It took months in the making, but finally the community finished the first complete draft of the rules for the unofficial Warhammer Fantasy successor, called The 9th Age. And the first weekend after release I found myself participating in a tournament in Steyr (Austria).
My List:
– Vampire Count: Blood Drake; Crimson Rage; Beast-Bane Halberd; Strenght Potion; Dragonscale Helm; The Accursed Book
– Vampire Count: Blood Drake; Shield; Avatar of Death; Obsidian Sword; Divine Icon; Dragon Mantle; Lucky Charm; Dark Charm
– Necromancer: Level 2 Necromancy; Dispel Scroll
– Necromancer: Level 2 Necromancy; Unholy Tome
– 35 Zombies: MS
– 35 Skeletons: Spears; CMS; Banner of Speed
– 32 Skeletons: Shields, CMS; Banner of Cleansing Fire
– 2×5 Direwolves
– 2 Great Bats
– 2x Vargbeast: Vanguard
– 2x Titanic Bat
Round 1: Fabian „Kathal“ Gollmann (Warriors of the Dark Gods)
He fields (qualitatively): A Unit of Warriors with 3 Attacks (even supporting Attacks) with a BSB, ~10 Knights with a Lord (Hellsword) and Level 3 (Heaven), 8 Trolls, a Chariot and redirector units.
I did a sloppy vanguard move with my wolves, so the Marauder Horsemen could charge and overrun in my Titanic Bat. But in fact it was a good trade off. My Bat killed them easily without taking a wound.
The Knights decided to charge my carrier (I put my Lords in the flaming Skeletons, whereas the Necros stayed in the other Skeletons). His Lord challenged and I accepted with the Crimson Rage Lord (2++ against Flaming). I lost a lot of Skeletons but killed some Knights and put one Wound on the Lord. I counter-charged with the Titanic Bat, used my strength potion and wiped the unit. The Mage broke giving me an overrun into the Trolls.
Two survived my Attacks (flaming, multiple wounds (2), Crimson Rage!), one broke and ultimatively fled the battlefield.
In the meantime, one Vargbeast was charged by a Chariot, took no wounds and instantaneously killed the attacker. The other Vargbeast was able to charge the Warrors in the back. He got into a killing spree, killing off 16 Warriors over 3 rounds of close combat, unitl he finally died.
Unfortunately the Warrors got free in my opponents turn, giving them the opportunity to charge my Necros (they came closer to magically support the Vargbeast). The two Necros died, but were avenged by the rest of my army. Major victory (20:0) for the Vampires.
Round 2: Philipp Merlin „Kokosnuss“ Jost (Dwarven Holds)
His list (qualitatively): A large unit of musketeers, a smaller one with crossbows, a carrier of Forgeguard with Master Rune Smith; a lone Master Engineer; the dreaded Daemonseeker; 3 Steamcopters; 2 Steambomber; Anvil of Power; a Cannon; a Catapult and a Volley Cannon.
My initial reaction: Ok, Dwarfs stayed as they were, I stay in the back and get my 7-9 points. But since this was kind of a test tournament, I decided: just rush and see what happens. So I went all in quite fast to get the first turn. The Vargbeasts went into attack position, the rest went as far as possible. One Titanic Bat was in range for a scream on a copter but failed to get 3 out of 6 3+ rolls. So I got redirected and switched the carrier to not lose a round of marching. The Vargbeasts were hit really heavily. One died, the other one was „redirected“ by the Deamonseeker. At least my Bat survived a Cannon shot unharmed.
A round later, my second Vargbeast and my first Titanic bat died (at least she took a copter down first). My third move went really well. A complex and very unlucky flee move of a copter brought my carrier very close to the Dwarven army. Also I was able to heal 4 wounds on the second Titanic Bat, but she failed to do the 3 statistic wounds on the Deamonseeker who charged my wolves and overran into the side of my carrier.
My Titanic Bat died and the Dwarves were finally able to shoot at my carrier. Out of about 60 Models only 3 (plus the Vamps) made it into close combat. There I finally felt safe. What could a few Dwarves who hit on 6es do against the killing power of 2 Vampire Counts?
For two rounds I did ok, on the third round of combat I caused 3 wounds, whereas my Halberd-Count was killed by 6 attacks, hitting on 6es, wounding on 4+, and a resulting armour save of 5+. My General lost 2 wounds to crumbling and was killed in the following round. This ~1000 points difference changed the result from a medium defeat to 0:20.
Round 3: Christian „CrazyChris“ Skuza (Beast Herds)
His list (qualitatively): Minotaur Lord; Minotaur BSB; 3 Chariots, 2 Ambushing Giants, A large Unit of Longhorns with Level 4 Nature, a large unit of Minotaurs, and a few redirectors.
The list has nothing against my Titanic Bats, cannot deal with Vargbeasts and has a strong weakness against my Halberd-Vamp. Only the Giants in my back were nasty. I decided to go for it.
I redirected poorly so that my Bat could be charged by the Lord Minotaur. He lost 2 wounds against my scream, killed the first bat and was killed afterwards by my second bat.
On my opponents third turn, he decided to charge my carrier (currently with rerolls to hit) with his Minotaurs. My Halberd-Lord rolled really badly and „only“ killed 4 Minotaurs and took 2 wounds (6es to hit …) , my General caused 3 wounds on the BSB and got 2 wounds back. Skeletons killed one more Minotaur, before they ran and weren’t caught (but fled from the field next round).
I got a reform before my round and decided to go all in into the Longhorns, with my carrier (2 Vamps with one Hitpoint left …), a Vargbeast in the back and a Titanic Bat in the flank. I could heal one wound on my General (saving her life!), the other Vamp died. The Beasts fled but weren’t caught by any of my three units (two of them had swiftstride). They beasts rallied and were charged by my Vargbeast. They killed him, bit finally fled from the field after a failed panic test. Giants killed the second Bat and a unit of Skeletons. I got some more redirectors, resulting in a major victory for me (18:2)
I made the 3rd place (out of 12), which was very ok and even got my a price. The tournament was fun and I really like the new approach to Warhammer, though there are still a lot of things out of balance.
SailorMeni Saves The Day 