Two day tournament

 After attending 3 tournaments I finally got a win! My first game was against a quiet nasty double dragon high elf list which also included a frostheart phoenix. It didn't look good for my little dwarf army going into this one but I was able to pull out a win. Well the high elf player pulled out of the tournament last minute. I fought the ringer army played by someone who seemed to know the rules as well as I do. It was dwarf on dwarf action which I was able to win by skillfully having more scoring units than my opponent. I went into this determined to win one game which I did, in the most unsatisfactory way possible.

The second battle was against a quiet nasty double dragon high elf list. At this point it's worth pointing out that there was only 6 other people at the tournament. 3, including this guy, were in team Scotland, 2 were regular tournament players and the last guy used to play competitive 40k. I'm mostly there to look at the minis. I had a plan going into this which resulted in a dragon going through my gyrocopter into the back lines to take out my war machines. I lost badly. The rune lord did manage to fight off 5 dragon princess though so I was happy about that and no longer fear them.

The third battle was against a troll hoard run by the head of team Scotland. My king, with the help of the warriors and rune lord were able to wipe out the big troll unit before being changed in the rear and fleeing. In preparation for this a long line of goblins had been placed so the unit had to flee half the length of the table and into oblivion. Im not a tournament player and this kind of thing is the reason why. My rangers, easily the best unit in the army, were able to kill the troll hag. By carefully positioning my gyrocopter a unit of boar boys was able to slingshot into my back lines and wipe out my war machines. I lost badly. The boar boys were converted though and looked really good. She had the old metal savage orcs riding spiders, a really good looking army that won best painted, beating me by one point. I should have taken some pictures of the army's they were all really nice.

End of day one. It's at this point I realised I don't like two days tournaments.

Game four was against an empire army of nuln. I know the empire and thought I had a good shot at this even against 3 great cannons and a gryphon. The objectives were king of the hill (score points every turn you hold the hill in the middle of the table) and baggage train (protect yours and destroy there's). Two units of state troops got to the hill before me which I expected but what I didn't expect was how poorly my dwarfs would do in combat. I just couldn't take the hill but to be fair there was a steam tank involved. I had left the iron breakers protecting my baggage train from the gryphon. It seemed like a good idea but he just ignored it and changed into the flank of the kings unit. I have no doubt that my king had a good shot at taking out the gryphon unfortunately I put the rune lord in the unit giving them flaming attacks. His general had the white cloak giving him a three plus ward save against flaming attacks. The gyro died turn one after doing nothing again. The war machines on both sides did very little. The rangers once again were the stars holding the right flank, taking out two units of outriders, a wizard and getting the other wizard down to one wound on the final turn. I lost. Badly? The points say yes due to him holding the hill most of the game but I still think I had a shot. If we played again it might go my way.

Game five was against tomb kings who also only had one win. Gyro died turn one after doing nothing. War machines did nothing. Rangers got stuck in combat with a tomb scorpion turn 2 until the end of the game. I really should have given them great weapons. I moved both my warrior units off the objective I held to try and take the centre for more points. Unfortunately they weren't great at killing skeletons either which wasn't helped by there regeneration saves. My iron breakers repeatedly charged into the bone dragon, did a wound, remembered I had to reroll wounds, won combat due to combat res, then did it all again. I can't help thinking this game was like a daytime made for TV movie about someone who keeps returning to an abusive relationship. While this was the least eventful battle, which I lost badly, it was against a new player. We were able to slow down the pace to look up rules and combat tables, I think it was very beneficial to me.

That's three tournaments in and I can safely say I'm not a tournament player. I said I wasn't going to do it again but I really enjoyed some parts. The people were great everyone was friendly. I don't normally get to socialise with Warhammer people so getting to talk about one of my interests was a nice change. Getting see other people's models and showing off my own was one of my favourite parts, I'm a solo hobbieist so it was nice to be involved in that. I guess being beaten by people that know the game very well is a good learning experience.

I didn't think I would do it again but I enjoy painting army's and this gives me a reason to. I'd already picked up the new marauder box and with the other stuff I already own I can build an army. Sitting down with the army builder app I came up with a list I thought would be fun and look good. I then scrapped that and came up with something that could win games. There's a good chance that it's still not a very good list, unfortunately one of my requirements in list building is symmetry. Once its built and painted I'll see if a tournament comes up I can go to. Hopefully there will be a few more casual players.

Thanks for reading.