2,000 point, 3 game Age of Sigmar Tournament, 5th March 2022

On 5th March 2022, Rob Symes (of Honest Wargamer fame) ran another of his one dayer tournaments at his place in Nottingham. This is a great venue with 8 tables and plenty of space around each table meaning that the Vice doesn’t cause any issues! (Not that we played it). There is also lots of big scenary pieces with impassable and a better version of obscuring to make shooting more difficult. There are also some large garisonable buildings, but you can’t garrison into or out of combat.

You can check out Rob on Twitch & YouTube as well.

Once again, I took my Big Waagh list which was identical to the list I took to Chumpionship last weekend.

Big Waaagh!

– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs:

Leaders
Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (480)*
– General
– Boss Choppa and Rip-tooth fist
– Command Trait: Touched by the Waaagh!
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Lore of the Weird: Da Great Big Green Hand of Gork
Wurrgog Prophet (150)*
– Artefact: Glowin’ Tattooz
– Universal Spell Lore: Flaming Weapon
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat
Orruk Warchanter (115)*
– Warbeat: Fixin’ Beat

Battleline
10 x Orruk Brutes (320)**
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– 2x Gore Choppas
– Reinforced x 1
10 x Orruk Brutes (320)**
– Jagged Gore-hackas
– 2x Gore Choppas
– Reinforced x 1
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)***
– 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers
5 x Orruk Ardboys (85)***
– 1x Gorkamorka Banner Bearers

Units
4 x Ironskull’s Boyz (80)***
3 x Orruk Gore-gruntas (170)**
– Jagged Gore-hackas
2 x Savage Big Stabbas (80)*

Core Battalions
*Warlord
**Hunters of the Heartlands
***Ironjawz Fist

Additional Enhancements
Artefact

Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 148
Drops: 11

After my success last weekend – going 3-0 and picking up first place – I was hoping for a 2-1 here… although the draw would affect this.

Game 1 v David (Stormcast) – Power Struggle – Won 19-1

David brought a Stormcast list that he had collected through the Mortal Realms magazine and this was his first tournament. David later got his first tournament win as well – Congratulations to him.

This meant he had the Longstrikes with Relictor and Translocation (teleport on 2+, re-rollable) so he had output. He also brought and Imperatant, Bastian Carthalos, Fulminators, 2 x 5 Vindictors, and 6 (!) Annihilators.

He started with the Annihilators and Fulminators off the board and decided to take the first turn.

Because the Maw Krusha could reach the Longstrikes turn 1, David took the first turn, moved the right hand (my view) Vindictors moved onto the central objective, and the other Vindictors moved up to protect the Longstrikes. The Longstrikes didn’t shoot in the hero phase, but in the shooting phase killed two of the Gore Gruntas. In my first turn I gave a unit of Brutes Violent Fury, then cast Hand of Gork successfully and teleported the Brutes onto the empty objective. This left them within 9″ of the Relictor! I charged; rolled the 9 and killed the Relictor.

Turn 2, I got the double turn, Hand of Gorked a Warchanter to the Brutes in David’s deployment zone, and then charged the world! Brutes into the centre, Brutes into Longstrikes and Maw Krusha into Vindictors and Imperatant. They killed everything, leaving David with only Bastian on the board, who did 3 mortal wounds on the Maw Krusha, charged him and did another 10 wounds to it. The Maw Krusha then Krush’d him back. Meanwhile the Annihilators dropped onto my back left objective and took it back, killing a Warchanter and some Ardboyz but leaving them within 12″ of the Wurrgog.

David got third turn priority, took it and I destroyed the objective under the Annihilators. They finished off the Ardboyz, and the Fulminators dropped, but failed their charge after shooting off some more Ardboyz. Wurrgog stared down 4 Annihilators and the Maw Krusha headed back to my board side. Unfortunately, David was out of the game at this point, but he did get Savage Spearhead, and I failed Broken Ranks with a charging Maw Krusha which meant David got 1 tournament point. A great game, which would have been very different if I hadn’t got the double turn into 2.

Game 2 v Thomas Waller (Flesh Eater Courts) – Apex Predators – Won 13-7

Thomas & I have been to a lot of tournaments in the last 6 months, but not played against each other, so it was great to get a game. He brought his FEC with 2 Terrorgheists and a Zombie Dragon and lots of summoning!

I struggle with Apex Predators, because I don’t like putting my Warchanters & Wurrgog in the middle of danger. Thomas asked me to go first and I got Hand of Gork off again. Getting a 12″ charge I had a choice between the two small casters or a Terrorgheist. Because one of the casters was in cover, I went for the Terrorgheist and killed it. Thomas’ revenge was swift – his Zombie Dragon took one of the objectives, he summoned lots of units including a Vargulf near another objective. His other Terrorgheist took off the Brutes in his deployment. A fair swap I think!

I won Priority turn 2, but gave it to Thomas as he wasn’t set up to benefit hugely and his Zombie Dragon was effectively ‘stuck’ on the objective. His Vargulf took another objective and the Terrorgheist moved towards the centre. Quick turn but Top was 10-3 up now! Time to strike! The Maw Krusha trigged Fast Un and Mighty Destroyers to give me a charge on the Varghulf – I succeeded and he died, giving me the objective. The rest of my army cleared out some of the screens including the Ardboyz charging the centre Ghouls protected by the Terrorgheist in order to get me to 16 Waagh Points (+1 to hit). I was 10-6 down, but all to play for.

Thomas won priority 3, took it and I destroyed the objective which the Zombie Dragon was holding, this freed him up and he took the centre objective whilst the Terrorgheist went hunting my Wurgogg and Warchanters, who were guarded by a unit of Ardboyz. The Terrorgheist took a lot of damage, but killed the Ardboyz, and did some damage on the characters. Unfortunately Thomas forgot he had a Varghulf available to summon. My turn three, and the Wurrgog stared at the Zombie Dragon leaving it on three wounds. My Maw Krusha left his objective and charged the Zombie Dragon killing it, whilst the Warchanter killed the Terrorgheist – upon death it did 2 wounds to the Brutes and both Warchanters… killing both Warchanters (Thomas deliberately played for this – it was great to see)! So with only one character left for me, and Thomas having 2 who couldn’t dislodge the Maw Krusha plus a summons it was very tight. (11-13)

Turn four, Thomas won the Priority but was struggling with Battle tactics – the Varghulf came on ready for turn 5. I killed a unit of Ghouls whilst retaining the centre objective to take the lead (16-13). Turn five saw me win Priority getting me ‘hold one, hold more’ whilst Thomas moved the Varghulf to gain the 2nd objective in his turn. A very close 23-17!

Cheers to Thomas for the game – it was great to play eventually although I was glad it wasn’t against one of his Destruction armies, the FEC were still difficult to get over in this mission. Maw Krusha & Wurrgog once again shared model of the match for me!

Game 3 v Charles (Beasts of Chaos) – Feral Foray – Won 11-9

Charles (Twitter name Colonel Cabbage) is well known in the UK tournament scene but we’ve never played. He brought an old struggling army, but one which had just got the White Dwarf treatment… Beasts of Chaos. I was interested to see what they could do, but also a bit anxious… lots of summoning and massive rend – with some huge monsters.

Charles had 3 x 3 Bullgors, 5 Doombulls, and 3 Ghorgon’s. Plus some supporting units. Each hero would turn into a spawn when it died (one a 2+) which can be put into combat… so there were a lot of wounds to get through. Added to that everything gets -1 rend in turns 1 & 2 and then -2 rend in turns 3+. This meant the Doombulls were on -4/-5 at the end of the battle… who needs mortal wounds! They’ll even slice through Bastiladons.

I had the choice of first turn as Charles has 17 drops, so not being used to this, I gave the turn to Charles. His Ungor raiders captured the middle objective and did some small shooting, chipping a few wounds here and there. I then charged with pretty much my whole army giving my 7 Big Waagh points by turn 2, giving my +1 to hit. Not surprisingly the Ungor raiders vanished in a puff of blood!

Charles won priority and charged in with the second line of attackers – the 3 Bullgor units, and a Ghorgon. The Ghorgon killed 5 Brutes (ouch) and could easily have killed more, whilst the Bullgors in the centre killed 5 Ardboyz. The Bullgors to left and right though fluffed completely doing 3 wounds in total to Ironskull’s Boyz and a unit of Ardboyz. The Brutes then killed the Ghorgon which had hurt them, and I did some wounds to the Bullgors. In my turn the Wurrgog did 10 wounds on one unit of Bullgors, whilst the Maw Krusha charged the ones in the centre, getting Broken Ranks. I had claered the next line out, and because I had killed a monster, was back to within a point (10-11)

Charles won priority, and I destroyed his objective on my right, whilst he brought in yet more ungors and Gor! There were almost litterally thousands of them! He was also getting -2 rend from now on… and it was sure to hurt. On came the Doombulls, supported by the Jaberslyth and one Ghorgon. They smashed into my lines killing 2 Gore Gruntas (and being unlucky not to kill a third) and some Brutes on my right. The Jaberslyth gave the Brutes an extra attack (but 1s would do mortals). After my attack the Jaberslyth was dead but so were 4 Brutes leaving one left (Brutal!). The Ghorgon on my right had to charge within 3″ of the brutes so the Ardboyz made way, and the Brutes killed the Ghorgon. He also took my left most objective with some Ungor Raiders.

In my turn 3, I counter charged, killed all the Doombulls and the Ungor Raiders. However I forgot the Spawn and one of them appeared on my unguarded right objective… oops!

Turn 4, and Charles moved his spawns to block me in between the three buildings, whilst yet more Gor appeared on my board edges. Some Ungor raiders re-took my objective despite me killing the Spawn, but couldn’t get within 1″ to destroy it; however Gor summoned in turn 3 destroyed my right-most objective. My Wurgogg killed one of the Spawn in the way allowing the Maw Krusha to charge off into Charles’ central objective killing his general and 3 ungor and taking the objective. There wasn’t a lot left and I was 21-22 behind… could I win a priority roll.

Well, no, Charles won it and took the turn. A summoned Gor unit took my central objective, burned it and gained a battle tactic (wow!), whilst his other units moved to ensure I couldn’t get his left objective. I fortunately still had a battleline alive (Brutes), and the Maw Krusha within 9″ of the Herdstone, so I walked to within 1″ of the objective and burned it. We were level at 27-27, but I had stopped Charles’ Grand Strategy giving me the narrowest of wins! (30-27)

I finished 3-0 in my second tournament in a row with Big Waaagh! They are doing a lot of heavy lifting and really fit my play style of sit back and wait. I still struggle to win ‘big’ in the 20-0 system because of the conservative approach but I prefer to take my Gitz to tournaments where this is primary.

I also picked up Best Sports which I am very happy with – it is after all the best trophy to win and the only other time I’ve won it at AOS3, is with Gitz.

Thanks to Rob, and I highly recommend his events – well run, great terrain, good location (and easy to get to).

— Declan

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