My local gaming shop has been doing a series of small tournaments for both Fantasy Battles and 40k over the last few months, and our 700 pt WHFB tourney was this past Saturday. For my second "official" tournament, I had the enormous luck to enjoy an undefeated run and scored as the Best General (winning myself a Cannon/Organ Gun box off the shelf, which will make me a second OG for my larger lists).

Here's the tale:

We had an even dozen players for the tournament, with five games intended to take 90 minutes each. Six tables were set up, one for each of the scenarios in the BRB. Special (named) characters were banned, but no comp restrictions or other scoring was part of the tourney.

My list was an attempt at a "balanced" throng with missile troops, a warmachine, a combat block, and an anti-magic hero:

1 Runesmith with Shield, Rune of Stone, Rune of Spellbreaking
19 Warriors with Great Weapons, Full Command
18 Quarreler Rangers
1 Cannon with Rune of Forging, Rune of Burning

First game:
Battle for the Pass vs. Warriors of Chaos
1 Tzeentch Sorceror (level 2)
10 Tzeentch Chosen (FC, Shields, Favour of the Gods)
10 Tzeentch Warriors (FC, Extra HW)
Scyla Anfingrimm (Named Chaos Spawn)

Amusingly enough, this was probably my toughest match of the day. My opponent rolled an 11 on Eye of the Gods, moved it to a 12, and immediately had a 3+ ward save on the Chosen block for the rest of the game. My cannon sniped Scyla quite rapidly, then sniped the Sorceror (who was running on his own 1" away from the Chosen) then knocked out two of the ten Chaos Warriors (I ignored the Chosen figuring the cannon was unlikely to do much against that word save). The Warriors proceeded to smash my Cannon and overrun off the board, returning too far away and too late to do anything else. The Chosen crashed into my Warriors, and won the first round of combat narrowly. I passed my break test (steadfast), then managed a narrow victory by killing 3 Chosen as he killed 3 dwarves. Since we both had banners, it came down to ranks, and I still had a complete second rank. Failing a break test, he fled and I caught him on the pursuit, instantly giving me the victory.

Second game:
Blood & Glory vs. Dark Elves
1 Sorceress (Fire, level 1)
12 Repeater Crossbowmen
12 Repeater Crossbowmen
12 Repeater Crossbowmen
1 Hydra

When I heard the scenario called, I thought I was in trouble. With only one banner, my Fortitude was 3 and my Breaking Point was 1, meaning if I lost my Runesmith general the game was lost. Dark Elves are not usually an easy opponent, either. When I saw his list, I knew I'd won before I placed a single model. Sure enough, my flaming cannon one-shot his Hydra on the first turn, then my Rangers shot to pieces the crossbow block holding his Sorceress (completely ignoring everything else). My warriors didn't move the entire match, as they slowly lost a few dwarves to massed crossbow fire (I think I lost 5 total over 2 rounds of shooting). Once the Crossbowmen were down to below 5 rank and file, my cannon easily killed his General and the battle was my mine.

Third game:
Blood & Glory vs. Lizardmen
1 Saurus Oldblood (Dragonhelm, uncertain of other gear)
1 Skink Priest (level 2, Plaque of Tepok)
12 Skink Skirmishers with Blowpipes
12 Skink Skirmishers with Javelins and Shields
20? Saurus Warriors with Banner & Musician (no champ, not sure of the exact number)

Not Blood & Glory again! Ah, well, at least he's in the same boat I am with only one banner and his general. He deployed his Oldblood just outside of the block of Saurus (seemed like a bad idea to me, but whatever), and his priest with the javelin skinks. I hid my warriors behind a building on my half of the field, and took shots at the Saurus every turn with my Cannon, eventually losing it to the band of Javelin skinks. By the time the Saurus was in charge range, it had lost nearly half of it's number from repeated cannon-fire, and my almost unscathed warriors charged in (they'd lost 1 dwarf to the blowpipe skinks the turn before). I crushed the Saurus, and caught them on the pursuit. The Oldblood charged on his lonesome into my flank, killing 2 dwarves and taking no wounds in return. I reformed, and handily destroyed the powerful Saurus lord in the next round, winning the battle.

Fourth game:
Watchtower vs. Warriors of Chaos
1 Nurgle Sorceror
10 Nurgle Warriors
10 Nurgle Chosen

Marauders (uncertain of number)

He started with the Watchtower, putting his Warriors inside. I placed my Rangers behind a wall 90 degrees to my deployment zone, roughly 12" away from the tower facing it on the center-line. My cannon I placed behind and to the side of my warrior block, with a clear line of sight to the tower. Warriors were placed as close to the tower as possible in my zone, facing it. This was a very straightforward match. My warriors marched to the tower, my cannon did d6 hits to it every round, and my Rangers took potshots at the Chosen as they approached the tower. He ended up charging his Chosen into the rangers, losing 2 to Stand & Shoot (lucky!), and losing the rest to the surprising strength of dwarven greataxes. His Warriors, beaten down by cannon-fire, were sent fleeing from the tower and my Warriors occupied it. In the last few turns, Marauders assaulted the tower, but I held it and easily won the game.

Fifth game:
Battleline vs. Bretonnia
1 Bretonnian Lord (warhorse, pretty much naked)
1 Paladin (warhorse, lance, shield, not sure what else)
1 Damsel (warhorse, uncertain of anything else)
5 Knights of the Realm (FC)
5 Knights Errant (FC)
5 Knights Errant (FC)

Somehow, this Bretonnian player had went 3-1 in his first four matches, but his list seemed really poor to me. All of the characters were in a lance with the Knights of the Realm, deployed on his far right flank with the two Knight Errants roughly in center-field. I deployed my warriors on my far left flank, almost on the board-edge, to face his character-heavy lance. My Rangers were placed in his deployment zone (his left flank), and my cannon on my far right-flank. The cannon sniped several knights from one of the Errant blocks and from the Realm block, including the death of his Damsel. The rangers killed a few knights, but were quickly outdistanced. A lone knight from a mostly-destroyed Errant block charged my cannon, but never killed a crewmember and stayed there locked in combat till the end of the battle. His depleted Knights of the Realm charged my Warriors, who held valiantly. My Runesmith accepted a challenge from his Lord, and proceeded to tank the following SEVEN ROUNDS OF COMBAT, taking only a single wound and causing two over the course of the long, grinding fight. I had a great difficulty killing the remaining knights in this lance, but after the first round with lances failed to break me, it was obvious I was going to win the fight eventually. A grinding slog later, I had a solid victory and an undefeated record.

I felt like a large part of my victory lay in my Rangers and my Cannon. Sniping enemy characters and destroying monsters like the Hydra and the special Chaos Spawn was hugely useful, and my rangers served admirably as both rank thinners and a capable combat block of their own. I was originally uncertain of the value in taking a Rune of Spellbreaking at this point level (at 600 I used a Thane instead of a Runesmith, and half my opponents had no magic at all), but every army ran magic this time and I was able to shut down the vast, vast majority of it. (I think the only things that got off all game were some buff spells that never made it into combat and a pair of pointless fireballs from that poor, doomed, Dark Elf Sorceress)

All in all, I had a blast and was really excited to win the tournament. My army also came in 3rd for painting, so that was nice!