:: Olannon's ETC 2015 Reports: Game 6 - Poland Tomb Kings ::
Table for the game: 3
Our dreaded matchup comes at last. Poland is without doubt one of the most consistent and skilled countries in ETC. Year after year they feature among the very best in this tournament. The skill-level in our opinion is roughly equal among the best teams and, perhaps a bit arrogantly, we consider ourselves on par with them. We beat Sweden at a warmup-event prior to ETC and we've beaten them in smaller team tournaments. Last year they won. This year, the gold is out of reach unless Germany and Denmark gets a very specific result as well as us capping Poland, but the fight for 2nd place is still very much alive.
The problem with facing Poland is our terrible matchups. First of all Poland does not have High Elves and High Elves have been an army we've repeatedly got strong matchups against. Vs NI I think we capped them. Vs Singapore we did indeed get a tough one here but that was the best placing HE of ETC and besides, we agreed to a draw. Against Austria we managed to pair them up vs our DoC in KOTH and although that particular game was lost, the matchup is on DoC's favour. Russia's High Elves were utterly destroyed 20-0 and Australia's push-train was taken down 15-5. Furthermore Poland lacked any soft spots like OK which we locked down and shot up vs Australia. Our lists featured a lot of ranged power with some lists having extreme amounts of shots (DE and WE but also DW, HE and SK to an extent) but Poland's lists were by and large built to suck this up and counter-push.
Our very worst problems were the Lizardmen. Heavily inspired by last year's dominating 100+ points lists and in the hands of the same player we knew this could be devastating. Indeed we built our own LZ list on the same principles and it had dominated throughout the tournament. Both TK, HE and DW were afraid of taking these on, indeed I think that if LZ plays correctly this is 20-0 in our matchup at least. This created some huge issues for us during pairing and when armies like our DW really feared VC as well, we were at a loss as to what to do.
Prior to the pairing we all revised our pairing evaluation but in a new light: Our matchups vs Poland was so bad that we had to adjust the way we were approaching the game. Instead of thinking "ETC-safe" play we would have to look at the matchup and think: "If I go all-in, what are the chances of me succeeding?". Thus the scores became a little better, albeit at the cost of having extremely risky games. We were determined as a team to go in and do our best - for many of us this would likely be our last Warhammer game - and so we sat down.
Pairing went exceptionally well with Poland making multiple mistakes. We could not believe some of the dangers we had averted nor some of the high-potential matchups we had gotten. We were filled with a sense of optimism as we were about to play. We all got matchups we knew very well and we paired our best players with the strongest lists against the worst armies (e.g. LZ) from Poland.
Personally TK was far from the worst I could've gotten and I knew this would be an all-in game.
Bring it!
:: Lists ::
Loremaster of Hoeth: General, Book of Hoeth, Shield of the Merwyrm, Sword of Anti-Heroes, 330
Archmage: L4, Light, Power Stone, Ironcurse Icon, Golden Crown of Atrazar, 255
Mage: L1, Light, Dispel Scroll, 110
Lothern Sea Helm: BSB, Standard of Discipline, 140
20 Archers: FCG, 230
10 Archers: Musician, Standard, 120
5 Ellyrian Reavers: Bows (swap), 85
5 Ellyrian Reavers: Bows (swap), 85
5 Ellyrian Reavers: 80
28 White Lions: FCG, Banner of the World Dragon, 444
1 Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower: 70
1 Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower: 70
1 Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower: 70
1 Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower: 70
1 Frostheart Phoenix: 240
Total: 2399
Grand Hierophant Khatep: General, L4, Nehekhara, 330
Liche High Priest: L4, Light, Neferra's Scrolls of Mighty Incantations, Obsidian Lodestone, Ironcurse Icon 310
Liche Priest: L1, Light, Dispell Scroll, 95
Liche Priest: L1, Light, Scroll of Shielding, 85
Liche Priest: L1, Light, 70
40 Skeleton Archers: FCG, 270
20 Skeleton Archers: FCG, 150
20 Skeleton Archers: FCG, 150
7 Skeleton Horse Archers: champion, 108
4 Morghast Harbringers: 320
4 Morghast Harbringers: 320
Casket of Souls: 135
Hierotitan: 175
Screaming Skull Catapult: 90
Screaming Skull Catapult: 90
Total: 2698
:: Pre-Battle Thoughts ::
Given the nature of the pairings and our matchups, this was a make it or break it game. We were playing King of the Hill which left no doubt as to what my objectives were: Get up the field and secure that middle! I had this as a 10 because I believe it can swing both ways. It would be a game coming down to skill and dice.
When playing against Tomb Kings like this one of my favourite things to do is get the Frostheart up to where it can hurt him as soon as possible. The mighty scrolls + Banishment combo makes this hard, if not impossible. Getting the Lions up the field is also important, naturally, but I find that every game against TK presents them with unique challenges.
The table we got along with me winning the dice-off for sides allowed me to force him to a side where he had an impassable in the middle. I thought he'd commit to either side and off we went.
:: Deployment and Early Turns ::
Andrzej aka "Maryś" started with deploying his biggest unit of Archers right on the 12" line next to the impassable. This confused me because it wouldn't allow his Morghasts to go centrally and take a dominating position, nor would it allow him to protect them effectively from my shooting - which usually does nothing to TK apart from clearing Horse Archers (of which he had next to none). The deployment continued with him amassing around the impassable and I knew this meant I would likely be able to divide and conquer if given time. I did however mis-judge where he'd put his 2nd unit of Morghasts so my Lions were in a bit of a pickle when deployment was done: I wish they'd have been more centrally deployed to make it easier wheeling towards whichever side he presented me with a mistake on. Regardless I was fairly happy and he scouted the Horse Archers far away from my WL. This meant my "TK pushability" factor went up (see reasoning from G5) and I was feeling good about my chances.
I got lucky and stole T1, despite his +1.
First things first: Lions up the field. I had to wheel a little to avoid the lake in further advancements but I maximised my movement. I had a feeling I would have to move centrally sooner than later anyway. The Frostheart jumped out, no point playing this cautiously. I deliberated going to the center with it instead of trying a flanking move but ended up deciding against it: I considered the bird dead anyway in this matchup and the most useful thing it could do for me would be to draw spells and firepower. If it somehow made it into combat and held him up, that would be a huge bonus.
I cast Timewarp which he let go and he stopped Net on his bunker. Shooting started targeting his big Archers with my Reavers wrapping around to force him to pay attention unless he wanted his WMs in trouble.
He responded by backing up and reforming Archers to shoot Reavers. Magic saw my scroll come out as I couldn't have him get extra move nor force DT tests on Lions at this point in time. This is very early to blow the scroll vs TK but I felt I had no choice in the matter. Frost took 3W from Banishment.
I marched the WL with a long wheel towards the center, figuring that I'd force him out with nothing else. It was at this point in time I realized I either had to draw out his Morghasts or connect my WL with his Archers to win this game. His defensive position made that a continued push would almost certainly mean a double charge. Coupled with his scroll intact, mine gone and his magic that could be disastrous. The Frostheart tried a double 6 charge on his Morghasts first though, if I could pin him down the WL could still have pushed. It failed but I counted it as dead anyway. I immediately gave up on the flank with Reavers locking down Horse Archers and the other unit running away with the Archers. I drew his scroll with another Timewarp and my shooting kept pounding his big Archers which were dying in droves.
When faced with the proposition of my Lions wrapping around the impassable and eating into his Archers, Andrzej decided to push the Morghasts. It wasn't as though I could've charged him anyway, apart from maybe the Frost. I let him have Net of Amyntok because there were bigger risks to fear and I stopped DT spell and move spell. Frost died to Banishment.
:: Middle Game ::
I ran some quick calculations and found that without magical assistance, I would beat his morghasts no matter how many because of Naval Discipline. Thus, my priority was Net. Speaking of Net, I failed my S4 test to move so the Lions were stuck. This wasn't intended, having them stuck in woods is bad because I lose rank bonus. I sent my remaining Reavers to screen them so that only 1 Morghast unit could contact me. The other would in theory have an ovverun, but Naval Discipline would quickly take care of this.
Magic phase saw Net go off IF on his bunker. I cascaded but survived. Meanwhile my shooting was tearing huge gaps in his big Archers and they were now almost completely dead, which meant that my position with the WL was a lot better. TK shooting, although 5+ to hit and S3, eats into them sooner or later.
He charged my Reavers and I did as the Swedes: LD10 re-roll failed. Luckily for me, this wasn't my bunker and this might just turn out to be favourable, if I'm lucky. He redirected into WL which held and the and second unit came as well. Ok, time to make this game go boom!
His magic phase came up and after the Casket he had 12 dice. Oh-oh. Khatep fails his S-test from net, yes! L4 Light fails as well, double yes!! I had Naval Discipline'd to bring all but 4 Lions to be able to hit and all but 3 of them could hit one unit. Additionally 2 morghasts were unable to hit back and from a mathematical point of view, this should be a big win in my favour.
As combat started however the White Lions proved that they understood the gravity of the situation as they took out more than average. In return, he somehow managed to kill just a couple. He crumbled by 11, which meant there were barely any Morghasts left at all.
Ok so game was looking good for me. I now had to bring my remaining units within my LD bubble to avoid losing points. At this point in time the rest of the game was about not losing points and grabbing that middle objective. I cast Net on his bunker again hoping for a repeat of last time. I finallly annihilated his "big" Archers and I had thus established ranged dominance and board control - quite unusual vs TK.
In combat the WL were exhausted and fluffed. The Morgheist was left on 1W.
The TL;DR of this turn was that he did nothing worth talking about and his Morghast died.
:: End Game ::
At this point I made my biggest mistake of the game which nearly cost me several BP: I charged the Archers with WL. Lining them up 3-wide was to guarantee a charge but what I didn't consider was that this move would also deny me effective damage output and thus I might get stuck in a grind. So unnecessary when I had enough firepower to simply whittle them away: Besides I could've cast highly effective missiles on them (Shem's on 1d6 scoring 2d6 hits is just stupidly good). Furthermore this put the small Archers out of LD bubble.
Finally Andrzej was free of Net and this allowed him to bring his spells to bear on the WL combat. I won, but not by enough. Luckily for me, I had the big Archers left and he had nothing to contest with.
In my last turn of the game I reformed the Archers 2 wide and walked onto the center point. He'd have to kill them all or panic them and ensure the TK Archers would survive at the same time (otherwise my WL could've reformed on top of it) and this was simply asking too much: I stopped skullstorm and he did not have enough firepower left to kill them.
Adding insult to injury his lack of buffs for the Archers meant my WL killed them all off for some final VPs.
Counting up I was ahead and with the scenario bonus, it ended up being a 15-5 win. I was ecstatic seeing as I believed this would mean we still had a chance. Unfortunately the situation was terrible on multiple of the rest of our games, of which I had no overview because I was so focused on ours. The feeling soon turned bittersweet as I realized we'd be capped regardless.
:: Evaluation ::
His deployment featured a pattern I have never seen before and I was at first curious as to how he intended to bring his firepower to bear on me. I found his Archers to be too exposed and wondered how he'd protect them. Indeed this failed hard and this allowed my WL to stop chasing Morghasts and still dominate the table, something strangely unusual vs TK (though largely due to the scenario as well, of course). Indeed his open Archers suffered horribly from my longer-ranged firepower and their demise was probably what spurred him into engaging the WL while under Net.
Let's take a minute to discuss this particular situation. Him failing both essential S-tests was indeed lucky, but truth be told there was by and large multiple things that could go wrong here:
- Killing Blow is useless apart from the heal. Seeing as they had taken no wounds, heal was irrelevant.
- Extra attack likewise because it would net him +1 or +2 at most.
- Movement is pure heal, irrelevant.
This leaves boosted Desiccation and Light Buffs. True, they are a problem, but Light buffs alone still require a lot of stacking to work well. Timewarp, like +1A from Nehekhara, is by and large useless on its own. Coupled with Speed it's another situation, but that was on another wizard I believe.
Overall then it was a risky proposition that, despite a crucial spell going through, could still have turned against him. I would likely have won combat regardless (unless he'd IF boosted Deseccation) because of the Naval Discipline reform in which case my next phase would've absolutely destroyed him with his scroll being gone. Had he not gone for it the WL would've marched onto the objective from which I could've obliterated the last Archers with magic missiles before facing the Morghasts late-game or just kept repeating my pattern.
Without a better coherency between his shooters and his Morghasts he can't force the Lions into a catch22: There's no downside to just staying out in the open when I have ranged superiority.
Among our other tables there were lots of sad stories. Lizardmen tried to push VC but Banshees literally turned the tables around. 0 points. Our Wood Elf list, built to dominate Elves, lost 15-5 in a mirror matchup. Our SK held up well against LZ and nearly did win big, but even taking away 9 points was good compared to the rest. Our Dark Elves lost big to Skaven and only took away 3 points. Dwarf mirror saw our opponent's 82 Warriors march into the middle to claim KOTH and the rest being a fairly even trade, he took the game 13-7. Our TK, usually dismantling Empire left, right and center due to Death being so strong here, lost 20-0. With Daemons losing 20-0 to Dark Elves we got a meagre 39 points combined. We were utterly beaten and the dream was crushed.
I think it's saying a lot that our resulting position (12th) was the worst we'd had all weekend. We had been constantly fighting in the top tables and even against Russia we felt we had a good shot at winning. Against Poland however we were not even close: You could've taken any game and turned it to 20-0 in our favour and it still would not have mattered. Although our matchup table was horrible here we -did- go out of pairing with games that were absolutely playable, so I think that without a doubt Poland was just a superior team. We didn't have a meltdown across the tables unlike Sweden either and although some might've been unlucky here and there, you don't lose with this many points without simply being outplayed. Among the 8 tables we lost 7 games.
The sad part is that the run we've had for the last year has been so incredible. We have learned so much and come so far. Another year would have been just perfect as we now have a very solid foundation in Norway for this type of gaming. With the mistakes made and lessons learned in Prague, I believe that 2016 could have been the year where we would be back even harder. We came so close this year, we could almost taste it. When we entered our 6th and last game we were so determined to play the best Warhammer we could and snatch 2nd place, sending Poland down beneath top 10 for the first time ever. These hopes and dreams stand in stark contrast to the result: 121-39.
Nevertheless the team overall has put in a tremendous level of effort over the past year and it did pay off. While we don't feel that 12th place in itself is much to boast about, it is light years ahead from last year's performance and again, we were never below 12th place all weekend (as opposed to a lot of teams finishing ahead of us which catapulted up from winning their last games big). It is what it is, but we are all proud of what we achieved and sad to be unable to keep building on this. Norway went from being 8 skilled invididuals who were by and large all by themselves to having 20 people work together as a team for 10 months to prepare 8 players as best as possible. The internal forum activity, gaming frequency and tournament attendance has gone through the roof and it's been an incredible journey to be a part of.
Hopefully I can find the same in another game. I will probably be bitter and angry with Games Workshop for a long time. Not just because they killed the game I've played for so long but because of the attitude they display towards those of us who have spent countless hours in the universe they created. At least I felt I went out on top, I was part of a Norwegian initiative to "put us on the map" one last time, I was happy with my ETC performance and lastly I managed to win my very last game convincingly (against Poland none the less!).