for 'favorite opponent'.  Here's a link to his blog, check it out!


His list (from my very poor memory):

Level 4 Shaman
Black Ork General
Black Ork BSB (sorry, no real clue on what wargear for any of them)

20x(ish) Black Orks w/ Great Weapons
20x Goblin Archers w/ 2 Fanatics
35x(ish) Goblins w/ Nets, Full Command
35x Big 'Uns

5x Spider Riders
5x Spider Riders
Boar Chariot
Boar Chariot

Troll
Troll
Doom Diver
Rock Lobba

So, lots of guys.  I was excited.  I'd never played against Ork models in an Ork/Goblin army!  Rather, I've been stuck with lots and lots of pure goblin players.

The table (as you'll see) had a bunch of buildings that we decided to simply use as impassible terrain.  It might have made the game less tactical or something, but as we were both somewhat new to this edition, we wanted a simple game.  I'm very happy we did it like this :)

FOR BIGGER PICTURES, CLICK ON THEM!!

Here's our deployment.  My crossbows were ready to shoot down his spider riders on the right, as well as a chariot.  On the left, his Black Orks held the shaman, and were screened by his Goblin archers.  My chariots prepared to crash into them one at a time.  In the middle his two big blocks of guys formed up, behind his trolls. My Hydras + Blackguard + Spearmen faced them.

You'll notice that I don't really have any of my models from one 'section' of the board supporting any other sections.  It's because I'm a bad player, and I ended up forcing myself to play what was virtually three individual games.  The terrain didn't really help, but that's what happened.

The game had some relics that we held on to, that gave your unit that had them a reroll per turn.  I honestly forgot to use the reroll every turn.  They help with the various battle modifiers, but don't really do anything from a game play perspective.

I won the roll to go first, and since in 40k I know that in Victory Points/Kill Points missions I normally want to go first, I took first turn.

Dark Elves Turn 1:

Well, I just kind of generally advanced.  I failed stupidity on my far left chariot twice, and he almost ran into the building.  The others advanced 7".  The Hydras advanced nearly their full amount, and my Black Guard kind of scooted around the building.

Magic failed me, and I got irresistible force on Pit of Shades.  It scattered off, and the miscast killed a few spearmen, lol.

Shooting went alright, with the archers killing a couple of his spider riders from each squad.  My Sorceress used her flaming Lifetaker (flaming because of the standard) on a troll, and caused two wounds to it.

And then it was his turn.

You can see the relic on the back of my spearmen's base.  Lol, a whole rank was taken out because of the Sorceress's inability to not fail :)

Orks Turn 1:

Only one charge:  he charged a chariot into my Hydra.  Otherwise, it's a general advance for him.  Nothing too crazy.  Of note, the archers marched forward, and launched their two fanatics at my chariots, both of which came up short.

In magic, he used a number of magic missiles which I was able to block most of.  Then, he used the Waaagh! spell, and I couldn't block it because I had run out of dice, thinking he wouldn't cast the spell.  But cast it he did, and advanced everything.  Luckily for me, the trolls blocked his advance in the middle, but a few spider riders got into the flank of my right hydra.  The chariot on the right got really close to my crossbowmen.  Yikes!

Shooting, I think he got misfires on both machines and it was combat.

In combat, the Hydra predictably mulched his poor chariot, and the other hydra murdered the spider riders, though the goblins somehow wounded the hydra once :-p

Well, the hydras stand ready, as do my chariots.  You can't really see it, but the boar chariot on the right is about to charge my crossbows.  Lucky I have a turn to shoot him.

Dark Elves Turn 2:

 I declared a charge with both hydras into his leftmost troll, both of which get there.  The three chariots charge the (very close) goblins, and one of the chariots gets annihilated by a fanatic.  Still, the other chariot who had previously failed stupidity was able to get in, so it wasn't a huge deal.

In magic, most of my stuff failed pretty bad.  The only good thing was reducing the Big'un's toughness by 1.

Shooting, I was able to kill his final spider rider on the right, and put a single wound on the boar chariot.  I was also able to use the Sorceress to snipe the last wound off his other troll on the right.

In combat, the Hydras were able to crush the life out of the troll with no real difficulty, and overrun into the big'uns.  The chariots were able to kill every single goblin to a man, without needing to overrun (without the stupid fanatic slaughtering another chariot, lol)

Well, I stand ready.  Hopefully he doesn't want to charge my chariots on the left with the fanatic there.  In hindsight, I really should have overrun there.

Orks Turn 2:

He charges the chariot on the left, and I choose to flee, and it got away.  He didn't want to charge the others because of the fanatic (2d6 S5 hits are kind of scary).  Huge goblin block with the General flank charged my Hydra.  The boar chariot on the right charged one of my crossbow blocks, and I stood and shot, somehow causing 3 wounds and killing it!

In magic, he cast a few things, but didn't really get a lot off.

Shooting, not much happened either.  I think he sniped another rank off my Warrior block.

In combat, the hydras simply murdered the Big'uns, who still had -1 to their toughness.  I think they ended up killing 33 total, with breath weapons and thunderstomps included.  Pretty disgusting :)  One of the hydras chased them down, though the other was locked into combat.

The Black Guard stand ready to charge into the flank of the Gobbos.  Notice how the Black Orks on the left are hiding behind the fanatic, who I'll need to charge through to get to them.  Bleck.

Dark Elves Turn 3:

Black Guard charged into the flank of the goblins.  The chariots simply moved out of the charge arc of the Black Orks, but prepared to charge them next turn.  My running chariot rallied by the way.  The Hydra who had overrun the orks earlier just stood there, apparently.  Lol.

In magic, I think I put the goblins toughness down by 1, like I needed it.

Shooting didn't do much.

In combat, I butchered a bunch of gobbos, who barely had enough guys to stay steadfast.

This is the last picture.  Game ended shortly afterward.

Rest of the game:

We had been playing somewhat slow, and the game was essentially over.  We played one more turn, and called it.  I got (almost) full points for the game, only having lost a single chariot.

For sure a great start tournament-wise, but Ryan was super cool, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game from a 'for fun' perspective as well :)

Lunch happened, then.  I was only running on a single hour of sleep after having spent most of Saturday night painting, and didn't want to drive anywhere for lunch.  So I ate there.

This is what I ate.  Healthy food FTW, lol.  I cringe, thinking back to that now.  It seemed alright at the time though ah hahaha.

Game 2: Dark Elves vs. Demons of Chaos


Heh, his army was so tiny!  I had to take a picture!

Lol, I was really looking forward to charging my chariots into his blocks.  You'll see how that goes.

His list (from memory):

Lord of Change w/ Lore of Life

Skulltaker (went into the plague bearers)
Herald of Tzeench w/ Lore of Death
Herald of Khorne


19x Plaguebearers
19x Bloodletters
19x Pink Horrors

2x Fiends
3x Fiends

Very very small, but lots of tough stuff.  I seriously had no idea the Lord of Change was such a badass in combat.  Flaming attacks on everything Tzeench?  Changeling can do what to Hydras?  Seriously?  I found this all out over the course of the game of course.  Yet another reason to play more than a few games before you go to tournaments and expect to win :)

One small note, the relics in this mission went into a core unit.  Only a unit with 10 models or more could carry it, and once it was reduced to under 10, it couldn't be carried anymore.  There were substantial bonus points available if you could get your relic unit to touch the enemy deployment board edge, and make your opponent drop the relic.

Deployment was weird, one corner of yours could deploy 16" up, while the rest of the guys had to deploy as 'standard'.

So, here's my fail deployment.  Seriously, Lord of Change?  Entirely ridiculous.  Notice how his fiends are directly across from my crossbowmen on both flanks.  Some of those units you'll never see again :)

Demons Turn 1:

He charged my outside crossbowmen with the fiends.  On the left, the crossbows caused five wounds to the fiends, and on the right, they caused three.  So, dropped a lot of fiends.  Then his Lord of Change charged into my crossbows on the right.  Heh, yikes.

In magic, he regrew his fiends all the way on the right.  Not much else, really.  Maybe a wound on a hydra?

Shooting he doesn't have, so lets try not to think about it.

In combat, the fiends on the left whiffed and the crossbows crushed them, losing zero crossbows.  The combat on the right did the same thing, only in his favor.  T6 S6 I10 for the Lord of Change?  Seriously?

See, his blocks there are putting pressure on me.  Notice that his plaguebearers are the ones with the relic.  I needed to make him drop the relic for lots of bonus points, which meant dropping them to under 10, and not letting him 'regrow' the guys.

 Dark Elves Turn 1:


Well, I had a pretty poor choice- charge with the chariots and have Skulltaker take a skull every turn, or get flank-charged by the Lord of Change/Fiends piecemeal.  I decided that since the goal was to wipe out the plagues, that's what I'd go for.  So, I charged the plagues with the chariots.  I also moved my Hydras into flame-template range of the other two blocks, to see what I could do.  The spearmen with my relic moved their full 10" forward, toward his board edge.

In magic, it was sort of weird.  I tried a Pit of Shades, and it went off, and then scattered off the horrors.  Well, it sort it scattered off.  It clipped his herald on the corner of the unit, the herald rolled a '1' for his 'Look out sir!', and then failed his Initiative test.  So, lucky break for me.  I'll take it though :)  The irresistible force the spell went off with reduced the Sorceress to Level 1, and made it so I didn't know any spells of use any more.  So, no more magic for me.

Shooting, I was able to kill the majority of the Bloodletters.  There were a couple ranks left, but overall, not many left.  Scattered shooting killed a couple more, I think.

In combat, Skulltaker killed the chariot, but the master stayed alive, somehow.  I was able to kill a completely obnoxious number of plague bearers, who didn't have regen because they had Skulltaker in the unit instead.  I think they were reduced to like 6 or less.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't realize that the stubborn standard was nearby, and they easily passed leadership.  Gosh, popping that unit in a turn would have been game over!  :-p

Hydra on the right, I'd like you to meet... the changeling.  Chariots on the right, I'd like you to meet the Lord of Change.

Demons Turn 2:

So, he declared some charges.  Lord of Change went into my lone 'in the back' chariot, and I decided to run him away.  The LoC redirected into the chariots already fighting Skulltaker.  Fiends did the same.  Horrors charged a hydra, who (foolishly) stayed.  Bloodletters charged the other hydra.

Magic didn't do much- I saved all my dispell dice for his regrowth I knew was coming on the Plagues, and it worked.  He did cast another random life spell though, and it didn't do much, but it did heal Skulltaker's wound he took in the challenge.

In combat, the Skulltaker took my master's skull easy enough.  I was able to butcher all but one of the plague bearers, for a pushed combat.  The changeling did terrible things to my poor hydra.  Wow, I can't say enough how much of a surprise that was to me.  I thought I was going to be alright, but gosh, not so much.  They overran into the chariot who was fleeing (we might have actually done that wrong... ah well, you'll see it makes little difference).  The bloodletters did well against my hydra.  I tried to kill the Herald, but failed to hurt him at all- 5+/5++ saved like 5 wounds caused.  My hydra ran like a... witch with a b, and the bloodletters crashed into my Black Guard.
  

Well, at least that hydra survived.  Still, I was one sad combat away with the LoC to split the game wide open for him.

 Dark Elves Turn 2:

I didn't really have anything I could charge with.  My crossbows kept moving toward his table edge.

Magic didn't happen, nor did shooting.  Maybe I dispelled something in magic.  Some vines spell or something.  /shrug

In combat, the Black Guard killed all but a single bloodletter, and (I think) caused a wound to the herald.  They stuck around though.  The changeling easily killed my chariot, and the unit advanced.  My BSB was challenged, and I had to accept.  Skulltaker whiffed, but I again failed to take advantage of it and only caused a single wound.  My other chariot killed his last remaining plague bearer.  The game is actually already running out of time already.

Um, looks like this is the last picture.  Kind of crazy how slow the game can go.

Rest of the game:

I was able to get my spearmen onto his board edge.  The blood letters all died, as did the herald.  My BSB and other chariot were slowly whittled down and exterminated, but not before they caused a few more wounds to Skulltaker, which were healed every round.  LoC was largely unlucky and negated for most of the game, except to keep Skulltaker alive.

When we added things up, I had a slight advantage in points, but not enough to overcome the 200 point barrier that was a draw.  So, a draw, but I got another 9 battle points, for a total of 18 points.  Good enough for the 'top' table in round 3.  :)

Game 3:  Dark Elves vs. Bretonnia

Well, this was an army I had never played against even in 7th edition.

Here's the list as I remember it (sorry, it's going to be rough, I don't know names very well):

General on a horse, w/ rerolls to hit, and something that kills anything in a single hit on a 6+
Lvl. 4 sorceress on a horse

Lvl. 2 sorceress on foot (with a bunch of foot dudes)
BSB on a horse

8x 'normal' Cavalry
8x 'normal' Cavalry
8x Grail Knights?  These guys had 2 attacks each, and he said they were very good, lots better than the 'normal' Cavalry
50x Men at Arms (is that what they're called?) w/ Halberds
10x Peasant Bowmen
10x Peasant Bowmen

3x Pegasus Knights

Trebuchet
Trebuchet

So, my thoughts were this:  he's faster than me, what I can I do to counter that?  I didn't have much of a plan, to be honest.  I kind of figured that if he charged my crossbowmen and overran into a hydra, I could then get a flank charge on the cavalry with my remaining stuff.  Same with if he charged my Black Guard.  I also decided that the Mind Razor spell would help tremendously against his 2+ saves.

It was then that he told me that he would basically be going 2nd in order to get his 5++ ward save on everyone in his army.  Since the deployment zones were 16" up instead of the standard 12", I made sure to place my Chariots last.  Sure enough, he deployed the 'fancy' knights 16" up, and I put my chariots up 16" to face him.

Dark Elf Turn 1:

I declared a charge on his Immune to Psychology fancy knights, and got the charge off with only two, but the most important two- my two masters.  Otherwise, not much movement.  At that point, I remembered to take a picture.

See... got my two chariots into his fancy knights.  They're the ones with his Lvl. 4 inside.

 In magic, I was able to get the Peg. Knights down to T1, though my Pit of Shades again scattered off of one of his 'normal' knight units.  Can't get a hit with that thing!

Shooting put a single wound on the Peg. Knights.  Not enough, lol.

In combat, the two masters made short work of a lot of the knights, breaking them, and running the whole unit down.  He later claimed it was like 25% of his army.  Very lucky break for me, I think.

End of Turn 1

 Bretts Turn 1:


He charged a chariot who had been left behind with one of his remaining knight units.  He also charged my big unit of spears with his Peg. Knights.  In movement, he shuffled around and advanced his big 50 man horde.

Magic didn't do much, this turn or any turn.  I won't mention it again, lol.  He did forget to dispel the negative toughness spell on his Peg. Knights though.  Excellent!

Trebs killed a few black guard.  :(

In combat, he killed my lone chariot easily.  The spearmen killed all but a single wound off of his Peg. Knights, but he somehow made his double-1 leadership and stayed.  Ut-oh.  I needed to be able to get out of the charge path of his 2nd knight unit.

Dark Elves Turn 2:

Well, I didn't have any charges this turn, unfortunately.  I posed my Black Guard to be ready to charge his knights once they assaulted my Spearmen (foolishly- my spearmen were already kind of worn down both from my casting, and a miscast earlier.  They didn't have many ranks left).  The hydras got ready to flamer his Horde to death.

Magic happened, and I tried to cast Mind Razor on the spearmen, and got a ridiculously high number.  He rolled all his dice at it, and got double-sixes.  Dangit!  That could have won the game for me right there, I think, since S8 is money against knights, especially 15 re-rollable attacks.  Ah well.  Magic is apparently fickle.

In shooting, my Hydras flamered the shite out of the men-at-arms, but kind of whiffed.  They ended up killing only about 30 of them or so.  Which sounds like a lot, but being as they could have had a lot more, it wasn't very much.

In combat, the spearmen finished off the Peg. Knight, and got ready to be bum-rushed by his knight unit lining up on the other side of the oasis.

Bretts Turn 2:

He charged his knights into my spearmen.  Surprise surprise.  His other knight unit moved around, so as to avoid being charged by my chariots who had formed up to charge him.  Sad face :(  Men at arms charged a unit of my crossbowmen.

Shooting didn't do much.  Well, maybe this was the turn he killed my BSB.  It hit the master directly, and he failed his Regen roll.  He made me take off the whole chariot model- is that what happens?  I was a little under the impression the chariot got to live, but I took him at his word.

In combat, the spearmen lost, and didn't have enough ranks to stay stubborn.  They ran and were chased down.  The same happened to the crossbowmen, except they weren't caught, and the men at arms crashed into the flank of my black guard.


Dark Elves Turn 3:


Well, I had nothing to do but reform what little I had left.  The chariot on the right got ready to charge his peasant/treb hill.  A hydra of mine meandered over to do the same thing to his other treb area.  The other Hydra got ready to charge the back of the men-at-arms.

Magic... was no more.

Shooting did nothing.

In combat, the Black Guard ended up losing combat because of him being in my flank, and they passed their stubborn leadership.  They then failed to reform into 'ass-kicking mode', and stayed the way they were with a frontage of TWO. lol :)

Sorry, no pictures this game apparently.  See how the Black Guard are stuck there fighting the Men-at-arms?

 Bretts Turn 3:


No real charges, so he just shuffled around, and got ready to charge me next turn. 

Shooting didn't do much, or magic.

In combat, the Black Guard were finally able to turn around, ready to kill the stupid Men-at-arms (who couldn't hit them except on a 5+, lol)

Dark Elves Turn 4:

I had lots of charges.  One hydra charged the back of the men-at-arms.  The other hydra charged the Trebuchet.  The lone chariot on the right charged the Treb hill.  I think everyone ended up panicing, including the archers everywhere.  They were gone for good after that.  Woot.

In combat, I wiped the rest of the Men-at-arms, and turned to face the horses.

He made me put the hydra in front of the Black Guard.  Not sure why, it didn't make a lot of sense.  I need to learn the rules a little better apparently.

Bretts Turn 4:

He charged his general into my Hydra, and his other squad into my Black Guard.

No shooting or magic to be had.

So, the general one-shotted the hydra.  And here I thought I'd be in a good position to kill off his remaining knights, lol.  Stupid of me.  Now I knew why he insisted on my hydra being up front tho.  I won't let him pull that trick again.  They overran into the Black Guard, who killed the rest of that unit, before the General saw to it that they were all dead.  Had he not been in that combat as well as the Hydra one, the Black Guard would have survived the round, winning me the game...

As it was, the game ended, and he barely squeaked a win, by about 25 VP.  It was only after we turned in our sheets that I realized that one of my chariots was actually a Master, and it should have been a draw.  Lots of things for me to remember for next time :)

Final Results:

Well, I knew I wasn't going to win any of the 'overalls' or 'best generals', but I thought I had a chance in the painting and sportsmanship.  As it turned out, I got 2/3 votes for 'favorite opponent', and my painting scores were... well.  If you want to know what happened with my painting, look at my previous post.  It wasn't professionally done, really.  ANYWAYS.

I ended up getting 'Best Tactician', which was the guy who got the most battle point modifiers.  I only got like 20/27 or something, but that was apparently good enough for best.  For my troubles, I got a cool little dagger, and a Fateweaver box, valued at $50.

My prizes!

A closer look at the dagger.

And so my Genghis ended.  It was a fun event, and well-run.  Elliott was a great TO, and while I really wish they had judged my painting the way they had everyone else, the tournament was overall an excellent event.  I wish every event I played in was that well-run for sure!

So, thoughts?  Questions?  I'd like to hear what you have to say!

Stay tuned for my 40k GT reports, for the full blow-by-blow on what happened.  :)