Froffenhoffer’s Uk Nationals Tourney Report.

The Band:

Fire Giant Forge Priest

Helmed Horrorx2

Snig The axe+ Goblin Skirmisher Minions

 Greenspawn Sneak

Quite a simple band really. Hit well and hit hard, as nothing can take it toe to toe in melee, Horrors and the FGFP have too much hp for dancers and monks, Ac to high for the Tri black bands. The Forge priest helps the horrors to give them MW each. The forge priest should do enough before MS, which he could pass anyway, or he could just rally... he doesn’t run of in one move very often.. In fact he only ran off once, because Snig died.

Round 1.

Maug x 2

Ultrololth

Helmed Horrors

2 Kobold miners

HE got his map, teleport temple, and went aggressive at me, putting his helmed horror through a teleport at the place I had completely surrounded, but not blocked of. HE then put in the Maugs and the Ultroloth through the teleporter by my victory area B, which let us make melee attacks in round 2. Big, big round, lots of damage on everything. Round 3, Fgfp gets quadruple missed by maugs, and takes one of them out, and starts to hit the other. He then fails morale from Ultroloth. Round 4 he fails to rally, but I weaken His Ultroloth enough that a charge by snig kills it, winning it for me on tile points(if the charge missed I had lost)…

2.

4x Shadowdancers

Storm

Trickster

Xeph

Played on laceName>DragonlaceName> laceType>TemplelaceType>

OK my band is meant to beat dancers.. this was a bit of a slaughter. The FGFP started beating them, as did the horrors. At one point I thought I was going to lose, As he had killed snig, and all my skirmishers and sneak, whereas I killed 1 dancer and his fodder.. I war worried he was gonna run and Hide. But his storm couldn’t get away, so I got it into melee, Forcing him to engage in an all out fight which he lost considerably… I then ran and camped in the middle sacred circle, so he had to come to me because I had tile points.

3.

Maug x 2

Red hand war sorcerer x 2

SNig

2 Skirmishers

goblin warrior

2 Acheron goblins

Dark moon monk

Played on hailstorm tower

I sent my horror, my forge, and snig up to the up entrance to the sacred circle room, and my other horror down. His fodder went down and took with it 1 each of maug and RHWS. The other RHWS and Maug went up. RHWS’s cant do much to the horrors, so the one up top quite easily took his one up there, while the FGFP destroyed the maug that was sent up with him. At the bottom, the horror stood where it was and chopped us some fodder. Then he went up to finish the top RHWS who was standing in the VA. Then the horrors and the FGFP pushed down while snig stood in the Sacred circle VA, killing the fodder and the RHWS easily, then killing the maug.

4. Beholder

HH x 2

Snig

2 kobold miners

3 gobbo skimishers.

Played on Dragonsdown grotto.

This game can be summed up into : I passed 1 save in about 15. Horrors slowed and telekenisised down slope, beholder left on 5 hp, Fgfp routs, and snig is critted by his horror before it can try and rally the fgfp I lose L

Top 8 round 1

MikeyChraal

3 x Dancers

Storm SIlverhand

Cormyrean War Wizard

Some xephs (1?)

Played on magma Keep (WOHOO MY MAP YAY)

I stick my band in a clump on the side A and send it all up towards his VA�B not in the main complex. IN the end his tile grabbers are all killed by my skirmishers, while my sneak stays un-hit. Both horrors run to base the CWW. His dancers try to Morale the fgfp and fail, who starts to beat them himself. His CWW disengages the horrors, taking 30, and hides. A horror tries to base it but is sliden off by the gnome trickster. MIkey made 1 mistake, not using the CWW to ice ray the fgfp but to fire ray the horror. The horror goes to chop him up and succeeds. Meanwhile, the other horror is taking his other parts of the band. The fgfp runs and kills the gnome. One dancer makes the FGFP rout, but he rallies next turn. I win the game on tile points when my remaining horror kills his last dancer, leaving him with only storm.. so I win again.

Semis:
3 Frenzied Berserkers

Gnome Trickster

Wolf x2

2 xephs.

Magma keep again

1 horror goes to kill all his tile grabbers, and the sneak kills those sent at him until killed by a wolf. The Frenzies run into base my FGFP, giving my horrors a chance to hit them. The FGFP couldn’t see them and missed conceal. Whenever A FB came visible though, It got chopped to pieces. He tried to run for VA’S when he was ahead on points and FGFP was dead, but ran into my VA. This gave me time to get ahead on points at the end of that round as a skirmisher Grabbed me some VA’s. Next round he runs his FB to his VA, while I run my 2 horrors into mine. Therefore he has to run to me, and Hence a horror kills the Last FB.

Final.

Marilith

Large black dragon

Thrall of Blackrazor

Tiefling Bladmaster

Hyena

2 orc warriors.

Slaughtered…. Completely. When the FGFP dies, his marilith has 45 hp left and the black dragon all (so I did kill the thrall), so I gave up, as my two horror just cant kill a marilith on 45 doing only 5 damage per hit.. and I needed to get on train..

Well, I am finally wide awake enough to do a report now (our train home was a bit…well non-existant, and the replacement meant that we didn’t get home till 1:30 AM). So without further ado, here is my (3^rd place) perspective on the UK nationals.

The Warband

After my abysmal performance at the EU champs last year, I was slightly sceptical about ever running CE again. However, the serpentine allure of the viciously effective Maralith has been gradually luring me back towards it since blood war came out. About two weeks ago, I had narrowed the choice down to 2 bands:

1.)

CG

Cleric of Sune 34

2x Virtuous Chargers 80

2x Xen’drik champions 46

Rikka 31

Wild Elf Warsinger 9

Playing on blood dungeon. This warband is pretty much all glass cannon, all the time. On the one hand, it can utterly annihilate one or two figures a round, but will lose most protracted combats, especially against LE. In the end, the high prevalence of Duegar Champions in the UK metagame made me decide against it.

2.)

CE

Maralith 73

Large Black Dragon 44

Mounted Drow Patrol 27

Doomguard 26

Orc Wardrummer 19

2x Orc warriors 6

Timber Wolf 5

In the end, what drew me to this warband over the other was the fact that it maintains the ability to kill off whole figures in a single round, but gains more consistent attack bonuses, and has a breath weapon to kill off fodder. It was also, I hoped much better against the dreaded DC’s, due to Maralith’s blindsight. It also has the nice internal combo of two multi attack beaters with a damage boosting commander, and a figure that can easily make enemies “wounded” (Mounted Drow Patrol, a very underrated piece indeed).

My map was hailstorm tower, since it has many walls for MDP, poor lines of site (to help vs Bralinis) and a nice big magic circle victory area for my LBD to sit in (it can reach it turn one from either side).

The tournament

After the Manchester players’ minibus had finally limped into Sheffield (us Londoners having been there almost 40 minutes), and registration was finished, we all sat down for our first round.

Round 1

Vs CE

Balor 95

Werewolf Lord 53

Werebear 31

2x Small black dragon 22

This was my opponent’s very first tournament. I won map initiative, and he chose sides.

Our bands quickly collided, with Maralith and Balor going head to head, while MDP distracted the werewolf lord. Balor failed its morale save after one Maralith flurry, while the MDP got eaten for its troubles. Maralith then moved within laceName>EnhancedlaceName> laceName>MobilitylaceName> laceType>RangelaceType> (from now on acronymed to EMR) of the werewolf. I won the next initiative and dispatched the wolf, but the Balor rallied. The werebear was routed by the dragon, and the Balor finished off by the Maralith.

1-0

Round 2

Vs Marco Cozzo with CG

3x Frenzied Berserkers 156

Gnome Trickster 27

2x Timber wolf 10

2x Xeph Warrior 6

Wow, that is a really scary band to play against. Thank goodness for blindsight and burnout. He won map initiative, and so we were playing on Dragon Shrine. I won sides, and chose the one near the sacred circle. Round one, I piled my band into it, with a wolf in front to prevent 2^nd turn charges against Maralith. He lined up in front. Round 2, He won initiative, and he made me go first. We both moved all our non key figures first, with the MDP drive bying one of the Xephs, while heading towards his other tile grabbers. On his second last phase, he moved one of his FBs to base my dragon, and snakes swiftnessed it. My dragon took 30. I duly moved the dragon out of the way, taking 30 and passing morale, then eliminated the FB at melee reach two with the Maralith. Deathstrike killed an Orc. Marco thought for a while before moving both his FB’s to base my Maralith, one of them also basing the dragon. He won the next initiative, and full attacked the Maralith with both FBs, hitting 4 times in a row for the kill. In revenge, my dragon full attacked the FB basing it, and since it was wounded by 15 from burnout and Doomguard was present, killed it stone dead, dying to the deathblow. The rest of my warband piled into the last FB, including the hastily recalled MDP, reducing it to 30. I won the next initiative, and Doomguard rended the FB to death, giving me the win due to having killed a xeph and a wolf of his (MDP’s work), and having 4 rounds of tile points.

2-0

Round 3

Vs Cesare Carini (current EU champion) with CE

Maralith 73 (oh dear)

Large Black Dragon 44

Thrall of Blackrazor 43

Tiefling Blademaster 27

3x Orc warrior 9

Hyena 4

Not good. Basically the mirror match, except with one more solid beater on his side. H won map and chose Hellspike. He chose to set up on the side with the forward start area near the hellspike, in which he placed his dragon. This was a very hard game. Both bands piled into each other, and against all odds, I managed to bring down his Maralith first. However, my dragon lay dead, and my Maralith ended up flanked by his dragon and the Thrall. He won the next initiative, and hit my Maralith with all 5 attacks to kill it for the win. I thought this was pretty unlucky to be frank, but Maralith mirror matches will always be heavily luck based, especially on initiative.

2-1

Round 4

Vs LE

2x Maug 82

2x Red Hand War Sorceror 68

Snig 20

Dark Moon Monk

A confection of assorted goblins of the Acheron, skirmisher and warrior variety

We both had the tower as our map, so that was no problem. I have to admit I went into this match way overconfidant. I was very nearly harshly punished for this, and while my attack rolls with Maralith were not Up to much, my own arrogance did most of the damage. Basically, maralith killed a maug and ran away, then tried, and repeatedly failed, to finish off a RHWS on 10 due to dragon’s breath and a lightning bolt friendly fire incident. When this failed, she ran away some more, while my dragon got Mauged. In the end, he needed to move his maug, hit my maralith, then win initiative and double hit for the win. The third attack missed, and maralith killed the Maug and enough of the rest of the warband for the win, before attrition by snowball swarms could take it out.

3-1

At this point, the top 8 cut took place, and at 3-1 I went through.

Round 5

Vs David Scott with LE

Ultraloth 62

4x Duegar Champions 132

2x Kobold Miners 6

Just when I thought I had completely avoided any Ultraloths too. We played on Hellspike, and I got the side with the very forward start area, and dropped my MDP in it. Turn 1, he made the annoying move of blocking off my MDP’s escape route, sending two Duegars up there, while the rest of his band went after my dragon and wolf, who had gone on a tile grabbing adventure. I response, I hit 1 duegar for 15 with the MDP, the moved Maralith into EMR of the two duegars near the MDP. Round 2, I won initiative and Maralith killed one of the Duegars and hurt the other, which MDP hurt some more (it passed morale,). In his phase, a duegar attacked the Dragon, hitting it for 15, and Ultraloth double scorching rayed it, forcing a (passed) morale check. Dragon Breathed through all the surviving Duegars. Next phase, he won initiative, but double missed my dragon with a duegar then hit it once with the other. Dragon knocked it down to 5, then Maralith moved into EMR of the two basing the Dragon. Scorching ray finished off the dragon, and MDP took the other heavily injured Duegar to 5. I won the next initiative, but due to my stupidly leaving doomguard out of command range, finished off 1 duegar and took the other to 15. They hurt the maralith a bit, and she got enfeebled, but then the one on 15 got MDPed, and maraltih eventually chased to other down. Allowing me to sit on the victory area Doomguard until I reached 7 rounds of points.

4-1

Round 6

Vs Cesare (again L)

I lost. Enough said.

Since I had good tiebreaks, I got third place overall, winning £21 of store credit. Cesare beat my brother in the finals, and since my brother (Froffenhoffer on some forums) was the highest placing UK player, he was crowned national champion. A good day all round, and well organised by patriot games and Alepulp. I was very sad not to be able to play in the sealed side event, but there was a train that needed catching.