Bugmans Bash 2009

@ Chicago Battle Bunker 12/5

Bugmans Bash is a 1999 Warhammer RTT, it was also a "Toys for Tots" charity drive and you can see all the great stuff we brought in over at Dean who hosted the events blog here. I had brought what I thought was solid list overall but in the character department I knew it was a crap shoot. 1999 means, No Lord level characters and only 3 Heroes, most armies being only on leadership 8. This day the Empire fielded:

3 Warrior Priests
24 Swordsman/ FC X 2
9 Free Company Detachment X 2
10 Handgunners, Champion w/ HLR
10 Huntsmen
20 Flagellants
5 Pistoliers Champion w/ Repeater
6 Inner Circle Knights /FC
1 Great Cannon
1 Steam Tank

I thought a solid Empire list for a No Comp environment @1999, Each game had unique scenarios, honestly the scenarios weren't doing much for me this time the second on particularly was just too out of the norm and made a hard game harder. As usual I'll add my personal scoring on the event based on Fun, my opponents sportsmanship, and if they brought a list that appropriate for the event.

Game 1 VS Skaven ( Marty)


(whole lotta rats)

Marty brought a horde of new rats with the center piece being 41 Plague Monks and the Plague Furnace, lots of Poison gas going on all around. First time playing the new Skaven, there was alot of rules explaining going on, Marty's having none of exploitive rules nonsense that GW let get by with slopping editing in the new book, he's playing it 100% RAI (Rules as Interpreted) based on his 20+ years playing the game and for that I was thankful. Game started out ok...I rammed the tank out and made him deal with it, It made some rats run off, then it got charged by the Censer Bearers, Ate them up and them the Frenzy Plague furnace had to charge on the flank exposing its Flank and Rear to my Command Block and Flagellants, that was all good. The bad was we both misfired like crazy, I roll one first thing, meaning no cannon until turn 3, he has 3 or 4 misfires with his weapons teams. I lose a full block of Swordsmen and Warrior Priest charging a bunch of Clan Rats..(he had the new Skaven Battle Standard that does 2d6 X attacks) that caught me off guard..while I won the straight up combat (I'd of better!) good dice on the extra attacks pushed the combat his way, and I break... (Battle Standard where are you?) outside of that things pretty much went my way...except I was stupidly allowing the Stank to take wounds from failed toughness tests (Stank passes all characteristic tests, expect initiative) it was already nerfed by some other wounds at that point and was just holding the combat anyway.. Turn time limit was 2 hours and with all that was going on, we just ran out of time...we only finished 4 turns and being the game deciding combat was locked up..the game was a DRAW, the difference was only around 60 points, As the bulk of his points were in that unit, he only had 1 unit of Clan Rats and 1 unit of Slaves and a few other lose/broken units left...I am 90% confident I had this if the game played out in full..we'll find out as we are going to play it again for fun sometime soon.
All in all great game..my favorite of the day. I did also get the bonus points for this round.

(Steam Tank charges)

Fun 5, Sports 5, Comp 5

0-0-1

Game 2 Vs High Elves (Bryan)

This was I believe the 4th time I have come up against Bryan in a tournament, he is an excellent player most always in the top 5 of any event he's in and playing High Elves!. Unfortunately for me I cant seem to catch a break playing him, He's beat me to paste to about every game we've played and this one was no exception. Compounding the issue was scenario, we setting up and playing lengthwise with 24" deep Deployment zones and 24" inched in the middle as the no mans land. It was supposed to be rocky valley with the no mans land being a deep ravine, so if you were had a unit that was within 6 inches of a long table edge you had to roll a die for that unit on a 4+ you take 2D6 Strength 4 hits from falling rocks..an added and unnecessary complication given the bonus objective was to get your units into you opponents back field which on this layout was an extra foot away!. I got first turn, my Cannon shoots on his 2 bolt throwers with a 50 inch guess I about 8 inches away..I roll a "10" nailing it. I then of course roll a "1" to wound.
That was the harbinger of the game, the next turn that same bolt thrower shoots the Steam Tank and puts THREE wounds on it. His Bolt Throwers absolutely shredded me, ripping up the Stank, and all my Cav, I couldn't hit the broad side of barn with any shooting. It was all down hill from there, every single thing that could have went wrong for me did (exception I held alot of losing combats sticking on 6's and 7's) in the end all my stuff broke, Bryan got full points.

(Bryans HE's march on to kick some Empire arse)

Fun 3, (utter frustration), Sports 5, Comp 5

0-1-1

Game 3 VS Lizardmen (James)

(James' General, counts as Skink Chief on a Terradon)

I finally get to play James Wappel, and his awesome Lizardmen. All thoughts of me winning any Best Appearance awards went out the window as soon as James started playing out early this year. Every single unit in his Lizardman Army is a Golden Daemon runner up, I must mention that most of this army is also scratch built or converted on top of the exceptional paint!.
As expected, James won Best Appearance this day with myself or Mr Hodge being a distant second (there were six players getting full appearance scores (there was a 4 point swing for conversions versus painting) So it was still highest battle points + highest appearance score getting the award..So James had to win some games to get it and he did, So deservedly so.
This Scenario had a wacky deployment scheme that made you roll to see in what portion of your deployment zone you got stuck in, again it just made the game more difficult which was I guess the point.



(Terradons, Engine # 1)
Our game was fun one but again, "luck" I was having no part of. First turn I hit Stegadon/ Engine #1 with a Cannonball, a 1-4 hitting the Stegadon and potentially doing up to 6 wounds, I roll a '5" (worst outcome as "6" hits the priest) I do wound but it being on the crew, I only kill one guy. James quickly got both Stegadons behing Trees, until he could get one of his two units of Terradons on my Cannon, I managed to kill one but the other got it...considering I had one more chance to shoot the cannon and I misfired...I was lost any Chance to kill the Stegs. The Steam Tank and my Command Block ate one of his 3 units of 14 Skinks /2 Krox but chasing brought me in Range of Steg 1 and "Burning Alignment" on both my Inner Circle Knights on the left and the Stank on the right..KILLED me...he put 9 wounds on the Stank, 8 were from "Burning Alignment" where he needed "6's" to wound. My Inner Circle knights just popped first time they got hit with it. In the end James was up on me by around +460, at 1999 that's a Solid Victory he also got the bonus points..(highest value unit, Inner Circle Knights, his was one of the Steg/Engines. Good Game.


(Skinks/ Krox, Engine # 2)

Fun 5, Sports 5, Comp 5

0-2-1

Overall a fun, but disappointing day...I end up with 67.6 points overall ( max sports, max appearance) the fractional scoring coming from Favorite Opponent votes..(meaning I got a 1st, and 2nd' FO's) and finishing 17th out of 22, The worst I have done in the overall since I first started playing. I continue to be frustrated by lack of The Empire's being competitive in No Comp events unless I be a complete D-bag and run a Gunline + Stank and War Altar. which I refuse to do. Although in this specific case it was a crap shoot being at 1999 the lack of a 4th support character was critical..if I played this format again..I'd drop the 3rd priest for a BSB certainly maybe even going BSB/Priest/Wizard. This was for a great cause so no complaints
I am signed up for another tourney next weekend..I am scheduled to bring my Daemons for the 1st time in a 2250 in public yet..we'll see how it goes.