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Help! I've Been Poisoned!Mike Nursey succumbs to Warhammer Fantasy BattleIt was a bleak day when I asked Gareth for a game of Warhammer. I thought I was just being inquisitive, but those pesky Lizardmen of his poisoned me, and so I started building an army to take to GW's Empire Weekend at the start of January. I chose Slannesh Daemons, as they you need few in number and are easy to control. (Not because they're bald perverts who like dressing up in women's clothes and cavorting with stinging whips then. Ed). So, it was with some trepidation that I set off to Nottingham home of the evil empire to take part with 80 other gamers. The empire weekend isn't a standard tournament. Sides are often unequal, and you get points for for various tactical ploys not to mention sportsmanship, and painting, in which I came joint second. (Brag, brag, brag, Ed). Anyway, I turned up wondering what I had let myself in for. The weekend is limited to 16yrs and above, so I just scrapped in. (Doctor he's ready for his treatment, Ed). So what do you get for £32? A well run two days, with none of this oh your opponent dropped out and we haven't got a replacement stuff. Two good meals, on the Sunday its a sort of carvery roast, free coffees, doughnuts etc. AND just for Gareth, the bar is next door to the gaming hall, so you can be carried straight in. Lots of details are sent to you beforehand and there were some sprung on us after you'd handed in your army list so no last minute changes.!!! So onto my first game. I'd had one demo game with Gareth, and was dreading it. My opponent had those sneaky Skaven massed regiments with Jezzails, and plague monks etc. His allied 500pts turned up on a flank which usually wasn't too much of a problem because the tables were 8ft. I was already loosing, but my allied 500pts turned up behind his in the next move and saved the day. I still lost but only just. Not a bad start. Game Two. A doubles. My partner was a member of the Warhammer Players society, so I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd just played my second game of Warhammer. Along with a liberal smattering of magic his chaos warriors and my Daemons managed to pull off a massacre against Lizardmen and more chaos warriors. He's since been told his army is TOO competitive. I just watched as the enemies centre completely folded. I ended up apologizing to my opponent apologising when I rolled a double six and took down eight tough chaos warriors with some chaos spawn. Well my opponent did say whatever you do don't roll twelve!!!' I felt somewhat relieved and shell-shocked after the second game. But
the third was to bring me down to earth. Orcs and Goblins. Complete with
a giant. My magic dice failed me even though I had twice as many as my
opponent, and I then had to suffer as a devastating spell was cast in
three successive moves whittling my Daemons down. (Oooooh, I like a bit
of Taken to the cleaners was an understatement. Still most players experienced one of those over the weekend.' Retiring to the guest house in the company of some other gamers, one of which kindly lent me some figures minutes before the start to make my army legal!!! I resolved to do better, or else, I would definitely let the team down. I didn't have the heart to tell them I'd only had one practice game, I think I said I hadn't played MUCH, another under statement, eh. Sunday dawned, I was up against a young chap with an empire army. A quick
glance at the latest results print out told me he hadn't been doing too
badly, but not brilliant. Great, I thought, I was in with a chance. Now
one thing about the Empire you should know, it has very good artillery.
However, the battle began with the heroic challenge. Now you can use any
hero not necessarily your general. I opted for a slightly worse exalted
daemon, who I had to get stuck in quick, with no messing about with tactics. I did manage to neutralise some handgunners who then ran away, but his artillery was already homing in on my elite 12 figure cavalry unit costing almost one third of the armies entire points. Fortunately they weren't wiped out but needed under 10 to not to rout, yes and you guessed it I rolled 11. I felt things beginning to slip away. My foot daemons managed eventually to get stuck in and a magic banner was all that kept him hanging on. His goblin allies were shot to pieces by a volley gun and then charged by knights lent to me as my allies for the game by another empire player on my team.' The result a major victory to me, and I could hardly believe it. (Really, Ed). After lunch, it looked like our team as a whole was doing pretty well. All with good points for painting and most of us except my doubles partner good points for sportsmanship. My last game was against lizardmen. However, his 500pts of allies had been stolen by his team captain to give him overwhelming superiority. With some deft magic and a bit of out-maneuvering I managed to start well. My opponent was impressed, and for the first time my cavalry managed to do more than just die by breaking his Temple guard, (a tough unit). My allies showed up and it was going to be an uphill struggle form there. One of my opponents teammates asked somewhat wryly, why Daemons were using magic from the Lore of Life, and I replied that they were being sarcastic. Another major victory, but was it enough. I knew that the team captain and two warhammer player society members of our team had done very well but so had several other top team players. To my amazement we won the tournament, and each got a nice trophy and a £20 voucher to spend you know where. So was it worth all the bother of going. Well, yes. Everyone was pretty friendly, and the organization was very good. You can't take it too seriously, and luck was a factor but it could swing both ways as my games showed. GW figures aren't cheap, they never will be, but there's only so many 15mm armies that are fun, and it definitely encourages you not to waste cash. You can pick up figures on bring and buys and GW do some nice plastic figures although they are a bit light. Check out www.players-society.com. You might be poisoned too!!!! |