2016 Adepticon AoS Tournament

Adepticon has come and gone, the big build up to get everything done in time is now over. So how was it and how did the Tomb Kings fare in the tournament?

This has been my finish line for months now. I had to get everything painted in time plus making my ability cards and my "army list" book. Now that it's all done I'm left a little directionless as what to do next. The Con itself was great though!

I got in late on Thursday so I didn't go to the convention center until Friday since I was staying with family in the city itself. I didn't have anything planned for Friday so I just spent the day walking around and checking out all of the different games going on as well as all of the shops in the vendor hall. The swag bags this year were really good too. I got a Hordes starter set and a bunch of other random minis and books as well.

This was my army list

Game 1

Saturday is when it really started for me though with the Age of Sigmar tournament kicking off at 10. There was one desert themed board with pyramids and such on it and Alex, the tournament organizer, was nice enough to start me out on that one. My first opponent was Ty from Basement of Death and his Stormcast/High Elf alliance. The battle had the table split diagonally with each of us deploying 12 inches from the center line. The objective was to have a hero model near any or all of the 3 objective markers on the table at the end of each battle round, which would score you a victory point for each one you control. Also, only heroes were allowed to move within five inches of the objectives. You could also score victory points by killing heroes, and a bonus one if they are the general. Ty had three bolt throwers deployed across his battle line that I knew I wanted to get rid of right away. My list is built around super buffing my chariot unit and launching them straight at the enemy, so when given the choice I always took first turn.

After using the Tomb King on foot's ability, the Necrotect's ability, Settra ability, and Settra's prayer the chariots are moving 23 inches on the first turn, hitting on twos, wounding on threes, and re-rolling wound rolls of one. They also get double the number of attacks on the charge. So of course they launched right into the nearest bolt throwers. The third bolt thrower became the target of my Sepulchral Stalkers, but they weren't able to take it out. Over the course of the game I managed to take out the bolt throwers the chariots were attacking, as well as some Sea Guard that piled into them. A unit of Retributors teleported into my deployment zone and killed my catapult and Necrotect, but they were in turn annihilated by my unit of 30 spearmen. They had three attacks a piece and I was able to get them all in range of their two inch spears, so that was 90 attacks swinging at the Stormcast. Settra eventually got stuck in to, charging the Pheonix Guard. He managed to do a bit of damage, but those guys have some real staying power.

When the last round came around I was only up by one victory point, but luckily I got the last turn. With only two wounds left on him Settra retreated from the combat back onto one of the objectives and used his prayer to boost the movement of my herald who only had one wound left and get him onto the third objective. I also managed to kill Teclis with my Carrion. Game one was a victory for the Tomb Kings! It was close though, if he had managed to kill Settra or the Herald it would have either been a loss for me or a draw. It was a ton of fun though and a great start to the tournament. After this game I was lofted up to table 11 to face Jake and his two Hellcannons.

Game 2

Jake is from the Detroit area, so I have actually played this list before in preparation for Adepticon and had gotten tabled rather quickly. The scenario involved our units dropping markers onto scenery to win. You needed to have all six of your markers dropped at the end of a battle round with your opponent only having four or less out. You could remove an enemy marker by moving into base contact with it. I got the option for first turn and promptly took it to ensure I got some movement in before the hellcannons started firing. In the first turn I managed to drop all six of my markers and also charged my chariots into his chaos warrior unit who were guarding one of his cannons. My secondary objective was also to kill that unit and I knew they would be tough so I decided to go for it early. My catapult shot and knocked a few wounds off of one of his cannons and then it was on to combat. I managed to kill a few of the warriors with my chariots before they attacked back and his minotaurs and hellcannon that were nearby piled into try and take out my unit. Let me mention that he also won a double turn here, and somehow, mostly due to unlucky dice rolling on his part, I managed to still have one chariot left with about two wounds on it when it came back around to my turn.

During his turn he also fanned out his units and dropped enough markers to deny me a victory at the end of the battle round. He did a bit of shooting at me but I can't recall exactly what died. I know I was lucky enough for Settra to escape with no wounds on him. Once it came back around to my turn I promptly had my herald plant his banner, which coupled with the chariot unit's own banner, allowed me to bring back two whole chariots. Some other highlights of the game for me included my Carrion attacking the other Hellcannon and, over the course of several turns, finally killing it right before the game ended. The warriors, minotaurs, and original Hellcannon were killed by my chariots and Settra who charged in to support them. He had a unit of knights and a mounted lord who swung around right side and pretty much cleared my army out over there.

All that was left at the end of the game

During Jake's last turn, which was before mine, he went for a last ditch effort and ran his Lord of Change and Lord  towards two separate markers of mine to try and get rid of them and failed to make it all the way, ending about an inch short on both accounts. On my last turn I charged Settra into the Lord of Change, taking him out before he got to attack back and also removed a marker of his. In the end the game ended in a draw, a super bloody, hard fought game. It was really intense and almost exhausting, and of course awesomely fun. If Jake hadn't had rolled so horribly I probably would have lost, but I was happy with the draw since I did succeed in securing my secondary and tertiary objectives and so did he. This was the last game I played right up to the full time allotted to us.

Game 3

With my draw last game having gotten me the max points allowed I was somehow moved up to table three to play against none other than Dan Heelan of Heelanhammer fame and his Seraphon. The mission called for one player to be the attacker and one the defender. The attacked had to escort a messenger across the board and the defender had to try and kill them. Dan won the roll to choose and picked being the defender. I know this was going to be a tough game for several reasons. Dan is a really good player, the Seraphon are pretty rough as well, and I'm not very good at these type of scenarios. I got first turn and started moving my army forward with the messenger enveloped by my Tomb Guard. The way Dan had to deploy was in a random pattern but his Stegadon, Ripperdactyls, and one unit of Kroxigors all deployed in the center, right in front of my messenger. Looking back on it I should have put my messenger all the way on one side so I could use the board edge to help protect it.

I knew I had to try and clear the center so I super buffed my chariots again and moved them up ready to charge. I have played one of my friend's Seraphon army before so I knew how hard Slann are to play against. Dan also had quite a few things held in reserve to summon which I didn't want to face. Luck was on my side and I managed to take out his Slann with my catapult on turn one. This is the best my catapult has ever done. The chariots charged into his Stegadon and brought it down to one wound. The Kroxigors nearby piled in and attacked, but between them and the wounded Steg I managed to only lose one model. On his turn though the Rippers charged in and finished off my chariots. Man, those things are just as nasty as you have heard. He also popped up some chameleon skinks near the back of my deployment zone and started taking a few wounds off of my messenger.

On my following turn Settra went in for revenge and wiped out the Steg and the Rippers. My unit of 30 spearmen pulled the same trick on a second unit of Kroxigors that they had done to the Retributors in game one, throwing 90 attacks at them and wiping them out. Long story short he then charged his Saurus Guard into Settra and killed him, then my Tomb Guard went in and got stuck in. Dan won the initiative and got the second turn and managed to kill my messenger securing him the win. We kept playing though just to see what would happen. It was fun game and Dan was a great opponent. If we had kept going even longer then we had I'm pretty sure he would have wiped what was left of my army off the board, although not with much of his remaining. Even though I lost I still got my secondary and tertiary objectives so I walked away with a decent amount of points.

Game 4

It looks like I was on the podcasting tournament circuit because my next game on Sunday morning was on table four against David Witek from Garagehammer. He brought his undead, so it was some good death on death action. The scenario had each of us randomly place an objective marker in our own deployment zone. We were not allowed to move within five inches of our own objective and had to get into base contact with the opponents. If at the end of any battle round you are in contact with their objective and they aren't touching yours then you win. I once again got first turn and super buffed my chariots and also ran them. This got them touching Dave's objective and also entirely within the five inch circle around it, meaning he couldn't charge me. On his turn he threw every ranged attack he had at my chariots, and he had a chance of wiping them out, but in the end I survived and the game ended in a victory for me on turn one.

We decided to keep playing though since it ended so soon. I took out a bit more of his back line, and the Terrorghiest and Mannfred went towards mine. I charged into the giant bat with my spearmen and tomb guard and over two turns managed to kill it. Mannfred joined in before it was over though and killed my entire unit of 30 spearmen in one round of combat single handily. We called the game a little after that but decided to have Mannfred and Settra face off just for fun. What we found out was that if Mannfred got the charge then he killed Settra before he even got to attack, and if Settra got the charge then he won before the vampire got to attack. It was a fun game, and if I had rolled just a little less on my run roll for my chariots then they would have been sticking out of the five inch bubble and would have been chargeable. If that had happened then the whole game would have been drastically different.

Game 5

The very last game of the tournament saw me go all the way up to table two to play against David Griffin (@NashofSigmar on Twitter) and his Brettonians. I had never played against the horse masters so I didn't really know what to expect. Now that I know what they are capable of I probably would have played the game a lot differently, playing more defensively while going for a draw and getting my secondary and tertiary objectives instead. The scenario had each of us pick a point along our back board edge and then we were allowed to deploy in a 12 inch bubble around that. The objective was to get an unengaged hero within seven inches of your opponents point to win. David placed his point in pretty much the opposite corner of mine, which was smart on his part since it denied me my alpha strike with my chariots. He got to choose who went first and gave the first turn to me, which I was fine with since he had a trebuchet and I really wanted to try and get rid of it. Instead of super buffing my chariots I put a bunch of the buffs on my catapult, hoping to be able to move it forward enough to be in range, but I was still short. Settra and my Chariots started moving forward when I really should have hung them back further. The Tomb Guard and spearmen started forming a defensive circle around my point. Turn one was the highlight of the game for me because my Sepulchral Stalkers popped up in front of his trebuchet. They were originally going to be my back up plan incase the catapult couldn't kill it. With the catapult out of range though it all fell on them. Their shooting attack is each model rolls a dice, on a one I inflict a mortal wound on myself, on a two or three nothing happens, on a five I inflict a mortal wound on the enemy unit, and on a six I inflict D3. My snakes usually don't do very much besides act as a distractor, but this turn they rolled a five and two sixes inflicting just enough wound to remove the trebuchet! 

It was a surprisingly awesome moment, but that seems to have been all of my dice mojo in one go because after that I couldn't roll a save roll to save my life. I knew the snakes were dead after that, and they were with David charging his knights into them and wiping them out. His turn ended with his Grail Knights, Pegasus Knights, and King Leon all about ten inches away from my chariot line. Winning initiative for the next turn was crucial for both of us as it would most likely pretty much decide the combat in the center. Both of us get considerable bonuses for charging, and both of us have ways to buff our units for combat. We rolled our dice and both rolled a four, so we had to reroll. The reroll brought both of us a two, a tie again! Yet another reroll, he rolled a one and my dice was spinning around, looking like it was going to be a six, but then it landed on a one! It was pretty crazy, three ties in a row for the most crucial initiative roll in the game. We rolled one more time, I got a four and his came up a five, and with that the nobility of Brettonnia crashed into my lines and my chariots folded like a cheap napkin. Settra got charged by the Pegasus Knights and the King and managed to survive with one wound on him to attack back at King Leon. Unfortunately the dice gods were not with me, and only one wound got through to him after all of his armor saves and ward saves. The Pegasus Knights then finished him off, with his king's curse only taking one of them with him. 

After this I knew there was no way I could get a win, so I started playing for a draw. If I could kill all of his heroes then he couldn't win either. He had two damsels and the king. My catapult took out one of the damsels, and my carrion charged the other one, but left her with one wound remaining. My Tomb Guard, Tomb King, and Tomb Herald all charged King Leon, hoping to bring him down, but I could only do a few wounds. In Davids turn he retreated his damsel away from the carrion who were then charged and killed by his questing knights, and his King and Pegasus retreated away from combat closer towards the point he needed to capture. That was pretty much game and his Knights continued to run rampant through my lines. At the end of the game all I had left was my Necrotect. David played better then me, had insanely lucky dice rolls (I have never seen so many fives and sixes rolled in a single game), and won every initiative roll. I made some crucial mistakes in the first turn, but I didn't know what I was playing against yet. Like I said, I don't think there is any way I could have won, but I could have played for a draw or at least a loss with my secondary and tertiary objectives secured. I ended with only my tertiary. It was a really tough and intense game and David went on to win the entire tournament, so I can't feel bad about losing to him. Did I mention he's only been in the hobby for six months? That's some serious talent there, and his army looked great too.

I got an honorable mention for the player's choice award and took seventh overall, which I think is pretty good for my first Fantasy tournament ever. Adepticon was a ton of fun and I am honestly surprised with how well I did. I expected to end up somewhere in the middle so I'm really happy with my results. I'm already thinking about next year at this point. Should my kings ride again, maybe with even more chariots? Or is it time for Sigmar's storm to strike? Either way, it's a lot of painting and I feel like a new display board is in order to keep things fresh. I'll be interested to see what organizing system they go with too since SDK, the one used this year, is no longer being continued.

The whole tournament was a ton of fun and all of my opponents were great. Thank you Ty, Jake, Dan, Dave, and David for giving me some fantastic games! I apologize if I left out some details from the games or get a few of them wrong. It was a lot of gaming in a very short time for me to remember.

Until next time,

Tyler M.