Emperors Legion 2012

Another year and another Emperors Legion tournament. I think I fluked most of last year by getting some favorable match-ups on my way to 3rd place. But this year was going to be different. Having looked around on the first day of the tournament, I could see a lot of very good and competitive players turning up. I knew I had my work cut out for me just to make the top 10.

Game 1 - Dwarfs. Meeting Engagement. My opponent had only the one combat unit, while the rest were the Anvil, various war machines and a unit of Ambushing Miners. The plan was to distract his shooting with the Squig Herd, Mangler Squigs and pretty much everything else to leave the Savage Orc Big Un horde. He was failing to kill my Trolls, even with Flaming Bolt Thrower shots, which gave me a crucial turn to divert him while I positioned more units around. He didn't charge the Troll, but eventually killed it, allowing me to charge on my Turn. Soon as those Savage Orc Big Uns got into combat against those Warriors, they rightly turned them into minced Stunties. I knew the game was well and truly in my favour when one of my Mangler Squigs caused 17 hits with 3D6 (rolled a 6,6,5) on the Anvil and killing it outright. 19-1 win.

Game 2 - Empire. Battle Line. Came up against the player who has smashing everyone with his Ogres in big time tournaments. This guy is currently ranked 2nd in Australia and could easily make the New Zealand ETC team and Masters. He played very defensively, which is what you're supposed to do with Empire, and his list suited it. I deployed my Doom Diver out of place, easily taken off by the cannon on his first turn. The combat got very violent at the centre of the battlefield, but my Warboss was often whiffing his attacks, while the Savage Orc Big Uns couldn't get through the armour of the Knights. It was easily going to be a 0-20 loss until I needed snake eyes for the Big Uns. First roll was 10. Next roll - SNAKE EYES! That changed the game big time. The Black Orcs charged the flank of his Swordsmen and things went up from there. While I still lost 9-11, due to him JUST managing to pass his Break Test for his Knights on the last turn, I was very happy with that result.

Game 3 - Dark Elves. Came up against another player who consistently makes the Top 10 of tournaments here in Australia - this was going to be a good learning experience. He was playing aggressively to start off with, especially with his Shades, but quickly dispatched them with an accurate hit with a Doom Diver and hitting them with a Mangler Squig. I had a chance to kill the Hydra in the early stages, but the damn thing kept regenerating its wound. In combat, he was getting Okkam's Mindrazor off at the right times - he did it once on the Corsairs as soon as they slammed into the Black Orcs and another on the Witch Elves which broke the Savage Orc Big Un horde on the very last turn of the game. I ended up losing this game 16-4.

I will reserve the last 2 games for another entry, as I want to test out Battle Chronicler with those games.