Well DogCon 2010, as the title suggests, has been. This was the first tournament I've participated in for any gaming system, let alone Warhammer Fantasy. Unfortunately I only took two photos worth posting. This was the result of extreme fatigue and the desire to focus on gaming.
On Day 1 I played against Daemons of Chaos, Dark Elves and Empire. I lost the first game, largely due to a combination of my inexperience, poor deployment choices and extreme hesitance to march out to fight the much feared Deamons of Chaos. It turned out the Daemons player was afraid of this too as my Saurus were never engaged in the entire game.
Against the Dark Elves I only had my Slann at the end of the game. My opponent kicked my Stegadon Priest's teeth through his skull during turn 2 and it all went down hill from there. I had a lot of fun as the guy was a great sport and told me that he plays Lizardmen all the time, so he knew exactly how to beat my list. Highlight of that match was my Slann and a Temple Guard standard bearer successfully running down a fleeing Assassin.
I won my third match on Day 1, against Empire. I largely attribute this to my opponent's bad luck with artillery, on the first turn both his Mortar and Great Cannon misfired (but rolled 6s, so they could go the next turn). I deployed much better in this game and actually utilised my Skink Skirmishers and Terradons effectively. I had a water feature that I put my Skinks into, which blocked 20 swordsmen and about 20 militia (via detachments) from doing anything useful that game. My Terradons actually killed people in the game! I dropped rocks ineffectively upon a cannon, but they came back and
ate the crew the next turn, then proceeded to eat up a row of handgunners, and then finally they ate a unit of Pistoliers. It wasn't a very large win because I didn't have any table quarters and I had captured no banners, but I nailed the Templar Master General.
My first match of Day 2 was against another army I had feared playing against - Vampire Counts. This turned out to be a really fun match, as my opponent was a super nice guy and we spent most of our game laughing. I chose the Lore of Light with my Slann and rolled poorly to choose my spells. Highlights of the game included miscasting and giving away a free spell - Pit of Shades upon the Slann. Funnily enough I actually
won this game, barely. I had lost my flanks by the end of turn 5 but he had moved his units close enough that my Stegadon could charge in. I killed a Vamp who ate a bunch of wounds from combat resolution, as well as reduced a Varghulf to half strength through combat resolution in another fight.
The second match of Day 2 was another great game against Empire. My opponent was a great guy and we had a very relaxed, very fun game where we were giving each other tips on what we thought we could do yet still holding in a few sneaky moves of our own. This was the first game where my Temple Guard got into combat, and the first game where I was able to shoot Death Lasers from the Engine of the Gods. I ruled the roost with the magic phase in this game because he only had Warrior Priests. I won the game by a smallish margin, which would have been much higher had he 1) Failed a terror test at the start of turn 6 with Crossbowmen and 2) Landed a cannonball directly upon my Stegadon and rolled 6 for wounds as the very last action of the game.
Third match of Day 3 was
Empire again! My opponent was a nice guy but I perhaps a bit inexperienced with Warhammer Fantasy, albeit less so than myself. This was another game where artillery did nothing because I consistently was making my 5+ ward saves, even when Skinks were being shot. His Hochland Longrifle Engineers were annoying as they constantly tried to snipe my Skink Priests and on one occasion, my Slann (phew, 4+ ward save there). I didn't like my initial deployment but it turned out alright after the first turn where I began to aggressively march towards his gunline with skink skirmishers screening. His general was an Arch Lector on the War Altar, which was a big concern of mine. I chose to use him as the Bane Head character with my Slann, so every time my Slann inflicted a wound it would count for double. He had a Level 2 Wizard and the Arch Lector as his only magic users. By turn 3 I had begun to win, starting with my Terradons who were hiding in the bottom of woods flying over his lone Wizard and dropping rocks on his head and march blocking his unit of 10 Knights and his War Altar. Turn 3 Magic phase I threw a lot of spells out and finally I cast Rule of Burning Iron at the Arch Lector. He failed his dispel attempt and his ward save, so he copped 2 wounds. Later he'd charge his War Altar into my Stegadon, who zapped him with Death Lasers. The lesson from that game? Pistoliers are annoying and I need either more Terradons or Skink Skirmishers to deal with them.
I learnt a lot from the 6 games I played and didn't have a single sour experience, even when I was inviting death to my own armies and losing everything I had on the table. I broke my Terradons in my first game which was highly frustrating and I only had 10 Temple Guard models because my other box went AWOL, but everyone was fine about it.
Overall I played fairly cautiously, perhaps too cautiously. Against the Vamps I think I had the right level of Caution, whilst against the Empire armies I could have been more aggressive. My use of Cold One Cavalry left much to be desired, as did their performance. Kroxigors scared the crap out of people and a lot of time was spent trying to whittle them away. I completely forgot to use my Terradons javelins and barely remembered to use the lasers from the Engine.
I placed #138, lower than the Matthews. My battle score was 51, sportsmanship score 27, painting score 7.5 and overall points 85.5. Clearly my weakest area was the painting score, and as you can see in the pictures, it is justifiably so. I decided not to continue trying to get it all done in time after being discouraged by the MIA status of a box of 10 Temple Guard and the desire to sleep instead. Although I won most of my games, Hatton's battle score was 51.5 which reflected his wins were much larger than mine. My sportsman score was above average, perhaps next time I can get a higher one. Overall I am pleased with the results. They were the first games I had played in about 8 months, and first games I had played at all over 1250. It was also the first time I had used a Slann, Engine of the Gods, Temple Guard, Kroxigor and Terradons. 4 wins out of 6 games isn't bad for a person who had played 5-6 games of Warhammer Fantasy previously I think.
On my list: I was fully penalised for my army list's composition score. Lizardmen started at "4", and I was put down to 2. This I think was because of my strong magic phase (Slann with free power dice, Engine Priest and a L2 on Foot) and because I took a healthy block of Temple Guard and blocks of 15-16 Saurus respectively. My list was 'soft' when you look at it in detail because I didn't make it as hard as I could whilst I tried to keep it competitive. Yet there was another Lizardmen player who brought 2 Stegadons and a Carnosaur, and got docked by only 1 point. Go figure. The lesson from this experience is to go all out and forget about your composition score because you are going to lose it anyway.
My army being reamed by Daemons of Chaos.
My first opponent on the second day setting up his Vampire Counts. Notice the two water features.
Now I have free time again I am going to get back to working on my movement trays and my Slann's palanquin. I need to come up with some ideas for conversions for next time, because there is very little flexibility in my currently assembled models for that.
