Highs and Lows

I went to the Destruction Derby over the weekend which was a nice one day event organised by the Derby Wargames Society, of which the Ben's from Bad Dice are members of and they helped organise the event. It was a fun event of random scenarios and meeting new people.We could take anything as long as we had the rules to back them up and we saw a nice variety in the armies. I took a slight varient on my Daemon list as it's the only thing I have painted up at the moment. I took....

Lord of Change who was a Level 4 Wizard and had Flames of Tzeentch and Tzeentch's Will
2 Heralds of Slaanesh with Etherblades and riding Chariots

2 x 10 Horrors
13 Daemonettes with a Standard
2 x 5 Flesh Hounds
4 Flamers
1 Fiend

Not the hardest list in the world but then again not the weakest. My army worked out to 2013 points which was the limit for the event and we were going to get a special prize. Predictably though, pretty much everybody brought an army bang on the points, so the Ben's weren't expecting this and gave out dice instead.

Game 1 - Luke and High Elves

Luke is one of my regular opponents from the Dudley Darklords and a very good player. Earlier in the week we had played a practise game of the scenario for game 1 and a won by a big margin. Little did I know the tables would turn. I had originally grudged another DD player (Adam Jones aka Tank) but he dropped out so I grudged Luke as he had taken his place. The Bens placed us on Table 1.

Luke took a Lord on a Dragon with a Halberd, re-rollable save and a ward save, Lvl 1 mage, 2 x 10 archers, 16 White Lions with Full Command and Immune to Psych banner, 5 Dragon Princes with the Ignore Terrain Banner, 5 Shadow Warriors, 2 Bolters and 2 Eagles.

The Scenario was beat the living daylights out of a goblin who was being naughty with the Kings daughter. The goblin sat in the middle of the board and the player who scored the most wounds on it won. You could only score a wound by rolling a 6. Luke was more prepared for this game and I deployed badly because I was worried about the Dragon and Dragon Princes (in our last game Luke though I had Siren Song and had deployed the Dragon facing the other way). Luke pretty much took apart my army with the Dragon and Princes (which half my daemons couldn't damage due to having flaming attacks) and then peppered the goblin to bits with his shooting. Game ended with Luke on 11 and me on 3 which was a reversal of our scores on Tuesday.

Game 2 - Richie and Ogres

Richie had travelled all the way up from London with Og Games (who had sponsored the prizes for the event) and he had brought Ogres. Both of us had been beaten quite badly and were on the lowest ranked table - 18. Richie had been spanked by Adam Hall who had brought a Skaven with 2 Abominations and other bits which ripped Richie to bits. Richie was a bit worried about facing Daemons with his Ogres but we both knew this was going to be a fun game whatever the outcome.

Richie had a Tyrant, Bruiser, 2 Butchers, 2 x 3 Bulls, 2 x 3 Ironguts, 9 Gnoblar Trappers, 2 Maneaters and 2 Rhinox riders. In theory this should be an easy game for me if I can pick my combats.

The Scenario was a normal pitched battle but the who battlefield was effected by the Rainlord spell and each player turn, your army got blasted by Forked Lighting on a roll of 1 for each unit (1 or 2 if you had a ward save). Game starts with me getting the first turn and I move everything ready for charges. My 2 Chariots face off against the Rhinoxes with a Lord of Change nearby to support with Gift of Chaos. Rich moves everything around but knows things will be bad next turn and I charge my Chariots in and move my LoC up. So I cast Gift of Chaos hoping for a few wounds and I miscast which causes a wound to my LoC. My Chariots then cause a couple of wounds from Impact Hits and I get ready to watch my Heralds have fun. With 8 attacks hitting on 3's and wounding on 5's should cause lots of damage and win me the combat. Lots of fluffed attacks and wounds later and the Heralds are bricking it as the Rhinoxes are unscathed! Then for the rest of the game my dice decided to not play properly and I started playing like a numpty. Richie pretty much took all my toys off the board while his army was all there apart from a unit of Bulls and Gnoblars. Richie won by lots and I put my models in the middle of the board knowing I wasn't moving tables. It was a fun game watching my army self destruct but a bit frustrating but Richie did make it fun as we chatted all the way through the game.

Game 3 - Lee and Orcs of Chaos

Lee had travelled up with Richie as part of the Og Games crowd and had brought his Orcs of Chaos. Basicly it was a Warriors of Chaos army converted up from Orcs and Goblins who had been seduced by the bloodletting for Khorne.

He had a Lord of Khorne on a Jugger, Hero on Jugger, Lvl 1 wizard, 2 x 5 hounds, 2 x 5 horsemen, 14 marauderers with MoK and Flails, 20 odd marauderers with MoK, full command and shields, 15 Chosen, 5 Knights, and a Chariot of Khorne.

This game was to get into my opponents deployment zone while the entire battlefield was effected by the Pandaemonium spell (miscast on a double and units can not use the generals leadership) while a Infernal Gateway was strolling around on the board. Both of us deployed our armies and we found I had weighted my Right Flank while Lee weighted his Right as well, which left the main bulk of our armies as far away from each other as possible. Lee asked my why I had charged the Rhinoxen in my last game and I said you'll see but I thought I could have them. Couple of turns later and my Chariots were in his deployment zone having gone through his Knights and he agreed that I should have had those Rhinoxes last game. The game was pretty much me getting my Chariots and Flesh Hounds into his deployment zone while the rest of my army acted as a speed bump to slow Lees down while my LoC could blast away with his magic (and strangely only miscast once all game). Game ended and we found that I had got 1300 odd points while Lee only managed 1100 points which game me a win. If Lee had been able to get his chosen into my deployment zone he would have won but I think a combination of deploying badly with them and me worring him with the LoC constantly zapping models off the unit, meant he didn't push them as far as he could.

In the end I came 29th thanks to my win (not bad in a 36 person event). It was a really good event and made a nice change from all the 'serious' warhammer the last few months. I really liked the scenarios and it was a good venue to play at and I shall be going again next year.