Tournament Report: Xaereth takes Dark Elves to 2014 Bugeater GT Fantasy (lots of pictures!)

My Dark Elves!

What's up, folks! This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 4th annual Bugeater GT in Omaha, Nebraska. I've been to this event every year it has been run, and I've loved it every time! This year was a little different, as I didn't really feel like playing 6th edition 40k since 7th is already out.

So, instead of playing a game that no longer exists, I decided to touch up my Dark Elves and take them to the Fantasy GT! I've been to a couple other Fantasy GTs in the past (Adepticon a couple different years), but this was the first one I've been to in favor of attending a 40k GT.

In the past couple years, I've played about 6 games leading up to this tournament (you can find the batreps for those games elsewhere on this blog), and so was extremely rusty. Still, I figured I'd have fun at the very least :)

Fantasy Tournament Report: Dark Elves 2000 Points (with pictures!)

Last Saturday, I played in a local 2000 point Fantasy tournament. There were no restrictions, and I was really looking forward to getting in games 4, 5, and 6 with the new Dark Elf book. Since my 1500 point tournament over a month ago, I painted a lot of stuff: 2 Bolt Throwers, 20 Executioners, and 5 Doomfire Warlocks. I was excited to see how they would do!

This tournament was in large part in preparation for the bigger, more awesome Bugeater GT I will be attending next week. While the Bugeater is 2500 points, this would at least give me a refresher on how the army could work, remind me about the rules, and just generally help me to be more prepared.

 List and reports after the bre

Upcoming Events and What I've Been Up To (Fantasy, Warmachine, 40k, etc.)

Howdy, folks! Today I made a tough decision. As you well know, Warhammer 40k is my primary game, and I travel all around the place in order to get smacked around by my betters. It's a fun game (usually), though as you may or may not have noticed, I've become somewhat disillusioned by GW and their silly (i.e. atrocious) business practices, particularly in how they treat their customer. And, as you must also know, 7th edition has struck recently, only 2 years after the most recent edition.

As you may also have known, the Bugeater GT is coming up in a couple weekends. The new edition has not been around for a month yet, and as such, Tim has (wisely) chosen to stick with 6th edition. This has given me a lot of thinking to do on how exactly I want to experience the Bugeater.

Pondering Re-jumping into Fantasy and my Dark Elves...

What's up, folks!

Lately, I've been a little disheartened by the state of 40k. This is not really a new development - many people are tired of the way GW has handled 40k. And, while I still enjoy 40k, I'm pretty sick of needing to play one of the few viable codices/builds in order to do well. And, not to brag, but I don't really have anything to prove. I've made the top bracket in almost every major tournament I've attended in the last year and a half (which is like, 5).

My ego can afford to take a break for a while.

So, I have a number of things I want to accomplish in the hobby. One of them just happens to be jumping back into Fantasy!

Adepticon 2013 Fantasy Championships GT Report (with pictures!)

Howdy, folks! Today we travel to a strange alternate universe, where models come on square bases, and there is an entire phase specifically devoted to Psyker powers. This land, called Warhammer Fantasy, is actually quite fun to mess around with, and I've had a Dark Elf army for quite some time now, though I've admittedly only really dabbled in the game, as my first love is 40k.

The short version of the long story for me at Adepticon is that I had wanted to play in the 40k Team Tournament, but was unable to for various reasons (mostly, tickets sold out ridiculously fast), and instead was faced with the option of either playing nothing on Saturday/Sunday, or dragging my Fantasy army over to Chicago.

While this might seem like a no-brainer to most of you, I assure you, for me it was a dilemma as I hadn't played Fantasy for over a year and a half.

With that, let's jump on over to my list and the grizzly details and my inevitable 5 rounds of failure (or... lackthereof?)

'Ard Boyz Fantasy Semi-Finals Battle Report- Lots of Pictures!

 

Heh, the mascot to my army.  I don't have the base for him, and he's since I took this picture, he's shattered into a thousand pieces.  He's not actually even mine, don't worry- I didn't paint him or anything.

Hey there folks, how's it going today?  Good, I hope!  Today, I've got a tournament report, from my attendance at the Semi's for Fantasy 'Ard Boyz!  It was fun, and I wanted to see what good I could do- lots of ridiculous lists at the 3000 point level, and I wasn't disappointed!  There were, I think, either 9 or 11 players who showed up from all over the state, and I was pretty sure I would just fold, due to my lethargic, apathetic approach to Fantasy, since it isn't my 'main' game.  Guess you'll get an opportunity to see if it actually worked out that way :)

I hadn't played since the Prelims, more than a month ago.

Um, before we get too far, here's the link to the Prelims battle report.

And here's a recap of my previous Fantasy 'Ard Boyz appearances:

'Ard Boyz Fantasy Prelims Battle Report (with lots of pictures!)

So... my friend lent me a hydra the day of the tournament.  He'd painted it years ago, and had apparently lost the base.  This necessitated the creation of my own.  Like it? 

Hey there folks, how's it going?  Last weekend I went to the local 'Ard Boyz Prelims for Fantasy.  As many of you already know, I don't really play Fantasy a whole lot, the more accurate word is likely 'dabble'.  That being said, I've had a little bit of success in the past, and I certainly don't mind spending the day playing a few fun (competitive) games for the chance to get free prize support!

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 :)

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.

Pictures of my newly painted Cold One Chariot

Well folks, I realize there has been a drought of actual solid content from me for a while.  This is due entirely to the fact that I've been painting furiously in order to be ready for the Fantasy tournament at Genghis this Sunday.  I've had:

Fantasy and Dark Elves, revisited

Today I've decided not to talk about impending BoLSCON or Warriors of Chaos like I said I might talk about, and instead keep plugging away at my Dark Elf army, since Tacticon is in September, and I need to try to get it as 8th-ready as I can before I actually go.

There and back again- A gamers tale

So, I'm back, and I'll be posting more frequently now that the World Cup is dying down and BoLSCON approaches.  Lots of things to talk about, I'm not sure I want to tackle it all with this one article tho.  Among the things I want to talk about are my Wolves, and the new Warhammer: Fantasy rules (and how they'll affect my Dark Elves).

Genghis 2010 Fantasy Tournament Report

Saturday was the 40k tournament, and I qualified for the tournament in Vegas, placing 2nd overall in a field of 60 players.  Sunday was the day I just had fun and played a non-serious non-competitive day of Fantasy.

Fantasy 'Ard Boyz Semi- Finals

Well, I went to the Semis, and was rather disappointed. I took what I think was a pretty reasonable list, but ended up losing one, tying one, and getting one massacre. Here's a recap of the action:

Game 1: Orcs and Goblins

Well, I played against a guy that I had (a year and more ago) played in my final game in 'Ard Boyz 40k Semi-Finals (and won by massacre, giving me 1st place in the tournament). He was the eventual winner of the entire event, though I can't help but feel cheated by the dice and quite a few of the rules he imposed, such as march blocking w/ fanatics (when he can't). He was a nice enough guy, but I left the game feeling like if I had to play two more guys like him, the tournament would be a long, long day.

Highlights include my Cold Ones failing their first two stupidity checks, then getting raped by a doom diver, my Hydra flamering 2 fanatics in my way, and rolling a 1 to wound both times (needing a 2+) with the fanatic going on to cause 6 wounds on my Black Guard, and his doom divers/bolt throwers with 6 leadership (he used 6, anyways, someone later told me it was actually 5?) passing EVERY terror/fear check they had to make (somewhere around 15 checks, all told). The biggest though, was my positioning my Black Guard to take a charge from his general's unit and a big block of orks on both flanks (but knowing I can kill enough that I probably won't take too many casualties), but holding both squads there for a rear charge from my dragon and some dark riders in both rears. I killed the front row of both orc blocks (using always strikes first), and so only lost like 3 black guard to his general. He still won combat because of the flanks, ranks, mass, etc. but thats what Stubborn Ld. 10 is for, right? I roll: 12. Okay, well thats what my BSB is there for, right? Reroll: 11 And then I run 3" and he runs me down.

On top of that, he took a long time to play, and so negated me getting a final turn anyways. I barely squeaked out a draw there. 11-11. Blah.

Game 2: Beastmen

I'd never played beastmen before, but I'd heard they were an 'easy' army to beat. Not so. This guy had apparently been ONLY playing beastmen for a long time, and was using a hero that allowed to 'ambush' with his entire army. He left his 6 chariots on the table, with his dragon ogres, and then 'ambushed' me with the rest.

His main guy used magic to charge my Cauldron of Blood, and his big block of Bray Shamans w/ gors charged a Hydra. CoB Hag challenged, got slaughtered by a guy that had S10, A14 or something stupid (and kept rolling wounds until he rolled a 1). He got overkill 7, and won, but I got away. He would then try to finish off the rest of the attendants the rest of the game, finally succeeding.

Other highlights include my Dreadlord with Executioner's axe ending two chariots, and the assassins w/ rending stars slaughtering his other 4 chariots and lord/hero/general guy. Also, my charged Hydra butchered the shaman squad he had sent at me during 2nd turn, and proceeded to go on a rampage.

I ended up tabling him for full points, 24-1.

Game 3: Ron Santoni's Demons of Tzeench

Well, as you probably don't know, me and Ron Santoni have been nemesi since we met more than a year ago at my first Tacticon, when I had to play against his demons. I'd never played against demons, but we had a very close game, and ended up with a perfect draw. He then went on to place 5th at the Vegas GT with that list. He ended up winning the 40k 'Ard Boyz Semi-finals this year, though in my defense, I wasn't there as I had to go to my friend's wedding. In the final match of a team tournament my friend and I had played in, we had to play against Ron, and we ended up with full points. Overall, a great guy, and really skilled player. The only problem is: I've never played against demons in Fantasy, and he has power dice Tzeench Demons.

He's a good player, and though I think the mission screwed me a bit, it was a rather sad matchup anyways. My Hydras didn't get their Regen saves against most of his shooting/casting, and most of his (very strong) spells only needed a 3+ to go off. It was a pretty brutal game, but he ended up killing most of my army, for a Major Loss to the Dark Elves. I'm happy to note, however, that I killed every herald in his army, and WOULD have killed the Bloodthirster a FEW times over, if he hadn't gotten re-rolls on EVERY armor save/ward save/leadership/to hit/to wound roll from the scenario. As it turned out, we were using the wrong scenarios for the tournament, and we shouldn't have been using those ones at all, as they were apparently last year's.

So, I didn't place in the tournament, and it was a little sad, but it was a fun game against Ron at the end, and I learned a lot about the various armies out there. I'll play next year, with my goal being to actually place this time!

Alright, I'm outro.