Abyssals at Bristol BIG Tournament

September 7th saw a 1995 point KoW tournament at BIG in Bristol. The Moonrakers were there in force, even the Fox had been tempted out of retirement for some casual gaming. An early start saw us arrive at the venue early which meant there was time for breakfast at a local hostelry where the Fox took the opportunity to eye up models for a potential 3rd Edition army.

I had decided to take my Abyssals for a pre-COK run out.

In Game 1, I faced Alun’s Dwarfs in a Ransack scenario. In the picture, the blue token is worth 3 points, red tokens 2 points and green tokens one point each.

Alun deployed with Earth Elementals and Organ Guns on my right, lots of Dwarfs on my left and Brocks towards the centre.

I played a strongly refused left flank aiming to deal with the Elementals, Brocks and Guns, secure the left and then swing in towards the centre.

The plan worked, sort of. I got somewhat bogged down and at the end of Turn 6, I was slightly ahead, but only just. And then a massive Turn 7 in my favour saw me take out quite a lot of Dwarfs for a more-convincing appearing win than it really was.

For Game 2, I faced Dan with a Brotherhood army containing 2 hordes of Knights, 2 Beasts, 2 Exemplar Forsakers, a horde of Villein Plowshares, a regiment of Abyssal Hunt. I have never rated hordes of Knights – and then I saw 2 of them across the battlefield and rapidly reviewed my opinion, they looked pretty scary. We were to battle over a Loot scenario with one token in the middle and one about midway between the centre and the table edge on both sides. Dan deployed the bulk of his army on my left with an Exemplar Forsaker on the left but with the Abyssal Hunt flank and second Forsaker Exemplar on my right flank, contesting the Loot token on that side of the board. I deployed pretty centrally with Basusu on my left to protect that flank and Gargoyles, Hellequinns, Twisted Victims and mounted Abyssals Champion facing off on the right.

On the left, Basusu got stuck into her Forsaker and killed it after 3 rounds of combat, swinging in behind the enemy army. On the right, things did not go my way so well. I got the Hellequinns into the Abyssal Hunt but failed, by one, to break them on the charge. This allowed Dan to counter-charge with the Hunt and his Forsaker. We eventually traded cavalry regiments but I was forced to bring back the Twisted Victims, who had pressing business in the centre, to help finish off the Forsaker. In the centre, Dan played his Beasts very well, tying my big hitters into a grind against their ensnare. I eventually got through them and managed to down one horde of knights. But this left a horde of my Despoilers holding the central token in difficult terrain, and facing down a fresh horde of Knights. The Knights charged in and just failed to kill the Despoilers, phew. I now had a flank with my other horde of Despoilers and managed to destroy those Knights too while Basusu guarded the left hand token from the Plowshares and my Twisted Victims got onto the right hand token. Despite the closeness of the game, my final lucky moves gave me another big win.

And then Moonraker Andy hove into view for Game 3 with his Undead featuring Ilona’s Coven, Vampire on Dragon, two troops of Wraiths, horde of Zombies, some chaff and an allied horde of Twiglet Chariots. The scenario was Dominate on a board with a fair amount of blocking terrain around the centre., Andy won the roll for table edges, and promptly chose the side I wanted.

This was a bloody battle in which I made several mistakes. I could gain a draw on the last turn by holding up one of Andy’s regiments with Basusu and killing the wounded Zombies with a hail-Mary charge from the Twisted Victims and mounted character. And it worked, I pulled off an unlikely draw. And then we rolled for Turn 7, and Andy swept my army into the bin.

Despite this loss, I was still in second place going into the final game. And so. I had to face Andy again, this time in Kill. I had a cracking plan and was well on top, in my mind at least. But Andy’s things would not die while mine seemed to give up the ghost too easily.

At the end of the game,there was not much left. Andy’s Deagon was wavered, but I couldn’t kill it and I failed to finish off the injured troop of Ghouls.

Andy ended up winning by 200 kill points, exactly what he needed to claim the victory.

In the final reckoning, Andy won the tournament by a big margin. I slipped to 5th place and was leapfrogged by the Fox who finished 4th. Andy also took the best army award. So I’m banished to the naughty step as the least valuable Moonraker yet again. Maybe next time …

Thanks to Rich for TOing (and remaining upright) and to all my opponents.

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Nice write up. It always twists the knife on me when I feel like my units are evaporating and my opponent’s forces are just calmly absorbing all the damage I’m doing.

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