I wasn't expecting to do very well, having virtually no experience whatsoever. In the lead up to the tournament I spent most of my time either painting or playing Kings of War and as such only managed to get 3 practice games in - at least I knew the rules (sort of).
My main aim was to win at least 1 game!
My list was as follows:
- Verminus Clawpack Battalion
- Grey Seer - General - Lord of War - Crown of Conquest
- Skaven Warlord - Crown of Conquest (Battalion allowance)
- Warlock Engineer
- Packmaster
- 40 Clanrats - blades
- 10 Clanrats - spears
- 10 Clanrats - spears
- 20 Stormvermin
- 4 Rat Ogors
- Ratling Gun Weapon Team
- Warpfire Thrower Weapon Team
- Warpfire Thrower Weapon Team
- Hell Pit Abomination
- Doomwheel
My plan was to use the buffs from the Grey Seer and Warlord to support the 40 Clanrats and 20 Stormvermin. I could use Inspiring presence on both units to avoid Battleshock tests and also double their attacks and improve their to hit / wound rolls. For example, I could make the Clanrats double their attacks to 80, hitting on 2's and wounding on 3's, albeit without rend. This proved surprisingly effective!
The Rat Ogors would be supported by the Packmaster as a flanking unit, with the Doomwheel and Hell Pit on the other flank. The Engineer and Weapon Teams stay hidden until they can get into range to deliver some damage.
Day 1.
Game 1 was against Stormcast Eternals, which felt like the most appropriate start possible. My opponent was a really nice chap (as were all my opponents), who happened to work for Games Workshop as part of a small team who design the Exhibition displays at Warhammer World - cool! However, he did assure me that he doesn't actually get to play much and as such was also lacking experience somewhat.
The game was great fun and not only showed the power of a Stardrake, but also the power of a well supported rat horde. The Stardrake, feeling all big and clever, flew straight in and massacred my Stormvermin!
However, the Clanrat counter attack was more than the dragon had bargained for and revenge was sweet! Go little rats go!
In the end though it was all in vein as the Stormcasts held strong and won a tight game based on the objectives.
Having lost my first game, but also having killed more than my opponent, I went into my second game feeling strangely optimistic. This time team Skaven would be facing off against Death - lots and lots of zombies, in fact more zombies than I had rats - I had been out-swarmed!
Strangely, this opponent also worked for GW, not that I minded, but I was starting to feel somewhat singled-out.
The game ended up being fairly even, with me taking the center and decimating his shambling horde of undead (once again demonstrating the power of the Clanrat) and my opponent taking the flanks. Unfortunately for me, all the objectives were in the corners of the table and by the time I managed to head off towards several of them, it was all too late - lesson learnt, don't forget the mission!
My third and final game on the first day was against Ironjawz, so three different armies across the day, which was nice!
The scenario was Escalation which as it turns out, favours armies with lots of drops. I had 14 drops, my opponent had only 9. Which meant that he had to split his army into 3 groups of 3, whereas my groups were 5,5 and 4. Considering three of my units were individual Weapon Teams and the Doomwheel is completely useless. I basically managed to get 90% of my army on the table by turn 2, whereas the Ironjawz were still short-handed.
Coupled with the fact that I won the initiative roll for the second turn (which is also a huge advantage in the escalation scenario), I ended up winning the game fairly comfortably. But not only that, I also managed to kill my second huge beasty - the Ironjawz cabbage (which is actually a really cool model) went down in one turn to a Stormvermin counterattack!
End of day 1 and I was 1-2 and pretty happy. I'd had 3 wonderful opponents, was starting to get a feel for the game and my army and had actually won a game. Mission accomplished.
Day 2.
At the start of day 2 I was in midfield, having had 1 strong win and 2 narrow loses. My newly revised goal was to try and pickup a second win and hope for some more fun, close games against a variety of different armies.
Unfortunately my run of always facing a different army ended as I faced off once again against the poster boys of AoS, the Stormcast Eternals. However, the list was really very different from the first list I faced, this time being lots of Judicators, lots of Drakoths and the teleporty chap.
Having never faced the teleporty chap before and having no clue what he did, I ended up on the receiving end of a big surprise. I deployed as usual with my small and squishy heroes huddling in a woods right behind my battleline, hoping not to get shot at. My opponent then teleported 4 Drakoths right behind my lines and massacred them. Hmmm... didn't see that coming!
From thereon it was just a matter of him moping up the rest of my army and the game was very quickly over as I got tabled. Oh well, maybe I'll have more luck in the next game.
Game 5 was against Wood Elves and Sylvaneth and the mission was Four Places of Power, a mission which didn't really suit either of us as we both had very squishy heroes.
His set deployment was a gunline of Elves behind some very defensive Sylvaneth blockers. I lined up as usual, with my big units in the middle and my monsters on the flanks. My plan was to move my line up and attack him head on, thus allowing my heroes behind to take the objectives, whilst still getting cover from his shooting.
Sadly, it didn't work. I ran at him with everything I had and bounced. It turns out that Sylvaneth are very resilient against regular attacks, with a 3+ save, re-rolling fails and multiple wounds. I barely scratched him and he slowly ground me down with his shooting. I still nearly won on objectives, but not quite. Second lesson learnt - need more ways to deal mortal wounds.
Onto my last game of the tournament and the second day is not going as well as the first. After another 2 loses I am now quite near the bottom and in desperate need of that elusive second win. Of course, so was my opponent.
Rather pleasantly, I ended up facing yet another different army in my last game, this time it was Khorne, which meant out of 6 games I had faced 5 different armies.
This last game was great fun and really close. He had a mixture of daemons and Khorne Bloodbound, with one very big scary monster - Skarbrand. The mission was to hold your own objective and to try and take that of your opponents, and although I did concentrate on the mission, I also really wanted to take down another large scalp!
The game progressed in a fairly normal fashion, with both sides jostling for position, trying to pull the other one off their objective. We both had very large armies with lots of bodies on the field and this made it difficult to gain any kind of foothold.
In a bold move on my right flank I decided to feed my opponent my Doomwheel in order to tempt Skarbrand into range of my Stormvermin. Sure the Doomwheel costs 140 points, but it is absolutely rubbish (such a shame for such a beautiful model) and I was determined to get my prize kill.
My opponent went for it and promptly killed the Doomwheel. I won the necessary initiative roll and was all ready to to charge with my Stormvermin, buffed by the Warlord so that they had double attacks. Charge roll required 4. I rolled a 3. My plan had worked, but my dice had failed and although I only play for fun, I'm sure my face showed a degree of disappointment at this moment.
Regardless, the game went on and as it transpired, my opponent ended up needing to kill 10 clanrats with said Skarbrand to win the game. Amazingly he didn't and enough survived the battleshock test to continue to hold my objective in the last turn. Game result was a Minor Victory for my opponent on kill points.
Conclusion
Although I ended up only winning one game, I had great fun and could have easily won a few more if luck had been more on my side.
In my opinion Age of Sigmar is not really the best of tournament games as the list is far more important than the player and a level playing field is only really possible when all the players bring really hard lists.
However, it really is genuinely very fun to play, with little in the way of rules disagreements and a nice quick flow to the game. It is probably best suited to small local tournaments and casual play. It's certainly a game I will continue to play and hopefully enjoy.
Regarding the tournament itself, the organisation was excellent and the included food at Warhammer World was plentiful and tasty.
My only gripe would be the painting competition, which was sadly very poorly managed. The armies that were nominated for best painted were certainly very deserving, but I, as well as other people, felt there were several armies that were clearly better that were not even noted in the honorable mentioned section.
The nominations for best painted were chosen by GW staff, who supposedly walked around during the first game on the Saturday and watched the games as they were played - a method that is clearly not suitable. It was thus no surprise that all the armies selected were already well-known armies, which made it feel as if the selection had taken place even before the tournament began.
Considering how serious GW pushes the hobby aspect of their games, this felt rather unfortunate.
Regardless, the tournament was clearly a success and demonstrated that AoS is truly more than the sum of it's parts.
Ghorros.
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