shane's alamo 2007 report
so, friday morning i run up to my gate after a "ooh! are those toy soldiers? may i see them?" moment security, todd thacker and i get on the plane for san antonio.
i arrive about an hour earlier then him, take the shuttle to the contessa and notice that some things are really bigger in texas
(average vehicle size, smokestacks). after that i walk around for about 30 mins looking for the restaurant and the eventually take a cab to meet up with the rest of the ld2 guys due to a misunderstanding about what 'left' really means. we eat, walk through a street fair, see a bunch of kids palying metal and then head back for an inpromtu hot-tub/religious revival session on the roof of the contessa.
saturday morning: hangover time! definitely not as bad as mine at the hillbilly, but still a bit 'o poundin in the noggin. jon, todd and i then walk to the venue...
here's my list:
http://www.nuclearferret.com/
and pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/
game one: skaven
wow, talk about army size differences: his 327 (or so) to my 69
models! see: http://picasaweb.google.com/
the scenario was for each of us to pick an opponents model, and then
assign a character to kill it. i pick his skaven slave musician to be
killed by my saurus hero, and he picks a temple guard to be targeted
by his general.
anyways, the game starts, i go first and it promptly goes downhill
from there. i ended up losing most of my stuff, and missed so many
leadership, wounds and armor saves that my opponent even started
feeling bad for me. by the beginning of turn 6, i only had my slaan,
two salamanders and my stegadon left on the board. i went first and
charged w/my stegadon, causing about 4 units to flee in terror (i had
thankfully killed his general a couple of turns earlier). during the
magic phase, i finally got some spells off and caused a couple of
units to flee. that turned the game around from a loss to a draw and
no scenario points.
draw, 8 pts
game two: undead/stirgoli
this was a hard list... three units of 14 dire wolves (two with
flying stirgoli in them), one unit of skellies, two ghoul units, lots
of fell bats and a couple of banshees. thank god almost my entire
army causes fear! this was a hard-fought battle, and after 5 turns
time ran out and i ended up w/a loss (almost a draw -- 37 points!) but
i got the objective (i beat on a T6 'pinata' w/my kroxis for 4 turns).
loss, 8 pts.
game three: undead/tomb kings
oh boy. another undead list! i don't recall the exact composition,
except that it was a really well put together list and wasn't too
overpowered. :)
this was another bloody drawn-out game! i was doing great until
during turn 4 when my stupid slaan/temple guard unit decided to not
restrain themselves and pursue 15" in the wrong direction (stupid
jaguar banner), right on to a water feature and effectively removed
themselves from the game entirely. see the upper left of this pic:
http://picasaweb.google.com/
this game was a long, stretched out chess match and we ended up having
no major combats. we pull a draw (slightly in his favor), and no one
got the scenario points.
draw, 8 pts.
first day's record: 0-1-2... the exact opposite of my start @ the
hillbilly: 2-1-0 :)
saturday night: more food, more drinking (but less than friday), and
no hot-tub revivals. i actually get to bed around 1am!
sunday morning: praise bob for the extra hour of sleep. we get up
and get to the venue by 8am, and start our games by 8:30. ugh.
game four: empire
he had a general on a griffon, priest, BSB, two blocks of 20
swordsmen, two blocks of 20 flagellents, 20 greatswords, 10 repeating
handgunner fast cav guys (scary!!!!), two cannons and a rocket
launcher.
we concentrated our setup on the left side of the table, as the right
side had an approaching rain storm. after losing my salamanders to
the 30 BS4 close range handgunner shots, i used the crew to draw one
unit of flagellent shots away from the main battle and in to the storm
(to join my saurus cav, who got stuck there after destroying a unit of
swordsmen). the battle on the left was pretty one sided: i had
amazing luck w/my spells and killed almost every flagellent in the
nearby unit and then used my TG and steg to cause both of his
remaining big inf blocks to break and run from combat. his artillery
wasn't as bad as it could have been: between his misfires (way too
many) and my spells (commandment of brass rules!) i was able to get in
to combat and avoid most of the pain.
win for me: 20 pts.
game 5: chaos beastmen
this was an interesting army... nurgle beastman lord, undivided beast
BSB, and level 2 and 1 mages. he also had two 10-man ambushing herds,
2 units of hounds, 3 minotaurs, 3 ogres, a giant, dragon ogre
shaggoth, beastman chariot, and centigors.
there was a big building in the middle of the table, and after having
my salamanders and TG/slaan hold and clean up my left flank i had
effectively funneled him between some woods and the building. this
pic was taken at the beginning of turn 5:
http://picasaweb.google.com/
by the end of turn 5, i had killed most of his bestigor unit with
spells, and they failed TWO panic checks! they fled and left the
shaggoth open for a combo TG and stegadon chage: no more shaggoth!
they then overran and almost hit the fleeing bestigor unit. so
close! :)
the next turn i charge in to the rallied bestigors and break them. he
concedes, and i get full scenario points (i killed more, controlled
more, had more banners, table quarters, etc).
win for me: 20 pts
overall record: 2-1-2, finished 33 out of 62.
i had a great time, and faced some really good players. san antonio
is a fun town, and i'm looking forward to next year!
big thanks to john bailey and the entire staff who put the event on!
shane