AoS Aginor's first (Skirmish) tournament

[Aginor]

Hey y'all!
Today I want to report from my first ever game of anything Warhammer that I played in public, my first games against someone who isn't my buddy @Mesandres, and my first meeting with our archenemy Skaven. And all that in one day!

It started out as.... well... being guilt-tripped into taking part because the AoS community isn't particularly large in my home town and the few players that play it (including our store boss who is a really nice guy) get depressed about it now and then. So I decided to go for it, played some training games with @Mesandres on friday and we both went to the store at 11:30AM. Everyone was happy to see us! The tournament started half an hour later, six players fought for the win.

The battleplan to be played all day was the new Skirmish battleplan from the Malign Portents book. It works about like this:
There is a marker in the center, if you are near it at the start of your hero phase you get 1d3 points. If you kill something near it you can roll, on a 4+ you get one point.
Whoever has more points at the end of round 5 wins the match, except if their whole army is gone.

My warband was a Starpriest, three Terradons, and five Saurus Knights. 60 points of models in my shoe box.

The first game was against my buddy, so I was relaxed since I know his army (Ironjawz) well and often managed to win.
I played very aggressively while he deployed rather defensively, hoping to avoid my bombs and then countercharge or even make that foot of Gork happen with the magic reroll granted by a piece of terrain there.

Throughout the game we both didn't have a lot of dice luck so it dragged along without many kills. I captured the center and by the end of round 4 I was ahead by six points, almost impossible to lose. I already pulled some forces back to avoid a wipe because that was the only way I could still lose.
...and then the dice luck came back. To my opponent. He killed my general and two other models, and a catastrophic battleshock was the result, wiping my army off the board. I was way ahead by points but still lost.

It was an exciting game that really ended with the last battleshock phase in round 5.

Aginor vs. World: 0-1


Next battlereport soon in this thread.

 

[Crowsfoot]

Hurry up!

 

[Freddy25]

Hey y'all!
Today I want to report from my first ever game of anything Warhammer that I played in public, my first games against someone who isn't my buddy @Mesandres, and my first meeting with our archenemy Skaven. And all that in one day!

It started out as.... well... being guilt-tripped into taking part because the AoS community isn't particularly large in my home town and the few players that play it (including our store boss who is a really nice guy) get depressed about it now and then. So I decided to go for it, played some training games with @Mesandres on friday and we both went to the store at 11:30AM. Everyone was happy to see us! The tournament started half an hour later, six players fought for the win.

The battleplan to be played all day was the new Skirmish battleplan from the Malign Portents book. It works about like this:
There is a marker in the center, if you are near it at the start of your hero phase you get 1d3 points. If you kill something near it you can roll, on a 4+ you get one point.
Whoever has more points at the end of round 5 wins the match, except if their whole army is gone.

My warband was a Starpriest, three Terradons, and five Saurus Knights. 60 points of models in my shoe box.

The first game was against my buddy, so I was relaxed since I know his army (Ironjawz) well and often managed to win.
I played very aggressively while he deployed rather defensively, hoping to avoid my bombs and then countercharge or even make that foot of Gork happen with the magic reroll granted by a piece of terrain there.

Throughout the game we both didn't have a lot of dice luck so it dragged along without many kills. I captured the center and by the end of round 4 I was ahead by six points, almost impossible to lose. I already pulled some forces back to avoid a wipe because that was the only way I could still lose.
...and then the dice luck came back. To my opponent. He killed my general and two other models, and a catastrophic battleshock was the result, wiping my army off the board. I was way ahead by points but still lost.

It was an exciting game that really ended with the last battleshock phase in round 5.

Aginor vs. World: 0-1


Next battlereport soon in this thread.

Nice report, thank you!
Looking forward to hear about the other skirmishes...

P.S. You may have lost the battle, but it surely seems to have been a thrilling game!

 

[Aginor]

Thanks!

My second game was even more exciting! I faced a Skaven player (I've seen him play and build/paint his 40k armies in the store a few times, he is one of the regulars there).
His warband was some Nurgle rat priest, 20 rats or so, and a Doomwheel. I told him I had never played against Skaven so he politely explained their abilites. He hadn't played Seraphon in quite a while so he also asked me one or two things about mine, and when we both were up to speed we started the game.

I instantly knew I had to kill the Doomwheel. The Doomwheel is borderline broken in Skirmish, its overrun ability kicks ass. I let him take first turn which he used to advance, but of course not all rats ran the same distance which opened up some spaces. I charged everything I had onto the doomwheel and reduced it to two wounds. Mediocre dice rolls prevented killing it alltogether unfortunately. The units I couldn't charge into the doomwheel did some damage to a rat or two, and I managed to charge on Terradon into his general.

I lost the priority roll (a double turn would have sealed the game I guess) and the rats struck back. The Doomwheel rolled phenomenally (9", doubled by the ability), destroyed a Saurus Knight and wounded my general. But then my Starpriest killed it with arcane bolt and the lack of saves for the rats (madness!) made my Knights (and especially their mounts) chew them up.
I was surprised how tough their leader was. He killed a Terradon and another Knight, but that wasn't enough as I killed a few rats and their not-stellar bravery made a few more run away.
Points-wise we were close (I didn't get many points from killing rats since I rolled badly) but the attacks by the rats aren't that great either.

I got a double turn and that sealed it. I split the attacks of my Knights to be able to deal with more than one rat on a good roll, killed his general and a few more rats, the rest ran away because of battleshock.

Both the Skaven player and I had a lot of fun.
It was a thrilling game over 3 1/2 rounds (which took a while because those were SO many rats) and as it later turned out I was the only player to beat the Skaven that day.

Aginor vs. World: 1-1


Next game was against SCE. Report soon.

 

[Crowsfoot]

Hurry up!

 

[Aginor]

Hurry up!

Don't rush me, I am at work right now. Can't post all the time!

 

[Freddy25]

Both the Skaven player and I had a lot of fun.

This is the most important thing, nice to hear it.

It was a thrilling game over 3 1/2 rounds (which took a while because those were SO many rats)

So it was really thematic: when facing skavens I'm expecting to see hordes of them... and winning against those numbers gives the match even more epicness!

I was the only player to beat the Skaven that day.

Well done: the Old Ones will be pleased indeed, and our enemies will be reminded on how we deal with chaos/skaven/unholy scum.

Next game was against SCE. Report soon.

 

[Crowsfoot]

Don't rush me, I am at work right now. Can't post all the time!

That's a lame excuse

 

[Aginor]

Ok here is the third one:
I played against an SCE army next. It consisted of a Lord-Relictor, two Judicators, and a bunch of Liberators of which most had shields but there was one with a two-handed hammer and one with a two-handed sword.
Again my opponent was friendly and immediately asked me whether I wanted to know anything about his army. I just wanted to know some details about the Judicators (such as their range) as the SCE army I usually play against doesn't have Judicators. I then proceeded to return the favor and tell him about everything important to know about my list as he had never faced Seraphon before.
He immediately noticed that the Terradon flyover would be a threat (he compared it to some Phoenix unit he knew) and took that into consideration when placing his units, spacing them in a way that made it unlikely that the Terradons would break through that easily and actually hiding two of his models (one of them his general) below an overhanging terrain piece using it as a bomb shelter. Very clever!

We placed our units, I won initiative, and I let him have first turn. That was a risky move because I knew some of my units were in range of those Judicators, but I hoped to just survive it and get the double turn.
He did shoot one of my Terradons and wounded it, and he advanced quite a bit to hold the center and profit from the points for killing since he obviously knew that the good armor of the Liberators could stand some punishment.

In my first turn I shot one Liberator with arcane bolt. I then advanced with both my Knights and my Terradons, but could not fly far enough to drop the bombs. He had placed his guys well. I shot one Liberator with the combined firepower of all three Terradons (those Bolas rolled bad all day unfortunately). Then I charged the Liberators with Saurus Knights and Terradons in a way that allowed only two of them to strike back, and killed both.

Then it was my turn for some luck: I took the initiative for a double turn.
My Terradons (not bound in melee as I had killed their melee opponents) flew over the Judicators and dropped their bombs, killing one of them and wounding another. Shooting killed that second Judicator and the rest of the shooting attacks wounded the enemy general (not much though. Damn 3+ save).
The melee phase saw another two Liberators die to the attacks of my Saurus Knights. The enemy killed only one Knight.

In my opponent's turn the remaining Liberators lost another buddy and the Relictor put two wounds on a Terradon, which was also charged but not hit by the Relictor.

A double turn by my opponent would have been the last chance to make something happen, but I won initiative and I killed another Liberator, reducing their number to one. I moved one Terradon as far away as possible from the fight, the other one charged the general along with two of my Knights.

At that point I was ahead in points by six, and even with the theoretical maximum number of damage possible by my opponent I would have lost two models. My opponent and me quickly went through the possible actions in that turn and a next one, and he shook his head and said "There is no realistic chance to make that happen" so we shook hands and I took the win.

I felt bad for him as he hadn't played badly, with a bit more dice luck he could have destroyed me.

He told me it was the first game someone actually let him take first turn, since people fear being shot by those Judicators, and we talked a bit about tactics while we waited for our next games. With that kind of glass cannon list I am playing in Skirmish (I actually don't like it, but both Skinks and Guard are... mediocre at best in Skirmish IMO, and most of our good stuff cannot be played. Grml.) the double turn really makes a HUGE difference, and people underestimate how powerful a good move value can be in Skirmish. The worst move in my army is a 7" by the Knights and if those bombs by the Terradons (14" fly move!) hit something, people will have a bad day. The Swooping Dive rerolls are also doing a great job of keeping damage a bit more consistent.

A very enjoyable match against a good opponent. And even more impressive if you consider that he is a boy that is only ~ten years old!
(I actually didn't ask for his age, he might have been even younger but definitely no older than 12)

My last match in the tournament was against his father's Ironjawz. Report soon.

Aginor vs. World: 2-1

 

[Crowsfoot]

Hurry up!!

That battle reminds me of a Seraphon v 3 Bloodthirster list I watched, where you think your doomed from the start.

 

[Freddy25]

Another great report!
I always find matches agains Stormcast are so tense because of their high saves...

Just a pair of question I forgot to ask you before, @Aginor :
- I know your warband is a Starpriest, three Terradons, and five Saurus Knights, but how are they equipped?
- I have not bought the Malign Portents book, so are the Skirmish rules different from those listed in this book? Have the points been changed or this new Skirmish supplememt simply consists of other battleplans?

 

[Aginor]

Here is my fourth and last battle report from the tournament:

I faced another Ironjawz army. This one had a Gore-Grunta, some Brutes and... I actually forgot what the general was.
A very impressive army with beautiful banners, snow bases, and Ironjawz in winter clothes made from real fur! Awesome!

Anyway, my opponent won initiative and charged forward, taking the center. I made the mistake of attacking the Gore-Grunta instead of going for the Brutes. I should have known that was a mistake but for some reason I didn't. I killed the Gore-Grunta in the first round, but from then things went downhill.

I failed the casting roll for arcane bolt, failed all bomb drops, failed all shooting attacks, failed half of my charges, I didn't manage to kill a single Orruk in the first round due to bad rolling and good saves, and lost a Saurus Knight and a Terradon in melee.
I also didn't get the double turn.

A Brute charged and killed my General in the second round. I managed to come back a bit and killed the two wounded Brutes, but I lost another Knight.
I once again failed my casting roll and my shooting so at that point I was pretty sure the game was lost, even though points-wise it didn't look too severe.
But those Brutes are tough and they hit hard. I managed to kill another Brute but then I lost most of my Knights and the battlehock roll was a 6....

That was the end of the story, I lost. It was still a fun game and my opponent was a nice guy. He won the tournament in the end, by dice roll, as he had as many victories as the Skaven player and both of them didn't want to play another game that day. We are all casuals in my hometown.

So what's the final tally?
Aginor vs. World: 2-2

It was fun and everybody was nice and I got many nice cooments about my models, it was a fun day. I finally left the shop at 6PM, after seven hours. Both @Mesandres and I decided we will be back for more games in the future.


@Freddy25
My Terradons were equipped with Bolas (magnetized, I can change that if I want). Usually I roll a bit more lucky with them so I prefer them even though they have a shorter range. I might change that though, at least for Skirmish. That's because staying 10" away definitely has its perks...
My Saurus Knights all have Lances usually, but I played one of them with the sword this time because WYSIWYG and I had him equipped that way. People fear the mortal wounds (although they are not exactly reliable) and that takes some fire away from the Terradons and provokes enemy charges that spread out their troops.

The Malign Portents book doesn't change the rules, it merely adds some stuff:
- points for the four Heralds
- six new command abilities for generals
- special rules for Shyish (that we didn't use in order to keep the game a bit more simple)
- optional "omens" to roll for (we didn't play with those either)
- one Battleplan, the one we played

 

[Aginor]

Some things that also happened that day:

- Me saying "no rend" or "rend 1" all the time, and the Skaven player only laughing because he never rolled a save roll anyway (weird thing, to play against an army that has no save at all. He says it happens to many players who play against Skaven)
- Some people there told me that all of the charging units go first in melee before everyone else. I had never heard of the rule and was shocked that I had gotten it wrong all the time! ....and then I noticed they were just wrong, they were mixing up AoS with 40K rules... I didn't have the heart to tell them because I am a huge carebear, and played along. Fun fact: It definitely changes the combat phase and I admit it feels right...
- in the middle of one game I noticed both me and my opponent had forgotten to use their command abilities. I didn't say a thing since they sucked anyway (we didn't choose, but roll for them).
- I noticed that some people have a strangely distorted view about what a strong army is.

And one more cool thing that happened:
As I packed my stuff and prepared to go home, my GW store manager motioned me to come into the storage room and said:
"I received something yesterday and when I saw it on the list I immediately thought of you."
He went to the shelf and showed me a "Thunderbeast Host" box, saying "You have first pick if you want". I said yes.
So I will build three more flyers, a Carnosaur and two Stegadons soon. I wanted to do more flyers and a Carno anway, and played with the thought of getting a second Stegadon, so it fits.
The box is such a good value (one of the four things inside is basically free, even at 100% price), I understand why GW doesn't produce many of them. I wanted to buy some online once or twice but they are always sold out very quickly.

 

[Crowsfoot]

It was fun and everybody was nice and I got many nice comments about my models, it was a fun day. I finally left the shop at 6PM, after seven hours. Both @Mesandres and I decided we will be back for more games in the future.

Most important parts right here.

 

[Xasto]

Some things that also happened that day:

- Me saying "no rend" or "rend 1" all the time, and the Skaven player only laughing because he never rolled a save roll anyway (weird thing, to play against an army that has no save at all. He says it happens to many players who play against Skaven)

One of my friends plays Pestilens, when we tell him how much rend when he needs to save he just stares at us until we realise our mistake

- I noticed that some people have a strangely distorted view about what a strong army is.

Would you mind elaborating on that part?

And one more cool thing that happened:
As I packed my stuff and prepared to go home, my GW store manager motioned me to come into the storage room and said:
"I received something yesterday and when I saw it on the list I immediately thought of you."
He went to the shelf and showed me a "Thunderbeast Host" box, saying "You have first pick if you want". I said yes.
So I will build three more flyers, a Carnosaur and two Stegadons soon. I wanted to do more flyers and a Carno anway, and played with the thought of getting a second Stegadon, so it fits.
The box is such a good value (one of the four things inside is basically free, even at 100% price), I understand why GW doesn't produce many of them. I wanted to buy some online once or twice but they are always sold out very quickly.

That right there is just SO awesome! I thought they had entirely stopped production, are they just making some once in a while? Or maybe they're sending their last units to the stores... Either way, I'd love to get my hands on such a great value box!

 

[Aginor]

No clue. The box looked rather new though.
I tend to think they produce them from time to time and send them out to shops without a lot of advertising.

Would you mind elaborating on that part?

People seemed to think Ironjawz, Sylvaneth and Seraphon (especially Saurus Guard) are strong, SCE and Kharadron Overlords are mediocre, and Khorne is weak.
...which is basically the results of the most recent big tournaments inverted.

 

[Xasto]

People seemed to think Ironjawz, Sylvaneth and Seraphon (especially Saurus Guard) are strong, SCE and Kharadron Overlords are mediocre, and Khorne is weak.
...which is basically the results of the most recent big tournaments inverted.

People tend to let their personnal experience against armies affect their judgment, especially if the local meta tends to see particular armies played much more than others

 

[Aginor]

People tend to let their personnal experience against armies affect their judgment, especially if the local meta tends to see particular armies played much more than others

That was also my thought until they said that I am the only AoS Seraphon player (the other guy who occasionally paints lizards doesn't play AoS).
I was like: ehhhhh....what?
But hey everyone is allowed to think what they like to. The meta there seems to be not very mortal wound heavy and then some Seraphon lists can actually be pretty brutal.