3 replies to this topic

[Druchii Love]

Was this year another smashing success?  How did the local folks do and who won overall?  Did 'Solrac the Friendly' dominate??

[Mordante]

Great turnout, Sounded like everyone had fun, small problem with the top Fantasy scores late yesterday, but they all got worked out.  No complaints about space this year since we expanded into 3 other rooms.  I'm uploading my photos to our facebook album now.  Like our facebook profile and you'll see all the coverage.  All scores should be posted soon.

[Wolf Patrick]

Mordante, on 20 February 2012 - 10:45 AM, said:

Great turnout, Sounded like everyone had fun, small problem with the top Fantasy scores late yesterday, but they all got worked out.  No complaints about space this year since we expanded into 3 other rooms.  I'm uploading my photos to our facebook album now.  Like our facebook profile and you'll see all the coverage.  All scores should be posted soon.

Thanks Wade, I'm anxious to see the updated scores.

[ghoulking]

I had a great time at the Broadside Bash, and my appreciation goes out to the organizers.

Overall, aside from the points issue, I think this was the smoothest of the BSBs yet.  I think the organizers have a solid foundation for next year and need only apply a few tweaks to the points, which I'll get into later.

The only bad thing to happen was the mix up with the Fantasy points.  It was pretty heinous, but the BSB guys were able to turn it around quickly enough that it didn't become a major internet event.  Good for them.  

I took my Tomb Kings, I also sold my Tomb Kings at the event.

List:
Hierophant
lvl 4
Earthing Rod

Lvl 1 Light Liche Priest
Dispel Scroll

Tomb Herald BSB
Banner of Eternal Flame

50 Archers - full command
5 Horse Archers
3 Chariots
3 Chariots
3 Carrion
4 Necropolis Knights - full command
2 WarSphinxes with Fiery Breath
Hierotitan
Casket of Souls
Catapult
Catapult with skulls of the foe

I went very light on characters as outside the magic I don't feel Tomb King characters really impact the army enough to be worth the purchase price.  My strategy was to sit and shoot.  No matter the scenario.  Just shoot and charge anything that gets close with my sphinxes.

Game 1
I was matched up against an Empire player, the match-up I dreaded the most.  I was hoping he'd have gone artillery light... instead he pulled out 2 cannons, 2 Hellstrom Rocket Batteries, and a Steam Tank.

The scenario called for diagonal deployment, and he won the roll to deploy (and go) first.  I'm soooooooo incredibly glad we play a decent amount of diagonal deployment in San Diego because it really served me well in this game.  My opponent didn't have experience with it, and made some pretty bad deployment mistakes.  His knights and tank were too close to my line.  One of his two hordes of infantry was blocked up terrain.  His handgunners were deployed too far back.  One of his cannons was isolated on the flank.

I took full advantage.  My horse archers were declaring a charge on a cannon on turn 1, a Sphinx and the Necro Knights charged the knights on turn 1 as well.  I put the Sphinx on the flank closest to the Tank, and that was key.  He charged the Steam Tank into the Sphinx flank to try and rescue the knights (and his general) which was a mistake.  The Tank never caused a wound and was out of the game.  The Necro Knights broke free after slaughtering knights and were in his backfield.

Meanwhile he kept his hordes back and I shot one of them to pieces.  Then when he realized he needed to advance I continued to shoot them to pieces.

Solid win to me.

Game 2
I played an Ogre player with a pretty soft list.  Unfortunately, because he didn't buy a Lord model or sniping maneaters it meant he had all the points for more models.  He also got Flaming Sword as a spell, and chopped my Sphinxes to pieces with it.

In the end the game was pretty standard.  He ran at me, I shot at him and tried to counter charge.  He made it to me.  I died.  I only barely avoided being tabled after defeating his Irongut champion and Firebelly with my archer unit and pursuing them into the Mournfangs to avoid being charged by a couple other units.  

I was Massacred!

Game 3
I played another Tomb King army!  I was worried when I saw Khalida, but she ended up just being a Hierophant.  My opponent had an interesting list.  Skeletong spear men, archers, Horde of 50 Tomb Guard, Ushabti, Necro Knights, 6 chariots, some Horsemen, and catapults.  I think he thought he could stand back and wait for me, because he didn't advance on turn 1.  I stepped forward and darkened the skies with arrows.

I felt bad in this game because he'd basically lost the moment he didn't try and run at me.  He realized he needed to try and get to me, but there wasn't a chance he was going to make it.  He got to cast everything he wanted except Desert Wind (movement spell).  I even scrolled that spell when he tried to 6-dice it.  In the end I shot him to pieces, he picked up models, and probably scored me pretty low.

Massacre to me.

Game 4
I played my good buddy Big Jim from Team Capri in Los Angeles.  Jim had a Lizardman army, with a Slann with light, a Skink Hero on a stegadon with the magic spear.  He had temple guard, saurus, skink/Krox, salamanders, skinks, saurus cavalry.

We both deployed heavily on one flank and left half the table unused except by Chameleon Skinks and chariots.

I deployed my chariots far to the flank and kept the board edge to my back so his Chameleons would have to advance in front of me if they wanted to take shots at my Sphinxes or catapults.  My Carrion charged his Salamanders when they got close, and my Necro Knights advanced hard on Skinks to protect the Sphinxes.  The Sphinxes stayed back by the line and let everyone else do the fighting.

Jim drove hard across the board at me.  My first round of shooting was enhanced by Spite and I damaged the Skink/Krox unit so bad it was crippled.  I used my cavalry and later my other chariot unit to lead the Saurus cav around my flank.  After the Skink/Krox were damaged I started firing on his Temple Guard.

About ROund 3 I started charging.  Sphinx into the Skink Hero Stegadon.  This exposed my flank to the Temple Guard, but I wasn't too worried about the Sphinx, the TG would allow me to start Thunderstomping.  The Necro Knights pushed into the SKinks, then the remains of the Skink/Krox who moved in to block them up so they couldn't turn the corner on the Stegadon.  The Saurus unit was blocked by my other Sphinx and forced to charge it.

Both Sphinxes were clutch, taking few wounds, dealing out enough damage to keep combat res low.  The Slann eventually miscast and killed 8 Temple Guard, which were mopped up when the Hierotitan charged their flank.  In the end the Titan and Sphinx were Thunderstomping on the Slann.

Solid win to me!

Game 5
I played Pat's Dwarves.  Two weeks before the BSB we had played a practice game and Pat did everything wrong and I solidly trounced him.  We spent some time afterwords with a number of other Warhammer players talking strategy with Pat.

Pat had his revenge.  I was tabled by turn 6.  Pat avoided every mistake he'd made in our earlier game, his targeting was spot on.  He knew what my strategy would be (stand and shoot) and he pushed hard up on my army to make sure I couldn't do it.  Pat played the perfect game.

I got massacred!

So in the end I had a 3-2 record.  A winning record with my Khalida-less Tomb Kings was pretty good.  Unfortunately I just felt with the TK that there's always a couple armies that just auto-win against my skeleton boys, which is why I was able to place a price tag on them.  I'll probably go back to them eventually, but with the VC being out that's where my focus will me.  When I do go back though... more Sphinxes...


I ended up placing 14th (respectable), second in painting (congratulations to Allan!), and took a few hits on sportsmanship, which I feel might be down to the army's play style.... sit back and shoot doesn't make for great games.


So now let's talk points.

Battle Points
I felt like these need to be looked at a bit.  

Bonus Battle Points were REALLY hard for certain armies to pick up, like mine and Dwarves.  Considering the top armies seemed to accrue max battle points every game, that's almost 15 points advantage.  I would consider looking at the bonus battle points and balancing them a bit.

Battle Points in general, in the past I've liked the scoring ratios used by the BSB because one loss didn't take you out of the running completely.  Not so this year.  17 points for a win, 10 for a Draw, and 6 for a loss just put players who lost one game in too much of a hole to win Overall.  Which is too bad.  I'd consider lowering the points for a win or raising the points for Draws and Losses.  7 point difference between a Draw, and 11 over a loss seems like a bit much.

Comp/Sportsmanship
I think it worked perfectly this year.  Don't change a thing.

Terrain
Always beautiful... but I think the magic terrain from the rule book can be introduced if you use a system similar to GW's Throne of Skulls, they basically had 3-4 magical terrains and the terrain piece looked exactly the same from board to board, and they provided pictures of the terrain piece and told you what it was.  So for example, the Arcane Ruins terrain set was always a Magic Circle.  When ever you saw it on a table, you knew what it was.  

Comp + Battle
I really liked the idea, unfortunately I don't think it worked the way it was supposed to because of how heavy a victory weighed.  Winning was worth a two good comp scores over a draw.

Bonus Points
I'm not sure Bonus Points for turning army lists in were calculated!

Anyway.  Good job to the BSB guys!  I'll be there again next year!