Thanks to all my opponents; I'm afraid I have a terrible memory for names and only have a couple of written down so some of you may remain anonymous unless you're better than me at remembering them.

My List:

Kairos Fateweaver
Blue Scribes
Skulltaker
Herald of Tzeentch wih MoS

2x10 Horrors, Icon of Sorcery
10 Horrors
5 Furies

2x5 Flesh Hounds

5 Flamers

I was typically lax with notes, starting out well (I wrote down 2 things about turn 1 in the first game!) but failed to keep it up. No-one really wants to read about how Kairos can cast a lot of spells anyway, so I'll keep it to the bare highlights.

Game 1 - Daniel - VCs - Breakthrough

I always knew this would be a difficult scenario for my list - with only 6 scoring units that could each only take 6 wounds before becoming useless chaff, and 3 of them being M4 block infantry, it was going to be difficult to get them across the board. Being presented with Undead was just another problem.
One unit of flesh hounds charged 20 zombies in turn 2 and spent the majority of the game stuck there, doing 4 wounds a round for 6 rounds or so before a horror block turned and charged the flank with Unseen Lurker.
The flesh hounds were then the only unit to ge into the other half of the board, with the rest of my army having been tied up whittling down the blocks of skeletons that threatened to penetrate my deployment zone. In turn 6, I wiped out the last of Daniel's models. I was sure I had read in the House Rules Document that wiping out the opponent meant an automatic win, so I didn't cast Wolf Hunts on the flesh hounds (who weren't definitely completely in the deployment zone as required by the scenario), instead using the dice to ensure that the last skeletons and Vampire Lord were killed.
It was only after the game that I discovered that the auto-win clause had been removed in the latest HRD, or had never existed, and measuring the position of the hounds found them just short. The angle they were at meant that had one of the died, I'd have won, since only that model was poking out of the deployment zone.
We'd both gone for most expensive unit, and both managed it, so we drew on 400 VPs.

Game 2 - ??? - Lizardmen - Battle for the Pass

I put my army on the table I'd been assigned and went to get a drink at the bar. When I came back, my opponent was just approaching the table, and as his eyes alighted on my army I apologised. He told me not to speak to soon, and produced 4 Engines of the Gods, 4 units of skinks, and a unit of Chameleon Skinks. This could get interesting.

There were only 2 woods on the board, and both were almost flush against the short table edge at the right of the board. Secret mission was an obvious choice when I was granted that side of the board to deploy in.
Skulltaker racked up 4 stegadons for his trophy room wall, 2 by killing blow and 2 that had been softened by flickering fire and various other magicks.
One of the priests secured a moral victory by wounding him for beheading his precious mount.
Skinks, being T2, objected to Comets, Crowns and Cleaning Flares, and in the end only 1 unit of skinks remained at half strength at the back of my opponent's deployment zone, though they did pass terror and panic in turn 6.

Game 3 - Roy - Dark Elves - Fog of War

Roy's list was a very reasonable DE list, he had a dragon and 2 lvl2s, one with dagger and one with familiar, but no ring, one hydra, and only 16 crossbows in the entire list.
Skulltaker was propelled by steed of shadows into the dragon, which he killing blowed (twice), and the dreadlord then killed him for his trouble. However, with the dragon gone there was only the hydra to really worry about, and Flickering Fire is the perfect antidote to those particular beasties.
I really don't mean to be dismissive; Roy was a pleasure to play and I don't think he did anything wrong - he had some terrible luck with panic in the first turn, and failing the dispel of Steed of Shadows on Skulltaker and the death of the dragon just meant I could take out his army piecemeal.
I had chosen hills as my secret mission, and so a unit of flesh hounds took up position on the hill in my deployment zone in turn 6.

Game 4 - ??? - High Elves - Dawn Attack

On table 7 against High Elves, I was fairly prepared for the sight of a star Dragon and 4 bolt throwers when my opponent arrived for our game. I had a fair bit of luck in that the majority of his shooting (10 archers and 3 of the bolt throwers) rolled the same flank, and a large piece of terrain blocked LOS to much of the board from that position. My furies and 1 unit of flesh hounds were on that flank, but a hill in the middle of the board would keep them safe for a turn at least.
The dragon and dragon princes were obviously the big threats. Beast Cowers and 2 bolts of change on the dragon saw to that, and Kairos charged the princes turn 1 to keep them from charging my horror line. Their immunity to fear and terror made my heart skip for a moment (I was factoring a terror test into the charge, and the possibility of whittling their numbers down with magic to autobreak them from fear). The magic phase was pitiful, killing only the 1 dragon prince who wasn't even in contact, but the 3+ ward save and Ld9 kept him unscathed long enough for a unit of flesh hounds to career 16" across the face of my army and be Lurkered into the flank.
On that far left flank, I had just shoved the Hounds and Furies forward so that if either survived, the 4 soft units there would suffer. Unfortunately, the flesh hounds were destroyed in a glorious display of Elven shooting, and the furies fluffed their attacks and the crew of the bolt thrower wounded them twice, and they popped after losing combat by 1.
I'd chosen specials and rares as my mission, so those 3 rares sitting so far from the rest of my army coupled with losing the flesh hounds meant I had to focus on killing the 1 bolt thrower I could reach, and thankfully it succumbed to a flickering fire.
In the end, only those 3 bolt throwers and 2 of the archers remained, while I had lost only the furies, 1 unit of flesh hounds, and half the unit of flamers along with the odd horror.

Game 5 - ??? - Dark Elves - Trial of Battle

In contrast to the Dark Elves I'd faced the day before, this had most of the tricks - Unkillable Dreadlord on Dragon, 2 hydras, Cauldron of Blood, ring, etc.
I had only General and Forward Offensive left to play, and I didn't savour the thought of advancing against an avoidance army, so chose general. I figured if Skulltaker could take the dragon, then even if the Dreadlord chopped him up in return, I could charge with Kairos and rely on the ward save to win combat by outnumber, and run him down. Unfortunately my opponent had other ideas, and his larger number of units meant he could put the dragon well out of Skully's reach.
Skulltaker consoled himself with charging the cauldron, dispatching 1 hag a round until he rolled quadruple 2 to hit against the death hag, who took the opportunity to kill him dead.
Kairos allowed himself to be charged by a unit of dark riders - my experience with the dragon princes meant I was fairly sure he could cope with lighter cavalry, especially given he could even hurt these ones with his 1 flaming attack! Hatred and Cauldron enhancement led to a scary moment when 1 wound got through the ward, which combined with outnumber meant I'd lost by 1. Double 6. I hadn't used my reroll on the ward save, as I knew if I failed it, I'd lost combat anyway and the reroll would likely be more useful in preventing Instability damage. I was very glad of it, as I rolled a 1 and passed on 7. That was extremely lucky, and though anything but a 5 or 6 would keep Kairos alive, 2-4 would have left me in grave danger for the next turn's fighting. As it was i used Steal Soul to heal back to full, and eventually Drain Life got the Riders down to autobreak size.

My opponent had rushed me down one flank, and used harpies and shades to hold up the other, so he was contesting both of my quarters while holding 1 of his own with a unit of RXBs on a hill.
However, in turn 5 my flamers moved forward, reducing the RXBs to 4 models, and in turn 6 they crossed into that quarter, meaning I'd scored 300. My opponent then revealed that he'd chosen the hill mission, and so the flamers had swung the game 800 points in 1 round of shooting.

Game 6 - ??? - Lizardmen - Pitched Battle

My opponent in this round had just played Adam Turner (a clubmate of mine for those who don't know us) on the table next to me, and it had sounded like a great game, so I was looking forward to playing him. He didn't disappoint, and perhaps unusually, Game 6 on table 3 was probably the most enjoyable game of the tournament for me. He took facing Kairos completely in his stride, and his first words after we'd introduced ourselves were to ask if I was serious about getting a placing, because he was happy to chill but didn't want to upset me by appearing cavalier. I hope I showed him you can play "seriously" with a smile and a joke.
He selected Shadows for his free-floating Slann, in the hopes Kairos would fall down a hole. I selected Pit as well, since Slann aren't known for being nimble, and Glean would mean I had two chances per turn.
My opponent discovered that he'd inadvertently stolen one of Adam's dice in the last game, and as Adam walked past offered it back to him. Adam told him to keep it; he'd need it to pass the Initiative test. So that dice was set aside atop a piece of terrain awaiting it's terrible duty.
It was turn 3 before I put myself in a position to try for Pit - I wanted to clear some of the multitude of skinks and terradons with Kairos before risking losing him in a holedigging competition. 2 successful spells in the Lizard turn meant Kairos had 8 dice to play with, so I threw 4 at pit, and the cube of darkness failed to end the phase. I then cast Glean on 4 dice, rolling 17 (including the +2 to cast from Twin Heads). I then had a bit of a moment, as Kairos was becalmed and so the roll was reduced to 11, which I declared was a failure as Pit is cast on 12+. It was only after the battle that an onlooker pointed out that I was Gleaning, so it was a 7+ to cast. I knew that of course, but we'd built up the pit so much that I just made a mistake.

So it was turn 4 before the Pit finally went off, with no scrolls left and his dispel dice expended dispelling the first pit, the gleaned pit opened up beneath the Slann's Palanquin. The designated dice then rolled a 3, and the Palanquin's Levitation Magic wore off.

Skulltaker claimed his 5th Stegadon of the weekend, and with only low toughness models left along with the lone Saurus character, 3 dispel dice just wasn't enough to contain the magic.

I'd been left with Forward Offensive in the last game, but movement phase turn 6 I discovered I could only get 1 unit of flesh hounds and a unit of horrors into the deployment zone. A second unit of horrors couldn't make it through a gap between terrain and the successful horror unit, and the thrid horror unit was a couple of inches short. Thankfully, Kairos successfully cast Unseen Lurker and they trooped in to complete it. In the end it didn't matter, as the two players who had won on table 1 and 2 had scored wins just as big as mine, so the order of our placing was preserved and I ended up in 3rd place.

Thanks for reading; I'm left slightly dissatisfied after writing this as it seems a little lacking in substance - I don't know whether that's my poor notes or the 1-dimensional army. I hope that at least my opponents enjoyed the experience of playing me (if not playing my list) as much as I enjoyed playing against them.

Thanks for the read Owen, good stuff and well done on the placing.

Although after reading most peoples reports and your own from the event it really does make me wonder whether its worth turning up to the final with a quote "normal tournament list"

D

Yep, thanks for taking the time to write them all up

Even though they weren't bobo-esque (or Joe, or AndyP, etc), still a good read, and nice to know what went on

Congrats on 3rd place as well

Nice little reports! It's funny that you didn't win the first game owing to total wipeout not giving you the victory by default, I remember you've said in the past that if using scenarios they needed to get rid of the rule to stop players with bent armies from just stomping people into the dirt... is that irony or karma?

Interesting seeing how Kairos works, I've still been fortunate enough to have never had to play against an army with him. I've seen tonnes of people say "just get into combat with him to win the game", which always sounded duff so it's good to see that this isn't the case. Actively charging Dragon Princes that he can't even hurt in combat, exposing his flank to Dark Riders, golly gosh.

Also wondering how on earth did Skullomania manage to KB all 4 Engines against the first Lizardmen? Surely they'd be somewhat close to each other so after going in first and killing one, the three possible Burning Alignment would dissolve him next turn? Or did traipse all the way across the table in a unit to get to them..?

It's true, I have said that in the past (and still believe it). I'm a firm believer in playing within the system though



He charged twice in the VC game too, though in those cases it was purely to break ranks and gain some static CR to back up Skulltaker's mincing of rank and file/characters.

It could have gone terribly wrong in the Elvish cases, and very nearly did with the Dark Elves. However, Ld9 and a 3+ ward go a very long way if you're not facing ranks or surprise static CR (Walking Death, War Banners etc), especially with judicious use of the reroll.


The 4 engines were spaced about 4-6" apart in a line. Skully ran forward with the flamers as ablative wounds on the left flank, and charged out of the unit into the far left engine turn 2. His overrun and the Steg's movement in my opponent's turn put him ~9.5 from the next nearest, and he was caught by the 10" alignment from that one, but was 15-24 from the others. Being 9.5 away, he charged the second one, and KB'd it. I killed both the other priests in the magic phase, and took wounds off the stegs, and then Skulltaker finished them in combat over the next two turns; I was lucky against the 4th one as it still had 4 wounds left and I wounded with all 4 attacks on the charge, but I was willing to take half points for the loss of 75 points (as ST had taken a wound from the second priest).

The first LM player was Brother Edwin, I assume viewtopic.php?f=5&t=65861. There was one LM playing Eddie at the tournament.

Great result, even with all the toys, you still have to play well to qualify.

With Skulltaker on foot being M4, doesn't that hamper you and make you rely on steed of shadows?

He's M5 by erratum, but yes, Steed is the key a lot of the time, obviously more so for the flying targets.

However, I'm guaranteed to get it, and it casts on 3+ (Twin Heads). There's also the option of Unseen Lurker for a 10" march and a 10" charge. Combined with guaranteed Beast Cowers on the Herald of Tzeentch, he can usually catch just about anything eventually.

@mikkjel Quite possibly. I did think that at the time given that the list was the same except for magic items, but felt that revealing online identities might cause unnecessary real-world friction. Neither of us is everyone's favourite poster.
Checking the results on Bad Dice (I didn't get a print out) it looks like he came 11th, which would surprise me a little as I'd expect most well constructed lists to take a one-dimensional army like that apart if played well. Then again, anything can happen in Warhammer.

I don't think that 4 engine list finished 11th, simply because Eddie who finished 11th had the amazon army with a slann held by a kroxigor and so do not think he is Brother Edwin off of here.

Or have I got it completely wrong?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would have definitely made the link and remembered his name if he was called Eddie.

Totally worth it. I know i'll be doing it at least.

My theory is, normal tournament list = more balanced force = more reliable/consistent/less r'p's. And at the end of the day, you don't feel as dirty, and your wins carry more weight.

just as an interesting side note, i had almost the same scenario in the 1st game, tho i was the one on the recieving end of the drubbing, but the ruling was that the guy would have the final 2 turns(i died end of 4th) in which to move in his units, different judge different call i guess
it wouldnt of made any difference to the result as he got his mission, but the vp's he got were probably quadrupled.

I was told I had my remaining turns, but it was turn 6 anyway. If I'd known I needed to get the hounds in for sure I could have 3-diced a Wolf Hunts on the Flesh Hounds. I should have anyway, or at least checked before carrying on to the combat phase (when the last models died to crumbling).

It's pointless speculating what the result would have been - all my subsequent matchups would have changed.

Thanks for the reports. Was interesting getting a little insight into how the Fateweaver list works.
Congrats on your podium as well!

Nice game mate against your daemons.