Am I getting better after my aim to improve my AoS skills? Maybe a bit… this time I’ve got another recap of the last RTT I’ve been to Wesersturm V. It’s the one I organise with Luca, Dirk, and Janis who have done an amazing job making these tournaments better and growing it up to enough stuff to fill up 24 spots. I took my Nighthaunt again (of course) and went into the probably not unexpected Stormcast, StD, and Skaven. These three armies make up a lot of the meta locally (Seraphon are on the rise too) and being able to play against them is important for getting those Ws at tournaments. After going back and forth over different list compositions, I’ve stuck with what’s working for me at the moment. It’s designed with answers to all three of these armies… which means so long as I can stick to the plan and focus on scoring my point I’ve good a good chance into each of these armies. Also, winning a bloody priority once in a while would be really bloody helpful!

I’m trying to think more about my games so I’ll also try to comment on what went well or poorly for me and the same for my opponent from my perspective (which might differ from theirs).

The tournament itself

Good Stuff

Quick shout-out to our 2 sponsors this time round:

Kutami – the LFGS who aren’t just an LFGS anymore and have become one of the biggest stores in Europe. They are really quick to respond and help out this doofus who seems to mess up one in three orders. Also, on the day, they helped me to make sure I could get in my order for the terrain.

Micro Art Studio – I mentioned these guys last time… and here they are again supporting us time after time with sponsorship. Also, they make an awesome range of resin basing bits which I’ve used on some of my projects.

The venue is just awesome, table height is perfect and this time, the staff at the store moved the tables so that we could have an additional avenue between them to make it easier to move around the table and just to feel like we had a bit more space.

I think we’re in a good place for terrain now, thanks to the local player who lets us borrow quite a bit but also thanks to Luca and Janis who’ve been working on making sure we have good sized “woods” for all the boards by cutting up neoprene mats 😀 Sounds crazy but it turned out to be the best value way for us to get what we wanted.

The orga staff are a fantastic bunch… I mean the other 3 who did most of the work to prep the event. They’re friendly and always working hard to improve the tournaments.

Great Stuff

So many local players! This time, we had an awesome turn out from the locals with 9 registered from in and around Bremen including a couple of new players which we love to see.

On the day it was an awesome vibe, just a fucking lovely bunch of people. Sounds like a small thing but we noticed and it made the day feel even better.

Bad stuff

It’s not like it gets proper hot in Bremen but with the humidity a warm day and a bit of sun, it got pretty hot for the 2^nd game.

The venue doesn’t have enough chairs for everyone… so it’s something we’re working on… now we have more chairs but we expanded the event up to 24 people, oops! Can’t win it all but we can keep trying to get more chairs 😊

I had a fantastic night the night before so unfortunately I was incredibly hungover! So bad that I was fumbling my dice sometimes… which meant that to be fair to my opponent I would take out the ones I knocked over and couldn’t tell the result of from before. That coupled with running late and having trouble to park the car meant I rocked up in a bit of a sorry state but more on that in a moment.

My List

Still running my Hexwraith/Grimghast focussed list. The special sauce here is Lady Olynder… I know everyone thinks she is there to bring models back once per game… but she’s really there for her spell… I joke because I can’t seem to manage to get the spell cast! -3 to Control is winning me games consistently and winning them for me with a better points margin. The combination of her and the bodies to push opponents off or block up objectives is something this list can do well and helps me out in matchups where I might struggle otherwise. The combo of Hexwraiths and Grimghasts is to give me that extra slap into infantry units whilst having hte super flexible Hexwraiths to be wherever my opponent doesn’t want especially with the run/retreat and charge from Death Stalkers.

Ethereal 65 1990/2000 pts

Nighthaunt | Death Stalkers
Drops: 2
Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy

General’s Regiment
Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (310)
• General
Cairn Wraith (130)
• Lightshard of the Harvest Moon
Grimghast Reapers (300)
• Reinforced
Hexwraiths (400)
• Reinforced
Hexwraiths (400)
• Reinforced

Regiment 1
Krulghast Cruciator (150)
• Ruler of the Spectral Hosts
Grimghast Reapers (300)
• Reinforced


Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App
App: 1.12.0 | Data: 259

Game 1 – Benjamin with Skaven or is it StD on Border War

Mixed Chaos Relay 1990/2000 pts
—–
Grand Alliance Chaos | Skaven | Warpcog Convocation
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of Ruin
Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy
—–
General’s Regiment
Verminlord Deceiver (410)
• General
• Foulhide
• Scurry Away
Clanrats (300)
• Reinforced
Doom-Flayers (260)
• Reinforced
Ratling Guns (170)
Warplock Jezzails (280)
• Reinforced
—–
Regiments of Renown
Lord Skaldior’s Chosen (570)
Chaos Knights
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount
Chaos Warriors
—–
Faction Terrain
Gnawhole
—–
Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App
App: v1.12.0 (1) | Data: v259

A really lovely opponent who offered to speak English with me when he recognised that I was stressed and brought that up with me in a really respectful and tactful way. This made all the difference at the start where I’d turned up a bit frazzled.

It was an interesting puzzle with the Skaldior RoR and I knew that they were going to be the problem I would need to solve to get to a good win here as I’m pretty familiar with how to deal with Skaven with my Nighthaunt.

I gave him first turn and he moved up going for Take the Flanks but decided to throw the battle tactic when he rolled up a good charge to get into one of my units of Hexwraiths. I had a relatively easy Do Not Waver (which I often like to take early when the risk is low to lose a unit) and was able to just tag the Jezzails with a good charge from the Grimghasts.

The Warriors had parked themselves on the home objective. On one flank, I needed to hold the chaos knights up and my Hexwraiths did a great job of that… slowly whittling them down (except for 1 round where his Knights did zero damage and my 9 Hexwraiths also failed to do any).

Turn 2, with most of his army already tied up and Lady O giving me the advantage to take a side objective, I was able to already hurt his scoring and mobility for future scoring. Here, he also retreated then gnawholed his jezzails away forgetting that they wouldn’t be able to shoot afterwards. I then pivoted away from the right flank where I had thought I would more quickly take some units down and jumped on the Warriors with everything I could to take them down, get myself Take Their Land and his home objective.

From there on… it was pretty clear that I held a significant lead and could control the board state from then out. But then he pulled off a fucking star play with his Deceiver… I made sure he couldn’t deny me holding his objective very carefully and then he casually teleported over, stopped my attack on two fronts and scored another 5 pts for objectives in the next round. Nice work mate!

He made a few mistakes which I could capitalise on and push for a good win… but based not just off that recognition of the opportunity but also that he could see errors as he made them (without me pointing things out), Benjamin is going to be a force to be reckoned with at tournaments in the future!

Result: Big first W for the day

Game 2 – Christian with SCE on Jaws of Gallet

Army – Stormcast Eternals
Subfaction – Vanguard Wing
Drops – 2

Bongstrikes – 1990 / 2000

General’s Regiment – 1510 pts.

Karazai the Scarred – General 480 pts.

Aetherwings 80 pts.

Preators 150 pts.

Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows – Reinforced 400 pts.

Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows – Reinforced 400 pts.

Regiment I – 480 pts.

Knight-Arcanum – Mirrorshield & Envoy of the Heavens 120 pts.

Stormstrike Chariot 140 pts.

Vanquisher – Reinforced 220 pts.

Faction Terrain – Stormreach Portal – 0 pts.

Spell Lore Lore of the Storm

Prayer Lore /

Manifestation Lore Krondspine Incarnate

This is a relatively good matchup for me and I’m happy to play into Stormcast Longstrikes as I can tank the shots and I’m mobile enough to catch them. I do have to be careful of Karazai bogging me down and stopping me from taking out the other units.

I got given first so I took my chance on one flank to get rid of the chariot and start removing scoring options whilst pushing up towards the centre to take an easy battle tactic. I used the good trick of tagging the unit of Vanquishers with my Hexwraiths to allow myself to push up past the centre and to avoid the risk of a countercharge to make sure I can score the battle tactic. He dropped the Longstrikes in and whittled down a few of my units. Then he charges in with Karazai into my Hexwraiths which I’d left to screen out my other units so that they’d be free-ish to choose targets in the next turn.

This gave me a very good opening for my turn 2 where I could go and wipe a lot of his units leaving Karazai with the middle objective but few other units left across the board.

He took a double going into Round 3 as it looked like his last chance to score which I think was the right call there. I mopped up some annoying aetherwings with my endless spells in the back corner leaving my other units free to go where they were needed. I went in for Karazai to finish off the game but failed to really damage the damn praetors! And then, my Grimghasts spiked and he rolled really shitty saves and Karazai was gone. After this, the board was more or less wiped of Stormcast and we talked out the last two rounds.

My opponent expected much more damage from the Longstrikes and Karazai against NH which made it a tougher game for him. He also had some pretty terrible luck on saves a couple of times.

Result: Win 2 for the day… and perking up a little bit after the night before after a couple of burgers

Game 3 – Bjorn again! This time rocking a really cool StD List on Better Part of Valour

HH Major 1990/2000 pts

Slaves to Darkness | Godswrath Warband
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of the Damned
Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy

General’s Regiment
Be’lakor, the Dark Master (460)
• General
Chaos Chariot (80)
• 1x Chaos War-flail
Ogroid Myrmidon (130)
Ogroid Theridons (360)
• Reinforced

Regiment 1
Daemon Prince (270)
• Radiance of Dark Glory
• The Conqueror’s Crown
• 1x Wings
• 1x Pledged to Nurgle
Chaos Warriors (200)
Ogroid Myrmidon (130)
Ogroid Theridons (360)
• Reinforced
• The Banner of Screaming Flesh

Faction Terrain
Nexus Chaotica


Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App
App: 1.12.0 | Data: 259

This was a great surprise! Bjorn had done pretty well in the first two rounds and so we met on the top table. Bjorn is a great guy and a pleasure to play against every time… you will have seen me refer to him from the last two tournament reports from Hamburg and Bremen. He always puts hard decisions in front of me and is a solid player.

I’m counted among very few Nighthaunt Players who enjoy seeing Slaves on the other side of the table. I’ve played against them quite a bit now and have a pretty good idea of what I need to do to get to a win. The two units of Grimghasts are key there to wiping out the strong infantry that a lot of StD lists are bringing. Compared to the Chosen matchup which I know pretty well now and am confident to handle, this list gave me a bit more uncertainty about how I would face it.

I deployed pretty heavily over on one side with the plan to work at killing a 3^rd of his army whilst being Dork Mastered before turning to attack the rest. I was pretty sure he was going to Belakor me turn 1 so I had to deploy with either my turn or his turn in mind to give him a number of threats which was the two Grimghast and a unit of Hexwraiths up on the line. Which was great except I had deployed my other Hexwraiths too far forward and he nearly wiped them with a unit of the Theridons when he surprised me by taking first turn.

Despite that I knew I had to stick to my gameplan and start chewing up his army, so after having my Hexwraiths Dork Mastered, I sent all my Grimghasts and the Cairn Wraith up to try and clear a flank in a bit of a risky manoeuvre for a Do Not Waver. I took the strange choice here to run and charge my Cairn Wraith to make sure I was getting the extra attacks on the Grimghasts and then proceeded to get all 3 units in killing everything except for leaving the Daemon Prince with 2 health left.

Then came the next turn for Bjorn where he took a pretty safe Take Their Lands. I then managed to shoot off that Nurgle Daemon Prince with Lady Os covering fire 😀 But… then Belakor got a nice charge off, flew over my screen and took his revenge by one shotting Lady O with 11 damage going through! This really hurt in terms of winning big although I could still see how to push the game in my favour, losing her before returning the d3+3 health worth of models to each of my big units is always a bummer. I recognised this trigger and made sure I focussed on what I could do with what I had. I used the Dominant buff from the Grimghasts up on the corner objective to slowly chew through the warriors but in the next turn then lost my Cairn Wraith to give Bjorn a Slay the Entourage. In order to deny battle tactics, I focussed on tagging what I could and slowly chewing through the remaining Theridons, Myrmidon and the chariot back in my deployment zone.

I more or less left Belakor alone and really focussed on ensuring I would have the board control and objectives for the last two turns. With a couple of easy battle tactics letting me full score turns 3-5.

I expected too little from his own units and was surprised by almost losing that unit of Hexwraiths in the first turn and then with a bit of bad luck losing Lady O (which was really just because of bad screening giving Belakor a unit to hop over into combat with her). Bjorn played a good game looking for his outs to win in what is a tough matchup for him.

Result: a bloody lovely game with a lovely opponent to end the tournament on and taking the 3^rd win for me!

How was the day

Couldn’t win a prio for the life of me across all three games, got it once and had to give it to the opponent anyway.

I was forgetting things, especially my Kruciator ignoring a damage each phase but I was using my OPBs early to start pushing an early lead for models on the board. I even completely forgot to move my Kruciator one turn in the last game.

But… I did a really good job on watching my opponents, keeping a board state overview, and pushing for the win and for points.

3 wins and good points across all 3 games resulted in me winning a tournament… which I’ll recognise is a bit of a dick move but with 4 of us in the orga team and with 2-3 normally playing it was bound to happen eventually and I’m really proud of my win. I put the prize back in the prize pool for someone else to draw instead and went home with a happy little golden trophy.

Am I getting better already?

Am I getting better? Yes, I’ve improved in a few areas. Focussing on trying to get my wins alone is helping me to play better. I’m more concentrated on scoring points and instead of just playing things out once I’ve got it in the bag, I keep pushing to deny my opponent and score big in my turns.

I’ll be off to another tournament on the weekend taking this list out for probably its last run at a tournament before the new GHB so I’ll be looking to try and utilise the experience with this list so far and see how I can go. Maybe this time, I’ll try and take it easy the night before!

P.S. I’m trying to get better at writing these mini batreps because it’s something I personally like to read so I’ve incorporated a bunch of feedback already. If there’s something that people feel like is missing or would like to have differently, please do let me know (nicely 😉). Oh but if you want it shorter or less rambling… tough cookies!