2,000 point, 5 game Age of Sigmar Tournament, 19th & 20th March ’22

With COVID restrictions reducing more people are starting to run tournaments, so when I spotted Dazmaul Wargaming were running an event locally to me I signed up straight away. The date was then clashed with an event at Warhammer World but as this event was local I stuck with my original choice!

Dazmaul Wargaming are a great bunch of lads, or run a small youtube channel, so go check them out:

I took Big Waaagh! with me and the same list as I have used for the last two tournaments. (Chumpionship and Raging Rivers GT)

Big Waaagh!

– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line

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

At Chumpionship I went 3-0 (1st) and at Raging Rivers 3-0 (2nd) so I was hopeful that I would be able to get a cheeky 4-1 and complete a Hobby Goal early in 2022.

Game 1 v Paul (Seraphon) -First Blood – Major Win

I had recently played Paul at Purple Sparkly Unicorns event at Element Games with a similar Seraphon list. Paul uses Kroak and a block of 30 Skinks who get all the buffs. Because of the recent Battlescroll changes to Salamanders (give up an extra VP) Paul swapped his Salamanders for an Engine of the Gods (not a bad unit to be able to tag in)!

The Dazmaul tournament was being played on 6’x4′ tables which took a little time to get used to – not least that easy turn 1 charges (with Gore Gruntas for example) became more difficult to achieve. It also meant that Kroak had to advance slightly more than normal leaving a suspicious Brutes size hole behind him!

Paul took turn 1, did a little damage and set up to take a charge, whilst I teleported Brutes behind Kroak but failed the charge.

Fortunately I won the second turn, and had the Maw Krusha join the Brutes near Paul’s table edge. Brutes charged into Kroak and the Saurus Guard and Maw Krusha charged the Realmchanger – but failed to destroy it.

I called the Waagh, Killed a unit of Saurus who had been summoned turn 1 and left the General on 1 wound. Unfortunately I failed to kill Kroak as Paul rolled an 8 on 3D6 to have him not pop (he needed a 10 to die)

But… I had Paul pinned back and not a lot left with Brutes coming in as well for turn 3. His Engine of the Gods did roll a triple 6 (double all attacks for the army (!) which meant the Brutes behind Kroak mostly died, and Kroak retreated. The Engine charged the MawKrusha and did a lot of wounds with double attacks, but I survived and killed the Slaan general.

In turn 3 Paul had to teleport his Skink block to get an objective leaving his Engine and 3 characters alone; and I caught them and killed them with the 2nd unit of Brutes allowing the Maw Krusha to catch Kroak.

Game 2 v Baz (Morathi) – Apex Predators – Minor Win

Baz was paying attention to TTT results as they came in and worked out that we would play each other… Morathi and the Bow Snakes on Apex Predators is my worst match up as I don’t have a consistent way of killing Morathi quickly… oh dear!

Knowing that my usual sit back approach wouldn’t work I went for a turn 1 charge with Brutes (teleport) and Gore Gruntas into the Shadowstalkers but failed them both leaving the two units in a lot of trouble!

Baz teleported little Morathi onto one objective to start racking up points from turn 2, and killed the Brutes and Gore Gruntas with Morathi taking the middle objective for no damage done.

Baz got the second turn and the racking up of points continued, whilst in my turn 2 Ironskulz Boys charged little Morathi and did 3 wounds, whilst the Maw Krusha took the third objective.

I went first into turn 3, which meant Baz removed my objective. I did 3 wounds on big Morathi with the Wurrgog and destroyed the 5 spear-snakes with Maw Krusha. I also teleported 10 Brutes behind his lines and killed his general. I left my Big Stabbas so that Morathi could charge them and keep the objective, in the hope I could do three wounds in Baz’s turn. Baz took Broken Ranks on the Brutes, and shot them so only 2 were left, setting the 10 snakes up for the charge… which he forgot to do – failing the Battle Tactic. I owe him a rematch!

My turn 4 and Wurgogg finished off Morathi giving me the middle objective and leaving Baz with no heroes. This allowed me to sneak back to a 18-18 draw, but I had completed all my battle tactics and Baz had missed Broken Ranks – a Minor Win to me in the most fortunate of circumstances.

Game 3 v Kelvin (Soulblight Gravelords) – The Vice – Major Win

Kelvin had a Soulblight Gravelord list with 3 ambushing units (2 Blood Knights and a unit of 3 Vargheists, as well as Manfred. He gave me first turn, and I cast Hand of Gork on some Brutes, with Violent Fury, and charged them into the 40 Zombies… they died! Whilst this was a reasonable start for body reduction it’s only 230 points and half could automatically come back, which they did!

The Vargheists came on ambush to attack my Big Stabbas but missed the charge, whilst Manfred bravely charged the Brutes. He survived, just, but would spend much of the rest of the game healing in a corner.

I kept up the steamroller, killing the Dire Wolves with the Gore Gruntas, whilst I consolidated my two objectives. I just failed to capture one of Kelvin’s. His 2nd turn saw the Blood Knights turn up and charge… straight into the Maw Krusha. He did his thing, stood his ground and killed 4 of them, but Kelvin had won the objective giving him an early lead.

I won turn 3, and counter charged the Blood Knights killing them all whilst the Gore Gruntas and Brutes took out Zombies on Kelvin’s objective; which he couldn’t take back as Manfred was still healing.

Turn 4, and the centre objective became active, but I parked most of my army on it, and killed the Skeletons leaving Kelvin with very little left to get points. The 6×4 made a difference again, with the Skeletons in particular struggling to make an impact with their small movement.

Game 4 v Johnny (Idoneth Deepkin) – Tooth and Nail – Major Win

Johnny was using the new IDK rules and flipped the tides so he would strike first in turn 2… unfortuantely the board made it impossible for him to reach me in turn 2 as he set up defensively and then couldn’t reach me. I just hid on my home objective whilst Ardboyz and Ironskulls Boyz held the 2 neutral objectives for 2 turns (after some poor shooting), getting me ahead in points.

This meant his Thralls didn’t see combat, and I got to charge his Turtle and Eidolon in the last turns to grab some Kill Points. We chatted afterwards and agreed that Johnny was a little too conservative and scared of the Maw Krusha… although it would have made a mess being amongst his units turn 2 with strike first would likely have killed it had I charged. Hopefully Johnny will get a better chance next time we meet.

Game 5 v Tom (Slaves to Darkness) – Feral Foray – Major Win

Being in the lucky position of having reached my target of 4 wins I could relax into game 5… although with Archaon on the board it would be interesting! Another big God model. Tom & my game was also recorded by The Hobby Room and you can find it here:

This was a game of manoeuvre and counter-manoeuvre with not a lot of fighting, but a great game!

Tom gave me turn 1, and I moved up the Gore Gruntas and teleported a unit of Brutes in the hope of capturing one of his objectives. The Gore Gruntas made it, but the Brutes sadly failed so I killed the Spawn but Tom kept the objective. In his turn Archaon teleported into my territory and he took one of my objectives with a Varanguard unit. Unfortunately for him he failed a charge with Archaon but it didn’t make a difference to the scoring.

Archaon’s dice of fate showed that Tom went first turn 2, and he killed my Big Stabbas on the right, consolidated the objective on my left and destroyed it. Archaon didn’t charge this time, but by choice! His minions could do the job. I charged Brutes into Varanguard with Violent fury but only did 6 wounds (!) leaving them with 2 models and still in combat. This did have a small advantage in that it gave me extra Waaagh points. Meanwhile the Maw Krusha teleported onto Tom’s left and took an empty objective, also burning it; although failing a charge attempt into the Iron Golems.

Archaon gave Tom turn 3, allowing me to destroy my own centre objective and leaving only 3 objectives on the table; one of which I held with a lot of Brutes, and a Wurrgog. So Tom teleported Archaon and tried to charge the MK (as he could charge and keep the objective), but failed the charge. I then teleported the MK to Tom’s right most objective, used Fast Un to be within 3″ of the Lord, charged, killed him, and burned the objective. It was dead level at 16-16 all! Would the priority decide it?

And… it went to Tom again. He picked Bring it Down, moved the Varanguard up to the MK allowing me to redeploy him… a 6!! This left Archaon with a 10″ charge after his 14″ move – the big tables came to my rescue again, and Archaon failed the charge, and the Varanguard chose not to go in on their own. Tom had failed a battle tactic though, so a door was open. All I need to do was succeed in Hand of Gork – thanks to Touched by the Waaagh it worked, and I teleported back to my last hime objective, gaining Monstrous Takeover and spread out the army to stop Archaon teleporting and charging in his turn.

Turn 5, and Tom killed the Wurrgog with Varanguard (after Archaon failed another charge roll, gaining him a StD Battle Tactic. In response I gained ‘Wait for it Ladz’ battle tactic, teleported the Maw Krusha again and picked up some kill points.

An incredibly close game, which Tom could easily have won with some different dice rolls. Thanks again to Ben & The Hobby Room for recording it – it was interesting to look back and sorry the Wurrgog never got to stare in this game!

Results

I had finished 5-0 which is my first 5-0 ever in over 20 years of gaming, and makes it 11-0 in the last three tournaments with Big Waaagh! I almost think I should take a break with them, but I had to hand in a list for a local one-dayer before this event so they are playing next weekend too!

After the soft scores were added in, I also was fortunate enough to win the tournament, which is also my first 2 dayer win ever as well! A weekend of firsts.

Thank you for Dazmaul for hosting, and for all my opponents you were all gents. I hope to see you all again, and give you a chance for revenge against the teleporting Maw Krusha.

— Declan

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