Tournament Report: Adepticon Fantasy Championships (with pictures!)

Howdy there folks!  How's it going this fine day?  I've already put up my 40k Championships battle reports, you can read it here.  Following a day that had exhausted me mentally, I was ready for some ridiculous (and fun!) games of Fantasy.  I've found that magic can make the game quite annoying, but if you don't approach the game as anything but an opportunity to roll dice, it's actually really fun :)


Here's my Dark Elf list, 2200 points:

Supreme Sorceress w/ Lifetaker, Sacrificial Dagger, Pendant of Khaleth, Ironcurse Icon, General, Lore of Shadow

Master w/ Cold One Chariot mount, Armor of Eternal Servitude, Dragonsbane Gem, Potion of Speed (because I had extra random points to spend), lots of mundane including Halberd, BSB

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

30x Warriors w/ Shields, Musician, Standard, Banner of Eternal Flame, Lordling (lol at extra points)

Cold One Chariot
Cold One Chariot
Cold One Chariot

20x Black Guard w/ Full Command, Banner of Murder (armor piercing)

Hydra
Hydra

So, it's kind of hybrid high-toughness list.  Everything has the potential to hit hard, and lots of it is actually really hard to deal with.  Maybe not as optimized as I'd like it to be eventually, but I can talk about that a little later.  Let's move on to some battle reports!

Game 1:  Dark Elves vs. Matt's Tomb Kings!

Here's his list (copied from the list he gave me afterward):


Tomb King w/ Armor of Silvered Steel, Talisman of Preservation, Great Weapon
Liche High Priest w/ Collar of Shashep, Feedback Scroll

Tomb Prince w/ Glittering Scales, Ruby Ring of Ruin, Shield
Liche Priest w/ Casket of Souls, Golden Ankhra

30x Skeletal Bowmen w/ FC
30x Skeletal Bowmen w/ FC, Banner of the Undying Legion

Tomb Scorpion
Tomb Scorpion
20x Tomb Guard w/ FC, Icon of the Sacred Eye

SSC (Catapult, if there was any question)


So, I'll be honest and just say I haven't played much this edition.  I think I finally got into the double digits on how many games I've played thus far, and I have given up a lot of time theory-hammering stuff out, but my inexperience is likely pretty telling in these games, to veteran readers.  Still, there are likely things you can learn from it.  I'm not a terribad player, and at least you can see how chariots did against a wide variety of opponents :)  If I missed something random though, let me know.  I'll be happy to answer questions if you have them!

So, that being said, I had no idea how the Tomb King magic worked until I stepped into this game.  Seriously, the fact that he could have like 8 rounds of shooting with his archers every turn along with all kinds of charging/movement shenanigans, was a big surprise to me.  I had to learn on the fly, heh.

The Mission:

I'm not a big fan of the 'your units are randomly deployed' scenario, but that's what it was.  I think it's officially called Dawn Attack.  It seems to me that they're negating one of the most important parts of the game- deployment.  Ah well, it was what it was, and I just wanted to roll dice anyways.  There was also a rule that made it harder to shoot in the first two turns, but it didn't affect his always 5+ to hit skellys.

He won the roll to deploy first, and took it.  I didn't roll a single '6' to choose where to deploy stuff, but most of my stuff appeared in the center or on the right.

Here's a picture of our deployments.

His casket was another thing I wasn't really prepared for, lol.  I think his Liche High Priest was by himself on the right, which is important.

Tomb Kings Turn 1:

He shuffled forward a little with his skellys, getting ready to shoot the shite out of me.

In magic, I got a 6 to dispel dice, and also channeled one for one of the first times ever :)  He was able to make his guys shoot a lot, but I dispelled his attempt with the Casket.  His shooting took down lots of my big warrior block.

In shooting, he again shot my warriors, who were brought under 50%.  I wasn't worried about that per sey- I'd rather just sit in the back and shoot/magic it up with that unit anyways.

Notice on the left how sad-faced my warriors are, lol.

Dark Elves Turn 1:

I jetted my guys forward.  Not much else I could do.

I tried to get Pit of Shades off on his guys, and passed, only to have it scatter off.

In shooting, my Sorceress was able to snipe off a wound from his Liche High Priest.  Woot!

Vroom!  Also, notice the poor chariot on the right who failed two consecutive stupid checks, haha.  Stalled out.

Tomb Kings Turn 2:

One of his scorps came in, and misfired, so I got to choose where he came in.  I wasn't sure where he would be most useless, so I decided to have the Black Guard take care of him.  I positioned the scorp in a way that he wouldn't be able to escape the Black Guard charge next turn.  Otherwise he just shuffled back a few inches, ready to shoot.

In magic, the same sorts of shooting shenans, but this time directed at Hydras and Chariots, to little effect.  I shut down the Casket again :)

Shooting was more of the same.  Nothing too crazy though.

Notice his Tomb Guard unit on the far left.  It makes charging those archers somewhat scary for the chariots.  Also on the far right, observe the Scorpion, who will be charged next turn :)

Dark Elves Turn 2:

I declared a charge with the Black Guard on the scorp, and then advanced everything up, the Hydras ready to use their breath weapon.

Nothing too exciting in magic phase.

In shooting, the Hydras were able to roast a bunch of skellys.  The Sorceress was able to snipe the last two wounds off his Liche High Priest, which was huge (320 points!).

In combat, the Black Guard shredded the Scorp, and reformed.

It just seems like chariots take SO LONG to get where they want to be!

Tomb Kings Turn 3:

He had his last scorp come in, and I had put my crossbows over the hole, so if he got a 'hit' result, he'd be in combat with the crossbows instead of my General's unit (warriors).  Same 'move back and shoot' shenans.

Same stuff in magic- he had significantly less shooting this phase, because his Liche Priest was gone :)

...and same stuff in shooting.  Luckily, he's spreading his shots around on my guys, and not causing many wounds with his S3 vs. my T5.

In combat, the crossbows were glad for their standard, and drew combat with the scorp.  I forgot, but I actually think I should have won that combat, since I had a musician.  Ah well.

Well, my guys are approaching, steadily.  At this point, I just wish the Black Guard were relevant to the game.

Dark Elves Turn 3:

One hydra charged the (heavily depleted) skelly archer block.  The other just wheeled around, threatening the other skellys on the left.  The Chariots decided to just advance, forcing the Tomb Guard to get a 9 if they wanted to charge them in return.  I reformed a squad of (at this point) useless crossbows to charge his scorp if I could next round.

In magic, I got a pit of shades off on the Tomb Guard, but only killed like 3.  Magic was somewhat of a nonfactor for me this game.

Shooting didn't do much.

In combat, I was able to kill all of the skelly archers, and reformed my Hydra to face the rest of his force.  The scorpion combat continued at a standstill.

The chariots are poised to either win the game with powerful charges, or auto-lose if he rolls a 9 to charge me.

Tomb Kings Turn 4:

He charged my Chariot, rolled an 8, but was extremely close to the chariots.  Little did I know he could use them to charge in his magic phase.

In magic, first thing he attempted to do was charge my chariot, but I was able to block him.  Whew!

In shooting, he finally brought down my middle chariot, through some outstanding rolling!

Combat continued with the scorpion vs. crossbows, both sides doing very little.  At least next turn I'll be able to give some reinforcements!

Well, next turn was do or die for me.

Dark Elves Turn 4:

I was able to charge the Tomb Guard with my BSB chariot, and with the Hydra on the flank, who didn't take his bait of the skelly archers.  However, my other chariot rolled the '2' he needed to FAIL his charge, which made the combat suddenly very scary.  The crossbowmen charged his scorp rear.  Everything else just kind of advanced, and got ready.

In magic, I was able to cast -3 toughness on the Tomb Guard.  Big roll :)

In shooting, not much happened.  More plinking away at his skelly archers who he would next turn just regrow again.

In combat, the chariots and the hydra and even the beast masters were wounding on 2's, with armor piercing or S5.  Their strikes back were uninspiring, and the whole unit (including his General) exploded.  In the other combat, the crossbowmen popped the scorp as well.

Well, that makes the game far easier for me.  Less magic, less combat threat.  -d3 toughness spell is ridiculous sometimes!

Rest of the Game:

We played a little more, but it was essentially over.  I killed his other skelly archers, and didn't take my final turn, since I had most of the bonus points possible, and the others were impossible to achieve.

Results:  23/25 win for the Dark Elves!  Hooray for getting smushed next round!

Matt was a great sport and was obviously pretty excited for the new army book to come out.  His army was pretty cool, and I seriously had no clue what kind of things he could do with it.  He took an unassuming list and made it actually pretty scary!

Man of the Match:

Well, it was more like the Woman of the Match.  My sorceress was able to snipe his Liche High Priest, and then casted the -3 Toughness spell at just the right time.  She was also responsible for shutting down lots and lots and lots of extra arrows, casket attempts, etc in the magic phase, with her L4 awesomeness.  Her impact on the game was undeniable, though it never seemed like she did very much per round.

Game 2:  Dark Elves vs. Silas' Empire!

His list:

Arch Lector of Sigmar w/ Armor of Meteoric Iron, Dawnstone, Van Horstman's Speculum
Wizard Lord w/ Rod of Power, Crimson Amulet, Lore of Shadow

Captain of the Empire w/ Biting Blade, Enchanted Shield, Luckstone
Warrior Priest of Sigmar
Warrior Priest of Sigmar

48x Halberdiers w/ FC
48x Halberdiers w/ FC
29x Swordsmen w/ FC
23x Greatswords w/ FC

Mortar
Mortar

Steam Tank

So, he had a LOT of infantry.  Like, enough that my chariots wouldn't be able to do a whole lot, even with all of them charging the same target, most likely.  Frustrating, but that's how it goes!  This is one of the things I need to change about my list.

The mission:

It was the 'standard' deployment, and we set up like so:

I wanted the Hydras to take on one of the huge squads- I figured if they could both get into combat, they'd be golden eventually.  I also deployed the warriors w/ the Sorceress directly across from his Steam Tank, to use Pit of Shades on it turn 1 if possible.

He won the roll to go first, and took it.

Empire Turn 1:

He moved up some, and hit me with some mortars, killing lots of my dudes (including most of my crossbowmen in one of the units)=.  That huge template is pretty ridiculous for 75 points, lol.  He generated steam from his tank and ran away from my sorceress, haha.

Also, he cast some debuff stuff on my guys, which I didn't really care about yet.

Dark Elf Turn 1:

I advanced.  The Hydras sprinted forward, ready give some flamer love to the halberdiers in front of them.  The Sorceress likewise sprinted forward, ready to use PoS on his Steam Tank.

In magic, she did just that, and the Stank died a (very satisfying) death.

In shooting, the hydras killed over half the unit, though they did roll a lot of 1's to wound.  My crossbows caused a ton of wounds to his great swords (like... 7) and he passed every 5+ save he took. 

Next Turn would be interesting...

Empire Turn 2:

He kind of just shuffled his guys around.  He kept shifting his Wizard around from unit to unit with the Smoke and Mirrors ability granted by Shadow magic.  One unit of swordsmen got into the tower on the right.

His magic phase was crazy- he was able to kill both hydras by laying a template down in between them with his own Pit of Shades, got the spell off, and rolled another hit (3/3 so far).  I hadn't realized he could place the spell in between them like that, heh.  Lesson learned, but learned the hard way for sure.

In shooting, his mortars killed a bunch of my Black Guard, and more warriors. (5/5 on the scatter dice)

So... no more hydras.  This game suddenly got a lot harder.

Dark Elves Turn 2:

I charged his hydra-depleted halberdiers, who chose to run.  He rolled a 3 to flee, and all I needed was a 5 to catch them.  Instead, I rolled a 4, and my black guard were suddenly exposed to his unharmed great swords.  The chariots also charged, and all 4 got into combat with his other big unit of halberdiers.  The sorceress and warriors just reformed a little bit, facing toward the action.

I cast the minus 2- strength and Mystifying miasma on his halberds- they would be striking at S2 with WS1 against the chariots, heh.

In shooting, I again did a ton of wounds to the great swords, and he again saved like 4 out of the 7 I caused.  Not good at all.  His rolling was... well.

In combat, the chariots killed a ton of his guys, and he did nothing back, but he held due to steadfast.

Well... next turn looks to be painful.

Empire Turn 3:

His great swords charged into the Black Guard.  His swordsmen got out of their tower.  His hydra-depleted halberdiers rallied.  Yikes.

His magic debuffed me a little bit, but didn't do a whole lot.

In shooting, he got another 2 direct hits on my warriors (7/7 direct hits with scatter, with no misfires), who failed their panic check, and almost ran off the board.

The combat with the Black Guard vs. his Great Swords wasn't much of a combat, since he had depleted the unit so much.  I killed a few, and he in turn wiped me out.  (that's the unit with the general, if you're wondering)  The chariots killed a bunch more halberdiers, but they held again.  Better do better, or the Great Swords would be in their flank or rear next turn.

So, a great turn for him, I'm running out of units!

Dark Elf Turn 3:

My sorceress + warriors failed to rally, despite their musician, and ran off the table.  Awesome.  Not much else to do, really.

In shooting, I started killing more Great Swords.  Not enough though.

In combat, my chariots finally won the day, and chased down the halberdiers, along with one of his priests, and his wizard!

At this point, he's likely to win.  But for some reason we keep playing, lol.  Can't believe my warriors failed two leaderships like that in a row.  You'll see though- next game they continue to do their thing, lol.

Empire Turn 4:

His great swords charged a chariot, and failed their charge.

In shooting, he finally missed! Well, with his first shot.  His second shot was a direct hit on my Master's chariot, he wounded, and rolled a 4, killing the chariot (I think the master actually died in the halberdiers combat).  (8/9 direct hits on scatter die, with no misfires)

Well, if I can just hold out for a little longer... maybe I can kill his Great Swords?  lol, I dunno why we kept playing.

Dark Elves Turn 4:

I moved my chariots away from his blocks who were coming for them, ready to shoot his Great Swords.

Shooting killed more Great Swords.  Woo.

Looks like I deleted a picture, whoops.

Empire Turn 5:

He declared a charge on my chariots with his halberdiers, and needed an 11.  He got it, and made me sad.

His mortars again hit both times and killed another chariot.  (10/11 direct hits with his scatter, no misfires)

In combat, the chariot was defeated, and he overran into my final chariot.

There were a few objective points to getting a unit into the enemy's deployment zone- I had my chariots and he had his swordsmen.

Dark Elves Turn 5:

We thought this was the end of 6, actually.  It didn't really matter a whole lot- I shot and killed his Great Swords down to 1 man, with his general.  They failed their leadership- which as it turns out is MEANINGLESS in this edition.  So, no points from that.

He failed to kill my chariot, and we called it there, since we thought it was turn 6.

What I had left:  3 units of crossbows, 1 hurt chariot.
What he had left:  a few halberdiers, 1 Great Sword, his general, and all of his swordsmen.

Results:  Loss for the Dark Elves, 9/25 total points!

He was a good player, with incredible luck.  Honestly, he never misfired, and almost never missed with his scatter die.  I still think I could have pulled this one out, had my hydras not both failed their tests, and had I not been an idiot and put them so close together.  Just gotta learn from my (very dumb) mistakes.

Man of the Match:  Hm, gotta give this one to my crossbowmen.  They were the only ones who didn't really fail hardcore.  They almost combined to kill all of his greatswords- if he hadn't made so many saves with them on his first turn, it would have also likely been a different game.  Ah well, that's just how it goes sometimes.

Game 3:  Dark Elves vs. Jack's Skaven!

His list (didn't get his list from him- the only time in the whole weekend!):


Grey Seer w/ some wargear?
Special Character guy with two blades- looks like a badass

Huge unit of Clanrats w/ Weapons team
Huge unit of Clanrats w/ Weapons team
Even huger unit of slaves

Smallish (for skaven) unit of gutter runners
Assassin
10 Plaguemonks

Hellpit Abomination
Hellpit Abomination

The mission:

It was the weird diagonal deployment thing, where you roll to see who stays off the board.  His slaves stayed off, and one of my chariots did.  He won the roll to go first, and took it (0/3 so far in going first this tournament :-p)

Our deployments were pretty close to each other.  Since I deployed 2nd, I made it so that he'd have to roll really well to get his charges off. 

Skaven Turn 1:

He didn't get any charges off, thank goodness.  He advanced a little bit, and waited for me to do my thing.

Heh, gotta kill those HPAs as quick as possible.

Dark Elves Turn 1:

Well, the plan was to see how 2 hydras did against a single HPA.  So, I charged them both into his single guy.  The chariots charged his plague monks on the left, and the Black Guard charged his Clan Rats in the center.

In magic, I was able to bring his non-combatted HPA down to T4, which was huge.

For shooting, my sorceress shot his HPA with her flaming bow (thanks to the Banner of Eternal Flame), and caused a couple.  The other crossbows, who were close to that HPA and were wounding on 5's instead of 6's, were able to bring it down :)

In combat, the Hydras and the HPA traded blows.  Wow, that thing can fight!  I think we drew combat.  One way or another, we stayed where we were.  The Chariots killed the plague monks and overran, and the Black Guard killed a ton of his Clan Rats, but of course they stayed where they were.  His assassin was in that unit, as was his grey seer, and I was able to put a wound on each.

Well, the battle is on in full, on the bottom of 1, lol.  Very straightforward thus far.

Skaven Turn 2:

His slaves came in and charged my hydras.  Yikes.  His free clanrats reformed.

Magic didn't do anything I remember too much.  I think he got some magic missiles off at one of my crossbow units.

Shooting was a lesson for me.  He had a flamer weapons team, who were able to kill one of my chariots, and I was lucky the others didn't die as well.  His other team killed a bunch of warriors, who, true to form, again failed their leadership, and ran.  (0/3 leaderships passed for them thus far)

In combat, we fought more, and I almost killed his HPA, and also killed a bunch of slaves.  We stayed fighting.  One hydra was almost dead at this point, and the other was hurt.  The black guard/clan rans combat went on, the clanrats again taking heavy casaulties, but sticking around by virtue of steadfast.  I was able to kill his assassin and his grey seer though, at least.

No picture this turn.

Dark Elves Turn 2:

I reformed the chariots, and got ready to charge his 'free' clanrats.  Not a whole lot else to do.  Oh yeah, the sorceress/warriors again failed their rally (needed a 10 or less) and kept running. (0/4 leaderships)

In shooting, I killed both weapon crews, or whatever they're called.  Woot.

Combat went interestingly.  I was able to kill his HPA, but in return, he won combat and popped both hydras.  Interesting.  The Slaves overran into the Black Guard.  The Black Guard kept the butchery up, but the rats hung in there.

You can see my other chariot from reserves approaching on the left there.  His general is the skirmishing unit between the chariots on the top and the clan rats.

Skaven Turn 3:

Not much for him to do.  He moved his general and the skirmishers out and around the two chariots, and shot with them at a chariot, but didn't do a whole lot.  Magic was non-existent.

In combat, the Black Guard were slowly being whittled down.  They ended up winning combat, and the clanrat block was nearly dead.  The question became:  could the black guard hold on long enough to wipe the clan rats out, before they were overwhelmed?

No picutre this time either, apparently.

Dark Elves Turn 3:

The chariots charged into the unhurt clanrats on the left, and my general again failed to rally, but still not off the table.  )(0/5 leaderships)

We skipped straight to combat.  The Chariots did well, and killed a TON of the clanrats, but they stayed in combat.  The Black Guard killed a bunch more clanrats as well, and only lost a few.  It was going to be tight!

Well, he still has his general, who I know nothing about since it's closed lists.  Guess he'll get to charge next turn though.

Skaven Turn 4:

He crashed his general into my chariots.  No shooting or magic.  Our turns were getting fast :)

The chariots were able to pop their clanrats, and the gutter runners/general didn't do much, and they ran them down as well.  The Black Guard finally succumbed, before wiping out the rest of the Clan Rats.  Ah well, they held that unit up for a long time, and killed a lot of vermin :)

At this point, I just really hope my general rallies.

Dark Elves Turn 4:

The general rallied (thank god!) and the crossbows shot and killed all of the remaining clanrats.  He had his big block of slaves left, and we decided to call it there.

Results:  Win for the Dark Elves, 20/25 total victory points  (as a note, it was tough to get all the points in this one- you basically had to table them, and do weird things like kill their general with your own general, so 20 was likely one of the highest results)

Jack was a cool guy, and the game was for sure fun, despite the presence of those two HPAs.  Wow, those things can fight!  Two hydras are usually enough for any monster, and they were this time as well, but only barely.  Glad I was able to kill off his other HPA with shooting, or I might have really been screwed.

Men of the Match:

Gonna have to give this one to the chariots this time.  They killed the plaguemonks, a huge unit of clanrats, and probably most importantly, the gutter runners and the general.  They were also instrumental in shooting up the clanrats the Black Guard failed to kill.

All tournament, when I walked around the tables, it seemed like every other list was a Slann/templeguard list, and I had gotten lucky thus far not to face one.  In fact, I hoped I didn't have to face one at all- only one game more to go, right?

Game 4:  Dark Elves vs. Matt's Slann Lizardmen!

His list:

Slann Mage-Priest w/ BSB, Power Stone, War Banner, Focus of Mystery, The focused Rumination, Lore of Light (which was a surprise)

Skink Prist w/ Sking Crew, Dispel Scroll, Luckstone, Ancient Stegadon

11x Skink Skirmishers
20x Saurus Warriors w/ Musician, Standard Bearer, Hand Weapon/Shield
20x Saurus Warriors w/ Musician, Standard Bearer, Hand Weapon/Shield

14x Temple Guard w/ Banner of Eternal Flame
3x Terradon Riders
5x Chameleon Skinks

Stegadon
1x Salamander
2x Salamanders

The mission:

This was the one where you tried to whittle your opponent down to having 3 'points' or less.  The number of points your opponent has is equal to how many standards they have, plus 2 for the general.  So, in my list I had 8, I think (3x crossbows, black guard, warriors, BSB, General).  He had a total of 5 (saurus, saurus, Temple Guard, BSB, and Slann).  The only way I win this mission is by killing the slann, since 4 points are tied up with him.  So, we began deploying.

His temple guard/slann are on the far right.  He deployed them very last, and I reacted with 3 of my chariots.  I figured they could likely crack that unit, especially if I could get my debuffing spells off on the Temple guard.

Guess who failed to go first again?  :)

Lizardmen Turn 1:

His vanguard for the terradons went up (before we rolled) and then went over my black guard, dropping some rocks, lol.  It killed a few.  Everything else kind of shambled up a little, but didn't really move too far up.

In magic, he took 4 wounds off of one of my Hydras.  Ouch!

Shooting didn't do a whole lot. Funtimes?

See the terradons behind the Black Guard?  Heh.  His chameleon skinks are in the building on the right.

Dark Elves Turn 1:

I moved up.  Not much else I could do.The plan was to avoid the salamanders as much as possible.  In reality, I just wanted to distract his other guys from my chariots, since they could shut the game down as quick as possible.  The hydras did move up as quick as they could, hoping to bait a charge.

I'm sure I cast some spells, but I don't really remember what they were.  I should have cast pit of shades on one of his stegs, but I don't think I did.

In shooting, I was able to kill 1/4 of his far left saurus group, and they randomly fled.

See how the irrelevant saurus are fleeing?  lol

Lizardmen Turn 2:

He charged my hydra with his Stegadon.

Epic, if you ignore that the hydra is missing 3 heads and a tail.  Traveling with fragile models makes me a sad panda

The saurus also charged the wounded Hydra.  Salamanders moved up, ready to flamer me.  Everything else just kind of shuffled around.  The saurus rallied, by the way.

In magic, he was able to kill my wounded hydra, and the saurus warriors crashed into the side of my unwounded hydra.  Ut oh!  On the bright side, that was exactly what I wanted to happen- there was nothing barring the chariots from getting into his Temple Guard now, except for magic.

Shooting cleared out a few ranks from my Warriors.  Yikes.

In combat, the Hydra decided to try and win combat if he could, to hold everything there.  So, he put all his attacks into killing saurus warriors.  It worked, and the beastmasters were able to kill the Priest riding the Ancient as well (he already had a wound on him from a miscast earlier).  Hydra won combat, but he stayed stuck in with me.

Go chariots go!

Dark Elves Turn 2:

I charged my Black Guard into the side of the Saurus.  My lone chariot charged his two salamanders close to the warriors (who wisely fled).  Otherwise, it was time to shoot and magic it up!

In magic, I got the Mind Razor off on the Black Guard.  Excellent :)  Not much else of note, really.

In shooting, I killed a ton more 'irrelevant' saurus on the left.  Woot.

In combat, the black guard ripped the saurus a new one, and the Steg ancient either died or fled.  Either way, both units disappeared, and I pursued one of them with the hydra.

Chariots are getting very close now...

Lizardmen Turn 3:

He had no real choice but to charge one of my chariots with his templeguard.  His other steg charged into my black guard, and his 'irrelevant' saurus charged into my hydra.

In magic, he made his Saurus I10, and in doing so, also got a miscast, rolled snakeeyes, and every single temple guard model died.  Madness.

Shooting didn't do much.

In combat, the chariot did a wound to his slann, and they both stayed.  The Black Guard, who were still under the effects of the Mindrazor, killed the charging Steg before it could do anything to them.  The Hydra killed a bunch of Saurus, but failed to break them.

Almost time to win?

Dark Elves Turn 3:

The other chariots charged in on the Slann, and we decided to just resolve that combat.  The Slann died, and we called it, since he had reached his 'breaking point'.

The saurus are untouched by the hydra because we didn't roll them.  

Results:  Win for the Dark Elves, 21/25 total points!

Matt was a fun opponent, and probably my favorite of the day, though all of my opponents were great!  It was an excellent day of dice rolling, and very laid back compared to my high-strung, extremely frustrating 40k Championships.  I was glad for the opportunity to play, though I knew I didn't get any awards, so we went out and got a pitcher of margarita :-p

Men of the Match:

Gotta go to the Chariots again, since they won the game for me.  Honorable mention goes to my Black Guard though, who killed a full unit of Saurus, ensured his Steg Ancient went down, and single-handedly killed his other steg as well.  Sure, they had the Mind Razor.  They still rocked it though.  Mindrazor is disgusting on them, happily :)

Overall Results:

I ended up with 12th overall, out of 140 players.  So, I think actually better than I had done in the 40k Champs.  Not enough to win a prize or anything, but I was happy with my showing.  I got to play 4 great opponents, and a good (I thought?) representation of the currently competitive armies out there.  2 HPA-skaven, infantry swarm empire, and Templeguard Slann are generally considered 'top-tier' anyways.

It was a fun event, and I learned a lot about the game. If the schedule is the same next year, I very much hope to compete in this event again.  Funtimes had by all :)

Oh, I should tell you real quick how the top table in the last game played out, since it made me laugh.  It was Demons vs. Orcs and Goblins, and the gobbos went first.  First turn, a mortar hit the demon bloodthirster, wounded, the thirster failed his ward, and the gobbo player rolled a 5, killing the 'thirster, and winning him the game.  heh, it might be annoying if it wasn't so satisfying to hear about a Bloodthirster going down like that :)

So, ask questions, comment, do whatever.  Hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading :)