4-1 Frostgorgers at the BAO!

Hey everyone, I'm back from the Bay Area Open!  I had a fantastic time and am quite glad that I went!  The guys over at Frontline Gaming and Seth from Game Kastle put on a good show, despite some early set backs. Here's the list I brought:

Slaughtermaster: ironfist, level 4, Lore of the Great Maw, Glittering Scales, Crown of Command, Sword of Striking, Dispel Scroll

Bruiser: ironfist, heavy armour, battle standard bearer, Deathcheater, Runemaw Firebelly: level 1, great weapon, Hellheart

15 Ironguts: full command, Standard of Discipline

4 Mournfang Cavalry: ironfist, heavy armour, bellower, standard bearer, Dragonhide Banner 6 Leadbelchers: bellower Sabretusk Sabretusk Sabretusk

Ironblaster Ironblaster

Total: 2,496

I've been running this list for a while with astounding success, so I figured it was the one to bring to the tournament!  I took a couple comp hits for double rares and more than 25% of my points in one unit, but I figured it was worth it.

I'm not generally one for writing (or reading) long battle reports, so I'll try and give a summary of the highlights.

Game 1: The Empire (Meeting Engagement)

This was the first game of the day, my opponent brought a fairly rounded Empire cavalry army, very similar to my friends, which I have a lot of practice against.  He won the roll off to deploy and go first and rolled a 1 for both of his major combat blocks.  In the end, this likely contributed a lot towards his winning the game, as he was then able to bring them on from reinforcements knowing where everything in my army was!  Ultimately he ended up killing much of my chaff and ran away most of the game.  The strategy worked and he walked away with a victory.  In retrospect, had I deployed more centrally and just ran for it, I think I could have had a solid chance of victory... Oh well!

Game 2: Lizardmen (Battle Lines)

This was one of my favorite opponents through the event, he was funny and thoughtful of his game.  He spent much of his time trying to redirect me to expose flanks, which I didn't allow to pay off, while I slowly ground through all his skinks, salamanders and a block of Saurus, earning me a win for the game.

Game 3: Vampire Counts (Blood and Glory)

The last game of day 1 saw me pitted against a very solid Vampire Counts opponent, resplendent with Terrorgheist, Varghulfs, Vargheists and a horde of Grave Guard.  Early in the game I fled a charge with a hound, that resulted in me failing 6 panic checks, that eventually cost me my Mournfangs, an Ironblaster and Leadbelchers, all fleeing off the table from his subsequent charges.  I thought all was lost and he went in for the coup de gras to take out my Gutstar.  I charged, killed and overran his Vargheists, which brought me into combat with his Hexwraiths.  That brought my flank open to the Varghulf and plenty of frontage for his Graveguard Horde, but I didn't see any other way.  He took the bait and charged in with everything, carefully allocating my attacks and making way for maximum effect, I managed to win combat, 2 turns in a row, crushing most of his force, and securing a Major Victory for myself.

Game 4: Warriors of Chaos (Dawn Attack)

At this point I was feeling pretty good, so far I was 2-1 and ready for Day 2 to begin.  I was up against a Warriors of Chaos army with tons of fast cavalry, hounds, chariots, plus a Slaanesh Daemon Prince.  Early game we exchanged chaff for chaff, my cannons brought his Hellcannon down to a single wound, while he maneuvered his Daemon Prince around me, just dancing left and right out of charge arcs.  I charged the Hellcannon with my Mournfangs to finish off it's last wound, despite knowing that it meant they'd be unsupported and probably end up getting run down by the chariots.  He was constantly trying to use Slaanesh magic to make me take LD tests on 3D6, so I couldn't allow that Hellcannon to run me off the board.  Towards the end of the game, he charged his Daemon Prince into my Irongut horde, hoping to hide in challenges, and probably kill some characters to break the tie.  The gamble didn't work, I declined the challenge then hit him with the full strength of  the Irongut Horde.  After killing the prince, I was in prime position, after some careful redirecting, to charge into his unit of Knights with the BSB.  After wiping them out, we called the game, a Major Victory for me!

Game 5: Daemons of Chaos (Battle Lines)

The last game of the day was against a great guy with a flaming red beard.  His Daemon army looked fairly standard, led by a Great Unclean One, with a horde of bloodletters, furies, daemonettes a couple single fiends and a Soulgrinder.  The first shot I took in the game with my Ironblaster took down his Soulgrinder and continued on to put 5 wounds on the Great Unclean One.  This kind of set the tone of the game, it was the only game of the tournament where I had most of my magic phases over 6 power dice (previously my games averaged about 4-5 per turn, one game was never over 5).  His lack of shooting meant my Sabretusks were able to control his forces until I was prepared to charge in.  Probably the funniest part of the game was when the Mournfangs took a flank charge from the Furies, we both did 0 wounds, so I fled and got ran down by them!  Damn bats!  The rest of the battlefield didn't go well in his favor though, the Daemonettes had been whittled down by Leadbelchers and my Ironguts handily took down the Bloodletters, leading to my third Major Victory.

Conclusion

Overall, I was very pleased with my list and would probably not change a thing.  My army performed how I expected it to in all of my games and I'm not terribly disappointed with my early loss.  I tied for 3rd on battle points, got perfect paint and perfect sportsmanship, though my two comp hits and strength of schedule ended up meaning I came in 7th overall, out of 50, so really not bad!