WHFB Tourney Report, 6/7/09

So I'm a little late with the tourney report, but that's still more updates in a week than Tabletop Madness has had, y'know, ever... (nothing like a public nudge to get someone to post, right?) Snarkiness and my horrid showing aside, this was a fun tournament, I've been really enjoying the Sunday games at the Oak Park GW shop. The games are small (750 pts for 40K and WotR, 1000 for WHFB), and the people are mostly pretty dedicated hobbyists, or at least players (We'll get into issues with the hobby side in a minute).
My army:

I ran a very basic "core dwarf concepts" list- 20 Warriors with axes and shields, with full command; 10 Thunderers; a Cannon; 12 Slayers with banner and musician; led by a Thane with runes of Snorri Spanglehelm, Swiftness, and Fury; a Dragon Slayer with three runes of Fury; and a Runesmith with three runes of Spellbreaking. The plan was to use the Slayers as a rock solid flank, anchoring the other end of my line on a board edge with the Cannon, and trying to shoot the bejeezus out of anyone trying to cross the table to come to grips with my forces.

Round 1:
My first game was against Kevin. He's a young kid, but he's a remarkably skilled general in WHFB and WotR/LotR (don't think I've played him in 40K, but I've heard good things about his Templars). He was running a fairly brutal Warriors of Chaos list, pictured below:

With a Khorne-marked Hero, 8 Khornate Knights, 15 Warriors of Khorne, and 28 Marauders, Kevin's army is all about two things: Blood for the Blood God, and Skulls for the Throne of Khorne, and it delivers in spades.

This is just after Kevin's charge moves in Turn 2. Turn 1 was largely ineffective, my Cannon stuck a shell in the mud right in front of his Knights, and while my Thunderers dropped a couple of Warriors, it was mostly a setup turn, getting ready for the logical matchups. Warriors vs. Warriors, Knights vs. Slayers, and the Dragon Slayer squaring off (well, kinda, he's turned sideways so he doesn't fall down the hill) against the Marauders. This is where I really, really, really underestimated the shock power of the Khornate Knights. I'm used to being able to hold a charge from damn near anything with the Slayers, and the Knights tore through them like they weren't even there. They ripped through the Slayers in a round, overran into the flank of my Warriors, demolished them, overran into the Thunderers the next turn, and finally into the Cannon, while the Chaos Warriors calmly wheeled around and killed the Dragon Slayer (though not before he killed no small number of Marauders!) An easy win for Kevin, he tabled me in 4 turns.

Round 2:
The second game was against Paul, the manager of the shop, and his (absolutely lovely!) Chaos army. A little bit tricky as he had to bounce in and out to help customers in the (woefully understaffed) shop, but Paul is a really pleasant guy to play against. Have to put up a couple of shots of models that he didn't run in the game, just because they're fantastic! Here's his Warshrines:

He's also got a very, very impressive conversion of Vilelitch the Curseling:

(not sure my photo does it justice, but it's definitely worth going to Flickr for the full size shot)
Here's the army he ran, along with a dashing grin:

His army was 2 Tzeentch wizards, a unit of 10 (unmarked) Knights, 2 units of 5 Marauder Horsemen, and 2 units of 5 Warhounds. I was a lot happier to see his heroes than Kevin, as his army was a lot more magic reliant, which I was pretty well equipped to handle. Turn 1 was much the same as against Kevin- my cannon stuck a shell right in front of his Knights, and the Thunderers picked off a few Marauders. I shut down his Magic phase, but used two of my Spellbreaker Runes in the process.
Turn 2:

Once again, by turn 2, the battle was properly joined. One unit of Warhounds charged my Cannon after losing one of their number to a (much better aimed) cannonball, the Knights charged the Warriors, and the Slayers were double-charged by Warhounds and Marauder Horsemen. The Cannon crew saw the Warhounds off handily, an extra round of stout for them! The champion of the Knights challenged my Thane, no doubt seeking the favor of his heathen gods, but the finely-crafted armor of the dwarf deflected his blows. The combat was nearly a draw, but outnumbered by the frightful Knights, the Warriors fled, getting cut down easily by the faster Knights. The Slayers easily held against the lighter Chaos units, breaking them in combat during turn 3, while the Knights rode over and slaughtered the Cannon crew. Turn 4 saw the Warhounds and Maruaders rally and start making their way back to the Slayers. In turn 5, the Thunderers fled off-table from the mighty Knights, and finally in turn 6, the sinister magic of Tzeentch killed off the last of the slayers.

Round 3:
Round 3 was against Leo, a High Elf general I'm always happy to play against. He started the hobby about the same time I started my High Elf army, and he's been doing a good job of building up quite a sizeable contingent of the pointy-helmeted blokes. His army for the tourney was built around one of the more interesting High Elven Hero choices, the Dragon Mage:

In addition to the Dragon Mage, he used the modified High Elf organization chart to the fullest, running one unit of Lothern Sea Guard, one of the Phoenix Guard, and a Repeater Bolt Thrower. In turn 1, in a (now-familiar) bit of frustration, the cannonball overshot the Dragon by quite a bit, the dragon cooking all but 2 of my Thunderers in return. Turn 2 was mostly maneuver, apart from the Dragon finishing off my Thunderers, and the Cannon misfiring, leaving it silent until Turn 4. Turn 3, the Warriors and Slayers charged the Sea Guard and Phoenix Guard respectively, locking them solidly in combat. The Sea Guard broke during turn 4, netting me some of the only victory points I scored during the game, as the Dragon Slayer made a mad dash at the Dragon Mage. He found his glorious death, killing the Mage but not the Dragon, while the Cannon managed to miss again, overshooting the Bolt Thrower by mere inches. The game ended early in Turn 5, as Leo had to duck out. The first game where we actually had to count VP, but overall a win for the High Elves.

Despite my horrid showing, the tournament was pretty enjoyable. My one quibble is that in the last couple of weeks, the scoring scheme has changed, and in the process paint has not been being judged (despite being supposedly part of the overall score) because "there aren't enough painted armies". I strongly object to the idea of advertising a tourney where painting is supposedly being scored, yet players that have unfinished armies aren't losing anything for showing up with bare plastic. In the size of games that are being played, there's really no excuse for not being able to get things at least as block-painted as my Warriors and Thunderers, and honestly I think the Slayers took less time than the block painting did. I try very hard to promote the mindset that whatever the size of the tourney, one should treat it like a GT (painted army, printed army rosters for each opponent, proper gaming supplies, etc), and I feel like if everyone in the shop showed up with that level of preparation, then the Sunday tournaments could really build some strong feeling and high-level play in the shop.