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8th Ed. Buckeye Battles Recap -- Carnosaur List 4-0-1

Discussion in 'Battle Reports' started by Dyvim Tvar, Jul 15, 2013.

  1. Dyvim Tvar
    Razordon

    Dyvim Tvar New Member

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    I took a carnosaur list to the Buckeye Battles 2-day Indy GT this past weekend. I wanted to take a carnosaur list from the outset, but ended up taking a slightly different build than I wanted based on what models I thought I could get painted by the day of the event. (Army list planning was here: http://lustria-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=11128)

    I fell a behind on my paint blog (here's the link: http://lustria-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=11180) but I did get it all painted and a display board done. I'll post full army pics at some point.

    Anyway, here's the list I took:

    Lords

    Saurus Oldblood: Burning Blade of Chotec; Armor of Destiny; Carnosaur; shield. 431

    Heroes

    Saurus Scar-Veteran: Battle Standard; Armor of Fortune; Cold One; great weapon. 171
    Saurus Scar-Veteran: General; Venom of the Firefly Frog; Dragon Helm; light armour; shield. 113
    Skink Priest: Diadem of Power. 90

    Core

    24 Saurus Warriors: Saurus Champion; Musician; Standard Bearer; spear. 318
    10 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer. 127
    1 Kroxigors
    10 Skinks: Skink Brave; Musician; Standard Bearer. 127
    1 Kroxigors
    10 Skink Skirmishers: Skink Skirmisher Brave. 78
    10 Skink Skirmishers: Skink Skirmisher Brave. 78 A player looking over my list at the end of the tournament pointed out that I overcharged myself on my Braves for these two units (paid 8 and they are only 6). I blame a faulty Quartermaster template. Could have fit in a 5-point item somewhere.

    Special

    7 Cold One Cavalry: Champion; Musician; Standard Bearer. 295
    Stegadon 235
    3 Terradon Riders 90
    3 Terradon Riders 90
    6 Chameleon Skinks: Stalker. 78

    Rare

    1 Salamander Hunting Pack 75

    2,396 points Really just 2,392 due to the Skirmisher Brave issue

    Game 1 - Mike Schmitz - Orcs and Gobbos

    Excellent opponent and a really pretty army that I think ended up winning Player's Choice at the end. Mike finished #36 in overall standings (out of 108) and was the top-finishing O&G player of the event.

    Mike had a big block of Black Orcs with General and BSB, big block of Savages with a Level 4 Orc Great Shaman, big Squig Herd block, a unit of 8 Trolls, big Night Gobbo block with a level 1 NG Shaman, 2 Doom Divers, a couple small units of Wolf Riders, and a Mangler Squig. Terrain was not a big factor.

    Battle priorities were to (1) take out the doom divers; (2) get the Carnosaur into the trolls; and (3) try to avoid the big blocks unless I could set up massive combined charges.

    Opponent got turn 2 and things started bad when he got of a big Foot of Gork that hit 4 times (including 1 Terradon unit hit twice to kill it). But after that things went generally according to plan. Once I was able to start storing dice in the Diadem, enemy magic was not a real problem. I was able to take out the Mangler and Wolf Riders quickly, one Doom Diver was down by turn 2 and the other by turn 3. They did some damage to my Cold One Cavalry, reducing them to just Champ and BSB, but they were still around at the end of the game. I was able to use my small units to control movement of the big enemy blocks, and got my Carnosaur into the Trolls. Although I had the Burning Blade, I only did 4 wounds total (Carnosaur hit 4 time, but rolled a couple 1s on my wound roll and neither wound multiplied). Got bogged down until my next turn when a small Skrox unit charged in and helped finish off the trolls. Carnosaur ended up dying, but the guy on the back lived so I didn't give up any points.

    With the Carnosaur bogged down, I decided to just avoid the biggest enemy units and was able to keep the Savages, Black Orcs and Squig herd from ever seeing combat, but cleaned off the rest of the enemy units. WE both played fast and got through The scenario awarded by VPs and tournament Battle Points for controlling table quarters with "scoring units" (1 full rank + a command model or character OR at least 5 skirmishers + a command model or character). I had lots of "scoring units" (all my skirmishers have champions) so I was able to have scoring units in all 4 quarters while my opponent only had 2.

    Final tally was a minor victory, earning me 13 of a possible 20 tournament Battle Points, but I also picked up 4 bonus Battle Points for achieving scenario objectives for a total of 17 (out of 25 possible).

    Record at that point: 1-0-0

    Here's pic someone took of my guys in action in Game 1. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3307855952318&set=oa.10151761739117930&type=3&theater

    Game 2 - Kenny Lull - Dwarfs

    At the end of the tournament, players put in 2 votes for their favorite and second favorite opponents. Kenny got my second place vote. He's a great guy, fun and funny to play even when he was getting beat down. He also has a miniatures gaming podcast called Combat Phase and he interviewed me for between games on day 2. Kenny finished #58 in the overall.

    Kenny's Dwarf army was REALLY fluffy -- lots of infantry and only 1 war machine (a cannon with the rune of burning)!!! There was a big unit of Ironbreakers, a big unit of Longbeards, and a big unit of Hammerers in which he deployed a BSB, Dwarf Lord with shieldbearers, and a Runelord (he had the Master Rune of Balance which didn't matter since I never even tried to cast a spell). Also in the army were a unit of 12 Slayers with 2 giant slayers in the unit, a lone Slayer Character (Daemonslayer?!?!?) and a unit of 12 Quarrelers.

    This looked like a great matchup for me. The plan was to take out the cannon as fast as possible, and to use my small units to control the Dwarf movement to isolate his units and take them out one-by-one in combat. Since I was worried about the cannon taking out my carnosaur, I deployed it in a line with the Steg so that the steg. Although this risked a single cannon shot taking out both models, it also meant that the steg could stop the cannon ball if it wasn't killed. Im not sure if this is the smartest thing, but it worked--Kenny got first turn, shot the cannon, and it bounced so that it would hit both models. He wounded the steg but did 4 wounds--1 left and the cannon ball stopped!

    In the bottom of my turn 1, I moved up my chaff units to just within 13" of a couple of the big Dwarf blocks so that they would need long charges (10 or better rolls) to make it. Cavalry moved up to charge the Slayers, and my Carnosaur and big saurus block moved up behind the chaff units. One units of terradons drop rocks on the Daemon Slayer and killed it. In the shooting phase, my chameleons did 3 wounds to the cannon crew, but there was an engineer added to the artillery piece so 1 model left.

    Top of turn 2, two Dwarf units charged my chaff (Hammerers and Ironbreakers) and both made it by rolling 12s, so 2 skirmish units obliterated. I had the angled so no favorable overruns were possible though. Cannon shot again at the Steg and finished it off.

    After that, everything went according to plan. I hit the Ironbreakers from the front with the Saurus black and the Carnosaur, and from the side with a Skrox unit, and broke it on one round. My Cav charged the Slayers and killed them over 2 turns of combat, then turned to take out the Quarrelers. I sacrificed a Terradon unit to control the Hammerers while I did a combined charge on the Longbeards and broke them. I then surrounded the Hammerers, and charged from multiple directions in turn 4 in an attempt to grind them down.

    We were still locked in combat when time was called with only the Dwarf Hammerers, General (and I think BSB) left on the table. We finished 5 turns, but if we got through 6 I think the Hammerers would have been gone. That one unit and characters represented a lot of points though, and I had given up my Steg and a couple other small units. Final tally was a major victory, earning me 17 of a possible 20 tournament Battle Points. I also picked up 3 bonus Battle Points for controlling some zones on the table which were scenario objectives, so I had 20 total for the game (out of 25 possible).

    Record at that point: 2-0-0

    Game 3 - Jesse Copeland - Bretonnians

    Jesse got my favorite opponent vote. We had a back and forth game that featured bad luck on both side. I had bad luck early, but Jesse had it late when it mattered. Through it all, he was a great sport and a pleasure to play. Jesse finished tied for #21 of 108 in the final standings of the event.

    Jesse's army had a general kitted out for challenges, Level 4 Damsel with Life (Dwellers, Regrowth, Throne of Vines and Awakening of the Wood), Paladin BSB, and a Paladin on Peg with Heroic Killing Blow. Units included 2 trebuchets, 6 grail knights, two units of Knights of the Realm (10 and 12), a unit of 9 Knights Errant, and 2 units of 20 peasant bowmen. Scenario had three objective markers spaced across the center line with both VPs and Battle Points for controlling them at the end of the game.

    Jesse deployed his 2 trebs on opposite sides of the table with a unit of bowmen near each. Smart move to keep my hunters from being able to concentrate in one spot. But he did make the mistake of leaving room in one corner for my chameleon skinks to deploy.

    I took turn 1 since Jesse prayed, and moved up a bunch of my chaff units to bait and control his knight lances. Chameleons moved up and shot at one treb doing wounds but not killing it. I rolled big for winds of magic and decided to try to cast my spell (Iceshard Blizzard) on a treb to try to keep it from shooting. Got it irresistible and the miscast killed some skinks in the Skrox unit with my Priest. Also drained the pool so I had no stored dice.

    Jesse generally held back in the bottom of turn 1, but he charged some of my skink skirmishers with his peg knights, probably expecting I would flee. I didn't. Skinks got slaughtered, but the peg knights were in the middle of the field well within charge range of my saurus block. In the top of turn 2, I charged and he fled in the direction of my chameleons, who then declared a charge forcing the peg knights to flee back to the middle but not exactly towards the saurus. I then declared a third charge on them with a Skrox unit, forcing them almost back to where they started. When the charges were resolved, the Saurus block caught and cut them down.

    Bottom of turn 2 saw the knights errant charge a Skrox unit and beat it, but pursuit took them to a place where they could be hit in the flank by my saurus cav. Magic was uneventful. Shooting saw one treb target my saurus block and hit but only a few casualties. The other could not shoot due to Iceshard Blizzard.

    Top of turn 3 saw the beginning of the decisive combat of the game and the weird luck. My saurus cav with BSB charged the flank of the knights errant. It should have been wholesale slaughter, but my dice were cold. BSB failed to hit with all 4 attacks, and I only did 1 wound. Still beat them by 3, causing them to test on a 4 with no BSB around -- of course they held by rolling a 3.

    At this point, I was in trouble. The saurus cav had their flank wide open to the Bret general's unit of knights of the realm, and they charged right in. The Bret general had an item or virtue that made it so he had to issue a challenge, which would have been great since my unit champ or BSB could have moved over to the end of the unit to take it, thereby preventing the rank and file in his unit from attacking (my cav was in a single rank). Unfortunately, there was an ongoing challenge between my unit champ and the Knights Errant champ, so I couldn't do it. As a result, I lost 6 of my models to the charge, leaving only my unit champ and BSB. Luckily, they were able to do some wounds to the errant unit and get me some combat resolution, allowing me to hold (needed the BSB reroll to do it).

    The combat then went on for 2 more rounds with my BSB accepting the Bret general's challenge. In the challenge, the Bret general had a virtue allowing him to reroll failed hit and wound roll, and a magic weapon giving him +1 strength and forcing rerolls of successful armor saves. The BSB should have been toast. First round of the challenge saw the BSB take one wound and deal none in return. But in the second round, the Bret general got nothing through and the Scar Vet BSB did 2 wounds in return! Meanwhile, my unit champ was beating face on knights errant killing 2 of them that round and I actually won the combat by 1.

    The Bret general's unit had the Standard of Discipline, so both the Errant unit and the General's unit were testing on a 9 -- they both failed.

    The Bret general's unit was screwed. I happened to have two of my units behind it, giving it no space to stop on the table along its flight path. It went about 2 feet off the board, taking the Bret general and level 4 with it.

    The failed break test was game-deciding. Just too many points in that one unit. If it had gone the other way, I would have given up over 500 points for the unit and the BSB, so it was a HUGE swing.

    Elsewhere things were going pretty well. I lost my Steg to heroic killing blow, but got the Paladin BSB and his unit with my saurus block. I took out a treb with shooting and one unit of peasant bowmen were still on the table. My carnosaur did take one direct treb hit, but luckily shrugged it off -- 1 wound on the carny and none on the Oldblood.

    We only got through turn 5, and at the end I had a major victory for 17 battle points and 3 bonus battle points for controlling objectives. If we had made it through 6, I probably could have gotten a massacre based on the remaining units and their positions, , but I was more than happy with the result. The saurus cav and BSB redeemed themselves very well after initially suffering from rubber weapon syndrome.

    Record at the end of Day 1: 3-0-0

    Game 4 - Justin Chandler - Tomb Kings

    First game of day 2 saw me fighting a Tomb Kings army that had just tied one of my club mates in game 3 the day before. Justin's army was sneaky strong. He had a casket, just 1 sphinx, a unit of 4 chariots, a unit of 4 necroknights, and 3 big blocks of infantry -- 22 archers, a block of Tomb Guard with Halberds, and a big block of skeleton warriors (I think both were 40-strong). The big infantry blocks were scary because of the characters, and would be hard to collect those points. Characters included 2 princes, a necrotecht, and Level 4 Liche Priest. Justin ended up tied for #6 overall at the end of the event.

    The scenario featured a wood in the middle with VPs and battle points for controlling the wood. However, the wood was also magically possessed. Units in it got "super frenzy" -- +1 attack and it was mandatory to charge if they had a legal target.

    Since I had a lot more units that Justin, I faked him out a bit in deployment. He distributed his stuff pretty evenly, with his big infantry blocks to one side of the central wood, and his constructs and chariots on the other side. I evenly distributed my chaff to get a sense of his deployment, then stacked my right flank which was across from his constructs and chariots. I figured I could engage there and his infantry would be too slow to join the fight. I would then leave his big infantry units alone and try to win by controlling the wood at the end of the game with my small scoring units. Meanwhile on the other side, I would try to get around his big units with my skins and terradons to shoot up the casket which was behind them.

    Things went fairly well on the right side. I was able to use my salamander, steg, and a unit of skinks to bait the enemy forward. Steg took a charge from the necroknights and held, and my Carnosaur then charged in on my next turn. I sacrificed the salamander to the chariots, who overran into a unit of skinks, but I was able to counter charge with my BSB (out of the unit) and Saurus block. The skinks popped to to impact hits, but I still won the combat by 1 and it was soon over as I ground through the chariots. Steg died in second conmabt round with the knights, but the Carnosaur nuked the unit champ in a challenge then popped the knights next combat phase. Sphinx got killed on that side as well, so although I gave up the salamander, steg and unit of skirmishers, I was still ahead.

    On the other flank, it was slow going to get to the casket since Justin didn't give room for my chameleons to scout. I got in position with both them and a unit of regular skinks, but my shooting was unlucky and the crew kept being regenerated. I even successfully cast Comet (irresistible) over there and didn't do a thing to the casket with it, but nuked one of my own Terradon unit that ended up in range. Ultimately I got a Skrox unit around the flank, charge and beat it in turn 4.

    Unfortunately, we only made it through turn 5, and at that point my opponent did have one of his big infantry units wholly in the woods, which gave him +250 VPs. I had a scoring unit partially in the woods for +100 VPs, but that was it -- I failed a charge with my Saurus which would have put them in the flank of the Tomb Guard in the woods which would have given me 100 more.

    VP margin was about 220 pts in my favor, but I needed it to be 250 to get a win. If I hadn't gotten greedy and cast Comet (killing my own Terradons) it would have been a win. Neither of us got bonus battle points for scenario objectives (primarily because wood was contested) so we each got 10 Battle Points.

    Record at the end of Game 4: 3-0-1

    Game 5 - Dennis Whalen - High Elves

    Almost every game of Warhammer, I look across the battlefield and think I'm going to lose. This was different. Buckeye Battles is an open list tournament, and when I exchanged lists with Dennis at the start of the game, I knew that I should have this one in the bag. Dennis said he had been feasting on Daemons up to that point (he was 3-1) but I knew he was a good matchup for me.

    His list was essentially all mounted. He had 9 Dragon Princes, a unit of 16 Silverhelms, 2 units of 5 Reavers, 2 Great Eagles, and 3 bolt throwers. That's it. He did have 5 characters, including a Lord with the Ogre Blade and some protective items, a Level 4 with Shadow and Book of Hoeth (Miasma, Withering, Enfeebling Foe and Steed of Shadows), a Level 2 with High Magic, and 2 mounted heroes -- one with Crown of Command and the other a BSB with the Banner of the World Dragon. I knew I had him beat just because he didn't have enough units. I could use my chaff to redirect and harass and set up charges from multiple directions.

    The other thing that helped here was that Buckeye uses a composition "banding" system. The High Elves were in Band 1 army -- a hard tournament build -- while I was in Band 3 -- a build utilizing non-standard and suboptimal choices. As a result of this 2-band differential, I got to pick table sides and also whether I wanted to move first or second.

    For this scenario, each player had a messenger and would get bonus VPs and Battle Points for moving the messenger off the opposite table edge and for killing the enemy messenger. Deployment zones were slightly U-shaped. In the 12" closest to the sides of the table, the deployment zones went in 18" rather than 12". Since I knew I was going to take first turn, I took advantage of the deep deployment on the sides by putting my Terradons in a spot where I knew they could drop rocks on stuff first turn -- an eagle on one flank and reavers on the other. In deployment, Dennis put all 5 of his characters in the Silverhelm unit, putting almost all his eggs in one basket (the messenger was with the Dragon Princes).

    Really not much to say about this game. I was able to use all my chaff units to control the two big enemy units. The Dragon Princes made one successful charge, but it was against some skinks and it left them open to a flank charge from my saurus block and a frontal hit from my cold one cavalry. After the Dragon Princes went down, Dennis started playing points denial and marched his Silver Helms as fast as possible to a corner of the table to try to minimize the number of units I could bring to bear. My terradons and chameleons cleaned up the RBTs with minimal effort. My one mistake was I left my messengers unit (a Skrox unit) in a spot where it could get charged by both an eagle and a unit of reavers, and he got cut down. Throughout the game, I was generally able to control the enemy magic phase. Repeated casting of Withering followed by a High Magic magic missle eventiually took out my Steg, but it took a lot of turns to do it.

    I caught up to the Silver Helms in turn 5, and charged them from the front with the saurus block and Carnosaur (corner to corner contact with him) and from the rear with skrox. Even with the Banner of the World Dragon in play (effectively negating the Oldblood's sword), the Carnosaur itself chomped the two hero-level High Elves. One other notable event was in the second turn of combat, the High Elf Level 4 in the middle of the Silverhelm unit got sucked into the warp on a miscast (the only miscast any opponent suffered all tournament). Even still, at the end of the game, about 3 silver helms and the High Elf Lord were still locked in combat with my stuff and there was a lone great eagle flying around. The Silverhelms were making armor saves like crazy or I could well have broken them. But, it was still a major victory and 17 Battle Points (no bonus since my messenger was killed).

    Record at the end of Game 5: 4-0-1

    In the final tally, I finished tied for 6th place overall. Even better, I won two awards -- Best Lizardman Player and Best Presentation (the judged painting award) for the whole tournament (I will post some full-army pics later). Far exceeded my own expectations and am looking forward to going back next year.
     
  2. Stonecutter
    Terradon

    Stonecutter Member

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    Re: Buckeye Battles Recap -- Carnosaur List First 2 games

    Congrats on two very well earned wins! Sounds like a blast with great opponents and battles that were decided by tactics rather than a single uber spell and lucky dice. Hope battles 3-5 also went well.
     
  3. Dyvim Tvar
    Razordon

    Dyvim Tvar New Member

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    Re: Buckeye Battles Recap -- Carnosaur List Day 1

    Just posted game 3. That one was decided in large part by some crazy luck.
     
  4. Dyvim Tvar
    Razordon

    Dyvim Tvar New Member

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    Re: Buckeye Battles Recap -- Carnosaur List Day 1

    Game 4 added
     
  5. n810
    Slann

    n810 First Spawning

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    Re: Buckeye Battles Recap -- Carnosaur List Day 1

    I can't wait for game #5 :smug:
     
  6. Dyvim Tvar
    Razordon

    Dyvim Tvar New Member

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    Re: Buckeye Battles Recap -- Carnosaur List Day 1

    Game 5 is up
     
  7. Caprasauridae
    Stegadon

    Caprasauridae Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the quick reports, sounds like it was a really fun tournament! Oh, and congrats on the great placement! I'm really impressed by the success of the Tomb King player. My second army is the TK, and his list is close to something I play, except I don't have enough Skeleton Warriors to make a good unit out of those. Looking forward to those pics!
     
  8. Hinge
    Saurus

    Hinge New Member

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    Good job and congrats.

    Good to see Leadership 2 (if you are more an Alum now a days) doing well in two 100+ player tournaments being held on the same weekend.

    Hinge
     
  9. lizardmen98
    Saurus

    lizardmen98 Member

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    The guy that came 108th must be depressed.
     
  10. Kimiko
    Skink

    Kimiko New Member

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    Do you play vampires? Because you are a necromancy expert for sure :p
     
  11. lizardmen98
    Saurus

    lizardmen98 Member

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    Of course.

    Tell no one.

    :bored:

    *edit

    Of course, a master of necromancy.
    Not a vampire player.
     

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