Bayou Battles reflection

So Bayou Battle XIII has come and gone. Despite being the army I've played the longest, my orcs were finally done Thursday night. Below is what the creaming horde looked like.

What you see above is:

a Krudger on a winged slasher

a Flaggit with the Diadem of Dragonkind

two Godspeakers

two Gore Rider regiments

two hords of Trolls

two Morax regiments

a Greatax horde with the Brew of Haste

and a Wardrum

Results varied. 

In game one I came up against shooty ogres. This was the only game all weekend where I didn't feel I even had a chance. He shot up the units with longer range than his and charged the ones that didn't once they got in range. With no shooting to speak of, I couldn't do much. Big win for him.

In game two I came up against an ogre list designed to make me come across the board at me. Terrain and disrupted charges let me soak up a couple of charges I othewise wouldn't have and I was able to cave in both flanks. Medium sized win for me.

Game three was against a really great guy with his Empire of Dust. His shooting dice hated him. He missed with 16 of 17 shots with his three catapults, and the one he hit he retracted because he realized afterward that he was shooting at an individual and should have been minus one. It was a great game, but timely break test rolls on his part changed it from a very close game that I was probably losing to a blowout for him in turn six. This was probably my favorite game of the weekend and got my my second best game vote.

After game three I was done and ready for dinner. I forgot there was four games on day one. So when pairings were posted I was not really into the game or ready to play. I drew an Orc list that was pretty but had some questionable choices that should have been easy for me to exploit. I was able to lose the game pretty much on deployment. I deployed like I was facing a shooting army, not a face bashing one and paid for it. Big loss on my part.

After day one, I was about as down on the game as I ever was on WFB. I had 26 battle points in four games. My last game should have been fun, but I just wasn't into it. Food helped, and Sunday would be a better day. 

Then there was the Giant Bash. It was a rather toned down affair as far as Giant Bashes go, as we had a couple of younger players with us. I managed to be the last giant standing with a total of 1 wound left at the end and won a Darklands Scecchus, Servile Fiend of Dis, made by Mierce Miniatures. I suspect I know where that bit of prize support came from, and if you're reading this and responsible, thanks. 

On day two, I was determined to have a better time, win, lose or draw. For game five, a scenario that involved only taking loot and getting off the board with it or holding on to it until the end of the game, I made another deployment error and let my opponents Salamanders grab three of the five objectives in turn one. I grabbed the other two on my half of the turn and then he dumped his tokens back and let a skink (or KoW equivalent) unit grab them up and head for the board edge. It very nearly worked, but on turn five I was able to make a rear charge with the Krudger and grab the tokes back. So that one went from a close loss to a complete win in the space of one turn. If I'd failed to rout the skinks, they run off the table edge on turn six. This one got my best game vote, which was a tough choice. I ended up giving this one the nod because it really game down to a single charge. I rout them, I win. I don't, and he wins.

Game six was my first game against an Undead army. I expected this one to go badly for me, but the units on my flanks out-punched the units on his flanks and my big horde in the middle out-punched his. He failed three consecutive rolls for Bane-Chant to attack one of my units with one of his. I got so disgusted that I used one of my re-rolls to make him re-roll one of his dice on the third one, which he passed, letting him wipe out that unit. (Maybe too much altruism, but If he fails that again, the game gets even uglier and more lopsided than it ended up being in the end. As it was he had only his general and the scenario dragon left at the end of turn six, and I lost a unit of Gore Riders. No one got any bonus points.

So I got 26 battle points in four games on day one and 36 in two games on day two, for a total of 56. I'm pretty happy. I finished in 21st of 48 player, for the best big tournament finish yet.  I'm not sure, but I think this may be the first GT I've finished in the top half.  The big takeaway, now that I think about it, is that in six games, there was not a single unpainted model on the table. First time ever for a ft for me.

Now my big worry is getting more practice painting so I'll feel worthy of painting a beautiful model like Scecchus.

One Down...

Orc Boar Boyz Gore Riders

So my first multi-based unit for KoW is mostly done. I've got a couple more to go for Bayou Battles. I may, at some point, add shields to the ones who don't already have them. I may not. The guy with the shield in the center was intended to be a Krudger mounted on a winged slasher, but the spear didn't work with the mount, so he became part of a gore rider unit.

Restraint? The Hell You Say!

So my preorder Deadzone box came yesterday. The urge to jump in, dig out the new models and begin painting them is powerful. However, I still need three units painted for my Orcs for Bayou Battles. I also need to multi base those three units as well as some repairs to another unit. 

Any bets on how long I make it? I've opened  he box to make sure everything is there and that is it. 

Of course, I could totally play a game or two using Space Marines I already have as Enforcers...

Can't Leave Well Enough Alone.

I have the models to make a completely painted army for Bayou Battles without painting a single model. I really do. However that's not the army I want to play. I still want it to be orcs, with troll and savage/morax regiments as the bulk, but I want some cavalry, and not goblin cavalry, which means painting. And I really like how the krudger on the winged slasher played, so I need to paint that. And I need to finish up the war drum, because its pretty awesome too.

At least I can get into some looking multi-basing with the gore riders since the models I have don't rank up well at all.And you know, I've got enough savages to completely redo those units as well...

Bayou Battles Report

Bayou Battles is in the books and once again, I took a savage beating. After a convincing win over a Dwarf army in round one, my orcs got their comeuppance again and again. Rounds two and four were against armies of small cavalry units, and I had no answer for them. Rounds three and five, I had possible answers, but bad deployment and bad decisions threw the games my opponents' way.

However, I took the opportunity to try out my recently inherited D40 and document the armies that caught my eye. Sadly, I know there are some armies I missed, like the cow/dwarf army from my game three and the ship-bound high elf army. There were also at least two beautiful tomb kings armies I missed and another wood elfe army I know of that's really nice.

If anyone recognizes an army and can put a name to it, please tell me so I can add a name. If it's yours and you don't want the photo up, let me know and I'll take it down.

My offering to Bayou Battles this year.

Dwarfs - Andrew Heinrich

Tom Dietzel's Orge Kingdoms Army

I'm not sure if he was going Dwarf or Chaos Dwarf, But I like the army. I don't know his name, but I see him at every event.

Ogre Kingdoms - Jeff Franz

Dwarfs - Tim Delmas

Wood Elves

Ogre Kingdoms - Ryan Smith Took second in Player's Choice and third in Best painted (Or maybe those were reversed.)

Skaven - Jeremy Lamonte

Daemons of Chaos (or Warriors maybe) - Scott Filgo

Lizardmen (Yes they look like Spartans, but they're apparently lizardmen).

Dwarks - Pete Reese. The blades on the gyros actually spin, and the barrels of the guns light up.

Skaven

Empire - Russell Helms Too second in Best Painted and third in Player's Choice. (If Ry'an's was wrong, then so is this one.)

Warriors of Chaos - Chris Cole (Not his army, but he was playing it.) The was my round five loss. The game was lost on the last combat of round six. Excellent game.

Ogre Kingdoms

Orcs and Goblins (Apparently with some lore of undeatch) Matt Reisch

Vampire Counts

Dwarfs

Daemons of Chaos - Jeff Swann The photo does not do the display justice, not that the photos do any of the armies justice.

Warriors of Chaos

Dwarfs - Julien Lesage

Orcs and Goblins - Nate Culver

Daemons of Chaos - Edward Oh - (Won Player's Choice and Best Painted)

Daemons of Chaos - Chris Davis

Dark Elves

Skaven

Skaven

Chaos Dwarfs

Bayou Battle...Not as Bad as Last Year

First, Bayou Battles in Houston has been fantastic each of the three times I have been. When I say it was not as bad as last year, I refer to my performance. I think my paint score will be worse than last year, because I was in a rush and a little sloppy. Tomb Kings are far more forgiving of quick painting than High Elves. However, I achieved a grand total of 31battle points in five battles last year, which came from four losses and a draw.

The Dragon Army (with no actual dragons and dragon models representing things that are not dragons) won two and lost three and, adding in bonus points, the total for battle points cam out to 57 this year. The best I have ever done in BP before at a two day tournament was 42 at the 2012 Bayou Battles.

The Dragon Army:
Prince: armor of destiny, Sword of Might
LVL 4 Archmage with high magic, dispel scroll talisman of preservation
Noble: BSB, Shield of Merwyrm, Crown of Command
LVL 2 Mage with light, channeling staff
Noble: reaver bow, potion of strength

28 Spearmen, full command, Banner of Eternal Flame
22 Archers, standard bearer and musician
5 Reavers

23 Swordmasters of Hoeth, full command, Banner of Swiftness

4 Repeating Bolt Throwers
Great Eagle
Great Eagle
Frostheart Phoenix

Game 1: Erin's Dwarfs
Erin's army was nicely painted and unique in that many of her models, one unit and two of the three characters were female minis. She brought a block of 29 hammerers, 28 Longbeards and 20 quarrellers, two gyrocopters, 1 each of cannon, grudgethrower, and organ gun, a BSB, a runesmith and a thane.

She forted up around her artillery, I forted up around mine and we both tried to flank with out flyers and fast cav (well, my fast cav and our flyers).

She focused most of her shooting on my phoenix and archers. I focused mine on her war machines and then quarrelers. Between the bolt throwers and reaver bow, I killed the by turn two. Then I killed the organ gun with more bolt throwers in turn three. Also in turn three, I started moving across the board, finished off the quarrelers with mass shooting, and dropped fiery convocation on the longbeards, killing about a third of them. On turn four I charged the longbeards with the swordmasters from the front, an eagle in the rear and the phoenix in the flank.

On five, she counter charged the phoenix with her hammerers, giving it a couple of wounds. I then counter-charged the hammerers with my spearmen and charged the thrower with the other eagle. On turn six, the pile of nasty finished off the longbeards and the eagle finished off the thrower. However the pile of nasty could not get the BSB or Runesmith, and the hammerers finished off the phoenix. That's how it ended. She had her hammerers and characters. I lost the reavers and the phoenix. I'd gotten 1500 and change and she got 335.

I realize that walking across the board was unneeded as the shooting exchange had left me up 600+ to 95. All of her shooting was gone by the end of turn three except the thrower, so the likelihood of me killing it with shooting in the next round or so was pretty high. She'd also misfired it on turn three, so it was taking turn four off., giving me a free round of shooting at it.

However, there were still three turns and over an hour left, so I went ahead and committed to combat because it seemed like more fun. Thinking back now, I could have expended better effort for the final VP, but I just now thought of that three days later. I was pretty sure I'd come out on top in combat, and win anyway, but perfectly willing to accept defeat if I'd gotten smacked for it.  It turned out to be a good thing, because Erin kept telling me all day and the next about how much fun she'd had and what a great game it had been. I missed out on one the bonus point, so it ended up 19-5.

Game two: Alan's Wood Elves
This was another pretty army, in fairly standard WE color scheme just very nicely executed.
He brought:
Lvl 4 Spellweaver w/ Metal, and the Sceptre os Stability
Lvl 2 spellsinger w/ Heavens on an elven steed, with a dispel scroll
Glade Captain BSB with the dragonhelm, and the Hail of Doom Arrow on an elven steed
10 glade guard
6 glade riders
6 glade riders
6 glade riders
6 glade riders
10 deepwood scouts
10 deepwood scouts
10 wardancers
8 Sisters of the thorn
5 wild riders
5 wild riders
6 waywatchers
6 waywatchers

He killed two bolt-throwers on turn one before I had even gone, I killed a number of small units, but he killed more of mine and stayed away from my big units. Because there was so much more movement in this game, I do not remember it as well as the first, other than he used his movement and shooting to pick me apart, killing all the bolt-throwers, the phoenix, and archers. He got most of the scenario objectives and I got none. Final score was 5-17.
Despite the fairly solid beating I took, this was a great game. Like Erin in the previous game, I had a great time losing.

Game three: Brian's Warriors of Chaos
This was a nasty list run by a good player who placed in the top three in both the 2013 and 2014 Bayou Battles for Best General. In addition, it was an awfully nice looking army with some very intricately kit-bashed models, specifically the daemon, which he said was made of bits from (I think) 12 different models. I recognized the head and arms of a Minotaur lord.

I don't know the WoC book well enough to know all that he brought, other than a block of 24 or so warriors with a caster in it, two chariots, a daemon prince, a nasty mounted character, three small units of hounds, a hell cannon-thing, and five of the big cavalry dudes. I managed to kill a chariot and some hounds with bolt-throwers in turn one and then they quit hitting. For the rest of the game, all bolt-thrower shots missed. I did manage to kill the chariots, the hounds, and two of the big cav dudes.

He had me tabled by turn four, except for the phoenix, which was fighting the cannon. both were down to a couple of wounds when the DP and cav hero showed up and finished off the phoenix in turn five.
I do not think the game turned on my bad shooting, but it did not help. I think he would have won anyway, I just may have had some models left by the end of the game if I could have weakened/killed some of his nasty units. I did get one objective by using more of the bonus scrolls than my opponent. Final score, 6-19

I finished day one with 30 points, one point shy of my 2013 total and 12 short of my 2012 total.

Game 4: Ryan's Dark Elves.
This was the only unpainted army I faced all weekend, but I could see where he was going with it, and I hope to see it when he's done. It should look really nice.

He brought a block of witches and the cauldron, a block of executioners, some cold one riders, two scout units, three fast cav units, and a general on a flying thing.
VPs didn't matter, only capturing the objectives.
Pit of Shades. That sums up the game. All of my tough units got pitted twice, and I managed to avoid his witches for most of the game. He used his fast cav and scouts to take out my war machine. I used fiery convocation to kill his executioners who were holding an objective. I lost my objective rying to make a last turn stab at getting his, which worked, but left me barely in the charge arc of the witches. At that point I conceded the game. He wanted to play it out, but I pointed out that he already held two of the three objectives, I had nothing left to take the objectives he held already, and my six swordmasters wouldn't hold out to the two cav units and flying general that were about to charge it.

I might have actually managed a bad game vote from him because he seemed pissy the entire game, and despite winning, argued the stupidity of the HE rulebook when he did not like how some magic items stacked.

I managed two objective points for holding my primary objective for at some point, so the final tally was 20-7. The funny bit, and part of why I cannot really complain is that of our three arguments during the game, two were based on each of us trying to give the other some kind of benefit.

Game 5: Chad's Brettonians
This was not the prettiest Brettonian army I've seen, but it was at least above average for the armies I saw at BB. He had two knight buses, one with a character, a lord on a hippogriff, three pegasus knights, two trebuchets, two units of peasant fast cavalry, a block of fifty spears, 25 halberdeers and a big block of archers with a naked level 4 heavens caster, and a grail knight with ten extra peasants.

My first two shots with the bolt throwers hit a knight bus, but failed to wound on a 2+ roll. my third missed, so I changed targets and used the repeating shots on a peasant cav unit, killing them. That panicked the peg knight, who ran off the board the next turn after failing two Ld9 tests.

Over the course of the game, he kept hitting my spearmen with the comet spell, I plinked at his cav and knights. He killed on BT with his trebs and took a wound off another. He got a two man cav charge against one of the BTs, but there were only two peasant riders left, and the crew killed them before they could attack. That left the archers and that BT facing down the remaining 6 knights and the lord on the hippogriff.

Between those two units, the lord and the hipp, died and the archers reformed narrow to receive the charge from the knights. The archers lost the first round of combat, but were stubborn due to ranks and held, won the next round. The knights fled, and the archers caught them.

On the other end of the board, the swordmasters charged and killed the grailknights over two rounds of combat. Comets killed a BT and half the spearmen. The remaining spearmen failed to charge the halberd, but the phoenix made the charge. The halbers failr the terror test and got run down by the pheonix, leaving him one inch in front of the archer block, who were in the back corner. They shot the phoenix the next round, failing to wound due to ward saves and few hits.  His big block of spearmen got dropped to 20 from 50 by fiery convocation while my spearmen failed to charge them. The sword-masters turned to receive the knight charge coming, and went narrow.

His archers failed their terror check against the phoenix, who chased them off the board. He got back just in time to join in on the finally successful charge against the peasant spearmen, who ran after losing combat and were run down.

As that went on, the seven man knight bus, hit the swordmasters, and lost three riders right off the bat and killing two sword masters in return. They ran from combat, but out-paced the swordmasters by an inch. On the ensuing charge, they died to a man, leaving only the character, who had a wound remaining.

A huge difference in the game was my MVP, his artillery die. Between two trebuchets, in six turns, he rolled six misfires, losing a turn on two of them and had one blow itself up on turn five. So out of eleven tries in shooting, over half were misfires and he lost two shots. Of the three shots that went off normally, he killed a BT and took a wound off another. He had a character with a wound left, and a trebuchet with two. Due to the scenario rules, I got half points for each of those. He killed the reavers and two and a half BTs, and half the spearmen and both eagles. My lvl 2 caster also lost a wound due to a miscast, so he got half for that. VPs ended at about 2250 to about 650

The final tally ended up 20-5 as I got all the bonus points. This was my most lopsided win, but that wasn't what made it my favorite game. Chad's attitude was infectious, and we had a great time agonizing over or celebrating every misfire, miscast, missed shot, crazy save, improbable hit, or crazy dice roll that screwed one of us and helped the other. It was also the only game that by the end of turn four I wasn't sure how it would turn out. Had one of his comets blown up at a better time and weakened my spearmen even more, or had his halberds, pegasus knights, and archers not failed leadership checks and been run down/off the board,  had he not misfired 6 times and blown up one of his own artillery pieces, or had I not rolled so well when shooting at his general, this game would have taken a very different turn.

Things to work on:
1) Paying better attention to how I lose. I seem to be good about knowing how I won, but not how I lost.
2) I need to add some more HTH punch to the list.
3) I need a plan for when shooting fails.
4) I need to start painting earlier.
5) I need to upgrade my painting skills.

So the Deed is Done...Mostly

I'm not going to say my high elf army is finished, however it is as done as it will be for Bayou Battles. The last two units need a little touching up, the banners need their final images, and the movement trays are only base-coated.

What matters is that I won't be going to BB with unpainted models. I'll post a photo tomorrow.

WIP Swordmasters

Working on my Swordmasters for Bayou Battles. Tonight's brew of choice is a cider I made using organic apple juice and Windsor Ale yeast.

The Deed is Done

My list for Bayou Battles is submitted. Swedish comp 1.13 says it's a pretty rough list. I don't know. I think I may be calling it suspect because it's my list and I have a pretty poor track record at GTs. I am betting I'll be getting fed to the lions in round one. I hope to beat last year's performance, at least, which shouldn't be too tough since I don't remember winning a game last year. (Just checked. I didn't.)

As it is, I'm really looking forward to the event. I'm just way behind on painting for a number of reasons. I'm committed to this army, but I am not sure I'll get it done on time.

The Good, Bad, and Ugly of the Weekend

Don't get me wrong Bayou Battles was great. I loved it and plan on going next year.

The Good:
The people running it are awesome. Despite losing all five games, I still had a great time in all five games. I didn't witness any bad behavior, There were more FANTASTIC looking armies than I've ever seen before.

The Bad:
Hangovers on Sunday morning. Spending so much time getting your army painted you have never played that list or one like it before. It would have helped me in my first two games. The fourth scenario drastically penalizes slow armies and drastically benefits fast armies. Still nearly pulled out a draw, but it was a lot harder because my opponent nabbed all three objectives on turn 1.

The Ugly:
Being on a low carb diet while there. There is barely time for fast food for lunch, and we went to a Cajun place for dinner. Bad choice on my part, but I'm going back next year when I'm not on a low carb diet. Using Diet DP for a mixer late at night means I'm drunk and wide awake. better drink choice next time. Finally, seeing all these GORGEOUS armies makes me want to start a new one. NO! I've even planned out the  models I need. NO! I've got this great idea for a theme. NO!

What I really need to do is pretty up the TKs get to work repainting my Black Templars. They were my first army when I first started painting. I've stripped a bunch of them and plan on getting back to work on them soon. NO NEW ARMY...yet.

The Pillaging of Houston!

Okay, not so much pillaging, but when you go 0-5, you usually don't come home with loot from a tournament.

We arrived Friday evening, and before he broke out his paints to finish his ogres, and even before we cracked open the booze, Tom brought out the "care packages" sent by his wife. She even attached cards to identify them.

Just for showing up, we all got a "Bayou Battles X" pint glass. Andrew and I were drinking out of ours that night, while Tom finished his Ogres. He picked his up in the morning. I won a door prize as well, which I totally need!

In my first game I played Xavier, from the Wargamers of Arkansas. They gave their opponents beer mugs containing candy, salt and lime, and the following message. "An offering to a worthy opponent in anticipation of a battle well fought. May your death on the field be both glorious, and bold. ~ Compliments of WAR ~" Sadly, I'm on a low carb diet, so Tom and Andrew helped me out with the candy, and I'm drinking diet soda out of it instead of beer. For now. I can not say enough how much this meant to me as a show of sportsmanship and camaraderie. I am totally stealing the idea.

I'm not saying HOW a foam dart from someone's (Andrew) gun ended up behind the dresser with the TV on it, but in spelunking under the dresser to retrieve it, I found the dark fellow on the right and the barrel of TNT. At first glance, we thought he was a ninja, and were confused about how a ninja was going to remain stealthy using a barrel of TNT. More spelunking for the rogue dart uncovered the fellow on the left making us think, "Cool! A ninja AND a Pirate WITH DYNAMITE! You just can't beat that." Then we started paying attention and realized that the ninja was, in fact, a pirate, and while pirates with dynamite are cool and all, they are not as cool as pirates AND ninjas with dynamite.

Back from Bayou Battles X

Back from Bayou Battles X, and stinging from the savage beating I took.

Game one was a 500 point loss to Wood Elves. He brought a ton of 10 man archer units that stayed across the board and shot my two bone giants to bits over time, slowly but surely, and used his fast cav to get in my backfield and kill my Casket of Souls and Catapult. The casket detonation killed the remains of the two fast cav units, and purple sun got the eagle.

We both killed a number of models from other units, but I couldn't make up the points or catch anything with my slow movement.

Nice win to him.

Game two was a 180 point loss to Skaven. Neither of us lost our oil barrel, and I lost the game on the last turn as he killed my Casket with his poisonous slingers that snuck in behind me and my colossus with his doom wheel. I beat the DW back and chased it off twice, but couldn't catch it. The third time, it got me.

If either of those models survive, we draw, if both do, I win.

Game Three was a loss to Brettonians. The game was close up until the end, but he knocked small units and expensive single models to get me, 800 and change to 990ish.  What came out of this is that one unit of Tomb Guard with the razor standard and a tomb king in the unit can hold off and beat
 two units of knights with a lord and a caster and a reliquae knight.

Game four was a loss to Chaos Warriors.
VPs were only a minor goal, since we were only going for capturing three objectives. He used cav and ogres to get to all three on turn one. I took one away with a colossus, and contested one from turn two to turn five, but the dragon ogres finally wore down the skeletons and killed them on the last turn. His giant killed mine and took the other objective, also on the last turn.

Almost gave this one a bad game vote. I know the guy, I like the guy, but the constant whining and bitching every time I killed a model got old. Yes, purple sun sucks, but so do dragon orges, hell cannons, and hordes of chaos warriors. When you're winning a lopsided game, you don't need to whine to the other tables around us about how unfair my army is. I'm playing Tomb Kings for crying out loud. Put on your big girl panties and suck it up.

The reason I didn't go with a bad game, however, is that he time and again argued against his own advantage when scenario rules interfered with game or army rules. So I chalked it up to that just being how he plays and talks smack during the game.

Game five was a loss to Chaos Daemons. Khorn getting pissed at my opponent's army choices took my colossus down to one wound at the beginning of his magic phase, then he blew up his cannon on turn one as well. So chance gave us both one in the ear hole right away.

I killed a bunch of Daemons but few units, and he killed all the small stuff for the win. He used flyers and ambushers to get into my backfield and kill my war machines and Hierotitan (which was a near thing). I used my one wound colossus to mangle his bloodthirster/juggernaut things, but they got the colossus before I could drop that last wound. The colossus was a one wound champ, though. He survived so long because I kept dropping a hex on the bloodthirsters to drop their S&T. His two big hordes never got involved because I kept using spells to slow them.


So in five games, I only lost my big block of skeletons, general, tomb guard, hierophant, BSB, once each (in the same battle, actually). I lost the lvl 2 death caster twice.  Lessons learned: 1) It's hard to kill 80 skeletons, 2) TG are NASTY, especially with the TK's WS and the razor standard, and 3) standard of the undying legion wasn't that useful since I had so many other ways to get models back and so many other spells.

The colossus died every game, usually after absolutely violating at least one unit, or keeping a nasty unit busy and out of combat for most of the game. Lesson's learned: 1) He's a badass against most infantry, 2) anything attacking initiative messes him right up, 3) he's a shooing magnet and eventually even weak shots get through, and 4) he can't stand up to normal giants or S5 because of initiative.

The hierotitan also died every game, usually after spending most of the game making it hard for my opponents to stop my casting. Lessons learned: 1) He makes it hard to stop my spells, 2) his spells are marginally useful, 3) he is pretty good against infantry, and 4) but eventually they'll get him.

Had a great time, saw deserving people win cool stuff, and came home with loot myself, which will be addressed in a later post.

Not Quite at the Last MInute

 

I finished about noon today, but they're done. At least, they're done enough. I have some touching up and a few details I want to change, but I am willing to bring them to Bayou Battles like this. 

Next Army

Neither the paint job nor the photo are particularly good, but here you go. My next army. I plan on having them done in time for Bayou Battles in a few weeks, which is a problem, since this little guy is the only one finished. The rest of his unit is very close, but I'm waiting on green stuff to dry before I go on another base coating spree.

Back from the Bayou

So my return to the Houston gaming scene was not a rousing victory, but I had a great time. The hotel was pricy, but more than welcoming to the group.

I ended up 63rd out of 78 or so, which was worse than I hoped but about what I expected.

Game 1 - Jeff G.'s Daemons of Chaos
Skulltaker on a Juggernaught
Herald of Nurgle on a Palanquin
39 Pink Horrors
48 Plaguebearers
Herald of Tzeench
5 Flamers
5 Furies (x3)
5 Blood crushers.

Not a good day to be an orc.

I deployed poorly, my doom diva blew itself up on the first shot, and Jeff outplayed me. It's been over a week, so I don't remember how, but between Skultaker and the blood crushers, I didn't hae much to stand up to them. He methodically killed my units by defeating them in HTH, making them run, and running them down.

Game 2 - Chuck W.'s Warriors of Chaos

Chaos Lord on a Juggernaught
Exalted Hero on a chaos steed
Sorcerer on a Palanquin
36 Chaos Marauders
21 Chaos Warrios
16 Chaos Knights
Warshrine (X2)

This game looked to be going well, but I foolishly took the bait when one of his units ran around behind me and turned to face it rather than charging the unit fighting my trolls. That cost me the game. His knights, combined with the hero and CL decimated the trolls while the marauders and the Savages face off for a long time. He killed almost everything, leaving the general and the giant. I killed the warriors and that's about it. Up until turn four, it was looking good for me, but I lost two combats, rolled bad, and the chain reactions started. (I think Chuck wins no matter if I make those rolls, but it might have been closer.)

Game 3 - Devin van Damme's Dwarves
Dwarf Lord
Runesmith
Thane
30 Dwarf Warriors
12 Thunderers (x2)
28 Hammerers
20 Slayers
Flame Cannon
Grudge thrower
Organ Gun
Gyro Copter

Trade out the slayers for another cannon and this is very much like the list I learned to play against. It wasn't a fun day for the dwarves.  Like me, Devin is newish to fantasy and mare tactical mistakes.  I got turn one and move my trolls directly at the slayers lined up across them and killed a few thunderers with  the doom diva.

Devin forgot to shoot the flaming cannon at the trolls until the end of shooting, leaving them lots of regen before that point. He killed a troll and a orc boy in his shooting phase.

I got the trolls into the slayers in turn two, in turn three they killed the last slayer and overran into some thunderers, and then into the organ gun in the next combat. Then, wonder of wonders, they made back to back leadership tests to not overrun and get back into the main fight.

On the other side, my black orc stood up face to face with his hammerers and the unit champ survived along with my general and BSB. What killed the hammerers was getting the block of boys, the trolls and the savages, who'd just killed the warriors.

We called the game after turn four, because we agreed I would never catch his gyrocopter or the 8 remaining thunderers who'd hightailed it for my side, and I had several units positioned to charge his remaining artillery with two full turns to do it.

I lost a few trolls, a most of my black orcs, my giant, and my nightgoblin shaman who'd miscast and sucked himself into the warp.

I finished day one 1-2.


Game 4 was against Ryan G's Imperial
Archlector on a war alter
Lvl 4 battle wizard - light
Lvl 1 battle wizard -light (x2)
CaptainBSB
Master Engineer (x2)
50 Halbereers FC
5 Detachemt FC (x2)
30 Crossbowmen
5 Detachemt FC (x2)
Great Cannon (x2)
Hell Blaster (x2)
8 Reiksguard knights

Points didn't count for this one, only saving the three women at the centerline of the board. I foolishly chose to ignore one and go for two. I kept the one on the left side, didn't challenge for the one on the rights, and the main battle was fought for the one in the center. My plan was sound until I finally lost a combat after sizing her. I needed a 10 or less on leadership, and rolled an 11, then 12 on the reroll. We called the game then, because he was going to to take her out of my range on his turn and the remaining turn wouldn't be enough for me to get her back since my closest units were either facing the wrong way or failing stupidity checks.

Straight up fight? I think I could take this one, but I failed every single leadership test for the last two full turns.

I did make the Reiksguard Knights a non-factor by keeping my trolls between them and the fight.


Game 5 Mike S.'s Skaven
Can't say what he had in his army since he didn't give me a copy of his list, but it involved a pile of plaguemonks, several slave hordes, a couple of warrior hordes, and an elite horde of some kind, plus big cannon thing, a big horror looking thing, and a doom wheel.

My giant tripped stepping over a wall and got mashed by the doom wheel, which in turn got run off my the savages. The trolls and the other units mauled all of his units except the plague monks, a warrior unit, and the horror thing. Hs characters were in the units not mauled, except his general which was with the elite unit running away. We had to stop at turn four because of time. I'd killed the doomwheel, the cannon, the rats, all of the slaves, and a warrior unit. He killed the black orks, the giant, my doom diva, and my BSB. He won, 1000 to 600. Seems I killed all the cheap shit. The units running, all within five inches of the table edges were worth another 500 points and change. Had we played out the game (or even another turn), I win. Had I known the relative value of skaven units, I win. Oops. Chalk it up to experience.

I did respectable in all categories except battle points. I managed 42 (out of 100 possible) battle points,  16 for painting, 12 for comp, 53 for sportsmanship, and the 10 on time points.

I did win a box of ghouls in the raffle, though. Defintily planning on going to more GTs, especially Alamo, since it's local, and BB13 next year.

Bayou Battles - Houston

So this is my Orc army for the Bayou Battles Indy GT in Houston. Blocks of savage orcs, black orcs, orcs, trolls, a giant and a doom diva catapult.