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8th Ed. Triumph & Treachery League

Discussion in 'Battle Reports' started by Silverbolt, Jan 27, 2014.

  1. Silverbolt
    Temple Guard

    Silverbolt Active Member

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    So my local store is hosting a T&T league. Same host/rules judge as the escalation league from the end of last year. The rules are pretty straightforward. 1500 points army with standard rules plus the option of bringing 300 points of mercenaries (must have a hero to serve as general of mercenaries). Whatever points you don't spend on mercs, you receive as victory tokens (rounded to nearest 50) at the beginning of games. For example, 250 points of mercs would give you a single 50 bronze token, but 255 points of mercs would not give you any tokens. Mercenaries had to be a different army than your main. The host had HE and Beastmen available to borrow as mercs. No catch-up games for this league due to how long the games are and scheduling difficulties.

    I missed the first week but was able to join in this past weekend. We had 5 players on a 6x4 feet table (GW Realm of Battle table). We each got to choose a single tile to deploy in. The scenario was the one with the treasure chest in the center (forget the name). At the end of each overall turn, 100 victory points goes to whoever is within 6 inches of the center of the table. If more than one player, it's split. This marked the debut of my awesome new dice! This game lasted about 7 hours so I'm going to gloss over a lot of details.

    The Players:
    me: Lizardmen with HE merc
    OK with HE merc
    HE
    HE with Empire merc
    Beastmen

    My List:
    Scar Vet: Carnosaur, Loping, spear, shield, gambler's armor, dawnstone
    32 Saurus FC
    Bastiladon Solar
    9 Chameleons
    Stegadon Sharpened Horns
    3 Salamanders with 11 handlers
    HE Noble: dragon armor, halberd, griffon with both upgrades, couple magic items I forget

    So, originally there was going to be 4 of us so we chose tiles and started deploying. We all chose 4 tiles next to each other (so both of the left tiles and middle tiles, both right tiles vacant). The host then got a call that a 5th player (HE with Empire) was on his way but would be about 25 minutes. Judge decided to okay it cause this person (and the other 3 opponents) were all there last week. The Ogre player decided to make a food run. Well, of course, the HE/Empire guy showed up in about 10 minutes and the Ogre player took an hour to get back. The host made us reselect tiles. At this point, the table now looked like this:

    Vacant______OK_______HE/Empire
    HE_________me_______Beastmen

    I soon found out that the HE and Beastmen players were brothers. Then, as we were deploying, the OK player chose to keep his entire army in reserves. At first we thought he was just letting everyone else put some stuff on the table first before placing his first unit, but nope, he held them ALL in reserve. By the time I figured this out, I had only placed my Saurus, Basti, and Griffon. I stopped deploying because I thought everyone was going to team up on me. HE deployed all of his army. 3 bolt throwers and a griffon/noble on his hill. 2 units of minimum Elyrian Reavers. Minimum Sea Guard with a level 2 wizard in a tower very close to the center of the table. 2 units of Swordmasters: one FC, the other larger FC with Loremaster (general) and Razor Banner both as close to my saurus as they could deploy. The Beastmen player deployed a unit of archers in a tower (also very close tot he center of the table). A unit of Gors (not sure what type) with a hero and a unit of archers were also deployed as close to my guys as possible. A unit of Gors with a Lord were deployed close to the HE/Empire. HE/Empire deployed her Empire cannon/sniper on his hill. He then spread out a large Sea Guard, large Phoenix Guard, large White Lions in an arc with the Sea Guard towards the OK player, Phoenix Guard towards me, and White Lions towards the Beastmen. Several heroes/mages spread throughout the 3 units.

    Turn 1:

    HE/Empire goes first. He moves his arc of 3 units towards the center of the table evenly. Magic he buffed up with Lore of Life. The OK player didn't attempt to dispel a single thing. Shooting, I was his target. He fire his cannon and sniper at my Griffon hero. Griffon took a wound. No close combat. HE goes next. He throws all of his magic/shooting at the griffon hero. Griffon goes down, noble reduced to 1 wound. One group of Reavers moves to the center for the 100 victory points treasure chest. Beastmen players goes next. He shoots two units of archers at the Basti, no wounds. OK goes next. He does nothing at all. Finally I get to go, so I reform my Saurus to face the HE player and move them and the noble towards his swordmasters. Also bring the Salamanders out of reserve with a great position. Salamanders shoot: all three decide to burn elves rather than eat snacks. 1 of the Reaver units was behind the 2 Swordmaster units in a way that I was able to also hit them. The larger unit with Loremaster and Razor banner got hit all 3 times and lost about a rank and a half. The Reavers behind them lost 2. The other Swordmaster unit never got hit. Everyone passed their panic tests. Bastiladon turned to face the Beastmen. Beastmen player dispelled the Bastiladon 6 dice versus 6 dice. No close combat.

    Turn 2:

    Beastmen went first. At this point, I found out he and the HE player on my other side were brothers. He was afraid of my reserves, so he held off against advancing on me. He moved his units into better position towards me and the one unit near the HE/Empire player. He had no magic. His two archer units continued shooting at the Bastiladon who shrugged it all off. No close combat. HE brother went next. Both units of Swordmasters charged my Saurus. The Reavers in the center flanked charged the Saurus. All of his magic and shooting went towards killing my noble. Close combat he killed about 14 Saurus. Two Saurus on my flank killed all 5 Reavers YAY DEATH MASKS! The Razor unit was killed down to the Loremaster. The other unit was killed down to 9 or so. I lost combat and everyone tossed down all kinds of T&T cards to crush the combat resolution so I needed snake yes, but I got it YAY NEW DICE. HE/Empire went next. He moved his Sea Guard and Phoenix into the OK player's tile so mess with his deployment. White Lions stared at some Beastmen. His magic was all buffing again. He was going to shoot his cannon at me but the OK player used a T&T card to stop it. I went next. Moved my Salamanders into the HE tile. Shot at the Reavers and finished them off. Bastiladon got dispelled by the Beastmen 6 dice versus 5 dice. Lost another 8ish Saurus or so, not sure. Killed the Loremaster (finishing that unit)and took down a few more Swordmasters. Didn't roll as spectacularly this time. Again, lost the combat, but held. OK finally brought his army out on the table in his turn. He couldn't charge so he got his Stonehorn, Ogre horde with 3 mages, and HE mage all as close as possible to the HE/Empire units. A horde of gnoblars went towards the center of the table and picked their noses. He didn't really do much else.

    Turn 3:

    OK went first. He got his Stonehorn in combat with the Sea Guard and Phoenix Guard. The Ogres got close but didn't make their charge. He chose me for his magic enemy but did nothing but buff his units. I let it go cause that wasn't my problem. Combat the monster got taken down to 1 wound, some elves died. Beastmen went next. He brought his Gorgon out of reserve and marched it an inch away from the rear of my Saurus! He had no magic. More shooting at the Bastiladon with no results. He still wasn't in close combat with anyone. HE went next. He charged his griffon into the salamanders. He decided to magic/shoot at the big Ogre horde. The griffon and noble killed two salamanders and 2 handlers. Salamander did one wound to the noble. Handlers did the other wound killing the noble (he was naked) and the griffon went frenzied for monster reaction. The Swordmasters killed me down to my 3 command Saurus, they were taken down to their command group. Everyone held in place for both combats. I went next and brought out all my reserves. I put the 9 chameleons at close range behind the gorgon. Carnosaur and Stegadon were deployed ready to flank charge the Gorgon if I couldn't shoot it to death this turn. Fortunately, between the Chameleons and Stegadon crew the Gorgon went down. Bastiladon was dispelled by Beastmen again 6 dice versus 6 dice (I had horrible winds of magic rolls considering that was my only spell). Close combat the Salamander held the griffon. Swordmasters killed my Saurus before they could swing back. HE/Empire went next. The monster died. He tried shooting that damn cannon at at my Bastiladon but I had a T&T card to stop it. Magic he buffed himself.

    Turn 4:

    OK went first. I'll be honest, I spaced out at this point. OK and HE/Empire did some kind of combat that last like an hour or something. It was a ridiculous. I used the time to forge an alliance with the 2 brothers. The Beastmen didn't want to fight me and I persuaded the HE to back off in exchange for not running 3 monsters over his unit of archers/mage and the 3 bolt thrower crews. Eventually the OK/HE mess ended and the three of us started paying attention again. At this point the game had lasted for 5 hours and most of us had been at the store for 7 hours. Beastmen brought out his final reserves (6 minotaurs) and sent them and the Gor unit with his general towards the OK/HE mess. I moved my three monsters into a great flanking position on the Ogre horde. Chameleons stayed near the treasure chest in the center and shot at gnoblars. HE moved the archers/mage out of that tower and also close to the treasure chest. All his magic/shooting went at OK. At this point, the GW store officially closed, but the manager and the host had already worked it out for us to be able to finish.

    Turn 5:

    OK and HE/Empire continued their mess. Again, I lost focus making sure the two brothers didn't stab me in the back. I wasn't too concerned about the Beastmen since he hadn't killed a single model all game so far. Plus, the only thing in position to hit me were archers. I was more concerned about the HE brother. He couldn't take out all 3 monsters and the chameleons, but he could probably take out a monster and the chameleons if he was lucky with what we had left. I did notice the HE/Empire used dwellers on the entire gnoblar horde of 50ish and got all of them. That was cool. The OK player was second and for close combat declared the Beastmen his enemy causing all the HE/Empire models in contact to disengage by an inch. Interesting exploit of the T&T rules. I went next. All three monsters flanked charged the Ogre horde. Chameleons could have shot at the HE brother, but I didn't in the name of the truce so they stayed put at the treasure chest. Impact hits from the Stegadon were awesome. 5 hits multiplied into 9 wounds YAY NEW D3 DICE to take out 3 ogres right off the bat. His lord mage challenged my Scar Vet. He dealt one wound to the Carnosaur in an attempt to kill it from under me. The Scar Vet had great PF rolls YAY DEATH MASKS and overkilled the Ogre lord mage by 1. Unfortunately, the Carnosaur didn't get to attack :( Stegadon and Bastiladon killed a hero mage and 2 rank and file ogres. The third mage was on the far side of the horde so I couldn't target him. Stegadon took 2 wounds, Bastiladon took a wound. I won combat and had to pursue with the Scarnosaur because of PF. Now, at this point I will admit I screwed up because I'm still a newb and I especially didn't know the rules for T&T. I should have pursued with all 3 monsters but I didn't because the Scarnosaur had swiftstride and I was pretty confident I could catch him. So, I restrained with my Stegadon and Bastiladon. Pursued with the Scarnosaur. I rolled enough to catch him, knowing I was going to overrun into the HE/Empire Phoenix Guard. I was fine with this because of his damn cannon. The other two monsters would have just pursued into an empty space where the Beastmen could flank charge them and I still wasn't 100% confident he wouldn't stab me in the back and do just that. Well, I rolled enough to catch the Ogres, but I hit the HE/Empire first, and because the OK was my close combat enemy, I couldn't be in close combat with them and that caused me to stop an inch before the HE/Empire so even though I rolled the dice, I couldn't move far enough to catch the Ogres. At least, that's how the host explained it to me. I also didn't realize that the Ogres would be considered still fleeing if I didn't catch them and would be free points for anyone who could make the charge. Beastmen went next. He now had Ogres fleeing an inch in front of him. He charged with both minotaurs and gors and caught them and finally earned himself some points in the game. He would have overrun into the HE/Empire Phoenix Guard and White Lions but he couldn't charge them because the OK were his movement phase enemy. He had no magic. His archers shot at my Carnosaur (backstabber) but didn't kill it. The HE brother kept his word and didn't attack me. At this point, it was 9:00 at night and the store was closed for an hour already. With OK wiped out and already left for 30 minutes, the rest of us decided to skip turn 6. I ended up with the most points, barely edging out the HE brother. Beastmen came in a distant 3rd because of that Ogre horde. HE/Empire was more distant 4th. OK in 5th with no points.

    Thoughts on the game:

    I gave the host a hard time because he did not tell me to expect to be there for 9 hours for a 7.5 hour game. No snacks, no drinks...yeah, I was kinda grumpy towards the end there. T&T was definitely fun, but you gotta know what you are signing up for with this. Due to deployment placement and the OK basically not playing the first couple turns really put me as the ONLY target in the middle for the first few hours. Fortunately, I really only fought 1 aggressive player while the other 2 just shot at me.
    Saurus Warriors: First time I was really impressed with them. In the escalation league they started dying in droves around the 1000 point level. But here, they took down 3 special units with a Lord and magic banner. Partially this was some good PF rolls and sheer numbers. I'm glad I chose to spend all my Core points on one block; I really needed every one of them.
    Salamanders: They rocked. They earned their points killing a chunk of Swordmasters, a small group of Reavers, and the Noble on the griffon. The lone salamander fighting the griffon even lasted a turn just against the frenzied beast long enough for my monsters to not have to worry about them being the closest target after the salamanders died. I brought them out of reserves as payback and they did it.
    Chameleons: Love these guys. They did all but 1 of the wounds on the Gorgon, allowing the Stegadon crew to finish it off. Then they shot some gnoblars and earned me treasure chest points in the middle of the table. Because they are so hard to hit, nobody shot at them the entire game.
    Bastiladon: His laser beam never did anything, but that wasn't his fault. I never got IF on my 6 dice, and the Beastmen had 5 or 6 dispel dice every time. But, he drew fire like a champ and never took a wound. He did a little bit of damage in close combat. Worth the 150 points.
    Stegadon: In the escalation league I never got a charge off with him. Well, I finally did and those impact hits were amazing. His crew did the last wound on the Gorgon. He did some damage to the ogres with regular/crew attacks. Because he's modeled as an EotG, I forgot about the giant bow the 2(?) turns it could have shot. I'll have to work on that.
    Scar Vet and Carnosaur: The Scar Vet was great in combat. I was the only player who didn't take a Lord choice. The Carnosaur didn't get to attack because of the challenge unfortunately. However, he wouldn't have made his charge without the Loping Stride. I would have liked to bring him out earlier in the game, but with all the attention on me for the first few hours he wouldn't have survived.
    Noble on Griffon: My poor mercenary. 297 points and he never got to do anything. The Beastmen were close enough to charge first turn, but everyone went before me and shot him to death. Literally, every shooting/magic attack in Turn 1 was directed at him. Even after the griffon died, they still focus fired the noble so he never made it to combat. Everyone kept referring to him as a Prince, despite my saying otherwise, so maybe that also went against him.
     
  2. VampTeddy
    Terradon

    VampTeddy Active Member

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    This isn't a legal exploit unless he was in contact with the Beastmen units.

    Otherwise he isn't allowed to choose anyone but the HE/Empire player.

    Nonetheless, an exciting battle for sure! Reminded me to double check something i forgot in my last battle that meant a lot!
     
  3. Silverbolt
    Temple Guard

    Silverbolt Active Member

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    Maybe I am describing it wrong. Like I said, after so many hours I wasn't focusing too much on that corner of the board. Perhaps they were both in contact already.
     
  4. rychek
    Troglodon

    rychek Active Member

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    Emphasis mine. This is a mistake I have made in the past. Contrary to real world physics, the distances rolled on a pursuit does not matter. If the pursuing unit rolls higher than fleeing unit, the fleeing unit is removed from play, full stop. Once they are removed, the pursing unit moves forward according to the dice roll and any further obstacles are dealt with. The Ogre unit was your kill.

    EDIT: did some fact checking to reasure my sleep deprived brain. Pg. 56 of the BRB under CAUGHT! states that if the pursuit roll is eqal to or higher than the flee role, the fleeing unit is "completely destroyed where they stand." The troops are cut down "as they trun to run". The next section, "MOVE FLEEING UNIT" goes on to state that the fleeing unit is moved if the flee roll is greater than the pursuit roll.

    This is a really easy mistake to make as the rules don't necessarilly match what would happen in real-time, but it is what it is.
     
  5. Overlord of Serpents
    Cold One

    Overlord of Serpents Active Member

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    Yeah, I was also going to say your host screwed up with the pursuit rolls. When rolling to flee and pursue, you declare then roll both units dice. If the fleeing unit doesn't outrun the pursuers then they are caught no matter what! Think of it more as they are cut down as they're trying to flee, rather than a secondary charge into another combat where the fleeing unit magically pops. So boo on him, but it didn't affect your game in the end thankfully.

    Other than that, sounds like a fun match. Kinda a shame the OK player held for so long before deploying, kinda put you in a nasty spot with all them tricksey elves on the table.

    Great report!

    -Overlord of Serpents
     
  6. Silverbolt
    Temple Guard

    Silverbolt Active Member

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    Thanks everyone for doing legwork with the BRB. I'll bring this up with the host before the next game. Much appreciated!

    And for those who actually read the whole thing, I apologize for the endless wall of text.
     

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