My rooster:
Karlee Front Wschodni2250 Pts - Bretonnia Army
1 Prophetess of the Lady @ 320 Pts
General; Magic Level 4
Falcon Horn of Fredemund [45]
Potion Sacre [10]
Dispel Scroll [25]
1 Damsel of the Lady @ 155 Pts
Magic Level 2
The Silver Mirror [40]
1 Paladin @ 138 Pts
Lance; Morningstar; Heavy Armour; Shield; Grail Vow
Virtue of the Impetuous Knight (1st) [35]
1 Paladin @ 141 Pts
Lance; Morningstar; Heavy Armour; Grail Vow
Virtue of Duty [30]
Enchanted Shield [10]
1 Paladin Battle Standard Bearer @ 140 Pts
Heavy Armour; Battle Standard Bearer; Grail Vow
Gromril Great Helm [30]
Virtue of Discipline (1st) [15]
8 Grail Knights @ 359 Pts
Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard; Musician; Barding; Grail Vow
War Banner [25]
1 Field Trebuchet @ 90 Pts
4 Pegasus Knights @ 250 Pts
Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard; Musician; Knightly Vow
8 Knights Errant @ 181 Pts
Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Standard; Musician; Barding; Knightly Vow
6 Knights Errant @ 127 Pts
Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Musician; Barding; Knightly Vow
5 Knights of the Realm @ 128 Pts
Lance; Heavy Armour; Shield; Musician; Barding; Knightly Vow
10 Peasant Bowmen @ 60 Pts
Longbow
10 Peasant Bowmen @ 65 Pts
Longbow; Braizers
12 Peasant Bowmen Skirmishers @ 94 Pts
Longbow; Musician; Braizers
Casting Pool: 8
Dispel Pool: 5
Models in Army: 72
Total Army Cost: 2248
I Battle
First battle started with a little unpleasant accent. We played versus ППМВ, introduced ourselves and left the room to think about the battle in quiet. We left our leaflet with all of our full roosters on the table when we left the room. While we were gone our enemies scouted all our secret roosters, wrote down every single magic item and then they were ready to face us. Of course their captain didn't tell us a word about it. Luckily Zulus noticed this, and after quick word with their captain we agreed that we will play this one with full roosters to make it more fair. But nevertheless we were a bit pissed. Also we had bad pairings and I got to play vs orcs. 2600 points of orcs with a lot of noasv weapons. Terrible matchup.
Orcs & Goblins - Варывода Александр aka Droger
Black Orc Warboss
General; Heavy Armour; Shield – +1 siły I +1A za każdego bohatera w 12”, ward 5+, enchanced shield
Wyvern
Black Orc Big Boss - -1 do hita, +1S, Ws, I
Heavy Armour; Battle Standard ,Boar
2* Goblin Shaman – 3xDS I pierscionek z bound lvl3
Magic Level 2; Wolf Chariot
2*5 Goblin Wolf Riders
Light Armour; Musician
5 Wolf
2*20 Night Goblins
Shortbow; Musician
22+1 Orc Big 'Uns
Standard; Musician
Choppa; Light Armour; Shield;
2 Spear Chukka
Bully
2 Rock Lobber
Bully
2*7 Squig Hoppers
6 Orc Boar Boyz
Standard; Musician
1 Doom Diver
1 Giant
2600p. orcs were taking whole table so there no point in describing how they were deployed ;p The battle had only one very important moment: Droger on his first turn hid his Wyvern behind the hill on the centre of the table, and after it positioned a unit of Boar Boys with BSB, and after them there was a unit of Orcs Big Uns with magical banner. He was hoping to shout waagh on the second round, get on top of the hill and charge me I suppose, but what he didn't remember, was that I had falcon horn :D So I used FH, positioned my unit of Grail knights with hero about 7" away from the wivern and also cast Beast Cowers on the unit of boar boyz. Droger in his turn instead of fleeing with his wyvern just charged my Grail Knights - big mistake man. They love to fight with those pesky big things, because one of the grail knights takes up the challange and all you can do is just kill one guy, while knights have 2 ranks, outnumber, banner, warbanner and ward save :D Guess what happened next - after 2 rounds of combat grails won it, overrun into boar boys, then overrun into big uns... the rest was just a formality.
20-0
team also fared very well, gaining 70points in total. Good start :)
2nd battle
Team of DM Crew. Funny guy in polish T-shirt. At that time we all got sms's with news concerning our president and all the officials. At start we couldn't believe it, but when we got few sms's from diffrent sources, then suddenly we couldn't think about warhammer anymore. We went to eat something, and agreed upon not to speak of it anymore until we leave Russia, because if we would be down we wouldn't have the will to play and it would spoil the rest of the trip for certain. That's why we were smiling nevertheless and maybe some of you were surprised by our behaviour.
I got to play versus Empire. I never played empire before with my Brets (well, I didn't play with them against most of the armies, heh), but since I am very expierienced empire player (I play empire for more than 11 years now...) I wanted to try it out :)
Arch Lector of Sigmar
General; War Altar 2*Battle Wizard Magic Level 2; Captain
Pegasus; FPA; Lance 4+1 Knightly Orders
2*5 Knightly Orders
10 Handgunners Marksman: Hochland Long Rifle
Detachment: 5 Free Company 10 Handgunners Marksman: Hochland Long Rifle Detachment: 5 Archers 10 Huntsmens
6 Pistoliers
Outrider: Repeater pistol;
Musician 6 Outriders Outrider Champion: Hochland Long Rifle 2*Great Cannon
Steam tank
My plan was to kill everything except the altar and the tank, while pushing at his positions as fast as possible and make as many threats as possible. For example I took my heroes out of my units, so that my opponent would have to divide his shooting between them and units, and to be certain that at least some of them will survive the shooting. Also I knew that empire shooting is quite inreliable, and hoped for the best :D Generally the battle had it's two major moments. One of them when on my first turn I flew with my pegasus knights full 20" and cast Wolf Hunts with 5 PD and Potion Sacre (it allows to make one casting dice one number higher and to cause IF)... and succes - IF! They charged his huntsmen unit, and were inside the empire army - very dangerous position. Other moment was my first turn, when my mind just turned off (I failed the stupidity test) and postitioned my grail unit so that his tank could have charge them. It was my only and huge mistake, and it costed my my whole unit. My oponent had quite bad dice rolled for his shooting, and at the end I destroyed everything except tank and waraltar, while loosing grails and some minor units.
16-4 to me. My team also scored good results and another win for our team.
btw. Narval: I have heard this word during our battle one one of the tables next to us. The word is "gwalcic' and in polish it meas "to rape" ;) I thought that in russian it means "to pursuit", and it sounded very funny for me to say it instead "to pursue" ;p
3rd Battle
We play versus Team no 1. Again one of your best teams. I got to play vs WoCh.
Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch
Mark of Tzeentch; General; Magic Level 4; Chaos Armour; Shield; Barding – 2xDS, spell familiar, Conjoined Humunculus (+d3 do casta)
Barded Chaos Steed
Exalted Hero of Slaanesh - sztandar z stubborn w 6”
Shield; Battle Standard, Steed of Slaanesh
Chaos Sorcerer of Tzeentch - infernal puppet
Magic Level 2;
Barded Chaos Steed
Chaos Sorcerer of Tzeentch – ward 4+, save 1+, biting blade, roar
Magic Level 2;
Disc of Tzeentch
6 Chaos Warhounds
2*5 Chaos Warhounds
2*5 Marauder Horsemen of Slaanesh
Throwing Axes; Musician
12+1 Chaos Warriors of Slaanesh
Standard; Musician
5 Chaos Knights of Slaanesh - warbanner
Standard; Musician
3 Dragon Ogres
Great Weapon; Light Armour
2 Chaos Spawn
Generally an interesing rooster. I failed to win the roll for choosing sides and SergZerg got the side with the house. I thought that he will camp there with his unit of warriors, but to my surprise he put his 3 characters inside it and marched against my grails. Generally I was thinking "Great! Now I get to charge this infantry unit on my second turn, wipe it out and end the game!". How I was suprised when my grails killed his BSB on the charge and scored some minor wounds but they hold, and hit back hardly. Also on my second turn I charged his spawns. One of the unit with errants, and other with pegasus knights. To my surprise the spawn held and started to kill of my knights. It was just the beginning of baaad luck. Generally everything that could go wrong - went wrong. Grails killed by warriors and his mages. Realm knights charging maruder horsemen and got killed. And the best moment in the tournament... My last turn of the game. Everybody finished and so everyone gathered around the table. SergZergs's last turn. He charges with his warriors my unit of 2-3 knights with a damsel inside, won the combat and rolled 7-9 for pursuit. I take the dice and... roll 18! Hurraay!! Knights and damsel saved, I won't loose! But... what now?! 18 inches was just enough to be destroyed by his knights who were standing on 17,5 inch. Epic Fail :( So I loose, and my team draws... but it would only take those unit to rally or inferno scoring 48 points more for us to win... grrr, very demoralising. I was psychologically destroyed after this battle and was afraid of bad luck till the rest of the tournament :/
4th battle
We were also aware that Tim's team was to be afraid of. They weren't such "niesposobny" as some of you have said on the first day ;p
I got to play versus Tim's WoCh. A really strange build for me, but I have to admit that it isn't bad. Tim's plan was to terrorize me with his Dragon with -1 to Ld tests around him. He succeded only in terrorizing some bowmen and minor things. On the first turn he flew behind the wood and sat there in safeness from any harm while casting Infernal Gateway on my units. Generally whole game was a chess game. In the centre there were two knights units and on my right flank Dragon Ogres. I started the game by blowing my damsel and three knights in knights errant unit. That spoiled the plan a bit. And the plan was to catch his knights with my heroes and then to manoeuvre around them with my lances and then charge them in the flank. But Tim didn't allow me to do this and instead of charging at my heroes, retreated all the time and cast his spells which would be too deadly to my heroes, and with the loss of one magician with Silver Mirror, I had only one scroll (which I used in turn one to dispell infernal gateway) and 4 DD. Also I thought that Tim won't be hiding behind that wood for whole game with his dragon, and eventually he will come out and give me a chance to use my falcon horn and catch his dragon with my Grails... but Tim didn't even come close to them. On the centre of the board the grail knights wanted to charge his tzentch knights. I had 16"+D6 charge range, but after the last battle I was so affraid that I will roll 1 for the distance, that I didn't want to take any risks. And so his knights were retreating few inches every turn and my grails were moving into position for 3 turns I suppose. On my right flank Tim hid Dragon Ogres, Mage on disk, and 2 units of maruders. I flew with pegasis there, and wiped out maruders. On my left flank I passed the dragon and charged 3rd unit of maruders with my 5 realm knights, also I positioned my hero against his 2lvl mage on disk and used falcon horn, because it seemed that I won't catch the dragon either way, so I just menaged to catch two mages on disks. My grail knights eventually killed his tzeentch knights. Also I killed 3 units of maruders and two magicians on disks. He killed only my peasants, trebuchet and small lance of errants with infernal gateway (but unfortuately there was my general inside ;p)
and again... it was very very very close for our team to win this game, because Inferno scored 16, Zulus 16, Akadera 6 and I had only to score 8 points for our team in order to win. I miscalculated the points and it seemed that I lost by 6 by some 150points or something.. Then Zulus came and said "come on! Maybe you miscalculated something... Let's check again!". We checked it a couple of times, and every time we had another results (I suppose that we were too tired then for such complicated and abstract mathematical equasions as adding up ;p). When we came to the point were we got the same results we said to Tim that we actually won... then we calculated the points together with Tim and - another succes! 18 points so far :D
5th battle
Okey, now we have met the first team that we were not preparing for previously. One of their players was sick and because of it Zef took his place in the team, supposably boosting their chances (I suppose that Zef - as your ETC player, is one of the best ?). Also he knew our full roosters, but it wasn't a problem hence we trusted our beloved host and good friend :)
My enemy was Aleg, playing also Brets.
Sorial
Bretonnian Lord ,General; Lance; Grail Vow;
Warhorse
Paladin
Battle Standard;
Grail Vow;
Warhorse
2*Damsel of the Lady
Magic Level 1;
Warhorse
7+1 Knights Errant
Standard; Musician;
7+1 Knights of the Realm
Standard; Musician;
9+1 Peasant Bowmen Skirmishers
2*10 Peasant Bowmen
2*4+1 Knights Errant
3+1 Pegasus
Standard; Musician
12 Grail Knights
Musician;
Before the battle I was quite confident about it. I never played versus brettonnia (I played it only for a month - just to prepare for this tournament), but I had all the advantages: better shooting, better magic, more small units (single heroes etc.). So he had to come to me, and I had the tactical advantage. Aleg deployed his "electritshka" in the centre with three small lances to acompany it. I also deployed my two big lances in the centre and acompanied them with bowmen. I thought that even if I would charge my grail unit to the front of his "electrishka" I would loose, or he would loose by 2 for example, hold, and then his units would charge me to the sides. Also I suspected that he could have +D6 charge range on this lance. On his first turn he moved two small lances of 5 errants full 16" distance, and electrishka only about 7. Then I happily charged them only with my heroes, and retreated my lances backwards 4". Both of my heroes started to win the combats with the lances, but Aleg rolled good for break tests. Then, he made a huge mistake that costed him the battle - he moved his big unit of grails forward and with a little wheel so that if my unit of errants would charge to his small lance he could charge them. But what he didn't see is that he wheeled so much that my unit of grail knights were to their side, about 17 inches away. On my turn I happily charged my grail knights in the side to his electritshka adding +D6 inches to the charge... succes! From now on I moved everything forward to outmanouvre him, and from the third turn everything apart from peasants on the table was in hth, and every single combat my units were winning by 2-4... but Aleg had terrific rolls for break tests. At start I was confident that the battle is won by a massacre because all of his units were in very bad hth, but he rolled... I don't know for certain, but about 30 succesfull rolls for break test, and if that would continue then I would simply run out of turns to win ;p Happly for me his grail knights with damsel, bsb and lord broke after the pegasis joined in and charged them from the rear. After this it was all over.
Nickolay asked me to write my impressions about the tournament organisation. Well, the tournament was really proffesionally organised, and I can't tell a bad word about it, but if I would have to write something then it would be:
- tables should differ more between themselfes. For example there should be one table with fewer terrains, one with more terrains and so on. On some there shouldn't be a single wood. On some there could be no house... Those tables looked pretty similar and the decision on which table who gets to play wasn't that important.
- I like playing with the swiss system better. Not only it is more clear, but also the best players play on table number one, and you can always know who is the best and who is not, so playing on table number one is more prestigious. It creates a sweet tournament, competetive atmosfere :) Also some of the players don't have to move their armies around the whole tournament place all the time ;p
- you should write the distances of the terrains to the table borders. Sometimes, when during the battles terrains moves, there could be arguments about where thore terrains stood at the start of the battle. It also prevents cheaters from moving them.
- you should make the first battle a little bit longer than other. You know, the players are just getting their armies out of the miniatures cases, they are not that prepared, and so on...
But those are really small nuisances and really don't take them too seriuosly, because we really liked your tourney :)
We would like to thank you all for giving us a chance to visit your beatifull city and to meet such wonderful people as yourselves. I had 5 really good and entertaining battles. Everyone played fair, and I hope that none of you felt cheated by me or my players. At the tournaments I try to play hard, with every dirty tricks that are allowed by the rules (with the Icon trick and so on...), but not to do any low tricks like moving the miniatures when the opponent is not looking etc. The level was very close, and I can't say that the games were easy for us. Also you have to understand that one of our colegues [черт]ed us up and didn't borrow us miniuatures which he promised to borrow, and we had to think something out during the night before leaving Poland. That's why Inferno had strange looking Tomb King and I had a little messy Brettonnia army ;-) But I suppose that those were minor issues and they won't spoil your impression :) Also, when we will know the date of our master class tournament, we will invite you to our city for a good warhammer tourney :)
Special thanks to Kola, Nastia, Andrey, Anna, Oxana, Tim and Blender (his new nickname ;-) ) who spent so much time with us and made our visit here so freaking great! I will try to upload some of the photos and movies with you guys, also where we can find yours ?
Cheers, Karlee.
