Why is it whenever a tournament is just around the corner I decide to change my list and put something in it that means I need to do a crap load of painting?
I am so sick of not being able to deal with armour now that I have gone for a monster mash list for the next tournament. I am going to a one dayer in Welwyn Garden City which is using the SCGT comp and will be a good opportunity to try something new out, I have no real intention of winning and with the list I have written I expect I will be very near the bottom but I just want to see what a lord on an eagle, 2 nobles on eagles and 2-3 Treemen can do between them.
I am tempted to drop the Treeman Ancient and take a lvl 4 on Athel Loren or Beasts and I think that will be the sensible option otherwise I will struggle to dispel anything. I am worried about cannons obviously, it's a real shame cannons are so good and never miss as I would really love to take exciting monster lists. I would have liked to take a load of warhawk riders too but I haven't got time to convert those yet before the tourney. I have a free wood to paint (finally) 3 lords to ride on the eagles and a Treeman which I should get done in time.
I guess I could just take high elves....
Monday, 18 March 2013
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Mersey Meltdown Review
Mersey Meltdown is a 2 day 5 game event held at the Adelphi hotel in
Liverpool about 2 mins from the station. It is run by TNG (Terra Nova Gryphons)
and this year hosted 72 players which I think is the maximum they can host.
So before I talk about my list and games I will say that the tournament was run exceptionally well, not a single cock up all weekend, games were finished on time, the results for each round were up quickly and any disputes were settled confidently and quickly. Warriors were uncomped but to be honest I wouldn't have expected TNG to come up with any comp for them in such short notice. There was a curry available on Saturday night which I hadn't paid for so didn't attend, I have had bad experiences eating tournament food resulting in the coveted Sheen Gill "tournament bum". The venue is so conveniently located that there are a million places to go for food and drink nearby.
The trophies and prizes for all the winners were pretty impressive and the winners (copy and pasted from the Mersey thread) can be seen here:
Results
1st Place overall - Fat Craig
2nd Place - Kevin Weaver
3rd Place - Joe McGough
Most Sporting - Steve 'the nicest man in warhammer' Wren
Players Choice Best Army - David Parker
Judges Choice Best Army - 'Dangerous' Dave Pyle
Wooden Spoon - Jodi Chapman
The Michael Biggs Memorial 'Captain Ahab' Award - Luke Rooney
Best in Race
Beastmen - Mark Borland
Bretonnians - Rob Sedgeman
Chaos Dwarfs - Tom Mawdsley
Daemons - Fat Craig
Dark Elves - Ben Curry
Dwarfs - Andy Russell
Empire - Mo Ashraf
High Elves - Pash Korniyenko
Lizardmen - David Parker
Orcs & Goblins - Andy Robinson
Ogres - Joe McGough
Skaven - Ben Johnson
Tomb Kings - Steve Davie
Vampire Counts - Walt Simpson
Warriors - Kev Weaver
Wood Elves - Jay 'Who the f**k are you' Hopkinson....
Now if you look at that last one...bit harsh! bastards, ill definitely be grudging one of those fuckers next time.
Kev Weaver got the most tournament points all weekend with his WoC so they must be completely broken. Dave Pyle and I joined Weaver and his minions for a meal out on the Saturday night and he was confident his BSB with a 3+ ward rerolling 1's would never be killed and also pointed out that if he took the dragonbane gem or helm on him he would be IMMUNE to flaming attacks..2+ ward rerolling 1's...COMP THAT SHIT! No tzeentch model should be able to take the reroll 1 Item. Fair play to Kev though and he came second. BAN KEV WEAVER! Craig Johnson won the tourney which to be honest must mean he has been cheating, I can't think of any other way he could have won and perhaps his dice need checking or something.
All in all I have to say the event was honestly the most fun I've had at a tournament. I had a great night out on the Saturday and everyone was just happy all weekend. Meltdown has given Slaughter a run for its money in my eyes and I reckon mersey just takes the title of best tourney so far.
WELL DONE TNG AND THANKS A LOT.
Ok so the rest of the post is about my army, feelings on comp and my games.
Armies were selected up to 2400pts and there were bonus tournament points available for taking units that are not normally taken, I'm not too sure about the other armies but for Wood Elves they were Glade Riders, Eternal Guard, Warhawk Riders and a lord on a stag. You could get 2pts for the first one taken 4pts for the second, 7 for the 3rd and 10pts if you took all 4. Now although I do think this is a great idea I have to say some armies seemed to get of fairly lightly, dark elves in particular as they could fit all 4 in for less than 500pts I think, whereas for the wood elves you would need to spend around 700pts to get it all in. I think this should be changed particularly for WE since every unit except for glade guard are bad they could have made it a bit easier for us to get the 10 bonus points. And what is the big deal about not letting us keep a bow on our BSB?
My List
LvL 4 Spellweaver, Wand of wych Elm, 305 - pts (Lore of Life)
lvl 1 Spellsinger, Dispel Scroll, Dragonbane Gem - 120pts
Branchwraith, Cluster of radiants - 90pts
Noble BSB, Hail of Doom Arrow Asyendi's Bane. - 130pts
Lords/Heroes - 645 pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
5 Glade Riders + musician - 129pts
Core - 969pts
14 Etermal Guard + musician, Standard of Discipline - 201pts
3 Tree kin + elder - 216pts
Special - 417pts
Great Eagle - 50pts
Great Eagle - 50pts
5 Waywatchers - 120pts
6 Waywatchers - 144pts
Rare - 364pts
TOTAL - 2395
A few problems with my list starting with no flaming banner as I took standard of discipline instead, this was a bit of an oversight but luckily it didn't cost me over the course of the tournament. I don't have anything to deal with all the armour around in WFB now, so so many 1+ armour saves that I think this will be the last time I take lore of life and in the future I suspect I will be running the Arcane Bodkins lord. The Eternal guard I usually take anyway and they proved a good choice once again, the Tree Kin were also good, the Glade Riders were ok. Everything was fine really it's just unfortunate that all the other armies are so much more powerful. On the plus side nobody managed to get very much magic off against me all weekend and I was dispelling on 1 dice a lot of the time with a re-roll.
Game 1 vs Dark Elves (Ben Curry)
I found out I was playing Ben on the Thursday and I actually really fancied my chances. Dark Elves are a good match up for me and I haven't lost to them yet. Ben is a decent player and I fancied a 12-8 to me really. What actually happened was Ben had double hydra and 3 Peg riders with ridiculous armour saves and I could not get through that armour, I deployed one unit of waywatchers too far away from his pegs and this meant I only had 6 to deal with his pegs (mistake 1) I also let his dreadlord charge my bunker (mistake 2) those mistakes cost me the game as his dreadlord took off about 900pts all on his own. Now although I made mistakes I was also unlucky... I killing blowed his dreadlord and he rolled a 1 to save it with pendant, I failed 5 panic tests in 1 turn, losing 2 units of 13 glade guard and another small unit of glade guard that had lost the combat then failed their steadfast roll. I charged a Branchwraith into the flank of the dreadlord that was in combat with my bunker, then throne of vines, flesh to stone on the Branchwraith giving it toughness 8, issued a challenge so my static res was 5 all the branchwraith had to do was hold on...but no...2 wounds on her and she died, I should have put the whole unit in really but I didn't think the dryads could fit through the gap. On the whole I would say the 20-0 to Ben was a harsh for me in that game however I did learn a lot from it and the answer is more waywatchers that don’t get deployed on the flanks. Ben was nice and a pleasure to play and I ended the game in a good mood, he even offered to let me keep the tape measure he lent me, but I declined as I didn't want a permanent reminder of that game :P I would like to play that list again against Ben and see if I could have done better.
Game 2 vs Dark Elves (Hristo)
I was up against Hristo in game 2 which I was pretty happy about, another Dark Elf player straight away to rectify my mistakes. He had a big block of executioners and double hydra. For some strange reason I thought double hydra wasn't allowed at Mersey and that's why I left out the flaming banner, then I got drawn vs 2 double hydra. Anyway I fancied this game even more. Basically I shot off one of the hydras early on, then a unit of crossbowmen, the crossbowmen panicked the other hydra and it was well out of position, Hristo had a lvl 4 on death riding a manticore which I shot off in turn 3, the lord dropped to his feet and joined a unit of executioners....which apparently isn't allowed and we only found out after the game, Hristo offered me the 20-0 win but I didn't take it as I feel it was an honest mistake. I shot off the Executioners and his lvl 4 anyway so it’s likely that it wouldn't have made a difference. Once again I lost units to panic! I literally passed only 2 panic tests in game 1 and 2 combined. Hristo did get a peg into my bunker but with challenges and flesh to stone he didn't manage to break it. in the end I won the game 15-5. Good Game, one of the best I've had and the most sporting vote went to Hristo from me.
Game 3 vs Vampire Counts (Dan Comeau)
Dan had Double Terrorgheist and 17 Crypt Horrors in this list and that was a big worry for me. It shows how things are changing in the game because I used to say VC was an easy win for WE but because VC now have to take 2 Gheists and 2 massive units of Horrors to be able to deal with all the heavy armour and monsterous infantry that in turn means WE can no longer deal with VC as well. If I got a draw out of this game I would be happy. Deployment Deployment Deployment!!! Paul Brown taught me how to deploy properly a long time ago and I played 2 players this weekend that practically gifted me games by deploying badly. All the crypt horrors were on one side of the board which meant my valuable units could go on the other side and I would just feed him one unit at a time until the game ended, I shot a Gheist down to 1 wound and it flew away, I shot off a unit of zombies, 5 units of dogs and dwelleres/shot 7 out of 8 crypt horrors, then ran away. He gaze of nagashed 2 units of glade guard and guess what? thats right...they both panicked off the board, one of them was in LD10 with a reroll range too. In a nutshell It was a bit of a run around and I won 11-9.
Day 2 Game 4 vs Vampire Counts (Dave Barker)
I arrived on Sunday morning, shaking and hung over to hell. I was in no shape to play WFB. The list was almost identical to the VC list I had played the previous day except he had 2 spirit hosts and 3 vargheists and instead of a massive skeleton bunker he had 30+ ghouls. Very similar game to the previous one, but instead of shooting the crypt horrors I put 3 tree kin into the flank of 8 on turn 3...they held out for the entire game and reduced the Crypt Horrors to only 1 wound, which was frustrating but still an over achievement for the tree kin. I also killed the ghouls down to 1 wound!!!!!! 30 shots at close range on the last turn vs the final 5 ghouls and my archers killed only 4...so unlucky there. I also managed to charge his small skeleton bunker and attack both his mages, over 2 turns I took off his lvl 2 but he passed the 4+ wards on his lvl 4 and unfortunately I couldn’t shift him. lost 3 units of glade gaurd to screams and a unit of dryads + branchwraith. In the last turn I charged my glade riders into his terrorghiest and the combat was a draw, this meant he couldn’t charge my bunker in his turn basically ending the game. Dave was a great guy to play against and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 10-10
Game 5 vs Skaven
Again I can't remember the guys name it might have been Rich Commons but then again that could well have been the VC player I forgot about. Anyway he had an Abom, Doom Wheel, Cannon, Furnace, Grey seer, Loads of chaff, Loads of slaves, Gutter Runners, massive unit of storm vermin and to be honest It's nearly impossible to beat Skaven with Wood Elves and looking at the amount of models he had I thought this would be a 20-0 to him. Worse still Steve Wren drew Mark Borland and his Beastmen, I was 12 points ahead of Steve going into the final game and he would probably beat Mark so the Top Wood Elf player award was going to be a close finish, I would need to get 8-9 points I had 4 bonus points and Steve had none so if I hadn’t taken the crap units I would need 13pts to win the trophy.
It came down to deployment again, and he basically deployed everything on one side, I deployed the other side and knowing he was frenzied on the furnace I was confident it would never reach my army and I could redirect it off the board. That's exactly what happened along with me killing his clanrat bunker and grey seer. I took the abom off in turn 2 with no flaming banner, the doom wheel in turn 3 with Tree Kin and that was it. I ran my army away knowing I had a 13-7 win. Steve Wren came over to have a look and he was completely baffled by the skaven advance, as was I.
That's it then... a poor result finishing 40th but I enjoyed it and got top wood elf, the best I could hope for really.
Jay
So before I talk about my list and games I will say that the tournament was run exceptionally well, not a single cock up all weekend, games were finished on time, the results for each round were up quickly and any disputes were settled confidently and quickly. Warriors were uncomped but to be honest I wouldn't have expected TNG to come up with any comp for them in such short notice. There was a curry available on Saturday night which I hadn't paid for so didn't attend, I have had bad experiences eating tournament food resulting in the coveted Sheen Gill "tournament bum". The venue is so conveniently located that there are a million places to go for food and drink nearby.
The trophies and prizes for all the winners were pretty impressive and the winners (copy and pasted from the Mersey thread) can be seen here:
Results
1st Place overall - Fat Craig
2nd Place - Kevin Weaver
3rd Place - Joe McGough
Most Sporting - Steve 'the nicest man in warhammer' Wren
Players Choice Best Army - David Parker
Judges Choice Best Army - 'Dangerous' Dave Pyle
Wooden Spoon - Jodi Chapman
The Michael Biggs Memorial 'Captain Ahab' Award - Luke Rooney
Best in Race
Beastmen - Mark Borland
Bretonnians - Rob Sedgeman
Chaos Dwarfs - Tom Mawdsley
Daemons - Fat Craig
Dark Elves - Ben Curry
Dwarfs - Andy Russell
Empire - Mo Ashraf
High Elves - Pash Korniyenko
Lizardmen - David Parker
Orcs & Goblins - Andy Robinson
Ogres - Joe McGough
Skaven - Ben Johnson
Tomb Kings - Steve Davie
Vampire Counts - Walt Simpson
Warriors - Kev Weaver
Wood Elves - Jay 'Who the f**k are you' Hopkinson....
Now if you look at that last one...bit harsh! bastards, ill definitely be grudging one of those fuckers next time.
Kev Weaver got the most tournament points all weekend with his WoC so they must be completely broken. Dave Pyle and I joined Weaver and his minions for a meal out on the Saturday night and he was confident his BSB with a 3+ ward rerolling 1's would never be killed and also pointed out that if he took the dragonbane gem or helm on him he would be IMMUNE to flaming attacks..2+ ward rerolling 1's...COMP THAT SHIT! No tzeentch model should be able to take the reroll 1 Item. Fair play to Kev though and he came second. BAN KEV WEAVER! Craig Johnson won the tourney which to be honest must mean he has been cheating, I can't think of any other way he could have won and perhaps his dice need checking or something.
All in all I have to say the event was honestly the most fun I've had at a tournament. I had a great night out on the Saturday and everyone was just happy all weekend. Meltdown has given Slaughter a run for its money in my eyes and I reckon mersey just takes the title of best tourney so far.
WELL DONE TNG AND THANKS A LOT.
Ok so the rest of the post is about my army, feelings on comp and my games.
Armies were selected up to 2400pts and there were bonus tournament points available for taking units that are not normally taken, I'm not too sure about the other armies but for Wood Elves they were Glade Riders, Eternal Guard, Warhawk Riders and a lord on a stag. You could get 2pts for the first one taken 4pts for the second, 7 for the 3rd and 10pts if you took all 4. Now although I do think this is a great idea I have to say some armies seemed to get of fairly lightly, dark elves in particular as they could fit all 4 in for less than 500pts I think, whereas for the wood elves you would need to spend around 700pts to get it all in. I think this should be changed particularly for WE since every unit except for glade guard are bad they could have made it a bit easier for us to get the 10 bonus points. And what is the big deal about not letting us keep a bow on our BSB?
My List
LvL 4 Spellweaver, Wand of wych Elm, 305 - pts (Lore of Life)
lvl 1 Spellsinger, Dispel Scroll, Dragonbane Gem - 120pts
Branchwraith, Cluster of radiants - 90pts
Noble BSB, Hail of Doom Arrow Asyendi's Bane. - 130pts
Lords/Heroes - 645 pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
13 Glade Guard + Musician - 162pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
8 Dryads - 96pts
5 Glade Riders + musician - 129pts
Core - 969pts
14 Etermal Guard + musician, Standard of Discipline - 201pts
3 Tree kin + elder - 216pts
Special - 417pts
Great Eagle - 50pts
Great Eagle - 50pts
5 Waywatchers - 120pts
6 Waywatchers - 144pts
Rare - 364pts
TOTAL - 2395
A few problems with my list starting with no flaming banner as I took standard of discipline instead, this was a bit of an oversight but luckily it didn't cost me over the course of the tournament. I don't have anything to deal with all the armour around in WFB now, so so many 1+ armour saves that I think this will be the last time I take lore of life and in the future I suspect I will be running the Arcane Bodkins lord. The Eternal guard I usually take anyway and they proved a good choice once again, the Tree Kin were also good, the Glade Riders were ok. Everything was fine really it's just unfortunate that all the other armies are so much more powerful. On the plus side nobody managed to get very much magic off against me all weekend and I was dispelling on 1 dice a lot of the time with a re-roll.
Game 1 vs Dark Elves (Ben Curry)
I found out I was playing Ben on the Thursday and I actually really fancied my chances. Dark Elves are a good match up for me and I haven't lost to them yet. Ben is a decent player and I fancied a 12-8 to me really. What actually happened was Ben had double hydra and 3 Peg riders with ridiculous armour saves and I could not get through that armour, I deployed one unit of waywatchers too far away from his pegs and this meant I only had 6 to deal with his pegs (mistake 1) I also let his dreadlord charge my bunker (mistake 2) those mistakes cost me the game as his dreadlord took off about 900pts all on his own. Now although I made mistakes I was also unlucky... I killing blowed his dreadlord and he rolled a 1 to save it with pendant, I failed 5 panic tests in 1 turn, losing 2 units of 13 glade guard and another small unit of glade guard that had lost the combat then failed their steadfast roll. I charged a Branchwraith into the flank of the dreadlord that was in combat with my bunker, then throne of vines, flesh to stone on the Branchwraith giving it toughness 8, issued a challenge so my static res was 5 all the branchwraith had to do was hold on...but no...2 wounds on her and she died, I should have put the whole unit in really but I didn't think the dryads could fit through the gap. On the whole I would say the 20-0 to Ben was a harsh for me in that game however I did learn a lot from it and the answer is more waywatchers that don’t get deployed on the flanks. Ben was nice and a pleasure to play and I ended the game in a good mood, he even offered to let me keep the tape measure he lent me, but I declined as I didn't want a permanent reminder of that game :P I would like to play that list again against Ben and see if I could have done better.
Game 2 vs Dark Elves (Hristo)
I was up against Hristo in game 2 which I was pretty happy about, another Dark Elf player straight away to rectify my mistakes. He had a big block of executioners and double hydra. For some strange reason I thought double hydra wasn't allowed at Mersey and that's why I left out the flaming banner, then I got drawn vs 2 double hydra. Anyway I fancied this game even more. Basically I shot off one of the hydras early on, then a unit of crossbowmen, the crossbowmen panicked the other hydra and it was well out of position, Hristo had a lvl 4 on death riding a manticore which I shot off in turn 3, the lord dropped to his feet and joined a unit of executioners....which apparently isn't allowed and we only found out after the game, Hristo offered me the 20-0 win but I didn't take it as I feel it was an honest mistake. I shot off the Executioners and his lvl 4 anyway so it’s likely that it wouldn't have made a difference. Once again I lost units to panic! I literally passed only 2 panic tests in game 1 and 2 combined. Hristo did get a peg into my bunker but with challenges and flesh to stone he didn't manage to break it. in the end I won the game 15-5. Good Game, one of the best I've had and the most sporting vote went to Hristo from me.
Game 3 vs Vampire Counts (Dan Comeau)
Dan had Double Terrorgheist and 17 Crypt Horrors in this list and that was a big worry for me. It shows how things are changing in the game because I used to say VC was an easy win for WE but because VC now have to take 2 Gheists and 2 massive units of Horrors to be able to deal with all the heavy armour and monsterous infantry that in turn means WE can no longer deal with VC as well. If I got a draw out of this game I would be happy. Deployment Deployment Deployment!!! Paul Brown taught me how to deploy properly a long time ago and I played 2 players this weekend that practically gifted me games by deploying badly. All the crypt horrors were on one side of the board which meant my valuable units could go on the other side and I would just feed him one unit at a time until the game ended, I shot a Gheist down to 1 wound and it flew away, I shot off a unit of zombies, 5 units of dogs and dwelleres/shot 7 out of 8 crypt horrors, then ran away. He gaze of nagashed 2 units of glade guard and guess what? thats right...they both panicked off the board, one of them was in LD10 with a reroll range too. In a nutshell It was a bit of a run around and I won 11-9.
Day 2 Game 4 vs Vampire Counts (Dave Barker)
I arrived on Sunday morning, shaking and hung over to hell. I was in no shape to play WFB. The list was almost identical to the VC list I had played the previous day except he had 2 spirit hosts and 3 vargheists and instead of a massive skeleton bunker he had 30+ ghouls. Very similar game to the previous one, but instead of shooting the crypt horrors I put 3 tree kin into the flank of 8 on turn 3...they held out for the entire game and reduced the Crypt Horrors to only 1 wound, which was frustrating but still an over achievement for the tree kin. I also killed the ghouls down to 1 wound!!!!!! 30 shots at close range on the last turn vs the final 5 ghouls and my archers killed only 4...so unlucky there. I also managed to charge his small skeleton bunker and attack both his mages, over 2 turns I took off his lvl 2 but he passed the 4+ wards on his lvl 4 and unfortunately I couldn’t shift him. lost 3 units of glade gaurd to screams and a unit of dryads + branchwraith. In the last turn I charged my glade riders into his terrorghiest and the combat was a draw, this meant he couldn’t charge my bunker in his turn basically ending the game. Dave was a great guy to play against and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 10-10
Game 5 vs Skaven
Again I can't remember the guys name it might have been Rich Commons but then again that could well have been the VC player I forgot about. Anyway he had an Abom, Doom Wheel, Cannon, Furnace, Grey seer, Loads of chaff, Loads of slaves, Gutter Runners, massive unit of storm vermin and to be honest It's nearly impossible to beat Skaven with Wood Elves and looking at the amount of models he had I thought this would be a 20-0 to him. Worse still Steve Wren drew Mark Borland and his Beastmen, I was 12 points ahead of Steve going into the final game and he would probably beat Mark so the Top Wood Elf player award was going to be a close finish, I would need to get 8-9 points I had 4 bonus points and Steve had none so if I hadn’t taken the crap units I would need 13pts to win the trophy.
It came down to deployment again, and he basically deployed everything on one side, I deployed the other side and knowing he was frenzied on the furnace I was confident it would never reach my army and I could redirect it off the board. That's exactly what happened along with me killing his clanrat bunker and grey seer. I took the abom off in turn 2 with no flaming banner, the doom wheel in turn 3 with Tree Kin and that was it. I ran my army away knowing I had a 13-7 win. Steve Wren came over to have a look and he was completely baffled by the skaven advance, as was I.
That's it then... a poor result finishing 40th but I enjoyed it and got top wood elf, the best I could hope for really.
Jay
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