Skitterleap 2012 - Wryth's View

Last weekend I went to the Skitterleap Fantasy tournament in Wellington. I took a dual Terrorgheist list with my usual Ghoul King and friends in a Ghoul block/bus.

Here is a brief summary of the games I had.

Game 1 - Dawn Attack - Mal Patel - Lizardmen
I faced the Death of a Thousand Cuts list early on. Mal's many many chaffy units arrayed themselves across from me and his Slaan managed to take out my Ghoul King in turn 2 with a powerful Final Transmutation, rolling a 6 with the expected "take it off!" Army wide immediate crumble softened my Terrorgheists and other units up while the baby Necro took over control. In hindsight I should have sat the two gheists in the back corner for point denial but I surged them up a flank to scream some chaff. With all the poisoned attacks they didn't last long. I did manage to claw some points back though with multiple charges on skink units causing them to flee. The Wight King ended up being the last survivor of the Ghoul unit not counting the Wraiths who went on skink hunting duties. In the end it was 15-5 to Mal. A thankyou to Mal for some advice during the game, eg multiple charges on the skinks. His list can be quite difficult to deal without some pointers.

Game 2 - Blood and Glory - Hagen/Pete - Lizardmen
With another tour of Lustria underway I faced Hagen's Death of 999 cuts! With just having faced a similar list I was better prepared for this game. Hagen sat back with his Slaan and a mixed unit of skinks, Kroxigors and a pair of Scar vets while the usual skink harrasment went on. I picked away at units with the Gheists, Wraiths and magic - the ruby ring on the baby Necro was fantastic all weekend - thanks for that advice Joel. My Ghoul King block slogged across the table and in the fifth turn managed a charge on the big mixed unit crushing it in one go. Pete had taken over play at this stage as Hagen had other commitments. Apparently Lizards were not where they were supposed to be which was fine by me. Game ended with a win for the VC 15-5 to me.

Game 3 - Watchtower - Tom Dunn - Daemons
Daemons and Tom's no less had me a bit wary but it was Watchtower and I had a plan. Simple really, put the Ghouls and all the characters in the tower asap. Well suprisingly it actually worked. Tom had control of the tower but without an eligle unit to occupy it, it was left vacant. I walked my block up to it and held the Terrorgheists back sending zombies and chaff off to be a nuisance. Tom advanced both hordes of bloodletters around opposite sides of the tower while Billy the Bloodthirster neglected to come within scream range. I took out a fiend early on with the ruby ring and once I was in the tower proceeded to successfully death snipe the Khorne heralds. A Terrorgheist successfully beat some Screamers and a Bloodcrusher or was that reaper Tom ;) in combat on a flank due to thunderstomping the screamers. Tom had some very unlucky rolls for charges, his right side bloodletters failing three charges over successive turns vs zombies. The twin Gheists managed to Scream down his Tzeentch herald and Billy attacked the tower only to be fed poisonous ghouls. He declined any further assaults and with Death magic spewing Purple suns from the tower each turn he retreated to the far corner of the board. End of game with a surviving Terrorgheist on 1 wound in combat with Bloodletters I had won 14-6. I was pretty happy having held a lot of points back in the tower.

Day 2

Game 4 - Meeting Engagment - Sam Whitt - Dark Elves
With trepedation we started rolling for which units will have 'slept in' luckily for me it was simply some Zombies and bats while Sam had some Dark Riders and his Sorceress napping. With his extremely fast list lead by a Dragon riding Lord this was not a problem for him. This was to be a game which went back and forth with both sides working away on each other very evenly. With the first day pitting me against the MSU shooting Lizard lists this wasn't all that different as Sam had crammed in the maximum amount of shooting allowed, 90 shots I believe. The one saving grace of this though was the Dark Elf shots were not poisoned like thier Lustrian neighbours so Sam used a lot of shooting trying to whittle away at the Crypt Horrors. With all the shots that hit and failing to wound the Horrors would have looked like pin cushions by the end of the game. Sam did a very good job of outmaneuvering me and my zombie blocks and Wraiths mainly repositioned each turn to try and eventually net some shades or Dark Riders in. We both suffered from overzealous mages as Sam suffered miscasts 2 turns in a row killing his Sorceress with strength 6 hits and my Master Necromancer got a bit carried away with a Purple Sun(must have been all the successful casting against the Daemons) and got pulled into the Chaos wastes. This Purple sun would last the rest of the game floating about my main battleline and nicely keeping some of Sam's harder units like the Hydra at bay for an extra turn or two. With more turns of ring around the undead hordes, the generals finally clashed in the games final stages. Sam nicely charged my Ghoul bus with his Dragon Lord and Hydra after a turn in which he triple breath Weaponed them whittling down thier numbers. Sam issued challenges as this combat went on over a couple turns and the Ghoul King promptly threw in succession, the Ghast then Wight King in front of the Dark Elf Lord while he butchered the Hydra quite convincingly, though not without taking a wound in the process. Then in the very last rounds the Ghoul King after having killed the Dragon I believe went face to face with the Druchii Lord. With matched Initiatives and similtaneous dice rolls we rolled our hits, wounds and saves and with cries of entertainment our Lords managed to kill each other in the very last round! With a tally of the VPs we were only 35 points difference!(and in my favour - moral victory ;) a very well deserved 10-10 draw as it was without selling short any other opponents, one of the best games of any wargame I have played. Thanks Sam it was awesome.

Game 5 - Battleline - James Milner - High Elves
This was a very nice game to end the event on. James like Sam is on the NZTC team with Joel and myself. I also play High Elves so was familiar with the units used, however I will lament the Book of Hoeth and the many many irresistable spells that followed. James deployed well dropping Eagles and Archers while I set up mainly across from a large Elven tower complex. Opening shots had me move the Terrorgheists aggresively only to have James snipe one with Spirit Leech exploiting the horrific Leadership of the undead beasts. I certainly got a taste of my own medicine after running my Necro Death Sniper all weekend(should give him a rifle) as James used the spells to good effect. James placed winged speedbumps in the path of my Horrors and Ghoul bus and with a well timed soulblight nerfed my Crypt Horrors before unleashing the fury of the White Lion horde. Losing all the big fellas in one go hurt but I replied with the Ghoul King and co and took revenge. After a successful panic check on the Elf Mages unit which James was exceedingly thankful for, he moved them into the Elven tower and waited out the game. James won a deserved 13-7 and had some good advice for me in regards to exposing my big points Gheists to the Death magic. If I had held them bak it would have been a closer result.

In the end I finished middle of the pack and was quite pleased with that considering the caliber of opponent I faced. I played against some highly ranked players, fellow team members and... Hagen ;) - Hug?

I did not suffer any crushing defeats though failed to gain that in victory too. With some thought on the list I will drop for ghouls and get another 5 dire wolves as a drop as I felt a little lite on chaff with the Wraiths being deployed as characters. I also must practice my Terrorgheist use a lot more, knowing when to commit them or retreat as seen against Mal and James. The Ghoul King is still awesome even though he lacks in defense(everyone passed their beguile checks) though his Wight king bodyguard made a big difference with Nightshroud.

Congratulations to Joe, Mike and Wil placing in order, Sam for best painted and Bo for Sportsanship. Cheers Pete, a great event and people as always.