Leodis Games Tournament 23.02.19

Apologies for the lack of posts guys – I haven’t been getting as many games in as I wanted and need to get back on it with these blog posts! Last Saturday was a best of three tournament up at Leodis Games which (once you find it) is a decent little shop and gaming venue. There was a really great mix of warbands being played with Mollog, Magore, Zarbag, Fjul, Briar Queen, Theddra and Stormsire all in attendance. Total glory rather than glory differential was used as a second sorter which wasn’t ideal for my warband of choice as I think it favours high third end phase scorers such as objective and key based builds.

The gaming area at Leodis Games

I took the Chosen Axes to this event as I have been enjoying playing them and almost have them fully painted now too. I need to do some more work on the metals and an extra fine highlight on the hair and skin but they are getting there and I got some compliments on the scheme at the event. I had played the Mollog match up just once in the week prior to the event and got pretty battered so had changed my deck a little to be more manoeuvrable to try and get to Mollog’s supporting fighters. I also wasn’t too keen on super aggro Magore’s as they can get in and scale up faster than my dwarves can handle as proved by the practice games I had played against my mate Nick the night before (although Fjul died to rebound twice in three games, denying victorious dual and no remorse both times!).

Round one

Mollog…eurgh. This first game was against a chap who had done a fair bit of theory and deck building with the big man but hadn’t done much in the way of playing him. Time to put what little I had learned into practice. In game one I set up using a triple blocked hex to deny Mollog immediate charges without creating too much of a corridor for him to control. Turn one saw Mollog drawing cards while I positioned for inspiration. He committed a charge to kill Tefk as his last activation but I was able to get concealed weapon and activated runes onto Fjul who hit him with a crit for five damage. Yes! He then played My Turn and killed Fjul. No! I actually found this to be an acceptable trade in hindsight but boy did I need the first turn! I got it and Vol drank the potion of rage and hit with a smash and a crit to kill Mollog. I can’t honestly remember much after this point but I ended up with a 16-7 win. Phew.

Into the second game and I was determined to grind a win out and not allow it to go to three games. He set up Mollog on an edge hex so I assumed he had Hidden Paths in hand and deployed so as to defend against it. As predicted he swooped in using Hidden Paths and mercifully missed his attack on Vol. Before I could start plotting how I would kill Mollog he was teleported back with Illusory Fighter. This meant he was back in his territory, uninspired, with a move token. So as long as he didn’t draw inspiration strikes or take three damage he couldn’t do anything. Fjul charged the bat squig and killed it to score Advancing Strike and got pushed onto an objective in Mollog’s territory using Treasure Lust. I put Great Fortitude on Fjul so that he couldn’t be one shotted in the next turn. I got the other dwarves onto objectives and scored Supremacy. The following turns consisted of me picking off Mollog’s other fighters and making no attacks against him to deny inspiration. As the final activation of the game Mollog killed Maegrim but by that time it didn’t really matter and I won 12-2. A nice glory differential of 21 and a 2-0 win was a great start. It was at this point we learned it was being split on total glory. Oh well.

Round two

Magore being played by a very friendly chap called Kyle who told me he played against Dwarves a lot. Maybe I could take on another tough match and come out on top. Game one was going well and with Victorious Dual and advancing strike in hand I managed to charge Magore with a Glory Seekered Fjul and score two smashes. Crit defence. Damn. Magore hit back with a smash and a crit and twisted the knife to kill Fjul and score his own Victorious Dual. It was downhill from here as Magore got Tomb of Offerings and Trophy Hunter and ended in a 17-3 loss.

In the second game I managed to Hidden Paths Fjul next to Riptooth and kill him early, using Indomitable to stay alive and after Magore went down to inspired Tefk with great strength the game really tipped in my favour leading to a 13-2 win.

The previous two games had very much come down to who got the first successful kill and started to inspire and upgrade their fighters first, racking up score immediately objectives. Our decks were actually very similar and had the same overall aggro game plan in mind. The final game went the same way as the first with Magore able to inspire early and use his higher movement to get into the dwarves before they could inspire or be upgraded. It ended in a 15-3 loss.

Round three

My first ever game against Godsworn piloted by a lovely bloke called Alex. I didn’t really know what to expect here apart from the obvious that he could vastly out manoeuvre me but my fighters could kill his fairly easily.

I got a fantastic hand of objectives after binning Supremacy, Superior Tactician and Unstoppable Advance so I deployed aggressively in the first game with Fjul up front. I won the roll to go first and charged Fjul into Grawl and killed him scoring Advancing Strike, No Remorse and Ferocious Charge for four glory. I pushed Fjul back onto an objective in my territory with Treasure Lust and gave him Grimnir’s Fortitude and Great Fortitude as he was still in range of several attacks. Alex scored What Armour and Change of Tactics with Shond and did some creative things with his upgrades including using Hero Slayer with Light Armour and Awakened Weapon to create a very dangerous combination. Unfortunately for him when this was employed against Fjul I rolled a crit defence. After some more back and forth I managed to win the game 16-7.

Into game two and I had a bit more of a handle of what Alex’s Godsworn were trying to achieve. This one was much closer with highlights for me being Fjul completing a Faneway Crystal charge to kill Theddra and score Victorious dual and Maegrim managing to survive four charges in a turn (!) and for Alex being killing Fjul to score a revealed Oath of Murder. Thanks to the Formless Key I drew this game 10-10 and since I had Tefk on an objective I got the win on tiebreakers. What I probably should have done was not equip the key in order to take it to a third game and score more total glory but that felt too much like gaming the event and very risky.

I enjoyed these games so much it has inspired me to pick up Godsworn myself. They seem fun and so different to Dwarves and will make a refreshing change I think. I am planning on dedicating them to Nurgle and working in some conversions. Watch this space!

Round Four

Mollog again! This round was pretty frustrating to be honest. I played the first game to hunt down Mollog’s supporting fighters and try and avoid attacking the main man. This generally went well but I ended the game on a 12-13 defeat. My last three activations were spent drawing cards in an effort to get a third ploy to score Ploymaster and as I had a fighter on an objective I would have won on tiebreakers. Into game two where my opponents cards and dice were insane. In one activation he charged in to kill Maegrim, score Advancing Strike, equip Tomb of Offerings, Ready for Action, kill Vol and score Massive Assault and No Remorse. So a six glory activation. I couldn’t really achieve much at all and it ended in a 14-2 loss. Such a shame that I couldn’t edge out that first game as usually a best of three helps to alleviate swingy dice and card draw.

In The End

This was a really fun day and gave me a good insight into what the newest warbands can do. I finished 9th out of 16 with Nick and his Magore's finishing 5th (just missing out on some snazzy acrylic charge tokens). A Katophrane Relic based Thorn's of the Briar Queen won the day with its huge glory potential. While I enjoyed the Dwarves and will continue to use them I think I need to play something a little faster for a while as I am finding that they can really struggle to get into the game in the first turn especially with their inspiration mechanic. With the arrival of Mollog cards like Rebound and Frozen in Time are seeing a lot more play and they hurt Fjul as much as Mollog if not more. With Dwarves relying on their ploys to get them into the game they also struggle to effectively run those cards themselves. With that I mind I am going to give Godsworn a go and see how I like them. Until next time 👍