Ross’s army was on paper a horrible matchup for me. He had 2 Tzeentch Warriors, 10 Chaos Knights, characters (one sorcerer with Death) and two Shrines. It is extremely hard to get points out of and with two shrines the Knights have a strong likelihood of being invulnerable.
I set up a little back and to my surprise Ross set up even further back. Unfortunately for me my Firebelly dimensionally cascaded killing half the Ironguts. I took some shots at the shrines but didn’t kill them.
Ross decided he was happy with a small win and pulled back further. My option was to ping away with the Ironblasters but as the shrines retreated this became more dangerous if Ross decided to take a last turn character charge (two on disks). I decided not to risk the ironblasters and took a 180 point loss.
Loss 9-11
This left me still in the event 3 points behind Ross but 5 ahead of Tim.
Game 6 – Thomas van Roekel (Dwarfs) – Random Mission
Thomas is Dwarf player on the NZ ETC team and recently placed top 6 at Runefang. I fancied the matchup given I had more mobility than him and felt his army wasn’t matched well against my Ogres.
His list was big Hammerers, minimal Hammerers, 2x largish Quarrellers, minimal Miners, 2 Grudgethrowers, Cannon, Organ Gun plus Rune Lord, Dwarf Lord, 2 Slayers, BSB and Engineer.
Thomas offered to play Battleline but I politely declined thinking that in pretty much all the scenarios I had some advantage due to mobility (Watchtower/King of the Hill possibly excepted). In the end, Thomas rolled and we got what I hoped – Dawn Attack. My Ogres deploy well in this scenario (you have a 1 in 18 chance of having your Bulls and Guts on opposite flanks. The mobility of the rest of the list allows you to cover any other disparities.
Thomas also got good rolls but was banking on get at least one “2” to allow him to close the door on his warmachines. He didn’t get it and as a result I was able to scout my Maneaters into a threatening position. From the outset I was able to apply pressure on Thomas’ line and coupled with some good shooting and surviving a hit from a Grudgethrower on an Ironblaster by Turn 2 I was well on top. When I managed to bring in supporting charges from an Ironblaster and a second Mournfang unit on Quarrellers it was looking really bad for Thomas. This was compounded when his lord failed a LOS to an Ironblaster shot and died (taking with him the Master Rune of Challenge).
In the last 2-3 turns I pulled back to preserve points knowing I had a solid win. This strategy reflected my summation of the Ross-Tim game going on on the next table where Tim was clearly on top. When we totalled the points I had a 17-3.
Thomas had an uphill fight in this one and I felt that by compounding pressure I was always going to have the upper hand.
Win 17-3
Wrap Up
In terms of battle I finished with 5 wins and a loss. I was very happy that I had scored a total of 87 points which was enough to put me six points clear of Ross. So unless my opponents had had real problems with my Sports I felt I was in a good position to take out 1st Place. When the trophies were presented I was very happy to take the trophy home.
(or rather leave it in Auckland with Jack)
Ross finished 2nd in Battle on 81pts, four points ahead of Tim. I haven’t seen the rest of the results but suspect that Peter Williamson (Tomb Kings) and Raymond Dick were only a point or two adrift of Tim.
I had six very good opponents and enjoyed the games immensely. Having been pipped by two points for 1st at the only other Equinox I’ve attended, it was nice to go one better.
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