Going to try to keep this quick, since I should be studying, exercising, painting, basically anything but typing reports. However, I made a commitment to report these battles in Relentless 8.10. And if there's anything I'm about, it's honoring hastily made, passing commitments I made online on niche forums that no one would ever hold me to.

The local store was holding its monthly tournament, with the points limit set to 2500. I haven't made it to one of these in a while, so made sure to get out, if nothing else, then to practice with the list for the upcoming Lonewolf GT (this weekend!). Regular readers should be familiar with the list by now, but for the sake of completeness:

Runelord: Shield, Rune of Stone, master rune of balance, spelleater rune, rune of spellbreaking
Thane: BSB, master rune of gromril, rune of resistance, rune of preservation, rune of the furnace, rune of fire
30 Warriors, great weapons, full command
35 Warriors, shields, standard, musician
10 Warriors, shields, musician
10 Quarrelers, rangers, great weapons
20 Hammerers, full command, master rune of grungni
20 Hammerers, full command
Grudgethrower, rune of accuracy, rune of penetrating x 2, engineer
Cannon, rune of forging, rune of burning, engineer
Organ Gun
Gyrocopter

My first round opponent was up from San Antonio, and seemed a little less experienced. His list, to the best of my recollection was:

Eltharion the Grim on Griffon [Death magic], Whatever else Eltharion has
BSB on Lion chariot with +d6 combat res banner (?!)
Hero on Eagle with Star lance, Talisman of Loec
70-ish spearmen (?!) full command, war banner
12 White Lions, musician, champ
14 White Lions, musician, champ
2 Lion Chariots
4 Great Eagles

Quite dissimilar to anything I've faced before. The threats, as I saw them- 6 flying units that could get into my war machines, tying them up, or destroying them outright. Eltharion's Spirit Leech on Ld 10. Getting any unit comboed up by spears in the front, chariots/white lions in the flank. To make matters a little more difficult, my opponent was used to a different style of play, where armies weren't necessarily announced before play started, so some of what came out was a surprise as it deployed. Of course, this worked in the opposite direction too.

Extra points were to be awarded for getting in to the enemy deployment zone with a non-flyer.

I snapped a couple pictures of deployment before we got started:

The left, where I've left the back door open for flyers. Cunning ruse, or sloppy deployment? You be the judge. Hint: The answer rhymes with schloppy geployment.

The right, where I'm in danger of getting overwhelmed by 3 chariots, and 3 flyers. Organ gun, don't fail me now!

So in a rare case of being massively out-dropped on deployment, I get a crucial first turn and we're off.

Early game

Opening cannon shot obliterates the BSB and his chariot. My fine opponent (Eric? It's been three weeks, and I didn't write it down- we'll go with Eric) apparently didn't face many cannons in his local group and was somewhat appalled by this start. The organ gun had nothing to shoot, and the grudgethrower smacked the griffon for 3 wounds, though I didn't wound Eltharion. The elves moved to close in, but Eric made some errors, attempting to charge the gyro rather than flying past it, and getting badly delayed on my left as a result. In the middle, the other two chariots went down to a flurry of war machine fire. On the right, rangers were amazing, and combined with the organ gun, eliminated all three flyers before they could charge (bagging the last one on a stand and shoot).

Mid game

The spears overextended, and in horde formation, I was able to send in a hammerer block right alongside my deep stack of warriors. The gyro landed to angle white lions away from the combat in case it took me more than one turn to wreck the spears. The combination of ranks and damage dealing, broke the elves in a single round, though I couldn't catch them. To make matters worse for Eric, a unit of Lions panicked away and the rout was on. As icing on the cake, Eltharion was knocked off Stormwing with another grudgethrower rock.

Late game

I stumbled a bit at the end here- fighting and breaking the spears but failing both to catch them (leaving a lot of points on the table) or to make it into his deployment zone (for objective points). I also lot my great weapon warriors when a riderless griffon, and both eagles charged in to them, and I failed a steadfast check (not re-rollable with my BSB haring off after spear elves). It almost got worse when 12 white lions got into the flank of my BSB and shield warriors, and I failed to combat reform to face them. The game ended with the unit being chopped from 30 down to 10, barely remaining steadfast.

Result: 17-3

A learning game more than anything- that many spears combined with some kind of magic buff/debuff would have been scary. Also, a BSB with no magical protection and no look out sir is kind of asking for trouble.

Game Two

This sent me to table 3, where I was facing Nick's Dark Elves. They looked a little something like this:

Dreadlord, cold one, reverse ward, great weapon, kit sufficient for 1+ armor, stubborn crown
Supreme sorceress, Lvl 4, lifetaker, scroll, 5+ ward [Shadow- Pit, Enfeebling, Mindrazor, Miasma]
BSB, cold one, cool guy stuff?
Cauldron Hag
10 Cold One knights, ASF banner, full command
60 Spears, full command, flaming banner
30 Repeaters
2 Hydras

Blargh! Hydras had to go early. I wasn't really going to have much of a shot at the cauldron, and that meant the spears were pretty scary even if I could keep magic in check. If things got desperate, I could send the BSB solo into the front of the spears for a couple turns (immune to killing blow, 2+ ward vs. fire) and get a block in their flank since I had the advantage of units.

The scenario was "blind" deployment behind a screen with bonus objective points for grabbing the center of the field.

When the screen lifted, it looked like this:

I try to convince Nick to let the sheet of paper I dropped act as impassible terrain that allows line of sight, but he didn't go for it.

We're both a little disappointed once the screen comes up. I was hoping at least one of his hydras was going to need a long walk. Nick was hoping his fast elements would be facing my flank, not my center. In my favor, his infantry have a ways to go to make it to me.

Early Game

Nick moves first, but with no shooting or magic in range right away, there's no early damage. I have a great shooting phase, with the cannon crippling a hydra, crossbows finishing it off, organ gun taking two wound from the other hydra, and grudgethrower devastating the knights with 4 or 5 kills. This prompts a panicked early charge into my rangers that allows the hydra to overrun off the board and the knights to reform at my main line, only to be countercharged by 30 great weapon warriors and 20 hammerers. Big pit goes off irresistibly, dropping the grudgethrower and 10 shield warriors, but the miscast erases 3 pit, razor and enfeebling from the sorceress' mind. I add to the misery by spell eating miasma, leaving her with Power of Darkness only. Bwahhahahaha. She does manage to shoot two wounds off the gyro with her fancy shootin' though.

Middle Game

The hydra is dropped as soon as it comes back on the table. Great weapons do their job on the left and kill the knights and BSB out from around his general. He passes a bunch of armor saves, reverse ward saves and leadership tests to stick hang around. Shield warriors and hammerers repeat last game's performance and break a bunch of spear elves, but run them down this time. I'm a little worried about the dreadlord combat, so send the BSB back to make sure they have a bubble available.

Late Game

I never wound the dreadlord and he never breaks, though I'm ready if he does. The gyro sits in his flee path to make sure he has to leapfrog off the table in the even that he does break and I can't catch him. My right gets messed up and I make a late game fumble trying to get the objective. 30 crossbows charge a depleted unit of shield warriors, and with the help of a bunch of killing blows, break them and run them down. Dang. I also blew up the organ gun at some point- probably shooting at something silly. I do manage to nab the objective with my chaff warriors who spent most of the game absorbing crossbow bolts.

Result: 21-3

A great early shooting phase, and a favorable (for me) miscast put me up early. I left points on the table by splitting off my BSB from the center. With two units fighting the dreadlord, it wouldn't have been the end of the world if one had broken, as he couldn't pursue so long as the other held. It ended up losing my shield warriors (plus banner) in the middle. The gyro couldn't get involved like I would have liked because of the big mass of repeater crossbows and early damage from Lifetaker, but he ended up more or less unneeded, and some more conservative positioning and play kept his VPs alive, which I was happy for.

Game 3

This pushed me on to Table 2, playing against Lex and his Warriors. These were beautifully painted samurai miniatures (don't know the range). Warriors always give me a headache because so few can still dish out so much damage.

Chaos Lord: Mark of Tzeentch? Fighty stuff? 3+ ward?
Sorcerer Lord: Level 4, [Shadow: Pit, Mindrazor, Miasma, Something else]
BSB: Equipment that I do not recall
Exalted, disc, roar, halberd, 3+ ward save
20 Chosen, Mark of Tzeentch, Banner of Rage, shields, halberds, Favor of the gods
20 Warriors, Mark of Khorne, Flaming banner
35-ish Marauders, shields, mark of Tzeentch
5 Knights
Hell Cannon
Warshrine, Mark of Tzeentch

I always hate my prospects against Warriors since I have to fight- I don't have enough shooting to sufficiently get it done without getting up close and personal. The only ray of hope was that with the Mark of Khorne, I could force overruns and hit flanks, hopefully hard enough to win and break units.

Objective points could be earned by destroying the enemy's cheapest unit (warshrine- unlikely) and most expensive unit (chosen- super unlikely).

Concerned with templates, the chaos forces spread super wide. I close my eyes and pretend the Hellcannon and pit aren't there.

Early game

The hell cannon misses once, and gets one indirect hit on my grudgethrower, which does take a wound off. Thankfully my war machines are intimidating enough that he's trying to knock them out with the hell cannon instead of crippling blocks. Knights advance, and because of my poor choice of deployment for the organ gun, I move to block their charge. Then I shoot them, with the organ gun, and a great shot kills all but one... who can now charge through the gap. So I have to send a cannonball into him to preserve the gun. A good result overall, but could have given myself more flexibility for targeting with better deployment. The grudgethrower bounces a rock off the top of the hell cannon and then misses wide a shot into the blocks. A later cannon shot also fails to wound the hell cannon.

We maneuver to set up the critical combats- gyro and screening warriors maneuver forwards to pull the chosen and warriors across my lines so I can hit them in the flank while they're still in 10 x 2 formation. I also just miss a long charge with rangers into the flank of the chosen. I would have lost, but with only two models attacking, some rangers would live to flee and force the chosen to pursue away from the battle. Meanwhile the disc rider slips onto the baseline, getting ready to threaten in later turns.

Mid game

Both charges are baited, but Lex pulls a great maneuver and advances the marauders to block the overruns for both units. I counter with a charge up the gut into his marauders + BSB with hammerers + BSB but the counter assault stalls when I can't quite get him to fail re-rollable 4s and 5s on his break checks. I have a little time, since the same maneuver that blocked his unfavorable overruns also prevented charges in the next round. Some clever combat reforming cuts his chosen loose, but the warriors are stuck, working their way loose.

In the back, the disc exalted roars the grudgethrower to death and disrupts my shield warriors from joining the fight up front. He is eventually brought low by a combined grapeshot and organ gun volley, though he buys time for the hell cannon to rush forward to threaten the lines as well.

Magic is a tense affair as well- I'm manage to spelleat Pit of Shades and control the rest for now.

Late game

I try to block the hell cannon from charging the organ gun, but in so doing, give the khorne warriors just enough to hit the corner of my hammerers. Although he can't close the door, I can and all of a sudden I'm in trouble again. Thankfully, the marauders are finally seen off, bagging me the BSB and a banner, and freeing up more hammerers to join go after his Khorne warriors. His Chosen make a mess of my great weapon warriors on the left, and overrun off the board.

I finally drop the hell cannon with a point blank cannon shot, and after a bloody combat, break the khorne warriors (who escape, but do so in his turn). This allows a final turn charge that catches the Khorne warriors for a huge points gain. On the left, I'm forced to sacrifice the gyro to the chosen to save my shield warriors. One final cannon shot actually sneaks past the warshrine ward, but doesn't score enough wounds to drop the thing.

Result: 13-9 Dwarfs!

Easily the most tactical game I've played in a long time. There was a huge amount of back and forth, but no one ever appeared to dominate, with the advantage never seeming to clearly lie with one or the other player. I told Lex I thought I'd gotten away with some errors that could have ended it for me. He felt like it was about as good a result as he could have gotten. Neither of us liked our chances in a rematch, though I'd be happy to play him again any time.

I was relieved the Chosen never got their 3+ ward, but curiously, I don't think it would have actually changed that much in the game. I was never able to make a real run at killing the unit, and resigned myself to sacrificing the great weapon warriors, screening warriors and gyro to its maw (that's 565 points, plus a banner!). Magic defense came up trumps, with only a single spell ever going off- a Miasma which did impact a critical combat.

Overall tourney assessment

I came in 4th, behind both table 1 players (who had wracked up max wins in the first two rounds and tied in the last) and behind Lex, whose soft scores overcame our last game. I pulled a set of the new savage orcs from the "mystery" box for my prize, and have to say, they are some nice looking kit. Need to resist an Orc & Goblin army, though...

I'm happy with how the army performed. It's not the most brutal, can get in the hole early if the artillery fluffs hard, but there's something to be said for being well practiced with a list. I'm a big fan of the redirecting and chaff elements, too. I trade a not insignificant amount of raw killing power to get them, but they're certainly more interesting to me than another big gun. There's a couple very minor tweaks I may make to the list after Lonewolf, but I'll discuss those another time.

I'll be starting a report thread for Lonewolf soon with more pre-tournament thoughts there.

As always, thanks for reading, and please excuse the abbreviated format. I promise to make it up to you with a good Lonewolf report.