Yorkshire Open Warhammer Tournament

As said, I'm not a one for the tournament usually.  But every so often I enter one and hope (more than expect) to enjoy it.

My army was unlikely to be terribly competitive, but for the record was as follows:

Lords and Heroes

General: HW, HvyA, SH, Pegasus, Relic Sword (min 5+ to wound), Shield of Ptolos (1 armour versus missilery). FLYING. Save 3+

Level 3 Wizard: HW, Lore of Life

Paymaster: HW, Armour of fortune, Ironcurse Icon (6+ ward versus Warmachines for character and unit). Save 5+

Level 1 Wizard: HW, Dispel Scroll. Lore of Shadow

Core

19 Alicanti Fellowship: Roderigo - H+H, HvyA. Save 5+ Pikemen - HW, Pike, LtA, Standard, Musician. Save 6+

6 Voland's Venators: HW, Lance, HvyA, Sh, Barded War horse. Save 2+

6 Light Horse (Centaurs): HW, Bow, Sh, War horse (well body anyway). Musician. FAST CAV. Save 5+

6 Light Horse (Tribesmen): HW, Bow, Sh, War horse. Musician. FAST CAV. Save 5+

10 Duellists: Hw, Sh, Throwing Knives (Javelins). SKIRMISH. Save 6+

Special

15 Cursed Company: Richter Kreugar HW, HvyA, Sh, Blight (+1 Strength) 14 Skeletons HW, LtA, Sh Save 5+ Banner of Malediction (acts as undead battle standard), Regenerate losses

12 Fighting Cocks: Lumpin Croop HW, Bow, Sh, LtA. Save 5+ Ned Hamfist HW, Bow. No save 10 Halflings HW, Bow. Standard, Musician. No save

10 Dwarves HW, HvyA, SH, Crossbow. Musician. Save 4+

Rare

Cannon+Crew HW

That's 2000 points exactly.

My first game of the day turned out to be against one of the older club members who nonetheless plays an occasional game of Fantasy, with an army of High Elves; not a favoured match for the Dogs, but there could be worse.  I deployed my standard formation with a refused flank covered only by cavalry on my left.

 I managed to out flank and largely contain the Elves, though their chariots were a definite problem for me and the ever present threat of the large spearmen block was ultimately my undoing.

 We only managed 4 turns but as his Spears got into action I doubt I would have come out on top.  As it was, it was a minor victory to the Elves and I was down 13-7.

That made it lunch time, and time to review the other armies, most were familiar club fare, in varying stages of completion and painting; only one belonged to a non member, being a chap from another club.  His undead Ogres were full of invention and as I'd not seen them before they got my vote for favourite army of the day.

 How many Ogre armies feature an angel?

 Dan's Greek Demon army came second for me; the painting was better and the modelling just as creative, but I knew it'd be killer cheese to play against, and I had seen some of it before.  So second place for me.

 Lunch barely over I had to get down to my next game, against a chap I'd not played before, but knew from around the club.  he had an artillery heavy Empire army that looked like bad news to me.  3 Mortars, 1 Cannon, a Steam Tank, a War Altar...

Still only one real unit of infantry, though at 48 strong, a big one.  The scenario was "Battle for the Pass" which essentially means playing on a board lengthways.

 Not unsurprisingly I was pummeled by artillery, however my light cavalry and General did their proscribed tasks of chasing it down and destroying it.  The knights and Cursed Company put a charge in on the massed swordsman unit, but were unlucky not to break them (he made a Steadfast test of 8, he had no reroll available, so a fail and I'd have had him!)

 It was downhill all the way from there, ending as a Major Victory for the Empire. Three more points for me put me on a lowly 10.

Languishing in the bottom end of the rankings I was pulled against someone doing rather worse than me.  A Tomb King player, who deployed his entire army - bunker style into one corner of the table.  A meaningless formation in real life, but one that works very effectively as a defensive block in a tabletop game.

By this stage I was tired and this did not start as a fun game, but it did pick up as I continued to frustrate his plans and blocked his limited tactics (which seemed to revolve solely around trying to open the casket of souls to scare me away, which he failed to do.

Although he killed my Paymaster the whole army stood and took it, and used the ensuing Hatred to wipe out the unit that did it, at no point in the game did any of my units fear the skeletons (we did, as I kept pointing out to him, have them on our side too!).  Ultimately his conservative deployment saved his leader, but cost him victory, by taking too long to get going, and being dependant only on magic working for him.

It ended as a draw, and I knew I wasn't last!  Hoorah!

In fact the results of the day were better than I feared.  Despite losing two battles I made a respectable 8th out of 12.  Not too shabby considering how uncompetitive the Dogs of War usually are (I've won two games in three years with them!).  But the real win for me was that my little chaps won Favourite Army (judged on overall presentation and composition), beating Dan's Demon in the only way possible!

A show of love for a classic army and I hope, a nod for my painting and conversion too.

Certainly that capped a pretty good day, which ranks as the best experience of a tourney I've had to date.