First up, tournament play is hard. As a guy who's used to playing 1 2000pt game of an evening or afternoon (and maybe watch a 2nd game while talking over the best moments of the last), concentrating for 3 games in 1 day (at 3000pts), starting at 9am is exhausting! but it was fun, and I even got a few photos to prove my army was there!
Might not be that competitive, but damn we look pretty!
I went with a classic Vampire Counts line-up. Maybe not playing to my strengths, but it looked pretty (well, as pretty as mouldy undead can look). Neferata (thoughts on her later). Neferata, Necromancer, Strigoi Ghoul King, Ghouls, Skeletons, Zombies, Hexwraiths, Dead Dogs, Ghosts, Terrorgheist, Morghasts, a Banshee, and a Cairn Wraith.
Look, the Hexwraiths killed a thing... Just not this thing, it killed them...
Game 1 was against High Elves, and my opponent was a good lad, we were both playing relatively new armies but managed to keep each other right. A thoroughly fun, fast paced game so me lose 14-6 eventually, as Neferata and the Terrorgheist went down and his big cavalry blocks were left pretty much untouched. Neferata did spawn her freebie vamp, and munched through a couple of units, but she's a points-sink and too easily killed. I did knock out his chariots, fast cavalry, and bolt throwers with relative ease, but it didn't add up to enough points in the end. So far so good.
The observant among you may notice that Nefereta isn't dead yet...
Game 2 and I was up against the other Undead Legions army. Only he had come to play hard, and had Nagash, a Casket of Souls, his own Terrorgheist... It was fun, another good opponent, but ouch was it hard - Nagash summoning piles of Hexwraiths and armoured snake-riding tomb kings behind my army meant I was effectively fighting 3000pts vs 4000pts, and it showed. Again, Neferata spawned her freebie vamp (which helped me take down the Casket of Souls), but she wasn't nearly survivable enough. Eventually I went down 15-5, but again I didn't do enough damage to move off the bottom table. 2 more kills and I would have wiped out his ghouls, and we'd have seen a very different scoreline, but you (un)live and learn.
Game 3 against the Dark Elves was the stinger. Final game of the day, and I crumbled. It looked alright early on, but then the Carmine Dragon hit Neferata and it was a slow descent to a near-tabling from there. While it was fun, Dale ran a very hard list for me to beat, and although it was a small field, I doubt he'd really thought that he be on the bottom table at the death. I killed a few things, but the loss of Neferata so early on made for an uphill struggle, and his Dreadlord on dragon blitzed through whatever the Carmine Dragon didn't. In the end, all I had left was a Spirit Host which had spent most of the game tying up some Shades on the flank.
So what did I learn? Tournaments are fun, a nice way to get a few games in, but too competitive for me. I much prefer a narrative game, and some character development over a small campaign. Secondly, I can't roll magic dice for sh*t... or maybe I need to buy new dice, 3 games (plus practice games) of dismal Winds of Magic rolls really makes the Vamps suffer (can't raise your guys back if you keep rolling 4-6 dice a phase while giving your opponent 4-5! My insistence on fielding units that I liked painting, and sub-optimal choices, makes it hard to pull out a win in an environment where everyone is running hard lists, and I have struggled with the Vamps. I love the models, the painting mission was a joy, but out of 8 games I've had 7 loses and a draw. Chaos Warriors they are not... I miss the raw damage output, but I'll stick with them, even hamstringing myself with the dread abyssal (how can a model look so good, but be so easy to kill?!). Also, she's much more survivable as a generic Vampire Lord than as Queen Neferata - only 6+ armour, no ward, and -1 to hit means she gets whittled away by shooting before any of her benefits kick in.
There's been 2 practice games since the tourney, and another lined up this week before Storm on Sunday. The list evolved a little as I was tabled by Ogres and ran Dwarfs close-ish (i.e. not that close, not the 19-1 loss against the Ogres, but not a draw either). For better or worse, the list is submitted, and the theme is ghouls and ethereal - go ghostly or go home!
And again, Neferata hasn't been eaten by a Carmine Dragon yet...
Game 3 against the Dark Elves was the stinger. Final game of the day, and I crumbled. It looked alright early on, but then the Carmine Dragon hit Neferata and it was a slow descent to a near-tabling from there. While it was fun, Dale ran a very hard list for me to beat, and although it was a small field, I doubt he'd really thought that he be on the bottom table at the death. I killed a few things, but the loss of Neferata so early on made for an uphill struggle, and his Dreadlord on dragon blitzed through whatever the Carmine Dragon didn't. In the end, all I had left was a Spirit Host which had spent most of the game tying up some Shades on the flank.
So what did I learn? Tournaments are fun, a nice way to get a few games in, but too competitive for me. I much prefer a narrative game, and some character development over a small campaign. Secondly, I can't roll magic dice for sh*t... or maybe I need to buy new dice, 3 games (plus practice games) of dismal Winds of Magic rolls really makes the Vamps suffer (can't raise your guys back if you keep rolling 4-6 dice a phase while giving your opponent 4-5! My insistence on fielding units that I liked painting, and sub-optimal choices, makes it hard to pull out a win in an environment where everyone is running hard lists, and I have struggled with the Vamps. I love the models, the painting mission was a joy, but out of 8 games I've had 7 loses and a draw. Chaos Warriors they are not... I miss the raw damage output, but I'll stick with them, even hamstringing myself with the dread abyssal (how can a model look so good, but be so easy to kill?!). Also, she's much more survivable as a generic Vampire Lord than as Queen Neferata - only 6+ armour, no ward, and -1 to hit means she gets whittled away by shooting before any of her benefits kick in.
There's been 2 practice games since the tourney, and another lined up this week before Storm on Sunday. The list evolved a little as I was tabled by Ogres and ran Dwarfs close-ish (i.e. not that close, not the 19-1 loss against the Ogres, but not a draw either). For better or worse, the list is submitted, and the theme is ghouls and ethereal - go ghostly or go home!
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