‘Warhammer: The Old World’- Can I Make A Come Back In The WTC Online Tournament
I try to make a come back in Warhammer The Old World – World Team Championships online, and learned from past mistakes.
Over the last month I’ve been lucky enough to get to take place in the World Team Championships Online (WTCO). Over five weeks, twelve 8-person teams from a host of countries are duking it out online. You can also find the event here on New Recruit. Many of the best players in the world are competing in this event which serves as something of a prelude for the World Team Championship Clash of Nations in person event in Spain this September.
For this event I’m playing with and helping to run the second US team in WTCO, effectively our B-team, we’ve got a mix of experienced players and a number who are new to team events (as I am). As a team event, and an online one, it’s quite different from anything I’ve played in before, but also a very interesting experience. I covered the first game I played, and lost here. However after that defeat I’ve been able to make a bit of a personal come back- so lets take a look at rounds 2-4.
Round 2 Vs Pawel – The List
In round 2 I faced Pawel from the #2 German team. The mission was Domination and Special Feature. He was playing the following Tomb King List:
Pawel’s Tomb Kings
200 – High Priest, Wizard Level 4, Elementalism, Lore Familiar
55 – Necrotect
55 – Necrotect
115 – Royal Herald, Battle Standard Bearer, Banner Of The Desert Winds55 – Mortuary Priest, Wizard Level 1, Illusion
409 – Tomb King, General, Necrolith Bone Dragon, Great Weapon, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Talisman Of Protection
110 – Tomb Prince, Sword of Might
60 – 11 Skeleton Archers, Master of Arrows
52 – Skeleton Chariots, Master Charioteer, Burning Blade
40 – 10 Skeleton Skirmishers
378 – 25 Tomb Guard, Halberd, Tomb Captain, Obsidian Lodestone, Standard Bearer, Icon of Rakaph, Musician, Drilled
81 – 3 Carrion
195 – Necrosphinx
195 – Necrosphinx
As a reminder here is my list:
Abe’s Warriors of Chaos
420 – Daemon Princes, Light Armour, Fly (9), Mark of Nurgle, Extra Arm, General, Wizard Level 1, Battle Magic, Ogre Blade, Armour of Meteoric Iron, Favour of the Gods
213 – Exalted Champion, Shield, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Chaos Steed, Cackling Blade, Favour of the Gods
316 – Sorcerer Lord, Mark of Tzeentch, Chaos Steed, Wizard Level 4, Dark Magic, Spell Familiar, Infernal Puppet
285 – 7 Chaos Knights, Lance, Mark of Tzeentch, Champion, Standard Bearer, Totem Of Wrath, Musician
266 – 14 Forsaken, Forsaken by Slaanesh
91 – 7 Marauder Horsemen, Cavalry Spear, Skirmishers, Marauder Horsemaster
405 – Warpfire Dragons, Wizard Level 1, Battle Magic
Round 2 – The Game – Opening Moves
Having learned a bit from my prior games I set up the Warpfire dragon and Daemon Prince on opposite ends so the Warpy wouldn’t turn off my ward saves. The main TK force came down the center at me, with the Necro’s threatening a flank. I was working hard to make sure only 1 Necro could charge my Knights- the Exaulted Champ can likely deal with one, and Pawel was trying to get a dual charge in.
On the flank my Warpfire moved up and shot the TK round 1, which scatted into the block and killed a Necrotect when it failed Look out, Sir! Great luck for me. Next turn it managed to do 4 wounds to the King on Dragon. I think this spooked the TK player a bit, as even though he healed two he charged the Dragon into the Forsaken. This was exactly what I wanted. Thanks to them being stubborn I knew I could hold the dragon there and get charges from the Prince and Warpfire into him. His dragon also wiffed into the Forsaken killing only 2.
Round 2 – The Decision Point
On my turn my dragon and Prince charged his and I move my Horsemen and wizard so that if the TG block wanted to charge it would kill the Horsemen and Overun into the Wizard, but not be able to get my Prince. My charge got the King to 1 wound and the TG charged and killed the Horsemen then reformed.
On my turn I was able to charge the Dragon, Prince, Wizard and Forsaken into the TG block (thanks to multiple charges needing to maximize). They were able to blow through that block and then it was clean up and crumbing. Pawel managed to preserve his two Necros (and I didn’t risk a chance I had to killed one). The game ended 19-1 me. As I hated rated this a High Orange match up, meaning I thought I could get 7-8 points, this was a very good result. You can see the whole report here.
Round 3 Vs Kristofferarl
Round 3 saw a tense match with Kristof from Team Sweden. The mission was Strategic objectives 3. His list was:
Kristoffer’s Bretonnians
Team Sweden – Kristoffer (kristofferarl)
275 – The Green Knight
377 – Duke, Shield, Virtue of Knightly Temper, General, Barded Pegasus, Ogre Blade, Sirienne’s Locket
157 – Paladin, Shield, The Crusader’s Vow, Errantry Banner, Barded Pegasus, Spelleater Axe
171 – Prophetess, Bretonnian Warhorse, Wizard Level 3, Battle Magic, Power Scroll
95 – 5 Knights Errant, The Crusader’s Vow
95 – 5 Knights Errant, The Crusader’s Vow
262 – 9 Mounted Knights of the Realm, The Crusader’s Vow, First Knight, Standard Bearer, War Banner, Musician
48 – 6 Squires, Scouts
48 – 6 Squires, Scouts
70 – 10 Squires
42 – 6 Squires
359 – 5 Pegasus Knights, The Crusader’s Vow, First Knight, Standard Bearer, Totem Of Wrath
Round 3 – Opening Moves
This game was a very highly maneuver based game with both of us spending the first three turns trying to get set up for an advantageous charge. His big Peg Star with both characters in it is super deadly. However I had a couple tricks to fight it. In particular since he had a champion and standard bearer in the unit if my Exalted champ charged him he could only line up 2-wide and this would push his actual characters out of combat- for a round at least. Like wise WTCO rules basically prevent skirmishers from charging multiple targets, so my clomping up I could make force him into very narrow frontage charges.
So for the first three turns we mostly just danced around the central hill popping back and forth across it to prevent any real charges. At the same time his Green Knight and archers chased around and shot my Horsemen and his other archers shot up my Knights. You’ll notice that all my characters are running alone to try and abuse his skirmish rules.
Game 3- Going In
On my turn 4 I decided to finally go all in. The Warpfire had a good charge vs the big block of Knights of the Realm. This put The Brets in a hard place. They could take the charge (I was too close to counter charge) from the Warpfire, likely lose badly and I’d overrun into the Pegs, which would be bad. Or they could flee with the Knights of let me redirect into the Lone Duke (who had at last split off) who would not get to counter charge. The Knights fled and I went into the Duke.
I also moved up the Prince to be just in the middle of everything to kill stuff and pushed the Forsaken and Exalted up. Unfortunately my Dragon missed all 5 attacks and did 1 single stomp that rolled a 1 to wound (the Duke without a Ward would have only had a 5+ save). I also forget to cast Hammerhand, took three wounds and Fell Back In Good Order, having done nothing.
Scenting blood the Duke, Pegs and Knights Errant all charged my exposed Prince. (The Green Knight also finally ran the Horsemen off the table). In the big fight in the center… no one did any wounds at all. My DP took 3 from combat res, but lived and held up basically the whole Bret army.
Final Moves
With the Brets locked up in the center I had a lot of good charges. My Forsaken Charged the Duke (for some combat res+numbers), my Dragon charged the Pegs, which also let him turn off the Duke’s Ward and my exalted charged the Errant. I managed to win combat by a lot, with my DP doing 4 wounds to the Duke. Had my Warpfire done even 1 wound on his charge the Duke would have died, but alas he stayed up with 1 wound and finished the DP off, though everyone but the Duke broke, causing some Panic as well. My wizard also battled lusted himself and charged the right unit of Knights Errant killing them.
In the final turns I hunted down the Knights of the Realm. The Duke charged the Forsaken and got killed, and the Pegs went into them, lost and while they lived, they were under 25% and fleeing at the end. Still losing the DP had cost me a ton, and I lost out on a lot of objective points so the game ended 11-9 in my favor. This was another Orange match up for me, meaning we had expected me to get 5-8 points. So this was a nice over performance and I was happy with it. Still I had seen a real chance at just destroying the Brets if my Warpfire had managed to beat the Duke and overrun into the Pegs. Alas! A great game and you can see the whole report here.
Round 4 VS Louis – The List
Round 4 saw me face off vs Louis from the France 2nd team. Louis was sick during our game, but as a real gentleman still decided to play. The mission was baggage train and strategic objectives 2. Louis’ list was:
Louis’ Vampire Counts
TOW France but better – Louis (Razgriz50)
245 – Master Necromancer, Wizard Level 4, Necromancy, Spelleater Axe, Spell Familiar, Sceptre Of De Noirot
160 – Master Necromancer, General, Wizard Level 3, Dark Magic, Lore Familiar
285 – Necromantic Acolyte, Mortis Engine, Wizard Level 1, Dark Magic, Talisman Of Protection
90 – Tomb Banshee
90 – Tomb Banshee
107 – Wight Lord, Shield, Battle Standard Bearer, Helm Of Commandment
412 – 25 Grave Guard, Great Weapon, Drilled, Seneschal, Standard Bearer, Drakenhof Banner
60 – 20 Zombies
60 – 20 Zombies
60 – 20 Zombies
45 – 3 Fell Bats
192 – 6 Hexwraiths, Hellwraith
192 – 6 Hexwraiths, Hellwraith
Round 4 – Opening Moves
So, Vampire Counts… again. Luckily I had learned a lot from my first game. I ran the Warpfire up my left flank, while the Forsaken and Knights where in the middle with the wizard and Champion in the Knights. The goal was to try to get a double charge off with them. Meanwhile the DP ran behind them to guard from the Hexes trying to shoot over my line. My Horsemen played back guards to control the objective and protect the train, as well as block off some Hex movement. The first two turns didn’t see a lot happen, just us moving up and my dragon shooting to the flank. Louis tried a scream vs it but did nothing and turns some zombies to hold it off, blocking any charge into his characters. A lot of vortexes also went down.
Round 4 – Decision Point
The main decision point came on my turn three. I was able to get battle lust off on my knights and word of pain off on the Grave Guard. The Forsaken and Knights managed a double change into the GG and wiped them and the BSB in one go, massive (I did take a few wounds going through the vortexes but worth it). I think Louis didn’t realize my Forsaken had swiftstride and didn’t realize that I could get the double charge off. The units then overran into two blocks of zombies. I had considered charging the dragon into the Zombies as well to try and fight twice with the forsaken, but keeping him out of combat pinned down Louis’ characters better. By DP also jumped over to the side, where I had a Phantasmagoria down.
After two and half years I finally managed to do something with stream of corruption.
On Louis’ turn this forced the Right Hexwraiths to charge by DP who promptly killed them. He threw some screams at the Dragon which did nothing, but did manage to kill my Knights with screams and hurt my characters. However the characters and Forsaken did a lot of damage to the zombies, and my wizard restrained to get out of combat.
Round 4 – Clean Up
With the center broken open it was mostly clean up On my turn four the dragon went in to help the forsaken with the zombies, killed them and overran into the Mortis. I also moved the DP into the middle forest so there could be no escape from him and moved my wizard to get in puppet range of him. My Exalted finished off the 2nd unit of zombies. Next turn I killed the mortis and my wizard got a very nice magic missel snip to kill his general, while my DP killed his other wizard. With a few turns of crumbling the rest of his army fell apart and my dragon was able to tag the train. By the end of turn six I had tabled Louis for a 20-0 win.
This was the first match up I had actually expected to win having rated it as a Green for 13-16 points. So getting 20 was a great result, but less surprising as I was pretty favored here. I had some hot dice rolls (and some horrible ones rolling 6 1s on 7 dice twice that game!). More importantly I had learned a ton from playing vs VC in round 1. Louis was a great guy and gave me an amazing game you can see it all here. So at the end of round 4 I’m personally 3-1, which is pretty nice. But it is a team event, and round four was the first round we managed to win as a team, giving us a bit of a comeback. Still there is one round left to play and we shall see what it holds.
Let us know how you would have played these games, down in the comments!
