Regular readers of the sparse posts I call my "Blog" will know that myself and my partner attend Kings of War Tournaments in Spain and 2022 was no exception. This was the second 2 Day Grand Tournament held in Madrid and as soon as we found out about it we started planning our trip.
The event was a full blown GT with 5 Games over two days at 2300 points and 40 spaces for players. Our first priority was to pay for our places to the Snake Eyes club in Madrid who were running the event. This done it was then a matter of Flights and accommodation to secure. With all the restrictions around Covid 19 we had to make sure our vaccinations were completed and our paperwork spot on. We opted for a cheap Ryan Air (I know, I know) flight , which was made even cheaper by a transfer at Palma , Mallorca- more on this later.
The last time I played in Spain the Ogres came out to play and before them was the Brotherhood , this time I had to take the Free Dwarfs. Not only did the inspiration for the Army come from one of Spain's Top players , Mario Murillo , the the little dudes were desperate for some play time as they hadn't seen the tabletop since their Masters outing.
After some deliberation I decided to use the Army as below , I have used it at a couple of Tournaments in the UK under previous CoK amendments but this was its first outing under CoK 22.
As you can see it is a nicely themed Army consisting of Brock Riders , Brock Hero's and Sveri Egilax , who have brought some of their Bear friends (Frostfangs) along for a picnic. It was my first time using the new Pathfinder ability on the Brock Riders alongside Artifact's so it would be a bit of a learning curve for me. With only 13 Drops and unit strength 19 I would be at a disadvantage so the plan was to kill all my enemies scoring units quickly to minimise this. At least that was the plan ......
So the Day dawned of our departure and we headed off to Manchester Airport to catch our flight. We engaged in the obligatory holiday beverages at the Airport to brace ourselves for the two and a half hour flight to Mallorca :)
The flight was delayed by twenty minutes on take off but otherwise it was uneventful apart from being half empty so we could pick our seats :)
Upon landing at Palma a combination of unhelpful local staff and RyanAir apathy resulted in a missed transfer to Madrid. After a meltdown outside the Aeropuerto we booked a hostel in Palma and got a Taxi. Whilst I slept my amazing Other half booked us a flight with Iberia for that evening , giving us an entire day to kill in Palma Mallorca. Having never been we decided to sample the local beers at several hostelries before we took a taxi to the Aeropeurto :)
According to our Spanish Friends the San Miguel we were drinking only barely qualifies as beer but we had to drink a lot to be sure.
We finally boarded our Madrid Flight 24 Hours late and looked forwards to a late landing in Madrid, once through customs a swift taxi ride to our friend Carlo's Bar "BeerBang" saw us reunited with Our friends from Madrid
This picture was taken in the early hours of Saturday Morning.
The Saturday of the Tournament dawned bright and way too damn early for me , Still drunk from the night before and not sure where I was , luckily breakfast was on hand and I was introduced to Torrejas and Ikea Oat biscuits , both of which started the sobering up process. A short Taxi ride to the Venue then followed.
After greeting more friends from previous visits to Spain I was informed that my game one was against the Tournament Favourite and Spanish number one , Mario Murillo , who was also the inspiration for my Free Dwarf Journey , this was a great opportunity to play a really good player in a completely different Meta to the UK scene , at least that's what I told myself as I gathered my Brock Boys and headed for the Table , Mario was also playing Dwarfs , albeit the "Wrong" sort and here is his list
The Scenario was LOOT , three loot counters across the centre of the table. Four Volley Guns lol , the inclusion of the Muster Captain was interesting , he is quite a good unit for his points. Three Regiments of Brock Riders is a powerful strike force but the whole army is lacking in chaff , I think it relies on firepower to keep enemies at bay , however the tactics I employed of lining up and thundering across the table , coupled with Pathfinder/Strider enabled my to kill a lot of stuff in a short time. a lot of which set up in woods or difficult ground. I do remember his Muster Captain spent about 4 turns wavered by my Wingy Kingy Berserker lord and the final result saw us holding one loot counter each for a 10-10 Draw ! I don't think anyone was more surprised than me ! One thing I will say is that the Spanish use a lot of 2D terrain , something I am not keen on, and in this game Mario forgot my Berserker Lord was standing on a "Hill" in the last turn which could have resulted in a win for me. 3D terrain would have been better at that point.
So off to a steady start and on to Game two. My Opponent in this Game was JuanMi and he had had the dubious honour of playing my other half at a previous Tournament in Malaga and so was the proud owner of one of our Torii gates. He was using KoM and here is his List
The Scenario was FOOLS GOLD , we both place five objectives valued 0,0,1,1,2 on the opponents side of the board and these are revealed at the end of turn 3 so we can then remember what we are supposed to be doing.
Juan had his two large Pike Blocks and three Hordes of nasty cavalry , however my Brocks outranged all but his flyers and I managed to dance around the units to gain flanks and rears resulting in only Juan's Wizards and the Flying Beast Cavalry surviving the battle. A Solid 18-3 win to me.
Game Three originally had me paired off to face Sam Sowden Garcias Order of the Green Lady , but for some reason this was changed and I was now scheduled to face Jose Maria Menendez. I had no idea who this was until I got to the table and found my old friend Chemari Trolaso waiting for me :) The Scenario for the game was Pillage.
Because of a Spanish prediliction to using Nicknames a lot I hadn't realised that Jose was Chemari ( or is Chemari, Jose ? ) anyways he and I have a long History of needling each other on Facebook about army choices and here I was with my Brocks ( an army he mildly dislikes I believe) facing his flying circus Basilieans ( List below)
We had a very "Dynamic " game to say the least , lots of Fast Elohi action plugging away at stubborn Dwarfs , However the high nerve , high damage output of the Brocks , coupled with my couple of extra drops began to tell , and despite not being able to get rid of Julius and Samacris ( Grrrrr !) I managed a 16-5 win with the centre of the table looking like this at the end of the game.
Needless to say Chemari's opinion of Brock Rider Armies has not been changed by our game :)
This ended Day one and we headed back to BeerBang for some liquid refreshment
Day Two dawned nice and Sunny and we made our way to the venue after a leisurely breakfast.
I was in Fourth place at that point and beginning to realise I wasn't doing my usual bottom table performances ! also today I was sober and this was to be my downfall lol.
My opponent in game 4 was Antonio Carrasco and his Ogre Army. The scenario was Control.
Antonio had a lot of long range shooting and some mean close combat options , I should have held back in cover and let him come to me , picking my fights with care and destroying his army piecemeal. However what I did do was push forwards to minimise shooting casualties which allowed his Siegebreakers and Hunters to dominate the combats while my units evaporated under withering crossbow/rifle/Lightening bolts.
The result was a well deserved 21-0 win for Antonio as he must have thought I was crazy.
so now magic Spanish tournament win for me ;)
Game 5 was Plunder and I was faced off against an enormous Goblin army , so many drops!
My opponent was Eythons and apparently he had won his last two Tournaments ! Gulp.
His Army was both fast moving and hard hitting as you can see below and I was struggling to work out what to do with it as it stretched across the whole deployment zone !
So the Brocks just decided to get stuck in , One thing that the Spanish players seem to forget is that Free Dwarf Brock riders can have Pathfinder as well as an artefact , a lot of them deployed in cover or moved into cover and then were shocked when a Regiment and a troop of Brocks thunders in and gleefully hammers their unit to dust "Hindered ! " they cry , "Free Dwarfs ! " I cry and nurture myself from their tears of frustration ;)
This game was no exception and the destruction of a Mincer mob in cover by the Brew of Strength Regiment which then over ran to safety , charged and killed a rock lobber the next turn for the free about face to threaten the rear of the Goblin Army. However Eythons managed to recover from this disaster to snatch a Draw from the jaws of Defeat although he had very little left on the table at the finish. 11-9 to the Brock Riders.
So Overall I came 16th out of 36 , better than I had hoped when we arrived and not as bad as my usual UK performances.
All that remained was to thank the Snake-Eyes club for the Tournament , the Kingdom Store in Madrid for Hosting , Nacho Abillo for generously accommodating us for the trip and to "Los Violentos de Nacho" for their welcome and Hospitality and to all my Spanish opponents for their patience with my appalling Espanol. Lo Siento Mis Amigos .
What a great read...