Day One At Horned Rat V

My weekend started by meeting up with Tim Joss after work on Friday. Little did he know that when I said he could spend the weekend at mine for Horned Rat that I had an ulterior motive. It gave me a captive pair of hands to move tables prior to the event. Tim, Hagen and Tom helped me move the terrain and collect the tables so we could set up the hall Friday night. Thanks.


Late Friday Raymond the Umpire sent out a cryptic email telling us he had split people into one of four groups based on whether they had “Light” or “Dark” armies and whether they resided in Wellington or not (“Home” and “Away”). So being a Dark Hom(i)e I knew I could only be playing a Light Awayer in the First Round.

Saturday dawned and off to the hall.

Game One – John Murrie (High Elves) – Dawn Attack

John’s army consisted of two medium blocks of Swordmasters, big block of White Lions, a massive spear block, two medium blocks of archers and two eagles. He had a Level Four Shadow and a Level Two High mage plus a BSB.

My plan was to pick off John’s softer units – e.g. all but the White Lions and Swordmasters – and then attack them in the later part of the game. This worked well in that I quickly removed the archers with Maneaters and Bulls. I frustrated John by fleeing my Mournfang units (back into my Leadership bubble) from his White Lions and Swordmasters. He was hampered by poor charge rolls and I was able to get the Bulls behind his big Spear unit and then charged them with Ironguts. This deleted the unit and I was then able to multicharge the White Lions with 5 units (11 dead from impact hits). From here it was a relatively straightforward mop up of the Swordmasters.

Win 20-0

John won Best Sport at the event. However, I didn’t vote for him as he normally plays Dwarfs.

Game Two – Josh Kennedy (Wood Elves) – Meeting Engagement

Again a very favourable draw for the Ogres. Josh had three blocks of Archers, two blocks of Treekin, a Treeman, two Eagles, a Level 4, a BSB with HODA and two Branchwraiths. He deployed well back while I deployed as far forward as I could.

I was trying to monster one side of his army while ignoring (initially) the other. This had Maneaters threatening his flank Josh made an early error in that he moved the two Branchwraiths forward about eight inches in front of his archers. This allowed two units of Mournfang to charge and one to overrun into his archers. On the flank with the Maneaters, his Treekin were tripled charged by Bulls, Guts and Maneaters – the Guts failing to get in. As his Treeman moved over to intercept my Mournfang the Ironblasters opened up and destroyed him.

From here it was a mop-up exercise and my Mournfang were able to clean up the remaining flank over the last few turns.

Win 20-0

Game Three – Tom Dunn (Daemons) – Watchtower

By this stage Tom and I had made our way to the top table, in his case courtesy of two 19-1 wounds. I wasn’t keen on fighting his army – it is more mobile – and particularly in this scenario (30 Bloodletters including a Herald are impossible to shift from the tower).

I had control of the tower but had no unit suitable for occupation. Anyway, why give those bloodletters a charge first turn. I realised that there was nothing I had that could stop them entering the building so knew I was giving away 600 points. My hope was that Tom went in early so I could concentrate on the rest of his army. Tom didn’t. He moved the rest of his army to encircle me. I shot Billy Bloodthirster twice on Turn 1 but Tom made both his ward saves. On Turn 2 I got him which effectively cancelled out the Watchtower points.

The Ironguts charged the Bloodletters (sans Herald) and cleaned them out in a turn. One of my Ironblasters was mugged by two units of Furies and a Bloodcrusher while the Mournfang cleaned out a unit of Flamers. From here Tom played very well and managed to save the various parts of his army before I could get them. I did get the Horrors and the Herald but that was all. I charged the tower last turn but we both knew it was forlorn.

Win 14-6

So I had a very good first day finishing on 54 points. Tom was 3rd on 44. Sunday morning would see me battle Sam Whitt’s Chaos Dwarfs which were sitting on 52 points and had been scaring the bejesus out of all of his opponents.