Dark Gathering revisited

Hooray!! It's finally here! 

My report form the early October WHFB tournament 'Dark Gathering' which was held over the other side of the city.

Dark Gathering was 1500 point tournament which myself and Shamps attended. It ran for 1 day and consisted of 4 games using scenarios from the rule book... with a twist per game. A comp system was in place which deducted points off your final score. They tougher your army was, the more points you lost.

I ran a Lizardman army which had a -9 comp while Shamps ran a Skaven army at -13.

Oh also, the table size was small too.. 4ft x 4ft instead of 6ft x 4ft.

So not to dawdle, lets get reporting on Shamps and my experience:

Game 1!

First up we had the Watchtower scenario. The twist here was that any unit that was close enough to the watchtower became stubborn. Oh also, the below image was taken after we packed up.. with all my thoughts going into my first game I forgot to take any pictures :P

Not much to report with my game, stuff died but I held the tower in the end with 10 skins and won the game.

winner of this match get a can of drink .. which was used as the watch tower >_>
 

So at the end of the 1st game scores were:

Me vs Bretonnia -   12 - 8 win

Shamps vs Wood Elves - 20 - 0 win

Game 2!

The second match was the Dawn Attack scenario, the twist here was a little confusing for some. Essentially, each player, for 1 turn in the game, could make 1 number on a die become any other number on a die they want. As an example to clarify this, midway through the game I decided that any roll of a 2 would then become a 6. This swap was for both players rolls.

This game was really tough. I was out deployed and out punched. I was playng against a -20 High Elf army.. so yeah.. was tough :p

The only thing i can take away with this match was the number swap helped tremendously for my little lizards. For those who don't know how the buggers work: when in combat any roll of 6 gives me another attack. So when in combat with a white lion block, those lizards were throwing out many more attacks that what was normal. Add to that any roll of 2 AND 6 gave my lizards a shield parry save.  Worked wonders... but I still got my arse handed to me :P

The poorly shot pic below shows, essentially, my deployment. Quite crowded... that's what happens when playing Dawn Attack on a 4 ft x 4 ft board.

 game 2 results:

Me vs High Elves 0 - 20 loss
Shamps vs Empire 20 - 0 win


Game 3!

Now I cant remember what this scenario was.. I think it was battle line. Anyway, there really wasn't much to report here.. This game only lasted 4 turns for me.  As I was playing against Ogres (my first full army) I was pretty confident that I could handle whatever he threw at me. Then he deployed and made a couple crucial mistakes.

See that Stonehorn at the top of the pic there? Yeah well that's where it stayed for a couple of turns before it was shot off the board. Go me :p

start of turn 2.. yep.

As my opponent didn't bring along any mages he just ran straight forward with most of his stuff.. I knocked off his Mournfang with my heroes and got a long charge with my saurus block. Then it was jsut a matter of grinding him down with spell-buffed units.

turn 4.. aaand i'm spent.

Shamps on teh other hand didn't have a easy a fight. Seeing as my game finished so quickly, i able to pop on over and see how he was going and grab this pic.

By the looks of it, all of Shamps hard hitting units have disappeared... probably by the hands of a steam tank. ( he can correct me in the comments if he wishes :p)

squish!

Games 3 results is a s follows:

Me vs Ogre Kingdoms - 20 - 0 win
Shamps vs Empire - 3 - 17 loss


Gaaame foooour!

The last game of the day was all that fair due to the twist in this scenario. It started off a Meeting Engagement but the thing here was that any unit that was fully destroyed could come back the next turn, exactly as it was fielded.

I was facing an army consisting of 2 archer blocks with super bows and magic, and 2 blocks of Treekin.. that's it :s

So it was a thing of attempting to reach the bow blocks (which sucked.. failed 3 charges) and hold up the Treekin.

this is what it looks like when units can come back when they die.. on any board edge mind you.

My thoughts with this match was that it really wasn't all that fun. I can't pick why.. maybe because my opponent only had 4 units? Maybe the fact that units respawned next turn meant that it armies with cannons could have a field day reaping points.

Either way I was glad to have the day end.. I felt exhausted and I still had to drive us back home.

game 4 results:

Me vs Wood Elves 8 - 12 loss
Shamps vs vampire Counts - 20- 0 win.

Tournament total:
I came in 13th after comp was deducted from the final score and Shamps arrived in 6th place.

There you have it. A fairly shallow report on the Dark Gathering tournament.