BZ Tournament Round 1. pButcher v Hexeris 2 (Skorne)

My first 50 point tournament -14 players in attendance at BattleZone. I was pretty excited about this day. My goal was simple. Win 1 game. First up, I drew a matchup with Skorne.


Hexeris 2
Basilisk Krea
Basilisk Drake
Bronzeback Titan
Titan Gladiator
Nihilators (10)

Cataphract Incindiarii (4)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (4)

Croak Raiders (10)

Paingiver Task Master

Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Saxon Orrik

pButcher
War Dog
Demolisher
Beast 09
Boomhowlers
Valchev
Iron Fang Pikemen, Officer & Standard
Iron Fang Konvik
Iron Fang Uhlans
Gobber Tinker

One of the things I'd been thinking hard about leading up to the tournament was making a commitment to some kind of plan for each game, rather than just marching straight up the board and hitting whatever was closest. I was trying my latest Butcher list, with Boomhowlers in there for the first time - I had high hopes for them. My plan here was to hold my Zone with the Decimator and Boomhowlers, push through the middle with Beast 09 and the Pikemen, and try to flank through the opposition zone with the Uhlans. I deployed/moved second.

I'd heard a fair bit about Croak Raiders, and was pretty worried as they quickly got across the board with advanced deployment.

So worried, in fact that I mini-feated with the Pikemen, giving them a pretty crazy armour value in shield-wall. I placed Iron Flesh on the Boomhowlers, and they took 4+ tough (which they would continue to do the whole game. I was less thoughtful about the Uhlans, and ran them as far up the left flank as I could.

He went hard after the Uhlans, oiling them and setting them on fire. He rolled pretty badly, but I still lost two. Everything else held pretty firm.

My turn two, I started to mix it up, but cautiously. I stuck to the plan had the Boomhowlers stay tight and clear out my zone, while the Pikemen (still in Shield wall) The Uhlans charged in from the left. Demolisher toed my Zone. Beast 09 sat behind the Pikemen, waiting for something to do.

It turns out what he got to do was die horribly. The Bronzeback smashed through the Pikeman line, and turned Beast 09 to rubble. Nihilators and Croaks also got into the Pikemen, and I lost another Uhlan. I believe there may have been a feat involved in this turn, but am not sure. 

Butcher walked up and smashed the Bronzeback to mush.I continued to try to mop up the Croaks, but they were pretty hard to hit (9s from memory), and it was slow going. The Uhlans continued to be a pain on the left flank, and I moved some more models up to secure the zone.

Skipping forward a turn - attrition continued on both sides, but I felt like things were going well. I started pushing forward with the Boomhowlers, as there wan't much pressure on my zone. The death clock was also in my favor - I had plenty of time, but he was up against it. I moved Butcher over to secure a control point.  I had not feated - I figured holding on to that as an ace was the best move.

And this is how it ended . Realizing he was about to clock out, Joseph tried to clear his zone to get a control point, but couldn't quite get there. It ended on clock, and me with 2 control points.

So - a win! Previously when I'd won on clock it felt quite underwhelming, but in a tournament setting, it felt pretty good. I also felt like I had the upper hand in the game - it wasn't like was getting run over.

All in all, I was really pleased. Joseph is a good player (one of the ME WTC team), and when I'd drawn him, I hadn't had much confidence in getting anything from the game. Joseph was a great guy to play against - he was patient and helpful. He got pretty unlucky with dice early on, but didn't get frustrated. It was his first game with Croak Raiders, so hopefully he got something useful from the game too. Those things are scary.

So....goal achieved in the first round - the rest is gravy.