Pre-tournament stuff:

There was a 2 week deadline and I registered very last minute after coming back from the tournament in Nottingham.

This was a very successfull first (with hopefully many more to come) chapter of Fall to Darkness Tournament, fantastically organised by Jody Beford. Thank you for the fantastic work, Jody! Tournament had 22 players competing, and you can watch list review on The Rust Hammer youtube if you are interested in details. Thank you to those folks as well as they did the pre-game legwork for me, saving a lot of time and clicks / taps researching opponents armies.

On the day, I had to wake up early on Saturday (and even earlier on Sunday) to get to Hockley for 9:15. Luckily, the venue is just 5 mins away from the station and after 15mins in the cab, 45mins on the train and a short walk I was there five or ten past nine. I’ve been to Wayland games for a 3 games tournament before and the venue is good: just enough space on the side of the tables, good table height, storage underneath the tables and chairs available, plus a bar serving food and beer throughout - not much more to ask for.

My army

I didn’t have any time at all to tweak the list between coming back from previous tournament and submitting this one, so my list remained unchanged:

- **Army Faction:** Blades of Khorne
  - **Subfaction:** Reapers of Vengeance
  - **Grand Strategy:** Slaughter of Sorcery

**LEADERS**
- Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (330)
  - Nullstone Adornments: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon
- Skarbrand (380)
- Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster (300)*
  - General
  - Command Traits: Firebrand
  - Prayers: Bloodbind, Killer Instinct
  - Artifacts: Halo of Blood
- Bloodmaster (110)*
  - Prayers: Blood Sacrifice, Bronzed Flesh
- Slaughterpriest (110)*
  - Bloodbathed Axe
  - Prayers: Bronzed Flesh, Killer Instinct
- Valkia the Bloody (140)**

**BATTLELINE**
- Blood Warriors (190)
- Bloodreavers (80)*
- Flesh Hounds (100)**

**OTHER**
- Bloodcrushers (180)**
- Furies (80)**

**TERRAIN**
- 1 x Skull Altar (0)

**CORE BATTALIONS**
- *Warlord
- **Vanguard**

**TOTAL POINTS:** 2000/2000

Fall To Darkness: Chapter One

Day 1

Game 1

Win 15-13 vs Dan’s Kruleboyz (Grinning Blades) @ Lines of Communication (2 * double boltboys, 2 * gutrippaz, 2 * hobgrot slittaz, 2 * swampcalla shaman, snatchaboss, 2 * killaboss, Gobsprak, Spider Riders)

Somehow I was tasked with facing Orruks in my first game again, but I knew this one will be more difficult than 2 weeks ago. This was the first time playing against Kruleboyz - I was aware they are getting more popular but had no idea how they worked. Dan kindly explained what surmounted to: there will be tons of Mortal Wounds on 5s and 6s and he doesn’t care much about regular hits. I’ve thrown Valkia straight into their backlines, but failed to reach shaman and had to settle for clearing 3 boltboyz. Despite ward save, Valkia capitulated quickly to combination of unleash hell and surrounding units. The rest of my army approached somehow carefully (trying to avoid 12’’ range from Boltboyz), which was a mistake as I failed some early charges and got my thirsters sitting right in the middle of the battlefield. Over his turns, Dan focused on hitting my thirsters and I was terrified to see all of them going down by the end of 2nd round. What remained of my army managed to make a solid progress though, and I’ve succeeded clearing out a large chunk of Kruleboyz castle. Tons of Bloodtithe points generated allowed me to summon a unit of letters to finish the job, while furies were doing their best to block wondering units of Gutrippaz and Killaboss. With one round to go and time running out, and a small advantage on points, we talked out the rest and priority roll plus possibility of another Bloodletter summon on the back weighted on my advantage, leading to a 15:13 victory. Phew, that was a really close one and I seriously thought I will lose it badly after 2nd round. In retrospect, I should have probably left Valkia without charging and murderlust her next turn, while being much more aggressive with Thirsters and hit their frontlines with Thirsters in 1st turn.

I think this Kruleboyz list is a very solid build, and this was proven by Dan finishing the event 3:2 (Not to mention a 7-1 Kruleboyz finish at Nova which was happening over the same weekend).

Game 2

Win 26-14 Vs Owen Summerscales Lumineth Ymetrica @ Spring the Trap (Teclis, Stonemage, Windmage, Double Stoneguard, Vanari Wardens, Vanari Dawnriders, Spirit of the Mountain)

Continuing the team of facing armies I’ve never played against before, I found myself against Owen’s elves. He set up a strong front-line of Stoneguard, Spirit of the Mountain and Stonemage just behind, while hiding Teclis and Windmage at the back and cavarly on the flank. I’ve set up for surround and destroy tactic, and left Skarbrand in deep-strike, while I was wondering how am I going to get through 3+ save without rend. I’ve started with bloodbinding Stoneguard and disposed of most of the unit, but expecting the fight to take a bit longer when Spirit will join. My unbinds weren’t much of use against Teclis, and without BT point I couldn’t auto unbind Ward aura spell - this meant the fight can take a while there. At the same time, dogs were figting it out and distracting dawnriders on the flank.2nd turn I had to make some space with Bloodbind for Skarbrand to drop, but the angry boy somehow failed to clear Teclis, and I think died to him on the next turn. I reliably scored my battle tactics and objectives on all 4 turns, and managed to eventually clear majority of Owen’s army, and after talking out 5th round the game finished 26-14 in my favor. While the result was good, Ymetrica units are a bit hard to shift off the table and in retrospect I would probably approach the game differently and sent Thirsters after wizards, while letting my battleline and Skarbrand fight it out versus Spirit in the middle.

Game 3

Win 28 - 11 vs David’s Gloomspite Gitz Badsnatchers @ Icefields (Madcap Shaman, Fungoid Shaman, Skragrott, Forta-kicka Giant, Loonboss, 2 * reinforced Boingrot Bounders, reinforced Stabbas, Gobbapalooza)

I had an excellent time playing against David’s army 2 weeks earlier in Nottingham and was looking forward to seeing him at his local tourenament. What I have not expected is to face him in 3rd game of day one, exactly the same as two weeks ago - what are the chances? David’s list was different this time, but he was familiar with my list and we managed to start early skipping most of army talk-through. David decided to go first as he saw the opening for his bounders and preferred to avoid my army’s initial strike. Bounders hopped all the way across and easily removed my Reavers, but I managed to pull Skarbrand few inches back on redeploy, enough to not engage with bounders this turn. The rest of his army set up a bit closer in, with a huge weirdly shaped blob of stabbas taking what seemed like quarter of the battlefield in the middle. On my turn, I’ve managed to get rid of remaining bounders and moved forward hoping for double. When this happened, I’ve moved forward and cleared majority of stabbas, while distracting Giant with Bloodcrushers and getting some damage on charge. Valkia appeared at the back and killed one of their heroes, and that allowed me to have enough Blood Tithe points to trigger Skarbrand fight in David’s hero phase and eventually remove Giant from the battlefield. On the other side, dogs and furies were nuisannce enough to prevent second unit of Bounders joining on the fight. In third round, enough of Davids army was cleared for me to be able to reach their heroes back-line, and the outcome of the battle became clear. It is also the first time I’ve managed to get all points from the game, it does feel good to achieve that.

Day 2

Coming back home on the train I have realised that I was 2nd in the table so far, which meant only one thing: I am facing Matt’s (who I thought would be definitely bookies favorite to win the tournament) army next morning. As a result of trains running slower on Sunday I decided to go for even earlier one leaving 7:45 from Liverpool street station. On arrival I was delighted to see Matt getting off the same train, as that meant we could chat on the way to the venue and had some extra time to talk about the armies.

Game 4

Loss 11 - 17 vs Matt’s Soulblight Gravelord Legion of Night @ Power Flux (Nagash, Vampire Lord General with Morbheg Claw and Unbending Will, Necromancer with Hoarfrost, Mannfred, 2 * Bats, Reinforced Skeletons)

In any other encounter I would feel confident facing SbGl army and I had plenty of experience playing against them. This time however, I was facing one of the best players in the country, on a battleplan that wasn’t great for me, and in the morning game (I am more of a night owl type of person, and not really at my best in the mornings). So I rightly predicted that this will be a challenge.

Predictably, Matt let me start 1st and I opened with Killer Instict / Bloodbind move to try and get rid of Skeletons immediately.

Photo no 1: Round 1 Turn 1, Just before I failed to clear Skeletons

However, due to smart model removal they were straight back into the 5+ ward after shooting and most of them returned before I reached them in combat. As I failed to clear them entirely with some failing charges, they returned back again next turn and therefore we were back at square one. Then Mannfred charged one of the Thirsters, but failed on killing him and died in 2nd Round. Skarbrand approached enemy lines and I tried to clear as many of them as possible with other units to then allow Skarbrand to reach Nagash (who was within 5’’) on his activation. Unfortunately, Skeletons survived again with just few models blocking Skarbrand. Skarbrand eventually removed Skeletons, but it was too late and he died to focused spells next turn despite some good rolls on Hatred of Sorcery. Nagash moved to engage thirsters (my general getting hit with strike-last spell was of critical importance here) and killed one of them, while - due to the ward again - had 6 wounds remaining himself, which meant I couldn’t get through enough damage. On the other side, Valkia and Bloodcrushers approached returned skeletons, other bats and foot heroes, but they failed to make desired impact. There was so much happening in early rounds that we had to talk put the remaining two. The key here was Teleporting Vampire meant Matt could score his tactic easily while avoiding my units and denying mine, and this 6 point difference was reflected in the final score of 17-11 in favor of Matt. Well played and well done.

I had some good learnings from this game, notably that Ar’gath artifact would be an absolute game changer versus wards, and that was equally true in the only game I lost at a previous tournament. So this change is coming. I’ve made some small mistakes like forgetting to hit with a unit of dogs, and then at the very end an absolutely terrible decision to auto unbind 1 dmg across the board spell (in order to save my thirster, who later died to Arcane Bolt), depriving myself of some Bloodtithe that could have been super useful later in the game (if we had time to play it out, which we didn’t anyway). Even then, it felt that this game could have gone either way, so I am happy of my army performance here.

Game 5

Win 25-15 vs Callum’s Sylvaneth Havestboon @ No Reward Without Risk (Warsong Revenant, Knight-Incantor, Treelord Ancient, reinforced Revenant Seekers, 2 * Tree Revenant, Treelord, Gossamid Archers)

While I’ve played versus Sylvaneth before, I never faced Revenant Seekers but heard of their legendary prowess in combat. On the battleplan where we could deploy straight into combat I focused on the front-line but I’ve made a mistake in deployment, leaving a gap at the back just big enough for Treelord Ancient to auto-summon Wyldwood and teleport Seekers there on the first turn.

Photo no 3: Round 1 Turn 1, with Revenants sneaking in on my army’s backlines in the far corner

As a result, I was facing loosing at least one thirster this way in a moment. Then, in the strangest string of bad (for Callum) and good (for me) dice rolls, seekers missed a 6’’ charge with a reroll, and on my turn I had to take the opportunity and pull back my thirsters to engage them. I failed some charges too, but Skarbrand rolled a 6 on his Slaughter attack, leaving only 1 wound of revenants on the table. That unit managed to escape back to the other side of the table through strike and fade, but those rolls might still have tipped the scales to my advantage. Not waiting for the thirsters, my front-line moved full ahead to close in on Archers and Revenants on the side while blocking the overgrown terrain, while Valkia and crushers were sitting in the middle preparing for upcoming charges. On Callums turn, Valkia was facing the wrath of Treelord Ancient but one point of damage meant that she survived and another battle tactic failed. At this point, outcome of the game was clear, and while it might have been tricky for me to catch and kill the Warsong Revenant for my tactic, I was comfortable talking it out to a 25-15 final score.

An obvious learning here is to make sure not to leave space at the back if enemy unit can teleport there, and make sure I understand how all enemy units work (for some reason I missed the fact that Revenants can leave combat on their pre-game move) and how teleport can happen (auto-cast to summon trees and then teleport to there in movement phase with those revenants).

Tournament results

Matt took the 1st with a well deserved 5-0, while second went to Laurie with an interesting Tzeentch build that included Kairos, Reinforced Ogroid Theridons and Reinforced Blissbarb Archers. I ended up 3rd and won a bronze trophy, while Adam’s Graveguard-heavy Soulblight Gravelords took 4th for the remaining 4-1 finish. It was a really great job on the tournament hosting, trophies and prizes from our TO Jody - thank you!.

Learnings

Again, I am quite happy with my army performance and most of the plays I have made. There are definitely some changes coming to the list, Ar’gath will make a comeback so I don’t have to struggle versus ward saves, and - similarly to 2 weeks ago - I am still in 2 minds about Valkia. While she has performed really well in 2 games, she still feels a bit of an off-by-one unit, one more attack, or save or charge would turn ok into great, but it isn’t happening so far. She might be off, which will possibly open up points for Skullcrushers instead of Bloodcrushers too.

On a nearly game unrelated note, I think it would help if I got used to early starts, when I have to get up before 7 after less than 6 hours of sleep for 2 days in a row and travel for 9am start, my performance is not optimal. A local or stay-overnight tournaments will probably work better for me going forward.

Also, I did not take the photos again, but there are some amazing photos taken by Jody on Fall to Darkness twitter account. Also make sure to follow and keep an eye on next edition, I’m confident chapter 2 will be sold out based what we’ve seen over this past weekend.