Adepticon 2018 : AoS GT and Team Doubles Events

The first game saw Mike and myself facing Adam G., who runs Imperium Games, and his friend Tony C..  They gifted us with some really nice custom Combat Gauges from Adam’s store which is always a nice surprise.  Mike and I were given the first turn and while we reached as far as we could Adam and Tony deployed far enough back to prevent any of my units getting stuck in immediately.  While I feel proud that Mike’s Skaven and my Khorne did well to keep the spells from the Lord of Change at bay Adam and Tony did not need to rely on magic to win the battle.  Some great movement plays from Tony’s Sylvaneth kept my Bloodletters out of the battle for too long.  At the end of Turn, four Mike and I knew the battle was lost.  Adam and Tony gave a great game and were very fun to play and chat with during our time at the table.  Mike and I took away a few lessons for our next opponents as well.

Game two put us on some lower tables were we met some players who, much like Mike and myself, were there for fun and rolling dice above all else.  Those players were Cody B. and Travis L. with their Kharadon Overlord and Fyreslayer army.  This scenario had each team bid a number of minutes in which to deploy to determine who would go first.  Mike and I practiced between rounds and we bid one minute to our opponents five.  They were wide-eyed as they saw our very low bid, but with the timer going Mike and I managed to deploy with two seconds and patted ourselves on the back.  Sadly this was the only victory we can claim from the game itself.  While it only took four three and a half turns for Mike and I to admit defeat, with almost no models left on the field, we got to hang out with these cool guys as they offered beer and friendship.  One thing I will remember from our game with Cody and Travis is their dice with mugs of ale on the six’s.  When a six was rolled we all took a drink and I was never happier to see an opponent roll so many six’s!  Gentlemen, DRINK!

The final game of the day allowed Mike and I one final attempt at redemption. We were lucky enough to play some great fellas who traveled from the UK to play.  Al M.(a fellow Moore!) and Darren J..  They had brought a wonderfully painted Stormcast army and much like our other opponents were ready to have a fun game.  The scenario had a bit of randomness to it as the objective would move around each turn so it was anyone’s game.  Early on Mike and I put ourselves into a nice advantage, but Al and Darren would not be denied and they fought to the bitter end to bring our game to a draw.  It was bloody, exciting, and a lot of fun.  We were all very excited to see that in case of a draw each team received a minor win so all of us walked away with one “win” under our belt to boot!

I had a great time playing with Mike and am happy to say he offered me the “right of first refusal” to be his partner next year as well.  It was a long and fun filled day and I was happy to have a partner such as Mike to hang out with as we battled our way through it all.  Be sure to find mike on Twitter at @exorre to check out his wonderfully painted Skaven as well!

Saturday rolled around and it was time for the big show.  The Age of Sigmar Gran Tournament.  Before I dive into my games I want to give a big thanks to Alex, his Wife Kari Ann, and all those who supported running and preparing for the event.  It was an amazing turnout and one of the best run events I have ever been to and the team that did deserve high praise for all their work so we can play some great games together.

The day started off on a high note as I arrived early and was randomly placed on Table two!  I joked that it is the highest table I will be at for the entire event and went to prepare myself for my first opponent.  I was running my Daughters of Khaine list and while it is not the exact list I wrote for my Warhammer Community Tactica articles it was very close, but due to time constraints I wasn’t able to finish my Khinerai in time so had to shuffle things around a bit.  The core of ninety Witch Aelves remained as did Morathi as my General.

My first opponent was a very polite and friendly gentleman by the name of Josh A..  Josh had brought a Stormcast force which included a Prime!  I was excited, and a bit scared, to see a great and underused model on the table.  Josh Null deployed his force giving me not much to do at the top of my turn as the objectives hadn’t dropped yet so I simply moved up a bit to get closer to the middle of the table and hoped to survive his alpha strike.  Josh brought the hammer and while he killed off a fair amount of my Witch Aelves as well as removing Morathi at the top of Turn two it simply wasn’t enough and being able to roll handfuls of dice was too much to bear.  My Kraith ability triggered a fair number of times this game as well and by the top of turn four I had secured all the objectives and removed his last Liberator giving me a Major Win.  Josh and I chatted through the first break and drank some coffee and I was glad to have so much time to chat with him.  He is a solid person that I hope to play again one day.

After a nice break, the pairings were posted and I jumped for joy as I saw I was headed for the great Table one!  It has always been on my Hobby Bucket list to grace the top table for a single round and due to my previous victory, I managed to do just that!  My Opponent was Cody B. who was there with his lovely wife and their child.  He had brought a Sylvaneth army and he was as excited as I was to be playing on the top table.  As I deployed I felt confident in Morathi’s ability to hold down an objective and I turned her into her Snake form right away, but it was really Cody’s scenario to lose and while I pushed him to make mistakes he played it perfectly and was able to take the victory.  While I did very well keeping him from summoning more Woods the one mistake I made was attacking his unit of Dryads with Mystic Shield and Throne of Vines on it.  I managed a large number of saves which he promptly made in order to have me nearly kill off an entire unit of Witches.  We had a good laugh at the sight of it all and despite the early set back the game remained close until turn four when he was able to kill off my remaining Heros and leave me with nothing left that could hope to take down his Treelord, but we both carried on and claimed some Secondary and Tertiary objectives with what we had left.  I suffered a Major loss but it was thrilling to play such a great person on the top table and make a new friend such as Cody.

While I expected to be knocked down in tables after my Major loss my third game saw me kicked very far down and with a long road ahead of me to fight back up I encountered Kyle K. and his Undead force lead by nonother than Nagash himself.  Morathi was Scared and I was Scared for her in the coming battle.  I was given the first turn and once again I turned Morathi immediately and threw her at forward and as many Witches as I could in hopes to remove Nagash as quickly as possible.  While I gave it everything I had it simply wasn’t enough and while I wreaked havoc on his Gravegaurd Nagash surviving kept Kyle going strong.  The magic phase was a tense, but thrilling time for both of us as we waited to see if he would successfully cast Hand of Dust on Morathi or not.  Do to some bad dice rolls and some great dispell dice from me I staved off the inevitable until turn four.  Neither one of us had enough left to claim a Major Victory and with him winning the roll for turn four it came down to his he could remove Morathi or if she would kill him in combat to decide who would take a Minor Victory as we would draw on the objective and look at total killed.  Nagash did it with style and Morathi was removed giving me a Minor Loss.  It was a tense and fun game and the story told on the table was one I will remember, but next time Morathi will not be denied!

Sunday arrived and we all shuffled into the hall for our last two games after a night of rabble-rousing.  After the usual few minutes extra wait for those who might have had too much fun the night before the drops sorted our pairings posted.  I looked for my place and was very excited to play a very good friend Neil L. who you might know from my blog as he runs the Rend 4 club in Ohio.  This was a great way to begin the day and I hoped to exact revenge against his Khorne from the stomping they gave my Morathi and my army in a practice game a few weeks prior.  However, he had Skarrbrand and while I feared I might lose Morathi quickly I was determined to put her to good use.  I had the first turn and Morathi transformed, Mindrazored herself, and took off toward his Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster.  Mortahi got to work and while I took his General down to almost nothing she failed to kill it.  Neil ran his General away, a fact that I will never let him live down, and quickly brought in Skarrbrand to do the dirty business of killing Morathi.  Morathi was removed, but the battle was far from over.  Neil made one error and moved off his objective in the first round and after realizing he wouldn’t score pulled a few back in hopes to kill me off and claim some of my objectives to make up for his deficit. Unfortunately for Neil, my Witch Aelves were inspired by Mroathi’s sacrifice to Khaine and proved that they can outfight Khorne any day and I began deleting his units over the next few rounds giving me a Major Win.  Playing Neil was great fun as he has become a very close friend since I met him last year at Adepticon and neither one of us pulled any punches in our brawl.  Next time we meet we have a rubber match to see whose army reigns supreme!

The final game of the event paired me against Jake L. and his Kharadon Overlords.  I had come to fear this matchup as it could quickly end a game with a few good rounds of shooting.  While Jake position, deployed and had fantastic target priority his dice let him down and while he killed a few key pieces he didn’t do enough to blunt my army and the battle got Bloody and quick.  It was back and forth with great saves and tight play from both of our armies, but the game ultimately came down to turn five priority roll.  If I won I would have claimed a Major Victory by capturing all four objectives, but if he won he would be able to draw on the objective and since he had killed more of my force by this time he would claim a Minor Win.  We rolled and Jake won the roll.  It was a Minor loss for me, but it capped off the event with a final and exceptional game with a truly great player and person.

At the end of it all I placed 67th of out 164 (total players after drops) and while it keeps me at the mid-table hero level I am happy to say I placed higher percentage-wise this year than last year.  I am also very happy with how my army performed.  The Witch Aelves are brutal in combat and Kraith really worked well for them and caused a good bit of fear for my opponents.  I plan to continue running a Witch Aelf Horde for quite some time with the only change is give command of my army to a Slaughter Queen as opposed to Morathi.  She is targeted to quickly and while I wanted her command ability to be a great force multiplier she was either dead or transformed before it became effective in combat.  The army is an absolute blast to play and I was happy to see other Daughters of Khaine out in force at the event.  I can imagine everyone will be seeing much more of them in the coming months!

I wanted to leave you all today with pictures of the top painted armies from the event.  The hobby was high for the majority of the armies, but these were the cream of the crop and truly inspiring to continue to improve my own hobby in the future.  I am looking at you Idoneth Deepkin!

Another great Adepticon full of gaming, friends, and fantastic opponents is wrapped up and I cannot wait until next year for even more fun.  I hope you enjoyed my coverage and be sure to check back next week as Paul recaps his Age of Sigmar Narrative event, The Gibbering Dome.  Until next week, Happy Hobbying!

Chuck Moore