What Christmast Peace proved to be one of my most enjoyable tournaments ever. Designing army I had following goals. 1) be fluffy. 2) be large. 3) fun for both me and hopefully to opponent. This resulted in following army list:
Khaldor - Exalted Champpion of Chaos Undivined - Great weapon, barded steed
Bray Shaman - 2 dispel scrolls
6 chosen knights of khorne - full command
12 chaos warriors of khorne - halberd, shield, standard, champpion
2x20 marauder - great weapon, full command
2x5 marauder horsemen - flail, musician
2x5 chaos hound
2xchaos charriot of undivined
6xcentigor - spear, shield, full command
6xgor - foe render, additional hand weapon + 7xungor
tusgor charriot
102 models, plenty of variation and all kinds of units. Overall comments on army were very positive. Large, fluffy, unusual and interesting were all comments I heard from it. Overall I call it success, for it fulfilled my goals.
All games would be pitched battles. First up. Vampire counts.
GAME 1:
First thing I noticed when I looked at models were 2 units of 10 black knights...VERY unusual. In finland summon hordes with plenty of skeletons and zombies is FAR more common(and was the norm for most of VC armies). Second suprise was blood dragon vampire count. VC army with vampire is also extremely rare sight. Master necromancer + 3xnecromancer being norm. Apart from these he had trio of necromancers(book of archan, black periapt, couple dispel scrolls), ~15 skeletons, 3 unit of 5 direwolves, some 6-7 ghouls, 4 fellbat and 2 spirit hosts. I could instantly see that I would enjoy more of this game than I have enjoyed other games against VC's.
Notable terrain features were hill with some pillars and stones(we agreed hills counted as forrests apart from giving high ground bonus) on my center and on center-left. He had black knights with count and 2 unit of direwolves on left, ghouls behind center-left hill, skeletons, black knights, wolves and hosts. Fellbats furthest to right. Necro's all started in skeletons. My deployment ended up with hound, horsmen, centigor(screening knights) and warrior charriot on left, then marauders, beast charriot, beastherd(and shaman) in hill on my center, charriot, horsemen screening warriors, hounds front of marauder block and general. Opponent won first turn.
He advanced and rose some new skeletons, including new unit on right. Not much else. On my turn centigors frenzied so charged one direwolf block and wiped them out and pursued offboard. Elsewhere I kept advancing.
Direwolf block on left charged hounds and I declared flee and ran to safety. Black knights manouvered behind hounds. Fellbats fell behind my lines, ensuring that beastherd couldn't see them. Magic ineffective again.
My turn and knights + charriot charged the hounds at front. Centigors went to edge in order to not screw their overrun into black knights. Chaos warriors(frenzy) and general(I misjudged the LOS of spirit hosts) charged final direwolf block. In combat both direwolf units were wiped out. Chaos warriors overran little enough. It was at this point I noticed that my general was still in sight of spirit hosts. Thus I was forced to overrun as well. Praying for low roll I rolled 14" and ended up front of 10 black knights...Ooops! Knights and charriot overran into black knights with vampire.
His turn. Fellbats into flank of horsemen, black knights into general. I desperatly declare flee but got overran and knights hit chaos warriors in process. I wasn't too concerned(I had deployed in 4x3 formation and hoped they would hold one turn for charriot to come help them). Untill magic phase saw irresistable van hel's that saw raised unit slam into flank! AAAAARGH! In combat he caused no casualties, I killed 2 skeletons(3 khorne warriors can't kill more than 2 skeletons...D'oh!) and autobroke. This panicked beastherd(with shaman in it!). Things didn't got much better when knights + charriot only killed 1 black knight...I lost 3(including champpion in challenge) in return and ran away. This panicked centigor's offboard. Argh!
I put hound unit(that had rallied earlier) front of black knights on left. On center I saw ray of light. He had got careless with necromancers! Charriot charged straight in killing one and running into second. Hurah! This I definetly needed as beastherd failed to rally and took shaman(with 2 unused dispel scrolls!) with them. Knights rallied...
...Only to be forced to flee when count charged alone them. Alas flee roll was too great and they ran offboard. Black Knights in center wheeled around while skeleton unit(the one that he hadn't created) charged marauders. In magic he van helled skeletons into marauders and ran them down. D'oh! Fellbats also managed to get rid of horsemen(yeah it took them that long. I was actually winning by 1 all the time
). Atleast other marauder unit managed to draw combat...Which was good because......5 horsemen hit the flank of said marauders. Meanwhile on left the freshly rallied charriot charged the left black knights(out of desperation I admit). Combats themselves went well enough. Charriot smashed enough apart(5) that after combat was all well and done he had only 3 black knights alive. Hurah! Skeletons were fiddled down to only 2 ranks. Hurah! However there were black knights on their way.
So black knights charge the rear of horsemen. It was at this point my dices decided to give me failed panic check precicely when I needed it and horsemens legged into safety leaving black knights stranded. I also managed to stop van hel from taking them into combat either
This saw death of skeletons(marauders got into mood of chopping). Didn't look too good for remaining ones though as 10 black knights were next to them. Elsewhere charriot lost and ran though managed to kill 1 black knight more.Time for more charriot goodines. Warrior charriot that had killed 2 necromancers made another desperate charge, against the fresh black knight unit. Tusgor charriot charged the remaining 2 black knights. In combat phase tusgor charriot killed it's opposion while warrior charriot killed 4 more and won combat by 1. Not quite below half strenght but marauders were saved!
In his last turn he broke the charriot and that's it. I just rallied the charriot. Charriot's had definetly saved me and were still alive
Still after all was calculated it was solid loss. But atleast I hadn't suffered massacre defeat at the first battle. Hurah for that!
GAME 2:
I face...Empire. Empire with steam tank to be precice. Empire with steam tank, 2 cannons and 2 mortar's to be even more specific. Rest of stuff were 2 lvl 1 mages, elector count standing in swordmen block with griffon banner, captain with spearmen, 2 unit of 10 handgunners, 2 free company detachements(for combat units) and 6 non-IC knights(maybe with warbanner. Not sure anymore). Also some free companies.
I managed to get deployment zone with BIG hill near to it at center. Hurah! This would give some LOS savings. Anyway he had mortar on far left, then some handgunners, cannon, mortar, swordmen, handgunners in difficult terrain, spearmen, THE tank, knights and cannon. Huntsmen scouted behind hill at center.
I deployed with all horsemen, all charriots, warriors and unit of hounds at left, at center behind hill were beastherd(with shaman, again), general and knights, gap and then centigors screening marauders and hounds screening marauders.
I managed to get first turn. Hurah!
So. I advance centigors ASAP forward, knights and general follow with less speed. Rest of army advances as well. Horsemen unit threatening cannon.
He responds by charging centigors with tank AND knights. I obviously flee. Combat units edge forward a bit. Shooting. Maraudr horsemen unit that threatens the cannon driven off with mortar fire and little else is done par that.
Now came extremely important events. General(front) and knights(into flank) charged steam tank. That thing HAS to die. Charriots keep advancing toward swordmen. Another horsemen block moves to threaten cannon. Combat. General does ONE hull point to the tank. ONE. With 4 S7 attacks. At this point I was getting _bad_ feelings. Luckily knights did whopping 13 points more with their lovely 19 S5 attacks. Hurah!
In his turn knights charged hounds which held. Steam tank turned and recharged the knights while spearmen charged into flank. Not much else. In shooting accurate mortar shell blew horsemen unit(all of them) and this saw beast charriot running in panic. Ouch! In combat tank killed 1 knight, spears killed 1 knight and with him having CR8 vs my 1 I thought I was screwed. Untill 3 knights in contact(not champpion) caused ANOTHER 13 hull point, thus blowing the tank and winning combat pretty decisively. Spears broke(panicked detachment in the process) and knights ran them down. Hurah! His knights killed hounds and overran. Marauder units both panicked at the sight of hounds dying and ran away. What a turn.
Turn 3. Marauders rally, warrior charriots charge swordmen and knights charge mage. Warriors advance toward cannon(I'm gonna get it!). Combat. Knights kill mage and overrun and sends fleeing detachement offboard and follows them there. Charriot impact hits do very little(something like 4 casualties) and I think I'm screwed(especially as detachment had charged into side=+1CR) but then horses and crew kill another 6. Hurah! However he responds by wounding charriot 3 times...He had CR12, I had 10...ARGH! Intact charriot ran away.
His turn. Charged into marauders with knights(welcome). Not much else. In shooting phase handgunners on left(10) fired into warriors...And killed 6 of them. Whoooa! 6 hits, 6 wounds, no saves...Ouch! In combat charriot ran away. Knight charge itself didn't went well for empire player. He killed few marauders(not the champpion in challenge though. Infact knight champpion nearly got beheaded
) and I held. Hurah!Time for counter charges. Warriors into cannon, they opted to flee. Marauder block into flank of knights. General also charged central handgunners and broke them. Centigors prepare for rear charge. Fleeing charriots rally. In combat phase no knights fell, few marauders died and I won but they held on.
His 4th. Handgunners dropped more warriors, leaving only 2 alive. Cannon at right tried to grapeshot chaos knights at right but failed to kill any. Mortar shot blew out wounded charriot(straight hit. Darn!). In combat phase he killed quite a few marauders and I killed knight. I lost combat but both units held(especially important that the big unit held).
5th turn. Centigors to rear of empire knights, warriors into handgunners, beastherd into swordmen detachment(who fled). Charriot and general prepare to charge swordmen. Combat. Warriors break the handgunners though lose 1 in process. Centigor's killed knight, marauders killed another, his attacks were feeble and he ran away and I pursued them down. Hurah!
His 5th. Can't remember much except swordmen charged beastherd that fled. Also I somehow lost the charriot(might have failed panic check next turn from nearby beastherd though). Final warrior also fell to mortar shell.
My 6th. Beastherd failed to rally, taking beast shaman with them AGAIN and general charged detachment breaking them easily. Game practically over. In his final turn nothing important happened.
Result was solid victory to chaos...Thanks to steam tank. I would never, EVER could have imagined winning a game thanks to opponent's steam tank...Never again will I fear it again, especially with chaos. As with everything else in FB it's just matter of right tool at the right time.
GAME 3:
This time I would face beastmen army. His army had beastlord with +1 to hit sword in charriot, wargor with +1A sword, beastshaman and aspiring champpion of tzeentch with army standard in chaos steed. Also 4 chosen chaos knights of tzeentch with warbanner, 18 or so strong beastherd, tusgor charriot, 5 furies, 3 dragon ogres, shaggoth with additional hw and 10 khorne chosen warrior with shield.
He put his dragon ogres and shaggoth(in unit, mistake I only realised later in game. During the game I was too occupied on figuring HOW I deal with unit) on left along the lord, gap due to hill with some ruins(ruins had clear path that had width of charriot). Then knights + ASB, khorne warriors, furies behind forrest and far right charriot. Beastherd(along wargor) ambushed.
I had horsemen screening tusgor charriot, warrior charriot and general. Then centigors, hounds, warrior charriot and horsemen front of marauders, knights(part of frontage behind horsemen to ensure no forced charges), beastherd front of marauders, warriors and hounds.
I won first turn and advanced at once. Horsemen on left went to tempt the dragon ogres to charge. Rest of army set up to welcome the enemy if they come forward. And forward they came. Dragon ogres charged horsemen that opted to flee. Furies charged horsemen(they had barely the sight. I slapped myself for not noticing the slight gap they had). Charriots and knights shuffled around and charriot came forward. In magic phase not much happened. Might have used scroll. In combat phase furies killed 2 horsemen and remaining 3 horsemen and horses killed 4 furies. Remaining one went poof. Hurah!
Centigor's frenzied and knowing there wasn't much of a point delaying it warrior charriot, tusgor charriot and general all charged together with centigors to mighty dragon ogre unit. URAAAAAA!!! Horsemen that had killed furies set up front of khorne warriors and knights arranged flank charge to his warriors once they charge horsemens. Wolves went front of knights to ensure his knights won't charge mine. Warrior charriot went between my knights and hounds as if his general charges hounds as well he could overrun into flank of my knights. Better one less charriot than flank charged knights. Hounds on right tempted charriot to charge mine. Combat. On left I cause whopping _11_ wounds. His shaggoth allocates 4 attacks to general and 2 to centigors. And misses with everything. Dragon ogre(with great weapon) tries to hit all he can, centigors, and hits once killing the poor centigor. I won combat 13-1 and thus autobroke unit. With general pursuing 17" and centigors 16" it wasn't much of suprise when he failed to outrun me
His turn. Knight+general into hounds, charriot into second hound unit, warriors to horsemen who opted to flee. Beastherd came from my right. Magic, not much. H2h. Hounds all died. His general overran into charriot while knights managed to overrun into flank of my horsemen(ooops!). His charriot on right overran front of my warriors. Mwahahahaha.
Now one of my 2 dumbest decisions in this game. Marauders on left charged flank of his knights. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB! On right khorne warriors charged charriot that opted to flee. My knights charged flank of his warriors. General and charriots came toward center again, centigors stayed still(figured I didn't desperatly need them and decided to hold the quarter). In combat phase knights won combat but he held. Damn his 2+ save. On left charging marauders killed 2 knights and wounded army standard in challenge(yea!) but as he had charged into flank of horsemen he raked enough CR to beat me handily. I broke and was run down(and horsemens were no more). Wouldn't have helped much even if I had passed as his general ran over my charriot which panicked marauders(we rolled for it in case we forget it as we rolled that combat before). ARGH!
His knights + charriot + beastherd charged my beastherd. I opted to flee. Beastherd redirected into marauder unit there. Now the second dumb decision. I opted to hold. I was atleast 7" from him so flee would have been damn safe and indefinetly preferable to holding. But I held. Damn. Concidering number of times I have used marauders I should already know what they are cabable of. Facing wargor with extra attack and 18 or so strong beastherd in rear is not it. To add insult to injury my beastherd rolled low and died. 3rd time in row I put shaman in there and 3rd time in row I lose him because of that. His charriot failed to rally and ran offboard. Combat. Knights broke his warriors with ease and ran them down. Marauders broke after suffering ~10 casualties and were ran down.
My 4th turn. Uneventfull. Knights turned around to face beastherd. His 4th turn. General and knights prepare to charge my warrriors. Beastherd moves to side of my knights. We would play this game all game. I turn around, he passes unruly test and moves elsewhere.
His 4th turn. General+knights charge my reformed khorne warriors(4x3) who opt to use hw+shield. Poor show of armour save rolling and they ran and were run down. He also killed my general in magic phase with creeping death.
Rest of game was uneventfull. He just secured that I would get no quarter and took one himself. He had 3 banners vs my 1 and had got my general. Thus despite getting shaggoth, dragon ogres and his expensive chaos warrior unit I had solid loss. Despite knights being intact. One of the most bizare outcomes I have ever got.
That was day 1.
GAME 4:
This time I would face high elves. Pretty fair high elves top of that. No seer council, no quad bolt throwers. His army was composed by prince with 2+ save, 5+ ward save, S5. Then 3 lvl 2 mages with both bound spells, atleast 2 dispel scrolls, jewel of dusk. 10 archers, 2 unit of 20 spearmen(other had warbanner), 9 silver helms, charriot, 2 RBT, 2 eagles.
Important terrain features were difficult ground on his DZ, pyramid on his right(my POV) but slightly out of DZ, forrest(yeah. Bizare terrains. Though pyramid wasn't desert pyramid but rather grey. Seems more of 40k necron terrain feature) on center and another in his left.
He put charriot + helms and princes left of his forrest + eagle, then on other side RBT, spearblock, RBT, eagle, mage(heaven 1 and 4) in difficult ground, archers, mage(high magic 4 and 6) behind archers, spearblock and mage(life 3 and 6...Stinky roll if you ask me) behind pyramid.
I had horsemen on left, hounds screening warrior charriot and tusgor charriot, general, beastherd(NOT beastshaman this time), centigors front of warrior charriot and knights(again only slightly front of knights to ensure they had sight if they want to charge), hounds(slightly front of knights again), horsemen front of marauders, warriors and marauders. Beastshaman behind right marauders(away from his heaven mage).
I won the first turn(hurah!). Advanced on left with horsemen and hounds to draw his knights. Charriots + general followed(not much of a suble manouvering there but it serves it's purposes. I'm not in hurry with knights, I just don't want them running rampart). Beastherd ran to central forrest. Knights ran forward.
His turn. Charriot charges my horsemen on left, I flee. Eagle on center charges hounds front of my knights. Spear blocks shufles bit forward. Knights don't charge and move forward instead. Magic. 2 dispel scrolls gone. 1 stopping uranon's thunderbolt(casting roll of 14 or so) and other went to ring of corin I failed to dispel with 1 dice. Ah well. Shooting. Horsemen block at right pasted by shooting. This panics the hounds in combat with eagle. He also panicked centigors after killing trio of them(might have been in magic phase though).
My 2nd. Knights charge spearmen and draw the RBT into combat as well. Annoyingly only 3 knights(not even champpion included) contacted spearmen. Bummer. Beastherd rushed forward(damn unruly) next to his knights. Hound unit(2 remaining hounds that is) moved front of his knights as well. General + 2 charriot nearby aligned themselves as well. If he doesn't charge I can atleast charge with 1 charriot and general. If he charges hounds all charges. Does he want to risk it or not? Warriors kept advancing toward second spear block. In combat phase knights killed RBT crew and 6 or so spearmen(yea!). Return attacks killed a knight though...Ouch!
His 2nd. Knights charges wolves and would get beastherd as well but herd declared flee. Charriot re-charged horsemen that fled again. His spearmen on right refuse to charge my warriors(suprise suprise...Or not). Eagles flew behind my right half of army. In magic phase I let uranon's thunderbolt at knights(which hadn't made it offboard, quite). Risk ended up pricy as 2 knights fell. I tried to stop howler's wind that would prevent my warriors from charging his spearmen(that's why I let bolt go. Figured I need warrior charge more than knights now) but true to style I rolled 1 short. Bummer. Atleast I managed to stop the second sign but it was to no avail when in shooting phase RBT #2 shot into flank of knights and didn't need reroll to kill the remaining 3 knights. Darn! In combat knights killed hounds and overran(he figured I was in range anyway) and was satisfied after doing that when I pointed out that he just avoided third charriot from charging in as well.
3rd turn. General + 2 charriots into his knights. Beastherd rallied, horsemen didn't. Warriors head toward spearmen, again, and marauder unit #1 head toward archers. In magic I dispelled the howler's wind. In combat phase charriots drop 2 knights with 12 impact hits, crew's and steeds do nothing. Only saving grace was exalted champpion who lashed out and caused 2 wounds to prince for no harm in return. Hurah! I won combat but only by 1 and he held.
His 3rd. Not much movement. Magic. 3 rerolls were gained. Howler's wind stopped. 7 marauders from unit threatening archers were killed with combination of magic and shooting(used 1 reroll to try to get more hits with fury of khaine). 3 chaos warriors fell as well(this drained 1 reroll). In combat phase charriots do very little, don't suffer harm back. His prince fails to do anything to my general and general hit, wounded and got past saves with all 4 attacks. This was enough to break the helm morale and I ran them down. Warrior charriot took the banner.
4th turn. General turns around. Warrior charriot heads to left and turns around. Tusgor charriot charges RBT, crew opted to flee. Beastherd moves north-left. Warriors charge spearmen, marauders charge archers. Other block turned around to look at eagle. 5 hounds move front of eagle. Combat. Marauders scythe through archers with ease, run them down(constant theme with pursuing. He rolled better than average, I matched it with same distance). Spearmen suffer the same fate(WAAARGH!). Game is pretty much in my bag now.
His 4th. Eagle charges the hounds. Charriot tries to charge warrior charriot, I opt to flee(this sparked question did the charriot lose the captured standard. Quick check with rulebook showed that it didn't). In combat phase eagle killed 2 hounds but hounds miraculously held!
5th turn. General into his charriot, he fled(no suprises). Marauder block #2 charged rear of eagle, panic check passed(hurah!). Warrior charriot rallied. Beastherd moved to surround his mage in forrest(literally surround. He was inside small sphere). In combat eagle suffered 2 wounds, killed 2 hounds more and broke. Remaining hound catched him. This panicked second eagle(that had played cat and mouse game with my beast shaman) which ran offboard(thank god. He could have charged my poor little shaman next turn and I wasn't confident that he could handle himself).
His 5th. He tried to kill beastherd in magic but I used my dispel dices to stop it(no way I'm gonna let them die!).
6th turn. General into charriot, he accepts the charge and prays for miracle(table edge closeby). Beastherd into mage that held(obviously. Even 12 wouldn't have been enough to get into safety). Combat. Charriot smashed apart. Mage challenges my foe-render that accepts and wounds mage once. Elf mage held!
He just cast 3 rerolls for him and tried to fry my general with uranon's thunderbolt(that I stopped). In combat phase he tried to use those rerolls to kill the foe render but failed. In return foe render...Failed to kill the elf. Darn! I feared I might not get those points after all but he failed his -3 break test(phew). Game over.
This time I got beatifull massacre victory...Margin was 1210 pts in my favour...And there was single hound remaining that was worth 15 pts...Phew!
After this judges judged the painting. During this longer-than-usual break one of organisers came to say how much my painting level had improved. This was definetly THE high point of tournament for me. I'm used of getting around 9, maybe 10, for painting. Maybe I even get 12-14 this time. Hurah!
GAME 5:
Another high elf army. Prince with armour of gods and swordmaster skill, army standard with battle banner, 2 lvl 2 mages, 10 archers, 19(20?) spearmen, 15 or so swordmasters, 6 silver helm with champpion, 2 charriots, 2 eagles, RBT(only one RBT. Odd). Important terrain features were hill on center(out of his DZ), forrest in my center and the orc village on his right. He put charriots and helms on left, then archers, eagles behind hill, spearmen with ASB, swordmasters with prince, RBT in village.
My biggest mistake in deployment was being overly concerned about his knights and charriots. So I put horsemens and centigors there, leaving only 2 hound unit to watch for knights. With general and warrior charriot on left too(and one marauder block) that was bloody lot of stuff there. And with general's LD away hounds were vulnerable on LD side. Not good thing when you want to avoid getting drawn away with knights. Also I screwed up with warrior deployment, putting them tad too left. Beastherd deployed behind forrest WITH the beastshaman(he had uranon's thunderbolt, master of stone and master of forrest. I figured he would die if he was alone). Tusgor charriot was at right side of knights next to forrest. Marauder unit and warrior charriot were on right.
This time I didn't get first turn(looked promising though after rolling 5. But he rolled 6). So he come forward with eagles. Cautious advance with cavalry blocks. In magic he caused 2 wounds to tusgor charriot with master of forrest. RBT drove of hound unit. Archers dropped 3 horsemen.
I tried to get rid of eagles by charging one with tusgor charriot(he fled) and other with fresh hound unit(he held). On left marauder unit boldly moved forward to draw him to charge them. Charriot and general prepared to take advantage of that. Centigors headed toward right. Knights face the elf infantry. In combat phase I got slap in face with eagle driving hounds off easily. Disasterously this panicked the beastherd that fled too little...
His 2nd. Eagle charged down the beastherd(4th time in tournament I lose shaman because he's in unit. NEVER EVER do that again). On left knights + charriots charge marauders. I declare flee and...Roll mere 4" and am run down. Instead of his attack forces being in front of me they were now at my side out of LOS...Bummer. In magic he blew tusgor charriot with another master of forrest. In shooting phase tried to get my general but failed.
My 2nd. Knights declare charge into swordmaster. I was praying he would hold but he fled(darn. Smart move for him but still darn.). Centigors move to flank the spearmen. Hound unit move around there too. General and charriot turn around. 2 horsemen turn around to look at knights as well.
His 3rd. I was praying again that his spearmen would risk to charge my knights but again he played it smart(where oh where horsemen were...Oh trying to be usefull against meage 6 standardless knights and 2 charriots...Argh!) and eagle flew front of knights so that I'm forced to align in a way that flank is exposed to rallied swordmaster unit...Another eagle repeated the trick with centigors...Though atleast that proved to be wasted effort when master of stone killed entire unit panicking the hounds. Sigh. On left Knights and charriots turned around.
My 3rd. Knights into eagle, he obviously held. On left charriot charged his charriot(which opted to hold as edge was next to him) and general + unit of 2 horsemen charged flank of his knights. In combat phase my knights fail to kill the eagle(not that it mattered much) and failed to catch him in pursuit. On left general killed ONE knight, horsemen did nothing and I actually lost(outnumber + higher ground vs 1 casualty). Luckily both passed break test. Atleast charriot ran elven counterpart easily down and pursued offboard.
His 4th. Swordmasters into flank of knights(bye bye. I was only hoping I would lose max 3 of them and then run away into safety and then try to get them somewhere safe and deny points). Charriot charged my general. Fleeing eagle rallied and other flew to drew chaos warriors(I hate eagles...Well except I'm not the one using them
). He also killed horsemen block(5 strong) that had tried to threaten his archers. In combat phase his charriot killed my general with impact hits(darn) and prince + swordmasters killed 5 knights and rest ran. He ran into marauders.My 4th. Only hope was to charge flank of his general with warrior charriot and hope like hell I cause enough damage to break them. So that's what I did and that's what failed. 2 dead swordmaster and my units were running and marauders ran down. At this point I offered surrender. I had got 1 dead knight, few dead swordmaster(not even close of half of them) and I had practically entire army dead. No way I could avoid massacre defeat.
Ah well. I would have liked to get atleast minor loss if not better to get half battle points but it was not to be. However bonus points suprised me. 14/15 fair play(generally bit over 12 is standard) and _17_ painting. I nearly doubled my usual score there. Damn I was happy about that. One of my friend got bit better painting score and perfect fair play score(only one in tournament to do that) and with those ended up in same total score as I despite less battle points. Other 2 friends with their dragon armies ended up in top 10. One of them with painting score that was one of the highest ones(26 was highest that was given, he had 24). Tournament was won by VC army. Mostly by battle score. He had battle score 84 vs 74 from 2nd place and still only 1.5 pts separated them. Then empire, another VC, beastmen/VC(same score), dark elf, friend's tzeentch dragon chaos, dark elf, friend's dragon high elves and another high elf army.
Highlights of tournament for me were:
1) improved bonus scores, painting in particular.
2) getting to say that I won a game because of opponent's steam tank. That's a phrase I never thought I would get chance to say
3) 4 great games and 1 OK game. Splendid fun and resulted in best tournament I have so far had.
4) Having tremendous luck regarding whom I got to play. Okay I didn't get to play the orcs&goblin army(only one in tournament too...) but apart from these I got very fair armies. Concidering what kind of armies were around I can concider myself very lucky. In particular round 5 where not one but TWO dragon armies were at same point amount. 2 that I know of anyway. Might have been more. Luckily they ended up facing each other(dark elf vs high elf civil war).
Can't wait next one.
But, not my problem actually. The picks could have been better placed, somewhere between the text, maybe? It was pretty difficult for me to find the right picture for the right part of the battle. Think of making the report easier to follow if you're really going to take and publish this in any other forums. But in any case, overrall very nice work. I'd love to read more like this, about series of games in a tournament or something. In a map campaing, perhaps? 
