On Saturday, I played in my second Deadzone tournament. I debated playing Enforcers instead, but they were not painted, so Forge Fathers it was. My list hadn't changed at all, mainly because I hadn't done any painting since the last time. The only thing that changed was I started naming the minis since the rank and file look very similar. I decided to go with Norse names since the fluff gives the Forge Fathers a little bit of a Norse feel. So, taking the field for the Star Realm were Jarli, a Steel Huscarl, three Steel Warriors, Lodinn, Hrodi, and Balli, and two Stormrage Veterans, Bjorn and Valbrandr. The only one of these named after someone specific was Valbrander, named after a certain viking in the SCA who really would like to have a flamethrower.
Rather than post a blow by blow, I'l just give the high (low) lights and/or lessons learned. We had three players show up, playing Forge Fathers (me), Enforcers, and Plague, As I'd asked about Marauders before the Plague player showed up, the organizer threw together a Marauders unit so we'd have an even number. 1) Snipers suck. FF don't have them, but Marauders and Enforcers do. Two of them really suck. 2) Protect your leader. Losing tactical dice sucks. 3) Don't forget your special rules. My first two games (both close losses) change dramatically if I remember that my rank and file get armor piercing 1. 3) Zombies suck. At six points and no VPs, you can have a lot of them. my opponent in game two had 12 or 13. The only reason he didn't have more was he didn't own enough figures to do it. If the Plague player can make the zombies threatening enough, you HAVE to deal with them while he scores points. That was a vicious beating. 4) While flamers are not especially effective against many things, flaming a square full of zombies pretty much empties that square. Good for clearing off an objective, but that's about it. 4) None of the FF had surnames, but Valbrandr earned the name Minetripper by tripping the booby trap in three of four games. The only one he didn't trip was the one against the Plague when it was tripped by a zombie.
I ended up in third place (because the organizer refused to claim first as he was running the tournament) with a record of 1-3. My only win was in the last game where I played the Marauders again, who'd beaten me in a close one in round 1. Shawn, who organize the thing and was undefeated at the time, was a little to generous and magnanimous in the first turn, trying to promote fun and make sure I had a good time, which resulted in me killing one of his big nasties, a sniper, and his leader in the first turn. That and me remembering my armor piercing dominoed into a very lopsided win for me and the only loss for him.
All in all it was a fun day. I only felt helpless in one game because six space dwarves, even in armor, have a hard time answering anything that can put 18 models on the board. There's gotta be a way to do it, though. The enforcer player, also with only six models wiped him off the board the next round.
