Last Saturday I took the opportunity to attend a Warhammer Tournament at my friendly local gaming store, Dragons Keep. These tournaments are known as Rogue Traders. Now, for the unfamiliar, I should write about the format first. In a typical Warhammer Tournament, there are a number of rounds. Three in this one. Each round you get a different opponent. There are three outcomes you can get each round. Win, draw, loss. Each outcome is worth a specific amount of points. 25 for a win, 15 for a draw, and 5 for a loss. Each round there are specific bonus battle points and objective battle points you can get each round. Each opponent you get also grades you on your Sportsmanship and painting of your army. At the end of the three rounds, the individual with the most battle points, combined with Sportsmanship wins. Prizes given, Generally, 1st, 2nd 3rd places as well as best sportsmanship and best painted.
This tournament went just like about every other tournament I go to. I started off in the first round playing a man named Mike. he was playing a rather well planned out dark elf list, and I was playing a Lizardmen list. his strategy was built around a large tower that he had, and I knew from the get go that if I just sat back out of range of his massive amounts of Crossbowmen in the tower I could get at worst a Draw, But that isn't how I like to play. I pressed forward, a large unit of mine got cut down by the tower unit, but I destroyed his Black Guard unit, and all but one of his Witch Elves. If I would have destroyed the last of his Witch Elves it would have been a Draw, but it was a Loss. Oh well. I would rather Lose and go all out than Draw and play like a pansy.
So with that Loss I got pared up against Big Mike and his New Orcs and Goblins. Now, I have played Big Mike many time, But the Orc and goblins army is Brand new, and I have not played against it or read the rules. that gave him the advantage right off the bat. Add that to his big spell that he got off in the first round destroying a quarter of my army, and my Slann Mage-Priest dying, this was an easy win for Big Mike.
Round Three comes up and i am paired with Full-Time. Ahh, I have played Full_Time several times. More importantly he is playing MY High Elf Army, this Army I know inside and out. My Strategy was sound, my rolls were good. I won with ease.
In the end, Mike(1st round opponent) won 1st place. A guy named grant won 2nd, and a guy named Rich won 3rd. There were several other random prizes, and I won Best Painted. Well....Mike (1st round) actually scored Best painted, but since he finished 1st overall, I got the prize. But I ain't complaining.
