Organising the SELWG wfb Competition – Part 5 – Terrain

In the final post of this series (thank god I hear you say, I can’t deal with any more of these wordy posts, where the hell are all the pictures!) I’ll look at the terrain table.

I will hold up my hand and say right now that i’m not a fan of the terrain table in whfb 8th edition. I know it can be argued that it was designed to work in conjunction with the rest of the rule set but it bugs me that almost everything has to have some special ability. Why can’t a river just be a river. Isn’t it enough that it has impact on movement or removes steadfast etc. Why on top of that must it give you the ability to cast spells etc. Having something that also gives you loremaster of Death seems massively overpowered. I’ve also found that when playing games, most of the time people forget about the terrain abilities too.

Well because it was my comp pack, I decided to follow Steve’s lead from last year and get rid of most of that crap (If you don’t like the decision, you can step up and run it next year and include all of it 😀).

If you read the blog, you will know that i’ve been playing Kings of War this year and in that rule set, the norm is to use Map Packs (one of the best known in the community is a random map generator from http://www.epicdwarf.com/. Like everyone his site is struggling a bit from the recent photo bucket change of terms but the random terrain generator still works fine). Although it is a fantastic tool, I don’t actually like the presentation (see below example) so instead thought about producing my own in battle chronicler (again example below). The issue with this was the amount of effort it would take to produce on top of everything else.

Epic Dwarf map example

Battle Chronicler example map

Neil (who is running our KOW comp) decided to go down a different route and put together his own terrain chart. In this he created 6 separate maps with fixed terrain but the placement could be variable and was down to the players (within certain limits). I think everyone in the competition really liked using this table and a number of the additional comments on the survey asked to use something similar. So with Neil’s permission I adapted it for use in the whfb competition.

You will note that, despite my personal dislike for the magical element of all terrain in 8th ed. I didn’t completely get rid of all the random terrain ‘abilities’. I appreciated that some players actually like this randomness, so I kept the rules for woods and marshes and also included the odd other item in some of the maps (all items I deemed to be not game changing)

So below is the current version of the terrain setup document.

WHFB 2017 Competition Terrain setup v1.2

In most wargames getting the terrain setup acceptable, without too many rules & taking a fair amount of time can be a challenge. So here is a process that hopefully will not be too challenging & avoids the dreaded barren table with a few sparse pieces stuck in the corners. Players will still have some input into the final position of certain items. (This was adapted from Neil’s KOW pack).

After deciding scenario/mission, roll on the table below (D6).

Collect terrain listed, & determine player A & B with a roll off (player highest roll). Then follow the deployment instructions.

Some general points:

Buildings: All have three levels (including Fozziks folding fortress) and can be no more than 6” across. A maximum of 20 wounds worth of models may garrison a building. (e.g. 17 HE Archers & an Archmage) Count the number of starting wounds (e.g. Archmage always counts as 3).

Woods: Can be no more than 12” across – roll a D6 when entering to decide the type. In addition: Dangerous Terrain if Ca/MC/Ch march, charge, flee/pursue, overrun or if Flyer entering/leaving; No Steadfast (unless Stubborn); Lone infantry characters and Skirmishers characters count as Steadfast.

• 1-3= Normal Forest,
• 4= Venom Thicket [Unit has Poisonous Attacks; counts as Dangerous Terrain],
• 5= Abyssal wood [Unit causes fear]
• 6= Fungus Forest [Stupidity]

Rivers: – all normal.

Marshes: Can be no wider than 9” – roll a D3 when entering to find the type. In addition Dangerous Terrain except Skirmishers; Ca MC and Ch fail test on a 1 or 2.

• 1= Earthblood Mere [any unit in the marsh has Regen (6+)]
• 2= Khemrian Quicksand [Mo/MI//MC removed on Dangerous Terrain failure]
• 3= Mist wreathed swamp [Hard Cover; In test or D6 models are removed]

Walls/hedges/fences (WHF): – all give hard cover. 1 WHF length = 12”, so 3*WHF= 36”

Hills: Can be no wider than 12” – all normal unless stated.

Unless otherwise stated all terrain must be at least 3” apart (exception WHF, which touch/link buildings).

DZ = Deployment zone

Should it prove impossible to place terrain as described, then it is ok to overlap areas/distances to full fill the instruction.

Terrain table (D6 roll).

Map 1) 2*Buildings, 1* hill, 2* woods, 1*WHF, 1*Elven Waystone* [Impassable; Channelling at +1 w/in 6”]

Map 2) 1*River 1*building, 3*hills (2*normal, 1*Anvil of Vaul [Unit within 6” has Flaming and Magical Attacks]), 1* woods, 1*WHF.

Map 3) 2*Marsh, 2*woods, 2*hills.

Map 4) 1*River, 4*hills (2*normal, 2*Scree slope [Dangerous Terrain]), 1*woods.

Map 5) 4*buildings, 1*woods, 2*WHF, 1 hill (Scree slope [Dangerous Terrain])

Map 6) 2*woods, 2 hills, 2*marsh.

 

Terrain deployment instructions Map 1.

1. Player A places the 2*buildings, anywhere on the table except in any DZ and at least 6” from any table edges. Also each building must be between 6”-9” of each other.
2. Player B places the hill in any DZ, at least 9” from any table edge.
3. Player A places 1*tree base anywhere on the table, at least 6” from any table edge.
4. Player B places 1*tree base anywhere on the table, at least 6” from any table edge.
5. Player A places 1* WHF in any deployment zone, at least 6” from any table edge in any configuration, but all pieces must be touching each other.
6. Player B places 1* Elven Waystone anywhere on the table except in any DZ and at least 12” from any table edge.

Terrain deployment instructions Map 2.

1. Player A places river 2ft from any short table edge running from long edge to long edge (4ft length).
2. Player B places 3*hills (2*normal, 1*Anvil of Vaul [Unit within 6” has Flaming and Magical Attacks]) anywhere on the table except in DZ’s, and no more than 6” from any table edges.
3. Player A places 1* tree base in any DZ no more than 9” from any table edge.
4. Player B places 1 building with WHF touching in the opposite DZ that the trees are in, no more than 6” from any table edge.

Terrain deployment instructions Map 3.

1. Player A places 2*trees, anywhere on the table except in DZ’s and at least 6” from any table edge.
2. Player B places 1* hill in each DZ at least 6” from any table edge.
3. Player A places 1* marsh anywhere on the table at least 9” from any table edge.
4. Player B places 1* marsh anywhere on the table at least 9” from any table edge.

Terrain deployment instructions Map 4.

1. Player A places river 18” from any long table edge running from short edge to short edge (6ft length).
2. Player B places 1*tree base anywhere on the table, except in a DZ.
3. Player A places 2* hills (1*normal, 1* Scree slope [Dangerous Terrain]), one in any DZ no nearer than 6” from any table edge, & the second hill anywhere on the table other than in a DZ.
4. Player B places 2* hills (1*normal, 1* Scree slope [Dangerous Terrain]), one in any DZ no nearer than 6” from any table edge, & the other hill anywhere on the table other than in a DZ. (it is allowed that 2 hills end up in the same DZ)

Terrain deployment instructions Map 5.

1. Player A places 2*buildings & 1*WHF anywhere on the table, but not In any DZ, at least 6” from any table edge, The buildings being 6” apart with WHF linking both buildings in any configuration.
2. Player B places 2*buildings & 1*WHF anywhere, but In any DZ at least 6” from any table edge The buildings being 6” apart with WHF linking both buildings in any configuration. Also must be at least 12” away from nearest building in A above.
3. Player A places 1*trees anywhere on the table at least 9” from any table edge.
4. Player B places 1*hill (Scree slope [Dangerous Terrain]) anywhere on the table at least 9” from any table edge.

Terrain deployment instructions Map 6.

1. Player A places 2*trees, anywhere on the table except in DZ’s and no nearer than 6” from any table edge & at least 6” apart.
2. Player B places 2*marsh in any DZ at least 9” from any table edge. Both can be in the same DZ.
3. Player A places 1 hill anywhere on the table 9” from any table edge.
4. Player B places 1 hill anywhere on the table 9” from any table edge.

 

Organising the SELWG wfb Competition – Part 4 – Army and List Restrictions

Out of all the parts of the competition pack, this section was going to be the one that would make or break it and would be the deciding factor on who would want to enter.

Last year’s pack contained quite a few hard restrictions, blocking you from taking certain choices. I kept this for some of the items (e.g. no end times/special characters/allies etc. – see first set of bullet points below). However I wanted to change the slant of the list building making it more open but penalising entrants for taking certain combinations. As with life, you are self determining but your actions can have consequences! This is where the difficulty lay, what would make up these restrictions and how would I make these decisions (whilst not favouring any army I may choose to take).

Having a multitude of previous GT and other tournament packs available to look at really helped and gave me a good understanding of what combos most tournament organisers thought to be overpowered. Most of them seemed to be similar no matter what part of the world the pack originated. Different tournaments did however choose to implement restrictions in different ways, normally via a scoring system, if you take xx unit you add so many points to your ‘score’, whilst others reduce points. This ‘score’ is then added/deducted from your total tournament score.

With our format this approach wouldn’t quite work so instead I opted for two distinct restriction sections. The first was a general section, which incorporated many of the previous tournaments restrictions but instead of the outright ban, it penalised a player if they took 3 or more choices from the section. The second section was army specific and again penalised a player if they took certain choices from their army book.

For each of the sections, if they breached the restrictions, they would be deducted 20 points (and it was cumulative so it could be 40pts in total, 20 per section and could mean you started with a negative score). Each points ‘fine’ was roughly the equivalent of winning a game so entrants could choose to ignore the restrictions but would have to be confident of their ability to get results to offset this.

Random stock photo added to break up the wall of text

I do wonder if this makes it overly complicated but it was one of the few ways I could think of to incorporate many of the restrictions fed back without banning everything.

The army building section of the comp pack, in its current iteration (v1.4 at present) is below.

Having gone through this process I have a lot of respect for individuals who do this every year for tournaments. It takes a lot of effort and is easy to make mistakes (I made a number that club members were kind enough to point out – hence I am up to v1.4 at present – though the latest version only contains rules clarifications and as such i’ve not released it yet).

Army Lists

• Each Army must be no more than 2500 points. These lists will be checked and cleared by an adjudicator and will be open to all once cleared.
• No End Times Rules or Armies.
• No Allies may be taken.
• Wizards must use the same magic lore that they started the competition with throughout the competition. However, wizards that are allowed to generate spells from multiple magic lore’s are allowed to do so. For example, Skaven wizards that are allowed to generate spells from either Plague & Ruin before each game will be allowed to.
• No Special characters are allowed.
• No Forge World rules/stat lines apart from Chaos Dwarfs.

Army lists will be as follows:

Standard army                        2500 points

The following composition restrictions apply:

Army section	Percentage	Restrictions
Lords and Heroes	Up to 50%	No Triples and a maximum total Wizard level of 5 in an army (e.g. one level 4 lord and one level 1 wizard or one level 3 and one level 2. This level cap includes items that specify they have magic levels (such as the wizarding hat) or that increase a user’s magic level but excludes items with bound spells such as the fireball ring. Note: this cap excludes units with magic levels). No flying Wizards (unless the wizard/unit has an innate fly ability. If you have to buy the fly upgrade, whether it be wings or a mount etc., then it may not be taken).
Core	At least 25%
Special	Up to 50%	No Triples
Rare	Up to 25%	No Doubles*

2016 Semi-finalists and finalists only:

Lords                                       Up to 25%               No doubles

Heroes                                    Up to 25%               No doubles

The above restrictions are fixed. The next 2 sections list a number of optional restrictions. You can choose to go over them but if you do Victory Points will be deducted. This could result in starting the competition with a negative score. 

General Restrictions:

Armies meeting 3 or more of the following general restrictions will be deducted 20 VP’s from the Group stage.

Level 4 Wizard who selects Death Magic (“excluding know all signatures” abilities and rules such as Wandering Deliberations),

Level 4 Wizard who can selects Life Magic (“excluding know all signatures” abilities and rules such as Wandering Deliberations),

Crown of Command,

Banner of Discipline,

Folding Fortress.

Light Council (at least 3 wizards in the army with lore of light),

3+ units and/or characters classified as Monster

3+ units and/or Characters with 1+ armour save.

3+ units and/or characters with the Flyer special rule

Characters over 425pts in cost (after any upgrades/items)

Any Unit exceeding 450pts (after any upgrades/items)

5 Warmachines* Includes, Steam tank, chariots and models with war machine weapons such as Ironblasters, Gyrocopters, Hellcannons. (Engineers count as 1 warmachine choice. Each Dwarf Rune counts as ½ a warmachine, so 2 Runes count as 1 warmachine choice, even if the runes are split between machines).

* Certain army books allow you to take double the normal amount of warmachines in your list than is normally allowed (e.g. Elf bolt throwers, Dwarf Gyrocoptors, Goblin Spearchuckers, Pump Wagons etc). In the above restrictions, taking 2 of these count as 1 selection (so you could take 2 Elf Bolt throwers from the rare section and they would also only count as a single warmachine out of your 5 warmachine limit).

Army Specific Restrictions.

Armies meeting the following restrictions will be deducted 20 VP’s from the Group stage (this is cumulative with the above deduction so the maximum deduction could be 40pts)

Beastmen: 2 choices from; Herdstone with 3 wizards, Doombull.

Bretonnian: None

Chaos Dwarves: 4 or more choices from; K’daii Destroyer, Lvl 4 with Hasut, Magma Cannon, Iron Daemon, Death Shreiker, Hell Cannon.
Daemons of Chaos: 3 or more choices from; skullcannon, Great Unclean One, 3 or more Beasts, taking units aligned to a chaos god who hate another unit aligned to a different chaos god in the army. E.g. Tzeentch hate Nurgle. (Note, no matter how many opposing aligned units you take, it only counts as one ‘choice’. E.g. you could take 2 units of pink horrors and 2 units of bloodletters and this is only 1 of the 3 restrictions, not 2 of them).
Dark Elves: 3 or more choices from; 2 Bolt Throwers; 1 unit of Warlocks, more than 2 units of Dark Riders, 2 or more characters mounted on Dark Pegasus’, Cloak of Twilight.

Dwarves: 2 or more choices from; 20+ Irondrakes, 2 or more Gyrocoptors, Having 3+ runes of spellbreaking in any combination.

High Elves: 3 or more choices from; BOTWD, Book of Hoeth, 2 Bolt Throwers, Unmounted Frost Heart Phoenix, more than 2 units of Ellyrian Reavers.

Empire: 3 choices from; Two Great Cannons, Steam Tank, 5 or more Demi-Gryph knights.

Lizardmen: 2 or more choices from; 2 or more Scar vets or old ones on Cold ones, 3 Skink skirmishers, Slann Priest with channelling staff and Harmonic Convergence.

Ogre Kingdoms: 3 or more choices from; Iron Blasters, Hellheart, Mournfang, 2 individual sabretusks.

Orc & Goblin: 4 choices from; Mangler squig, doom diver, rock lobba, 25+ Savage Orcs big Un’s.

Skaven:  3 or more choices from; Hellpit Abomination, storm banner, 50+ Skaven slaves, Warp Lightning Cannon

Tomb Kings: None

Vampire Counts: 2 or more choices from; Terrorgheist, Red Fury on Vampire Lord, 2+ Vampire lords

Warriors of Chaos: 4 or more choices from; Daemon Prince, Hero on Disc, Hellcannon, Skullcrushers, 2+ Chimeras, Character with 3++ ward.

Wood elves: 4 or more choices from; Waywatchers, Acorn of Ages, Moonstone of Hidden ways, Each unit with Trueflight after the 2^nd, Each unit with Hagbane after the 2^nd, Each unit of Wildriders/SotT (combined) after the 2^nd, 70+ models with 30” range shooting.

Organising the SELWG wfb Competition – Part 2 – Points & Secondary Objectives

The next few posts will cover in no particular order, various sections of the comp pack. I’ll try and explain why the choices were made (at a superficial level at least). One thing I was very conscious of, was not putting in (or leaving out) any restrictions that would benefit me. It’s one of the reasons that I committed to bringing an army that no one else was (if possible), so that I wouldn’t know which one I would be using until well after the pack was written.

Putting together a pack is quite a daunting task. The second step for me after getting the survey set up was to go online and try and find and download every comp pack I could find to see how others had put together packs. Even though 8th ed. whfb has been out of vogue for a few years, I was still able to to find and download around 15 (quite a few curtesy of links on warhammer.org). Most were of limited use but many did list out restrictions on the most common over powered combos for specific armies which I would utilise in the list building.

I also got hold of the last few years packs for SELWG and decided to follow some of the format from this, as it would keep it recognisable for people who had entered before.

So in this post I’ll cover the points on offer. As per the last SELWG comp, points would be split into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary.

Primary are awarded based on the outcome of the game victory conditions and are available at all stages of the competition.

Tertiary are only available in the group stages of the comp and are bonus points awarded for completing the game and for having a painted army. Neither of these are game breaking but encourages players to both finish the game and it’s always nice to face a painted army on the table no matter the standard of the painting (whether pro painter or just an average tabletop standard).

Secondary are available at all stages of the competition and are smaller missions that can add to your competition points. Most of these were taken from a combination of the the secondary missions available from the previous two SELWG whfb competitions. I added one new objective, “to see what I can see” (yes the name is part of a children’s nursery rhyme but no bonus points for remembering the rest of the song which involves a bear and a mountain). The other change made was to reduce the points from 7 to 6 for a successfully completed mission. There was a point to this.

Knockout rounds – The final added restriction was that in the final rounds, if you didn’t have a fully painted army, you would only get half points. I’m still not sure about this restriction, it seemed pretty harsh but quite a few paid competitions do have restrictions on having fully painted armies. As a compromise, I made it so if a player didn’t have a fully painted army but got maximum points for a win and mission completed, (15+6 = 21/2 = 11 – rounded up) they could still have a chance of going through if the opponent lost and also completed their mission (5+6 = 11).  If you get a straight win and your opponent lost you will just go through (at 15/2 = 8 vs 5 points).

So below is the ‘Game Format and Scoring section’ of the 2017 SELWG comp pack.

 

• Primary Tournament Points

Games will be Won, Lost, Drawn, as per the tournament scenarios victory conditions. In the event of a tiebreak scenario in the knockout rounds, use victory points as per the rules in the BRB (pg 143 Tournament Points will be awarded as follows):

WIN = 15 points      DRAW= 10 points   LOSS = 5 points

• Secondary Tournament Points

For each battle pick a ‘Secret Mission’. This must be done after deployment, but before the first turn is underway. Players must note down their mission, and hand it to someone at another table for safe keeping until it is revealed at the end of the game.

• Each Player completing their secret mission is awarded = 6 points (Note the change in points from last year)
• Each ‘Secret Mission’ can only be used once during each league stage and resets for the knockout stage.

“Raid the Baggage” – Have more Fortitude bearing*** Friendly units in the Enemy deployment zone, than the Enemy has Fortitude bearing units in this deployment zone, at the end of the game.

“Cut off the Head” – Kill the Enemy General in hand to hand to hand combat by the end of the game. Any mount does not need to be killed. An Enemy General fleeing at the end of the game does not count.

 “Hero-Hammered” – To have amassed the biggest tally of dead Enemy characters at the end of the game. For calculation purposes, each Hero level character is worth ‘1 point’, each Lord level character is worth ‘2 points’. Self-inflicted deaths (such as from Miscasts or Skaven targeting their own troops), still count towards your opponents score.

“To see what I can see” – When you write down your mission also specify one hill or building that is outside of your deployment zone. This piece of terrain is the tallest in the area and will give your general the advantage in spying troop movements. If, at the end of the game, you have a unit *** occupying that terrain feature and no enemy units occupy**** that terrain feature as per the rules in Scenario 4 (Secure), your mission is a success.

“Take a Message” – Specify a model in your army to be a messenger. Specify a fortitude-bearing unit in the enemy army that contains your spy. Get your messenger model into contact with the spy’s unit. If the spy’s unit is alive at the end of the game your mission has succeeded. The messenger model does not have to be a character model.

• Tertiary Tournament Points (only available during the group stage)

In an attempt to encourage the completion of games and that they are played using painted armies, but also to reward hobby activity, the following points are available in each battle:

If your army is fully painted (minimum of 3 colours per model and a painted base) = 2 points

If the game is fully completed on the night, each player shall be awarded = 2 point

Total Game Points

A maximum of 25 TPs are up for grabs in each game.

• Bonus Tournament Points:

Submission of your Group Stage 1 tournament list by 11 August = 5 Points

Knockout Rounds

When taking part in the knockout rounds, if your army is not fully painted you only receive half the tournament points (rounding up). e.g. a win would be worth 8 points. (Note it is possible to still win the knockout stages even with this handicap).

Organising the SELWG wfb Competition – Part 1 – Survey

This year I stepped up to run the club warhammer fantasy battle (wfb) competition. Having only taken part in the previous year’s comp’ and a few others, my only experience was in participating not running comps.  So where to start?

I’d had mixed feedback from last years entrants of the comp and the previous years TO (Steve who kindly volunteered to help out this year), in so far as the competitive players would tend to take part no matter what, so it was mainly about trying to get the casual players involved. With a number of players involved in the Kings of War comp this might be harder than it was in previous years, so I decided the first step would be to set up a simple survey to get some feed back on what participants would like.

I asked 9 questions, the responses to the first 8 are below. The final question was a ‘any other comments’ question.

 

So I took a few things from the results. First there had been 15 responses which was more than we had been expecting.

In the main most people thought last years comp was too long. In fairness it did drag on a bit with people not completing their games (including knockouts) for quite a while. That was simple to fix, drop one of the rounds.

The second thing was that people still wanted to have restrictions on units and characters. This was a harder one to decide on and i’ll cover this in depth in a later post.

The main thing change that came from the results, was that the majority of the respondents wanted different scenarios than those in the basic rule book (brb). Time to get my thinking hat on!

KOW – Herd of Khazbar vs Alex’s Elves – SELWG Competition game

My final game of the group stage was vs Alex Mountain and his Elves. I’ve faced Alex a couple of times before at Warhammer and he can be a canny opponent. He was particularly good at using Chaff in that system, so I was expecting this to carry over to this one.

Alex’s Elf list – 2000pts

Kindred Archer Horde – Brew of Keen Eyedness – 295pts

Kindred Archer Horde – Jar of Four Winds – 285pts. (They may look suspiciously like unpainted 5th edition Bretonnians in the pictures but Alex assured me that yes they were in fact elves, with extra large sunhats on. It was funny but in the course of the game he had to explain this to 4 or 5 others who for some inexplicable reason had come to the same conclusion as me).

Hunters of the Wild Troop – 135pts

Hunters of the Wild Troop – 135pts

Kindred Tallspears Troop – 100pts

Silverbreeze Cavalry Troop – Brew of haste – 160pts

Stormwind Cavalry Troop – Diadem of Dragon-kind – 170pts

Stormwind Cavalry Troop – Potion of the Caterpillar – 160pts

Bolt Thrower – 90pts

Dragon Kindred Lord – Ensorcelled Armour – 345pts (Again this in no way looked the slightest bit like a Zombie Dragon with an undead rider but instead completely resembled a haughty elf riding his noble dragon).

Mounted Mage – Inspiring Talisman – 125pts

As normal I’ll take a look at his units and then try and see if I can guess his deployment.

His entire army has elite, allowing him to re-roll 1’s on the hit roll. This is possibly one of my favourite army wide rules.

Horde of Archers – With 20 attacks, hitting on 4+ and a standard 24″ range, these will project a solid area of denial. One of the units will have a range of 36″ due to the Jar and the other will hit on 3+.  I won’t lie, these do worry me somewhat as if they focus on the same target, they will be deleting units pretty quickly,

Bolt Thrower – I’ve found bolt throwers hit and miss with just 2 attacks. They do have a 48″ range so will be threatening my forces from the first turn. Their piercing is somewhat wasted on my army so overall i’m not too fussed about this unit.

Silverbreeze Cavalry – This is the last of his ranged units and what he would have used as chaff in the previous system. With the brew of haste it would have a range of 11″, the most of any unit on the field. They also have nimble and bows so they could easily delete my chaff from the get go and start chipping away at other units/get in the way. They are a prime target for my limited ranged units.

Hunters of the Wild – This unit pumps out a lot of attacks for their size and with Vanguard, they could potentially be in my face really early on and he has 2 of them. They do need to attack first as with their low nerve (10/12), they’ll die to a stiff breeze. They are also a prime target for my Chieftains ranged attack as even a few wounds could remove them.

Kindred Tallspears – This unit is probably the closet to chaff in his list in terms of points. I suspect their sole use is to get in the way of anyone going for his hordes.

Stormwind Cavalry – The troops only have 8 attacks but hit on a 3+ with TC (2) and have a def of 5+. Again the nerve is low at 11/13. He will definitely be wanting to get these guys in the flank to maximise their potential. One of them also has a breath attack (10) which can so some damage.

Mounted Mage – This guy is fairly bare bones with heal (3) and Bane Chant (2). I think his primary job is to buff the 2 hordes.

Dragon Kindred Lord – another filthy flyer 😉 with ensorcelled armour. I just need to try and ensure he doesn’t get behind my lines.

This is the most amount of shooting i’ve come up against so far, so it will be a good experience for me. I would expect the Archer hordes to make up the centre of the lines with maybe the bolt thrower in between them. The mage will likely be nearby to throw on a bane chant.

Everything in his army, with the exception of the 2 hordes and the Dragon Lord, have a top nerve of 13 or less so should be easy to remove.

He also has the same number of drops as my list (11).

To recap my list.

The Herd of Khazbar the Reborn – 2000pts

Khazbar – Shaman – heal + Myrddin’s Amulet – 130pts

Wazzock the Renewed – Shaman – heal – 120pts

Zurrock the Mighty – Chieftain on Chariot – bows + Fire Oil – 205pts

Beast Pack – Troop – 70pts

Beast Pack – Troop – 70pts

Tribal Spirit Walkers – Horde – Brew of Strength – 260pts

Longhorns – Regiment – 145pts

Stampede – Horde – Brew of Sharpness – 305pts

Guardian Brutes – Horde – Blessing of the Gods – 255pts

Brutox – 220pts

Brutox – 220pts

Terrain

We rolled map pack 5, from  Neil’s terrain generator, which gave us 4 buildings, a wood, a hill and 24 inches of obstacles. After deployment it looked like this:

Scenario and Deployment

The game was Dominate which was nice, as I hadn’t played this yet and due to the fortuitous placement of the woods, might give me an edge with my army wide pathfinder.

Alex won the roll for sides and the armies after deployment looked like this. (his right most hunters vanguarded up to the wall and those on the other side of his lines moved up to the building.

He then won the roll for first turn which he took.

Turn 1 – Elves

The Elven right flank surged forward with the hunters, Stormwind Cavalry and his Dragon Lord making the most of the lack of Herd on that side of the board. There was little movement on the other side of the board with the exception of the Silverbreeze that moved to cover the nearby heavy cavalry.

His massed shooting opened up, the herd lines withered under the deluge of arrows with one of the beast packs left as a pincushion.

Turn 1 – Herd

Zurrock seeing an early chance in the game, unleashed the Brutox and he charged in alongside to wipe out the Silverbreeze Cavalry. Unable to contain its bloodlust, the Brutox overran towards the Stormwind who had been cowering behind.

In the centre the Stampede forced the longhorns forward to act a emergency chaff. The brutes also moved up to take advantage of the cover.

The Spirit Walkers, their numbers replenished by the duel heal thrown on them, swung round to join the Brutox in forming a new battle line to tackle the Elven flanking force (conveniently making sure the dragon couldn’t get behind the lines).

Turn 2 – Elves

The rain of Arrows continued with the remaining beast pack doing its job and ensuring more valuable targets were spared. The Longhorns were subject to the brunt of the shooting and failed to survive the fire. The Herd ranks were starting to thin rapidly.

Faced with a slavering monster, unable to escape its charge arc and with no ranged support to help them, the heavy cavalry realised they were going to have to do more than just posture. They swallowed deeply, charged in and managed to waver it. It was hard to tell if the horses or elves were the more terrified of what was sure to occur next, with all eyes rolling and the whites showing.

The flanking force moved up to form a coherent line with the lord on dragon showing what dastardly underhanded tactics the elves would stoop to by flying forward and fitting into the smallest possible gap between the table edge and the flank of the Brutox.

Remember, NOT a Zombie Dragon!

The bottom horde of archers thought that no-one would notice that were Bretonnians if they stayed as far away from the action as possible.

Turn 2 – Herd

The Brutox, ignoring it’s waver, and Chieftain charged into the Stormwind Cavalry and barely raised a claw in anger before the Elves ran off the table. The Blood drunk monster regenerating as it savored it’s first taste of elf.

Knowing that their lines were in trouble due to the position of the Dragon, the left flank pushed up aggressively with the Brutox covering the rear of the Spirit Walkers (this was one situation where the oversized base actually worked in my favour!).

In the centre, the Guardian Brutes moved into the forest followed closely by Khazbar. Wazzock stayed with the Stampede, remaining out of the range of the nearest horde.

Turn 3 – Elves

The hunters that were still hiding in the eves of the large tower, spun round as the recognised the threat that was rapidly approaching from the other side of the buikdings. The Elven Phalanx moved over to block any potential charge from the Stampede, now that the hunters had been re-tasked. This move also opened up the firing lanes for the two hordes to target the Guardian Brutes but the cover impeded their aim and the damage for fairly insignificant. The Bolt thrower had but one option and shot into the writhing mass of animals making up the stampede.

On the other flank, the Hunters and Stormwind combined to charge the Spirit Walkers felling half their number. Despite, in a move reeking of fear, charging the Brutox in the flank, the Dragon rider failed to remove it.

Turn 3 – Herd

Zurrock and accompanying Brutox (who continued to regen), finished their flanking maneuver and moved up to now threaten the Elven shooters.

The Spirit Walkers, blood raised, counter charged the hunters and made short work of them. The Brutox also counter-charged but into the Dragon causing a few wounds but more importantly disordering it (I cunningly also forgot to roll to regen the 10 wounds on it – probably as we forgot to mark the wounds up!).

In the centre, Khazbar invoked the power of his amulet, first healing and then bane-chanting the Brutes. They then stormed into the flank of the Spear elves and that fight was only ever going to go one way. The Stampede and Wazzock then moved up in support. The Herd were now threatening the elven shooters that had caused so much damage early on.

Turn 4 – Elves

The remaining Hunter troop moved to block the herd charging the flank of the shooters.

The Stormwind and Dragon Lord both charged into their respective targets (Spirit Walkers and Brutox) and both units were removed as a consequence (Alex, ever the gent, did say I could roll the regen when we realised there were no wound counters on the model and it hadn’t been done but I refused as it was a comp game and frankly that will teach me for not remembering my own armies rules!)

                                     .

Turn 4 – Herd

Eager to clear a path to the hordes of archers that had killed so many of their herd, the chieftain and Brutox tore through the hunters that stood in their path.

Wazzock cast a heal on the Stampede before sending it forward where it crashed into the nearest archers. Elven bodies were pulped under the crushing bodies and despite cowering in the mud, their mettle held under the gaze of the nearby mage and they held their ground.

Turn 5 – Elves

Realising that they needed to support their brethren in the centre, the Bretonnians Elven archers marched forward with all haste. The mage also moved up.

The Dragon Lord and Stormwind cavalry both moved up to the woods and rather than engage in honorable combat they both used their breath weapons to torch the woods. As Khazbar looked to be burnt to a crisp, their was a flash of green and he disappeared.

Turn 5 – Herd

The Stampede again charged the archers and this time their nerve broke and they fled from the field. The Brutox then proceeded to trample the bolt thrower and crew into the ground.

Zurrock moved towards the centre ready to contest it.

Turn 6 – Elves

The remaining archer horde turned and tried to remove the Stampede but the legendary elven archery skill deserted them facing a sea of ferocious animals.

The Dragon Lord, mage and Stormwind Cavalry all moved in to contest the centre of the battlefield.

Turn 6 – Herd

In the final turn of the game, the remaining herd units rushed towards the centre of the board. Zurrock charged the Dragon Lord, inflicting minor injuries and Wazzock moved up to support.

Results

Alex won having the requisite 200pt advantage in the centre circle (640pts vs 325pts). The Stampede was not able to get entirely into the centre circle so did not count towards the total.

In terms of kill points, Alex and his sleazy, untrustworthy elves, back stabbed 1150pts of the noble Herd, whilst the Khazbar eradicated 1075pts of the elven vermin.

(Herd Remaining: Shaman – 120 + Stampede – 305 + Chieftain – 205 + Brutox 220 = 850)

(Elves Remaining: Archer Horde (jar) – 285 + Stormwind Cav (Diadem) – 170 + Dragon Lord – 345 + Mage – 125 = 925).

Conclusion

I always really enjoy my games against Alex, they are normally close run affairs and this was no exception. During the game there was tension, beaded sweat on brows, swearing (that was me), disgraceful dancing with glee (that was me again), instant karma (due to the aforementioned dancing) and a good amount of laughs.

I made some errors straight off the bat on this. I should have deployed one set of buildings more in the centre of the board as this would have obstructed the lanes of fire. I guess i’d been caught out before with obstacles and the impact of crossing them whilst facing archers, so didn’t want them to impede my movement. I was reasonably happy with my deployment though.

Probably my greatest mistake was moving up in the centre way too early. If i’d either set up further back or retreated in the opening move, it would have limited the early shooting and thus the units killed off and might have meant i’d been able to concentrate on the flanking elven force. But more to the point I should have waited until my own flanking force had moved up and was threatening the flank of the archers before moving my forces forward.

Forgetting to role regen on the Brutox when it had suffered 10 wounds was poor and that could have been the difference between that unit dying or lasting another turn.

It is worth mentioning that Alex managed to bane chant one of his archer hordes every single turn on two dice. A feat i’ve not seen or even managed with my 3 dice BC.

As things go that loss is likely to mean a bottom two finish in the group (i’ll probably be fighting the bottom spot with Tony). Neil will probably top it and Dan has a good chance of second though that will likely depend on his match with Alex.

Kill points will decide which 2 runner ups will progress through after the 2 top spots in each group but after my poor first game vs Neil, where I failed to route anything, I seriously doubt i’m in with a chance of scrapping through.

 

KoW – SELWG comp update

I’m not planning on doing many updates for this (bar my normal battle reps) but enough has happened in the leagues that I thought i’d post an update. regular updates are posted on the club forums.

As it stands, the leagues look like this:

Abyssal

As normal Dan Neil and myself have stormed ahead on the number of games played and I’m currently languishing in third in the self styled ‘group of death’. My battle reports can be found here:

Vs Neil’s Abyssals

Vs Dan’s Dwarves

Vs Tony’s Herd

As for the rest of the games, the following passage is a bit of a write up of the top of the table clash between Neil and Dan (written by Neil).

Going the full 7 turns in the Kill scenario i was the lucky victor, by the smallest of margins (200pts).
As you could imagine a cagey affair with either player looking for the smallest advantage.

With his Gem of Zellak Dan enjoyed the advantage in deployment by putting his main force on side of the board.
However he left his Rangers isolated on the other side, hoping to shoot off some way wood Hellhounds. Not quite routing
the Hellhounds, the Rangers paid the price later.

With the limited manoeuvrability the Dwarfs held their lines with the Brock Riders trying to get round my flank.
The Arch Fiend was able to remove both Flame Belchers before they could cause much damage.

There then followed a serious of combats which saw both sides take casualties. Dan had a nasty surprise when a unit of Succubi
got into the flank of a horde of Shieldbreakers with 50 attacks.

The last turns came down to my horde of lower Abyssal’s v the two Greater Earth Elementals. The Lower A’s were able to rout
one GEE & then reform to avoid the deadly flank charge from the other.(1250 v 1450)

The other game also featured Dan & the President.
Not many details here, but Dan won 2000 v 825.

Basilia

The first (and so far only) game in Basilea league was played between Darren & Martin, with Darren the Victor. Here is a brief account from Darren.

It was tough going though, in one melee I threw 92 dice by attacking a unit in both its flank and to its front, and still only inflicted 8 wounds. With such dicing even Martin couldn’t stop himself laughing.

But I still won the game, so I think I should be awarded an additional point for overcoming such a ruthless & unscrupulous opponent………I’m referring to bad luck……. not Martin.

As far as units lost and points please see below.

I lost:

1 Zombie Legion @ 190
1 Zombie legion @ 190
1 Revenant cavalry @ 200

Total lost= 580

Martin lost:

1 Bombard @ 110
1 Shieldbreaker @ 250
1 Shieldbreaker @ 250
1 Crossbows @ 260

Total lost = 760

Orphidia

So the Ophidia league has been rather busy lately with 3 games to report.

Neil & George faced off in Kill & pillage with a resulting draw, advantage to Neil with 1285 v 1130. I believe a report is to follow.

Neil V Alistair resulted in a win for Alistair 1405 to 595, not sure of the scenario.

Please see below for a report from George’s battle with Alistair (from George’s perspective). Win for George 1360 v 435.

So we have a real rock, paper, scissors developing in this league with draws making the league very tight.

George vs Alistair – Scenario: Kill

Alistair killed: 435pts

George killed: 1360pts

Our battlefield layout played into my hands a bit as we had three buildings spread out diagonally with woods between the gaps in the centre, which effectively divided the battlefield in two and forced us both to split our forces accordingly.  I deployed my chariots, gladestalkers, seaguard and mage on my right with a hill directly in front of them – opposite were Alistair’s werewolves and troll hordes, screened by ghoul chaff.  In the centre i arranged my two palace guard regiments and banner bearer so they were screened on their left by trees and buildings and next to them filling my line between the sea guard and the palace guard were my heavy cavalry – opposite them was Alistair’s spearmen, deployed between a building and a set of woods, and his Wraiths.  On my left i deployed my light cavalry and flying hero on the far side of another building, and my woodsmen in the wood between the two buildings – while Alistair deployed his heavy cavalry and archers horde opposite them as this was otherwise a very open flank and perfect for cavalry.

Alistair gave me the first turn, which saw me promptly turn my light cavalry 90 degrees and hightail it to the other end of the board where the rest of my army was arrayed.  I moved my seaguard, scouts and mage onto the hill where they were able (with some very good dice rolling) to pepper & weaken (the trolls) and eventually break (in subsequent turns) Alistair’s Werewolves. The ghoul screens were destroyed in combat but they did break my gladestalkers and threatened to do the same to my seaguard.  Alistair kept pressure up by sending in the wraiths, but by the time they got through my light cavalry and hero arrived on the flank and started shooting.  Eventually i charged these guys on three sides – and got only one wound – only a very lucky (jammy) double 6 broke them.  Alistair got a charge on the flank of one of my chariots with his trolls but they were then out of position which allowed my cavalry time to manoeuvre, charge and destroy the trolls who had been weakened by some very lucky shooting.

in the centre i was able to charge down the undead spearmen with a palace guard regiment and position my other regiment so the open gap between the woods on Alistair’s side and the building in the middle of the table was covered on two sides by my palace guard.

on my left, Alistair quickly moved to redeploy his archers and cavalry against my army, but the undead units weren’t quick enough and by the time they arrived i had my palace guard arranged to face them.  the revenant cavalry got charged by both units and despite hindered chargers, were routed.  Alistair’s horde of arches tried to shoot one unit down but were unsuccessful (sight of relief there) and were then charged and broken in turn.  The soul reavers made a play through the woods on my side of the table but were opposite a regiment of woodland troops who did nothing to them (those cavalry have 20 attacks, thunderous charge 2, crushing strength 2, 3+ to hit and 6+ to save????) but they did hold up the cavalry long enough to effectively neutralize them for the rest of the game.  They did get on to my right flank but by the time they go there (turn 7) the rest of my army had turned to face them.

in summary, my maneuvering at the beginning at the game helped immensely to neutralize Alistair’s deadly cavalry but it was a lot of fortunate dice rolling that helped everywhere else.  I got routed results often just as i needed them, often by only a single point and sometimes only by rolling a jammy double 6.  My shooting was also quite a bit more effective than the dice should have allowed for as well so Alistair was quite unlucky there but it was a very fun game and as i have found with KOW it really was down to the wire as the soul reavers were unlucky not to break my woodsmen sooner, and had the werewolves lasted another turn they would have been breaking my chariots and probably turned my flank there.

KOW - 2017 SELWG Competition – Terrain Generator

Neil decided for the competition that, rather than players just agreeing terrain (it is a comp after all!)  and rather than using the pre-generated maps that helpful players have posted on the Mantic forum, that he would design his own terrain generator.

I like what he has done. It’s different and guarantees that there is a good amount of terrain and it is pretty fair too.

In Neil’s own words:

In most wargames getting the terrain setup acceptable without too many rules & taking a fair amount of time can be a challenge. So here is a process that hopefully will not be too challenging & avoids the dreaded barren table with a few sparse pieces stuck in the corners. Players will still have some input into the final position of certain items. It also saves me the aggravation of printing/designing maps.

 

Before deciding scenario/mission roll on the table below (D6).

Collect terrain listed, & determine player A & B with a roll off (player highest roll). Then follow the deployment instructions.

Some general points:

All hills are L2 height.

All buildings are L4 height & impassable.

All trees are L4 height. Please make sure you have a footprint/base for trees to determine if a unit is in/out of the trees. This is important for LOS & cover.

River difficult terrain & height Level zero (3”-4” width) Does not grant cover save modifier.

Marsh difficult terrain & height Level zero, grants cover save modifier.

Walls/hedges/fences (WHF) L1 height. 1 WHF length = 12”, so 3*WHF= 36”

Unless otherwise stated all terrain must be at least 3” apart (exception WHF, which touch/link buildings and buildings which must be at least 6″ apart).

DZ = Deployment zone

Should it prove impossible to place terrain as described, then it is ok to overlap areas/distances to full fill the instruction.

Please note the slight variation on rules for the rivers only. No cover save modifier.

Hopefully this will generate a table that looks sensible & yet playable with movement trays.

 

Terrain table (D6 roll).

Map 1) 3*Buildings, 1* hill, 2* tree bases, 2*WHF.

Map 2) 1*River 1*building, 3*hills, 1* tree base, 1*WHF.

Map 3) 2*Marsh, 3*tree bases, 2*hills.

Map 4) 1*River, 4*hills, 1*tree base.

Map 5) 4*buildings, 1*tree base, 2*WHF, 1 hill.

Map 6) 4*tree bases, 2 hills, 2*marsh.

 

Terrain deployment instructions Map 1.

1. Player A places the 3*buildings, anywhere on the table except in any DZ and at least 6” from any table edges. Also each building must be no more than 9” from each other.
2. Player B places the hill in any DZ, at least 9” from any table edge.
3. Player A places 1*tree base anywhere on the table, at least 6” from any table edge.
4. Player B places 1*tree base anywhere on the table, at least 6” from any table edge.
5. Player A places 1* WHF in any deployment zone, at least 6” from any table edge in any configuration, but all pieces must be touching each other.
6. Player B places 1* WHF in any deployment zone, at least 6” from any table edge in any configuration, but all pieces must be touching each other.

 

Terrain deployment instructions Map 2.

1. Player A places river 2ft from any short table edge running from long edge to long edge (4ft length).
2. Player B 3*hills anywhere on the table except in DZ’s, and no more than 6” from any table edges.
3. Player A places 1* tree base in any DZ no more than 9” from any table edge.
4. Player B places 1 building with WHF touching in the opposite DZ that the trees are in, no more than 6” from any table edge.

 

Terrain deployment instructions Map 3.

1. Player A places 3*trees, anywhere on the table except in DZ’s and at least 6” from any table edge.
2. Player B places 1* hill in each DZ at least 6” from any table edge.
3. Player A places 1* marsh anywhere on the table at least 9” from any table edge.
4. Player B places 1* marsh anywhere on the table at least 9” from any table edge.

 

Terrain deployment instructions Map 4.

1. Player A places river 18” from any long table edge running from short edge to short edge (6ft length).
2. Player B places 1*tree base in the centre of the table, or as near as possible.
3. Player A places 2* hills, one in any DZ no nearer than 6” from any table edge, & the second hill anywhere on the table other than in a DZ.
4. Player B places 2* hills, one in any DZ no nearer than 6” from any table edge, & the other hill anywhere on the table other than in a DZ. (both hills may be in the same DZ)

 

Terrain deployment instructions Map 5.

1. Player A places 2*buildings & 1*WHF anywhere on the table, but not In any DZ, at least 6” from any table edge, & both buildings no further apart than 6” with WHF linking both buildings in nay configuration.
2. Player B places 2*buildings & 1*WHF anywhere but In any DZ at least 6” from any table edge, & both buildings no further apart than 6” with WHF linking both buildings in any configuration. Also must be at least 12” away from nearest building in A above.
3. Player A places 1*tress anywhere on the table at least 9” from any table edge.
4. Player B places 1*hill anywhere on the table at least 9” from any table edge.

 

Terrain deployment instructions Map 6.

1. Player A places 4*trees, anywhere on the table except in DZ’s and no nearer than 6” from any table edge & at least 6” apart.
2. Player B places 2*marsh in any DZ at least 9” from any table edge. Both can be in the same DZ.
3. Player A places 1 hill anywhere on the table 9” from any table edge.
4. Player A places 1 hill anywhere on the table 9” from any table edge.