The Dice Decide: CTA 2014 Day 2

Day 2 of CTA was a day applying learnt lessons and the Dice deciding against me. As will become clear by the end of this post the dice were against me for the final two games, which was a shame because I needed 29 points to get 50 across all 5 games, achieving my goal of coming middle of the pack.

Game 4: Blood and Glory 

Game 4 was against Thomas Lissington and his undead Hordes. The game started well with casualties being dished out to the undead in huge numbers. My archers took a toll on his Dire Wold units and by turn 2 they were all gone with the big unit of 20 being squished by the Treekin. The Blood Knights suffered badly at the hands of the Waywatchers and would have died if not for the Banner of the Blood Keep’s 4+ ward save. By end of Turn 2 things were going well, all the Dire Wolves were gone, the Terrorgheist was tied up chasing some scouts who danced around pulling faces at it, his Blood Knights were down to 2 knights plus the BSB and his Ghoul unit as stuck in the dangerous terrain in the centre of the board. On top of that my units had begun to pull around the sides of his remain units in order to deny charges whilst stilling shooting said units.

Midgame saw things go a bit awry, with the BSB and his unit falling to the Abyssal Terror and Vampire riding it. The Bloodknights began to pull away from my troops which, at this point, had finished manoeuvring and pulled in right behind the Knights. The Terrorgheist got board of doing nothing (it screamed at the LD 10 Eternal Guard and had been turned in circles by the dancing scouts) and began to move towards my forces. It was the magic phase where the most damage was done with Thomas’s Vampire General Miscasting and doing a wound and my Mage General using Arcane Unforging on him, knocking a wound off and removing the Nightshroud (but crucially not the Talisman of Preservation). And the it all went to pot, during the shooting phase of the 4th turn Thomas’s Vamprie made 3 4+ ward saves to prevent him from dying, this irked me but didn’t deter me, by this stage he was on his own and staring down about 17 Wood Elf archers, 11 of whom were Waywatchers. 

 Endgame was when things all went wrong, allow me to paint a picture of the situation. On my left flank I had the Treekin, two units of Waywatchers, Waystalker, a unit of 7 Glade Guard and a unit of 10 scouts as well as my Death and High Mages. On my Right flank I had the Eternal Guard and 10 Scouts who were out of harms way (The Eternal Guard had beaten some wolves up earlier and had been hiding behind a hill since). Facing down the left flank arrow line was a Vampire General on one wound with a 3+ armour save and a 4+ ward save as well as the rear end of the last 3 Blood Knights (vampire magic had bought some back) and BSB. During the course of those last 2 turns the Vampire General had to make about 15 4+ ward saves and passed them all. And then to make matters worse (or to make the game a 12-8 in Thomas’s favour) he wiped out 3 fleeing Wood Elf units that had just fled the remaining Blood Knights and Terrorgheist in order to conserve points, bugger! All in all it was a 12-8 to Thomas who must have had exceptional reverses of luck.

Game 5: Battle Line
Game 5 was against Kent Jackson and his undead Horde (the only type of undead). Things got off to a flying start, with the Cairn Wraiths and Tomb Banshee being HOADed out of existence. Things looked even better when, in Kent’s turn 2 a large skeleton Block and the Hexwraiths charged the Eternal Guard (the BSB and Shadowdancer where there also), the Hexwraiths fluffed their attacks and the Skeletons did what little damage they could. In response my Shadowdancer denied the enemy rack bonus for combat rez and then he, the BSB and the Eternal Guard proceeded to dish out a huge amount of damage resulting in the Hexwraiths and about 10 skeletons (from a 40 skeleton unit) popping out of existence, yaay Wood Elves. Elsewhere Kent’s lines advanced and my lines gave volley after volley of arrows to little effect. 

 

Midgame saw the Treekin Charge a unit of Dire wolves who had been positioned so that if they were wiped out would allow the Treekin to over run into the Grave guard and Vampire, the Treekn dully wiped out the Dire Wolves and over run into the Grave Guard whom they smashed into pieces (but fatally didn’t finish off). Kent got some points as well with charges against two of my Glade Guard units (killing both), the Scouts, Waywatchers and Mage all danced around the undead whilst throwing magic/shooting at them. At this stage the Coven throne had been shot down to one wound (the Vampire on board had been sniped off by the Waystalker). The Eternal Guard managed to finish off the skeleton block it was facing and turned to face the Grave Guard who had, after not being wiped out by the Treekin had reformed, regrown and won the latest combat causing the Treekin to flee, turned to face them. 

Endgame was when it all went wrong (again). Firstly the Eternal Guard were charged by the Grave Guard, and although the Eternal Guard did outnumber the Grave Guard they were eventually wiped out. During that fight my Mage General decided to cast Hand of Glory on the Eternal Guard (I cant recall why….) double 6ed it, rolled dimensional cascade and rolled a 3, thus sucking 405 VPs down a hole, bugger. To add icing to the cake I lost the last of the Glade Guard and 5 Waywatchers but did finally manage to kill the Coven Throne. In the end it was a 12-8 to Kent. 

So that was my CTA 2014 report, in the end I got 20th place (out of 26), so I didn’t manage to reach my goal however I did learn a lot about my army in terms of movement and how to move my units, so whilst I didn’t get the placing I wanted I did have fun and learn a bit so all in all it was a good weekend.

My next event will be Skitterleap on October 25/26. This time the list size is 2000 points and I can sum up the army I have planned in two words, Scouts and Fast Cavalry (so Glade Rider, Wild Riders, Scouts and Waywatchers). With such a long period of time in between then and now the list may change but it is unlikely, hopefully it will do well. Until next time.

Rex