Leadership 2

 

Friday: I fly out of Oakland... and so are a couple others from LD2. However, we all apparently failed our intelligence checks and booked completely different flights, flying into different airports even! WTF?! The free booze starts at 6pm at the hotel, so I take the day off work and fly down at noon. Most of LD2 is driving, and have an ETA of around 6pm. My flight arrives on time at around 1pm, and after a rather expensive taxi ride ($62 to go 13.4 miles… I should have just gotten a rental car, it would have been cheaper!) I get to the hotel a little before 2pm. I’m rooming with Hengl, and it’s under his name. His flight was about an hour later, so I check my bags at the front desk, inspect the pool area, checking for ninja traps and identifying defensible positions, then head to the bar. A couple vodka martinis later Hengl arrives. We schlep our stuff up to the room, then take a taxi to the venue (its a couple miles away from the recommended hotel… eminently forgivable given the free booze situation).

 

We greet Mike Garner and his boyz (and lovely Lady Amanda) at the venue, who immediately start pouring beer into us. We hang out for a while until they start shutting down the site in preparation for a move back to the open bar at the hotel. I’m pleasantly drunk. We get to the free booze, and proceed to drink an obscene amount of rum and punch. 

 

Things I remember after that point: Dave, Johnny and Cameron showing up, getting wet (though I have very few clear mental images of my time at the pool), watching porn with a brunette possessed of a very, very flexible butt hole. 

 

Things I don’t remember, but have since been explained to me in some detail: my challenging every person with >50 pounds on me to an arm wrestling or death cage match, declaring war on the father sitting peaceably in the hot tube with his kids (while I was fully clothed), leering at Amanda (Mike Garner’s lady-fair) and pretty much any other female in the general vicinity, losing the power of speech and reverting to bestial grunts and gestures as a means of elementary communication, being wrestled back to the room by Johnny and perhaps several others, attempting to slay the elevator door with my bare hands and feet (it looked at me funny), escaping from my stygian oppressors to run around butt naked on the 14^th floor for a while. Fun times… wish I could remember. My wardens assure me that at no time did I vomit. This surprises me. It’s been a long time since I got blackout drunk. The following morning wasn’t nearly as painful as I might have expected. A few aspirin and a decent breakfast later (also free at the hotel) I was feeling much better than I had any right to, all things considered. I had a long gash running down my left forearm, a thumb I still can’t bend properly, and an odd popping sensation in my right knee, none of which I could explain, but other than that, I was relatively good. I was summoned up to the podium before round 1 to ceremoniously don the Lobster Hat of Doom, in honor of the previous night’s shenanigans. 

 

 

I like Fred, and we bonded over a collection of roughly 20 jealously guarded empty rum and punch glasses the night before. Fred’s list, from a rather hazy memory: Daemon Prince (General, with Soul Hunger and Ether Blade), Herald of Tzeentch (BSB w/ +1D3 combat res banner), Herald of Slannesh, big unit of Horrors, small unit of Horrors, big unit of Daemonettes, some Seekers, some Slanneshish fast cav, 5 Flamers, a unit of Screamers, a unit of Furies. It was a bizarre game. Funny to watch from the outside, I’m sure, with the dice GROSSLY favoring me. Fred couldn’t make a ward save to save his life. I won’t go through a play by play (mostly because the mist of the previous night’s antics is still pretty thick at this point) but a few of the more ridiculous things that stick out: a single Ghoul Champ kills both the Herald of Slannesh AND the Daemon Prince (though he only had 2 wounds left) in challenges, and 2 ghouls (striking first thanks to a cart) gack the Herald of Tzeentch BSB in one round of combat! In retrospect, I should have given Fred my favorite opponent vote, as he took it all exceedingly well. I ended up giving it to Cameron. I blame the Lobster Hat (which he was wearing at the time), and also the fact that my round 2 game is much more clearly defined in my addled brain. Win (massacre, which counts at SoCal)

 

 I was forced to surrender the Lobster Hat of Doom to Cameron, for heinous cheating (the SCGWL guys caught him playing a list 10 points over). After much deserved public ridicule, we began our game. The scenario called for the first player rolling a die each round to determine what kind of psychology Slannesh would bestow upon the battlefield that turn (all units on the table get the rule for the full turn). Ours ended up being Soul Hunger (reroll failed wounds, even at range) twice, Hatred twice, and Immune to Psychology twice (I think). Cameron’s dice where flipping amazing, the happy little punk, and mine where less than impressive.  In all honestly, Cameron’s game has greatly improved of late, and he didn’t make any real mistakes I could capitalize on. His list: Bret Lord with Killing Blow large targets vow (particularly sneaky in a closed list environment… but I don’t play any large targets), BSB Paladin, Grail Paladin w/ extra 1D6 to first charge vow (also quite good in a closed list game), Paladin with the Wyrm Lance, Scroll Caddy, Big Grail Knight Lance, 2 Big Errant Lances, 1 Realm Lance, 4 Pegasus Knights, and 2 units of Peasant Archers (1 Skirmishing). Brets are usually a fairly easy win for my VC, but through a combination of really good dice and sound play, Cameron was looking like he was going to eek a minor victory out of me until T5-6, when Dance Macabre allowed my General’s unit (the only thing I had left on the table at the time) to crush a couple large Lances last minute. In a bid to mitigate this, Cameron employed the single least Bretonnian strategy I’ve EVER witnessed. Once her scrolls were gone, the Realm Lance, pillars of Knightly virtue and valor, boot kicked the Damsel out of their unit and told her to go redirect my Vampire Lord and Grave Guard entourage by her lonesome! She miraculously survived to ride another day, but I suspect the noble Knights of Bretonnia now sorely wish she hadn’t! Tie. Though the scenario allowed both of us to gain a lot of bonus points.

 

See opening statement for my opinion on this scenario. Didn’t hurt either of us overly much, but some armies were just fucked. Jim was far more optimistic than I would have been had it been me playing my Dwarves, starring across the battlefield at my Undead Horde. I inquired what his record against VC was, and he replied he very rarely lost. Shrug. The closed list situation frightened me a bit, as Dwarven characters, especially Lords, can pack some pretty awesome rune combinations. This being the case, I decided to avoid his General’s unit entirely. His list: Dwarven Lord on Shield Bearers (ended up being teched out for uber slayage, though he only ever got into combat for 1 round, against some Ghouls), Thane BSB with come hither rune (VC are immune to it), 2 Rune Smiths with 3 Dispel runes between them, big unit of Longbeards, big unit of Ironbreakers, big unit of Hammerers (all three blocks were immune to fear and terror in one way or another), some Thunderers, some Quarrelers, 2 Bolt Throwers, a Grudge Thrower and an Organ Gun. He only had 7 deployables, though a very impressive shooting phase. I happened to roll 2 Curse of Years, and this proved pivotal. My MO was to rush his artillery with the Vargulf and Dire Wolves as much as possible, and throw a bunch of dice into Curse of Years every round at whatever large block of Dwarves proved convenient. Curse of Years is particularly nasty for Dwarves b/c they lack >2 of their own power dice to dispel it once it’s in play. If it gets past their dispel dice when you cast it, chances are it’s sticking around for awhile. Plan worked, exceedingly well. He deployed both of his Runesmiths in the Iron Breakers, making them my target of choice. On T2 I actually got it off twice on said unit, hitting him twice on 6’s and twice on 5’s, then once on 4’s as I decided not to cast in the following magic phase with the level 2 who knew it. Needless to say, this decimated the unit, and both characters. A unit of Ghouls mopped up what remained. Meantime, my Vargulf and Wolves were pretty successful in their campaign against enemy shooting (though the Vargulf eventually got gacked by the Scenario effect after taking a few wounds from the Organ Gun and Bolt Throwers… Vargulf dying to the plague… amusing!). By T4, he didn’t have much left beside his General with the Hammerers, and his BSB with half his Longbeards. I did my best to avoid them, feeding them some Zombies and a unit of Ghouls. Table quarters and a banner pushed this into a Massacre win. Chris wasn’t happy, though I tried my best to at least make the game socially enjoyable.

 

I didn’t drink at all Saturday night…

 

This was the army swap scenario. I’m all for these kind of shenanigans on the average Thursday night, but I’m too much of a dour chicken for it when at a GT. I declined to swap. Ron was playing a WoC list clearly built for fun, and not conquest. I’m a little surprised we had comparable battle scores actually: Lord on Daemonic Steed w/ Rune Shield and Axe of Khorne, BSB with Banner of the Gods on Barded Steed, Level 2 Sorcerer (undivided) with Book of Secrets, Level 1 Sorcerer (Nurgle) with a couple Scrolls, HUGE unit of Warriors (like 30?) with Banner of Rage (frenzy), Chariot of Khorne, 2 big units of Slanneshi Marauders on foot with great weapons, 1 unit of Slanneshi Marauder fast cav with throwing axes, 2 units of Hounds, War Shrine of Tzeentch. Normally a foot army with the Banner of the Gods is pretty decent, however, the huge unit of frenzied Warriors is a crazy liability. This is exacerbated by the fact that his 2 combat characters charge 14”, and he deploys them in the Warriors… It makes pulling them out of the unit with frenzy charges exceedingly easy… and this is just what happened. His General ended up having to charge out into a huge unit of Zombies, and eventually auto-brakes and never rallies. I avoided the huge unit of Warriors (who also had a 4+ Ward Save from the Shrine) and ripped pretty much everything else to ribbons with Ghouls and Grave Guard. I tried to convince him to either put the characters on foot, or drop the Banner of Rage on the Warriors for something else (like the Rapturous Standard). I think he took the constructive criticism to heart. Win (Massacre) 

 

The scenario awards 2X points for slaying units in close combat (including running them down when they break), which leads to some pretty huge swings. Jim is playing a fairly scary list (though so am I, so I guess I can’t complain): Slann Mage Priest w/ Rumination, 2 Engines of the Gods with Skink Priests (who where actually only level 1’s… though the EotGs pretty much make them level 2’s), Scar Veteran on foot, big unit of Temple Guard (20 I think), 2 units of Skink Cohorts with 2 Kroxigors each, 1 unit of skirmishing Skinks, 4 Terradons, and 3 bases of Jungle Swarms (actually each their own, single model unit). 

 

This is pretty much my worst nightmare, with the possible exception of Dave’s latest Steamroller+ Flamers iteration. The Slann goes Lore of Light (totally the right choice against pretty much any kind of VC list, though as I rely almost entirely on big blocks of infantry, it doesn’t hurt me as much as some), and the 2 Engines cause A LOT of trouble with their double Holy Lightning shtick (S5 to undead), not to mention S6 impact hits and lots of dispel dice. The Temple Guard need to be avoided… threatened with magic like Curse of Years perhaps, but otherwise engaged as little as possible. My priorities are to slay the Skink Priests asap (I didn’t know at the time they both had ward save talismans, making this harder than I first thought) to minimize Lightning casualties, and keep the temple Guard far away. I decide the best way to do this is the advance up within range of the EotGs and Skink/Kroxigor unit’s charge range (but outside the Temple Guard’s 8”) and hope he charges in. This would not only mean the Skink Priests would be up close and personal with my vampires (who possess the oomph to gack them), but it would seal off most of my army from his Temple Guard unit I (hopefully) slew most of his shit in hand to hand (which is worth double victory points in this scenario).   I needed to summon my units large enough such that they could weather the (truly frightening) charge, and at least 1 round of double Lightning rape, so my first couple turns was mainly occupied with that. Luckily, I start my units pretty big in the first place, so this is relatively easy to accomplish, dispite an obsene number of dispel dice. He ended up taking the bait (I probably would have too… I really wasn’t certain my plan was going to work, but given the matchup and scenario I didn’t see much other choice). It ends up working! After a fashion. Copious amounts of summoning and many rounds of combat later, he’s killed both my lesser vamps, but hasn’t busted through any of my big units of Ghouls or Grave Guard. I’ve slain both units of Skinks/Kroxigors, both Skink Shaman (though this took awhile longer than I had originally anticipated… my general threw 24 S5 and 6 S4 attacks at his Skink before managing to slay it thanks to good Howdah armor saves and the Talisman of Itzl, a 5+ ward save). This massive and drawn-out combat kept his Temple Guard and Scar Veteran out of the game until T6, when they managed a charge against a unit of Ghouls (which ended up surviving with a lone Ghast remaining, clutching a Skink Banner between his yellow teeth!). My 2 Balefire Corpse Carts also proved invaluable, mitigating much of the sting the Slann’s many power dice would have otherwise inflicted. Counting it up, I had a minor victory by some 400 points, which I was VERY pleased with!

 

So I went 4-0-1, which was good enough for 3^rd Overall and 4^th Best General. There was an error in my battle point total as printed in the original result sheet they handed out after the awards (which had me much farther down the totem pole than I should have been). I notified the SCGWL guys and they assure me it’ll be corrected before they post results online.

 

PHEW!,

 

Derek