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2003 WPS WHFB GT and
other acronyms
Things started here swimmingly, with picking Andy and his all-conquering Dark Elf City
Guard up. And off to sunny Birmingham we went. Found the Clovers Hotel with little trouble
and settled into the bar. Usual bunch of suspects were to be seen and Gareth and Jim
appeared. A bit of discussion and jokes regarding a certain financial matter concerning
the club were undertaken, then to bed! (Not all together)
The day of battle dawned, after a hearty Full English we upped and offed to the venue.
My first opponent was "GIMP" Dan Atherton, attired in a rather revolting
pink, as were the other GIMPs, with his VCs. 16/104 entrants fielded these creatures, with
Bloodragons making up the bulk.
Steve’s army was pretty standard, VC General in Unit of Black Knights, a Thrall in
a unit of Skellies, L2 Necro also with Skellies, another Skelly unit, a Zombie unit, 2
units of 5 Ghouls (Using Kroot models, again a not uncommon theme here) and 3 bases of
Spirit Hosts (Using Skinks).
I fielded my usual Khemri, Tomb Prince in Chariot of Fire, with 4 other Chariots,2
Liche Priests and an Icon Bearer. 20 Skellies, 24 Tomb Guard, 5 Light Horsemen, 2 Tomb
Swarm a Tomb Scorpion, 4 Ushabti and a Screaming Skull Catapult.
Psychology played no role is this battle, for obvious reasons. The WPS was tryting to
make games both more interesting and challenging by using a set of "Composition"
rules, designed to reward the use of core troops with full command and penalise excessive
magic, shooting or overly "hard" units/characters, combined with some
interesting scenarios. This first battle was a 6 turn "Meeting Engagement" with
a "Capture" objective.
The battle field was a little cluttered, making it hard to get my chariots round the
flank. Essentially it turned into a slug-fest with the VC’s superior ability to raise
new units being a decisive factor, also having a Book of Arkhan lurking meant a dispel die
needed retaining to stop my flanks/rear being charged. (He could raise all the Zombies he
liked, as long as none got into battle!)
Ultimately, I killed more of his troops, but he managed to get more units within
6" of the objective, thus getting the 500pts bonus. Result a dead draw, 1013 to me,
1005 to him!
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| Game 2 was against one of the
"Greats" of the WPS and gaming in general, Adie McWalter of the Dragon Slayers.
He fielded Lizardmen. Always a difficult army to play, due to high leadership and rolling
tests on 3d6, combined with poisonous attacks, high toughness and some nasty weaponry. Adie
had a single L1 Skink Magepriest, with "Heavens", picking "Portent of
Far" to get his D3 rerolls. Magic would be in my favour. The battle an
"Assault" with a "Conquest" objective. Adie setup first, putting his
troops into a "Vee" anchored against his table edge. After he’d deployed, I
asked him if he’d heard of "It came from below"! At which point he sunk his
head into his hands and groaned!
Battle commenced with me moving up my chariots and after a quick shot with the
catapult, got them to magically charge the Stegadon. Winning combat by 1, he failed his
break test, but passed the reroll (Battle standard within 12").
If the beast had run, I think I’d have won the game. A meat grinder scenario
evolved, with the higher T and WS of the Saurii proving decisive, but my Hierophant
managing to pass 3 4+ Ward Saves, after being charged by 2 Salamanders, holding them long
enough for the Skellies to charge and win the next turn, the Hierophant running them down
when they fled. The Swarm and Scorpion failed to appear until turns 4 and 5, so played
little part, if they’d come on turn 2, things would’ve been interesting!
The Ushabti mullahed his 3 Krox, lopping 11 wounds off them in a turn!
The result, however, was a thorough beating, 1786 to 710.
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| Game 3 saw me facing Steve
Phillips’ Dwarves. Yet more high T and Ld troops! (Why no Goblins or Beastmen for
me?) In this battle, all you got were double VPs for destroyed or wiped out units! This
combined with a "Magical Flux" where you rolled all your power dice and gave any
1s to your opponent as extra dispel dice. I never gave a single die across all game! Again
manouvering my chariots was difficult and the game turned into another slug-fest. The
catapult did pretty well, causing a unit of Miners who’d appeared on turn 5, to leave
the table, on turn 5!, my 5 Lighthorse disposed of his rock lobber, and the Ushabti chased
a unit of Stunties into a wood, but they sadly rallied.
My chariots wound up with a single Slayer being left, denying me some 500+ VPs, leaving
a result of 1382 to 848.
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| Day one ended, and back to
The Clovers, for sustenance! The usual card school ensued, with Dragon Slayers to the
fore!
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| Day 2 dawned, and I found
myself playing yet more Bloodragons, with sole female player, Amanda as general. A
straight Pitched Battle was held, but in Fog, halving all missile fire range. No problem,
as there was less than 30" between my catapult and her.
She blocked my advancing Ushabti with her Spirit Host and my Chariots were delayed by a
unit of Wolves and I found that a tooled up VC Count can quite happily cause 5 wounds a
turn on Tomb Guard, so despite me having a ranks and flank and outnumbering on said Count,
with Wight Lord BSB and 6 Black Knights, I was slowly, but surely ground into the ground!
Result, a very depressing stuffing, leaving me to play my last game on the "Stage
of Shame" the bottom 10 tables being there!
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| Game 5 saw me face yet more
Lizzies, 2 units of Saurii on Cold ones, an array of Skinks a couple of Salamanders with a
Sarus Hero, who could charge 16" !!!!!!!!!!!! 3 Krox with the General and another
couple of Heroes in the mounted units. Owain Pearce got the first turn, moving his
General with BSB and 4 other Saurii Cav up to 2 inches from my Chariots. I was feeling
very pleased here, but lost the smile as his magic phase occurred with them charging in
under the influence of some beardy banner!
A nasty scene evolved, with me losing my Hierophant and slowly fizzling out. A complete
massacre.
I didn’t get a snap of his Lizzies, but they were very brightly coloured.
Just to show you a few examples of the armies, below are mine, the "Players’
Choice" a superb colonial style empire army an American (!) bought over and a few
others.
My Army |
 "Players’
Choice" |
 A Wood Elf Army |
 A gorgeous
Khemrian, metal minis from the "War Gods of Aegyptus"range with a plastic
"Bone Giant" converted from a toyshop figure. |
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