The other 7 players who had made the finals consisted of a pretty typical good skaven build, 4 Lizardmen players (!), 3 of which had Slann and the other had two Oldbloods, a Wood Elf player who had an amazing run to somehow win his division, and a Dark Elf player with a Pendant Lord.
With these opponents in mind, I made my list for the League Championship Finals, which had to include our fixed list we used during the season.
My list for the finals:
Damien- Prince, Helm of Fortune, Sword of Might, Guardian Phoenix, Crown of Command, Dragon Armor, Shield
Daria- Archmage, Annulian Crystal, Folariath's Robe, Lore of Life
Acastus- Noble BSB, Great Weapon, Armor of Caledor, Dawnstone
Publius- Mage, level 2, Seerstaff of Saphery, High Magic (spells selected: Flames of the Phoenix and Vaul's Unmaking)
27 Phoenix Guard (standard, champ), Skeinsliver, Razor Standard
23 White Lions (Guardian, Standard), Banner of Sorcery, Talisman of Loec
22 Spearmen (fcg)
24 Seaguard (msn, std)
10 Archers (msn)
With what seemed to be my classic horrible luck, I was matched up in the first round against the Dark Elf, by far the match-up I wanted least. But the player had not based his army list on his fixed 1500 point list from the regular season which was the rule. I was fine with just playing anyway, but he was adamant that he should be replaced with the top alternate and dropped down to the Open tournament for the players not in the final eight. Suddenly I found myself facing an Ogre player instead. Not the worst match-up except that Flames of the Phoenix, which I was stuck with due to Seerstaff, is not very effective at all against an Ogre unit (only 9 or 10 hits total and high toughness).
The Ogre brought:
-Slaughtermaster (I think he had Hellheart and a 4+ ward)
-BSB (4+ ward)
-Firebelly
-Bruiser (3+ armor, 5+ ward)
-4 Mournfangs (Ironfists)
-4 Mournfangs (Ironfists)
-9 Ironguts
-1 Ironblaster
-2 Sabretusks
-5 Bulls
-5 Maneaters with Pistols, Scout and Swiftstride
Since White Lions have good strength and the Phoenix Guard had Razor Standard I liked my chances if I could get into the right fights with my elite units. But then the scenario came up as Dawn Attack and things got really interesting...
Damien and his army are ambushed at dawn by a large mob of ogres who want nothing other than precious metals and tender elf flesh.
With little time to prepare, Daria grabs four quick scrolls from her tent (Flesh to Stone, Regrowth, Throne of Vines, Earthblood) and hurries to join the white lions. The high elves took the field first. In the middle of the field, Damien led the Phoenix guard while Daria and Acastus the Battle Standard joined the Lions. The spearmen were not sure where to go and huddled behind the Phoenix Guard to better assess the situation. The archers deployed on the right side of the field. The Ogres entered the field in an unexpected way (rolled a TON of 2's). The Ironguts and all the ogre heroes were on the far left of their side, as was one of the mournfang units and the Ironblaster. A Sabretusk and mournfang unit came on in the middle and the another sabretusk joined the Firebelly and bulls on the far right. Suddenly some seasoned maneaters appeared to the right of the high elf army.
Turn 1:
High Elves-
The ogre player failed to roll a 6 to steal the initiative. The archers swiftly reformed to face the maneaters and moved back as far as they could. The High Elves generated 11 power dice to 6 for the ogres. Flames of the Phoenix was cast on the Ironguts who took a couple wounds. Then Publius tried to invoke Vaul's Unmaking to hopefully nullify the inevitable Hellheart, but the Slaughtermaster countered the spell. The Seaguard shot shamefully and only managed to kill the sabretusk half-way, the archers almost killed a maneater.
Ogres-
The ogres attempted no charges, but instead moved forward full speed. The building made for an awkward situation and the ogres army was basically split in half by it. The ogre rolled poorly for his magic phase and no spells were cast. The ironblaster fired into the flank of the White Lions but the shot bounced poorly and only 4 of the elves died.
Turn 2:
High Elves-
The archers moved back as far as they could from the advancing horde. Daria and Acastus didn't want to get too far from the main fray, so they moved out from the white lions and joined Damien and the Pheonix Guard. The white lions then moved towards the Firebelly and bulls. In the magic phase the Ogre activated the Hellheart early rather than lose it to Vaul's unmaking. Both my mages were 18 inches away and he rolled a 3 so the radius of the miscast bubble was just short. The White Lions flesh was turned hard as stone and 2 of them rose from their deathbeds rejuvenated.
Ogres-
The Mournfangs and Maneaters both charged the archers, who fled. They were still very close but both units rolled horribly and only staggered forward 2 or 3 inches in failed charges. The rest of the army kept its distance, fearful of the Phoenix Guard. Magic again went poorly for the slaughtermaster, and he threw all his dice at removing Flames of the Phoenix instead of casting. The ironblaster again shot into the White Lion's flank and killed 5 more.
Turn 3:
High Elves-
The White Lions decided to charge the Firebelly and bulls before he got to breath fire on them, but they were apparently disorganized and only stumbled forward two inches. The Phoenix Guard remained more or less where they were, hoping to react to whatever moves the ogres made. The archers rallied and faced the maneaters. Publius managed to cast Flames of the Phoenix again on the ironguts who suffered a few more wounds.
Ogres-
The mournfangs and Maneaters again charged the archers who fled. Again both charges failed as the archers ran behind the spearmen. The Slaughtermaster killed 4 seaguard with a direct damage spell and the Ironblaster killed 4 more as it tried to snipe Publius from inside of them. A sabretusk blocked the White Lions and another blocked the Phoenix Guard. The Firebelly breathed his fire on the White Lions, but their armor saves rolled well and only a few died.
Turn 4:
High Elves-
Damien ordered the Phoenix Guard to charge forward and slaughter the sabretusk in front of them, and the white lions did the same to the cat that blocked their paths. The beasts were slaughtered and the white lions reformed so that the Firebelly's unit could not escape their charge arc. The spearmen, who had charged the Maneaters, fought admirably killing two but lost combat anyway. They did not flee due to steadfast. Daria lost her focus on her first spell, and again Flames of the Phoenix was the only spell to be cast.
Ogres-
The mournfangs and Ironguts charged the Phoenix Guard in the front and another unit of mournfangs succeeded at a flank charge. The Bulls charged the White Lions, hoping to roll the d3 impact hits more than anything else. They did not, and the White Lions cut down the Firebelly and 2 more ogres. The remaining three fled near to the table edge but the Lions failed to catch them. The Ironblaster tried again to shoot the seaguard and this time the great gun exploded in a misfire. The maneaters killed the spearmen down to 4, and they broke and fled and were run down. Daria issued a challenge which was accepted by the Irongut champion, so the challenge was a draw against the ethereal sorceress. This was really lucky for me that he accepted with his champ and not his hero (he must have assumed I had Talisman of Saphery which I didnt), because I had totally forgotten to do another sweep for any magic weapons with Vauls after his Hellheart went off like I had meant to. Combat went very poorly for the High Elves, neither the infantry nor the commanders could penetrate the tough ogre hide. The only bright side was the strength of the Phoenix Guards' magical saves (I think I saved 3/4th's of my ward saves this round). Damien's determination kept the soldiers resolute even against this horrific onslaught.
Turn 5: (Time was announced this turn so we would not get to play turn 6)
High Elves-
The White Lions charged the remaining bulls who fled off the board. The seaguard and archers just moved as far as they could away from the maneaters. Daria had amazing power stored up (12 dice) but I stupidly threw only two dice on Throne of Vines, which of course failed with a 3, essentially ending my magic phase. The Ironguts realized that they might not be able to kill the phoenix Guard to the last, and began focusing their attacks on Damien himself. He suffered a wound but had two left. Again the Phoenix Guard were unable to do much harm but still had 10 troops left at the end of the combat, and again they passed their stubborn break test.
Ogres-
The only thing that mattered was whether the ogres would manage to kill Dameon or the Phoenix Guard. The slaughtermaster scored a lucky wound against Dameon to bring him down to his last wound, but all 6 supporting Irongut attacks missed him, which meant he had officially survived the battle. The mournfangs dealt horrible losses to the Phoenix Guard but at the end of the turn there were still three standing. The pile of my dead models was massive, but only the spearmen had been truly wiped out.
I killed: 5 Bulls, 1 Firebelly, 2 Sabretusks, 1 Ironblaster that blew itself up
482 points
Ogres killed: 22 Spearmen and a ton of Phoenix Guard that didn't amount to any points.
218 points
WIN for High Elves (single elimination tournament, so even a 1 point advantage leads to a victory)
264 point-victory (the smallest of margins because a technical victory has to be over 249 points even though any advantage makes you the victor. This is because they record our battle points too which are only used when players lose in the single elimination and are bumped down to the regular tournament.
Most of the ogres had escaped the battle, but their precious cannon was forever destroyed and would never threaten the walls of Dal' Quain. The ogres had learned their lesson, that the tasty elves were no easy prey.
Final Thoughts: This was such a strange game, and not really fun for either of us because the dice didn't cooperate with some pretty safe game plans on both sides. We counted up the failed charges at the end, and my opponent had failed at least 10 charges throughout (both through lousy rolling and the fact that he was going after my wimpy core, which generally fled) and I failed 5 charges myself, including a dreaded snake-eyes with my white lions (and just after my opponent had jokingly yelled out "roll ones!"
). The ironblaster blowing up was a pretty big surprise as that thing actually has a pretty forgiving misfire table as I understand it. My Phoenix Guard couldn't manage to wound hardly anything, but they held on against . Damien my prince also survived the last turn with 1 wound remaining. Losing either the phoenix guard or my general would have turned this "win" into a loss. This was almost a draw under GLWL comp (it literally came down to the two sabretusks of his I killed), but since it was the League Finals, the rule is single elimination and no draws. As an example (which is fast forwarding a bit), my last opponent had won his previous game by only 15 victory points.Game 2: Opponent- Lizardmen
Lizardmen army:
-Saurus Oldblood (Glittering Scales, Aura of Quetzl, Burning Blade of Chotec)
-Saurus Oldblood on Cold one (Blade of Realities, Charmed Shield, Potion of Speed, Opal Amulet)
-Skink Priest (Cube of Darkness)
-Skink Priest (Dispell Scroll)
-Scar Veteran BSB (Great Weapon, Armor of Destiny)
-29 Saurus Warriors (shields)
-11 Saurus Cavalry
-3 Salamanders (rare units of more than 100 points are limited to 1)
-10 skinks
-3 Terradons
-4 Kroxigors and 34 skinks with shields
The skink priests knew Comet of Casandora, Wind Blast and Iceshard Blizzard. Daria brought Earthblood, Flesh to Stone, Regrowth and Throne of Vines. Publius as always brought Flames of the Phoenix and Vaul's Unmaking through the Seerstaff. The scenario was Blood and Glory and this was good because the further forward deployment zone allowed me to deploy all forward and hopefully avoid some Salamander fire by getting into combat quickly. The Skeinsliver worked again and the High elves got the first turn.
Turn 1:
High Elves- My first instinct was to move right ahead with the initiative and try to begin combat, but I figured I could use the time to establish a magic advantage. The Phoenix Guard and White Lions moved forward slowly while all the regular troops stayed back. The Blood and Glory setup meant the Seaguard didn't have to move in order to shoot. Daria cast Throne of Vines successfully and also Flames of the Phoenix, which killed 8 Saurus. Vaul's unmaking was cast with a high total but was dispelled with a scroll. The seaguard shot the saurus cavalry but everything bounced off, while the archers killed a couple skinks.
Lizardmen- The Saurus, Kroxigor, and Cold One riders all moved forward at full speed, while the Salamanders moved into position to shoot at the phoenix guard. The terradons flew up and landed in the space in between the White Lions and Phoenix Guard hordes, facing the unit of 10 archers. A priest and the skinks entered a building for protection. The skink priest dispelled Flames of the Phoenix and no spells were cast. The Salamanders didn't spit very well and only three Phoenix Guard died, and the terradon riders shot down 2 archers.
Turn 2:
High Elves- I was thinking of shooting the Terradons with the 8 archers, but then I realized they would just drop rocks on me the next turn, and terradons are toughness 3 with a 6+ armor saves, so I figured I might as well charge in. The terradons stood and shot but all missed. The Phoenix Guard charged into the Kroxigor and skinks and the White Lions charged right into the large unit of saurus in the middle. The Seaguard, spearmen and Publius all spread apart to make it difficult for the powerful Saurus Cavalry and Oldblood to mop them all up easily. Daria was only able to recast her Throne of Vines, but Publius was able to cast both Flames of the Phoenix and Vaul's Unmaking (though he took a wound from the Irresistable Force on the Vauls), killing four more Saurus and destroying the Armor of Destiny. In combat the archers dealt three wounds to the Terradons and took one back. The Terradons were within 12 inches of their general and did not break. The Phoenix Guard killed 16 skinks and one of the shamans and only lost thee of their own, but the lizards remained steadfast and wouldnt break. The White Lions cut down the Battle Standard easy without his Armor of Destiny to protect him, and chopped up 14 more Saurus as well. The Oldblood general and his Saurus needed snake-eyes and broke instead. However the White Lions failed to catch them by 1 inch.
Lizardmen- The Saurus Cavalry crashed into the Speamen block. The Saurus failed to rally and ran seven more inches. The Salamanders took advantage of this to move in for side shots on the white lions. The magic phase did nothing for the remaining priest. The Salamanders misfired once but killed 7 White Lions. The Phoenix Guard killed the rest of the skinks and broke the Kroxigor even though they fought back better this time. The large lizards were run down from behind and the Phoenix Guard ended up right next to the Lizardmen. The spearmen lost 12 men and only killed one Cold one, they broke off the map and the Cold One Riders pursued.
Turn 3:
High Elves- The White Lions charged the Saurus who fled off the field with their general inside of them. The Phoenix Guard turned and faced the Salamanders. There wasn't much magic of consequence to cast, so I didn't risk miscast and ended the turn after I had moved everything else away from where the Cold Ones would re-enter the board. The Archers killed off the rest of the terradons in combat.
Lizardmen- The Salamanders entered the building to benefit from stubborn. The Cold ones re-entered the board.
Turn 4:
High Elves- The Phoenix Guard charged into the Building to attack the Salamanders. Daria resurrected a few white lions and all units ran directly away from the Cold One riders. Damien killed a Salamander himself and the other 9 Phoenix Guard killed one more. The last Salamander ran despite being stubborn in the building.
Lizardmen- The Salamander failed to rally and fled off the field. The Cold Ones tried a charge against the Phoenix Guard but they were too far away and failed. The Skink Priest tried to drop a Comet of Casandora on the White Lions. The spell went off with irresistable force and the skink lost all of its sorcerous power.
Turns 5-6: The Cold One Rider tried to get big points by getting lucky and breaking the Phoenix Guard out of the building. Combat went predictably and neither unit was able to destroy or break eachother by the end of the game.
High Elves killed: 2 Oldbloods (one was General), 29 Saurus, 1 skink priest, 3 terradons, 34 skinks and 4 Kroxigor, 1 Scar Veteran BSB, 3 Salamanders (1714 points)
Lizardmen killed: 22 Spearmen (218 points)
Final thoughts: This was just a mismatch in the army list stage. My opponent has several dwarf players in his local division, and chose to create a very combat heavy army and leave the magic alone. This served him well in his division, and he beat a very strong skaven player in game 1 because his Blade of Realities shattered both a Doomwheel and an Abomination with failed leadership tests (the blade autokills with no saves of any kind if you fail a leadership test for those who don't know it). This was also very fortunate for me because a skaven army would have been a nightmare for me to face, the presence of a skaven player in the draw was a big reason I took life for Dwellers and Seerstaff for Flames of the Phoenix. But back to the game at hand, the lack of a Slann in his list just gave me way too much of a magical advantage, and High Elf elites tend to fare well against Saurus even without magical augmentation. He was a good player and did everything he could to give himself a chance, but the way our two army lists were the odds were probably very much against him from the beginning.
Game 3: Championship finals
Opponent: Lizardmen (again)
There were four lizardmen in the final 8, so facing them twice was no surprise. I was just glad that neither of them were the two Life Slann players who I didn't think my list would match up well at all against. This time there was indeed a slann, but at least he was Light which I felt was somewhat easier to handle without Dwellers Below eating up elves.
The opponent brought:
1 Slann with Rumination, Loremaster, Becalming Cogitation, Ethereal, BSB, Banner of Discipline, Cube of Darkness, Lore of Light
1 Scar Veteran on a Cold one with a rerollable 1+ armor save
1 Scar Veteran with a 4+ ward save
20 Saurus Warriors with hand weapon/shield
35ish Saurus Warriors with hand weapon/shield in a horde
3 Salamanders
10 Skink skirmishers
3 Kroxigor and 28 Skinks
6 Chameleons
8 Chameleons
6 Chameleons
I rolled two doubles and ended up choosing Flesh to Stone, Regrowth, Dwellers Below and Throne of Vines. There was a river in the middle of the board, but since it was the finals we agreed not to count it because we wanted a game minimally effected by terrain factors. I made a mistake an allowed the Chameleon skinks to all deploy to the left. I finished deploying first and with the Skeinsliver the High Elves were going first for the third straight game.
Turn 1:
High Elves- The Spearmen moved to the left towards the Chameleons, and the Seaguard and Archers moved up just enough to shoot. Daria moved forward with the White Lions and cast Throne of Vines, which the lizardman let through, knowing he had to be ready for Dwellers. It didn't matter, as the Dwellers cast worked with total power on the Kroxigor and skinks. No kroxigor died, but 17 skinks did. I wished I had moved up more so that I could have cast this spell on the large Saurus unit instead.
Lizardmen- The army moved forward at the same pace, and the skinks swarmed around the Lothern Seaguard. The Slann cast both Pha's Protection and Speed of Light on the Kroxigors. In shooting, the chameleons scored a lot of wounds against the seaguard, but I rolled some amazing 6+ armor saves and only 6 died. The Salamanders were still too far away for a good target so chose not to shoot.
Turn 2:
High Elves- Emboldened by the success of the Dwellers cast, and worried about what the Chameleons would do to the Seaguard if they waited, Damien ordered the army to march forward. The spearmen charged the nearest chameleon skinks, who fled behind a building. They fled past the other two chameleon units, but neither panicked. The winds of magic blew strongly for the High Elves (12 dice!), but as I cast Throne of Vines, the Slann used his Cube of Darkness, rolled a 5 and the entire magic phase ended
My troops were now right in front of the enemy and had no magical augmentation to help them.
Lizardmen- The huge horde of Saurus with the two Scar Veterans charged right into the Phoenix Guard (not that they had anywhere else to go, I was right in front of him). The Kroxigor did not charge the White Lions, and instead stayed back so that the Salamanders could shoot them. The fleeing chameleons failed to rally and fled off the board. In the magic phase I dispelled Birona's Timewarp, but then failed to dispell Speed of Light, so suddenly the Saurus horde was weapon skill 10 and I had lost all my rerolls to hit. The Salamanders hit the white lions twice, but again I rolled some 6's for my armor saves and eight of them ended up dying. Damien declared a challenge which was answered by the saurus champion. Damien cut the creature down with ease, but the location of this challenge actually cost my Phoenix guard some of their attacks in combat (only in base to base with a model in a challenge and couldnt attack it). The Guard lost the combat but hung on due to stubborn.
Turn 3:
High Elves- There was no choice for Daria, Acastus, and the remaining White Lions but to charge the Kroxigors and skinks. The Spearmen continued to charge the remaining chameleons, they fled but it was enough to keep them on the run and not shooting my seaguard. They just had to be in combat for the protection from the salamander spit. The magic phase saw Daria cast Throne of Vines but no other life spells got through. Publius cast Flames of the Phoenix on the Saurus, and 6 died in the flames. The Scar Veteran on foot took a lucky wound as well. In combat Damien declared another challenge. The badly burnt Scar Veteran on foot accepted this time. Both combatants were unable to wound eachother, the Speed of Light still made it too hard to Damien to hit his opponent. Again the Phoenix Guard found it hard to hit the Speed of Light boosted Saurus, but I rolled incredible on my ward saves to keep most of my elves alive. The white lions hard to waste all their attacks on the skinks who still plugged up the front rank, and lost several of their own to the Kroxigors' weapons.
Lizardmen- The skinks moved in very close to the archers so they could get close range shots. The Slann had to use some of his power to dispell Flames of the Phoenix and only Net of Amyntok made it through this turn. The skinks shot and killed half of the archers but they passed their panic test. Speed of Light was gone now and the Scar Veteran fell to Damien's sword thrusts as his movement slowed. The Phoenix Guard fought much better (and again saved amazingly on their ward saves) and won combat, but not by enough to break the Saurus. The white lions only managed to kill a few more skinks in an uneventful combat.
Turn 4:
High Elves- The five remaining archers charged into the Skinks, they didn't face a stand and shoot because the skinks had moved in closer than their movement distance. In the magic phase I did not want to risk the strength tests from Net of Amyntok by casting with Daria, so Publius cast, so I began by casting Flames of the Phoenix, which went off with total power. 5 more Saurus died in the flames. This time Damien struck a clean blow and decapitated the Scar Veteran he had been locked in a challenge with. The archers killed 4 skinks and lost no one in return, and then they ran down the skinks when they fled.
Lizardmen- Wiping the Scar Veteran's blood from his weapon, Damien declared yet another challenge. The second Scar Veteran on the Cold One answered this time. The White Lions were running out of numbers, but they finally killed all but two of the skinks and put a wound on the Kroxigor.
Turn 5: (We were told at this time that time was running short, so we agreed this would be our last turn.)
High Elves- The Lothern Seaguard charged into the flank of the Kroxigor, intending to use their ranks to break the unit. That was when we realized I had totally forgotten to roll my miscast during my previous turn. I rolled immediately and my forgetfulness was rewarded with a Dimensional Cascade. I lost 8 Seaguard (only six left) and Publius was sucked into the magical rift. We based the template on where the seaguard were so obviously I didnt get to kill any Kroxigor through this template
. My opponent offered for me to withdraw the charge under the circumstances, but I knew if I didn't kill those Kroxigor I was going to lose the game. My Seaguard and my White Lions were both almost dead, and one of those units was not going to survive this battle. Daria attempted to cast Throne of Vines with 2 dice to begin the magic phase... and rolled a 1 and a 6 which was discarded by Becalming Cogitation. Publius was in the netherworld, so this failure ended yet another promising magic phase early (lesson learned, always throw an extra die when becalming cogitation is around). Acastus the Battle Standard fought terribly, his three rerollable attacks with his great weapon only managed one wound on a kroxigor. But the White Lions struck far better and killed all the rest of the skinks and killed the kroxigor off an wounded another. Then the six Seaguard struck and managed to cause two more wounds, killing a second Kroxigor. The last kroxigor killed two Seaguard, but he broke, fled and was run down by both units. The Seaguard thankfully ended up far ahead of the White Lions, if they had ended up close together the nearby Salamanders could have potentially covered both rather than having to pick one or the other.Lizardmen- The lizardmen declared no charges, the chameleon skinks rallied. The salamanders and the chameleon skink unit that was able to rally had to choose whether to try to eliminate the three remaining white lions or the four remaining Seaguard. The magic phase was a miracle for me, he rolled a total for 3, one of which I stole, and Daria also channeled another dispell die. With 4 dispell dice to 2 power dice nothing was cast. The salamanders placed themself in a spot to get a slim chance at hitting the white lions, and a good chance at hitting the seaguard. One did hit the white lions but nothing wounded. The second misfired and ate two skinks and the third hit the Seaguard right on, killing two. The Chameleon skinks knew they couldnt penetrate the Lion cloaks and shot down the remaining seaguard instead. In combat Damien was immune to the Scar Veteran's flaming blade, but was again unable to score a wound himself. The Phoenix Guard killed 7 more Saurus and lost 5. They did not break, and the game was over.
High Elves killed: 10 skinks, 6 Chameleon skinks, 1 Scar Veteran, 4 Kroxigor and their 34 skink buddies
(618 points)
High Elves lost: Publius (level 2 high mage died to miscast), 24 Lothern Seaguard
(458 points)
Result: 160 point "draw" in favor of the High Elves. In the GLWL there needs to be at least a 250 point advantage to count technically as a victory, but the single-elimination championships are always decided by victory points, no matter how slim. Someone even told me that one year it was decided by a single victory point, no idea if this is true or not.
Final Thoughts: *First off, I want to apologize to my opponent Nick Rodorigo for my forgetfulness this game. I tend to fade mentally over the course of a tournament and am always at my worst at the end (I think I come in too excited and burn myself out by game 3). I don't think I could ever complete a 5 game tournament, but maybe the night's sleep would make the difference. He was gracious to let me announce a couple charges I had forgotten after I was already past the charge phase (they were really obvious charges, but we’ve all met the guys who won't let anything slide and I really appreciate the good sportsmanship). I even forgot to resolve the effects of a miscast, but we did it all retroactively and got the devastating results right.
As for the game, my magic phases were terrible (and Becalming Cogitation and Cube of Darkness devastated my phases even more) and my elites apparently forgot how to kill stuff. This game (which was technically a draw since I only won by 160 points, League required 250 point margin to count as a "win") was resolved in all the unlikeliest places, with the Phoenix Guard and White Lions just trying to hang on for the points denial. If the game had gone full turns I'm almost positive I would have lost, but we were told that time was running low and agreed to make turn 5 the last.
As a last bit of irony, my final round opponent ended up winning a $300 display board from the raffle, so he actually won double the prize money value I did
(champion's prize was $150 of discounted merchandise and the trophy). Congrats to him, I felt really bad that he "lost" on a draw. I was able to get a Phoenix, a Sky-cutter and a box of Sisters of Averlorn with the discount in effect.Final Thoughts on the Great Lakes Warhammer League Season: I thought I did as good a job as I could in making a fixed list that was adaptable, well-suited to my play-style and hard to get significant points off of. The rest was just dumb luck, and I would be a liar if I said I played any better than I have in countless tournaments that I didn't win in the past. It just reminds me that this is a dice-based game and getting too invested in the results is not mentally healthy. I also got probably the three most favorible matchups in the final eight for my build. I could have just as easily gone against a dark elf flying circus, a skaven player (and skaven is my nightmare), and a lizardmen with a Life Slann. With that said, this tournament means a lot to me because it's probably the only large tournament I'll ever win (this isn't a Grand Tournament, but the League is very popular in my state, with anywhere from 80 to over 100 total players depending on the year). Not trying to sell myself short, because I do think I'm a decent player and a decent painter, but having gone down to Adepticon I see how good the painting is and I know I would never be able to compete with the top guys in the overall category. So it's pretty likely that this is going to be the pinnacle of my Warhammer existence for quite a while, especially since I'm going to be a dad soon and will not have as much time as I used to. The fact that I came so close last year with my dwarfs and fell short in a near-guaranteed dispel attempt on Dreaded 13th (needed to beat a rolled 28, threw 9 dispell dice at it and EVERY single die was a 1,2 or 3), makes this a big weight off my shoulders as well. Anyway, making battle reports is my favorite part about playing this game, so I want to thank everyone who tuned in to read them.
I'm really happy I got to say goodbye to the old book in style, and I want to say that I hated the rigid troop selection (nearly half the units in the book were unusably bad), but I don't think I will ever enjoy a magic items list like I did with the 7th edition High Elves. RIP Banner of Sorcery (no..not remains in play). I'll never forget you love, playing high elves will never be quite the same
I literally never played a game without that banner in as long as I used that armybook. (This may seem kind of pointless since this is the last tournament I will ever play with this old book, but here are my final unit performance rankings for the tournament and regular season.
Unit MVP rankings:
#1. Damien - Prince. It was hard to not put the Phoenix Guard in this spot after their constant last-man-standing heroics, but Damien was the one who made it all possible with his stubborn crown. Besides leaving my casters out of my fixed list, he was my best choice in the list, but even so it was a miracle that he never died in 8 total games. It was a miracle that he didn't die in a 5-round challenge with a Red Fury Vampire Lord in the regular season and it was a miracle that he survived three full rounds of an Irongut unit focusing all it's attacks on him. If Damien had failed in either of these situations, I would have lost those games. As I played my games I started to realize that a 3+ rerollable armor save and 5+ ward save was often nowhere near safe. The reason he is #1 is because he overperformed so much in terms of survivability.
#2. Phoenix Guard- This guys were deadly against most opponents, and against those they couldnt defeat (like the double-mournfang and irongut charge), they just did their job even better as fly-paper. At times I had the majority of my opponents' units stuck to these guys and they never went down. I had 3 left against the ogre player in this tournament, and in the regular season I finished games with 3 left against chaos dwarfs, and ONE left against Vampire Counts (one more wound and he had 499 victory points). In so many of my games this season I lost badly in terms of casualties but most of my units had just a few guys left at the end of turn 6, which meant huge points denial thanks to Fled or Dead.
#3. This sounds funny, but these 10 archers with a musician were a crucial part of every game. Their successful fleeing throughout the game really slowed several ogre units down. In game 2 they charged and wiped out a terradon unit. In game 3 a skink unit got within their movement distance and they were able to charge in, defeat and run down the skinks with their rerolls to hit. This unit is normally just expected to shoot a couple troops at most, so their performance was a really pleasant surprise.
