Tournament Report Ducosim XVII (pictures heavy)

Last Saturday me and a buddy went to the local steamroller. 16 people showed up for 4 rounds of caster kills. I took two lists, one with Morghoul and one with Zaal. The Morghoul list was made to fight against Hordes, Zaal for fighting Warmachine.

My Morghoul army; Front row: Void spirit, Canonneer, Snapjaw, Agonizer, Wrong eye, Smoke Gobbers, Brine, Rorsh and Orin Midwinter. Back row: Soulwarden and Morghoul. (click on the picture to get a bigger version)

My Zaal list; Front to back: Full unit of Ferox, Void spirit, Ancestral Guardian, min Karax, min Immortals, Zaal, Soulwarden and Canonneer. (click on the picture to get a bigger version)

My first battle I ended against one of the stronger players with his Circle of Orgoreos (Goreish Circle) with his Krueger list.


In short, his list was brutal (and a classic), he played brutal and he brutalized Morghoul. Well done! This nice chap ended up 3th of the tournament and also got the he most VPs award.


The next battle was against a nice guy who brought. Amon, 4 jacks and some solo's.


We closed in, danced around a little bit, he feated, destroyed most of my infantry with his sandstorms and Jacks. The turn after I feated, had a lot of counters and the remaining solo's and cavalry charged in and slaughtered everything except Amon and half his choir. The turns after my army mobbed up the rest and killed Amon.


Next battle was against a person I already know a little better Ahknas. He played his Caine list against my Zaal list. I did get a resonanced charge in on his knights, but mostly he just shot the hell out of me. Another of my better points was shooting a ghostsighted cannonball through a rock and into Aiyana and Holt. The game ended with Zaal death and him not having more then Caine and a few solo's.


My last battle was versus Legion, was getting tired, so forgot to take pictures.
He had Vayl, two Carnies, Seraph and full Knights. He was basically kicking my ass, killing most of my stuff, but luckily I managed to pull of the enraged-pigheaded-diversiontactics-Brine trick and killed Vayl because his Carnies could not be transferred to because of Morgs feat.

So I ended with two wins, two loses and a lot of VPs which put me at the 6th or 7th place, but best of all, I won the best painted award (hurray for me!) Close-ups will follow later, but here is a picture of my tray (click for a bigger picture):

Zaal and Friends

Zaal vs Grissel 500pts, assassination

Friendly game with our local nice Trollblood guy.
He had: Grissel, Mauler, two Axers, Champions, full Stone unit and a fell caller
I had: Zaal, Krea, Drake, Cyclopse, 6 karax, full swordsmen with UA, two Guardians.
Highlights:
For my first time ever, the Kovaas popped up. (but sadly did not activate because Grissel died before it could.
Two loaded guardians killing all the champion in one turn (with the help of Zaal's feat)
Outcome:
Grissel got stuck in between a lot of Skorne and got biten to death by a Krea (while the Drake was already death, that's a first ;))
Lessons learned:
Zaal sucks in combat, he is one of the few warcasters which can not handle a damaged light beast in one turn.
I am really starting to like Zaal, he is one of the swiss army knife casters and his feat turn can be lethal.
I like how I wrapped the 12 swordmen unit around his army and then came in from behind.
Pictures:
Surrounding the enemy

Fight!

Munch munch munch

Zaal vs Kaya 500pts, assassination

Friendly at my place, the pictures did not end up that good this time...
He had: Kaya, Warpwolf, Gorax, Argus, Druids with UA, 2x shifting stones, 2x standing stone
I had: Zaal, Rhinodon, Krea, 8 Swordmen, 5 Paingivers, 4 Ferox and Guardian.
Highlights:
Rhinodon got killed easily by the Warpwolf, it got teleported back and the Argus then paralysed it, so it would do no harm on the frenzy it would get because of the Gorax animus on it.
The swordsmen holding one flank and most of his army and losing only half (not killing anything, but still)
Outcome:
(all using boosts from the Feat of Zaal)
The Krea put her animus on the standingstone next to Kaya, lowering her def.
Zaal did his AO spell on a druid in front of Kaya, damaging her, and clearing two Druids which were standing in the way.
The swordsmen charging on Kaya and doing a lot of damage.
One Ferox last-standing killed her, over his mates with reach and tall in the saddle.
Lessons learned:
I have played against this player against similar lists, so not much to learn about that.
It was not going that good for me, so I went all out, seeing what Zaal can do and I was surprised.
In the end all he lost was some manikins, two druids and Kaya.
Pictures:

Skorne ready to attack with the sun on their backs.

Half way through from Circle perspective

Kaya gets killed (the Ferox which did it, is already gone, Kaya is in combat with the two rear most swordsmen).

Zaal vs Searyn 500pts, assassination

Friendly at my place
He had: Searyn, Angel, Seraph, 4 Elk Knights, Forsaken, Gobbers and a single Shredder
I had: Zaal, Full swordsmen with UA, Full Cetrati, Krea, Savage, Guardian, Paingivers and Gobbers.
Highlights:
I did the lazer beam at a Searyn 19" away which was not hiding behind monsters.
Outcome:
Searyn got zapped.
Lessons learned:
It was funny to do once, but do not do this to often, it might lead to losing friends.
Pictures:

Legion Lining up

Skorne blocked up

Eat lazer beam, bitch!

Zaal vs Terminus 500pts, assassination

Last game I played (before Xmas)
I had (not sure): Zaal, Cannoneer, Agonizer, Ferox(4), Smoke Gobbers, Preatorian (9)+UA, Guardian, Midwinter
He had (not sure): Terminus, Tartarus, Full Bane Knights, Ghost Knights, 2 Pistol Wraiths
Highlights:
Losing one Ferox to free strikes because some bane knights moved into combat after Midwinter fried 3 of them.
Trying to do the Last Stand/Ferox assassination and failing because I did not last stand on the kitty attacks, combined with bad rolls and losing on to free strikes.
Zaal holding out on his own and slaying most of the bane knights in combat in multiple turns.
Outcome:
Lost in the end for losing to much resources to the failed assassination and over stretching to do so (and not really having and idea how Zaal works).
Lessons learned:
Be careful with bane knights, they might ruin you plan by engaging the units you need and you kill some.
Know how your stuff works.