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Baillie's Battle Reporting - Tournament Final
Topic Started: Apr 29 2010, 12:16 PM (427 Views)
James Baillie
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BATTLE REPORT: TOURNAMENT FINAL

Declan Saye (Balanced Empire) versus Declan Jones (Knights-only Brettonians)

SETUP
Saye had a hill at his end of the table on his right, on which he deployed his cannon, swordsmen, handgunners and crossbowmen. There was a wood between the forces on Saye's left/Jones' right, in which Saye deployed his huntsmen. Jones deployed his knights on his left, facing the cannon/swordsmen and away from the woods. The Empire's captain and pistoliers deployed behind the forest. The Warrior Priest had the Ring of Volans, on which he had the Bear's Anger spell (which was cast on the Swordsmen's unit champion most turns).

TURN ONE
Saye: The pistoliers and captain moved to be screened on the other side of the woods. The cannon and huntsmen both fired to no effect.
Jones: The knights moved forward towards the hill.

TURN TWO
Saye: The pistoliers and captain moved to Jones' flank; the captain's doomfire ring was dispelled, but the Imperial general nevertheless bravely shot a Knight Errant from his horse. The cannon suffered a misfire, but to no effect beyond not shooting.
Jones: The knights moved forward towards the hill.

TURN THREE
Saye: The pistoliers rear-charged the knights errant, with the captain moving to sit at their flank. The imperial knights moved as a screen in front of the swordsmen as his missile troops prepared to shoot. The cannon suffered a second misfire, finally exploding into broken metal shards. A relatively weak round of the shooting that had so devastated Baillie's light cavalry the week before nevertheless saw four Knights of the Realm fall. THe Errants were destroyed by the pistoliers in combat.
Jones: Ignoring advice to move all his knights into their imperial counterparts, Jones moved the Grailers and a unit of Knights of the Realm into the knights and his final unit into the deadly swordsmen. His not taking the advice turned out to be a good thing; the knights fled, leaving the brettonians looking rather stupid out in front of two powerful shooting units (three including the pistoliers who were still there on the flank). 2 more Realmers died from shooting as they charged the swordsmen; only three were left in combat. Critically, Declan Saye forgot his "hatred" rules at this point, which could have swung the combat in his favour. Nevertheless, with one casualty on either side it was the realmers who had to take a break test. They stayed however.

TURN FOUR
Saye: The knights rallied, but otherwise it seemed that this turn might just be like the last. Oh, how wrong; the doomfire ring fired and panicked the unengaeged Knights of the Realm; they fled, straight into the waiting pistoliers. As they died, all the Realmers in the remaining unit were cut to pieces bar the Battle Standard Bearer, who stood alone.
Jones: The Grail Knights charged the swordsmen, with 1 dying from crossbow fire. The bear's anger did not save the champion from being destoryed by Jones' Paladin in a challenge. Four swordsmen died, and the Battle Standard bearer just managed to survive the Warrior Priest's Runefang: the swordsmen fled, with the BSB sitting on the hill but the Grail Knights charging on into the crossbows.

TURN FIVE
Saye: Determined to destoy the hated Grail Knights, the Captain, the Imperial Knights and the Pistoliers charged both flanks and the rear in what was to be the decisive combat of the game. Stunning dice-rolls for the Grail Knights and an aggravating lack of blown armour saves ended up with the Brettonians taking the advantage in the combat: the crossbowmen were hacked to pieces, and the knights too fled from the table despite the nearby presence of the battle standard-bearing captain.
Jones: The Grailers reformed to face the pistoliers, and the Battle Standard moved to get out of the way of the handgunners. Now outmatched by the might of the lady's finest, the pistoliers in their turn were destroyed. Only the Imperial Captain now stood against the terrible wrath of the knights, and suddenly the tide of the match had turned.

TURN SIX
Saye: The handgunners attempted to charge the Grail Knights and aid their captain, but failed due to the difficult terrain of the hill. The huntsmen finally got into range, but failed to kill the Battle Standard bearer. The captain killed another Grail Knight to level the combat and hang on, however.
Jones: The Battle Standard bearer charged the handgunners, and despite slaying two of them they held on tenaciously. However, finally Declan Jones' continuously brilliant rolling on his Grail Knights took its toll; the captain fell from his Pegasus, and despite gaining Frenzy on the monster reaction table it fled from the combat.

TURN SEVEN
Saye: The Pegasus, devastated at the loss of its rider, finally exited the table. The huntsmen again unleashed a volley of arrow-fire, but the Grail Knights stood aloof and unharmed. The handgunners finally gave up the fight, and fled into the Grail Knights to be cut down. Only the huntsmen now stood against the three deadly Brettonians...
Jones: The knights hurried towards the huntsmen, Jones knowing that a blown armour save from arrow fire here could have been the end of the battle.

TURN EIGHT
Saye: The huntsmen, seeing that the Grail Knights were too close to manoeuvre, cunningly dodged around to their flank. The ensuing volley of arrow fire had no effect, though.
Jones: The Battle Standard charged the huntsmen; despite his awesome military prowess, he failed to destroy them and they held as the Grail Knights aligned themselves to the rear.

TURN NINE
Saye: The huntsmen finally kill the hated Battle Standard bearer, in a final victory for the Imperial forces.
Jones: The Grail Knights charge in, slaughtering the Empire's last valiant troops. It is a bleak day for Sigmar's finest, but whether the Brettonians will be left feeling satisfied is hardly clear either; at least there are only two of them left to ask...

DECLAN JONES: MARGINAL VICTORY

Unit of the Match: Grail Knights
Couple the best heavy cavalry in the game with some of the best dicerolls in the game, and you have slaughter. It was Brettonia's elite who really won this match, long after the lesser knights had been cut to pieces. Dispatching the swordsmen, Knights, Pistoliers, Corssbowmen and Captain certainly made them a very, VERY good investment for Declan Jones.

Warrior of the Match: Empire Captain
It's fair to say that the Captain didn't really kill much; the Pistoliers obtained far more VPs, killing both the Errants and a unit of Realmers. However, his stand against the Grailers (which, despite the small numbers, actually WAS against overwhelming odds when points are considered) was one of the most stick-in-the-mind moments of the match, dragging a combat on which for half of it he fought utterly alone. His eagle-eyed shooting earlier in the match certainly won points for the cool factor, too: as Dec Saye said, "Pistols just make everything cooler".

Squib of the Match: Great Cannon
Having wreaked utter havoc on enemies throughout his campaign, the one weapon of Saye's that could pummel away at knights whilst totally disregarding those pesky armour saves just gave up the ghost this match. In a game as tight as this, the unpredictability of magic or warmachines can play a major swinging factor: had the Empire had access to their heavy firepower, it's highly likely that it could have tipped the balance the other way; with an army like the Brettonian that relies on heavy armour and low numbers, artillery can be devastating - when it works, that is.

CONCLUSION
I believe I wrote on a report of a game of mine earlier this tournament that it had been a damned near close-run thing. I was, undeniably, wrong. THIS was the closest battle I think I have ever seen, and if there was ever a game which nobody should have lost, this was it. A slew of bad dice rolls (the cannon's misfire was probably one of the worst) and heckling from certain crowd-members made the conditions very difficult to play in for Declan Saye, it should be noted; his standing as the best student playing at club is not going to be tarnished by a single game. He also increases his lead at the top of the all-time rankings table, leaving all other players nearly seven points (equivalent to a first-place tournament finish) behind. That is, of course, to take nothing away from the hard-fought campaign by the Brettonian player; Declan Jones is now officially the 2010 Warhammer Club Tournament Champion.
Edited by James Baillie, May 1 2010, 08:17 PM.
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