Fantasy Tournament on 12/20/09: Bretonnian Perspective

I'm basically copy-pasting what I'm posting in other forums, so here it be!

Bretonnian Battle Report

2250 Tournament on December 20th, 2009


I was excited for this tournament. Even though I was the tournament organizer, we had agreed that if there was an odd number of players I would play but not be eligible for any prize support provided. By the end we had 14 players including myself, which we normally average 6 – 10.

First off, my list:

+ Bretonnian Lord Gillard of Villamore with the Virtue of Confidence, Birth-Sword, Enchanted Shield, and Gauntlet of Duel.

+ Bretonnian Paladin Simon Gifford as the BSB with Virtue of Duty and Sword of Might.

+ Bretonnian Paladin Francis Edgemore with the Virtue of the Joust and the Wrymlance.

+ Damsel Ariana with the Chalice and Dispel Scroll

+ Damsel Regina with 2 Dispel Scrolls

+ 8 Knights Errant with Full Command & Errantry Banner

+ 7 Knights of the Realm with Full Command & Warbanner

+ 7 Knights of the Realm with Full Command & Banner of Chalons

+ 24 Men at Arms with Musician & Standard

+ 12 Bowmen with Braziers

+ 14 Skirmishing Bowmen with Braziers

+ 3 Pegasus Knights

+ 5 Mounted Yeomen with Shields & Musician

+ 5 Mounted Yeomen with Shields & Musician

+ 5 Mounted Yeomen with Shields & Musician

+ Trebuchet

+ Trebuchet


We had a pretty wide array of forces but I was generally hoping to do some serious softening up of stubborn or unbreakable targets before charging home. Pretty straight forward, right?


Round 1: Gain Ground vs. Ogre Kingdoms

My first round was a rather short one. The player showed up a bit late (didn’t realize there was a tournament going on!) but had a list ready so we went at it. He ran the following:

Ogre Captain (don’t remember what he had)

Ogre BSB (same)

2 lvl 2 Ogre Shamans

2 Units of Bulls, 5 strong with FC

1 Unit of the GW ones, 5 strong

1 20 strong gnoblar unit.

1 10 man skirmishing gnoblar unit

1 Giant (yikes!)

1 Gorger (double yikes!)

1 Rniox Mortar/Chariot

Our board had two buildings on the right side, one right outside his deployment zone and one in mine. A large hill in the left center (closer to my edge) and a giant pyramid/alter thing in his deployment zone. He spread out his army across the board, putting the bulls with a shaman on either flank while the giant and GW unit went in the middle with the gnoblars, both the BSB and General going into the GW unit.

I basically reacted to his deployment by criss-crossing my trebuchets in the middle, separated by my skirmishing archer unit. I put the smaller archer unit in the building while the left side of the trebs was covered by the Men-At-Arms and Pegasus Knights. I lined up my Men-At-Arms against his giant because I imagined they stood the greatest chance with CR5 to keep the giant busy for awhile. The Pegasus Knights were going straight for the mortar.

I interspersed my fast cav to match up against each Ogre unit for march blocking and then stacked my left flank with the errants and chalons units, accompanied by Simon and Francis and damsel Ariana. My right flank had the Warbanner unit as well as Lord Gillard. My basic plan was to silence what little shooting he had while pounding the giant and GW unit with all of my artillery/shooting. Roll up the flanks of both bulls and then crash back home in the end.

The first few turns went by uneventfully. He went first (I prayed) and promptly moved forward. He didn’t march because I believe he wanted to get his spells off before going into combat. Unfortunately, his magic didn’t prove to be too effective and his guess range was short of the mark. I responded in turn with not too much more excitement, running my fast cav into march blocking range while positioning my knights to charge him next turn. The Men-At-Arms and Pegasus Knights both moved onto the hill, planning to hit their intended targets next turn. My shooting was moderately successful, killing an ogre and doing 2 wounds to another.

The bottom of turn 2 is when things got real interesting. He advanced further up and was successful in casting spells, but I used most of my scrolls and dice to remove them, knowing that my charge this turn was critical towards my master plan. I put forth 4 charges, doubling up the knight units on the left flank into the bulls while the peasants (who passed their terror test thanks to the Pegasus knights nearby) charged the Giant! The Pegasus knights flew into the mortar/chariot while the General and knights on the right flank went charging into the second bull unit.

The knight units rolled through both bull units with little difficulty, taking both shamans and banners with them. The Pegasus knights did 2 wounds to the chariots, but broke it in combat res and restrained from pursuing it as it ran off the table. The Men-At-Arms in the middle did nothing to the giant (as I expected) and the giant preceded to yell and bawl! I was worried, as this would leave the giant wide open towards my artillery and everything else. But the peasants summoned some sort of unknown courage and rolled insane courage to stick in the fight!

The game didn’t go on much longer then that, we played one more full turn before I needed to tally up the scores and assign the next round. His GW unit never saw combat (though he got within a few inches of the artillery pieces) and though I beat him by 2 points of CR against the Giant the second round, he passed his leadership only to yell & bawl my poor peasants off the field! It was a fun game with the dice rolls being moderate for both sides, and a solid victory for me!

Round 2: Magic Flux versus Dwarves

Ah, my favorite army to fight, the Dwarves. I mean, who doesn’t love a 3+ T4 army who is Ld9 Base with a lot of shooting and usually stubborn or unbreakable? Needless of say, I had my work cut out for me. Neal’s list looked like such:

Anvil of Doom (yikes!) with special character (double yikes!)

Battle Standard Bearer with 5+ ward save vs. shooting

Goblin Hewer (yikes!)

15 Warriors with FC

15 Hammers with FC

20 Iron Breakers with FC

2 units of Thunders, 10 each with shields

2 Str 7 Bolt Throwers (triple yikes!)

1 Stone Thrower

1 Flame Cannon

We played the scenario magic flux, which is where you roll your power/dispel dice at the start of each turn. Every 1 you give to your opponent. Clearly mission was going to play a serious roll in this upcoming match.

Our board was a section of a small village. There was a water-tower situated on my right flank, a manor in the middle, and a small 1-story house on my right flank. My opponent had two buildings, both in his general deployment zone, but splitting his deployment into thirds.

He decided to put his entire army on my right flank, using the building (which he graciously put a unit of thunders into) as an anchor. He lined up the shooting in front with the anvil in the corner and the infantry to support. I countered this by deploying all of my shooting, 2 fast cav units, and the Pegasus Knights on my right flank to duke it out (I knew I had the range against the thunders) while my third fast cav and all of my knights went to the left of the manor, planning to roll up his flank. My hope was that my shooting would really put a hurting onto his gunline and infantry to the point where my cavalry could mop up whatever was left.

This game was apparently doomed for me from the beginning. Not only did I forget that the anvil of doom (also known as the anvil of unstoppable power, at least this game since he never rolled a miscast in 5 turns using the ancient power) had unlimited range and no need for LOS. Needless to say, he used it to slow down my cavalry while we did a happy little dance of shooting against each other. I ran up my fast cavalry and Pegasus Knights to charge his artillery and hopefully tie them up if not kill all of the crews while my Men-At-Arms tried to brave the open expanse to the building to assault the thunders within.

The best laid plans went to waste, as my glorious rolling turned into moderately poor rolling. What made things worse of course was the fact that Neal, the dwarf player, suddenly turned vegas on me and rolled like 80% 5+ ward saves the ENTIRE GAME. Combine this with some serious missing in close combat with my fast cav and Pegasus knights and not making a single blessing save past turn 1 and your spelling some disaster. My only benefit was that despite him killing a ton of knights, he only wiped out 1 unit completely while knocking another one down to half strength. The fast cavalry weren’t worth anything and the Pegasus knights were still around by the end. With him being stuck in the corner I gained the additional 300 victory points which made this battle a hard fought and rather difficult draw. Dice Gods, why have you forsaken me!

Round 3: Valley of Death vs. Skaven

Skaven… great! I usually don’t mind playing against Skaven too much, since they don’t usually have a lot of stubborn critters. Now of course, they’ve got a bunch of unbreakable units instead! Luis brought a massive Skaven list, which looked something like this:

Grey Seer on Screaming Bell with 26 Clan Rats (yikes!)

Lvl 2 Plague Priest on Plague Furnace with 30 Plague Monks (double yikes!)

Lvl 2 Warplock Engineer

BSB with Storm Banner

30 Clan Rats (BSB and Engineer were in here)

2 units of Slaves, 20 each

3 Rat Ogres

10 Plague Censor Bearers (triple yikes!)

2 Warp Lightning Cannons (Rut-ro!)

Needless to say, things weren’t looking too swell for me at this point. The board had several hills and impassible terrain, and a small forest in his deployment zone. I set up a stacked flank on my right side to try and roll up on the bell once I had softened up a bit with the trebs. My BSB and Realm unit went on the left flank to provide support, and the rest of the army deployed in the center, hoping to smack the enemy with as much shooting as possible. He deployed a wide center, with both cannons on opposite sides and the Plague Furnace on a flank.

The first few turns went by with some moderate interest. I began my ritual “run the frenzied unit around in circles” with the Plague Furnace, while I advanced to take one round of shooting from the Lightning Cannons before I charged them with my knights. The storm banner went up for a full 2 turns which messed with my archers. My stone throwers did decently in the first turn while.

Luis didn’t roll super well for his spells so his plague priest was stuck without doing much magically. Things were looking pretty rough for me when Luis fled with both his warmachines, leaving my Knights Errant to be charged by his Rat Ogres and my Realm on the left to be flank charged by censor bearers.

Then, everything changed.

I ranged in (for the second time) directly ontop of his Screaming Bell with trebuchet. I landed a hit, and Luis failed his ward save for the Seer. 5 Wounds Later, there was a bell with no Rat on Top! Luis moved up and did his charges on the flanks, and then rolled for the bell.

He rolled triple 6s! The bell exploded, and everything within 15” basically died. I lost 8 Knights Errant, but the damage to him was much worse. He probably lost over 40 rats when it was all said in done, and everything was falling back in panic towards his side. After I held against his Censor Bearers on the left, we called the game there. The only thing left for him was the Plague Furnace unit, which was being led around by some mounted yeomen.

Massacre Victory for me!

I ended up coming in Third Place overall, though I didn’t win anything since I helped run the event. It was a great time and I’m glad we had so many folks show up!