So, I thought I’d give a shot at entertaining everyone with a little battle report form the BSB. Names and such will be written so that anyone outside of San Diego can follow along, so deal with it.
First off, a little bit of pre-tournament backstory. As some of you know, I had recently come back to the hobby in November after a two-year hiatus. In that month, I caught a couple of games (loss and a draw) and attended an Rogue Trader in which, for the first time ever, I went winless at 0-3. All in all, to be expected since I just came back to the hobby and an edition change occurred while I was gone. Plus, I’m playing Ogres, which isn’t exactly the strongest or most reliable army in the game.
So I sign up for the BSB in November. And during that entire time, from November to February, I managed to catch only one game one week before the tournament. Mostly because I was busy with the usual real life duties as well as preparing for my wedding coming mid this year. That game was with Robert Channell (bama), who crushed me like a semi truck running over a bug. I played poorly and rolled badly, so I more than deserved to lose.
Obviously, I wasn’t in the best condition at all to go into a tournament. But, this was going to be the first time this event was held and it was being organized by one of the local gaming clubs here in San Diego. So, regardless of what would happen, I opted to go and help out the hometown boys.
I decided to bring the following list:
Ogre Tyrant with the Tenderizer and Wyrdstone Necklace
Ogre Butcher with Siegebreaker and Skullmantle
Ogre Butcher with Bangstick and Dispel Scroll
Ogre Butcher with Dispel Scroll and Dispel Scroll
3 Ogre Bulls with Additional Hand Weapons
4 Ogre Ironguts with Standard, Musician and Lookout-Gnoblar
3 Ogre Ironguts with Musician
3 Ogre Ironguts with Musician
3 Ogre Ironguts with Musician
2 Leadbelchers with Musician
2 Leadbelchers with Musician
3 Yhetees
3 Yhetees
I brought this mostly because this is what I could get painted in time for it and a month prior to the start of the BSB I still had an unpainted army. So, with my nose to the grindstone I started banging out Ogres. Robert Felix (ghoulking) helped as well by painting up some random accessories like bags as well as my standard. I barely finished in time, especially since I just bought the six Yhetees from the store the weekend before the event.
Here is a pic of the mostly-completed standard bearer (with a happy Yhetee giving a thumbs up) to give you an idea of what the army looks like:
As you know, the judged portion of the comp scoring was revealed shortly before the tournament and the army I’m bringing apparently scored a 2 out of 6. Other long-time gamers receive a similar score and Robert Felix jokingly establishes what he calls the “Baby-Killers Gaming Club” for us, since the scores apparently indicate we’re a bunch of jerks who make baby Jesus cry.
So, armed with my terrible pre-tournament record, my freshly painted army and a jerk of an army list that I’ve played only once, I drive up the coast to Los Angeles with the Tribe of the Happy Yhetee ready and willing to get mercilessly crushed by everyone and receive my 0-5 record.
GAME 1: Bill Forst - Ogre Kingdoms
I may be incorrect with the name, but this was the Diablo-themed Ogre Army. The army roughly consisted of:
Tyrant
Bruiser
2 Butchers
2 units of 3 Bulls with additional hand weapons
3 units of 3 Ironguts
2 units of 3 Yhetees
Gnoblar Trappers
Bull Rhinox
Standard Ogre-on-Ogre game ensued, with lots of bait-and-flee with countercharge tactics on both sides. The game is lost for me on turn 5, when a combined charge of my three Ironguts with the Tyrant and a Butcher either miss or fail to wound on all their attacks against his unit of two Ironguts with a Butcher. My Tyrant is apparently just as out-of-practice as myself. One of his Ironguts turns around and kills my previously wounded Butcher while his friends register some wounds on my Ironguts. I lose the combat by 6, break and get run down. This puts my units out of position and he’s able to clean up shortly afterward.
At this point, I get jokingly heckled by the locals I come with. Drew Cox (El Nino) informs me that he doesn’t care what excuse I have and that I’ll be teased mercilessly should I lose all five games.
GAME 2: Richard Bark (Qrab) - Chaos Mortals
Rich is a semi-local who communicates with the San Diego guys regularly. Many may know him for his gorgeous Nurgle army. I still have yet to figure out what his handle of “Qrab” stands for. Since Rich’s head is shaved bald, I’ll settle with the idea that it stands for “
Queball
Richard
A.
Bark.”
Rich brought roughly:
Nurgle Chaos Lord
Nurgle BSB on horse with book
Bray Shaman
10 Nurgle Chosen on foot with command and War Banner
20 Plaguebearers
5/5 Herd
3 Minotaurs
3 Dragon Ogres
10 Furies
5 Chaos Hounds
5 Nurglings
I crush my right flank and the Tyrant finally starts feeling it and crushes his way through the middle. Rich’s Dragon Ogres smash through my left flank. Die rolls are still poor for me this game, but getting better. Unfortunately my gameplay isn’t getting any better at all and I make several poor movement decisions that Rich is able to capitalize on and get the victory.
Pic of ~Turn 3:
So I feel a little bummed out, since this is the first real game between Rich and myself and I wish I could have given him a better fight. Drew tells me that he’s lowered his standards and that I just need to tie to prevent the teasing. Brilliant.
GAME 3: Curtis Cooper - High Elves
Last game of the day sees me against a High Elf Army that roughly consists of:
Lord on steed
BSB on foot
Dragon Mage
2 units of 20 Spear with command
10 White Lions
8 Dragon Princes
2 Tiranoc Chariots
2 units of 10 Archers
2 Bolt Throwers
It was getting late so I unfortunately don’t remember too much about this game. Ironguts and a Butcher whack the Dragon Mage and force the beastie to flee, never to rally. That lowest-level Dragon is really weak. I so couldn’t believe it had just a 5+ armor save that I had to look at the entry in the book. Game ends when my unit of 2 Ironguts fail to rally on a Leadership of 9, netting him the points for the unit as well as points for a table quarter they were contesting and turns a victory for me into a draw.
Well, at least that’ll stave off the teasing. Anyway, some miscommunication occurs and the guys lose track of me that evening. So they head to Clearman’s without me for some food. I head to the house I’m staying in for the tournament where I mentally slap myself before going to sleep because, for some reason, I was playing like total garbage. So, I pledge to run the table tomorrow and hopefully hit a .500 record.
GAME 4: Vincent Herrick - Wood Elves
Vince came with his wife, who was playing Chaos. In contrast, my fiancé refuses to play Warhammer because it’s
too nerdy for her. She refers to my Ogres as “my little fat men” and all my miniatures as “figurines.” Vince brought a really nice Wood Elf army that was roughly:
Alter Kindred
Hero on steed
2 Mages
Wild Riders
3 units of 10 Dryads
3 units of 10 Archers
10 Wardancers
Treeman
5 Glade Riders
I make my way forward across the field. Vince pulls his Treeman forward to bait a charge and I send my Tyrant after him. The Tyrant, who is finally feeling like the super badass he is, introduces Vince to the concept of a Lord-level Ogre character with a Tenderizer and breaks the Treeman in half with 11 Wounds. The Tyrant then gets into the backfield where he and a unit of Ironguts start slaughtering things. To my left flank, Wardancers charge my 4-strong Irongut unit. 32 Attacks later, one Irongut is barely left alive and is run down. My right flank is getting beat up by a Dryad unit that I can’t kill because of pathetic die rolls on my part. Late in the game, a unit of Yhetees runs down his Wild Rider unit with Hero and his Alter Kindred finishes off a badly wounded Tryant in the last turn. I score a win for the Ogres. I also meet up with Drew shortly afterward where I inform him about the win and tell him he can now shut his mouth.
Anyway, Vince was a great opponent. Of the opponents this far, we had the most compatible personalities so we spent a good portion of the game joking around and chatting it up. He got all three nominations from myself for Best Army, Favorite Game and Favorite Opponent. Rich had a nicer army than him, but I knew he would win Best Painted, Best Army or whatever other prize so I decided to be a rebel and gave my vote to Vince instead.
GAME 5: Chris Hogancamp - Tomb Kings
Chris is a fellow San Diego guy who drove up with Robert Felix. His army consisted of:
Tomb King with chariot and Flail of Skulls
(AARGH!)Tomb Prince with chariot
Hierophant with steed
Priest in Casket
2 units of 3 Chariots
Skeleton Light Cav
Skeleton Heavy Cav
20 Archers
2 Swarm
2 Scorpions
Catapults with skulls
On Turn 2, Chris lines up everything to get magic-charged in and I blow any and all magic defense I have to stop it. I managed to hold off the magic charges and on my turn send everyone in. The ogres beat up everything in contact, except for the Tomb King with flail, who stays alive and murders everything it can catch on my left flank. I really hate Tomb Kings with the Flail. Near the end of the game, I had to bring the Tyrant in to crush him underneath his Tenderizer and the only thing left on the field for Chris was his Hierophant. Win for the Ogres.
Chris was another guy with a very compatible personality to myself, so again I got to get a lot of conversation and joking around during and after the game. Which is fantastic and definitely the ideal way to end the tournament.
So, in the end I got 2 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw. An even .500 record, which returned the respect of my peers and prevents any mocking until next time. Placing for myself was:
Jan PferdekamperArmy Rank: 32nd
Painting Rank: 27th
Sportsmanship Rank: 6th
General Rank: 17th
Overall Rank: 19th
Pretty good I think, considering my situation before the tournament. I’m somewhat disappointed in the painting score, but this is an army I did up in a month. I actually have enough Ogre figs to do a new, better looking army for Vegas.
The other members of the Baby-Killers Club got:
Robert Felix: Best Sportsman
Carlos Gomez: 2nd Best Sportsman
Robert Channell: Best General
So in the end, I got to spend some time playing toy soldiers, got some interesting stories and helped out the local guys in establishing what will hopefully be a yearly event.
See you all next year!
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