So, story time (if you want something serious, you are wrong here)

Once upon time, in a small country called Austria a man called @Sir_Joker asked around, if somebody would be interested going at the ETC. After some months of discussing planning and co, the team formed around our cash cow and Vienna's/Slovenian peasant @Krokz ( ).

Our, so called, "Captain" wanted us to play basically as gunliny as we could possible endure for 6 rounds of Warhammer 9th Age. All obeyed his mighty word but a man called @doctorgonzo which was able to overthrow the tyranny from our captain 2 days before the list deadline and got to play an out of the box list.

That was the crulesome list I played at one of the most funny tournaments I ever participated:

1 Magus, Level 2, Path of Forge, Hardened Shield, Tome of Arcane Lore, Ring of Fire - 145pts
1 Magus, Level 1, Engineer, Path of Fire, Dispel Scroll - 135pts
1 Magus, Engineer, General - 60pts
1 Vizier, Battle Standard Bearer, Infernal Weapon, Shield, Flaming Standard, Dragon Mantle, Lucky Charm - 162pts
1 Hobgoblin Chieftain on Wolf, Lucky Shield, Light Lance, Light Armour, Throwing Weapons - 67pts

28 Citadel Guard, FCG, Flintlock Axe, Banner of Speed - 506pts
13 Infernal Warriors, Shield, FCG - 129pts

1 Infernal Artillery, Rocket Battery - 85pts
1 Infernal Artillery, Titan Mortar, Ogre Slave, Earthquake Shell - 180pts
1 Infernal Artillery, Titan Mortar, Ogre Slave - 150pts
5 Taurukh Anointed, FCG, Light Lance, Shield - 375pts

1 Kadim Titan - 325pts
2x5 Hobgoblin Wolf Riders, Light Lance, Light Armour, Shield- 65pts
1 Light Artillery, Gunnery Team, Volley Fire - 50pts

Total 2499pts

Since I had exactly 4 ID model (3 Chars, 1 Kadim Titan), I need to borrow the rest of the stuff, thanks again for those two guys!

So, the time of the flight was near (Wednesday), when we noticed, that the location was changed, suddenly it was not out at the airport but right in the city. So, 3h calls and work later, we had a new hotel, which had nicer rooms, 15 mins away by foot and we spared roughly 120 bucks per person (@tiny chilled with @Sir_Joker and myself).

To "celebrate" this, we (Joker and myself) went for dinner and I was able to grab those templates I needed. However, I forgot those at the diner we were but lucky enough, they had a breakfast, which resulted into standing up 30mins earlier than we planned (driving in the city to grab them at 8am is rough ).

So yeah, sh*t happens

After a pleasant flight to Greece and then a too short bus drive (we exited like 4 stations before we had to), we had a nice 2h walk to the hotel at 36°C :facepalm:

After getting showered and co, we went to the location to a) look were it exactly is, b) how to get there and especially c) where some diner is.

So, for those guys, who don't know me, this is me "preparing" at the location for the ETC:



A nice dinner with the guys (-3) + @tiny later, we were ready to rumble for the next day:

https://instagram.com/p/BIsy3cHg8h9/

Only problem was, we were drinking till 3am beer, cause there was a nice Kiosk right behind the hotel, were we grabbed beer :facepalm:


(Kadim Titan in Front)

So, "well" rested into day 1:

Round 1 VS Team USA

Our paring matrix (you can find it here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…ADhgbx-o/edit?usp=sharing) looked decent enough for the first round.

After some paring, I was paired against VS in Secure Target, table 7 (maps are here)

List + name:

Ciaran Dunne, Vermin Swarm

Tyrant: General, dark shard brew, great weapon, Wizards hood, dispel scroll, bronze armour, 220

Chieftain: BSB, heavy armour, hardened shield, icon of the relentless company, 90
Siccara Assassin: Multiple wounds D3, lethal strike, tail weapon, potion of strength, mithril armour, 190
2 x 1 Rakachit machinist: heavy armour, halberd, 74
Plague prophet on plague pendulum: Lv1, caldron of blight, halberd, book of arcane power, 324

1 x 28 plague brotherhood, standard, musician, 178
1 x 41 vermin guard, standard, musician, rending banner, 358
1 x 20 rat at arms, standard, 90

2 x 5 gutter blades, tail weapons, 60
1 x 5 gutter blades, tail weapons, poison, scout and ambush, 90
2 x 2 rat swarms 40

2 x 1 verminous artillery, lightning cannon 85
2 x 2 Thunder Hulks, 150
1 x 1 Dreadmill, 140

Total: 2498

Rating was a green -1, which translate, that I will lose this very likely 13-7.

I got to choose the sides, went with the lower one (see maps) and put my Marker right in front of the Wall and also prepared my army on that side of the table (other side were my rule books and stuff). Opponent drops his Marker right into the forest and afterwards dropped his whole army on the right flank, which was exactly what I wanted.

I put my army on the other side of the map (so left side) and thus made his whole deployment garbage (his Cannons couldn't shoot for 2 turns, due to range and sight problems XD).

We traded some chaff, had to reform our hordes like every turn and thus time was called on round 4 (he started). Hmm, bad for me, since I would have been able to rumble into the Plague block with both Kadim and Anointed in my 5th turn and thus break his whole flank, so yeah, bad luck.

We both got one Objective, so it was a 10-10 with which I was more than happy.

Highlights of the game:
- Chief on Wolf survives 4 S4 wounds with 1 wound left and I was thus able to set-up the potential Plague block wipe on turn 5
- Reforming his VG 2 wide, aka 22 deep to get into range for Alchemy 6
- Casting Burning Bolts on the 22 deep VG unit XD (got sadly scrolled )
- 5 Gobbos blocking the Doomwheel for 2 turns in combat (yes, he rolled REALLY bad here).
- Gunnery Team killing all 3 units of Gutter Blades while not dying

Random pick of the round:



Round 2:

Next round was vs the most favourable opponent, aka Norway (with @Herminard himself):

That didn't look as good, but w/e, we will work something out here

After the paring, I got DH, which was an awesome match-up for me, if I can play it down.

It was Breakthrough on table 2.

I won the roll for sides again, chose the lower one and he dropped his army in the top right corner. I was glad for this, since I was able to position my WM in a way, that I can shoot at everything but was in kinda cover for his (one (without Flaming) didn't see anything basically), same was true for my Titan.

I pressured his left flank with the Kadim and tried to not get "caught" by the Seekers there (so that I have to overrun into a bad position, IF I fail my frenzy test). On the right side, my Flintlocks shoot at some stuff, same is true for the other things and the Anointed played a stayoff with the Hold Guardians. However, on my 4th turn I screwed myself, since I charged a lone seeker and forgot, that my Gobbos will likely die that combat to the Engineer (he charged them, I hold (didn't take a wound)) which enabled a charge from the Hold Guardians in the Anointed, which would mean dead Anointed.

Of course, it happened (Gobbos broke) and I had to chose flew from the Hold Guardians. I didn't rally them and they were off the table (LD 10 no reroll). Hence, I couldn't really prevent him, to get the breakthrough scenario, but if he fails a panic check or rolls low for the failed charge roll. Neither happened and so he won the game due to scenario (I was 1" short of getting it myself :wallbash: )

8-12 because I was a dummy XD

Though, I also lost the Titan, since I was not able to kill Seekers and a Engineer in one round of combat, since than the King rumbled into my flank and dished out 9 wounds on the titan

Highlights:
- Gunnery Team killing stuff again, including a Copter in Combat XD
- An intentionally 6" scatter with the Mortar on the none flaming catapult into kill
- 36 dead Dwarfs within 1 shooting phase (3 templates + Flintlocks deal a TON of damage)

That was it from day one

Random picks from the night:



that guy, who is making the Selfie is non other than our "beloved" beer captain @Sir_Joker

left side: the guy in the yellow (trust me, it is yellow) shirt is me, afterwards is @doctorgonzo, @Krokz is thinking, if he should order another beer (of course he should) and than there is Gaban (aka UND )



From the right to the left, el_gungo, Lord_Odin and grumpy @berti himself




That's it with Part 1, Part 2 will follow, as soon, as I got something to eat

Other match-ups, for those who don't want to wait for the story time



Greetings,
Kathal

Day 2, aka, where we learned, that a good paring matrix does not mean a good outcome

After a loooooooooong night, aka we got again beer and stayed up till 3am, we woke up rather devastated. I mean, I just want to describe the situation to you guys:

2am, @tiny is lying in his bed (same as Joker and myself), we just were ready "going" to bed (aka, we didn't talk anymore and kinda wanted to sleep) when tiny said (translated in English ofc):

My beer is empty

30s later everybody got the next one XD

(and yes, I was the "beer master" cause I had the shortest distance to the fridge ).

So, after, lets call it healthy (way to much bacon and eggs), breakfast we came to the venue and I prepared myself for my death (aka, headache kicked in, a little bit too much beer the day before).

How to fix something like this?

Get paired against Switzerland where some guys were even in a worse condition

Though, I fixed my condition with a 1,5l Water (over 1 hour) and a couple of beer again, at 10am XD

So, Round 3 vs Switzerland:

A look into the paring matrix and the fact, that they just played 70-90 vs Poland resulted into a not great feeling regarding this match-up. After some parings, I got paired against SE:

Rossier Victor, Sylvan Elves

Forest Prince: general, Pathfinder, Great Weapon, Longbow, Obsidian Nullstone, Hail Shot, 253
Forest Prince: Shapeshifter, Shield, Elven Cloak, Whirlwind Blade, Dragonscale Helm, Obsidian Pebble, Potion of Strength, 298

Chieftain: BSB, Pathfinder, Great Weapon, Longbow, Mist Walker’s Mirror, Icon of the Relentless Company, 180
Chieftain: Pathfinder, Great Weapon, Longbow, Sacred Seeds, 140
Druid: Level 2,Heavens, Dispel Scroll, 130
Druid: Level 2, Heavens, Tome of Arcane Lore, Ring of Fire, 135

10 Sylvan Archers: FCG, Black Arrows, Gleaming Icon, 165
10 Sylvan Archers: Standard, Musician, Black Arrows, 150
2x 5 Heath Riders: Standard, Shield, Elven Cloak, 110
5 Heath Riders: Shield, 90

2x 3 Kestrel Knights: 120
9 Sylvan Sentinels: Hawthorn Points, 131
8 Sylvan Sentinels: Hawthorn Points, Scout, 125
9 Pathfinders: 192
Forest Eagle: 50

Total: 2499

I have a 0 with a slight variance for this game (so 10-10 with +/- 2pts).

Map 4 (Diagonal) and Secure Target would result into a interesting game.

I won again the roll for the side, I chose the upper left corner. He dropped his complete army than, giving me more than enough wiggle room for my WM (hard cover in the ruin was nice for me ).

I made a rule mistake regarding Vanguard, which allowed one unit of Kestrel Knights to fly out of sight of my Anointed, which were parked there to exactly prevent this. Whatever, I have to fix it with shooting/magic than.

He killed my Gunnery Team turn one and that was it. My turn resulted in some awkward movement to get the Flintlocks in range to the Knights. A shooting and magic phase later, the Eagles were dead, I also had 3 missfires in a row :facepalm:

Btw. I had a misfire count for the tournament. At that point I clocked in at astonishing 15 Misfires from the big ones and a couple from the Gunnery Team (meaning, only one 6 cause I was not THAT dumb to use 3D6 shots).

On his second turn (same in the next couple of turns) his Shapeshifter Lord hugged the Impossible Terrain to zone out the Kadim Titan. However, a quick time out on my third turn later, I got green light to press on the gas petal and go for a high win.

Hence, a few moments later, his Shapeshifter was defacto boxed in by Impossible Terrain, Titan and Wolfs with nothing to look at. If my other Wolfs survived that last round of shooting (failed 3 5+ safes when 3 models lived) I would have been able to take out the Shapeshifter for 2 whole turns (he cannot move this turn (completely boxed in) + he has to waste shoots on the gobbos + he needs to get into position and THEN he can do something). My Flintlocks activated the turbo and run 12" forward towards the tasty elves

Magic phase + shooting phase resulted into a dead BSB and 14 dead Poison guys (2D6 Fireball killed 9 Poison guys (whole unit), templates killed BSB + 5 other poison guys). On his turn, he used his Shapeshifter as redirector for my big dog (Titan) and killed one of my WM.

Now it gets dicy. If I fail my Frenzy test (with the Titan) I have to charge the Shapeshifter but get +1A. If I would have passed it, I can defacto kill his Carrier + Scoring unit next turn, since he can do nothing against it. So yeah, failed Frenzy, charged the guy. A combat phase later (had -1 to hit and LD from Heaven) the Shapeshifter was dead, 8A, 6 hits (5+), 6W, 3 failed ward saves (he was Fireborn). Though, took 4 wounds on my own (2 wounds x2 due to the Weapon).

From there it went downhill from him. I was able to clear some units, he was able to kill the Titan in the shooting phase (those 1 at the ward saves (he shot flaming)). Due to a slight missplay from my side, he was able to block one secondary objective with his 5 Riders. However, a charge from my Anointed + a high flee roll (11) and a really bad charge roll (3,2,2) was enough, that I was still able to hold the objective XD

#better #lucky #thank #good

Btw, when we are at it, I told my opponent, that I will kill those 2 Riders covering his carrier and the scoring unit behind them will flee and run of the table.

Guess what happened? I killed the Riders, the scoring unit sadly hold, but the Carrier fled, but was 1" short of being of the table. LD 10 no rerolls are not reliable

Crappy pic from the round



So, in the end it was a 13-07 for me against a really nice and awesome guy. He just spoke very quietly

Highlights:
- Kadim Titan chewing through the Shapeshifter without the Stomps (on average, I deal 2,8W against his build without the -1 to hit debuff I had)
- Killing the BSB in one round due to lack of "Look out, Sir!"
- The Anointed charge XD
- The Panic test in the end
- FIREBALL OF DOOM. He said: "sure, I let it through", 1 min later he looked like this: , my Mage was like this:



Some impressions from the round:





We looked up the results and just thought something: PLS NO RUSSIA, PLS NO RUSSIA

Guess what happened

Round 4 vs Russia

I got the honour to play against their captain with the most beautiful KoE army I have ever seen (THAT BANNER )

However, the round kicked off with this awesome pic:



Since I'm lazy, here is the pic from round one from me (I started, to avoid an all in from him):



Map 7 (normal deployment) + Hold the ground it is.

Evgeny "White Boy" Kovrov © - Kingdom of Equitaine

Token of the King

Duke, General, Heavy Armour, Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Renown, Axe of Battle, Hardened Shield, Dusk Stone, Divine Icon, 250
Grail Damsel, Unicorn, Path of Wilderness, Level 4, Talisman of Roland, Sceptre of Dominion, Dispel Scroll, 335
Paladin, Battle Standard Bearer, Heavy Armour, Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Daring, Shield, Crusader’s Helm, 172
Paladin, Heavy Armour, Barded Warhorse, Virtue of Might, Dragon Lance, Shield, Potion of Swiftness, 152 Pts

13 Knights of the Realm, Musician, Standard Bearer, Banner of Speed, 363
11 Knights of the Realm, Musician, Standard Bearer, 286 8 Knights of the Grail, Standard Bearer, 290

2x 3 Pegasus Knights, Skirmish, Devastating Charge, Barding, 196

2x Trebuchet, 130
8 Grail Knights XXX (don't have the exact list from him, just the wrong one (Grail Knights are missing) )

Total: 2500

Game was a very tactical one, but not very event heavy. Hence, I will give you guys a quick bullet point run down of it:

- Round 2, I killed with 18 Flintlocks his Grail Knights. Who needs T4, a 2+ AS and 5+ WS?
- On his second round, both his Trebs missfired and didn't do anything for the rest of the game (killed the one, which was able to shoot)
- Shooting with S4 templates into a Knight bus (max 9 hits) does close to nothing
- Outsmarting myself :facepalm:

For the last point, I want to explain it:

He pulled his Pega Knights in front of his Knight buses, so that I cannot charge them with the Anointed/Titan but since he had the higher charge distance (average 20" from his big bus compared to my ~16").

Since I was playing around with my Chief on Wolf for quite some time, my opponent wanted to prevent me, that I can park him on the right side of his big bus, so that I can put him where ever I want as a redirector in my 6th turn (and maybe denying the objective). Sooo, he put his Pega Knights in front of the bus but let them look towards the right side.

I got a brilliant idea here:

I just put my Gobbo Hero 1" away from his Pega Knights. He looked sad. And than I forgot to move my Flintlocks 12" to deny the objective :wallbash:

Now he was happy again.

So yeah, I lost the game because of this mistake 8-12 but in the end, it didn't matter, since we got capped really hard.

Paring Matrix was really good (so the end result of the parings) but having 7 rookies is not that great vs a ETC veteran team so we primarily lost due to Skill differences than match-ups.

Though, we had a very chilled game and round vs them and they liked my Schnapps more than their Vodka

Highlights:
- Flintlocks killing the Grail Knights in one shooting phase


- his Pega punt and my counter punt
- Chocking Ash on his Knight bus (Oh, you get on average + 11", it would be a shame if
- 10" scatter from the Knight bus on the Treb

It was after 8pm so we "rushed" (if you call, taking a taxi instead of going "rushed") to the Hotel, dumped our stuff there gently and than went for dinner. Sadly no pics from this event, cause our photographer (Joker) was enjoying dinner with the ExB and RT (THEY DESERVED IT!!!).

But some impressions I can give you:






#yolo #swag XD


Also, there was a reason, why Russia won best painted team by a landslide



I clocked in with 38 pts after 2 days, which was not that great, since my goal was to get 61pts and thus playing above par

So yeah, have to do some heavy lifting on Sunday to get there.

So, done with day 2, lets see, when I get day 3 done

Last day of the ETC, the sun rose gently over the horizon and pierced my sleep driven eyes, cause I was to dumb to close those damn curtains -,-*

Whatever, first chuck down 1l of water and try to remember what goal we wanted to achieve on this day and in what order:

1) Getting sober again
2) Afterwards getting drunk again
3) Play 2 games of T9A
4) Try not to suck
5) Maybe win some of those games too
6) Maybe achieving my goal of 61pts and thus be over par

Hmm, but I kinda had the feeling, that I forgot something

Right, Germany was 38pts before us, so by far our biggest goal was: GETTING BEFORE GERMANY

So yeah, the hunt is on.

First some nice and balanced breakfast (more bacon and eggs, cause bacon is always great and eggs cause it is easy to chew ), than jump into the Taxi and drive to the location, cause you overslept again

Whatever.

We came to the location and a nice surprise awaited us, we were playing against Ukraine, which was awesome, since I wanted to drink some beers with @GUO (which I did btw).

So yeah, Round 5 vs Ukraine

The paring matrix showed good match-ups across the board but the dreaded HE Sky Sloop spam. So one has to be offered as sacrifice there for the mighty meat grinder @GUO.

A short but intense paring phase later, I was paired against EoS.

I have a +1 there with a positive variance, aka, I win this 14-6 pretty reliable but can also score higher if allowed.

Why is this the only EoS match-up, where I have a positive score? Cause he played that list:

Sebastian von Glahn - Empire of Sonnstahl

Prelate on Altar of Battle: General, Barding, Hardened Shield, 280
Imperial Prince on Dragon: Divine Icone, 445

Captain: BSB, Great Weapon, Icon of the Relentless Company, 104
Inquisitor on Warhorse: Plate Armour, Great Weapon, Barding, Locket of Sunna, Dragonscale Helm 151
Wizard: lvl2, Light, Tome of Arcane Lore, 105
Wizard: lvl1, Light, Dispel Scroll, 100
Wizard: lvl1, Light, 65

2x40 Heavy Infantry: FCG, Halberds, 250
14 State Militia: Standard, Skirmishers, 80
5 Electoral Cavalry: Standard, 100

2x1 Artillery: Cannon, 100

Steam Tank: 230
Arcane Engine: Foreseeing, 140

Total: 2500 points

So, Light Council - not that great. No Flaggies, wait what

Flaggies are the only real problem in this match-up, since they wreck every single unit I have due to the "I die at Int 0" thing (though, cool design wise). So yeah, was pretty confidant to win that game.

I talked with my opponent before the game (he was a German player), he simply said, that he expects a small loss here, I laughed and said, that he will get wrecked.

He didn't believe me

My opponent with me in the background:



We played Map 3 (Diagonal Deployment) with Secure Target as secondary objective.

I won the roll for the deployment again, chose the bottom right corner and as response my opponent dropped everything. It looked like this:



So he didn't want to play a proper game of T9A

Pro of his deployment: I cannot miss with my Catapults at all (happened only once and there it scattered 10" forward) which was nice
Con of his deployment: See above (for him)

That is how it looked like after the second turn from him (he started the game):



He killed 2 Anointed with a S4 Banishment (I failed every armour safe ) and the Cannon in his back line misfired and couldn't shoot for the rest of the game, which was fine for me. Also, the Steam Tank took a wound from a Misfire, which was very important later on.

I basically rushed him, shoot at him with everything I got. I hit the Dragon indirect (with a scatter from the Popewagon on him) which resulted into 4 wounds. A direct 5" S2 hit from the Rocket Battery into the right Halberd horde took out roughly 18 guys (was around 32 hits XD). The three direct hits on the Popewagon got dodged by the mighty ward safe.

On my third turn things started to get spicy. I got the charge from the Gobbo Chief on the one Cannon, which was still working. The Anointed (3 guys) charged the Steam Tank head on. In the shooting phase more stuff died due to scatter madness XD

Combat resulted into a dead Cannon and overrun into Dragon (which was more than perfect for me here) and a ton of wounds on the Steam Tank, which left him left with 2 wounds. The backswing resulted into a dead Anointed

Since he made a mistake with his Halberds, he couldn't charge the Anointed to help them out, so yeah, nice for me

The Kadim got a Horse with a punny human to play around and he tanked a S6 banishment (only 2 wounds). The Anointed killed the Steam Tank exactly (phew).

On my turn, the Kadim charged that punny human with a way to big hammer, the Anointed charged the Engine with a nice overrun in the Dragon (2W remaining). Shooting killed again stuff for template related reason (he was still piled in that corner).

Combat was a dead punny human with a nice overrun. The Anointed only made 3 wounds on the Engine, and it hold, which was not that cool cause no Dragon on lances

On his turn he charged with Halberds and Dragon the Anointed, killed them (I didn't kill the buff wagon ).

In the meantime, the Flintlocks, on the right flank, rushed forward for glory and got a charge from the Halberd Horde on them in round 5. Stand and shoot later, a great magic phase for him (reroll to wound, 5++) resulted into 5 dead Dwarfs but 12 dead Halberds. He broke (cause not steadfast) and fled from the table. I guess, Flintlocks are good

However, now the Kadim Titan was free to go to fill his empty stomach with some nice roasted Halberds. Also, the right flank was now open (quote Joker: THAT WILL HURT) and I got a great Flank charge with the Flintlocks on the Altar, 7 wide, so that all guys can attack with way to many S6 attacks.

In the shooting phase resulted in a Dragon stuffed with Rockets (Rocket Battery killed it) and more dead humans (you know that scene from movies and games when artillery hits into rank and file guys and they start to fly around? That was basically what happened there).

Combat resulted into 17 dead Halberds (Titan was REALLY hungry) and a dead Altar (S6 on charge, I finally remembered it ). I was greedy and overrun with the Flintlocks, but came short a tiny bit towards the 3 remaining Knights (needed the 8, but rolled only the 5). Since I was a little bit sneaky, I reformed the Titan to show the Halberds my flank aka MOAR S4 hits

Last turn from my opponent, charge with remaining Knights and a couple of Militas with BSB into the Flintlocks (BSB unit was in the Flank). I hold cause of steadfast + killed a couple of Militas/Knights. The Kadim chewed through the Halberds and ran of the board. In my last turn, shooting killed the Engine, which resulted, that both mages panicked of the table (must be nice).

Result was a super salty opponent and a 19-1 result.

Called it

Through, I have to be honest here. My opponent didn't play very well and made some huge mistakes. If you play on par, the result should be a close to a 14-6 for me, cause I can grab the objectives and he not.

Highlights of the round:
- @berti killing the Vamp Lord on round 3 in combat (I still don't know HOW he did it)
- indirect scatter on the Dragon into 4 wounds
- Flintlocks being great again (chewing through Halberds in one round)
- Kadim Titan for doing that to the Halberds:

- Drinking beer with GUO
- Having first high win on the tournament and the ETC at all

Some nice pics from the round:







So, after a great round for us (close to a cap) we were in an awesome position to get past the Germans.

But a big question here?

What do you eat in the lunch break?

Answer is: Bananas (way to many, felt like a naked monkey ), Chocolate Bars (or Cookies) and some Burgers they offered (cause actual food was way to expensive).

So yeah, I did this for 3 straight days XD

We had our regular "lets meet outside and talk about the round" meeting with beer to cool us down (man it was hot). Than round 6 got called and we had the honour to play against Team Bulgaria.

Round 6 vs Team Bulgaria it is.

I got the honour to play against one of the ChiHammer guys (sorry guys, I do not which one is which, cause I'm super terrible with names) however, I played against VC with that handsome man:



He dared to bring VC to the table with that gruesome list:

Jack Chapman, Vampire Covenant

Vampire Count: General, Heavy Armour, Lv 2, Death, Von Carstein, ABP: Storm Caller, Hardened Shield Sword of Strength, Talisman of Supreme Shielding, Tome of Arcane Lore, 425
Necromancer Lord:Lv 4, Necromancy, Book of Arcane Power, Obsidian Rock, 280

2 x Fell Wraith (Banshee): 85
Necromancer: Lv 2, Necromancy, Dispell Scroll, 125

3 x 5 Dire Wolves: 40
30 Ghouls: Full Command, 295
30 Zombies: Standard, Musician, 105
31 Zombies: Standard, Musician, 108

30 Barrow Guard: Full Command, Shields, Banner of the Barrow Kings, 345
3 x 2 Phantom Host: 60

4 Winger Reapers: Halberds, 347

Total 2500

So:
- no combat lord? Check
- no Ghoulstar? Check
- no Barrow Guard star? Check
- only one real combat block? Check
- 3x2 Phantom Hosts? Sadly check
- Winged Reapers? Check

So yeah, I expected a small win here (paring matrix told me a 0 with a positive variance), since I have little outs vs his Phantom Hosts and his Winged Reapers are really a pain in the a$$

Map was Nr. 3 with Breakthrough as Scenario.

We started to deploy normally, but after my two chaff units I noticed, that he has like a bazillion more drops until something meaningful comes down. Hence, I just dropped everything, cause why not when it does not matter at all?

I played the first couple of turns super conservative, but 2 charges on turn 1 (yeah I know ) which was the Gobbos on Wolfs into 2 Dire Wolves units. This way, I was able to block his whole battle line due to the combats and overruns.

Must be nice.

Magic was funny, cause I had the Flaming Swords on my Fire mage and a AOE Flaming Swords on 3 WMs is something you don't want to be on the receiving end, but I was never able to get it through (either he scrolled, dispelled it, or I failed the casting value with 4 dices).

Shooting resulted into more dead bodies (the crew like the smell of burned metal and blood apparently XD) or rather, as dead as they can get.

On his turn he moved slightly forward and magiced a little bit around. In my turn, there was more of the same as before.

In the meantime, my Wolf guys got charged by Phantom Hosts and got chased away

On his the second turn, the first important event happened. He was able to place his Phantom Hosts 6" away from my Anointed and was able (with my help, cause I'm the nice guy (or not, cause I play ID )) to block any meaningful movements. However, right behind them there were the Winged Reapers, something I need to get the charge on, otherwise I will just lose them.

In my turn, I charged the Phantom Hosts with the Anointed, cause it was still better than NOT to do it. Also, I positioned them in a way, that he cannot charge them in any meaningful way, cause they would receive a flank charge from the Flintlocks.

The shooting phase was awesome. I missed the possibility to shoot at the Winged Reaper with the Shell Mortar (forgot about that possibility), but the Crew knew what to do and scattered 10" on them.

#Better #Lucky #Than #Good

Of course I killed that one guy.

My combat phase resulted into 0 wounds on his Phantom hosts (2 passive wounds through).

His turn was some moderate movements due to the fear from the Kadim Titan or the Shell effect. In the magic phase, my Mage won the LD roll of vs his Vamp Lord which saved my a$$ (had to use my scroll in the first turn).

So yeah, combat it is. And what a combat. He failed 6 ward safes from the Phantom Hosts and suddenly I was free to go into the Winged Reapers

Which I did.

A magic phase with Hatred (Forge 4) and Forge 0 as pest and cholera for him later, I had the buffed Forge 0 spell on my Anointed.

Combat resulted into 2 1/2 dead Winged Reapers and 1 dead Anointed. Forge 0 with Path Attribute does overtime here, since I rolled 6 '1's for the to wound rolls.

God bless the Path of Forge XD

On his 4th turn, he made some desperate attempts, to turn the corner around and charged with his Zombies into the flank of the Anointed to pin them there. He pulled out a Banshee for my Flintlocks and the lone Wolf wanted to play with big badass papa Wolf (aka Titan).

Magic was some healing attempts on the Reapers. One got through, but it was not enough to revive another body. The combat resulted into dead Reapers and even more dead Zombies + a reform in that direction.

On my turn, the Flintlocks ate the nice Banshee in front of them with a charge and the Titan was hungry and ate the lone Wolf in front of him (didn't kill it with 18 Flintlocks shots + Gunnery Team :wallbash: )

There was some nice magic, but nothing relevant.

Since my WM didn't do anything the last two turns (5 misfires again), they upped their skill game with 24 dead Barrow Guards.



Combat resulted into even more dead Zombies (is that even possible?), Banshee and the Wolf. Titan overrun into a area, where Zombies could charge into the Front and Ghouls into the Flank.

5th turn now, he was now even more desperate to do SOMETHING and charged the Anointed with his (now small) Barrow Guard block. Ghouls wanted to play around with the Titan, so it be.

Magic was a Death 6 through the Anointed which resulted into one dead model.

Combat. I killed Zombies with Anointed, and a couple of Barrow Guards, but lost one in the process (those darn Zombies making the last wound ).

Question time.

Do you remember the last game, when my Titan was chilling in the Halberds and I killed 17 Halberds? My new record was: 3 from the S4 flaming hits, 8 from the attacks, 5 stomps = 16 Ghouls + another 12 due to combat res.

I mean, I tried to find a meme describing that moment, but I simply couldn't.

At that point he conceded, since I was able to completely wipe him next turn + I get the scenario.

Aua, that hurt.

20-0 for me.

Highlights:
- Threat of the Flaming Swords bubble on the WM
- 10" scatter on the Winged Reapers
- 24 dead Barrow Guards from 2 Titan Mortars
- Titan establishing a new solo model kill count record

Impressions from the Round:






We won again very high, so there was a real possibility to get past the Germans.

And we waited (and packed our stuff)...
... and waited (got some beers from the kiosk)...
... AND WAITED (drank those beers + schnapps + cognac)...
... and waited even longer till the final games were done and the final standing came up.

We looked ...
... and looked ...
... AND LOOKED ...

And couldn't believe our eyes.

AUSTRIA - 10th place

DAFUQ

GERMANY -14th place

WE DID IT GUYS!!!!!!!!!

In the end, I scored 77 points, with most of them on the last day (39pts). I was 2pts shy of the most points in our team (OK with 79), but w/e.

I had a great time and ton of fun. I "traded" dices, went to see and meet-up with guys (and offer Schnapps, cause Schnapps is good ) and had a blast. Here some impressions from team Austria + the winner ceremonial:





Team pics (totally serious of course

I just ate something


Paint me like one of your french girls



Flair was awesome, team was awesome, opponents (but the EoS guy) were awesome, Beer was cheap and awesome (that Alpha *.* ), Schnapps and Cognac was awesome, food was awesome, AC was awesome (oh gosh, otherwise we would have died in there), basically everything was awesome

I hope, I can meet more guys from the T9A forum next year (if I can make it), otherwise, we will see us at Herford (if I can make it).

Greetings,
Kathal

PS: List and ID feedback will come tomorrow