Adepticon WFB Championship Primer- Report!

Adepticon WFB Championship Primer

2/20@ Chicago Battle Bunker

With a half dozen practice games under my belt I headed out to Chicago Battle Bunker for the Adepticon WFB Championship Primer, what better way to practice for the real thing, then well play in the real thing. Obviously the turnout here is much smaller at about 1/5 of the size of the actual event ( I think the head count was 22), but everything else taking place is identical including being run by the folks who’ll run the actual event so proper rules calls and FAQ’s are in effect. As well WPS Composition Scores

My List

Empire

Lord

General of Empire- Full Plate, GW, Pistol, Holy Relic, Helm of the Rat Slayer.

Heroes

Warrior Priest- Armor of Metoric Iron, Icon of Magnus, GW

Battle Wizard- Level 2- Rod of Power

Battle Wizard- Level 2- Seal of Destruction

Core

24 Swordsman , Full Command + War Banner

2- 9 man Free Company Detachments

10 Free Company, Full Command

10 Handgunners

10 Crossbows

10 Huntsmen

20 Flagellants (Core due to Warrior Priest)

Special

Great Cannon

Mortar

5 Pistoliers, Outrider w/ Repeater, Mus.

Rare

Steam Tank

Pts 1999 / Models 121/ PD 6/ DD 5/WPS Score 15.09

This list has performed very well for me in practice, tougher than it looks with no Arch Lector, No War Altar and No Knights I it find mobile and very flexible with a lot going on in all phases of the game, with the ability to counter some significant losses. I didn’t miss my BSB once in this event or my recent games, thou I certainly miss having probably my best looking model on the table.

General Strategy

I pretty much deployed the same way with army every game as long as I could fit in with the pre set terrain… My General and Priest with the Swordsman and Detachments at center, Flagellants to one side, and Steam Tank to the other…Shooters where on the flanks protecting both the Cannon and the Mortar,,Wizards were usually on the inside flank somewhere in order to get maximum LoS. The 10 Free Company full command unit is there to grab Objectives as these are scenarios or worst case defend the backfield from small threats, my Huntsmen would also go where they can march block nasty stuff, or grab a building or objectives, finally my Pistoliers would go where ever they looked like the be most helpful..shutting down fast flankers or supporting either Flagellants or the Steam Tank.

Game 1 Vs Lizardmen – John

Lizardmen

Lord

Saurus Oldblood, Light Armor, Shield, Cold One, Blade of Realities.

Heroes

Scar Vet, Sword of the Hornet

Skink Chief- Stegadon, War Spear

Skink Priest- Level 1, Dispel Scroll, Diadem of Power

Core

17 Saurus Warriors FC

10 Skink Skirmishers, Blowpipes X 2

10 Skinks Ranked Javs, Shields

Special

5 Cold One Cav, FC, Sun Standard of Chotec

3 Terrandons

5 Chamelon Skinks

Rares

2 Salamanders/ 8 handlers

2 Razadons/ 8 handlers.

Pts 2000 / Models 89/ PD 3/ DD 3/WPS Score 16

I went first and started out with one of more distasterous starts in recent memory, both Wizards miscast,(thankfully to no ill effects) I misfired on the Mortar (short fuse), and then in my shooting Threw a good 20, “1”’s, came up with absolutely nothing. My friend Aaron whom I played the day before and had a very strong dice game against, words were coming back to haunt me, he said “hope you burn all this dice luck out today” I was worried he was right, but thankfully things leveled themselves out for me most of the game. Turn 2, Johns terrandons fly over my wizard who's alone in the woods -2 to hit I figure he ok nope…a big roll on drop rocks crushes him, so I played the game with essentially one Wizard but he had the Rod of Power and I had both Fireball and Fiery Blast as Spells..so he could essentially do double duty. Next couple rounds I come up big in both shooting and magic phases, a long cannon ball takes out the Stegadon, lucky landing six wounds on the first shoot, and I take out the Razordons.Having a harder time with Salamander but pretty successful at keeping the tank between them and my main block…I think he only got the template on me once for about 4 kills.

The big moment comes when the Cold Ones led by the Blade of Realites wielding Old Blood charged my main block…John's Skink Skirmishers failed to take out my Detachments so I ended up with one Counter charging the Cold Ones flank. My Warrior Priest takes 3 wounds from the blade, I make all three leadership checks at an “8” not the Generals “9”And then save two of the wounds only taking, 1, My resulting Str 6 attacks, 3 from the General, two from the Warrior Priest..plus detachments, attacks and a static res of +5 put John’s General on insane courage. He fails and is run down…The Stank was tied up with Saurus Warriors and Scar Vet for quite awhile, eventually they were wiped out. After that I mopped up remaining lose stuff and grabbed all the objective for maximum points

WIN- 15 pts, + 5 Battle, +5 Objective 25 points.

Having played Lizards a lot lately I was very comfortable facing this list, it’s lower WPS scoring but not as effective as Steve’s list I practiced against, John put too much confidence in the Cold One charge unsupported because unfortunately his dice did not back him up, after the first turn- my dice were above average, while John's were not.John was great sport and a good opponent and I look forward to playing him again.

Game 2 VS Dark Elves- Mike

Oh how I hate playing Dark Elves, I rarely ever win, actually I almost just always barely lose And the army is so damn flexible, it like a different army every time I play them. My opponent Mike shows up with:

Lord

Dread Lord- Soul Render, Blood Armor, Null Talisman, Crystal of Midnight

Heroes

Master, Sword of Might, Null Talisman

Master, Sword of Battle, Null Talisman

Core

23 Dark Elf Warriors, Full Command, Light Armor, Shield, Spears

23 Dark Elf Warriors, Full Command, Light Armor, Shield, Spears

23 Dark Elf Warriors, Full Command, Light Armor, Shield, Spears

10 Repeater Crossbowmen

Special

5 Cold One Knights FC, Dread Knight, Null Talisman, Standard of Slaughter

19 Black Guard Full Command, Tower Master, Ring of Hotek, Banner of Hag Graef

Rare

2 Repeater Bolt Throwers

5 Shades

Pts 1996 / Models 114 / PD 2/ DD 2/ WPS Score 19

I recall the cheers of “60 Spears” at Core Comp and how armies with 60 Spears won the day and here we had 66, plus Black Guard, plus 2 Bolt Throwers (the best Tank killer),Plus the Ring and tons of Magic Resistance, No Hydras, Cauldron, Assassins, No Dark Riders, Witch Elves..etc..etc.. for which I was thankful.

Deployment here was tough, Mike won the roll off and took the hill side..there was no where in my deployment zone I could hide the Tank and have it do what its supposed to do in the game, even though the objective on this table was way too big and consider to block LoS and be impassable..putting the tank behind would have kept it out of the game for what I needed to do..so it was a sitting duck 1^st turn. Luckily I won 1^st turn, went first and drove behind the building avoiding the bolt throwers. Mike march is wall of Death across the table and the Shade captured a one story building on my right.giving them 360 shooting as BS5, with no way to hit them.… the Cold Ones want to charge the tank whose sitting behind the building waiting for the flank of the oncoming wall to reach its LoS, mike wants to lock the tank up with his Cold One Knights, but Fails the stupidity check and stops right in line of fire of whole bunch of shooting, I kill all but a lone Cold one knight (who eventually becomes unkillable saving off a dozen wounds and breaking my crossbows who run thru and panic my pistoliers…and I lose both due to one guy!

Magic was a wash for me I got off some spells but miscast a ton due to the Ring, luckily none of my miscast were bad ones. But Mikes list definitely works as magic shut down list.

The big moment is Tank charging the flank of the wall of Spears and Black Guard coming my way I charge the End unit who flees…but the tank just plows into next unit over who get charged by my main block…I win by a lot the break and get run down and with a big over run catch the other fleeing block next turn, then plow into the crossbows , then bolt throwers..in Short my Generals unit cleaned house..I got the tank into the black guard as the Flaggies held them for a while, but the tank too some early wounds had problems generating steam and quickly became unusable and the ASF strength 5 and 6 attacks took it down.

My Free Company detachments ended up killing the Shades while my Huntsmen grabbed a table quarter and my ranked Free Company grabbed the objective. In end Mike we both had our big units left (my swords, his BG) but I had more little stuff..the kill points where a tie but I was +500 on extras, Banner, General, + 3 table quarters..so I won the game easily. I have all the objective points..but managed to score “0” battle points Mike picked up about 3 of those, great, hard fought game..kudos to Mike.

WIN 15pts + 5 Objective- 20 points

Game 3 VS Warrior of Chaos – Dennis

Lord

Level 4 Sorceror Lord

Heros

Level 1 Sorceror, Tzeentch, Disk, Book of Secrets

Exhalted Champion BSB

Core

15 Warriors FC

20 Marauders

5 Marauder Horse, Flails

5 Marauder Horse, Flails

Special

4 Chaos Ogres

5 Chaos Knights FC

5 Chaos Knights FC

everyone is MoS expect the Tzeentch Sorceror

Pts 2000 / Models 62 / PD 7 / DD 5 / WPS Score 15

So I have played Dennis before he beat me with an almost identical list last round of Core Comp round 5 back in November…he had better list comp/theme wise this time(making his all Slanneshi,beautifully painted and converted army now led by a Slannesh Sorceror Lord)

Ok, Last Round- Dennis and I are on table 1, which is a first for me…I know we both have high soft scores so whoever wins this is going to win the whole enchilada. The pressure was on. This was a magic heavy game, I got lucky I took the lore of Light and rolled Cleansing Flare (1^st time today) also took Dazzling Brightness…(in retrospect should have dropped it burning gaze but thought it would be useful) then I rolled Wall of Fire and took Fire ball with my other Wizard… Dennis had all the Slanneshi spells except titillating delusions (thankfully!) and then his level 1 had flickering fire AND Fiery Blast from the book…damn..it was a magic gun fight. At least Dennis wasn’t throwing 5 Dice Gateways at me every turn this time it was Ecstatic Seizures which is brutal on a toughness 3 army.

This game developed as you would expect early his Marauders on the flanks, I get my Huntsmen in the building, general cautious positioning. I don’t get much out my artillery or magic early..Dennis makes some big moves early…my Crossbows with Wizard packing the Seal of Destruction and Cleansing flare almost runs of the table while attached to fleeing crossbows running from a Knight charge...thankfully they rallied (not before again panicing my pistoliers and running them off the table (that’s two games in row, thank you!)

Dennis’s Lord had a couple big miscasts on Ecstatic Seizures…the second one removing the spell from the game before I could break out the Seal of Destruction on it. This was a big break for me. The Game began to go my way on turn 4 when the following occurred, Dennis used his Marauder horse to draw my Frenzied Flagellants away from my Flank he then charged the Flagellants flank with his Sorceror Lord and the unit of 15 Chaos Warriors he was with, Dennis also held up the tank by Charging it with a unit of Chaos Knight that also had his Exhalted Champion BSB in it. The set up was to Draw my Command Block into either fight and bring Ogres into the flank And then get the other unit of Knights into my other flank..I could see it coming so I waited a turn knowing/hoping my Flaggies would hold and they did..the tank also took a ton of wounds but held the other knights. The second of units of Knight is scared of my Cannon which the Sorceror on the Disk has failed to destroy. I then moved my Swordsmen toward the Ogres still leaving myself LoS to his Sorceror Lord. Dennis decides to Charge his Knights at my Detachment, hoping to redirect into my Command Blocks left Flank. I can see/think this is too far away as he has to wheel two inches to even get in line with my Detachment which flees..Dennis is short on the redirect and 7 inch failed charge drops his second unit of knight right in front of cannon leaving me the perfect flank shot. Seeing this Denis moves his Ogres back. On my turn I charge the Sorceror Lord on the Flank (now going the otherway) my Flagellants did there job and held with 4 guys left.

On the next shooting phase I do pull off the perfect cannon ball going allway thru the flank of the Chaos Knights..killing 4 of the 5 my Wizard buried in the woods gets off a huge Cleansing Flare that takes out 5 Marauder Horse and the wounded the Sorcerer on the Disk. My Command Block then takes down his Sorceror Lord no problem being I am on the Flank My dice are good, with a Static now +7, 3 Ranks, 2 Banners, Flank and out number… Dennis is on Snakes…I run down the General. All he has left at this point are marauders on foot, his Exhalted and 2 Ogres (after I got two with Wall of Fire) Who make a last ditch effort to charge my command block but can quite do enough. I kill both Ogres and the Exhalted runs and gets caught…In the end…I had+4 on battle points, +5 Objective Points

WIN, 15 pts, +4 battle, +5 Objective

This was one of the tightest best games, I’ve played to date..Dennis is great opponent and good guy I look forward to the next match up. This was neck and neck until it broke open my way in turn 4, I won the 1^st turn but choose to go second so I could get last licks and that turned out to be a good move this time. Going back to my personal scoring all three of these games where FUN 5, SPORTS 5, COMP 5,

I know a lot of people don’t like (or better yet don’t think they like) WPS but this Event shows that it works, if used per spec (so 2K not 2250)..I played three random people with similar scores who all brought good lists…I don’t even think any of the really low scoring lists where even at the top three tables last round.

Well there you go, I won my first RTT style event as “Overall Champion” of the day. I got box of new Bestigors (awesome my favorite of the new Beastmen kits) and the plaque below. At least when I go to the Championships at Adepticon I will have a good feel for what I am doing as well as the scenarios. I have no delusions of winning based on today I just hope to make the top 20 or something! I think the best part about winning today is that the EMPIRE won!!