Midwest Rampage 6Fifth
Midwest Rampage under my belt and definitely one of my favorites. It's a hometime tourney run by a longtime friend Jim Emerick. Anyone who knows Jim & I knows we tend to bicker at times like an old married couple but I look forward to this event every year. I only missed the year my mom passed.
Fun filled weekend with friends, old & new, and 5 intense games of Warhammer. This was my first 8th edition two day tournament.
Friday NightGot to the venue Friday night to help setup. Helped get tables & chairs that were rented unloaded and all set up for the weekend.
I then proceeded to get a practice game in vs. Scott Kline – my lizards vs. his O&G. Scott’s a great guy and an old friend I hadn’t had the opportunity to play in forever. He is always one of the most enjoyable guys to play on the table. I learned the power of mangler squigs as they wrecked havok on the saurus units. Sadly, nothing else in his army performed even close to those and the slann got up the double bubble (Boosted Speed of Light / Boosted Time Warp). Not much can stand up to double augmented Saurus units (re-rolls to hit? Yes please!).
Spent Friday night at the bar & drinking at the hotel with Tom McClure and new guy Rob Phaneuf. Rob turned out to be a great guy and we spent the weekend hanging out together. His blog can be found
here. :-)
On to the games & stuff.
Because I brought a table of terrain for the Terrain contest, I started on Table 3. Turns out I was supposed to play 4 of my 5 games there. My 1 lower table game was because he reversed the tables for game 3 so the top table was the highest number working backwards.
My ListSlann – BSB
Cupped Hands / Std. Of Discipline / Divine Plaque of Protection
Focus of Mystery / Higher State / Becalming / Focused Rumination
Lore of Light
Doesn’t get much more “Super” than that
Skink Priest – Lvl 2
Cube of Darkness
Scar Vet – Lt Armor / Shield
Burning Blade / Glyph Necklace
Scar Vet – Great Weapon
Armor of Destiny
30 Saurus – FC
30 Saurus – FC
30 Saurus – FC / Spears
6 Chameleon Skinks
6 Chameleon Skinks
6 Chameleon Skinks
4 Terradons
1 Ancient Steg
2 Salamanders with 8 Handlers
2 Salamanders with 7 Handlers
3000 pts exactly
Game 1 – Scott Tipsword O&GOrc Warboss - General
Armor of Fortune / Crown of Command
Night Goblin Great Shaman – Lvl 4
Staff of Sorc / Talisman of Endurance / Ironcurse Icon
Black Orc Big Boss – BSB
Talisman of Preservation
Orc Shaman – Lvl 2
Dispel scroll
40 Orc Boyz – FC
36 Savage Orc Boyz – FC
25 Black Orcs – FC / Banner of Eternal Flame
35 Night Goblins – FC / Nets / 3 Fanatics
34 Night Goblins – FC / Nets / 3 Fanatics
2 Goblin Wolf Chariots
2 Goblin Wolf chariots
1 Goblin Wolf Chariot
1 Orc Boar Chariot
5 Wolf Riders – Muso
1 Pump wagon
1 Giant
Scott is running the nicest list ever and I gave him my only +2 comp adjustment. We are playing the Dawn Attack scenario. Random deployment really messed him up as his general & bsb ended up on his right flank far away from the rest of his army.
My combat units were in my center / left flank and my salamanders were on my right flank and hoping to panic some units out of BSB / General range.
Fortunately for Scott, fate decided we needed a more even playing field as my Slann got sucked into the warp on turn 2. (I played cupped hands with a 24” range all weekend – DOH).
Lots of pics from this game but very few details. I used salamanders in combat to take out the pump wagon after panicing a goblin unit off the board. Getting the flank on his generals unit and ignoring the Black Orc / Savage Orc units ultimately gave me the win.
Game 2 – Steve Grunwald EmpireGen. Of Empire – General
Sword of Sigismund
Dawn Armor
Arch Lector - GW
Speculum / Armor of Silvered steel
Luckstone
Lvl 4 Light Wizard
Scroll / Holy Relic
Captain – BSB
Armor of Meteoric Iron
Dawn Stone
Lvl 2 Wizard – Heavens
Seal of Destruction
Warrior Priest- GW
Ench. Shield
Biting Blade
Ironcurse Icon
Engineer – Pigeon Bombs
Engineer – Pigeon Bombs
Engineer
3 x Mortar
1 x Great Cannon
1 x Hellblaster
20 Crossbows – FC / Banner of Eternal Flame
20 Handgunners – FC
38 Halberdiers – FC
37 Greatswords – FC
30 Flagellents - Prophet
Solid empire list, sure to bring the pain and shut down my magic.
His anti-magic kept my magic phase shut down the entire game. I think I cast one spell. I rolled at least 1-2 6 dice spells every phase and just could not get the IF (hoping to then pass it on to his level 2 in the building). Not having speed of light on saurus really hurts em.
Meeting Engagement with Diagonal deployment. Steve castled up his warmachines in the corner and his 2 big shooty units in buildings. Flagellants + cannon come in reserves. My terradons were my only unit to come in reserve.
My saurus units were setup with 2 in the center and 1 on my far right end of my DZ to provide a distraction.
I got the first turn & marched the Stegadon right out in front – hoping to bait him into charging with his GS unit and hoping he would come up short (he needed a 9 or something big). Salamanders started flaming units in buildings but none would panic.
Steve charged the steg, made the charge and then proceeded to kill it in one round of combat (which wasn’t what I expected at all). He formed his horde formation GS unit into a 5 wide 40 man unit.
I was able to charge in with Saurus & Slann to the front and a saurus unit in the flank. His flagellents were on the board and headed for the rear of my spear unit. This combat lasted multiple turns. After I had killed down enough of the greatsword unit he managed to get his big halberd unit in the front of my spearus unit.
I had the opportunity to block his flagellants with my remaining uninvolved saurus unit and really should have taken it. The flagellants later hit my saurus in the rear and did 17 wounds on the charge. The real problem here was that the GS unit was still alive with 1 model & an arch-lector (who was locked in a challenge with the Slann he couldn’t hurt). Over 3 rounds of combat I was able to put 3 attacks on his GS per turn. I wounded only once each time and he managed to make his 5+ armor save every time. This saved his halberd unit.
I eventually got my other unit of saurus in the rear of his flagellants where I managed to do a boat load of wounds and after 2 rounds of combat managed to break the halberd unit. Sadly, everyone was in combat with someone else so I couldn’t pursue. I got freed up on turn 5 but couldn’t get to any of his units in turn 6.
Win to the Empire.
Game 3 – Sean Rogerson DESupreme Sorc – Lvl 4 / General
Darkstar Cloak / Black Dragon Egg / Seal of Ghrond
Dark Magic
Shadowblade
Master – BSB
Pendant / Biting Blade
50 Corsairs – FC / Sea Serpent std
2 x 10 Crossbows
20 Executioners – FC
20 Black Guard – FC / Banner of Murder
20 Black Guard – FC / Whip of Agony
2 x Hydra
2 x RBT
I was really tired for this game – it was the Watchtower scenario. I ended up having to look up too many rules issues and I think it hurt my opponents enjoyment of the game. My apologies Sean if you are reading.
He won the tower and deployed a unit of 10 xbowmen in it. This enabled me to assault the building, punt them out and take it over with a 30 strong saurus unit with a hero in it. I kept the slann nearby and kept speed of light up the whole game and managed to bounce 2 Frenzied Corsair horde assaults, and 2 Black Guard assaults.
Shadowblade was in a Sallie unit which fled a charge. He revealed shadowblade while my unit was fleeing. We weren’t sure what to do. The TO ruled that my unit would flee but he couldn’t pursue. Unfortunately, he was sitting right next to a unit of chameleons.
Win for the Lizards.
Pic Fail. :-(
Game 4 – John Hartigan – LizardsSlann – BSB
Mystery / Focused / Becalming
Lore of Shadow
Std of Discipline / Cupped Hands / Ironcourse Icon
Skink Chief on ancient Steg
Warspear
Skink Priest – Lvl 1
Scroll
Scar Vet on Cold One – Lt Armor / Shield
Dawn Stone / Venom of Firefly Frog
24 Saurus – FC
20 Saurus – FC
16 Skinks / 2 krox – FC
10 Skinks
10 Skirm. Skinks
10 Skirm. Skinks
16 Temple Guard – FC / Banner of Eternal Flame
Stegadon
5 Chameleons
4 Terradons
2 Sallies
1 Sallie
Back on my terrain table again (3rd game on this table now).
John & I had the best game. We both knew what the other could do and played a back forth positioning game for a few turns. I was going to focus on his left flank which was out of the 12” slann bubble (Saurus, Skrox, Ancient Steg with Chief) and take those points. My game plan completely changed when his Slann miscast and killed all but 5 of his TG. I charged in and managed to ultimately get the TG dead and 4 wounds on the slann.
My steg managed to kill his ancient with Chief (& he got the charge but I was timewarped & later had speed of light). My salamanders proceeded to then wither a saurus unit down and I then charged in with saurus in the front and sallies in the flank.
John played a great game. He used the lore of shadow and was debuffing my units like mad (even with Becalming). I just got lucky in the end and had enough points for the win (I was up by like 200 VP I think).
Game 5 – Marty Gaska – LizardsSlann – General / BSB
Cupped Hnds / Ironcurse
Mystery / Becalming / Focused
Chakax
Scar Vet – Lt Armor Shield
Sword of swift slaying / Venom of Firefly Frog
Skink Priest – Lvl 2
Scroll
Skink priest – Lvl 2
Channeling Staff / Cloak of Feathers
2 x 30 Skinks / 1 Krox – FC
25 Saurus – FC
2 x Steg
24 Temple Guard – FC - Sword of the Hornet on Champ
2 x 1 Salamander
Blood & Glory – Back on my table again but asked to swap and got the nod.
My plan was to kill Marty’s 2 Skrox units, 2 salamander units and 1 saurus unit to win the game.
I deployed a saurus unit on my left flank to get a skrox unit, one in the center to tie up his TG (with my steg also) and the other saurus on my right flank to get after his other skrox unit. Both sally units were on my far left flanks to burn Skrox / Saurus units.
Marty won the first turn and took it. His salamanders were largely ineffective and his slann didn’t get much off without 6’s.
My first turn saw my salamanders panic the saurus unit off the board (thx to the building behind them). I put a couple of wounds on his baby steg with my chameleons (I should have focus fired the skrox though in hindsight).
His turn 2 had him moving up again (no charges yet though he could have). His magic & shooting didn’t get a lot done. My turn 2 was pretty amazing. I charged his steg in the middle with my steg and my saurus unit (which was split so got a flank charge unfortunately). I charged his sallie on my left flank with saurus and both sally units opened up on the skrox unit over there reducing it to 5 models (but no panic). I made short work of that sally and overran into the 5 man skrox unit. I charged the skrox unit on my right flank with saurus and won combat but the unit held. I also moved my slann out to support both units with LD / BSB and stay within range to steal the enemy slann’s 6’s.
What a great turn. I knew I had it in the bag. This knowledge ultimately cost me the game.
Marty turn 3 – He charged my spearus unit in the center in the flank with his TG. Charged his steg at my slann but failed the charge (oh how I wish he had made it). Magic phase. I had like 6 dispel dice to his 8-9 power dice.
Throne of vines was cast – I used the Cube of Darkness and got a 3 so I failed to end the magic phase.
Flesh to stone was cast on the skrox unit on my right flank. Clearly I could not fight T6 skinks (yes I had it wrong in my head as I’ve always got the Throne version off) so I used 4 dice to dispel it. He then cast dwellers on my slann. I failed my dispel attempt and then rolled a 4 for my Str. Test. Marty wins as my Slann was 3 of my 6 fortitude.
I never once thought that if he could take out my slann he would win. A mistake I shall never make again.
Great game. My overconfidence, dice, and the mistakes (not saving for dwellers and/or trying to stay out of the 18” range). It stung a little to lose to 1 spell, I will admit, but I bow down to Marty’s genius move at the end. I learned a lesson (one I knew) about 8th edition I will keep with me throughout the entire edition.
I ended up with 3 wins and 2 losses for the weekend and was very pleased ultimately with that record. I got to spend the weekend with some great people in our hobby.
The venue was a little cramped and the Best General scoring was a little difficult to decipher. That was resolved after turn 2 with a distributed scoring sheet which helped a ton. Some of the terrain was a little our of hand. Emerick has heard all of this from me and seems to be listening and already planning improvements for next year. When you think about Jim setting this all up from Portland, Oregon, it really was a well run show.
The weekend only proved to me that my decision to come back to the game after leaving early in 8th was justified. The people make the game great and they are 100% of the reason I came back.
