November's End, December's Beginning

WARHAMMER FANTASY

I've been able to help organize the Warhammer Fantasy minitournament at Lito Tan's Oberon Sector the past two Fridays. After the dust had settled, Clarence Cua and his Vampire Counts rose victorious above the beaten heap. Looks like I'll have to rethink my stand on the new Zombie rules *chuckle*

I got to play against Sunny Yu's Wood Elves using Daemons of Chaos in a 1,250-point game. Knowing that I can't outmaneuver his fast army, I decided to spread my forces and just get as many of his units into close combat as possible. I managed to score a win in a crucial mass combat at the center of the table, which pretty much dictated the outcome of the battle.

This was my first game against Sunny since several years back. The experience was tremendously fun. I got to apply Page 5 into WFB *LOL* Even if both of us were into technical spots at times during the game, none of it were serious. I'd better pretty up my army real soon though. He has very pretty Wood Elves and well-painted, too, in a winter theme to boot!

Learning points in fighting against Sunny's Wood Elves:
• They can surf in their woods closer or further away from my forces
• They can whittle you down in short range with S4 missile fire
• That wood surfing spell is indirect, and he can use it as often as he can so long as he has Power Dice (which pretty much screws me over in the Magic Phase since I usually run with only two Dispel Dice and rely on Magic Resistance).

WARHAMMER 40,000

I also got to play against Freddie Yu's Imperial Guard using Chaos Daemons in 40K with 1,000 points. This time, I knew I had to risk Deep Striking in the midst of his firing line, hoping that the lone building would provide ample cover for my non-shooting Bloodletters. With a lot of unlucky rolls on his part, and a lot of lucky rolls on my part, I managed to turn a supposed loss into a draw. Surviving the hail of IG fire were the Daemon Prince with only a single Wound left and a fat unit of Bloodletters. Morale victory for Freddie was when a Guardsman brought down the Bloodthirster in close combat (yeah I got some unlucky rolls, too)!

I learned a lot fighting Freddie's IG. Cover rules, assault rules and assault results, I got to fine tune my understanding on those. He did mention that 40K now drew a similar picture to WMH now, and I'll never complain about that one. Maybe he'll jump into WMH, too *grin*

Learning points when fighting Freddie's IG:
• Luck, luck, luck! I really cannot have managed as well as I did if I was unlucky. The numbers game will always work in the favor of the Guard.
• Get into assault quickly!
• Do NOT get assaulted by those Rough Riders. Assault them instead *LOL*

WARMACHINE/HORDES

I put together a 500-point list for Irusk using Beast-09 and my entire Winterguard collection - which wasn't much since it's only the basic 6-man unit, with Kovnik Jozef, the WGUA and the Rocketeer. The rest were two Mortar teams and two units of Greylords. Apparently, the list should have included Orin Midwinter, but I was stupid and left him at home.

I played against Patrick Palma, who used Jeremiah Kraye - something he also wanted to try out. He had a lot of jacks, I remember a Thunderhead, a Lancer and a Centurion. He also had Arlan Strangeways and a Journeylass Warcaster.

We played two games, both at 500 points. One game was using a No Man's Land scenario, and the other was using Destruction scenario. I won both by killing Kraye with well-placed Rocketeer shots, with the help of the Greylords' Ice Cages.

The two games were some of the more enjoyable games I had. Patrick was as much a technical player as he is a good sportsman. I'll be looking forward to playing against him again.