The Tournament
The Grand Tournament is one of two/three Warhammer World events held annually (usually) alongside the Doubles Tournament and Throne of Skulls. It's a 700pt Good vs Evil event, where you play as one army then the other three times over.
In a previous year, I had managed to win all three games on day 1 before being destroyed on day 2 with 3 defeats. Maybe I could surpass that record this time?
My Armies
Good- Garrison of Dale
King Brand (Leader)
9x Warriors of Dale w/ 1x Banner/Spear/Shield, 1x Warhorn/Spear/Shield, 3x Esgaroth bows, 1x Shield and 3x Spear/Shield
Bard II
9x Knights of Dale
Captain of Dale w/ Esgaroth Bow
8x Warriors of Dale w/ 3x Esgaroth Bows, 3x Shields and 2x Spear/Shields
Captain of Dale w/ Shield
9x Warriors of Dale w/ 2x Esgaroth Bows, 4x Shields and 3x Spear/Shields
35 men
Evil- Isengard
Lurtz (Leader)
Uruk-hai Drummer
Uruk-hai Berserker x2
Uruk-hai warriors x8 w/ 1x Banner, 2x Crossbows and 5x Pikes
Thrydan Wolfsbane w/ Horse
Crebain
Uruk-hai warriors x5 w/ 2x Crossbow and 3x Pikes
Uruk-hai Scouts x2 w/ Bow
Mordor orcs x4 w/ Spear
The Wildman Oathmaker
Wildmen of Dunland x12 w/ 6x 2h
Uruk-hai Shaman
Crebain
Mordor orcs x2 w/ Spear
Uruk-hai Scouts x3 w/ Bow
45 models
Game 1- Contest of Champions (Vs. Billy (Thranduil's Halls))
Opponent's Heroes- Thranduil, Legolas and Tauriel
Opponent's Warriors- Mirkwood warriors and Mirkwood Rangers
Seeing that my opponent's leader was Thranduil and the scenario was Contest, I felt that I had an uphill struggle ahead of me. I deployed Lurtz to the left of the Amon Hen piece, intending to use the chokepoint to prevent Thranduil getting to me. I had a couple of Wildmen charge him as Lurtz went for some Mirkwood warriors and slew one.
Billy had deployed Legolas and Tauriel's warbands in woodland to the back left and therefore isolated the leader, I decided that I should use this to overwhelm, but the warriors were rolling a lot of 6s and therefore I struggled to kill them, luckily for me, Thranduil failed to kill the wildmen he faced.
Thranduil had burned 2 might already so I threw Lurtz and several warriors at him and managed to take away all his fate. The turn after I repeated the attack and Lurtz only managed to wound before a berserker dealt the killing blow.
At this point, Tauriel and Legolas were rushing across the field with some rangers towards my army. Tauriel threatened Lurtz, but his warriors managed to pull her away and Lurtz slew Legolas as the elf was surrounded. The wildmen finally broke cover and the surviving five were immediately shot dead by five shots from the rangers (Faramir escaping Osgiliath vibes).
The game ended just as Lurtz cut down a ranger for a third kill, while Thranduil had been bogged down and unable to get any himself. Lurtz had managed to wound him and we had both broken one another. So I had won 9-1.
Game 2- Destroy the Supplies (Vs. Simon (Isengard))
Opponent's Heroes- Lurtz, Mauhur and Gorulf Ironskin
Opponent's Warriors- Berserkers, Uruk-hai warriors, Uruk-hai Scouts, Mordor Orcs, Warg riders and Crebain
The next match was against an Isengard force with a good amount of manoeuvrability, so I decided that I'd do best sitting on my objectives and waiting for a chance to strike. My shooting didn't do very much damage as they approached but my bow captain did manage to score a cheeky wound on Mauhur.
The evil lines hit mine hard to my left so I attempted to swing round and surround, but didn't do as much damage as I'd hoped, I also lost my bow captain in the fighting.
Brand attempted to heroic combat and take out Gorulf, but lost the fight and had to use his fate to the Dunlending.
Bard saw an opportunity and rushed up the board with his knights and some warriors led by the shield captain. They hit the scouts hard and killed several quickly, with the prince slaying the Drummer. Over a few turns they killed the remainder of the scouts and Mauhur eventually was felled by Bard. The captain then led the charge into the Isengard deployment to dismantle supplies.
But Brand and his surviving warriors needed to kill one more to break the enemy and proceeded to lose most fights. Brand attempted to lead by example, winning against many foes but failed to land a wound, even with his reroll. The following turn, he was slain by the hordes and a Crebain flew over to destroy my last supply.
As I was a single turn away from the last supply in the evil side and also in charge range from the hordes, time was called and Simon had triumphed 12-4, but I was happy with the heroic fight Dale had put up.
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Game 3- Breakthrough (Vs. Rob (Minas Tirith/Fiefdoms))
Opponent's Heroes- Prince Imrahil and Boromir, Captain of the White Tower
Opponent's Warriors- Guard of the Fountain Court, Warriors of Minas Tirith, Knights of Dol Amroth, Blackroot Vale Archers and Axeman of Lossanarch
I could see off the bat that I was going to struggle in this game, high defence, high fight value army with two banners and two big heroes. My best chance would be to take out a hero quickly.
I quickly threw Thrydan at Imrahil and managed to dismount the Prince but failed to wound. The following turn, he took some fate off of Imrahil. Meanwhile, across the board, Boromir's men of Minas Tirith were cutting down the Wildmen with ease. The Oathmaker stepped in to try and lend some support but was immediately lanced by Boromir.
The Crebain flew into the central field and managed to kill a couple of Fountain Court guards before flying to the rear objective. Some Uruks followed over the walls and engaged with some Blackroot Vale Archers but struggled to kill them.
Before long, Boromir had cleared his objective and the Wildmen were all dead, Thrydan had abandoned his attempts on Imrahil and went after the Swan Knights, but was slain after a couple of combats gone wrong. Lurtz, meanwhile, went after the Prince and managed to land a wound that stuck.
My army was broken as time was ending, the Crebain both fled, leaving the far objective unclaimed, the right one, Rob owned but I had contested, the left he solely owned and the near, he was just shy of claiming. I had managed to wound his leader and he had returned the favour, leading to a 7-1 defeat.
Game 4- Fog of War (Vs. Dan (Azog's Legion/Azog's Hunters))
Opponent's Heroes- Bolg, Narzug and Fimbul
Opponent's Warriors- Gundabad Berserkers, War Bats and Hunter Orcs
For this game, I chose to capture the field to the left, defend my bow captain and slay Fimbul (figuring that Narzug could be hard to pin down).
Seeing that Dan had a low defence and aggressive army, I decided to hole up and thin out his ranks before making a dash when the opportunity presented itself (because it had worked so well in Game 2).
I formed a line of warriors in the ruins to the left, a wall of knights between the buildings in the centre (just shy of the door to prevent being flanked). A handful of archers and my bow captain were in the field to the right.
As the forces of Gundabad approached, I peppered them with shots, killing Bolg's warg and a small handful of hunter orcs. The berserkers charged into the warriors and were counter charged by the knights, as Bard led a small sortie round the side of the ruin into a crowd of hunter orcs and berserkers, preventing the flank attack. The bows shot a few more hunter orcs in the far ruins. Dan's bats flew into the spear supports at the rear.
Brand swung into the ruin and counter charged the bats, failing a heroic combat to attempt to kill both quickly. Bolg was held up in the corner by a small crowd of warriors.
The bow captain ran across to the central ruin and joined Bard's attack (intention being that he could help Bard call heroic combats and March across to the objective), but in a shocking display, rolled snake eyes, took two wounds and then rolled a 1 for his fate and died. I decided to throw out a red herring and sent Bard after Narzug, managing to slay the orc over several combats, hoping it'd make Dan be more reckless with Fimbul.
But sadly, the damage was done and Brand managed to slay the Hunter orc banner but had already lost most of his army. And the game ended before I could harm Fimbul, get Bard to the objective or break the enemy, leading to a 10-0 loss (Dan was targetting my Shield Captain, defending Fimbul and taking the ruins, which were contested).
Game 5- Hold Ground (Vs. Jack (Isengard))
Opponent's Heroes- Lurtz, Gorulf Ironskin and Vrasku
Opponent's Warriors- Berserkers, Uruk-hai Warriors, Warg riders and Mordor Orcs
Jack got the initial priority and Vrasku arrived, while Gorulf rolled a 2 and used a might to get down to a 1 and Lurtz chose not to arrive, while I had Brand, Bard and my shield captain all arrive right behind Vrasku. My bow captain arrived on the board edge alongside.
The next turn, Gorulf arrived sandwiching Bard's warband and Lurtz did the same to Brand. In response, Brand and Bard both led the charge into Vrasku's unit and both heroic combatted into the Uruk, who triumphed and pushed them back. In the shoot phase, the bow captain led a volley that wounded Lurtz.
Over the next few turns, savage fighting occurs beside the board edge, but the Uruk-hai are edging the kill tally, Dale is not helped by Vrasku's stubborn refusal to die despite Bard's relentless assault on him.
The bow captain sits on the centre as Brand pulls back to join with the troops he can retrieve. But as the Uruks pursue, they are forced to reengage and Bard eventually falls to the hordes.
The men of Dale fight hard hoping to edge a victory. Brand faces Lurtz and is slain himself desperately trying to hold the line as most of his remaining men are cut down, leaving only a few scattered as the game ends.
Jack had managed to kill enough in the centre to have triple my numbers there, had slain Brand, while my bows had wounded Lurtz and we had broken one another, leaving us with a 10-2 defeat to me.
Game 6- Divide and Conquer (Vs. Matt (Garrison of Dale))
Opponent's Heroes- King Brand, Bard II and Captain of Dale
Opponent's Warriors- Knights of Dale and Warriors of Dale
I deployed Lurtz and my Shaman in one corner and Thrydan and the Oathmaker in the other. The latter pair rushed towards the closest objective and began a fight with the Dale Captain's warband, Thrydan managing to get hold of him and slay him as the men were then killed by the Uruk-hai.
On the other side of the board, Lurtz set up a large line against the army of Dale before the central objective, with Dale archers shooting into their back.
They lost several of their numbers and Lurtz won a heroic move off, using the chance to pull back and reform the line, anchoring his flank against the field. This was pretty effective and allowed them to kill several of the men of Dale.
The game was coming to a close so Lurtz went for a last ditch effort and lunged at Brand, he lost the fight and narrowly avoided taking a wound, his warriors fought hard but fell just short of breaking their opponents and had failed to have the majority in the centre. We had both claimed an objective on either side and Matt had broken me, leaving my final game as a 6-2 defeat.
By the end of the event, I had a single win and five defeats. Although this wasn't a great result, I still had fun games throughout and several were closely fought and this was the GT so it was going to be hard competition.
Upcoming Tournaments that I'll attend
5th March- Gillingham event 250pts (No named heroes)
12th March- Heroes of Legend 850pts (Heroes/monsters only, 10 max)
23rd April- At Dawn, Look to the East 550pts
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