Lonewolf, WoC and Irish punk

Well looky here… a second blog post in a month. Now we are rolling.

The next stop in the Hinge’s Warhammer tour finds our hero traveling to the Lone Star state for Lonewolf. I packed my shit kicker boots, practiced my "Y’alls" and "Howdy", and grabbed Tres Chic as a travel companion.

Lonewolf is a long running tourney in Dallas, Texas. The tourney took a year off last year but is back under a new TO (and my first round opponent at the Masters), Mark Cox. It is a 2,500 point, straight out of the rule book warhammer.

I decided to take WoC again but a totally different list. After all, playing the same list more then 5 times is sooo boring. Plus playing the same list over and over until you get good at it might be considered practice, and who wants to do that?

 

I just watched that press conference again
still cracks me up!

　

The list

Chaos Lord of Tzeetch, Shield, Biting Blade, Armor of Destiny, Dawnstone, OTS, Scaled Skin, Soul feeder, Third Eye

Sorc of Slaanesh-L2, Steed of Slaanesh, Enchanted Shield, Chaos Familiar, Lore of Slaanesh

Sorc of Slaanesh-L2, Steed of Slaanesh, Charmed Shield, Skull of Katam, Lore of Slaneesh

Exalted of Tzeetch, BSB, Chaos Steed, Dragon Helm, Halberd, Tal of Endurance, IC Icon, Burning Body

Chariot of Slaanesh

Chariot of Slaanesh

Chaos Warhounds

9 Marauder Horse of Slaanesh, Spear, Shield, Throwing ax

5 Maruader Horse of Slaanesh, Flail, Throwing Axe

14 Chaos Warriors of Slaanesh, FC, Banner of Swiftness

Gorebeast Chariot of Slaanesh

5 Knights of Tzeetch, Mus, Std, Blasted Standard

Hell Cannon

　

Yes, a very heavy Slaanesh theme. Back in march, the Brolock star was the new hotness and I expected to be running into large units of these. I figured anything to pull ward saves would be useful. You can guess how that worked out.  The skull of Katam was a new item for me and I looked forward to seeing what it would do.

　

Round 1- Cody-Skaven

Cody had challenged me to a match and needless to say, there was plenty of chirping going on prior to the tourney. Cody had 3 gigantic units of Gutter runners, something like a 1000 night runners in a single unit with a warp grinder, and assorted characters (who deployed in the night runners). So no units started on the table.

For the first time in my Warhammer career I deployed in a hard, with the entire army in a 12"x12" box in the corner.

My opponent gets first turn and not much happens. On the second turn, his Night runner unit pops up. A hush descends on the venue as Cody rolls his artillery die. MISFIRE! Uh oh. The silence is now palatable and Cody rolls a 1, destroying the unit and all the characters. The hall busts into laughter at Cody’s misfortune and he concedes. We slam a couple of drinks, re-wrack and play the game. I would end up clearing off all 3 Gutter runner units while only losing a single unit of fast cav to two miscasts caused when my Hell Cannon misfired!

Win with objective.

Round 2 –Wood Elves

2 blocks of eternal guard, large block of glade guard, 2 units of dryads, unit of wardancers, treeman, eagles, Life wizard lord, lord and bsb.

Feeling the Uzo I had pounded with Cody, I spend the first two turn’s pussy footing around while my HC rampaged towards the line. I went all in on turn three. Everything failed short charges accept for two chariots. The bad news is they blew themselves up on the edge of a forest. After that, I was never able to engage anything but one unit at a time. My opponent would IF Throne followed by IF Flesh every turn from turn 3 on. T7 elves are no joke! I cleaned up everything but the characters and Eternal Guard blocks but it would not be enough.

Loss with no objectives.

Round 3 – Dwarfs

Super good guy and fun to play. Hard Dwarf lord, bsb, and ruin smith. 2 blocks quarrelers with GW, huge block of hammerers with stubborn banner, 2 gyro, cannon, organ gun.

I used Slanesh magic and double flees with fast cav to control the Hammerers while I took out the rest of the army. Pretty straight forward.

Win with objectives.

Saturday night turned out to be the best part of the tourney. A bunch of us went out to see Flogging Molly. Holy cow, they are awesome live and I can not recommend it enough. I got so fired up I ended up finding myself in the mosh pit throwing guys half my age around. It was a blast!

 

I realize I am to old to be jumping into a mosh pit
but I really could not help myself

Round 4 – Tomb King

Another super fun opponent. Alas, he was playing TK. This is the only match I was able to Caco bomb. I shot the L2 with the spell out into the middle of his artillery/casket and blew them all up. It was a matter of taking off the rest of his army until his tomb king was the only one left. I decided to swing my lord in and challenge. In an epic 2 turn duel, I was finally able to beat him down.

win with objectives

Round 5-Empire

Despite the bad loss, a win here likely gets me into the running for second or third best general and a likely top 10 finish.

My opponent was rocking 17 IC knights, Life wizard, Warrior Priest, BSB three units of Demis and double steam tank.  Nasty business. 

He sets up on the back of the board.  I survive a round of dwellers and a couple of cannon balls.  I sneak Phantasmagoria on the big block and land a Hell Cannon round on the Knight bus.  My opponent looks pretty worried but makes his test.  I would force a leadership test at least once a round, almost always with -1 or Phanta up (though never both again) but was never able to get him even close to failing.  My dice on teh other hand went sour.  BSB gets Dwellered off, Chaos Lord bounces off Chickens then gets cannon balled off.  At one point my opponent apologizes for the way the dice are showing.  I take off the big Chicken unit but loss the fast cav, chariots, and characters for a sizable loss.  I was able to deny a couple of objective points but that was about it.

With the loss I drop down to the middle of the pack once again and one of the poorer showings I have had in some time. 

Despite that, I really liked the way the list played and could see busting it out again.  However, this is the second tourney with WoC and I will retire them for the rest of the year. 

Lonewolf was a blast and I will likely attend again next year. 

Up next, a trek down south, the most Interesting Man, 70 year old Cougars, and Karoke.  Stay Tuned

Holy smokes Batman! Hinge is back!

Wow, it has been two and half months since I lasted posted.  Damn that thing called Real Life and a job.  It has seriously cut into my hobby time, with next to no painting, no non tournament games, no posting on forums, and no blog posting.  It is out right depressing and has surely contributed to the massive amount of drinking I have been doing.  Though come to think of it, I drink a lot when I play a lot.  I guess it’s just the Irish in me.

  

However, I have not let life stop my tournament schedule.  In March I attended Lonewolf in Texas and in April, the West Coast GT in SoCal.  This upcoming weekend I will be attending SAWS where I am sure it will be a thousand and twelve degrees.

Preview of the SAWS Venue.
Prepare for Gamer funk and ass crack sweat galore!

So sitting here in the pre-SAWS heat wave, I have loaded up the blender with Pina Colada’s and decided to start catching up on the life and times of a demented warhammer tournament player.

We left this sad tale with our hero (that would be me) preparing to lock horns with the best of the best of those willing to show up at the first ever US Masters.  I gave my over view of the event and my army in the last blog post. How the hell did the our hero do.  

Round 1 Mark-Skaven

I hate Skaven with the burning passion of 10,000 white hot suns.  The good news is Mark is one the Texans I have gotten to know well and have even travelled to Texas to visit for non-warhammer reasons.  I had also played him before and thoroughly enjoyed the game, which is shocking since he plays nothing but Skaven.  His list was reasonably soft and most importantly, Mark seemed to forget that every Skaven list needs a Grey Seer!

I felt I controlled the game and got the combats I wanted.  However, Mark has a singularly superior skill, the ability to roll low leadership tests.  Through the use of Treason of Tzeetch, getting into flanks to disrupt, and widening the battle to keep the BSB out of range I quickly forced Mark to make a slew of Leadership 5 and 7 rolls without the benefit of a re-roll.  Mark hit his first five leadership 5 checks in a row and never failed a Ld 7 roll.  Despite killing 2,453of his models, I decided that since Mark is the TO at the next event I was attending, that it would be best to declare a draw.  Because That is the kind of guy I am.  

10-10 Draw

Round 2 Ryan – Empire

Ryan was packing a Light Council Empire list backed by two units of Demis, Steam Tank and two huge blocks of halberds.  Feeling pressure due to a draw in the first round, I drive straight at him, playing into his army perfectly.  By round 4 I was headed towards a 20-nil loss when the Chaos lord decided enough was enough.  He quickly finished the Stank, demolished the Arch lector and his war alter, and hunted down the opposing BSB which had foolishly left a unit.  There was a bit of hankiness with Ryan at the end with his L4, which magically was not part of a small skirmish unit he was sitting a half inch away and in perfect formation with when it was found out I could charge around his peg captain and make contact with the unit.  Of course being part of the unit is handy when I was slinging magic missiles around!  In the end, I let it go as I was a little pissed at my play.

6-14 Loss

At this point I decided to hold a inspirational “half time” pep talk for the West Coasters, who were getting crushed.

 

The chair still has not returned from orbit
Though I believe the West went 8-2 that round!

Round 3 Brandon – HE

Brandon was rocking an anointed on a Frosty, 2 Flame Phoenixes, Death and Metal Magic, nothing but Cav and Skycutters.  Fast and hard hitting in the right situations.  Additionally, there where objective markers to grab.  However, I was able to bait Brandon it bad charges, grab the objectives and clean up his force.  Half way through, one of my unit champs turned into a demon prince and really hemed in the rest of his force.  With the Chaos Lord and DP running amuck and forcing his cav into my infantry where I could pin them, I earned a win that started to salve my bruised ego.

20-0 win

Round 4 – Ben-HE

Ben is a good guy and regularly travels cross country to attend QCR.  This would be my firstchance to play him.  A heavy shooty army backed up by shadow.  This can be very scary for my force and I decided to play conservative.  I got Treason off on his big character bunker and killed a nearby Eagle.  Ben rolled his panic test, one die rolled a six while the other skidded off the table.  The tension built as he picked up the die to re-roll.  it was now a 50-50 shot that I win the game right there since he would have gone off the table!  Alas he did not panic and Ben quickly made sure I could not pull that off again, Mostly by sending a eagle hero in to assassinate the Tzeetch mage!  I would clean up his chaff, chariots, and RBTs while losing my chaff.  My Chosen would get shot down to a single model but I always kept the shrine between the survivor and his shooting to provide a mobile hard cover platform.  Embarrassingly, Ben charged a unit of Reavers into the flank of my Knights and was able to get a boosted Mindrazor off!  Oh well.  I eaked out the smallest of wins.

12-8 to the good..err.bad guys.

Round 5 – Brian –WoC

Brian clearly made only a few concessions for comp and had a kitted out Slanesh DP and a horde of tolls waiting for me.  To add insult to injury, one of his unit champs ascended to deamonhood and I was faced with two DP.  I sent the Chaos Lord at the free DP with the idea that I would Gateway the general off the board.  Alas this would be a mistake as Winds were piss poor the entire game for me.  It became a race to see who would kill more, his DP or my Lord.  I finally got gateway off the final turn but Brian made just enough Saves to have a single wound left!

12-8 win

With the two minor wins at the end, I was safely ensconced in the middle of the pack for the finish.  With the exception of game 2, I felt I generally played well, set up the conditions for wins without exposing myself to defeat.  However, those conditions required either a bit of bad luck or a mistake on my opponents part and neither happened all weekend.  My list was fundamentally flawed in that I could not push a little harder to pick up more points.

My younger self is not happy!

Up next, a friendless Lupus and Black Friday Rules!

Stay tuned, same Bat time, same Bat channel.