Horned Rat 3 was run in Wellington over the weekend and served as my final tournament hit out, not only in 7th edition in New Zealand but also for my final list before the ETC.
I took the following list (in sneaky stealth format, damn spies...):
Tomb King - Chariot, flail
Tomb Prince - Great weapon
Liche Priest - Skeletal steed
Liche Priest - Skeletal steed
21 Skeletons - Bows, full command
4 Chariots - Standard, champion
4 Chariots
8 Skeleton Light Horsemen - Champion
1 Tomb Swarm
21 Tomb Guard - Standard, champion
Tomb Scorpion
Tomb Scorpion
5 Carrion
Screaming Skull Catapult
Final lists for ETC are due out any day now so it will be interesting to see what the field is looking like. I hadn't used a King in Chariot for a while but was encouraged to give it a go before ETC and I'm finding he works really well, being able to put a lot more pressure on than when I ran him in the Tomb Guard, which suits how I play. So on to the tournament...
Game 1 vs Joel van de Ven-Long, Wood Elves
The King and his Chariot unit went a bit nuts in this game, Joel charged his Dragon Lord into my Skellie block, the King then went into the flank, taking out the Dragon and overrunning into some Wardancers. The Alter Noble decided he wanted to be involved in the combat too, which proved to be a bad idea as the Wardancers were wiped out and the Noble ran for it. Elsewhere the Treeman had ventured out of his forest where he'd been chatting to the mage, only to be run over by the Chariots as they chased the fleeing Noble. Always look both ways kids. 20-0 win.
Game 2 vs Gordon McBride, Vampires
Gordon had a super nasty Vampire list complete with Drakenhoff Knight bus, Dreadlance/Red Fury Lord and very little else. On turn 1 the Carrion started a disagreement with the Zombies and Dire Wolves screening the bus. Unfortunately for the bus and its passengers disagreements with Zombies tend to be long winded and complex affairs, suffice to say the bus never arrived at its next stop: my army. Whilst the bus was attempting to negotiate the 7 or so point turn required to avoid the pile-up, the rest of Gordon's army died (again). 17-3 win.
Game 3 vs Raymond Dick, Beastmen
This was the first time I'd played the new Beasts with TKs, and apparently 2600pts buys you a
lot of hairy, unwashed men. Again the Carrion got all excited and went charging off on turn 1 into the flank of one of Raymond's Chariots, which he had kindly arranged in a line on top of a hill (clearly wishing he could take Chariots in units too). The Carrion worked their way along the line, finally reaching the Shaman on the end, which turned out to be a waste of time since he fried his brain and forgot how to be a wizard anyway. From there it was TKs vs 2 dispel dice funtimes, with only a slight hitch when a Scorpion discovered just
how many attacks the Doombull got. Needless to say Mr. Doombull couldn't find anyone to play with him after that, as they were too busy killing his mates. 20-0 win.
Game 4 vs Joe Dixon, Warriors
Joe and I were well ahead on battle points at this stage so I took this as the perfect opportunity to practice playing a draw (that and the WoC matchup scares the crap out of me). Joe stacked all of his units on one side of the board, apparently deciding that's where I was planning to deploy. So naturally I hid all my units in the far corner behind a building. The rest of the game consisted of me firing catapult shots across the board as Joe's army, deciding it was not likely to reach me in 10 turns, never mind 6, went and hit in a 12" square behind a hill. Yay ETC hammer... 11-9 win.
Game 5 vs Reid Pittams, Orcs and Goblins
Reid's Orcs had been steadily climbing the leaderboard and again I encountered just how much stuff you get in 2600pts, and just how quickly it disappears when it has to take a few panic tests... My Tomb Swarm popped up on turn 2 and munched its way through 4 Spear Chukkas, while the Chariots took full advantage of ItP skirmishing Squig Hoppers and tactical wheeling to kill everything around the Orc general's unit that wasn't the Orc general's unit. Then they killed the Orc general's unit. Elsewhere a unit of fleeing Spiders told all 3 units of Night Goblins that the bad men would get them if they didn't flee off the table. Which they did. 20-0 win.
So a successful weekend for me, Joe also got a 20-0 last round, so we finally finished 1 and 2 at a tournament, which we've been aiming for for a while.
So now it's onward to Germany... 19 days to go...
