Vault 14 Tournament 13.01.19

Another weekend and another tournament! Last Sunday I went up to Doncaster to a Vault 14 tournament with 18 players and got to see a nice variety of warbands. I took my Cursebreakers again with my mates Nick and Josh taking Steelheart’s and Thorn’s respectively. This was a really smooth event with four games in the day using glory differential as the sorter after number of wins (unfortunately for me as my games were pretty swingy!).

Well worth a visit especially if you are into your card and board games

Round one

I was up against Josh and his classically painted Chosen Axes. This is a warband I have played a few games with and am keen to get to work for me so I was looking forward to seeing them from the other side of the table.

The first game of the day and my dice absolutely deserted me. I got a single hit in the entire game which was successfully blocked. For a deck like mine which relies on kills for score immediately objectives in order to upgrade ad get rolling this was a recipe for disaster. The only glory I got was a third end phase escalation from Josh’s upgrades! 13- 2 loss.

Going in to game two I had a decent starting hand and was ready to make a game of it. I stay out of threat range as Josh played to inspire and upgrade his Dwarves in game one before throwing them at me. My first activation was a failed empower attempt and I passed my power step. Josh used inspiration strikes on Fjul making me glad I had set up a little further back. I pass again. Josh uses spoils of war to put Grimnir’s speed on Fjul… Oh dear. His first activation is a charge on Stormsire from five hexes away and he lands a crit and a smash, killing him instantly. This was tough but I tried to keep myself in the game despite some pretty poor dice ending in a 15-7 loss.

Finishing the first round by losing 28-9 isn’t anyone’s idea of a great start but I hoped my terrible dice were out of the way. Nick’s aggro Steelheart’s lost to a defensive Cursebreakers build and Josh won his first round.

Round two

I was faced with Tzeentch piloted by Martin who told me he was pretty experienced with the game but usually played Dwarves and had decided to change things up last minute and go for a faster warband. Most of my early games were against Tzeentch so I had an idea of what they could do and was ready for some trickery.

Great to see these guys at a tournament

In the first game my dice came back pretty strongly and I managed to kill Kcharik early and leave Vortemis running around on one wound afraid to get into range. Martin managed some great tactical play though, scoring several objectives and even managing to kill Rastus with an upgraded Narvia in a single charge. In the end the brute strength of the Stormcast won out with a 13-9 victory for me.

Game two and Martin opts for long boards so I deploy fairly aggressively. This was a real close one and the Blue horror was an absolute pain scoring Martin six glory through supremacy, extreme flank (across the long boards!) and summoner. My highlight was creating a lethal hex with Rastus and using it along with the lightning whip upgrade to kill Vortemis despite deathly fortitude.  Another very close game ending in a 15-12 win to me.

I really enjoyed the tactical play this round and despite only having won 28-21 in the round felt I had redeemed myself somewhat from getting slapped around by dwarves in round one!

Round three

After a much needed coffee I was faced with Kev’s Nighthaunt, another warband I have played many times but one that can be tough to pin down.

In the first game I was careful not to over extend knowing that the Thorns can rapidly ramp up glory though multiple objective grabs and launch the Queen around for kills. The highlight of the game for me was Stormsire killing the Everhanged in Kev’s power phase after upgrading him with faneway and using ready for action to make an attack and then charging and killing Varclav (thank you potion of rage) who was sat too close to an objective. I scored well in this game but spent my final few activations drawing power cards rather than cycling objectives so as not to give myself away too much for game two. 18-7 win.

In game two my dice exploded getting a ridiculous amount of successes. I actually realised that for two whole turns I just activated Stormsire as he always had target in range and objective to score with kills. I had a particularly nice situation where Kev put the Everhanged between two chainrasps ready to swarm me and I managed to hit him with cry of thunder for one damage on each in his power phase before using fulmination to kill the Everhanged and score measured strike and advancing strike. Stormsire then got upgraded with great fortitude and killed another chain rasp with ready for action. Kev spent a lot of activations drawing power cards and went for a last activation charge with Varclav who had great strength but I managed a crit defence. Kev then used distraction so I couldn’t get any attacks back in return. Unfortunately, I had alone in the darkness in hand along with fired up and shining example so the game ended 19-1 to me with just the Queen and Varclav still alive and all of my fighters unharmed.

Taking this round 37-8 really shows how much of an impact drawing the right cards and rolling well when it counts can affect the game.

Round four

Another final game with a Cursebreaker mirror match. I was up against Martin who had a good deal of experience at his local club but was attending his first tournament.

I really like the paint scheme on these guys

For game one the only notes I made were “dice fail” and I actually don’t think I connected with an attack or cast a spell all game. Something that came up here was being able to retroactively score objectives such as strong start. The TO ruled that if you draw strong start after having already killed a model in the turn you can still score it that turn as the first model killed was your opponents. This struck me as odd because it says “score immediately” and after it happens isn’t immediately but many players apparently have always played it that way. Martin played a tight game and ensured I paid the price for my bad rolling with a 19-4 loss.

So onto game two and I had a nice plan to cast Abasoth’s unmaking to empower Stormsire early and start getting some damage onto Martin’s warband. I needed this as I drew both fired up and shining example. Alas it was not to be and although I scored alone in the darkness and escalation (from Martin’s upgrades) turn one I was on the back foot all game. Martin failed his first fulmination before succeeding with all others on either two focus or a focus and a crit! This gradualy killed me off and I lost 16-8. The crowning moment of the game was Stormsire moving to within two of the enemy Ammis before Martin upgraded her with great strength and the potion of rage… He then charged killing Stormsire with FOUR smashes and a crit. 

I wish this was staged... Ouch

After this I imagine him as a smooth paste being cleaned out of the cracks between the stones of the Nightvault by a dejected Rastus. A shame to end the day with a 35-12 pummelling but Martin was a classy winner who went on to bag second place and I still enjoyed the game.

In the end

How badass do these guys look!?

I had a great day at this event and would recommend it as slightly more competitive gaming opportunity. The painting competition was a bit odd as there were no votes for painting with the TO just having a look and choosing his favourite three and many great looking warbands going without a mention. Not that I would have won anyway but I only saw him take a cursory glance at my models from about 6 feet away across the table which is a little disappointing. I am not 100% on the final standing but I think I ended up 8^th, Josh was 7^th (damn glory differential) and Nick 15^th. It was great to play four nice blokes each with a different warband but this event really highlighted how much the Cursebreakers dominate the meta at the moment. They’re everywhere and finished 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th! First place went to Magore’s Fiends. Maybe Mollog’s Mob will shake up the mix of warbands and objectives away from finding ways to get fighters up to doing four damage and churning through the enemy. Watch this space for my first impressions of them later this week.