Fiends Vs Gitz: A Steel City Showdown

Grudge Match: Khorne on the Gob 

Both me and Tom have been experimenting with different warbands recently. Me because I’m trying the challenge of winning a trophy with all the different warbands and Tom because … he needs to win some trophies. I’d settled on what I describe as a Midrange Fiends deck, if you are interested in the process I went through in making it then a pop a look at this article. Another great player by the name of Bryce managed to pilot the deck to a tournament win as well, so it seems fairly solid and maybe worth a punt if your looking for something to try at a local tournament.

We thought it would make a fun article if we wrote out a battle report of a cheeky best of one between both warbands.  The plan is to go into details of the decisions that we make at ‘high level’ play in an effort to help newer players understand some of the nuances between different decisions. Of course you’ll also get some comments from Tom, good luck trying to glean something useful from them.

To make it easier to understand whether it is me or Tom writing at any point in the article, we have made all my text blue and Tom’s black.

Hey everyone! So I’m still trying to master the Grotz. Today I finished counting the number of models I have so I think I’m making progress. I am also changing my deck less and less and so feel ready to talk about it in more detail. Taking all this into account, I thought agreeing to go into detail about a game against Mike was a surefire way to boost my ego and the communities opinion of me. My other articles can be found here and here.

I’ll talk through my current deck-list, mention how I approach the start of each turn, and then attempt to justify a torrent of poor decision making and shoddy deck building to you as I detail my descent into madness throughout the course of the game. Trust me, there’s some real twilight zone shit coming your way. I never promised to provide an example of high level play.

Note: Fair warning guys, this is a long article! If it were me I’d read it though.

Fiendish Plans

I may have lost twice to Tom’s gitz at the Forge in Manchester but all of the games were exceptionally close and I had made some small tweaks to my deck since then. For a refresher this is the list I would be piloting:

Against Tom’s gitz I know that it is essential to get off to a strong start (preferably by scoring the card on turn 1) as like any good objective deck it can pile on glory from out of nowhere at the end of turn 3 and unless you have established your lead you will see them pip you to the post. Outside of that I was terrified of the fanatic, this model can practically one shot any of my 4 fighters and if he scores obliterated with it then all my plans go out the window as the goblins inspire and suddenly my start not only doesn’t look strong but has a similar consistency to some cheap jelly.

So my general game plan was to make sure at least 2 of my fighters made attacks starting in turn 1, depending on the cards drawn i could spend a couple of actions building up a combo. While i want to get early kills its also desperately important to keep gobbos off of objectives, if i just charges right in i would lose my ability to contest them and get drowned out in glory. I was also hoping that I lost the board roll off, if I got to place 3 objective tokens then i could play a more defensive game and force Tom to come to me, if he has 3 objectives then I’m the one charging in, and there might be a fanatic shaped surprise waiting to hit back.

Zarbag til’ I Die

Which coincidentally I normally do. Despite my best efforts, there’s no way I’m going to be able to dodge the Blood Warriors all game long with 9 squishy toadstools fermenting on my end of the board. So I decided to build my deck accordingly.

My more recent additions of Miraculous Escape and Last Chance were included to help me score glory whilst focusing on my own game. Rather than have to spend turns cashing in Change of Tactics, Mike would help by scoring Miraculous Escape and Martyred for me. I could then cash in these objectives towards Superior Tactician, whilst I spent my activations working towards my 2 pointer objectives, and positioning for my Keys later on.

Contrary to popular (Mike’s) belief, I wanted to win the board roll off so I could long board Mike. I had Hidden Paths and Faneway Crystal to make it past his fighters, and I wanted to limit how many Blood warriors could get to me at once. It would give me time to land my magical ping damage and draw through my cards. Having a narrow board also makes it much easier to stick a Fanatic in the middle of it. Naturally the game started with us both unhappy…

Deployment

Tom ‘won’ the board roll off. Meaning he technically lost it but that was the best result for him (no Mike I wanted a long board!). Note – while picking boards Tom was heard to shout out loud ‘I don’t know what to do!’, a sign of weakness or just mind games from the Doctor? (Always a sign of weakness)

I like to spend 5-10 minutes agonising over board choice before whipping out the same board I use in this situation every time. For those interested I employ a similar technique when ordering takeaway.

I use this board because I like blocked hexes. It makes it easier to protect my important models and hide out of the way of ranged attacks. This board can also score Extreme Flank from the off, which is a nice bonus. The disadvantage with this board is only two of my Grotz start adjacent to each-other, making it more difficult to activate multiple scurries in the first turn. I awaited Mike’s board choice with eager anticipation, and began to eye up the correct position for the sacrificial Dibbz. (He went top right)

I knew I would have to take the fight to the off-colour Oompa Loompas and so deployed the boards short, planning to deploy in the style of Board 1 from my previous article. I also placed my objectives tokens as far back as possible, making it harder for Tom to nab one with a free scurry.

Upon drawing my starting hands I had the strange satisfaction of knowing they were both garbage and choose instantly to do over both of them:

4 upgrade hands are rubbish – so is only one objective that you can reliably score.

I kind of love ditching hands like these, it means that I have good odds that my next hands will be pack full of ploys that I can play straight away and my objectives are odds on to be some easy to score stuff. I always see it as a mild sign of a bad player when they get stressed that they have had to do over their 4 upgrade hand, its like do you not trust the gambit cards in your deck?

Oh my. This is the stuff. I had combo’s galore in this opening hand along with 3 trivial to score objectives, one of which was a score immediately. Looking at this I could make 3 separate attacks from one charge and if i was lucky take out a whole third of Tom’s warband. 

My initial draw was an agonising one. My objectives were sound, however my power cards didn’t match well with them! I had no positional ploys for Our Only Way Out, and I had no way to get the Fanatic close to the enemy without relying on good dice. Fortunately no cards are needed for Zarbags Gitz to be in an excellent position to score Martyred. 

That shadow was handy! (I took better pictures after this one)

Whilst I was loathe to lose Distraction and both my generic +1 damage cards, I binned my power cards. 

My gamble was rewarded! Hidden Paths and Encroaching Shadow help to perfectly set up Snirk to score Obliterate. Centre of Attention will help drag enemies back toward Snirk if they try to be tricky, or it can be engineered to pull me out of danger. It’s worth noting Centre of Attention has taken the place of Sidestep in my deck for now, as it is more versatile. It is however much more difficult to use, and I may end up reverting this switch if I find Centre of Attention to be to situational. I have also considered Irresistible Prize, however I want this card slot to have some potential to aid my Fanatic. The Hallowed Key was a slightly unfortunate draw as objective 1 was on Mikes board, however I had Faneway Crystal to help me get over there.

Time for deployment!

I set my models up in a standard formation, planning on going in on turn 1 with Riptooth and combo’ing as best as I could and then assessing the situation from there. I know i said earlier that my general plan was to wait until towards the end of turn 1 to strike, but this hand almost plays itself, I really wanted to get some kills in with it.

Once again I employed the tried and tested takeaway technique, this time with deployment. Drizgit always goes at the front, attempting to look more tasty than the squigs in the hope Mike will throw caution to the wind and inspire my squigs for me. Zarbag sits well away from the edge of the board because Hidden Paths is a thing. Snirk sits on the edge of the board because Hidden Paths is a thing. I then make sure Dibbz is the most likely to die of my basic gobbos as this is the way things must be. Prog is in the middle, and the other two archers fill up the back. My first move if I won the roll would be to move Drizgit and the Leg-mouths to protect Zarbag. Dibbz could then score me Martyred, and I could focus my turn on scoring Our Only Way out. This would be after Snirk had had some fun of course.

Note: I have noticed going back through the pictures that Stikkit was actually positioned in the natural Dibbz position. Despite this flagrant insult, Dibbz did not disappoint, and still died before his comrade in arms. RIP

It all went entirely to plan. Not a hitch. It was A-OK….

Turn 1 – The Bloodletting

Using my free crit from having fewer models I won the roll to determine who went first. With the crazy cards i had in hand alongside the juicy targets right in front of Riptooth I elected to go first and went in.

Possible a sign that I was not in the best practice I charged Riptooth to the position you can see above and told Tom rather smugly that I would be attacking the ‘trapped’ squig.

Sometime’s I feel privileged to have a talented regular sparring partner. Other times I feel I would improve much faster if I found and played against the mythical trapped squig. 

My thinking was that although the squig had double support the fact it was trapped meant that I really just needed one success and then i had both shardgale + My Turn for another attack on an adjacent model or if i got the kill then Faneway Crystal + Ready for Action for another. As it was Khorne decided to bless me for my boldness by having Riptooth succeed despite my poor positioning (and your inability to identify a trapped model). The squig died and I scored Strong Start, and I scored Martyred. 

Feeling rather good about myself i then proceeded to miss both of my extra attacks from My Turn (note I move Riptooth a Hex down to reduce support) and Ready for Action. I was now sitting with only Shattering Terrain in hand and although I had an early kill, Riptooth was now easy pickings and Tom was very much in control of what would happened next. Pants, maybe I should have stuck to my original plan and waited a bit to go in.

After mocking Mike for an incredibly ambitious charge (which was much easier to do after he had ended up missing two attacks) I realised in the chaos of the power step I hadn’t declared I wanted to inspire my fanatic. Mike generously allowed me to flip Snirks card during the power step, after which I used encroaching shadow on Ghartok and smashed him to smithereens with Snirk after using Hidden Paths to get the Fanatic adjacent to him. I know Ghartok was on 3 health anyway from Shardgale and I could have taken him out without using Encroaching Shadow, however I wanted to leave as little as possible to chance as Obliterated is a big glory payout. It wouldn’t have been the first time Snirk had accidentally set off in reverse gear. This time however I needn’t have worried as the Fanatic hit a home rune and in the aftermath there was nothing left of the Blood Warrior.

After having scored Martyred and Obliterated I drew Keep Them Guessing and Superior Tactician. Ughh. Scoring Our Only Way Out and Keep Them Guessing is a nightmare. Fortunately for me if any warband can do it, Zarbags Gitz can. #Scurry

I had decided to take the bull by the horns and the horns had fucked me. Khorne had not blessed me with that first kill, he merely wanted to see bloodshed, he did not care from whence it came. Scoring Strong Start saw me drawing What Armour? next, with Magore at the back my best chance of scoring it was to draw Hidden Paths or to draw Dark Darts and place them onto Zharkus.   Another advantage of ditching 5 cards in your starting hand is that it increases the odds of any one draw getting you a specific card. I was looking for 2 and I had two attempts to get them, not the worst odds .

I now had to plan out my next 3 activations to attempt to score Keep Them Guessing. I elected for making a Charge, an attack and a move action. Unfortunately (I have triple checked this looking at my pictures but could still be wrong) there was no combination of those actions or any actions that would also land me on 3 Objectives. Given the fragility of a Grot on the spot, I decided to sack off Our Only Way Out, and go for Keep Them Guessing. I charged Stikkit at Riptooth via Objective 2 as he was not Dibbz and therefore did not deserve an early death. He demonstrated his appreciation for my mercy by missing with double hammers. I then moved in Drizgit adjacent to Riptooth (3rd activation) and awaited Mike’s final play.

Last activation I had drawn Dark Darts. I had my plan but I knew i shouldn’t spring the trap too soon. As i had picked to go first i needed Tom to move as many gitz as possible before my last activation so he couldn’t respond to whichever one I killed with Dark Darts, note the Shardgale/My Turn combo earlier meant that most of his Gitz were on 1 hp so Dark Darts could easily kill. So I bided my time and drew a power card.

Ok last activation of Turn 1. Just prior to my activation I had equipped Dark Darts to Zharkus in the power step (something that Tom didn’t look to happy about) and charged forwards, trying to ping a gitz off an objective. This time the dice were with me and Zharkus proved that he could use more subtle weapons then an axe. Two glory and Tom didn’t look like he had a way to score Supremacy. Oh and Zharkus inspired, get in.

Despite my incredible oversight in deployment, Dibbz had still managed to go down in a blaze of glory (sort of) in Turn 1. I rounded out my fourth activation by attacking with Drizgit. I had accomplished Keep them Guessing, moved my Grotz out of charge range of Zharkus, and wounded Riptooth who was now on one measley wound. I also knocked him back as he had Faneway Crystal equipped and was therefore forced to move/charge onto an objective, leaving him with no valid targets to attack next turn! This was one of the few intelligent decisions I made this game and it ended up having absolutely no bearing on the result. Still as it was a rare moment of awareness on my part so I thought I’d mention it.

In the final power step of turn one I played Furious inspiration on Magore, to not only inspire him but also so I could draw another power card when I got my new hand. I scored both Ploymaster and Master of War taking me to 6 glory, not bad. What armour had drawn into Escalation just before Turn 1 ended, I choose to keep that as it looked like an easy score in turn 2, I ditched shattering Terrain as I didn’t need it anymore(its mostly there to combo with My Turn or to help kill 4 wound fighters) and draw 5 power cards and 2 objectives.

I scored Keep Them Guessing, binned Our Only Way Out and held onto Superior Tactician. I sat level with Mike at 6 glory. I equipped The Hallowed Key to Redkap in the hope that equipping it early would make Mike forget about it (I know i would’ve). I held onto Faneway Crystal and binned Centre of Attention. I couldn’t see a use for Centre Of Attention on the board as it stood, and so I decided to see if another card would be more useful to me. After my draw this is the hand i ended up with moving into Turn 2.

The Last Chance and Miraculous Escape combo was nice to have, and it also helped to have another score immediately card so I could keep powering along the road to Superior Tactician. Quick Advance could help with Supremacy,  however I wasn’t planning on keeping it. I had no 3 damage fighters, all of my baby Grotz were on one health, and Zharkus had set up camp next to an objective with Dark Darts equipped. I hoped to survive enough of his onslaught to score Miraculous Escape, but anything more than that seemed unrealistic.

Time for Turn 2.

Turn 2 – Of Snipers and Squigs

I won the roll off for Turn 2 and elected to go first. Drizgit quickly put down Riptooth, and left me to work around Zharkus to score Supremacy. This left me with a reasonably big decision to make. Do I move models onto objectives early, meaning Mike got more shots at them, but if all went down hill I could swap out the objectives? Or did I move late knowing that Mike had the last activation, potentially allowing him to pull the rug from under my feet at the end of the turn, leaving me with nothing. Given the fact I hadn’t seen Hidden Paths yet, and that Zharkus was looming over objective 5, I possibly should’ve just binned Supremacy immediately as my Grotz were just too fragile. What I actually chose to do was an activation 2 Scurry initiated by Zarbag to land 3 Grotz on my 3 objectives. I though at the very least I should get Miraculous Escape out of Zharkus, and I can swap an objective with my third activation if I need to.  There was nothing wrong with the plan at this point, things got silly a little later on.

My starting hand for turn 2:

The top right card is Shining Example

As mentioned above I had kept Escalation, this alongside the draws of Rivers of Blood and Shining Example gave me a solid 5 glory that I should score without any trouble (remember Shardgale had already been played) and rewarded me for my cautious use of Magore. On the other hand my power cards were very lacklustre, with all my fighters already inspired Inspiration Strikes was a dead card and I had enough glory going spare that Ghoulish Pact only had a downside (especially with My Turn gone). This left me with  2 upgrades that increased my damage against fighters that had at max 2 wounds left and one movement plot. So one movement ploy it is then. 

Tom starting the turn by killing Riptooth and also moving 2 gitz onto objectives hurt. Scurry is an insane mechanic when used to maximum effect and Tom had just set up his turn to threaten a big glory swing and by taking my second best fighter out. When my activation came around i had a very simple choice, there was a fighter on an objective in range of Zharkus and his eerily accurate darts. Even if Tom had a plan around this (highly unlikely) obvious play I still rated it as the right choice. My only other option would be to draw cards or charge early which would be the worst possible option as it would hand Tom free reign in the rest of his activation’s. So I killed a mushroom. Much to Tom’s consternation, especially as Tom had played Last Chance 😉

After Mike had skewered Stikkit through his double dodge dice and Last Chance, I decided to bin Supremacy. I drew Escalation, which was an all but guaranteed 2 points this turn. Happy with my decision to bail on my earlier plans, I now just had to wait and hope Mike missed an attack without the help of any of my Gambits.

With my kill on Stikkit and Tom’s kill on Riptooth we were now both tied at 7 glory. This is a very dangerous position to be in for the Fiend player, as already mentioned there are many ways for the gitz to claw through glory in the end of the game. I had noticed a key go onto redcap, I was also fairly certain that where one key was equiped there would be at least a couple more in the deck. In Tom’s power step he used Quick Advance to move all his fighters out of range of Dark Darts, meaning that Zharkus would have to charge. 

As most of the fungal fiends had already got a move token next to them due to the earlier scurry shenanigans, I decided to charge sooner rather then later so i could plan the rest of my turn around the result. Zharkus picked prog as his target as he was standing on a rather tasty objective. Time to rack up another kill for Khorne. I rolled a crit. Boom. 

Then Tom rolled double crit on defence and scored Miraculous Escape.

After the last attack Zharkus had made this seemed to even out the luck, that’s what sensible post red mist rage Mike has to say on the matter. I may have uttered different words in the heat of the moment.

I finally scored Miraculous Escape – somewhat appropriately with my double crit – and was now infuriatingly in a position where Redkap could have moved onto objective 5 and scored Supremacy for me! However I still hadn’t seen Hidden Paths, so there was no guarantee Zarbag was safe on objective 4. Nope, with Supremacy gone, I had to wrestle with my latest conundrum. With one activation remaining, I had drawn Extreme Flank after scoring Miraculous Escape.

It’s worth noting if I’d been smart I could’ve score this. I wasn’t smart.

Knowing Redkap was in movement range of the edge, as was Bonekrakka, I had a multiple ways I could’ve scored Extreme Flank with the power cards I had. 

• Move Redkap to the right side of the board. Equip Ravenous to Bonekrakka after Mikes activation and Ready for Action him to the left side of the board

The issue with this was a Hidden Paths from Magore onto Redkap wouldve shafted me, as Redkap was also holding a key and I didn’t want him to become a target! Even Mike would’ve realised Extreme Flank was the only reason to move Redkap to the edge – especially since I had already used Hidden Paths. Nevermind another option existed!

• Move Bonekrakka 3 hexes toward Mike’s board edge, then RFA him to move the rest of the way. 

During play neither of these options entered my dense skull. I decided to go for the hidden third option. The hidden third option is hidden because it doesn’t work.

I moved Bonekrakka 2 hexes onto the left side of the board – careful to stay out of range of Magore. If I had used my brain I would’ve realised Mike wouldn’t charge Magore of the edge. If he had he would’ve been forced to leave Magore stranded on his board for all of Turn 3, starting the turn adjacent to my Fanatic. Never the less the imaginary threat of the gore soaked pillock kept my squig one hex out of range of Extreme Flank solution 2. 

After Mike’s fourth activation, I was ready to Ready for Action Redkap to the right board edge. My equip options to trigger RFA were Ravenous (only for squigs) and Faneway Crystal (which would make it impossible for Redkap to get to a board edge). I realised this far too late. I also realised the irony of knocking Riptooth back in Turn 1 because of precisely this interaction. Once you have Faneway Crystal equipped, you have to move to an objective and discard it. Somehow between Turn 1 and Turn 2 I had forgotten this crucial piece of information and tried to use Ready for Action in combination with Faneway crystal to accomplish a normal move action with Redkap. I scored Escalation and ended the turn with 10 glory and a significantly lower opinion of myself as an underworlds player. I had only myself to blame.

The rest of my turn had been a rather simple one. I had spent both my activation’s drawing 2 power cards. One had gotten me Sudden Growth which i had immediately equipped to Zharkus as he was already in threat range with his Darts and i didn’t want Tom to nobble him like he did Riptooth. The second was Hidden Paths. I had been waiting all game for this card. Its literally the main way that I engage with Magore, it even had a picture of him doing just that on the card! With Faneway Crystal gone it was my only chance of using my leader to take out some of Tom’s fighters, however drawing it at the end of Turn 2 meant that I would need to wait until Turn 3 before I could actually use it.

At the end of Turn 2 I scored all my objectives and Tom scored Escalation, leaving the glory at 12 – 10 to me. A nice lead but nothing Tom couldn’t come back from. 

My hand going into the final turn of the game was…

Mad Scurry was un-scorable at this point, but my other two objectives were fine. Trap should’ve been lovely to see given Magore was on 3 wounds. I had however forgotten that Shardgale had been played and assumed everyone was sitting on above 4 wounds. I’d managed to hold onto Faneway Crystal since Turn 1. As the turn progressed however, I was very glad I had.

My hand was:

I had kept Spectral Wings and Hidden Paths for obvious reasons and had drawn the rest of my Objective deck, one downside of doing over your starting hand is that you can run out of cards, especially if you have some score immediatelys in your deck. Singled Out was going to be almost automatically scored, the only chance that could go wrong is if Tom killed both of my fighters, at which point i would probably lose anyway. Extreme Flank was a bit of a conundrum, drawing it in Turn 3 with only 2 fighters left meant I had to choose between scoring it for myself or using my activation’s to stop Tom scoring glory. Again knowing that Tom was running keys I decided on the latter.

Turn 3: The Crystal Maze

I won the turn roll and decided to go first as prog was still in range of Zharkus. Zharkus sensed that his master was displeased with his previous miss and hit the misshapen monster right between the eyes. That was 3 kills Zharkus had gotten with Dark Darts, one through Last Chance and one scoring me What Armour, he really was proving to be my fighter of the game.

After the unfortunate demise of Prog the Netter, I saw red. I looked at my hand and envisaged a turn with Zarbag and Redkap heroically charging into Zharkus with a Ready for Action double hit to finish him off. I Sneaky Step’d Zarbag next to Redkap in anticipation of the bloodbath before realising I needed Redkap to get onto objective 1 to score his key! I believe it was at this point i yelled:

“I am in a prison of my own making, every decision I make is a poor one” – Thomas Bond, 2018.

I may have spat out some beer at this one.

I then resolved to charge with Drizgit, but held of using Ready for Action to finish the kill. I would need that card later. Instead I blew Trap to bring Zharkus down to 1 wound remaining (forgetting that Trap would’ve allowed me to kill Magore) as I thought a stray arrow later might net me a bonus glory. I then waited for Mike to bring in the big guns (Magore). Activation 2, Mike drew. I countered by swapping Mad Scurry out, and drawing Fired Up. The power phase before Activation 3 was when it kicked off. 

Mike started equipping potions to Magore in a way that made me certain he was pre-drinking for a mad sesh. The Hidden Paths that followed put Magore adjacent to Redkap, and Potion of Grace made certain Magore would get at least two swings at the Grotz. At least he would have, before I equipped Faneway Crystal and Ready For Action’d Redkap to the now empty board containing objective 1. Out of range of the overweight Zharkus, I congratulated myself for my patient play. Mike then played Spectral Wings, intent on airlifting his frenzied sharpshooter in for one last (potentially game deciding) strike.

I’ll finish them myself.

While Magore had been a shining example to his warband lets be honest, at this point it was an all Zharkus show. Magore had finally decided to get off his arse and actually enter the fray. As the leader he had access to certain items that his subordinates didn’t. Going into activation 2 I had equipped both Potion of Rage and Potion of Grace to the better late then never leader. Using Hidden Paths I had placed Maagore next to the git with a key and discarded potion of Grace so that I didn’t have a move token, solid now he couldn’t even push me away. Tom responded by equipping Faneway crystal to the key git and then reacting with Ready for Action to teleport him onto the objective for said key. Right back to where Magore had just come from. Er.

I guess I should have seen that coming. 

Staring at my cards for a while i decided to play spectral wings so that Zharkus could try to kill the key goblin, or even just knock him off the objective. I had to play Wings as his movement was reduced from the Sudden Growth he had equipped. Going into the activation I made my charge, and missed. Tom had a key git on the right objective. I definitely couldn’t score extreme flank and I was fairly sure it was all over. The only thing left to do was to play it as seriously as possible in order to stress poor Tom out.

Having survived the latest deluge of darts (during which i was sorely missing Sneaky Step in case i had been knocked back), I looked at my hand. The only way of scoring Extreme Flank was to spin the fanatic and see where it landed! My last remaining objective sat face down. After searching meticulously through my mind palace, I remembered it had to be Master of War. Settling for the guaranteed 5 points from objective cards, I swapped out the card that should have been scored at the bottom of Turn 2.

For my 3rd activation of Turn 3 i took the official pass action. I had no cards left in either deck to draw + it made Tom unreasonably confused. Solid choice.

My 4th activation was spent skewering the gitz leader with a burst of Rage from Magore.  The fact that he didn’t have a move token from Hidden Paths meant that he was free to charge and the Potion of Rage sealed the attack. With that last bit of glory I must admit to gaining a cautious optimism that I might pull a win out the bag..

For the final activation of the game, i took a potshot at the exposed Zharkus, but whiffed it entirely. 

In the final end phase, I scored Fired Up, Superior Tactician and Master of War. This plus Redkaps key secured me a substantial 7 glory points. This managed to pip Mike at the post, edging out his 14 glory total – I had scored singled out with some last minute upgrades. Once again Zarbags Gits had proved just too kunnin’ for Khornes chosen and their pup. 

Mah boi Redkap!

That article was longer than the Lord of the Rings!

Short of Aragorn cutting down Magore to finish the game, I don’t think it could’ve been more epic. The game really went down to the wire, with some truly amazing plays interspersed with equally absurd ones. 

Going through my own game play by play did make me realise how ridiculous some moves look when you take yourself out of a game. Seriously I made so many mistakes this game myself. My only excuse is that I have been very distracted playing a certain PC game recently and so am a bit out of Underworlds shape. I know that sounds weak but seriously I find that I have to be playing fairly constantly to get back into the right mind space where I can anticipate crazy plays like that Faneway Crystal Ready for Action combo or you know… just count how many gitz are actually on objectives in Turn 1.

So that would be my advise for anyone playing in the future. When games get tense, take a moment and watch it, what would you suggest were you watching somebody else play. When you take an impartial look at the board, sometimes you notice solutions are far simpler than you thought!

Putting Tournament Dreams on the line soon!

Our next article will be another joint venture. Myself and Mike are having decks constructed by our Steel City Colleagues Hobbit and Vanadis. We will then play them against eachother in a Chirstmas holiday Drunkspire first, where a one-shot means something entirely different. The winner will choose the losers Warband for the next tournament we attend (The Forge in Manchester on the 29th of December, come if you want to see at least one of us playing something unusual!).

Thanks again for reading guys, this has been both a pleasure and an eye-opener to write!!

Until next time remember that out of myself and Mike, I am still the

Superior Tactician

Tom and Mike