The Wulfen at the Wars of the Roses
The Chronicles of the Wulfen Warriors have previously mentioned that the Tribe was journeying South raid the soft lands to be found there, promises of Loot, Glory, more loot and Pillage with a healthy dose of Violence had enticed the Wulfen to take the long and arduous trip.
Despite several detours on their way to the lush farmlands from the frigid North the Varangur made good time and reached their campsite, with the help of a local guide, in plenty of time to rest up.
The next morning, after a short march to the Fields of Battle and a lovely breakfast of Sausage Butties provided by the hosts, the Wulfen deployed ready to meet their first challenge, the Twilight Kin army of Mike, despite Mikes position in the Top three players in the Country, the Varangur were confident and completely ignorant of exactly what a well led Twilight Kin army could do. The Scenario facing the Wulfen was the Stockpile scenario and despite a precipitous advance the Varangur never really got close to the Token piles. The wily Twilight Kin used their Nightstalker slaves to good effect, stalling any probes from the Varangur , pinning units in place that were then squished by the Impalas and Skiff dudes while the Mutants just wandered around eating Barbarians.The Wulfen learned some hefty lessons about Twilight Kin that games at the club had not prepared them for !
Chalk up a big Win for Mike and a good squishing for the Wulfen.
Lunch was served in the form of Butties, crisps, snacks and cakes and then on to Game 2.
ME , Gormless in my attempts to attract Peters Attention for a Picture
The Wulfen were facing down the Elves of Peter in the Control Scenario,I have faced Peters Elves before but then I was in the Guise of Sveri Egilax and Peter had a slighty different army composition, also the table layout was very interesting in that we had two enormous pyramids on the centre line of the table with walls pointing inwards, so in effect the table was divided into three sections.
The Wulfen deployed mostly in the centre and the elves on their right flank and centre. This left my Draugr on the far right to trundle slowly up and score a board section and one of the Tournament specific rose tokens. (there were three on each table, two white on the flanks, one red in the centre, the white were worth 1 point and the red worth 2 points otherwise they functioned as loot counters)
After a big scrum in the centre and a sharp fight on the left the sneaky elves managed to gain control of two board sections and the Wulfen also had two, resulting in a Draw! Things were looking up for the Varangur or so it seemed.
bb Not Giving a Toss whether Julian looks up but have attracted the attention of a rapidly moving Steve instead
Onwards and upwards to the next game. While the BeerTroll was playing his first two Games the Trollette had lost her first game and drawn her second against Peters Teammate Julian, this state of affairs led to Troll and Trollette swapping opponents and the Wulfen were now to face the Forces of the Abyss of Julian, another opponent I have faced with Free Dwarfs. The scenario was pillage and with cries of Hatred for the Abyss the Varangur hurled themselves into the fight. Casualties were high on both sides and at the end of Turn 6 the Varangur were holding on to 4 tokens by the skin of their teeth, however a seventh turn was rolled and this changed the result from 4-3 to 0-4 as an efreet gunned down a Night Raiders regiment and Molochs trashed a Mounted Sons Regiment to leave their objectives unclaimed. The Skalds of the Wulfen will remember this defeat and keep it fresh in the tribes remembrance.
So ended the first day of Battle, both the Troll and Trollette had two losses and a draw which made the draw for Game 4 inevitable.
Great Cthulhu overseeing the destruction of the Wulfen Army
Day two dawned to see the Wulfen Tribe march forth to take their place opposite the Salamander of Trollette. The scenario was invade and Invaded we were! It started well, with the Wulfen getting into some tasty positions and then, Disaster, completely forgetting that the Greater Fire elemental had an aura of Wild Charge for Salamanders meant that my carefully measured batleline was assaulted by two regiments of primes and flanked by a horde of Rhinosaurs that were able to exploit a thrice waivered Snow Fox regiment, the rapid destruction of a Chimera lord by Scorchwings was unexpected and then the Fire Elementals came….. rapidly they chewed through my poor tribesmen and the Phoenix gunning down my last Chimera Lord signalled the end as the Rhinosaurs trampled Magnilde to death made sure I had no models left. Tabled by my own Teammate ! Oh the Shame.
ME, completely oblivious to the World of Hurt Trollette is about to unleash on my Army
On to a lunch of Hot Sausage roll, delicious, and more butties and Cake !
Speaking of Shame, my last game was against Alan Goodenough, the inspiration for the last place prize the “almost Goodenough” award. He is the Current holder of the “Cone of Shame” what I can only describe as a decorated lampshade that you have to wear if you are beaten by the current holder! A strong incentive not to lose.
Alan Lining up his Dwarfs
Alan was using Dwarfs and luckily for me his army relied on shooting quite a bit, which as most of my Varangur is Stealthy was to my advantage, I was able to waiver his Ironwatch several times and a combination of Icy Breath, Night Raiders bows and the (very) occasional hit from a Magus Conclave succeeded in thinning the ranks of the Shieldbreakers and Ironguard, The Ironguard regiments were then finished by sneaky flank charges from Chimera lords. The result was a convincing win for the Wulfen, their one and only victory of the weekend and the Cone of Shame was back on its way down to Pompey!
The Wars of the Roses Tournament was an overall very well run, excellently presented and really fun tournament, From the information Todd gave out and the fact that we all knew what were were supposed to be doing at all times it was a very slick operation. The Table layouts were provided on maps, each table had height information on them. The Rose Tokens were a unique touch for the Tournament and added an extra bit of devilry to the games. It was a big Tournament with a lot of the best Players in the Country there, but also a lot of the local Club players were there and everybody had fun while they played in a cheerful and relaxed atmosphere.
The Terrain was equally placed on the tables and Todd had prepared maps for each of the scenarios, each map was symmetrical which negates the roll for table sides as it doesn’t matter and some of the impassable terrain was very large indeed, but in the end it made little or no difference to the game and was visually very nice indeed, I especially loved playing on the Dwarven Mine table and Todd even matched my basing for the first game by putting me on a Snow Table lol.
The venue was clean and airy and we were even treated (if that is the words I should use) to a visit from a rather crumpled former Prime Minister, Boris himself who came to use the village shop while we were having a tea break outside the hall ! Natural English reservedness resulted in our just making a few muttered comments and gesturing at his retreating back as I think we were all too stunned to do otherwise.
The Food was excellent (a Big Shout out to the Local Club Guys that cooked and served) and the goody bag was very handy as it had Glue and a paint brush in it that I can use later. Although it is a nearly 4 hour Drive from the Frozen North I think the Wulfen may be back to chance their arm next Year, hopefully by Longship this time.
I have already realised that running Two Chimera Lords is too finesse for me as I am a Lowly Troll and the idea of having two was the fact that I have not painted up a lot of my Varangur models. The Night Raiders will stay as I love how versatile they can be and I may also experiment with them as troops rather than regiments. I have finished painting my Tundra Wolf regiment and so that will go towards replacing the 2nd Chimera Lord in my next Tournament. I have located some nice 3D printed models for the Night Raiders and so just need to repair the Stepper Motor on my Photon Mono 2 to replace the borrowed Night Raiders. The Sons of Korgaan are still my favourite models and I will be finishing off the second Regiment before my next event. I will also experiment with Snow Troll Primes as opposed to Thegns on Frostfang as I have had some discussions with Northern Alliance players that say they are better value, we shall see. The Blue and White Wulfens will be the army of choice for the coming season I think as they have languished for almost 30 Years un loved and they need a bit of PrimeTime.
Their next event is a one day Tournament in Sheffield, The TT Tournament 5, “Grabbed by the Ghoulies” and the Wulfen List has been tweaked slightly based on extra painting but not on Lessons learned this weekend as the Lists had to be in before I went to War of the Roses, so the TT event will be another Learning curve for the BeerTroll and I will do another After Action Report, Tournament Report and Army Progress Blog after I have been to the event.
All that has changed from the WoTR list for the TT List is that I have replaced a Chimera Lord with a Regiment of Tundra Wolves and a Snow Troll Prime with the Staying stone ( this may change to blade of slashing for future) but After the TT Tournament there will be an in depth assessment of the Performance, especially as I am starting to work out how things should be used and what they do best. Now if I could only get my dice to roll higher ………..
Some of the Nice Armies at War of the Roses
Troop type analysis
The Draugr, died in every game bar one, left unmolested they wandered up the table and scored a board section and token. They are a cheap unlock and one regiment is useful to sit on a backline token or to sacrifice itself to save a higher points cost unit. One Regiment is the minimum and I will look at doubling this or adding a horde after more practise and once the Chimeras have gone.
The Night Raiders, the Vicious and Scout is nice to have but really I rarely scouted them due to the opposition I faces and the Vicious helped once in 6 games. 12 shots from a regiment is good but 10 from a troop may be more cost effective. 3 Regiments cost me 465 points and 4 troops costs 420 so 4 extra shots for 45 points less. May model the units on troop bases so can be used as either or. The Pathfinder and Stealthy mean they can lurk in cover shooting and pop out to do some damage at the last. Useful chaff and irritation units.
Tundra Wolves, not used yet as Regiment only just painted but may split into two troops at a later date depending on performance Speed 9 TC1 and Pathfinder looks good on paper, but we shall see.
Sons of Korgaan, Stealthy CS1 TC1 3+ Knights that hit like a train? What’s not to like, just disappointing I only have the models for two regiments lol, will experiment with other items and support as at the moment they have Jesses Boots and Blessing of the Gods and seem to be doing ok.
Snow Foxes, despite being Stealthy they spent a lot of time waivered in front of stuff, causing roadblocks and costing charges, maybe replaced by Tundra Wolves after practise or may even be increased, such is the Fickle nature of the BeerTroll.
Magus Conclave, I love the model I have made for this, but that may not be enough to keep it in the Army at the moment. I t rarely hits, can’t hold objectives and costs 110 points, even with Stealthy it dies quickly and hasn’t made its points back in any games I have played so far, one more Tournament and I think the Conclave will be consigned to the “Looks Pretty “Shelf at home.
Thegns on Frostfang, these are little work horses , let down only by their low nerve. The height 4 Nimble, Strider and CS2 is amazing and one of these habitually carries a Tricksters wand for me. Although they do get waivered easily and are very susceptable to plink damage from lightning bolts and such, staying in for the moment but I am trialling Snow Troll Primes to see if they are as good as people tell me they are.
Chimera Lords, awesomely powerful but not indestructible they are usually the focus of a lot of hurt being directed at them and they do Waiver. 320 points each is steep and they need to be out their Icy breathing and flanking units early on to be cost effective. They rarely do as much damage as they should and take far too much brain power to run for a simple Troll. As more painted units come on line and more Games are had these will be phased out for normal Tournament battle lists.
Magnilde of the Fallen, usually my MVP in a game, darting here and there , lending her 7 attacks with elite and CS2 hitting on a 3+ to combats, I am seriously considering teaming her up with a Cursed Son with Wings of Honeymaze and a Magus with Host Shadowbeast for a naughty stuff crushing Combo. Will give me a chance to use another of my amazing Barbarian Models!
There are a myriad of other possibilities as well , I have a Huscarl Regiment made up of some tasty Old Skool Models as well and an all infantry Varangur Army is intriguing to say the least, Having used a Cavern Dweller and Human Clansmen in Northern Alliance I am tempted to include some regiments or maybe even a horde of those, although that will change the current style of the List from an Alpha Strike list to a Grind list. We shall see how the Army evolves over the next Season or so. A Suitable model for a Cavern Dweller will have to be 3D printed as all the Mantic ones belong to Trollette.
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