After a couple of 1 day tournaments I decided to attend the 2-day Dutch [warhammertag50]GT[/warhammertag50]. I had a few minor concerns about this [warhammertag52]GW[/warhammertag52] tournament as it has the reputation of being a cheesefest, but the rulespack stemmed me mild: no Lord level special characters, no repeated rares, no triple specials and not all characters can be casters (except tomb kings). The same restrictions had applied to the Battle of the Clubs tournament which I had enjoyed. No less than seven of my clubmates went to the [warhammertag50]GT[/warhammertag50] so we rented a nearby bungalow and had a great time.

My List (2200 points):

Dwarf Lord, shieldbearers, GW, RoStone, RoResistance, MroSteel, MroChallenge, RotFurnace (286)
[warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13], MroSwiftness, 2xRoCleaving, RoStone, RotFurnace (165)
Thane, GW, MroGromril, Oathstone (94)
Runesmith, GW, shield, MroBalance, RoSpellbreaking (151)
10 Warriors, shields (90)
10 Quarrellers, shields (120)
20 Longbeards, shields, FC, RoBattle, RoStoicism (315)
17 Hammerers, shields, standard, champion, RoBattle (270)
21 Ironbreakers, FC, RoStoicism (328)
Boltthrower, engineer, RoPenetrating, RoBurning (90)
Grudge thrower, engineer, RoAccuracy, RoPenentrating, RoBurning (150)
Organ gun (120)

This list is roughly based on David L's very elite list. Obviously the 2[sup]nd[/sup] organ gun had to go because of the comp restrictions, so I replaced that with quarrellers and I could drop one of the warrior detachments to save some points. I tried the dual Grudgethrower but didn't like it. Sometimes you just want to hit a monster with one or two wounds left and the [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] is just a reliable hitter. Finally I runed a bit more aggressively, replacing Courage + Guarding on the [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] with S6 and ASF, replacing Courage with Stoicism on the Ironbreakers, adding Battle to the Hammerers and Stoicism on the Longbeards. Basic thought behind all this is that to beat [warhammertag128]VC[/warhammertag128] and daemons winning by just 1 point of [warhammertag25]CR[/warhammertag25] just isn't enough. Sadly I didn't face any daemons or [warhammertag128]VC[/warhammertag128] (lots of [warhammertag27]DE[/warhammertag27] though) so this theory remains untested as of yet.

Game 1: Nico, Warriors of Chaos
Nico doesn't play [warhammertag133]WFB[/warhammertag133] a lot, preferring [warhammertag1]40K[/warhammertag1] but with a bit of help from some friends made a pretty nasty WoC list. He had an all mounted list with a Khorne exalted on jugger, mounted [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] with flail, 2 level 1's, a hellcannon, 5 Khorne knights, 9 Nurgle knights with banner of Rage, 3 units of slaanesh marauder horsemen with flails, 3 Dragon Ogres and some dogs.

I deploy the quarrellers alone, left to their own devices, and the rest to the left of the table. A big hill provides some cover for his advance. I ponder whether to use the warriors to flee from charges or to use them to protect the artillery from marauders as there is a small gap next to an impassable building in my deployment zone.

To my dismay he wins first turn, advancing quickly. His Hellcannon targets my stonethrower but scatters. He admits being dead scared by that thing and keeps his knights out of sight. My stonethrower goes counterbattery and does hit but produces only a single wound. BT puts two wounds on the Dragon Ogres, and [warhammertag99]OG[/warhammertag99] obliterates a unit of marauders.

2[sup]nd[/sup] turn his Hellcannon delivers, shattering my stonethrower. His dog screens charge into my main units which is probably the best way to get them out of the knights path who set up the charges, the Khorne knights towards the longbeards and the nurgle knights towards the ironbreakers. The Dragon ogres move towards the lone quarrellers. My quarrellers wound the ogres so there's only two left. The Organ gun decides it's done enough after poofing the marauders in the first turn and explodes. BT gets the Khorne knight so it's time to brace for impact. Warriors move to intercept a flanking unit of marauders.

He charges the Khorne knights and Jugger general into the longbeards and the Rage knights into the longbeards, Dragon Ogres into the Quarrellers. Champions take one for the team as the general crushes the longbeard champion and the [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] unleashes his flail on the ironbreaker champion. Static res, stocism and the [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] make sure the line holds. In the side event the Quarrellers show the elite dwarfs how to fight as the Dragon ogres only do two wounds and are up to rank, high ground and outnumber. Surprised by the stiff dwarven resistance they decide to run for it! Encouraged by their fighting performance the quarrellers decide to throw caution to the wind and purse, despite their generals orders to hold their positions…

Time to countercharge! Hammerers into the Khorne knights. (Shooting sees the [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] drop one of those all to dangerous chaos dwarfs manning the hellcannon). The Lord and my [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] smash a Khorne knight each, but the Jugger general obliterates my hammerer champion for massive overkill and he doesn't lose badly enough to fail his break test. The big knight unit continues it's slow grind through the ironbreakers, but the semi-tank Thane keeps the [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] in check now his flail isn't so dangerous any more. More ironbreakers fall but not fast enough.

He realizes he can't get to the [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] with his marauders without engaging the small warrior unit, so in they go! With one of the hellcannon crew down, the cannon itself successfully decides to try and break free from its' chains. In combat the Khorne knights are finally broken after the Dwarf Lords decides to handle the Jugger general himself, though he only puts a single wound on. The longbeards pursue in vain but the Lord and hammerers restrain. The warriors just lose a single dwarf to the marauders and hold, while more ironbreakers go down, but my semi tank thane wounds the [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13]. The autobreak from fear is getting nearer. In my turn 4 the [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] shoots the Chaos general who is on just one wound but misses. My Lord and hammerers are too far away to come to the rescue for the ironbreakers so they realign to set up a flank charge from the expected breakthrough when the ironbreakers are outnumbered by the big knight unit. The warriors kill a marauder who -without their flails- are even more pathetic fighters now. Losing by a wound and outnumber now, the marauders run for it and leave the table.

5[sup]th[/sup] turn sees his general rally. His last horsemen unit is afraid they'll suffer the same fate as their brethren and hide from my warriors 🙂 Hellcannon scatters away from my hammerer block and the ironbreakers are defeated, outnumbered and… roll insane courage! The one time I DON'T want insane courage they roll it 🙁 🙁 🙁 Now they'll break through in MY turn 5 and are free to move away from my Lord in his turn 6. But wait! The stonethrower crew is still around! If I move them into the knights line of sight they'll have to charge, and if I flee out of range the big knight block can still end up in front of my lord's unit. I carefully position the crew so the knights can see them with an average pursuit move, but can't see the hammerers. My [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] hits the enemy general, and takes his last wound. The big knight unit now autobreaks the ironbreakers (the oathstone thane killing the [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] in his last stand) and my careful planning is rewarded by an 11" overrun.

Turn 6 my masterplan come to full fruition as the stonethrower crew flees (just) out of range from his big knights unit who are sitting ducks now. I flank him, defeat him by a big margin and run him off the table! Victory is imminent! Or so we thought… in his turn 5, 3 hounds had rallied who claimed a table quarter. My Quarrellers are an inch short of contending the other and my longbeards are just at half unit strength. His hellcannon has 1 wound and 1 crew after my quarrellers shot it for the last few turns. So when we add up [warhammertag129]VP[/warhammertag129] it turns out that I won by just 470 points. After consulting the [warhammertag129]VP[/warhammertag129] table that's just a draw! We both thought that was very harsh and that I deserved more, but well, at least it was a great battle and a moral victory.

In the lunch break their were fives armies on display that were nominated for best pained. Three very well done armies: the single tomb kings contender, the single Beastlord and a wood elf but it was clear that the two true contenders were a Khorne Warriors army (http://www.cowslayer...=10&t=6&start=6) and an awesome Empire army (a few pictures can be found by scrolling down here: http://www.cowslayer...&t=143&start=10). Personally I thought the Empire army was better painted, but it has won a couple of awards already and the Khorne army was new, and might have had a slightly better WOW-factor. So the Khorne Amry won that one in the end.

Game 2: Justin, Dark Elves
Scenario was Battle for the Pass. A strange scenario which meant you played in the length of the table instead of the width as normal and you had a slight change of getting D6 S4 hits from falling rocks if you were too close to the table edge. Justin had brought a [warhammertag27]DE[/warhammertag27] shooting/magic gunline with some RXBs, 2 RBTs, 2 level 2's a level 4 on a Pegasus, shades with rending stars plus a hydra and big unit of BG to protect his gunline. Terrain was awful for playing the table over the length as there was no way I could ever reach him if he didn't want to with only two small funnels allowing units to pass from one side off the table to the other. I chose the tableside where he couldn't hide his shades, but after putting 4 wounds on his hydra he hid into the woods and the game pewtered into a tame draw with him shooting and magicking some of my support to death and me getting some of his for another draw. Never played a game where so few [warhammertag129]VP[/warhammertag129] were scored by either side. I heard a [warhammertag128]VC[/warhammertag128] player deployed all the way back into his 36" deep deployment zone and did nothing but cast Invocation of Nehek until he ran out of ghouls and zombies to raise… While I generally can't approve of tactics like that I hope he convinced the organizers that this scenario really stunk.

Game 3: Dennis, Beasts of Chaos
Dennis was at the [warhammertag50]GT[/warhammertag50] more to have fun than to compete for the title and his list reflected that. If beasts aren't weak enough as it is he took a rather fluffy – and very well painted- army consisting of a doombull, 2 [warhammertag82]lvl[/warhammertag82] 2's, 3 minotaurs, 3 ogres, a shaggoth, two beastherds, a unit centigors, a big unit of bestigors and probably something else.

Some games you remember for the tactical significance, others for the fun factor and all the weird things happening. This game fell into the latter category. After shooting the shaggoth for three rounds my organ gun had blown up in round 1, the [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] had missed twice on short range (and put one wound on it at long range), the stonethrower had three perfect guesses but one scattered away and the two hits failed to wound. The quarrellers didn't cause a single wound either. After all that bad luck (and us running ahead of schedule) my opponent offered to have a beer midgame. So we left the convention hall and had a cold one. B)

Obviously beer has a positive effect on dwarfs, so after that things improved. I couldn't stop the shaggoth from demolishing my shooting support, but the Lord and Hammerers grinded down his doombull, bestigors and a beastheard while my longbeards got another herd and a unit of centigors and the ironbreakers managed to get the unit of ogres. The shaggoth smashing my support was costly though, and all things added up I won by 700-odd [warhammertag129]VP[/warhammertag129], which according to that rather harsh [warhammertag129]VP[/warhammertag129] table was only enough for a minor win (12-8)

So after day one I was undeafeted! BBQ for diner as part of the tournament was great and after that there was beer and Munchkin back at the bungalow.

Game 4: Philip, Dark Elves
Philip brought a monster [warhammertag27]DE[/warhammertag27] army: Dreadlord on dragon, Master on manticore, Hydra, unit of Cold one knights, two units of shades (no assassins if memory serves me well) , RBTs, 2 units of harpies and 3 units of Dark Riders. No magic, not even a scroll caddy – he completely relied on Ring of Hotek for Magic defense. Of course that meant he had no wasted points in magic defense versus my army.

I had a decent hill that made a nice home for my quarrellers and [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] (joined by the runesmith who was somewhat expendable now his magic defence wasn't required). With so many large targets the [warhammertag50]GT[/warhammertag50] and organ gun didn't really need to be on the hill so deployed behind the blocks. Warriors on the far flank to grab a quarter and deny the shades a good deployment spot. Somehow my dice don't respond well to aggressive armies as once again I lost the roll to go first. Everything moved my way, but the cold ones failed stupidity. Oh, the scenario was assassination which meant bonus points for killing characters and no points for table quarters. Which we discovered in turn two when my warriors were deployed to grab a table quarter as there seemed no point in having them do anything else.

Thinking about how to deal with all this I decided I didn't want the flying monsters behind my line but having three monsters in a single block didn't look to attractive either. So the plan was to deal with the dragon by using MroChallenge, shoot the hydra, and ignore the Manticore which was the least of the threats. But he had positioned the Dragon in a way that the hammerers couldn't angle him into something impassable. Going for glory the Dwarf Lord moved to the longbeards who could receive the dragon in a line with a forest about 20" away. I moved my [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] to the hammerers because I figured I needed the reroll if the manticore teamed up with the dragon so losing the [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] was no option.

Shooting delivered as the Grudgethrower put 4 wounds on the hydra. The [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] either missed or failed to wound, but the quarrellers chipped in with the final wound. That left the Organ gun free to shoot the manticore for what proved to be two rather important wounds.

In his 2[sup]nd[/sup] turn I MroChallenged the dragonlord. After some thinking he didn't fancy his chances for fleeing (if he rolled high he would land in the shades who were just in front of some impassable terrain) and he charged my longbeards plus Lord with both the dragonlord and the master on manticore. Both units of harpies charged the [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15]. He admitted having bad experiences when using just a single unit. My Lord challenged and he accepted with the master, leaving the dragonlord free to feast on the longbeards. The master and manticore of course can't touch the dwarflord. When the lord returns the favour (throwing everything at the wounded manticore) he did two wounds, finishing the beast and leaving the combat result in balance. The harpies would spend the rest of the game fighting the [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] crew and the [warhammertag114]RS[/warhammertag114]. The smith would survive wiping all but two, but the crew was eventually killed.

In my turn two the hammerers moves sideways to protect the shooting units from the approaching dark riders, while the ironbreakers moved up to protect the longbeards flank from the cold ones. (sloppish deployment and turn 1 movement would make a flank charge on the dragon doubtful as I might have to wheel just a bit too much) The stonethrower shattered the enemy [warhammertag107]RBT[/warhammertag107] while the [warhammertag99]OG[/warhammertag99] and the quarrellers killed 3 cold ones. In combat my lord finished the master while the dragon ate more longbeards for another more or less tied combat.

Turn three saw more stupid cold ones who stumbled forward into charge range of the ironbreakers! The Dark riders set up to threaten charges on the [warhammertag50]GT[/warhammertag50] and organ gun. In combat my Lord, no longer tied to the master, challenged his lord, hit the dragon for three and getting wounded in return (the only wound he would suffer in the tournament), but backed up with 4 SCR that was enough to break the Dark Elf Lord who fled about 12" with the dwarfs in not-so-hot pursuit. In my turn three the dwarfs moved up towards the dragon and the ironbreakers went for the cold ones beating them by a ton and running them into impassable terrain. The hammerers expanded frontage to 15 to prevent the dark riders from charging the artillery. Shooting didn't do much.

In his turn 4 the dragon rallied, but at this point the battle was essentially over as he couldn't flee from my charge due to the forest behind and I was confident I'd beat him again which I did, not even needing the forest but straight outrunning the dragon! In the closing stages I couldn't stop all the dark riders and I got a bit sloppy, forgetting to turn the quarrellers who were flanked by a riders unit overrunning after killing the [warhammertag50]GT[/warhammertag50] crew, but it didn't matter as the result was still a 16-4 win to me.

After round 4 the knowledge quiz was scheduled. 20 multiple choice questions and every correct answer was worth a tournament point. Turned out that 5 were fluff based and 15 rule based (5 army specific and 10 general) which was a huge relief as I had seen last years quiz which was 75% fluff and 25% rules. I'm much more comfortable with rules than with fluff.

Round 5: Paul – More Dark Elves
Never thought I'd prefer to fight daemons or [warhammertag128]VC[/warhammertag128] over Dark Elves, but at this point I certainly did. There is only so many Dark Elfs one can cope with. On the other hand, I was undefeated and looking at his list I fancied continuing the streak to the entire tournament. He had a lord and a [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] on Cold ones in a unit of knights, 2 level 2s with some toys, 20 spearmen, 2x10 RXBs, 7 shades with assassin, and two units of dark riders, Hydra and 2 RBTs. Lord had the pendant, potion of strength, the always S6 weapon (I wondered afterwards if this works with the potion but it didn't matter anyway in our game).

After (!) deployment I was in doubt on how to approach this game. I wasn't sure he'd move up to my side of the table, not having the [warhammertag106]RAW[/warhammertag106] combat power to take on three dwarf elite blocks. I didn't need to move to his side either. His shooting and magic wasn't enough to kill a block at long range and I could hide my shooting support and fire through small line of sight gaps only. But that would mean another boring draw. So I decided to throw caution to the wind and march over to his side to give my expensive blocks a shot at getting the big points. The shooters would be largely undefended with only the quarrellers to hold the dark riders while the [warhammertag99]OG[/warhammertag99] would be used to cope with the shades. At least I hoped they could earn a few points back but killing a hydra and [warhammertag107]RBT[/warhammertag107]. But wondering how to approach a game after deployment isn't the smartest thing to do. The warriors could have been used as a screen to soak up some [warhammertag107]RBT[/warhammertag107] fire. Instead, they were uselessly deployed at the far side of the table to prevent the dark riders an easy path to my artillery.

Unfortunately the shooting part didn't go quite according to plan either. In the first two rounds the [warhammertag50]GT[/warhammertag50] did 2 wounds to an [warhammertag107]RBT[/warhammertag107], and then misfired to miss the next turn. The [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] missed that wounded [warhammertag107]RBT[/warhammertag107] and failed to wound the hydra, and the organ gun blew up. That left my shooters at the mercy of 6 Great weapon wielding shades and an assassin. Of course Dark elves and mercy don't get along to well and my artillery was systematically slaughtered over the remaining turns.

While my blocks advanced, his shooting and magic was concentrated on the ironbreakers. IF Black horror really hurts and sustained [warhammertag107]RBT[/warhammertag107] fire chipped in with a dwarf or three each turn. Still the situation wasn't hopeless. The cold one unit with the [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] and Lord represented at least 800VP and if I could get those I could still salvage a draw. Even a minor win was possible if they did it quickly and could get to the RBTs and RXBs. But I made a terrible mess of the following situation I was faced with at the start of turn three:

----------------------------------------------RBTs----------------------------------------------------
Cold ones with ------------------ Spears--------------------------------------------- Hydra
Lord and [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hammerers---------------Longbeards----------------Ironbreakers-----------------------
with Lord ------------------with [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13]------------------with Thane-------------------------

The gap was about 14". I advanced the hammerers slightly to set up the master rune of challenge. His units were still in his deployment zone so he couldn't flee. The longbeards with the [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] wheeled to set up the flank charge while the ironbreakers headed for the hydra to prevent a rear charge in my longbeards. The first mistake has already been made. Bonus points for those who spot it.

His cold ones charge in and as expected win the first round of combat with my unkillable lord meeting the challenge of his unkillable lord and as expected my hammerers hold. The spears move up but can't move far enough to prevent the flank charge from the longbeards. In the crucial countercharge he kills two hammerers and a longbeard in combat while my [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] whiffs. Despite my static 9 (3 ranks, standard, flank, BSB, 2x Battle, outnumber) vs his static 3 (BSB, standard, warbanner) he only loses by 3 which he doesn't even need his [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] for to pass. Second mistake (and last opportunity to salvage the situation) has been made too. More bonus points for those who spot it.

In his turn the spears countercharge to longbeards while the unwounded hydra toasts some ironbreakers and the RBTs join the fun and shoot more dwarfs. The big combat would be a standoff for the rest of the game as we drew or won or lost combat by 1 and tested on rerollable 9s, the knights and [warhammertag13]BSB[/warhammertag13] getting a hammerer or two every turn. The 3 remaining ironbreakers and the thane charged the hydra who only did a two wounds (which statistically is actually a very acceptable result). Getting 2 wounds in return with my thane, it was outnumber vs standard and the musician made the all difference. The dreaded beast broke but escaped. The ironbreakers were shot up in the remaining turns and the last dice roll of the game sealed the fate of the now lone thane standing on his oathstone in defiance. He went down to a single bolt. 14-6 loss.

I had some rotten luck in this game with my shooting (it was pretty poor overall) but that happens. What I was most disappointed about was the fact that I lost to some seriously poor decisions.

Aftermath
With two wins, two draws and a loss I ended up 20[sup]th[/sup] out of 62. Not a bad result for my first [warhammertag50]GT[/warhammertag50] and I would have been truly happy with it if it wasn't for the mistakes I made in the last game (which probably cost me 5 places in the final standings).

But the disappointment quickly faded when they announced the winners: I won the Karl Franz Historian award for best results in the knowledge quiz! I aced the rules questions and limited the damage on the fluff so I scored 17/20, shared with Lars Meeusen who was the only other player to score 17.

Best General and Best overall went to Corneel Bodar playing daemons.
Jeroen Stroomer was 2[sup]nd[/sup] overall with Dark Elves and Sander Hodes finished 3[sup]rd[/sup] with Empire.

Best sports went to two guys: Dennis [warhammertag27]DE[/warhammertag27] Vries (the guy that offered me a beer after my shooting misery in turn 3) and my teammate Ruben Malschaert.

Peter Zuidgeest won Best painted with his all Khorne WoC army (and grabbed 11[sup]th[/sup] overall. Not bad with just two [warhammertag26]DD[/warhammertag26] for magic defence)

Top 10 consisted of 4 Daemons, 3 [warhammertag128]VC[/warhammertag128], 2 Dark Elves and 1 Empire. As the sole defender of the dwarven honour I was of course the Best Dwarf General 🙂 . Overall breakdown of armies:

10 Dark Elves
9 Chaos Warriors
8 Vampire Counts
7 Chaos Deamons
7 Lizardmen
6 Wood Elves
5 High Elves
3 Orcs and Goblins
2 Brettonia
1 Empire
1 Tomb Kings
1 Beastmen
1 Dwarfs

The poor Orcs finished 49[sup]th[/sup], 59[sup]th[/sup] and 60[sup]th[/sup]… the daemons grabbed 4 top 10s between their 7 entries. We know how it is, but I sincerely hope Mat Ward stays far away from any new dwarf books.

Cheers to [warhammertag52]GW[/warhammertag52] for organizing an excellent event. My opponents were all great sports and I had four very interesting battles. The restrictions worked well enough to keep the big cheese out of it and none of my teammates faced armies they considered over the top either.

I was very happy with the performance of my list and probably wouldn't change anything if I were to play 2200 again. For 2250 I'd probably add another [warhammertag15]BT[/warhammertag15] and drop a hammerer.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Hal