With the final night of stage 1 game play tomorrow, Steve has sent out the latest updates so those with remaining games will know exactly what is to play for.
Edit: Gregs battle report has been added to the bottom of the post.
Steve’s update
Hello, Folks.
Last Friday saw several games played out across the groups and we also had a midweek match to give us a game in every group.
Kroak
In the Kroak league, Stevie and Alex played out a very bloody King of the Hill scenario with both players successfully carrying out their chosen missions. I’ll let Alex tell you what happened in his own lizardy words,
“Long story short, Stevie gave me a deserved hiding due to dreadful deployment decisions on my part and poor match-ups. The only thing that saved me was that our late start meant he ran out of time to finish me off. We rolled king of the hill and only 2 pieces of scenery. This was my nightmare scenario as all my math-hammer musing pre-match suggested that I should avoid direct conflict. Stevie then out-did me on the deployment – basically we concentrated all units into the middle but my skirmishers and other more manoeuvrable troops were poorly positioned as their function should have been to whittle and redirect. What followed was a brutal hiding of the Lizard infantry blocks by the Ogres – my only advantage being that I got the Temple Guard onto the centre ground before Stevie. By the end of round 3 Stevie had destroyed both the Temple Guard unit and the Saurus Warriors. Luckily for me, last knockings had been called just as Stevie overran my Temple Guard(losing his control of the objective as he did so). I then shamelessly manoeuvred my chaff/skirmishers/cowboys into awkward positions that denied Stevie the victory he deserved and would have had with another 20 minutes on the clock. Meanwhile we both scored points for side missions- Stevie killed a load of my characters for hero hammered and I stuck a crappy unit into a building to secure a cash under the floorboards objective. A draw, but a darned dirty one as far as My contribution was concerned. There wasn’t a lizard block on the table at the end.”
Emperor
More Ogres were on a rumble over in the Emperor league, where Chris’ Meat Tray Mob chomped their way through most of Tim’s High Elves. However, in their eagerness to get served seconds, they destroyed the unit that they
had delivered a secret message to. Tim was not so careless and therefore achieved his Take a Message mission. Unfortunately, he was otherwise finding the rough of the baize, rolling persistent 11s for critical Break Tests AND re-rolls.
Archaon
The final game to report on from last Friday was the final game in the Archaon League between myself and Luke and it was a real nail biter. We rolled up Take and Hold and playing lengthwise felt very claustrophobic against the Dark Elves. Magic throughout the game was pretty minimal, especially after the Supreme Sorceress and her Warlock entourage ran down my level 4 in turn 2. Both sides moved their combat blocks up and into contact where carnage ensued. The witches struggled against the 3+ armour of the warriors who survived their initial charge, so that on my next turn the Skullcrushers could join in the fight and help whittle down the witches until they broke and ran. Unfortunately, none of the chaos units could catch them and so the fight had to be replayed again until they were finally destroyed. Meanwhile, the executioners did a mirror job on my trolls despite losing the first 3 phases of their combat.
By now Luke and I were in a desperate bid to disable the fortitude of as many enemy units as possible. In the end, it all came down to Luke securing a draw by manoeuvring a unit of Dark Riders to prevent my remaining marauder unit from leaving a building on his table half, after I was briefly ahead for the first time in the game in the penultimate turn. Luke successfully Stashed the Cash, but just like Chris before me, I killed off the the unit that I picked for my spy to lurk in (those damned witches, of course).
Fateweaver
On Wednesday, Greg and Matt played out King of the Hill in the Fateweaver League. I won’t go into details, as a write up from Greg is on the way, but in brief, it was a hard fought draw with neither side able to achieve their missions. A great effort on their part to get the game played. Cheers, gents.
My league table review
Emperor
We know that Dan had already secured first spot in the last update (and I completely forgot to say congratulations) so this had become about securing the 2nd spot. With his win over Tim, Chris has helped secure the 2nd spot however if Tim wins his final game vs Pete and manages his secret mission, that will be enough to beat Chris by a single point!
Archaon
All the games have now been played and so we can congratulate Paul for qualifying in first place and Luke for securing 2nd in his final game.
Kroak
I am still clinging onto the top spot by virtue of having played the most games and I am guaranteed at least the runner up spot as only Alex can now beat me, though like Tim in Emperor, he needs both the victory and to complete his secret mission. If however he gets a draw, mission and all the other bonus points (including hobby point), we will be tied on points!
Fateweaver
Like Dan, Neil secured the top spot some time ago, so a congratulations to him. Greg is currently lying in 2nd but both Matt and Cyntac could potentially top him or at least level his points if they win their final game, complete the mission and score bonus points.
Secret Mission Analysis
Looking at the four groups together, the most popular mission so far is Stash the cash with 69% taking it. Take a message was 2nd with 56%. 3 & 4 pence and hero hammered are currently joint 3rd and in last place is Cut off the head with just 25% of players using it.
Overall Qualification Standings
Steve has also compiled a current standings chart and it shows that I completed misread the initial comp document he sent out (for some reason i’m not even surprised by that) as the group position doesn’t really matter, it’s all about total points score. Although in fairness at present the Stage 2 Group A is made up of the current leaders of the stage 1 groups and Group B is made up of those in 2nd place, with the exception of Steve. This is likely to change though if those club members on 2 games manage to get the final one in on Friday.
I have made a couple of small corrections to the below table as the bonus list points showing in the group list were missing from Joe Y and Alex M. If the group points were correct, this means that that Alex is actually above Martin in the table.
Gregs Fateweaver battle report
Matt (Orcs and Goblins) vs. Greg (Wood Elves)
Group: Fateweaver
Mission: King of the Hill
Matt special mission: unsuccessful
Greg special Mission: unsuccessful
Result: Draw
After a bit of rescheduling I finally managed to arrange my final game in the fateweaver league against Matt’s Orcs. Although I’ve played D&D with Matt I had never played WFB so was looking forward to it. We played it at my house on a slightly smaller table and white table cloth but it didn’t present any real problems. The mission was king of the hill.
The battle for the hill in the centre turned into a grind, as the Black Orcs and treekin slugged it out over many turns. The treekin eventually came out on top thanks to the healing and regrowth spells from the treeman.
In the final few turns I thought I had cleared enough Orcs away to claim the objective, but the sneaky spider riders popped up and thwarted my plans. Although the treekin chased them off the objective, I ran out of time to get a fortitude unit onto the hill.
So all in all a super fun and bloody game ended in a draw.
+++
Snow covered the ground like a crisp white table cloth, having fallen unseasonaly early. Chanting could be heard coming from the orcs, “ere we go, ere we go” being the loudest. The biggest, baddest unit of Orcs- the black Orcs, had taken up residence on the hill, a strategic location of great importance to both sides.
Dreadroots looked on in silence as the rowdy Orcs celebrated and drank. It was time to chase them off.
He was signalling for his treekin to advance when an almighty green foot descended from the heavens and began stamping over his army. Five sisters of the thorn and a unit of wild riders were stomped to their deaths, and casualties were suffered throughout the archer units.
The remaining wild rider unit charged forward and ploughed through the Orc lines, mowing through a unit of boar boys before chasing down the enemy general.
The sorceress called forth her death magic and spirit leeched the aracnarok spider, severely wounded it, and Dreadroots followed that up with an irresistible dwellers, causing another Orc unit to flee. The wound he suffered from the miscast was more than worth it.
Seeing his treekin struggling in the center he used his magics to heal and regrow them, which provided enough impetus for them to eventually wipe out the unit. There was no let up however as ever more fast moving Orc reinforcements entered the battle. He turned to face a unit of spider riders, intent on charging them but before he knew it they had slipped past and were marching up the hill. The treekin chased them off but it was too late for the Wood Elves to claim the hill as their own.
The snow started to fall again and Dreadroots had seen enough. They had stopped the Orcs from claiming the hill and that would have to be enough.
+++
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