Article by Kieron Bailey

I attended the Warrior Lodge Quest of Champions Heat 4 on August 6th/7th. Heat 2 had been my first ever AoS tournament so I knew it would be a great bunch of people and some beautiful armies. The venue, The Sanctuary in Sutton-in-Ashfield, is a great venue with plenty of space, nice and cool in the summer months and has epic doughnuts for sale! It also has the Quest of Champions signature feature: a wheel that is spun each round to decide the battleplan. More on that later.

My aim for the weekend was to definitely get one win, aim for two and hopefully get three to put me in with a shot of qualifying for the Quest of Champions Finals in October.

My List

Army Faction: Orruk Warclans
– Army Type: Kruleboyz
– Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
– Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast (315)**
– General
– Command Traits: Master of Magic
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Mount Traits: Fast ’Un
– Spells: Choking Mist
Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)**
– Spells: Sneaky Miasma
Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)**
– Spells: Nasty Hex
Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (105)***
– Spells: Da Black Pit

BATTLELINE
Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
– Scrap Totem Bearer
– Noise-maker
– Hobgrot Boss
Hobgrot Slittaz (80)*
– Scrap Totem Bearer
– Noise-maker
– Hobgrot Boss
Gutrippaz (180)**
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Drummer
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Hacka
Gutrippaz (180)**
– Gutrippa Banner Bearer
– Gutrippa Drummer
– Gutrippa Boss
– Wicked Hacka

OTHER
Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Boltboy Boss
Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Boltboy Boss
Man-skewer Boltboyz (240)**
– Boltboy Boss
Rippa’s Snarlfangs (70)***

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Soulsnare Shackles (50)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Expert Conquerors
**Battle Regiment
***Vanguard

TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

Game 1: Nidus Paths – Archaon and Varanguard

A fun, interesting game to begin with, against an army I’d not faced before, Archaon and Hosts of the Everchosen. It was my first encounter with the ‘priority in a cup’ mechanic, though it’s not too mysterious when Archaon advances at you Turn 1!

What Went Well
I had planned my screening very carefully to try and negate my opponent’s numerous opportunities to pile in and fight twice and while there were a couple of times when he did fight twice, it was always into the same screen not two different ones.

Even Better If
I redeployed a unit of 6 Boltboyz to better Unleash Hell, but then a Sorcerer charged first instead of the Varanguard, taking 20 mortal wounds that would have eliminated the Varanguard. Instead, I had moved two units close enough together that they could both be attacked by the same unit, losing both.

Clutch Play
Coming into Turn 4, I had two tactics that I could achieve, Barge Through and This One’s Mine. I could also really do with getting on a third objective for Hold More. I managed to get Sneaky Miasma off on my Sludgeraker and the once per battle hero phase move from Fast ‘Un to be 4″ away from some Cultists who the Sludgeraker dealt with quite easily, once he’d closed the distance.

Result: 25-21 Win

Game 2: In The Presence of Idols – Sentinels and Foxes

I was not looking forward to this one as it was an army that I had not faced, with mortal wound shooting that is a) longer ranged than my own and b) could ignore cover and therefore my Grinnin’ Blades sub-faction ability. In addition, 3 Foxes can easily get within 12″ to shoot whatever they like. My plan was to try and rush the Sentinels by running at them, hoping for the double and going from there.

What Went Well
My initial plan didn’t come off at all because the Sentinels were untouched all game, however, several other things did go well. Firstly, as I’d forced him to take first even though I didn’t have priority through placement of the Boltboyz, I managed to get Sevireth T1. In addition, I could make the centre point a Proving Ground, allowing one Expert Conqueror Hobgrot to steal the objective from 2 Foxes and a Warden.

Even Better If
I’m really struggling with this one. I’m sure I didn’t play a perfect game but nothing stands out as being a poor choice that cost me points.

Clutch Play
Sevireth going down to only 3 Boltboyz was big but there was also an exciting cameo from some Hobgrots who had been hiding all game in the furthest corner from the battle. His Grand Strategy was to kill my battleline and my Grand Strategy was to have no enemy in my territory. The last remaining Fox, with one wound left, charged the Hobgrots…who Unleashed Hell, chipping that last one off, scoring my Grand Strategy and denying his for a 6 point swing.

Result: 26-17 Win

Game 3: Head-to-Head – Nagash and Scarlet Doom Nighthaunt

Spoiler alert: this one still hurts days later. Had a real chance to go 3-0 the first day with Kruleboyz and that doesn’t happen often and, long story short, I fluffed it.

What Went Well
Target priority into the Nighthaunt totally removed 2 units before attempts could be made to bring a significant number back and screening mostly was successful.

Even Better If
Screening wasn’t totally effective and let Nagash in and it was only through some luck that he didn’t tear apart my army. Poor choices made T4/5 combined with some swingy dice rolls against me and in favour of my opponent threw the game away.

Clutch Play(s)
1) Forgot to use the Sludgeraker to ‘eat’ the Spirit Torment who went on to score 6 points on his own in T5.
2) Chose to claim the enemy objective for 4 points instead of killing 2 chainghasts off the middle objective. Claiming the middle would have scored the 4 points anyway as my opponent could not have scored it AND denied a battle tactic for Barge Through.
3) Even after all this, if I had moved my Boltboyz and Shaman 2″ onto the objective, my opponent can’t claim my objective T5, a 4 point swing. I didn’t move them as I wanted to avoid a redeploy, but it was the wrong decision.

Result: 28-26 Loss

Game 4: The Mighty and The Cunning – Nurgle Flies/Beast of Nurgle with no Galletian Veterans…

So was looking for try and bounce back after my most painful defeat and, while Nurgle is a top army, I had a plan of what I could do…Then the Wheel of Doom that is the unique part of Warrior Lodge events spun up The Mighty and The Cunning. For those of you who don’t know, what this meant was that my list composition gave up 12 bonus points vs. 0 bonus points that my opponent gave up. Essentially, my opponent could fail all of his battle tactics and still win. I understand that the Warrior Lodge wants to keep their unique wheel and I’m more than happy for them too…just don’t include The Mighty and The Cunning! It’s just too much of a skew against a list where there are some strong armies that can avoid Gallet Vets entirely (Nurgle, IDK and Sylvaneth) and some already very weak armies that can’t avoid them, including in this case, Kruleboyz.

What Went Well
I did try and play for the win rather than just limiting the scale of defeat and the first turn went as I wanted, scoring objectives with Shamans, stopping running with Choking Mist and making charges from deepstriking flies 10″ instead of 9″ and screening my Galletian Veterans with my Boltboyz…

Even Better If
…Which was probably a bad idea! It wasn’t disastrous, but sticking with my game plan of a nornal mission and just seeing how things went was probably the better option, despite the 12 bonus points available. Also put some Hobgrots on an objective to score Hold More, only for them to promptly be killed on an objective for a Bonus point! Better off screening better with that unit rather than trying for an extra point.

Clutch Play
The Wheel choosing The Mighty and The Cunning.

Result: 39-14 Loss

Game 5: The Realmstone Cache – Cities of Sigmar Phoenix Guard

So from 2-0 to 2-2 vs 60 wounds of 4+ ward vs Mortal Wounds being run by one of the most prolific and successful CoS players in the country! I was outdropped again so I played to force the first turn again successfully and hoped for the double.

What Went Well
I did get to go second T1, allowing me to dictate the Proving Ground, choose Outmuscle as a battle tactic and to have the chance of a double…

Even Better If
I had not pushed up so aggressively for the double and stayed out of 2″ of the front line that the Phoenix Guard can attack from.

Clutch Play
Priority into T2 was massive. If I had won that, I could have finished off the rest of a damaged Phoenix Guard unit, wiped out an undamaged one and reset my screens.

Result: 26-8 Loss

Final Result: 2-3

Overall Reflections

Before the tournament started, if you would have offered me 2-3, being on stream for the first time and really making a member of the Team Wales AoS team (and eventual winner) sweat quite a bit, I would have taken it. However, where I ended up after the first 14 turns is a real heartbreaker and I’ll remember this one for a long time. The match up I would have had in the next round was significantly more favourable to me if I had just held on in Game 3 and then being 4-0 going into Game 5, anything could have happened!

Key Lessons Learned
The games I won and lost came down to screening, so if I can focus on that more, more wins should come. Similarly, I need to be more mindful of what my opponent can score in their turn when considering my scoring. My list is going to change slightly, adding in more Hobgrots and going for only one battleline squad of Hobgrots so that I’m only giving up 9 points on The Mighty and The Cunning.

It’s over a month now until my next tournament, so I’m going to try and get more reps in with the new list on TTS to try and maximise the lessons learned here. It can’t come soon enough for me to take another shot at breaking 4 wins with Kruleboyz or even going all the way.

If anyone is up for a game online at all, please feel free to contact me on Twitter @yeliabnoreik or to leave a comment below.