Tournament after action report!

 Tournament before action report!

It was last thing at night, I'd just finished getting everything ready for the next day, when I knocked my army case off the table. Opening it up all the trays had fallen and I expected the worst, broken lances, snapped banners and missing horse tails. Turned out not to bad with only some shields, a lance and a head knocked off all easy fixes.

My Army

General of the Empire - Barded Warhorse, Twice-Blessed Armour, The White Cloak

11 Empire Knights - War Banner

Wizard Lord - Armour of Tarnus, Wizard's Staff

Captain of the Empire - Battle Standard - Icon of Morr, Sword of Might

28 Veteran State Troops - Gryphon standard 

10 Veteran State Troops

3 Demigryph Knights 

2 x 5 Empire Road Wardens 

Steam Tank

Empire War Wagon

Game 1 - Beastmen

While deploying I told my opponent about the disaster the previous night. I then instantly snapped the wizards staff and found out I'd forgotten to bring any glue. Not the best start to the day.

I was up against two blocks of primal warheard, a beast lord on a chariot with the black maul and four bray shaman backed by lots of chaff. 

I thought I had a good shot at this one. The road wardens could clear the chaff while my knights and troops went straight into the warheards and hopefully the shamen too. The army deployment was also ideal with both warheard in the centre with all four shamen the game was mine to lose, which I did. I was worried about the beast lord backed by two other chariots so set the knights against them backed by the war wagon. I had placed the wizard in with the state troops so they could benefit for his demonology spells which ment they were left to slowly walk up the field while he cast and dispelled. They did well once they got into combat but it was too late. The knights were wiped out, the steam tank and war wagon did very little and the demigryphs were vile tided off the board.

In the end I was left with two state troops so not the best start. The road wardens were off to a great start (one unit destroyed a chariot causing a razergor to flee off the field) but I was having doubts about the war wagon. If I had stuck to the plan it could have went very differently.

Game two - High Elves 

Another game where I thought I had a good shot at winning. There was a star dragon and a mage on a frost heart phoenix but I had planned on using the dragon princes impetuous against them. I was going to ignore the dragon and use the road wardens to continually pull the dragon princes around through impetuous while doing a fire and flee. The changes to impetus ment the princes were refusing to charge which ended up in a stalemate between the two units of knights. I was delaying with the state troops again so learning my lesson from game one I pushed forwards only to be changed by silver helms in the front and a frost heart in the flank. Without the gryphon standard the troops were slowly whittled down before fleeing. I really should have held back this time and blasted the frost heart off the board, it wasn't as resilient as I thought. 

In the centre my road wardens were stuck in front of the dragon princes. While this might not have been a problem to someone who knew the rules around open order and skirmish I was sadly stuck. The dragon flew around to flank the knights while the dragon princes changed the road wardens then over ran into the knights wiping them out. This was very reminiscent of the last tournament when some dragon princes went straight through my knights and demigryphs. 

The game was scored on table quarters. We each held one and another was contested when he had the higher unit strength. If I knew the rules better I'm sure the road wardens could have moved away from the dragon princes to grab the last table quarter. Something for me to look up for next time. Sadly another loss but not a big one.

Game 3 - Beastmen

Beastmen again but a very different list this time and one I was sure to beat. The list was all minotaurs and dragon ogres with the objective of holding 3 strategic points with core units.

Each flank was held by a unit of dragon ogres my right flank also had a unit of minotaurs. The centre was held by a unit of five minotaurs with a gore bull and two doom bulls one of which was a level two wizard. So how did I lose? I messed up deployment at the start placing my state troops and their detachment in a bad position I also was far to cautious of the big unit in the centre.

My demigryphs charged up the left flank causing the dragon ogres to flee then get shot down by the road wardens. This was great but I had no one to take the objective. I wasted a turn trying to manoeuvre the state troops detachment before deciding to give up the centre and steed of shadows the main unit away from the doom bulls to hold the left flank.

The knights took out the dragon ogres on the right flank and positioned themselves to charge the minotaurs in the next turn. All I needed was for the war wagon to make a four inch charge into their rear to hold them in position and do some damage. It failed meaning my knights were charged instead. They survived the first round but lost and fell back which would be fine if the war wagon could make the charge again. Which it failed.

While this was going on the detachment got to steed of shadows over to the right flank to grab the objective. The demigryphs were reduced to one model somehow and the steam tank did some damage with it's cannon to the doom bull block. It was close but I couldn't do enough to win. I may have been under scoring my objectives I'm not sure.

So what could I have done different? The state troops and detachment should have been deployed better. The whole point of the detachment is to grab objectives. That would free up my state troops to face the block of doom backed up by the steam tank (and maybe the demigryphs, I can't remember how they died). As for the right flank that was just bad luck on the dice rolls. I was thinking about pushing the war wagon forward for a certain charge but there's no glory in that. 

All in all I think this was my favourite game of the day. I love the idea of an all minotaur army and it seems like a fun monster mash list.

After after action report 

I had a good time, the store is bigger so I had room to roam around between games and people were in smaller groups rather than one big one so I wasn't so far out of place. While I never won any games I think I know why and what I could do differently but I definitely need to get better with the rules. My stand out unit(s) was the road wardens they played a big role in every game. The worst unit sadly was the war wagon. However I think it's also the unit that won me best painted which to me is better than winning a game so very happy I took it. I may never take it again though.

I'd like to change up the list a little. I need to get the gryphon painted and another unit of demigryphs should give me some more hitting power. For the next tournament though I think I should get my dwarfs finished it would be good motivation. Once both of those forces are done I'll change it up and paint some skaven. It's nice to actually have something to paint towards.

Ending as I started my wife tidied up my army case knocking loose the trays inside. One demigryph lance snapped while the other was badly bent. The wizards staff was snapped in two places, I tried pinning it but with no success. In the end it was easier to cut my losses and give him a shorter staff. The state troops also lost the top of their banner but I've no idea when that happened.

I never took any pictures, really should have. I just don't feel comfortable doing it, maybe next time.

Thanks for reading.