Two days prior to the tournament, I kinda had a thought that my only real option for coming out of the tournament with any real kind of recognition was to have a fully-painted army (since I play Ogres and would be playing against some tournament-level players), so I began painting my Butcher. I finished painting him the morning of the tournament. I think he came out pretty well.

In either case, the tournament was set to start at 11:30am, but we started at about 12 or 12:30pm since some people were supposed to be showing up.

Here is the army list I ran:

• Bruiser (Sword Gnoblar, Luck Gnoblar, Gnoblar Thiefstones x2, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor)
• Butcher (Bangstick, Dispel Scroll, Tooth Gnoblar x2)
• Bulls x3 (Additional Hand Weapon, Bellower)
• Bulls x3 (Additional Hand Weapon, Bellower)
• Ironguts x3 (Bellower)
• Ironguts x3 (Bellower)
• Gnoblar Trappers x8

997 points

The first round, I was paired versus Bill Favorite and his Orcs & Goblins. First turn saw my Bruiser + Ironguts unit shot at by bolt throwers, causing a Panic check, which they failed on an 11. One of his spell casters had a miscast and died as a result. My first turn, the Ironguts + Bruiser unit failed to rally and ran off the table. The game was not starting off well for me and I do admit to being a pretty bad sport about it. The rest of the game was my Ogres trying to make it across the table to engage his units. My second Ironguts unit was charged by Night Goblins three times and in most combats, my Ogres killed one or two in each round. Finally, the Ironguts + Butcher failed a Break test, ran, and were caught by the Goblins. In the end, he killed every model I had on the table while I managed to remove a bolt thrower or two and a Snotling Pump Wagon. Normally, I don’t like to blame losses on terrible die rolling, but in this case, it seemed the dice wanted to “put me in my place”.

Second round I got the “bye” and played Sean with his Tomb Kings. My luck had totally turned around for me in this game. The benefit of having his shooting being mostly nullified by my high-enough toughness and the fact that I felt like I was playing more tactically saw me wipe his whole army in the end. He spent several turns trying to kill off my Gnoblar Trappers with a full unit of 10 archers, but only managed to kill one or two a turn. The Chariots tried charging a unit of Bulls a few times, where I remembered that I have the option to flee. A flank charge from the Ironguts + Bruiser wiped them out. I ended up getting a pretty decent victory out of that one.

Third round, I played against one of the other players’ sister, Sarah. She was also playing Tomb Kings. I got the feeling from having watched the end of one of her games that she was a pretty new player, so I tried to make sure to be as open as possible about how the Ogres worked before we started playing. The main highlights of this game was her chariots charging some Ironguts + Butcher and having Righteous Smiting do no damage whatsoever as well as having their impact hits do very little. In the end, the Ironguts + Bitcher managed to remove the chariot from beneath the Tomb Prince, but the chariots ended up winning combat later anyway. The Bruiser + Ironguts moved down the flank along with some Bulls to wipe the unit of archers, Carrion and eventually the Screaming Skull Catapult. Another unit of Bulls wiped the second unit of archers and tried to catch the other two characters, but only managed to kill one of them.

After that, results were announced and I came in 6th place. Pretty respectable for the ol’ Ogres. I did end up winning for best painted and had 15 “points” to spend.

A very well-run and enjoyable tournament. Most everyone I played against was very friendly and I had fun playing them. I big thanks goes out to Sean for running the tournament and Games To Die For for hosting it.

The awesome thing was that Jim had shown up that morning to play 40K, which is what usually happens on Saturdays at the store. He saw we were setting up for a Warhammer Fantasy tournament and he decided to throw his Daemons in the mix. I believe he came in 8th.

I ended up with this list:

• Ogre Bulls x4 (champion)
• Gnoblar Fighters x20

My first game was against Bryan, who ran the following:

• Night Goblins w/spears x20 (champion, fanatic)
• Night Goblins w/spears x20 (champion, fanatic)

First few turns involved us getting lined up and ready to charge. He unleashed one Fanatic into my Ogres and did one wound. Later, those same Ogres charged the Night Goblins. Here, we messed something up and had the NG run away from the Ogres when they failed their Leadership check vs. the Ogres’ Cause Fear. The second unit let loose their Fanatic onto the Gnoblars, but he didn’t move far enough to touch them. The following turn the Fanatic killed himself running into a hill. The Gnoblars and NGs ended up fighting combat and the NGs ran. The Gnoblars ended up catching them and destroying the unit. A very good and quick game. We went through 8 turns or so, but it took less than about 30 minutes.

The second game was against the store manager, Jerry:

• Skaven Clanrats w/spears x25 (champion, standard, Warpfire Thrower)

Per the usual, we used the first turn to get into position. After a certain point, he stopped moving and let me come to within range of the Warpfire Thrower. First try fell short, but the second go with it killed 11 out of a possible 12 Gnoblars, which sent them fleeing. A third shot wounded an Ogre. The Clanrats moved forward a bit later to try to fight the Gnoblars, but ended up needing to face the Ogres or suffer a rear or flank charge. In close combat, the Ogres took out many Clanrats, but they kept their resolve with Insane Courage. Second round of close combat saw the Clanrats run down by the Ogres when they lost combat and fled.

Third game was against Aja, Bryan’s daughter:

Chaos Warriors x10 (full command, Mark of Tzeentch)

Aja pretty much made my army come to hers. There’s a lot about this game I don’t remember, but I do know there were a few flee rolls the Warriors made and the Ogres fell 1″ short of catching them. In the end, it came down to my Ogre champion versus her Warrior champion. The Warrior was able to win combat and make the Ogre champ flee. He fled 12″, failed his next rally, fled 11″, failed another rally and fled 12 more inches off the table. Probably the most unpredictable and fun game of WHFB I’ve had so far.

Fourth game was against Bryan’s other daughter, Clarissa:

• Dark Elf Warriors w/spears x15 (full command)
• Dark Riders x5

Clarissa also spent the first few turns making me come to her. Her Dark Riders tried to draw first blood by charging the Ogres. They caused maybe 1 wound and the Ogres smashed 3 of the 5 in return. They fled from the Ogres, but the Ogres were unable to catch them. The Gnoblars went up against the DE Warriors and were able to kill a few and a few Gnoblars fell as well. Neither unit fled, however, and eventually the Ogres charged into the Warriors flank. The Warriors fled and the Gnoblars were able to catch them.

So after a day of 200 point games, I came out with 3 wins and 1 loss. I’m surprised by this since the Ogres are supposed to be one of the least competitive armies out there. I figure when we get into bigger games, they’ll start looking less and less threatening. I look forward to throwing down 300 points at the next go-around.

JR:

• 2x Goblins w/Bows
• 4x Goblins w/Shields, Drummer, and Durburz (the Goblin King?)
• Cave Troll
• 3x Wargs

Tim:

• 3x Easterling Kataphracts
• 2x Easterlings w/Bows
• 4x Easterlings w/Shields
• Khamul, the Easterling

Me:

• 3x High Elf Regiment
• 2x High Elf Archer Regiment
• 3x High Elf Cohort
• 3x Gildor’s Household
• Ent
• Elladan
• Elrohir
• Legolas

I believe I won priority and I had them deploy first, which allowed them to also go first. They deployed with the Easterling Kataphracts on the far right followed by the Easterling Archers and then the Easterling Infantry (with Khamul). JR deployed his goblins starting to the left of the Easterlings with his big block of Goblins (with Durburz) followed by the Cave Troll, the Goblin Archers and the Wargs. I deployed Gildor’s Household opposite the Easterling Kataphracts, the Cohort (with Elladan) across from the Easterling block infantry, the Ent across from the Easterling Archers, the HE Regiment (with Elrohir) across from the Goblins with Shields and the HE Archers (with Legolas) on the far right side.

As usual, I don’t remember exact turn sequence and what happened, so I’ll summarize. JR moved his Goblin Archers into the woods for the extra defense. I moved Gildor’s Household into some woods for the same. Gildor gave his unit +1 Shoot via magic and then cast the spell to push back the Easterling cavalry back a few inches. The Wargs attempted to get close enough to the HE Archers to charge, but all died in the Shooting phase thanks to Legolas and all the shooting. Elladan was killed via Black Dart and Elrohir via a Heroic Duel with Durburz. Over the course of the game, the Elves failed about four Terror tests either through close combat or through charges. One critical failure was when the Easterling soldiers charged from the front and the Cave Troll from the flank. I rolled poorly for the Terror test with the Troll and thus, my Fight became 0. This caused me to loose way too many spearmen. The Eastrling Cavalry tried charging Gildor’s Household in the woods and managed to keep killing one or two Elves, forcing them out of the forest only to reenter it next turn and receive another charge. My rolls on magic never seemed to work out very well, so those actions were wasted for the most part.

In the end, Durburz and his formation were killed off by Legolas and the HE Archers and the HE Cohort were destroyed in the combat with the Easterlings. Gildor’s Household held out in the forest and the HE Regiment lasted until the end with a company or two left. Legolas and the HE Archers survived as well with very few casualties. I lost the Ent as well; at least he made it into combat, though. The Easterlings lost a company from their Shield unit and they lost a few from the Archer unit as well, but Tim never lost a single cavalry model.

I am really liking this game a lot. The more I play, the more I enjoy it. We found a rule or two we’d messed up in that game, so next time will be even more “correct” and probably more fun. It was nice playing WotR with folks who don’t argue about every nuance of every rule. I’m even thinking about getting a Mordor army so I can have two armies for “demos”.