Big September is a team tournament consisting of no restrictions and teams of 3 players totaling their points overall.
There was 7 teams this year meaning everyone got a bye round. For me it was a good opportunity to see how my Tomb King army I'd been working on so much would tackle whatever was out there.Battle Reports are going to be very rough as the day was a complete roller coaster and I took very little notes and only a handful of photos every game.
My list was as follows:
Hierophant - Scroll
HLP - Lore of Light
20 Archers - Std, Mus
20 Archers - Std
25 Archers - Std
3 x 5 Horse Archers
2 x 5 Necropolis Knights - Champion, Std
3 Stalkers
Hierotitan
Casket of Souls
2 x SSC
First game up saw me against Chris Wilcox who was running Dwarfs and had just returned from the ETC. I've previously played him in a tournament a few years ago and can remember getting absolutely whitewashed so this was another opportunity to see how my skills had hopefully improved.
His list from memory:
Runelord on Anvil
Runesmith
Thane
Dragon Slayer
3 x 10 Thunderers
2 x 10 Xbowmen
2 x 20 Warriors
2 x 5 Miners
15 Miners
Gyrocopter
4 Bolt Throwers
1 Cannon
It was a very odd sight to see a MSU style Dwarf army, what's more Chris deployed this spread across the board so straight away I wasn't expecting that.
Deployment:
I won the roll off for first turn.
Tomb Kings Turn 1
Basically a SSC shot takes out his cannon and a few Xbowmen fall.
Tomb Kings Turn 1
Basically a SSC shot takes out his cannon and a few Xbowmen fall.
Dwarfs Turn 1
Shuffling, shooting. I think I lose a knight.
Tomb Kings Turn 2
Stalkers arrive smack bang in front of the anvil. Although some idiot gets too excited and forgets to move them. This would seal my fate.
Dwarfs Turn 2
Some miners arrive behind stalkers and the Hierophants unit is charged my miners. Inexperience certainly came into play here. Hierophants unit cops a flogging and I fail to reform taking some hefty crumbling damage.
Tomb Kings Turn 3
Stalkers charge the Gyrocopter. Hierotitan turns around. I miscast something.
Dwarfs Turn 3
More miners come on heading for the casket. Hierotitan takes 4 wounds from bolt thrower. Stalkers pop. Hierophant and unit pop. Tests all around prove to be good.
Tomb Kings Turn 4
Hierotitan charges into Miners. Necroknights charge warriors, I move fast cav to prevent dragon slayer from supporting. Hierotitan gets axed. Warriors hold after taking loads of casualties.
Dwarfs Turn 4
Slayer charges Horse archers. Miners into SSC. More damage on knights from shooting. I break warriors. Slayer crumbles archers so can't overrun. This image was lost to the abyss it seems.
Tomb Kings Turn 5
I charge Bolt Thrower with knights. Pin cushion the slayer. Move the general further forward. Kill War machine and run off the board.
Dwarfs Turn 5
All fire aims at taking out the general unit but fails.
Due to time we call that the last turn making it an 11-9 to Dwarfs which was a result I was pretty happy with considering the whole stalker ordeal.
Result - 11-9 Dwarfs
Conclusion:
There isn't a lot to say, I took away my own chances of winning simply by not running through the various thought processes in my head and my mental check list and it sure cost me. Needless to say I wouldn't forget about the stalkers for the remainder of the tournament.
Had I used them to their potential then the anvil could have possibly been no more Turn 2 and that would have prevented a lot of the miner trouble.
Secondly this is the first time I've played against dwarfs in 8th edition. They certainly need a re-write I feel as I didn't write much about magic because I didn't get much through as his dispel pool was never too far off my power dice pool.
Game 2 was a bye for out team so we took off to get some much needed ice cream and talk tactics.
