Battle Report - 03 May 2013 - WAB GT Day 2

The prize table, with generous donation from Warlord,
4Ground, Foundry and others.

Yes. I did win one.

Back at what-used-to-be-Maelstrom for day 2 of the WAB GT. Two games only today, which is probably a good job, since I think I'd have just crawled into a little heap and crashed after three. Five games in two days is hard work!

On the way up, I commented to Grahame that despite 20% of the entrants bringing Selucid armies, I'd managed to avoid any chariots, cavalry wedges or pike blocks.

So of course, I drew Mario Kkounnous in round 4, whose Selucids had all three! (And were also absolutely gorgeous - he does sculpt for Empire Models, I understand - and richly deserving of the best painted award). An absolute cracker of a game with a thorough gentleman of an opponent: it pretty much hinged on one reform test I had to make to get my cataphracts turned to face his Thorakitoi. If I'd made it, the result would, we both agreed, have been very different from the 28-4 thrashing it ended up it. That Parthian army is very brittle - the archers only have Ld 6, and do tend to run a lot: on a 6'x'4' table its quite hard not to wind up panicking nearby units when they do! Even so, I can stand losing all the horse archers without hitting break point. However, losing even one of the two units of cataphracts is almost certainly going to break it.

On the good side, I did manage to stampede one of Mario's elephants into the other., which led to the entertaining sight of them stampeding one after the other across the front of two stands of pike while the pike stood and waited!

So, last battle: bottom two, which turns out to be me and Simon's Carthaginians again! I'm about 14 points behind, which means, unlike last year, I can fail to come dead last if I beat him by enough. Simon's a thorough gent and a fun opponent, and we wound up on a fairly open table. On my first move, I managed (with the aid of the Nomad Horseman special move) to get forty eight shots in on his elephant. (C'mon. Big grey thing, standing out in the open, the size of a barn! What else was I going to shoot at?) For a total of one wound from twenty two hits. Which he made the roll not to stampede for.

For an encore, I got greedy and stupid, and paid the price. I was pretty sure the elephant was just out of charge range, so when it charged I elected not to do the thing my archers are good at. Run the $%^&*( away. And was it out of charge range? Nope. In by about a quarter of an inch.

Ever seen one elephant rout an entire army? Its second follow-through charge hit my general and cataphracts. To their credit, they lasted about three turns, but...

So. Once again, last. And, you know what? It doesn't actually matter. To quote what I just said on WABForum:

[A] massive thank you to Andy and Phil for the organisation, but as importantly to everyone else for coming, for proving that WAB isn't dead and for generally making it a great day. I don't (gee, you couldn't have guessed!!??? ) come to tournaments to win, I come because the WAB community in the UK is a bunch of thoroughly decent folks that it's always a pleasure to hang out with and sit/stand across a table from.

Long may it continue.

I'll leave Andy to announce the results at the pointy end on the official site.