Yes its True ! and here is how ........
In the North there are a group of KoW players that were crying out for more tournaments and their wailings were heard by Dan and Sharad , the team behind the famous BattleMasters event held in Loughborough each year - there is a Blog post in progress as the Free Dwarfs did attend , the intrepid duo decided to put on an event in the Northern reaches. Dan searched for a venue and Boy did he come up trumps ! The venue he found is an undercroft on the grounds of Carlisle Cathedral and the event was christened "Battles in the Undercroft".
The Venue is very atmospheric and looks awesome. the facilities are excellent with lovely toilets and a cafe upstairs. Dan and Sharad had pulled out all the stops for the presentation of their first Northern event
Everybody got a free Model and there were easy to follow instructions on each table to ensure that all went without a hitch , the terrain was nicely laid out and easily identified with removable pieces backed up with 2D flats to keep you honest , all the heights were defined so there could be no confusion , excellent TO'ing. The painting judging was handled between Games 1 and 2 with a nice nomination form and 15 minutes built into the programme to allow players to view armies.
Onto the Games !
The Free Dwarfs had altered their list slightly , Gone were the easily wavered Northern Alliance and in their place were more Brocks and the Mighty Banick Kholearm !
The Free Dwarfs first opponents were the Nightstalkers of Rad , Consisting of 3 regiments of Reapers , 2 Scarecrow Hordes , 3 Mindscreeches and 2 Voidlurkers with Shakira in support and 2 Horrors with Banechant to back up the Reapers.
The Scenario was Push and once both sides deployed , Banick pushed up into a central wood using his Scout move , the Tokens were carried by my Mastiff pack which was surrounded by Brocks.
The Battle was fierce but Rad had appalling luck with his dice and the Scarecrows and Reapers were just out ranged by the Brock riders , Beast slaying characters and the Banechanting of Banick Kholearm all combined to nearly eradicate the poor Nightstalkers. Under the Tournament rules it is enough to merely win , then the rest of the points are attrition score. You get 10 points for a win 5 for a draw and 0 for a loss , the Free Dwarfs score 19 points in this first game.
Painting judging achieved then off for a well earned bag of Sausage Rolls from Greggs :)
Game Two was Control Against the Ogres of Martin , he had a chariot Regiment , a chariot lord , the Big Deal a giant , A horde of Warriors , 2 hordes of siege breakers , Bully , Warlock and Kuzlo.
Kuzlo had caused me immense problems at the Madrid Tournament and contributed to my only loss of that tournament so I tasked the Nimble troop and regiment along with Wing Kingy to contain him , this they did admirably - pinning him behind impassable terrain until I realised he doesn't have ensnare ( shouldn't just assume) and the troop charged in to see him off. Martin charged Banick with the Chariots and was unpleasantly surprised to find out how tough he is , leaving the stranded chariots to be consumed by a double charge from a troop and regiment of Brocks with Banicks Brutal tipping the balance. The Big Deal and Ogre lord had some terrible Dice resulting in them being held up for three turns by a Mastiff Regiment and a Berserker Lord before the Big Deal was finished off by a Brock Troop , A unlucky exposed flank on the warrior horde exploited by Sveri Egilax and the Banechants of Banick saw off the warriors and a horde of Siegebreakers and exposed the Giant to a flank charge by a Brock Regiment. the result was an 18 point win to the Free Dwarfs.
Game Three was on the top table against Steve , I have met Steve before at the King Beyond the Wall and the FFS tournaments and he is an excellent player with his Salamanders. He has the Pale Rider , a Rhinosaur Horde , Mage Priest , Troop of ancients and the Whispering scales formation backed up by an Horde of Fire elementals with embersprite swarm. A battle Captain on steed and a scouting little dude with the Gnome Glass shield along with a regiment of Scorchwings, certainly a formidable army with a lot of flexibility.
Luckily my Scrying Gem paid off in this game , forcing Steve to deploy 4 units in his initial placing which mean't I could focus on my plan. I deployed heavy on one flank but the Nimble troops made up my extreme left. Steve scouted his gekottah character into the middle and Banick trundled forwards to within Fireball range. I got first turn and after moving most of my units forwards I redeployed Sveri to the flank resulting in his aura allowing the Nimble troop to be able to charge the Gekottah dude , they didn't kill him ( I forgot the Gnome Glass shield lol) but it caused a but of a road block , the nimble regiment marched and pivoted to pick up my 2 point token. the rest of the battle consisted of Brocks charging stuff , being Banechanted to help them take down the high Def Salamandes , however I got carried away killing things and Steve pulled off a masterful move to collect an extra token in turn 6 turning my win into a Draw, but I had killed enough of Steves army to get 14 points from the draw while he scored 10 points.
As we had not been following the progress of the other players we assumed that the lower tables would leapfrog over us to podium , however it turned out that was not the case , as Steve had been 3 points ahead of me going into that last game my 4 points extra in the draw had me 1 point ahead of him in First place ! my first ever tournament first place in Kings of War ! Steve Came Second and the winner of table two , John , came third.
My partner Jan got Most Sporting player and another John won Best Painted with his gorgeous Ogre army and display board ( W**nker).
Overall an excellent day !
So the changes I had made to the Army and all the practise I have had with it recently have paid off , hopefully the Free Dwarfs of Bowland will contine to thrive under the Leadership of Sveri Egilax and my new favourite little Guy - the Star of the Tournament - Banick Kholearm !
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